Public Humiliation Should Not be Part of Our Legal Process

From my Eastern Daily Press column...

Anyone who knows David Prior (former Tory MP for North Norfolk) will testify to the decency of the man. His former constituents in North Norfolk and the staff at the Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital will have been shocked at his very public arrest this week. But let us remember that arrest does not imply anything. What should shock us more is the very public way this was done. Someone somewhere wanted it to be in the public domain, and I don’t think we have too far to look to know where the news was leaked from. Whoever it was had an agenda.

This is not the first time it has happened. I well remember the case of Neil and Christine Hamilton being arrested on suspicion of rape and being put through months of hell before they were completely exonerated. But in those few months the ‘no smoke without fire’ brigade had a field day. The Metropolitan Police had tipped off the press that they had been arrested and a phalanx of cameras was waiting to greet them at Ilford Police Station.

The same thing happened more recently to Lord Levy, when he was arrested in the Cash for Peerages inquiry. Whatever happened to the concept of ‘innocent until proven guilty’? It seems if you a public figure you have to put up with this sort of thing nowadays.

I don’t blame the EDP for splashing the Prior case as a big story. It is. But perhaps someone in Norfolk Police, or maybe the Norfolk Health Service, should be hanging their head in shame this weekend for putting a transparently decent man and his family through hell. And perhaps the rest of us should be asking ourselves what their agenda is.

The Questions Gordon Should Be Asked in Iraq

As the Chancellor Gordon Brown arrives in Iraq, I wonder which of our brave servicemen will have the courage - on camera - to ask him these two questions...

How many British soldiers have died in Iraq and Afghanistan because your government won't provide the equipment the armed services have said they need? How much of this is down to you and the Treasury refusing to authorise the MoD to buy the equipment?

Come Back Sue Cook

[curmudgeon rant] I used to rather enjoy Children in Need. The banter between Terry Wogan and the rather bashful Sue Cook (pic right) was always enjoyable. The entertainment was sometimes cringemaking but generally quite watchable. Nowadays Sue Cook has been replaced by Natasha Kaplinsky and the quite dreadful Fern Cotton (who I always thought played rugby for England) ,whose exhuberance becomes rather wearing after about three minutes. The entertainment is a mixture of second rate soap stars (Bad Girls) attempting to sing, newsreaders making arses of themselves (too many to mention) and the odd has-been celebrity putting in an appearance to resurrect their flagging career (David Cassidy, Emma Bunton etc). Oh my God, the next act is the cast of Two Pints of Lager singing a tribute to WHAM and then we have CARRY ON HOLBY. And there's not even Cliff Richard to look forward to. I was in the middle of a four hour stint of watching LOST earlier on until my other half came home and made me switch over. The question is, how long can I stand it before I disappear into the other room? I'll just get my coat... [/curmudgeon rant]

Libertarian, Shrill and Proud Of It

Apparently it's all our fault. Voter disconnection. Voter apathy. We're to blame. We bloggers are shrill and impolite. So says Blair lackey Matthew Taylor HERE and President George Bush Senior HERE.

Matthew Taylor reckons that part of the problem is the "net-head" culture itself, which is rooted in libertarianism and "anti-establishment" attitudes, according to the BBC report. No Matthew, people like YOU are the problem. You sit there in Downing Street, in your little ivory tower and think that you know best and that we, the little people, will meekly go along with whatever authoritarian and anti-democratic measure you dream up next. Wrong. It's because of people like you that the blogosphere is growing and feels the need to rail against establishment thinking. But you are right, whether on the left or the right, we are rooted in libertarianism. And most of us are proud of it. Get used to it.

Another Sign of Blair's Disappearing Authority

How on earth does this woman keep her job? Margaret Hodge was, until the last election the Minister for Children. This, despite her having run a Labour Council at the centre of child abuse allegations. Today she has laid into Tony Blair for Iraq, despite being a senior Minister of State in his government. She equated his foreign policy to "moral imperialism". We should remember this isn't the first time she has shot her mouth off and yet she still hasn't been sacked. This is not a sign of magnanimity on Tony Blair's part - it's a sign of his disappearing authority that Ministers seem now to believe that they can ignore the Ministerial Code almost at will.

Exclusive Pictures Inside the New Wembley Stadium

LibDem MP Announces Retirement

LibDem Voice (God, their second name-check today) is reporting that LibDem MP Paul Keetch is to stand down at the next election. He has a majority of 982 over the Conservatives. Virginia Taylor has fought the seat twice before and the Conservatives are currently selecting their candidate for next time. This news will certainly make the selection a tad more interesting.

A Quick Change of Underpants Reported at Number Ten

In a letter to the House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee Acting Assistant Commissioner John Yates says his investigation into cash-for-honours has turned up "significant and valuable material" and that "considerable progress continues to be made".

Mr Yates told MPs he hoped to be able to send a file of evidence to the CPS in January.

There were reports this afternoon of dry cleaners being called to Number Ten.

UPDATE: Guido has the full text of the letter.

Shameless

Shamelessly stolen from LibDem Voice...

There has been a successful campaign in Lewisham to save the Ladywell swimming pool. The (Labour) Mayor, Steve Bullock, had these lovely words to say about the campaigners:

“I feel the passionate and enthusiastic campaign by Save Ladywell Pool, although challenging at times, is a great example of how local people can get their views heard. Their work is an example to all communities and shows how people can get together and make a real difference.”

What a shame then that on the same day as these words were uttered, the latest edition of Time Out appeared, with these words from the very same Mayor Steve Bullock about the very same campaign:

“The campaign is pathetic. It is led by a very small group of backward-looking people.”

I must apologise for thinking that the Liberal Democrats were the only ones to indulge in this sort of behaviour. Clearly I was wrong. Let that be a lesson to me.

An Unremarkable Queen's Speech

This Queen's Speech had all the stench of a government in decay and on the way out. Listening to the stream of ministers talking it up on Five Live, you would think the government was still hugely popular, the prime minister is at the peak of his powers and that the bills in the Queen's Speech were spectacular in their audacity. None of these three descriptions is remotely true. They know it, we know it, and - more to the point - so do the voters.

Two themes dominated this Queen's Speech. The first is "talking tough". John Reid and Gordon Brown have been trying to "out-tough" each other over recent days. Older readers will remember the nouveau riche Brummie personified by Harry Enfield as "considerably richer than YOW". His modern-day equivalent is an aspirant Labour leadership candidate whose constant refrain is: "I'm considerably tougher than YOW". The Home Office bills being put forward in this parliament certainly give John Reid an opportunity to perform and reinforce his authoritarian reputation. But, as we saw from the last session, he will not have an easy task in taking the House of Commons with him.

The Conservatives have proved to be unlikely allies for Shami Chakrabarti and Liberty, but they have successfully stolen Labour's civil liberties clothes. John Reid believes he is in tune with the mood of our times. He believes Labour's message of "Security in a Changing World" is one that resonates with voters, who will understand if sometimes their individual rights are infringed. But the Conservative retort may well prove to be an enduring one. They accuse Reid of talking tough but never following through on the headline-grabbing initiatives he announces on a seemingly daily basis.

The 11th criminal justice bill in nine years will give him further opportunities to "mug a hoodie". He will contrast his tough stance with the apparently soppy line put forward by David Cameron. As David Davis' ex-chief of staff, I think I am in a position to make clear that Davis won't let him get away with it. The immigration paper published by Davis and his immigration spokesman, Damian Green, last week was a masterful way of putting forward a policy based on softer rhetoric but tougher policy. Reid was caught unawares and rushed round the TV studios to denounce it, yet in the Queen's Speech he is putting forward measures which he denounced only a few days ago.

The climate change bill is perhaps the most interesting of the 29 contained in the speech. The Conservatives and Lib Dems have allied themselves with the green lobby and are calling for annual targets. David Miliband sticks to his 60% reduction by 2050. All parties conveniently ignore the fact that these targets are completely meaningless unless India and China address the issue of climate change. By 2050, their economies will be emitting more greenhouse gases than the US does now.

Bearing in mind that pensions is a subject which instantly sends most people to sleep, I wonder if this might be the area of most controversy over the coming year. I detect little sign of a cross-party consensus on the way ahead and the government's proposals are bound to provoke reactions, not just from the opposition, but from their own supporters. The pensions bill will also give John Hutton a chance to shine. If, as is rumoured, he is considering a tilt at Gordon Brown, here's the perfect platform from which to do it.

And that brings me on to the second theme which dominated the Queen's Speech - well perhaps not a theme, more of a cloud.This is a nothing Queen's Speech. It is a safety-first speech dominated by the desire of an outgoing prime minister to appear as if he's still in charge, and the intention of an incoming prime minister to ensure that people think he is.

