Out of Power

You don’t need to be a student of 20th century British politics to understand why Britain’s third party have been out of power since the 1920s.
Just come and read the vindictive propaganda they distribute in Spelthorne. Indeed they seem to be resorting to personal attacks right across the land, which will only ever attract the protest vote. It's not the British way.
Last autumn they cheekily questioned whether in fact a retiring local councillor was actually ill, right at the time he was in intensive care at the local hospital.
And now they query the credentials of one of the best up and coming Conservative politicians in the country by detailing his previous applications for vacant parliamentary seats.
The truth is that competition to become a Conservative parliamentary candidate is a hundred times greater for Britain’s third party, so hardly surprising even the best don’t succeed the first time.

Less Nudity Please, We’re British

The Blair Babes were hopeless at arresting the tide of permissiveness during he last 13 years, so let’s hope Cameron’s Cuties will be tougher.
The Noughties saw a massive rollout of strip-joints across Britain after Labour relaxed the planning laws in 2003, allowing lap dancing clubs to masquerade as ordinary bars.
One is now threatened in Staines High Street, though so far ways have been found to prevent them popping up in Spelthorne.
I’m not sure we need to go so far as Iceland last week, who with almost half their legislators female, have made it illegal for any business to profit from nudity by its employees.

Great Candidate: Rotten Government

Obviously the Labour Party is seriously bad news for Britain, as we slip lower and lower down world league tables, and social cohesion is disintegrating whilst the gap between rich and poor is at its widest for a generation.
But here in Spelthorne we have a marvel in the Labour’s Parliamentary candidate, Adam Tyler-Moore.
Following my blog two months ago he’s still leaving his leaflet hanging out of letterboxes. Also the content lets him down badly, as it's so nasty and scurrilous that only the most loyal Labour voters would appreciate it.
However the man is so polite, personable, knowledgeable and well presented, and he’s being very well received on the doorstep.
And boy, does he get around. He’s like a ferret, as each day I come across more and more residents he has spoken to in every town and village, right across the constituency.
He deserves second place in Spelthorne at the General Election, and then to earn a safe seat elsewhere next time.

Five More Years of Brown?

As I speak to people up and down the land (yesterday in north Manchester), the answer comes back the same:

We do not want five more years of Gordon Brown.

Funny thing is when you ask them if they’ll be voting for Cameron’s Conservatives they don’t seem quite so sure, as if there is some kind of third option for Prime Minister -- which they have to agree there isn’t.
A vote for any of the minor parties is a wasted vote when it comes to turfing out Gordon Brown.
That is the conundrum the opinion pollsters face, complicated by a serious flaw in their methodology.
You see, when you ask floating voters how they voted five years ago they genuinely can’t remember, and so make it up -- and say Conservative if they’re leaning that way now. So their opinion is excluded by the pollsters when they weight the raw data to match the actual result in 2005, skewing their prediction for 2010.
Best hang on for the exit poll at 10pm on May 6th.

British Airways 1200 : Unite 300

That’s the number of strikebreakers claimed by each of the sides in the BA cabin crew strike.
One could also argue it is the margin of victory by the airline, though wise of them not to crow about it.
We’ll see how they each fare in the second round next weekend.
In the olden days unions used to go on strike, and stay out until either their demands were met, or they capitulated. These days with union power restrained, striking is very much a part-time business.
Even Monday afternoon’s picket at Hatton Cross on the outskirts of Heathrow (pictured) was a rather feeble protest, though I was impressed by the number of hooting motorists driving past -- many too young to remember the union militancy of the 70s and 80s.

Nice to see a strike breaking Jet2.com aircraft (also pictured) at Heathrow Terminal 5, normally serving low cost routes from northern England, this time easing the strain for hard pressed BA passengers.

