U-turn if you want to. the papers are not for turning

Government consolation appears to consist of listing out some proposals which though controversial to those of the right, but may well be good practical ideas. The next part of the process appears to be listening to right wing newspapers concerns and then not going forward with those proposals.

Is this really a good way of governing, perhaps Cameron should grow some balls and not conceed so much to the british press or is this his master plan to sure but his agenda?

Employing WebCameron

I'm actually disgusted that David Cameron is employing his filmmaker who produced the 'WebCameron' videos and his personal photographer in government. During a time when hundred's of thousand's will lose their jobs in government, Cameron finds a role for them, totally disgusting. Frankly the explanation that they could replace many departments individual photographers and save money is total rubbish. Why not redeploy those in government already instead.

To me it is simple, it looks like they could have been promised a roll in government and received one. Do we know how much they are being paid for these rolls? Are they being paid more than before? Did they take on the original jobs on a promise of getting rolls in government? This raises many questions. Frankly it makes me feel sick!

While I'm on this subject, I still can't believe that David Cameron is still employing Andy Coulson, It seems inconceivable that he didn't know about the phone tapping. Is Coulson really worth holding on to? I hope Tom Watson MP can keep the pressure up on Cameron see 'Letter to David Cameron regarding Andy Coulson'.

I would of been physically sick if it wasn't for Vince Cable ordering Ofcom to investigate News Corporation's plan to take full control of BSkyB. I'm very concerned that Sky News could turn into Fox news and thats apart from the power Murdochs media already have. I'm now expecting a full assault by the Murdoch press on Cable.

Now excuse me as I need a lie down.

Nick Clegg and David Cameron coalition pants

I found these at the Earls Court CAMRA Great British beer festival yesterday I put this picture on twitter. It was Re-Tweeted many times yesterday.

This picture is from the back of the pants;

This pants can be brought at Twisted Twee here

David Camerons Conservatives

Guido got hold of an email today from Conservative Central Office, see CCHQ Drops “David Cameron’s Conservatives”.

The fact that the Tory party even considered calling their party 'David Camerons Conservatives' on the ballot paper makes me wonder if he is going to be a party leader or a president. Frankly I'm really fed up of spin and I do not want another president Blair. We have a parliamentary system not a presidential one, please can we keep it that way.

David Cameron Direct in Reading

Last night I attended Cameron Direct with Mark Reckons who has done a blog on the event here.

I agree with Mark that it was good to see the possible future Prime Minister up close. David Cameron is an excellent performer live, this is his 157th Cameron Direct. Although there is a Blair feeling about him when you see him live. I can also see him doing very well in the leader debate.

What bothered me about this event was that it did have enough swing voters there. Infact most of the audience were those in politics (there were two Lib Dems sitting behind me and many members of the Reading Conservatives) or those from the volunteer sector who wanted to know that their sector would still be funded under the Conservatives. This was not a big room and the event was much smaller than I expected. I would guess that there was just over 100 people.

This was reflected in the questions, which were quite frankly too easy and not questions ordinary members of the public would of asked. Many questions were on the third sector and one was even on his video shoot with Carol Vorderman about improving numeracy. There was no questions on expenses, immigration, benefits, the EU, Gay Marriage. Some very hot topics just not covered. If the public don't ask then the politicians are not going to concern themselves as much with these subjects.

I didn't get to ask my question as we ran out of time and most people did have a question for David Cameron. I wanted to ask if Andrew Mackay will ever have to pay any funds back for the second home scandle and refer to the fact that I'm in a safe seat in Bracknell (unlike Reading East or West). Therefore what is the point in voting for the Tories or any other party if it's the Tories who will get in anyway. How can I express my vote for my dissatisfaction with the Andrew Mackay second home scandal. I wanted to know what he would of suggested.

Anyway in sum up I think he does mean well and is standing for the right reasons and I hope he does do a good job with or without a Hung Parliament.

