Hmm.....Good old fashioned tory talk on crime and punishment.
Nice talk about education, good early argument as a basis for a real devolution of power to schools/families. Shame i cant see Goldie going for a voucher system.
Interesting idea on the outward bound project....but why not just invest in playing fields and PE classes?
Decent swipe at education tho, happy bunny here.
Apparently if you are a scottish conservative you dont walk away when the going gets tough.....you know i cant argue with that in anyway....if it was true there wouldntbe a scottish conservative party after the last ten years.....
Sp far very thoughtful remarks about family break down. Puts it in a nice historical (generational) perspective.
Good consensual approach, but i do think that she should be more bellicose.
Talks of devolution as a work in progress. Having seen a Q&A where she wouldnt concede powers going BACK to westminster Goldie has layed the ground work for support for a realignment of compentencies.
She is hitting hard at Wendy Alexander. I think this is good, there is moreto be made for the tories to attack Labour than to attack the SNP (generally speaking).
Good hit at Alex Salmond...and yes i know what i wrote above but i dont like the man and i enjoyed it.
Fighting out for the Union.
All in all good. May put up more once i look at the text. But then i dont think that any one is ever gonna read this so i probably wont.
Saturday, 24 May 2008
Close Shave for Blair
hat tip to The Appalling Strangeness for this thought on the story.
Though i have to say if its just one word I suppect the great Fifer would have prefered "diddums"
Or considering much of whats said about the relationship between the two maybe a few more than one....
"About F**king time."
Menzies
Though i have to say if its just one word I suppect the great Fifer would have prefered "diddums"
Or considering much of whats said about the relationship between the two maybe a few more than one....
"About F**king time."
Menzies
Pre-Speech ponderings
So the bbc is reporting that Annabel Goldie is going to be talking about how to tackle child neglect in her conference speech today.
What the bbc report on it says sounds interesting, and hardly objectionable,but lets wait and see what happens when she gets up to speak.
So what can she really do to make anything happen? Well I have rather thought that the Scottish Tories have never really gotten the idea of how to respond to PR and its results in Scotland. This isnt THAT surprising, for the most part the party, even if it have benefited from the system, is not totally comfortable with it, and rightly so. I think this for two reasons, most obviously that as many seem to think that watch closely, the Parliamentary Tory party at Holyrood dontreally seem to know how to make a big impact (the results of dealing with Salmond et al remain tobe seen) and secondly because several years ago, when helping out as an activist in Stirling, I got exactly NO feel that there was any concerted effort by the party to campaign on a national level for the second preference votes.
Now I wont get into a rant about electoral tactics (I shall save that till theres another election in the off) but i do have an idea of how to make a go of this child neglect thing.
So theres a problam that needs to be dealt with. No argument there.
The Tories are very much a minority party so would need support to impliment it.
The SNP are a minority party so could not out right stop a tory proposal and need support from other parties to maintain their position.
So a Tory plan should have an eye to what other groups within the parliament would support. So who.
Well IHATE to say this, but I think the Lib Dems. For they are in pretty much exactly the same position as the Tories are.
If you can get a deal that the Lib Dems support (and i say deal not proposal, we would have to give the LD's something too,probably reciprocal support on something dear to them) and possibly the green MSP's and Margo MacDonald, then you have a strong body in parliament to advocate any proposal.
The next step would be to turn to Salmond et al and make it clear that you can make his life very difficult if he doesnt support it. As it is Labour is in almost total opposition to the SNP in Holyrood, and thats what the smaller parties have toplay against. Make the SNP realise that you can let them do much of what they want, they are the biggest party they can govern theres no getting away from that.
But this kind of issue, child neglect, is something that will probably have to be dealt with by some sense legislativly, and thats where the Smaller parties can make real political capital.
What the small parties have to do is pick their issues, and focus on them, effectivly surrender certain issues to the SNP, but make it clear that they will fight tooth and nail on those issues that they can build an election campaign on essentially.
Its not much of aplan for the next election, but the tories are in a position where much can be made of this parliament to fuel the engines of the next campaign. It's a start.
