#thingsemmamcclarkinsays

#thingselliottsays spoke to Emma McClarkin MEP, this is what she had to say. The video is from the EU museum and is probably less anti-EU than Emma McClarkin would like to show.

Q: Is the timing of the proposed referendum wise considering some businesses are worrying about the uncertainty before 2017?
A: It is never the right time considering that Britain has hesitated for so long on what sort of relationship it wants with the EU. Now is the right time in my opinion because the EU is in crisis and their answer to end it is greater integration. Luckily we are outside the Euro so businesses see us as a safe haven. When the referendum was announced the FTSE went up, the CBI also backs the Conservatives policy for the British people to have a say. We, unlike Europe, are still competitive despite our many failings because of our strategic position near the continent making us ideal for international trade.

Q: Why are the Commission the only group able to initiate legislation?
A: I hate this right and the way it is named. This is certainly wrong. There is a huge democratic deficit in the EU. We are only allowed to tinker with legislation in the EU which is totally wrong. We must accept all the proposed Commissioners that the Commission itself thinks should run the union as they are elected jointly. This often means that inefficient and incompetent people are appointed, although we did manage to stop a Bulgarian lady who had explicit links to the MAFIA. The fact is that the Commissioners are in their ivory towers protecting their own jobs. The EU exists to fund several thousand people’s extravagant lives and they do not care what they do for it to happen.

Q: How do you think David Cameron will renegotiate with the EU?
A: This will be the hardest job in the world. Cameron must choose the areas he wishes to reform carefully. It would be best for him to ask Barroso why we should remain in the EU, because despite the Commission trying to show Britain as a problem child they need our money to exist?

Q: Has the EU moved from a trading zone to a protectionist racket?
A: The Commission keeps sending out directives made legitimate by saying these are necessary to complete the single market. I ask why they haven’t done this already. The Commission would rather focus on politically based discussion than discuss trade. It seems they do not want external trade at all. The New Zealand ambassador asked me whether the UK and his own country could reduce their trade barriers and was amazed to discover that we have no control and that any negotiation takes years, if at all happening. It is amazing that they trade more with South East Asia than England considering our very close links.

#NUCAontour

On Tuesday and Wednesday NUCA went to Brussels. We were invited to go by Emma McClarkin, the MEP for the East Midlands. The trip on the whole was fairly enjoyable. I ate lots of mussels and drank lots of very strong Belgium beer. We spent most our time in the centre of Brussels and only really left to get the Eurostar on the metro (see video below of what the metro is like).

However, we were invited to go to see the European Parliament and not just have a massive party so we had to go see the building for 2 hours. The building itself was immense and very modern. But it was covered in posters of self congratulation over achieving peace in Europe from 1945. But this isn't particularly true. firstly the EU wasn't around in 1945 and didn't really get itself going till the late 60s. It was NATO and the looser alliance between the West and US beforehand that kept peace in Europe. But no one in Brussels would say this considering how much they hate the US for no other reason than Europe being economically and militarily inferior to it. Also has the EU been a force for peace? I don’t see many Greeks and Spaniards rioting peacefully against centrally imposed austerity nor are the people of Bosnia happy that the EU from their own inaction allowed a war to kill many thousands in the former Yugoslavia.

The Museum of the EU which we saw next was equally full of such lies claiming to be accountable for the first man in space, despite him being Russian, the Friday peace agreement, which they weren't involved in, and ending the Icelandic volcano eruption in 2010, although I wasn't aware of the ability to control natural disasters. Furthermore one lady was very much missing from the quite detailed history of the EU, but don’t worry we made sure she was added by writing the phrase ‘NO! NO! NO!’ to many posters, boards and the only picture we could find of her.

After this we had two talks about the EU. One was from the educational officer, a committed Europhile that would make even Nick Clegg cringe. This chap tried to argue that democracy can’t be a part of the EU because it would be against the interest of Euro-sceptics for an elected Commission or power switched from to the Parliament on account of more sovereignty being lost.  Personally I don’t understand how switching powers creates more and clearly having a quasi-communist dictatorship is preferable.

