Disabled driver's victory over 'unfair' Tory charges

A Lincoln man has won a major victory against the Conservative-run city council winning a review of a new charging regime which he claims charges disabled drivers more than able-bodied motorists...

Cameron's Tories caught trying to change history...

This one will go down in history as a classic.

It clearly shows there no depths or lies Cameron's Tories will not sink to...

Rather than admit that he was wrong in his crass attack on the Prime Minister yesterday, Cameron's Tories have been caught red-handed attempting to change a date in history to match his claim!!

The farce demonstrates that Cameron's Tories are more interested in stupid schoolboy stunts than the serious business of running the country and helping people through the global economic crisis.

As ever, the Tory cover-up is always worse than the gaffe itself.

Same old Tories. Or what?

UPDATE: Kerron Cross has an excellent post on how typical it is that Eton educated Cameron thinks that the date an artist died four hundred years ago (or 500 for all I care) was more important for a Leader of the Opposition than asking questions that might actually have some relevance to people's lives in the 21st Century...

BREAKING NEWS: Mind the Gap

Latest poll shows Labour closing the gap on the Tories to just three points. According to Mori, Cameron's Conservatives are down five over the past month, while Labour are up seven.

Bring it on...

Tories who gave you 78.9% police tax rise vote to gag debate on their actions...

The same Tories who forced through the highest council tax hike in the country today voted to prevent a debate on their actions.

The Tories pulled a show-stopping stunt to block any discussion on the eye-watering 78.9per cent rise in precept passed by Lincolnshire Police Authority. (see my original post HERE).

Labour Leader Rob Parker had tabled a motion condemning the decision to increase the police precept by 78.9 per cent and specifically criticising the actions of the six Conservative County Councillors in voting for such a massive increase for Linco0lnshire tax payers.

The LibDems had also tabled a motion recognising a shortfall in formulae grant for Lincolnshire, but attacking the increase as excessive.

Both motions were published in the Order of Proceedings.

Five hours into the meeting, the debate was called and newly elected council chairman Ian Cartwright outlined how he proposed to proceed.

At this point vice-chairman of the Police Authority, Tory Cllr Barry Young intervened, pleading for the debate to be adjourned. He claimed negotiations between Ministers and the Authority as part of the capping process were at a delicate stage and any debate prejudice the final outcome...

Then, up popped Cllr Martin Trollope-Bellew, the Tory Chief Whip, to support Barry Young, quoting Chapter 13 Paragraph 11 sub section brackets 'd' brackets of the Council's Constitution.

When Rob Parker asked him to kindly explain what he was talking about, Martin T-B was clearly gobsmacked and was unable to quote the actual words in Paragraph 11 etc...

It was left to legal officers to explain that there was indeed an obscure procedural rule that few had ever heard of which allows the chairman to decide whether to allow a vote to prevent any motion from being discussed.

Cllr Ian Cartwright, himself a Tory councillor, instantly ruled that such a vote should take place - and then voted himself to block the discussion.

No opportunity was given for councillors to argue why a debate on the police precept should - or should not - be allowed.

Some might have argued that Barry Young's argument that the matter was being decided by Government Ministers was the very reason to hold an open debate.

But they weren't given that opportunity.

Despite claiming the whole stunt was Barry Young's own personal idea and not a Tory organised hi-jack, every Tory in the Chamber - except one - voted to prevent a discussion on the precept

The Tory exception was maverick Mark Horn of Bourne who is known to be outraged at the Authority for setting such a high precept and has called for Government intervention to prevent the increase taking place.

I believe two of the six Tory county councillors who forced through the 78.9% increase were absent from the Chamber when the vote took place.

The other four who were criticised in Rob Parker's motion - including Barry Young - all voted to prevent today's scheduled debate from taking place.

Same Old Tories, or what?

Tory quitter changes his mind...

Tory candidate who failed to unseat Labour's Sally Keeble in Northampton North at the last election earlier announced he would quit - but now he's decided he wants to have another go after all.

Does he have difficulty in making decisions....well, yes and er, no.

Northampton Chronicle&Echo.

Tory quits saying Tories have 'elevated egos...'

