Conservative Garden Party

A few weeks ago was the Hill and Staithe branch garden party which was super. The Pimms was flowing and all the games were great. To show off what went on a video has been produced of that fateful day (it contains a very bad picture of me).

Many thanks goes to those who organised it and David and Judy Hodgson for the use of their wonderful garden. Oh yes, and if you're wondering about the weekly poll lowdown it will be up later.

Boris Says 'Get Stuffed' to Assembly Member

Boris loses his rag at opposition assembly members over plans to change the London Fire Service. Go get them Boris.

20 Reasons to #PrayForEd

 There are 20 Reasons why Ed Miliband is in trouble:

 1) 52% of Labour party members think Ed's doing a terrible job.

2) Employment is up by 1.4 million under the Coalition Government, not down by 1 million as Ed predicted. 

3) Ed wants you to pay for his spin doctors.

4) GMB has removed £1 million of funding from Labour.

5) Public satisfaction for Ed's leadership is at -36.

6) Len McCluskey, the Unite Leader, has taken control of Ed and Labour. 

7) Ed Miliband wants closer relations with the new leader of Iran who called for the 'extermination' of protestors. 

8) Ed wants to make the average household at least £1,500 worse off by extra taxes.

9) Ed has Organised protests against the removal of the spare bedroom subsidy but won't repeal it.

10) Ed backs a mansion tax for semi-detached and terraced houses (as well as an increase in council tax for everyone).

11) Ed has Choosen a Chancellor who helped cause the financial crash.

12) Ed wants to cut spending on the NHS.

13) Ed is described as 'out of his depth' and 'weak' the most.

14) Ed refuses to back a benefits cap.

15) Ed wants to add almost £3,000 of debt to each Household's budgets.

16) Ed refuses to back a referendum on the EU.

17) Ed will not release the Fakirk report.

18) Ed has brought down the Labour lead from 11 points to 3 points in a matter of days.

19) 67% of the public think Ed is doing a bad job.

20) Only 18% of people think Ed has got his relationship with the trade unions right.

But don't worry the period of time for the Labour Party to call a leadership ballot for the next conference has passed. There's always next year however. #PrayForEd

Older, Slower, Wiser Dave

Dave has got a very bad back, has started wearing glasses and is going grey. Over the Summer a lot has happened to Dave. Let's hope he has become a lot wiser too. At least he isn't going bald.

Remember

With the deaths of 2977 innocent civilians and with over 6,000 people injured we must continue to remember the tragic day of 11th September 2001. RIP.

Union Ed-Ache

Red Ed has big problems going on at the moment. The huge question of 'what should be the links between Labour and the trade unions' is causing critical problems. 

Will Red Ed still stay with his Red Unions.

It all started with Falkirk when Ed alleged the Unite Union had rigged the votes for the selection of the parliamentary candidate. Unite was allegedly signing up members to the Labour Party without their knowledge and then using their votes for the selection. In response two people were suspended from the Labour party by Red Ed and the Falkirk local party was put into special measures.

Was Len McCluskey making moves for the Falkirk Labour Party.

Red Ed used this moment to try get rid of the problem that has been facing him and Labour for years. Overly strong trade union control. Ed proposed that instead of implied consent for donation to the Labour Party from union members this should be an express voluntary contribution. This would mean however that Labour will receive less funding, Unite for example believes that of the 1.5 million membership only 60,000 will be prepared to fund Labour. 

This is a very big change for Labour and one which is the right path for them to take. People on the face of it may not care about union links but they care about its impact because the trade unions push the Labour Party further to the left when voters will only elect a Labour Party of a position closer to common opinion. This is also a policy is that trade unionists want with 60% of them wanting voluntary payment and only 30% opposing (10% of that 30% believe that all funding should be withdrawn). 

