Parlez~me~'n~Tory

Rightly Wry, Satirically RIGHT

In this day and age of mistrust, dishonesty and general incompetence it was refreshing to see that UKIP had very clear ideas about who should lead them into the General Election.

Back in 2007 Lord Pearson left the Conservative Party for a new life in relative obscurity amongst fellow UKIPers.

The result seems a little, how shall we say ‘stage managed‘ considering Nigel Farage (the outgoing leader) virtually shoehorned Lord Pearson into the slot by stating

[Lord Pearson was] head and shoulders above his rivals [whilst explaining] any other winner could prove tricky for the party

…I like a level playing field Mr Farage, clearly you do not! Rather obviously UKIP were desirous to have their man already on the inside, albeit in the House of Lords not Commons.

Here’s the breakdown of the 9,900+ votes cast by UKIP members

Lord Pearson: 4,743
Gerard Batten: 2,571
Nikki Sinclaire: 1,214
Mike Nattrass: 1,092
Alan Wood: 315

Right then, that’s who he is and how he got there but what’s he done?

Between April 2001 and June 2007 Lord Pearson claimed £100,000 from the taxpayer for staying in his own house in Victoria, just one mile away from Parliament; he had no mortgage on this property.

Since at least April 2001 Lord Pearson has told Parliamentary authorities that his estate (with several staff) beside Loch Rannoch, Perthshire, is his main home.

Lords rules state: “Members whose main residence is within Greater London cannot claim night subsistence.”

That’ll be the reason for that then.

After selling the flat for £3.7 million In June 2007, Lord Pearson moved into another flat approximately two miles away.

With no mortgage required this time he paid £1.2 million for the flat, this then allowed him to claim another £15,000 in allowances on the basis of his overnight stays.

Claims recorded for the UKIP leader include

£115,683 for overnight subsistence
£56,685 in “day subsistence” allowances
£48,471 in travel expenses – including £10,064 for the cost of flying between Scotland and London in the last two recorded years alone

Bizarrely, he has claimed to have been impoverished as a result of his Political career!

If that’s the case then get out now and save yourself whilst you still can. I’ll pay your train fare. British Politics can do without your sort.

The Prime Minister would have you believe we are in Afghanistan for the safety of Britain’s streets. We are not.

This video is worthy of your attention.

This is a very short post as I am about to examine the contents of a rather nice bottle of Shiraz.

In June David Cameron reopened the Parliamentary Candidates’ List and invited applications from all walks of life. I pondered whether I should apply for a few weeks and then took the plunge.

I was most impressed by the honesty and very generous praise given to me by my nominated referees in the process and sat back with a recommended date of hearing back in July.

July came and went. In August I e-mailed CCHQ and was told they would get back to me eventually. Today, was eventually…

The rejection letter is nice enough and pleasant in its tone and content making a few standard suggestions (all of which I already undertake or have researched and am in the process of undertaking) but the words

I am sorry to have to tell you, therefore, that we are not able to invite you to undertake further assessment at this time. We are, however, still very interested in you…

still hurt, so very much

Quite simply the previous paragraph tells a story of too many applicants for too few places on the remaining Parliamentary Assessment Boards.

What is the measure of a Conservative?

I believe it is to receive this rejection letter at 11AM and at 3PM hold a meeting with the regional chairman of the Association with regards to an even more active role for me within the Party to ensure we turn the South-West from orange to BLUE in a few months time.

Dave, I take rejection quite well, even from a bloke!

And the winner for the accumulation of the most historical errors in a Party Political Broadcast go the Labour Party as GuyNews demonstrates.

Living in Frome, Somerset it upsets me that not only do we have a Liberal Democrat as our MP (David Heath) but the so called ‘FREE Press’, isn’t.

Several times I have had letters rebuffed by the local press and the latest was just a few days ago. I also sent the letter to the Daily Telegraph hoping that they would have the decency to print it, alas, they did not.

[...it has been suggested by Phil Woodford [a fellow Twitterer and an all round good egg] that perhaps I should have signed it Lt Col (rtd) to secure publication…considering putting it on my next one!]

As a consequence I have decided to print it below:

Dear Sir,

Last week the final barrier to the full ratification of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty was overcome and on the First day of December it will be entered into law in all 27 member countries.

Despite all three main political parties promising the nation a referendum at the 2005 election we have not been given the opportunity to vote on this renamed constitution.

In 2007, following a local referendum in this highly marginal seat of Somerton and Frome over 90% of people who exercised the right to vote gave a clear ‘NO’ to the constitution. In essence, more people voted in favour of a referendum than for David Heath to be our representative, which in turn forced our MP to vote with the Conservatives in Parliament in support of a plebiscite.

Now that the Treaty has been ratified (albeit by consequential means), I wonder if he still believes we should have a referendum on it, or whether his vote was simply gesture politics and he has since retreated to the default Liberal Democrat position of just having an “in or out” referendum – which they hope will result in a win for the euro-fanatics?

If we are to see a repatriation of powers to our democratically elected Parliament rather than being dictated to from Brussels, we must have a strong government that is willing to fight for our country, as David Cameron made clear last week he would do should he win the General Election.

Ultimately, the question begs, will David Heath resign again in order to support our country?

Yours faithfully

Today is the Queen’s Speech. Quite possibly the most newsworthy item of the day but I sincerely doubt it.

