Daily Referendum

Blogging will be slow for a while.

noreply@blogger.com (Daily Referendum) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 16:39:00 +0000

Sorry, Blogging will be slow for a while. My Dad is ill and I am going to be in Yorkshire for a while.

Iain Dale: 2008-9 Guide to Political Blogging in the UK

noreply@blogger.com (Daily Referendum) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:53:00 +0000

In early September TOTAL POLITICS, in association with APCO WORLDWIDE will publish the 2008-9 Guide to Political Blogging in the UK. It will contain articles on blogging by some of Britain's leading bloggers, together with a directory of UK political blogs, and a series of Top 20s and Top 10s. The book will be available at the Green Party, TUC, Labour, LibDem and Tory Conferences, where TOTAL POLITICS will have exhibition stands.

We're asking for your votes to decide the Top 100 UK Political Blogs. Simply email your Top Ten (ranked from 1 to 10) to toptenblogs@totalpolitics.com. If you have a blog, please encourage your readers to do the same. I'll then compile the Top 100 from those that you send in. Just order them from 1 to 10. Your top blog gets 10 points and your tenth gets 1 point.

The deadline for submitting your Top 10 is Friday August 15th. Please type Top 10 in the subject line. Or you can of course leave your Top 10 in the Comments on this post.

Once all the entries are in a lucky dip draw will take place and the winner will be sent £100 worth of political DVDs!

The rules are simple:

1. Please only vote once
2. Only blogs based in the UK or run by UK residents are eligible
3. Votes must be cast before Friday 15 August
4. Blogs chosen must be listed in the Total Politics Blog Directory.
5. You must send a list of TEN blogs, ranked. Any entry containing fewer than ten blogs will not count.

So, once again, the email address to send your TOP TEN BLOGS to is...

toptenblogs@totalpolitics.com

If you read my blog and think it is worthy of a vote, please find the time send in your top ten list. For info: Last year I was ranked 21st in the top Conservative blogs and 59th in the UK political blogs.

Cheers

Steve

Breaking News: Gordon Brown narrowly escapes attack on Iraq visit.

noreply@blogger.com (Daily Referendum) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:58:00 +0000

According to news sources coming out of Iraq, Gordon Brown escaped several "very determined" attempts on his life during his recent visit to Iraq. It is reported that the Prime Minister came under attack from small arms fire, rockets and mortars. An MOD spokesman said that the PM was extremely lucky to survive such a vicious and sustained assault.

The five former defence chiefs who criticised Gordon Brown over his funding of our Armed Forces, and his appointment of "two jobs Browne" issued the following statement:

"The fact that Gordon Brown has escaped Iraq unscathed only reinforces our opinion that the weapons issued to British forces fighting in Iraq are not fit for purpose."

I know that I've posted this before, but it seemed like a good time to post it again.

Gordon Brown - More faces than Big Ben's clock tower. (Troop withdrawal from Iraq)

noreply@blogger.com (Daily Referendum) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:40:00 +0000

Speaking from Iraq today, Gordon Brown said: "It is certainly our intention that we reduce troop numbers, but I am not going to give an artificial timetable at the moment."

Since when did it become Brown's policy not to give an artificial timetable?

In 2007 at a joint press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad, Brown said: ''By Christmas, 1,000 of our troops can be brought back to the U.K. They have acted with great courage and bravery.'' As we learned shortly afterwards, Brown's statement was about as artificial as it gets.

I think Liam Fox described the situation quite well:

"Does this man have no shame? Once you read the small print you realise we are back to the same old spin. Five hundred of these troops have already been announced and 270 are back in the UK. "This is a cynical exploitation of our Armed Forces by a prime minister who puts the Labour Party's interests before the national interest."

As Iain Dale points out, Brown doesn't want to give an artificial timetable because: "there's not an election in the offing now, is there?"

Poll: What kind of Tory are you?

noreply@blogger.com (Daily Referendum) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:24:00 +0000

When you drift around the various Tory blogs, you find that we have pretty similar opinions on Climate Change, an English Parliament and Europe. To this end I thought I would put this theory to the test. For the record, I selected A, B and C.

