Ironic Ducks

I`ve been having one of those conversations that you might call wide ranging. I was tossed out on the street, by Mrs. N ,with Elliot ,to go and spend time with his cousins ,and my brother.

Pedro my younger sib has had a slightly odd career. He worked for Paribas Frere (The Merchant Bank) or bonk Paribas as I called it …don`t ask. Tiring of that life ,he qualified as a teacher . He and his partner sell their skills at a very good comprehensive in Highbury . Pedro is head of economics and Shazzer teaches Art . They have two very young boys , a lovely house , a flat they let in a good catchments area ,and a place in France . This is all financed by Pedros astute early buy-to-let ,and Shazzer’s parents.

With what Pedro calls a secure, ‘part time‘, job ,and no financial worries , life is pretty good for them ,as mon frere happily acknowledges. Any way, we hadn’t seen each other for a while ,and ,as ever ,we railed about the injustice of the world as we both see it.

Brighton:

The first thing that cropped up was the experiment in lottery systems for schools . I was in favour . I agree with George Orwell who called Public schools festering breeding grounds of snobbery and the state system has become as bad . By such means as, Buying flats and letting them out in the right area, ,the better off ,cheat the system ,and get their children into what were often ex Grammar schools . Emily Thornberry is typical cheap lying hag, of this variety , and so , of course, is Ruth Kelly .

One of things I like about the idea , is that the hypocritical lying socialists will be forced to put up or shut up. At the moment these MP`s ,including Tony Blair ,ship their children into good catchments area schools ,if by some astonishing feat they have not managed to make their wealth tell another way. They would then have to do the full ‘Dianne Abbot ’, and go private, whilst publicly spitting on the educational system they recommend for their constituents.
Pedro replied, “ Fuck that! ,after we scrimped to get ourselves a flat in the catchments area, they change the rules .”
I mentioned that actually this was financed by ‘your bird’s dad’ ,and so the conversation went amiably on……

My overarching point is this . There is no justice in the Conservative low tax argument, if the majority are not given a chance to join the competition ,win or lose,. We have to have early state intrusion to level the playing field. After that you should be free to fail . I see it as akin to Monopoly legislation and not Social engineering . It is liberating social movement that happens naturally .
We should indeed have strict lotteries on academic lines ,within wide catchments and ,above all, we cannot justify Private schools . At the very least it is an insult , that the already privileged ,should buy further advantages for their children ,and it is called a charity.

With fair access to education ,a less class ridden society would be less full of envy and the need to shore up infantilised basket cases, would diminish. It is an essential corollary to Conservatism that opportunity exists ,otherwise all we are doing is defending class injustice.

So I applaud this move in Brighton . I know the Libertarians want to be free to take everyone else’s Liberty ,but I have always thought that doctrinaire Libertarianism was bollocks ,and stems from an overly literal and legalistic view of Society . Liberty is something we make from rules , the natural state is the enslavement of the majority ,as it was in all Classical cultures. They have it back to front.

KEY WORKERS- The hysterical abuse of the Key worker grants that teachers are merrily engaged in continues to delight and amuse . They say that they should be given say £50,000 of tax payers money so they can have a slightly larger place close to where they work. The taxes that pay for this are, for the most part , extracted from people living on tight budgets ,worse off then the beneficiaries, or commuting ,the very thing they say they cannot be expected to do.

Mon Frere says this is a case of Policy lag . There was a shortage of teachers years ago but this was solved by the training grant. There are now ample teachers and he agrees that to take the food away from tables so teachers can have pleasant morning stroll is farcical . It is one of the ways the Public Sector has earned the loathing of the suffering Private wealth producing class. Incidentally there were never shortages of teachers in most subjects but the NUT will not have differential deals . As for the Police ,the queues to join are endless and they have to be given a house ? Madness

THE TRUTH
The government is buying up trenches of Property with other peoples money. This means that this those who not “Key ( = Public sector ),are paying taxes to take the property they market, further out of their reach because it increases prices.
God, that’s what we needed wasn’t it a load of State money into the Housing Market . I could scream!. It’s a sort of super stealth tax on aspiration and it is destroying the ability to move from the Working Class to the middleclass. This , of course , suit’s the damned State nicely. The biggest single contributor to Social mobility ion the 20th Century was Property Ownership . No wonder they want to make it as hard as possible…., and don’t get me started on Stamp Duty !

