On top of the all the expenses stuff, we now have Lord Tebbit calling on voters to boycott the three main parties in the June elections. Norman Tebbit is one of my political heroes and I am very sad that he feels the need to say this. He may be riding with the tide, but for a former party chairman to openly encourage people to vote for another party is not something which the party whips or leader can ignore.
At his press conference earlier David Cameron warned Lord Tebbit that he was walking a tightrope and had better not fall off it, otherwise "he'll find himself sitting as an independent".
It needed to be said.
This is the stuff of which leaders are made. Something which Lord Tebbit himself would acknowledge, I suspect.
I doubt Tebbit would be sitting as an Independent for very long...
ReplyDeleteDavid Davis all over again. I'm the boss and don't forget it. Really strong leadership.
ReplyDeleteLord Tebbit was wearing a UKIP lapel pin, was he telling his Leader something are just joshing
ReplyDeletea former party chairman yes but not of this party - whatever lady thatcher's faults i couldn't see her presiding over what now passes for the tory party anymore than attle would over nulab
ReplyDeleteIt also needs to be said that if cameron does NOT come off the fence over Europe then he is going to lose a LOT of Conservative votes.
ReplyDeleteI did not need Norman to tell me not to vote Tory in the Euro elections, it is the only sensible thing to do until Cameron gets his act together.
Norman rather than expenses was supposed to be his Clause 4 moment !
ReplyDelete(Written prior to the con)
http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/3610271/speaking-for-the-electorate-as-a-whole.thtml
Yes, Tebbit was a plank saying that!
ReplyDeleteParodixically the Tories need all the votes they can get to clean the system up. Not weaken the party and factionise things to make change more difficult.
Nevermind Norman has form in putting his foot in his mouth in recent years! Remember what Tebbit said when Brown first became PM! LoL
Norman Tebbit has a strange sense of humour!!!!!!
Tebbit is still a bit of a political hero though! But if he carries on looks like Cameron will force Tebbit on his Bike!!!!
Old norman has I think just fallen off his bike
ReplyDelete10 out of 10 for DC in general - our future PM for certain I reckon.
Along with Normnan, the phrase "within the rules" I think has just been deposited in the dustbin of histoary
On the 15th anniversay of his death, I believe the late and great John Smith would have approved
Boy - I bet that really has old Norm scared!
ReplyDeleteDo you seriously think a man who has survived an IRA bomb, taken on the might of the mighiest unions at the height of their powers and jousted with some of the sharpest political minds will be really worried by Cameron's rhetoric?
Grow up, man.
About time...
ReplyDeleteJust seem Osborne on Sky and he came accross well.
How can Tebbit be a hero?
ReplyDeleteWhat does he think of you being a friend of Dorothy?
Tebbit has turned into a sourpuss. When in power he pleaded for loyalty. Cameron as done all he could be expected to do.
ReplyDeleteFor now.
If anybody comes up with fraud - like say smiths then he may need to do more.
Sadly for this soft Labour supporter it looks like Cameron is leading his Party whereas Brown is following his (into the gutter and NOT looking at the stars..).
ReplyDeleteListening to DC speaking it is striking the difference between being a leader and a competant manager.
ReplyDeleteTB had the Talent DC does, Gord... does not.
Tebbit should be ashamed of himself. If he can't say something helpful and constructive, he should zip it.
ReplyDeleteI suspect this might actually have gained Tebbit's respect.
ReplyDeleteTebbit: Another person who thinks the rules do not apply to them.
ReplyDeleteSo, Iain, you recommend that we vote for parties full of troughers, do you?
ReplyDeleteAgree with you Iain.
ReplyDeleteSo tough this one. Tebbit is a great man with a great legacy. I hoped he would stand for the leadership post Thatcher.
Found it tough blogging on him today on www.trueblueblood.com .
Really has been a struggle as I NEVER thought I would write negatively of the man. But there is no place, when the Conservatives have been away from power for so long, for comments asking voters to place their X against our competitors.
Iain,
ReplyDeleteI have contrasted Harman's speech with Cameron's (YouTube): Game, set and match Herr Braun..
I will upload the question and anwser sessions shortly.
I think Cameron might have picked the wrong fight with this one. Let's face it there are "Conservative" MEPs who talk one way in the UK then get off the plane in Brussels only to go "native."
ReplyDeleteI think expecting Conservatives voters to vote Con just because of the affiliation is a mistake.
Have genuine Conservative MEPs lose their seats would be foolish that is for sure, but I suspect that is not what the nobel Lord means.
Mr Tebbitt is correct of course.
ReplyDeleteThe 3 main parties are all unfit for purpose.
Cameron is like a little puppy dog when compared with this old stager!
