Blogging on hold

No blogging I am afraid until Monday.
Enjoy this instead:

Yes ladies and gents, thats a unfunded tax cut. And a whopping big 'un at that.

Unless I am very much mistaken Mr Darling has just committed the very policy sin Labour has accused the Tories of for years: he just announced an unfunded tax cut (for tax cut read: bribe to the good people of Crewe). From where is Alistair going to find the £3 billion to fund his promises? Is he going to check down the back of the sofas at No.11? In interesting to hear that this package is going to cost £2.7Billion, because that’s pretty much the same figure that the FT were reporting in lost tax revenues for the Treasury resulting from the bank write-downs of the last few weeks. So if Gordon can just tell us how this will be paid for; and if he can tot it up in the obligatory number of nurses sacked, hospitals closed, fluffy kittens killed that would be super.

Desperation

And a jump to the left....

Also:

Ever since the slaughter that was May 1st, the articles on Labour Home have chartered their way through Kübler-Ross’s five stages of grief. We have had anger. Then denial. Now we have bargaining courtesy of Mike Ion. (We not expecting to reach acceptance until the 22nd May) Before he eyes up the privately schooled composition of the Tory front bench I suggest he takes a long hard look at his own.

Why is Birmingham University Guild of Students Promoting Islamist Extremism

I was somewhat what surprised that this little storm past me by, but with it being finals month my attention is understandably somewhere else!

Birmingham University Students’ Union - which is officially known as the “Guild” to avoid being mistaken for a real Union, with actual workers - appears to be promoting a debate organised by the fascist political party, Hizb ut Tahrir.

Specifically, the promoting is being done by a woman called Yasmin Patel, in her capacity as Black and Minority Ethnic Students’ Officer: a post to which she was “elected”, unopposed, having “run” as the Islamic Society candidate, on a slate put together by the Student Broad Left group, which I believe includes the Socialist Workers’ Party and Socialist Action.

I usually have a policy of avoiding student politics like the plague, specifically because it’s dominated by a bunch of trots and Labour party posers, but this story about my University has angered me more than most. Its not that there is a debate being held with Hizb ut Tahrir per se, as I have said before I am opposed to no-platform policies and would much rather take on the nutters like the BNP rather than ban them, but our supposed 'representatives’ actually endorsing Hizb ut Tahrir meetings; including writing to various lecturers, suggesting that they advise their students to attend? I just can not for a minute believe they would go to the same lengths had it been a “Zionist” group speaking. And this is of course the same Guild that banned the Christian Union, froze its assets and threatened it with legal action because it it made the horrendous request of its members: that they be Christian.

In case you are unaware what Hizb ut Tahrir are about, let me remind you. They are according to the BBC an “Islamic splinter group, which is banned in many countries around the world”. Sunny Hudal (of Pickled Politics fame) referred to the group as the “enemy within”, while its website promotes racism and anti-Semitic hatred, calls suicide bombers martyrs, and urges Muslims to kill Jewish people and considers itself to be in a state of war with Israel. The relationship of the party to the Al Qaeda supporting Al Muhajiroun is also common knowledge.

Hizb ut Tahrir is treated by the National Union of Students, quite rightly, as the equivalent of the British National Party, and covered by that organisation’s No Platform policy. In fact the Guild has actively supported anti-BNP group Unite Against Fascism so you can understand the mystery surrounding a Guild officer going to such lengths to promote/support a meeting/debate by a fascist organization rather more extreme than the BNP. In fact I can’t understand how her actions can even be compatible with her position as Black and Minority Ethnic Students Officer, especially when she stood on a policy of “opposing those who isolate and scapegoat student communities in the quest to fight violent extremism”

Birmingham University has one of the largest Jewish student populations of any University in the UK - clearly they won’t feel best pleased that their BME officer is promoting a debate by an organisation that urges Muslims to kill Jewish people and considers itself to be in a state of war with Israel. It’s a fair bet that the LBGT group will be a bit miffed too given that Hizb ut Tahrir view on homosexuality is, to put it bluntly, death. If Hizb ut Tahrir got their way their would be very few minorities left for the Guild to protect.

So I agree with Harry’s Place, the Guild should pass a vote of no confidence and remove Yasmin Patel as soon as possible. An officer with responsibility for standing up for minorities should not be promoting an organisation which seeks to attack and discriminate against them.

Hat-tip Harry's Place, Ministry of Truth

The pathetic face of Old Labour

Class War: Labour campaigners follow the Tories Crewe PPC, Edward Timpson, shouting their "No Toff for Crewe" slogan.

