Archive for the 'tories' Category

“Why Ann Widdecombe said no to a Brazilian Butt Lift”

September 21st, 2008

The Mail on Sunday covers the issues that matter, over here [via].

Oxford Expands?

August 13th, 2008

Policy Exchange is basically a parody of what a think-thank is supposed to be — the proof of that is its decision to have the laughable Anthony Browne in a senior position for quite a while now — but people say that it’s fairly influential on Conservative party “thinking”, so perhaps we should pay attention. So here’s a link to a page on its new report, which you can download, that recommends that Oxford (current population, c.150,000) should grow by an order of magnitude or so, with a million new homes being built around the city.

Since it’s the Conservatives on the County Council who have been opposing a very modest urban extension of Oxford on land south of Grenoble Road (a mere four thousand houses), a right-wing U-turn of quite staggering proportions may be on the cards. Alternatively, people may decide that it’s best, all things considered, to ignore pretty much everything that Policy Exchange has to say.

Why Hadn’t I Heard About This Chap Before?

August 5th, 2008

Extraordinary story.

[There's an old page about him from the Tory Party website in the Google cache here.]

New Bank Holiday Proposal

June 4th, 2008

Should we have a new Bank Holiday to celebrate Britishness Polishness? Conservative MP Daniel Kawczynski makes the case this morning on the radio, over the fold.

(What is it about the voters of Shrewsbury, anyway, who first sent the great Lib Dem erotic poet Paul Marsden to Westminster, and now this chap?)

(more…)

Lesbians, IVF Treatment, Male Role Models, etc

May 20th, 2008

Under the Tories’ new plans, can lesbians just write “David Cameron”, “George Osbourne” or perhaps even “Andrew Lansley” in the bit of the form where they have to mention a “male role model”, or is it a bit more complicated than that?

My goodness

May 3rd, 2008

From tehgraun [via] :

“This is like the March on Rome in 1922,” one shadow minister said as [Boris] Johnson inched towards victory.

I wonder which shadow minister that was? For pictures of some fascists celebrating victory in the mayoral election in Rome last week, try over here.

A Blast from the Past

January 15th, 2008

Tristram Hunt:

Now, I have no problem with a ministry of all the talents, but when the big tent ushers in the former Tory party chairman Kenneth Baker, the progressive consensus has truly lost the plot.

Young people today probably have little idea who Kenneth Baker is. (Curiously, this Wikipedia article doesn’t mention his major contribution to British Government, which was his prominent role in the early stages of the poll tax fiasco.) Perhaps we need a Museum of Britishness that could, among other things, explain his career to current and future generations? A gallery given over to the twists and turns of the Death to the Dogs crisis of May 1991 would be an excellent idea, for example, and children could be given free copies of the 1986 Green Paper, Paying for Local Government.

Rivers of Blood: Links Round-Up

November 5th, 2007

Oliver Kamm makes the correct point that Paul Foot’s book on The Rise of Enoch Powell is really very good indeed; Mary Beard provides a classicist’s perspective on his notorious speech; and Simon has a very interesting discusison of West Midlands Toryism.

UPDATE [4.45pm]: So, here’s Hastilow’s article; here’s the transcript of the “rivers of blood” speech, and there’s some blog-discussion by Tories here, here, here [ConservativeHome] and here [Iain Dale]. Also Michael White and Sunder Katwala on CiF.

Hypocrites, Duffers and Madmen

October 1st, 2007

The Giroscoper reports from the Tory Party Conference.

Lord Black Loses Tory Party Whip

July 13th, 2007

Over here. The humiliation!

(Did they ever withdraw the whip from Lord Archer?)

Tim Collins Watch

July 1st, 2007

As some readers will have spotted already, Stoa-favourite Tim Collins x-MP has recently failed to be adopted as the prospective parliamentary candidate for Gillingham and Rainham.

Indeed, it was a selection exercise of keen interest to this blog, as Stoa pantomime-villain Liz Truss failed to be selected from the shortlist, too.

But instead they plumped for some turncoat called Rehman Chishti.

Patrick Mercer, Top Tory

March 8th, 2007

I don’t think I have ever heard of Patrick Mercer, though the headline tells me he is a “Top Tory”. I wonder how many other Top Tories there are, of whom I have similarly never heard.

(On the other hand, I do know who Tim Collins CBE x-MP is, and have done for a while.)

David Cameron

February 15th, 2007

Two good pieces on David Cameron, from The Quiet Road and S&M.

[Less good, but useful background, here and here.]

2007 Conservative Party Diary Available Now

November 14th, 2006

“They are available in two colours (blue or green)…” Over here.

Ten Days to Save the Pound!

