Two polls to please the Tories

David Howell

I think most people would like this government to simply "Butt Out" of their lives.

Labour are complete control freaks who deserve to be utterly destroyed at the coming General Election for the damage they have done to our country and its people.

Irene

Smaller government - a definite vote winner.

Verity

David Howell - They are not "control freaks". They are destructive and malevolent. It is not that they want to control. They seek to destroy. They seek to take away things from other people, out of malice.

John Smith

Anyone who thinks that the Tories will be just as not if not more controlling than new Labour are in for the shock of their lives.

emil

Verity - indeed. So are you still praying that 5 more years of this evil is inflicted on us (but not you)?

MorrisOx

A word to the wise for those at the heart of the Cameron project, one which I hope may encourage them to focus not on the seductive power of polls, but on the hard road ahead when they gain office.
The Conservatives managed to do just that in leafy Notitnghamshire, but a corrosive combination of parish-pump prejudice, political naivete and a total lack of strategic vision has seen an administration which swept dinosaurs out of office at County Hall only a few short months ago make themselves - and the party - look like mean-spirited reactionaries defined not by a new vision but by an amateurish tunnel-vision.
Cameron needs - quickly - to take a close look at the calibre (or lack of) of the people who are seen to be taking political decision under his banner already.
In Nottinghamshire at least, that fleeting early promise has been replaced by a prejudiced ineptitude which has all the hallmarks of a Labour gain half way through a Cameron first-term.

Simon Levack

MorrisOx - specifics?

JohnPage

"On a uniform swing, these figures would see Labour lose 10 seats, the Conservatives gain 9, the Lib Dems lose 2 and Plaid Cymru gain 3."

Verity

emil, who either has reading comprehension problems or an abnormally short memory, writes to me: "Verity - ... So are you still praying that 5 more years of this evil is inflicted on us."

People will throw rotten tomatoes and eggs at me, but I will repeat one more time, for the benefit of those cruelly deprived of verbal comprehension: "If Labour staggers in on its knees, IT WILL NOT LAST FOR MORE THAN 18 MONTHS, IF THAT. It's finished. It's rumbled. It's over. With a quick witted and lethal Tory at the helm, they will be dead and gone."

To repeat, for those slow on the uptake, Labour cannot survive five years, or even two years. The Tory government that wins the following election will have given it the coup de grāce. Hopefully, the first of the far left parties infusing toxins through the body politic will not be just injured, but dead. With the example of the British, Europeans may be tempted to rid themselves of the lefty toxins in their own bodies politic.

Socialism is a deadly sickness of the soul.

Frank P

I can't believe you twats are talking about opinion polls among Westminster Villagers when there is a revolution about to explode on the streets of our provincial cities. Where are you going to hide with your charts? Cameron blew it today by not addressing the open goal given to him by the Neather fink. People are really, really pissed off chums!

Frank P

They used to call it 'whistling in the dark' when I was a kid.

egh

Exactly as Frank P says.

Polls? Election Campaigns?
Even if we had anyone to vote for, who can we trust to monitor the administration of the ballot and the counting, and to ensure nationwide publication of honest results?

strapworld

Another report in the daily mail today "Labour censored links between immigration and crime in report"

Another one to be ignored by the Spectator and all the other ''news'' agencies.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1223296/Labour-think-tank-airbrushed-link-migrants-crime-immigration-report-Blair.html#ixzz0VDNf0NYN

"

Iknowwhoyouare

Of course, John Smith (or should I say, Pauli)... you have the power of prophecy (along with multiple personalities) and can see the future. Perhaps we should just stick with Labour then - is that what you're getting at?

Vulture

Yesty, after almost throwing up at the sight of successive pix of Bliar and Maude I asked you to post a picture of a politician who was not a crook. It was a big ask and I didn't think it possible but you rose manfully to the challenge by first of all posting a pic of President Ahminadinnerjacket of Iran
who is not a crook but a raving loony; and then posting only half a picture of Dave, showing the upper half of his melted cheese features, but with his tiny hen's arse mouth chopped off. Is this some sort of subliminal statement, since that mouth does nothing but spout lies and PR garbage? I saw a soundbite of Dave's presser from which it readily became apparent that he has already accepted Lisbon, and with it President Bliar. Hence the jokey refererence to 'El Presidente'

Make no mistake guys : Dave has sold us out before his push-bike and attached limo have even got halfway up Downing St.