Benefits and education
. I would to see benefits higher ,but for a short fixed duration. This is not unlike my view of early state input on education. With full employment only avoided by prissiness about jobs ,it is bizarre that scrounging should become an ‘life choice’ . Do the middle-class Socilaists know what happens ? Many young women acquire children, to get a flat , move out of that flat, to live with their boyfriend ,and sub-let informally ,for an income . This practice is wide spread ,and typical of the endemic soviet style petty corruption that inevitably follows moral breakdown ,and state micro management . You can almost smell the cheap cleaning fluid as you enter parts of Islington , it is like going to the old Eastern Block.
We have our Sure Start State crèche , how long before we get the State dungarees and vouchers for cabbage broth !The sort of pupils that come from this environment make the whole education debate fraught . The aspirationals are desperate to avoid them, and this is really what the demos in Brighton are about . I would not have started from here as one so often says .I can see that there will be a lot of resentment and for this reason I would like to see the process move forward ,with rigorous benefits and housing reform


Freakonomics
So we wandered along the leafy garden path of educational opportunity and class and mentioned the hit book Freakonomics. In it ,there are lots interesting correlations ,and Pedro mentioned some of them.

A telling tit bit was that, if you have moved into at better area, it is not a good correlator with the educational success for your child . If you have just moved up you are likely to have the attitudes of your previous status . If you have books in the house it is a good correlation but if you read to your children it is not . This is because reading to your children is a working class activity the middle classes tend to make sure they can read and let them get on with it. It may , of course befit the individual child. This is all fun and I must read the book

. I said I expect that people with plaster Ducks up on the wall are less likely to have successful children , but , turning round ,noticed that my host actually had a set of Plaster Ducks flying Heavenward across the Living-room wall.

‘Goodness there not much chance for yours is there’ I said .
‘Ah but those are Ironic Ducks !’
I know what he means. Is it just me ?


Anyway it’s a lovely sunny day and I `m of to get my motorbike fixed. My copy of ‘Margaret Thatcher the Westminster Years ,’ has just arrived and I have a title for my blog .

UPDATE
THANKS- Thankyou to those who have contributed. Whilst I have defended my points as well as I can I think some good counter arguments have been made , especially that we are not in a perfect starting place and its hopeless to wish we were . Naturally I will not be owning up to what exactly but some of the ’issues’ raised are actually quite convincing. It is possible that I may at some future time have to admit that I may in some sense not have been entirely , in the fullest meaning of the word and all things considered ….right.

..and that’s as far as I `m going .

Cough cough , as Hitch would say.

And thanks to Marjorie for defending Key Worker grants. Brave woman !

We`re a Couple Of Gems

'A Chinese businessman has advertised on the internet for a stand-in mistress to be beaten up by his wife to vent her anger and to protect his real mistress. "When the woman found out her husband had a mistress, she insisted on beating her up," the Beijing Youth Daily said, citing the advertisement posted on a popular online jobs forum on sina.com. More than 10 people had applied for the job, the newspaper said. The "successful" candidate would be 35 and originally from northeastern China and would be paid 3,000 yuan ($573) per 10 minutes, it said' - NZ Herald



'Police have condemned hecklers who urged a man to "get on with it" as he threatened to jump off the top of a multi-storey car park. A crowd gathered as the 21-year-old was perched on the eight-storey building in Mexborough, South Yorkshire, while officers tried to calm him down. But some onlookers started shouting at the man, urging him to jump. Trained negotiators later arrived at the scene near the town centre and persuaded the man to come down' - The BBC website.

Remember Pete and Dud....

"Jump, you fucker jump. Jump down into this blanket what we are holding. He jumped down to the deck, broke his fucking neck. There was no blanket. Laugh? I nearly cried." etc

And the Paddy Bashing Goes On

As reported by the fine publication that is Galway First:

'A man who was found dressed in latex and handcuffs brought a donkey to his room in a Galway city centre hotel, because he was advised "to get out and meet people," the local court heard last week.

'Thomas Aloysius McCarney with an address in south Galway was charged with cruelty to animals, lewd and obscene behaviour, and with being a danger to himself when he appeared before the court on Friday. He was also charged with damage to a mini-bar in the room, but this charge was later dropped when the defendant said that it was the donkey who caused that damage.

'Solicitor for the accused Ms Sharon Fitzhenry said that her client had been through a difficult time lately and that his wife had left him and that his life had become increasingly lonely.

'"Mr McCarney has been attending counselling at which he was told that he would be advised to get out and meet people and do interesting things. It was this advice that saw him book into the city centre hotel with a donkey," she said. She added that Mr McCarney also suffered from a fixation with the Shrek movies and could constantly be heard at work talking to himself saying things like, "Isn't that right, Donkey?"'

The Direct approach

Update
I see my assumption that Blog people follow the rumour mill of football was unjustified some background then.Ahem ...prepare for careful phrasing. This was months ago but the rumours are persistent.



