Statporn Special

Yesterday was very strange, and a day that I don't intend to repeat too often. But, as I alluded to in my previous post, the traffic for this blog was phenomenal.

Traffic increased by 1,318.18% compared to the previous day. There were 104 unique visitors coming from Tory Bear (81.73% of which were new visitors) and a further dozen or so from twitter.

The post that actually caused the controversy is only 6th in this month's pageviews (29) whilst the follow up post, retracting my previous comments, has got to 2nd (109) behind only the main front page, and ahead of a post that was linked to by ConservativeHome (103).

Here's hoping I can retain some of these new visitors in the near future.

JR

PS: I'll add some pictures of the graphs later when I'm at home.

There's No Such Thing as Bad Publicity

Well I wasn't expecting to have such a busy morning, nor was I expecting to sit down at lunchtime and read this about myself on Tory Bear.

Maybe I was a little too quick out of the blocks last night over Dan Hannan's latest dip into the media spotlight. I read the BBC article and immediately thought of Enoch Powell's infamous rivers of blood speech, but I also expect a not so insignificant amount of the public jumped to the same conclusion as me.

After taking a closer look at his words this lunchtime, I feel I have to apologise to Mr Hannan for associating him with Powell's views on immigration. However, the problem still remains that Mr Hannan's comments clearly didn't consider the impact they would have in the media, in exactly the same way I didn't consider how my post last night would've impacted on me today.

In the lead up to the general election we must all, myself included, take great care on how we portray ourselves and the parties we support. Infighting is just the kind of thing that can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory for the Conservatives, a party that I'm proud to be a member of, and I wouldn't wish to jeopardise that election win for the sake of a little argument.

JR

PS: Thanks to TB for the increased traffic that I'm sure to get today. There really is no such thing as bad publicity unless you're already at the top of the tree (if you see what I mean)!

FFS

OK, now Hannan has had it!

I ask David Cameron to please get rid of this idiot.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, then take a look at this.

JR

I'm Not Going to Say I Told You So, But ...

... I did.

Today's Independent on Sunday (of all papers) had a poll, carried out at the back end of the week, that asked which party was more trusted with the NHS; Labour or the Conservatives?

Labour polled only 39%, whilst the Tories gained support from 47% of those questioned, an 8 point lead on this issue. Traditionally a given winner for Labour, the Conservatives have opened up a lead in a week where they've come under intense pressure after Daniel Hannan's comments about the NHS when in America.

Just last week I put forward the idea that the affair with Hannan might give David Cameron the platform to cement the Conservatives as the party of the NHS in the minds of the public, and this poll bears that out.

I was rubbished by some, but once again my prediction was proved correct.

JR

England Have Regained The Ashes

England have beaten Australia by 197 runs in the 5th test at The Oval to win the series 2-1, and regain The Ashes.


That is all.

JR

Barney Frank Tells It Like It Is

Barney Frank, member of the house for Massachusetts, tells a woman questioning him about the Healthcare Reform Bill exactly what he thinks of her!



Amazing!

I think Barney Frank is my new favourite US politican!

JR

Blogs Ahoy!

From time to time, I tend to reassess the blogs that I read or keep up to date with. Some blogs fall off the radar because they lie dormant, whilst some have moved onto subject matters that have no concern to me.

Conversely, some blogs pop up with an interesting post, and when you drill down into the blog the rest of the articles are equally as interesting. Other blogs are like phoenixes from the ashes, reinventing or rejuvenating themselves into better reads; a bit like they've graduated from a blog academy.

I thought I'd share with you some of those blogs that have caught my eye recently, and couple of new blogs that you might be interested in.

Letters From a Tory - A first class blog of a person who describes themselves as "a centre-right social conservative with hints of economic liberalism and fiscal conservativism as well."

Cardiff Blogger - The blog of Benny Austwick, who is UWIC Conservative Future Chairman. Previously editor of The Right Student blog, but this reinvention has done the world of good, IMHO.

MMUnion Sabbatical Officers Blog - Not the most original of names, but to be honest it does exactly what it says on the tin. It needs some design work doing to it, which I'm working on, but it will be an insight into the work of the student officers. Rest assured, anything I write on the union blog will be replicated here!

The Oliver Observations - Sheffield Uni student Joe Oliver (who is a member of Labour Students, but don't hold that against him) with his observations on politics, university and everything. He hails from Exeter, and attended Exeter College (just like me) who do have a tendency of churning out NUS hacks (like Joe and I, et al).