And in that short sentence, one can see how the next year will pan out in politics. Everything will be seen through the prism of Tony Blair's departure and Gordon Brown's arrival. And for those of us who continue to be fascinated with the political process, it's going to be quite a year.

This article was written for CommentisFree yesterday.

Channel 4 News Top of the Blogs Podcast

In my Channel 4 News Podcast this morning I talk about triangulation and the Queen's Speech. Click HERE listen to it. Listen for the Queen soundalike! And it ain't me. Blogs mentioned in the Podcast include Cicero's Songs, Dave's Part, Mikey's Tent of Reality and Disillusioned & Bored.

German MEP in Conflict of Interest?

Readers will recall I have been quite excitable about the fact that Christopher Beazley MEP has voted in favour of the regulation of internet TV. On Monday the Culutr and Media Committee voted in favour of the Draft Audio Visual Services Directive which seeks to regulate internet TV in the same way as terrestrial broadcasters. When committees vote in this way you have to delve behind the obvious and ask: who's going to benefit by such a Directive? The answer in this case is clear - mainstream terrestrial broadcasters.

So it was with some astonishment that I learned from one of my correspondents that the Chief Rapporteur of the Culture Committee on this Directive is German MEP Ruth Hieronymi. The reason I'm surprised? Since 1991 she has sat of the Board of WDR (West Deutsche Rundfunk), one of the most powerful terrestrial broadcasters in Germany. In this country that sort of thing would be called a Conflict of Interest. After all, who stands to gain from the regulation of internet TV? Why, powerful terrestrial broadcasters like WDR, naturally! I'm sure Frau Hieronymi declared her interest (for which, according to Eurpopean Parliament records she does not get paid) but she should not be the Chief Rapporteur in an area where such a clear conflict of interest can be alleged.

Sister Sledging

Cherie Blair seems to be almost unembarrassable, but even she must cringe at the antics of her half sister Lauren Booth. Miss Booth sees the sunsetting on her career as a media pundit, for after Cherie dances off into the sunset, Lauren's unique selling point disappears. No longer is she the sister-in-law of the British Prime Minister. Hence her appearance on I'm a Celebrity, Get me Out of Here. It's a last desperate throw of the dice designed to keep her in the media spotlight.

Yesterday she appeared to let slip that Tony Blair was intending to depart the scene in January. She then paused, and said 'oh, February, or March, or it might be April'. The intention was to make us all think that she is 'in the know'. The fact of the matter is that Cherie and Blair are more likely to confide in David Cameron than they are to talk to Lauren Booth about this or anything else. So if you become an addict to I'm a Celbrity and Lauren mentions anything to do with her famous relatives dip your fingers into the salt bowl and take a massive pinch.

Cash for Peerages: Blair Pleads Abu Hamza Defence

Until today, if I'm honest, I wasn't too sure that the Cash for Peerages inquiry would result in any formal charges. But reading a story in Her Majesty's Daily Telegraph over my cornflakes has convinced me that it's only a matter of time before charges are laid against at least one leading member of the New Labour ruling elite.

It seems that Downing Street is hiring lawyers (at our expense?) to question whether there could possibly be a fair trial after all the negative publicity. This is the Abu Hamza defence and shows that things are getting pretty desperate. Downing Street is trying to put the line out that the Police are leaking like a sieve and this is soooooo very unfair. Come again? Who is it who keeps encouraging journalists to write that the Police have found nothing and the Inquiry is going nowhere? We've already had various kites flown by Downing Street, all of which have failed to fly. Believe me, this one won't either.

John Yates does not strike me as the sort of policeman who is likely to be easily deflected from the task in hand. The Inquiry has taken so long because there have been so many people to interview and I suspect that after each interview further lines of inquiry are developed. My suspicion is that this will run way into next year and while the Prime Minister will be interviewed by Yates while he is still office, the interesting bit will come after he departs. According to Lauren Booth, on I'm a Celebrity this could be in January. Although as Blair and his wife never speak to her I'm not sure how she would know.

Climate Change: Missing the Point

For those who think, like Ken Livingstone, that slapping a £25 congestion onto Ford Mondeos is a good thing and will save the planet, I have news for them. Frankly, it doesn't really matter what we do in this country on global emissions if we can't persuade India and China to follow suit. Take this piece from The Economist...

Over the next few decades, one of the main determinants of increased oil demand will be higher car ownership in emerging economies. At present there are only two cars for every 100 people in China, against 50 in America. Goldman Sachs forecasts that China's car ownership will rise to 29 per 100 by 2040. The total number of cars in China and India combined could rise from around 30m today to 750m by 2040 (see chart 10)—more than all the cars on the world's roads today. Even so, car-ownership rates in those two countries would still be only half those in America today.

Many people worry more about the environmental damage resulting from emerging countries' rising energy demand than they do about rising prices. Rapid industrialisation has already caused an alarming increase in emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollution. China has 16 of the world's 20 most air-polluted cities. America is still the world's largest spewer of carbon emissions, but China is expected to overtake it within a decade or so. A report by Zmarak Shalizi, an economist at the World Bank, forecasts that on current policies carbon emissions in China and India will more than double by 2020—though that would still leave China's carbon emissions per person at only one-third of the current level in America.

So our efforts on climate change are misdirected. What we should be doing is convincing India and China that they will be the main part of the problem within half a generation, and then persuade (or even help) them to take the requisite action. We can all have windmills on our roofs and install solar panels, but if Indians and the Chinese do not cut their emissions too we might as well save ourselves the bother.

Half a Pound of Half Baked Policy, Half a Pound of Treacle

It is not April 1st. I wish to make that clear, because after reading this story from the Daily Mail, you will be looking at your diaries and thinking I am wrong...

"Parents could be forced to go to special classes to learn to sing their children nursery rhymes, a minister said. Those who fail to read stories or sing to their youngsters threaten their children's future and the state must put them right, Children's Minister Beverley Hughes said. Their children's well-being is at risk 'unless we act', she declared. And Mrs Hughes said the state would train a new 'parenting workforce' to ensure parents who fail to do their duty with nursery rhymes are found and 'supported'."

Perhaps the Children's Minister would do better to address the real problems facing children in this country like family breakdown, fatherless families or the fact that we have the highest abortion rate in Europe. But no, Beverley Hughes is more concerned by nursery rhymes.

How Did Christopher Beazley Vote?

Yesterday a committee of the European Parliament voted on the Audiovisual Media Services Directive. This is the Directive which threatens the future of internet TV stations like 18DoughtyStreet - obviously a subject close to my heart. Tory MEP Christopher Beazley sits on this committee. See HERE. When he last corresponded with me he indicated that he would be voting with the EPP line and supporting the Directive, with all its unnecessary regulation.

I have been trying to find out today whether he did vote in favour of it or not. Astonishingly, votes in these Committees are not recorded. I have emailed him, but last time it took three weeks to get a reply, so I am not holding my breath.

I know I have a number of readers in the European Parliament. Would anyone know the answer to my question?

UPDATE: I have just received this email from Christopher Beazley. Words fail me. His last paragraph is just plain deluded.

Iain,

The Committee voted unanimously (with the exception of one, believed to be UKIP) after a marathon session to accept the Rapporteur's compromise proposals which incorporated as much as possible of the Industry, Internal Market and associated Committee's proposals.

As I outlined to you in our previous correspondence my amendment to safeguard OFCOM's continuing responsibility in the UK and the 30 minute rule pertaining to advertising slots of Independent TV have been approved.

Blogs, private websites, internet applications whose primary purpose is not audiovisual are all excluded from the Daft Directive.

Internet based TV (non linear services), as anticipated will fall under the scope of the Directive which guarantees to the public the same level of consumer and legal protection as they currently expect from linear TV services. Your individual concerns for the future of your internet based service would appear to be allayed as the Draft Directive, as it stands, in no way threatens its future success.

Christopher

If They Look Like Terrorists, Act Like Terrorists, Talk Like Terrorists...

...according to the BBC they are 'militants'. Today 100 people were kidknapped in Baghdad. I am pretty sure they felt terrorised. So why does the BBC insist on calling terrorists 'militants'? I can see no reason for it at all. But feel free to enlighten me. I am sure there is some politically correct reason for it.

Ken Livingstone's £1000 a Minute Press Conference

It's a hard life. Ken Livingstone's four day junket important trip to Latin America cost London council tax payers a massive £36,000. The mayor and four officials stopped in Cuba, paying out £16,991 in flight tickets and £1,530 for accommodation. Meals cost £132. Transport added £195.30 to the bill, while telecoms and business services such as hiring telephones cost £202.80.Another £16,491.83 was paid out on the aborted Venezuelan trip. Flights for four officials cost £12,948.13 along with £3,469.20 on accommodation and £74.50 xpenses.

