And Another Thing…

I always wondered why some poppies were crinkly and other weren’t – never noticed the foliage differences though.

I live and learn

>> That is really unspeakable, Tom. Probably best you don’t tell us who they are, the nasty bigots.

Go on.

Oh by the way.

Hats off for describing the Howard pics as ‘Jpegs’. Dedecting your skill-set is illuminating. Blooming word games.

‘Not a poster’ you say:

Presumably a poster is only a poster when it is printed large and… well… posted.

How about instead of referring to the digital format they were manifested in (how did you know they were jpegs? or is an uncertain bet preferable to an accurate negative connotation), try calling them what they were: Perspective posters, draft posters, an entry for a poster competition.

Or simply as the Labour campaign spokesman Fraser Kemp said:
“Concern has been expressed and clearly we have to take those views on board but I would emphasise that if you see the POSTERS, the common theme… is that the Tories are trying to con you.”

Nice try Tom but that is clearly disingenuous and a tactic that, although probably subconscience and innate in the modern politician, is way beneath you.

How you feel comfortable with trying to exploit any advantage regardless of the ‘spirit of the game’ is beyond me. This is my first contact with an MP and it does go some way to clarifying for me how so many of your fellow members of the house could play the expenses game so ruthlessly. For that I thank you.

So, Scottish poppies are more crooked than English ones? Who knew

Still, regulation on CCTV cameras. Damn, if only I were an MP. I’d be on the edge of my seat (and no, I’m not going to tell you what I do for a living – it’s even more boring than that).

Final one.

(I am not a stalker.)

Was Robin Cook an ‘eccentric’?

As Foreign Secretary I would suggest he is fairly mainstream.

Check the same link.

Tom, you say

“Regiments from throughout the United Kingdom were, after all, fighting to protect a single nation, not four individual ones.”

It is a pity that you have chosen to make a petty political point,
presumably anti-SNP,out of this.

I don’t suppose you realise that many Irishmen fought loyally in the First World War precisely in order and in expectation of the delivery of Home Rule to Ireland as promised by London.

Just for information, as many of my Irish relatives died in the First World War as did my Scottish relatives.

Sounds like a complete waste of time to me. Why do you join in on this sort of thing if it has no chance of becomming law. Does it make you feel you have earned your money or something.

Its just posturing politics. this is where the reforms should be, but then you have had only 12 years.

A pity the second reading is on the 6th Nov.

A reading of a bill about CCTV’s and crime detection on the anniversary of Guy Fawkes escapades would have been quite apt.

Tom, I only wish there was an avalanche of measures up the Govt’s sleeve, but fear they have run out of steam if the party conference was anything to go by.
Maybe I’m missing something but the silence from ministers on anything of substance is deafening and conceding the public platform to the opposition.

It is sometimes mooted that women are less keen on competitions than men are, they have better things to occupy themselves.

Politics is commonly competitive.

Wow.

Thank you.

Faith in humanity restored.

Whichever one you wear, remember to put money in all the collecting tins even if you already have a poppy.

You can also set up a standing order and make a monthly donation, remember them all year around.

Of the two types, the Earl Haig one does look more like a real poppy flower.

Many of those who prattle about immigration, and Sharia, are racists.

There are core issues for the BNP which has lost ground since their 6% protest vote in June, and just had a minor boost to 2% after the vast publicity surrounding the QT prog.

Immigration is so well controlled my son’s band’s singer has just been deported, effectively for not studying hard enough, despite being entirely supported very comfortably by her family.

Sharia Law is not being introduced. But there are racist rumours abroad all over the internet that it is. Such lies are there to cause hysteria in those who enjoy suchlike.

The BNP will need to compete with the other xenophobic parties to avoid falling further behind, no matter what the Dully Tele and other right wing organs have to say.

Isn’t it eerily strange that some Conservative Party supporters are so uncannily counter conservative?

Good Luck, probably, you never can tell.

I personally prefer the Scottish ones, not out of any nationalistic reasons, purely ’cause the ones with the leaves fall apart faster.

If you’re in Scotland, you get a Scottish poppy, in England you get an English one; matters not since both support veterans in need.
There are few things I stand shoulder to shoulder with Tom on, but he is right on this, it is petty to mention a difference. Go find the servicemen collecting donations with their box of poppies, come rain, wind or shine (or the other day on Buchanan Street, all 3) and thank them for their service, and give generously!

Some loon is suggesting I slaughter my dogs at the altar of global warming.

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?Dogs_as_bad_for_global_warming_as_an_SUV&in_article_id=757006&in_page_id=2

12 years of new labour, you must be very proud.

“I rarely eat anything that didn’t once have parents.”

lol.

As a fellow carnivore I have been looking for the appropriate phrase. I have now stolen this one and will use it as my own.

