Filthy lucre

David Ossitt

How low can this loathsome man stoop?

He is taking the piss.

Ricky

Ole Demon Eyes is back.....President Elect of the Continent of Europe is without a soul or a conscience....or a shadow.

I know one thing, he sure gives me the creeps.

As I have posted before, like Mandelson he began his loathesome career selling forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden and went down hill after that.

If the Irish are bullied into accepting Lisbon (and the sovietisation of Europe in the process) Dave must call for a referendum. It'll be his trump card if the toxic Blair and Queen Cherie are forced leave the stage even with their ill-gotten gains.

Michael Booth

"Mr Blair asserted that it was the �role of faith� to arrest the moral decline engendered by the love of money..."

It is beyond parody

john miller

It was always Blair's great strength that he would say anything to anyone with the utmost sincerity.

An analysis of his prayers would doubtless be of great value to mental health practitioners.

Verity

Nice piece, David. My cat enjoyed it, too.

David Lindsay

But CL is still a very, very, very good thing. Just ask the Pope.

David Ossitt

On a slightly different thread.

Twice yesterday I tried to send posts that included the word that we might use to describe the 'long staff with one end being hook shaped' that a shepherd might use.

Admittedly I was usung it in the plural to describe the present government.

Does anyone think that it might be of some use if the Spectator were to provide a list of proscribed words?

TrevorsDen

Is it a ploy on Blair's part to make us think that Brown is not so bad after all?

Verity

Ricky - Dave has already stated categorically that if the Irish signed up for Lisbon, there wouldn't be anything he could do. Big shrug. Hey ho! Besides, cannot you see that Dave has his greedy, acquisitive eye on a seat at the top table in Brussels. If this creature gets into No 10, we're finished as a country.

And we didn't even get a chance to fight. Sold out from under us. Our ancestors would despise us for allowing other people to throw away everything they built and bestowed on us.

That they voted for the obvious charlatan Tony Blair does not augur well ...

oldtimer

Sounds as though he is on manuouvres.

Andrew

Hmmm.

Paradox or Parody?

(or perhaps, Sphinx or Sphincter?)

Edward

I would opine that "conversion" is the wrong word to use in connection with Mr. Blair and the Roman Catholic Church.
I would never normally dare to comment upon an individual's faith and/or religion, but as it has been engineered so publicly, I feel it is in the public domain.

I seem to recall reading excerpts from the "great man's" recent address. As I understand, he stated that his "conversion" had been a choice between Anglicanism and Catholicism. And he was finally influenced by his fragrant wife, who is a Catholic.

I personally think that one does not "choose" a religion like one might choose from a display of flat screen TVs. Not having grasped such a basic appreciation, I propose his "religion" means as little to him as anything else has ever done.

If "choice" is indeed the correct word, one could be forgiven for thinking that where Mr. Blair is concerned, that would be... "career choice".

He has already had the audacity to preach to the Pope. This man's self-regard is staggering.

Being a lapsed Catholic of more than forty years, I suggest the Catholic church is cheapened by the presence of Mr. Blair in its congregation.

This dodgy individual would be better advised to wear sackcloth and ashes and work amongst the poor (granted that most of us are poor when compared to him) rather than wear Saville Row and pontificate about spiritual matters on the world stage.

Yeah, he's a pretty straight kinda Catholic guy.

RobertD

Do they still have purgatory? Such medacity should earn him many eons there.

EC

The thing you have to realise about Tony is that he is an unworldy holy man who is on a evangelical mission. He fervently believes everything he says because he gets it directly from God.

I think that you'll find that his wife takes care of the money.

Gawd bless 'im I say.

Better Tone than the clone!

you there

Can you be a smart idiot?

Zealotry from whatever faith is a nightmare for the worlds population. Look what communism, islam, and the various branches of christianity have brought.

At least capitalism and atheism are not up to that standard.

Moraymint

Complete and utter hypocritical b*****s.

As a general rule, with all politicians, don't believe them, don't fear them, don't ask anything of them (Solzhenitsyn).

Blair is lethal; avoid him at all costs.

Short the UK

Tony Blair is a "trickster".

The Speccie should commission an anthropologist to do an article looking deeply at this man's psyche.

I'm pretty sure he is a "trickster".

M .R.