Mr Livingstone said he had been invited by British Olympic Association chairman Lord Moynihan to attend the International Olympic Committee's Sport for All congress in Havana, Cuba. He spent about 30 minutes there at the closing press conference. Then, after the Venezuelan leg of his tour was cancelled, his four-and-a-half day stay in Cuba had to be extended by another day so he could catch a flight home.

Defending his trip, Mr Livingstone told a City Hall press conference this morning: "Of course I am not happy. I will have to go separately to Venezuela when I open the office there. I will miss my children. I will have to go to the airport, which I hate, have a long flight, which I loathe, and rush back as soon as possible."

Oh the burdens of Office.

The Consequences of Too Many Bills

The Conservatives have pre-empted tomorrow's Queen's Speech by doing an analysis of the Bills in last year's Speech. Their research shows that of the thirty Bills promised, almost half have been scrapped, delayed, watered down or amended because they were unworkable. The bills scrapped announced in the Queen's Speech and subsequently scrapped or heavily delayed were: Welfare Reform Bill, Management of Offenders Bill, Mental Health Bill, Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill, European Union Bill. And these were heavily amended or watered down: Education and Inspections Bill, Health Bill, Racial and Religious Hatred Bill, Equality Bill, Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill, Company Law Reform Bill,
Identity Cards Bill, Violent Crime Reduction Bill.

So why is that interesting? Because it's a sign of a government reaching the end of its natural shelf life when it can't get its legislation through Parliament despite a big majority, and that it brings forward Bills at very short notice whhich are badly drafted and have to be shelved or heavily delayed. There are many echoes of the dying days of the Major government here. So desperate are they to rpove they are fizzing with ideas and haven't run out of steam that they stuff the parliamentary timetable full of Bills which are badly thought out and haven't a hope in hell on becoming law.

And that's what I expect them to do tomorrow. Instead of announcing a tight Parliamentary programme with 15-20 Bills, we'll get another long list of Bills, half of which won;t ever complete their passage.

UKIP Will Stand Against Better Off Out Tories

This evening I interviewed UKIP leader Nigel Farage for an hour on 18DoughtyStreet. To be honest I was rather more impressed him than I expected to be. He was quite open about the problems his party faces and the challenges it must meet. I'm still not convinced he has the answers, but he is certainly determined to make it more professional. I was astonished to learn it has a mere 16,000 members (down from a high of 27,000). UKIP's strategy seems to be based around attracting disaffected right wing Conservatives and...er, that's it. With Europe not high on the political agenda at the moment there's little else they can do.

Nigel made the astonishing claim that he expects UKIP to be the biggest party after the 2008 European Elections. He says they have doubled their vote in the last two elections and if they repeated that in 2008 they'd be on 32%. Yes, and my name's Shirley Temple. I took him to task for accepting £170,000 of taxpayers' money to pay for UKIP propaganda. He couldn't see anything wrong in doing this, saying that all the other parties did too. He didn't seem to understand that UKIP's USP is that they're not like the three main parties and not accepting this handout would help differentiate them.

But the top line from the interview was that contrary to popular belief UKIP will put candidates up against Tory candidates whatever their views on Europe. I had thought he had said they wouldn't do that to candidates who had signed up to the cross-party Better Off Out campaign. Nigel said that only applied to sitting MPs as candidates would say anything to get elected and then rat on their promises. Well, at least we now know.

If you want to watch the interview click HERE and it's about a quarter of the way through and lasts an hour.

Conservatives Seek to 'Follow the Money'

At this evening's ConservativeHome Awards I sat next to George Osborne who was full of a new initiative being unveiled today. He will be announcing details of a new website today called Follow the Money, which will enable people to see just how the government is spending their money. At the moment the site is temporary and part of Conservatives.com but it is currently being developed along the lines of Expectmore.gov. The idea is to persuade the Government to start a similar website to enable greater public accountability. I suspect this will have to wait until Mr Osborne is in Number 11.

Questions on Identity Cards for James Hall

Tomorrow at 4pm Downing Street will be holding a webchat with James Hall, Chief Executive of the Identity and Passport Service, who will be talking about implementing ID Cards. One question that could be asked is this...

In your previous job at Enron's accountants Accenture you were responsible for a £2 billion contract to build a database of medical records for the NHS. How did you allow the project to fall three years behind schedule and can we expect the same level of expertise with the ID card system? Accenture pulled out in September, blaming “significant delays” and wrote off £260 million in the process - how much of this was down to you?

So if you'd like to ask this or similar questions log onto http://www.pm.gov.uk from 4pm tomorrow (Tuesday).

Reid Suffers Humiliation over Drugs Payout

As John Reid and Gordon Brown compete with each other for the "I'm considerably tougher than YOW" (Harry Enfield, 1994) vote, Reid has suffered an humiliating setback, as two hundred drug taking prisoners are given £10,000 each. The have taken the Home Office to court under the Human Rights Act and Reid has caved in and settled before the case got to court.

Apparently they were forced to stop taking heroin or other drugs in jail and this breached their human rights, can you believe? The case has been funded through legal aid - ie by you, the taxpayer and will end up costing the best part of £4 million. David Davis has accused John Reid of a "massive failure of political nerve".

So that's great, then. 192 drug addicted ex-cons with £10,000 in their back pockets. Nice to know that the taxpayer's hard earned pennies will be used to shoot up a bit of 'smack', isn't it? I suppose it cuts out the need to steal it.

Tesco: Every Little Shop Closure Helps...

Norfolk Blogger reports that Tesco has driven another local shop to the wall in Fakenham. Like him, I was very uncomfortable about Tesco being given planning permission for a new store in the centre of Fakenham due do its entirely unsuitable location and lack of accessibility. I'm not against Tesco, or indeed big supermarkets per se, but this one was just plain wrong.

And then I read THIS piece in the Sunday Telegraph explaining how Prunella Scales, having trousered £1 million from Tesco for her advert appearances with Jane Horrocks, now wants to support independent small shops.

You've got to laugh, I suppose... Unless of course you live in Fakenham... Or you own a small shop.

Long to Reign Over Us

Stephen Tall's A Liberal Goes A Long Way BLOG has become a daily read for me. Today he has an excellent post on Remembrance Sunday. Well, if you ignore the last two paragraphs... And he was doing so well.

Andrew Sullivan on Dubya

Andrew Sullivan is a journalist I often agree with. He's a Brit who's made it big in the US but still writes a Sunday Times column each week. This week he's written a long article for the Sunday Times News Review on the relationship between George W Bush and his father. You can read it HERE. A good friend of mine from Washington DC, Daniel Forrester (a Republican) thinks Sullivan is on the money. He just emailed me this...

It is about as clear an interpretation to the reality that is the Bush family that I have seen. It is biting, sets context, connects many dots, offers balance and in the end left me thinking thank God my father was a decent and good man who I need only emulate as a father, friend and husband. In other words, thank God my dad was never President.

W's relationship with his father is as complex as any in US history-- at the root of their relationship we see dysfunction that helps bring the world the "wisdom" of Rumsfeld. The only thing that Andrew misses is Cheney who is the yang to the yin of Rumsfeld. Those two collectively promoted empty reasoning and governing madness that failed to offer the intellectually non curious president many options as to how he should govern. If I wrote a book on the Bush Presidency my title would be "The Echo Chamber" with a picture of Rumsfeld and Cheney briefing the President.

I was blown away by what Andrew wrote. Couple this article with Maureen Dowd this week and you get a picture that shows the arrogance, pain, boldness and missed opportunity that is this Presidency.

I beg to differ. This is my response...

Daniel, you and I rarely disagree on political issues, but on this one we must. Sullivan’s article is a few thousand words of mindless psycho-babble. I am by no means Dubya’s greatest fan, as you know, but Sullivan’s analysis really doesn’t stand up to examination. He makes great play of all the leading people from Bush 1 who W appointed as if it were in some way a plea for approval from Daddy. He then undermines his own argument by making clear that Daddy hates Rumsfeld. So I suppose sacking Rumsfeld was also a plea for approval? Bizarre analysis.

The only piece I found interesting was the supposed conversation between Barbara Bush and the Senator. If it is true that GHWB was so concerned about Iraq, it ought to have been through a feeling of guilt that had he done his job properly, the current conflict would never have happened.

IMHO Dubya showed great wisdom by appointing a strong Cabinet in 2001, full of people who made up for his own shortcomings, especially in foreign affairs. His greatest strength has been that the world has regarded him as stupid. Sure, one or two of his decisions may have been daft, but what President hasn’t made daft decisions.?

