The True Statesman
Posted on 10. Mar, 2010 by RK in United Kingdom
This afternoon’s session of Prime Minister’s Questions was, for me, the best of the year so far. David Cameron was undoubtedly on peak form as he ravaged Labour’s complete disregard toward the Armed Forces and had to spell out for Gordon Brown that defence spending under the Conservative government decreased as, “Under the Conservatives, we won the Cold War!”
Guardian FAIL… epically.
Posted on 06. Mar, 2010 by RK in International, United Kingdom, United States
Late last night, lefty conspirators hit that “SEND” button on their Macbooks (Ed: Don’t YOU use a Macbook?) and went to the presses on this deeply embarrassing expose on the Young Britons’ Foundation- Britain’s young free-market training organisation. The problem is, it wasn’t embarrassing for YBF. It was a yet another non-story in the long line of Grauniad pseudo-journalistic bias.
Grauniad mash up – Pre #springforum lulz.
Posted on 01. Mar, 2010 by RK in United Kingdom
A round up of spring forum follows later today, I promise. I’d like to look at everyone else’s impressions first and so far, I guess you could say ’so good’. I like to think I get around quite a bit at these things so I’m gonna offer some insights into the various areas of Spring Forum, from atmosphere of the general delegation, the buzz around the bar, Hannan’s Tea Party, impressions of the Shad-Cab, the press area, journos and more. (Ed: And the speech, don’t forget the speech!) But that’ll take a while to articulate so in the mean time I decided to parody the front page of The Grauniad this morning. Who’s more unsure about who?
Update: Also, we’ve Wordled David Cameron’s speech from Spring Forum – seems his emphasis is on people, country, think and going. In contrast, Gordon Brown’s speech for Welsh Conference this weekend concentrates heavily on people, Wales, Labour, jobs and government. Make of it what you will…
Cameron's Speech
Brown's speech
Labour’s failures: the video DC almost showed?
Posted on 01. Mar, 2010 by OHC in United Kingdom
Before David Cameron’s speech at Spring Forum, a video was screened on Labour’s failures since coming to power: broken society, broken economy, broken politics. But we have on “reliable” “sources” that the party was considering using this video as the warm-up instead. (more…)
CPAC 10 Round up
Posted on 22. Feb, 2010 by RK in International, United Kingdom, United States
You may have noted from the radio silence that this week, I was in Washington DC for the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). After a few days of intense drinking, thinking, debating and relating, I thought I’d bring you guys up to speed with my impressions of the event and more interestingly, the situation amongst American Conservatives.
Arriving on the Wednesday gave our group a little time to settle in and take in the grand surroundings of the Marriott Wardman Hotel. Suffice to say we soon found the bar and the beer and the week was off to a kicking start. A strong libertarian contingent, more noticeable amongst the younger delegates meant that discussions were immediately fiery and this editor was swiftly labeled a “Neo-Con”.
As much as some people’s Neo-Con fears about me might be confirmed with this, I definitely enjoyed Dick Cheney’s walk on during his daughter’s spot on the Thursday afternoon. I don’t like people who apologise for actions just to bow to public opinion, and Cheney is certainly not apologetic. He rallied the crowd, and after thanking them for the warm applause, a telling moment occurred when an audience member shouted, “No. Thank YOU.”
That night we spent a lot of time around Dr. Tom Woods, from the Ludwig von Mises Institute. Dinner, drinks and debate followed, with many of the US libertarians star struck. Shortly after being demanded out of the pub, an impromptu address was delivered in the Main Ballroom by perhaps a great speaker to look out for in the future, though that’s a different story for… maybe a few years.
Friday got off to a slower start for me, touring the exhibition areas showed that conservatism in the United States is so diverse, with a whole host of organisations representing issues from pro-life to deregulated gambling, from gun control defence to absolutist freedom of speech. I guess you could say this whole day was a bit more chilled out than usual. I did however, receive a fantastic tour of the US Capitol which was followed by seeing Ann Coulter address a young, passionate audience. While it’s unfortunate that she seems to be becoming more and more a parody of herself, she stills infuses her fans with such vigour and often anger. Still noteworthy, basically. Musical chairs with hotel rooms followed, but let’s face it, a conference wouldn’t be a conference without some inexplicable behaviour from… pretty much everyone at some point!
can must see by clicking here, or through the embed below. Glenn Beck packed out the room, alongside his chalk board to deliver the keynote speech which was very well received. Let’s just say that the rest of Saturday gets fuzzy after that…
It was sad to leave after meeting so many sound and friendly individuals at the conference this year. It’s a sure sign of where we in the UK need to be with more independent conservative and libertarian movements. Breaking away from the party has benefits for all sides and is far more likely to attract “never voted Tory before” conservatives into the mix. All in all a fantastic affair, and all I can say is that I’m looking forward to being able to cross the pond soon enough again. Someone just give me half a reason!
Poland to get a very Bullingdon president?