Anti-Chelsea propaganda or what really happened?......... ((9.11.06)



Apparently on the internet message boards it is alleged that John Terry told Ledley King to 'Shut up you lippy black monkey' before getting
sent off on Sunday. This would explain the following:
Why King went mad, when normally he is mild tempered and the incident appeared harmless
Why Chimbonda went berserk and had to be physically restrained
Why Zakora went mad also
Why Drogba, who was there and always gets involved, did nothing
Why Terry calmly walked away expecting to be sent off for what appeared on TV to be nothing

Terry was accused by Eto of making racist comments in the Barcelona game last year.
Apparently a Spurs player has leaked this, but Chelsea are working overtime to keep it quiet
Ashley Cole has said that Poll told him the lack of discipline by Chelsea was out of order and Chelsea are trying to discredit Poll, but
he cannot possibly come out and say what Terry did as he is the England captain, preferring to say he was sent off for 'ungentlemanly conduct'.
Finally, Rio Ferdinand said in his book that a current England player was a known racist. Wonder who he meant?

If this story is true, it will be massive and I can't believe the press haven't got hold of it yet. Chelsea must be weighing journalists out
left, right and centre.





I thought evryone knew this , next you`ll be saying you don`t think Robbie Fowler has a Cocaine habit ?

Double Jeopardy

This is worthy of Hitchcock. Police in China were baffled when DNA evidence the same perosn was responsible for crimes in two places at once. Identical twins from Shuangcheng had been commiting burglaries and rapes at the same time .


Spooky stuff eh ..I thought they were all pretty identical but then they think I`m a round eyed devil.

..I have no idea what the comments are about

Shooting Yourself in the Foot

But not if you are disabled. This party who say a lot of sensible things continue to make themselves look ridiculous in large and small ways.
'A man claimed yesterday the UK Independence Party dumped him as a candidate as he has FALSE KNEES. Jack Biggs, 65, who was registered disabled for two years after a double knee replacement, branded the decision "disgusting". But UKIP insists it is an "act of kindness" so he won't have to canvass and deliver leaflets'

Edit .Typical , not only is it all nonsense but has been dealt with By Dizzy Croydonian DK and so on the details are in the comments . what do I know I saw it in the Sun !

Day Off

Mrs. N will probably kill me but this is Master Elliot Horatio Newman(ia).He said Mummy for the foirst time the day before yesterday . Aaaaaaawwwwwwwwwww!

I Hate the Young .....( and the Old)

I do not like young people much they have far to good a time. I shuffle to work everyday like a miserable Monk, being harvested by the State for my life force, while they skip and cavort with sexy new media projects ,and have ,“ vibrant “ web communities of smarmy Conservative Future members .

I see them laughing in that revoltingly carefree way and the bile rises in my throat ,the bitter acrid fumes sting my nostrils. I crush a paper cup with silent disgust. Oh bugger off and have a ,“Crave” ,or whatever it is you do, I shout , waving an imaginary stick ,and expectorating vilely multicoloured mucus ….well not quite but you get the picture. Cull them!

So today is a good schadenfreude day for me ,for what do I discover ,but that I am stealing their money. Excellent news ,and here’s how I do it .

Firstly, I may have lost it now, but at least for goodly while I was on a superb final salary pension, and as at that time, I was earning some pretty sweet action , that is still a nice thing to have tucked into your back pocket. Secondly , again , its all gone now with having to move ,but for years I had free dental care, and most of all, I was able to get into the property ladder. Badly , to late and to timidly ,true, but yes the famille Newmania are”in property”, and we regularly dance little jigs of joy at the latest news ,that a single London Brick is actually worth more than the equivalent amount of gold .

They, the young , get pies in the face from all angles. Poor them ,a typical 22 year old graduate may leave, “ Uni”, with about £22,000 of debt at a time when I degree is hardly worth having anyway. What a superb twist of the knife that should be ,asked to voluntarily give back any cash they do make, in contributions to their alma mater. The next thing they do, is hop off and pay rent with their groovy chums , and I love this bit . They are probably paying of the Mortageg of an older buyer ,and actually sending the first rung of the property ladder further away with their own money . Oh Sweet sweet sweet ;Oh brave new world that has such ( stupid) people in it.

The average age for buying that first property is now 34 only ten years ago it was 26. In fact with Mortgages now extending to 50 years ,even if they got on the ladder it is far from clear that they themselves, will ever benefit. They will be just in time to hand over the Capital to their children. Oh dear , I cannot contain my mirth.

Excuse me while I get comfy ah yes that’s better. I just want to lean a little harder on the young ,and I can do it politically. You see the demographic has turned on its head. Instead of a large young population supporting a small old one it’s the other way round . Now heres where I start to have a concern. I lost my super pension paid through the nose for property and ¸ I am, certainly not one of the leisured class of grey wasters. I am in the working population and do not therefore qualify from mist of the freebies.

I am 43 and it is older folk than me who are rally riding the gravy train

FACT: At the time of the 2005 election MORI calculated that the over 55s had 4.2 times the voting power of the 18 to 34 years olds.

FACT:In the UK the number of people over 40 will overtake the under forties by 2021 …
..and this voting power is really biting The oldies .and I `m, getting less and less happy , are hogging all the wealth and I mean ,the really old .

