New Beginnings

As some of you will have gathered by now, I have a new job. On Tuesday I start work as Chief of Staff to David Davis. I have therefore regretfully decided that I have to close down this Blog. I am sure you will all understand the reasons. It's my decision and my decision alone. Thanks to all who have contributed and become regular visitors over the last three years. I've really enjoyed doing the Blog and I am sure I will resurrect it again one day, but for now, it's over and out. If anyone wants to contact me in the future my email address is iain@iaindale.com.

PS. Someone has just posted a comment to ask what is happening to Politico's. Just to make clear, Politicos.co.uk continues as normal. My partner, John Simmons, will be taking over the day to day running of the business.

Captions Please

In the absence of anything scintillating to write today I thought I'd invite your thoughts for a caption for this splendiferous picture of my old friend Gwynneth Dunwoody.

Lunchtime in Roughton

This lunchtime I held a thank you lunch for 60 of my campaign team who did so much for my election campaign. It was held in Roughton at the home of two people who have become very close friends, Bert & Sylvia. The weather held off and I think everyone enjoyed it. I said a few words and to be honest was very worried I might not hold it together as it was inevitably a little emotional. Anyway, I got through it and said what I wanted to say. There were some very special people involved in the campaign and I will never be able to thank them enough for all they did.

Hoodless Hoodies

Charles Clarke is taken to task today in the Sunday Telegraph today for teling 6 lies in a 2 minute Today programme interview. Should provide ample ammunition for the Shadow Home Secretary in Home Office Questions tomorrow I would have thought.

Also, with the publicity surrounding the merits of hooded fleeces and the activity of 'Hoodies' I was amused to learn that the Director of the the Community Service Volunteers is Dame Elizabeth Hoodless. You couldn't make it up.

Auntie Auntie Shame on You

The David Davis for Leader Blog www.daviddavisleader.blotspot.com has an interesting post on today's antics by the BBC...

The BBC's report of its survey among Tory Party chairmen is a classic of BBC Bias.Its news bulletins and website lead on the proclamation: 'Most Tory Party constituency chairmen want Conservative MPs to choose the party's new leader, a BBC survey says.' Really? But surely-and correct me if I'm wrong- that would make it much harder for members' choice DD to become leader, wouldn't it? The BBC report goes on:'Ex-deputy PM Michael Heseltine said he was encouraged by the support to give more power back to MPs. He said...the survey showed a "deeper movement than perhaps one might have suspected". Which was good news because '....the voluntary party activists are relatively elderly and seemed obsessed with Britain's relations with Europe, which is why the pro-integration Mr Clarke had been defeated in a previous leadership challenge in 2001.' I see. Except...wait a second, what's this small print about the survey?' Sixty-six chairmen in the 197 Tory-held seats responded, with 36 saying party members should not be able to choose.' So in fact, the response rate was only 33 per cent, and of those, only just over 50 per cent said party members should not be able to choose. So when we say 'most Tory Party chairmen', what we actually mean is 36 out of 197. Now I know the BBC is staffed by a load of hopeless innumerates, but come on guys...But it gets worse: 'In the survey for BBC Radio 4's Today programme, David Davis was the most popular choice for leader. 'OK. Well, at least they got that right. Except...'However the small number of responses - only 26 chairmen chose to answer this question - made Mr Davis' popularity very unreliable, the survey suggested. 'What does that mean? 26 chairmen backed DD, and the rest didn't say?And why is it OK to base the screaming headline about 'most chairmen' on 50 per cent of a non-random 33 per cent sample, whereas the same rules aren't applied to the support for DD. Roll on privatisation.

But it is even worse than that. There are 650 odd constituency chairman, so a pathetic 6% took part in the survey. And to think that this has led their radio news bulletins all day.

Ready for the Weekend, Sir?

Just arrived in Swanton Abbott for the weekend after a tortuous journey. Because of the ridiculous roadworks on the A11 I drove up the A12 and A140.

