Britain needs a General Election

I've been up in Lancashire today launching our campaign for the European elections. These elections matter and only by voting Conservative will we get the changes we all want to see in Europe.

Our candidates are the kind of people Brussels needs more of. And they've all signed our pledge to stand up for the kind of things Brussels needs more of: delivering more for less, cleaning up the political system and, of course, giving us the referendum that we were promised.

So I hope you will give them your full support. But the big election, the election we really need, is still to come - and it can't come soon enough.

I've wanted a General Election for some time but now the sheer scale of the problems facing Britain today - the recession, the debt crisis, and now the political crisis - has changed everything.

They've made having an election not just a "nice to have", but an absolute "must have". Some MPs are calling for a new Speaker, but that alone doesn't get to the heart of the matter.

This political crisis has been caused by the politicians, so I don't think the politicians alone can solve it. The public have got to be involved. They have to be given a chance to voice their anger and approve of a new way forward.

That's why I'm announcing today that we are turning the campaign we had planned for these elections into the campaign Britain now needs: a campaign for a General Election to be held as soon as possible.

Conservative candidates and activists right across the country will be collecting signatures for a petition demanding that Gordon Brown calls a General Election.

You can help kick-start this campaign right now - just click here to sign the petition online, and then send the link to your friends and colleagues.

If we all Sign for Change we can send a message that the government can't ignore.

Mr Brown...Your time is up!

IT is time to have a general election. 65% of the public think it is time to vote. If things get worse, Im a going to start the revolution myself!!!

Hubble Bubble, Beware the Witches of Leftwick

I just wanted to wish Boris congratulations on his victory for Mayor of London. I hope he can turn his energy and excitement into something really positive as far as London is concerned.

After years of near hatred, I have to say that I was also a little sad to see Ken Livingstone go (but not a lot). He actually seemed to take it quite well. I had visions of him attacking Gordon Brown, the labour party and the public in the same way as we have seen him attack the London assembly over the years, but he was magnanimous in defeat. I nearly got angry when I was listening to LBC and a listener suggested that he should now look to run for leadership of the labour party and then to become PM. "God, no!!!" I thought to myself before I remembered that half of LBC's listeners are as raving mad and delusional as the people they support, this poor lady being one of them.


I have also been amused over the last couple of days by the Labour hierarchy telling us that the results mean it is time for them to listen and that what we need is strong leadership through hard times or in other words, as a public we don't actually know what we want and the government has to do what they want to do anyway whilst doing it with a sympathetic look on their faces and ruffled brow.


I also think that I have spotted something very interesting as a result of the labour defeat this week. Brown had his big guns out. If you like his rottweilers of war. A trio no less who flew the red standard and charged into battle for the leader....and the interesting thing is that they were all women. I think the chaps in the cabinet were around and about but the main muscle on all of the political commentary shows I was watching on TV were the ladies. Harriet, Tessa and Jacqui were all unfazed and almost maniacal in their belief in what they were trying to say (previous paragraph) and stand for.

They actually did a very good job of taking much of the flack that was flying about and I have to say that if I were married to either of them, the last thing I would be worried about would be whether they would support me in times of trouble. These are the type of women that successful men are made of. They also showed a strength and determination I associate with another lady politician of not too long ago. Yes...the great ginger one, the Iron Lady herself, old Mrs T. Imagine three Margaret Thatchers. It is an absolutely terrifying prospect but the possibility has been brewing in the labour party for years and under our very noses.

Look (as Tony Blair would say), forget about the chaps for New Labour. I mean, seriously, who have they got? The Two Camp Millibands or Ed Balls (John Prescott II). These three women singularly could eat any of the aforementioned for breakfast whilst reciting tracts from the Odyssey in reverse, standing on their heads and gargling Champagne. If they were to unite like Gordon and Tony did, they could be great and when Gordon falls they could inherit the earth (of the UK at least). There is an outside chance that they will all shave their heads, start wearing flowery mini dresses and chanting hippy love songs round the halls of Westminster, however it is more likely that they will be fundamental and vital to the future success of their party. I don't necessarily think that they would plot Gordon's demise themselves because they seem to be too loyal for that, but when he goes, I think that rivals from within and outside new labour will all need to start watching what what these three women will do even if they are unwise enough to be ignoring them today.

I'm Sick of Obama vs. Clinton

I truly am bored to tears with Obama and Clinton. I appreciate that the political landscape in the US affects anything and everything both political and economical in the rest of the world. I know therefore that we perhaps should have an interest in what happens to their candidates and everything but I feel like this fight for nomination to stand for presidential office on behalf of the Democrats is dragging on and on and on and on.

Imagine if our leadership campaigns were conducted like they are in the US. For a start, all political parties would go broke because they simply couldn't afford a campaign lasting anywhere near as long as Clinton's & Obama's let alone for more than one candidate. Imagine if this was how the conservative party decided on its priministerial candidates since it lost power. It would've been a perpetual campaign. Imagine having to have put up with all four successive leaders of the conservatives and their rivals travelling up and down the country kissing babies and falling over themselves to be seen with celebrities and all the right people visiting Britain.

It would have been grotesque. I can't imagine anything worse. I cannot then understand why we are following the contest in the US so closely. I rather fancy that the actual reason is because we don't have enough news without it to justify 24/7 news on TV. I also appreciate that there is a little bit of carnivalesque side-showism because the candidates are female and black. I don't understand why we cannot simply tune in when it actually matters though. This in my opinion would be the point when they have actually decided who is going to stand for their party and not before. This would be the point when the two parties start to do war.