Luckily our minds were saved from such foolishness by Emma McClarkin who is by all accounts a proper Tory. She has been highly critical of the EU for trying to have the Bulgarian MAFIA run the commission, debating whether Chicken was a meat (apparently the Danish took issue with this) and the architectural design of the parliament, which keeps caving in. Effectively from what I heard the EU is far worse than anyone can imagine which quite frankly is scary.  Nothing short of ex-Euro Communists trying to create a new USSR describes what I heard and saw.

It’s quite clear the EU has nothing to do with trade considering it debates more the creation of an EU army than ending the financial crisis. Quite frankly anyone who wishes to see neither drastic reform to the EU or leave is making sure this country sleep walks into a future fate on a level of letting excepting dictatorship. I hope we leave because we’ll be freeing the people of Europe. At least some people in the Conservative party actually support a free society rather than contradictory buzzwords.

Off to Europe

I'm off to see what it would be like to live in a Communist state. Yes, I'm off to the European Parliament and all things fitting within regulations. I’ll be back with many things to talk about the parliament itself, maybe MEPs and what exactly is going on in Brussels.

After my continental expedition I will meet Dominic Grieve the Attorney General and see what he has to say about all things going down at the CPS.

I’d like to leave you with a mini blog piece about my predicted Tory leader Jesse Norman. Well as I did say, predicting election results is similar to astrology. After my post we have had a number of comments come in mainly from a small newspaper called the Times saying that Adam Afriyie will be the next Conservative leader. Adam Afriyie seems like a good candidate too. He is a Conservative, having voted against Lords Reform. However, despite this has a good reputation of being loyal in the Whips office, that will buy him support from the members of the current government. But I don’t think Nadine Dorries’ words of support have done him any favours from the woman who abandoned her constituents and hasn't been given back the Conservative whip yet. 

Where is the growth?

GDP figures came out recently showing -0.3% economic growth. Overall 2012 saw just 0.1% growth in the economy.  Why is this so considering the government says it is tackling the debt and deficit coupled with tax cuts? Obviously partially responsible is the amount of uncertainty in Europe at the moment. This is not just directly because of debt crises in Greece, Spain etc but because the exchange rates for the Euro are fluctuating, ironic for a currency that was specifically designed to be stable. But it’s no good just pointing over the Channel because other countries are growing.

So what’s up with the UK? Well Mr Osborne is bending the truth quite a bit when he says what I have laid out above. There are/will be some tax cuts, notably the decreasing amount for corporation tax, enterprise zones, dropping the 50p tax rate and the personal rate for income tax rising to £9,000. But where are the incentives for local government to decrease their business rates (particularly important due to the government wanting an emphasis on small business growth)? Why is VAT, capital gains tax and overall the tax level for the highest earners, who have the most capital to spend, up? The debt is going up, not down. The lack of cutting by the government means they are spending more on stimulus than Gordon Brown leading to the deficit falling slower than first predicted in 2010. No wonder there isn't any growth the Treasury hasn't got a clue what it is doing. Is it trying Keynesian stimulus methods that will in the short term create economic growth but accumulate more debt making the problem worse in the future or is the focus on market liberation by cutting spending and lowering tax?

There is also another element of a lack of capital in the UK with any left being spent on depreciation and not investment creating growth. The UK banks have to keep a high proportion of their capital stored in case of another crisis, helped out by quantitative easing. The low interest rate too means there is a lack of savings. Government stimulus as replacement for this capital shortfall is not appropriate, not only because it’s piling on the debt mountain, but because government is clueless to what is sound investment i.e. HS2 and wind turbines. We need to examine firstly lowering the amount of money the banks keep in case of a crisis and then, possibly sooner rather than later, raise interest rates so people can create capital through savings. It’s going to have to happen sometime.

