Tories Gain Two Council Seats from LibDems

Some interesting local government by-election results which you can see in full HERE. The Conservatives gained two seats from the LibDems, one in Monmouth and one in test Valley, Hampshire. The Libs also came a poor fourth in a Glasgow by-election. The Guardian postulates the theory that the party most likely to beat Labour does best, and that is a trend I think we will see in the future, especially in Parliamentary by-elections.

On News 24 Tonight Again

Another twirl doing the paper review on News 24 tonight at 11.45pm. Do join me!

Michael Crick Accuses Chris Huhne

Michael Crick has just reported on Newsnight on an alleged abuse of European Parliament expenses my LibDem leadership contender Chris Huhne. He is said to have used EU money to finance four newspapers distributed in the Eastleigh constituency before the last General Election. It appears clear that under EU regualtions that is against the rules. Huhne won the seat by a mere 500 odd votes, so it is little wonder that the local Conservatives and their excellent candidate Conor Burns feel sore at this blatant abuse. Huhne, to his credit, appeared on camera to defend his corner and he seemed to treat it all rather lightly, indeed, some would say flippantly. In North Norfolk I was criticised for accepting money from Michael Ashcroft to finance part of my campaign. The very same people who critisised me for that will no doubt defend Chris Huhne for using taxpayers' money for party political ends. I doubt whether this will affect the result of the leadership contest, but when the European parliament come to investigate this, as they surely must, it could be something that comes back to haunt Mr Huhne.

Exclusive: Cornerstone Youth Group Formed

It seems that reports of the imminent demise of the Cornerstone Group have been rather exaggerated, not least by yours truly (see my post on 31 January). My spies in Portcullis House tell me that the inaugural meeting of "Junior Cornerstone" was held this lunchtime. A truly terrifying thought. For the uninitiated Cornerstone is a group of hard right Conservative MPs led by John Hayes (pictured right) and Edward Leigh whose priorities are family, flag and faith. Although the majority supported David Cameron in the leadership election they remain deeply suspicious of modernisation and have hardly a liberal bone in their bodies. Junior Cornerstone is made up predominantly of the MP members' researchers apparently. They were overheard discussing such urgent priorities as abolising the Department of Culture Media & Sport. Cornerstone itself has about 25 MP members and even has its own whip in Robert Goodwill MP - something that has gone down in the Tory Whips Office like a cup of cold sick. They hear echoes of the Militant Tendency 'party within a party'. But I'm told that as a first task the Juniors have been instructed by John Hayes to chase up miscreant MP members for non payment of their £40 subscription Cornerstone fee. It seems the Group has plans to employ its own researcher, although I'm not sure that 25x£40 will go very far. The group broke up in very good heart but contrary to popular rumour failed to conclude their meeting with a rendition of the Horst Wessel Song. An MP friend of mine has already dubbed them the "Eckstein Jugend". How naughty.

PS Message to the Group's organiser: Don't hold the next meeting in the Debate Restaurant in Portcullis House. You never know who might be listening!

PPS Eckstein is German for Cornerstone. Jugend is German for Youth. Need one say more.

Tonight on Newsnight

I hear Michael Crick has got a revealing film about Chris Huhne on Newsnight tonight.

LibDems Look Both Ways on Energy...What a Surprise...

I think most people are rather appalled at the 22% hike in prices announced by British Gas today. The Tory Spokesman Alan Duncan said “We are clearly not immune from global fuel price increases, but the situation is made worse by the lack of liberalisation in the European marketplace. Hard working families could see much slower increases, or even falls, in our gas and electricity bills if our neighbours in European work toward more open and competitive markets for energy. The Government should have done more to promote liberalisation during its Presidency of the EU last year.”


For the Liberals Norman Lamb said " This is an horrific increase which will cause real pain to thousands of people. According to the DTI's own figures, an increase of this size means that by the end of this year more than three million households will be living in fuel poverty." He agreed with Alan Duncan on market liberalisation: "Action to tackle anti-competitiveness in European energy markets is a start, but we also need to tackle possible market abuses which make it
difficult for new providers to enter the UK energy markets. The Government also needs to do much more to promote energy saving measures so households end up using less gas and electricity."