There is no doubt that Edward Timspon is well healed, his parents do own the Timpson shoe repair empire after all, but am I the only one who fails to see why this makes him unfit for public office? We saw similar slurs against Boris in the London Mayoral campaign, but after loosing that you would have thought they might have learnt a lesson. Well apparently not. It seems that a persons socio-economic background can flick a switch in a certain sort of Labour party member; resulting in behaviour that even that even their peers find distasteful – note John Cruddas’s plea to stop such nonsense.

The sight of so many Cabinet members out in Crewe engaging in such a negative campaign proves what utter card-carrying hypocrites they really are. All either independently educated or Oxbridge/Harvard graduates and all financially well off – although unlike “Tory Boy Timpson” their wealth comes not from running a successful enterprise but years of successfully dipping their hands into the taxpayers pockets.

I also notice in that leaflet the claim that "Tory Boy Timpson" opposes making foreign nationals carry ID cards. Since when has their been a plan to make foreign nationals alone carry ID cards? First this was a card to protect us from the evils of terror now its to keep a tabs on those 'untrustworthy foreigners'. You can imagine the outrage, quite rightly, had a Tory put out such a stupid leaflet. What next, "Tory Boy Timpson" opposes making Jews wear a yellow Star of David? Gwyneth will be spinning in her grave.

Labours tactics are beyond parody, they really are spiteful and it’s a reminder to the people of Crewe that at its heart Labour is still the nasty party that opposes and ridicules achievement. Britain is not a bigoted country; these bilious attacks will repel the decent voters of Crewe and Nantwich.

Class war it appears is an increasingly desperate Labour Party’s last hope. In the face of rampant inflation, the credit crunch, rising tax bills, rising repossessions and broken promises, this is all the Labour party has left to say. Are they going to lose Crewe badly, or are they going to lose badly?

21 Days until Labour goes (financially) Bankrupt

We knew the Labour party has been in financial trouble for some time, all stemming back to when Tony got caught flogging off Lordships to cover the 2005 election bills. Now its clear to all just how bad things really are:

Labour chiefs have until the end of this month to plug a £4 million hole in the party’s finances and avert the possibility of a formal declaration of bankruptcy.

Auditors are due to sign off the party’s accounts soon after the end of May, but there are fears that they will refuse to do so and instead declare the party insolvent.

Things are so bad, that Gordon is apparently looking into the possibility of turning the party into a private limited company to protect officers and national executive members from individual liability when the party is declared insolvent.

I suppose it is only fair that the man who has all but bankrupted UKplc should also preside over the bankruptcy of his own political party.

There must be some Champaign socialists left out there to save the day?

An UNacceptable solution? Clegg calls for violation of Burmese Sovereignty

Nick Clegg has echoed calls made by French Foreign Minster Bernard Kouchner yesterday, that humanitarian aid should enter Burma with or without the Juntas permission; effectively a violation of Burmese sovereignty.

As I blogged yesterday, the United Nations 2005 "responsibility to protect" resolution, passed in the wake of genocides in Africa, requires the United Nations to intervene when governments cannot or will not protect their citizens, even if it means violating a nation's sovereignty. However despite the fact that the Burmese situation clearly qualifies for such action, despite the aid, the transport and even the US military being in the region, it is not going to happen. Any attempt would require a UN resolution, a resolution that could and would be vetoed by both China and Russia (talking of Russia; an unwelcome return in Red Square today).

The biggest hope now is that following the Juntas referendum tomorrow, a farcical ploy to entrench themselves in power with a pretence of legitimacy, some of the restrictions on aid workers will be lifted. If not, with the countries rice crop destroyed, no drinking water, disease spreading rapidly and the knowledge of just how badly the Junta have let them down, the scene will no doubt be set for another, probably bloody, uprising.

Burma in Crisis: The Perfect (political) Storm

Imagine that a crowded building is on fire, that people are dying inside, and that a guy with a gun is standing outside the door to prevent firefighters from entering. Now multiply that by a couple million times or so and you can get a feel for what is happening in Burma right now.

The junta has never had a reputation for caring much about its own citizens, but the fact that they are erecting all sorts of hurdles to prevent life saving relief from reaching their own citizens is downright criminal. This got me thinking, just how big an atrocity do we have to reach before the Security Council should invoke the "Responsibility to Protect" and authorize the violation of Burma’s sovereignty by other member states? (This is the principal, agreed upon by UN member states in 2005, that the international community is permitted to violate the sovereignty of a country when that country is unwilling or unable to prevent mass atrocities from being visited upon its own citizens). It seems that at least one P-5 member, the increasingly reliable France, thinks we have reached such a point. The proposal was aired by Bernard Kouchner, French foreign minister and founder of Doctors Without Borders, but quickly shot down by China and Russia.