So how can we get growth? Well firstly Government needs to decide to cut taxes and actually reduce government expenditure instead of trying half-heartedly to stimulate short term growth by Keynesian spending. After this is set in place we must then examine the lack of capital in the UK by reducing bank emergency funds and beginning to raise interest rates, because despite this making borrowing for investment less attractive there is little capital to borrow from anyway with fewer savings.

Weekly Poll Lowdown

So the hustings are over and the votes have been counted (thanks to the 29 of you who voted). I can now exclusively reveal who you think will be the next Conservative Party leader and it is an overwhelming victory for Boris Johnson. William Hague came second, followed by Jesse Norman, Michael Gove, Liam Fox and lastly George Osborne who received nothing.

Boris Johnson	16 (55%)
Michael Gove	1 (3%)
George Osborne	0 (0%)
William Hague	6 (20%)
Jesse Norman	4 (13%)
Liam Fox	2 (6%)

55% of you are all wrong. I think the next leader will be Jesse Norman. Political predictions are less accurate than astrology in general but let me try and explain why. Boris is definitely going to stand as leader of the Conservative party but the intention of the party will be to have someone who is not too close to the Liberal Democrats and left political persuasion in the Conservatives. Boris may not be in the coalition but he is politically very similar to David Cameron. Do you remember Boris Johnson’s proposed amnesty for illegal immigrants or how he couldn't decide to have an EU referendum? If you read any of his books, which I have and positively recommend, you’ll see what Boris thinks to Adam Smith economics and how much he likes the welfare state. I do like Boris, I think he’s great, and his character wouldn't hold him back if leader of the Party but his politics is no different to his good chum Dave’s.

Jesse Norman on the other hand is not like David Cameron. He was in charge of the Conservatives who voted against the House of Lords reform and mastered control over the backbenchers with whips on the issue. Nor is he anything like David Cameron politically and they don’t really get on (see lobby argument after Lords reform was blocked). Jesse Norman is seen as very intelligent and has a good persona with other members of parliament. My advice then is to watch out for him at the next leadership election, although having said that more Jesse Norman like backbenchers may appear between now and then.

(If your a keen student of maths you will notice that the % do not add to 100 but are rounded to the nearest whole number)

Exclusive: #thingsdouglascarswellsays

#thingselliottsays exclusively reveals what Douglas Carswell said to a number of questions.

Q: Will the government plan to renegotiate on immigration with the European Union?
A: Immigration is a big issue with a massive impact on Britain with anyone from Calais to the Urals able to migrate to the UK. This needs to be addressed. The greatest impact is on benefits. I would never like to see a situation where you would have to bring a passport to a hospital to be treated by the NHS, but we need border controls as the cost is too great to provide for other European citizens. We have the technology allowing this but, unlike in both Australia and Switzerland, there is a lack of will to do so. Frankly, the leaders of the British Border Agency are clots for not doing anything. What I do want migration wise is for reciprocal migration in places where British people do go to live and work, like UK citizens going to live in Spain. Some countries should be open, but you do not see many people from the UK going to Romania.

Q: What is the government’s bottom line on what it wants to achieve in its EU negotiations?
A: The way I see it, David Cameron has left himself wiggle room to come out of the EU if he has to, if the EU offers no or token repatriated powers. It would be not only dishonourable for the Prime Minister’s first stance to recommend an out vote but allow him no wiggle room for an out vote. At the moment it would take me four things to want to stay in the EU. Firstly, I would have no jurisdiction for European courts in the UK. Secondly, I would not want single market technical rules to apply to products destined for trade with the rest of the world. Three, I’d like the British government to make free trade agreements with other countries. Other countries have this power I’d like ours brought back to Westminster. Lastly, I would like a cap on labour coming into the UK.

Q: Do you support the building of nuclear power plants, despite government needing to subsidise them?
A: I do not support the subsidy of any sort of energy production whether it be nuclear power or wind turbines. Subsidies are wrong because what we are doing is extracting money from households to pay for turbines or nuclear plants. If a company can build a nuclear power plant without subsidy I will support it.

Q: In local government there are cuts to staffing but where are the cuts in the civil service?

