When it comes to campaigning for the EU referendum, David Cameron has advised Tory MPs to ignore the views of their constituency party and of their local constituents and make up their own minds. Implied in his 'advice' is that they need to consider their future career within the party. Clearly Cameron has already made up his own mind to stay in the EU, and if the referendum is in favour of staying, the implication is that MPs who campaigned in favour of leaving the EU will not see any promotion and could even be deselected for the next General Election when many constituency boundaries are to be changed.
I have never belonged to a political party, until Mrs Thatcher was deposed, I supported the Tories, since when I've become a supporter of UKIP. Looking at the way Cameron expects MPs to treat their constituents and their local party, what would be the point of joining? The local party has very little power or influence; it is allowed to select its prospective parliamentary candidate, but only from a list of prospective candidates put forward by Conservative Headquarters. Exactly what are the benefits of joining the Conservative Party if one doesn't have ambitions to be a politician?
Strange as it might seem, many of our Trade Unions are more democratic. I used to belong to a Union and went to its annual conference on a few occasions. On one occasion, our branch had tabled a motion criticising the National Executive on a particular issue concerning professional engineers. The motion was called to be debated and I was allowed my five minutes on the platform to put forward my branch's views. The matter was duly debated and although we lost, our grievances were fully aired.
Can you imagine that happening at a Conservative party's annual conference? I certainly can't. It is simply a show-piece where the higher-ups in the party tell everyone how well they are doing and why they are doing the right thing, regardless of what members think. Why on earth should anyone want to join an organisation like that? I've never been one for toeing a party line just because I'm told that's what I should do, I like to make my own decisions based on my own conclusions.
Time will tell how many Tory MPs decide to ignore Cameron's 'advice'.
Showing posts with label Tories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tories. Show all posts
Sunday, 7 February 2016
Saturday, 9 May 2015
The General Election
As far as I'm concerned, the General election produced mixed emotions. The Tories won with an acceptable majority, keeping out Labour and its extra taxes on the rich which would be required to fund their promises. I've nothing particular for or against the rich, but if they are to spend their money rather than keep it in a bank vault, it must result in additional employment and jobs either directly as staff or indirectly on purchases. But apart from the so-called mansion tax, the other proposed Labour taxes would end up falling on the ordinary worker. A tax on banks would mean that the banks would seek to make more profit elsewhere, which could mean even lower interest rates (hitting pensioners in particular) or even the end of free banking, as has been mooted from time to time. A landlord tax would do much the same; landlords would either find some way of increasing the rent for any new tenant, or sell-up and pull out of the market. Either way, it is unlikely to be the landlord who would lose out. A tax on non-doms looks attractive, but Labour overlooks the fact that they could equally live in another country, Ireland having made it clear that they would be very welcome. But the big thing, as far as I'm concerned is that both Ed Balls and Vince Cable are out and that the LibDems won't be part of a coalition.
The big disappointment is that UKIP didn't get more seats. The fact that Nigel Farage didn't win in Thanet, I would suggest is due to the effort that the Tories put into the election with almost every Minister visiting the constituency, plus the activities of various left wing organisations who were not standing for election and thus could effectively run riot with false claims about UKIP.
However to my mind, the biggest scandal is our electoral system, which allows a party, which overall collected more votes in the coutry than both the SNP and the LibDems combined, to get only have one MP, whilst Queen Nicola claims the right to tell us all what to do.
It one thing comes out of this election, it should be some electoral reform which ensures the parliamentary representation more closely matches the actual votes cast. One assumes that Cameron will push through the Boundary Commission's report, which the LibDems failed to support in the last parliament, so ending the anomaly of a vote in many cities being worth two in the country. But more than that. Now that Scotland has its own Parliament, and Wales has its own Assembly, there is surely no longer a case for having a disproportionately large number of MPs from these regions. We should be aiming for the situation in a modern democracy like Australia or New Zealand where all constituencies by law must have an electorate within 5% of any other. New Zealand is proposing to do even better and get the figure within 3%.
Other reform must be to ensure that Scottish/Welsh MPs do not have any say on English matters where such matters have been devolved to Scotland/Wales. It is iniquitous that Scotish MPs can come to Westminster and support tuition fess at universities and charges for NHS prescriptions, whilst their fellow members in The Scottish Parliament vote to make them both free in Scotland.