Posted on 28. Jan, 2010 by OHC in United Kingdom
The likely next President of Poland was a member of the Bullingdon Club at the same time as Cameron and Boris. When at Oxford, BoJo even hazed Radosław Sikorski by wrecking his room in true Bullingdon style!
Now that the Civic Platform’s leader Donald Tusk has ruled himself out, Sikorski is the front runner for the party’s nomination. The classical liberal Civic Platform (Ed: sound!) is the largest party in Parliament, followed by the Conservatives’ allies Law and Justice.
Tusk just lost out to the Law and Justice candidate Lech Kaczyński in the presidential election in 2005. But DC’s friend Sikorski was a Law and Justice MP until 2007, making him likely to steal away any floating voters and would surely win any run-off.
Either way, Cameron will have a firm ally in Poland. The old boys network travels far.
Mr. Hannan, I doff my cap to you…
Posted on 04. Nov, 2009 by RK in United Kingdom
Admirable.
While we wholly respect and understand Mr. David Cameron’s realistic calls for the ‘never again’ strategy, and we take seriously the legal and constitutional hurdles that Britain would now face to repatriate powers from Brussels- we can’t help but feel an awesome romantic allegiance to Daniel at this stand.
Of course, many would call the move foolish- and more the foolish they are for that. The United Kingdom is severely lacking in principled politicians such as Mr. Hannan, and KeepRightOnline are enormously proud that he once wrote for us on the European elections.
Mr. Hannan, I doff my cap to you. You may have served just two months in your position, but that certainly beats a certain Conservative Future National Executive Member. (Ed: Er… Less of that.)
In Dave We Trust
Posted on 04. Nov, 2009 by OHC in United Kingdom
The party has been comprehensively out-manoeuvred on Europe, but David Cameron’s speech today was exactly what was needed. It was the most Eurosceptic message ever delivered by a Conservative leader. But it was grounded in practical policies that can move us away from an ever-centralising Europe and towards incremental repatriation of powers. This was the declaration of a truly conservative policy: a truly two-speed Europe.
Everything he promised today was what he said: necessary, realistic, and deliverable. We may well win a referendum on undoing Lisbon – at the cost of much political capital – but if the European governments were to then refuse our specific demand, and insist on negotiation instead, we’d be screwed for ignoring the referendum result.
As such, we need hard and fast pledges on the Westminster agenda – which we got – and a broad negotiating remit, with a mix of red line issues and aspirational issues. That is how diplomacy works; UKIP thinks that everything’s a red line issue, whereas Labour thinks that nothing is. That Cameron gets it shows that he’s far more of statesman than his rivals.
In Dave We Trust.
Update: It’s been brought to my attention that some people think this is some sort of europhile post. We want the UK out of the EU. But anyone that thinks Dave was going to announce that is off their rocker. The policy he did announce abides by what economists call the Theory of the Second Best; if unilateral withdrawal is impossible, unilateral anything else isn’t the best way to restore our sovereignty.
Eurosceptics to the fore
Posted on 04. Nov, 2009 by OHC in United Kingdom
In the Daily Mail today, David Davis issued a challenge to DC over a referendum on Europe, or lack thereof:
What we should do is, in my view, clear. We should have a referendum, not on the treaty, but on the negotiating mandate that the British Government takes to the European Union.
This is the same David Davis that came top of the ConHome poll on who members wanted. Given that the only candidate that came close was the even more eurosceptic John Redwood, it represents a huge challenge to Cameron’s position on the EU.
Two hours until Cameron’s emergency press conference. Whatever he announces, something tells me David Davis might come up in the Q&A.
And what’s wrong with a council tax cut?
Posted on 02. Nov, 2009 by OHC in United Kingdom
With the announcement that heroic Conservative-controlled Hammersmith and Fulham Council will cut council tax by 3% for the fourth year in a row – as their 2006 manifesto pledged – the left is up in arms. Labour published a document called “Cameron’s Councils: Cameron’s Real Agenda for Government” attacking blue councils like H&F, Barnet, and Wandsworth, who have cut council taxes.
Apparently, it means a cut in services. Labour, like lazy journalists (Ed: like you?), cite rising home care fees to ‘prove’ that H&F is failing the residents. But, despite being one of the most deprived authorities in the country, the Audit Commission has given H&F’s local service provision the maximum four stars in every year (up from 3 stars in Labour’s last year of control). Furthermore, it’s rated it as improving ’strongly’ or ‘well’ (the top two ratings) in every year of the Greenhalgh administration. It doesn’t sound like slashing services to us: only slashing costs.
Damn those evil tax-cutting Tories...
Surely, after thirteen years of tax rises, and yet failing public services and a record high budget deficit, the population’s not going to fall for Labour’s old lie: “Services must be improving, because your taxes are going up”. Yes, we hope that Hammersmith and Fulham is the future under Prime Minister Cameron. Because we’ve seen the future, and it works.
Update: H&F councillor Harry Phibbs posted a very comprehensive examination of his borough’s achievements since 2006 on ConHome’s Local Government diary.