The Tories who run South Holland District Council have been accused of having 'elevated egos' who make decisions without 'real consultation'.

Wayne Seaborn has resigned from the Tory Group, according to today's Lincs Free Press alleging that being a member of the ruling Conservative group on the council was stifling his ability to represent his electors.

Same old Tories eh?

Irony of Alan Duncan's civil partnership...

Ironic that the first MP to take advantage of Labour's progressive civil partnership laws is a Conservative elected in 2001 on a manifesto which promised to keep Tory homophobic Section 28 legislation firmly in place.

I congratulate Alan Duncan, MP for Rutland on his news revealed on the website of my local paper, the Stamford Mercury.

It is unlikely that such historic and progressive laws to allow civil partnerships would ever have been passed by a Government of Mr Duncan's party - and certainly not under David Cameron's leadership.

As recently as 2003, Cameron himself voted against scrapping Section 28 which stigmatised homosexuals.

It was introduced in the Thatcher Government by Michael Howard - who went on to become the Tory Leader before David Cameron.

And when Labour advocated abolishing Section 28, Cameron attacked the Blair Government which he claimed was "obsessed with a fringe agenda".

In fairness to Alan Duncan, he has in the past paid tribute to Labour's record on equality.

I'm pleased that Mr Duncan felt able to 'come out' a couple of years ago and publicly declare his homosexuality.

The Civil Partnership laws have brought joy to thousands of same-sex couples who have made their decision to share their lives, their home, their finances and the care of their children or older relatives.

Yet until a couple of years ago, their relationships were invisible in the eyes of the law.

Labour's civil partnership laws were a historic step in giving respect and dignity to lesbians and gay men in Britain and built on Labour's record of equalising the age of consent, outlawing discrimination in the workplace on the grounds of sexual orientation, securing protection from homophobic hate crimes...and abolishing Section 28.

I'm delighted that so many people are benefitting from Labour's legislation - including Tory MPs!

Tories lose their agent...

Tories in Alan Duncan's constituency have sacked their agent because they can't afford to pay his wages...

One local Conservative activist tells the Stamford Mercury that losing their agent is a retrograde step - specially with the odds on a General Election within the next 12 months tumbling by the day...

Tory MP says Gordon is moving Labour deeper into 'Conservative territory'...

Gordon Brown is moving Labour deeper into 'Conservative territory' according to South Holland and Deepings Tory MP John Hayes.

Tory strategy to deal with Gordon Brown as new Prime Minister was clearly to create a fear that he would move Labour away from the centre-ground of British politics with more 'left wing' measures.

But writing today on Conservative Home, Mr Hayes says not only has that not happened, but it will not happen. A prominent figure in the right-wing Cornerstone Group of Tory MPs, Mr Hayes says:

We already know that Gordon Brown will not shift the Labour party to the left in any way that is meaningful to voters. Indeed, his pronouncements on a unified border force, super casinos and 24 hour drinking demonstrate that he is actually moving Labour further into Conservative territory.

Read the full article HERE

Top Tory donor attacks Eton-toff Cameron as out-of-touch...

One of the biggest donors to the Conservative Party has withdrawn his support - and attacked David Cameron's arrogant, Old Etonian leadership.

Sir Tom Cowie, millionaire life president of the Arriva transport group, pulled the plug on the Tories after giving hundreds of thousands of pounds over the years.

He's just the latest figure in recent days to mount a stinging attack on Mr Cameron's poor performance and lack of judgement. In the last few days alone, former Tory treasurer Lord Stanley Kalms attacked Cameron's leadership. Then former Tory chairman Lord Saatchi warned Cameron that nicey-nicey policies won't get the Tories elected.

Top of today's list of criticisms by Sir Tom was Mr Cameron's lamentable handling of the self-inflicted Tory Grammar Wars. Self-made Sir Tom blamed much of the Tory infighting on the privileged educational background of Mr Cameron and many of his close friends who now run the party.

Sir Tom says:

The Tory party seems to be run now by Old Etonians and they don't seem to understand how other people live. They seem to be very arrogant like I suppose Old Etonians can be. They certainly don't understand about grammar schools.

