Cameron's flip-flop on fixed-term parliaments...

David Cameron managed to call for an immediate general election - and fixed term parliaments - all in the same speech today!

But Paul Waugh of the London Standard quickly spotted what can only be described as a Cameron flip-flop.

As well as pointing out that David Cameron's deputy William Hague is less than convinced about fixed-term parliaments, he recalls a senior Tory speaking of the real drawbacks of fixed-term parliaments...

So who was warning against the idea when interviewed a few months ago by Andrew Marr?

Er, step forward David Cameron!

Chameleon Cameron dumps Green and flips back to true Blue...

Remember the Tory election slogan Vote Blue, Go Green adopted by David Cameron...? Well, today's Sunday Times exposes the sham of Cameron's spin and his biggest flip-flop to date.

First there was the former PR manager Cameron dressed as a polar explorer and posing with huskies in front of a shrinking Norwegian glacier...?

Forget (for a moment) that he’d travelled thousands of miles in a private jet – along with the television crews - to get to his photo-stunt to show how much he cared about climate change...

The Arctic stunt was hailed by the Tories as the launch pad of their new approach to climate change.

Cameron kept up the front for months and less than a year ago he was on the BBC Radio Four Today programme advocating VAT on domestic flights.

By last autumn he was distancing himself from that idea, and was instead advocating other green tax rises - though without exactly saying what they would be.

He told Andrew Marr in September:

We made a very tough choice on being green which is saying that air travel is an important contributor to climate change and the tax burden on that has to go up.

And the following month, he was back on Marr saying:

...green taxes as a share of taxes do need to go up. That's not necessarily popular, but I think it's right.

But today's Sunday Times reveals that Cameron is now backing away from those pledges too.

Under the headline TORIES DITCH GREEN TAXES, the ST says David Cameron is to abandon plans for 'green' taxes, fearing a backlash from voters unwilling to pay for climate change.

Cameron's 'vote blue go green' have always appeared rather less than convincing...

First, his cycle-to-work stunt spectacularly backfired when the Daily Mirror revealed that he his chauffeur-driven gas guzzler followed behind carrying his shoes and briefcase!

The Independent said his image as a green leader had 'gone up in smoke'.

And the BBC talked of hypocrisy.

Then there was Cameron's flip-flop on supermarket car parking tax.

Let's not forget the windmill erected outside the Cameron house in a blaze of publicity – only to be taken down a few days later.

And when he thought no-one would notice, he took a private plane from his constituency in Oxfordshire to meet a rich businessman in Herefordshire – despite a perfectly good train which would have taken just a couple of hours.

Now, despite all Cameron hype, it's Tories ditch green taxes.

The truth of Chameleon Cameron's attempt at being all colours to all people is that he only comes in one colour.

So forget: Vote Blue, Go Green. If you Vote Blue, you get True Blue.

Chameleon Cameron flip-flops on mortgages...

Warm words today from David Cameron on mortgages have a distinctly hollow ring. They also demonstrate he hasn't given up his love of flip-flops.

With Dave's economic record, it's a bit rich hearing him demand measures to protect people with mortgages.

Myself and millions of other mortgage holders remember the disaster last time he was allowed anywhere near the Treasury...

On Black Wednesday, Dave was at the heart of the Treasury, as Special Advisor to the bungling Tory Chancellor who disastrously announced interest rate increases of five-per-cent in a single day.

By contrast, thanks to Gordon Brown's delivery of a stable economy, for the past decade we have enjoyed interest rates that Tory Chancellors can only dream of: a third of what they were in the dark Tory days of boom'n'bust. And these days, when changes are necessary, they are usually a difference of just a quarter of one per cent - not FIVE per cent in one day.

Despite Tory scare-mongering predictions of economic collapse round the corner, interest rates are still under six per cent - not the 15-per-cent Black Wednesday rates. And remember, the last change was down, not up!

Meanwhile, David Cameron, the man who wants to run Britain still can't add up. The unexplained £6 billion black hole in his latest tax and spend promises and unfunded tax cuts would risk a disastrous return the dark days of boom'n'bust.