FACT: On average 55 to 69 year old s have £109,000 of amassed assets ,

That’s the average , but anecdotally ,every old person I ever meet is planning a SKI holiday( spend kid`s inheritance ), which very much includes my parents. Now its true, that there is a large minority of pensioners, say 17 % classified as poor, that have not got property or private pensions. They are hit badly by Council tax fuel and other bills but they are a minority.

FACT: 70% of those worth over £500,000 in this country are over 55

…and let not forget it . Blimey more and more I begin to think I `v got more in common with the young. I `m certainly with them on this half the absurd taxes I pay for which I get pretty much nothing goes on pensions , ,healthcare and social services and a great deal of this is for the old . They , having spent all their property doubloons, relax onto the warm duvet provided by the state courtesy of the long suffering working population.

Sod it; I `m not quite old enough after all .The thing to be is a teenager in the 60s then you vote for loads of state control when you are young , low taxes when you are really earning , in the 80s and then now you are an old wreck you turn the state taps back on again. Well that’s lovely isn`t it and I `m one of the ones being eaten not ,,as I thought , visa versa.
So perhaps I should join hands with my new young chums and we can all go to a “Grave” ..or something together. I am one of the exploited by these greedy oldsters.

CONSERVATIVE FUTURE ARE STILL GUILTY

One problem. Most of the ghastly glib shiny faced members of Conservative Future are not suffering at all. They have the huge advantage I did not, of being around when people are actually looking for young people, so have high earning power. They are usually the recipients of generational wealth ,that cascades down from property allowing them not to work ,so they can be a nuisance in politics ,and cash in on property themselves. They are in fact the lottery of life winners

For all you other young people though. Tough luck, I `m basically in the same boat. We are being sucked dry, by the thin mean wizened lips of the old. So in the end, it turns out I hate the old and the young.

That what’s called a mid life crisis

Citizen Journalists Are We ....( The Hitch Item)

If anyone missed it that Private Eye article was as follows typed by my own unwilling fingers . Incidentally it’s a good issue and worth buying the very first but deals with the£35,000,000,000 of balance sheet PFI borrowings that I have been puzzling about for the last years and predicts that the Financial Reporting Advisory Board are going to recommend scrapping “Technical Note One by which all this borrowing disappears . The timing of this showdown which has been the body rotting under Broons bed will be crucial with inflation and unemployment going wrong . His reputation for prudence will be shot. When you come to think of it its not as if the Labour party would have saved us from the ERM debacle anyway

The Hitch

“ the advent of blogging and “citizens Journalism” prompted a number if frenzied predictions , but it is probably fair to say that the image of “Mail on Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens ,hammering on the door of a suburban house ,while his doppelganger cowered inside in his underpants was not among them.
That however was the scenario that unfolded when the author of, “the Abolition of Britain” ,resolved to challenge the man ,who has, for the past few months ,been posting abusive messages on his website ,and running his own blog under the name Peter Hitchens. It is claimed in this person’s defence that this is parody,” the real Hitchens complains .”But most of what this person writes is coarse and he ceaselessly uses Lavatory wall language something any reader of mine knows I loathe“.
Having managed to acquire the home address of “Peter Hitchens “ by “perfectly legitimate means “peter Hitchens cycled there . “Peter Hitchens “ refused to answer the door on the grounds he outlined to a fellow Blogger
1 He didn’t ring the bell
2 I was wearing nothing but my underwear
3 I thought “ No fucking way is that Peter Hitchens”
-but having said that he admires his balls ( a compliment Hitchens would no doubt have returned had he been able to see beyond the door ), he has agreed from hereon to post his own particular brand of right wing vitriol under the name “The Hitch “. Oddly enough this is the name Christopher Hitchens is known by observes the Mystery Blogger, “ But bugger him I don’t like him and if he complains he can get lost”. The Eye suggests it would be simpler the real Peter Hitchens to start calling himself Bonkers Like everyone else does.
PS Hitchens may not be the only hack to be the victim of cyber mischief. ……..blah blah

Pretty funny eh? I choked on my coffee.By the way Arthur`s Legend has got a terrific post up on the development of Blair`s Foreign Policy myopia. In fact his blog is always superb

I hate Blogger

God I hate blogger , I hope you are listening you bastards. Uploading pictures is a lottery I rarely win , my functions are reduced for no reason ,and not a day goes past with out some problem. I would pay for something that worked, and some back up to sort out problems .Now it won`t let me have any pictures honestly I just despair. with it . Why do we all put up with such a shoddy product? Don`t ask me

Day Off

I was having a day off today Mrs N and I have some things to attend to but the land of blog follows you everwhere. Private Eye has a long piece about The Fake Peter Hitchens and Mrs. N`s Grazia featured The Wife Of The North.

The funniest thing was the tale of Peter Hichens though, including our very own "The Hitch" in cowering in his underpants behind the front door.He is a celebrity !

Who`s that Girl

This nasty looking piece of work is all over the place . Two brilliant posts by Dizzy and Guidot ( proper Bloggers ...ahem) that I am bringing to a smaller audience.


