Is it meant to be ironic? Have cyber-vandals altered the text? Surely, to paraphrase the great John McEnroe, she cannot be serious?
To what and whom am I referring? Why the column on the ConservativeHome website from Tory parliamentary hopeful and sometime novelist, Louise Bagshawe, referring to her “hero-worship” (her phrase) of Margaret Thatcher.
Read this (and no laughing at the back if you please)
“She was the first major politician seriously to warn of global warming. Despite the ludicrous caricature of her public image, she was a champion of social justice, the grocer’s daughter who swept away the barriers to home ownership for many of Britain’s poorest people. Elected on a popular mandate again and again, the voters never threw her out, much to the dismay of the liberal commentariat. She was the ultimate people’s politician.”
More guff of a similarly simpering nature can be found here.
“I have several acquaintances who know Lady Thatcher socially. I can not, and likely will never, make that boast. I do not know Lady Thatcher. But politically, I worship her.
“Posters on this site should not worry when the media spins to them that Cameroon, modern compassionate Conservative MPs and candidates, want to distance themselves from Lady Thatcher. This is nonsense; I do not wish to distance myself. I wish instead merely to touch the hem of her garment.”
Funnily enough, WCH dreams of touching the hem of St. Margaret’s garment too. Usually as I launch the evil old bat off a very high cliff.
WCH
Friday, December 28, 2007
Thursday, December 27, 2007
What next, a plague of locusts?
Disasters come in threes, apparently. If so, managers at the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust should brace themselves for what 2008 might throw at them.
For this is the Trust exposed by the Healthcare Commission last October for an "avoidable tragedy" when an outbreak of C.difficile - a bacterial infection of the gut which mainly affects the elderly – resulted in the deaths of 90 patients.
As if that wasn’t enough bad PR for a decade, they were named last week as one of the eight Trusts revealed to have lost discs of patient data.
Clearly some butterfingered NHS manager has dropped every mirror in the trust simultaneously.
Now they are advertising for a “Chair” to spearhead their efforts at “business recovery and improving customer service standards”.
They are looking for an “exceptional individual” with the “enthusiasm, energy, firm resolve and creative flair.” Presumably needed to explain away the catalogue of errors
Cryptically, the advert recognizes that “the Trust has had a troubled past, both clinically and financially. It now needs an exceptional team to drive forward improvements in patient care and governance standards.” I’d say that’s the understatement of the year.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, the role pays a nice £22,524 salary. For a three day week.
WCH
For this is the Trust exposed by the Healthcare Commission last October for an "avoidable tragedy" when an outbreak of C.difficile - a bacterial infection of the gut which mainly affects the elderly – resulted in the deaths of 90 patients.
As if that wasn’t enough bad PR for a decade, they were named last week as one of the eight Trusts revealed to have lost discs of patient data.
Clearly some butterfingered NHS manager has dropped every mirror in the trust simultaneously.
Now they are advertising for a “Chair” to spearhead their efforts at “business recovery and improving customer service standards”.
They are looking for an “exceptional individual” with the “enthusiasm, energy, firm resolve and creative flair.” Presumably needed to explain away the catalogue of errors
Cryptically, the advert recognizes that “the Trust has had a troubled past, both clinically and financially. It now needs an exceptional team to drive forward improvements in patient care and governance standards.” I’d say that’s the understatement of the year.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, the role pays a nice £22,524 salary. For a three day week.
WCH
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Sleeping rough - what a laugh!
It seems not a day can be allowed to go by without Cameroonite social consciences being rolled out as if to prove the Tin Man has found a heart.
The latest piece of not-so-subtle ‘brand repositioning’ will see Tory housing spokesman, Grant Schapps, take to the streets of London in a bid to ‘gain a better idea of what life is like for homeless people’, reports this morning’s Observer.
Schapps, who sounds like a playboy from an Agatha Christie novel, will ‘spend Christmas Eve visiting homeless centres run by the Thames Reach charity. Then he will head off to the Victoria Street area to find suitable material for a bed and a comfortable place to sleep.’