A: Simply put, there are none. The 1970s programme Yes Minister is now a very true account of how government is actually run. Steve Hilton wanted the civil service to be cut by 40%. This has not happened and is a reason for his departure from No.10. Civil servants get a veto on the policy of the government, although they say ‘yes minister’ when first asked to implement it they strangle the policy quietly further down the line. In the 1970s the most major vested interest that the country needed to confront was the NUM and this is what the Conservatives did in the 1980s. Now the senior officials in Whitehall are the vested interest. The government has not done anything about this vested interest. Francis Maude is only doing something now to solve this problem. If we are to win in 2015 the Conservatives must reform Whitehall. This is one thing that all ministers want, despite the broad church that the Conservatives are.

Exclusive: #thingselliottsays meets Douglas Carswell

Last night I had dinner with Douglas Carswell MP, not a romantic date but an event with the Conservatives. Indeed Douglas Carswell, who, in his own words, ‘will never be a member of the government’, was not at the meal but gave a speech and Q and A beforehand both I very much enjoyed. I have divided up the evening into two posts because it is interesting enough to do so. This first part is an abridged version of Douglas Carswell’s speech and the later will be his answer to questions given on the night.

I want to tell you what is good, bad and truly beautiful with the coalition government.

On the 7^th of May 2010 I was focussed on the fantastic result I got from the good people of Clacton and hadn’t even looked at the bigger picture of the rest of Britain. On that day I got a call from the BBC asking for me to talk about the possibility of the Conservatives forming a coalition government (they wanted an angry right winger to decry the mention of a coalition). However, I said how positive this could be allowing the fusion of Conservative free market policy and liberal radicalism and reform. We both wanted a Great Repeal Bill, localism by devolving power to town halls and a bonfire of the QANGOs. The Lib Dems wanted a referendum on the EU and I thought this matched with Tory ideals. The Liberals also wanted political reform and so did the Conservatives. The coalition could have been a transformative government.

This is the case in some areas. Michael Gove has done well with free schools giving parents and teachers choice and what is most amazing is that the Liberal ministers agree with him. Ian Duncan Smith’s welfare reform has showed people on benefits in the long term it’s in their interest to work. For years we were known as the ‘nasty party’ for wanting to take benefits away but now Labour are on the wrong side of the debate.

However, there have not been many good things. The QANGO bonfire has gone out. Unelected officials have more control, QANGOs have more power. Elected mayors and police commissioners, although a good idea, were poorly implemented. Local councils have less autonomy with areas of their budget ring fenced by central government. Local policy sounds good but in the long term does us harm to councils as they will no longer want to lower taxes and spend less. Political reform has not materialised with no power of recall and open primaries. This is needed for safe seats with the example of 1 Labour MP who has not held a surgery for over 40 years showing this well. Instead political reform is bottom of the list with only a referendum on AV and House of Lords reform, which was ridiculous.

But the really depressing thing is the economic policy. The deficit is down but we are still accumulating debt. More debt will be accumulated under this government than under 13 years of Gordon Brown, peaking possibly at £1.5 trillion. On our watch government spending increased last year. This is ‘continuity Brown’ with treasury officials following his policies. We continue to slosh around cheap credit with quantatative easing creating no growth but inflation. Hollowed out zombie banks suffer from welfare dependency. The government has not addressed uncompetitiveness either despite them claiming we are the 15^th most competitive country in the world. But government spends more than 40% of our GDP compared to Indonesia spending 15% and Brazil less than 20%. We need a new approach with supply side reform, this will be unpopular but it must be done. This government is very much like the 1970s. Then the Conservatives promised reform but it never came.

Now I move onto the beautiful. This week something happened which is game changing. The British get to choose over the EU. David Cameron is not negotiating with the Foreign Office officials or himself as before but the British people over our relationship with Europe. And we can say no to a renegotiated EU, we can leave. It will take a lot to convince me to stay but it’s not Douglas Carswell’s decision or David Cameron’s but the whole British people’s. This policy shows the coalition can do the right thing in the national interest.