The DD bandwagon gathers pace as Julie Kirkbride and Ian Taylor both declared themselves today. Julie had supported Portillo and Clarke in the last two contests and Ian Taylor is a solid Clarkeite but believes DD can unite the Party from a One Nation perspective. The broad coalition is beginning to build quite nicely and I expect to see some similar declarations soon.

The Telegraph reports today that the Candidate's List is to be reduced from 1,000 to 150. I don't understand the rush. Surely this sort of thing should wait until a new leader is elected? I have some fairly strong views about how the Candidate's List should be run in future - which I'll keep to myself for now - but antagonising most of the people who did the spadework during the last election is not a good idea. These are the very people whose talents and commitment need to be utilised over the next couple of years, yet this move risks not only alienating them but made to feel they've been wasting their time.

Tomorrow I'll be going to see some old faces and then on Sunday lunchtime I have a thank you get together for about 70 people involved in my campaign.

Anyone seen my article in the New Statesman?

And next week I'll be tieing things up before starting my new job. I could tell you what it is, but if I did, I might have to shoot you...

Portillo & Osborne

Got the shock of my life tonight when Michael Portillo said nice things about David Davis on the Andrew Neil programme. He certainly gave the impression he would support him over David Cameron. A great surprise. And apparently in tomorrow's Telegraph George Osborne rules himself out of the leadership contest. More interesting will be who he hitches himself to. May I make a suggestion...?!

Bad Road Day/Week/Month

I really can't believe this. Apparently the A11 is going to be closed for 9 weeks from 8pm to 6am for an eight mile stretch between Barton Mills and Thetford. They are resurfacing it. Do these people not understand the misery and chaos that will cause, just as the holiday season gets underway? The Highways Agency should be had up in court for this. Having spent a the week at Politico's I am up off to Norfolk tomorrow night. Guess I'll be going up the A12 then.

Bad Hair Day

Have you seen Anne McGuire's hair on Question Time?!!! To think, she probably paid some Edinburgh 'stylist' a fortune for that!

Depressing Debate

I have just witnessed the most depressing debate on Newsnight about the European Constitution. Paxo had wheeled in two twenty somethings who were the respective heads of Britain in Europe and the Vote No Campaign, neither of whom were on top of their subject and came out with some utter balls. Matthew McGregor from Vote No even managed to say that his organisation didn't object to a Constitution in principle. Well that gives away one of the stringest arguments they have! Surely one of the reaons for objecting to it is the fact that a Constitution implies Statehood and we do not believe the UK should be signing up to a United States of Europe. Lucy from Britain in Europe had Paxo lost for words when she said the referndum had nothing to do with Europe! I hope the debate improves a little on what we saw tonight.

Going Up!

'Kin awesome, as they say in the East End. Zamora's second goal was out of this world. Cardiff here I come! 2-0, by the way. I feel another episode of West Wing coming on...

Come on You Irons!

This evening will be spent biting my nails as West Ham aim to beat Ipswich to claim a place in the playoff final in Cardiff next weekend. And if they do I shall be off to Welsh Wales to visit my friend Matthew Lane. Matt was Area Campaign Director in Norfolk & Suffolk before he was made Dirctor of the Party in Wales at the grand old age of 28. Mind you, he looks about 48. Just havin' a giraffe! Come on you Irons! Wouldn't it be great to pass Norwich City on the way up to the Premiership? ALAN PARDEW'S CLARET & BLUE ARMY!

Low Taxes

I was once described in The Observer as a "Total Taxcutter". Madsen Pirie of the excellent Adam Smith Institute has an interesting post on the ASI Blog (see link on the left hand panel) on the fact that cutting taxes can raise revenues. I'd like to see a real debate about taxation over the next few years. Too many people on the right have fallen for the 'big government works' agenda of the soft left. What they forget is that it has to be paid for. And paid for by us, the taxpayers. It is appalling that we as a Party seem to have accepted that the public expenditure should increase remorselessly. If we want smaller government we need to cut public expenditure. Much of it can be achieved by cutting waste and bureaucracy but let's not pretend that there are not whole areas of government which should simply be abolished. So, onto the piece from Madsen Pirie...