This loathsome man has accumulated untold wealth and riches since his premiership. There are no specific details as unfortunately his expenses receipts were shredded. This is the man, the war monger, the Catholic Convert ( since leaving Office of course) who is now on course to be the President of the Eu Council, of the mainly Catholic European Union. In this man's name Iraqis, our Armed Forces, American Armed Forces, have died and been maimed. He has the nerve to say that his wife inspired his Catholic conversion, this is the wife who telephoned the wives of MP's(on behalf of her husband) on the eve of the crucial vote to invade another country. Totally, utterly appalling, but still he is there, pulling the strings and likely to be ruling this Country again in the guise of Eu President.
Please read of the horror and dismay that fellow Europeans feel about this dreadful person becoming their 'President'.
www.stopblair.eu.

Cicero

Why doesn't he give it all back, then?

NicholasT

You refer to "the Catholic Church's Communion and Liberation conference...a great honour for a layman" as if it is some official priestly gathering conferring some special divine blessings. In fact "Communione e Liberazione" (CL) is a lay movement within the Catholic Church and in Italy has a very high political profile. Since Blair has ensured that his conversion to Catholicism (sic) has had equal publicity to that of St Paul, it is not at all surprising that CL should invite him. They too have a "nose" for publicity and the interface between politics and wealth. CL was a major "player" within the old Christian Democrat party until it was swept away in the hope-filled anti-corruption days of the 1990s. The "hero" of the movement is the seemingly immortal and indestructible Giulio Andreotti, a symbol of the old Christian Democrats. CL which likes to stay close to power and influence has thrown in its lot with Blair's old mate and host, Silvio Berlusconi. The young people of CL are good at enthusiasm and adulation...I'm sure Blair loved every minute.

Verity

Blair is lethal, true. But so is his self-proclaimed heir. Less compelling to watch, although his failure is not from want of trying, but Cameron is toxic for our country.

Alan Scott

Sadly, Mr Blair is just one more "celebrity" sucked into the Roman Catholic maelstrom. How that Church has got away with this - and don't let's overlook Berlusconi and all those lovely Italian Christian Democrats - for over 2 thousand years is beyond belief. What a pity Blair and Henry VIII were/are not contemporaneous.

Alan Scott

As the PM seems unwilling to comment on matters he should (Libyan prisoner release etc)but can comment on all sorts of unimportant "celebrity" matters, perhaps he could give us the benefit of his views on another "celebrity", his predecessor, and his troughing it with the ultra-rich? Surely the son of the manse has something to say about this disgraceful ponce of an ex-PM? Oh well, no; silence as usual.

alan scott

And more; sorry.
Could the Archbishop of Westminster ( who I think is the senior RC in the UK) comment on the utterances of Mr Blair in the light of his pursuit of money and acceptance of expensive hospitality etc from persons of extremely dubious morality?
I thought not. May the God(s) you all try to foist upon us strike a plague on all your religious/moral/ethical posturing.

Carly

The day irony died.

Stan, UK

To keep describing Cameron as the 'heir to Blair', the way his detractors on this site do, is actually very lazy. Cameron is nothing like Blair. He is not a liar and is very intelligent and genuniely interested in the proper governance and reform of this country. And not least making this country the best it possibly can be, through a Conservative perspective obviously. Why can't we just give him a chance? If he messes up and is not to the Thatcherite wings liking then either vote him out or mount a leadership challenge after his first four years in office, if we win the next general election. When reading Verity's numerous posts I sometimes think she is really a troll for Labour because her constant childish attacks on David Cameron are irrational and quite desperate.

Rainer Unsinn

Doesn't Phony Tony make up to �£250k for an after-dinner speech?

What was that about the love of money?

THX1138

The new boy Blackburn throws some red meat to the CH Saloon Bar regulars and they gooble it up.

Since when did the right of British politics think it was such a sin to get rich?

DSR

THX - No sin to get rich; the sin is in expecting vast payments for moralising about others getting rich.

Incidently, I think gooble is a splendid word

Bruce Finch

Tony Blair is a astonishing hypocrite

Andrew Cadman

THX1138 - Not a sin to get rich as such, but very definitely a terrible sin to get rich having made yourself a 'name' in America by starting a war based on a pack of lies.

I saw recently an interview with Blair when he described the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as 'all that hassle'. It made me wonder if the man is actually a psychopath.

Housekeeper

TH(ick?)X 1138 @ 10:17

Do try harder, dear. If in doubt, re-read Blackburn's words before commenting.