And the flip-flops?

Today, Cameron called for extra measures to protect people taking out mortgages.

Yet just a few months ago he heaped praise on a report by his Conservative Party Economic Policy Commission which recommended scrapping every regulation protecting people taking out mortgages.

What David Cameron called a great report in August said this on Page 59:

We see no need to continue to regulate the provision of mortgage finance, as it is the lending institutions rather than the client taking the risk.

In October, Georgie Osborne told the Tory Party Conference that the report by John Redwood was a blueprint to cut government regulation, planning restriction and red tape.

So Dave, is it less regulation or more...?

Flip-flop, flip-flop.

UPDATE: I see today's FT agrees with me and headlines Dave's latest u-turn....no comment!

Cameron appeases the right-wing hardliners: UPDATED.

Part of David Cameron's 'Save Dave' relaunch yesterday was to meet a delegation from the Cornerstone Group of right-wing Tory MPs to assure them he's really on their side.

Cornerstone's president is Lincolnshire MP Edward Leigh and it's chairman is John Hayes, MP for South Holland and the Deepings.

As Cameron attempted to tell the public that he wanted the Tories to be on the centre ground of British politics, he was privately pandering to the right-wingers who are chuffed with his performance to date.

After all, Dave flip-flop caved in to his own right-wing's obsession with Europe by agreeing to leave the mainstream EPP grouping. The price the Tories are paying is isolation in Europe.

And he did a spectacular u-turn on his 'no more grammars' policy, by agreeing there could be some new grammar schools, but only in certain areas.

And then inserting a line in his speech yesterday promising a 'grammar stream' in every school following pressure from Edward Leigh and Cornerstone.

Whatever next...?

Well, it's worth noting that Cornerstone recently called for the NHS to be replaced by a system of compulsory private healthcare.

Right-wing Tory MP for Northampton, Brian Binley, who met with Cameron yesterday said:

I don’t have to tell you that I am considered on the right of the party and I’m delighted that our views, our political concerns are being considered very seriously in the policy review group.

UPDATE: Links added to to Independent story Right wingers step up pressure on Cameron and Daily Mail story Tory right reopens battle on Grammars.

Lincoln Museum safe from Tory charges after another Cameron u-turn...

Lincoln's amazing new museum has been declared safe from Tory charges - after David Cameron was forced into his latest humiliating u-turn.

His culture spokesman fellow Etonian Hugo Swire sparked an immediate backlash with plans to bring back charges for entry into museums and galleries.

Culture Minister Tessa Jowell said it would be a disastrous return to Thatcherism which would exclude the less well-off: Tory blogger Iain Dale said it was a daft idea that would leave Cameron open to charges of elitism.

Most blistering attack is in today's Sun under the headline TORY RELIC. Here it is in full:

With Tory poll ratings nose-diving and David Cameron reeling from the grammar schools debacle, another old Etonian on his front bench has a brilliant idea:

Scrap free admission to museums.

Yes, you read it correctly. Axe the most universally popular initiative of Labour’s entire period in office.

A policy which has doubled visitor numbers. Which has opened up a world of culture to people who could not afford the tenner-a-head it cost under John Major’s Government.

Tory culture spokesman Hugo Swire has never been short of a tenner. And that’s the problem. He and many of his colleagues simply don’t understand ordinary families.

Cameron’s fighting fires on every front. He needs to impose iron discipline on his team to stop these idiotic gaffes.

Today’s Independent screams: Why museums must stay free

But the Tories were already backtracking faster than you could say Grammar School Wars.

(Thanks to Lincs Tory blogger Geoffrey Brooking for pointing out to me that the Conservative idea to bring back charges had been retracted by the Leader's office.)

So, what a great day for David Cameron to launch his 'Save Dave' campaign aimed at drawing a line under Grammar School Wars and showing us who's really in charge.

Er, not you Dave.

Flip-flop, flip-flop.

More farce in Tory Grammar School wars...

Lincs MP John Hayes has joined the chorus of Tories backing more Grammar Schools - with words that would probably have earned him the sack from David Cameron's front bench just a couple of weeks ago.

