The Game’s Up

I was going to blog today how the game’s up for Labour, but that can keep for another day.
There’s a small minority party -- “the third party” -- who are now resorting to desperate measures to save their seats.
They’ve started this rumour that Kingston Hospital is set to close. A classic wheeze, because they can then campaign to keep it open, and claim the credit when it stays open. Meanwhile everyone gets worried, both patients and staff, and recruitment suffers.
The Conservative Party is the only British political party committed to increasing NHS expenditure, and specifically would impose an immediate moratorium on closures of A&E (Emergency Room) and maternity units nationwide -- services allegedly threatened at Kingston. For more see Helen Whately.
So I warn the third party party: “Be careful what your stir”.

Direct Debit Fraud II

Last November I mentioned theft from the local Conservative Party bank accounts, and believe it or not, it is extremely easy -- that is until yesterday!
All you needed was to copy the sort code and account number from a membership form and all worldly goods and services were supplied to your own address. So efficient are the banks these days, signatures and addresses are no longer checked.
So a warning to all online thieves out there: our accounts are now blocked to new direct debits.
Ironically getting though to the bank is far harder than setting up a fraudulent direct debit was. As one point, for ID purposes, I was asked to quote a recent direct debit payment from the account -- I lost my cool.
No longer will Spelthorne Conservatives be financing pet insurance, car breakdown cover, broadband connection, camera equipment and several other domestic insurance policies.
All money raised will now be spent on campaigning to defeat the Labour Party, including over £300 refunded from the bank.

Ethnic Minority Politicians

I first noticed the term ‘BME’ only a few weeks ago, and I choose not to remember exactly what the initials stand for -- something to do with ethnic minorities, and by implication their promotion.
I’ve been unwittingly promoting ethnic minority politicians for years, not because of their background, but because of what they have to offer regardless of their ancestry. I find the BME agenda distasteful.
There was nevertheless a row yesterday about the fact that Operation Black Vote was quick to report the selection of Labour’s Stanwell County Councillor Victor Agarwal for the marginal seat of Swindon North, yet it took them a while to catch up on the selection of Conservative Kwasi Kwarteng for the winnable seat of Spelthorne.
I was however grateful for OBV’s fulsome apology.
For me, Spelthorne has the best candidate in Kwasi, and Swindon are welcome to Cllr Agarwal (though not as an MP).

Winter Vacation

This time next week I intend to be on holiday. I’m not going to say too much so as not to tempt fate, because this time last year I chose the worst travel day of the year. I spent half the day getting to Gatwick, and the rest of the day waiting there, before giving up and coming home.
All I will say is that I shall be leaving my house at 6:40am next Wednesday, and I am one of the few people who make use of Heathrow Airport’s excellent bicycle racks, even if the route there is not at all cycle friendly.
At least the first leg of the journey is guaranteed.

Don’t even mention them

It’s just occurred to me that I’ve not been following my own advice on this political blog, though I’ve only slipped up a couple of times this year.
There is a small British protest party that craves publicity, ably assisted from time to time by the BBC.
The thing they most hate is being ignored by the two main parties.
They spend their time attacking either one of the mainstream parties in the hope of getting some reaction. They make outrageous claims and then hope the main party will hit back.
They even spent their time at the Spelthorne Open Primary taking notes of everything the Conservative candidates said in the hope of catching them out later on.
As I wrote in December, they are the “teenagers” of British politics, and if you ignore them they’ll stop bothering you. (I don’t suggest this for real teenagers, whose angst we must suffer with love).

Last on the Spelthorne Primary

One final reflection on Friday’s Spelthorne Open Primary.
Back in November I commented upon the surprising good spirit and co-operation between most aspiring Conservative politicians despite the fact that they are often in competition for prized vacancies.
This again was apparent in the Green Room at Kempton Park from the cheer the moment the defeated candidates learnt that Kwasi had won, which was almost as loud as the ovation in the main hall when it was announced to the audience.

More on the Spelthorne Primary

I’ve been so grateful for all the emails and phone calls saying how well organised and successful was Spelthorne’s primary election last Friday night.
Even though it went on so long, and people were checking their watches, no one was anxious to get home, and all but eight stayed to the end to hear Kwasi Kwarteng’s victory speech. I know he was gobsmacked.
Being at the heart of the organisaton, and conscious of the things that didn’t quite go to plan – none of which actually mattered – made it hard to judge people’s satisfaction.
For instance we need to check the figures, but it looks like Party members were outnumbered two to one.
Now that’s what I call an open primary.