Major Plonquer

Tony Blair is a contradiction too far even for the Catholic Church. Now that the hand of history has left his shoulder Blair's attempting to create New Catholicism. His problem is of course, his own existence - living proof that man is descended from the ape.

BaiDaLong

Where's Dave Allen when you need him? Probably doing stand-up in Pergatory.....

Tankus

If there is a god , there will be a day of reckoning ....

this is the only proof that I ask for .

Tankus

David Ossitt
August 29th, 2009 6:55pm
"How low can this loathsome man stoop?

He is taking the piss"

No ..he is taking a cheque , some where further down the line.

Frank P

'The people' voted for the f****r three times; don't blame him - blame them! The success of all con artists depends on the gullibility of the so called 'victims'. The socialist dreams of others filled this odious couple's coffers. And remember, their accomplices are still in power. 'Democracy' gets the governments it deserves. Unfortunately 'democracy' is still better than all the other options. At least the putative incoming incumbent of No.10 was rich before he started his rise to power, so perhaps he can concentrate on making the rest of us better off if he makes it, rather than being obsessed with feathering his own nest, as was Blair (and the other half of that extremely odd couple).

I thought we had reached an all-time low with that sleazy little crook Wilson and the shyster peer Goodman who handled his proceeds. The Blair pair and their pop impresario fixer capped that, hands down. The current incumbent is of course just a nutter and was allowed to take over to take the hit. Sorry Verity it has to be Cameron; sad though that is, there is no viable alternative, but perhaps one will emerge in Cameron's first term.

Verity

Stan UK, who is not addicted to following the news, writes: "To keep describing Cameron as the 'heir to Blair', the way his detractors on this site do, is actually very lazy."

Well, yes and no. We're only repeating how Cameron described himself in the H of C. We didn't make it up. He did.

I am sure it's on YouTube somewhere.

Verity

No, Frank P, I do not accept defeat. If Cameron got in with a healthy majority, he would slice 'n' dice our country to suit his EUSSR masters in order to remain the prized (Britain!) apparachik and continue his role, within the EU, as the Heir to Blair. There would be no going back.

I think, Frank, that there is a chance ... wishful thinking? I don't know ... that a sufficient number of voters fear David Cameron enough that they will stay away from the polls or vote UKIP or BNP to diminish the Conservative vote enough for a hung Parliament. There's no hunger for Labour; that's for sure. But nor is there a hunger for the shabby rag-tag and bobtail "Conservatives", with their party logo-of-the-month. (A tree drawn as rainbow to attract gay people!) How stupid do they think gay people are? Do they think gays don't have mortgages, worry about their jobs and preferment, their car payments, their dry-cleaning bills, just like the rest of us? ... wouldn't they see this as clumsy and patronising of Bullingdon David and his long term best friends?. David Cameron has the unfortunate condition of being tone deaf. When he thinks he is singing the correct note, the voters are scampering away, covering their ears.

We will see.

Edward

THX1138 10.17pm

As absolution for your obtuse comment you should get down on your knees, just like Tony does after confession, and say three Hail Marys.

William Laing

Take a good hard look at yourselves, Britain. This man's character was well apparent long before he entered Number 10. Have you no sense of disgust?

Old Bill

David Ossitt,

... well you are right Blare (sic) is most definitely a Cap'n Hook of the deeeeeepest dye even if you are forbidden the use of ther shepherd's crook.

The lord is his shepherd and they shall not want until such time as they receive baptism in the Thames freom a graqqteful public.

EC

Frank P, "The people' voted for the f****r three times..."

Now is that any way to be talkin' about a Man of God and possibly our next democratically elected Prime Minister.

I've never voted for him but if he doesn't get to be Euro Pres and then returns in the late Autumn as the saviour of the nation offering to form a government of national unity in 2010. I'd just have to. All it would take is a secret pledge from him to flog off the BBC to Murdoch et al and then BINGO! (Sun or otherwise)

Can you imagine if he got in? The bath chairs and commodes would be exploding from Torbay all along the south coast and right the way round and up to North West Norfolk!

The second, or 4th, coming approacheth.

Better Tone than the Clone!

mitch

T blair proving once again he is the worlds best/worst hypocrite.what next ? he steps out of the worlds most expensive restaurant to talk about famine.
I really,really detest this creature.

egh

He's not an original, you know.
Chaucer did one of his best character sketches on the type!
Remember the Pardoner? With his Pardons - all hot from Rome? And the mantra he preached while he was robbing everybody?
"Radix Malorum Est Cupiditas."

