The Daley Dozen: Saturday

1. Tim Worstall has spotted some economic illiteracy from Polly Toynbee.
2. Young Unionists on the disgraceful Eames/Bradley proposals.
3. Paul Waugh suggests Evan Davis is better qualified to run the country than Gordon Brown. He has nicer nipple clamps too.
4. Tom Harris on when it's right to say 'no' to the authorities.
5. Newmania reckons Martin Bright has been purged by the Talibrown.
6. Michael Meacher says it's time to take off the kid gloves with the banks.
7. PoliticalBetting on why Labour has slipped to a new low in the spread betting markets.
8. Guido reckons Paul Myners hates himself.
9. Robert Halfon on the implications of love-bombing the LibDems.
10. Cicero's Songs reckons everything in the economy needs to change.
11. John Redwood on the pros and cons of shopping till you drop.
12. Coffee House on the growing likelihood of a Tory majority.

The BBC Should Screen the Gaza Appeal

As readers know, I have been an uncompromising supporter of the Israeli action in Gaza. That does not mean I do not appreciate the unfolding humanitarian horror there. It does not mean I am blind to the deaths and injuries which have been caused, or to the destruction of homes and buildings. Just as I am not blind to the terror and suffering caused to the Israeli people by Hamas rocket attacks. Israel has the capacity to rebuild damaged buildings. That is not the case in Gaza.

Which is why I am rather at a loss to understand the decision by the BBC to refuse to show a humanitarian appeal by the Disasters & Emergencies Committee to appeal for aid to Gaza. This is not a political appeal, it is an appeal for the kind of goods, money and services which we all readily gave to help the victims of other disasters like the Indonesian Tsunami. Perhaps the BBC thinks it will come under fire from its detractors and those who support Israel. If so, they have misjudged the situation.

I have no idea what the Israeli attitude to this would be, or that of the Jewish community here. I would hope that like me, they would be in favour of screening this appeal. If Channel 4 and ITV are showing it, then so should the BBC.

UPDATE: Mark Thompson explains the BBC decision HERE. He makes some valid points, but I still think it's a wrong decision.

Speaker Refuses Meeting With Daniel Kawzcynski

Daniel Kawczynski has come in for a lot of stick following his Commons Statement on the Police Officer who demanded a letter from one of his constituents be handed over. He has been accused of overreacting and worse. He has released a statement today which should cause those who criticised him to think again. In particular, it again calls into question the competence and conduct of the Speaker, who has refused to hold a meeting with Kawczynski, yet was quite happy to pass judgement on him in the House of Commons on Thursday. I'm going to print Daniel's statement in full because I do think it riases some serious issues.

I refer to your Statement to the House in response to my complaint that the Police had entered my office without consulting me and threatened to seize from a young member of my staff and a student intern confidential constituency correspondence. I do feel that it is imperative that I clarify the facts with you regarding what actually happened on Wednesday night.

You mentioned in your Statement that the Police Officer arrived by appointment to see a member of my staff. This is simply not the case; there was no appointment, and the Police Officer in question arrived at my office after telephoning less than five minutes before. Whilst I appreciate that my staff were told that the police were coming to talk to them, I absolutely do not accept that when the police arrived – less than five minutes after their original call – they were doing so by appointment. The police informed my young researcher who has very limited experience of working in the Commons that they would be coming and did not seek any agreement. As I was speaking in the Chamber my researcher obviously could not get hold of me to try to come to the office in order for me to be present when the police came. Your previous ruling that the police had to consult with the Serjeant at Arms before entering an MP’s office seems to me to imply that it is imperative for an MP to be present in his office before the police arrive and start to interact with junior staff.

In approaching my staff directly, the police put them under undue pressure which they should not have had to bear, and in asking my staff to hand over documents the Police Officer in question was asking my researcher to make a decision which simply was not his to make. My team are young, relatively inexperienced, and still learning, and I am extremely protective of them. My researcher took exactly the correct course of action in refusing to hand over the letter when he was told it could be seized and in coming to get me from the Chamber. He should not have had to come to me; the police should have come to me first.

