A Conservative Blog Aggregator

I confess I went to a speed awareness course today....the sort you are offered as an alternative to 3 points on your driving licence for being caught by a speed camera (provided you were not exceeding the speed limit by very much).

It wasn't a hard decision to go on the course, rather than take the points!  But after I got over the initial irritation at wasting 4 hours sitting in a boiling hot room with 20 other speeders plus 3 people from the Highways Agency there to observe (I had to hold myself back from complaining to them about the lack of Towcester bypass...) it was actually really interesting and useful.

At one point we were asked what action to take if you witness a road accident.  We all agreed "dial 999" immediately.  But not so.....apparently if you dial 112 on your mobile instead, then the national emergency services can immediately pinpoint your location using GPS tracking to your phone.  One of the biggest challenges with car accidents on open roads is, of course, locating the scene of the crash.  Makes you wonder why this number isn't more widely advertised!

The course was an interesting case study in the ever growing 'health and safety' epidemic.  There was loads of evidence to show that keeping to 30mph, rather than say 35mph, saves lives.  It follows that not driving at all would mean zero car crashes!  What is harder to pinpoint however is what is the right balance between freedom to enjoy motoring versus ever greater restrictions to avoid accidents.

Ordovicus has the Politics Show Wales interview with Patrick Hannan (recovering well from my review it seems) and arch-devolutionist (so "arch" in fact he's popped out the other side and now qualifies as a Federalist!) Welsh Conservative, David Melding.

Today I was asked to make a presentation at the Conservative Social Action Conference about my Uganda/UK Schools Twinning project.  The project is now in its third year and has expanded enormously from the humble pilot of 2007. 

 

I was able to point out how those students taking part, both Ugandan and British, have been transformed by the experience of a shared week in Uganda, sleeping in dormitories, eating and laughing together and debating issues like HIV/AIDS, the rights of women and environment versus development.  In particular, the UK students came home truly valuing the opportunities, the freedom and the democracy that we enjoy.  

 

David Cameron gave a keynote speech at the conference about how our 'New Politics' calls for politicians to help and engage their communities through social action in all kinds of positive ways - whether through international projects like mine, regeneration projects, setting up job clubs and youth clubs - instead of the 'old ways' of too much talk and too little action.

 

In particular, David pointed out that social action is one way to engage younger people in politics - they will fund raise to go and meet Ugandan sixth formers, or to build a youth club, but wouldn't want to go pounding the streets delivering leaflets for a political party!

 

David also believes social action is a good way for politicians to answer the criticism that says "you are all the same and you never achieve any real change".  Social action can make a real difference to people's lives.  There are now more than 150 social action projects being run across the UK by Conservative candidates and MPs.

It seems our Prime Minister just keeps putting his foot in it a la Silvio Berlusconi. We’ve just had a “0% rise” from Mr Brown in Prime Ministers Question Time today. Add this to “Obama Beach”, “No more Boom and Bust”, "Saviour of the World", and the “Czechoslovakian” people gaffe he’s really loosing it. Everybody knew he was incompetent and a liar, but he’s really raising the bar on how not to talk in PMQ’s. If you’re going to lie, get Mandelson to show you how, not Blinky Balls.

Note the above picture in a question for GCSE technology on the BBC website. (Click to zoom in)

The part is correctly identified as an inverter although it could also be called a not gate. The text below says:

It's an inverter, which is an electrical device that converts direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC).

Oh dear. It is not that sort of inverter. Did someone technically illiterate at the BBC google it, or did someone setting the syllabus do that and the BBC not notice? Either way it amazes me just how ignorant journalists are.

Update 22:15

The BBC have updated the question to just say this:

CORRECT! It's an inverter.

Oh dear. You thought they could have looked up what sort of inverter that is!

We forget the lessons of history at our peril. In the midst of plenty, the Roman people forgot what freedom entailed. They forgot "The Essence of Freedom is the proper limitation of government". When government grows peoples' freedoms recede.

For those who have not fully grasped that successful western nations are founded on Republican principles, this video gives excellent instruction on the differences between the 5 main forms of government and why total democracy is bad for you. An old saying - Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.

The European Union fits the description of an Oligarchy with its centralisation of power in an unelected, unrepresentative, unaccountable bureaucratic elite; The European Commission.
The USA is a Republic, not a democracy.
The UK is a Representative Constitutional Monarchy although once the Lisbon treaty is in force, the change to vassal state of the E.U., becomes complete.

83% of all cyclists killed in London are female, and most of these it seems are killed by lorries turning left at junctions, and often because the cyclist waited obediently for the lights to change.