Dorothy Wilson

MorrisOx: "In Nottinghamshire at least, that fleeting early promise has been replaced by a prejudiced ineptitude which has all the hallmarks of a Labour gain half way through a Cameron first-term."

I too live in Nottinghamshire, though my postal address is Leicestershire. MorrisOx has been reading too many spin stories put out by the Labour administration in the City Council and in letters from Labour supporters published in the Nottingham Evening Post.

Let me give you one example: the proposal to build a new stadium for Forest Football Club in the hope of attracting games if England wins it World Cup bid.

The City Council supported, it seems, by the Forest Board have come up with some grandiose scheme for a stadium that seats 45,000 people. However, as far as I know, no details have been released on precisely how much it will cost, who will pay, what kind of income it will generate and how the upkeep of the stadium will be financed in the longer term. As the proposed stadium will seat 45,000 people and Forest's home support averages around the 20,000 mark surely these are very legitimate points that need answering.

The County Council, which fell to the Conservatives in last May's elections, and Rushcliffe Borough Council, which will have to carry most of the impact of the proposed new stadium in terms of traffic, disruption etc have withdrawn their support for a stadium in the location preferred by the City Council and the club.

Because of that there has been a series of bitchy articles and numerous letters in the local paper stressing how terrible the Conservatives are. It seems to have escaped these people that the country virtually bankrupt.

Where the Counservative administration at Country Hall seem to have gone wrong is in managing the PR agenda. However, they have promised no increase in Council Tax for next year - it has doubled since Labour came to power nationally. If they can keep to that promise they will - I believe - win out in the end.

MorrisOx

This is nothing to do with the stadium nonsense, Dorothy, and I'll agree with you 100% that the City Council is a past-master at spin (expensive spin, at that). I rather doubt the Nottingham Post swallows it - it's a Daily Mail-owned paper. In any case, the stadium project is an irrelevance; it will never happen.
What bothers me is not the big arguments but the petty decisions, which are, I'm afraid, fact. Putting one's own loyalties to one side, they will strike voters as bizarre and spiteful. The party's handling of all these decisions has been clumsy, and it has focused too much on the damage it might cause Labour rather than a rational reappraisal of priorities. Switching money away from the enlargement of one of the busiest roundabouts in the county into pavement maintenance carries little political risk because that roundabout is in the old mining areas. However, it will have gone down like a lead balloon with Center Parcs and other tourist businesses as that is the main route into the tourist economy. The impression given was that it didn't mean much down in Rushcliffe.
Take as a given that the City Council spends far too much money blowing its own trumpet. But they are not the issue. There IS a problem with the calibre of the leadership at county hall, and it goes beyond PR. All Tories who recognise that we need at least two terms to clear up this mess SHOULD be concerned.

JONNY

No good using CAPS Verity.
water off a duck's ack.
Your fanciful scenario frankly remains (as it always was)
TOTAL BOLLOCKS.

Dorothy Wilson

MorrisOx: Well I - and a great many other people - will wait to see at what level our Council Tax is set next year. And, I'm sorry but changing a round-about somewhere in the north of the county means absolutely nothing to those of us in the south. And please remember that the County Council has to save £80+ bn over the next three years. And at least some of that is due to Labour's mismanagement.

MorrisOx

Dorothy, this is precisely my point! Changing a roundabout 'somewhere in the north of the county' may mean nothing to you, but it isn't you or I who needs persuading - it is the people like those in the north of the county, whose first experience of Conservative administration is an ill-conceived slap in the face.
It was ill-conceived because the decision was taken by people with little knowledge of that part of their county or the likely impact on some important businesses. In truth, they have little political nous, whichb is why a Labour city council continues to make such headway in spite of the most shallow arguments.
The Conservative group leads a county council, not a bit-of-the-county council.
If they fail to take this on board they will lose power half way through David Cameron's first term.
And we will be left back where we started - whether you're in the south or the north.

Verity

David Howell - This government do have a psychological condition, but it's not anything as simple as control freakery. It is adherence to a programme of changing our country out of all recognition.

In other words, the plan is to take our country away from us. They are motivated by hate.

Verity

emil, or may I address you by your more familiar name, Slow-at-Reading-Comprehension?

At the risk of causing other people to gnaw off their own typing fingers in shrieking boredom at the repetition, the commies won't last for five years. I want to get rid of Cameron. He is as dangerous as the socialists and he would be cut some slack - some dangerous slack - by electorate because he was new in the office. He needs to be swept out along with the entire NuLabour Projekt.

