New Trousers Sir?

File this one under "close call".

There is no hope for Dave

The Tories have selected this man as Parliamentary candidate for Tooting:

Oh dear.

The point everyone misses with Road Charging

The current debate around road charging often gets caught up in a civil liberties argument, i.e. the scheme will involve the Government knowing where my car is and has been at any time.

If that were the case, I'd have signed the famous petition by now, but its simply not true. A road charging system doesn't need to know where your car is any more than the congestion charge needs to know where you go inside London. It only needs to know what type of road you are on, at what time and for how long.

As the Guardian quite rightly puts it:

The most popular idea uses a technology called "tag and beacon", where in-car sensors are monitored by roadside gantries.

Its not important where you are, only what class of road you are on. Given the variety of roads and road type, tracking one's location from just this information would be impossible, and only in combination with CCTV or ATM data would it be useful.

So, lets have a debate on road charging, which is possibly one of the biggest decisions we'll have to make in the next Parliament. However please don't get sidetracked by a hysterical and completely false argument about privacy, generated by the same right wing media outlets who are only too happy for innocent people to be locked up for months on end without charge. As long as those people don't live in the home counties, of course.

 

Abu Izzadeen Arrested

BBC & Sky are reporting that radical cleric Abu Izzadeen has been arrested for inciting racial hatred.

We walk a fine line when commenting on these things, and I really do think that the Police are damned if they do, damned if they don't.

However, we just arrested a guy because of something he said. Think about that.

Update: The charge is "encouraging terrorism".

Open Looniversity

I've just registered for a new Open University course having taken a year off from my Bsc. My decision not to go to University via the normal route is something I don't regret, but I have to admit my lack of a degree digs at me more than ever, hence the decision to start again. The end is in sight, my plan is to graduate in 2009.

The OU is an organisation I've always been very proud to be a part of. My degree will cost me around £2500 (albeit over about 7 years!), and all the excellent course materials are included. I actually once made back an entire year's course fee by selling the books at the end of it. Get learning kids.

On another academic note, a few weeks ago I had the pleasure of seeing a lecture by Dr Mark Lewney. Mark's a very good physicist and an excellent communicator. The whole thing was just how I'd imagined seeing Richard Feynman speak would have been like, so if you do get a chance to see him, please do. If everyone who tried to teach science was this engaging, we'd live in a better place.

Its happening again...

Latest Google spike comes courtesy of Giles Ingles-Jones. Giles was the Tory candidate in Ashfield at the 2005 general election. Despite spending a lot of money, the Tory vote actually decreased (we saw a good increase, as it happens, despite a very small campaign). I've previously blogged about how Giles (who was a perfectly nice bloke, and extraordinarily tall) exemplified how the Tories candidate selection policies are simply mad.

I've previous blogged about this, hence I think the hits the site is getting from the above Google. So, what is A-Lister Giles up to?

Nothing is unplanned in politics

So, Lord Owen thinks Ming Campbell is too old? Well, he might not find much resistance to that idea (although I've been more impressed with the Lib Dem effort over the last few months), but his naming of Chris Huhne as the "young turk" to succeed as leader is telling.

Lets put our conspiracy theory hats on.

No-one as experienced as Lord Owen would shoot from the hip in this manner, so one must assume that Chris Huhne knew about this in advance. Fair enough, everyone likes an ego boost, and I'm sure Chris still hold very real ambition to be the next leader. But why now?

Over the last year people have broadly agreed on the need to support Ming, on the basis that we have to look like we know how to run a party, and also the possibility of a 2007 general election. This is why, since Simon Hughes suggested that Ming had until the 2006 conference to "prove himself", the leader bashing has more or less disappeared. Until now.

I don't know why Lord Owen has chosen to act now, whether this is a one off or the beginning of a more sustained effort, or even what he is hoping to achieve. One thing is becoming clear however, the Labour Party's "cash flow" problem (rearrange these words, piss, pot, in) is making a 2008 or even 2009 election now appear much more likely than it was 6 months ago.

Its safe to say that Ming Campbell hasn't set the world alight in the last year and there has been, I think, a general assumption that the leadership would move on after the next election. But if that isn't going to be for another two years, wouldn't a change now be better in the long run? Its a bit of a leap from one newspaper article, but I suspect that the people surrounding the various leadership contenders (of which there are three) are thinking just that.

With spring conference just around the corner, the bar room gossip might actually be worth listening too.

Is something going on with David Borrows

A few months ago I carried a story originally run by Guido Fawkes, about David Borrows MP telling one of his constituents a complete porkie regarding and early day motion.

In the last couple of days, dozens of people have landed on this blog having Googled David Borrows. Does anyone have any idea what's going on? Is the man massaging his own ego, or is there more to it?

The Unexpected "Thank You"

I've spent a good chunk of this weekend putting out the "Thank You" leaflet from the recent Hucknall by-election (even though we didn't win).

I was reminded of an article I read years ago called "The Unexpected Thank You". The article argues that doing something out of the ordinary for your customers (like thanking them again after you've had the cash) has a disproportionately positive effect on their opinion of you.

Amazon pioneered this and now most businesses have learned the trick. The logic is sound, and thats why we do "thank you" leaflets, win or otherwise. The fact that no-one else does continues to amaze me. One day they'll learn.

More muddles on Iraq

Following on from Ming Campbell's announcement last week to back a firm timetable to withdraw troops from Iraq (which, as an aside, is something he was not in favour of during the Leadership campaign), I've seen and heard quite a lot of negative fuzz around the issue (Iain Dale, as always, picked it up and has followed up since.)

The argument against a timetabled withdrawal is one I have made myself in the past. We got the Iraqi nation into this mess, so we should get them out of it.

This argument however, relies on the same assumption (still not really challenged) that got us in there in the first place.

It assumes that we can improve the situation. I don't think we can.

One of the long lasting affects on the American people from Iraq will be their loss of omnipotence. TYhere are problems in the world that you just can't fix, as much as you'd like to. Iraq was one of those situation before we invaded, and the civil war raging there now is the same, we just can't fix it, as much as we'd like to be able to.

That being the case, the foundation of any argument to remain in Iraq is removed, and you must come home. I'm now sure that Ming's position, over the coming 12 months, will be vindicated.

Google, mark my words.