[tories for 2010] cameron does not impress the less committed

Everybody will probably be blogging on the issue of the North South divide, covered in the Telegraph today.

All this blog has said about the paucity of party politics in the UK is not relevant in the short term, for the simple reason that the paradigm is hardly likely to shift before the next general election. Most pundits say the real changes will start after that.

Meanwhile:

This blog has consistently held, for example here but take your pick of posts, that David Cameron is a liability for the Tories and as a Tory in the north, I am quite concerned.

I'm not sure what they think further south - maybe the clearer air up here helps but I can tell you that all Tories I speak with are concerned and that is not through any leading question from me. My question is usually, "Will the Tories win?" or "What do you think of David Cameron?"

The feeling is that he is a Blair clone, adjusting his policies to suit the changing political climate and whatever will gain votes. Now, we all know that all politicans do that but this is so blatant that it gets noticed. The Telegraph says [no doubt you've already read it]:

A geographical divide also showed that Labour still polled better in the North, with only 33 per cent of voters backing the Tories compared with 35 per cent backing Labour. With few Tory gains expected in Scotland and only marginally more in Wales, Mr Cameron needs to improve his standing outside the South to secure a majority that would enable the Conservatives to govern comfortably.

So far, in the middle of what is perceived up here as the Nu-Labour debacle, those who might have voted Tory [small parties don't have a great standing this far north] feel, as the Telegraph says:

While the headline figures still showed a comfortable Tory lead of 13 points over Labour, the poll, carried out for The Daily Telegraph, disclosed uncertainty among voters over the party’s policies. Nearly two thirds of those questioned were unconvinced about whether there was substance behind Mr Cameron’s words. More than half agreed that it was hard to know what the Tories stood for at the moment.

Rhetoric and making punches land at the despatch box at PMQs may be important in better economic times, when Westminster is not reeling from scandal and self-aggrandizement issues but in the current climate, it cuts very little ice. While David Cameron plays the Westminster game to the hilt, to the delight of the Westminster debate lovers in the south, it means precious little to those on the brink of job loss or who have lost pensions.

What these people want is rock solid, clear policies, outlined one-two-three-four and no ambiguity please. Instead, what they seem to be getting is generalizations like, "Brown's responsible for the mess, which we'll clean up." We know Brown is the one at fault, we don't need to be told that. We do need to be told, in terms of costed proposals, precisely what Cameron intends to do about this situation.

As for traditional Labour voters, many will still vote Labour, considering that they're voting for the "old" Labour. This feeling has been heightened by the rumours that Brown will be replaced shortly before the general election and if a leader acceptable to Old Labour gets in, Cameron will have his work cut out.

Adding to this is the UKIP and LPUK, both who have the capacity to hit hard in the south. I do not consider, as David Cameron himself has pointed out, that this next general election is by any means in the bag.

What should Tory voters and bloggers do?

For a start, it's all very well calling me, for example, a traitor to the Tories but I am still a voter and the Tories need all our votes. Many are disgruntled with the leader and others are papering up the cracks and calling for loyalty, calling for support for a leader who just doesn't cut it. A leader is never going to be 100% supported and I agree that once the party makes a decision, then there needs to be a time during which he can expect loyalty.

However, if the choice was SO wrong that the chances of a Tory victory are diminished substantially or if he has failed to impress over a long period of time, then something must be done and done quickly. Remember, it is not the party faithful or the dyed-in-the-wool voter who is important here. It is the swinging voter, the semi-Tory who's thinking out his position who is critical.

And I'm telling you that this sort of voter is not happy with a government led by David Cameron.

There will come a time when bloggers like me will have to shut up, for loyalty's sake - probably New Year's Eve. But for now, this issue which won't go away will need to be addressed by the Tories and addressed quickly.

[westminster] why labour could well be returned

Back to more mundane things and there's a storm brewing in the party political sphere.

1. Those who can see beyond party politics see that the EU is poised to pounce once Irish Lisbon 2 is passed, which they are obviously confident will be signed, otherwise, they would not have pressed for it. What is meant by pounce?