There are two things that are essential for the Conservatives to win the General Election in 2015. Right wing European policy is vital to stop UKIP gaining 15% in some of our marginal seats. We must win on the economy too. The government is currently wrong as it is too willing to follow the Whitehall consensus and Nick Clegg. We must not be conservative in reform and achieve more with the free market and get rid of the oligarchy in government.

Consistency

Unlike most I think Nick Clegg is one of the most consistent leaders of the three main parties. In a matter of years 3 in government Nick Clegg has taken the Liberal Democrat manifesto and done the exact opposite in most circumstances. Here is his latest consistent decision not to back an EU referendum (sorry about the Guardian video).

I wonder at which point will Nick realise he has descended into self parody.

Exclusive: CF Hustings Announced

The CF National Election Hustings have been announced. They are to take place at the Old Bank of England Pub, 194 Fleet Street, London. The Hustings will be on Friday 15^th February between 7pm and 10pm. This will be for both Chairman and Deputy Chairman (Political); two both hotly fought positions. The event will be in partnership with London Spin and Help for Heroes. The Facebook event can be found here https://www.facebook.com/events/524548904244367/

#thingselliottsays may make an appearance there but if not recommends you go half an hour early in order to have a pre debate drink. Although obviously this should be responsible drinking in accordance with government guidance (David Cameron is a virtual tea-totaler). 

#podcast

The pod cast is now up for all that missed the Big Picture Today: http://www.urn1350.net/blog/bigpicture/2013/01/living-wage-smart-drugs-and-unrest-north-africa

#thebigpicture

Tonight, as with every Wednesday, I am on URN’s politics show called the Big Picture. I am putting this up a few minutes before we start, at 6pm. Please listen in.

Tonight we are debating the living wage, the recent North African violence and smart drugs (drugs taken to make people clever), as our student topic. I will put up the podcast of the radio show on the blog some time this week.

You can send in texts to our show on the URN homepage and are able to listen to us on there too. Here is the link http://urn1350.net/

Out, Out, Out

Unless you have taken up residence on Mars you would have heard that David Cameron is offering a referendum on the EU in 2017 if the Conservatives get elected. I’m going to explore a few facts about this and then say why I am advocating an Out vote.

David Cameron has not done this because he genuinely wants a huge renegotiation of European powers it is because, like with everything he does, he is being fairly pragmatic. David Cameron believes that the occasional policy from the EU is a bit wacky but that we should stay in. Whatever he gets after these rounds of negotiation he will still advocate staying in, even if it’s nearly nothing. Cameron has called this referendum because he realises that if he doesn't he’d personally be destroyed by 2015, even if the Conservatives do win the next general election, he is likely replaced as leader. Cameron is not the new Thatcher bravely tackling a European super-state, he is someone with no other option. But what matters most is not his reasoning but the fact we will get a say.

I will now tell you why I’m advocating an Out vote and I will do this, at first, by saying what Cameron would have to do to change my mind.

1) A veto on every single new law that is made by Brussels. Most of these do not suit the UK and are taking up to 40% of government time to implement.

2) Abolition of the CAP.

This has been a coup for inefficient French and southern Italian farming wrecking any market forces left in the agriculture sector. It is bad for the industry and gets worse every time food prices increase. Not good for the cost of living and also for those in other parts of the world who sadly are starving due to high food prices.

3) Increase in the British Rebate. We used to have a lot more till Tony Blair gave most of it away.

4) Revision of the common fisheries policy. Why throw away dead, edible and economicly worthwhile fish for no good reason.

5) No President of the EU. I’d team this with an overall growth in democracy in the Union.

6) No single market. Sadly the single market is not a single market with free trade but a protectionist union. With the exception of Germany and Holland, the European economy and market is shrinking. We have no free trade with the USA or emerging markets for goodness sakes.

7) Control of immigration to be brought back to the UK. I'm not like some people who are concerned about foreign people and foreign values invading Britain and all that nonsense. People from across the World and Europe coming to Britain add massively to our economy. Sadly though our economy is still too much led by government which means mass migration effects local services negatively. Not good.

