TBG Article II

#ThingsElliottSays is back on TBG talking about William Hague and his resignation as foreign secretary. See what I had to say here.

#ThingsElliottSays Campaigning in Clifton North and with William Hague

Yes after a short break #ThingsElliottSays has returned. I have been ultra busy over the last few days and I'll tell you about two of the things which happened to me.

Photo of William Hague in full flow, taken by Alex Bright.

First off on Thursday I went to see William Hague at East Midlands fundraising dinner for the European elections. Our NUCA treasurer, Alex Bright, sat on the top table with the Foreign Secretary, if only Mr Hague knew how many times Alex has told us the Burmese Embassy story. The food was pretty good and William Hague gave a very good speech under difficult circumstances (the PA system was terrible and he had to shout his speech due to the terrible echo in the hall). Hague said some very important things firstly that even with budget cuts the foreign office is doing more than ever and has opened up a large amount of new embassies and is pushing for more trade with countries across the globe. You would never have seen David Miliband doing that. Furthermore Hague confirmed what we have all suspected; when the new EU referendum bill is put to the commons the government will use the Parliament Acts to get it past the House of Lords, who have shown themselves to be very democratic of late.

Just some of the Conservatives out last Thursday.

There was no rest for me however as the next day I went out campaigning with NUCA members for the Clifton North by-election. There we met the Conservative candidate Andrew Rule, who is a great local champion, and several other Nottingham Conservatives. We leafleted a very large area of Clifton North in a very short amount of time; it's great to have a very large amount of people helping as it shows how much confidence people have in Andrew. Afterwards we went to the pub (this is how all campaigning sessions should end).

Sam delivering a leaflet.

Andrew has specific local knowledge and cares for everyone in the ward. He is the Chairman of the Wilford Community Group and spends a lot of his time helping his neighbours in Clifton North. Andrew told me whilst campaigning that he is very much aware of the problems effecting businesses and people caused by the tram works and if elected will help to ease the congestion and fight for the council to compensate businesses.

NUCA members out campaigning with Andrew.

Andrew is far better and more in touch with people of Wilford, Silverdale and Clifton than the Labour candidate Pat Ferguson. Pat doesn't even live in the same parliamentary constituency as the residents of Clifton North. Pat lives Aspley, miles from anyone who lives in the ward. I personally think it is disheartening when major political parties cannot stand candidates in seats who live in or next to a ward. the Labour candidate has no real demonstrable connection with Clifton North, what a shame.

Andrew is the local choice for Clifton North.

I thus think Andrew Rule is the best choice for Clifton North; I encourage everyone in the ward to vote for him and the Conservatives.

#CPC13 Day 1

So it's my first ever conference and the first day was amazing. Here is a sum up of the day. 

The first thing I saw was all the lefties on the march through the centre of Manchester demanding no cuts to government and the economic collapse of Britain, a very good idea. There were also some smaller groups at the entrance of the conference from the NHS Party to people warning us about milk. The Badger people were also there telling  us about how the country is now run by the National Framer's Union, which I was not aware of. Indeed a giant badger started stalking us later shouting 'tally ho' and other hunting phrases, its 'what ho' not 'tally ho'. the protestors were quite extreme but Colonel Cooper and Mahyar 'Shadow' Tousi got the worst of it. 

But onto what really matters, the conference itself. I spent the day with Nadim Muslim and Alex Bright, forming a Nottingham trio, and we went around some of the fringe stalls. The best freebees on offer were the TSB bags which contained some rock, which has sold me into opening a new account. We voted in the Daily Politics mood box on the question of 'who was the strongest leader Cameron or Thatcher?'. Some mad people believed that Cameron was stronger than Thatcher, I hope they were pointed to the mental health stands. We also saw Elvis at the fringe singing to a lady having a coffee.

We had fun in the main hall too. We were a few rows in front of the action with Philip Hammond when it all kicked off about the 2nd Royal Fusiliers and here is the video that I got of it. Sadly I forgot to bring an SD reader to conference so I am using other people's photos.

William Hague however was the main player of the day for us. He gave the best speech today at conference, despite his cold, and told us about how with a growing Foreign Office presence across the world the UK is becoming a bigger global player every day. As we left the Hall I also met William Hague and congratulated him on his speech to which he thanked me for. Later on he popped up again at the Friends of Gibraltar event where he and the Chief Minister of Gibraltar gave a speech on how Gibraltar will remain British and not used as a bargaining chip with Spain like under the last Labour Government. #Sound.

Loving Mrs Hague's shoes.

At the Gibraltar event we met Andrew Rosindell MP, the Chief Finance Minister for Jersey, Philip Hammond (who had recovered from the protests) and the great Jacob Rees Mogg. Indeed we bumped into several MPs during the day including Robert Halfon who said he reads my blog. But the best chance meeting was Grant Shapps who had dinner with us at Nandos. We talked about Team 2015 (which Dave really loves) and how the party has really sharpened up its image, if this continues we will be in a great position for the General Election. 