His administrations’ greatest failure was to conduct a military conflict without planning for what came after. And that can be laid at Rumsfeld’s door, but not his alone. But this single failure of policy has led to a situation from which it is difficult to forecast how we can extricate ourselves. That has absolutely nothing to do with the relationship between Dubya and his Daddy. And Sullivan should know that.

LibDem MEP Compares Israelis to Nazis

Chris Davies, Liberal Democrat MEP for the North West, is well known for his anti Israeli stance, but now he really seems to have lost his marbles. He has just sent out an astonishing email to his local party mailing list about his recent visit to the Palestinian Territories.

He compares Israel to Nazi Germany: “The Israeli army has no more right under international law to be in Gaza than the German army had to be in Paris, Oslo or Warsaw during the 1940s.”

This has become the subject of a full out debate on the Liberal Democrat Youth & Students Forum, with Jonny Wright leading the charge against Davies. He writes...

[This is] ignoring the fact that Israel withdrew unilaterally from Gaza under Sharon, clearly anyone with half a brain can see that comparing Israel with Nazi invasions is utterly wrong and completely counter-productive. I can’t think of a worse way of setting the context for a constructive debate on the future of the Middle East. And it gets better: “ … the minority in Gaza who, out of despair, have taken up arms against an occupying army cannot be dismissed as ‘terrorists’. In the face of overwhelming and hopeless odds should their sacrifice not be saluted and awarded the same respect as that given to resistance movements of the Second World War?” Again the comparison with Nazis, but here he’s going one better: he’s praising the sort of terrorists who indiscriminately kill innocent Israelis, and fire rockets into schools and houses. This comment is on exactly the same level as Jenny Tonge. The upsetting thing is that this sort of stuff gets used by Hamas, PFLP et al, when they’re recruiting. Young, disaffected Palestinian men, living in the most unbelievably awful circumstances, are told that it’s OK to use deadly violence for political aims, because a British MEP (amongst others) said so. You can’t break a horrific cycle of violence by using more violence, and you can’t justify or praise the deliberate targeting of civilians, whatever your view of the wider Middle East situation. This sort of statement is really very worrying, and I suspect he may even be considered to be ‘glorifying terrorism’ here.

Glorifying terrorism? Isn't there some kind of law against that? Perhaps my friends at the Conservative Friends of Israel might like to consult m'learned Friend.

Watlington on Ali Miraj and Candidates

I don't know who 'Watlington' is, but his/her writings on the inner workings of the Tory Party are usually well informed and spot on. The latest blog from him on the Social Affairs Unit blog HERE on the Ali Miraj fallout isn't too wide of the mark. For Watlington's archive, click HERE.

AFTERTHOUGHT: Actually, he is a little wide of the mark on BJ's departure...

How Could Labour Increase Its Majority?

Every few weeks I take a look at Jeffrey Archer's BLOG to see what he's been up to. It's rather good, actually. I was particularly interested in his entry from 3 November where he recounts a lunch with The Sun's Trevor Kavanagh...

Thursday. I had lunch today at the Tate Gallery with Trevor Kavanagh, former political editor of The Sun, now considered the doyen of the profession. Trevor believes that both Labour and the Conservatives have everything to play for, and that the transition to Gordon Brown before the next Labour party conference will be fairly smooth; but like me, he isn't sure what the outcome of the next general election will be. He feels this will of course depend a great deal on the initial impact Brown has as Prime Minister - though he knows one senior political editor who has taken a bet on Labour increasing its majority.

Come again?! I'd love to know the circumstances under which that would happen. I can only think of three possibilities...

a) LibDems cease to exist due to bankruptcy and their supporters defect en masse to Labour
b) David Cameron is caught in bed with a sheep on the eve of poll
c) Labour introduce all out postal voting

So who is this 'senior political editor'?

On 5 Live in the Morning

I'll be on Radio 5 Live's Julian Worricker programme on Sunday morning from 10-1 looking at the Sunday papers and commenting on this and that should you have nothing better to do with your Sunday morning. We're going to be talking a lot about the US midterms and cricket, as well as trying to explain why 1970s rock groups re-form.

A Tale of Two Ads

When you're fighting an incumbent Democratic Senator from North Dakota you do some desperate things to raise your profile and draw attention to yourself (very unlike fighting an incumbent LibDem in North Norfolk, you understand). Dwight Grotberg (no, really) thought a bit of retro campaigning might be in order, so he took some inspiration from this 1952 Dwight D Eisenhower campaign commercial...



But sadly, the inspiration wasn't quite enough, as you're now about to see...

What it Means to be IN THE ARENA

"It's easier to throw rocks at a house than build one"

Congressman Matthew Santos

I just heard this quote just now on an episode of the West Wing and it sums up to me the difference between commentating on politics and getting your hands dirty and taking part. Richard Nixon wrote a superb book called IN THE ARENA in which he wrote about what it takes for someone to make a difference in politics. Politics is hard. Devising political strategies is difficult. Building a political coalition is a nightmare. Writing, or commentating about anything is a cakewalk by comparison.

There is only one way of effecting change, and that is to be IN THE ARENA. So if you're an aspirant political candidate who gets frustrated at not getting selected, or thinks about throwing in the towel, just remember why you're in it in the first place. You're IN THE ARENA because you want to change things, get things done, make life better - for others, not yourself. You don't just talk about what SHOULD be done and complain about what's NOT being done. You're a CAN DO person. You ACHIEVE. The word CAN'T isn't one you like using. As Matthew Santos might put it, you prefer BUILDING a house, to throwing rocks at it.

If you read only one book this year, read IN THE ARENA. Click HERE to buy a secondhand copy through Abebooks.

Labour's Deputies & Alan Johnson's Website

Alan Johnson hasn't had a very good few months. I thought he would be the one to take on Gordon Brown, and to be honest I worried about the comparisons between him and David Cameron. So it was with a slight sense of relief that I heard he was now only going for the deputy leadership position, along, it seems, with most of the rest of his colleagues. This contest threatens to develop into a race with around a dozen candidates. It seems Labour is inviting people to join the Party just to have a vote in the leadership and deputy leadership contests. Of course, under Labour rules, party members don't get a full vote - they only get 30% of one. The trade unions still have the biggest say. If I were a Labour member I'd be voting for Hilary Benn or Alan Johnson. As a Conservative I suppose I'd back Hazel Blears. As regular readers know, I rather like Ms B, but she does seem to annoy everyone else with her constant smiley smiley outlook and her ability to speak in soundbite-ese.

Alan Johnson has launched a glitzy new website at www.johnson4deputy.org, which has nothing of the look of 'deputy' about it at all. Indeed, it's rather good. He's soliciting for donations for his campaign but has put a limit of £200 on them.

Interestingly the rest of the the johnson4deputy domain names are still free. Well, they were, but I thought I'd snaffle them up in case Boris should ever need them... Seriously, I have bought them but would be happy to pass them onto the Johnson campaign if they want to get in touch. It's a bit silly of them not to have registered them all at the time.

PS: Right, back to my 4th episode of West Wing of the day. The tears have been rolling. Those of you who have seen the election night episode will know why.

BREAKING NEWS: Meon Valley Selects Hollingbery

George Hollingbery has just been selected as Conservative Candidate for the new seat of Meon Valley. He beat Kwasi Kwarteng, Rebecca Harris and Flick Drummond for the nomination. George fought Mark Oaten at the last election.

EXCLUSIVE: Galloway Uses F Word With Students

Last Tuesday Hugo Rifkind wrote about George Galloway's F word tirade against some Oxford students. Some kind soul has sent me the tape. Here's what Hugo wrote...

Uproar in gowns, after a visit to the Oxford Union from George Galloway. Students claim that, angry at being booed for his championing of Cuba's "different type of democracy”, Galloway accused his critics of being "hunting, shooting, fishing types". Later, three (former state-school) students cornered him, angry at being tarred with a posh brush. "You are confusing me for somebody who gives a f*** what you think," the Respect MP explained, as a furious squabble erupted. Respect, indeed.

Why Identity Cards Are Wrong

Longrider (which I found via Devil's Kitchen) has a superb fisking of Tony Blair's article promoting Identity Cards. This is the key passage. Words I wish I had written.

Let me make this clear; my identity is just that, mine. It is not yours, it is not the state’s, it is mine and mine alone. It is up to me to decide who will be privy to information about that identity. I will not, absolutely not, be fingerprinted like a criminal in order to satisfy your obsessive control freakery. This is not negotiable……We are opposed because they will make minimal or no contribution to the prevention of terrorism, illegal immigration or whatever the problem du jour is, while causing maximum inconvenience and invasion of privacy for the law abiding citizen. They will reverse the relationship between you, the representative of the state (servant) and us, the electorate (master). I recommend that you remind yourself of this principle. I do not intend to serve you or prove to you who I am, because it is none of your business.

