thetorydiary

Tea with Pickles

I started the day with my new favourite soap - the Labour press conference. The resilient Prince of Darkness was back, down, but not out after yesterday’s disastrous performance.  I almost felt sorry for his Lordship. He looked rattled as his eyes darted around the room sizing up the enemy. Thankfully for him there was not a nokia in sight.

One of my chums at CCHQ who goes along to make sure everyone behaves and hands out the odd bit of literature highlighting Labour’s record in office had some of his work confiscated by a Labour spin doctor. Apparently all  documents of high level importance must be rubber stamped by our supreme leader.

The highlight today was seeing my friends at the Mirror holding Labour to account on spreading yet more lies about our policy on CCTV.  This was definitely not in the script but all great moments are unscripted.

After the Prince of Darkness called time and the credits rolled, I raced down to the West Country to carry on my doorstep offensive. The south west is a key battleground for us and a stunning part of the country.

I love this part of the world and am always struck by the warmth of the people. As I said yesterday, the doorstep always gives you the best insight into what people are thinking and today there were more telling comments.

One disgruntled voter in Plymouth said to me “the problem with Labour is that they think Plymouth is Portsmouth, they just don’t know where we are.” This government thinks a one size fits all policy that rides roughshod over local communities  is the answer. Memo to Gordon: It isn’t.

Next stops on the Pickles roadshow were Newton Abbot, Exeter and North Devon.  Again and again on the doorstep the same subject came up. More and more people expressed deep frustration at the barrage of stealth taxes they’ve been hit with over the past thirteen years. And for what they asked me? I am sorry to say as much as I tried I couldn’t find a credible answer.

After all of the media coverage on Gordon Brown’s comments today, I suspect my favourite soap may be off air tomorrow.   I must say I hope it’s allowed back on our screens before May 6th.  The life and times of  the Prince of Darkness is compelling viewing. I am sure there’s a book in it. But that’s another story.

Eric Pickles

Tea with Pickles.

It was a lovely way to the start the day. A name check from the prince of darkness, sorry, the prince of stability, as he now likes to be referred to at Labour’s morning press conference. Not many people know this but we’ve got history. More than thirty years ago we both served on the British Youth Council. His Lordship sent me out to the Soviet Union in an attempt to convince me about the merits of communism.  I didn’t fall for the spin but I am eternally grateful that the prince of darkness, sorry stability, let me back into the country.

I also have to say it was not my dear Lordship’s finest hour as he waged war on journalist after journalist who dared to utter the truth this morning. My favourite moment was when Lord M attacked Adam Boulton sniping at him: “Adam you are not standing for election.” Andrew Neil fired back “neither are you Lord M.” Couldn’t have put it better myself. Watch the clip here.

And what could be a more fitting way to finish off this Soviet style press conference than by locking journalists in at the end and forcing them to witness what I can only describe as a masterpiece in scaremongering from Lord Mandelson with his latest Party Election Broadcast. It nearly didn’t happen as the Prince forget to run the tape and was walking out the room when he was called back by a worried Labour spin doctor ...  sadly it wasn’t Alistair Campbell. I wonder if our supreme leader gave his Lordship the nokia treatment afterwards for losing control of what was meant to be a carefully choreographed set piece?

I have to say I was surprised to see Ed Balls making a guest appearance at this wonderful event. We know he’s practically spending every waking hour in Morley and Outwood battening down the hatches fearful of the relentless surge in support for our great PPC there Anthony Calvert. It was in that vein that I was back in the north today pushing the Conservative message in more Labour heartlands flirting with going blue. I always think the doorstep is the best barometer of the public mood and there’s definitely something dramatic happening in traditional Labour areas. Peter I am pleased to tell you they’re going blue.

Eric Pickles

Doesn’t really matter how many times Mrs Pickles or I come to Scotland, it never fails to stir the senses and revive the fondest of memories.