Regionalization of course, with the regional assemblies already in place. It matters not that the country rejected it last time, it's a fait accompli even now and EU money goes to the regions as a first priority. On top of that, it's aided and abetted from the ODPM via Common Purpose.

So, in other words, that is ready to go but it also needs the population to be fed up to the back teeth of Westminster politics, in order to usher in the new devolution, only partially at first, with no ostensible loss of sovereignty. The idea is that Westminster is scandal riddled, e.g. the expenses scandal, Brown's incompetence and Cameron's ineffectual Westminster club games. The EU will fix the mess.

2. Into this steps Dan Hannan who is virtually the only pollie, apart from David Davis and possibly John Redwood, [forgive me if I've left a few out], speaking for the small "c" conservative, the conservative libertarian small government type.

Now, a glance at the UKIP, LPUK and a major section of the Tories shows that these people are not, in general, numpties. In other words, this side of politics is far more likely to fragment and split off, while the Labour numpties will continue to vote for them no matter what state they get the country into.

Therefore, ignoring the by-elections, which have always been protest votes and don't really correspond to general election results, the Labour vote is going to be, on the day, fairly stable. As the voting system is first past the post, it matters not whether they have 22% of the vote if no other party gets more than that.

Right, you say, the conservative vote is considerably more than that at present.

Yes it is - at present. However, in steps Dan Hannan and as Harry Hook says:

I can't figure out whether he's being naively open, shrewd, or just has a death wish. Nonetheless... Dan's got some guts... as well as brains.

Everyone knows he is shooting from the hip and has now invoked Enoch, which is a particular trigger that certain conservatives are not averse to. David Cameron does not really know what to do with him. If he follows Brown's goading and disciplines Hannan, the question is - for what? There are many disgruntled Tories and these sorts of buzzwords start people thinking.

Therefore, Cameron does nothing but that doesn't look good in pro-Cameron Tory eyes. Possibly nothing untoward would happen before the election and Hannan would be spoken to by those inside - therefore collective responsibility reigns and the Tories come to power.

If it were to be handled badly though, Hannan would have no choice but to move out and sitting there are the UKIP and LPUK which, though the policies have differences, might be galvanized by someone of Hannan's stature representing the small "c" conservatives. It would represent the best chance for the smaller parties to find an accommodation anyway - don't forget that FPTP is no good for small parties.

If Hannan left, there'd be quite an exodus of thinking conservatives, even though no one is so far the recipient of hero worship - it's not Nu-Labour and Blair, with it's gaggle of Babes - that he could count on leading some new united party. Therefore, the split in the right wing ranks plays right into Labour's hands and they might just cross the line ahead at the general election.

That would be unthinkable for all the non-numpties out there in Britland but it is a possibility, aggravated by a devolved Scotland and partially devolved Wales plus ... and this is the big plus ... the EU Monster waiting in the background to pick up the pieces.

3. You can reject this thesis, of course but one thing I think you can't deny is that 2010 will be volatile and Britain will once again become interesting to the world, politically.

And don't forget the Parliament for England campaign.

Tuesday [12 to 17]

(1247) Afternoon all … already. (1312)

17.  DAD at NOWP 

“The great replacement is a far-right conspiracy theory.”

Here a Portuguese man walks around Lisbon and shows how the city has been taken over by foreigners.

16.  IYE

According to this, Vivek is off.

BREAKING: Vivek Ramaswamy is dropping out of the 2024 presidential race. 

https://t.co/RVgOKA2ja9

— NBC News (@NBCNews)

(All the Vivek news across the way.)

15.  Evets is up

https://nourishingobscurity.wordpress.com/2024/01/15/reader-drops-554/comment-page-1/#comment-7924

14.  MftWC four

a.  Entire Ukrainian units refuse to follow orders of their commanders (Video)

https://southfront.press/in-video-entire-ukrainian-units-refuse-to-follow-orders-of-their-commanders/

b.  Battlefield Ukraine - Update, Red Sea Crisis, Maldives vs India, Russian uranium in the USA, Davos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRAUWytGSqI

c.  Heated standoff on frostbitten frontlines in [The] Ukraine

https://southfront.press/heated-standoff-on-frostbitten-frontlines-in-ukraine/

d.  Two Russian aircraft came under attack over the sea of Azov – Report

https://southfront.press/two-russian-aircraft-came-under-attack-over-the-sea-of-azov-report/

e.  US Lured Into Battlescape in Gaza, Yemen and now Iraq - Judge Napolitano | Alastair Crooke

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gXBVErwS18

f.  US military conducts dangerous experiments with prohibited viruses

https://southfront.press/us-military-conducts-dangerous-experiments-with-prohibited-viruses/

13.  Ian J

Two from RT on how the UK 'gov't' thinks we still have an empire. 