Dwain Chambers has failed to overturn his Olympic ban - Good.

noreply@blogger.com (Daily Referendum) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:34:00 +0000

I've just received the breaking news from the BBC that Dwain Chambers has failed to overturn his Olympic ban. I have to say that I totally agree with the court's decision. I know the main argument to allow Chamber's to compete was that he had done his time and he should be shown forgiveness. Well I'm sorry but he was fully aware of the lifetime ban when he cheated. The ban was put in place by the British athletics team itself as a deterrent to drug cheats. If Chambers had been allowed to compete in the Olympics, that deterrent would be rendered useless.

Fair play won today.

Gordon Brown sets out to destroy the economy for Cameron.

noreply@blogger.com (Daily Referendum) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:52:00 +0000

Gordon Brown knows (just like the rest of us) that his (and his party's) days in power are numbered. Because Brown has made a complete mess of our economy he is faced with only one choice: He must carry on with (or speed up) his incompetent policy of spend, spend, spend, borrow, borrow, borrow, if Labour are to regain power within the next decade. Brown will leave a financial wasteland for the Tories to inherit. To start the ball rolling in his Scorched Earth campaign we have had the hint that the government are planning to relax their fiscal rules - in other words they have failed to save for a rainy day and are now going to run the economy into the ground and bury it in a mountain of debt. Fraser Nelson over on the Spectator Coffee House blog describes the situation perfectly:

Brown has realised that if the Tories win the next election, he is now spending with Cameron’s Gold Card – every by-election bribe, every union sellout will be funded by borrowing with the bill sent to D. Cameron Esq. Cameron will have to tax us to pay for what Brown is today spending.

It certainly looks as though Gordon Brown may have overplayed his reputation of economic genius for the last 11 years. We are slipping into economic meltdown and what do we have to show for 11 years of the maestro's work? Well Sky News tell us that:

Public sector net borrowing for the first quarter of 2008/2009 was £24billion, the biggest quarterly figure since records began in 1946. Figures released by the Office for National Statistics today also show that public sector debt at the end of June stood at 38.3 percent of GDP, the highest since July 1999. The fiscal rules were laid down by Mr Brown as Chancellor when Labour came to power in 1997 in an effort to assure the party's reputation for economic competence. But with the Government predicted to face a £8bn tax revenue shortfall because of the current economic downturn, it appears they will be breached soon. Sky's political Correspondent Niall Paterson said: "Gordon Brown is faced with a tricky situation... an estimated £8bn shortfall in tax revenue. "He appears to have two options - raise taxes, unpopular at a time of economic slowdown, or declare that the economic cycle is over and rewrite the fiscal rules."

And let us not forget the Government's borrowing which they have conveniently failed to add to their figures. To put this in the simple terms of your typical household: Your outgoings are greater than your incomings, you can't afford to pay the bills and you are going to lose the house. Sounds bad? Well not for Brown it doesn't, because he is just going to hand the whole mess over to the Tories and join Tony Blair in the millionaires club.

Treasury to relax Gordon Brown's Fiscal rules.

noreply@blogger.com (Daily Referendum) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:52:00 +0000

Breaking news from The BBC:

The government is considering re-writing its own rules on how much it can borrow in order to counter the effects of the economic slowdown. The Tories say such a move would be final nail in the coffin of Gordon Brown's reputation for prudence.

Oh dear - more debt to throw into the black holes Labour jokingly refer to as public services.

Tory Press Release - Lisbon Treaty Ratification

noreply@blogger.com (Daily Referendum) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:37:00 +0000

William Hague: Brown has no authority to ratify the EU Constitution

Commenting on the news that the Government has now ratified the Lisbon Treaty, Shadow Foreign Secretary, William Hague, said:

"Gordon Brown has no democratic or moral authority to sign Britain up to the renamed EU Constitution. This move is a total breach of trust with the British people and a flagrant breach of his solemn election promise to the British people. It is a sign of how arrogant and out of touch this Labour Government has become that they are totally uninterested in what the British people want on Europe.
"It also means that the Government are joining in the ugly bullying of the Irish people, who have clearly rejected this Treaty. Trying to push ahead with the EU Treaty shows an utter lack of respect for the Irish voters' democratic decision."As long as the Irish decision is not reversed the EU Treaty will not be in force at the next general election.
A new Conservative Government would then take back the instruments of ratification and put the Treaty to a referendum, recommending a 'no' vote. That is the honourable and democratic thing to do."

