An Visit to PMQs

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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Can we all just stop being so stupid?

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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BLOG spotted

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.

The Brown revolution begins

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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Quote of the week

Yes, I know its only Monday, but this from Vince Cable on the Government's laughable Northern Rock plan is a cracker.

"I'm minded to quote the Danish economist Hans Christian Andersen"

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Defector Saj Karim adopted by Conservatives for 2009 European Elections

As usual The ConHome comment threads include some pearls of wisom on the issues of the day, and oce again prove that some of them talk sense.

Does anyone believe that if Mr Karim had done better in the Lib Dem rankings for the MEP slots he would have suddenly discovered his beliefs were in tune with David Cameron and come over to us? If you genuinely think he would then don't let me disturb your wait for the Tooth Fairy...

Quite

ConservativeHome's Seats & Candidates blog: Saj Karim MEP adopted by Conservative selectorate for 2009 European Elections

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Poor Peter Hain - More Labour Sleaze

It must be tough, having to do a Minister's job and comply with the law.

Really? I think not.

Apparently the "distraction" Peter Hain's Ministerial duties meant he didn't declare £103,000 of donations to his deputy leadership campaign. Utter nonsense. We're talking about 17 donations here, the value doesn't complicate the reporting process, local party treasurers up an down the country, many of whom have jobs (shock) manage this sort of thing ever month.

Secondly, nearly £70k of these donations came after he'd finished 5th in the race, and he had to pick up the phone to rich friends to pay the bills.

The really key issues here is this. Peter Hain heads a department with an annual budget of £8,105m. He's shown he can't manage a budget (hence the £70k overspend) and either has a poor understanding or a complete disregard for the law. If Gordon Brown weren't the most indecisive Prime Minister we've had in over 60 years, he'd already be out on his ear.    

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The UK Carbon Footprint Project via Google

Just wanted to pint out another good thing from Google. Not the first to do this by any stretch, but their new UK Carbon Footprint Project is a really quick and easy way to calculate your carbon footprint, and has some good, if rather basic, suggested actions. Tell all your friends!

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Tags: google, environment, green politics

Top Quality BBC Satire

I just stumbled on this great bit of BBC satire, predictions for 2008 from their Technology team.

April

The UK government insists it is pressing ahead with the National ID card, despite another embarrassing breach in data security. A clerk at the Passport Office plugs his iPod into the computer at work to update, then goes on holiday to Albania. Finding it incapable of playing anything but a weird mix of what sounds like morse code and hiphop, he flogs it to a bloke he meets at a café in Tirana. A government spokesman insists there is no cause for concern, unless you have taken out a passport in the last decade and been foolish enough to pay for it with something other than cash.

Read the rest here.

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Tags: satire, bbc, humour

X Ray of the Day - One Sick Snake

BBC NEWS | In Pictures | In pictures: Poorly python

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