I didn't know we had all those military resources - why can't we use them to defend our own border?

a. "UK to send 20,000 troops to NATO war games"

"the Defence Ministry in London, citing excerpts from a speech to be delivered by Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, said that some 16,000 army troops – along with tanks, artillery, and helicopters – will join other bloc members on the continent to participate in Exercise Steadfast Defender 24, scheduled to take place in the first half of this year."

"The effort will be supported by eight warships and submarines, as well as 2,000 Royal Navy sailors. The UK will also deploy a number of aircraft, including F35B Lightning fighters and Poseidon P8 surveillance aircraft, the ministry said."

"Meanwhile, Shapps is expected to call the drill “one of NATO’s largest deployments since the end of the Cold War,” adding that the UK and its allies have found themselves “in a new era” and “must be prepared to deter our enemies,” according to the statement. The statement specifically referred to the threat from the Russian “menace.”

https://www.rt.com/news/590682-uk-exercises-europe-russia/

b. Is it 'Bomber' Cameron who is the terrorist?

"British Foreign Secretary David Cameron's experience of launching airstrikes against Libya, Syria and Iraq while he was prime minister helped him manage the UK's most recent attacks against the Houthis in Yemen"

"Cameron reportedly helped assemble the group that struck nearly 30 sites in Yemen, using over 150 bombs, along with Defense Secretary Grant Shapps and Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden, a senior US official told the outlet." 

"The Foreign Secretary, once the UK's candidate to be head of NATO, reportedly took “full part” in meetings and coordinated with his US counterpart Secretary of State Antony Blinken “on a regular basis.”"

https://www.rt.com/news/590596-cameron-bombs-again/

12.  Steve

He's a force of nature, The Donald, and this one has the sense to see it:

Vivek Ramaswamy drops out of race, endorses Trump

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zENAMNTpEo0&t=3s

[pm] increasingly likely to be cameron

I wish we could get some hard information. James Cleverly said, a few days ago: I questioned the result of a Mori poll which put Gordon Brown ahead of David Cameron; it just didn't fit with anything that I am hearing on the doorstep. It seems from this Guardian poll I wasn't wrong. Today the Telegraph is running with: David Cameron has moved decisively ahead of Gordon Brown as favourite to lead the next government. It would have to be so. One’s gut instinct says it will be Cameron.

[frustration part 1] the common man

I'm a common man. Whether or not Guthrum the Old considers himself as such, and I think he does, he was moved to post this:

I want my political leaders to be statesmen/women, to have substance, gravitas and a commitment to Liberty, Democracy and an end to ingrained privilege. Not to rely on the smoke and mirrors of stunt and spin, for the sake of power itself.

Men and women with vision are thin on the ground at present.

A new alignment is needed. It has taken since 1934 for the SNP to catch the mood of Scotland, I cannot afford seventy three years for a change in the rot that is Westminster.

A Bill of Rights Now, A written Constitution Now and an English Parliament Now.

One can feel the frustration behind this outburst of a moderate man exasperated and yet, even in this will be disagreement amongst us about the SNP, the Bill of Rights and so on.

The essential and dismaying problem is that this quite legitimate cry for substance and gravitas does not take into account realpolitik. Blair, Brown and Cameron are in the driving seat and none impress. There's good reason.

For a long time, Britain's leaders have been groomed by interests within Europe and not just in Britain:

Former U.S. president Bill Clinton spoke at a Bilderberg conference a year before his election victory, as did British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Former prime ministers Paul Martin, Jean Chretien and Pierre Trudeau also made Bilderberg appearances.