Dizzy
According to the Health Minister, Andy Burnham, the NHS consultation "Your health, your care, your say" which closed in November 2005 had a total bill to the taxpayer of £1.39 million out of the department's running cost budget.

Of that money, 75%, or £1.05 million went to Opinion Leader Research. That is the same Opinion Leader Research headed by long standing Labour Party consultant, member of the Smith Institute, and friend to Gordon Brown, Deborah Mattinson.

Given that the NHS running cost budget is ultimately in the hands of the Treasury it makes sense to square the circle

Guidot
The Brownite response, today's Guardian reports on a survey of a hundred "opinion leaders" which shows Gordon outperforming Dave on a whole range of indicators - scoring a modest 92% on integrity.

Who conducted this highly scientific "survey"? None other than Opinion Leader Research run by Deborah Mattinson, the long time Labour Party consultant who is now Gordon Brown's unofficial pollster and sits on the advisory committee of the Smith Institute - alongside the veteran U.S. pollster Bob Shrum. It was Shrum's anti-Cameron advice to the Sith that forced the Charity Commission's official investigation.

( This survey appeared in the Sun duly that day and I have seen nothing about its appalling provenance , by the way you would be amazed how little it costs to get marketing material into the Sun`s news. I know people who can do it for you)


Deborah Mattinson

In 1992, she co founded research agency, Opinion Leader Research to specialise in research and consultation amongst opinion formers, with clients including Accenture, BBC, BT, the Environment Agency, Esso, GlaxoSmithKline, Department of Health, DfES and the South Bank Centre. OLR led the development of public involvement methods such as Citizens’ Juries and Citizens' Forums. She is joint Chair and Chief Executive.


Yes yes yes but who does she know ? This reeks of cronyism and when you think of the rate at which the NHS is wasting money its rather sweet that she crops up there.
I `m just a dull plodder and not snooper and finder like the two mentioned above . Croydonian has a bit more from Hansard but there has to be a key here , someone she knows , a relative? How did her company get hooked in with all that lovely labour Party, and Public money . I have a feeling we are going to be reading about her


Oh it hardly need saying that I`m only following the big beasts of the Jungle like a cowardly hyenah YIP YIP YIP

Hot Air From Al Gore

Ive got an inconvenient truth for you ...you are full of shit !


The difficulty is that Hollywood sees itself as a community of sophisticated kingmakers. It was more embarrassing than funny to see leading actor Leonardo DiCaprio, during the ceremony, trying to convince former vice president and 2000 presidential nominee Al Gore to announce his plans to run in 2008. The Academy was celebrating Gore's hard-hitting and enjoyable global warming film, The Inconvenient Truth( Andrew Hagan)

'Al Gore's mansion consumes more electricity every month than the average American household uses in an entire year, according to the Nashville Electric Service (NES). The average household in America consumes 10,656 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, according to the Department of Energy. In 2006, Gore devoured nearly 221,000 kWh-more than 20 times the national average. In total, Gore paid nearly $30,000 in combined electricity and natural gas bills for his Nashville estate in 2006' - The Tennessee Center for Policy Research turns the heat on Gore, winner of an Oscar this week for' An Inconvenient Truth', his film about global warming and the importance of energy conservation.

And lets not forget as previously mentioned

Why did Al Gore emote about the snows leaving Kilimanjaro when he knows there has been no rise in temperature and it is entirely the result of deforestation and consequent dehydration ? He is absolutely aware of this ; even if you are not .

Marvell...ous Pun

......My vegatable love should grow
Vaster than empires and more slow;
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast,
But thirty thousand to the rest;
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart.
For, lady, you deserve this state;
Nor would I love at lower rate.

But at my back I always hear
Time's wingEd chariot hurying near;.....


Thanks to Croydonian for whose intellectual, blog this is to silly. He knows me so well.I hope by quoting " To his coy Mistress " ..I can disguise the fact that this is basically any old nonsense in between proper posts as promised. On the subject of Puns I liked " The Adoration of the Maggie", when the new statue went up.




Poetry Note

Incidentally the line " My vegetable love " is an interesting one alluding to the medieval categories of life in which the quality of “Vegetable “ was growth in what CS Lewis called the “Medieval Model” in “Discarded Image”. It is an allusion to a body of quasi scientific knowledge which still has currency at that time as well as an implicit bawdy pun and a stylistic grace note . Having only the quality of growth the poet imagines the process reaching absurd lengths.Its hard to recaputure now ,but to the Medieval and early moden mind this quality of growth was god given and so even in a bawdy and fantastical episiode like this there is a suggestion of the sacred.


( ..and I`ve spent all morning learining to sell a new Health and Safety Product ..is this justice? NO!!!)

More Diddlee Mocking

Good to see that this protestor outside Croke Park at the weekend, demonstrating against the use of the GAA stadium for a Rugby Union match, had chosen his attire astutely...