A minor statistic on tax revenue might pass unnoticed, but not by Neil Collins (Telegraph). There has been an unexpected jump in US tax revenues following President Bush’s action to cut the top rate from 39% to 35%. Laffer is having the last Laff. The Federal Government recorded a $57billion surplus in April and income tax revenues leapt 16pc compared with last year, as Americans worked harder and made less use of tax loopholes. The annual deficit remains but the boffins at Morgan Stanley are so impressed they have just cut their forecast for this year from 3.6pc of GDP to 2.8pc. The rise in tax revenues was not unexpected to all of us, in that it happens fairly regularly. Lower taxes give earners less reason to avoid and evade tax, and more reason to put in extra effort. The result is quite regularly more growth, more wealth, more jobs, higher tax yields, and a higher percentage of the tax bill paid by the top earners. No surprise there.

DD Blog

For those interested in these things there is now a David Davis Blog, which you can find in the links down the left hand side. And before anyone else suggests it, no I'm not behind this particular blog!

Promotion for Norman

I see Norman Lamb has been appointed Trade & Industry spokesman in Charles Kennedy's new team. Congratulations are in order, but North Norfolk will have to get used to seeing a lot less of its MP if he is to fulfill his role on the LibDem front bench properly. Having said that, I thought the LibDems wanted to abolish the DTI!

Two new Blogs

There's a new Conservative Leadership Blog and also an interesting new one from my friend Tim Montgomerie who runs Conservativehome.com. See the panel down the left for links to them.

More EU Madness

To understand why this country should question its whole relationship with the EU click on this link http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;sessionid=D2W5JUKRTJ5JVQFIQMGCM5WAVCBQUJVC?xml=/news/2005/05/15/nbook15.xml&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=6856#1

I defy even the most ardent Europhile to defend this.

Tieing up the Modernisers

I've just watched the Politics Show piece by Jo-Anne Nadler on what the word 'Moderniser' means in the Tory Party. Judging from recent TV appearances the definition of a moderniser is someone who thinks they should do a political interview without wearing a tie. Andrew Lansley hasn't got one on being interviewed by a tieless Jeremy Vine. Liam Fox was desperately trying to show some chest hair on GMTV earlier and Francis Maude seems to believe wearing a jacket and tie at the same time is some sort of heinous sin. They should all be asking themselves before going on TV without a tie: "What would my mother say?" I tried it once, while doing a newspaper review on the BBC and got a right good telling off. And deservedly so.

The Sunday Papers

Much about the Tory leadership in the Sunday papers. David Davis will have rather liked the flattering, nay fawning, profile of him by Melissa Kite in the Sunday Telegraph, although I suspect David Cameron will have winced a little while reading Martin Bentham's interview with him in The Observer. It's quite revealing that Cameron chose The Observer to give an interview to. I wonder how many Tory MPs or party members actually read The Observer. It's ironic that David seems to be very defensive about his schooling at Eton. He shouldn't be. Matthew D'Ancona has the best analysis (not for the first time) in The Telegraph. He believes that Davis will attract a coalition of support which the other candidates will not be able to. He urges us to watch out for the first Moderniser to publicly declare for him. John Rentoul in The Independent looks at why DD provokes such strong feelings among his detractors.

And most importantly of all, two appearances for this Blog in Atticus in the Sunday Times today. What a reputable column it is...

Nanny Statism

Classic feature headline in The Grauniad today...

Turnout is Really About Class - Compulsory Voting would Give the Less Well Off a Stronger Political Voice

I loathe the idea of compulsory voting. We are compelled to do enough things by the State. If people can't be arsed to vote they have no right to complain about what is done in their name afterwards. At least in North Norfolk we had the second highest turnout in the country.