The current chairman, Belgian politician and businessman Etienne Davignon, says the steering committee that organizes the annual get-togethers is excellent at spotting talent.

Is it any wonder Blair is so Europhile, given those who groomed these Scots to run Britain:

"Brown is not passionate about Europe, but because of it, he will be able to get further in Brussels than someone so outwardly messianic about it like Blair," said Hugo Brady of the Centre for European Reform

Like people in key positions in education where if you're not a PC leftist you don't get in, Canada's, the U.S.'s and Britain's education has gone down the gurgler and with it, society:

...the catastrophe that has been visited upon children by moral relativism at home, and multiculturalism in the schools. Two books published just recently, were written by former '60s radicals, pushed right by the terrible plight of kids, and (spare me the invective from the union hate mail tree) by the sheer backwards idiocy that informs the teachers' unions. The Epidemic: the Rot of American Culture, Absentee and Permissive Parenting, and the Resultant Plague of Joyless, Selfish Children did not hail from some right-wing think-tank; it is written by Robert Shaw, a psychiatrist who practices in Berkeley, Calif...

And so on - good article, by the way. And in the same way, if you're not of a certain ilk re Europe, you don't get the top job either. Cameron is Euro-sceptic. Oh really?

His change of position, confirmed by a spokesman for William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary, has infuriated Tory Right-wingers who voted for Mr Cameron to lead the party because of his strong Eurosceptic campaign.

The truth is that no leader who looks likely to get near the reins of power is going to cross certain elements in Europe, whatever froth and bubble they are currently uttering. Only the weak and malleable get in. They're rubber men [and women].

It has always been so, this malaise, before the strong man cometh. Buchanan and the era of the weak, compromising president pre-Lincoln, The Weimar Republic, Chirac and the malaise of France and currently Britain - it's no accident. It's the game plan of very nasty people in the corridors of power.

The people clamour, like Guthrum the Old, for a return to "decency". There is no decency here. Cameron has no answer - he is more of the same. So who's being groomed in the wings? The post neoclassical endogenous growth theoretical Ed Balls? David Milliband? Some sort of Obama Barak? I'd love to see the Bilderbergers' last guest list.

But why? For what to do this to society?" 1984 gives part of the answer and Ephesians 6:12 gives the rest.

Sunday [2 to 5]

Morning all.

5.  Evets 2

a.  [The] Ukraine:

Whose Grain Is Being Shipped from Ukraine? America’s GMO Agribusiness Giants to Take Control of Ukraine Farmland

https://www.globalresearch.ca/whose-grain-being-shipped-from-ukraine/5790604

b.  I Took A Liberal, Anti-War Protestor To See The Truth In Donbass, And This Happened!

https://www.bitchute.com/video/Y5CAEeHY1SVn/

c.  Erdogan, Zelensky and UN's Guterres meet in Lvov. Erdogan comes out winner. Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpG-s2XzxbA

d.  Of interest:

With The Chemical Imbalance Myth Exposed, That’s Not All Psychiatry Got Wrong

https://healthimpactnews.com/2022/with-the-chemical-imbalance-myth-exposed-thats-not-all-psychiatry-got-wrong/

Evets 3 and 4

https://nourishingobscurity.wordpress.com/2022/08/19/admin-page-166-for-readers/comment-page-1/#comment-3717

4. The rise of and blighting of society by …

… the most useless waste of oxygen, criminally insane, shrill, anti-human bunch of ex-human, ex-woman aberrations, making Pol Pot seem a saint:

https://thepostmillennial.com/summer-of-love-mayor-jenny-durkan-being-investigated-by-seattle-police-over-missing-communications-during-2020-riots%20

Current poster demi-female is that cow masquerading as PM in Finland.  And no, I don’t hate ‘her’ per se, I just want her/it stopped from doing more damage.

At the same time, we’re seeing the speaking out by first rate women around the west, thank the Lord, because it seems to me that only good women can stop these other aberrations.