In an article in the Spalding Guardian, headlined MP passionate in support of grammar school system MP for South Holland and the Deepings, John Hayes says he supports what he calls his party's new policy on the creation of grammar schools.

Mr Hayes' former colleague on the Tory front benches Graham Brady lost his job for much less passionate support for building new grammar schools after Tory 'Leader' Cameron condemned the 11-plus as wrongly splitting children into 'sheep and goats'.

But Mr Brady made his remarks before Cameron's complete cave-in and collapse, as the rebellion at every level of his party threatened his leadership.

Mr Hayes, a Shadow Education Minister is now able to say that he backs his party's latest position, which supports creating new grammar schools in areas like Lincolnshire which still has selection at secondary level - and which Mr Cameron condemned as not the right way forward just days before his u-turn.

Mr Hayes told his local paper:

I am passionate in my support for the local grammar schools and the system they are a part of.

I am proud of them and I am delighted the party will continue to support them as pledged.

They are doing an excellent job and if Lincolnshire should need to build additional schools in the future due to a growing population, that would be granted.

So now Cameron is stuck with a policy that was precisely the opposite of the one he set out to achieve.

When Cameron opened up the grammar school debate last month (when he was trying to shut it down!), he claimed it was all about leadership...

Now everyone can see exactly what he means!

Day 24 and the Tory Grammar mutiny gets deeper as Lincs MP wades in ...

Day 24 in the Tory Grammar School debacle and the self-inflicted war inside Cameron's Conservatives goes on at every level.

A leading Lincolnshire Tory MP has waded into the row that his Leader David Cameron desperately tried to shut down weeks ago. And for good measure, Cameron's rival in his leadership contest has 'stuck the knife in'.

Today's Mirror reports that the Tory mutiny has deepened as David Cameron was knifed by David Davis:

Davis, the shadow Home Secretary, set himself at odds with Eton-educated Cameron by insisting grammar schools helped boost the chances of children from less welloff backgrounds.

Davis, a former grammar schoolboy, pointedly reminded viewers during the interview on the BBC's Sunday AM show that he had backed selective schooling during the 2005 Tory leadership contest - which he lost to Cameron.

Davis's intervention will be a bitter blow to Cameron, who is desperately hoping the education row will die down.

Meanwhile, The Daily Telegraph reports that Cameron's hopes of drawing a line under the split have been dealt fresh blow as a leading Conservative MP has joined Chris Woodhead, the former Chief Inspector of Schools, to back selective education.

Lincolnshire MP Edward Leigh, the Tory chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, and Mr Woodhead argued that it was "irrational" to oppose calls for the creation of schools to cater for the most academically able.

Edward Leigh's determined intervention comes weeks after David Cameron attempted to shut down debate on grammar schools and the humiliating u-turn he was forced into in the face of a massive Tory rebellion against his attempts to end selection.

Cameron caused the crisis when he attacked the 11-plus for 'dividing children into sheep and goats'. He promised to end selection, but then climbed down, leaving his policy tatters and Cameron facing questions over his leadership ability.

Plan for more Grammar Schools unworkable - Times analysis

The Great Tory debacle over Grammar Schools - which David Cameron desperately tried to shut down over a week ago - lives on for at least another day.

An analysis of Cameron's chaotic policy to build new Grammar Schools in tomorrow's Times is headlined Why their argument does not work.

I'm sure you get the picture...

Saturday's Guardian says Cameron returns from his holiday this weekend to face charges from senior Conservatives that he is making his Party appear elitist and choatic...

Tania Brannigan writes:

Even Mr Cameron's staunchest supporters are baffled by the way an apparently uncontroversial speech on a long-standing Tory policy could spark a 17-day row, infighting and a frontbench resignation.

The Guardian has also printed a helpful guide to where the current 198 Tory MPs were educated. The vast majority - 112 - attended private school (independent or public) with 46 going to Grammar Schools, 27 to Comprehensives.

Two Tory MPs attended secondary moderns.

Didn't they do well for failures...or not!

Bercow has his Grammar School cake and eats it...