As a fellow Member of Parliament, you will appreciate well how closely I guard the confidence of my constituents. I deal on a daily basis with highly confidential personal documents. My constituents, as well as those of every other Member of this House, must be certain that their personal information will be viewed only by their Member of Parliament and his staff. The police action on Wednesday immediately called this certainty into question and I maintain that I treated this matter with the level of seriousness its implications demanded.

I am disappointed that in your Statement to the House you said that I had rushed to a conclusion before making my Point of Order. I understand well that the police were doing their job, and that they were undertaking an important investigation with a national security undertone. I do feel however, that in putting pressure on my staff to hand over a document which was not theirs to give, the police acted in a way not befitting this House. Had the same happened to your office, I think that you too would have been just as concerned as I was.

I met yesterday with the Serjeant at Arms, as well as with Chief Superintendent Bateman, the most senior Police Officer on the Parliamentary Estate. Having listened to my concerns, they were in agreement with me about how serious the police action was that was taken on Wednesday, and about its implications for the work undertaken by all Members of this House.

Mr Speaker, despite the negative media attention that I have received since raising this issue in the House, I still feel justified in doing so and would take the same course of action again were I to be presented with the same set of circumstances. I feel that the action taken by the police was serious, it needed to be raised, and had I not raised it, I would have been doing my constituents a profound disservice. I thank you for introducing new rules and regulations about the way Members and the police interact with one another as a result of all this and I know that I do not stand alone in my gratitude for clarifying some of the important grey areas remaining after the Damian Green incident.

My understanding from your previous ruling on Damian Green was that the police could not enter an MP’s office without first consulting the Serjeant at Arms. As they did not do this before entering my office and as the Police Officer put my young interns under huge pressure to hand over confidential documents without first consulting me, I felt that the Police Officer had broken the rules which you yourself have made. I therefore had no option but to raise the issue as a Point of Order. I am therefore very disappointed and concerned that you have labelled my actions as being hasty. I hope to raise these concerns with you directly and would be grateful for a meeting at your earliest convenience.

When I finally arrived in my office to meet with the Police Officer she had already got sight of the document she wanted. The division bell had rung whilst I was discussing the case with her and so obviously I had to make a decision much sooner than I would have liked as to whether or not it was appropriate to hand over the letter she wanted. I was on a 3 line whip to vote as it was an Opposition Day motion. Clearly the situation was not conducive at all to discussing such a serious matter with a Police Officer. Why could she have not taken the time to arrange to meet with me directly at a mutually convenient time to sit down and raise the issue with me. That way I would have been more than happy to help with her enquiries and to hand over whatever material she needed.

Finally I am deeply concerned that in the morning immediately after the incident members of my staff and I contacted your office to request a meeting. We were unable to secure one. Obviously such a meeting would have given me the opportunity to clearly set out to you, personally and directly, why I felt compelled to raise this Point of Order. You have made a Statement about my actions without allowing me to put my side of the case to you and this greatly disappoints me.

It's not just me who thinks something has gone wrong here. Michael Crick thinks he misjudged events in his Newsnight report on Wednesday night. He cites the evidence of Kawczynski's two young staffers as deeply worrying. I have seen their statements and they do indeed raise questions. Over to Michael Crick...

The statements by the two staff members are worrying. If the two accounts are right, it seems astonishing following the Green affair that a policewoman should have used such methods to try and persuade two very young and inexperienced members of the MP's staff to hand over the letter, without a warrant and without first consulting the MP himself. The fact it was a police officer based at the Commons, rather than an ordinary member of the Met Police (as in the Green affair), makes it worse, as one would expect Westminster police officers to be aware of the Parliamentary privilege which applies to MPs' correspondence.

You can read the statements of Jack Colson and Helen Roberts on Michael Crick's blog. This is not a scandal on the scale of the one involving Damian Green, but there are clearly questions to be answered, not just by the Police but by The Speaker.

Ten New Blogs

Harry's Diary - Blog of UKIP PPC & MEP candidate Harry Alridge
LabourIst - Mirror site of Labour List but with unmoderated comments
In the Brown... - Tory blog
Essex Wake Up & Smell the Coffee - UKIP
Lord Allesley - Not a real Lord, a Tory based in Coventry
Junk Mail - Journalist, Josh Haliday
Tory Farm Boy
Old Rightie
Deliver Nothing Labour Party
Craggy Island - Libertarian

These blogs aren't necessarily newly created, but I haven't known about them before and they had not, until now, appeared in the TP Blog Directory.