If I have missed anything glaring out I do apologise. Also where applicable I’d like to see these policies applied to the rest of Europe for a more free market and more democratic World.

Mr Cameron will not come close to most of these. I don't think he will personally want most of this. Also the EU will not let these powers go and give the Prime Minister a pittance in attempt to placate his rather small stomach.

But most importantly the British Foreign Office will not have it. There is no desire in the civil service to leave the EU. This is mostly because a large chunk of their jobs depend on Europe but also because they are politically set against leaving. Almost everyone in the Foreign Office tried to stop Margaret Thatcher the rebate from the ECC. If it wasn't for her personal drive she wouldn't have got anything. Indeed it could be said that Thatcher never achieved the full £1 Billion she was after because of the trenchant struggle of the Foreign Office officials.

This is why I advocate Out. David Cameron will not get enough of what is needed. 

Advice to No.11

For a man who is trying to cut the debt Mr Osborne isn’t very good at it. Today it was announced that borrowing went up by £15.4 billion pounds in December which isn’t very good really, to put it bluntly. Our national debt is now £1.1 Trillion. Osborne is doing far better than Balls, Darling, Cable would have ever done as chancellor. But I think he isn’t taking cutting that seriously and seems to be relying on weak growth to bring down the deficit rather than sorting out the problem.

Now you could argue that the debt isn’t that big a deal, if we continue to cut the deficit with a stronger economy or small cuts then our country will be alright. I don’t believe this. Even if this model was economically sound, which it’s not, it would be totally destroyed when Labour comes back into power. Sadly they will do some time in the future, as they will borrow more and more till bankruptcy.

So where would I cut alternately. Well I’d leave the EU so that’s a big chunk, foreign aid would virtually all go, HS2 would be gone, I’d privatise many services like bin collection and that’s just to start. We seriously need to examine the amount the welfare takes up. I’d also switch the NHS to focus dramatically to prevention, which is much cheaper and more effective than cure. The government has committed itself to a rise in the NHS budget this parliament and it has carried it out. But my own personal view is that such a policy may be unsustainable and should be re-examined in 2015. Benefits wise there should be a reduction virtually everywhere with a lower benefits cap to minimum wage level.

We seriously need to decide what government does otherwise we’ll never escape from the austerity.

The Not So Recent North African Terrorism

With things going on in Mali and Algeria recently some journalists seem to be going along the line that Islamist terrorism is very recent in North Africa and growing exponentially from its source in Libya, which is largely the West’s fault due to our intervention. This isn’t really something I buy into.

Libya on the whole is a very moderate Islamic country. Gaddafi deliberately made Islamists the enemy in Libya during his rule. This was so prevalent that people, even after the dictator’s death, are slow to trust the new democratic government in Libya because Gaddafi told the people they were Al Qaeda. As a result the Muslim Brotherhood only won 17 seats in the new Libyan Parliament. William Hague is thus mostly right that the West helping Libya is not the main cause of the war in Mali as on the whole these people are not from Libya. Although I bet that they are using the weapons that the Rebels took from Gaddafi.

These Islamists have been around for ages, at least since the Algerian Civil War in the 90s, but most likely in some form or another for longer than that (see permanent state of war half of Africa has been in since the end colonialism). During the Civil War in Algeria these terrorists were slowly kicked out to Mauretania, Mali and Nigeria (to name but a few countries).

There has been for a long time underlying Islamic Terrorism in North Africa and the recent attack in Algeria and taking over half of Mali has only been able to take place because of misfortunate circumstances (mostly weak governance in Mali). The West have not a lot to do with this. Al Qaeda is mostly interested in taking over countries rather than attacking the West in Africa and we did not unwittingly let forth a flood of terrorists from Libya. I suppose you could argue though that the West is to blame for giving up colonialism in Africa, although I doubt the leftie media are going to argue for a New British Empire. They're not that mad. 