New Book on the Scottish Secretaries

I've just come across a new book profiling all the Scottish Secretaries. It's by David Torrance and you can buy it HERE. I remember just before I sold Politico's Publishing David offered me the chance of publishing the book so I'm delighted to see that Birlinn, an excellent Scottish publishing company took it on. The book even has its own website HERE.

The Basic Law of Journalism...

According to John Humphrys in this week's Spectator, the basic law of journalism states...

"First simplify, then exaggerate."

Newsnight's Gavin Esler has just included it at the top of their daily email. Isn't it nice to know that journalism has absolutely everything nothing in common with blogging?!

Bernard Jenkin Reports Daily Mirror to the PCC

Bernard Jenkin has complained to the Press Complaints Commission about their reporting of his departure as Deputy Chairman in Charge of Candidates. They said he had been sacked over his remarks to Ali Miraj, whereas in fact this issue was not raised in his conversation with David Cameron. Bernard makes clear that he was offered an alternative post and it was his decision to return to the back benches. Here's the text of Bernard's letter to the Daily Mirror...

The top line of your piece about the ending of my Deputy Chairmanship of the Conservative Party is wholly inaccurate. Rosa Prince wrote: “The Tory MP in charge of selecting candidates was last night sacked for allegedly telling an Asian hopeful he would not win a seat because of his colour”. I was grateful to Rosa Prince for carrying my comment on this allegation, but to allege that I was sacked “for allegedly telling an Asian candidate … etc.” is factually wrong. She failed to report that both I and the Leader of the Conservative Party, David Cameron, were at pains to point out that my departure was wholly unrelated to any allegations by Mr Miraj. The key premise of your story is speculation reported as fact, and is therefore in breach of the Press Complaints Commission Code of Conduct.

The Press Complaints Commission Code of Practice states:-

1. Accuracy

i) The Press must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information, including pictures.
ii) A significant inaccuracy, mis-leading statement or distortion once recognised must be corrected, promptly and with due prominence, and - where appropriate - an apology published.

I therefore would ask you to correct the misleading impression you have created, making it clear that my departure had nothing to do with Mr Miraj’s allegations, and apologise for the misleading impression you left on your readers.

Yours sincerely,
Bernard Jenkin MP

This is a very sorry affair. I haven't commented on Ali Miraj's remarks on his failure to be selected so far, but he has had a lorryload of criticism from the readers of ConservativeHome. He's very frustrated and unfortunately let that frustration boil over onto his blog. His main point seemed to be that having fought two seats before, he felt it was his turn to get a good seat. Politics just doesn't work like that. The whole selection process has always been a complete lottery in all parties. Usually, just when you're on the point of giving up, something turns up - look at Nick Herbert's experience before the last election. The secret is to stick with it, vent your frustration privately to your friends, but calm down before you do anything you might regret later. I really hope that Ali persists, and also that this episode is not held against him.

I'm not sure a complaint to the Press Complaints Commission will do anything to dampen down the whole story, but Bernard understandably feels the record must be put straight.

UPDATE: Bernard's local newspaper has printed this apology...

"BERNARD JENKIN MP - correction and apology

We wish to make it clear that Bernard Jenkin MP made absolutely no 'negative' comment about an Asian candidate. We recognise that Mr Jenkin has been working very hard to promote black and minority ethnic candidates for the Conservative Party. We also should have reported that both Mr Jenkin and David Cameron MP, Leader of the Conservative Party, have made it clear that Mr Jenkin's resignation as Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party is entirely unconnected with comments made by an Asian candidate, and that Mr Jenkin had told us that he agreed with Mr Cameron to resign before either were aware of any such comments. We apologise to Mr Jenkin and to the Conservative Party."

Got a Problem With Seeing This Blog?

Apparently some people have to scroll down for ages before they get to the text and just get a blank white column. I need to find out what the issue is. Could anyone who is having this problem leave a message in the Comments and tell me what screen resolution you are using, are you on a Mac or a PC and what browser (IE/Firefox etc) you're using.

David Blunkett's Nice Little Earner

The Daily Telegraph informs us this morning that David Blunkett has made more than £200,000 from his diaries. His publishers, Bloomsbury, saw fit to pay him £165,000 and he got £30,000 from Channel 4 and £5,000 from the Radio 4 serialisation (equivalent to 28 TV licenses). This doesn't include the serialisation on the Daily Mail or Guardian, which will add another six figure sum. And all for a book which has sold fewer than 1,500 copies.

I am sure Bloomsbury had their reasons for paying so much, but I'd love to know what they were. This is the economics of the publishing madhouse. In order for them to recoup their money they need to sell in excess of 50,000 copies. That is never going to happen. They'll be lucky to clear 5,000.

Having said that, I am quite looking forward to reading it. It's a massive 800 pages long so I suspect I shall keep it in the loo and dip into it - the book, that is. Ahem.

UPDATE: I am reliably informed that Blunkett will gross £450,000 from this book. Bloomsbury are keen to be big players in the memoir field so they splashed some Harry Potter cash on Blunkett as a loss leader. All I can say is they could have achieved their aim for a lot less dosh. All they had to do was ask...

Primary Schools: A Male Free Zone

A couple of years ago I met a male supply teacher in North Norfolk. He told me that when he teaches in primary schools he is often mobbed by the pupils, as he is an example of an increasingly rare breed - the male primary school teacher. David Willetts has drawn attention to this issue by pointing out the male primary school teachers are outnumbered by females by 12 to 1. Perhaps you're thinking this shouldn't matter. I think it does, and for this reason. All academic studies show that for a child to be be brought up in the best possible environment it needs both female and male role models. With so many marriages breaking up and so many children being brought up by lone parents (usually, but not always the mother) some children have hardly any male influences on their lives at all. At least if they have some male teachers that can change.

It seems that men are increasingly put off by poor wages and "paedophile paranoia" according to the Times Educational Supplement. Studies from the US show that boys do better in school when they have male teachers.

I'm not sure what can be done to tackle this growing problem, but it's clearly getting worse.

Two Years for Raping a Ten Year Old

THIS is a horrible tale. A man hid himself under a twelve year old's bed for three months and hid there whenever her mother came into the room. He raped her and persistently abused her. His sentence? Two years and three months, which means he'll probably be out on the streets again by next Christmas. This cannot be right.

The 50 People Shaping Online Journalism (Blush...)

Oh dear. Guido and I have joined the media Establishment according to the Press Gazette's LIST of the 50 People Shaping Online Journalism. Rupert Murdoch is number 1 on the list and Guido is 29 or 30 (they seem to have cocked the list up somewhere) and I am 34 or 35 one place ahead of James Murdoch LOL. This is the intro to the piece...

Who are the "new establishment" of online journalism in Britain? Who are the people shaping the latest developments in bringing journalism to new digital platforms? Our readers' nominees included a wide range of individuals, including media moguls, website editors, and new media evangelists. The nominations reflect the growing influence within media companies of board-level digital directors, a trend noted by the Association of Online Publishers earlier this year. They are not all from big media companies: bloggers and other independent online publishers feature prominently. Some have little presence in Britain, but represent ideas that are making their mark on the thinking of editors here. The ultimate ranking was determined from a panel of judges from across the industry. They represented the digital divisions of companies: national and regional newspapers, magazines, broadcasting corporations; one is editor at an online-only publisher. The judges were not told the identities of their colleagues on the panel, so they could vote for each other. The methodology lead to some unexpected results, of course, but offers at least a rough guide of whose ideas and innovations are being watched most closely.

The Top Ten were 1. Rupert Murdoch 2. Ashley Highfield 3. Craig Newmark 4. Simon Waldman 5. Pete Clifton 6. Carolyn McCall 7. Alan Rusbridger 8. Emily Bell 9. Annelies van den Belt 10. Murdoch MacLennan . The full list is HERE.

UKIP Comes to the Rescue of Internet TV

Well done to UKIP - and it's not often I say that. On Monday there will be a vote in Brussels on the EU Draft Directive on Audio Visual Media Services Directive, which if passed could threaten the future of internet TV in this country. Click HERE to read what UKIP have to say. I still haven't managed to ascertain how the Conservatives will vote. Perhaps someone reading this in Brussels could enlighten me...

On Monday I shall get the chance to thank Nigel Farage in person, when he is my guest on Vox Politix at 9pm.

UPDATE: The House of Lords EU Committee has also come out strongly against the Directive HERE.

Should MPs Pay for Regulation Failure?

Labour Minister Ian McCartney thinks that MPs should donate a day of their pay to bail out those who have lost their Christmas club savings through the failure of Fairpack. MPs have now been put in an impossible position. If they don't pay up their local newspapers will paint them as scrooges.