(Just for the Girls that’s a Celtic shirt)

Women to Win ( however useless?)

No idea who this is but she is on the W2W web site .

“ Women2Win Director, Lorraine Fullbrook said: ………….Women2Win was set up to help more Conservative women get elected to Parliament and we are already showing signs of improvement in the number of women selected to stand at the next election. Long gone are the days where we can all stick our heads in the sand and think that the level of female representation in the House of Commons is acceptable".

Well that all sounds good doesn’t it but Justin Hinchcliffe has got an absolutely fascinating post up at the moment . (See Hunter and Shooter on the blog roll ). Its really quite acerbic, for him, he’s a very ”progressive” modernising ,Liberal- Conservative so this final comment should ring some alarm bells.

“Most of the them are aged between 25 and 45, have rich husbands or partners and see politics and the Conservative Party as a “fun hobby”. I know of one young woman, who seriously lacks people skills and political nous, who has been short-listed for a very winnable seat. What the devil is going on? After almost 10 years of listening and watching Blair’s Brain-Dead Babes in the Chamber, could Dave’s Dishy Dolls be even worse? The jury’s out.”Justin Hinchcliffe

He is obviously somewhat unimpressed although the allegation of being between 25 and 45 is “wide ranging “. That actually would include Myself and Justin which is a very big tent indeed . He has obviously touched a nerve though . This is one of the contributions on this subject

“Justin but you are bang on the nail with it, couldn't agree with you more. To my certain knowledge there is one of Dave's Debs who at the last GE got the worst possible report from both her Assoc and from the relevant area team but is still short listed for a safe seat purely because she put a lot of effort, not into campaigning, but into shmoozing W2W and its' leading lights”

Matt Davies


This chimes in rather neatly with the first quote on the W2W site

Sunday Herald: May points the way ahead for Scottish businesswomen
"One interesting lesson from women2win has been how important networking is, and giving each other a helping hand. Women have to catch up on delivering for each other,"

Sounds to me as if there are some rather unpleasant characters involved . I `d love to know more , who are the shirkers and who is it that is undermining what in the face if it seems like a good idea ? Of course any positive discrimination is always going to cause resentment and I would have expected the women to be sensitive to this.


Details anyone ? I sense there is story here and some digging might be worth while

Poltical Language ( Ask the Focus Group )

Political Language

I`ve been thinking about how it is that activists and Telegraph readers so get so very hot under the collar with nice David Cameron, when he doing so well. We have all spent all week, gloating about the prospect of forming government and ridding the country of , one assumes , Gordon Brown ,not to say the disgusting Peter Hain ,and his antiquated politics of envy. All around however, I see weeping , wailing ,and constant harrying from the conservative Blogaspghere.
On Friday there I was ,rubbing shoulders with “Top Bloggers”…..( ?) Like Dizzy , Croydonian and even Guidot . One thing I noticed was the these people tend to come at Conservatism by way of anarchism ,or at least extreme Libertarianism. They are political theorists ,which a Conservative is not almost by definition,.
Perhaps that is why I have this worrying feeling that a lot of the heat in the world of sub mainstream commentators is just far to separate from real political language ,to get to the source of the pain. A country is not defined by dry theories of a contract posited in the 18th century ,it is to do with living traditions and an almost tribal loyalty .These roots predate political theory by a very long way. It is a felt rather than an explicated phenomenon as are the voting intentions of most of the country.

Take Dizzy for example , perhaps as well respected a writer on Politics as anyone , often asked for help by the national Press ,and with a clear sense of setting the agenda for the intelligentsia. In order to do this, he will typically be ferreting around in public documents for unregarded morsels of waste and dishonesty to embarrass the Labour Party. Guidot goes further, and actually prowls the very sewers of Westminster ,acting as an investigative Journalist . If he changed sides though, would the stories really be so very different ?
There are numerous people in the Labour ranks, adept at this game ,and very happy to swap accusations . It is a fair point of Dizzy`s that the Labour Party used the sleaze card brutally ,with little reason , and to great effect, in the Major period .Waste is also a fair intellectual target of statist government ,as well as an ad hoc moan . Nonetheless, I am unconvinced that this is where elections are won.
For me you must always keep the focus on the bankruptcy of the idea of Socialism and the fact that this is still what the Labour party are selling for all their claims otherwise. This is their great weakness ,they must always pretend to be not what they are ,and I really worry that they love to get back to swapping insults..
They like it ,because with no philosophy they can admit to, they have no positive account of themselves to give.David Cameron is able to “Propose", rather than always “Oppose “ .This difference is vital in the felt opinions of the voters.

