And another thing…

FORMER Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has recorded this message to the American people, warning them not to take The Eccentric Mr Hannan too seriously when he starts to go all swivel-eyed over the NHS.

But in recording the video, JP has identified a crucial area of public policy: why are MPs allowed to record videos on the Terrace of the House of Commons whereas my constituents are frequently told by police officers that they’re not allowed to take photographs?

Honestly, it’s one rule for them MPs and another for the rest of us…

EARLIER this year, Daniel Hannan was the darling of the Tory Grass roots, with ConHome reporting that 87 per cent of members wanted the MEP to speak at annual conference in the autumn.

Chairman Pickles responded by offering Hannan a spot at spring conference instead, a move which ConHome editor Tim Montgomerie described as “An extra incentive to apply for a pass if you haven’t already.”

So, will ConHome continue its campaign to get Hannan a primetime slot at Manchester? Let’s hope so.

HERE we go again.

My advertising policy on this site is pretty straightforward:

1. No ads from rival political parties to Labour;

2. Er…

3. That’s it with reagrd to this one.

Someone calling himself “A Colleague” had a bit of a fit yesterday in reaction to an advert promoting Daniel Hannan and Douglas Carswell’s book The Plan: Twelve Bonkers Solutions to Non-Existent Problems. He left this comment on a previous thread:

Why on earth are you letting Dan Hannan and Douglas Carswell to advertise their book on your blog???????

Setting aside the self-indulgence of so many question marks, is this person actually  ”a colleague”? Most colleagues whose opinions I value have either my mobile phone number or my private email address. No-one who hides behind a pseudonym can expect me to take his opinion seriously.

As to the Dan Hannan/Douglas Carswell ad and the one below from 38 Degrees, I place these in the same category as links in my blogroll: Douglas Carswell, Iain Dale, Guido Fawkes, Dizzy Thinks are all included. Some Labour people get annoyed at this. yet, try as I might, I just can’t bring myself to care. This is me paying respect to the free market in a very New Labour kind of way: blogs get high levels of traffic if they’re well-written and interesting, not because they happen to be included on Labour bloggers’ blogrolls.

Just don’t get any ideas from this ad, okay?

AN AWFUL thought, I admit, but could Daniel Hannan be right?

In this post over at Three Line Whip, the Conservative MEP takes issue with my post on Hazel Blears’s now infamous “YouTube if you want to” article. I asserted that, in agreement with Hazel, broadcasting yourself on the interweb was no substitute for knocking on doors. Daniel reminds me that I actually described YouTube’s impact on political campaigning as “miniscule”.

So, yes, I mis-spoke (or mis-wrote? Mis-blogged?). 

The point I was trying to make is that as far as my own electorate is concerned, I will reach more of them through a morning’s door-knocking than by blogging or gurning away on YouTube. But Daniel’s piece has forced me to admit that even that point may not be accurate. And the fact is I have no way of knowing exactly how many of my constituents, for instance, read this blog, or would watch me if I did produce anything remotely worth watching on YouTube.

Certainly, as happened with Gordon’s “MPs’ expenses” video, a YouTube video usually only becomes big news when the mainstream media pick up on it. Yet Daniel was a beneficiary of an entirely different phenomenon: a YouTube video that gained a massive audience in its own right long before being noticed by the main TV news programmes.

What really excites me about web broadcasting is that it provides a platform that doesn’t depend on either the subjective judgment of a news editor or the rules that prevent parties and candidates paying for advertising on TV. It’s free, so it creates a far more level playing field than a commercial environment where the richest candidate or party has the advantage. 

Perhaps not at the next general election (though things are moving so fast, so who knows?), but at some point, web-based coverage could be the deciding factor in a UK general election. Today, right now, the chipmunk Hazel is correct: if all our efforts were invested in new media and none in on-the-ground campaigning, we would suffer badly. But that won’t be the case for much longer.

On this one, Daniel Hannan is way ahead of the game, and way ahead of me. I hate it when that happens.