What the bbc report on it says sounds interesting, and hardly objectionable,but lets wait and see what happens when she gets up to speak.
So what can she really do to make anything happen? Well I have rather thought that the Scottish Tories have never really gotten the idea of how to respond to PR and its results in Scotland. This isnt THAT surprising, for the most part the party, even if it have benefited from the system, is not totally comfortable with it, and rightly so. I think this for two reasons, most obviously that as many seem to think that watch closely, the Parliamentary Tory party at Holyrood dontreally seem to know how to make a big impact (the results of dealing with Salmond et al remain tobe seen) and secondly because several years ago, when helping out as an activist in Stirling, I got exactly NO feel that there was any concerted effort by the party to campaign on a national level for the second preference votes.
Now I wont get into a rant about electoral tactics (I shall save that till theres another election in the off) but i do have an idea of how to make a go of this child neglect thing.
So theres a problam that needs to be dealt with. No argument there.
The Tories are very much a minority party so would need support to impliment it.
The SNP are a minority party so could not out right stop a tory proposal and need support from other parties to maintain their position.
So a Tory plan should have an eye to what other groups within the parliament would support. So who.
Well IHATE to say this, but I think the Lib Dems. For they are in pretty much exactly the same position as the Tories are.
If you can get a deal that the Lib Dems support (and i say deal not proposal, we would have to give the LD's something too,probably reciprocal support on something dear to them) and possibly the green MSP's and Margo MacDonald, then you have a strong body in parliament to advocate any proposal.
The next step would be to turn to Salmond et al and make it clear that you can make his life very difficult if he doesnt support it. As it is Labour is in almost total opposition to the SNP in Holyrood, and thats what the smaller parties have toplay against. Make the SNP realise that you can let them do much of what they want, they are the biggest party they can govern theres no getting away from that.
But this kind of issue, child neglect, is something that will probably have to be dealt with by some sense legislativly, and thats where the Smaller parties can make real political capital.
What the small parties have to do is pick their issues, and focus on them, effectivly surrender certain issues to the SNP, but make it clear that they will fight tooth and nail on those issues that they can build an election campaign on essentially.
Its not much of aplan for the next election, but the tories are in a position where much can be made of this parliament to fuel the engines of the next campaign. It's a start.
Friday, 23 May 2008
Crewe and Local Government
So since im blatantly finding my feet here let me ramble abit.
For as long as I have been politically aware, the tories have been in a pretty bad way. Right now I'm not a member of the party, but I did join in the dark old days of IDS. So I have been used to nasty poll ratings and poor election results.
So when a few weeks ago we had a huge number of Local Elections in England and Wales I stayed up till 4am not really expecting to see in the results what the polls were saying was going to happen.
But it did.
It was a GOOD night. Obviously for the party leadership and those who got elected (as for those who voted for tory councils time will tell) but for me too. It was a strange experience seeing the tories do really well. Those results are really for me the stuff of history books.
Still it was all abit unreal.
Untill tonight.
Then we got Crewe. Suddenly its real. We can win.
At least in England. Scottish Tory poll ratings are another matter and for another blog (i feel a third blog of the night coming on.....
The thing that gets me is the way that labour is acting. Especially right now Hazel Blears, whos smug little face I endured on Question Time tonight.
There are two things that Labour Politicians are doing as a matter of course these days, and when i think about it have been doing for as long as I can remember. I dont know if its just a pet peeve i have or if this is something that other people notice but certainly these two points are not totally substantive.
Firstly when these people answer questions rather than just saying something to you they will first say "what i'd say to you" or some such like. Or they will tell you that "whats important is.." and then state the bloody obvious. Now seriously when you have a cabinet minister on the TV talking to the great unwashed (which when looking as Blears smug,patronising mug i can only think she is thinking) surely EVERTHING they say should be something of substance. These people should be otherwise very busy people, so why do they waste somuch time with fluff!
grr!
Secondly what do i care if the last tory government put interest rates at 15%? I was 8 when Britain was ejected from the ERM so for me this really IS history, and its not a history i look at in some bizarre non-sensical partisan way. We havent had ten years of economic growth, we have had 15 years (give or take) so SOME of them must have been tory years.