Visit the Total Politics Blog Directory which contains more than 1,800 blogs. If you know of one which isn't there, please fill in the Submit a New Blog form on the left hand side of THIS page.

David Davis on Straight Talk

This week's STRAIGHT TALK with Andrew Neil features David Davis as the guest. Click HERE to watch the thirty minute programme.

* 2005 leadership contest and THAT speech
* His resignation
* Why David Cameron didn't bring him back in the reshuffle
* His relationship with David Cameron
* Does he want job in a future Tory government

Andrew Neil: Would you accept a job from Prime Minister Cameron if the phone call comes.
David Davis: I would imagine so, because that's the sensible thing to do.

Who Is The Oldest Surviving Former MP?

Last week I reported the sad death of former North Norfolk Labour MP Bert Hazell at the ripe old age of 101. He was he longest ever surviving former MP. Liberal England is now on the search for the oldest surviving former Liberal MP. They reckon is it George Mackie, who is 90 in July and was Liberal MP for Caithness & Sutherland from 1964-66 and was then given a Peerage.

I thought I'd take up the challenge and ask my readers if they know who the oldest suriving ex Labour and Conservative MPs are, or indeed, if there are any surviving minor party MPs who can lay claim to the title of oldest surviving MP?

I'll update this post with your nominations.

UPDATE: David Boothroyd has spolit the fun already come up with the answer...

The oldest ex-Conservative MPs are James Allason (C, Hemel Hempstead 1959-74), b. 6/9/12, and Reader Harris (C, Heston and Isleworth 1950-70), b. 4/6/13.

The oldest ex-Labour MP is Michael Foot (Plymouth Devonport 1945-55; Ebbw Vale 1960-83; Blaenau Gwent 1983-92), b. 23/7/13.

The oldest ex-minor party MP is Ernest Millington of Common Wealth (later joined the Labour Party), who was elected for Chelmsford in April 1945 (b. 15/2/16).

The oldest ex-Liberal MP is indeed Lord Mackie of Benshie; followed by Clement Freud (b. 24/4/24) and Emlyn Hooson (b. 26/3/25).

UPDATE: Chris disagrees. He nominated William Wilson, Labour MP, b.28/06/1913, MP for Coventry South 64 to 74 then Coventry South East 74 to 83

UPDATE: Liberal England has found an older Labour MP... There is an older living Labour MP: Ted Short, born 17 December 1912. Thanks to a comment on Michael Crick's blog for this.

The Daley Dozen: Friday

1. A Labour MEP, Mary Honeyball, hits out at the sexism of LabourList.
2. LibDem councillor Steve Beasant on his Cool Britannia musical tastes.
3. Calum Cashley on how Iceland is sending aid to Britain - blankets, socks, that kind of thing.
4. Nigel Fletcher explains that reports of his death have been greatly exaggerated.
5. Boris Johnson is on Twitter and wants you to follow him.
6. Machiavelli fisks Steve Morgan over the Hain affair.
7. John Redwood on government hypocrisy over aviation.
8. Coffee House thinks Alastair Campbell is sending a coded message.
9. Labour Home carries a post wondering if Gordon Brown is a tinnie short of a six pack.
10. Croydonian has a story on which countries have ethical foreign policies.
11. Devil's Kitchen analyses the problem with modern government. In his own style!
12. Gordon Brown's Today interview is analysed by Burning Our Money.

Total Politics: New Issue Out Now

The new issue of Total Politics is out this week, with some fabulous features, interviews and reporting. Here are a few of them...

Tim Shipman: Is Obama great or a surfer on the wave of history?
Amber Elliott on how Parliament treats disabled people
Ben Duckworth on the pros & cons of unitary authorities
5 leading figures make predictions on the Obama presidency
John Shosky's speechwriting tips
Iain Dale interviews Tony Benn
The Campaign Doctor plays agony aunt
Jonathan Sheppard on the art of networking
Robert Waller analyses marginal seats in the South East
The Debate: Is lobbying transparent enough? David Hencke debates Robbie MacDuff
If I Were PM: Michael Sheen
Paul Evans on political rehabilitations
The Diary: Derek Draper
Charles Clarke reviews the Hugo Young papers

You can read the whole magazine on our online eZine or if you'd like to take out a subscription for £35 for 12 issues (27% off newsstand price) click HERE.