To a cynic like me, Cameron's biggest problem with having an overall majority is that he will have to keep his promises. No longer will he be able to blame the LibDems for preventing him doing something that he had promised!
As for the SNP, I'm sure they will make a lot of noise and hope to be able to tell Cameron what to do. He could simply point out that Labour have more MPs than the SNP which illustrates the relative importance of the SNP in the Union as a whole. As Queen Nicola won't be at Westminster, I would hope that Cameron would have no problem dealing with Alex Salmond who expect to the the leader of the SNP in the Commons.
We could have an interesting time ahead.
The big disappointment is that UKIP didn't get more seats. The fact that Nigel Farage didn't win in Thanet, I would suggest is due to the effort that the Tories put into the election with almost every Minister visiting the constituency, plus the activities of various left wing organisations who were not standing for election and thus could effectively run riot with false claims about UKIP.
However to my mind, the biggest scandal is our electoral system, which allows a party, which overall collected more votes in the coutry than both the SNP and the LibDems combined, to get only have one MP, whilst Queen Nicola claims the right to tell us all what to do.
It one thing comes out of this election, it should be some electoral reform which ensures the parliamentary representation more closely matches the actual votes cast. One assumes that Cameron will push through the Boundary Commission's report, which the LibDems failed to support in the last parliament, so ending the anomaly of a vote in many cities being worth two in the country. But more than that. Now that Scotland has its own Parliament, and Wales has its own Assembly, there is surely no longer a case for having a disproportionately large number of MPs from these regions. We should be aiming for the situation in a modern democracy like Australia or New Zealand where all constituencies by law must have an electorate within 5% of any other. New Zealand is proposing to do even better and get the figure within 3%.
Other reform must be to ensure that Scottish/Welsh MPs do not have any say on English matters where such matters have been devolved to Scotland/Wales. It is iniquitous that Scotish MPs can come to Westminster and support tuition fess at universities and charges for NHS prescriptions, whilst their fellow members in The Scottish Parliament vote to make them both free in Scotland.
To a cynic like me, Cameron's biggest problem with having an overall majority is that he will have to keep his promises. No longer will he be able to blame the LibDems for preventing him doing something that he had promised!
As for the SNP, I'm sure they will make a lot of noise and hope to be able to tell Cameron what to do. He could simply point out that Labour have more MPs than the SNP which illustrates the relative importance of the SNP in the Union as a whole. As Queen Nicola won't be at Westminster, I would hope that Cameron would have no problem dealing with Alex Salmond who expect to the the leader of the SNP in the Commons.
We could have an interesting time ahead.
Friday, 6 June 2014
Newark
The Conservatives won the Newark by-election with a much reduced majority and the Tories are shouting about it being a great defeat of UKIP.
Now I don't believe anyone except the most incorrigible optimist expected UKIP to win a seat where the Tories had a 16,00o majority at the last election. But for the upstarts at UKIP to cut that majority by more than half to 7000 is, however you look at it, a great achievement. The Conservatives threw everything they had at the seat, nearly all their ministers visited Newark, all prospective Tory candidates visited Newark under pain of de-selection, and all local Tory Councillors were told to get canvassing.
It was said that this Newark was the 44th safest seat for the Tories and in that they have 305 MPs, this would suggest that there are 261 seats which are less safe. I wonder how the MPs in some of those seats are feeling about this great Tory victory!
UKIP are here to stay, they are steadily getting more organised, weeding out the more extreme fruitcakes, and getting their candidates and spokespersons "on message". To some extent, their future is determined by what happens within the EU; Will the EU select arch-federalist such as Jean-Claude Juncker as their President?; Will the EU courts continue to interfere with UK justice? Time will tell!
Meanwhile, as far as I am concerned the best news was that LibDems were beaten by both the Greens and an Independent Candidate and they lost their deposit.
All things considered, not a bad result!
Now I don't believe anyone except the most incorrigible optimist expected UKIP to win a seat where the Tories had a 16,00o majority at the last election. But for the upstarts at UKIP to cut that majority by more than half to 7000 is, however you look at it, a great achievement. The Conservatives threw everything they had at the seat, nearly all their ministers visited Newark, all prospective Tory candidates visited Newark under pain of de-selection, and all local Tory Councillors were told to get canvassing.