We can see then that voters and politicos differ widely in their apprehension of the debate , in fact they scarcely cross over at all. To follow this thought up I have invented a Focus Group,

The Focus Group
.In it I have one political obsessive ,I have called ,at random, Dizonian , a non combatant I have called “normal person” ,and one who is able to bridge these disparate worlds; a little-bears-porridge , just right ,sort of person ,I have chosen to call …me..( at random again).
I am going to have look back at Cameron’s progress to his commanding position and submit various points of interest to the imaginary collection. Just to remind us this us this is where we are now this is the ICM Poll which was corroborated by the U Gov Poll later in the week ,Conservatives 40% ,( up 3%),Labour 32% (Steady),Lib Dums ,(18% down4 %) ,Activists moaning .. ( Unchanged position).


Cameron`s Brilliance- Part One - Let The Others Do The Hard Work

David Cameron, once, openly insulted Margaret Thatcher it was during a speech he gave commemorating 9.11 when he distanced himself from her commitment to support America , come what may . It was a miscalculation he has not repeated ,and immediately caused great concern in the party ,which communicated itself as ,treason , to the voter. Since then he has wisely let others define his distance from the our greatest Post war Prime Minister
When Tim Congdon announced his defection to UKIP ,he did so in these terms . “ At some point in her career Margaret Thatcher should have said this , the man in Whitehall doesn’t know best”. He went on...” People were being freed so they could free themselves”. Lumme that’s a bit ideological isn’t it ? Meanwhile to the utter disgust of Congdon ,The boy David was talking about,… “preparing young people for their adult responsibilities to create a greater sense of cohesion “.Congdon ,looked at this ,and with ill concealed contempt ,decided that either he was a charlatan, or he was vaguely endorsing the European Union’s model of Socialist Top Down super state,. The key point is that for him is doesn’t mater much which. What really infuriates him is that a Political intellectual like him , is left out of the equation entirely. David Cameron has a dialogue with the country that is not about “What you say “ but about “WHAT THEY HEAR” ( Frank Luntz).
Tim Congdon would like us to return to traditional political debate of the sort at which he was successful and the sort Gordon Brown also thrived in ,in the 80s. Gordon Brown is the old style of Politician, a...“political battering ram armed to the teeth with statistics “.
Nothing is more obvious to day than that the country has changed ,and Gordon Brown is incapable of changing his language and rhetoric to suit its new mood. Even his body language is determinedly ugly where Cameron naturally dances the ballet of the “Inclusive hands”. Even among blogs only Iain Dale ,I can think of , understands this broad generalist audience at all ,and he is very far from good at it partly because he tries to hard.

Ok so lets pass this over the Focus Group

Dizonian- Blank incomprehension, bitter hilarity at the Third World do goodism ,and social inclusiveness. Fury at the perceived betrayal of the Libertarian agenda ,(Not the Conservative cause which might easily include Paternalism ala Disraeli). More than this ,an irritation at the “My Little Policy “,kiddies Saturday Morning brain dead level of it all. A lot of shouting , a lot of statistics . Sounds Like Gordon Brown

Normal- I can’t see anything I actually dislike about him , and he’s not like that Margaret Thatcher , wasn’t she the nasty one ? ( The spitting image Puppet that is ). At least he’s not bellowing in that boring self important way…
.(normal may well be a woman by the way.)

Quite positive

Me ( Correct person)-Good Work David, well done for dragging our marketing out of the dark ages ,and realising that is what we are doing here .I seriously hope you aren’t expecting me to take any of this as other than mood music though. The point of winning is to enact policies, and I do have a Consevative wish list tucked in my back pocket.

Positive

David Cameron’s Brilliance Part Two- Never be against anything,

Janet Daley who I enjoy in the way an adult retains a taste for sweets into middle age , grew so incandescent with rage , recently, that she actually began to admit the logic of her position ,which is to support Gordon Brown .” If Cameron’s Conservatives succeed ,the electoral future belongs to image consultants. But if Mr. Brown prevails, there might be a return to the real politics . We might find ourselves arguing about the basic principles of taxation, spending , welfare and dependency “ . She concretely identified that Cameron is in agreement with the Blair image, and against Brown. Given that the country overwhelmingly voted for what they thought was Blair ,and loathe Brown ,this is not a bad starting point .In fact ,when I look at what back at Tone said he wanted to do, with Frank Field ,I am not sure this sounds like the worst sort of government even now, but I digress.
So Cameron is not disagreeing with Blair-ism in some ways ,he wants to inherit its popularity as smiley faced Thatcherism . What we got was quite different , and that has to be the best place to attack. Cameron doesn’t say you got it wrong to the voter, he says you got it right, but you were betrayed. Newspapers like to shout and Politicos often have a legal background . People out in the economy selling for a living , know that this is the way you sell . By agreeing

Lets put it to the Focus Group

Dizonian- I would rather lose the noble way than win by a process of rebranding ,this is just not politics.
I hate him
Normal-Oh I `m so glad they’ve stopped arguing ..well; except for that nasty Scottish man. I just fancy a change .I `m really starting to like this David chap
Me ( Correct ) -It is inevitable that Cameron would be the new Blair ,as Blair was the new Thatcher.I see he has to aim at the centre but having got it where will he take it ?Good work but I`m not voting for a Liberal ,they have to move to me .