So far so good. But what's this? I understand that it is a longstanding Liberal Democrat policy for the climate change levy to be replaced with ‘a carbon tax which falls on energy use according to its carbon content’ This will inevitably mean that gas bills, coal bills and electricity bills will all rise.

Andrew Stunell MP, LibDem Energy Spokesman, has admitted, ‘the carbon tax would, inevitably, be a tax on all energy users, including those in the domestic sector and those facing fuel poverty’.

Their then Treasury spokesman, Matthew Taylor MP, remarked, ‘by introducing a carbon tax we want to give people the expectation that fuel bills will rise’.

They pledge to ‘internalise the external costs of energy production: the approach to working out the pricing structures for different forms of electricity should take into account the environmental costs of different types of energy’ (Liberal Democrats, Green Budget, April 2002, p.12).

Their policy review documents have admitted, ‘the expectation is that energy prices will rise’ (Liberal Democrats Policy Review - Environment & Transport, Clause 3.0.2, September 1998).

Admitting that their carbon tax would raise more money than the existing climate change levy, they state that there would be ‘additional revenues from the carbon tax’ (Liberal Democrats, A better environment, a better life: Liberal Democrat policies for the environment, November 2003, p.7).

So if they are critising today's price rises it seems they would happily replace them with other price rises. I'm sure Alan Duncan will be making that adundantly clear!

Put the Mellorphant Man Out to Pasture

Am I alone in failing to understand why national newspapers continue to provide an opportunity for David Mellor to tell us his thoughts on the state of politics and sport? I don't know what he's got on the editor of the Evening Standard but it must be something pretty special for her to continue to allow him to write page after page of bilge. I don't know anyone in politics who takes his vews seriously and there certainly aren't many in football who have any yearning at all to hear what he thinks about the nation's favourite sport. In yesterday's Standard he railed against David Cameron for having the temerity to take paternity leave - a subject I would have thought he would do well to steer well clear of. Memo to Vernonica Wadley, editor of the Evening Standard. Do your readers a favour and put the Mellorphant Man out to pasture. And while you're about it, do the same with Will Self.

Parliamentary Quotes of the Day

David Cameron will now be discovering that looking after a newbaby is even more difficult than leading the Conservative party.
shadow minister for women, Eleanor Laing, on the birth of Mr Cameron's baby boy this week.

People on fixed incomes in particular, particularly pensioners, will get pushed back into poverty - Trade and IndustrySecretary Alan Johnson on rising fuel prices.

I congratulate you for keeping the home fires burning while in Italy, by contrast, power cuts are leading to central heating being switched off, Italians having to snuggle under their blankets to stay warm in bed together. Which may explain why the Italian Prime Minister has given up sex for the general election.
Labour former minister Denis MacShane (Rotherham) to Mr Johnson.

Mass means testing is going up and up... because of the endless fiddling of Complexity Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer himself.
Shadow Minister for Welfare Reform David Ruffley on benefits means testing.

Question Time & My Day in London

I meant to do another live blogging of Question Time tonight but didn't get back from London in time I'm afraid. From what I have seen of it Peter Hain has been unusually unimpressive and Theresa May and Tim Razzall have been rather good. Although I have to say the fragrant Theresa gave a rather bizarre explanation for the change in Tory Party policy on tuition fees... Hasn't the NUS girl got a strange mouth? She's rather good though. And now we can brace ourselves for the Andrew Neil show.