Tory blogger Iain Dale highlights the hypocrisy of Conservative MP John Bercow in the Tory Grammar Wars.

He contrasts two statements by John Bercow:

1. On GMTV on Sunday declaring it would be 'electoral suicide' for the Tories to go on about grammar schools and that David Cameron's policy of 'no more grammars' was absolutely right.

2. In his local paper in Buckinghamshire this week, welcoming confirmation that new Grammar Schools would be built under a Tory Government.

Yeah but, nah but, yeah but...

As Iain fairly says: You couldn't make this up.

Grammar Wars: Is Vicky Pollard to blame...?

Midst the chaos of Dave 'call me cave-in' Cameron's collapse on Grammar Schools, Labour blogger Mike Ion poses the question:
Is Vicky Pollard responsible for Tory policy on Grammar Schools?

He concludes: no but yeah but yeah but yeah no but yeah no but yeah!

So more decisive than the current Tory Leader then!

Ironically, Mike posted his question - and answer - BEFORE Cameron's latest, and most astonishing u-turn...

Dogs bark, cats miaow, Tories make us laugh...

Fair Deal Phil's Nomination for Belly-Laugh of the Week goes to the unnamed 'senior aide to Mr Cameron' who told today's Independent

'This is not a U-turn. There is no row. The policy has not changed.'

Topsy-turvey world of Tory policy-making...

The longer the Tory Grammar School wars goes on, the more bizarre it gets...

Think on this conundrum...

At the start of the week, Graham Brady lost his job after being hauled over the coals by Tory whips for publicly expressing his apparently outrageous views on Grammar Schools.

At the end of the same week, hey presto, the very words he lost his job over have become er, Conservative Party policy.

Cave-in Cameron: chaos or what...?

Juvenile Georgie's silly gaffe...

Today's Daily Mirror rips the mickey out of Cameron's sidekick, wee Georgie Osborne, after he claimed to be an heir to Tony Blair...

Here's the Voice of the Mirror in full to enjoy:

Rich George Osborne thinks he knows the price of everything in politics.

Yet the shrill-voiced Tory knows the value of nothing in the country.

His claim to be an "heir to Blair" is juvenile, the posturing of a private schoolboy still to grow up.

Many Tories are horrified he wants to be compared to a Labour Premier who changed Britain for the better.

Others think baronet's son Osborne, in truth heir to a wallpaper fortune, is just plain silly.

Either way, George Osborne has proved once again that the Conservatives are a bunch of chancers unfit for government.

It wasn't Georgie's day.

In the same speech, wee Georgie said a Tory government would actively prevent new grammar schools being opened.

He insisted that countries in the "mainstream" of thinking on education - such as America - would not allow selective schools to appear.

Pressed by a Conservative activist from Buckinghamshire on whether the party would permit them to open new grammars which had local support, Mr Osborne went further: "We don't believe in schools choosing pupils. We believe in pupils choosing schools."

That's clear then. No more Grammars, which was exactly what Cameron wanted him to say.

Only hours later, the challenge to Cameron by Buckinghamshire Tory MP Dominic Grieve on Grammar Schools became public.

Rather than sack Grieve and lose his second front bencher in as many days, Cameronwas forced into a massive u-turn, yet again reversing Tory policy on the hoof by allowing his Education Spokesman to say more Grammar Schools may be built if he became PM.

Graham Brady of course lost his job in Cameron's team after he was much less critical of Cameron's promise of 'no more Grammar Schools' than Grieve had been.

Either way, in the total muddle that Cameron has created, his faithful sidekick wee Georgie has been hung out to dry...

BREAKING NEWS: Cameron humiliated in massive retreat on Grammars at hands of hard-right...

Cameron's Education spokesman Nick Gibb has run up the Tory white flag on Grammar Schools in a humiliating defeat - it is clear he has totally failed the very test of leadership that he set himself two weeks ago.

The defeat came this afternoon when Shadow Education spokesman Nick Gibb told Channel Four News:

'If there has been a huge increase in population in an area that currently has a grammar school and has a grammar school system, then we will look at it on a case by case basis to see whether there is a case for building one or two more grammar schools simply to maintain the status quo, to maintain the proportion of children that will be able to go to that grammar school.'

