A damaging verdict on the Government

Five senior figures from Church of England have lambasted the Government's record on debt, family breakdown and the growing gap between rich and poor in a series of recent interviews. Cranmer covers the story on his blog. The Bishop of Manchester labelled Labour as “morally corrupt”. The Bishop of Durham on the other hand criticised the Government for not doing enough to help the poor since it came to power. "Labour made a lot of promises, but a lot of them have vanished into thin air. We have not seen a raising of aspirations in the last 13 years, but instead there is a sense of hopelessness". I don't think that the Church should be getting involved in party politics but it is indicative of the state we're in that such an astonishing attack has been made.

There has been less Christmas cheer this year. People are worried about their livelihoods and insecure about the future. The situation we are in cannot be brushed off by this Government simply as a symptom of the global economic crisis. Yet that is the policy being pursued as Brown responded to the criticism by invoking Winston Churchill and calling for a blitz spirit to overcome the current financial woes. The sad thing is that we have reached wartime levels of public debt. A level that my own and future generations will pay for in years to come.

Merry Xmas from Brussels

Dan Hannan MEP has posted a video message from the fab group of Conservative MEP Assistants in Brussels on his blog.

Great singing/miming from the guys on the EP's 14th Floor: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ExXJrgCQC-k&eurl=http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/daniel_hannan/blog/2008/12/27/wouldnt_it_be_nice_if_meps_got_on_this_well#.
But I wonder when they had a chance to record this?

Tis the season to be careful

Your Government is working hard for you at Xmas. Proof is in the pudding or in this case, the leaflet produced - Advent calendar style - by Ed Ball's Department for Children, Schools and Families called "Tis the Season to be Careful". More than 150,000 leaflets have been distributed through shopping centres, children's centres, housing associations and local fire and rescue services over the Christmas period. If people weren't worried enough by the economic downturn, they should also beware of the perils lurking in every household during the festive season.

Measures must be taken to avoid the following accidents:

• Parents stabbing themselves with scissors they have grabbed instead of screwdrivers to assemble toys;
• People cutting themselves with knives they are using to open presents too quickly;
• Children falling off rocking horses (?) or smashing new bikes into walls;
• Tipsy party guests toppling down stairs or crashing to the floor when they miss their seat at the dinner table; and
• In the kitchen where most people love to gather during Christmas, gravy exploding in microwave ovens, burns and scolds from cooking the turkey and cuts from chopping vegetables.

We have also been advised to make sure that presents are suitable for a child’s age, avoid hanging decorations from lights and heaters as they can burn easily, keep batteries away from babies and toddlers as they can choke on small things and empty out glasses as small amounts of alcohol can poison young children.

I haven't received a leaflet, so I enter Christmas having to rely on my own judgement around my own home. So far so good. No accidents to report. Though I did feel like reporting using taxpayers' money to produce glossy leaflets that simply to state the obvious.

Campaigning in the rain!

On Saturday, I was out in nearby Newent delivering leaflets. Dressed up warmly and wearing my beanie to ward off the rain, I had fun spending some time with fellow local Conservative association members. We were quite lucky in that the rain did stop for a while and we got alot done. Many houses were decked out in Christmas regalia and whilst walking around, the odd Christmas tune did pop into our heads. I can't wait for Christmas!

"We won't take no for an answer"

At least that was my initial reaction reading an article on the BBC's website noting that Ireland is ready to hold a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty in the Autumn of 2009 if given certain guarantees by the EU. The President of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Poettering has said that dialogue with Irish citizens before the first vote in June had not been "serious enough".

To force a second Irish referendum is simply undemocratic. The Irish people have already provided their verdict on the treaty. William Hague has rightly said that "the EU is in danger of being seen as 'increasingly unaccountable and out of touch' if it doesn't listen to what people are saying".

Not Flash...just Gordon

In PMQs today, Brown boasted that the Government had saved the world.

One word in response. Pleeease!


UPDATE 11 Dec 2008: Politicians don't live in comic books. They aren't super heroes. Ann Treneman writing in The Times noted that "Gordon Brown, master of immodesty, has revealed what he thinks about himself".

The "save the world" comment may have been a slip of the tongue but Labour MPs should know better when their defence of the PM reduces the level of parliamentary debate to this (taken from the BBC website):

"Commons leader Harriet Harman responded to Tory MPs in the Commons she would 'rather have Superman as our leader than their leader who is The Joker'. Labour MP Anne Moffat immediately intervened to say 'Wonder Woman does it again'."

In the words of The Telegraph's David Hughes, what are these people on?