3.  Snippets, memes, bits and pieces

https://citizenfreepress.com/breaking/leftists-are-proud-of-rigging-2020-election/

2.  Reasons Cameron needs charging, trying and executing

It [C&U party] historically took a socially conservative approach, but its social policy has become more liberal, evidenced by the legalisation of same-sex “marriage” under the Conservative–Liberal Democrat Cameron-Clegg coalition in 2014, the lifting of the ban on women in combat roles in the military in 2016 under the Cameron government … and much more.

Plus his penchant for pig sex.

[blogfocus wednesday] fishy stories

The common thread linking these excellent bloggers, as you'd be aware, is fish. Fish are part of our life, our heritage, they're the chips' best friends. So without any further ado, read on, fish lovers:

1. Wat Tyler shows through this quote that, even in the world of finance, fish may lurk surreptitiously:

£87m pa on MPs' fishtanks and iPods - "MEMBERS of parliament are using their taxpayer-funded expense accounts to buy iPods, plasma screen televisions and even, in one case, a fish tank, insiders allege. Finance administrators have been approving a wide array of executive gadgets despite widespread public concern about abuses of the parliamentary expenses system. MPs routinely claim thousands of pounds a year without having to produce receipts or other evidence that they have made any purchases...

2. Alice has also had to negotiate fish tanks, an educational tool, it seems:

I’ve had a four foot fish tank lurking in my kitchen for a couple of years now. There must be a lot of energy involved in making a fish tank, from the manufacture of the glass and the glue to the transport involved in getting it all from source to manufacturer to retailer to my flat, so I didn’t want to just throw it away without first applying “The Four Rs” as best I could.

The Four Rs are principles to put into practice as often as possible to avoid creating unnecessary waste, and they stand (depending on who you ask) for Reduce, Repair, Reuse and Recycle. Applying these principles to a large fish tank is proving pretty difficult, especially as I try to organise its final transport to fish tank heaven in a responsible way.

3. Tony Sharp finds the analogy of fish useful in illustrating political tactics:

Cameron, I believe, could have made the changes the party needed in presentation without departing from our traditional ground. This is why I believe so many in the party are upset and frustrated at his tactics and execution. We have been letting Labour off the hook. Why go fishing in deep water when the shoal has finally come into your own shallows? Why stay out in the deep water when you can see a rival fleet has followed the shoal into your waters and is hauling the fish in with huge nets? The Tory approach needs to sharpen up rapidly.

4. There is clearly some connection between David Cameron and fish, as the Norfolk Blogger attests:

I see Dave is planning permits for producers of fatty foods. Read about it HERE. I always read and hear Tories going on about "the nanny state", but this is obsessive. Having a permit for fatty foods is hardly going to endear Mr Cameron to fish and chip shop owners in Glasgow who have been known to deep fry Mars bars. I guess though that the Tories have few votes to lose there !

5. Richard Havers takes a musical approach to our finned friends from the deep with this piece on Memphis Minnie:

Minnie also tackled crime, voodoo, trains, health and the perennial blues subject - chickens! Minnie was constantly touring, playing jukes and fish fries, which certainly helped in maintaining her popularity. She stayed in touch with her audience, singing about what they both knew, and understood. The lady who was at the forefront of transforming the Blues into ‘Pop Music’ continued to record up until 1954.

6. Blognor Regis is not satisfied with any ordinary fish - oh no - he has to have a snoek:

I mentioned 'snoek' last weekend, and now look: A new word entered the vocabulary - snoek, a fish from South Africa, vaguely tasting of mackerel. Ten million tins went onto the shelves, and the Ministry of Food publicised eight snoek recipes, including one with salad called "snoek piquante". I've already read plenty about the era bit I'm still tempted.

7. Trixy leaves us in no doubt that fish and my beloved Tories are somehow connected - perhaps they swim against the tide?

Fish are scaley and odd colours. Still, as much as I don't particularly like them, they aren't anywhere near as slimey as Tory politicians! I grant you, many of the other denominations are bad - but their hypocracy never fails to astound me. The reason I mentioned fish was because this new gut wrenching Tory comment is about fish, fishing, the Common Fisheries Policy and a stable. At least, that's what the Shetland box sounds like.