But this time it’s different – it’s just got a lot more serious.  There’s a real urgency in the air.  An urgency to see ‘real’ change, an urgency to get rid of this redundant force called Labour.

“It’s time to turn the borders blue” was my rallying cry on my tour of border seats, not a message that fell on deaf ears it would seem.

It’s been a long time since I’ve enjoyed the kind of reception I got today in Galashiels, where in a walkabout with our candidate John Lamont, people were approaching me and telling me we just ‘had’ to win.

Peter Duncan, our candidate in Dumfries and Galloway was brimming with excitement and nothing quite prepared me for the reception we had with David Mundell in Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale, with posters everywhere.  What a sight.

Almost everywhere I go I’m asked why people should believe us this time, because its ‘real’ is my reply, because David is very very serious indeed.

At the heart of this government we have seen one of the most brutal smear operations in full force.  Gordon Brown’s loyal spin doctor Damian McBride was unmasked last year as the mastermind behind spreading malicious lies and unfounded rumours about Conservative Politicians. At the time after much dithering Mr Brown eventually apologised. He promised a new politics but it didn’t last. Like so many of his promises they bite the dust sooner or later. As Mr Brown has clung on as one botched coup after another has failed to unseat him, he has retreated further and further into his Downing Street bunker becoming more and more obsessed with destroying opponents in the Labour party and not actually getting the country out of the monumental economical mess he got it into.

Last night Mr Brown was exposed again in the most public of fashions on TV during the election debates over the outrageous lies the Labour party have been spreading on leaflets that the Conservatives would cut the winter fuel allowance and axe free bus passes and TV licenses for pensioners. Our supreme leader was caught like a rabbit in headlights claiming he didn’t authorise them.  A likely story. This morning we published a list of  23 examples of Labour literature peddling lies about Conservative Party policies. I won’t list them all here but it’s a brutal example of politics hitting new lows . It was particularly satisfying to see the intrepid  Cathy Newman over at Channel  4 news destroying Labour’s indefensible justification for printing these smears. It’s recommended reading.

As Labour tried to get a grip on the crisis engulfing them, their press conference this morning  was taken  directly from a Soviet style textbook on media management. Journalists weren’t allowed  to ask more than one question as Mandelson,  Brown, and Harman tried to avoid close scrutiny over their lies. One of my dear chums at the BBC had the microphone ripped away from him by a Labour spin doctor as he tried to ask a follow up question. Then in a bid to try and reassert control Brown and his comrades decided  to only take questions from the foreign press as they tried to stop the media storm raining down on them. It really was desperate stuff. Hardly new politics, hardly transparent.

If we let this politics of fear triumph over the politics of hope this country will be a poorer place. Trust in politicians is at an all time low and for that we must all take responsibility . This election offers the chance for a new dawn, for a new start and for a new type of politics. Don’t let Mr Brown take us back to the future.

Eric Pickles

Eric Pickles' daily take on the election campaign.

Well if the election were won on the number of banners, people, posters and pledges then I’d tempt fate by saying we’re well ahead of our opponents.

As I continue my campaign tour of our target seats I find our candidates are buoyed by the growing support on the doorsteps.  My walkabouts through town centres and city centres are attracting more supporters and greater attention than ever.

In contrast to previous elections, I’ve only had to dodge one egg and face a rather sad-faced lone heckler (more interested in navigating his shopping trolley across the car park than he was in disrupting the smooth running of the democratic process).

Today saw the modest Pickles people carrier chug through the Eastern region.

In Harlow (left), where Robert Halfon has generated great support, we were joined by a huge group of supporters.

In Luton South with Nigel Huddleston, Castle Point with Rebecca Harris and South Basildon and East Thurrock with Stephen Metcalfe we were met by more people and more banners. And in Thurrock we joined Jackie Doyle-Price and finished off our day with a crowd buoyed by recent campaigning showing our support holding up so well.