Join the Total Politics Facebook Group HERE or Twitter feed HERE.

When Iain Dale Met Tony Benn

Earlier this month I interviewed Tony Benn for Total Politics. Here's how I described the experience in last week's New Statesman...

Thirty years ago I regarded Tony Benn as the greatest threat to Britain outside the Soviet Union. Nowadays we agree on Europe, the constitution and threats to civil liberties. I interviewed him last week for the next issue of Total Politics in the endearingly ramshackle basement office of his Holland Park home. I don't go in for Paxman-style interviewing but I quickly learned that you have to challenge some of Tony's wilder assertions. "Thatcher made trade unions illegal." Er, no, she didn't actually. "The Soviet Union posed no military threat." Come again? On most subjects he is incredibly persuasive and it is easy to see why he continues to fill theatres up and down the country. But he still attracts incredible bitterness from those on the Labour right who blame him for the party's 18 years in opposition. When I solicited questions for the interview on my blog I was taken aback by the venom unleashed by people who are normally quite meek and mild. He clearly has something in common with Israel.

If you'd like to read the whole interview, and I promise you, it's worth it, click HERE.

Douglas Murray Banned by the LSE

Archbishop Cranmer is reporting that Douglas Murray has been banned from chairing a meeting on Islam at the London School of Economics because of "concerns about public safety". The debate was called "Islam or Liberalism: Which is the Way Forward?" Looks like the answer to the question is quite clear.

This is a very worrying development indeed. From time to time I get asked to speak at events at the LSE. I shall think very carefully before accepting any future invitations from them. Perhaps my very presence would not be conducive to the public good.

Boris Twitters

Boris Johnson has joined Twitter. Today he is twittering from the Thames estuary, where is looking at the potential site for Boris Island Airport. If you'd like to follow Boris's twitterings, and let's face it, who wouldn't, click HERE.

And of you'd like to join the 1,067 who are following my Twitter feed, click HERE.

Thank God Barack Obama Wasn't Aborted

This is a video from CatholicVote.com. It makes a very simple point. And one which even the most ardent pro-choicers will find some difficulty in countering.

Hattip: Tory Diary

Fancy an Obama Brazilian?

The Sun reports this morning that on Inuaguration Day a BBC newsreader said this:

Everyone in Washington has got an Obama hat, an Obama scarf, an Obama T Shirt or an Obama muff.

Those waxing clinics must have been doing good business. Could it catch on here?

Or have I misunderstood? :) :)

Tories On Top In Three-Way

You do have a dirty mind don't you. I'm talking about the by-election result last night in Bexley.

East Wickham Ward By-Election - Thursday 22 January

Patricia Rose Ball (The Labour Party Candidate) - 700
Michael John Barnbrook (British National Party) - 790
Elizabeth Grace Goodlad (Liberal Democrats) - 564
Steven Frederick Hall (The Conservative Party Candidate) - 798 ELECTED
Laurence Williams (English Democrats - "Putting England First") - 128

I wonder how many recounts there were. It is very worrying that the BNP could come second in somewhere like Bexley. Anyone got any insights to share?

Tom Harris Gets a Makeover

Tom Harris has had a makeover. Well, his blog design has. He's also shifted domains, so click HERE to visit his new site. It's a great improvement, albeit that he has no fewer than four pictures of himself in the gigantic blog banner. A big well done to my old mate Mike Rouse for the new design. I'm glad he's finished Tom's - he can now get on with designing me a new template for my West Ham blog!

What Barack Obama Really Thinks of Gordon Brown

It wasn't only Dawn Butler who had a letter from Barack Obama. It appears the Prime Minister got one too... Thanks to City Unslicker for uncovering it.

What have I started?