Exclusive: Sarah-Jane Sewell’s manifesto leaks

#thingselliottsays has gained exclusive knowledge about what will appear in the Sarah-Jane Sewell’s manifesto. Sarah-Jane, as you probably know, is running to be re-elected as National Deputy Chairman (Membership) for Conservative Future and wants to focus, if elected again, on getting CF better connected across the country in two major ways.

Sarah Jane wants to re-establish CFTV, where branches and CF members can send in videos about events, social action projects and anything going on with the Tories in their area. This would then be edited and placed on YouTube for all to see. She also foresees this as a good way of the national and local executive contacting CF members very regularly with vlogs.

Sarah-Jane also wants a ‘meet the chairman’ style online chat. Conservative Future members would be able to go on to the website and demand to know the answers to questions from the chairman live. This would happen often as well, most likely every fortnight but if popular every week, and last for an hour or two.

This is unlikely to be the only things Sarah-Jane will pledge to do so #thingselliottsays will keep you informed of any future developments. However, I will not try to bore people to death with the CF elections, particularly as they are very far away.

Behind Closed Doors

What is going on with the civil service at the moment? There have been in the last week several stories about a so called ‘war’ between Whitehall and Ministers. Ministers are complaining that bureaucrats are deliberately changing or stopping legislation, which I don't think is in the job description of civil servants. Well YouGov have asked a set of questions to the public about what they think about this battle taking place. From the results it seems Yes Prime Minister or the Thick of It is viewed as a documentary with 40% of people believing that civil servants have too much power, 43% think that civil servants deliberately stop government legislation because they don’t agree with it and 48% believe they are too resistant to change.

However, is this the case? Has the Thick of It become so much a part of the public’s subconscious that it is viewed as true? Are civil servants actually doing what they want? Steve Hilton, who left No10 as Cameron’s advisor last year, believes that British ‘bureaucracy masters the politicians’ stopping or changing policy decisions which the PM doesn’t know about until he reads them in the papers over his toast. This includes government policy about reforming the civil service which is just being started. Lord O’Donnell, the former Cabinet Secretary recently said that ‘reforming the civil service comes quite a way down my list of priorities’; despite civil service reform being a government priority which the independent civil service think tank the Institute of Government and Tony Blair backs.

It does seem that the demos of Britain have hit the nail on the head then.

Getting Rid of Gordon

As you may know Gordon Brown graced us all with his presence this week in the House of Commons, oh what joy. However, you’d be pleased to know that there are plans a foot to make sure we do not have to suffer Gordon again. Unfortunately, unlike how the US could, if they wanted, deport Piers Morgan we cannot do the same with Gordon. I think the best way to start then is to support the Great Gordon Brown Repeal Bill.

The Great Gordon Brown Repeal Bill will be debated in parliament on Tuesday and is about scrapping Gordon’s awful hiking of the 10p tax rate. I support cutting the vast majority of taxes and this is no exception. When Gordon and his magpie chancellor decided to get rid of the 10p rate he landed a bill on the poorest in society of £232. Not only is this unfair but means the government loses revenue which can be spent sensibly on things people need, helping the economy and people too. Indeed the £6 billion hole in the treasury budget may be partially saved on benefit payments which will help the country overcome the welfare cliff we may soon fall off.

I think the Conservatives should put pressure, like we did last year on the 50p tax rate, to have this in the next budget, as well as voting for the Bill in the House. And you can help to by signing the petition to CutTaxTo10p http://greatgordonbrownrepealbill.com/.

#thingselliottsays

This is #thingselliottsays where I will be regularly posting to the Great British Public about politics, with a strong Conservative Perspective. I’ll be talking about what’s happening in Nottingham with NUCA, Wisbech with FENSCF and UK politics in general. There will be a variety of posts  from interviews, a weekly poll, exclusive news, links to URN radio (I debate politics on the Big Picture every 6pm Wednesday) and opinions on what on Earth is going on.

Follow #thingselliottsays on Twitter @thingsEJsays

Like #thingselliottsays on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Thingselliottsays/119069081599608

Look out for the next posts