Confidence in traffic is the key: I do not hug the curb, as some inexperienced and in particular female cyclists do; instead I occupy the centre of the lane, forcing the car to make a decision to overtake rather than squeezing by. By making the motorist consciously aware of you as another piece of traffic, rather than as something insignificant on the side of the road, I am safer. If I do have to stop at a light - I don't dive through traffic, for obvious reasons - then I place myself squarely in the middle of the lane in order that the motorist cannot fail to see me. I will let him past when I am ready and not before by moving to the side of the road and signalling clearly. If done politely and quickly, and the motorist can see you're making an effort to go as fast as you can, this does not cause offence and does not hold motorists up. Many inexperienced cyclists, however do not have the confidence to defend themselves in traffic this way and get scared or killed as a result.

I know there is nothing which annoys motorists more than seeing cyclists running red lights, but that is pure jealousy that we are still moving, nothing more. When I do post about cycling in town, I shall point motorists frothing at the mouth about the subject to the Moving Target blog, who's today's addition to the blogroll. In the mean-time, motorists should just accept it from me that Boris Johnson's plans for sensible changes to the highway code which would allow cyclists to turn left at red lights is a step in the right direction. Ultimately most red lights should be advisory for cyclists. Most experienced cyclists run reds because it is safer for them to do so, which is why this campaign is stunningly misguided, and why the CTC lost my subscription because of their stupid opposition to this straightforward and common-sense idea.

It is no surprise to me that the reform of MP's conduct of MP's expenses and conduct is falling at the first hurdle, as the BBC reports here.

I have no doubt that Labour government figures will blame people, particularly Conservatives, for being against this ridiculous bill on the grounds that they must not want either reform or MP's to be honest.

The reality is of course starkly different. When apologists for this bunch of liars turn up on the airwaves to lie, I will call them liars, just like Ed Balls is a liar.

As I have already pointed out, MP's guilty of making false claims could (and should) already be prosecuted for fraud, or obtaining pecuniary advantage by deception and be imprisoned for 10 years so why let them off with a maximum of 1 year?

The bill also seeks to reduce the privilege given to parliament, whereby a nothing that a member of parliament says can be used against them in court. Members of parliament who understand these things are needless to say against.

Then the bill has to pass the house of lords, where they will take one look at this fetid pile of excrement and throw it out only for the government to huff and puff.

There is no charitable way to put this, Ed Balls has been on the airwaves lying like there is no tomorrow.

Sue me Ed, if you dare.

As Fraser Nelson notes here, and then after the angry phone call here, Ed Balls has claimed that Alistair Darling's 2009 budget laid down plans to reduce the public debt.

Ed Ball's lied thus:

Alistair Darling in the budget set out plans which show the deficit coming down, national debt coming down.

The problem is that he is using a measure of debt most people would not use, and measured on a basis no serious economist believes.

The statement is true if you think reducing borrowing growth to a level where the economy is growing faster is reducing national debt. Basically if you imagine a household budget, you are still increasing your overdraft every year till 2017, but you will get pay rises every year till then of 3.5% and in 2017, the accumulated debt will look like less in percentage terms against your wages.

The problem is that this is still increasing debt in net terms, and the supposed real terms decrease on which the lie is based is founded on the idea that economic growth will start right now, be sustained, (no double dip recession) and then go on the serial above trend growth over several years of 3.5%.

It all comes unstuck there for two reasons. First of all most people would still regard continued borrowing as increasing rather than decreasing debt, but secondly and most importantly it relies on amazing growth figures for years to come.

That is not going to happen because overall debt (government, household and corporate debt combined) is running at 400% of GDP whilst real interest rates are near 5% (not what the Bank of England base rate actually is, but what lenders are actually charging for new loans) which means that this lot could cost us 20% of GDP every year. Quite a lot of that money is going abroad to foreign lenders. It drains money from the economy.

Whilst it is possible that there may be a strong bounce back in growth after a recession as inventories are built up, it seems utter fantasy land that such a bounce would last several years with this much debt.

Hat tip to Manwiddicombe for the links to Fraser's article.

The Lisbon Treaty saga trundles on:GERMANY’S HIGHEST court dismissed constitutional challenges to the Lisbon Treaty yesterday but called for ratification to be delayed until the rights of the German parliament in EU decision-making are strengthened.Berlin now faces the challenge of getting the required law change through parliament before general elections in September – only then can president

Talk about misleading headlines, a quick glance at this could have given you completely the wrong impression:An opinion poll commissioned by BBC Scotland has shown a clear majority (58%) of Scots want a referendum on independence next year. GoodThe poll also suggests support for the Union outstrips that for independence from the UK. Even better.However, the poll found the percentage of people

"Assassination attempt survivor talks about ending 'The Troubles'"Go on, guess who...From the SF (apparently San Francisco and not Sinn Fein) Examiner:Gerry Adams, the Irish reunification advocate and president of the Sinn Fein party, spoke at St. Anne’s Church in San Francisco on Saturday. Adams, a Northern Ireland native who survived an assassination attempt in 1984, is credited with playing a

"Patriotism, national pride and the Saltire belong to all Scots. Being passionate about Scotland doesn't make you anti-British."Jim Murphy

As some of you may be aware, there has been a little spot of bother in Honduras – the place Starbucks gets its Coffee from. There has been a coup where the democratically elected President has been deposed by the Army. Hardly news for Central America you would say. But this one is quite interesting and harder to pick than a broken nose on who is going to come out on top – the deposed President or the Army.