It was said that this Newark was the 44th safest seat for the Tories and in that they have 305 MPs, this would suggest that there are 261 seats which are less safe. I wonder how the MPs in some of those seats are feeling about this great Tory victory!
UKIP are here to stay, they are steadily getting more organised, weeding out the more extreme fruitcakes, and getting their candidates and spokespersons "on message". To some extent, their future is determined by what happens within the EU; Will the EU select arch-federalist such as Jean-Claude Juncker as their President?; Will the EU courts continue to interfere with UK justice? Time will tell!
Meanwhile, as far as I am concerned the best news was that LibDems were beaten by both the Greens and an Independent Candidate and they lost their deposit.
All things considered, not a bad result!
Sunday, 24 March 2013
Power Shortage
It has been known for a good few years, even whilst Labour was still in power, that our electricity generating capacity was on a knife's edge in cold weather. I think it was about three years ago when I was told by a colleague who worked in the industry that there was almost a total blackout over parts of the country when some major generating plant failed; fortunately, some plant elsewhere became available ahead of schedule following repair and disaster was narrowly avoided. Since then, in spite of all the trivial measures put in place such as forcing us to have "energy-saving" lamps, demand has continued to rise both due to the increasing population and the extra electrical devices in our homes. Meanwhile, in order to conform to EU diktats and the fantasies of the "Greens", Didcot power station is being closed down, although it is still capable of service for many more years, because it doesn't meet emission requirements.
Such new power stations as we have, or could be built in a hurry, are gas fired, although these too are under attack from the zealots. But there is a major snag here, gas supplies are running out. We were told yesterday that there was a mere 35 hours of gas supplies left in storage in this country.
It is clear from this that this government is failing in one of its primary duties to the people of this country, that is to ensure that the country has adequate energy supplies. They have ploughed millions of our money into windmills, yet the whole lot combined, if they are all working, still don't provide enough electricity to replace that lost by the closure of Didcot. The gas supply situation is similar. The "Greens" have opposed any new major storage units and are vehemently opposed to fracking which could be our salvation. And as for nuclear, in spite of it being one of the greenest methods of generation, well forget it!
Meanwhile, figures indicate that there have been an estimated 4,000 extra deaths in just five weeks as compared with the same period over the past five years, largely due the wintry conditions. If we have any major power cuts, this figure could rise dramatically.
I believe that if we have any significant outages of electricity or gas, it will be the end of the Tory party for many years. People are prepared to tolerate cuts when they are due to industrial action, as has happened in the past, or unforeseen natural causes, but, whilst a cold March might be unusual, it is not an unforeseen possibility. What people are not prepared to tolerate is incompetence, and any major power cuts in peacetime can generally be regarded as incompetence. It is the Tories who will get the blame, not the Greens, and it is the Tories who will suffer as they will have failed in one of their basic duties as a government.
Such new power stations as we have, or could be built in a hurry, are gas fired, although these too are under attack from the zealots. But there is a major snag here, gas supplies are running out. We were told yesterday that there was a mere 35 hours of gas supplies left in storage in this country.
It is clear from this that this government is failing in one of its primary duties to the people of this country, that is to ensure that the country has adequate energy supplies. They have ploughed millions of our money into windmills, yet the whole lot combined, if they are all working, still don't provide enough electricity to replace that lost by the closure of Didcot. The gas supply situation is similar. The "Greens" have opposed any new major storage units and are vehemently opposed to fracking which could be our salvation. And as for nuclear, in spite of it being one of the greenest methods of generation, well forget it!
Meanwhile, figures indicate that there have been an estimated 4,000 extra deaths in just five weeks as compared with the same period over the past five years, largely due the wintry conditions. If we have any major power cuts, this figure could rise dramatically.
I believe that if we have any significant outages of electricity or gas, it will be the end of the Tory party for many years. People are prepared to tolerate cuts when they are due to industrial action, as has happened in the past, or unforeseen natural causes, but, whilst a cold March might be unusual, it is not an unforeseen possibility. What people are not prepared to tolerate is incompetence, and any major power cuts in peacetime can generally be regarded as incompetence. It is the Tories who will get the blame, not the Greens, and it is the Tories who will suffer as they will have failed in one of their basic duties as a government.
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