Dizzy Thinks – Managing to blog prolifically in-between meeting computer programming deadlines, Dizzy is always an amusing and enlightening read. A London-based Conservative activist and self-described "internet geek", he is particularly good at digging out random websites and technological stories of interest, and has a knack for rebuffing left-wing columnists. Iain Dale’s Diary – Surely […]
Gordon Brown launches his leadership bid today. ConservativeHome has produced this light-hearted video to remind the British people of his failings… In summary, those failings are… A decade of stealthy taxation that has seen Britain’s tax burden rise above that of Germany – endangering our long-term competitiveness; Record levels of private debt; The £100bn+ raid […]
My fellow blogger Iain Dale’s fortnightly Telegraph column appears today. The article contains lots of good advice for David Cameron and includes a few recommendations for a shadow cabinet reshuffle: "One man with huge experience, personal charm and immense ability is David, now Lord, Trimble. He recently joined the Conservative benches in the Lords and […]
Mr Brown’s message: I am going to be Prime Minister for Middle England. When we have more location details we’ll post them. It’s 2.30pm Stevenage and 5.30pm in Basildon. Please don’t go and disrupt these events by holding placards about Gordon Brown’s stealth taxes, pensions raid, working credits fiasco, wasteful public spending, private debt mountain… […]
Matthew d’Ancona, Editor of The Spectator, has just sent an email to me about what Tories can learn from Tony Blair. Read it on The Spectator’s new Coffee House blog. Here’s my reply… "Thanks Matt and for suggesting this exchange. But what’s this reference to “anarcho-syndicalism”? Have you been to the Oliver Letwin school of […]
LibDemVoice: "The Government was today accused of breaking the law in an attempt to bury bad news after waiting until the day of Tony Blair’s resignation to publish a report on ID cards that reveals the cost of the project has gone up by £640m since October." Danny Finkelstein: "Tony Blair’s government has changed this […]
The following highlights are not verbatim unless in speech marks… 12.21: It’s been an honour to have been Prime Minister. I think I have got lots of things right. Apologies for the times I have fallen short. "Good luck." 12.19: "The British people are special… This is a blessed nation. This is the greatest nation […]
As mentioned in the Pandora column recently, CCHQ is naming one of the few rooms it has in Millbank that isn’t part of the open plan office after suffragette Emily Pankhurst. We can now reveal the names of the other Conservative social reformers honoured with room names: Churchill, Disraeli, Butler, Wilberforce, Thatcher and Shaftesbury. A […]
Stephen Crabb MP is the new Chairman of the Conservative Party’s Human Rights Commission. On 29th September last year the wife, daughter and two sons of Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange, from the village of Khairlanji in the Indian state of Maharashtra, were dragged from their home and lynched in broad daylight. After being bludgeoned to death by […]
65% of the 1,519 Conservative Party members who took part in the April survey of ConservativeHome readers said that defence was deserving of a higher proportion of public spending. In contrast only 30% want education and 22% wanted health to receive a bigger share of public funding. Shadow Defence Secretary Liam Fox welcomed the findings: […]
Former Times journalist Nick Wood was a media adviser to Conservative leaders William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith. In this article he reflects on tonight’s confirmation that Tony Blair will quit tomorrow. Tony Blair presented the Conservative Party with a strategic dilemma. As my old friend Rick Nye, former research director at Conservative Central Office, […]
PragueTory – The only blog shortlisted for any award that is based overseas (no prizes for guessing where!), PragueTory has burst onto the centre-right blogosphere in the last year. Better known for his blog-based campaigns and wars against left-wing bloggers than for commentary, he’s a good person to have on your side! The New Culture […]
This from the Press Association: "Tony Blair is set to announce that he is stepping down as Labour leader in the North East, triggering a contest that will see him quit as Prime Minister within weeks, Downing Street has confirmed. Mr Blair will brief Cabinet colleagues on his intentions at their regular No 10 meeting, […]
One of the most quoted anecdotes on election night and in the press the next day was that the Conservative candidate for Tony Blair’s own ward in Sedgefield didn’t get any votes at all. Shirley Bowes doesn’t live in the ward and hadn’t even told her son she was standing but she would have at […]
David Cameron may have had a privileged upbringing, and influence may have been brought to bear to help him into the fast-track option of the Conservative Research Department (CRD) when he left Oxford University, proudly sporting a first class honours degree in ‘Politics Philosophy and Economics’. Although, even at this tender young age, raw talent […]