4 counties, 4 great groups of people

I was at a dinner recently and the subject of blogging came up. The issue was, when you are busy on the campaign trail, do you narrate everywhere you've been or will it make for a rather dull posting as it will appear to simply be listing people and places. My answer is try and make the blog an accurate description of what you are doing. As it would happen, I have spent every weekend for the last few weeks/months attending a couple of lunches and dinners, giving the odd speech and finding out about what people think on local and European issues. I have had the best time and in terms of the European campaign, it has been incredibly productive. I owe it to people to say what I've been up to so forgive me now if I appear to list!

On Thursday, I attended Bath University Conservative Association's Christmas dinner at Green Park Brasserie. I'm incredibly fond of the people at Bath Conservative Association but had not, until that point, had proper interaction with Bath CF members (it was a case of you meet a few at a general association event or on the campaign trail but not altogether). They had just come back from a study trip to Brussels so it was good to exchange a few notes on our experiences and views on the City and the EU institutional set up. I enjoyed the conversation - many of us were on completely the same wavelength on European issues so the chat was vibrant. Florian Bay seems to be doing a great job as Chair. Dinner went quite fast and I wanted to continue our political discussions at a nearby pub but my train to Gloucester awaited (and a packed Friday schedule).

Friday was a full day on the road. I started off in Salisbury for a Christmas lunch hosted by Sue Key and the Salisbury Conservative Ladies at the White Hart Hotel. Some of you may be aware that Salisbury MP (and her husband), Robert Key, continues the tradition of the victorious parliamentary candidate singing ‘The Vly be on the Turmut’ (the marching song of the Wiltshire Regiment) from the balcony of the hotel! I love such glorious traditions and is just another aspect of what makes Salisbury so unique. Festive mood was in full swing and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

I then headed to The Brownsword Hall in Poundbury in Dorchester for a simply fabulous Sparkling Reception hosted by the West Dorset Women's Organisation. The exquisite hall was packed and at least half of us then made our way to a nearby cafe for dinner. There is simply too much to recount here - suffice to say, the company was excellent, the members knowledgeable about European issues, the political discussion in full flow (not suprisingly agriculture came to the fore as a topic, as well as issues that people are truly concerned about such as the EU Budget) and the food spectacular.

Saturday was spent in beautiful Devon speaking at a lunch in Exmouth. I was very lucky with the weather and had a stroll along the seafront. It was a joy to meet some of the East Devon Conservative Association - a few of whom I had met during the Euro selection period. Moreover the Q&A session after my speech was fantastic - subjects came up that hadn't in my most recent outings like the Euro and fisheries. Once again, I left the event excited about our local and European campaigns as the people on the ground are some of the best there can be (I was very impressed with the commitment, knowledge and dynamism of the local councillors I met).

All in all a very worthwhile weekend.

Who are these people that matter?

Jose Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Commission has indicated to French radio that the UK is "closer than ever before" to joining the euro as a result of the fallout from the global economic crisis. He noted that "I don't mean this will happen tomorrow, I know that the majority are still opposed, but there is a period of consideration underway and the people who matter in Britain are currently thinking about it."

Who are these people that matter? Brown and Mendelson? Just because this Government's record on the economy is far from stellar, it does not mean that we should join the Euro zone. The same arguments are being put forward for joining the Euro zone as were stated for going into the Exchange Rate Mechanism and we all know how that turned out. If the UK had been subject to the interest rates of the eurozone, we would probably have had a far worse boom and bust. The best article by the way that I have read on this is by the excellent Dan Hannan MEP (see http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/daniel_hannan/blog/2008/11/16/joining_the_euro_would_be_the_worst_possible_response_to_the_sterling_crisis). I want us to retain our independence in setting fiscal and monetary policy. As Dan Hannan notes, the weak pound is an indictment on more than a decade of Labour economic mismanagement. In any event, William Hague has quite rightly stated that "Britain's budget deficit and national debt will soon be outside the euro's entry criteria".

The Government needs to come clean as to its policy in this area. Instead, we have reports of a Treasury Department, the Euro Preparations Unit, spending millions of pounds on preparing to join the Euro. In this economic climate, all the talk of joining the Euro can be destabilising. As Neil Parish MEP noted recently, the Government should back the Pound.

Another busy weekend

On Saturday, I attended a regional Conservative conference in Taunton. It went very well and it was great to meet officers, candidates and activists from across the South West, all under one roof. We had some extremely informative panel discussions and group sessions.

We are about to enter an intense period of campaigning in the six months leading up to next year's local and European elections. I have been trying to attend as many association events as possible (hence my lighter than usual blogging) so that I can network with activists and local councillors and candidates and allow members an opportunity to hear how our Euro campaign is going and to ask me about topical European issues. After the Taunton Conference, I headed down to Torquay to speak at a Political Dinner and the next morning, made my way back to Taunton to attend a delicious Curry Lunch.

Taunton Curry Lunch

It has been a very worthwhile few days where I have met some wonderful people, learnt alot and got even more motivated by our various campaigns in the region.