While I’d never expect serious experts to forecast this election on a spurious new ‘index’ based on the number of campaign banners (weighted of course) I was overwhelmed by the huge hunger for change on the doorstep.

The world out here is crying out for change.  We offer it. David fought for it tonight and just watch that banner index rise in the morning.

Eric Pickles

Gladmorning saw me in the North East of England; an area that the Labour Party have taken for granted for too long. I did a tour of some of our target seats, starting in Middlesborough South and East Cleveland with Paul Bristow. There I was met by a keen team of canvassers concentrating on getting our vote out as postal votes begin to hit doormats.

Next stop was Stockton South where we met James Wharton in The Black Bull in Yarm where they have a unique way of judging leaders popularity. You are given a choice of pint from the blue pump, the red pump or the yellow pump. While we were there the Cameron pint was doing well, at full strength with great clarity. I didn’t try it myself but I am told that the red pint leaves a nasty bitter aftertaste and the yellow pint was neither one thing nor the other.

Onwards to Darlington where our candidate reported some move away from the Lib Dems to us. We talked to local traders in the covered market. The greengrocer, a Mr Blair reported that the grounding of flights were being felt in the fresh vegetable part of his business.

Sunderland Central might seem an unusual place to visit so far as our targets are concerned but believe me, something special is taking place there. We have recently upgraded its status because of reports coming back. Our candidate, Lee Martin wants to promote Sunderland after years of Labour neglect and has a young and energetic team, out delivering 50,000 postal vote letters. They are so keen that they have organised a shift system so this is one part of the country the Conservative Party is delivering virtually on a 24 hour basis. Labour are rattled. They’ve delivered 6 leaflets since the start of the campaign, each one that little bit more desperate than the last.

The day ended with a meeting with Wendy Morton our candidate in Tynemouth. This is a place where we have shown that the Conservative Party can win in the North East. The Mayor is Conservative, the Council is Conservative and soon thanks to Wendy’s hard work they will be represented in Parliament by a Conservative.

Thanks to the wonders of the BBC iPlayer I was entertained by the Chancellors debate. On a day when 1100 small and medium sized businesses backed the Conservative plan to stop Labour’s job tax,  I was struck by Mr Darling’s refusal to back Mr Brown’s record as Chancellor and in particular his refusal to endorse Brown’s hollow brag of ending boom and bust. Now that there is lots of attention on Lib Dem polls it is extraordinary how quickly Mr Cable’s position fell apart under forensic analysis from Andrew Neill and George. From his admission that spending £6billion less than Labour would not hurt the recovery to his confusion over the effects of Labour’s job tax, Vince Cable was in disarray. Here was a man when asked to come up to the plate was unable to deliver.  Liberal Democrats have been the most political of the three main parties and it was interesting that the slightest probing of their policies brought about almost total disintegration. As a Texan chum often says, big hat, no cattle.

Eric Pickles

By Eric Pickles.

Alan Johnson contradicts the Prime Minister on police numbers; the government can’t run a bus service out of Spain; inflation is more worrying news for hard pressed families and the Prime Minister won’t see real people in Swindon.  Another great example of a Labour government at work.

All that mess aside, it remains my experience that elections tend to come down to one big idea.

And its precisely because of this mess, that the big idea in this election is ‘change’.

Not because we say so, but because people tell me on the doorsteps of every road I’ve canvassed and in every market place of every town I’ve visited this election.

Even the students in the ‘Brentwood School’ Election hustings told me that today.  As a insight into the eventual election result, the Lib Dem came third!

‘Change’ is not a buzz word, people tell me that ‘change’ has to happen.

And if there’s one other thing I’ve learned in politics, ‘trust what people tell you’, especially if they’re  18 years of age and part of the upper sixth at Brentwood School.

All the more reason how a Conservative government will tear up the old ways of dealing with worklessness, the free ride is over.

That why they tell me that our economy must change so that it works for everyone.