So what was the result of the Falkirk disaster for Labour. Well the Unite was absolved of all wrong doings, the two suspended people were re-instated and the candidate backed by Unite decided to stand down from the selection. In other words the Trade Unions are formally not guilty of any accusations Ed made, a very big mistake. This is made worse by Ed refusing to apologise for the accusations he made. 

Ed trying to grab for control of his own party.

But why was Unite absolved? It's because the evidence provided by two witnesses was withdrawn and the whole case against the union fell through. Why was that? We'll never know for sure because Ed refuses to publish the Falkirk report which would make it clear if the evidence provided was dodgy. However its unlikely to be so because otherwise why would Red Ed clearly state that the Labour Party rules had been broken by vote rigging? He's not that stupid to make serious allegations with no solid evidence.  

It could be that the witnesses were told to withdraw their evidence, this scenario seems to be getting more likely every day as the argument between the trade unions and Labour hots up. Has Red Ed been twisting the truth for political purposes by leaning on the witnesses?

Who will win the fight for power within Labour.

He definitely has a motive to do this as he wants the trade unions back on his side because they were deeply upset by the allegations and the moves to loosen the links between themselves and Labour. There is another consequence for the trade unions which is a lose in financial power to Labour means a loss in political influence, which they want to avoid. The trade unions are now thus trying to punish Ed Miliband where it hurts, in the bank balance, and force him to drop his plans. GMB has dropped its funding to Labour from £1.2 million to £150,000. Their reasoning is that this is the amount of money Labour would receive Ed's new union plans. However, it is clear to see this is a punishment and a warning to Red Ed not to do it. 

Will GMB continue to back Ed Miliband.

This is one right old mess for Ed to sort out. He has a decision to make of whether to back down, look weak and have greater trade union control in Labour but receive union money. Or he can decide that he will do what he says but lose vital funding and very likely the support of  the trade unions who win him votes as well as provide the pennies to run the General Election. 

Red Ed says there needs to be 'courage to change' the relationship between the trade unions and Labour. However this is one that is likely to end badly for the Labour Party because Ed has messed quite a lot up. 

The likelihood is this isn't going to change at all.

Chris Huhne Blames Murdoch for Jail Sentence

You can tell Chris Huhne is a Liberal Democrat when he starts lecturing the newspapers on morality. Huhne has said that the reason why he spent time in jail was because of the Sunday Times, not of course that he broke the law.

Huhne claims he was targeted by Rupert Murdoch

But why would the Sunday Times be to blame? Well it's because the 'monopolistic Murdoch press' (that has only 9% of the media market) wanted to stop Chris Huhne from 'talking' about phone hacking. Huhne said he spent time in jail because he was the most major politician to go 'public on how the police should re-open the investigation into voicemail hacking and the Murdoch press'. This story about Huhne from way back in the past was thus dug up and then put on the front page to attack him, this 'is not straight journalism' he said. 

Essentially Chris Huhne claims there is a conspiracy out to get him because he's important enough to bring down the 'Murdoch empire' by saying his journalists hacked phones. This is somewhat disproven by the facts however because it was also the Sunday People that had a front page story about him speeding on the same day as the Sunday Times. So unless Murdoch was telling his rivals the news he had, which is unlikely, the story of the conspiracy is about as truthful as Chris Huhne's plea of not guilty. 

My favourite picture of Chris Huhne

But it doesn't quite stop there because to show how 'evil' the Sunday Times is he claims the newspaper 'groomed' his ex wife for information. Of course this has nothing to do with the fact Vicky Pryce wanted revenge for him leaving her.

Huhne thinks he is a 'holier than thou' Lib Dem. Despite being found guilty of a crime he still believes he is morally superior and can make false accusations of ill doings against other people. My advice to Chris is to just go. Go Chris and fade out of public life. Unfortunately Chris Huhne will not go and now writes for the Guardian; so if you want to read the mad political ramblings of a vengeful failed minister the Guardian is the place to be. 

Guilty as charged, not set up.