No pass, Mandy – never mind it happens to us too

So here I was, sitting quietly chuckling at the idea of Peter Mandelson being refused entrance to the Labour Party Conference.   It couldn’t happen to a better person.

And then I remembered Bournemouth 2006, and all the members of the great and the good of the Conservative Party waiting, patiently or impatiently, in a little room at the side of the Bournemouth Pavilion because their passes had not arrived.  Many, many of them, not just the VIPs but lots of ordinary members, too, waiting for hours  -  in some cases from lunch-time until after midnight, and in others no pass until the next day.   I remember the friends who had paid out a large sum to attend an annual dinner within the Conference secure area, who had to miss their dinner and waste all that money because their passes had not arrived.

So, better not gloat too much  -  it can happen to the best of us.

PoliticsHome analysis of public view of Parliament

I see today PoliticsHome is showing the results of an analysis they have done of how the public views the institution of Parliament compared with how they did just after the MPs’ expenses story broke.

Just after the revelations began the public approval rating of Parliament dropped to its lowest level since PoliticsHome began keeping records and sleaze became a major issue for voters.   But now the approval rating has returned to the level that it was before the story broke, and the importance attached to corruption as a national priority is fading.   35% of voters thought it was an important issue before the Daily Telegraph’s publications.   This rose to 62% over the following three weeks, making it the second biggest issue.   This week, 39% of the public see political corruption as an important issue. 

The figures and accompanying graphs can be seen here

I have said all along this would happen.   We all know that “the public” has a very short memory and quickly moves on to new things.   I don’t know about the other parties, but it is the Conservative members and activists who felt most strongly, and indeed still feel extremely strongly about this.   As I talk to members and activists in many constituencies, they are still seething.   It is also, by and large, older people who feel so strongly.   An 80+ former Association Chairman informed me that all his friends were furious   -  but I know they are the golf club members of his own age.

The trouble is, though, that it is these members and activists who will be called upon to “work” the election campaign when it comes.   And some of them are saying they won’t work for their “second home and food expenses” MP.   Some entire Conservative Branches are saying they won’t work.

Members of Parliament have been known to say it doesn’t matter  -  these days general elections are fought on the television and with leaflet deliveries, and half a dozen of their personal friends can cover the whole constituency.   But actually that’s a bit naive.   They still need to get the vote out on polling day, and that needs people to do it.

So, yes, I agree that the public resentment is fading, although it still brings a few laughs in the pubs and clubs when someone says, “I’ll put it on my expenses, but not the duck pond”.

But because of the lingering resentment in the Conservative Association and its Branches, there are still some MPs who are at risk of deselection.   Some of them have only themselves to blame because they have handled the situation so badly  -  so arrogantly and rudely.   Every day I become more convinced that one in particular will not survive.

  

 

 

Iran – routine rape of prisoners defies sharia law

Word has seeped out from Iran on what happened to some of the people who wore the green wristband of the opposition and protested against the election result.

In particular, a story about a group of teenage boys, about 15 or 16, who were arrested, held for several weeks, beaten and subjected to other torture, and raped repeatedly.    Some did not survive.   Those who did, are completely broken, and want to die because of the hurt and the shame.   It is said to be routine for both male and female prisoners to be raped.

Two questions to be posed to these hard-line Islamists in Tehran:-

Surely it is against sharia law to have sex outside marriage, so the guards carrying out these rapes broke Islamic law.

Even worse, when they raped the males they were carrying out homosexual acts.   Homosexuality is against Islamic law.

So the prison guards and the interrogators are allowed to break sharia law themselves in order to pursue their persecution of the opposition.

Hospital to charge for using a wheelchair

So Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth has thought up a new charge to inflict on patients.

They are going to charge them for using wheelchairs.   Yes, that’s right, you’ve read it right, they are going to charge patients who need a wheelchair.

A spokesman for the NHS Trust said that the idea was like paying for supermarket trolleys, to stop wheelchairs being left at various locations around the hospital.

The charge is £1, not much perhaps, but when you are an anxious, perhaps confused patient, finding that £1 might be a problem.

But regardless of the actual cost, surely there is a principle here.   Where does it end?  Next thing, need a thermometer to take the patient’s temperature, that’s 50p each time it’s used, please.   Having an operation, the surgeon will use a scalpel on you and that will be £5 please.