“I am reliably told that cardboard and newspapers are two vital elements of good insulation,” quipped the Tory no-mark.
Now, I have never had the misfortune to sleep rough. But I can imagine how it feels: fucking cold and miserable.
And people like me, with the imagery of Thatcher's 'Cruel Britannia' burned into our souls, will need no reminding of “cardboard cities” as the vulnerable, destitute and mentally-ill were left to the elements, freezing to death in shop doorways.
I also seem to recall Matthew Parris, the overrated Times hack, trying a similar stunt a generation ago when he nominally laboured as a Conservative MP. Other similarly publicity-hungry Tories have camped out too, just to show its not all bad sleeping under the stars.
But of course we're not fooled. WCH remains in the mould of that other great Working Class Hero, Aneurin Bevan, who infamously proclaimed in 1948 that “no attempt at either ethical or social seduction can eradicate from my heart a deep, burning hatred of the Tory party.”
“So far as I am concerned” the great man intoned, “they are lower than vermin.”
And despite Cameron’s cosmetic conversion to the human race, and silly stunts from Schapps, they still are.
My only hope is that a bunch of braying, boozed-up bovver boys piss all over Shapps as he sleeps. That would be an eloquent riposte to this latest gimmick by David Cameron's Conservatives.
Happy Christmas one and all – so long as you’re not a Tory rat.
WCH
The latest piece of not-so-subtle ‘brand repositioning’ will see Tory housing spokesman, Grant Schapps, take to the streets of London in a bid to ‘gain a better idea of what life is like for homeless people’, reports this morning’s Observer.
Schapps, who sounds like a playboy from an Agatha Christie novel, will ‘spend Christmas Eve visiting homeless centres run by the Thames Reach charity. Then he will head off to the Victoria Street area to find suitable material for a bed and a comfortable place to sleep.’
“I am reliably told that cardboard and newspapers are two vital elements of good insulation,” quipped the Tory no-mark.
Now, I have never had the misfortune to sleep rough. But I can imagine how it feels: fucking cold and miserable.
And people like me, with the imagery of Thatcher's 'Cruel Britannia' burned into our souls, will need no reminding of “cardboard cities” as the vulnerable, destitute and mentally-ill were left to the elements, freezing to death in shop doorways.
I also seem to recall Matthew Parris, the overrated Times hack, trying a similar stunt a generation ago when he nominally laboured as a Conservative MP. Other similarly publicity-hungry Tories have camped out too, just to show its not all bad sleeping under the stars.
But of course we're not fooled. WCH remains in the mould of that other great Working Class Hero, Aneurin Bevan, who infamously proclaimed in 1948 that “no attempt at either ethical or social seduction can eradicate from my heart a deep, burning hatred of the Tory party.”
“So far as I am concerned” the great man intoned, “they are lower than vermin.”
And despite Cameron’s cosmetic conversion to the human race, and silly stunts from Schapps, they still are.
My only hope is that a bunch of braying, boozed-up bovver boys piss all over Shapps as he sleeps. That would be an eloquent riposte to this latest gimmick by David Cameron's Conservatives.
Happy Christmas one and all – so long as you’re not a Tory rat.
WCH
Friday, December 21, 2007
Devolution, Lakota-style
Fascinating story in this morning’s Telegraph about the Lakota Indians and their declaration of independence from the United States of America.
Descendents of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse visited the State Department on Monday to announce they were unilaterally withdrawing from treaties signed with the federal government of the United States - some of them more than 150 years old - claiming they are "worthless words on worthless paper."
They also visited the Bolivian, Chilean, South African and Venezuelan embassies and intend to continue their diplomatic mission in the coming weeks and months.
Their current constitutional status affords them a measure of “nationhood” within the US, but this move promises to see them issue their own driving licenses and passports.