My old opponent in North Norfolk, Norman Lamb, has spoken out against McCartney's idea, describing it as a 'gimmick'. He's quite right. No doubt he'll get castigated for it, but I hope MPs of all parties tell McCartney that charitable giving is a private issue and should remain so. Being blackmailed into paying up is not the the way to go. Instead, McCartney should be looking closer to home and how these Christmas clubs are regulated by his own department.

The Two Sides of Donald Rumsfeld

"Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know." - February 2002

"Reports from London are already telling of calm passengers, compassionate strangers, and courageous rescuers. And that too is familiar -- the grace and humanity that contrasts vividly with the hatred and violence of terrorists. The London attacks have a special resonance for the American people -- for America has no stronger or closer ally in the world than Great Britain. We are bound together by a common heritage, a common language, and a deeply shared commitment to freedom. As President Bush indicated earlier this morning, the United States will stand with the British people with unflinching resolve...But if these terrorists thought they could intimidate the people of a great nation, they picked the wrong people and the wrong nation. For generations, tyrants, fascists, and terrorists have sought to carry out their violent designs upon the British people only to founder upon its unrelenting shores. Before long, I suspect that those responsible for these acts will encounter British steel. Their kind of steel has an uncommon strength. It does not bend or break. The British have learned from history that this kind of evil must be confronted. It cannot be appeased. Our two countries understand well that once a people give in to terrorists demands, whatever they are, their demands will grow. The British people are determined and resolute. And I know the people of the United States are proud to stand at their side." - July 2005

LibDems Want to Scrap 10 Illiberal Laws

The LibDems have launched a worthy new initiative today HERE. They want to scrap 10 illiberal laws and they're inviting people to suggest other laws worth scrapping. I'd imagine most Conservatives would support scrapping most of the ten on their list - (I would go for all of them!). Guido is speculating: "Cameron's Liberal Conservatives would be wise to support the bill, it would be good practice for a future governing coalition... you don't think that was Clegg's intention by any chance?" What a suggestion...

PS I do apologise for agreeing with the LibDems two days in a row. I promise it won't happen again.

Why the MidTerms Weren't All Bad News for the GOP

The removal of Donald Rumsfeld was either timed very poorly or very well depending on your viewpoint. If he was going to go- and was viewed as such an electoral liability - it would surely have been better to have done it a couple of weeks ago with Bush making his "new direction remarks" then. However, by resigning immediately it became clear that the results were perhaps worse than expected he has taken the rap for the loss of the Senate and House. This means that the newspaper columns are filled with Rumsfeld retrospectives rather than just acres of column inches about the results.

In the long term the Republicans may view yesterday as a blessing in disguise. The Democrats now have to deliver. Bush can spend the next two years telling the American people that he wanted to do a lot but was denied the chance by the Democratic Congress. The Republican nominee in 2008 will therefore be able to campaign on the basis that the Dems have been in charge and have made a right royal mess of things in the two years since they took control. Nancy Peolis and Hillary Clinton. The Republicans will be rubbing their hands with glee.

Rudolf Giuliani - Bring It On!

More analysis HERE on BritainandAmerica.com, an excellent new website devoted to conversations between Britain and America.

What UK PLC Thinks...

The Times Business Section have polled their Power 100 panel of City businessmen to ask what UK PLC really thinks about some important questions of our time. A few snippets...

Would David Cameron make a better Prime Minister than Gordon Brown?
62% YES, 19% No

Should the Government use taxes to fight the threat of climate change?
81% YES, 19% No

Should the government reconsider membership of the Euro?
17% YES, 81% NO

Does it matter if the London Stock Exchange dalls into foreign owenership?
44% YES 52% NO

Diplomat Gives Explosive Evidence on Iraq

A senior diplomat has launched an astonishing attack on the government for its behaviour over Iraq. Click HERE for the details. Carne Ross, who resigned from the Foreign Office over the Iraq war told the Intelligence Committee that the government had "manipulated" the evidence over weapons of mass destruction. He accused the Foreign Office of being "politicised" and most explosively that the legal advice from the FO on the legality of the war was ignored (i.e. politically inconvenient / not supporting Blair's narrative for war). It raises many questions, not least this one: Are the mandarins now clearing their conciences and reputations at the fag-end of the Blair regime? Expect NuLab smears against Ross, shortly.

Victoria Cross Heroes

Do yourself a favour. Click HERE to buy this superb new book tracing the history of the Victoria Cross. It's written by Michael Ashcroft and was launched at the Imperial War Museum on Monday. I had a small part in helping with the book and it's been a real journey of discovery for me. I knew precious little about the VC beforehand but to read the stories of bravery and valour in the book is very moving. Michael has a collection of 142 VCs, which he has built up over the last twenty years. To mark the 150th anniversary of the award of the first VC, he's about the put them on public exhibition in London next year so the whole country can share in them. There's also a new website on the VC HERE and on November 19th at 8pm Channel 5 start a three part series on the Victoria Cross.

Is Bankruptcy Becoming Too Easy?

Now here's a funny thing. Harry Redknapp's son Mark has been declared bankrupt. Wouldn't you think that his father (who's worth more than £10 million) or his brother Jamie would have lent him the odd thousand? It just shows that bankruptcy doesn't seem to carry the same stigma it once did. People seem to take it as the easy way out nowadays. Bankruptcies are at an all time high - this is usually a good sign that there is a recession on the way. But I suspect the reason is much simpler. You can now be discharged from bankruptcy within nine months. Now, where did I put those credit card bills...

Tory MEP To Vote in Favour of Internet Regulation

Three weeks ago I wrote to Tory MEP Christopher Beazley, who sits on the Committee which is considering the EU Draft Directive on broadcasting. I asked if he would be voting against it, as it seeks to regulate internet TV (threatening to close down internet TV stations like 18DoughtyStreet). I rather naively assumed that as a Conservative, Mr Beazley would not want to see jobs exported out of the EU or any regulation of the internet. Wrong. I copy below his mealy mouthed reply, from which it seems clear that he supports the draft directive. It also took him two reminders and three weeks to reply.

Perhaps readers would like to email Mr Beazley with their own thoughts… christopher.beazley@europarl.europa.eu. Mr Beazley will no doubt soon be seeking reselection, so I am sure he will be particularly interested in the views of people from the East of England. Let's hope the replies don't take three weeks...

Dear Iain,
Thank you for your e-mail in which you express concerns over the proposed Audiovisual Media Services Directive following the article in The Times as attached to your e-mail. The broad intention of the Directive is to provide minimum standards for on-demand services, it is not desirable or practical to regulate all aspects of the internet in this framework. Both in the European Parliament and in the Council Working Group discussions are still on-going and we will not know how the final Directive will look, in precise detail until after the vote. Nevertheless there is broad agreement about the general aim of the new Directive.

The Times article you attach carries some significant inaccuracies. The Broadcasting Minister’s assertions in the article that the scope of the Directive would cover local sports clubs with advertising is incorrect. The Commission has repeatedly assured members of the Culture and Education Committee that the Directive is not intended to cover local websites with local advertising using moving images. The Rapporteur, EPP-ED Group colleague Ruth Hieronymi, has already amended the Directive to underline that blogs and user generated content is not covered by the scope of the Directive. Her amendment to Recital 13 underlines this. There are also Compromise Amendments which reinforce this position by highlighting editorial responsibility. This refers to broadcasters who have the ability to compile schedules and decide on the format of programming. Therefore, user generated content, by definition cannot be regulated in the same way as the service provider only has the capacity to remove content after it has been posted.

It is certainly the case that internet based TV, offering services that are like traditional television where the consumer will expect the same level of regulation and protection, will fall under the scope of the Directive. Conservative MEPs on the relevant Committees have been working consistently to ensure, that the Directive emerges in a state which is both workable and does not stifle innovation. Please see the link below for Mrs Hieronymi’s Report for your information

With best regards,
yours sincerely,
Christopher Beazley

Newbie MPs Promoted in Mini Reshuffle

ConservativeHome has the full list of Shadow appointments HERE. I'm delighted in particular for James Brokenshire and Greg Clark, who is my local MP in Tunbridge Wells. These two are two of the nicest and most capable people in Parliament. Ed Vaizey will be delighted to be in the DCMS team.

I suppose the headline move in this rehsuffle is the departure of Bernard Jenkin as Deputy Chairman of Candidates and his replacement by John Maples. I can't pretend that I have always seen eye to eye with Bernard on the implementation of the A List, but there's little doubt that he has acted as a bit of a lightning rod.

