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.

Europe is Driving Me Nuts

Why are so many Conservative supporters exercised about Europe? It’s bottom on the list of most peoples national concerns.
Yet some Tories are determined to vote UKIP at the next election, in the full knowledge it can do nothing but prop up a discredited Labour Government.
But it is Labour that ratified the Lisbon Treaty. It is Labour that messed up our economy, our health service, our education, the benefit system -- the list goes on.
A Cameron Government would have the strongest mandate on Europe in a generation. He’ll wait for Greece and Italy to implement the directives before we do. He’ll demand the return powers over employment legislation, human rights and criminal justice. And if the other 26 don’t play ball? Stop paying the bill. With the threat of a referendum at the following election.
Europe needs us more than we need them.
I’m having lunch with Daniel Hannan on Friday.

Another UKIP MEP Jailed for Fraud

To think that earlier this year we Conservatives spent a load of money on extra promotional material across the Borough of Spelthorne, all for a measly 126 extra votes in last June’s elections (as compared with five years before).
In the end too many Tories voted UKIP in the mistaken belief that they were voting for a Party untainted by the MPs’ expenses scandal.
Today former UKIP Member of the European Parliament Tom Wise was jailed for two years for stealing £39,000 worth of parliamentary expenses.
This comes after local UKIP MEP Ashley Mote served a nine-month prison sentence for £67,000 worth of benefit fraud.
It makes you pig sick.