Rt Hon William Hague MP

The Great British betrayal - Lisbon Treaty Ratified

noreply@blogger.com (Daily Referendum) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 09:43:00 +0000

Without giving the British people their promised referendum, and totally ignoring the result of the Irish referendum, Gordon Brown and his cronies have ratified the Lisbon Treaty. The timing of Europe minister Jim Murphy's announcement could not be more cynical. The government are obviously hoping to avoid the flak that is most certainly inbound by issuing the ratification notice the day before parliament goes into summer recess. No doubt they are hoping that public unrest will have died down by the time that parliament resumes later in the year.

It may have died down but this underhanded attack on our sovereignty will not be forgotten. We are being ruled by a law mad superstate that doesn't understand the meaning of the word NO. As the Bruges group point out: From 1st May 2008 to 15th July the EU has passed 282 laws which will impact on the UK. Since May 2007 the total is 1,798. This is where a great deal of our money is being wasted, money that we desperately need in the current financial climate. What's more, a great number of these Laws are driving many of the UK's small businesses into ruin thanks to the endless reams of red tape they have to unravel.

For this reason alone, Gordon Brown should not be allowed to work in politics ever again. He will be remembered as the Useless PM who gave away the UK's sovereignty to the EU - totally against the wishes of her people.

Jib Jab 2008 - It's time for some campaignin

noreply@blogger.com (Daily Referendum) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 08:46:00 +0000

The US Campaign season is upon us:

Gordon Brown's Great Green Belt Swindle.

noreply@blogger.com (Daily Referendum) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:14:00 +0000

Last year Gordon Brown said this about our Green Belts: "I assure the House that we will continue robustly to protect the land designated as Green Belt." 10 Downing Street's spokesman said: "Green Belt land will stay as Green Belt land. Yes, we can give you an assurance that we will not build on Green Belt land."We are not proposing any changes to our very robust protection of the Green Belt." Well according to the Welwyn and Hatfield Times, local MP Grant Shapps believes that the government are performing a "Con Trick".

Grant is claiming that the government are planning to simply build on Green Belt land and allocate other local fields as new Green Belt. By doing this the government can build on land close to towns (that they promised to protect) and still claim to be expanding Green Belt. Of course what the are doing is using slight of hand to destroy existing Green Belt. I think this would count as one very big "Brownie"

From Hansard June 24th:

Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer to the right hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst of 2 June 2008, Official Report, column 544W, on the green belt: East of England, how many hectares of green belt land, in gross terms, will be developed as a consequence of the East of England Regional Spatial Strategy.

Pamjit Dhanda: "The East of England Plan requires the review of Green Belt boundaries at Stevenage, Hemel Hempstead, Harlow and Welwyn Hatfield to help accommodate the housing requirements identified for this part of the region."The actual amount of Green Belt involved will depend on the outcome of these strategic reviews and the new boundaries will be established through the joint or co-ordinated local development frameworks developed by the local authorities involved."

And this is how Grant Shapps expressed his anger to the Welwyn and Hatfield Times:

"It's as clear cut as anything. "A year ago this week we had Gordon Brown giving a cast iron assurance about the future of the Green Belt. "Now just 12 months later the Government is admitting in answer to parliamentary questions the Welwyn Hatfield Green Belt is not safe in their hands and they will now require a number of the 10,000 houses to be built on top of it. "Now not only will we be losing our hospital, post offices, and potentially some GP surgeries, but lose our Green Belt too. "He also insisted the Government was involved in a "con trick" over the Green Belt. "They keep insisting in Parliament they will protect and enlarge it. "But actually what they mean is they are deleting sections of the Green Belt and reassigning other areas which are simply green fields. "It's a con."