This is a humiliating u-turn after Cameron promised 'no more Grammar Schools' just a couple of weeks ago.

His climb-down today shows that the Tories remain unchanged and unreformed - and still wedded to Grammar Schools, which Cameron himself says he no longer believes in.

It is now clear that the man who wants to run the country can't even run his own shadow cabinet!

UPDATE: The Daily Mail has now picked up on this story, under the headline:
Tory u-turn: We WILL build grammar schools

Grammar Wars: Tory Council Leader tells Cameron he's out of touch...

A poll of Tory council leaders by Channel 4 News shows that Cameron's ideological attack on grammar schools is backfiring among Tory council leaders.

Of 52 Tory council leaders interviewed, more than half - 28 - opposed Cameron's cave-in on schools policy. Channel 4 also saw a private letter to Shadow Education Secretary David Willetts, in which Kent’s Council leader accused senior Tories of being completely out of touch...

Tories hollow claim to be heir to Blair...

Having spent the last 13 years rubbishing Tony Blair, the Tories are now attempting to claim that they are best placed to carry on his work to reform public services!

In a speech today to the Policy Exchange think tank, Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said the Tories agree with Tony Blair on 'the essentials of the way forward'.

But he claimed that Gordon Brown - er, Blair's Chancellor for the past ten years - was not part of the 'growing consensus'.

This seems a dramatic - and chaotic - departure from Tory propaganda which up to now has Gordon Brown as one of the chief architects of changing the Labour Party into New Labour.

Bring on another pair of blue flip-flops..?

Well, maybe not. Osbourne's new thesis is built entirely on sand.

As the BBC points out in its report:

Mr Brown has said that personalised services are the next stage of improving public services, has backed academy schools and rejected any suggestion that he would lead the Labour Party off the political centre ground.

Osbourne even has the brass neck to try to steal Labour's mantra which sums up the past decade of delivery:for the many, not the few.

Osbourne may attempt to speak the Blair-Brown words and even applaud Labour's reform of schools and hospitals to offer more choice.

But they become hollow words when they are uttered by a party still committed to billions in tax-cuts for the few which would devastate public services for the many.

Lincs Tories weld themselves to Grammar Schools...

Lincolnshire Tories are spitting nails over David Cameron's ideological attack on Grammar Schools.

Following comments by Cameron that it was outdated to separate 11-year olds into 'sheep and goats', Lincolnshire Tories in charge of our county's education, responded with a press statement welding Lincolnshire to the 11-plus and Grammar Schools.

We shouldn't be surprised at the local reaction. These are the same Tories of course who have just signed a new £2 million a year contract with Stamford Endowed Schools to give a private education to a few select children who live in and around Stamford - the only surviving scheme of its kind in the country.

Council taxpayers all over Lincolnshire will be forced to pick up the bill for something to which their own children will continue to be denied access - no matter how talented or gifted.

Cameron of course is desperate for a 'Clause 4' moment to convince us that the Conservatives are no longer the 'nasty party'. Now he's busy attacking critics in his own party as 'delusionist' and living in a 'fantasy' over Grammar Schools.

But here in Lincolnshire and across the country, the Right Guard dinosaurs are still alive and kicking (him), demonstrating that the Conservatives are as divided as ever.

Tory hypocrisy on rail safety...

Since the botched rail privatisation was entirely the responsibility of the last Conservative Government, remarks on safety issues by a Tory frontbencher after this weekend's rail tragedy smack of breathtaking hypocrisy.

Shadow chancellor George Osborne brazenly told Sky News:

There is a mismatch between the management of the rail network, the track itself and the rail companies like Virgin.

One of the things the Conservative Party is looking at, and we are not directly relating this to this accident at all, I am making a broader observation.

We are looking at whether in the future there should be a much closer link between the people who own the track and the people who run the trains.

Does the man who wants to run our economy really think people are daft enough to have forgotten - or forgiven - the Tories for fragmenting our railways and deliberately separating the safety of the track from the train companies - against all expert advice?