The Lakota peoples are beset with all sorts of social and economic problems, including high teen suicide rates, a child mortality rate five times higher than the US average and a staggering male life expectancy of just 44.
Good luck to them I say!
Now, if only the north of England could have done something similar around 1980.....
WCH
Descendents of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse visited the State Department on Monday to announce they were unilaterally withdrawing from treaties signed with the federal government of the United States - some of them more than 150 years old - claiming they are "worthless words on worthless paper."
They also visited the Bolivian, Chilean, South African and Venezuelan embassies and intend to continue their diplomatic mission in the coming weeks and months.
Their current constitutional status affords them a measure of “nationhood” within the US, but this move promises to see them issue their own driving licenses and passports.
The Lakota peoples are beset with all sorts of social and economic problems, including high teen suicide rates, a child mortality rate five times higher than the US average and a staggering male life expectancy of just 44.
Good luck to them I say!
Now, if only the north of England could have done something similar around 1980.....
WCH
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Mount Clarke Erupts!
Oh dear. Charles Clarke, that veritable Vesuvius of former ministers has blown hot verbal lava all over the place in this morning’s Guardian. Again.
This time the big galloot claims backbenchers are “appalled” at Gordon Brown’s “British jobs for British workers” line; that Mark Malloch-Brown was a “foolish” appointment to the Government of all the Talents; and that Brown doesn’t support Ministerial colleagues enough ("Tony would always support his key people. Gordon should do that with his people").
But did I not hear The Big Bear was being lined up to replace Mousier Mandelson as Britain’s European Commissioner? Strange way of applying for the position berating the guy who makes the decision! And anyway, isn’t Comrade Mandelson in Europe in the first place simply because Tony Blair didn’t support him at the time of his second resignation?
Clarkey does however have a neat line in describing himself as “modernising old Labour” rather than a Blairite. WCH likes that, but not as much as Bernard Crick’s bon mot of his politics being those of the “moderate socialist”.
“Small ‘m’, capital ‘S’”.
This time the big galloot claims backbenchers are “appalled” at Gordon Brown’s “British jobs for British workers” line; that Mark Malloch-Brown was a “foolish” appointment to the Government of all the Talents; and that Brown doesn’t support Ministerial colleagues enough ("Tony would always support his key people. Gordon should do that with his people").
But did I not hear The Big Bear was being lined up to replace Mousier Mandelson as Britain’s European Commissioner? Strange way of applying for the position berating the guy who makes the decision! And anyway, isn’t Comrade Mandelson in Europe in the first place simply because Tony Blair didn’t support him at the time of his second resignation?
Clarkey does however have a neat line in describing himself as “modernising old Labour” rather than a Blairite. WCH likes that, but not as much as Bernard Crick’s bon mot of his politics being those of the “moderate socialist”.
“Small ‘m’, capital ‘S’”.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
A blast from the past
Wow, is it really ten years since we last heard from that Thatcher-loving, platitude-spouting, talentless irritant? The Spice Girls I hear you cry? No silly, I am of course referring to Britain’s 50th Prime Minister, Sir John Major.
His appearance on this morning’s Andrew Marr show HERE served to remind us (in case we’d forgotten) what we’re missing: A weak and peevish little man with no discernable achievements from his six and a half years in the top job.
His attack on Labour’s “systemic sleaze” and “unscrupulous” behaviour in exploiting his own Government’s manifold episodes of sexual misadventure and corruption, was, frankly, a laughable double-standard.
Major was one of the least able men ever to become Prime Minister. His elevation in November 1990 was as much the result of Conservative MPs deciding they didn’t want Michael Heseltine’s regicide of Margaret Thatcher to be rewarded as it was an endorsement of Major’s own titanic political talents.
In many ways, Major was a more contemptible figure than Thatcher. He initially promised to build “a nation at ease with itself” but presided over a deep and lingering economic recession, effectively shut-down the UK mining industry, privatised the railways and told us to “understand a little less and condemn a little more” in relation to lone parents and the poor. His was Thatcherism without the redeeming quality of Margaret Thatcher’s certain leadership. Ideology without the conviction.