When Cameron's self-inflicted Grammar-wars hit the headlines, I was lambasted by comments on my blog saying I was over-egging its significance.

Looks like my hunch was right on the money.

UPDATE: Story picked up by The London Standard.

Tories only seen as the nasty party because 'we've been nasty,' says Lincs MP...

The full article by Gainsborough MP Edward Leigh in which he calls on David Cameron to change direction and talk more about immigration, low tax and Europe has appeared on the right-wing Cornerstone website.

I mentioned Mr Leigh's words of advice to his Leader HERE yesterday when Lord Saatchi had a pop at the Tory Leader.

The full article is well worth a read: Edward Leigh says David Cameron should dump "liberalism" and be honest enough to admit that he is a "high Tory". He goes on:

We are not the nasty party. And if some people think we are, it’s not because we’re right-wing, but because sometimes we’ve been nasty to each other.

...we must stop self-obsessing and worrying too much what people think of us. No doubt they’ve always thought we were toffs, or out of touch, or on the make. But they also used to think we were competent. All that changed on Black Wednesday.

But Black Wednesday was fourteen years ago. For God’s, sake move on! Most of the electorate has, but we still agonise about what someone failed to do in our Conservative family fourteen years ago. Families do that sort of thing. No one else cares. So throw all the tedious Central Office presentations which tell us how much we’re despised in the dustbin.

Edward doesn't mention David Cameron's role as Special Advisor to the Chancellor at the time of the Black Wednesday debacle...

Lincs MP and Lord Saatchi join attack on Cameron...

Outspoken Lincolnshire MP Edward Leigh has urged David Cameron to go back to traditional Tory mantras on immigration, low taxes and Europe.

His words of advice come on the same day as the man who master-minded Margaret Thatcher's successful advertising campaign criticises Cameron for "nicey-nicey" policies which won't won the next general election. Lord Saatchi says Cameron's Conservatives lack "an expression of true Conservative ideology".

Rats in a sack...

Guess who's blaming each other for Gordon Brown's surge in the polls and the string of political and public-relations disasters that have led to David Cameron's nosedive...?

Cameron fails to reach key Midlands and North voters, says senior Tory...

David Cameron fails to impress voters in key areas of the Midlands and the North where the next general election will be decided...Who says so? Er, the Tory MP who quit Cameron's front bench over the self-inflicted Grammar Wars saga.

In an interview with the BBC's World this Weekend Graham Brady MP adds to the Tory Leader's current crisis by saying David Cameron's appeal is limited to urban liberal circles around London.

I presume Mr Brady is not including urban liberal circles in the London Borough of Ealing where Cameron was humiliated last week when his hand-picked candidate managed only third place in the Ealing Southall by-election after standing for David Cameron's Conservative Party.

UPDATE: Meanwhile, today's Sunday Telegraph reports that David Davis, Cameron's rival for the Conservative Party leadership - has made what it calls an impassioned plea to Tories to rally behind David Cameron.

The Telegraph says Davis's intervention came:

after Mr Cameron's most difficult week as Tory Leader and amid barely disguised panic over a nine-point Labour lead.

The Torygraph says the Tories have been in disarray since coming third in the Ealing Southall by election and a badly timed trip to Rwanda while flood ravaged parts of Britain - including his own constituency.

Cameron unleashes his attack dogs: bowsy wowsy...!

David Cameron has set his 'top attack dogs' on the Prime Minister in a desperate attempt to end the Brown Bounce according to the Tory's favourite paper, the Daily Mail.

And who are Cameron's secret weapons? Step foward wee Georgie (his mum thinks he's in cubs) Osbourne and Chris Grayling.

Grayling's disastrous performance on Newsnight last night appears to have been the first salvo in Cameron's all-out war.

Today's Mail says unleashing Osbourne and Grayling is Cameron's response to steady the Tory ship after his spectacular own-goals such as Grammar Wars, two humiliating third places in by-elections, and criticism from within his own ranks for flying off to Rwanda for a photo-call while his Witney constituency suffered floods.

