clawsfour

Cameron's poverty of thought

It's not often I post stuff direct from the Labour Party, but the message I just received from General Secretary Ray Collins did remind me of some of the Garbage coming out of the Tory Conference last week. So I couldn't resist sharing.

David Cameron clearly thinks that if he shouts loud enough about Labour, no one will ask him about his own policies for the poorest in Britain. 

 It’s pretty amazing stuff from a man who wants to give £200,000 to those set to inherit millions while cutting tax credits and child trusts funds of ordinary families. 

 And now David Cameron’s attacks on Labour have been taken apart by the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies, stating that "direct tax and benefit changes made by the previous Conservative governments acted to increase income inequality, whereas those made by since 1997-98 have benefited the poor by more than the rich". 

We need your help. 

The long campaign for the General Election has started. If we are to take the Tories on, call them on their nonsense, and convince people to vote Labour we need every single one of our members and supporters to help in any way they can.

And this is the video that prompted the email.

And, for completeness, the Labour Party would like you to "Donate £10 to help us campaign – every penny you give us will be used for campaigning".

Polluting the freedom of the press

Well, extraordinarily Carter-Ruck has obtained an injunction preventing the reporting of a parliamentary question (and the answer to it) due to be asked this coming Thursday.

Fortunately, the injunction doesn't appear to extend to the Mother of Parliaments itself, and the order book still shows this question to be asked by Paul Farrelly MP.

Paul Farrelly (Newcastle-under-Lyme):

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of legislation to protect (a) whistleblowers and (b) press freedom following the injunctions obtained in the High Court by (i) Barclays and Freshfields solicitors on 19 March 2009 on the publication of internal Barclays reports documenting alleged tax avoidance schemes and (ii) Trafigura and Carter-Ruck solicitors on 11 September 2009 on the publication of the Minton report on the alleged dumping of toxic waste in the Ivory Coast, commissioned by Trafigura.

Now, I don't pretend to have any great knowledge of the issue - the dumping of toxic waste - other than by following bits and pieces of it in the media. I will be making greater efforts now, however, following the intervention of Carter-Fuck and trust the question itself (and the answer) will be broadcast in the usual way on the parliamentary channel. 

In the meantime, for those who have not seen it elsewhere, the Minton Report referred to in the question can be found here here. 

And the Guardian has a link to "internal emails from Trafigura operatives around the world". 

These apparently give a

Blow-by-blow account of the oil trading firm's decision to buy gasoline from the Mexican state refinery PMI via a US oil terminal at Brownsville, and then process it at sea on a chartered tanker, the Probo Koala, using caustic washing.

Finally, they show the traders trying to get rid of the resulting toxic waste first at the tank terminal La Skhirra in Tunisia; then at Amsterdam; then at Lagos; then the Ivory Coast; and subsequently in Norway.

Carter-Ruck seems to have kicked up a perfect storm, producing the exact opposite of his intended effect. You can follow developments at #carterruck"> and #trafigura">

BREAKING NEWS - CARTER-RUCK and TRAFIGURA cave in 

See the latest from the Guardian here. Now Carter-Ruck will say that was nothing to do with Twitter or the blogosphere. But we know the truth. Don't we.

The Conservatives won't deserve anyone's vote...

... Until its deputy chairman has reassured the public he is domiciled here and paying his taxes like everone else.

So says today's Evening Standard and if it's good enough for the right wing press (which today brings a new meaning to the free press) then it's good enough for me.

The Tories are still unable to say that there largest donor is either registered to vote or to pay tax on this country. Yet they still take his money and the Electoral Cimmission still don't call for a prosecution. Just imagine the outcry if Labour was taking cash from overseas.

Ex-Army chief 'offered Tory role'

David Cameron has apparently (to the consternation of his Tory colleagues) offered Former Army chief General Sir Richard Dannatt a job with the Tories in the House of Lords.

Cameron said:

I've spoken to him on previous occasions as well as recently about his views about how we improve our armed services... I think he's a man of great talent and ability, he's been a great public servant and I think he's got more to give.

The General has been kicking up a storm about smear tactics and has now told the Beeb the government tried to damage his reputation after "losing the argument" over tactics and ministers had resorted to "politics by smear".

Given that the government has been remarkably straightforward about the decisions it has taken about troop numbers in Afghanistan, it seems that General Dannatt (ret) is the one doing the smearing. 

Conservative Chris Grayling MP also seemed to think this is a dodgy appointment by Cameron when he said:

I hope that this isn't a political gimmick. General Dannatt's an experienced figure and should rightly be working alongside government.

Grayling has been subsequently been advised that it is Cameron who wants to keep this particular General out of retirement (more saving on the pension budget) and not Prime Minister Brown.

Chris Grayling is, of course, the Shadow Home Secretary. Number two in Cameron's kitchen. A person who should have a firm grip on what is going on. And another remarkably straightforward reason why you should never, never, vote Tory.

It's not over 'til the referee has played six minutes of injury time...

Once again everyone writes us off prematurely.

Obviously we have the age and experience. The opposition are youthful and energetic.

We have a little bit of guile. They are brash and in your face.

We shouldn't be the underdogs, but we find ourselves behind. A long way behind.

But then we get our act together. Our leader plays a blinder. We begin to draw level.

And finally we beat Torquay 5-3 on penalties in the Johnson's Paint Trophy.

Next May/June the stakes will be a little higher, but the Tories have already given us - and more importantly the public - enough ammunition to start eroding their temporary lead in the polls. And Tory lead councils up and down the land are doing their best to help, showing that when Tories say "we're all in this together" it really means that we bear the brunt of their cuts in services they never use.

The philosophy was set out by the Tory Leader of Southampton Council, Alec Samuels:

We do not in principle favour ‘free this and free that’, such as swimming or transport, school meals or computers or whatever it is.

Southern Daily Echo, 17 Oct 2008

Cllr Eddie Lister, Tory Leader of Wandsworth, says local councils should hike up the prices of local services as far as they can go:

We will look to increase charges as far as possible beyond inflation so that consumers of the services are bearing the full cost without any hidden subsidy from the taxpayer. 

It is worth taking a trial and error approach to see just what the market [I presume he means residents like you and me] will bear.”

Big Ideas, Building on Conservative Fundamentals, Localis 2008

So when George Osborne says, "we're all in it together" just think carefully about who the 'we' are. Are you part of the 'we' made up of nurses, and police and teachers and other public service workers on £18k a year or more who face a Tory pay freeze? Or are you part of the 'we' made up of the 3,000 most wealthy people in this country who will have their inheritance tax cut paid for by the pay freeze for public service workers?

And when you've thought about that for a bit, think about how many people you know who are thinking about voting Tory this time. You have around six months to make sure they know who 'we' are.