The Daley Dozen: Thursday

1. Liberal England has the most hurtful comment of the day.
2. A Very British Dude is highly unimpressed by Dawn Butler. Join the club.
3. Taking Liberties explains how the media works.
4. Liberal Conspiracy reports the sad, but not unexpected news that Martin Bright has left the New Statesman. He's a truly excellent journalist.
5. Samuel Coates explains on the Blue Blog why social action projects are so important for the Conservatives.
6. Spectator Coffee House on the Pickles approach to lurrrve and the LibDems.
7. Dizzy reports on a horrifying discovery for the father of a two year old.
8. Danny Finkelstein is not impressed by Jon Snow. Not impressed at all.
9. Tom Harris tells a government minister to shut the **** up.
10. Andrew Porter reports on the year's worst political prediction. Jacqui Smith for Labour leader!
11. Conor Ryan thinks Brown should admit the next election is lost.
12. Dizzy on Labour email spam.

BBC: Dawn Butler Is The Chosen One

The Dawn Butler story I posted this morning seems to have spread about the internet quite well. Unity has turned his characteristically forensic microscope onto it and concludes that she's been a bit of a tit. Ben Brogan, Paul Waugh, PoliticalBetting have also covered it. But the BBC "News" website (note the irony) has covered itself with glory with THIS coverage, which might as well have been written by the Labour Party press office. Somehow the story fails to mention the crassness of what Dawn Butler has done. Instead it begins...

A Labour MP has stolen a march on rival politicians in the UK - by securing a personal endorsement from Barack Obama. Dawn Butler has published a letter from the new US president on her website in which he describes her as "bright, intelligent and determined"."I say to the people of Brent you should have the audacity of hope and when someone asks you can she do it, you respond yes we can," he adds. Ms Butler said she was "incredibly proud" of the letter... She said: "Meeting Obama was an inspirational moment. And I am so humbled that I can quote what he said about me 'that having met me he understands why I am only one of two black women in parliament. We should all be proud of Dawn.'

Er, that could be read in at least two ways I think! I've given up getting angry about puff articles like this from the 'impartial' BBC. Had I not written about this on my blog this morning they wouldn't have covered it. But no mention of the House of Commons paper being used for political purposes. Not even a "related link". I looked for the name of the person who wrote the BBC article half expecting it to be a D Butler. Unfortunately it is anonymous.

Obama's Victory: Marketing Triumph?

I won't give a long report from the Oxford media conference mainly because I only attended the session I was speaking at. It was meant to address the subject of the relationship between politicians and the media and what lessons could be learnt from Obama's campaign. Apart from Ed Vaizey I suspect I was the only Tory at the event, which was rammed full of media luvvies who predictably had a collective orgasm about how simply wonderful Obama is. I thought one woman was about to hyperventilate with enthusiasm at one point. But my fellow speaker, Professor Stephen Coleman did his best to out do her and came out with a corker of a quote...

"It was a victory of popular politics over the marketing of politics."

It was certainly a triumph of the politics of optimism, but for a respected political academic to say it was not a victory for political marketing makes me think Professor Coleman is spending too much time in his ivory tower. I made the point that Obama created a brand, especially online, and used that brand to market his type of politics. He was very successful at it. People bought into the brand and felt part of an online army. This army then went out there to market the Obama brand for him.

Touching the Hem of The Messiah

As if yesterday's PMQs wasn't sick making enough with every politician trying bask in Barack Obama's reflected glory, Labour MP Dawn Butler has taken things one stage further. Take a look at this "endorsement" from The One on her website, but then think about how she got it. Assuming the President doesn't have a stash of House of Commons paper secreted in his office, and assuming the signature is genuine (she did in fact meet him some months ago), one has to question whether Dawn Butler had a hand in the drafting of the note, which she then presumably stuck under his nose for him to sign. Surely Barack Obama wouldn't have written such a trite and self serving paragraph himself? Would he?

Pass the sick bag, Alice.

But I am sure the voters of Brent will be suitably impressed.

UPDATE 10.40: The letter has mysteriously disappeared from Ms Butler's website.
How very strange.

UPDATE 1.30: I'm speaking at a conference in Oxford so I haven't been able to follow exactly
the follow on from this. Paul Waugh and Ben Brogan have written about it. Paul Waugh has Dawn
Butler's response and she has just been on 5 Live talking about it apparently.

According to commenters her website now contains an amended version of the endorsement
minus the House of Commons logo. Tried to look on my Blackberry but couldn't see it.