Malcolm

This is a man who professes to be a Christian and yet he has amassed a vast fortune.

Hypocrite, hypocrite, hypocrite.

RobC

Stan UK -I picked up on that as well in fact "Heir to Blair" litters many left wing blogs now that Tone has gained pariah status amongst the pains and pullovers brigade and neatly scores to pejoratives for the price of one.
Getting back to Blair, who seems to have spent most of his political career and beyond amassing personal wealth and/or living at the states expense, perhaps he should read the rich man and the camel through the eye of the needle parable which currently bars him and the missus from ever getting anywhere near the promised land let alone setting foot on it.
I would not insult a hypocrite by calling him one.

steve

sure are you verity, how about spending 30 secs having a look?

Not on youtube as far as i can see.

let's get this heir to blair thing out of the way. someone please publish the link where CMD coins the phrase.

M.R

Malcolm 10:16

"and yet he has amassed a vast fortune"

How ? If this fortune was amassed during his tenure as PM then surely the country has a right to know how it came about. The legitimacy of the acquiring of the fortune needs to be seen (in Labour's favourite mantra) to be 'transparent', in spite of the shredding of documents 'in error'. This man does not seem to be held accountable for any of his actions, maybe the new Iraq Inquiry will shed some light on things.

Ricky

M.R

My contacts reliably inform me that Blair never ever has any of his meetings minuted. Part of the reason why we are all still waiting for those pre-paid for memoirs.

GB

he is a real monster. history shows what generally happens to dictators. the rulers know this, which is why we find ourselves in a race between population control by the likes of TB, versus an explosion of rage by the slaves. if so, it explains a lot, especially in the US. see FEMA camps, compulsory vaccinations, various "enabling acts" and above all, an assault on the right to bear arms. the US Constitution is gone as a legal safeguard. there is no protection from the State in the UK at all. (for instance, no police held accountable for de menenzes, yet a constable held to account for cooking his dogs in a closed car!)

anne allan

Do we have a Dickens or Thackeray to skewer this creature?

Chuck Unsworth

This man is a repulsive, lying hypocrite. There is nothing further to say of him.

Verity

Wouldn't it be on the Parliamentary channel, whatever that's called? I seem to recall that vapid Dave said it just after he broke H of C tradition and ordered the Tory benches to give Blair a standing ovation, with actual clapping instead of waving papers. And he rounded off his little triumph of a happy, submissive puppy doing little wee by styling himself "the heir to Blair". He probably thought it sounded clever at the time.

Verity

I see that in Sept 2998, former BBC business editor Jeff Randall said in the Daily Telegraph:

"In my experience, Cameron never gave a straight answer when dissemblance was a plausible alternative, which probably makes him perfectly suited for the role he now seeks: the next Tony Blair,".

Apparently, at some point, Harriet Harmon made the off-the-cuff comment that "There's something not quite right about David Cameron". Pot. Kettle. Black, and all that, but she is right.

hysteria

well this is interesting - Indy 16 April 2007

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/cameron-says-he-is-no-heir-to-blair-as-he-unveils-new-tory-rail-policy-444928.html

David Cameron declared, as he insisted that he was no "heir to Blair".

biggestaspidistra

is this what you're talking about?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article574814.ece

“I am the heir to Blair,” he said. If his hosts were in any doubt about what they had heard, Mr Cameron repeated the mantra.........
George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor and fellow member of the so-called Notting Hill set of young modernising Tories, was also at the dinner table. Mr Osborne, defending the heir to Blair boast, said: “We have nothing to be ashamed of in saying it.”

Verity

Biggest Aspidistera - Thank you!

David Ossitt

hysteria

Thank you; it looks as though he did not, ever say it!

John Page

Nicely written post

... though he has a history of giving different audiences different lines.

hysteria

David - all you can tell from the Indy article is that he denies ever saying it - which as we know is not quite the same thing. - here's the sequence as I see it

1 - he did say it at the dinner party as quoted by the Times

2 - at the time it probably sounded pretty clever (Blair was a multi-election winner, popular, seen as changing politics yada yada)

3 - the warning "don't repeat outside this room" hit homee , leading to

4 - outright denial a couple of years later as the Tory inner circle realised it perhaps was not so clever after all.

but what do I know

Just asking

Verity
How many cats do you have and how do you get on with your neighbours?