They tell me we must change the values at the heart of government so that our broken society mends.  And they tell me to clean up politics for good.

So let’s be clear, only David Cameron can deliver that change.

Eric Pickles gives his daily take on the election campaign.

I am genuinely puzzled. I watched the debate on Thursday and like millions of others, I reached the conclusion that if Gordon Brown is the answer it must be a very rude question.  I am not saying that Mr Clegg didn't do well, but my main puzzlement is that I can see no trace of it on the ground. What I did see was David Cameron looking like a serious leader ready to get us out of the huge economic mess the Prime Minister has left us in.

Like hundreds of our candidates and thousands of our supporters canvassing across the country over the weekend, there was no discernable movement away from us from our pledges.

I remain convinced that people are not going to elect a government on the basis of one and a half hours of television. As one elector put it to me on a sunny doorstep on Saturday afternoon:

"Yes, sure, Clegg did do well but it is not going to change my vote, the last thing I want to do is let Gordon Brown in by the back door of a hung Parliament."

Let's be clear - this country needs change and everybody knows it.

We need to take decisive action, especially as we tentatively come out of the recession.

Of course, the Liberal Democrats are vulnerable on their policy of throwing away our nuclear deterrent in uncertain times, their commitment to an amnesty for illegal immigrants which will only encourage more illegal immigration, and their refusal to protect the NHS.

But as much as it's right to talk about these things, the main threat that the Lib Dems pose is a hung Parliament, propping up Gordon Brown who can't deliver the change we need.

Our country needs change from an overpowering incompetent state. We need to give people an opportunity to shape their country through our Big Society proposals.  We need change that passes power down to and through local government to real communities who want to make a difference.

The question remains on the doorstep: "Do you want five more years of Gordon Brown?"

The answer is that if you vote Liberal Democrat or Labour you will. Only by voting Conservative can we be sure of the change we need.

Eric Pickles

Eric Pickles gives his daily take on the election campaign for ConHome.

Oh shirt. It all started so quietly, following an overnight stop near Sheffield. I boarded the Leader’s campaign bus, all mine for the day but without David who was in Manchester getting ready for tonight’s debate. I was on my way to a tour of the East Midlands (picture below is supporting Andrew Bridgen in North West Leicestershire).

Having watched the gathering volcanic clouds for a while I decided to see what was happening on Twitter and I spotted an amusing tweet which shows that now famous photo of flunkies opening the door for the supreme leader.  I noted that they were wearing expensive Jermyn Street shirts. Your Chairman, in a moment of vanity to bolster his man of the people image, copied the tweet on, informing all those in tweetland that I bought my shirts in M&S. Sadly in my eagerness I left the R out of shirts. As typos go, this is in the upper ranks. I was alerted to my mistake seconds after pressing the send button by a remarkably calm chum from CCHQ suggesting that I deleted it before anyone noticed. Too late, the Leader’s bus was lost in a black hole of telecommunication coverage.

Oh the ignomy, hundreds of lefty tweeters feeling glum over the campaign so far were brought to life in a surge of happiness for the Chairman of the Conservative Party inadvertently using a vulgar word. Most are unrepeatable on ConservativeHome. The best came from John Prescott who expressed envy at the sponsorship deal that I appeared to have obtained from M&S.

I was faced with a dilemma: should I adopt the Labour bloggers' approach and say that my dog had eaten my Blackberry, that I had been tapped and my account had been hacked by sinister forces or that it was another Eric Pickles bearing an uncanny resemblance to myself? I decided against calling the police and wasting public money. Sometimes the easiest way out is to just admit it was a typo.

I am on my way back to host a ‘Watch’ party at CCHQ and hopefully to link up with some of you before the debate. I am sure David will do well. From my canvassing on the doorstep there is a shift to us, we are seeing Labour and Liberal Democrats come towards us - but there are still a lot of undecideds out there. many of whom will be watching tonight. We have a strong case to make, on the doorstep, on the TV and at the debates.