JON Stewart is one of the wittiest and most insightful of American commentators, and he’s once again managed to percolate all the nutty views of the anti-Obama right wing into this brilliant analysis.

Watch the whole video, and make sure you catch what Sean Hannity says to the crazy female politician at the end of her interview:

HANNITY: Keep it up, Congresswoman, you’re doin’ a great job. I have no doubt They’ll keep attacking you because you’re so effective.

CRAZY LADY: Thank you. We’re going to fight for our freedom.

HANNITY: Yes, against tyranny…

Ri-i-i-ight…

Hang on a minute there, Sparky… Hannity, Hannity… that name sounds familiar… where have I heard it before? Ah, yes! He was the interviewer to whom Tory MEP Daniel Hannan gushed: “It’s a huge honour to be on your show…”

I’m sure it is, especially when there’s so much interest in black helicopters these days…

CONSERVATIVEHOME editor Tim Montgomerie describes Daniel Hannan’s scheduled appearance at his party’s spring conference as “an extra incentive to apply for a pass if you haven’t already.”

So let’s get this straight: if a keynote address by your leader, David Cameron, and a plethora of Shadow Cabinet members wasn’t enough to persuade you to attend, then Hannan’s appearance will?

Splendid!

Now, anyone like to guess what Hannan won’t be allowed to speak on during his address? 

“I really think it needs to be said, Eric.”

“Daniel, Daniel, Daniel… you are not going to mention the words N, H or S.”

“But I’ve got a really brilliant line on it: ‘it is the devalued system of a devalued nation’. What do you think?”

“Daniel, it’s not going to happen.”

“Anne Coulter liked it…”

“Oh, here we go again with Anne Bloody Coulter! Look, just stick to economics.”

“Oh, you mean the nationalisation of the car industry? Unforgiveable!”

“No, Daniel, just leave the car industry alone, will you? Just plain economics, okay?”

“Ah, you mean Iceland’s economic miracle! Got you!”

“Daniel, look, just forget it. If you can’t stay on message, just forget it.”

(SILENCE)

“Can I do another boats metaphor?”

“Yes, you can do a boats metaphor.” 

WHAT two things do these right-wing blogs have in common?

Iain Dale
ConservativeHome
Dizzy Thinks
Donal Blaney
Guido Fawkes
Spectator Coffee House
Douglas Carswell

Okay, don’t bother guessing — I’ll tell you. All of these blogs (and I’m sure many others on the right) promoted Daniel Hannan’s speech in the European Parliament announcing that the government had nationalised the car industry.

And the second thing they all have in common is that not one of them carried The One’s latest pronouncement on the NHS.

Now, next question: why do you think that is?

THE One has spoken again.

Daniel Hannan MEP, the most popular politician in the Tory Party, has appeared on Sean Hannity’s Fox TV show in the US to claim that the NHS was “a mistake” that “has made people iller”.

All music to the ears of Hannity, who is so right wing he probably thinks Donald Rumsfield’s a communist. 

So what will Hannan’s “leader”, David Cameron, think of his views? Cameron is still trying to convince the nation that he’s a supporter of the NHS. This should prove difficult since it was Cameron huimself who devised the “Patient’s Passport” for inclusion in the Tories’ 2005 general election manifesto. This wheeze, you may remember, was to drain billions of pounds from the NHS and divert it to the private health sector. But although Cameron may privately agree with Hannan’s contempt for “socialized medicine”, he can’t afford to let this particular mask slip this side of a general election.

Can we assume that Hannan’s extremist anti-NHS views are shared by a substantial proportion of his party? Will Cameron disown The One and his comments? There have always been a substantial number of Tories who have tolerated rather than supported the NHS. Can Cameron risk offending them by carpeting Hannan? Or will he attempt some kind of fudge by dismissing his comments as being part of “a wide debate” within the party?

This is the relevant clip. Apologies for it being completely out of sync. If you have a stronger stomach than I and can bear to watch the whole thing, it’s over at LabourHome.