Getting like private medicine, isn’t it.

When is a Burka not a Burkha?

Today’s Times carries a piece headed “World’s first Muslim superheroes, the 99, out to conquer the West”.

It is all about an attempt by a “comic creator to counter jihadist role models”.   He, the man behind The 99, is Dr Naif al-Mutawa, a Kuwaiti who used to be a clinical psychologist.   He realized that Superman, Batman, et al, were all “goodies” who would have worn the white hats in the old cowboy movies, whereas the West usually depicts Muslims in such stories as ”baddies”, or black hat wearers.   He wanted to come up with new Muslim heroes who could be good role models, so he devised The 99,  each member of which has a superpower which mirrors one of the 99 attributes of Allah.  They are fighting for truth, justice and the Islamic way, are Sharia-compliant, and have taken the Arab world by storm.   Now they are coming to the West.  

 

This is the illustration to the piece on The Times website.   You may think that at least one of the characters does not look very Sharia-compliant.   The cast includes, in the words of The Times:  “Jabbar, a Saudi Arabian Hulk-type figure with an improbable physique, and Darr the Afflicter, a paraplegic American who can manipulate nerve endings with his mind to trigger pain. There is also a character in a burka — Batina the Hidden.”

 

The paper copy of The Times has a different illustration, showing the characters separately.   Here the Batina figure is a tall, slim, very stylish, military-looking woman, with a skirt at mid-calf length, blowing up and back in the wind, over long black knee-boots.  There is a definite waistline, emphasized by a very wide and tight gold sash with long flowing ends.   There is even, whisper it, the hint of breasts.   She is wearing a tight, helmet-like head-dress, with a short veil just covering the ears, mouth and part of the nose  -  a niquab?   Her eyes are completely uncovered. 

 

Whatever it is, it sure isn’t a “burka”, or even a “burkha”.   That’s the all-enveloping garment, often blue, rather like a tent, which springs from a small, round cap and covers the head, shoulders and entire body, with ankles and arms completely hidden, and with a piece of netting covering the face, thereby making vision very difficult.

 

It would be useful if The Times could get its terminology right.

The demise of the Conservative Agent

Just been listening to the Westminster Hour on Radio 4, and then came across Shaun Ley’s programme, “The Election Agent”.   That was the last of three parts, but picked up Part 2 on I-player.

Marvellous to hear old friends like Jean Lucas, Tony Dey, John Barrance and Andrew Thomson.   Jean, of course, one of the first agents to recognize what computers could do for a constituency organization, and who can rightly claim credit both for helping Wandsworth to be the power house it is today, and for “discovering” John Major.   And Andrew who as part of a distinguished career was Margaret Thatcher’s agent.  I loved John’s tale of Alec Douglas-Home and the Young Socialists being thwarted by a load of manure  -  I’d forgotten that one.   And what a joy to hear the recorded voice of dear old Harry Booth, sadly no longer with us.   Harry, so proud of his red rose heritage that any Loyal Toast with Harry Booth present always contained the echo, “Duke of Lancaster”;  and I still find myself doing it to this day, although I’m a weak southerner with Huguenot ancestors, and a partner loyal to the white rose.

Notice anything about that list?   Yes, all retired.   No practising agents at all.   To be fair, the Labour agents in the programme were also retired, and the Liberals’ only representative, Lord Rennard, has also given up.   I suppose no agent still in post felt able to take part since the theme of the programme was the great days of the profession back in the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s, and the fact that the profession is quietly dying as more and more power is taken by the centre.   All praise then to Jean for making it clear that the appearance of Archie Norman at Central Office was the start of the change in the party when agents were no longer seen as being of any worth, and were ignored.   There had been a great run of people who had held the appointment as head of training, but when the last, Geoff Harper, moved on, nobody was put in post to take over;  the training programme where trainee agents were put with experienced trainer agents for periods of up to two years disappeared;  the three examinations before qualification are no more.   In the old days, even a fully-qualified agent could not be appointed to a constituency until he or she had been registered as a member of the National Society of Conservative Agents.   These days new agents hardly ever bother to join the National Society, and it is believed that CCHQ does not persuade them to or indeed tell them about it.   The loss is theirs.   The comradeship and mutual help between fellow agents is priceless.