Frank P

Whether he said it, didn't say it; said it but didn't really mean it; or means it and didn't say it: the fact is that he is the Tory party leader and IS the only viable alternative to Labour in the next election.

My suggested strategy for the floating voter is clear; get this scaly-backed, jumped-up-never-come-down bunch of covert commie douche bags out of Downing Street! The only way to do that is give Cameron his shot, even though, like Verity, I suspect that Cameron was was, like most of his generation, infected by the virus of Gramsci's counter cultural hegemony that spread like wildfire through Academia throughout the past four or five decades. Hardly anyone from his generation escaped the infection - most without mens rea, as the message was deeply subliminal. It's symptoms clearly display in the op ed of this magazine. There is no chance of Norman Tebbit's ilk recapturing the Tory Party, sadly. They blew their chance back in the late 90s. Let's see what Cameron is really made of, behind that facade of trying to be all things to all voters.

It will be a tough test; a baptism of fire. It may make him, it may break him. But nothing can be as bad as the status quo. It's too late to groom another contender. We'll knock him into shape when he takes over - if he doesn't shape up, then a successor will emerge. He may even become the heir to Thatcher with the modifications that are appropriate to the passing of time and changes in the geopolitical 'ecology'. As one who has no reputation as an optimist, I nonetheless think that he is the only sane option, albeit with many reservations. We need a landslide to destroy NuLab forever and drive a wooden stake through its heart to ensure no resuscitation. There's no time to form a new party. The autumnal chill is in the air, already, so Spring is just a few heartbeats away and it will be a Spring Election. Enough earth has been scorched, already.

Fergus Pickering

If it's skewering you want then your man is Alexander Pope:

Beauty that shocks you, parts that none will trust,
Wit that can creep, and pride that licks the dust.

Verity

That photo of Blair's been photoshopped.

Alexius

I`d like to canvas opinion - is Blair so lacking in self-knowledge that he can make a speech like that without batting an eyelid? Or is he as breathtakingly cynical as he seems and does he walk off stage laughing at the lot of us?

cuffleyburgers

Stan, UK

Hear, hear!

Graham

Think back peeps to that day in 97, all those adoring folk, being gladhanded by the great one, the "things can only get better" sounding out over the beeb.All those clowns so naive, so believing. I laughed out loud then, and I continue to laugh at the stupidity of the electorate.How many of you who now cast scathing criticism at ACL Bliar, were among those adoring crowds?
The Problem is there will always be enough of the people who are fooled, enough of the time. unfortunately democracy is consigning this country to the dustbin. And democrats cant stop it!

Verity

No Frank P. A vote for Cameron is a vote to give the coup de grace to our country.

I can't find it again, but last week in one of these threads, someone did actually find a statement on the EU by this vile, jumped up mental midget, in which he said if Lisbon was already ratified by the time of the election, there would be (sigh)no way he could fight it.

A real warrior for his country! Doesn't believe in fighting against the odds.

He said he would work within it (you'd better believe he would; he's dying to work within it, for his own preferment) to change what he could in Britain's interest.

When you see it written in front of you, you either laugh or cry. Dave's going to battle the behemoth of Communism to try to win a few valueless points for one of the subjugated nations. Well, whoop-de-doo! Wotta guy!

The Tories have to lose this election to give us time for a Leader to emerge. It may be Daniel Hannan; it may be David Davis or John Redwood; it may be someone we haven't noticed so far.

We have to buy Labour another year or 18 months to finish the suicide job. Then start fresh with a sane, right wing government.

Mark my words. There will never be another chance. It won't be long until the EU finds letting the subjugated electorate having their own play elections is too costly and henceforth, it will only be "national", i.e., EUSSR-wide, "elections".

David Cameron is a disgusting, craven, ambitious-way-beyond-his-capabilities, specimen. I loathed him on sight; just as I loathed his avatar Tony Blair on sight. And when I see his picture, I have the same watery feeling in my innards.

David Ossitt

Frank P.

"We need a landslide to destroy NuLab forever and drive a wooden stake through its heart to ensure no resuscitation"

A well written post Frank; I agree with your point of view, in particular the piece abone.

Verity

David Ossitt and Frank P - There will be no landslide. There is no appetite for David Cameron and the Heirites.

David Ossitt

Verity; I fully understand and to a major extent agree with your point of view.

And in a perfect world; you�re ideal solution of having labour win the next general election, thus allowing us to get rid of David Cameron and then for us to choose a real Conservative to lead the party into power the next time, sounds wonderful.

