Hung Parliament II

There’s been a lot of bunkum written about the prospects of a hung parliament, even on this blog.
The fact is no one knows the result of the General Election -- until the exit polls come out at 10pm on the day.
People say coalition governments work well in Europe, but Britain is not Europe, and for those old enough to remember, they never worked well under our adversarial system.
A further constitutional point is that Gordon Brown is not going to resign unless the Conservatives end up fewer than a dozen seats short of an overall majority. Otherwise he will cling on to power, dangling the carrot of proportional representation under the nose of Britain’s third party, something Ted Heath wasn’t prepared to do in 1974.
So to all those thinking of voting UKIP, or any other minor party, the advice is don’t. Vote Labour instead, because the result will be the same, and at least your vote won’t have been wasted.

No Council Tax Increase

Last night in Kingston the Conservatives set out a detailed budget, showing how to freeze the local council tax whilst maintaining services to the public.
Unfortunately this will be of no benefit to residents of the Royal Borough -- who already pay the highest rate of council tax in London -- because Britain’s third party who run the Council imposed a further 1.9% increase regardless.
The same evening Spelthorne joined a long line of Conservative run councils that are freezing council tax this year, specifically to ease the burden on the less well off caused by Labour’s recession.
I couldn’t believe it when one councillor from the minority party criticised the Conservative budget proposal for lacking in detail -- this from a party that yet again failed to present an alternative budget for the 19th year in a row. Nevertheless their lack of support demonstrated a commitment to raising the tax in Spelthorne as elsewhere.

Bullying

Everyone’s missing the point about bullying by the Prime Minister. Gordon Brown admits he behaves abominably to try and get his own way. And it did John Prescott no harm amongst his supporters when details of his behaviour were revealed.
There are many examples of effective leaders who have been bullies, but usually as dictators: Saddam Hussein, Joseph Stalin etc.
However in a democratic system you can only get so far by throwing tantrums. Eventually people start working quietly against you. At all levels of politics you need conciliation and geniality to get the most out of the people working along with you.
And that's why Gordon Brown is a failure.

Shortwood Infant School

When a school suffers falling numbers it is right that the authorities investigate. It is no use carpetbaggers from minor political parties joining in the protest without offering constructive solutions.
Of course the resultant smaller class sizes are good in principle, but not at the expense of starving funds from other more popular schools in the area.
Shortwood Infant School has room for 81 children, but with numbers currently well below 50 it is not financially viable, and the quality of education is beginning to suffer.
So yes, let’s support the tradition of a 114-year-old school, but only on condition that it’s fall from grace is addressed by concrete measures to restore its intake.
I remember when my first infant school shut in 1962. It was a terrible shock because all the teaching methods changed, but I survived.

Real Life Crime

I don’t normally watch TV soaps because they're so contrived and unreal.
But last night’s Eastenders was real because it was broadcast live, just like all television used to be fifty years ago.
You could tell everyone was on edge -- not just because of the plotlines. Then I flipped over to BBC3 and the actor who’d just jumped to his death got up and told us how he felt -- great!
That got me thinking: how much easier it would be for our over-stretched police force if everyone admitted their crime at the end, like Stacy Slater did.
However I was amused this week when PC plod arrested a veteran TV broadcaster in a dawn raid at his old people’s home, after admitting on TV that he killed his lover ages ago. After 30 hours in detention they had to let him go because he refused to say who the victim was, or when and where the crime took place.
Suicide is wrong, whether assisted or not.

Dis-Proportional Representation

During my visit to the dental hygienist yesterday, the last thing on my mind was the appointment of Conservative Party candidates in next year’s Spelthorne Council elections.
But it would seem that was exactly what Silvio Berlusconi was thinking about whilst having his teeth fixed last month, after being attacked in Milan before Christmas. He has just nominated his oral hygienist Nicole Minetti (pictured) to stand for the regional elections in Lombardy next month. And a great looking choice if I may say.
You see under proportional representation -- much vaunted by Britain’s minor third party -- the leadership gets to choose the candidates for Parliament by means of the Party List.
Doesn’t sound very proportional to me.

