“I’ve not yet developed the capacity for time travel”

Europe’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Baroness Ashton

HT: Today programme Twitter feed

Man alive, how can anyone take this man seriously? He is just a typical union thug dressed up as a politician. The sooner the Commons is rid of him the better, for both Hull and the country as a whole.

So here I am, sitting in on an environment committee in the EU Parliament.
It’s been an interesting day, some parts tedious, the highlight has to be meetig Roger Helmer MEP.
The day kicked off early with an introduction from a spokesman from the EU Commission. He spoke about the work of the commission, claiming that the only democratic deficit in the EU is that of the low turnout at elections. Nothing about the commission making many of the decisions whilst not being an elected body!
After that we moved off to the Scottish office where we heard from a completely bipartisan civil servant who said her job was to push for ways that would see Scotland as a viable independent member state of the EU. so, basically we are paying for nationalists to promote Scottish independence as a viable option. This is exactly why so many dislike the EU!
The other aspect that has struck me most is the amount of offices. Brussels is just rammed full of offices with a distinct lack of eating places as the staff all get food on expenses.
We’ve now left the aforementioned committee and we are now off to meet the Conservative spokesman for agriculture.
This evening we are having a meal with Struan Stevenson MEP and then we return to the mother land tomorrow morning.
The whole point of the trip is clearly to get us thinking that the EU isn’t such a bad thing, but I’m pleased to report it’s done nothing but strengthen my position on it all.

As of now I am in the air, en route to Brussels for a ride on the gravy train that is the European Parliament. I’ll blog the full details of it after the trip, but for now let’s just call it an ‘all expenses and above’ covered trip.

Basically, Struan Stevenson, Conservative MEP for Scotland, has arranged a trip for members of Conservative Future Scotland (the youth wing of the Tories for those of you not in the know) to the European Parliament. Given that our itinery kicks off at 0930 hrs tomorrow morning, we have decided to travel today to take full advantage of the Brussels social scene this evening.

Today is a relaxing day. Tomorrow we have a full agenda of tours, meetings and greetings with various aspects of the parliament. I will of course keep you abreast with our activities right here on Green’s Diary.

Code named ‘ operation better off out’ (which will become quite clear after I return to he UK), we will be sampling the EU fisheries committee, meeting other MEPs, taking full advantage of the Belgium beers and of course consuming a fair amount of fine food.

Now, before you all scream, “students these days, what are they like? Weren’t like that in my day!” and wonder who is paying for all this then look no further than youself. I will explain the details on Wednesday when I return, but basically, if you pay tax in the UK, or any other EU member state for thet matter than I thank you. You have just funded 30 students to go on a booze cruise in Brussels. Did you sanction this action? no. Were you consulted on it? no. But, then this is the European  Parliament we are talking about. The finest example of a model democracy ever known to man.

If you’re interested in scandalous expenses claims then look no further than the EU. Westminster is a mere acidental ink blot on the graph paper compared to that which is going on in Brussels.

Anyway, for up to the minute updates from the trip, check out my twitter feed here. I’ll also be posting regular updates on the blog, so long as the old ‘roaming interweb’ all works.

The petition entitled, “resign” on the Number 10 website has ended and Gordon’s response:

The Prime Minister is completely focussed on restoring the economy, getting people back to work and improving standards in public services. As the Prime Minister has consistently said, he is determined to build a stronger, fairer, better Britain for all.

Doesn’t say how well he is doing it does it? Maybe that’s the reason the petition was set up in the first place!

I’ve spent the last two evenings for all my sins clumping my way round various districts of Glasgow North East campaigning for the by-election that no one seems to be caring about and for very good reason.
The by-election is going to be an easy win for Labour. All the signs from the ground are that the SNP have all but given up the ghost. It really isn’t fertile for the Tories, the Lib Dems’ candidate is a joke and the minor parties are just not an issue.
THe area is really quite a mess with a massive social problem. Drugs are a huge problem and the average life expectancy of a man is 57. The area has been constantly failed by sucessive governments and I do hope that the Conservatives will extend their social justice agenda to Glasgow North East.
The by-election is recieving minimal coverage and it’s no surprise as there isn’t a story. If the SNP were running a risk of winning the media would be crawling over the constituency, but it’s all a forgone conclusion and so all parties are struggling to get any attention at all.