8. Mopsa winds up the evening with the revelation that fish are basically childish:

My oldest friend (not as in aged, but as in I've known her longer than any other friend) came to the farm for the first time and spent the weekend here. It was grey and it rained, but we chirped and chirruped and chortled and chatted and totally reverted to the girls we once were. The old nick names and fish-lips face contortions were greedily adopted and enjoyed again and luckily this time I refrained from wetting my pants under the duress of hysterical laughter plus full bladder combo.

Croydonian, Charlie Marks and Heraklites had nothing whatsoever to say about fish but Celia Green did. And on that note, a very good night to you all and see you on Saturday after your fish supper.

[blogfocus saturday] disagreeing with the britblogger

The idea and it's not a very good one, is to take Britbloggers this evening [North Americans will be on Wednesday and Rest of the World the following Saturday] and to disagree with them in this olive-coloured post.

Yes … well I said it wasn't a very good idea. Anyway, see how you go:

1. CityUnslicker, who incidentally is leaving his humble abode [in the pic above], is a fine operator in finance and a top blogger to boot and he took me to task for talking down the banks. Now he posts this:

On the other hand, as the deposits are withdrawn and the Bank continues to struggle to raise finance in the stalled credit markets, the situation gets worse. With no money to lend for new mortgages and loans the whole system seizes up. If I was a pensioner with all my savings in Northern Rock then I would be there today getting my money out.

2. I don't think Juliet has completely got the idea of pigeons - they're for looking at and feeding, Julie:

Hmm...another racing pigeon has arrived...yesterday. British bird, different rings, not so grand...they are hanging out together. Maybe I should invest in a pigeon loft. What's wrong with their radar systems? They had better watch out -there will soon be enough of them to make a pie. :-)

3. Steve Green, at Daily Referendum, is annoyed at the sniping at David Cameron, of which I am one of the main exponents, wanting the Tories to have some sort of chance at the next election:

One of the main criticisms aimed a David Cameron is that he does not appeal to the common man. Well let's dissolve this myth once and for all: I'm the common man, I'm a life long Labour supporter from Barnsley S.Yorks. I'm working class and was raised by a single parent. I'm in my thirties, I'm married with three kids and I'm an home owner. I earn around about the average wage - a little more with overtime. But I don't see a toff when David Cameron speaks at the dispatch box, I see a man with a professional air and a vehement desire to see this country back on the right track.

4. Tony Sharp agrees with Steve about the sort of terrible thing I'm saying:

These critics are mainly people who are very focused on one or two specific issues they care passionately about. That is great. People should be energised by issues. But they seem incapable of seeing the big picture and realising that an opposition party leader has to have a starting position on a wide range of issues that are interconnected and realistic and from where change can be implemented.

5. The LibDem Norfolk Blogger, Nich Starling, has it in for people who abuse NHS staff. I have to take issue with Nich - I'd fine or incarcerate them:

The Norman Lamb, the Lib Dems health spokesman, has suggested that abusive drunks should be charged for their NHS treatment. Yes, I would go even further and given the NHS the right to charge for treatment and even remove treatment from those people who are violent, racist or verbally abusive to NHS staff who are performing their duties. Nurses, cleaners, porters and doctors deserve more protection.

6. Now the idea of this Focus was for me to disagree with the bloggers but I've scoured this post by the Phoenix-like Morningstar and I'll be damned if I can find anythng to disagree with:

For every statesman like statement you make showing how valuable it is to be in the EU, I can find one to push every little Englander button an Englishman has. I’ll just start by showing how much it costs to be in the EU through taxes and how little that buys us, then I’ll move on to every ridiculous law that has been passed down by people we didn’t elect, then I’ll head on to the EU accounts that haven’t been signed off for years because of the endemic fraud and how much that costs this country a year.

7. Now I have to take issue with Heraklites over ontology:

However, all the above points are somewhat incidental to the issue typically at stake when the Thatcher quote is discussed. Reactions to it are more often concerned with a different matter altogether: that of whether ontological or moral priority should be given to the individual over the social group. In other words, the argument is really about the conflict between political individualism and communitarianism.

And my metaphysical issue with Heraklites? That this superb blogger has not posted since September 3rd and therefore he isn't.