Do try and join fellow Conservatives and watch this important debate together. Do join in any discussions or programmes after the event. If you decide to tweet, don’t forget to use the hashtag #leadersdebate and most important of all, if you decide to use the word shirt, don’t forget to include the R!

Eric Pickles

Tea with Eric Pickles.

Nick Clegg swapped the photocopying room in Cowley Street for much more stylish surroundings of a news agency to launch his manifesto today, complete with blue backdrop and green parrot. After the cartoons of the Labour Party and our more serious tomes, they adopted a homage to a West Yorkshire 1970’s bus timetable. The old West Riding had a great affection for that post modernist look when it came to imparting vital transport information.

I had a much loved copy of the timetable, so it was with much excitement I started to turn the pages, to find to my disappointment that it didn't give me the quickest route from Heckmanwike to Todmorden, but contained some "fully worked out pledges". Within minutes this "fully costed manifesto" started to dissolve before my very eyes like the foresaid timetable left out too long in the rain.

I won’t bore you with all the detail but needless to say there is £11.6 billion black hole in their calculations. The one of the more bizarre overstatements is the amount of tax avoidance which they claim they will save £4.65 billion through ‘anti-avoidance measures’ on income tax, National Insurance Contributions (NIC), Corporation Tax and Stamp Duty. However, HMRC estimates ‘tax avoidance’ in income tax, National Insurance and Capital Gains Tax is only between £0.8 and £1.6 billion. Perhaps Lib Dems know more about tax avoidance than we had previously anticipated.

I expect you might have come across the odd example of Lib Dem’s varying their message for different audiences but how about this for a ‘u-turn’.  For weeks, Vince Cable and Nick Clegg have come out in support of Labour’s anti-business jobs tax and attacked businesses supporting Conservative opposition to the jobs tax. They were unkind enough to call our refusal to implement Labour’s job tax as “school boy economics" and "voodoo economics.” Compare that with "the increase in National Insurance Contributions is a damaging tax on jobs and an unfair tax on employees, so when resources allow we would seek to reverse it.’ (Liberal Democrat Manifesto 2010, April 2010, pg. 97).

It just reinforces my view that if you want to see Liberal values in a Government, if you want to see improvements in the environment or pull back on the way in which the state is oppressively intruding into personal freedom and liberty, the sensible thing to do is vote Conservative. That is why Liberal Democrat voters are going to switch this time to the Conservatives to remove, rather than prop up Mr Brown in Number 10. Interesting that one of the first telephone calls that I took was from a Liberal Democrat County Councillor in the South of England who has chosen today to leave the Liberal Democrats and join the Conservatives. More on that later but suffice to say, she is very welcome.

I saw for myself today in West and South Yorkshire, in particular Bradford, Colne Valley and Penistone, former Liberal Democrat voters, lots of new helpers, lots of activity and lots of commitment to getting David Cameron into Number 10. Off with the team now for a much earned and anticipated curry.

Eric Pickles

Party Chairman Eric Pickles gives his daily take on the election campaign. He is pictured here on the campaign trail with Henry Smith in Crawley earlier today...

My old chum Henry Macrory from CCHQ has a well thumbed copy of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. With 1984 and its use of double-speak it might be the Labour spinners manual. He noticed a striking resemblance to an early cover of the masterpiece and the Labour’s 2010 manifesto - chilling in a semi-comical kind of way.  I have commented on their use of the sunrise before, it is in the eye of the beholder: someone’s sunrise is someone else’s sunset.

There was nothing much in the bundle of half thought out policies that makes up their pledges to the electorate other than a vague indication that they would fit in very well within Labour’s 13 years of broken promises.