1. Iain Dale thinks the Lib Dems want the troops brought home
2. Burning Our Money wonders where jobs will come from to lower unemployment
3. Dan Hannan blames state interference for the economic condition
4. Mark Reckons has launched a new podcast show
5. Alex Deane on security checks that presume we’re guilty until proven otherwise

The letters have been delivered to MP’s desks and yet some of them are still asking why they should pay back the money they stole from the British tax payer. The simple thing here to understand is that in most walks of life theft is a crime, whch sometimes leads to a prison sentence. The fact that MPs are only being asked to pay the money back rather than face criminal prosecutions should be a big enough hint to them that it’s probably best they should comply. Indeed, it just shows how out of touch they are when it takes an inquiry to suggest they should pay the money back. Once they realised that what they had done was wrong they should have automatically paid it back rather than hoping that the long summer recess would allow the issue to be swept under the carpet.

And whilst we’re on expenses, an apology alone from Ms Smith is simply not good enough. The level of arrogance in that woman never ceases to amaze me. Thank goodness we no longer have to hear her bleat on about the Home Office.

MPs need to come clean. Where wrongs have been done they need to be put right, then and only then will parliament and politics alike begin to revive it’s levels of credibility.

Another new feature I’m rolling out on Green’s Diary. Each month I’ll publish a Wordle of the most used words on the blog during the month. Here’s September’s:

Thanks to Wordle.Net for suppling the image

It looks increasingly likely that a US style TV debate will take place between the main party leaders in the run up to the general election.

David Cameron has agreed to the Sky News terms of the potential debate and Nick Clegg has said that he “would definately be there”. Gordon Brown of course has said nothing for if he says yes no one will believe him and if he says no he’ll appear to be bottling it.

I have no worries that Cameron will win a TV debate as he is very good at debate and he comes across well on TV – we see that on a weekly basis during PMQs. However I wonder if TV  debates have a place in British politics. Live debates broadcast across the country is not really how we do politics in the UK, or at least the way we have done it. That said I am not opposed to it but if it does go ahead it will signal a new era in British politics.

Officially, we have a parliamentary democracy rather than a presidential democracy. There is a big difference between the two. The US’s presidential system means they directly elect a President who chooses his unelected executive. In the UK although we do not directly elect the executive, they are elected representatives and we do not directly elect our Prime Minister. The PM is, by convention the leader of the majority party in the House of Commons.

Watch this video as Adam Boulton of Sky News sets out the stalls for a TV debate:

Notice how all bar one of the examples cited directly elect their leader. This is crucial in understanding why up until now we have not had a TV debate for the general election. In many countries around the world it is the Presidential candidates who are the central figures in the election. In the UK it is parliament and the individual candidate hoping to represent their respective constituencies. Over the last few decades there has been a change in British politics  which has centralised power in the hands of few and making the Prime Minister incredibly powerful. It started with Margaret Thatcher’s so called ‘kitchen cabinets’ and the process of presidentialising our system was continued and accelerated by Blair.

The nature of the British political system makes it easy to evolve and change and perhaps this gradual change is merely an evolution of UK politics. But that doesn’t make this change a good one. We are currently seeing in the Conservative party the battle Cameron is having to get his party to believe what he believes. In the 24 hour media age it seems that our leaders need to comment on everything from serious political issues through to the death of celebrities this is mainly as a result of the centralisation of power we now look to the leaders for an answer in everything. It seems to me that without these often ridiculous comments many people would simply not be able to continue with their lives (or so the media would have us believe).

Anyway, back to the TV debate. Personally I think that it is a good idea in principle. In the current political climate where people have lost confidence in not only politicians, but politics altogether resulting in low turnouts what better way to re-engage the British public with the political process? Alistair Campbell writes that a similar debate between John Major and Tony Blair did not happen because it was taking too much campaign to organise. If that is true then we need to ensure that the debate is organised by the end of this calendar year so as to ensure that the TV debate is part of the campaign rather than vice versa. Campbell makes a good point that a debate will happen if there is appetite for it from the party leaders. It won’t happen because Sky News want to get a bit of PR for themselves. Let’s not forget here that Sky News is a commercial broadcaster. There will be lucrative advertising to go with the debate and more money for Sky. The difference between the BBC and Sky (at least officially) is the BBC is a public service broadcaster, whereas Sky is a money making machine like any other business.