Kwasi Wins

Last night we had a fantastic victory for Kwasi Kwarteng, and a fantastic victory for Spelthorne Conservatives.
Despite terrible weather earlier in January, which brought campaigning literally to a standstill, we still managed to encourage over 400 electors to attend on a dark winter’s night in January -- a meeting which lasted nearly five hours.
The majority of the audience were not members of the Party, so it was a truly open primary.
Kwasi gave a convincing performance, and was both relaxed and knowledgeable. The rapture with which Spelthorne electors endorsed his selection as their Conservative Parliamentary candidate was truly inspiring.
We picked a winner!

Spelthorne Open Primary

I seem to be the only one left still blogging about the Spelthorne Open Primary, taking place later today in Sunbury.
Everyone else is nervous about everything. Contestants about their pitch, fellow organisers about how it’ll go, electors about whether they’ll last the evening.
I’m cool. Whatever happens it’ll be a success. I’ve had so much thrown at me these last three months, nothing can bowl me over.
I will be glad when it’s over though. May the best person win!

Election Day

As Election Day in Massachusetts comes to a nail-biting end, so another looms in Spelthorne this Friday.
Funny how New England copes with the cold and snow so much better than us in southeast England. Just as snow showers are expected right across Massachusetts Tuesday, it looks like Wednesday is going to be another day trudging through the snow in Spelthorne, rounding up those last minute voter registrations! Let’s just hope for milder weather Friday for the 600 expected at the Spelthorne Open Primary.
The Brown Oakley race is neck and neck after just a few votes reported. The Spelthorne Open Primary is a six-horse contest, with each candidate offering something different, and the outcome equally unclear.

9am Update: BROWN WINS! Not a headline I hope to have to repeat this May, but one to savour in January -- and with that Obama's healthcare revolution in tatters. I always knew Obama would be bad news for the US, just like our Gordon Brown in the UK.

Brown Could Win

There's one election I don’t mind Brown winning, and that’s the one taking place today in Massachusetts.
If Republican Scott Brown beats Martha Coakley in the race to replace Ted Kennedy as senator, then the Democrats lose their ability to steamroller their controversial healthcare plans.
Remember the US Government spends the same proportion of national income on their equivalent of the British NHS. And in addition most people have health insurance, which gives them a vastly superior level of healthcare.
Nationalising the American healthcare market can do nothing but jeopardise that advantage.

Chasing Votes

I spent Friday evening chasing Spelthorne’s new Labour Parliamentary Candidate around Upper Halliford -- still wet behind the ears he hasn’t yet learnt to push his leaflets right through the letterbox.
He says he’s going to commute from Staines station -- interesting, as he doesn’t live here. He harks back to 1945 the last time Spelthorne voted Labour. A pity that the only person who remembered him call at their door was a Tory Party member. I’m glad he’s concentrating on Shepperton and Sunbury, areas where Spelthorne's third party rely so much on squeezing the Labour vote.
I found quite a few people interested in next week’s Open Primary to choose the Conservative Party candidate. Funny how people have different views about the same person, but that’s democracy. Gordon Brown isn’t completely written off, and there are worries whether Cameron is Thatcherite enough -- but that’s what they thought about Thatcher in 1978/9, before the word was invented!

Soft on Criminals, Tough on Victims

In a final betrayal of New Labour’s original 1997 pledges it is clear that Britain is now soft on criminals and tough only on their victims.
In America you knock on a stranger’s door to ask for help at your peril, as you are liable to be shot dead, no questions asked.
This week Myleene Klass was reprimanded by police for “illegally” brandishing a knife inside her own kitchen at youths taunting her from out in the garden. She was scared to death.
Personally I don’t have a problem. As long as I know where I am and where the exits are, I’ll roam the toughest housing estates, even after dark. All I fear is the embarrassment of being dowsed by a flagon of water in the summer, or feral youths firing snowballs at me in the winter. I’m fit enough to run away.
However far too many of our elders are imprisoned in their own homes after dark for fear of being attacked. This is not the kind of society I aspire to.