Fair enough, the immediate goal is to get relief to Burmese citizens as fast as possible. Right now, this means working with the military junta. Routing out the junta is unlikely but the fact it has even been mentioned speaks volumes. The answer then must come from within Burma itself.

For all its secrecy and isolation, the government’s track record is well known. The State Peace and Development Council (SPDP)–another child of Orwellian imagination–ranks as one of the most repressive regimes in the world. It rules by decree, suppresses virtually all basic human rights, maintains thousands of political prisoners, and is conducting a campaign of terror against ethnic minorities. We already know the people of Burma want change. They came close to it last year stopped only when the military opened fire on the crowds of Buddhist monks and . assassinated Padoh Mahn Sha Lah Phan, the general secretary of the Karen National Union, a leading democratic opposition group. In fact part of the reason the Junta is denying international aid is because it fears a loosening of its grip. The Junta are bent on holding a constitutional referendum this coming Saturday a farcical ploy to entrench themselves in power with a pretence of legitimacy.

The Burmese may not be able to blame their Government for the cyclone but they can for all the effects. As the US First Lady, Laura Bush, said yesterday: “Although they were aware of the threat, Burma’s state-run media failed to issue a timely warning to citizens in the storm’s path.” Much of Burma’s rice belt was damaged thus reducing this crop to near zero. Compound that fact, Burma’s junta is hindering international disaster relief aid, and additional sanctions have just been applied by the USA. All of this spells of pushing the Burmese people over the edge. There are already reports of fighting for food and other most basic needs and that is just the reports that trickle out. It goes without saying the suffering and death toll will be significant in anyone’s book.

As the knot of hunger grows in the stomachs of the Burmese people, their fear of government retaliation will become less and less until it becomes the lesser of two evils. When that happens they will face the bullets of the junta setting the stage for what promises to be things nightmares are made.

Countries that associate with the Burma’s junta will start to suffer guilt by association. Perhaps their own people will begin to look at their own governments in another light? Anyway, we all know who the Junta’s biggest backer is…. back over to you China.

No blogging until the weekend, I have a deadline to meet by Friday and its taking up every waking moment!

Watchout Lynne, there's a newt lover on your tail!

Now why would the West Brom Blogger be interested in Haringey? Well news reaches me that local Labour activists are less than happy with their selected PPC, Karen Jennings inability to make any ground on incumbent MP Lynne Featherstone. Well apparently, Karen is to be quietly invited to step aside to allow another candidate, a minor celebrity if you will, to get a crack of the whip.

Who is it? Well lets say that the certain man has recently found himself with more time to spend with his newts. Yes he is back or at least if the rumours are to be believed.

Beyond our Ken: Post match roundup

To quote someone relatively famous, “a new dawn has broken has it not”? More precisely a blue dawn has broken has it not? What a marathon 48 hours. 300 extra councillors, 9 extra councils and the London Mayoralty. Even in the places we were predicted to do badly things turned out better than expected. We only lost one councillor in Coventry for example despite Labour targeting the city heavily. Down the road in Wolverhampton we steam rolled Labour, taking 8 seats and sending the council into NOC. Similar scenes in Birmingham; several years of progressive Tory leadership, improving services and low council tax rises saw us rewarded with 6 gains. Despite 4 Tory gains, the Socialist Republic Sandwell is left as the last Labour outpost in West Midlands.

In London, Richard “HMS Discovery” Barnbrook gained a seat on the London Assembly. Thankfully a lefty think tank has just told us the GLA is useless so no one should notice him anyway; and if the experience of Sandwell BNP is anything to go by people will soon realise what a shower they have elected and kick him out. But perhaps the most surprising moment of the night, after Brian Paddick revealing he voted Left List, was when Ken took full responsibility for his own downfall. What happened to the Ken that wanted to crush the “New Labour machine”? Why didn’t he lay the reasons for his defeat at Gordon’s door? The Ken that left City Hall last night is clearly not the same Ken who arrived to govern London, via a putsch, in 1981. Ken’s clearly been crushed by the New Labour machine.

As London wakes up to their first day of a Johnson Mayoralty, rather than analysing why they lost, scalded and bitter the left revert to type criticising Boris’s class, upbringing and education. But as Fraser Nelson points out, the majority of people don’t care in the slightest where Boris was educated, unlike them Britain is not bigoted, such bilious attacks repel voters. And its not just Labour, this foul stench can be found emanating from the so-called ‘Liberals’ as well.