Truth is wee Georgie and Chris G are more like poodles than rotweillers: Sure as eggs is eggs, Gordon will eat them both for breakfast.

* Meanwhile, the YouGov poll in today's Torygraph says Labour has opened a nine point lead since Gordon Brown became PM, surging ahead to 41%, with Cameron's Conservatives are down to 32%.

There's only one poll that counts of course - and there's a long way to the next General Election.

Cash-strapped Council spends £187k at exclusive hotels and golf clubs...

How much of your money do you think Lincolnshire County Council spent last year at some of the county's most exclusive hotels, Golf Clubs and restaurants...
Would you believe a staggering £187,000...? That's the figure exposed in tonight's Lincolnshire Echo.

As you'll see, yours truly is quoted in the story: I'm angry that just a few months ago, the Tories who run the council claimed they were so cash-strapped that they had to treble home care charges from £40 to £120 a week for some of the most vulnerable pensioners.

I posted extensively on the disgraceful home care charges saga at the time (for example HERE and HERE as Labour councillors - and others - attempted, in vain, to force a rethink.

But the Tories claimed that the massive hike in home care charges was the only way out of their financial hole. It left some pensioners forced to find an EXTRA £4,000 a year.

What angers me is that since then, the same council has been officially slammed - again - for providing some of the poorest social services in the entire country.

It's worth noting that justifying the £190,000 spend in the Echo is left to an officer rather than a Tory Cabinet member - exactly what happened when the new policy was presented for Executive decision at the Council.

The Tory councillor expected to present the policy decided not to attend the crucial meeting - apparently she had a much more important political engagement at Tory Party Conference!

Tories call on David Cameron to quit...

Not my headline, but the Sunday Torygraph's. Political Editor Melissa Kite reports that at least two and possibly up to six Tory MPs have lodged formal requests for a vote of no confidence in his leadership.

The ST reports:

The bid to destabilise the Tory leader comes after months of dissent over his modernising strategy, including a revolt over grammar schools, and his party's humiliating third-place defeat in two by-elections last week.

A no confidence motion would be triggered if 29 MPs - 15 per cent of the parliamentary party - write to call for a vote. While there is no suggestion that anything like that number has done so, even a small number risks triggering similar demands from malcontent MPs.

One senior backbencher said: "There's a hole at the heart of the Cameron project. There is a feeling that Cameronism is exhausted... MPs want to know what is at the heart of all this rebranding. The fear is that there is nothing at the heart of it."

The Tory performance which resulted in a humiliating third place in both Thursday's by elections was a disaster for Cameron, but I'd be surprised if the rebels get the 29 signatures needed to spark a challenge to his 'leadership'.

He may be saved by Parliament's summer break which starts on Wednesday, leaving the disunity and grumbles to fester on and on into the autumn Conference season.

Interesting that the Grammar School wars is mentioned as partially leading to Tory MPs lacking confidence in Cameron.

At the time, Tory supporters attempted to dismiss Grammar Wars as insignificant. Commenters on this blog criticised me for going OTT on Grammar Wars.

Grammar Wars was in fact the moment that demonstrated that Cameron may well be the Tory answer to Kinnock - if he's lucky.

But as he's proved with spectacular mis-judgement in Ealing Southall, he ain't no Blair.

Tory MP slams Cameron's Ealing Tragedy...

The Conservative Home blog is buzzing with criticism of the failed Tory campaign in Ealing Southall which was personally directed by David Cameron. This damning indictment from London Tory MP Mark Field:

I believe that our by-election campaign in Ealing Southall may have done lasting damage to the Party’s outreach work in the British Asian Communities.

The centralised imposition of a Sikh candidate, who first became associated with the Party ten days before the by-election was called and whose most recent political activity had been attendance at a Labour Party fundraiser in mid-June, always had the makings of a fiasco.

The way in the sensitivities of local Tory activists were bypassed amounted to contempt towards our supporters and the electorate at large.

This potential calamity was clearly spelt out by local folk as soon as the normal candidate selection process was discarded in favour of CCHQ adopting the photogenic son of a prominent local businessman with no previous links to the Party.