Cameron would be very wise not to take on Norman, and to somehow turn this into a positive; not sure how though!
Tebbit only says what most real tories have already decided, to vote UKIP/BNP in the Euro elections. How else are we to indicate that we wish to be out of Europe? Just wait and see! If anyone believes Cameron would hold out for a referendum he shows a sad lack of understanding of tory leaders.
ReplyDeleteI have always voted Tory in parliamentary elections. But I shall vote UKIP as I did before in the coming euro election. The Tories' approach to Europe has been supine ever since Maggie was overthrown. I do not feel generally that the Tories deserve euro votes. (I would however vote for the likes of Dan Hannan). Indeed given the Tories' useless opposition over the last twelve years (not to mention doubts about Cameron's and his supporters' views and policies (?)), one would have legitimate reason to doubt the value of voting Tory in a parliamentary election if getting rid of Labour were not so important.
ReplyDeleteThe more independants, the better...
ReplyDeleteI suspect that millions had already decided to adopt Lord Tebbit's tactic in the European elections. I doubt that the threat of sitting as an independent peer will worry Lord Tebbit - in fact he might find it quite appealing.
ReplyDeleteAs an angry voter, fed up with sleaze and Conservative party back-tracking over the EU, I intend to vote for UKIP in June. The UK expenses caper has just confirmed what UKIP has said about the EU - albeit the EU being on an even grander scale.
ReplyDeleteSorry if this upsets your readers, but I have no intention of supporting a Westminster 3 party rotten borough. At least Cameron is trying to do something about it, which is more than can be said about that disaster area Brown...
Very strong and decisive leadership from Cameron, still trying to figure out what he thought he was going to achieve by the comment though. Doesn't really help anyone apart from the socialists or the BNP.
ReplyDeleteYep bet old norm is shaking in his boots.
ReplyDelete"Doesn't really help anyone apart from the socialists or the BNP."
ReplyDeleteYou really believe that? There is a party that is not socialist of any ilk (national or otherwise) called UKIP. Conservative voters, despite what Labour might want to think, aren't going to flock to the neo-NAZI BNP, but to the truly eurosceptic UKIP.
Brinkmanship with an OAP is not the stuff of statesmen. He should not have said those things about Lord T.
ReplyDeleteCameron should have said that he understood why he said them and that while he did not agree with the conclusions, he was doing every thing in his power to sort things out.
Attacking Tebbit for his comments, which after all merely reflect the genuine anger of many of us, just looked like infighting. Sorry, Ian. That's just poor.
Tebbit has a point. Until there is a constructive difference between the Conservatives and Labour on the matter of the EU, our place in it and Parliament's muted obedience to the European Parliament, those Conservative supporters who want out (or even just a stronger position taken) should not vote Tory in the Euros.
ReplyDeleteWe have seeing sovereignty as the public would define it drain away to Europe. The sop the parliamentarians deploy is then that Parliament is still sovereign because it passes legislation. Yet it passes legislation on orders of the EU. From those EU-centric people it is not a foreign power, it is ourselves.
Until Parliament is prepared to engage with the realities of EU membership rather than bury it's head in the sand and deny the origin of 85% of our new laws (which tend to go against the grain of habeas corpus and move us to corpus juris and corporatism), until we have a Parliament that puts this nation first, we cannot move forward as either Europeans, get out of it or attempt to reform it. All the while it grows of it's own accord and no one here is minded to stop it.
Hillarious.Cameroon with his testicular bi pass operation could learn a thing or two about principles from Tebbit.
ReplyDeleteLike Blair he's a good actor.Shame about the wisteria.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with partisan party people like yourself is that you really don't seem to understand how disgusted but helpless the apolitical public feels.
ReplyDeleteI would like to see the offenders hauled before constituency commitees, made to give an account of themselves and where necessary be de-selected.I would not cast my vote for an MP who had been guilty of expense excess regardles of my party loyalty. If such an MP were not de-selected, sacked prosecuted or whatever then another party with a clean and decent MP would get the vote. How can you rationally and ethically support someone who is corrupt?
Do you think he is trying to tell Dave something?
ReplyDeleteExclusive photo: Lord Tebbit in Vote UKIP protest
Iain, are you not going to call for Lord Tebbit to be expelled from the party? I see little difference between this and Stewart Wheeler who you were keen should be expelled.
ReplyDeleteNorman Tebbit generally puts things simply - often so simply that one wonders whether he understands the issues.
ReplyDeleteHowever, his interview with the BBC was so incoherent that to try and make sense of what Tebbit was saying, Nick Robinson had to 'restart from the top'; although still to no avail.