Galloway Loses Temper...Again

It's not really very difficult to upset George Galloway, is it? Apparently he flounced out of a debate at the UCC last night. In the debate on US Foreign Policy, organised by the UCC Philosophical Society, Mr. Galloway was proposing the motion 'That This House Believe's US Foreign Policy is the Biggest Crime Since World War II' against Dublin-based TV producer and journalist, Gerry Gregg. The story continues on the UCC website HERE...

Bit touchy, isn't he?

Mike Deaver on the Mid Terms

Mike Deaver was Reagan's first Chief of Staff. This is his take on the US midterms.

The US MidTerms - No Democratic Tsunami

Well it's certainly going to be an important day in the US for both President Bush and the Democrats. My gut feeling is that the Democrat Tsunami isn't going to happen and that while they will make substantial gains in the House they won't win the 6 seats they need to take control of the Senate.

Perversely it may be in the Republicans long term interests for the Dems to take the House. The new Speaker would be left wing firebrand Nancy Pelosi, who's bound to get Republican voters returning to their natural roots in 2008. So what do you all think? Make some predictions on the more interesting gubernatorial races in the Comments section.

[18DS plug] We're running a six hour programme on the US midterms tonight on you know where. Tune in from 8pm through till 2am. [/18DSplug]

Have You Seen Luke Durbin?

In the words of the Pet Shop Boys, 'wouldn't normally do this kind of thing', but a good friend of mine in Sheringham has asked to publicise a missing persons appeal to find 17 year old Luke Durbin who disappeared in Ipswich in May. Click HERE for the details. If you're from the media and want to run the story and need more details contact me and I will put you in touch.

Missing persons is a phenomenon which fascinates me. The US series WITHOUT A TRACE is required viewing in the Dale household. If ever I was tempted to join the Police (stop laughing at the back!) it would the Missing Persons that I would want to specialise in. I suppose we've all got a bit of the Reggie Perrins in us. But as WITHOUT A TRACE SHOWS, there is usually far more to these cases than meets the eye. It's actually quite rare, I think, for someone to just disappear because they want a change of lifesyle.

Spinning Road Deaths

Page 16 of The Times today carries a story headline BRITAIN LAGGING BEHIND EUROPE IN CUTTING DEATHS ON THE ROAD. Reading the first half of the story you would think Britainm had the worst record in Europe for the number of deaths on the road. Strange, I thought, I'm sure that's not right. If I remember correctly we have one of the best records. But according to The Times we've only cut road deaths by 7% in the last 5 years compared to France's 35%.

But the truth emerges later on. Britain has 5.6 road deaths per 100,000 while France is 80% higher at 9.2.

So that's clear then. Honestly, lies, damned lies and statistics, eh?

News Idol - You Rate the Story

Imagine you are a BBC news producer. Which of these stories do you place higher up the running order in your news programme? Is it...

A) The Director of Public Prosecutions making it known that he will resign if the Attorney General Lord Goldsmith blocks charges relating to the Cash for Peerages Inquiry

or is it

B) An unknown Tory Town councillor, who's on the Party's candidates list, sends a politically incorrect email and is thrown off the list by the Party?

Well, you've probably guessed it. Story B was the number three news items yesterday on BBC News, while story A was hidden away as a minor mention on the BBC politics website.

Now that's not to say I don't think story B was a story - but when you think that this email has been doing the rounds since 2002 (when a US politician resigned over it), does it really deserve to be that high up the news agenda? The story changed later on in the day when it was discovered that unbeknowst to him, someone had put it on Boris Johnson's website. He then became the focus of the story. This is news management gone mad.

I am the first one to complain about political correctness gone mad, but this is not an example of that. The email wasn't even funny. Sure, we still have the right to offend in this country, but in my humble opinion, this went beyond that. CCHQ had no alternative but to suspend Mrs Bland.

...cue accusations of toadying/toeing the party line/plugging 18DoughtyStreet - delete as appriopriate. Bovvered? Do I look it?

Arsene Wenger Should Grow Up

I refrained from writing about West Ham's victory yesterday against Arsenal because I would probably have used some very unfortunate words to describe the actions of the Arnsenal manager at the end of the game. I sit almost directly behind the dugout at West Ham so I could see clearly exactly what went on.

During the whole game, Wenger had become increasingly frantic and was ranting at the fourth official throughout the whole game. Every decision that went against Arsenal (and there weren't many) was reacted to with fury. Pardew had better cause for anger as the referee seemed to penalise any tackle put in by a West Ham player. Wenger's behaviour became increasingly worse as the game wore on.

When Harewood scored, Pardew naturally celebrated wildly. Wouldn't you if your team had lost seven of their last eight games and you were about to beat one of the best teams in the country? None of Pardew's celebrations were directed towards Wenger, so quite why he reacted as he did is a mystery. At the final whistle I was about 10 yards away from the dugout and clearly saw Pardew offer his hand to Wenger. Wenger kept his arms crossed. Pardew went down the tunnel looking like thunder. At the same time several Arsenal players including Lehman and Febregas were having a go at Sheringham and Mullins.

Arsene Wenger is one of the great managers of our time. He's someone I have always have a lot of respect for, but his constant whinging and the fact that he never manages to see any infringement committed by his own players is getting tiresome in the extreme. He should grow up. Yesterday he acted like a spoilt child who didn't get his own way. I thought he was a bigger man that that.

But nothing can detract from the best Hammers performance of the season. Anyone who say the game on Sky knows we deserved the win. Those of us who were there will remember the game for a long time.

[gloat] That's seven points out of nine we've now taken off Arsenal in the last three games. Now there's a sentence I never thought I'd be able to write. [/gloat]

Last time I wrote about Arsenal's troubles I got more than 2,000 visits from Arseblog. Mainly consisting of people calling me a ******* **** ******* Bring it on!

Why Lord Goldsmith Must Stand Aside From Cash for Peerages

Just imagine for a moment that the Chief Executive of a FTSE 100 company was under investigation for corruption. The Police were about to interview him under caution and the case was about to be presented to the CPS. Imagine also that this very same Chief Executive was a personal friend of the Attorney General. Does anyone serious think that the AG would not recuse himself from the case?

And that is exactly why he must do so in the case of Cash for Peerages. It is astonishing that Goldsmith, who is not only a personal friend of Tony Blair, but was appointed by him, must stand aside from the case. The Director of Public Prosecutions, Ken MacDonald, has done just that and stepped aside because of his links to Cherie Blair's Matrix Chambers. If Goldsmith had an ounce of honour, he would so the same. But of course we shouldn't be surprised. After all, this is the main who first of all declared the Iraq war to be illegal, then for some strange reason, changed his mind.

Goldsmith's decision on whether the Cash for Peerages case will be brought to court is apparently based on whether he considers it to be "in the public interest". That's that then.

Should Tony Stay or Should He Go?

129, 000 people have viewed this on YouTube but I have only just come across it. Brilliant.

UKIP Loses a Constituency...

Their membership is reportedly declining, the number of people who attended this year's conference was half the total of last year and now they seem to have lost a whole constituency. Click HERE for UKIP's latest woes... Perhaps now is the time for all Eurosceptics to come back to the only Party that will ever have a chance to implement a Eurosceptic agenda...

Not an Advert From Women2Win...

Blue Skies Thinking from OfCom

Last Tuesday I was the warm-up act for Lord Currie at the Annual OfCom Parliamentary lecture. Much of the beginning of his lecture was a bit technical, but I'd recommend you took a look at the later sections headed 'Young Consumers & the New Media', 'Future of Public Service Broadcasting' and 'Implications for Politics'. There are some far sighted words contained there. Currie says that within ten years the entire media world will have completely changed. Click HERE to read the lecture. As you might imagine, I'm not a great fan of regulators, but Ofcom have rather impressed me in my dealings with them. They're open to new thinking and don't seem to have the 'if it moves, regulate it' virus that so many regulators suffer from. I'll probably live to regret those words, but there you go.

October Figures for Iain Dale's Diary

October was what can politely be described as a 'consolidation month' with unique visitors and reloads down on September. Uniques were at 153,000 and page downloads at 253,000. Admittedly I have not posted so much in October because of the new job, so I'd better ramp things up again this month!

Here are my top 36 link sites (ie incoming hits) for October. All thes sites referred at least 100 people here. The arrows denote whether a site has moved up or down or stayed static since September.