UPDATE at 8.10 am on Sunday: As expected, most readers are at least as hostile towards universal free healthcare as is Hannan. Which is all very well, but what are the chances that the Tories will be honest about their view on the NHS between now and the general election? Let’s hope The One gets an awful lot more air time between now and then.

CONGRATULATIONS to ConservativeHome for featuring this gem from the Conservative candidate in Twickenham, Deborah Thomas.

First she boasts: “Yes, we will be a do nothing party, if the only alternative is to make things worse”, thereby admitting what I’ve been criticised for saying a number of times on this blog, 

But she also has a go at her own leadership in the Commons by saying: 

In the recent economic crisis, I believe a dangerous consensus appears (and I choose that word carefully) to have been created: Bankers are bad. Capitalism is broken. Regulation has failed.

No searching questions, no detailed analysis and most importantly, no serious political rebuttal from the political right has been aired in the mainstream media against these new “truths”

“No serious questions”? 

“No detailed analysis”?

“No serious political rebuttal from the political right”?

I wonder what Dave and George think about that?

She goes on (bless ’er):

We have allowed politicians such as my opponent in Twickenham, Vince Cable, to be lauded, not because what he says is right, but because there is no coherent critique of the Government coming from the right to fill the vacuum.

Here is one of David Cameron’s own candidates candidly admitting that the Tories just aren’t cutting it in the Commons!

And then it arrives. You know it’s going to, but you just don’t know when — the glorification of He Who Cries in the Wilderness (in this case, the European Parliament):

Just a few days ago, Dan Hannan MEP stole my thunder somewhat with his incredible speech in Europe against Gordon Brown. I am delighted, because a quick check on YouTube proves my point – more than 1,740,000 hits. People want to hear the alternative vision

And then, to cap it all, she defends bankers’ bonuses! No, seriously — look:

Any banker who receives a bonus is now automatically on the back foot. However, by distributing profits, society (and the Treasury) benefits.

Marvellous! And not even a passing reference to he who is at least ostensibly the leader of her party (for now).

We need more of Ms Thomas’s calibre in the Conservative Party, those who can’t be bothered with the dishonest masquerade of being “moderate”, who don’t even try to conceal their utter contempt for the centre ground of politics and who clearly have no time for those in their party (David Cameron) who continue to try to conceal their party’s true nature.

A head of steam is now building up among the grass roots of the party to give Hannan a prime time speaking slot at their annual conference. This will be about as welcome to Cameron and his pals as Jeremy Clarkson at a Friends of the Earth AGM.

But before you dismiss all this as me simply attacking the Tories for the sake of it, ask yourself this question: if Tory Party members could choose today who should be the next prime minister, who would they choose, Cameron or Hannan?

I think we all know.

WHAT does it say about David Cameron’s Conservative Party that their (newest) rising star, Daniel Hannan MEP, wouldn’t have been given house room in John Major’s party?

Hannan’s well-known anti-Europeanism (he left the European People’s Party in advance of his leader’s reluctant decision to make such a move official policy) has made him the darling of the party. If this were the 1990s and Hannan were a member of the government, he would have been included among Major’s famous “Cabinet bastards”, those right wingers whose rabid hostility to Europe so undermined the government’s credibility.

In his now famous speech in the European parliament, in Gordon Brown’s presence, Hannan deliberately plagiarised John Smith’s devastating put-down to Major: “He is the devalued prime minister of a devalued government.” On Channel 4 News last week, following a package pointing out the factual inaccuracies Hannan had got away with in his speech, he acknowledged Smith had used the phrase first, and that it was “an extremely apt phrase” at the time!

I thought Cameron was supposed to have “detoxified” the Tory brand by shifting the party into the centre ground? But the fact that Hannan’s popularity among Tory activists has forced Cameron to send him a note of congratulations shows that Cameron is as beholden to the right of his party as any of his predecessors.

I wonder what Ken Clarke’s private views are on Hannan? More to the point, just how far to the right has the Conservative Party shifted when Daniel Hannon has replaced Michael Heseltine as the conference darling?