But; using your word, there is no appetite in this country for New Labour, there will be as Frank suggests a massive landslide away from labour.

Unfortunately David Cameron is the wrong man; who just happens to be (for him) in the right place at the right time.

We must hope that forces within the party will keep him pointed in the right direction.

George Laird

Dear All

Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister has spoken that materialism is a threat to the planet and human identity.

That statement has been met with scorn in a few quarters as Blair has done nothing but attempt to acquire money, power and status since leaving Number 10 Downing Street.

Do as I say, not as I do is the jist of it from him.

He wants us all to sit in squalor while he travels the world staying on and in billionaires� yachts and villas.

Since leaving Number 10; he has taken a number of high paying jobs as an advisor as well as doing speeches on the after dinner circuit. He is further being touted as a possible future President of the European Union.

In order to keep his profile raised he has joined the religious circuit as a modern day preacher when he should be sitting in a cell at The Hague on war crimes charges awaiting trial.

In a speech to the prestigious Communion and Liberation conference at Rimini in Italy; he told people of all faiths around the world that they should set their sights lower.

At the same time, �Preacher� Blair was staying on Rising Sun, the five-deck yacht of American software billionaire Larry Ellison, anchored off the Sardinian coast.

Blair who converted to being a Catholic said;

"Ever since I began preparations to become a Catholic, I felt I was coming home; and this is now where my heart is, where I know I belong."

I wonder how the Catholic Church feels about a clown like this trying to hijack its faith for personal gain. Blair has set up and runs his own faith foundation as a vehicle to keep him in the public eye.

I find it ridiculous that the Catholic Church should allow someone like him to address its Communion and Liberation Conference when he has so much blood on his hands.

I see Blair�s agenda, to try and get on board EU Catholic countries to support his bid to become EU President.

In 1979, Margaret Thatcher used a quote from St Francis of Assisi before entering Downing Street as PM, then she went on to screw the country and it looks like discredited Blair is doing the same, using religion to for his own ends.

What is funny and sick at the same time is that one of the most greediest former PM�s should preach about others not making a good life for themselves while he does everything in his power to feather his own nest.

Why not use google street view to look at his �£3.5 million pound house in Connaught Square, London and then ask yourself, do you believe this tripe?

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

TGF UKIP

Verity, as usual, has it bang on the nose. The stakes next time are high, higher than they've ever been for small "c" conservatives.

If Dave wins by anything more than, say, 30 seats the Tory Left will claim the victory as evidence that the Conservative Party can only win UK General Elections by running as Social Democrats - exactly how Dave has been running since December 2005.

Far, far better a temprorary short term defeat than to see conservatism buried by an ultra green social democracy of one party or another for decades to come.

Don't forget Frank P with the Mekon pulling Dave's strings there will be more green hectoring and bullying than Labour and the Liberals ever dreamed of.

The Tory Party is now the social democratic version of the Green Party (Caroline Lucas leads the out and out socialist version) and if you doubt this assertion I suggest you visit the Tory Party website and take a gander at their logo.

Joe

I'm still not convinced that the Conservatives want to win next year. Their performance has been very poor, surely not accidentally, and Brown has pretty much bought enough votes to win again. The one thing that would be more damaging to Labour than a loss at the General Election would be a win, with them forced to bat again on the worst conceivable wicket, or to mix metaphors, to drink from their own poisoned chalice. They wouldn't last more than another year, and then they'd go the way of the Liberals. Dave may be willing to wait another year for the opportunity to really drive in that stake.

Hysteria

As I have remarked before, my money (if I were a betting man) would be on a narrow-ish Tory majority.

TGF UKIP

David Ossitt, one part of me would like to go along with you (and with Frank P) unfortunately, though, I believe the weak point in your case is encapsulated in your final para.

There would now appear to be no countervailing forces in the party to "keep him pointed in the right direction." The Hilton/Cameron Party within the Party now have complete control and are ever strengthening it with the gerrymandering of the selection process to produce ever more clones and chloes.

Given how incompetent they have been as an opposition against Britains worst ever government, it is, I would suggest, more than likely that they would be just as incompetent a government as this lot thus destroying the reputation and electability of the Conservative party for decades to come.

Anyway they ain't won yet and with the likes of Osborne, Maude and Duncan around I will be be amazed if they get through to next June without another major scandal dishing their chances.