8. L'Ombre de l"Olivier is forever on about olives and anyway, why can't I visit his fabulous archives if I want to?

A little tree I found on the Ile de Porquerolles today [see below right]. What I find interesting is that such a little tree - it was no more than 5 foot/1.5 m high - has quite a lot of olives on it. Interestingly many of the "grown up" trees around it were distinctly lacking in olives. As always, you can click on the image to see it larger and you are invited to visit the olive tree blogging archives if you're a new reader.

Waiting for Beaman to post something super-duper so I can include him but until then, see you Wednesday for our North American friends. Cheers.

UPDATE: Check the Battle of Britain post below.

The cold, dark heart of the British public

Matthew Parris writes:

What Jeremy Corbyn, like David Cameron, understands about the cold, dark heart of the British public - leave compassion to journalists and Lib Dems. Voters want a dash of acid.

Oh yes, I can relate to that and so, it seems, can the "cold-hearted" British public:

I think Mr Parris is on to something. When the little boy refugee was found drowned on a beach in Greece, the media tugged hearstrings for the plight of all refugees. But I found a much colder attitude amonst people I knew. There was universal sadness that such a small child should suffer such a tragic fate, but that sadness did not translate to a willingness to be open armed to every refugee. Rather, the sadness was offset by questions about why the family left a safe location in Turkey, the responsibility of that family, and the responsibilitry of the people smugglers. I do not think this is new - the British have always been a less emotional, more pragmatic, more realistic, people than, say, some continentals. Whether Jeremy Corbyn, champion of the underdog, will connect to this realism is another matter - I doubt it.

[nationhood] like trying to define love

From the Royal Palace of Westminster

Take six terms at random: England, Britain, the British Isles, Ireland Great Britain, the United Kingdom, and you'll get as many points of view.

Simplistically, I see a whole lot of islands called the British Isles, including two big ones - Britain and Ireland. Within Britain are three nations - England, Scotland and Wales. Within the other are two disputed political entities. The last two on the list above are political expressions of differing conjunctions of nations throughout history.

The main problem is with the terms Britain [a geographical term for the big island] and British. Yes - what on earth does British mean? It would be churlish not to recognize the contribution of the member nations to the British Empire of Victorian times and churlish not to recognize the present Commonwealth nations as part of that empire. But these latter are also late entries to the family.

Even here, surely, there is a distinction between Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians and South Africans and all the other nations, not least in the manner in which they were set up in the first place.

Even within the home countries, there is a mess. Ireland is divided, the Scots are Highland, Lowland and Islanders; the Welsh are North and South, as is England. Even in the North, a Lancastrian is not a Yorkshireman.

Prodicus noted:

A town is too small. A continent is too big and lacks tribal or quasi-familial bonds strong enough to hold it together - an empire likewise.

What he doesn't touch on is the large county which was formerly a state - that can be a difficult entity to define. However, running through all this are "common values" and was there ever a vaguer term than that?

And yet it binds disparate elements. Also, every town which has a Boots or Tescos and drab architecture is part of the whole, from Brighton to Aberdeen, a whole which cannot be adequately defined. But say "Scottish" and it's readily defined. Say "Wales" and it's fairly clear, give or take a few miles. Say "England" and it is a variable distance out from London, bound by a single language.

Gordon Brown believes that 'sharing British values' makes one British. Prodicus comments:

I find it hard to distinguish between these allegedly British values and the values of most people of conscience living in the world's (more or less) liberal democracies …

Brown is a Scot and the two leaders in waiting, Cameron* and Fox are Scots, so therefore the politicians need to talk up Britishness to justify their intrusion into matters English in Westminster. But beyond that is an agenda, a Marxist agenda which has never gone away and has an EU face.

Prodicus again:

Abolition of the nation is necessary for Marxism because allegiance to one's own nation is inimical to Marxism's unfocused allegiance to an amorphous grouping such as 'everybody on the planet except the bourgeois'.

So the customs and closely allied - values - need to be diluted or abandoned and one of the ways to do that is to resort to the vague sense of "Britishness" which at once is all-inclusive, multi-cultural, EU friendly and lays the foundations for rule from overseas, through local faces.