A TV debate will be the evidence of the changes that have been taking place in our political system over the last few decades. If it is a success it will no doubt become a feature of elections. I am not opposed to change in principle, but I do have principles that I believe should be adhered to when changing the political system. The main one is that the candidates are all potential representatives of us the British public. If elected thy will become public servants. The only problem with a TV debate is it threatens to create an ‘us and them’ culture if it becomes the politician show where they spout their usual propaganda resulting in people feeling even more distanced by it all. I hope I’m wrong. Anything that may help engage people with politics and that get’s people caring about their community and country again has to be a good thing. It is vital that we regain pride in our country. This can only be done if we as a society come together and work together to improve things. Hopefully a TV debate will go some way to encouraging people to take the first step by carrying out their responsibility as a privileged citizen of Britain and voting at the next election.

If you want to join Sky’s campaign to have a TV debate as part of the general election campaign then click here to sign their petition.

UPDATE: Adam Boulton has blogged about why it is time for a TV debate

I seem to be spending an increasing amount of time travelling between hospitals. I am having what is becoming annual hip surgery today and will be in hospital for a few days. As a result I shall be away from the blog whilst in hospital, but I shall have a large amount of time on my hands once I’m home so I’ll be back later on in the week. I’ll be posting a thread where I’ll post updates on the recovery process instead of providing endless Twitter updates.

I’ll be uising my time in hospital to write my political manifesto of beliefs and policies. Excerpts of which will appear on here over the coming months.

A second post mortem on Ian Tomlinson, the man who died during the G20 protests in London has found he died from internal bleeding rather than a heart attack.

I’ll be carefull what I say here, but surely now given the video evidence (see below) there must be a charge of manslughter brought against the office(s) involved. If this case does go to court which I expect it will do now it will be interesting to see the outcome. I wonder what the defence line will be?

Graeme Archer wrote on Centre Right a few days ago that, “The police, particularly in London, appear to have forgotten that they police only with our consent. They are not the armed wing of the state.” I would tend to agree with that. Have a read of his article and see what you think.

Yesterdays. Shadow Cabinet reshuffle by David Cameron was slightly more wideranging than perhaps some of us expected. Clearly, the biggest news in terms of news coverage is the return of Ken Clarke. The news that the former Chancellor was to return to the fold was leaked on Sunday evening. His return is clearly designed to provide some ‘meat’ to the Shadow Cabinet.

Amongst the grassroots of the party, he is not popular. After all, this is the party who has rejected him as leader three times. The main problem people seem to have with him is over his views on Europe. As a pro European Clarke is what Mrs Thatcher once referred to as, ‘not one of us’. However, we are assured that over Lunch at George Osborne’s on Saturday that Ken Clarke has agreed to accept the party’s position on Europe. How long that will last for I do not know, but nevertheless by bringing Clarke back into the Shadow Cabinet, Cameron has shown us that he is prepared to put ideology aside and focus solely on getting elected. This is dangerous as it’s what Tony Blair did with Labour in the 90′s and it resulted in a party whose one ambition was to get elected and then once elected, re-elected. This sort of politics does not make for good government. It is acting in self interest rather than national interest which should never happen.

In other moves, as qidely expected Peter Ainsworth was sacked. Tim Mongomerie made an interesting suggestion that he should set up a group similar to the Centre for Social Justice on environmental ideas. Clearly, there was no longer a place for him in the Shadow Cabinet since green issues have been at last superseded by other more important issues such as the economy and social breakdown.

Some expected, and I predicted that Dominic Grieve would be moved away from Home Secretary. He was, but not back to Shadow Attorney General where I expected. He has moved to justice which I think will suit him better as it is more of a legal portfolio which is where his background is. His replacement is Chris Grayling who gets a big promotion to a front line job as Shadow Home Secretary. This should suite him better than work and pensions where he was before as his new role will allow him to be the strong politician that he is. He is excellent at scrutiny and he will make an excellent Home Secretary after the next election.

Nick Herbert who was the Shadow Justice Secretary has been moved to DEFRA. My first reaction was that it’s a demotion, However, upon further reflection I think it actually shows how serious Dave is about the countryside. Nick Herbert is one of the founding members of the Countryside Alliance and so it is a quop for them to have him with the countryside portfolio. He wasn’t really suited to his role in the Justice department as he has no legal backgorund and so this move is probably for the best.