Like her great nemesis Francois Mitterrand, Thatcher made no plans for her succession, leaving no-one of any ability to carry forward her mantle. Having only entered the Cabinet in 1987, Major’s lack of experience in the political top flight meant he never stepped outside Thatcher’s shadow. His puppet-premiership was a dismal interregnum.
His twee and backward-looking view of Britain was an embarrassing and threadbare offering from the man given the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to lead the country.
His weakness in facing up to his internal critics on Europe made a mockery of Britain’s foreign policy, despite his earlier stated determination to put Britain “at the heart of Europe.” He even guffed-up the so-called ‘special relationship’ with the US, backing the wrong horse when he dispatched Tory reseachers to trawl over Governor Clinton’s time as an a Rhodes scholar at Oxford before seeing “Slick Willy” become president.
And his shabby deal to prop up his parliamentary majority with the support of the Ulster Unionists even prevented forward progress on the Northern Ireland peace process.
But the myth that Major generously bequeathed Labour a sound economy in 1997 is the biggest lie in British politics. What Labour inherited was an economy recovering from the ravages of the 1991 recession and Britain’s ejection from the Exchange Rate Mechanism on "Black Wednesday" in September 1992, which paved the way for interest rate cuts and renewed growth. Claiming credit for an economic upswing, following a recession he created, is a fig-leaf which deserves to be wrenched from his shrivelled reputation once and for all.
So there we have it. John Major: whinging, lightweight, no-mark. Let’s hope it’s another ten years before we hear again from him again.
And that goes for the Spice Girls too.
His appearance on this morning’s Andrew Marr show HERE served to remind us (in case we’d forgotten) what we’re missing: A weak and peevish little man with no discernable achievements from his six and a half years in the top job.
His attack on Labour’s “systemic sleaze” and “unscrupulous” behaviour in exploiting his own Government’s manifold episodes of sexual misadventure and corruption, was, frankly, a laughable double-standard.
Major was one of the least able men ever to become Prime Minister. His elevation in November 1990 was as much the result of Conservative MPs deciding they didn’t want Michael Heseltine’s regicide of Margaret Thatcher to be rewarded as it was an endorsement of Major’s own titanic political talents.
In many ways, Major was a more contemptible figure than Thatcher. He initially promised to build “a nation at ease with itself” but presided over a deep and lingering economic recession, effectively shut-down the UK mining industry, privatised the railways and told us to “understand a little less and condemn a little more” in relation to lone parents and the poor. His was Thatcherism without the redeeming quality of Margaret Thatcher’s certain leadership. Ideology without the conviction.
Like her great nemesis Francois Mitterrand, Thatcher made no plans for her succession, leaving no-one of any ability to carry forward her mantle. Having only entered the Cabinet in 1987, Major’s lack of experience in the political top flight meant he never stepped outside Thatcher’s shadow. His puppet-premiership was a dismal interregnum.
His twee and backward-looking view of Britain was an embarrassing and threadbare offering from the man given the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to lead the country.
His weakness in facing up to his internal critics on Europe made a mockery of Britain’s foreign policy, despite his earlier stated determination to put Britain “at the heart of Europe.” He even guffed-up the so-called ‘special relationship’ with the US, backing the wrong horse when he dispatched Tory reseachers to trawl over Governor Clinton’s time as an a Rhodes scholar at Oxford before seeing “Slick Willy” become president.
And his shabby deal to prop up his parliamentary majority with the support of the Ulster Unionists even prevented forward progress on the Northern Ireland peace process.
But the myth that Major generously bequeathed Labour a sound economy in 1997 is the biggest lie in British politics. What Labour inherited was an economy recovering from the ravages of the 1991 recession and Britain’s ejection from the Exchange Rate Mechanism on "Black Wednesday" in September 1992, which paved the way for interest rate cuts and renewed growth. Claiming credit for an economic upswing, following a recession he created, is a fig-leaf which deserves to be wrenched from his shrivelled reputation once and for all.