You will find links to all these blogs in the various blogrolls on the right.

JR

Why the Hannan Affair Might Do the Tories More Good than Harm

Let's get a few things straight first;

Apart from a political hacks, there aren't many people who knew who Hannan was before this story found it's way into the limelight. A few people might recognise him from the dressing down he gave Gordon Brown in the European Parliament, which became a YouTube hit.

The British public are largely uninterested in European politics, and therefore are equally likely to not be interested in a MEP that is talking about American healthcare.

The public probably first took notice when the We Love the NHS campaign gathered momentum; so even if they were aware of who Hannan was, they probably didn't make the connection to him immediately, or realised that he sparked the debate.

This gave David Cameron the opportunity to re-affirm the Conservatives commitment to the NHS, and the public saw this as the NHS being in safe hands with Cameron. He also took the opportunity to distance the party from Hannan's comments.

Labour tried to jump up and down on the Tories over the NHS, but having effectively forgot that Cameron had already taken the sting out of the story, the attacks just looked like attempts at political points scoring.

It is possible that the public trust the Conservatives more on the NHS then they did before the Hannan affair. It could be one of those clouds with a silver lining.

JR

BTW, an ICM voting intention poll for the Sunday Mirror shows the Conservatives up 2 points, and Labour down 1. The fieldwork was done on Thursday and Friday, so right in the thick of the Hannan/NHS story.

#welovethenhs

This time, Daniel Hannan is just plain wrong. I am proud of the NHS, and the first class service the doctors and nurses provide.

There are few people who know this better than David Cameron and his family. It was the NHS who helped Ivan Cameron during his short life, something that David seldom talked about, but when he did there was nothing but praise for the quality of care the NHS provided.

Twitter crashed for a short time yesterday under the weight of tweets proclaiming #welovethenhs, but what initiated this support?

Well two things; the Heathcare Reform Bill that is currently going though the US Congress is attempting to create an NHS equivilent in the United States. Over 40% Americans cannot afford health insurance, so many of them have to go to seriously underfunded county hospitals when they're injured, and don't have their own doctor.

The second thing is Tory MEP, Daniel Hannan's comments berating the NHS, and previously saying that the state monopoly on health makes people iller!

Tonight, a number of right of centre bloggers are denouncing Hannan. I'm frankly sick and tired of Hannan insulting our National Health Service; the hundreds of thousands of doctors and nurses that provide first class quality care; the millions of people who benefit every year; the millions more who are only alive now or able to work thanks to the NHS.

I realise that Hannan is not the Conservative health spokesman, but if he doesn't agree with the party's policy, or at least keep his mouth shut, then he shouldn't be a member of the party any more.

The NHS must stay. I'm not saying that it doesn't need reform and waste to be cut, but the doctrine of free care at the point of service is one of the cornerstones of our society, and must be protected.

JR

David Cameron Weekly Email

Sign up for David Cameron's weekly email. Click below to find out how.



JR

Progressive Conservatism

I've just read an excellent piece over on ConHome about achieving progressive ends by conservative means.

Here's a few snippets for you;

Conservatives understand the limitations of government and trust the vitality of the private and third sector. We prioritise individual freedom and choice. We distrust radical change for change’s sake – in doing so we acknowledge the role of civil society in shaping the ‘good life’ for the many.

[...]

Moreover, the differences between Right and Left don’t end there. On some issues, whilst commonly subscribing to the need for a progressive solution, we have very different visions of what it might look like, and that will result in a different sort of society. When David Cameron launched our project in January, he outlined four key themes of a progressive conservative agenda; a fair society, equality of opportunity, greener politics and a safer society. Few in any party could disagree with the goals, but conservatives have a different ideal in mind when they use these phrases.

[...]

We argue that ownership is key to understanding poverty, and that more owners means more independent, secure and independent citizens who are able to actively participate in our society. Whilst the Left is handicapped by their obsession with income, it is the Right who are able to build on their history of bold ideas and belief in capitalism to find ways of genuinely enfranchising the masses in our vision of a good and rewarding life. So, whilst we propose an end to the drip-feeding of welfare and the trap of perpetual dependency, the Left chooses to continue to patronize the poor with hand-outs and income supplements. We seek, as progressive conservatives, to address the root causes of social injustice – not simply to ameliorate the effects with compensation.

