Having had one reason alone to like Boris (he's entertaining if nothing else), I thought of another earlier on today.
He's the only Tory MP i've yet seen admit that he made a mistake in voting for the Iraq war.
Could it be that this blubbering buffoon, who struggles to get his words out around the silver spoon stuck in his mouth, could be the only Tory with any political backbone at all? Other examples appreciated if you have them.
On the train back from London, a guy in his late 50's who'd had a few too many was arguing with the conductor. As well as trying to travel on an under 26 ticket, he offered this verbal gem.
Conductor: There's no need to shout sir
Passenger: I need to shout, I'm deaf
Conductor: Well Sir, I'm not.
Wonderful.
Quick answer, she's a Tory who comments on Conservative Home, and has just posted this little gem about electoral reform. I wanted this to reside in Google forever as I'm sure that along with everyone else who comments on ToryHome, she wants to me an MP some day.
We should campaign to lower the number of MPs by 50. (most of the 1st 50 to go are Labour MPS so will boost our chances of winning).
Redraw electoral boundaries so that all constituencies have the same number of electors. Would deliver another 20 seats.
Remove more Welsh/Scottish MPs from the chamber as most are non tory.
Increase the deposit required to stand for election to £5000 at least. That would discourage UKIP/BNP candidates from standing and deliver more votes to us.
That is the kind of electoral reform this country needs and should guarnatee almost unbroken tory rule.
So, let me get this right. This Tory wants to only introduce reforms that will directly benefit her own party, and also admits that the Tories are scrapping for votes with UKIP and the BNP. Sounds about right to me.
I was fascinated by this post from Norfolk Blogger about people 'famous' inside the Lib Dems for being, er, Lib Dems.
Its a story I can relate too in a sense, people who have done every job on every committee inside the Party, and expect deference for it. Its the natural extension of our obsession with debating policy (often at the direct cost of winning elections!) that some people become very prominent without ever having actually achieved anything at all, whereas we have thousands of activists, councillors and council leaders who can't get on the podium at conference or a mention in the Party's press.
Is this just a Lib Dem thing? I have no idea, but it certainly does happen. Not that I was aware of an "inner circle" of bloggers mind, that'd be a weird night out....
1am in the Midlands and I'm pretty sure we just had a small earthquake (earth tremor?).
I had the pleasure of being in the public gallery for Prime Minister's Questions today, first time I'd been in there, and an experience I'd recommend.
All the normal cliche's probably hold true, the chamber is much smaller than you'd imagine, for example, but the more important things are probably the more subtle. Cameron looked nervous when the cameras weren't on him, and I thought he talked nothing but nonsense, Nick Brown is clearly still a very influential figure for the PM despite not having a cabinet position, he stood behind the speaker keeping an eye on the Labour benches, presumably for any errant Blairites wearing the wrong expression, and Osboune and Cameron do look like two kids who've found themselves with the best toys, constantly sniggering to each other.
Cameron's focus on one bit of paper (a form the Police have to fill in when the search someone) seems absurd when you see it first hand, but then you step outside and see that its become the lead item on the BBC News. You can't fault the result, even if the line of questioning sems to assume that the Public can't understand big issues, which they clearly can. Most importantly though, Brown simply isn't very good at this. Time and again obvious retorts seems to go unsaid, he either doesn't think of these or chooses not to use them. The questioning was poor, but Browns lack of charisma would make anyone look good. He needs a well managed crisis to exert his authority on, or he's in real trouble.
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OK, so the Work and Pension Secretary forgetting about over £100k is news story, but the stuff being written about Alan Johnson today is just daft.
The BBC are leading with it, and I have to ask whether a donation of £3000 to a failed candidate in a contest that didn't matter anyway is really that important?
Ahh, I hear you cry, its the principle. Really? What principle? The law here has something quite ass-like about it. If the donation did come via a "third party", how is the recipient supposed to know? Ask? What if the recorded donor doesn't tell the truth, which presuming they're passing money on from someone who doesn't want to be known they wouldn't?
You can't have a law that it is impossible to comply with. You get donations, you do the legal checks you can do, but there is no way you can trace money to the point the law requires. Nobody can know for sure whether its the donors money, or was given to them, or stolen from elsewhere. Only the donor knows the origin of their cash, so thats is where the legal liability must sit. Can we all just move on please, there are people being killed in Kenya.
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Good fluke spot at Pizza Express on Millbank. Blogger extraordinare Iain Dale. Sat with friends near the door, he still didn't seem to catch a hello from ex-employer David Davies. All well at the good ship Tory?
Also, the MP was with a very prominent BBC tv journo, Tory Conspiracy theorists take note.
Just when you wondered when GB's government was going to start actually doing something, on the day global markets crash and the Government gave £2k for every taxpayer to an ailing bank, Ed Balls announces that he's going to teach kids to cook as a "top priority".
Brilliant.
BBC NEWS | Education | Cookery classes to be compulsory
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Yes, I know its only Monday, but this from Vince Cable on the Government's laughable Northern Rock plan is a cracker.
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