All in all a fantastic 48 hours. The Conservatives have proved to the people that they are seriously back and ready to take power.

Did you know Brown that now lives in a council controlled by LibDems in a country controlled by the SNP and works in a London borough and city controlled by the Tories.

Is Jack Straw planning a leadership bid?

I don't usually post wild rumour but the source of this story has nothing to gain from lying and given the total meltdown over the past 48 hours, its totally plausible; Jack Straw is giving considerations to a leadership bid. Quick, someone check to see if BT are parked up outside his office.

MAYOR RESULT LIVE

Polls Closed: LIVE results blog

Keep checking back throughout tonight.

BREAKING: BORIS JOHNSON IS NEXT MAYOR OF LONDON - ConHome call it.
"Based on a wide range of conversations we've had throughout the day with people in the field and with senior Tory and other insiders we are very confident that on the basis of patterns of turnout, postal votes and canvass returns Boris Johnson has been elected Mayor of London"
This backs up whats being heard from other sources that suggest Boris has won and that it isn't particularly close. LRC are claiming Ken is confident of 52%-48% share.



Councils to watch tonight -

Coventry - Coventry went to the Conservatives in 2004 but Labour stand to gain as many as 3 or 4 seats, throwing the City into a position of no overall control. Gordon Brown visited the city to launch Labours local election campaign and therehas been a few high profile visits since; a sure sign that Labour HQ are taking Coventry very seriously as a potential source of fire-fighting in the face of a Conservative rout elsewhere in the country.

Liverpool - the LibDem’s control over the city hangs in the balance thanks to severe financial mismanagement and the award of being the worst counil in the UK. A Labour victory here would allow Brown to claim a resurgence of Labour support in the north, making it difficult for the Conservatives to claim growing support in the north (even in the event of potential gains in the North East).

You can also watch the Birmingham election results LIVE HERE hosted by fellow blogger Adrian Goldberg.

Beyond our Ken: local/London election blogging

Just as the polls open it appears Labour Home have launched their nastiest video attack on Boris so far, it reeks of desperation from an exasperated Alex Hilton. Meanwhile, the raving Grauniadiatas are approaching nervous breakdown. However will they cope, poor things?

Check back throughout today and tonight for updates on the local elections.

11:00: Just got back from voting. For the first time in my life I have witnessed a queue at my polling station!

12:15: Reports from people across Birmingham that they feel that turnout is higher this year than last. I get the feeling that while there may not be an overwhelming love for the Tories out there, there is a real desire to give Gordon Brown a good kicking.



14:30: Councils to watch tonight - Coventry - Coventry went to the Conservatives in 2004 but Labour stand to gain as many as 3 or 4 seats, throwing the City into a position of no overall control. Gordon Brown visited the city to launch Labours local election campaign and there
has been a few high profile visits since; a sure sign that Labour HQ are taking Coventry very seriously as a potential source of fire-fighting in the face of a Conservative rout elsewhere in the country.

16:12: An email from Team BoJo suggests that turnout in some Labour areas has been high. Well that certainly does not tally with the feedback on Iain Dales/Dizzy's/Coffee House. I suspect its a ploy to stick a firework up the backside of dawdlers - GET OUT AND VOTE!

18:00: Kevin Maguire smells defeat. Witness his desperation. In fact the Mirror doesn't even have any mention of the election on its news round up. Strange that.

Will Ken denounce his 'BNP'?

Much mileage has been made of Nick Griffins comments that voters should put Boris as their second preference – yet if they are stupid enough to entertain the idea of voting for ‘Richard no-hope Barnbrook’ they’re probably too stupid to turn up at the polling station anyway – cries of racist Boris and spurious attempt to draw links between the BNP and Boris’s visions for London have been made; despite the fact that economically the BNP’s manifesto would get many of these old socialists salivating.

Boris acted swiftly to denounce and effectively insult this sizable minority of the electorate who could have helped him into City Hall. Question is will Ken denounce his nutty ‘fascist’ supporters? Unlike the BNP, Kens nutters are actively calling for people to vote Ken first preference; those campaign for his re-election include Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood supporters. Confronted with the ugly truth what’s Kens response? “You can’t choose who supports you”.

Come now Ken, that’s not what you said about the BNP. In fact Boris has proved you can choose who supports you, or at the very least indicate who should not. So the question for Ken is; will he distance himself from his terror supporters or will he embrace them?