A Stalwart Conservative

As the vicar said at Tuesday’s funeral of Daphne Hobart, learning that about her made us regret never knowing her better.
Born a Geordie in Whitley Bay, her parents spent a fortune on elocution lessons, something unheard of in Britain today.
Daphne joined the Young Conservatives all those years ago, and had been a pivotal part of Staines Conservatives virtually since moving here in 1954. Active in the Cubs, Scouts and Sea Cadets, she never lost her love of the sea from her service in the Wrens. Which made the final hymn all the more moving, with it’s undulating chorus:
O hear us when we cry to thee
For those in peril on the sea.
For many in the congregation it was their first venture out of doors in over a week, especially to pay tribute to a real stalwart.

Agarwal Abandons Spelthorne

A month ago I was puzzled as to why the Spelthorne Labour Party had ditched their bright young hopeful Parliamentary candidate Robert Ferguson (born and bred in Sunbury) for an outsider with a double barrelled name.
Now the plot thickens, when today we learn that Spelthorne’s most popular socialist has clearly been over-looked.
County Councillor Victor Agarwal (born and bred in Stanwell) has had to go carpet-bagging to Swindon to find a Parliamentary seat.
Is this the same suicidal mentality that caused Labour to ditch Tony Blair -- their most successful election winner ever -- in favour of Gordon (bottler) Brown?

True Grit

Despite the national shortage of grit for our roads the Prime Minister announced in Parliament that there’s plenty to go round. Now the Whitehall emergency planning committee (Cobra) has started rationing salt between councils. Somehow I don’t think Tory Surrey will get much priority.
My 4x4 copes just fine, though other offroaders seem to think they are immune to the conditions and drive like crazy. Negotiating the ice on my bicycle is not quite so easy, requiring both feet on the ground to come to a halt -- a bit like when I was a toddler.
Despite stockpiling thousands of tons of salt more than last year, Surrey County Council is now having to preserve dwindling stocks. Many key roads, like the one outside my house are missing out. This came as a shock to the drivers of a school bus and a car which collided head-on this morning. No injuries, but expect next year’s car insurance premiums to rocket.

Carpe Diem

With both sides of the Atlantic as cold as the South Pole, global warming is fast becoming at article of faith.
But what’s this? Reports of an even bigger catastrophe with a nearby star set to explode. Like a volcano, T Pyxidis has been regularly erupting every twenty years, except the last minor blast was in 1967. So the big one (or supernova) could be any time soon (though soon in astronomical terms can be up to ten million years).
But hey, people say the star is 3,260 light years away, so we’ve got plenty of time. But what they forget is that we are observing the star at it was 3,260 years ago, and the devastating nuclear radiation will reach Earth just as soon as the light which tells us it is exploding -- in other words not even the four-minute warning of nuclear Armageddon we were promised in the 1960s.
It is a mystery why there are no signals from other life forms in the universe, so maybe mass extinctions are commonplace.
I say live for the day, and preferably not under another five years of Labour Government.

Hung Parliament

With practically half the UK population on the Labour Government’s payroll, including six million of working age on welfare and a million extra state employees over the last decade, the result of this year’s election cannot be gauged by opinion polls.
Whilst Britain needs a Government with a clear mandate, at this stage a closer result is more likely.
I would argue that a hung parliament is preferable to a narrow majority -- such as the one John Major had to contend with.
If Britain's third party were to support a minority government it would expose them as immature and priggish, and marginalize them as just the protest party that they are.
They would be ridiculed for propping up a discredited Labour Government, and one false move in any coalition with the Conservatives would earn them the blame for a crisis snap election.

China

People are worried about the ascendancy of China.
I had a brief taste of China when I saw Aladdin at the Theatre Royal Windsor last week -- a show that I recommend, more so for the supporting cast.
We need not fear the Chinese who are fatally flawed as a people. Often in history they have made technological advances, always to let themselves them down.
I believe countries get the government they deserve, and the fact that they live under totalitarian rule is merely a result of them being too feeble as individuals to revolt. The English were never going to kow-tow to Hitler, and though the Americans are too conformist to my mind, their elections are too frequent to allow a dictator ever to take over.
One thing I can never understand is why we allow China to vote and to exercise a veto on the international stage (e.g. at the United Nations and the Copenhagen Summit) when they are denied democracy at home?
So should we embargo Chinese goods? Well, if I can find stuff of equal quality I buy cheaper from elsewhere. But if there’s a saving to be made, then we’re better off buying the cheapest, even from China.