Labour, don't you just love them? The sooner they are gone, the better.

The 102nd Magical Mystery Blog Tour Bus Leaves in 5 Minutes!

noreply@blogger.com (Daily Referendum) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:37:00 +0000

Got some time to kill but don't know where to go?

Why don't you climb aboard the Magical Mystery Blog Tour Bus? There are still a few places left.

Click on STOP 1 and the Bus will take you to your first Mystery Blog location.

To get back on the Bus just click the Back Button and click STOP 2 to continue the Tour. I think you can work the rest out.

The Bus rolls out on Sundays and Wednesdays - enjoy the ride. If you have any suggestions for the next tour drop me an email by hitting the Contact button at the top of the page.

- Excellent

Labour - How very dare you.

noreply@blogger.com (Daily Referendum) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:11:00 +0000

Childish I know, but it is a little uncanny:

George Osborne's reaction to postponement of fuel duty rise

noreply@blogger.com (Daily Referendum) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 14:17:00 +0000

Responding to the announcement that the 2p fuel duty rise will be postponed, Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said:

"After months of dithering, Alistair Darling has finally decided to postpone the 2p rise in fuel duty a week before the Glasgow East by-election.

"Instead of short term political fixes, what the government should be doing is adopting our plans for a fair fuel stabiliser so that motorists get automatic relief when the price of oil goes up, rather than relying on the political whims of the Chancellor.

"Now under pressure, he's u-turned on one of his car tax measures, surely it can't be long before he shows his weakness again and backs down on the VED rise on family cars."

Britains largest strike since 1926. 2.45% not enough say unions.

noreply@blogger.com (Daily Referendum) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:16:00 +0000

Close to 500,000 council workers are striking in response to the government's offer of a 2.45% pay rise. Over the next three days the strike will shut down libraries, museums, nursery schools, the passport office, Land Registry, the Coastguard, the valuation office agency, the immigration office and some ferries. Disrupted services include rubbish collections, driving tests and other town hall services.

There's a lot of discontent out there, and Winter is still months away.

Live Debate on MPs Expenses - pigs in the trough.

noreply@blogger.com (Daily Referendum) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:02:00 +0000

The parliamentary debate on MPs Expenses is now taking place and you can watch it by clicking HERE. You will not believe the number of little piggies squealing at the thought of losing their access to the trough.

BBC are spinning for Gordon Brown on expenses debate.

noreply@blogger.com (Daily Referendum) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:31:00 +0000

If you were to read the BBC's article on the expenses debate taking place in parliament today, you would believe that the debate was all Labour's idea. I would like to know who wrote the article, because whoever it may be is obviously an out and out Labour supporter. Reading the first five or six paragraphs you would never guess that it was David Cameron who called for this debate and that it is the Conservatives who are going to publish their expense claims, in detail, for the first three months of this year. Labour rushed out their proposal last night in an attempt to avoid embarrassment.

The author of the article points out that Gordon Brown was disappointed that the last vote to abolish the list was lost because it was his MPs (including no less than 34 ministers) who voted against it. What he failed to point out was that Brown couldn't have been that disappointed seeing has he didn't turn up for the vote, or that his Whips were nodding Labour MPs towards the NO Lobby. He also didn't mention that the Conservatives believe that Gordon Brown let his MPs vote against expense transparency in return for accepting an inflation matching pay rise.

The author of the article says: "Labour say they are serious about their proposed reforms and will try to rush them on to the statute books before the summer recess." However, there is no mention of the various statements made by David Cameron in the last 24 hrs. You'd think that the BBC would be interested in why Cameron has called this debate, or at least you would think the public might want to know. So I'll help the BBC out. This is what Cameron had to say about calling this debate on MPs expenses:

"Some might say calling another debate on this subject is an unusual step. "But I feel passionately that the Conservative party must carry on showing a proper lead and do everything we can to correct this flawed arrangement."

