Sunday, November 16, 2008
Brown So Important He Doesn't Rate a Mention
Iain Dale 6:15 PM
Tories Must Realise: Brown is Out to Destroy Them
Iain Dale 2:16 PM
David Cameron announced this afternoon that he would close down the Conservative Party. "I have come to realise that the Prime Minister is right," he will tell the Chipping Norton Times. "It is wrong of anyone to question the undoubted wisdom, knowledge and foresight of the Prime Minister. I reject any notion that the Conservative Party should ask why it is that Sterling has lost a third of its value in the last four months, or why a 17 month old child was failed by a Labour Council. That is clearly not the job of the Opposition. I have instructed all my Shadow Cabinet colleagues that they should, at this difficult time, resist any temptation to criticise the economic titans that sit on the Labour front bench. Just because the economy is going down the tubes is no reason for us to question why this is. Just because Gordon Brown has divorced Prudence and embraced Profligacy is no reason for the Conservatives to utter a single word in protest. Who cares if debt is spiralling out of control? Who cares if we get 3 million unemployed? If the Prime Minister doesn't seem to care, why should the Opposition? The Prime Minister is right. Opposition's role is to support the government in everything it does without question. It's what Marshall Stalin would have wanted.
Alistair Darling is 94.
OK, so do you get the point? If the media swallow this ridiculous line from the Prime Minister that the Opposition aren't allowed to question why Sterling has fallen by 30%, what on earth is the point of opposition? The Observer's front page today reads like a Labour Party press release. Quite incredible.
The lesson David Cameron and George Osborne can draw from this episode, and previous examples, is that it is impossible to offer Gordon Brown the olive branch of non-partisanship, because at some point - sooner, rather than later - he will use it as a stick to beat you with.
When Brown became Prime Minister I wrote in the Telegraph that the rules had changed - that Brown was the most political and tribal Prime Minister in living memory.Forget all the consensual, government of all the talents guff: leopards do not change their spots and politicians who try to be something they patently are not get found out.
I see little reason to change my mind. He's only interested in one thing - narrow party interest. And it's about time the Conservative Party cottoned on to that. Last September, David Cameron wrote..."We face an opponent whose aim is not just to beat the Conservative Party, but destroy it."
I wrote at the time...Coulson's message to David Cameron, and indeed the whole Conservative Party, must be this: Gordon Brown is out to destroy you. It's no good adopting a defensive strategy. You can't just defend your ground. The best form of defence is attack and you must go in all guns blazing.
The last week should have provided them with all the proof they need that this strategy is now, without question, the right one. Passion, anger, attack. Because believe you me, if the electorate aren't angry about the government's mismanagement of the economy now, within a very short time they will be. And the Conservatives can be ahead of the game.
And to that little band of Tories who seem intent on causing trouble for George Osborne, what I wrote above is in part directed at you. When one of your own is under attack, you circle the wagons and start firing at the enemy, not at your political colleagues. Didn't you learn anything from the last ten fifteen years?
UPDATE: This Youtube video reinforces what I have said above...
UPDATE2: Jonathan Isaby has a post on ConservativeHome which has the same message as this one.How Not to Encourage the Unemployed Back Into Work
Iain Dale 1:31 PM
Lynne Featherstone is Right: Heads Must Roll
Iain Dale 12:55 PM
People need to feel that the buck stops with someone. It should stop with Sharon Shoesmith, but the woman is clearly blinkered to her ultimate culpability. I agree with those to deprecate those whose only preoccupation is to scapegoat social workers and I do not seek to do so here. The story told by the whistleblower Nevres Kemal in today's Mail on Sunday show quite clearly that Ms Shoesmith headed a totally disfunctional department, where social workers had no clear lines of authority, where they were scared stiff to gainsay their leaders and where few procedures were ever laid down or followed. That is Ms Shoesmith's fault. I can't see how anyone could argue otherwise.
It may also be said that there was a failure of political leadership. Councillors, should, it is alleged have monitored what was going on and acted accordingly. In theory that is absolutely correct. The Cabinet Member for Children's Services is perhaps the only politician who could have noticed and then taken action. But she didn't. Her only role so far has been to issue a belated, albeit very well put, apology on behalf of the political leadership of the Council.
I have some sympathy for councillors in this predicament. Although Cabinet members get a salary, it is very part time, and it is surely impossible to monitor all the work of a large council department with such a huge budget - especially if you have no expertise in the policy area. You do your best, but often your best isn't good enough. Sad though that it, the buck has to stop somewhere.
Finally, a word about LibDem MP Lynne Featherstone. It is she who has made the running on this, even though Baby P lived in the neighbouring constituency. Baby P's MP was David Lammy who has maintained a vow of silence, despite having been warned of the problems in Haringey by Nevres Kemal's letter six months before Baby P's death. Lynne Featherstone hasn't just reacted to the current crisis. She broached Haringey Council's leader in 2006 alerting him to the problems within the Children's Services department, yet he did nothing. Featherstone hasn't sought to play politics, but she is clear where the blame lies and is demanding that those responsible are held to account for their decisions and negligence. She has shown herself to be a very adept politician on this issue and it is unbelievable that she isn't being used more widely by the LibDems. Nick Clegg seems to have punished her for running Chris Huhne's leadership campaign. If he has any sense he will give her a leading job soon. She has more talent in her little toe that certain other LibDem women have in their whole bodies.
I agree with Lynne Featherstone that the country is demanding that someone takes responsibility for what happened. It seems clear that Ms Shoesmith must be sacked but I also think that there needs to be some political accountability too. I'm not talking about nationally, but locally there are two politicians - the leader of the council and the Cabinet member for Children's Services - who need to think very carefully about whether their own resignations might help to start the closure process.
Sunday, 16 November 2008
The New York Times carries a lengthy report of the meetings held between world leaders this weekend. Read it HERE. Rather illuminating that the only major world leader not to rate even a mention is our very own Prime Minister. And he wishes us to believe the agreement was all his doing. And our gullible political journalists fall for it. Perhaps they should grow a pair.
Let's indulge ourselves in a small flight of fancy
Harry Blackwood lost his job recently. He's 52 and had been in full time employment since 1973. Having paid his taxes for 35 years he thought he'd sign on and claim unemployment benefit. Read HIS STORY and see how 'the system' treated him. In the end he told 'the system' where it could stick its benefit.
Earlier this morning on Sky News, LibDem MP Lynne Featherstone called for heads to roll in the Baby P investigation. Specifically, she said that senior officials in the Children's Services department of Haringey Council should be sacked. She went on to put a lot of blame on the Labour group which controls the Council and implied that heads should roll there too. I think she is right, but not for politically partisan reasons.
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