It is the dependence on benefits which is one of the major barriers to social mobility in today's Britain. You have to tackle the issue of why people are claiming benefits, not throw more money at the people themselves. This is the dividing point of left verses right progessives;

Leftwing progressive: Things can only get better.
Conservative progressive: Things can get better.

JR

Silly Season Continues

BOGOF is what I say to a government proposal to ban two for one offers in supermarkets in a bid to cut down on food waste; as reported in today's Times.

Buy-one, get-one-free offers could be banished from supermarket shelves under a government plan to reduce Britain’s food waste mountain.

Supermarket chiefs will be told instead to offer half-price deals and package food in a greater range of sizes to suit the single person’s fridge as well as the family’s.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is demanding that stores agree to a tough target on reducing food waste or face legislation that forces them to make savings.

Buy-one, get-one-free deals, known as “bogofs”, are one of the main reasons why a third of all food is wasted, a report on food security and sustainability found.

Retailers know their customers best, and customers are becoming much more savvy. For example, I picked up a BOGOF offer on bacon this week rather than buy one pack of bacon and one pack of sausages. I made the offer work for me.

This is a clear over reach and another example of the nanny state interfering where it's not welcome.

JR

NUS Shifts To Newcastle

As announced by NUS President, Wes Streeting, on BBC Radio Newcastle this morning (54 mins in), the National Union of Students Conference in 2010 (and 2011) will be held in NewcastleGateshead at The Sage.

Over 1500 delegates, speakers and observers will attend the event, bringing £1.3 million to the region each year.

The conference is moving from the reliable, but deteriorating, Winter Gardens in Blackpool, and will be the first time the conference has been held outside the North West in over 20 years.

The main hall in The Sage can accommodate up to 1640 delegates, and the venue has plenty of break out rooms for those all important fringe events. It also looks stunning, and will be much relief to those who couldn't stand the Winter Gardens' state of disrepair.

NUS Conference 2010 will be on 13-15 April. Can't wait!

JR

Just 300 Days To Go

That's right, the next general election must be held on or before 3 June 2010, which means there are no more than 300 days to go.

The most likely situation, however, is for the general election to be held on the same date at the local council elections, 6 May 2010. Theoretically, the local elections could be moved to 3 June (presumably to coincide with the last date that there could be a general election), but this is unlikely.

A large number of PPCs (prospective parliamentary candidates) have yet to be selected from the main parties due to MPs not re-standing, voluntarily or otherwise, for their party due to the recent expenses scandals. It is therefore unlikely that an election will be called for this autumn.

Whenever it is, the country can't wait to have their say.

JR

Off The Rails

Whoever designed this tube map of the Brown cabinet is clearly very lonely and insane ...

Click to enlarge. H/T Joe Oliver.

JR

14 Reasons Why The Right are Unhappy with David Cameron ... and How They're Wrong

I spotted this over on CentreRight (part of ConservativeHome) about why some members, mostly on the right of the party, are unhappy with David Cameron. My reaction to most of the reasons was confusion on what the problem actually was; so I'd thought I'd respond to each of the points.

Remember each of these is a reason why the right is unhappy with Cameron.

1, Accepting the climate change consensus.

I'm sure nothing I can say about this would change the mind of the original author about climate change; but if he doesn't believe the world's leading scientists when they say we've got a major problem on our hands then there's no hope for him. What is certain is Conservatives don't like needless waste, so why is turning off the lights when they're not in use such a bad idea?

2, Opposing grammar schools.

Well, I wasn't aware that Cameron was opposed to grammar schools. He's supporting the (very good) idea of city academies insofar as he wants to give control of schools back to headteachers.

3, Accepting 50p tax.

I'm not too happy about 50p tax myself, but there's not much you can do about it in opposition. If and when the Tories come to power then the rate can be put back to its original state, but not before the country's books are brought back to respectability. Remember, the Tories would probably have to put up taxes otherwise.

4, Declining to say he'll reverse Lisbon.

If Ireland vote Yes in their second referendum, and the treaty is ratified in the Czech Republic and other countries that still require to do so, then the treaty will be in force. It would then become impossible to withdraw from the treaty without also withdrawing from the European Union.

