Europe needs to get real on defence; Britain needs to get real on Europe
13 February 2025
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11 April 2010
4 minute(s) read
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Would be good to get the public thinking along the lines of ‘Nice try Dave, but we don’t think you’re quite ready to lead us just yet. Come back next time and try again. You may have more experience by then’.
What’s all this cosying up to Lib Dems then? First you were tweeting to Charlie Kennedy, now this … ? I agree with you on Howard though. What a throwback and good to remind people Cameron was his sidekick. Also one of the papers today has picture of Cameron as Major’s sidekick in 1992. Just another Tory boy deep down
I think the Tories won on the politics but lost on the economics and there is enough time for that to take the upper hand in this debate. They will have more promises in their manifesto and more phoney ways to pay for them.
Clegg is emerging as quite an attractive character. Liked his attack on the marriage plans. But the truth is only Brown or Cameron can be PM. I do not warm much to Brown but I would really hate it if Cameron got in. Why can’t people see through him as clearly as I do. I voted Lib Dem last time but I now live in a West Yorks Lab-Tory marginal and will vote Labour
Dear Alistair. It’s always entertaining when you come out for a Spin. Never mind, in 25 day’s time you can put the old banger into a long-awaited retirement and spend more time with your family.
I understand you were a follower of Steve McLennan?
Can you explain why you did not comment when he joked about slavery, coffin dodgers and chavs. This is New Labour through and through. No principles, no morals, no policies and no ideas. Just the desire to have power.
When’s Tony’s next appearance – can’t wait to see the dear leader again. Is he a non-dom by the way?
You are getting increasingly desperate in your blog. I am not sure what Michael Howard’s relevance is – he is not even an MP is he? Is that the best you can do?
Pantsdown had ‘an evening with paddy’ event at the town hall in Brum. It was cancelled because almost no one bought tickets. I got an email offering them desperately for £5 per head. What a pompous, arrogant, pious dick he is.
Do you think any floating voter watching would have been anything but put off everyone after seeing Kinnock, Howard and Ashdown. I’m pretty sure you don’t really….
I thought you were going to continue talking about Labour putting up taxes?
Interesting post. I’ve always felt the Tories lead would diminish – as it’s become increasingly clear they lack actual policies and still hold horrible values (particularly evident in hard times). Cameron is a good PR guy – but look who surrounds him. Osborne, Fox, Grayling, if the Tories don’t win the election it’ll be because Camerons deputies appear to be clueless.
Cameron’s statement that the £150 marriage tax break being a ‘start’ should send shivers up the spine of all those not living in the 1800’s. What on earth could he be talking about? Seriously.
Only a week into the campaign and they’re banging on about the importance of marriage being the bedrock of society. That didn’t take long then.
How wonderful that they are all in nice safe, secure relationships. How magnificent that we can revel in their excellent choice of partners negating even the merest contemplation of a split. And how unfortunate that for those trapped in loveless, violent, abusive marriages for whom separation is the only option will be branded as ‘failures’ and contributors to the decline of our society as a whole by a tax stystem intent on puffing up the already over-puffed chests of ‘those that know best’ in the upper echelons of Tory-dom.
***Weird photo op of the day: Nick Clegg and Vince Cable sharing tea and, specifically, hob nobs in his back garden. Bless.
The state of the Conservative campaign at the moment reminds me a bit of a car with a flat battery. You sit in the car using the weak starter motor hoping the engine will fire up, but all that happens is that you use up the last bit of electricity in the battery and the car goes completely dead.
The Conservatives have used up nearly all the electricity they had in their battery.
The tiny bit left isn’t enough to start their Quattro.
Much as I am disappointed in and deeply disilusioned by Labour and the wasted opportunities for radical reform and excessive reliance on spin (yes Alastair I am looking at you!) in the early, heady days when you had so much goodwill, hope and optimism behind you, I am utterly horrifed by the thought of a return to Tory ‘Family Values’ which are so redolent of the Victorians in their sheer hypocrisy, not to mention simply being meaningless soundbites that will barely save pennies, let alone milions of pounds, that I shall have to wearily and unenthusiastically vote Labour again without any real hope of change or improvement. Ah well…..
I have to take exception to your description of Sarah Palin as George W. Bush in a skirt.
As bad as eight years of Bush was for my United States there is nothing that holds more potential for the ruination of this country than these three words: President Sarah Palin.
And of course, it will never happen. As you might have seen in the straw poll this weekend in New Orleans at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, Palin’s negatives far outweigh her ability to fill a room with older non-college educated seniors who dislike Black people.
Her demographic just can grow past that.
I completely disagree with the Tory’s marriage tax break proposal however it seems incredibly thick of them from a political perspective not to stick a clause into it that it is only available on anybody’s first marriage. If the point is to incentivise commitment then allowing divorcees (mostly blokes, let’s face it) to remarry and take advantage of the marrital tax break is bloody ridiculous. They could save themselves ‘some’ of the political fallout from single parents if they did something like that.
All in all I think it’s a crap policy but a good example that the Tory’s don’t seem to have the basic instincts to build whatever moats are necessary around their policies to get them through an election. Hopefully this will crack them as we head nearer to the polling.
What is it GB says at PMQs when he’s run out of answers? “No policies, no ideas” Well that certainly applies to this blog. Policy-lite but heavy on unpleasant personal attacks.
A few points that have struck me in recent days/weeks.
1 – I think you should respond to some of the comments posted on here (if time allows it) because I would like to see some of the moronic retorts knocked back.
2 – Since when did every political commentator decide to be rude? It seems that the mindset of these people is much like the ‘footballers get paid loads of money so deserve abuse’ one. Members of Parliament, like everybody else, should be treated with respect. Not interrupted. I think, as I believe you recently said, these journalists are trying to make them a keypoint of the election. Quite frankly, I’m getting tired of it being acceptable for MPs to be abused in such a way.
3 – The media are heavily favouring the Tories, still. Even Tory supporters I know accept this and regularly highlight this to me.
4 – George Osborne wishing that girl good luck with her job search seemed so false I cringed more than I did during most episodes of the office.
5 – We can win this election. I’m out canvassing nearly every night and the response is positive. We all need to work hard and make sure that the country doesn’t make a disasterous decision.
6 – Would love to see you interviewing Cameron/Osborne etc. Real scrutiny as opposed to Titchmarsh – I can dream, can’t I?
Keep up your excellent blog!
Thanks
Matthew