I've had a busy day in London - met a friend for breakfast in the House of Lords greasy spoon - did not do my diet any good at all. Then talked about two publishing projects before adjourning to my new mobile office, commonly known as the Millbank Lounge of the City Inn Hotel. It's great! WiFi free internet connection, comfy seats and constant orange juice. What more can one ask for. Had various meetings there including one to talk about doing regular podcasts on this blog. More of that very soon. Later on had a session with my dental hygienist - not pleasane. She keeps drilling into me the joys of dental flossing knowing full well that I will ignore her blandishments. I got a piece of it stuck between my teeth once. Never again. From there I went on to Weidenfeld & Nicolson's author's party at the Wallace Collection in Manchester Square. A huge bash with Andrew Roberts, Julian Fellowes, Ann Widdecombe and, er, Terry Christian. Then went to dinner at Chez Gerard in Dover Street with two friends I hadn't seen for a few years. Tomorrow it's back to more mundane things as I drive to Orpington PC World to pick up a replacement for the new laptop I bought yesterday in Tunbridge Wells PC World which didn't work. Why do I have to drive to Orpington? PC World's idea of customer service. I feel a ranting letter to the good Lord Kalms coming on...

Attenshun! Stand by Your Beds!

Further to my piece BELOW about David Davis, I am delighted to see from The Times that he is taking me at my word. DD conducted yesterday morning's strategy meeting while William Hague prepared for Prime Minister's Questions, opening the session with a joke."I become leader at four o'clock and you'll all be wearing ties by five," he told Mr Cameron's casually dressed team. I suspect the sound of nervous laughter echoed round the room...

The Legislative & Regulatory Reform Bill: A Slippery Slope?

During the 1990s John Major's government became addicted - hooked on Statutory Instruments. Tony Blair's government is even worse. Danny Finkelstein has written this week about the Legislative & Regulatory Reform Bill, which takes the trend away from primary legislation to SIs another stage further. Indeed, it has been likened to the Enabling Bill which Hitler passed in 1933 giving him sweeping new powers. Bill Cameron points out that

If this Bill becomes an Act it will mean that the Government will be able
(should this pernicious legislation ever make it onto the statute Book) to
amend or replace legislation of more or less any kind by Ministerial order,
without going through the troublesome procedure of presenting the changes as
proposals before Parliament and the even more troublesome procedure of
trying to get a majority there.

Andrew Miller, Labour MP for Ellesmere Port and Neston, who was on the Pre-legislative Committee which considered the Bill says...

This bill must be scrutinised with particular care. Our report recognises
that there is widespread support for removing redundant regulation and
costly red tape. But the problem many people will have with part one of this
bill, as drafted, is that it provides ministers with a wide and general
power that could be used to repeal amend or replace almost any primary
legislation. That can't be right. We need extra safeguards.

Danny Finkelstein is even more graphic...

In my nightmare, Tony Blair finally decides that he is fed-up with putting Bills
before Parliament. He has so much to do and so little time. Don’t you realise
how busy he is? He’s had enough of close shaves and of having to cut short trips
abroad. He decides to put a Bill to End All Bills before the Commons, one that
gives him and his ministers power to introduce and amend any legislation in
future without going through all those boring stages in Parliament. That’s not
the end of my feverish fantasy. The new law is proposed and hardly anyone
notices. John Redwood complains, of course, and a couple of Liberal Democrats,
but by and large it is ignored. The Labour rebels are nowhere to be seen. The
business lobby announces that it is about time all those politicians streamlined
things, cutting out time-wasting debates. In a half empty Commons chamber, a
junior minister puts down any objections with a few partisan wisecracks. Then
the Bill to End All Bills is nodded through the Houses of Parliament, taking
with it a few hundred years of Parliamentary democracy. I wake up, sweating.
Only one thing persuades me that I’m not cracking up. When I have my nightmares
about the Bill to End All Bills, I am not dreaming about dastardly legislation
that I fear a cartoon Tony Blair, with an evil cackle, will introduce in some
terrible future. I am tossing and turning about a government Bill that was given
its second reading in the House of Commons last week and is heading into
committee. Now I know what I am about to tell you is difficult to believe
(Why isn’t this on the front pages? Where’s the big political row?) but I
promise you that it is true. The extraordinary Legislative and Regulatory Reform
Bill, currently before the House, gives ministers power to amend, repeal or
replace any legislation simply by making an order and without having to bring a
Bill before Parliament. The House of Lords Constitution Committee says the Bill
is “of first-class constitutional significance” and fears that it could
“markedly alter the respective and long standing roles of minister and
Parliament in the legislative process”.