This is precisely what the Christie quote here was all about. Prodicus notes again:

Customs are a core element in a nation's identity. They are vital to the group cohesion. Destroy them and you have damaged the nation's sense of itself, jeopardising its inhabitants' inclination to defend themselves as a group - as a nation.

But what if some bastardized, jingoistic vestige of customs which do not threaten the uber-state are left in palce to placate the people and only real customs and values are quietly eradicated?

Sackerson noted about Brown's appeal to values:

[O]ur new Prime Minister's latest proposal: a motto for the country, to show our "values". He is pretending that it has escaped his notice that we have one: Dieu Et Mon Droit. All part of airbrushing out the Monarchy, I assume.

Two concepts which have become well-nigh anathema over the last few decades and as Prodicus adds:

This … is a central aim of Marxist theory, and it has been dreadfully successful in England in the 20th century, more so than in any other nation I can think of.

In his view there is still hope:

Nations are essentially tribal - and they will not be suppressed. One cannot make a nation - or remake it - by artifice.

I'd like to believe this but it's probably going to mean a tenacious hold on Englishness [one reason I like Boris, born in New York] and Scottishness and Irishness and Welshness but the former is the least easily defined and therefore more easily put upon by Britishness but still, it must be done.

Creeping humanistic socialism believes it has already killed off G-d but the belief in nation is still clung to in both England [and France] and hasn't yet been wholly smothered.

* David Cameron - His father was born at Blairmore House near Huntly, Aberdeenshire. The Cameron family were originally from the Inverness area of the Scottish Highlands.

[boris johnson] and the sound of breaking glass

Note the Bullingdon eyes. This is one aristocratic Rottweiler of a candidate.

Just a few words on Boris Johnson's former club:

‘I like the sound of breaking glass’ is one of the Bullingdon society’s mottos and particularly true of one member who, at L’Ortolan in Berkshire, took it upon himself to eat his wine glass rather than his Michelin starred meal. At another infamous Bullingdon garden party, the club invited a string band to play and proceeded to destroy all of the instruments, including a Stradivarius.

Harry Mount, George Osborne, Alan Clark, Lord Bath, David Dimbleby, Boris Johnson and "it has recently emerged", the Tories’ man of the people, David Cameron, were trained to the pressures of fame by the champagne quaffing, bellicose Bullingdon.

Cameron was a member of the club at a time when it was de rigeur to engage in the ‘man of the people’ pursuits of washing down “a cocktail of drugs with an honest, working class box of chips and a five pound bottle of wine”.

The boys at Asadodo put it like this:

So irresponsible was the Bullingdon indeed, that to this day those invited to join the Club's 20-strong membership are welcomed by having their rooms trashed (something which, admittedly, many students are capable of achieving without the aid of some chinless types in dinner dress) and then required to book a private room at a local establishment where the Club's members can drink themselves into near insensibility before reducing the room to a state where it would look far from out of place in Central Baghdad.

Compare this to Lady Ellee of Ely's take on Boris:

The reason I like Boris Johnson is because he is obviously very intelligent (and I have a weakness for brainy men), and the way he tends to smile and charm his way through life, through his various gaffes. At the end of the day, we know he is not perfect, but then who is? Ken Livingstone, perhaps?

Who said the female of the species doesn't have a weakness for the "bad boy"? And Ellee is 100% right about Red Ken.

Now whilst my own youth was spent, with the lads, starting forest fires, smashing milk bottles on doorsteps, taking harpoons to parties, creating crop circles of beer bottles in forest clearings around the fire, marrying girls I'd carried off into the woods to have my evil way with and brawling on ships - still, there's something ultimately far more destructive [except the forest fire of course] in the Bollinger antics.

Maybe you can't accept what I'm driving at here but there is a deep disrespect for and indifference towards what others hold dear in the Bollinger modus operandi and by extension, in Boris himself.

Board up your windows and hide the plates, that's all I can say. Lady Ellee hopes he can create dialogue in London. Boris would explain, as Claude and Eustace did in Jeeves and Wooster before going out on their all night rampage:

Well, Lady Ellee, you've got the agenda almost right.

This girl obviously thinks Boris is the goods. I do too. Vote 1 for Boris! Anyone but Ken.