PS Osborne as Chancellor and Letwin and Hilton in charge of all policy - doesn't that scare you rigid?

David Ossitt

Joe

"Dave may be willing to wait another year"

Joe if Dave loses; he will not be the leader who will wait that extra year, the party will have eaten him for breakfast.

Frank P

A 'narrowish Tory majority' is not sufficient. It needs to be a rout, not only to register disgust at the last 12 years of the theft of the nation, but pour l'encourager les autres, lest Cameron does really have ideas about continuation (or perhaps resurrection) of the NuLab project (a la Blair with Cameroon modifications).

I'm a pragmatist, Verity, though with you in spirit. I see no prospect whatsoever of another outfit getting its act together before the GE. I am still by no means sure that the Tories will win, but I repeat, there is no-one else capable of making a breakthrough, so lets put our shoulders to the only wheel that can crush Brown and his thugs.

Btw way petrol goes up 2p more tonight (increased fuel tax). One would like to think that every gas station in the land blows up tonight by spontaneous combustion, followed by a gigantic conflagration encompassing he Westminster gasworks - aka the PoW). This nation is neutered. It's fucking highway robbery - quite literally! Basta!

Verity

If Labour staggers in, which I think it will, they will spend the ensuing 18 months thrashing around in their death throes.

Meanwhile, Cameron will have been despatched and a Conservative installed as Leader.

Who? I don't know. But cometh the hour, cometh the man.

Verity

Frank P - Although the working classes will abscond to the BNP, the Tories will race over to UKIP. Many more will be too disgusted to vote for either party. Routing Labour will be no triumph if their policies are carried on - including the blind march into Communism - by the notional "Conservatives". Just read the comments over on The Telegraph. There is a great revulsion for the Tories under Dave developing.

The public sector may be large enough to tow Labour in, slowly, one last time. This is, after all, what it's for.

I'm sorry Frank P, but there will be no rout. Too many non-jobs at stake. How many street football coordinators and diversity officers and racial harrassment monitors and Urdu translators and sexual equality tsars (and tsarinas, of course) and health-and-safety little Hitlers are going to vote other than Labour?

Frank P

Verity

"How many street football coordinators and diversity officers and racial harrassment monitors and Urdu translators and sexual equality tsars (and tsarinas, of course) and health-and-safety little Hitlers are going to vote other than Labour"

Yes, the apparatchiks will come out in full force and try to retain their sinecures. But are there enough of them if the old Tory base gets behind Cameron? I doubt it. You may be right, gal. But my money is on a sea change. UKIP and the BNP have no real voter base - any more than the liberals have when it comes to General Elections. Cameron it is. Shame the Tories haven't a real grown up politician left to lead the charge. I know you're a DD fan, but he blew his chance and his posturing since then has been pathetic. Too late now. With respect.

Verity

Frank P - My arguments have not been a disguised plea to bring David Davis back. I like what I've seen of him, but I've been out of the country since he came to prominence and never followed him closely. I just like that he clearly doesn't like David Cameron. And he connects with voters. I'd love to see John Redwood as Leader of the Conservatives, and PM. Anyone reading his blog can be in no doubt about his direction.

Do not misread my interest in David Davis. He just seemed the most likely, so I put my shoulder to his wheel. If John Redwood steps forward, or Daniel Hannan, I'd be pushing in that direction.

Blair and Brown, with malice and cunning aforethought, grew a behemoth public sector. Apparachiks - all with pensions - pretending to toil at non-jobs, but being paid in real taxpayer money. This was to ensure the advancement of communism/the EUSSR programme.

I disagree, Frank, that there will be a sufficient number of Tory voters to get the Tories in by a squeak. Well, maybe a squeak. Twenty or 30 majority. Which, for Dave, would be the same as losing. Anyone who couldn't command a landslide against Gordon Brown is a busted flush.

But, fearful for their non-jobs, the public sector will turn out on voting day. The Conservatives under the non-leadership of shifty Dave don't really have a base any more, their voters having drifted off to parties with more clearly defined programmes; besides which, he is not offering Conservative thinking. He is offering Euro-socialist-liberal programmes. (Buy up normal lightbulbs now! Hide your cars!)

If you read the Comments section appended to the editorials in The Telegraph, the Tories are hemorrhaging votes. And The Telegraph is letting through comments that would have occasioned a heavy finger on the moderator's Delete key less than a year ago.

The game's afoot, Watson!