The way I figure is cows can run but the poor carrots don’t stand a chance.

Time to get used to using less meat, padding out the complex flavoursome molecules with healthy soya etc which yield more protein per acre than pigs etc do.

When the Emperor of China became a buddhist and therefore vegetarian he employed his chefs to make veg imitate prawns, beef etc with stunning success.

That style of cuisine survives, and there is a restaurant near the tube & coach carfax at Golders Green to exemplar it:

Chinese Thai Vegetarian
Barnet
24 Golders Green Rd
Golders Green, NW11

(Hope they still do that style, it is brilliant, you wouldn’t know the vegan food from meat etc)

I see Gordons Backtracked on the TA(did not want to use the dreaded ‘U’ turn phrase)

The light is on at 10 Downing street but………………..

And Sir Christopher Kelly continues his mission to make westminster Accessible only to the very very wealthy.

Indy, I accept that Norway and Sweden have adopted what is euphemistically called ‘positive action’. But what you are suggesting is that only women can make change to benefit women. My view is a bit more pragmatic. These two countries, but especially Sweden, have been much more progressive in almost every area of politics than the UK, so it is no surprise that they are further ahead of the UK in this area.

I wholly concede that the ideal would be for men and women to be equally represented in whichever walk of life. But I disagree that this outcome should be engineered in any way. As a society, I believe we need to create the conditions for equality, not take short cuts.

Well said Tom.

We just do not need these people telling us what to do all the time. The whole thing is just turning people off. I just hope the Conservatives can reduce this sort of thing as Labour have encouraged it.

Aye, come back to this in 5 years Tom and you’ll find Stern’s views will be mainstream.

Climate change means some uncomfortable choices. Time to wise up to it. Stern’s just telling it like it is.

He’s on completely the wrong track in any case.
They key to both our dwindling economy and environmental diet options is the same: localisation.

We’re now a service economy. This will not last forever, since as China, India et al develop, they will start losing their American-owned manufacturing to less expensive companies, and they’ll try to grow their own manufacturing base and expand their service industry. This is already happening.
That’ll leave the UK totally minced.
We need to start putting a lot of effort, maybe as much as the entire “green” effort, into localisation of production. This will build our economy, but more than that, it is far better for the environment to cart raw materials here from (e.g S. America), turn them into products and sell them to Johnny Public here, than buy the raw from S. America, ship it to China, have them make the product, ship it here, mark it up and then sell on to the public.
Probably cheaper as well as oil prices start to rise.
Of course this does rather leave China out of the loop though. Hard cheese, really. The Earth and our economy cannot afford it any more.

I’d always suspected JP would cross the floor, having more in common with Cameron’s Blue Labour than Gordon’s Collectivist nightmare.

He may still come back as a wet Tory )

“I would have preferred him to be a member of the Commons after the election and to see him reinstated around the Cabinet table.”

I am sure you would Tom. But shy of Gordon Brown having a heart attack and being replaced by a love child of Elvis, Ghandi and Katie Price, one suspects Purnell’s resignation is not the only reason why this outcome is unlikely.

He comes from the more sensible end of the party than those currently running the show, so will be missed.

Purnell had been blowing hot and cold, had not found a stance it seemed, which surely such an aspirant must while on the back benches. His pieces had failed to gain useful attention it seemed to me.

Coming as the latest poll shows the tory lead cut to 7% it should attract as little attention as Bryan Gould’s decision to return to New Zealand in the early ’90s did surely?

I regret his decision, as I do Geof Hoon’s, because experience will be at a premium after the General Election. I expect he would have returned to the cabinet, but he will have alternatives he prefers, and perhaps have been watching the right wing sans culottes knitting shrilly in hope of unlikely carnage . . .

What do you expect when you have Gordon Brown supposedly in Charge

Bad drives out good it seems.

When will Labour have the courage to excise the cancer of Gordon Brown? He is killing our country, our economy and his party.

For God’s sake Tom – get your colleagues to wise up and put the political knife in.

I thought you wanted to be the leader of labour Tom, I realise you talk sense on occasion so this was always unlikely.

Perhaps you and purnell can lead one of the labour factions after the GE.

I am become rather worried that so many of your trolls are so into wish fulfillment, Tom.

Does the Sun’s expenditure on ICM not impress them at all? Should Murdoch’s minions try Angus Reid for a poll guaranteed to be favourable to David Chameleon.

Of course Purnell is ambitious, we can expect him to keep his membership card up to date. I hope he is elected to the Lords myself, we shall need some ex MPs to help reform that culture.

I wonder when the next tory defector will follow the able Saun Woodward across the floor?

Before or after the General Election?

