Man in a Shed

Thursday, February 04, 2010

Leader's repayed expenses

Is it just me or is there a clear message here on repayed expenses ?

One party leader is at least 1386% large than the others. Could this be the man who ran the nation's finances into the ditch ? Oh yes ...

H/T to the Lib Dem cynical bar chart dept - but boys notice this one is scaled correctly ....

Will the Bank of England's printing presses be turned off soon ?

Rumours are circulating that the Bank of England will soon stop funding the government debt by printing money. ( We'll if you ask them or a Labour Treasury minister they will say the same thing, but with a hole load more guff ).

Anyone want to buy long term UK debt at low interest rates with the prospect of a hung parliament and no clear action to reduce the deficit being undertaken till yet another general election can be held ?

The risks are real as Greece is showing.

This will be interesting ... if you excuse the pun.

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Blue bash reflections

So I made it home, abandoning the younger a fitter members of the Tory blogging fraternity to their home brew entertainment.

It was good to meet up again with some of the guys from Steve Green's Pint of Badger fuelled afternoon last year. Also to get to know a few more bloggers. ( Just what is so Terrible about Terrible Tory Girl anyway ? )

Blogging's not where it was, and in many ways has gone over the initial wave of interest of a few years ago, as the media and innovators chase twitter, facebook and the semi-detached Conservative home type sites.

I suspect blogging will become the hinterland of political parties electronic presence. Few people can write about politics without becoming more involved and developing their ideas. At the same time networks are developing outside of the control of any party or body ( as Eric Pickels wisely conceeded in his brief talk ). This will continue to give blogging a form of deep long term influence. English Nationalism is perhaps the best example of this. An issue rejected by all the main parties, but a key issue for many of their bloggers.

As the general election warms up bloggers will be engaging with the issues and each other via any means possible. But the key is likely to be the wider interaction on social media - Mum's net type sites etc and the wider population starts tacking an interest for just three weeks. ( Remember how Labour tries to control the local press by getting its party members to try and write "floating voter" letters. The scope for this sort of influence has now vastly increased and we can expect the propaganda war to be relentless. )

The key moment for the blogs themselves will be after the election as the battle for ideas and the soul of the parties ( combined with perhaps two leadership elections ) gets going.

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Michael White refused entry

Highlight of the evening.

Sent from my HTC

Glories past and inevitable financial decline

I'm sitting in the science museum right now. Normally I would be feeling pangs of nostalgia for past British glories, especially in the space section with its model of Black Arrow.

But today its time to feel sorry for the Americans as they start down the same road with Obama cancelling their plans to return to the moon.

Not that he's made the wrong decision. The future does lie with better innovation. But I fear this is the first step in the US having to face up to the financial reality that they are broke. There will be far more pain to come, and our share of it is over due also.

But we can both over come our disastrous financial states. ( The US is at least staging a recovery, the UK is still cursed by Brown's canutist govt. ) We have little to fear and much to gain if we face up to the world as it is, and stop living in Labour's fantasy narrative.

This was the lesson of the eighties, taught to us by Mrs Thatcher. It's a great shame it has to be re-learnt.

Sent from my HTC

Is Brown AV plan to buy support from the Lib Dems unconstitutional ?

I just wonder if this Parliament can bind the next with a referendum to take place after the current parliament ends ?

If I remember correctly there is a constitutional convention that no Parliament may bind another.

Or do I have this wrong ?

Alternative votes will lead to alternative parties and unintended consequences

The only truth we can be sure of is there is nothing Gordon Brown won't do to try to hold onto power.

Attempting to convert Labour to a form of PR just as your 13 years in power is coming to an end will be seen as just the sort of unprincipled opportunism or even cheating that Labour have become synonymous with.

But all the political parties have something to worry about here.

Each party is an alliance of interests who are willing to make compromises for power ( or in the Lib Dem case for getting a few people on the public pay role ).

AV will allow someone to vote for, say a religious party, safe in the knowledge they aren't "wasting their vote" as there second preference will be just as valid and valuable as another person's first. It will allow groups to make their presence felt. Political parties will be able to note where the religious parties votes go - which will vastly improve the negotiating strength of that group. There are plenty of other groups this applies to.

An unintended consequence will be that smaller political parties will become "more popular" - even if they don't win seats. ( And of course the pressure will come to allocate them seats in the style in Scotland and Wales ).

It will be possible to run more than one candidate from the same party in the same ward. Or two parties which are close, but disagree one one point of policy perhaps.

Some of the existing political parties will become unstable. Each of the three main parties could split - perhaps ironically the Liob Dems are the most likely as they are a hopeless compromise between Blairite Social Democrats and Nick Clegg's Tory-Lites.

It could be good for democracy, so whilst I condemn Labour for their usual breath taking cynicism, I don't rule out the idea.

The voters need more influence over the political establishment - which is liberal and over all centre right - when the votes are really conservative and centre right.

Not quite the realignment Brown has in mind though ...

Equality and repression

The Pope has entered the debate on Labour's plans for a secular legally enforced religion with prosecution and imprisonment for those who commit heresy against the wisdom of Labour/ the BBC/ the Guardian. ( This is spun, just as blatantly, by the militant secularists who will tolerate no dissent on Equality legislation. )

I'm afraid from a UK point of you he's a bit late - before the vote in the house of Lords would have been better- but better late than never.

But will the Catholic Church recommend anyone-but-Labour for the general election ? Given Labour's enthusiasm for murdering unborn children who are viable human beings you would have thought that this line would already have been crossed.

Sadly as an Anglican, the Church of England's Bishops are almost invisible on this issue of the freedom of religion.

Anyway, a few corrections from what I've heard on the radio this morning.

The Church isn't worried about employing gays or anyone else. It is worried about appointing people who openly proclaim its teachings are wrong to positions of pastoral or doctrinal authority or whom represent the church. The Church better than many other knows that all have sinned and carry on doing so - its those who say this state doesn't matter or exist that worries it.

Now there are those who argue that the current Equality legislation doesn't force this. I heard a member of the hard line British Humanist association talking about just janitors etc. However, since he has no basis for being honest and fears no judgement I go with the advice of of Christian lawyers who warn it does.

What's happening here is the establishment of an arbitrary humanist morality backed by the terror of the state. Its the opposite of what those who have an open mind or a faith should want to see.

Arguments will be made in terms of rights of services etc but some of those people making those arguments have other agendas.

The bottom line is that any Christian or Muslim should think very long and hard before voting Labour.

Labour has become a rabidly anti-Christian organisation whose actions lead to the repression of Christians and needs to be recognised as such.

Sunday, January 31, 2010

The deficit should be the prime target

Is there a loss of nerve on getting the deficit sorted ?

David Cameron appears to be rowing backwards a little on the cuts on day one line.

He'd better not be. The only argument I'd accept for holding back on action once in office is taking the time to do the job properly. I.E. make the right cuts at the right level and the correct changes, which might take a few months to sort out. The sort of mad axeman stuff the socialists in Greece will soon have forced on them ( just as Labour have int he past by the IMF )will be both brutal, arbitrary and unnecessarily cruel due to the haste they will have to be applied in. There the sort of cuts we will get if the national disaster of Labour getting a fourth term happens.

But lets be clear - a reduced state has to come very soon, and it will be a good thing for most people.