British Airways Strike

There’s a whole load of stuff we’re not being told about the British Airways cabin crew strike, and one might wonder why?
Hints are dropped about disunity within the trades union, Unite, which seriously hampers their ability to negotiate with the employer. Key union people will not even share the same room, let alone talk to each other
BA boss Willie Walsh is determined to break the strike, and with the rest of the airline’s workforce already having conceded cuts in wages and conditions, there is very little sympathy for the cabin crew.
Everyone is volunteering to man the planes in their absence, and many are still being trained.
Then there is the issue of travel perks. I am assured Willie Walsh will not go back on his promise to cancel staff travel concessions for anyone who walks out. As many of the cabin crew live in Scotland and the South of France, commuting to Heathrow Terminal Five to report for duty, their lifestyles will take a quite a hit -- assuming their jobs are still there when they return.
The outcome of this dispute could well determine the state of industrial relations in the UK for several years ahead.

BUPA Healthcare

BUPA is a major employer in Staines, Egham and Ashford, and their need to cut back on staff is a double-whammy.
The staff deserves sympathy, over 100 of whom face redundancy.
But more worrying is the decline in healthcare expenditure in the UK.
The Conservatives’ commitment to ring-fence state spending via the NHS is good, but that is not enough.
We spend far too little overall on healthcare in Britain, barely half what they spend in America for example.
I’ve been doing my bit recently. I thought I’d save £100 with a special offer on a BUPA healthscreen. After all the further screening tests the doctor recommended -- based on lifestyle and family medical history -- I’ve spent £3,300.

Daylight Saving Time

It’s at this time of year that I reflect if Europe were serious about climate change then our clocks would go forward this weekend.
America has been doing this for four years now, and it is an entirely cost free measure (and probably even saves lives on the roads in the evenings).
It is also logical because the length of daylight is now much closer to when we’re all agreed about putting the clocks back at the end of October.

The Euro

I sailed to France for the day yesterday, and it's a boon having to have just one foreign currency when you go abroad -- well two if you include the dollar for America.
I hope the euro survives the economic crisis in Greece.

Cable ruins Cable

The biggest threat to Cable is Cable.
Cable is the term used by currency traders for the Sterling–US Dollar exchange rate (dating from the 19th century when the rate was transmitted by a transatlantic cable).
The prospect of a hung parliament this spring is sending jitters round the world, and the value of the British pound rapidly towards a 25-year low.
Traders fear the worst if vacillating Vincent Cable were to become involved with Britain’s economic policy.
Far from predicting the current crisis Cable warned merely about personal debt in 2003, and later conceded that the global financial crisis was actually triggered by the US mortgage market about which he knew very little.
Back in 1999 he campaigned vigorously for light touch regulation of financial services, meaning his recent denunciation of market excesses ring hollow.
These conflicting views are typical of Britain’s third party which he represents, and offer no path to recovery.

Healthcare Choice

Last week I had a routine screening test at a top London Hospital -- something which a third of American adults have done, but you’d be lucky to get under Britain’s free NHS.
Everything was wonderful after the initial indignity of being frog-marched to the cashier to present my credit card. (They have a lot of Middle Eastern clients whose approach to settling bills is more relaxed).
At £1,200 for a four-hour stay, it made my prawn sandwich lunch the most expensive in London.
At least the Labour Government still allows people the choice to spend their money on healthcare, instead of say exotic foreign holidays. Though I remember Labour even banned those in 1966 when you couldn’t take more than £50 abroad each year -- documented in your passport.

Eton Boys

I’m still reflecting on what I thought was the most exciting event at the Conservative Party Spring Conference in Brighton last weekend.
An impromptu protest by about fifty left-wing activists who almost broke through the police cordon at the hotel entrance.
They delivered their chant with so much energy.

Eton boys: . . . off our streets!

Eton boys: . . . off our streets!

Interspersed with

Get rid of the rich!

Well who do they think pay the taxes that subsidise their Bohemian lifestyle?
If only that enthusiasm could be channelled into more productive pursuits, Britain would be great again.