Furthermore I find myself in quite a quandary over this one. On the one side you have twats like Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales and Luiz Da Silva supporting the guy. So you know he’s a demagogue and bullshit artist driving his country towards a one party state; and the economy of his country down the lavatory. On the other hand I agree with Democracy and the Rule of law. Short Recap of what happened in Honduras. The Demagogue government got elected, the constitution said that they weren’t allowed to hold a referendum within 180 days, the Supreme Court of judges upholds constitution and says government can’t hold a referendum within 180 days, government asks Army to help with constitution – Army says can’t hold referendum within 180 days. Government fires head of Army. The demagogue government ignores constitution, Judges and marches into army bases to collect ballot boxes (where they are stored) to hold referendum within 180 days. Army gets the arse and frogmarches President onto plane in his Pyjamas (which since they had Snoopy on them is against constitution) and sends him to Costa Rica. World’s politicians moan about how deeply unfair it is that politicians can’t ignore Constitution, and how Army shouldn’t have the right to frogmarch Politicians onto planes. Army says “Blow me”.

The only military dictator I’ve liked is the chap in charge of Fiji. But he bought me a beer so he can’t be all bad (see my pictures on Facebook); and besides he sends his political prisoners (who ironically were punished for starting a coup) to an island beach with palm trees, which even Amnesty Insufferable has a hard time comparing to the Gulags of North Korea and the Burmese treatment of Aung San Suu Kyi. On the other hand I’ve also met a bloke in Angola who chopped people’s hands off (again in a drinking establishment) so Military rule can be a double edged sword. Obviously in most all countries in the world the Military is the only efficient state run organisation in the nation (including the UK). Can you imagine if the Health Department tried to take a country over? They would have to reopen all the patients they left scalpels and Artery Forceps in to arm themselves; mis-identify the Radio Station and bridges about three times before pure chance got them to the structures in question. They would then announce they could not cure the problem as the medicine required would be too expensive, and then send the country home with some paracetamol to die. I suppose the Fire Service could be called efficient, but they’re too busy trying to get into the knickers of housewives whose Cat they just plucked from a tree. Basically the Army takes over or nobody does. This causes great angst amongst politicians, as they don’t like reminding that they are included, nay, are indeed the pinnacle of the non-efficient end of the State curve.

So what have we learnt about Military Coups, kids? Well obviously you can derive great enjoyment from the fact that Hugo Chavez is squirming, and having a quick reminder of what happens to Lefties when they inevitably mess up - no matter how many peasants they arm. South America hasn’t had this much of a demonstration of the limits of political power since Salvador Allende blew what few brains he had out with an AK-47 inscribed “To Sal – love and kisses from your buddy Fidel”. Furthermore I’m bemused by the staggering incompetence of Obama and the US State department who are kissing ass to the Saudis, Syrians and assorted Islamic undemocratic whack jobs; yet get all misty eyed for democracy when a pro-American Army overthrows an Anti-American president. You haven’t seen such a catastrophic failure of American Diplomacy and power projection since President Carter. On the other hand we must mourn the death of democracy in another country in Central & South America. To support such actions would be hypocrisy of the highest order. Just because it's Right doesn't make it right.

For those of you wanting to read more this is an excellent piece.

Václav Klaus hands over Presidency of the EU to Sweden as his term comes to an end. He has been able to slow down the "Ever Greater Union Express" for these last six months, As he said to the 16th Summit of Presidents of Central, Eastern and Southern European states on June 16th.

... we are concerned about the fact that the decision-making in the EU is becoming increasingly distant from the citizens, about the fact that various integration initiatives are not based on authentic interests of the member states and their citizens, but are rather prefabricated and imposed from above.

Under the slogan "Europe without barriers", the Czech Presidency has been attempting to bring the European Union closer to a consistent implementation of its four basic freedoms: free movement of people, labor, goods and services. We are satisfied that the months of the Czech Presidency will not be characterized as an increase of protectionism and of excessive regulation, which is a positive achievement especially with regard to the economic and financial crisis. Nevertheless, I have my doubts about the rationality of proposals discussed yesterday and today in Brussels.

 Václav we will miss you and your attempts to slow down the "Ever Greater Union Express"

 See the whole speech at:

 Notes for the 16th Summit of Presidents of Central, Eastern and Southern European states

Hat tip - Your Freedom and Ours