But more to the point ten years in, for me at least, and i would imagine alot of people even several years older than me, it just doesnt wash when these people blame the last government.
Is it so much to hope that Britain, a nation i have abit of a soft spot for, can have real, credible, decent government?
For as long as I have been politically aware, the tories have been in a pretty bad way. Right now I'm not a member of the party, but I did join in the dark old days of IDS. So I have been used to nasty poll ratings and poor election results.
So when a few weeks ago we had a huge number of Local Elections in England and Wales I stayed up till 4am not really expecting to see in the results what the polls were saying was going to happen.
But it did.
It was a GOOD night. Obviously for the party leadership and those who got elected (as for those who voted for tory councils time will tell) but for me too. It was a strange experience seeing the tories do really well. Those results are really for me the stuff of history books.
Still it was all abit unreal.
Untill tonight.
Then we got Crewe. Suddenly its real. We can win.
At least in England. Scottish Tory poll ratings are another matter and for another blog (i feel a third blog of the night coming on.....
The thing that gets me is the way that labour is acting. Especially right now Hazel Blears, whos smug little face I endured on Question Time tonight.
There are two things that Labour Politicians are doing as a matter of course these days, and when i think about it have been doing for as long as I can remember. I dont know if its just a pet peeve i have or if this is something that other people notice but certainly these two points are not totally substantive.
Firstly when these people answer questions rather than just saying something to you they will first say "what i'd say to you" or some such like. Or they will tell you that "whats important is.." and then state the bloody obvious. Now seriously when you have a cabinet minister on the TV talking to the great unwashed (which when looking as Blears smug,patronising mug i can only think she is thinking) surely EVERTHING they say should be something of substance. These people should be otherwise very busy people, so why do they waste somuch time with fluff!
grr!
Secondly what do i care if the last tory government put interest rates at 15%? I was 8 when Britain was ejected from the ERM so for me this really IS history, and its not a history i look at in some bizarre non-sensical partisan way. We havent had ten years of economic growth, we have had 15 years (give or take) so SOME of them must have been tory years.
But more to the point ten years in, for me at least, and i would imagine alot of people even several years older than me, it just doesnt wash when these people blame the last government.
Is it so much to hope that Britain, a nation i have abit of a soft spot for, can have real, credible, decent government?
A long time ago.....
Well...this is technically my second blog, but then I have no idea now what the first one was called so shall we call this a begining?
I'm not really sure what I want to do with this blog. I've just set it up after watching on BBC News (when did they stop calling it News24?) that the Tories have won the Crewe by-election. Between that and well the name of this blog it's a fair bet this is going to have some political content.
What there won't be alot of will be personal content. I will express my views here, on what I can't yet say.
I think that there will be three main areas that I will talk about, though who knows how often.
So what are those then?
Firstly, and probably most frequently, will be national politics and news that catches my interest.
Secondly Scottish politics. I havent seen much in the way of scottish political blogs online, i may just be missing them, and I can't imagine that I will be able to get much in the way of scoops but thats what I shall do.
Finally, and this may well be the nearest I get to personal, I am a history student, so I may make posts about some of what I will be looking at during semester time.
Well lets see how this goes shall we.
Menzies
I'm not really sure what I want to do with this blog. I've just set it up after watching on BBC News (when did they stop calling it News24?) that the Tories have won the Crewe by-election. Between that and well the name of this blog it's a fair bet this is going to have some political content.
What there won't be alot of will be personal content. I will express my views here, on what I can't yet say.
I think that there will be three main areas that I will talk about, though who knows how often.
So what are those then?
Firstly, and probably most frequently, will be national politics and news that catches my interest.
Secondly Scottish politics. I havent seen much in the way of scottish political blogs online, i may just be missing them, and I can't imagine that I will be able to get much in the way of scoops but thats what I shall do.
Finally, and this may well be the nearest I get to personal, I am a history student, so I may make posts about some of what I will be looking at during semester time.
Well lets see how this goes shall we.
Menzies
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