Charles

Blair, master of the verb free sentence. No content speeches! Nice and fluffy! Appealed to morons! Empathetic drivel! Nothing of relevance! Great appeal for non-thinkers!

I have never had the slightest idea why this man, a total failure and non-entity as Prime Minister (as opposed to winner of elections), can attact anyone to hear him speak, let alone pay him for it.

I cannot remember a single idea (as opposed to a content free slogan or three word soundbite) which flowed from Blair, nor can I remember anything which in any way improved or benefitted the country during his wretched period in office.

Having raised consequence-free lying to the centre of British politics Blair has gone on to do his best to raise hypocrisy to be the highest form of global statesmanship.

The real worry is that when I see Brown, he makes Blair look good, and when I see Blair, |I think Brown is actually better.

On balance, I think Mugabe is a better statesman (than the Labour twins), Gadaffi is certainly more truthful, and I suspect that Ludwig II of Bavaria was less delusional.

Frank P

Charles

Heh, heh, heh! Pithy, powerful and oh so true.

Verity

My heart is with you, but my head ain't: even though you make some powerful arguments. I think you 'misunderestimate' most of the British (English anyway)public's desire for a muck out of No.10; they see Cameron as the potential new tenant and they are curious about how that would pan out. You and I know that it might well pan out not quite as they hoped; but when did it ever? Certainly not in my lifetime. We'll agree to differ and exchange notes after event. I've logged this in my 'Verity' file (full of rich material, including a few well deserved bollickings from V to me). 'Spinalongtime!
;-}

Daniel

Ricky
August 29th, 2009 6:56pm

I understand your concern and your wish for a referendum but, if the Irish vote "yes", the treaty will be ratified and so a UK referendum on "ratification" of the Lisbon Treaty will be meaningless. David Cameron's only option will be to hold a referendum on withdrawing as a signatory to the Lisbon Treaty, meanig we effectively leave the EU.

TGF UKIP

UKIP, the party I Thank God For in providing a repository for my conservative vote, may not, indeed, win seats or poll massively in many parts of the country but it would be well to bear in mind that in 2005 it prevented the Tories winning in approximately 28 seats.

Additionally, it did so when the Tories had a demonstable eurosceptic as Leader.

I would, therefore, ask you to contemplate how many more seats UKIP might dish the Tories in, now that it is a much stronger party, has enjoyed roaring success in the recent Euro elections (Tories only 28%) and as their "Leader" the Tories have Dave, a man just as widely mistrusted on Europe as his hero Blair.

THX1138

TGF don't get too excited voting UKIP is a bit of fun at The Euro's for the Saloon Bar bores and that's about it.

Rod Liddle got your man Farage spot on:

"The UK Independence party, for example, led by a chap called Nigel Farage, who resembles a frog that has just had a Chinese firecracker inserted in its rectum and, worse, is clearly enjoying the experience."

Verity

Number Plate, on one of his thankfully increasingly rare appearances on this site, addresses TGI UKIP thusly: "TGF (sic re the lack of a comma) don't get too excited (sick re the lack of a full stop) voting UKIP is a bit of fun at The Euro's (sic for the meaningless flying apostrophe) for the Saloon Bar (sic re the inexplicable capital letters) bores and that's about it."

He then goes on to pointlessly insult Nigel Farage, a personable, intelligent, effective and articulate man.

What you have failed to understand on your visits here, Number Plate, because you are unable to take in the thoughts of others, is, as TGI UKIP has said many times, s/he is pleased that an alternative party, which has stayed the course, exists and wishes it well. This individual has stated in the past that s/he is not a member. So your addressing this individual as though he/she has a proprietary interest in the party is yet another mistake.

M.I.

I believe that people do want real change at the next election. Is it possible though, to have that change with the same lot of polititians. There has to be another way, what is the point of the same shower whose ambition seems to be to make as much money,(for as little work )as possible from the taxpayer. The Labour Party have condoned a detested PM staying in place, it would seem to enable them to continue in employment and collect a massive pension. Surely we can do better, I thought I would always be a Tory but I'm not at all sure now. There are decent Tory MP's but we don't hear much of them.
Maybe Sir Christopher Kelly will change things for the better with his recommendations, which would then require a different breed of MP.

RM

One of your commentors states 'Since Blair has ensured that his conversion to Catholicism (sic) has had equal publicity to that of St Paul'. Remembering St Paul's sticky end, I await a similar end for Super Hypocrite Blair with great pleasure.