Tories and history
I don't think sonderkommando is a sensible
wordto use in a newsletter (I think suspension is rather harsh, but I suppose you have to do kick up a fuss as that's what they would do if the boot was on the other foot), but surely he doesn't know what the sonderkommando did and was just using it as a (wrongly) fancy word for commando?
Aha, maybe he meant this
lot?
Labels: Nazis, Tories
Mafia style messages
It's difficult to know what to make of this
story (in the
Times but the
Times has close links to all these characters so probably accurate).
One assumes its simply a drunken joke that was regretted the second the send button was pressed. But doesn't it give you a slight sense of panic that these people might be in charge soon enough?
Jamie had a piece on what we can expect and the general view was a lot of infighting, which this supports. However I think I agree with Justin's comment unless they have some huge European disaster.
Labels: Tories
Robin Page's blog
If the ink was red the
design would be complete, wouldn't it?
The strapline is "A Real Tory, not a Notting Hill Tory". This is interesting. First, yeah for the NH Tories if that's the case. But second, so the Daily Mail (and I think we can use the term here as they presumably design the strapline) believes that David Cameron is not a real Tory? What do they think he is then?
Labels: Tories
Cameron on VAT
I don't really understand
his criticism. He talks about it being a waste of 'our money', but if that is how he views tax cuts then it's very abnomal within the Conservative Party, and only makes any sense if he plans always to run a balanced budget.
That retail sales are falling (if they are) is not the relevant comparision. It isn't even really whether they are falling more than they would otherwise. A VAT cut has two effects for consumers, the first is that prices are cheaper, so they should buy more goods rather than save, and second their real income is now higher, so they can save more/pay off debt. The cost to the government is, give or take some small other factors, the gain to the public (at least in the short-term) and so what is probably most relevant is to what extent it is spread about.
Labels: budget, David Cameron, economy, Tories
Damian Green
His arrest, whilst hilarious, is almost certainly wrong. It's worth noting that he can no longer enter the United States without a visa, an unfortunate state of affairs but one that I am sure he whole heartedly approves of.
Labels: Tories
A Tory landslide
If the opinion polls remain as they are the Conservatives are likely to have a larger majority than Labour did in 1997. Most of the Conservative MPs will be very anti-European, and it seems possible, if still not likely, that the UK will leave the European Union. Which got me wondering - does out 'Citizenship of the European Union' automatially end if we were to leave, or could we have dual citizenship? The concept wasn't around when Greenland left, which is the only example of a country leaving (I think). The
Wikipedia page is not that helpful in answering this question, and I imagine even if the UK government was happy the other countries wouldn't be. But as individuals do we have a say (of course the UK government could say they were incompatible, in which case presumably most people would renounce their EU citizenship).
Labels: EU, Tories
Inheritance tax again
The Daily Mail is hilarious today. It says at one point that the government's proposal does nothing for the 500,000 couples who already split their assets so as to both benefit from their nil rate of inheritance tax. Er...yes, that's because they aren't paying the tax.
What does the Mail want - perhaps George Osborne should counter with a proposal that the government will 'top up' inheritances, perhaps matching them £1 for £1. On the score I presume the Tory policy will quietly be dropped, as it now just seems like a £1bn bonus for the very rich.
Labels: Taxation, Tories
Peter Hitchens on David Cameron
Did you watch it? The two main things I got from it was that Peter Hitchens is very droll, and Michael Gove is going to go much further. Other than that, I didn't really understand Hitchens' argument. Sometimes he appeared to be arguing that Cameron actually believes all the things Hitchens' believes in, but was pretending not to in order to get power, and that was a bad thing, and at others that Cameron had jettisoned all of those views and there was nothing but the 'centre ground'.
Labels: Cameron, Hitchens, Tories