Labour's Margaret Curran - You couldn't make it up.

noreply@blogger.com (Daily Referendum) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:10:00 +0000

I'll say this for Margaret Curran - she's got some neck. In the Labour campaign leaflet below, Margaret criticises the SNP saying "Thousands of drug dealers, thieves and neds will be released onto our streets under SNP plans to empty our jails" Actually what the SNP plan to do is reduce the number of sentences of under six months handed out by using community service and fines as an alternative. But what really gets me is how she can criticise the SNP when Labour are doing far, far worse.

Maybe Margaret should read this article from the Independent and reconsider her campaign leaflet design:

Nearly 29,000 criminals have been freed from prison early in the first 11 months of an emergency scheme to beat jail overcrowding, it was announced yesterday.

Figures released by Justice Secretary Jack Straw showed there were 2,532 offenders freed up to 18 days early in May, bringing the total to 28,879.

The scheme has already exceeded the government's original estimate of how many inmates would be freed in the first year.

Officials had predicted 25,500 criminals would be freed in 12 months but that total was breached in April's figures, just 10 months into operation.

Last week it was revealed that one of the freed inmates is alleged to have raped someone.

The alleged attacker would have still been behind bars at the time if the early release scheme had not been in force.

Mr Straw has also been forced to make emergency changes to the rules of the scheme after it emerged that two terrorists had been freed early.

Shadow justice secretary Nick Herbert said: "After a year of this appalling scheme the figures just get worse - more criminals released early, more violent offenders and more unnecessary victims of crime.

"The Government promised that this policy which is so undermining confidence in our criminal justice system would only be temporary - but if it will only be reviewed in September 2009, almost 70,000 prisoners will have been released early.

"It should be scrapped immediately before any more harm is done."

Currently, 89 offenders recalled to prison after being freed under the scheme are on the run.

Guido has spotted a problem with Margaret's campaign site.

William Hill - No shortage of cash for SNP to beat Labour (Glasgow East).

noreply@blogger.com (Daily Referendum) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:27:00 +0000

From William Hill:

THE GLASGOW East by-election is shaping up to be the biggest betting by-election ever, say bookmakers William Hill. 'We are doing tremendous business in a constituency which would normally attract very little betting money as, on the formbook,Labour should be unbackable to win here - yet there is as much money for them to lose as win' said Hill's spokesman Graham Sharpe.

Hills currently make Labour 2/5 favourites to win the by-election, after taking the biggest single bet struck so far, of £2200 for them to win, while the SNP are now quoted at 7/4 - and have recently attracted two bets of £1000; the Conservatives are 33/1 and the Lib Dems 50/1. 'Although this is Labour's third safest seat in Scotland there has been no shortage of cash for the SNP to beat them and this could yet turn out to be the first by-election to produce a betting turnover of £100,000' said Sharpe. 'Labour were favourites when we opened the book, then they became joint favourites with the SNP, then the SNP became clear favourites, then they were joint favourites again and now Labour have gone back ahead.'

TO WIN GLASGOW EAST BY-ELECTION: 2/5 Labour; 7/4 SNP; 33/1 Conservative; 50/1Lib Dem.

It's worth noting that Hills have the Conservatives beating the Lib Dems into third place. This is a reversal of the 2005 General election which saw the Lib Dems on 12% and the Tories on 7%. It also contradicts the latest ICM poll from the Telegraph (Lib Dem 9% Con 7%).

Next Prime Minister to be a Woman in Labour?

noreply@blogger.com (Daily Referendum) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:36:00 +0000

No, not a pregnant woman - one of those lovely ladies* from the cabinet. The current odds from William Hill still have David Miliband as the hot favourite to succeed Gordon Brown as permanent Labour Party leader when he gets the boot (probably before or shortly after their conference). However, there are three women in the in the top ten most likely to be PM. Harriet Harman is third favourite on 7/1, Jacqui Smith is 16/1 and Yvette Cooper is 20/1. Scary?

What do you think? I know we have already had one woman Prime Minister so it's nothing new, but are you happy about the possibility of one of the Labour Coven running the country?

*Go easy, I'm being polite.

