IVAN CAMERON

I was driving round Keighley this morning when I heard on the news that David Cameron's son had died . I gasped with shock because, well, you don't expect six-year-olds, even ones you don't know, to die. Most journalists today are saying they know how he feels because they have got kids, too. Well, I haven't got kids which rules me out of that particular line of rhetoris. But what I do know is that hearing sad news like that makes you get a grip and realise that in the end there is a hell of a lot more to life than chasing votes and winnng or losing in what is only in real terms a passing year or two on this planet. Losing a child is one of the worst tragedies that can happen to anyone. At any age.

PART OF THE UNIONS

Hat tip to Tom Miller for this "splendid" piece of news. The World is truly Being Turned Upside Down and Cameron, seriously. has Labour on the run. Read it and weep.......the Tories must be crying with laughter as Labout sleepwalks to the right and to electoral disaster.....

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/cameron-sets-out-to-woo-the-unions-away-from-labour-799633.html

LET'S PUNISH THE POOR.....

Hat tip to Don Paskini ( who have also added to my bloglist)for an excellent analysis of how Labour and the Tories are vying with each other to punish the poor and disabled by cutting their benefits. Pretty sickening stuff. As Don points out, even the Tories concede that over 90 per cent of claimants are utterly genuine. This is just a case of Brown and Cameron trying to out-macho one another ( putting it politely) and grab the Daily Mail headlines.

CAMERON RAISES THE STAKES

So David Cameron has raised the gauntlet. An hour-long speech without notes and a call to arms for a General Election. It would be gripping stuff - if it wasn't just posturing on both sides.But Brown's bluff has now been well and truly called. And he has boxed himself in so much I really do not see how he can get out of it. As I sit at my computer, the West Yorkshire skies are truly glum, the leaves are rapidly disappearing and the prospect of traipsing round with leaflets truly does not appeal. Thoughts, I'm sure, echoed round the country......

HE WON'T BE BACK ................

A chuckle this morning at the news Hollywood tough guy Arnold Schwarzenegger won't be adding his macho brand of showbiz glitz and glamour to the forthcoming Tory Party conference.
The Republican politician, incidentally the last celebrity to meet Blair in Downing Street, was due to make a keynote address on climate change at the conference later this month.
He will now speak via a live video link because" political commitments" mean he is unable to travel to the UK. My guess is Arnie realises Cameron is not the A -list politician he was billed as and can't be bothered making the journey. More bad news for the beleaguered Tory leader.

TORIES REVEAL TRUE COLOURS

It's a sign of the times (Labour 10 points ahead in the polls) that David Cameron is now well and truly at the mercy of the Tory right. Witness the first leakings of the "back to basics" ultra-Conservative agenda being proposed by John Redwood and his policy review team. Today, it's revealed that old chestnuts like scrapping inheritance tax and lowering business tax to make things more "competitive" are top of the agenda. Unsurprisingly, the report is apparently also calling for a review of British workers' rights, including opting out of the EU social chapter - the directive which guarantees workers a four-week annual holiday entitlement - and making it easier for firms to fire people. So much for Cameron's "compassionate Conservatism." I actually doubt policywise this is what he wanted. But the sad fact is that he has nowhere to go now but to the right. Indeed, he's a victim of Brown's success in taking on board much of the Tory agenda , wooing business chiefs and generally being very clever indeed ( though not in a way which any socialist would find gratifying) in staking out the centre ground. Cameron's decision to promote himself as another Blair was also a grave mistake. Minus Blair, but with exactly the same policies, New Labour is way ahead.
How we move in a leftward direction is another matter entirely. But one thing at least is clear. The Tories are the same old Tories and those of us on the left who, to coin a phrase, "fight and fight again" to bring back Real Labour policies , also know that even a pale pink Labour Government is better than Redwood and his cronies.
BTW: I have been put on standby by the Press Association for a snap General Election......maybe Gordon will go before Christmas......but I doubt it.

CAMERON FACING CALLS TO QUIT

No surprise that in the wake of by-election disaster for the Tories the gloves are off - and Cameron is in deep trouble. Today, the Sunday Telegraph reveals that at least two MPs, and possibly as many as half a dozen, have written to Sir Michael Spicer, the chairman of the 1922 Committee, to call for a vote of no confidence. Hardly a rout, but remember what happened to IDS . Frankly, Cameron is in a no-win situation. If he carries on emulating Blair , he's finished. The country has had enough of spin and showbiz and dour, puritanical Mr Brown is enjoying a full-on honeymoon with the electorate.If Cameron veers to the right, that will only please his right-wing nutter vote.
But the Tories would still be making a great mistake to get rid of him. They have no-one else as all the "big beasts" have either retired or left Westminster. Their BIG mistake was not to choose Ken Clarke as a safe pair of hands . Mistake before that NOT to elect Portillo, who had the gravitas and intelligence which Cameron, frankly, lacks. Brown is shrewdly assessing the mood of the nation ( no supercasino, attacking binge drinking, some constitutional reform) As we on the Left know, he is a formidable opponent.
The Tories other problem is they have been out of office for so lomg very few of them have experience of Govt. The more that goes on, the more difficult things become. No tears on that score. But one thing is now absolutely clear. If Tony Blair had left office when he should have gone, thousands of local councillors would still be in office....

TORIES IN SHAMBOLIC CLOTHING

I have never met Boris Johnson. Nor am I likely to. But my guess is that if he stands for Mayor in London then Ken will need all our support. Not because of Boris's politics but because there is nothing the British love more than an eccentric. And Boris is certainly that. In appearance, he is pretty much akin to Margaret Rutherford, dresses shambolically and comes across as a posh but amiable, harmless cove.The kind of person who would be OK for a pint or two and a natter. In practice, he is of course a right-wing Tory Oxonian with appalling views on almost everything. That may not matter to voters who love a "character" ( which is also of course a major part of Ken's appeal). My guess is Cameron and the Tories will go for it. And Labour will have a fight on its hands.
PS: I once met ex Mayoral candidate Steven "Shagger" Norris at a Manchester Literary Society lunch. I was interviewing him for the Evening News And, yes, I did decline his offer of a "quiet corner" for a chat. With ease.....