Labour’s Death Tax

At last we have some clear blue water: on the care of our elders.
As Benjamin Franklin wrote in 1789: “. . . in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes”. No wonder Labour’s death tax is such a double-whammy.
A compulsory levy robs those who've set aside something for their old age, transferring it largely to those who’ve made no provision. It discourages self-reliance.
The debate is also a proxy for the argument on both sides of the Atlantic about how to fund healthcare in general (bearing in mind that on average half our lifetime healthcare costs occur in the last two years of life).
People no longer want to pay more in taxes, i.e. “big government”. A more voluntary insurance based solution is not easy because the premiums are paid well ahead of the risk, but the concept is not so different from pensions.
New Labour ducked the issue for twelve years. The Conservative solution should not be scoffed at, even by the London Daily Telegraph.

Outdated Labour

I no longer mention by name the third-rate party in Spelthorne, as they are totally ineffectual, even in Sunbury where they have councillors. As usual they claimed to oppose the Conservatives’ budget, but failed to present any alternative at Surrey County Council last Tuesday.
However I’m worried for the main opposition, the Spelthorne Labour Party. Their parliamentary candidate is very enthusiastic, but sadly let down by their internet presence, or rather lack of. All he’s done is a couple of tweets back on 2nd January.
And Stanwell’s Labour councillor Victor Agarwal -- before he disappeared off to Swindon last month -- promised us a daily blog, but hasn’t written a word since June last year!
In fact so out of date is Labour’s website, they’re still promoting their previous parliamentary candidate, and apart from one news item 18 months ago, all the content dates back to 2007.

Fin du Régime

I don’t think we need to wait for tomorrow’s TV broadcast of the Prime Minster’s interview by Piers Morgan to conclude that Gordon Brown is finished.
The sheer hypocrisy of criticising David Cameron for talking about his children 18 months ago, and then weeping about his own family is enough on its own.
Wearing his heart on his sleeve so uncharacteristically just smacks of desperation, not something people admire in a politician.
That’s not to say the British election is over, because Labour has built up such a huge client state in the last twelve years: six million on welfare, an extra million public sector employees (all on indexed-linked pensions) and a wave of foreign workers who’ve never had it so good.
Still, at least a hung parliament will expose the minority parties for the charlatans that they are, and remind us why the largest one was thrown out of office nearly a century ago.
Which reminds me of my favourite doorstep question to a Labour voter:

Name me a Labour Prime Minister who didn’t end in economic ruin?

To which the answer came:

Lloyd George.

Update Sunday: Piers Morgan's interview was very entertaining -- Gordon's still dead meat though.

UK Parliamentary Expenses

The news today that the cost of IPSA -- the body set up to police Westminster parliamentary expenses -- will be six times the total amount MPs have been found to have over claimed, tells us all we need to know about left-wing liberal “big government”.
And that’s six times the amount just in the first year, until common sense sees to it that the quango is abolished.
Compare that with the cost to taxpayers of exposing the allegations in the first place, which was precisely zero, because everything was brought to light by a free press -- the Daily Telegraph in particular -- something which the liberal left also secretly despises.

Palin for President

Having watched a recording of the 40 minute keynote speech by Sarah Palin to the US National Tea Party Convention last weekend, I saw America’s first woman president in the making.
Her voice was a little shaky at times, but that just added to the authenticity.
My favourite sound bite was “How’s that hope-y, change-y thing workin’ out for ya?”
But the phrase that stuck in the throat of the liberals was her referring to the teleprompter president, for that’s all Obama is.
You can tell it hit home, because all the liberal left could criticise her for was having a few keywords scribbled on her palm. What a puerile jibe!
I think it’s significant that whilst left wing orators rely so much on teleprompters, most conservatives are able to address their audience without a full script. So much more genuine.

Air Travel Insecurity

Flying with hand luggage has become an arms race.
Having sailed through Heathrow, I came a cropper in transit at Paris Charles de Gaulle, where they’re much tougher.
I thought I’d got my liquids contained -- shower gel, shampoo, hand gel, toothpaste, moisturiser, sunscreen, aftersun -- but all had to be repackaged in a tiny one-litre bag. The deodorant had to be ditched.
Still not happy, my belongings were rifled in search of some fruit salad -- not actually a prohibited item.
Returning via Amsterdam, security is still sloppy, and they weren’t bothered about the liquids -- just as well because my incoming flight was late and I was the last one on to the connecting flight.
A good surgeon these days can implant plastic explosives inside the belly of a suicide bomber, along with the two-pack liquid detonator. The only method of detection would be to set if off by punching the guy in the stomach -- a bit like how I felt.

On Vacation

This blog is suspended for a couple of days as I grapple with this French keyboard in the ski resort of Courchevel.