The Sky News Debate

So who won the Sky News Mayoral debate? Well Alex Hilton certainly didn’t win the pre-debate battle of the hacks, being completely steamrollered by Andrew Gilligan; so much for the “televised Tory-baiting” Alex. Well that set the tone for Labours evening. Both Boris and Paddick’s performances in previous debates have been less than impressive, Boris has fumbled and Paddick has come across as arrogant. Well it seems they were saving the best till last, as this was by far the best performance by either candidate, even if it was the worst organised of all the TV debates so far. I felt Boirs made his points well (but I guess I would say that!), was sharp and punchy in laying into Kens record. He maintained seriousness throughout which defied his critics, whilst still managing enough colourful flourishes of language to remind you what a great character he is.

Ken Livingstone however looked to me like a beaten man. His head was down and went through the motions with a few quips, but he was on the back-foot for much of the debate although he warmed up a bit towards the end even though the audience was pretty hostile towards him. Ken tried hard to pin the ‘Freedom Pass claim’ on Boris but couldn’t make it stick. Meanwhile, away from the debate his supporters have been producing some pretty odious lies about Boris, Islam and Israel, even breaking electoral law to keep their man in office.

In the national context a lot of people have been comparing Gordon Brown’s current situation to that of John Majors government of the 1990s – behind in the polls, opposition in set for a landslide victory, break down in party discipline, lurching from crisis to crisis. It will be interesting to see then, if the Mayoral election is a repeat of the 92 election. Polls are showing Boris storming ahead, but in the privacy of the voting booth will the Labour slurs about Boris as a bumbling buffoon stick and the great survivor amaze us all and pull off a third term in office?

UPDATE: Kate Hoey is to become a Boris adviser if he wins. <.kinnock> A Labour MP, a Labour MP<.kinnock/> boosting the Tories two days before an election, she can’t keep the Labour whip surely? Cross the floor Kate.

LOCAL: Gobsmacked SMBC to “urgently review” parade after West Brom Blog’s Nazi revelations.

Who said that this blog never achieves anything? Regular readers will know well the problems of far right infiltration at the West Bromwich St Georges Day celebrations culminating in last weeks revelation that this years parade contained a band with alarming links to some of Britain’s most odious organisations as well as Irish terror groups.

Well it appears that news of 'jackboots on the march' has finally prompted Sandwell council to review the nature of the parade. Cabinet member for Culture and Leisure Linda Horton has told the Stirrer website that she was “gobsmacked” claiming that the band was not invited, “If anybody else has come here they have infiltrated.” Geoff Collins from the Stone Cross St Georges Day Association said the news made him “sick to the stomach”.” We definitely didn’t book them, and we have no links with the far right. Our parade has always been for everybody, and want nothing to do with any political party.”

It good news that the council are finally considering to seriously look at the nature of the march with a view of turning it into something reminiscent of the Tipton and Wednesbury Carnivals, but I am not confident action will follow. Previous revelations about far-right political activity have brought claims from the organisers of “not wanting anything to do with any political party” yet we still witness political speeches being made from the stage.

Good news for Boris - Ken's in the lead, just.

A new opinion poll in today's Sunday Times is putting Ken Livingstone 1% ahead in the race to be the next Mayor of London. Given his previously impressive lead, you might then be surprised to hear me say that this poll is good news for Boris. Consistently polls have been giving BoJo's campaign convincing leads and of course nationally we are enjoying our highest approval ratings since the mid 80s'. Hopefully today's poll will remind people that this election isn't over; shake off some of the arrogance in the Tory blogosphere. This election is and always has been on a knife edge. Unless Londoners want to wake up on May 2nd to four more years of THIS, they must get out and vote Boris(1st) Paddick*(2nd) on May 1st.

This seems to be backed up by the polls. Amongst those 100% certain to vote, Boris is still in the lead.

*Lib Dem votes could be crucial in deciding the fate of the mayoralty and also the present government. A Ken win would a major boost to Gordon Brown and Labour nationally. So Lib Demmers think carefully when casting your second preference; can you you vote for an illiberal, authoritarian socialist who thinks its acceptable for Venezuela's poor to subsidise the richest city in the world and whose best reason for opposing Boris is on the basis of which School he attended? Or would you rather vote for a liberal Tory who supports localism, rightly defied Cameron over an immigrant amnesty, called for the legalisation of medicinal cannabis, opposes ID cards and a third runway at Heathrow? The choice is yours, use it wisely.