It is an indictment that virtually the only place you will ever read anything about this is on a few blogs. As far as I know it has hardly been mentioned in the national media (but no doubt you will correct me!), let alone on the Daily Politics, This Week, The Politics Show etc. As far as I can tell, the only comment from the Conservatuves on the Bill has been by Alan Duncan on the deregulatory aspects of it, rather than the legislative side.

A final non-rhetorical thought from Danny Finkelstein...

The Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill isn’t just a dangerous proposal.
It is a flashing red light. Our legislative activism is endangering our
parliamentary democracy and we must stop before it’s too late. Or am I a nutter?

Arguments Against the Plastic Poll Tax No 94

Did I ever tell you it was me who invented the phrase PLASTIC POLL TAX? No? Well it was! I think it popped into my head when we were preparing DD's speech for the second reading of the ID Cards Bill way back in July. Something to be remembered for anyway... Moving swiftly on, Wat Tyler at BURNING OUR MONEY has a good post today on the true cost of ID cards. Read it HERE.

Tally Ho!

hat tip to Andrew Young

Top Ten Dick Cheney Excuses

10. "Heart palpitation caused trigger finger to spasm"
9. "Wanted to get the Iraq mess off the front page"
8. "Not enough Jim Beam"
7. "Trying to stop the spread of bird flu"
6. "I love to shoot people"
5. "Guy was making cracks about my lesbian daughter"
4. "I thought the guy was trying to go 'gay cowboy' on me"
3. "Excuse? I hit him, didn't I?"
2. "Until Democrats approve medicare reform, we have to make some tough choices for the elderly"
1. "Thought he saw Michael Moore on the other side of tree line"

Keeping the UK Competitive

I'm sure I read somewhere the other day that UK economic productivity is at a fifteen year low. Entrepreneurs are increasingly reluctant to start up new businesses and feel over-burdened by red tape and regulation. Indeed, the only growth sector at the moment appears to be the public sector. And yet despite all this GDP growth seems to be a relatively stable 2-3% per annum. It's interesting to see that a new pressure group has launched called Keeping the UK Competitive. Despite its name it seems to be prioritising London as a focus for investment, which I suppose is hardly surprising as London First are the prime movers behind it. The focus of this group seems to be asking for additional public sector investment, but surely it's the private sector we need to be encouraging at a time of low economic productivity? I can foresee similar groups to this - albeit it private sector ones - being formed all over the country as different regions wake up to the fact that private sector enterprise is gradually being strangled at birth.

Two Quotes Which Sum up The Futility of 'Glorification'

"Glorification is wonderful in the pen or the mouth of Blake or Milton, it is glorious in the music of Frederic Handel. But we do not do beatitudes in the Old Bailey, what we do in the Old Bailey is we do law, conviction and punishment." Bob Marshall-Andrews

"Glorification is frankly, as a concept, rubbish." Dominic Grieve

Stephen Pound is the New Tony Banks

Labour MP Stephen Pound has taken over Tony Bank's mantle as the House of Commons resident court jester. Many of his colleagues intensely dislike him but I beg to differ. I've done a few radio programmes with him and you can't help but like the guy. Simon Hoggart has written a sketch in The Guardian today (actually, yesterday now!) telling of his speech in Tuesday's Smoking debate. here's an extract...