Many tomes will be written today and in the future about the cynical content of the speech and how it is in effect a pre-manifesto manifesto so I don’t for one minute propose to add to that weight of words.

Instead, I propose to discuss something I feel is far more newsworthy today as I believe it ‘slipped’ under the radar yesterday in the furore of an investment announcement.

Yesterday, Lord Adonis announced that the 10 worst railway stations in England would each get to share £50m. That much we already know.

Fair enough, in the past I have been ‘quietly impressed’ with Lord Adonis and his apparent concern for doing the right thing by the railways but somehow, this just doesn’t sit comfortably with Parlez~me~’n~Tory.

How does Lord Adonis suddenly (1 day prior to a huge swathe of announcements within the Queen’s Speech) decide which stations are to be in his remit for this investment proposal?

What criteria was used for determining the worst stations in the country? Was this a consultative process? If so, with whom and when?

Personally, I believe that the only consultation (external to rail management) was between members of the Cabinet and only very senior members at that.

It is the belief of Parlez~me~’n~Tory that the criteria used was based purely on the best possible chance of a positive return at the General Election. Shall I put that statement into perspective?

Let’s take a look at the stations that are set to benefit and who controls the community. The 2nd line of each entry indicates: MP (Constituency/Benefitting area, Party) Majority (Year entered Parliament):

Station: Barking

Margaret Hodge (Barking, Lab) 8,883 (1994)

Station: Clapham Junction

Martin Linton (Battersea, Lab) 163 (1997)

Station: Crewe

Edward Timpson (Crewe & Nantwich, Con) 7,860 (2008)

Station: Liverpool Central

Maria Eagle (Liverpool, Garston, Lab) 7,193 (1997)
Louise Ellman (Liverpool, Riverside, Lab) 10,214 (1997)
Peter Kilfoyle (Liverpool, Walton, Lab) 15,957 (1991)
Jane Kennedy (Liverpool, Wavertree, Lab) 5,173 (1992)
Robert Wareing (Liverpool, West Derby, Ind) 15,225 (1983)

Station: Luton

Kelvin Hopkins (Luton North, Lab) 6,487 (1997)
Margaret Moran (Luton South, Lab) 5,650 (1997)

Station: Manchester Victoria

Tony Lloyd (Manchester Central, Lab) 9,776 (1983)
Graham Stringer (Manchester, Blackley, Lab) 12,027
Gerald Kaufman (Manchester, Gorton, Lab) 5,808 (1970)
John Leech (Manchester, Withington, Ldem) 667 votes (2005)

Station: Preston

Mark Hendrick (Preston, Lab) 9,407 (2000)

Station: Stockport

Ann Coffey (Stockport, Lab) 9,163 (1992)

Station: Warrington Bank Quay

Helen Jones (Warrington North, Lab) 12,204 (1997)
Helen Southworth (Warrington South, Lab) 3,515 (1997)

Station: Wigan North Weston

Neil Turner (Wigan, Lab) 11,767 (1999)

Do you notice a pattern developing?

It is rather obvious that apart from a token Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Independent the rest are Labour; not exactly with the strongest majorities either.

So, we have many Government ministers that were already set to enter the General Election campaign on very shaky ground who can now point to a huge cash investment in their region as evidence of what the Labour Government can and will do for their community. [It would be very interesting to do some analysis on what the breakdown of each local council is for these regions]…anyone wish to do that work?

Expect countless cries of ‘you wouldn’t get this under a Tory Government’ most notably in the voice of John Prescott to ram home hard the ‘working class’ Labour perception.

With the strategic position of the vast majority of these seats, [don't think for one minute they weren't chosen without that in mind] this investment turns out to be not quite what you thought it was yesterday and with the Queen’s speech today this will be all but lost in the noise. This cannot be allowed to happen.

MP’s from all sides, lobbyists and the blogosphere must leap on this and challenge Lord Adonis for the truth behind his rationale.

Message to Gordon Brown: You’re down, you’re out and I am pretty sure that you’re replacement (whichever fool that turns out to be) is very grateful that you are keeping their seat warm for now.

Following yesterday’s odd decision regarding the recent #againsttheodds campaign and the massive onslaught of derision it brought from anyone else other than Labourites and Socialists it is not surprising that once again Gordon has attempted to turn the attention away from another bad judgement that he has presided over.

It seems that the PM has nothing better to do for the next 48hrs than to sit around No10 Nokia in hand and call EU leaders in a final attempt to get old chummy Blair in the peach of a #1 slot.

There is some consternation that Tony Blair may get in by default as the ‘best of a bad bunch’ [doesn't say much, does it?] Currently Herman Van Rompuy the Belgian Prime Minister is the lead 2nd/3rd place by the majority of voters

The process is being co-ordinated by Swedish prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt and it is heavily rumoured that the new president, and a new EU ‘Foreign Secretary’ must be nominated and selected prior to a summit in Brussels on Thursday.

I’ve spent some pretty ropey times in Belgium at the behest of our nation and in truth I cannot think of a more mundane place outside of Labour Party HQ but despite his ridiculous calls for Euoropean symbolism over National symbolism even Parlez~me~’n~Tory would willingly support old Herman if it meant that Blair was sidelined.

Yes, Parlez~me~’n~Tory would compromise his own views for the good of our country; something our current Prime Minister seems incapable of.