Cameron’s Brilliance Part 3 .” Know when to shut the Fuck up”

This change of tone I attribute to Newmania senior who , in his day, was red hot broker ,and he always said to me .” When they are about to sign say Nothing . You will be tempted to talk about why you agree, but you don’t know, and it can only get worse ”
Good advice . Look at where we are. There was a worry for a long time ,that active enthusiasm for the Conservatives was flat lining ,and we still were not over the magical 40%. Anthony King complained, “ All he has achieved is to show he doesn’t frighten the horses.”. If that’s all you need to do ,then don’t do any more. Unemployment is at a seven years high thanks to Brown regulatory mania.The pension system is in ruins. Real inflation is hitting important voter groups like the old ( and hasn’t David been quick to give them a friendly ear,), productivity is feeble ,and education is an international joke.
To enter a debate about any of this would be to confuse it . David Cameron lets New Labour burn as they deserve ,and if anyone doubts his leadership qualities they should take a glance at the icy restraint the shows here. How many politicians could so sublimate their ego`s this way. As Peter Kay would put it . He is not playing

The Focus Group
Dizonian- Look at that big chin hanging out there can`t he just hit it , punch him kick him spit at hime ,pull his hair for god`s sake!

Normal- There is such a lot of bad news and that nice David Cameron is never mentioned around it . We definitely need a change

Me( Correct ) Saying nothing is right but you are vulnerable to the accusation that you have nothing to offer. The answers have to be carefully fleshed out




Cameron’s Brilliance Parts ,…oh just loads of it really

You might be surprised at the people that have been praising Team Cameron
1-Simon Heffer “His left leaning PR campaign for the past 12 months has neutralised the BBC. Having achieved that the Guardian and Independent should be easy
2-The education secretary has been obliged to reintroduce synthetic Phonics
3-The Home Secretary has been forced to drop plans for local Police Forced merging
4 Simon Heffer and in fact the rest of the Party now agree that our Iraq Policy was misguidedly pro US, and should been critically Pro US. On other words ,concerned with our defensive coalition ,not with some stupid idea of putting the world right. Enoch Powell would have approved
5He has taken the liberal’s only consistent card “We are against adversarial Politics” . Let us not forget it is votes from the Liberal Party that are just as important, and he has of course Made Ming the Useless look exactly that
6 Somehow made himself the darling of the women’s vote largely by saying little, and letting the Labour Government destroy the Family .
This has been done with nothing concrete ,but with a manner he has got right for the daytime TV sofa, which Gordon brown cannot emulate . Look for example the way he dealt with ,“Lousie “, single mother and therefore ,supposedly, the scourge of society ,on "You and Yours". Louise asked him what he thought of her and…” he expressed huge admiration for her efforts and only tactfully suggested that fathers should be obliged to pull their weight to”. He could not have played it more perfectly. Brown would have been lost.
7 Regained the trust of the voters on the NHS, by actively campaigning for its improvement, in what was frankly a childishly policy free way. I was staggered it worked myself ,but it did.
8 Lost the racist and homophobic stain that was electoral poison and a non negotiable barrier to the centre voter

You will see looking back at all these field of conquest that almost none this is ever dealt with by right wing commentators who have little interests in PR and Consultancy ,and treat everything as if they were in a Politics debate at University . This is why I fear that arguments are being won while clients,( voters ) are being lost. The entire rhetoric sounds alarmingly like Old Labour locally sometimes and we need more positive messages .

If there is one thing that I would like the committed right for all their marvellous qualities to take to heart it is this . Politics is always about what they hear not what you say ,and we have to learn the code on the right of the party to get our agenda listened to.


IMMEDIATE RETRACTION IN CASE I APPEARED ILL MANNERED

Well I assume noone bothers much with me but within seconds of that appearing Dizzy ..( as in the top blogger) popped in to tell me off. Let me make it entirely clear that Dizzy and Croydonian do proper Blogs both of which are far in the stratosphere compared to a little ,“ I think this “exercise “, like this one. The invented person Dizonian was not meant to be taken either seriously or overly literally. As far as i know it bears no special relation whatsoever to the characters of these two Blogging Titans.
Dizzy has made a number of criticisms and this is one .

“Where we disagreed is that you considered your position to be the only one that matters. That is simply not true and it is a thoroughly unconservative thing to do to rely on some grand theory and negate complexity.”

Can I make it quite clear that I did not wish to criticise any real person. Yes of course all sorts of approaches are necessary .I think my suggestion is this . “Am I wrong that there us a lack of willingness to sell the "right" agenda ?”
But the Dizonian thing was only supposed to be a bit of fun

Many apols if it seemed otherwise just to be on the safe side.