As Robinson made clear, the conclusion people were likely to draw from Tebbit's ramblings (despite his denial that this is what he meant) was that he was encouraging them to vote UKIP.
It made one wonder whether he actually prefers UKIP policy to that of his own Party and thinks he has found a 'cunning plan' by which he can have the best of both worlds.
Yet even if Tebbit has no UKIP agenda and merely lost the plot, it is intolerable that somebody subject to the Party whip should be permitted to urge voters to boycott party candidates in an national election (it is irrelevant that he should urge a boycott of Labour and Lib Dem also).
Cameron should have taken the opportunity to tell Tebbit to get on his bike.
It would have been proof that the Conservatives really have evolved into a rejuvenated, confident and more thoughtful party.
If the Conservatives promise a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty ratified or not then I will vote for them.
ReplyDeleteSince they will not, Tebbit is quite right to advise voters to avoid the 3 main parties as they are all in league on this matter.
No one has got anywhere with the EU by playing soft. They do not do handing back power. It is a one way street to further integration and the EUSSR. They do not do democracy. These elections change nothing.
It therefore necessary to vote against the main parties and against Europe at these elections and Tebbit is right to tell us so.
If the Conservative Party ever sank so low as to no longer have room for the likes of Lord Tebbit it would cease to be conservative in any real sense and deserve to die so that a proper party based on real Tory values might arise.
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice to break up the three main parties and make room for some fresh ideas.
ReplyDeleteIt depends whether your support is for the conservative party or for conservative principles.
ReplyDeleteLord Tebbit is a consummate politician who knows how to read the public mood, and by very obviously putting principle ahead of partisanship, is providing exactly the sort of role model that might preserve whatever shreds of dignity and credibility the party has left. Should he later switch back, (if/when the members deserve it,) those voters who care mostly about principles are more likely to take such an elder statesman's assurances seriously.
So long as he can stay above the fray, and not get caught out in any troughing of his own, it might just work.
But it's coming to something when you have to rely on a member of the pre-fall Conservatives - burdened with original sleaze - to act as the respectable old guard and guardian of party standards. Just have to hope that enough voters have forgotten.
If Cameron throws Norman out and I doubt very much that the BOY has the bottle or the ability then I am out too.
ReplyDeleteDave is very much mistaken if he thinks Conservatives prefer him to Tebbit.
I notice you have a lot of abour supporters on here praising Dave, well that says it all, he really is the heir to Blair.
Cameron could nail this quite easily. Promise a referendum if the Tories win the next election on EU membership and give MPs a free hadn to support or oppose.
ReplyDeleteBut the decision of that vote is final.
Problem solved.
Saw the UKIP election broadcast just now. Can't fault what they say. We are pouring money into the EU to be stripped of our democracy, morale and assets. How can any right-thinking person ignore this situation.
ReplyDeleteTestosterone-fuelled boys' games. Wake me up when a real politican comes along.
ReplyDeleteJeebus, is this the same Cameron who nearly lost the leadership at his conference the other year ?
ReplyDeleteNice slap down and against the old cat strangler himself. Hope he slaps that backbencher from the 1922 troughers club harder.
I just might end up voting for the man.
Good advice from Norm I'm following it.
ReplyDeleteI cannot help but to be impressed with Cameron today, he completely outmaneuvered the Jock and made England's unelected unaccountable Dictator look even worse, no mean feat that.
ReplyDeleteReading all these Tebbit supporting loonies scares the shit out of me.
ReplyDeleteIf, on a day when Cameron has shone in adversity (Crick said was his best day yet), these tossers would rather turn to the Chingford Skinhead, then better not turn off Gordon's life support yet - he still has reason to hope.
While I hope Dave succeeds at the next General Election, I am not a member of the Conservative Party and such people remind me why I am never likely to be.
Weygrand
ReplyDeleteSo you think the two party system that got us where we are is working well?
And you're calling me a loony?
What I am saying is that voters should not vote blindly for a party but those who sit in parliament on behalf of a party and then urge people not to vote for that party are beyond the pale.
ReplyDeleteIt's like a goalkeeper telling his strikers not to shoot on goal.
If you are actually on the team you have a duty to support the team or get off it.
This does not apply to the electorate but they should not overlook the wider political picture.
In this case, we are near to getting rid of a wretched, morally bankrupt PM and his end may well be hastened by a strong showing of the Conservative Party in the European elections.
Finally, I agree our relationship with Europe needs to change but even if every British MEP was from UKIP it would be to no avail. ONly a strong governing party will be in a position to make any meaningful changes.
I'm with Norman and I'm voting UKIP.
ReplyDeleteI'm fed up with the Tories sitting on the fence on Europe. Listen to the people. Get us out and now!