Sadly, it seems impossible now to restore the agents’ profession to what it was, not least because few constituencies can afford to pay a respectable salary to people who are highly educated, professionally qualified, often very experienced and committed to the Conservative cause.

Broadband for the whole country – fine, but I’m not paying extra

There was a mini side-column piece in yesterday’s Times that “Lord Mandelson’s vast Whitehall empire expanded while he was on holiday” because of a “mini reshuffle to replace Lord Carter, the Minister for Digital Communications, who left in June having delivered his report on Britain’s digital future”.  (The expansion apparently is because a Treasury Minister and a Culture Department Minister now share responsibility for implementing what the Times calls a “vision for digital Britain”.)

This reminded me of how angry I got back in June, when Lord Carter’s report was published, at its major plank which is that every home in Britain should have access to broadband, and that there will be a £6 a year charge on all telephone lines to pay for it.   Actually, if my memory serves me right, the original announcement went on to say that the £6 might well increase.

What about the elderly who pay for a telephone line out of their pensions just so they can use it in an emergency, or perhaps as the only means they have of keeping contact with their friends and family?   It can’t be right that their telephone should have a £6 surcharge just so some teenager out in the sticks can more easily download music, watch videos or play games.

I must have been fearful for my  blood pressure back in June, and have decided to put it out of my mind.   But now being reminded, I don’t care.   I shall rant.

I already pay a monthly charge for my telephone service which includes a monthly charge for my broadband.   I’m not prepared to pay any more.   Why should I?

I already keep several civil servants with the taxes I am forced to pay, both direct and indirect.   Let the government use some of that money to help roll out a broadband programme in those parts of the country that don’t get it now.

Happy memories of Yorkshire, a bomb aimer, a Fox and a pub

Very interesting piece on Conservative Home today here on the Yorkshire target seats.

I was particularly interested in the fact that most lie in West Yorkshire, an area where I have a number of family members.

Leeds North West is shown as 95th on the target list.   My (sadly now dead) cousin, a terrific chap who had been a bomb aimer in WW2 winning the DFC, was an officer of that Association back in the good old days when it was Conservative.   Probably it has changed out of all recognition through boundary changes.

The reference to Philip Davies, who won Shipley in 2005, being the only Conservative MP in West Yorkshire, led to amusement at remembering the time when Sepoy Agent was thrown out of a pub in Shipley together with that great old Tory and member for Shipley, Marcus Fox; and a distinguished former Secretary of the National Union, although to be fair it was before he attained that heady position. 

Oh, happy days!

Henry V would have known what to do

Dateline 25 October 1415

King Henry V calls for his armour in readiness for the Battle of Agincourt.

An anxious armourer nervously speaks:-  “Sire, we have commissioned this magnificent new armour for you, but, but we can’t let you wear it.   We know it will give you extra protection but suppose it fell into the hands of the French.    We can’t let that happen.   They would learn our secret manufacture.”

And the King swings his mighty sword, and the man is a dead armourer.

DAFT???    Yes, but something similar happened to the new army vehicles designed to give our troops more protection in Afghanistan, designed to replace Land Rovers.   They got as far as Dubai but were then left on an airfield because the aircraft ferrying equipment to Afghanistan were Russian, flown by Russian pilots.   The new Ridgback vehicles have a special armour cladding classified so secret that it is for “UK eyes only”.  

What’s more, the MOD has admitted that even when they do get to Afghanistan the Ridgbacks can’t be used because there are not enough trained drivers in the area. The men from the ministry say the vehicles were never supposed to be used by 19 Light Brigade, at present serving in Helmand.  Who were they for then?  The Taleban?   Or has the ministry given up trying to equip the present deployment of troops, and has leapfrogged over them so they can say they have equipment in place for the next lot.

Anyway, what has Britain come to when it goes to war relying on the Russians to transport equipment to the battlefield.   The Russians, whose warlike, anti-west swaggering is already showing.   Give me strength, or rather give us more heavy-lift aircraft!

What a headline!

I wrote on 4th August about the Daily Mirror and Labour’s Stephen Pound criticizing the number of secretaries who work for David Cameron.

I’ve just noticed that James Forsyth at the Coffee House wrote on this on the same day, and what a great headline to the piece:-

“By being so cheap, Pound devalues himself”.

That has to take the prize!