The party cannot afford to lose such people. James Purnell was an excellent Minister. He stated the unspeakable when he was looking at Welfare Reform. His views were very much in touch with the country in that many of our communities have a culture of welfare dependency and James Purnell said that we could not afford to permit this. He was a man of intellect and integrity. He gave up his own job because he did not think the leadership of the party would lead us to an election victory. I have followed his writings since that time too.

I am upset. We have lost John Hutton, John Reid amongst others and now someone of James Purnell’s abilities. What a disaster and what a reflection that we cannot retain someone of this calibre.

The really sad thing, Tom, is that the many other Labour MP’s who are based in reality could not find the firmness of purpose to openly support Mr Purnell when he tried to stop the Labour meltdown.

5 more years of Gordon

Rule 1

All Labour party serfs should kneel at the feet of his almightiness the great saviour Brown. Any that don’t are gone……

Thus it has been with many before who have dared question the almighty and so it was with Purnell.

Now you see him, soon you won’t…

The slow motion, Night of the Long Knives that commenced last May, that has seen all opposition to Gordon Brown within the Labour Party extinguished continues…..

Hail Gordon…..
Long Live Gordon….

5 more years of Gordon

Rule 1

All Labour party serfs should kneel at the feet of his almightiness the great saviour Brown. Any that don’t are gone……

Thus it has been with many before who have dared question the almighty and so it was with Purnell.

Now you see him, soon you won’t…

The slow motion, Night of the Long Knives that commenced last May, that has seen all opposition to Gordon Brown within the Labour Party extinguished continues…..

Hail Gordon…..
Long Live Gordon….

@Quits
No other has suffered quite as Brown has in the media, except perhaps Blair. I know why: NuLabour, New Re-election, again, and again, and again

james g brown is attacked now because knowledge of his mishandling of the economy and general incompetance have entered the public domain.
Even labour’s friends in the media cannot ignore what he has done, also they sense a sea change so aren’t afraid of losing his briefings or those of his associates.

As for blair, when did the media do more than tut tut. He was the media darling for most of his leadership and was brought down by his “friend” brown.

Steady the Buffs, Tom. Steady the Buffs.

Aah I see. Well I don’t actually. “Needlessly offensive” is a subjective judgement. We can only guess at what you will regard as such, but fair enough, it is your blog.

Nevertheless, I shall try again. James Purnell’s decision may be likened to that of those lovable small quadruped mammals who are renowned for their eminently sensible Darwinian reluctance to remain in an environment in which they are likely to drown.

Traditionally, there is a much pithier way of saying this. I thought I had softened it sufficiently, but apparently not. If you found what I said offensive, you must have swooned when you read David Wright’s tweet about the Tories (which I will not repeat)

Its very depressing that so many truly excellent people are finding it hard to keep faith with the only credible progressive force in british politics and we all know the prime reason for that, but everything must pass.

I hope youve sky+d the 1974 election just shown on bbc parliament. There you can fastforward the fate awaiting many small mammals in the jurassic swamp, and contemplate the certain uncertainty of politics; the negative impact of voting for the scheming self-righteous liberals; and the then unimaginable chain of circumstances that within 5 years would make the eirie margot leadbetter of Finchley into prime minister.

The Times with their leader ” Labour’s Loss “, clearly agree with you.

Purnell’s voice and personality held wide appeal,but not it appears, with the power force now dominating your Party.

Politics needs more of his ilk.

“no receipt lunches”. I remember them – from when I was a journalist. Certainly that’s never been possible while I’ve been an MP. Not a lot of people know that, and few journalists will ever acknowledge it.

I wonder wether those who like to make out – wether truly believing their tosh or not – that the Tories are going to win have seen the recent ICM polls from Brighton & Hove? Their game of undermining Labour’s pretty inevitable fightback doesn’t seem to be working:

http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/blog/archives/2461

Conducted by Kindle Research for the Brighton Argus to be published this weekend they have upset the Green Party (whose biggest hope if for a Brighton seat).

If they were repeated in a General Election it seems very unlikely that Brown & Labour would not have an overall majority.

Well, I certainly won’t miss Mr Purnell.

His ideas on welfare, especially in relation to Incapacity benefit, were the usual over simplistic nonsense that is trotted out by out of touch politicians.

Both he and David Freud made the simple mistake of assuming that if disabled people are capable of some work, it’ll be no problem for them to simply fill those jobs that they can do.

First of all, nobody has the luxury of being very selective about which job they must go for, especially in the current climate, but if you are disabled you have no choice. So it’s difficult enough for anybody to hit the dartboard at all, but the disabled person will only score if they hit the bull.

But even hitting that bull is made yet more difficult by prejudice and discrimination. Lets suppose that a disabled person does find a suitable job – he can’t force the employer to take him on. A survey done by RNID found that employers are more likely to employ somebody with a criminal record than somebody who is deaf.

An ignorant man with ignorant policies that stigmatise disabled people and cause them even more hardship than they already endure.