Dinner with Grant Shapps

So that's the first day of conference. I'll be back tomorrow with more things to say about #CPC13. 

Weekly Poll Lowdown

If you could advise Dave on whose seat from the Cabinet table should be broken and thrown out it seems your choice would be Michael Gove, the Education Secretary. Although Gove is clearly the loser in the poll, the vote was quite close amongst all other Cabinet Ministers, most picked up 10% or 3% of the vote. The only person without a single vote is Philip Hammond, I'm sure he is very pleased.

Which Major Conservative should Dave sack from his Cabinet?

William Hague	7%
George Osborne	10%
Theresa May	10%
Philip Hammond	0%
Ian Duncan Smith	10%
Chris Grayling	7%
Michael Gove	23%
Eric Pickles	3%
Jeremy Hunt	13%
Ken Clarke	10%
Sir George Young	3%
Dominic Grieve	3%

Total votes: 30

The decision to sack Michael Gove from the Cabinet is poor and beyond belief (his 1st position is probably the result of sneaky left wingers). In my opinion, closely followed by Eric Pickles, Michael Gove is the best minister around the cabinet table. His education reforms are the best thing that has happened under the government. His drive to make sure education is improved drastically across the country in our global race, which we must compete in for people to have jobs and prosperity, is going very well. The quality of education is up under this government. The ideas of free schools and academies are really working because they offer choice to students and parents. Wisbech people can see how well Gove is doing locally with Thomas Clarkson secondary school, which used to be the worst school in the County. Now after 1 year of officially being an academy it is right at the top being one of the best schools in the County. 

 Michael Gove is doing really well as Education Secretary.

Michael Gove probably came top in this poll because he is reviled by the Left. Gove's idea of choice and making every school a good school insults every fibre of left wing dogma. Under the last Labour government it was simply get 5 Cs at GCSE level and that's it. To add insult to this idea GCSEs were inflated so it looked like there were improvements, which is shown clear to be not the case when looking at how much Britain fell in the international rankings. The Left believes students education should be kept at an easy level where the Government looks good but the students do poorly. The results are that for most pupils their education is poor and they become low skilled workers or on benefits and thus vote Labour. What a good system if you want to win elections, not a good system if you want to aspire and have a better life.

 Labour lied when they said their focus was on improving Education.

 

So who should go? To me there are many contenders in my mind. Jeremy Hunt hasn't be a great health secretary and represents style over substance as he is much of a blank page. I would have preferred Andrew Lansley to stay as Health Secretary. Arguably Andrew is very bad at presentation but he was made a scapegoat by the Government and Lib Dems for the health reforms which was a very good policy. It is however hard to sack Jeremy Hunt for not doing much when the Government needs health to not create anymore big issues.

A triumph of style over substance.

George Osborne hasn't done amazingly because he has stuck to a Brownite consensus in economics. Yes, he is tied by the Liberal Democrats but he hasn't pushed for cuts to taxes where it is plainly obvious growth and greater government income would be achieved. We really need a more liberal economic chancellor to bring real and sustainable growth. However, Getting rid of Osborne would seem like a reversal of government deficit reduction policy, which should not happen under any circumstances as it is bad for market confidence (that's 'markets' as in all businesses and people across the country and not a few stockbrokers in the city left wingers). 

Alistair Darling and George Osborne follow similar policies. Osborne is so much better than Ed Balls though.

William Hague has a strong case against him for being partially behind the disastrous foreign policy of the last two months. Why on Earth did he think that invading Syria was factually a good idea when we can only create more problems and solve none? William Hague is starting to look much like a statesmen during the easy times but when the pressure is really on bad decisions are made. This is not a good quality for a Foreign Secretary considering the international bust ups that need defusing.

Not going well for William Hague at the moment.

But the person who I would sack is Ken Clarke. Ken is someone with great gravitas and someone I actually like a lot. But his policy ideas are terrible. His handling of the justice department was woeful. Ken didn't reform the ECHR when he had a great chance and changed the emphasis of the courts and jails from deterrence, justice and punishment. Both of these were awful moves. At this moment Ken is advising Osborne on the economy. I certainly wouldn't take advice from the man who still wants to join the Euro and become more closely integrated in a protectionist racket. 

I love Ken's cigars but not his policies.

So Dave if you're reading, Sack Ken.

Please Vote in the next poll on the Sidebar.

