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The BNP: Motivation against Voter Apathy

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The vast majority of CWO members have been out canvassing, delivering leaflets, telling and knocking-up for the past weeks and months. Certainly in the County Council elections it was all worth the sore feet, slammed doors in faces, close escapes from dogs and scraped knuckles from unfriendly letterboxes.

Taking Devon and Somerset from the Lib Dems and the outstanding results in the North showed how successful Conservatives are at local level and just how much the population wants a change in Government.

It was all going so well - until Sunday evening - when the results came in from the North West and Yorkshire.

I don't know anybody in this country who wouldn't have had a lump in their throat watching the wonderful WWII veterans tell their stories at the D-Day celebrations. I just wish the elections had happened the day after the 65th anniversary - it might have stopped people believing that voting for the odious BNP was in some way a protest vote.

For Griffin to even align himself with Churchill and the heroes of the two world wars is sickening. In some twisted re-writing of history, the BNP believe that these same veterans fought to protect Britain for the British.

Every man and woman who defended Britain - be it on the front, working in factories, digging in the fields, or keeping the home fires burning - were all heroes and they worked, fought and died to defend our freedom from Fascism - from people like Nick Griffin.

If there was ever a reason for the electorate to participate in democracy - that most precious commodity saved by those heroes - then the shame of having two BNP MEPs is that reason.

For the 26 million of you who did not vote in the European elections because of political mistrust, boredom, couldn't be bothered or because parliament is going through much-needed reform, then you only have yourself to blame when you wake up this morning and are disgusted by the news. Remember that feeling at the next election and go and vote.

You might not like mainstream politicians at the moment but giving the BNP a foothold in British politics would be a far worse disaster than the times we are living through now.

The Telegraph has done a Disservice to Democracy

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Enough is enough. For every day that new revelations are dripped out to the media and electorate, I can see another 500 votes for UKIP (or worse) in the June elections.

The day this broke, I wrote to the Telegraph to tell them that they had done a disservice to democracy by releasing this information before the June elections. My letter, unsurprisingly, didn't get published.

County Council and European candidates are getting thrown to the wolves. I forget the number of times I've had to remind voters on the doorstep that these are local and European elections and not parliamentary.  

Not voting goes against everything I believe in a democracy but for once I'd prefer people not to vote than give a protest vote to a party whose MEPs are embroiled in their own scandals, or to the loathsome BNP.

The Telegraph have had this information for weeks and possibly months. They would have had to, given the time it would have taken them to go through the million or so receipts.

Publish the rest in one go then publish another 10 editions highlighting the vast majority of our MPs who work hard and don't have any "accounting errors that were within the rules".

It is not the fault of all the County Council and Euro candidates that parliament has got itself into this mess - so why does a national newspaper believe that it has the right to interfere with democracy at such a basic level? I'm not saying they shouldn't have published the information - only that they should have started it after the 4th June.

What a day this has been....

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Some 26 years ago I had the fortune to marry a young man who was destined to be an MP. As it happens, just 6 weeks after our wedding he was an MP, and decisions for my callow 23 year self had to be made. Stay in my job (administrator in the racing industry) or follow my hobby into work - 8 years service as a volunteer in the Conservative Party had me well bitten by the bug, so heading after my man to become his PA seemed reasonable, sensible, and a good way to not blow this fresh young marriage. We worked hard, we rented a small flat on the allowances, and we lived sensibly. In that respect nothing has changed. 26 years on; we rent a small flat, we live sensibly, we only claim what is appropriate.

To say we were stunned by some of the revelations this week is an understatement. I wrote in a recent article that I believed 99% of MPs were doing it correctly and it would be 'the few' that muddied the waters. I was wrong.

So what do we do? David Cameron has shown true grit and leadership today. Clean up or get out is his message, and that is one all must follow.

What I really hope is that for the prospective young things out there who have been bitten by the bug will not be put off. The honour of representing people cannot be underestimated, and is worth fighting for.

A 10p Silver Lining

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After the stunning new YouGov poll figures that put Labour on 23% and the Conservatives on 49%, Gordon Brown must be wondering where all that support has gone. Why are all these people complaining about being better off? After all, over 40 million people gained by reducing the basic rate from 22p to 20p.

Well, Gordy, here's the thing. No matter how much you tell us that we're better off, Jo Public has shown that selflessness is still alive and well, after many of us thought that it had been eradicated.

I can't count the number of people who have said to me in so many words: "Yes I'm better off but I don't want it to be at the expense of people less well off."

For the first time in a very long time, I'm proud to be British again.

The Bean Counter's "Fightback"

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Nobody liked the fact that Tony Blair ruled by headlines and changed the direction of government in reaction to media opinion. However, it did mean he actually read the papers and was prepared to change.

Brown's admittance, in Andrew Marr's interview, that he's not going to change course "because of a couple of bad day's headlines" was more than just a Freudian slip: I think Brown actually believes that it's the fault of the media's coverage of the 10p debacle that the country has given him what he called a "difficult weekend" - the understatement of the year.

Whoever it was who decided to cut off the PM in midstream on Adam Boulton's show to go to a double-glazing advert, gets my vote. It was just after Gordon Brown said that the people of Britain "never thought that higher inflation would come in from the East". For once, I actually agree with him: No, I never thought about it even once. What planet is he on?

Rhetoric, arrogance and a total misunderstanding of why Labour got a kicking abounded. Trust me Gordon, people did not vote Conservative in huge numbers because they've looked at your economic policies for the next financial year and disagree with them. It's because the public see this administration as unfair, slow-moving and unchanging - and the lack of change after these elections proves the point. For a PM not to have a reshuffle just goes to show that there isn't anyone else on the Labour backbenches that could do the job better (and not knife Brown in the back while they're there).

According to Brown, good leadership is not just about the good times but getting through the bad times. Wrong. A good leader is just that, a leader. It's not someone who constantly looks at the the bottom line, it's someone who empathises with the country at large - something that Blair did well, albeit a bit smarmily. "I feel the hurt that they feel" and "I get it" are good soundbites but by saying "they", it proves he is disassociated from the country at large.

Brown said that the local elections were a "referendum on Labour". Balderdash. This was the country's first opportunity to give their opinion on Gordon Brown and he failed.

Brown might make a great accountant but he's no leader.

Mayor Boris!

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What a 24 hours - or did it seem like a week to anyone else?

After the Labour freefall of the local elections and Boris' win in London, the only thing missing from the Conservatives running the country is the absence of David Cameron walking into Number 10.

We've got that winning feeling and after 11 hard years, it's a feeling that won't be going away anytime soon.

Congratulations to all the candidates and campaigners up and down the country - so many of whom are also part of the CWO. Everyone deserves a big pat on the back today (and probably a lie in!)

"Old Boris... New Boris... I was elected as New Boris and I will govern as New Boris." Brilliant