So there we have it. John Major: whinging, lightweight, no-mark. Let’s hope it’s another ten years before we hear again from him again.
And that goes for the Spice Girls too.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
When Two Tribes Go To War...
More muck-raking about divisions in the Government in the Telegraph HERE
Seems Blairite irregulars are gleefully briefing against GB with the piece even speculating, heaven forfend, that a New Labour/ Tory coalition might one day be upon us!
Now there’s no doubt that some Blairite nose joints are probably a bit out of whack with the passing of their boy. But flirting with Cameron on the rebound reaches Olympian heights of tastelessness.
I really have no sympathy for them. Blair had ten years at the top. He did some good things, some not so good things. Never promised to do anything too radical (and didn’t – apart from the war business) then sloped off. What’s to cry about?
Blair stood for very little of substance, hence his legacy’s a bit thin (3 election wins; Ireland; Iraq). His was a political career, a brand at best. Not an ideology. So-called Blairites are looking for meaning where there simply isn’t any; nor, frankly, was there supposed to be.
The test now is whether a more balanced Labour party under someone who looks and feels like a Labour politician can break cover and try to popularise equality – the Labour party’s historic mission.
Blair and his band were creatures of the dismal Thatcherite mindset that ‘There is No Alternative’. Free markets, unemployment and greed are the natural condition of man.
Brown is no angel, but something resembling a socialist heart still beats in him; which means the Labour party has a future. Another couple of years of Blair and the party conference would have been meeting in the upstairs room of The Red Lion.
By the way, if you’re wondering which camp you fall into, here’s a little test:
1. Are there limits to markets?
2. Does principle ever win out over pragmatism?
3. Is equality more important than ambition?
If you’ve answered ‘yes’, you’re a Brownite. If ‘no’, you still cling to the old order. Goodbye sucker!
Seems Blairite irregulars are gleefully briefing against GB with the piece even speculating, heaven forfend, that a New Labour/ Tory coalition might one day be upon us!
Now there’s no doubt that some Blairite nose joints are probably a bit out of whack with the passing of their boy. But flirting with Cameron on the rebound reaches Olympian heights of tastelessness.
I really have no sympathy for them. Blair had ten years at the top. He did some good things, some not so good things. Never promised to do anything too radical (and didn’t – apart from the war business) then sloped off. What’s to cry about?
Blair stood for very little of substance, hence his legacy’s a bit thin (3 election wins; Ireland; Iraq). His was a political career, a brand at best. Not an ideology. So-called Blairites are looking for meaning where there simply isn’t any; nor, frankly, was there supposed to be.
The test now is whether a more balanced Labour party under someone who looks and feels like a Labour politician can break cover and try to popularise equality – the Labour party’s historic mission.
Blair and his band were creatures of the dismal Thatcherite mindset that ‘There is No Alternative’. Free markets, unemployment and greed are the natural condition of man.
Brown is no angel, but something resembling a socialist heart still beats in him; which means the Labour party has a future. Another couple of years of Blair and the party conference would have been meeting in the upstairs room of The Red Lion.
By the way, if you’re wondering which camp you fall into, here’s a little test:
1. Are there limits to markets?
2. Does principle ever win out over pragmatism?
3. Is equality more important than ambition?
If you’ve answered ‘yes’, you’re a Brownite. If ‘no’, you still cling to the old order. Goodbye sucker!
Monday, December 3, 2007
Iowa Democratic Primary
Excellent cod memo to Barack Obama from Karl Rove, (that scientific experiment to splice the DNA of Niccolo Machiavelli and Elmer Fudd) in today's FT:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/dee0a6e8-a109-11dc-9f34-0000779fd2ac.html
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/dee0a6e8-a109-11dc-9f34-0000779fd2ac.html
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