Labour's already got the staggers. If they win, it will be due disaffection among the Tories; but in any event, they couldn't survive more than 18 months max.

Verity

Vulture, to my delight, wrote of Cameron: "showing the upper half of his melted cheese features, but with his tiny hen's arse mouth chopped off." First laugh of the day.

I have said in the past that no one who still has his baby teeth is going to be elected PM. But hen's arse is better.

greenslime3

Didn't anyone have a step for him to stand on?

Dorothy Wilson

MorrisOx: Well, let's look at the other side of this.

In this part of the county our roads and pavements have been a disgrace for years. In fact, they have been dangerous. Someone who worked in the building where I once had an office was killed when his motorbike hit a pothole. The road around here have been full of such potholes for years and the pavements in the village where I live are still in such a state that the elderly won't walk on them for fear of falling.

A few years ago a meeting was held in one of the Notts villages in the Vale of Belvoir about the poor state of the roads. A jobsworth from the then Labour controlled County Council actually admitted that nothing would be done about them because there were no votes for Labour in the south of the county.

Since the Conservatives took power the roads in this village have been given a new surface, although a rough and ready one.

So the people in the north of the county may be aggrieved about a round-about. In the south we have been concerned about the safety aspect of our roads and pavements for a good few years.

When there is not enough money for everyone to have their concerns addressed - as is the case at the moment - it is a question of priorities.

JONNY

Baby teeth?
Tiny hen's arse mouth?

Just lie on that couch, breathe deep and relax.
Such loathing is pathological.

Frank P

greenslime

"Didn't anyone have a step for him to stand on?"

Not since they abolished hanging - but keep your powder dry - we might be able to find one they forgot to burn in the basement of the 'Ville.

Frank P

Jonny

"Such loathing is pathological".

No perfectly natural and justified. Absence of such loathing is pathological under the circumstances - get in the van! Straight to St Bernard's Southall, driver.

Oh - wait minute! Hasn't that been converted into a local authority rest home for retired apparatchiks. Right - I suppose it will have to be 'Care-in-the Community' then. Or perhaps we could go direct to Broadmoor - after the all the man is dangerously deluded.

General Zod

Jonny, these people are the types who would prefer the Tories to continue to lose with 32-33% in every General Election by appealing to the prejudices of the core vote.

Labour is doing just that now, so the Labour equivalents of Verity, FrankP, Peterfrom Maidstone etc, are triumphantly in the ascendancy on the Labour blogs.

MorrisOx

Dorothy, an apporach based on the princciple of 'it's our turn for some money now' isn't the way to win a second term.

Incidentally, if the road you speak of was resurfaced during the last few months it will have been done under a capital programme agreed before the elections...

Anyway, I'm sorry we seem to have a difference of opinion about how to move forward as I suspect that at the ballot box our crosses will be in the same box!

Peter From Maidstone

General Zod, I am NOT a Conservative Core Voter. I am someone who has realised that socialism is a lie. I have only voted Conservative in the last 2 GEs, AFAIR.

I don't want Labour to get back in (ever). But nor do I want a semi-socialist Conservative party to get in (if that is what they are). How am I to tell when they don't share their vision. I am not going to take a party on trust again.

If there is a conspiracy to deny the democratic rights of the English people then I don't what I will do. I guess all bets are off.

But I am not a 'core voter'. I was not sure of DC at first, and I am still not sure. I know what I hope, but I am not sure hoping is enough anymore.

General Zod

You may not be one in terms of having voted for the party for years, but your attitudes fit with those of the dyed-in-the-wool Conservative Association local activists. Being unsure of DC is a core voter trait.

Well, I am a party member, but didn't vote in 2001 because the manifesto was risible. In 2005, although I had reservations, I did. I am a convinced one nation, free market Tory and have voted Conservative in every other GE since I was 18.

Peter From Maidstone

Zod, it's pretty weak saying that I am anything like 'dyed-in-the-wool Conservative Association activists' just because I express a doubt about DC. I doubt I have very much in common with such activist and would never join the local Association. In fact I tend to fairly Libertarian views, and although I am very socially conservative as a result of my Christian opinions I would not wish to impose them on all. I don't see that as being the role of politics.

I think of myself as being more radical than Conservatives (I might be deluding myself of course), not that committed to party politics at all, just a patriot and nationalist, someone who believes in preserving our culture and society.

If DC will not do so and I question that then I don't see how that makes me an Association activist. I could actually care less which party I vote for if they don't stand for what I do.