The most interesting announcements are the ones they shamelessly stole from the Conservative Party. We have identified 5 so far:

1. Any government-controlled appointment with a salary over £150,000 will require ministerial sign-off;
2. Pay as you go home energy insulation;
3. No stamp duty for first time buyers for house purchases below £250,000 for 2 years;
4. New national non-emergency service telephone number 111;
5. Promote the transfer of buildings and land into the ownership or control of voluntary and community groups.

The Labour Party might have done better to postpone their manifesto launch until after the Conservatives - then they could have stolen a whole load more.

These are my suggestions for a couple of promises they may care to steal from us:

1. Abolish Labour’s Jobs Tax that will kill the recovery; and
2. Stop spending public money on government waste.

Today's report from Party Chairman, Eric Pickles...

The words 'posh' and 'pickles' aren't usually found in the same sentence, unless accompanied by the word 'not' - but today, in Milnthorpe Farmers Market, I purchased a pot of the extra fiery 'Posh Pickles' while I was there supporting our candidate Gareth McKeever.

Westmorland and Londsdale was the starting point of the second day of my campaign trail across the North West which will eventually lead me to appearing on Any Questions tonight with Andy Burnham, Jo Swinson and Peter Oborne.

Before meeting Rory Stewart for a discussion on the future of Penrith's local economy I visited John Gough, our PPC in Barrow and Furness and I saw first hand how hard he is working to turn the seat blue.

I watched the first political death by Twitter of Stuart MacLennan. A lot has been made of his use of obscenities and aggressive language towards women, but in my view not enough attention has been given to the utter contempt he showed for his constituents, calling them 'chavs', and being particularly offensive to elderly potential constituents.

As an American friend of mine once said: "If you don't like the folks, don't be in our business."

Fortunately for the people of Moray and Parliament, Mr MacLennan will now have to look for a new line of work.

Eric Pickles

Today's report from Party Chairman, Eric Pickles.

Day three of the election dawns, bringing us that little bit closer to liberation day in May. Every campaign has its own rhythm and pace. I keep warning activists that there will be good days and bad days.  Today has been a great day, more signatures from employers on Labour's job tax and a new initiative from the Conservatives, our National Citizen Service endorsed by Sir Michael Caine. It has dominated the headlines all day, you might say to misquote Sir Michael “a lot of people do know that.”

I’ve seen a lot of policy launches over the years but I’ve never seen one that whether you were a journalist, an activist or a voter, you just got it. No one seems to have a bad word for it, except for a few grumpy middle aged Labour Cabinet Ministers.

I’m pretty struck how rattled Labour not only sound, but look. What were they thinking presenting the Prime Minister, the Chancellor and Lord M (whose full title is too long to fit in to a tweet) against the backdrop of what I think was a sunset at the Labour Press Conference? All that was needed was sombre music and a voice over saying “as the sun goes down we say goodby..”

I’m in the North West on a tour. I’ve met with our candidates in Blackpool South (Ron Bell) and Blackpool North and Clevleys (Paul Maynard) and I am just off to do a meeting with Eric Ollerenshaw in Fleetwood. On the knocker in the residential part of the town, it’s clear that traditional Labour support has just had enough of Gordon Brown and they are definitely not going to vote Labour. As I reported yesterday, they are starting to switch to the Conservatives, many for the first time. Regardless of age our National Citizen Service really seems to have caught people’s imagination.  As a young man said to me just off Cavendish Road in Blackpool “this is great, this is much better than politicians preaching what needs to be done, this is about us being given a chance to do something with a purpose that is both interesting and fun.”

Eric Pickles

Eric Pickles writes his latest exclusive daily take on the election campaign for ConservativeHome...

Everyday I’m asked by even the most enquiring journalists what I think of the state of the polls. Well the answer is that ‘they go up and they go down’.  And of course in this election, the most ‘electronic’ of elections yet, people will follow the polls more keenly than ever.

But whatever the polls, I have always believed that this election would be won constituency by constituency, district by district, street by street – on the doorsteps of this country.