David Cameron's speech to the CBI 15th July 2008.

noreply@blogger.com (Daily Referendum) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 10:34:00 +0000

Speaking at the CBI, David Cameron said:

"In March, I gave a speech about the Conservative strategy to deal with the deteriorating financial situation. The immediate backdrop was the credit crunch and the crisis in the city. The credit crunch has now spread - from the City and into every home and business in Britain. Hundreds of thousands of families have the threat of negative equity hanging over them - and their future security.

Businesses are cutting back and unemployment creeping up. And people are desperately trying to make ends meet because of the rising cost of living. I hear it in the conversations I have, the emails I read, the letters I get. At first, they were angry - angry with a Government that seemed to be ignoring that there was a problem with the economy...

…that the cost of living was rocketing and the housing market was falling.

Recently, the tone has shifted. Now, people are just incredibly worried - worried about their families and worried about their future.

The other week, I got this email from Janie Anderson.

She said:

"I work 40 hours a week, my husband 48. My salary doesn't quite pay the mortgage each month. It is currently costing us £70 for fuel (between us) each week to get to work. We had two cars, we now have the one because of the running costs. My husband works nights and me days so we can car share, we pass each other in the hallway in the morning and again in the evening… We have brought up our kids, we should be starting to enjoy ourselves but this is not possible because of the high living costs."

Janie's story is the real economy.

Not a place of statistics that this Government loves trotting out - but one of lived experiences.

Not a place of academic theories that so obsess Gordon Brown - but one of people's hopes and ambitions, and fear and anxieties.

Janie - and others up and down the country in her situation - don't want sympathy.

They just want to know - what are you going to do?

How are you going to turn things around?

You can read David's full speech by clicking HERE.

The 2008 Witanagemot Club Political Blogging Awards

noreply@blogger.com (Daily Referendum) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:19:00 +0000

The 2008 Witanagemot Club Political Blogging Awards are now taking place. You can vote for your favourite blogs by clicking HERE.

Live by the knife - die by the knife.

noreply@blogger.com (Daily Referendum) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:49:00 +0000

What drives your average teenager to carry a knife? Experts believe that the fear of being stabbed or attacked comes top of the list. What causes this fear? Well apparently if the media make it known that there are a lot of people out there carrying knives and stabbing people, you would naturally want your own knife for protection.

So we have a vicious circle. A few kids get stabbed and the media report it. This causes more kids to carry knives and more kids get stabbed. This goes on and on until the circle is broken. So how do we break the circle? Well for one thing we can ignore the rubbish the government have dreamt up. Wishy washy, lefty liberal ideas have had more than the fair chance in this country, and they have failed.

Kids need to know that you are more likely to get stabbed if you carry a knife. Stop and search needs to be increased and random lockdowns of schools for searches should be brought in. There needs to be a real deterrent, not some extreme sentence that makes a good political sound bite, but which will never be implemented. If anyone under sixteen is caught with a knife they should receive an automatic, zero tolerance 3 month sentence (first offence). Anyone over sixteen should get an automatic 6 month sentence, unless they can prove the knife is required for their occupation (first offence). The sentence should be automatically doubled for any re-offence.

It's wishy washy liberalism that has got us in this sad position. It's time we went back to discipline, respect and morality.

UPDATE: Dave has left a comment on this post and you won't believe what the government have thought up to tackle youth crime.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Scilly buggers have gone PC mad.

noreply@blogger.com (Daily Referendum) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 20:36:00 +0000

From News.com.au

A BRITISH airport has advertised for an air traffic controller - and offered those interested an application pack in braille.

St Mary's Airport on the Isles of Scilly, off the southwest tip of England, says controllers need to be able to keep a close eye on the changeable weather as their work "is not over-dependent upon very costly and sophisticated electronic equipment".

But applicants for the job could still ask for an application pack in large type, braille or audio format, newspapers said.

What kind of Tory are you?
	A) Are you for an English Parliament (only)?
	B) Are you a Climate Change Sceptic (only)?
	C) Are you against the Lisbon Treaty (only)?
	A and B?
	B and C
	A and C
	A, B and C
	None of the above.

pollcode.com free polls