Then up sprang Mr Pound, who has been Labour MP for Ealing since 1997. We might wish, he said, to be "seagreen incorruptibles, standing on snow-capped peaks, saying 'let there be no tobacco! Let a thousand children breathe uncluttered air!' - unless of course they live in a city, or a town, or a village or anywhere there is a motorcar ..." Purely in the interests of research, he had found himself questing for licensed premises in Dublin, where it is illegal to smoke in pubs. He had discovered that there were two types of tavern to be found there. Those rimmed with patio heaters and benches outside "so you had to fight your way through a fug to get into the damn place". "My advice is 'buy patio heater shares now!'" he told cheering MPs, and even the prune-mouthed, whey-faced prescriptivists joined the laughter. He was interrupted by Lynne Jones MP. "Hang on a second," he told her. "I'm a little short of breath, so what little I have I want to make the most of." He described his younger days. "Every morning I would rise and have a reflective cigarette, and then I would have breakfast and a cigarette. I would say my prayers, but I would remember what my Jesuit confessor told me: you must never, ever smoke while you're praying. But you can pray while you're smoking." By this time MPs were in tucks of merry laughter. It is rare that anyone makes a rollicking, comical speech in a parliament that seems to be occupied mostly by harshness and pomposity."I would then get on the bus and leap like a live gazelle to the upper deck where I would have a couple of Players Weights, jump off the bus, and by the time I got to my primary school ..." As MPs roared (this was such a treat for them) they hardly noticed that he turned to Ms Jones and said, "on the subject of dog-ends, I will certainly give way to my honourable friend," a remark which, if it was as meant to mean what it sounded like it was meant to mean, was not perhaps as graceful as the rest of the speech. Mr Pound did not actually tell us how he intended to vote. But that was irrelevant; he had cheered us all up.

Parliament could do with more characters like Steve Pound.

Desperate Housewives, Desperate Davids?

I remember being at the ITV Awards with David Davis and David Cameron a few months ago (remember the night they both walked on stage to be greeted by a chorus of boos?!) and they ended up having a conversation in the Green Room about how much they both enjoyed Desperate Housewives. At that time I had never seen an episode of the programme, but over Christmas I bought the series on DVD to see what all the fuss was about. DD and DC agreed that Bree Van de Kamp. was tgheir favourite character. To those who've never seen the show, she is the houseproud, perfect housewife who's perfectly turned out and to the outside world leads a perfect life. But she's just the sort of woman you can imagine wears a rubber dominatrix suit behind closed doors. I have to say it's a highly addicitve programme and I've just emerged from watching two episodes on C4 and E4. My own favourite character is Lynette. It's got me thinking about politicians who could star in the programme. Oh dear, I feel a lawsuit coming on...

Bree van de Kamp - Theresa May
Lynette Scavo - Julie Kirkbride
Susan Meyer - Caroline Spelman
Edie - Edwina Currie
Gabriela - Caroline Flint

Unless, of course, you can think of more suitable candidates...

Ming Campbell & PMQs

Isn't it strange how you think you must have been watching a very different event to some people sometimes? I've just come across this on the oddly named LibDem supporting Quaequam Blog. Brace yourself.

"Bloody hell! Ming was brilliant on PMQs today. About time!"

Well that's not quite how most people saw it. He tried a joke about Gordon Brown which was received in silence and he had to read out parts of his question. Contrast this with William Hague who was superb. Blair wasn't bad either. Ok, Ming was slightly better than last week, but that's not saying an awful lot. His leadership campaign has never caught fire and his supporters have been longing for him to sparkle, and where better to do it than PMQs? He's only got a couple more chances. I still feel that Chris Huhne has pulled ahead and could well pull off a shock win. As a Tory I'd prefer Simon Hughes to win, but that doesn't look very likely now. And he too asked an awful question today to which Blair was extremely condescending.

Hat Tip to The Grauniad

Delighted to see this blog being quoted on page 2 of The Guardian on ID Cards. Thanks to NukeLabour for the tip. They quoted the piece where I said: "If I thought they would do anything meaningful to help the fight against terrorism, I'd be in favour. If I thought they would stop benefit fraud, I'd be in favour. If I thought they'd help convict more criminals I'd be in favour. But the simple truth is, they will do little if anything do any of these things." They calso carried a quote from another blog, whose name I unfortunately forget, carrying a quote from Tony Blair in 1995 saying that only right wing Tories want to waste money on ID cards. How times change...