EXCLUSIVE: Neo-nazi, terrorist sympathisers lead Sandwell council backed St Georges Day parade

Every year there is a major St Georges Day parade through West Bromwich, activley supported (Bob Piper* assures me in quite clearly that despite council support he personally does not support the parade) by fellow bloggers Tom Watson and Bob Piper along with other councillors of all political colours. For a number of years now the WBB has been reporting on the nasty political undercurrent at this event, but usally it takes no more form than a flying visit from Nick Griffin and his fellow knuckle draggers. This year however we got this:



No surrender to the IRA scum? Hardly appropriate for a self styled "family fun day" I think you will agree.

If your not aware, the band leading the parade is the 'British Ulster Alliance Flute Band'. The BUA are listed by Searchlight, the Anti-Fascist League and Anti-Fascist Action as a "neo-nazi" organisation. Asides from their links with the BNP, they are also linked to Combat 18 - the "armed wing" of the British neo-Nazi organization Blood & Honour - and their leader was imprisoned in 1993 for gunrunning for the proscribed terrorist organisation the Ulster Defence Association. Speaking to the‘Sunday Mercury’ in 2004, one Mr. Gerry Gable, who is the editor of the magazine Searchlight said: “Both the National Front and British National Party support the BUA. Many members of the BUA are also members of these groups.”

The BUA are also well know for their links to football hooliganism and are totally opposed to the Northern Ireland peace process. These guys are so extreme that the DUP will not even attend marches with them! So what does the St Georges Day association and Sandwell Council and do? Let them lead our St Georges Day parade of course.

*He can perhaps get his fellow councillors to ensure that bigots are not again allowed to march on Sandwell's streets - i'm sure he would find cross-party support for that, well except from the BNP.

YouGov - Tories take 18 point lead

A YouGov poll for the Telegraph tomorrow, the first since the 10p tax revolt, makes devastating reading for Labour and the Lib Dems. When he became Tory leader, Cameron needed the biggest swing ever managed by the modern Conservative party in Opposition to get to No.10, 10 months into Brown's reign and the challenge looks decidedly easy. This poll puts the Tories on 44%, Labour on 26% and the Lib Dems unchanged on 17% - a result which would see a Tory majority of 60 and the number of Lib Dem MP's cut in half. This is the largest poll lead the Conservatives have achieved since 1987, and according to the UK Polling Report, the lowest Labour share of support since the aftermath of their 1983 rout.

Like the Roman, I seem to see the River Tiber foaming with much blood, or more precisely Downing Street. I bet 100+ Labour MPs can get vicious when they realise once and for all they are facing the doll queue, especially when they have already scented blood. I am prepared to rethink my previous assertions; if this 18-point lead translates into huge losses on May 1st then maybe Gordon won’t be the man to lead Labour into the next election. Lets face facts, its Gordon Brown vs. paying your mortgage. If you were a Labour MP which would you pick?

Cameron better enjoy his honeymoon though, as soon as we slip one percentage point Tebbit et al will reappear from the woodwork to remind us where we could be if only we promised to kick out the immigrants, withdraw from the EU and promise to shoot all the gypsies.

Is it now as socially unacceptable to be a Libertarian as it is to be a racist?

I don’t know what’s more shocking about this news; that they have found a free-thinking individual with classical liberal views in the Liberal Democrats or that they have thrown him out of the party?

Stoke councillor Gavin Webb has been suspended from the Liberal Democrats after he advocated libertarian positions on guns, prostitution and drugs. Cllr Webb’s views however led to a member of the public making a complaint, which the party thought was sufficient enough to suspend him.

Its not as if Cllr Webb hides his Libertarian light under a bushel, he clearly advertises himself on his website as a Libertarian Liberal Democrat and I assume his constituents are well aware of it. In a city dominated by authoritarian left-wing Labour and BNP councillors, his views should have been a welcome breath of fresh air.

But Webb’s words are likely to get him thrown off his school's board of governors also. The Stoke Sentinel reports “the chair of governors, Gill Miller is said to be seeking advice on Mr Webb's position.

Clearly it is now as socially unacceptable to be a Libertarian as it is to be a racist.

The Cross of St George - a flag for everyone

Writing in todays Daily Mail, Jack Straw calls on us to reclaim St Georges Day from the BNP.

A single handed government cock up

And you thought Gordon's swastika logo was embarrassing? This had me in stitches. Its the new logo for the Office of Government Commerce . Don't worry I've never heard of them either.

A quick 90' clockwise rotation reveals the problem! Hat-tip to The Register.