Our consequent attempts to woo the Sikh vote in Southall by exploiting divisions which have wracked the local Sikh and Hindu communities for decades also struck many as blatant opportunism. This warning was conveyed privately to many senior members of the Conservative Party as the campaign progressed but it was apparently ignored.

To many neutral observers these actions betrayed a failure by our Party to treat sensitively the potentially explosive racial divisions within Ealing Southall. For sure the defection of five local Labour councillors, all Sikhs and whose ringleader was someone who only days before had failed to secure the Labour nomination for the by-election, made for good headlines at the start of the campaign.

However, it became increasingly evident that the Conservatives had been manipulated by this dissident group, who were misleadingly presented to the public as having defected on ideological grounds.

Worse still these self styled community leaders failed to deliver much more than a block vote of five. As a result, in spite of a frenetic and energetic PR campaign, our vote effectively flatlined at 22.5% - and this in a seat where in the 50 years to 1997 the Conservative share of the vote never dipped below 30%.

As the national political bandwagon moves on from west London my sympathies lie with the dedicated local Conservative association and our ruling Group on Ealing Council who are now left with the unenviable task of sorting out a divided and demoralised local Conservative force.

They won control of the council last year and I know from my time working with Ealing's Conservative activists that over many years they have worked tirelessly to build relations with local ethnic communities. Much of this effort now lies in tatters.

Local Tories - including the local council leader - were so disgusted that they didn't even bother staying at the count for the result.

Labour's twin historic by-election victories...

Just arrived home from the Ealing Southall by-election, totally exhausted. But what a perfect result:

An endorsement for our new Prime Minister Gordon Brown - and disaster and rejection for David Cameron, who has once again demonstrated desperately poor judgement.

Anyone who has met the new MP, Virenda Sharma, knows he is a thoroughly solid, decent man who will be an excellent MP for the most diverse constituency in Britain.

Great result too from County Durham where Phil Wilson was elected to replace Tony Blair as Labour MP for Sedgefield - and where Cameron's Tories fell to third place.

I've known Phil for over ten years and know he'll be a first rate representative for the people of Sedgefield.

Historic Victories...?

Yes. Governments in third terms tend not to hold seats in by elections: in fact the Tories lost EVERY by election between 1989 and 1997.

Last night Labour won TWO with handsome majorities...

Cameron's Ealing Comedy...

Home from holidays, straight into the frenetic fray of the Ealing Southall by-election...

What an extraordinary by-election it is turning out to be.

Tory Leader David Cameron put his credibility on the line when he imposed his own hand-picked candidate, over-ruling warnings from members of the local Conservative Party about his choice, Tony Lit, son of a wealthy local businessman. (At least one prominent local Tory resigned in disgust at Cameron's astonishing intervention).

Cameron then stamped himself further on the local campaign to win the seat from Labour: Tony Lit appears on Thursday's ballot paper for David Cameron's Conservatives - unlike the Tory in the Sedgefield by election on the same day who is simply the candidate for The Conservative Party.

Cameron has been down to Ealing Southall three times in the past few days to parade his personal choice as a perfect and brilliant candidate - despite the fact that Mr Lit only joined the Tories the day before he was appointed by Mr Cameron.

True, the Tories appeared to make the running early in the campaign, claiming defections from Labour. But then some of the Tory claims turned out to be porkies...

But the real bombshell dropped this weekend, when Labour revealed that just days before he was appointed by Cameron, his perfect candidate wrote a cheque to the Labour Party for £4,800...and happily queued with his wife to have their photo taken with Tony Blair.

It's quite normal for candidates to have their pictures taken with party Leaders of course - but most do it with the Leader of the party for which they are standing!

While Tony Lit stands accused of blatant opportunism, this Ealing comedy is much more about David Cameron's lack of judgement and fitness to lead our country.

The real question is when did Cameron know about the cheque his candidate made out to the Labour Party less than a month ago - and how much did he tell local Conservatives.

It will be for the voters of Ealing Southall on Thursday to decide whether they agree with David Cameron's judgement that his candidate is the perfect choice to be their MP or whether they see through Cameron's Ealing Comedy.