Question Time Live Chat is Back

Question Time is being covered as ever by Mark Reckons here in a live chat. I will be there as Dazmando.

Today we both went to the Reading David Cameron Direct event in Reading and I expect we will also be ‘Chatting’ about this as well.

I plan to blog on this later in response to Mark Reckons forth coming blog on the David Cameron Direct event.

Do please click on the link above and join in or just read our posts while watching.

MP's Should be Allowed to Make Mistakes‏

David Cameron recently admitted that he "messed up" after his blunder on Monday where he said that tax benefits for being married could not be guaranteed.

Cameron told BBC Radio 4's Today programme "The truth is I give dozens of interviews every week and on Monday I messed up, and there is no other way of putting it. I was thinking about all sorts of different things. I misdescribed our policy. I immediately corrected that".

I think this is fair enough and I for one am not going to have a go at David Cameron or any other MP who makes the odd error in their interviews. After all, we all remember Nick Clegg getting the state pension figure wrong or Gordon Brown saying that he "Saved the world".

More Lib Dem Love Bombing

First it was Cameron love bombing LibDem voters. Now Gordon Brown has made overtures on the Andrew Marr show.

This suggests that both are aware that LibDems are a real force on the political scene. They certainly are at local government level where they have shown so often how much better things can be managed than by the blue or red brigades. LibDems now run more cities than either of the other two parties. In addition they are the opposition party in huge swathes of the country. Main opposition to Tories in the South and to Labour in the North.

Both Westminster leaders obviously frightened that LibDems are the real threat to their ability to get a majority. We’ve got Gordon Brown clinging on to power and David Cameron promising phony change. If we want something really different then we’ve got to vote for something really different and the Liberal Democrats are the different party of British politics.

This was posted by Dazmando for and on behalf of OldBiddy

My own thoughts on the Love Bombing can be read on New Year Love bomb by David Cameron Working?‏.

More can be found on Reading List post here

New Year Love bomb by David Cameron Working?‏

There has been quite a lot of blogging from Lib Dems on the continued Love Bombing of the Lib Dems by David Cameron. David Cameron New Year message can be read here on Iain Dales Blog.

Cameron has been using the same words as Nick Clegg such as progressive politics, fairness and change. Using these words of course does not mean that the Conservative party is any of these things especially when compared to the Liberal Democrats. I really see the Lib Dems 10k tax threshold for Income Tax and National Insurance for example as a fairer tax policy then the ones offered by the other two main parties. This would give more incentive for low earns to work too, More carrot than stick.

Mark Reckons thinks that this tactic is pathetic and transparent here, Liberal Neil believes that it could back fire here and the Norfolk blogger believes that the Tories offer a false Liberalism and would cut taxes for millionaires here.

Personally I think if Cameron can get this message out to the general public that this could work for them to a point. I know the Tories have done this in the past and will be really pushing this point home during the general election. This tactic could also damage the Lib Dems vote from wavering Labour voters because they could see the Lib Dems being more like the Tory party itself and rather then changing to Lib Dems may just abstain.

Conservative Blogger JR I think has got David Cameron's tactics down to what he is trying to do. Sway a few votes in the South West of England see JR's post here. JR writes 'This is prime Lib Dem/Conservative marginal territory. There are 18 Lib Dem held seats in the region and 8 of them would need a swing of just 5% (from LD to Cons) for them to turn blue. A further 8 would be taken by the Tories if there was a 9% swing.' JR points out that the conservatives need to gain seat of the Lib Dems in order to avoid a Hung Parliament.

Im also hoping that the next general election does result in a hung parliament as I would like to see the Lib Dems have a modern taste of power (since the days of David Lloyd George (Liberal Party)). This may be scary to some (perhaps especially to non Lib Dems) but I think this would be good for the party. This would demonstrate that a vote for the Lib Dems is not wasted, showing that they can handle real power other than private members bills and all party parliamentary groups etc. After all in the short term this is the only realistic power that the Lib Dems can have other than running major city councils.