A great way to relieve stress

George Galloway was left "momentarily dazed" after being hit by a rubber stress ball while out campaigning. The Respect Party MP was targeted while on his open-top campaign bus in Holborn, central London, during his campaign for a London Assembly seat. The missile - described as a hollow stress ball - is believed to have been flung from the first floor of an office block on Procter Street, Holborn, shortly after 1400 BST. Source

And if Gorgeous George passes by your office window on his open top bus and you haven't got a stress ball to hand try your PC monitor, what the heck throw your whole desk at him*. You'll feel better for it. *WBB does not encourage you to throw anything at George Galloway, except perhaps rotten eggs.

Bob Spink MP finally defects to UKIP - Labour to gain Castle Point next election?

Sharp-eyed readers might remember Bob Spink as the anti-gay, immigration row, top Tory rebel and former Tory MP who had the whip removed after an unholy row with his local party over his reselection - a reselection that may or may not have run into difficulties after he had an affair with the wife of the local deputy chairman (never piss on your own doorstep Bob!) – and his threats to resign.

There is no denying that this is a major publicity coup for the provisional wing of the Daily Mail UKIP, a party that had otherwise seemed as dead as the Python parrot – and quite justifiably - now has its first MP. The question is can they keep him? These are the Castle Point constituency results from the 2005 election;

This is one of UKIP's strongest areas, with 7.5% of the vote. However, it would take a fair swing for him to get re-elected. Assuming he would need at least 30% to get re-elected, he would need to carry over around 10,000+ votes for him personally. That also assumes a stationary UKIP national vote. I can't really see him keeping 10,000+ personal votes given they way he was thrown out of the Tory party, and the local Tories are of course very likely to run a bitter personal campaign against him. As much as the public is uninterested by MPs having affairs, there is still a large number of people who take infidelity seriously and regard it as a personality flaw and that will count against him too.

I suspect that the local Labour party will be rubbing their hands with glee, with Spink likely to split the Conservative vote, Castle Point could well be a rare thing at the next election, a Labour gain.

In other UKIP news, their press officer has been convicted of benefit fraud, a UKIP MEP faces yet another police probe into embezzlement claims and finally, questions are being asked as to why the party was awarded a party political broadcast - by the BBC last Monday - despite failing to field the minimum number of candidates required for one (the threshold is 468, UKIP are fielding 451 - warning: BNP link).

UPDATE: And so it begins: Is Bob Spink now Party Leader? . Why do I get the feeling, given his dramatic exit from the Conservatives, that Spink is the sort of egomaniac who will do a Robert Killroy Silk and assume that he should be party leader? Seems that Iain agrees.

An Obama Minute

Taking the Money Bomb concept to an absurd server-busting extreme today is the day for the 'Obama Minute'. If you’re not familiar with the ‘money bombing’ concept let me explain. The “money bomb” is an effort to get the multitudes to donate to a campaign within a specific period of time. Usually, the period is the 24 hours and the current record for the most money raised lies with Republican Ron Paul whose supporters donated a whopping $6 million in just 24hours. What is even more interesting is that the “money bombs” are (mostly) completely independent efforts from official campaigns. They are conceived and promoted by grassroots supporters via blogs and YouTube. As you can guess from its name the ‘Obama Minute’ aims to collect $1million in just one minute. I’ve no doubt he will do it, but even if he doesn’t he still wins. Apart from being a great fundraising tool it’s a political masterstroke. The Obama Minute is topping the political news agenda in the states, the news channels are covering it live, and as a result there is no doubt who will have the ‘big mo’ running into tomorrows primary.

When you think about the funding problems for British political parties you realise just quite how amazing these feats really are. I struggle to contemplate any such idea being anywhere near as successful in the UK, let alone that it would be initiated independently from the grassroots.

Maybe Boris should give it a go (not that his campaign needs it) after all he is the closet thing we have to a celebrity culture politician with a cult following. The BoJo Moment perhaps?


UPDATE: The Obama minute website collapsed within seconds of it beggining at 6pm (our time).

They don't call him Balls for nothing...

Its just asking for a caption competition isn't it?

Hoey to defect to the Tories, sort of, maybe, not at all.

News reaches WBB that Labour MP Kate Hoey has just pulled out of an event in her Vauxhall constituency, where she was due to appear alongside Conservative mayoral candidate, Boris Johnson. Team Boris say she was keen to attend and understood fully it would likely result in her expulsion from Labour. According to Sam Coates, Kate denies she ever inteneded to endorse Boris.

In the end Hoey called the whole thing, claiming a sore throat made her too ill to attend. I suspect it’s more likely that the it’s the Labour whips that will be suffering sore throats today. With party discipline collapsing around Gordon Brown, the implications of even appearing next to Johnson would have been huge.