War With Syria was a Bad Idea - That's Why the Government Lost

Conservative MPs Who Voted Against the Government Motion

David Amess
Steve Baker
Richard Bacon
John Baron
Andrew Bingham
Crispin Blunt
Fiona Bruce
Tracey Crouch
David TC Davies
Philip Davies
David Davis
Nick de Bois
Richard Drax
Gordon Henderson
Philip Hollobone
Adam Holloway
Dr Phillip Lee
Dr Julian Lewis
Tim Loughton
Jason McCartney
Nigel Mills
Anne Marie Morris
Andrew Percy
Sir Richard Shepherd
Sir Peter Tapsell
Andrew Turner
Martin Vickers
Charles Walker
Chris White
Dr Sarah Wollaston

Conservative MPs Who Abstained on the Government Motion

Adam Afriyie
Henry Bellingham
Graham Brady
William Cash
Christopher Chope
Kenneth Clarke
Geoffrey Cox
Nadine Dorries
Alan Duncan
David Gauke
Justine Greening
Alan Haselhurst
Chris Kelly
Pauline Latham
Edward Leigh
Charlotte Leslie
Ian Liddell-Grainger
Jack Lopresti
Anne Main
Patrick Mercer
Jesse Norman
James Paice
Priti Patel
John Redwood
Andrew Rosindell
David Ruffley
Mark Simmonds
Rory Stewart
David Tredinnick
Andrew Tyrie
Bill Wiggin
Tim Yeo

Last Night the Government lost a motion on Syria by 13 votes, even though it didn't sanction military action. What the motion did was back the Government's legal position for going to war and in principle agree to it. Yet the Government couldn't even win this. Above is the list of Conservative MPs who voted against the motion and those who abstained (some of those who abstained are missing government ministers and some are ill). This was not because of  the spectre of Iraq or that it's not in the British Interest. The Government lost because this was clearly the worst idea ever.

Normally I'm pretty pro intervention. I was in full support of what happened in Libya because we allowed the Libyan people to get rid of a brutal tyrant and get them started on the path to democracy. Not everything is perfect in Libya at the moment but there is a democratic government which is starting to assert itself. People who would normally back intervention to save civilians lives and to allow a democracy in Libya did not back last night's motion in the Conservative Party and that is why the Government lost.

 Libya was a success, despite some problems afterwards. The only people who really regret toppling Gaddafi are George Galloway and the Russians who passed the UN motion.

Despite convincing hard-line sceptics like Douglas Carswell and Cheryl Gillian to vote with the Government David Cameron still lost this vote. And this was not the usual ground of Dr Sarah Wollaston either. The Noes on their side had MPs who you would not expect in this lobby. The abstentions are even more surprising. If we miss out the odd story of Justine Greening not hearing the division bell, you can see Adam Afriyrie and Jesse Norman not voting for the Government. Why did this happen?

 You know you have problems when those you would expect to back the Bill do not.

It wasn't to do with Iraq. For sure there were a lot of mentions of it but they came mostly from the Labour side. Labour has a problem with Iraq because they are of a mind set not to agree to intervention. Yet when Labour MPs sat on the government benches their own Prime Minister pushed for war and lied in the process. As a result they got a hammering in the polls of 2005. Speak to a Labour MP for a short time and Oona King will soon come up. Many of the electorate were also wary about Syria because of Iraq but in whole probably no more than in Libya. 74% of voters is such a huge number that it was clearly not Iraq which decided for them not to back Syria intervention. 

  Iraq caused a big problem for the Left but the facts caused a problem for the Conservatives.

David Cameron lost last night because, probably a lot like me, Conservative MPs could see this was going to be a disaster based on all the facts of Syria. A country where we would have to engage in a 3 way war. A country where we risked causing massive tensions with Iran and Russia. A country where there was no chance of bringing about a democracy. A country where we could quite clearly make no difference, or maybe make things worse, in saving civilian lives. A country where we were rushing over a short time to start action with little preparation. And also a country where our military chiefs said the most likely outcome for the UK would be defeat. This wasn't like Iraq at all, it was clearly much more complicated and much worse to get involved with.

I simply cannot believe that David Cameron, and William Hague too (who will be a bit nervous now so close to a reshuffle), thought that he could carry his party when all the facts went against him. I wasn't expecting Government defeat last night, but most sensible people knew that, with 80 Tory MPs against arming the rebels earlier this year, there was no way he was going to get Parliament to vote for war. What clearly happened was that David Cameron had decided to go to war perhaps even a year before, he had been swayed by all the graphic images we were seeing on our TV.

 William Hague has lost most of his credibility as a top rate statesman after the Syrian issues.

What Assad is doing is horrible beyond belief but if the PM hadn't allowed his heart to take over all logical thinking he wouldn't have lost a vote. With all the information at his disposal he should have known better than everyone that the facts showed we were unable to help and most likely we would make things worse. 

I'm going to follow this up with another post later about what has actually come of this vote.

No Boots on the Ground in Syria

The Foreign Secretary and Dave would like to pretend that there would be no boots on the ground in Syria; however militarily that is pretty likely.