Apart from anything else they both come across like a couple of vindictive school children telling lies and spreading rumours about each other so they can be the most popular kid in class. I don't think that they are actually doing anything to enhance their reputations or reassure the world or America that they are going to be mature enough to run the country and set a positive example to the rest of the world. As far as I am aware, we have already been tortured with the wranglings of these two individuals for 15 months now and the presidential elections are not even until November. Personally, whatever happens as a result of this contest, I firmly hope that John McCain wins the big one for no other reason than I am not already sick to death of him.

Lord Desai, Half Right about Labour.

Lord Desai came out today and said what we are all probably thinking about unelected PM Gordon Brown. That he is indecisive and weak. However he got the next bit wrong because he claimed that Gordon was put on earth to remind us how good Blair was and this is where I started to get angry.

I want to make it perfectly clear from here that I think and have always thought that the whole New Labour exercise was nothing more than a re-branding exercise backed up with good, almost genius manipulation of the media and NOTHING MORE. They have not improved our lives since they have been in power. They have also lied about all sorts of things (least of all the reasons for going to war). The guys at the top are all involved in political corruption through cash for honours and Saudi warplanes. We have been told repeatedly that Britain is recession proof, that crime is lower, immigration is great and that hospitals are fantastic because of all the money that has been poured into the NHS black hole. But the thing to remember is that it is not entirely Gordon Brown's fault.

Yes he was there. Yes he stood shoulder to shoulder with Blair throughout and made wild statements that we were supposed to believe without question, but he was working for Blair. Blair was in charge of the country for 10 years and the state of things must fall firmly on Blair's shoulders, not Brown's. Contrary to what Lord Desai says about Brown, I actually think more correctly that Gordon Brown was put on earth to remind us of just how bad Mr. Blair was and how hollow his 10 years in power actually were.

It was also suggested by Desai that Brown's successor should be the current foreign secretary David Milliband. Now this I agree with. Being a supporter of the other side, I think that the choice has to be absolutely the best from the conservative party point of view too. Blair was a smug super confident man who could oil his way through anything and appear half credible to the type of people who voted for him. Milliband is also unbelievably smug too and Lord Desai is probably thinking that Milliband is another Blair. However, I don't think that I have spoken to a labour supporter and I have spoken to a few, who is not reviled by Milliband. In fact most people seem to positively dislike him citing his inability to be sincere about anything together with his smugness as the main reason for their dislike. At least with Blair, he seemed to care about things even if it did all turn out to be a great acting performance from a man who actually cares for nothing but his own political advancement and personal "legacy".

Anyway, I actually started to smile at the end after I found myself defending Gordon Brown for some strange reason. I think defending Gordon Brown would be a bit like defending Goering at Nuremberg. Fact is Brown was at the top of Blair's government and has been a major contributing player in the utter incompetence that has been running this country since Labour got into power. Brown has been left holding the bag though and it is natural that he will look like the villain, after all Blair jumped ship before we started to discover the sticky tape that is holding this Labour government and its actions for the last ten years precariously in place.

If Labour loses badly in the local elections and loses London, I think that Lord Desai is right, Labour will start to panic and I think that people like him are going to start it. I think that this is exactly what we saw from the conservative party after they lost to labour originally and until quite recently, panic and disorganisation caused by a great deal of back and front stabbing from factions within the party. The result of this "panic" is political loss and humiliation" so I think that I am quite confident that we are going to see a good spanking at the next general election. Ah, revenge will be so sweet and I will look forward to another ten year stint by a conservative government until they screw things up and whilst New Labour send Milliband to Hollywood or at least the local drama school to learn how to act with the sincerity that got Blair into power (it'll take him a while unfortunately). Once He learns to say "look" a lot and use his hands and gesticulate in a more forceful way, he will be in a position to lie properly to the country and convince them that he is the man for the job.

Brian, Borris & Ken or Larry, Curly & Mo?

I was watching News Night the other night and for once I am happy and surprised to say that my usual anger at some of the news was turned into laughter when I was treated to the Three Stooges live with Paxman. Livingstone, Johnson and the Lib/Dem guy stood in a row and answered (or in fact didn't answer) Paxman's questions in probably the best example of political farce I have seen for years. At points I was almost expecting to see Boris take a swing a Ken who would duck, the Lib/Dem guy would then take Boris' slap on the face and in turn slap Ken as he rose and turned to face him. The big questions are...who was Larry, who was Curly, who was Mo? I'll let you decide.

The candidates all bumbled over each other for the entire duration and didn't really say a lot. The highlight was when Paxman told Boris he couldn't say anything else until he gave him figures on how much more or less it was going to cost him to scrap bendy buses and replace them with Route Masters. He clearly didn't know or remember them, but Paxman wouldn't let it go and came across like a father at the dinner table saying to his child, "Right, no desert until you tell me what the capital of Turkmenistan is!!!". Is this really what we are expecting of the Mayor of London...second rate politics, argued and presented badly (although amusingly) on issues that quite frankly seem quite banal in comparison to many of the issues facing Londoners today?

I think that we need to draw a line in the sand between comedy and politics and as long as the Mayoral contests fall on the side of comedy we should seriously think about abolishing the position like we did in the 80s to the GLC. I think that we should also be aware that what works well in the US, doesn't necessarily work well in the UK. I always thought that UK politics was a little more refined and subtle than it is in the US and that mud slinging and face off debates were a bit unsophisticated, but then perhaps since the New Labour media machine dropped in, this is what British politics has been reduced to.