Under starter’s orders

Chris lancashire

It will only be the bitterest because Brown chooses to make it so.

AndyinBrum

So we're going to have another 6 months (assuming a May election) of inaction, half baked unfunded policies, U-Turns and generaly stagnation from the Government as the Civil Service drags its feet to ensure none of these gets implemented until after the election (whoevers in charge).

I know the Civil Service gets an utter slating on here at times, and quite often justified, but we might well be very very grateful of their "Creative Inertia" come May

Michael Booth

Don't you mean 'Under Statist's Orders'?

No such thing as 'free' anything - let's hope the British people will see through this smoke and mirrors, but I won't hold my breath after Glasgow North East...

Naomi Muse

What a waste of time!

About time that the government showed the electorate some respect and having ignored the golden opportunity to put parliament right during the summer recess, actually grasped the nettle and put all the reforms in now, so that some incumbents might get voted for in the election when it takes place.

Meantime, any current MPs and overtly party backed candidates might need to look to their deposits.

Without this reform in a timely manner the potential for an increasingly impotent parliament as well as the new government is hugely likely.

Holly ......

Now that Nick Griffin is to stand at the general election, in Barking,against Margaret Hodge, here is some food for thought.
2005
Labour 47.8% - 13,826 - -13.1%
Tories 17.1% - 4,943 - - 5.9%
BNP 17.0% - 4,916 - +10.6%

2006
Labour Gains 0 - Losses 4 - 6.8%
BNP Gains 11 - Losses 0 +14.2%
Tories Gains 0 - Losses 2 + 5.3%
UKIP Gains 0 - Losses 0 + 8.9%

Since 2006 things have changed.
Labour has been rumbled that immigration was a 'cunning plan' to change the face of Britain.
Labour have been rumbled that they are not fit to govern Britain.
Labour and the rest of the troughers have been rumbled that they live wholly off the back of the taxpayer.
Labour have been rumbled that they have financially wrecked the British economy.
Hodge is onto a loser here because her party and her party alone have alienated the British voter.
Will she keep her 8,863 majority?
Will there be 8,863 more people unhappy with Labour,Brown and Mandelson?
Can the Tories fare any better?
How will UKIP do? Will they steal from the Tory or the BNP?
Most importantly would Griffin stand if he thought he would lose?
Interesting times indeedy.
All media eyes will be focused there.
Can not wait for the opinion polls in January/February 2010.
Is Barking full of 'racists' or people just sick of having to fight for work/homes?
How will the REAL troublemakers the UAF behave at a DEMOCRATIC election?
How will Hodge defend her seat? Clean or dirty?
Will Brown AKA Mandelson parachute someone else in and make Hodge resign on health or
family grounds?
Will Barking now become the MOST important constituancy come the election?

Fergus Pickering

Michael Booth, don't worry about Glasgow. One third of them are on the brew as we used to say - in other words the recipients of government hand-outs. Who would you expect them to vote for? What David Blackburn refers to politely as the core vote are the same people plus recent immigrants (also in line for hand-outs) plus mad lefties who will always be with us. That's around 25%, about the figure that oaf Michael Foot got

Anne Wotana Kaye

What a tragic waste off time. It's rather like the stewards taking round dishes of water-ices as the Titanic goes down.

saddleworth

Smoke out the conservatives eh? A gift to the conservatives I would say. A Queen's Speech on these lines really will demonstrate that Brown is now barking mad. A public demonstration that he doesn't understand the extent to which he has screwed up the economy and huge the reduction in expenditure that is now required.

Does he really think the electorate don't understand the mess we are in and the measures we now need to get out of it? So bring on this legislative announcement - let he him show the world (again) that the UK has an economic cretin as a PM - it will just make him even more sure of losing the election.

Alfred T Mahan

Can you please stop saying "free home care" etc? "Taxpayer funded" is more accurate. Or how about "Labour want to charge us all for a state-run home care service"?

Michael Booth

Fair point Fergus P, it just never ceases to amaze me that folk vote Labour, but of course there are the 'core voters' and 'tribal interests' so perhaps I need a reality check - a strong morning brew of coffee should do it

Tiberius

How much more can the Mentalist's brain spin round in his head without exploding?

Or is it a case of (as Commissioner Dreyfus said of Clouseau) "brain, what brain!?"

denis cooper

What a pity that the starting gun is firmly in the hands of the scum controlling the Labour party, and not in the hands of the people at large.

Technically, of course, the Queen decides to dissolve Parliament, but on the advice of her Prime Minister, who holds that office because he and the other scum at the top of the Labour party command the votes of the Labour MPs, who are people they pre-selected and in some cases finally selected to be official Labour candidates for the election on May 5th 2005, most of whom can also best be described as scum.

As for the rest of us, our role is restricted to one day every few years, up to five, when we are urged to exercise our hardwon democratic right of grudgingly casting a vote in favour of whichever seems to be the least scummy of the political gangs at that time, a time chosen by the scum who wangled themselves a Commons majority at the last election, and we have no legal means to bring about their removal at an earlier time of our own choosing.

So round and round and round we go, decade after decade after decade, and those few hundred who share power amongst themselves - whatever power they haven't already given away to the EU, to the UN, to the WTO etc - have absolutely no intention of ever sharing it with the remaining 99.999% of the population.

Nicholas

Ach! The Vergeltungswaffen will bring ruin to the Tories and change the course of the war! A last minuten "Game changer" you New Labour numpties can believe in (because no-one else will)!

Give me a break. Smoke out the Tories? Alright, I get the smoke but where are the mirrors? Time that Herr Brown looked in one and realised that he needs a long break from politics - and we all need a long break from his politics too.

Michael Booth

Does anyone else think that the picture of the Prime Mentalist at the head of this page is a little like those of Mussolini on the balcony of the Palazzo Venezia? The facial expression and the hand action are both the same - though perhaps the reason is simply another flock of flying pigs overhead...

Tiberius

Could be, Michael B., but I reckon he's nervous of someone pouring a pot of pee from the first floor window of no.10.

Michael Booth

Tiberius, you don't mean Cherie Blair sneaked upstairs with the spare key she 'forgot' to hand back just in case. Or perhaps the photographer snapped Flash before some fingers were retracted, leaving just the usual two with which to salute the British public...

The Laughing Cavalier

We can expect some very underhand tactics and dirty tricks between now and the election with the likes of McBride and Campbell returning to the fold for the duration. Dave is going to need his very own rebuttal unit ... fast.

JohnAnt

"pupils will have the opportunity to take free on[e]-to-one home tuition. "
And who, one wonders, will the suicidal teachers be who take on their recalcitrant little charges in 'their own home' - a tower-block patrolled by violent crack addicts, with mum n' step-boyfriend scowling in the corner as the tv blares on?

TGF UKIP

What has not so far been trailed but what would not in the least surprise me in the Queens Speech is a slug of strongly pro union legislation to take matters back to being much closer to pre Thatcher.

This would not only go down exceeding well with the activists and core vote and give the unions a very solid reason to dig as deep in their pockets as they can but it would also be guaranteed to make life even more difficult for the Tories if they should miraculously win. And if such legislation is in the Gracious Speech you can bet your bottom dollar it will get enacted.