Over the past year or so I have visited just about every corner of the UK, canvassing in many places, to get my own feel for where our support lies.  But there is no place like your own patch for getting a feel as to what it is really like.

Starting off in Wales yesterday I saw the determination of Welsh Conservatives to win more seats from a washed out Labour Party. But today I was back home, walking on drives that as candidate and MP I have been walking down a few months short of twenty years. These have been years when there was uncertainty about the Conservative Party, at times hostility towards us, and more recently interest in our Party rebuilding.

We have always canvassed regularly in Brentwood and Ongar, so our records are good. Any good canvasser knows that the relationship on the doorstep is part science and part raw emotion. You can feel disenchantment or support well before you count the tally of responses. As you can imagine in a Conservative seat there was a lot of support, a readiness to display a poster and a desire to see the back of “that man Brown,” but this afternoon, in Priests Lane I came face to face with a lifelong Labour supporter who was going to vote Tory for the first time in her life.

Labour, historically, in Brentwood and Ongar has been squeezed by the Liberal Democrats; direct switches to us were comparatively rare. My team and I decided to go to areas of the constituency where the Labour vote is the highest, there we found more Labour switchers. People round here realise that Labour’s tax on jobs could kill the recovery.

Little sign of Liberal Democrat activity, I await the phoney graphs and the “It’s a Two Horse Race” leaflets with jaded anticipation.

It is as good as I can remember it locally, and the team out helping our target seat reports similar good news. Still we have a long way to go until May and still the polls will go up and go down.

Eric Pickles MP

Eric Pickles - The Top Man - submits his second General election blog for ConservativeHome.

At last after all that dithering, delay and indecision he did the obvious and went to the Palace on exactly the day everyone expected. Master of Surprise would not seem a likely nickname to be attached to the present Prime Minister. I hope he enjoyed our banners lining his route spelling out “Vote for Change.” Roughly 30 days separates the nation from liberation from his washed out and increasingly pointless government.

The launches of our respective parties could not be clearer. David strolled out with Sam surrounded by some of our candidates and workers. He spoke of change, optimism and hope: “Britain’s deserves a lot better than five more years of Gordon Brown;” telling the country that there is a ‘modern Conservative alternative that is about voting for hope, voting for optimism, voting for change.” He warned that Brown’s debt, waste and taxes will kill the recovery. All this against the backdrop of the Thames and Big Ben there was a tangible feeling that this is the “most important election for a generation”.

So far as I could see the Liberal Democrats launch took place in the photocopying room in their HQ in Cowley Street in front of some bewildered and embarrassed interns.

Gordon Brown chose to showcase his cabinet outside number 10. Given the treachery contained in their collective ranks it may have took some courage to turn his back on them for the photo-call. He may have taken comfort that while they were there they could not be off in some distant studio briefing against him.  Then he went off to meet members of the public in “canteen meetings,” which turned about to be bussed in members of the Labour Party, there to spare the PM’s blushes in case he accidentally met a real member of the public and they really told him about the realities of boom and bust Britain.

Eric Pickles MP

Hope you had a break over the Easter holidays (I suspect not). Here at CCHQ it is just like any ordinary day before the start of a the most important general election in a generation – full throttle and ready to go.

Difficult to believe it but Labour seems determined to fight the election on the “Jobs Tax”, their increase to National Insurance. They think everyone is out of touch except them, it matters nothing that they are hard pressed to find anyone who employs people to agree with them. When they are making such a poor fist of it, it seems almost bad manners to discourage them.

We are committed to prevent this tax on jobs being implemented in full; it threatens employment as we come out of the recession.

We launched our new poster on the threat to the recovery this morning outlining Labour's big boot ‘more debts’ and ‘jobs tax’ plans to stamp out any green shoots of recovery. The models from the launch are propped up outside my office (see photo), reminding everyone that Mr Brown must get his best walking boots on tomorrow and visit the Queen to seek permission of the dissolution of parliament.

Eric Pickles