Hoey is of course denying any questions about her loyalty to the Ken campaign, Asked whether she was backing Livingstone, she told the ‘Red Box’ blog: "I'm a Labour Party MP. What more do you want?" Hardly a ringing endorsement…. We wait to see if she will be forced into issuing a statement backing Ken.

Forty years have proven Powell wrong

Today marks the 40th anniversary of Enoch Powell’s “Rivers of Blood” speech – no doubt we will be subjected to the spectacle of Heffer and Hastilow dancing around Powells grave smeared in chickens blood in some kind of satanic ritual, chanting Powell was right, Powell was right! Forty years ago, Powell’s words unleashed a storm of racism across Britan, racism that directly fuelled the rise of the fascist National Front, the forerunners of today’s British National Party. Even today his words still trigger cries of racism and just invoking his memory is enough to get you the sack.

Whether or not you believe Powel to have been a racist, it is impossible to deny that his speech was and still is racialist in its tone and did and still does exacerbate racial tensions. Yet, I don’t believe Powell’s speech was born out of unconsidered bigotry. Powell lived in India and spoke Urdu (and ten other languages), and was fascinated by its culture. But he was also appalled at the hatred and prejudice that existed between Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs there, and most of all by the mindless slaughter that accompanied partition. Then, a few months before his speech, he visited the United States, and saw the violence associated with the civil rights movement (Martin Luther King was assassinated two weeks before Powell's speech) and concluded that similar scenes were inevitable in Britain if immigration were allowed to continue. In short, he did not believe that different cultures and races could peacefully co-exist in Britain and he wanted to avoid the resultant conflict.

Powell claimed that post-war immigration to Britain was a disastrous, suicidal mistake for this country. A multi-ethnic society was inevitably a recipe for social breakdown and ethnic conflict ''where the black man would have the whip hand over the white man" in 20 years. Britons were "literally mad" to be "building our own funeral pyre" by letting new Commonwealth blacks and Asians settle here. Powell called for urgent action "by stopping, or virtually stopping, further inflow, and by promoting the maximum outflow". He wanted repatriation - voluntary, but to be pursued with urgency and vigour. In a follow-up speech, he proposed a Ministry of Repatriation, to undertake this "national duty", rejecting as defeatist the idea that relatively few immigrants could be induced to leave.

Powell has, thankfully, been proved wrong in his belief that we would end up in a state of “ethnic conflict”. The past 40 years (notwithstanding a few not insignificant blips such as the riots in the early 80s and two decades later, which even so do not amount to the southern lynching’s and burnings of 1960s America, never mind Partition of India and Pakistan) has shown that people from many ethnicity's can live in relative harmony; and unless I am very much mistaken, 40 years on a Black man in Britain does not have “the whip hand over the white man”.

The only part of Powell’s predication that can possibly be claimed to have come true, is his prediction that Britain would be changed by immigration. Britain has witnessed changes in its society brought about by the emergence of new immigrant cultures, but I can honestly say that this has bothered me not one jot. Sadly, it appears that the majority of Britain's do not agree with me. Just because I see a woman in a Sari or hear someone talking in Polish on the bus, I don’t feel that my ‘British culture’ or heritage is being eradicated. Unfortunately though, there are a lot of bad perceptions out there, many fuelled by barefaced lies and ignorance. Personally I find it something of a straw-man argument to complain about “the collapse” of ‘British culture’, when the defining trait of Britishness is that no one can define what exactly it is. That’s not to say the hegemonic policy of multiculturalism has been a good one; in fact it turned out to create a form of cultural apartheid, making integration between communities even harder, but thats not a reason to halt immigration.

Personally I take the Ronald Reagan view on immigration. I’m proud that Britain is seen as a land of opportunity, a beacon of hope and liberty and, as Reagan said, “a shining city on the hill," My principles are based on the four freedoms; the free movement of goods; the free movement of services; the free movement of capital and the free movement of persons (and citizenship). While I understand the need for a secure boarder I don’t want barriers and have never believed in playing the numbers game with quotas or limits. As I have said before, if you wish to reduce the number of immigrants coming to this country in the immediate future, there is a much simpler way that does not infringe upon peoples right to free movement.

Did Obama flip Hillary the finger?

Well wouldn't you?


Quite clearly the man is just scratching his face, but that hasn’t stopped the prudes in the Clinton campaign from setting the US blogosphere on fire over this.

This is the level it’s been dragged down to folks. But still, while Obama and Clinton battle it out like children John McCain can get on with preparing for office.