David Cameron's love bombing perhaps shows that they would be willing to have a coalition with the Lib Dems and that they are no longer feel the need to compete with Labour but are now turning there attentions to the Lib Dems.

Does The Tory Party Have Its Own Green House Effect

I think the recent Climate Gate email debacle and the prominence of columnist in a number of papers who have written about their climate change scepticism as well as the growing belief that 'this is a left wing' conspiracy about control and taxation could be building problems for the Tory party. This problem I believe could become as big for them as say the EU issue.

As I read a while ago Mark Reckons blog 'Are Tory bloggers out of step with membership on the environment?' I think this scepticism is shown up in the bloggers and indeed top Tory blogger Iain Dale while not claiming to be a sceptic has posted a number of articles 'Trust Us' Say Climate Change Scientists and Is the Climate Change Consensus Fracturing? And Indy Tries to Split Tories Over Climate Change as he believes the debate is not over. It certainly does not appear to be.

Also some Tories(Oliver Letwin and Iain Duncan Smith, sit on the advisory body) appear to be supporting the dossier issued by the European Foundation which can be viewed on the Thoughts Of A Conservative Christian blog here which gives 100 reasons why climate change is not man made. This was raised today by Jackie Smith and was not answered by William Hague (I have to add that this was a low jab at the Tories and after all its supposed to be Prime Ministers Questions).

On BBC Five Live today David Cameron said, "The way I would argue with the climate change sceptics is say look. If someone said to you that there is a 75 percent chance of your house burning down, even though 25 percent is quite a big number wouldn’t you take out some insurance, wouldn’t you take steps to try and stop it from happening? So even if your sceptical, even if you don’t think there a 100 percent certainty, isn’t it right to take some steps to protect against what could be calamitous for our planet for our children and as its moving quite fast for us as well”. So it’s very clear where David Cameron is on this subject.

I’m not discussing the merits of climate change here. I just wondered if these discussions have caused more Conservative members to become more sceptical. If so then given the Tory Party leadership are firmly behind they’re being man made climate change. Does this mean that this issue could also become a dividing line with in the Party?

Just by way of a note I noticed this 50 reasons why global warming isn't natural on the Short Sharp Science (New Scientist Blog), thanks to a Tweet from AdrianWindisch of the Green Party.

Mr 10 Percent can I have some more Please!

David Cameron has proposed a number of reforms that he plans to implement if the Conservatives are elected.

I am not going to go over all these reforms here as they have been well reported on. However one of the proposals is reducing the number of MP's by 10 percent from 650 to 585. This on the face of it appears to be a good idea however;

This would result in ever more people not being represented unless we change the voting system to a proportional one. This is because at the moment under the first past the post system we have way too many safe seats (see Mark Reakons report here) Since the 1970 some 50% of seats have never changed hands. If the constituencies are bigger then it follows that they could have even bigger majorities surely the same will happen again. We will still have way too many safe seats. Safe seats that allow career politicians allow the parachuting in of party leaders chosen few and were a contribution element to the expenses scandal.

If the number of MPs are to be introduced then surely its best to actually reduce the size of the government too in line with this change, Do we need so many junior ministers, should we have party whips? Can the senior civil servants be reduced, Do we need so many ministers in-fact we now have around 120 including whips while during world war two we only had 74 how did we win the war with only (almost) half as many!

I believe the Single Transferable Vote or STV would remove these safe seats and should be introduced as part of a reduction of MP's. Of course the Lib Dems have always believed in proportional representation, as it is a fairer system.

STV would also have other benefits of giving more representation to people of candidates they actually voted for, Less wasted votes, balanced list of candidates to win your vote, more competition and more choice, no need for tactical voting,

We should have a PR system anyway but there is an even bigger requirement for STV with less MP's.

An explanation of STV can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_transferable_vote


Also see http://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/article.php?id=104

And http://www.stvaction.org.uk/