The appointment of Eric Pickles as party chairman is one of the most called for changes. Caroline Spelman has swapped with Pickles to go back to Communities and local government, as position which she can easily be moved off from if the report into the funding of her nanny is critical. This is a clever move by Cameron, but also a sensible one. Justine Greening has been promoted to shadow communities minister and I still expect that she will replace Caroline Spelman as Communities secretary

Overall, the reshuffle seems to be quite good. A ConservativeHome poll shows overwhelming support for the changes. Let’s hope this now fully unites the party and that over the next few months detailed policies are published which will prove beyond doubt that the Conservatives are a government in waiting.

12:54 – Will have a full article on the reshuffle later today

11:47 – David Cameron has said, “With Ken Clarke’s arrival, we now have the best economic team. With the other changes I have made today, we have combined fresh thinking with experience, hope and change with stability and common sense.”

UPDATE 11:42 – CCHQ have just released the full Shadow Cabinet changes:

New to the Shadow Cabinet:

The Rt Hon Kenneth Clarke QC MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform

Mark Francois MP
Shadow Minister for Europe (new Cabinet position)

New Shadow Cabinet responsibilities:

Alan Duncan MP
Shadow Leader of the House of Commons

Chris Grayling MP
Shadow Home Secretary

The Rt Hon Dominic Grieve QC MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Justice

Nick Herbert MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The Rt Hon Theresa May MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Shadow Minister for Women

Eric Pickles MP
Chairman of the Conservative Party

Caroline Spelman MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government

Announcements so far:

Alan Duncan to Shadow Leader of the Commons, replacing Theresa May who moves to Work & Pensions

Nick Herbert (as I predicted) leaves his justice portfolio and moves to DEFRA

Eric Pickles becomes Party Chairman

Dominic Grieve moves to Justice and Chris Grayling gets a promotion to Shadow Home Secretary

Peter Ainsworth has been sacked

Caroline Spelman swaps with Pickles and becomes Shadow communities secretary

You would be forgiven if you didn’t know the 42 days terrorist detention Bill will be voted on in the House of Lords today. With all the goings on in the economic crisis, this story seems to have become a minor issue.

I expect the Lords to vote it down which means for it to become law, Gordon Brown will have to use the Parliament Act to force it through the Commons, bypassing the Lords. If he did do this, there would be criticisms as it would appear he was neglecting the economic crisis. Tat path is therefore an unlikely one to take meaning that the whole process will have to start again which I can’t see happening until after the next election, by which time one hopes to have a government who will not push through such ludicrous laws.

Hopefully we have been saved from 42 days by the economic crisis. It may be costing us all a lot of money, but at least it seems to be indirectly protecting what civil liberties we have left.

I will be on holiday for the next two weeks so there will be very limited posting during this time. Of course, if there is a major event then I will cover it, otherwise I return to the blog sphere fully on 26th August.

If you are going on holiday this month, or are currently on holiday, or have already been then I hope you have a most peaceful and restful time and return ready to cope with the Autumn winds and storms – both weather wise and politically!

I have been ‘touring’ around various constituency websites recently and what strikes me most is the vast differences in styles and content. There are those that have far too much ‘stuff’ on their websites to the extent that it becomes cluttered and then there are those that don’t have enough and make it appear that nothing happens in the local association. Then there is the large variation in styles and layouts. Of course, many associations do not have the necessary technical expertise to design and build their own websites so they outsource it and consequently many websites take a similar form of style. These tend to be rather bland as they are very basic templates and the company who produces them is maximising their profits.

The main pupose of a local association website is, in my opinion, is to provide members, supporters and the press information about the local association. For example, you might expect a page about the Ladie’s Luncheon Club or a page telling people how to get in touch.

Of course, the main problem with websites is keeping them up to date. Setting them up is the easy part, but without a person who is prepared to reguarly update it, the website will soon look rather lackluster.

I think that in the age we live in where so much of our lives seems to revolve around the web and technology, it is vital that politics keeps up to date with it all. When a new media becomes popular, the party should utilise it as much as possible so that they can continually reach out to new audiences.