We don't want to pull out of the EU, we just don't want to have a federal Europe that Lisbon would put us on the path to. The only option available would be to renegotiate our membership of the EU. However there are a lot of ifs before we get to that stage, so there'd be no point in working out what we'd do in a hypothetical situation, and we'd by very stupid to try.

5, Cutting defence spending but increasing NHS spending.

Cuts in defence spending have occurred in every single government since WW2, and will be a necessary evil after the Conservatives inherit the state of the public finances.

Cutting spending on the NHS, however, isn't a very good idea. Apart from it being the quickest method of throwing away votes, it is apparent the NHS is still underfunded in many areas. Just think of the many drugs that aren't available on the NHS because of costs.

6, Forcing Catholic adoption agencies to accept homosexuality (I'm gay btw but support freedom of association).

Well I'm not gay, but homophobia is something I believe shouldn't be tolerated in the 21st century. I'm also a Christian, and I know that for every mention deploring homosexuality in the bible there's half a dozen calling for tolerance and equality.

7, Backing extra state funding of political parties.

Clearly this is something coming out of the old argument of limiting how much any one person can donate to a politcal party. It would be a compromise for Labour in particular in stopping the unions giving so much to them. Don't worry, it's never going to happen.

8, Making air travel too expensive for poor families.

Eh? I'm not sure where this one comes from, but I suspect you should substitute the answer to 1 above.

9, Supporting positive discrimination for women and ethnic minorities.

As usual, there has been a misunderstanding of what equal opportunities means. It isn't about quotas or gender balancing, but giving everyone the same opportunity to get that job or enter that competition. The most effective way of doing this is for application forms to have a detachable personal information section that the short-listing panel don't see. That way there can't be any prejudices against, or indeed in favour of, a particular candidate.

The party, as well as everyone else, needs to learn this.

10, Backing for shooting galleries for drug addicts.

No idea. Next!

11, Cuddling up to Obama while shunning Bush.

Bush was terrible. He's also gone, so what does it matter.

As I have previously blogged, electing McCain would've been madness. Not because of McCain himself, but because of Sarah Palin (see that blog post for more information). Since it looks like Cameron will be PM in twelve months time, it would be stupid to start bad mouthing the US President since Cameron and Obama will be working together on a number of global issues.

12, Opposition to nuclear power stations.

OK, I agree with this. So that's 1 so far!

13, Dumping of the Patient Passport.

This is beginning to scrape the bottom of the barrel though. Think about it, the party was peddling this idea around for well over two years before the previous general election, and it never got off the ground.

The patient passport could've taken pressure off some hospitals in some areas, but would've heaped it on another hospital, stretching their resources and time, and we're back to square one. It would've also subsidised many private hospital operations for people who really didn't need the subsidy. It wasn't a very good policy, and it was rightfully dumped!

14, Silence on immigration.

Um ... Border Police Force, more stricter powers, not really silence is it. Apart from that though, it's not all that bad an idea to only bring it up every now and again when you've got parties like the BNP around!

So I make that 1 from 14 that I agree with.

JR

Rats Leaving the Sinking Ship

According to The Times, the Liberal Democrats and Labour are losing members at the rate of 8.5 and 6% a year, respectfully.

This is bad news for both parties, but especially for the Liberal Democrats who haven't done well in recent elections, even at a time where the Labour government is imploding.

The fact of the matter is, at the next general election the Lib Dems are going to lose almost all their seats in the south to the Conservatives, and will be fighting to keep hold of their seats in the north. Losing a third of their MPs could only be seen as a failure of Nick Clegg's leadership.

Even my mum said to me this week that she wouldn't vote for a party that changes policies with the wind, and herein lies the problem. Clegg has tried to make himself the laid back man, the leader who isn't stuffy and part of the establishment, trying not to take it too seriously. His synthetic outrage at Prime Minister's Questions doesn't quite cut the mustard, and his constant attacks on both Labour and the Conservatives don't fit in with the long-standing Lib Dem pledge of being ready to work with either party.

Clegg even copied the Tory idea of town hall type meetings to question the leader, except that the Lib Dem version that was included in their party election broadcasts this year, was clearly shot in a television studio with an invited audience. No-one who could possibly be concerned with the integrity of British politics would vote for a party that is lead by a man who doesn't seem to be taking it seriously.

Clegg has moulded the Liberal Democrats into the worst kind of populist party. No ideology, no vision, no point!

JR