1. Guido Fawkes 16.73% ↔ 2. ConservativeHome 8.87% ↔ 3. PoliticalBetting 7.22% ↔ 4. Little Green Footballs 3% NEW 4. Web Cameron 2.78% ↑ 5. Biased BBC 1.58% NEW 6. National Review Corner ↓ 7. W4MP ↑ 8. Croydonian ↑ 9. Recess Monkey ↓ 10. Daniel Finkelstein ↓ 11. Paul Linford ↓ 12. Blairwatch ↓ 13. Looking for a Voice 14. Witanagemot ↑ 15. Archbishop Cranmer ↑ 16. An Englishman's Castle ↓ 17. Prague Tory ↓ 18. Daily Pundit ↑ 19. EU Referendum ↓ 20. Cally’s Kitchen ↑ 21. Injured Cyclist ↓ 22. Mikey's Tent of Reality ↓ 23. Liberal England ↓ 24. Bob Piper ↓ 25. Hoby Cartoons NEW 26. Mr Eugenides ↑ 27. Campaign for an English Parliament ↑ 28. Mars Hill ↑ 29. Dizzy Thinks ↓ 30. Public Interest ↓ 31. Clive Davis ↓ 32. Antonia Bance NEW 33. Adam Smith Institute NEW 34. Devil's Kitchen NEW 34. 18DoughtyStreet.com NEW 35. Bryan Appleyard NEW 36. Ellee Seymour↓

All these sites dropped out of the list as they referred fewer than 100 visitors last month.

NHS Blog Doctor, Rightlinks, Bloggerheads, Cynical Chatter, Drinking from Home, Rachel North London, Harry’s Place, Tim Worstall, The Spine, Fair Deal Phil, Chicken Yoghurt, Bel is Thinking, Slugger O’Toole , Kiwiblog, Stumbling & Mumbling, Suz Blog, Labour Watch, Iain Lindley.

If I've got any of these links wrong, let me know in Comments.

The BNP Vote in Rotherham: Please Explain

Scanning through my copy of LibDem News - as you do - I came across this local government by-election result from last week...

Rotherham MBC, Rotherham West Ward

Labour 1024 (44.3% +3.8%)

BNP 606 (26.2% + 26.2%)

Ind 538 (23.2% -15%)

Con 146 (6.3% +6.3%)

LibDem (Did not stand -21.3%)

I don't know much about Rotherham, but it wouldn't have figured in my Top Ten BNP Constituencies. Can anyone shed any light on this result? It is frightening how the BNP seem to be taking a real foothold in some of the northern towns. Why on earth did the LibDems not field a candidate? And how come the Conservatives can only poll 6.3% in William Hague's home town? Information and enlightenment please...

Take Your Seat: Campaigning for Adults

Today may well prove to be quite an important one as the Conservative Party gears itself up to fight the next election. I've been attending a full day conference at Millbrook, near Milton Keynes, called 'Take Your Seat' which is mapping out the future of Conservative constituency campaigning.

Obviously I am not going to go into much detail here - in fact no detail at all - but I will say that for the first time I genuinely feel that those who.are devising the strategy actually understand what needs to be done and actually have the will, skills and money to do it. But it was made very clear that a bargain was being struck.

Those constituencies who support the strategy and buy into helping their candidates will be helped from the centre on a scale not seen before. Those who squabble or refuse to release resources to help their candidates won't be. Simple as that.

The great thing about today's event was the honesty of the speakers, who included David Cameron, Francis Maude, Don Porter, Stephen Gilbert, Gavin Barwell and Patrick McLoughlin. The whole event was chaired by Michael Ashcroft, the Deputy Chairman of the Party responsible for our target seats campaign.

We weren't spun lines. We heard about negative polling as well as the positive. I well remember that just before the last election we were told by the then Chairman that all the polls showed huge swings in the marginal seats. Those of us who were candidates in those seats didn't believe a word of it. It undermined all the other important messages we were being told at the same time. That has all gone. We're being treated as adults now and everyone today felt all the better for it.

Putting Flesh on the Bones of Localism

Localism is the new buzzword in all three political parties. David Cameron has today published a new Sustainable Communities Bill which has been drafted in conjunction with Local Works – the campaign for stronger local democracy. The press release says...

The Bill would give local authorities the power to demand from central government a yearly account of the amount of money spent by central government in their community. It will allow local authorities, after detailed consultation with local people, to work out their own alternative local spending plan and to allocate that public spending in their area in a different way. The government would reserve control over spending on items of primary national significance such as benefits, education, acute healthcare and national infrastructure. Otherwise, local authorities would be able to decide their own expenditure priorities - for example deciding to support local post offices.

I think this is good for two reasons. First of all, it is an actual policy and second of all it helps define 'localism', which can mean many different things to different people. Of course the giant leap will be to decide how local government should be funded. At the moment less than 25% of local government expenditure is raised locally. A true believer in localism would trust local authorities to raise their entire budgets locally, but the man from Whitehall will argue that there would always have to be a degree of central funding so that money can be transferred from rich areas to poor ones. There is a certain logic to that, but surely if local government is to mean anything in terms of 'localness' the proportion raised locally must go up. But any rise in local taxes (either in Council Tax or a replacement) must be balanced by reductions in other taxes. This is truly one of those occasions when "I wouldn't have started from here...".

Boris & Dave Cast Their Vods

The Webcameron people have launched their first Vodcast today - it's a roundup of the first 30 days on Webcameron (including a fleeting appearance by yours truly) and it's presented by Boris Johnson. Indeed the second half is a Boris tour de force. I'm told the Holy Moly website got a copy of it and it was downloaded so many times it crashed their servers. Anyway, you can watch it HERE.

Quote of the Day: No 94

Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty, on 18DoughtyStreet...

"I'm not a vegetarian. I just look like one."

Class.

Ann Widdecombe and Bernard Jenkin on the A List

Last night on VoxPolitix we had a half hour discussion with Ann Widdecombe, Bernard Jenkin and Laura Sandys about women candidates and the A List. You could say it was a bit fiery at times. Miss W was at her most confrontational, even accusing Mr J of being a patronising so and so. A viewer emailed in to ask if he could have that clip as a ringtone. As you can imagine, I hardly got a word in edgeways. This part of the programme lasts half an hour and you can see it HERE. Promise you it's worth it.

UPDATE: Tonight at 9pm on the programme Shami Chakrabarti from Liberty is our guest. And on Monday, we've got Mark Oaten.

LibDem MP Says Last Manifesto was 'Dishonest'

LibDem MP Sandra Gidley was the first one to stick the knife into Charles Kennedy. It was she who confronted him at a LibDem Shadow Cabinet meeting and told him his behaviour was no longer acceptable. That triggered the events which led to his downfall. She's now had another bout of searing honesty and accused the people who wrote the 2005 LibDem manifesto of being 'dishonest'. In particular she highlights their flagship policy of free personal care for the elderly. Click HERE for the full story.

Time's Up, as Betty Used to Say...

As you might have gathered from the radio silence I have had a bit of a busy day. This afternoon I was the warm up act for Lord Currie, the Ofcom chairman, at a lecture he was giving to parliamentarians in the House of Commons. I gave a ten minute talk about blogging and how it would be rather uswise of the PCC and Ofcom to seek to regulate the internet. More on that later.

Despite being in the Commons most of the day I've only just been able to catch up with the furore over Prime Ministers Questions at lunchtime. For some reason I can't download it from the BBC so I can only go on the news reports, but the Speaker's behaviour does seem quite extraordinary. And it's not the first time. I'm told by Tory MP friends that he continually forgets to call the right people during Question Time and just hasn't been the same since he returned from illness some time ago. Several MPs were openly speculating this afternoon that the Speaker's equivalent of the Men in Grey Coats might well be encouraged to pay him a visit soon. If they do, I suspect they'd get short shrift.

But it would not surprise me at all if we had a new Speaker during this Parliament. Sir Alan Haselhurst impressed all sides of the House when he deputised for Michael Martin following his heart scare and he would be a very strong contender. Sir George Young is keen on the job too. In theory at least it is the Tories' turn, but many Labour supporters say that if Labour is in power there should be a Labour Speaker.

Click HERE to read an article I wrote in March on the likely runners and riders for the Speakership. The ensuing poll gave this result...

Ann Widdecombe 37%, Sir George Young 22%, Sir Patrick Cormack 15%, Sir Alan Haselhurst 12%, Derek Conway 8%, Sir Nicholas Winterton 6%, Sir Michael Lord 2%

Bruce Kent Doesn't Know His Fridge From His Flag

This is our rather wonderful Smeg fridge at 18DoughtyStreet. Sadly, not all our guests seem to like it. We've currently got former CND head Monsigneur Bruce Kent in the building recording an episode of World View on Iran (being shown at 8.30pm tonight). Upon seeing this fridge he spluttered: "Is this the national front headquarters, or something?"

Nice to know his sense of patriotism hasn't changed since the 1980s when he seemed to spend most of his time defending the Soviet Union.

UPDATE: Tune in to 18DoughtyStreet from 9pm for three hours of live political discussion with, among others, SNP MP Angus Robertson, Greg Smith from Conservative Way Forward, Alex Sinbgleton from the Globalisation Institute, former Tory MP Nick Bennett and several others.