Bye Bye Blair?

Breaking news from the BBC:

Might Blair want to leave the scene of crime a little earlier than the anticipated May date perhaps?

Surely that'll be the case if the CPS starts to make noises... imagine charges being brought against senior Labour government figures just before an election!

Not so Great

I have the great misfortune to have to use First Great Western (what a misnomer! neither first nor great... just a miserable excuse mainly) on my daily commute to the big smoke.

Never mind that it costs me (well my company, but that's hardly the point here) £33.30 per day (or £91.00 per week depending on the demands of the week) but I have to stand on every single journey. I last had a seat in February and before that? I can't remember such is the infrequency.

Truth be told, what really smarts, as a paying customer, is the amount of passengers they insist on cramming on to the cattle trucks*. Hence I have got to know many strangers much better than either if us would have probably prefered. My favourite part of the whole experience though is the poor customer service that only ever entails apologising to those poor souls in first class who are denied the drinks trolley because the rest of us are blocking the way.

I was therefore particularly amused to read the following letter of complaint via Devil's Kitchen.


*Sorry, carriages. OK so at least the older HST trains have windows that open - yesterday I made the mistake of getting on one of those three carriage jobs in which you can't open the windows. I think I now have an insight into how dogs die in hot cars.

Coalitions of the unwilling

Despite yesterday's post, given devolution is here to stay and I am a pragmatist (some might say opportunist...) I have to (relunctantly) agree with what the short, fat, follically challenged one has to say, summarised succinctly, as ever, by CH on devolution and power sharing.

Accepting devolution also means accepting the bastard-love-child that is STV and embracing the nature of a PR system which includes the quirk of government power brokers being the smaller parties.

And the Scottish Tories are now one of those smaller parties and could be one of those power brokers, if it so chose.

With PR at local government level in Scotland too, power sharing is here to stay and we have to participate in that process or face alienating supporters at all levels.

Surely it's preferable to swallow some pride and see policy enacted compared to the long wait in the political wilderness that is the alternative?

P.S. But I should make it clear that the rest of the article, where he bangs on about an independant party in Scotland, is total crap. He is a trouble maker and in the minoirty.
Of course there are others who share his sentiment. However, firstly, they would never be seen dead on the same platform as Monteith and secondly, they are largely in the background, unwilliing to take a larger role in the day-to-day runnig of the party.

Lib Dem Inconsistency on Greg Dyke vs. Devolution

The idea of a coalition of Tories and Lib Dems to beat Red Ken isn't the worst idea I've heard to unseat someone who manages to appeal to an uunfeasibly broad cross section of London Society. Wrong choice of candidate however in Greg Dyke!

But really, you've got to love the Lib Dems:

Lib Dem chief of staff Ed Davey said the Tory proposal had been "very odd", and may have been against the party's rules.

He said Mr Cameron had proposed the idea of a joint candidate to face Labour incumbent Ken Livingstone in a meeting with Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell.

Mr Davey said: "The people of London should have a full democratic choice on next year's mayoral elections. David Cameron's proposal would have denied that.

bbc.co.uk

What grand hypocrites!

Coalition with Labour at Westminister in the case of a hung parliament wouldn't then?

Or as in Scotland, is it fair that a minority can impose their policies on the majority? Isn't that a a denial of the majority's will?

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Independance all round? No thanks.

This is unbelievable!

An independant Scottish Tory party would collapse.