September 13th, 2006

And, while I’ve got the scanner out, here’s a blast from the past — a William Hague-era Conservative Party pledge-card that I was lucky enough to be given…

Front:

Back:

Widders + Goat

August 28th, 2006

Don’t miss the photo of Ann Widdecombe plus goat over at the WiddyWeb.

The A-List: Louise Bagshawe

May 22nd, 2006

Chick-lit writer Louise Bagshawe takes pride in her work: “I write books that have no literary merit whatsoever”. But there’s more to Bagshawe than crappy writing: the claim is often made that she was “the youngest-ever contributor to The Tablet“, my goodness, and she’s also a noted economic analyst, believing, for example, that “With his tax cuts he [i.e. President Bush] has single-handedly pulled America out of the Clinton Recession”.

The A-List: Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones

May 21st, 2006

Possibly Britain’s only black farmer, and a man who “makes Lenny Henry seem like a shy introvert”, Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones has a terrific website at theblackfarmer.com and even has a blog, though it hasn’t been updated for a while. Nancy Banks-Smith has more. Certainly the most - or perhaps the only - impressive A-Listee I’ve considered so far, at least on the evidence of five minutes with Google (which, let’s face it, is all that most of these people deserve).

The A-List: Julie Rook

May 21st, 2006

Julie Rook is a councillor in Deal with a poor prose style and an interest in stamping out anti-social behaviour. (She’s the local “Cabinet Member for Citizenship”.) When the local cops tried to fine some poor kid �80 for saying the words “fuck all” in a conversation with a friend that took place within the hearing of a police officer, Councillor Rook was asked about the incident. Forgetting to say the words, “This is outrageous, whatever happened to civil liberties?”, she instead came out with the weaselly, “Swearing and abusive behaviour certainly is not normal behaviour and I feel it should never be used in a public place.” Mr Walker sensibly opted not to pay the fine and to have his day in court, there was a bit of publicity, and - surprise, surprise - the charge was dropped.

The A-List: Caroline Righton

May 20th, 2006

I think we’ve got a classic Cameroonian A-Listee here. Caroline Righton (what a name!) appears to be a TV newsreader (and scroll down) who went on to work for Carlton TV (hence the Cameron connection?), and has written a self-help book, The Life Audit, which at a glance looks like every other self-help book ever written, though maybe that’s just me.

The A-List: Philippa Stroud

May 19th, 2006

As late as 1987, Mrs Thatcher was saying that anybody who thought that the ANC was going to form the government of South Africa was “living in Cloud-Cuckoo Land”, and she repeatedly expressed the view that the ANC was a terrorist organisation, much like the IRA. In the new-look David Cameron-led Conservative Party, we can see new ways in which today’s Tories are positioning themselves with respect to the anti-apartheid tradition. Here’s A-Lister Philippa Stroud, addressing the question, “Do you really believe that the laws of this land can be changed to protect the lives of unborn children?”:

“I hear this so often from people who are firmly pro-life in their thinking, but who have lost sight of the hope of change. Let me explain why I am utterly convinced that it is only a matter of time before the laws of this land are changed. When Nelson Mandela was fighting apartheid he said that he never lost the conviction that he would win because he knew he had truth on his side. He argued that, when an ideology is fundamentally flawed, it will fall in the end. Who could have foreseen the collapse of the Berlin wall or the downfall of apartheid? Gradually momentum builds and creates such pressure that a one-time impenetrable stronghold of thinking comes tumbling down.”

[source]

The A-List: Zac Goldsmith

May 16th, 2006

Priti Patel, just below, devoted two years of her life to working for Jimmy Goldsmith’s loony Referendum Party. But UKIP, she says, is “completely different”. Another A-Lister who campaigned for the Referendum Party was Zac Goldsmith, who worked for his dad in Putney in 1997 — and he has admitted to voting UKIP, too. (It’d probably be too much to hope that someone on the A-List has a background with Veritas.)

(Oh, and I liked the Guardian’s description of Goldsmith as “an old Etonian, poker-playing plutocrat who runs a play farm funded from daddy’s inheritance in Devon.”)

The A-List: Priti Patel

May 16th, 2006

She writes of her past involvement with the loony Referendum Party, where she ran the press office: “Personally I felt that there was a fantastic debate to be had and also that the public were desperate to know more. The Referendum Party was a compelling prospect because they wanted to be very proactive on generating a debate on Europe and they brought in the element of choice… I worked with the Referendum Party for two years and it was a real baptism of fire. It was an amazing experience and I learnt a great deal about campaigning.”

The A-List: Margot James

May 16th, 2006

Like my grandmother between 1954 and 1964, Margot James is Vice-Chairman [sic] of the Conservative Party. But the similarities end there, for Margot James’s partner is a “personal shopper” whose TV credits include Hotter Sex.