Life Out of Office

With Blair making notably little progress in his chosen post Prime Ministerial career relating to the Middle East, it seems that reporters are starting to turn their mind to what he is actually up to at the moment. It appears that the Guardian has found part of the answer in a piece entitled "Blair lands role in Bush's doggie video". Please note that it is "doggie", not the more familiar Blair adjective of "dodgy", nor does it relate to anything remotely pornographic.

The full version of the edited down video from the Guardian is presented in all its appalling splendour below. Be warned though, you will soon want to fast-forward to around 5 minutes and 10 seconds to see that unlike in America where a B-list actor can become a great president, it seems that here in the UK a reverse process applies to mediocre Prime Ministers.



For those that cannot stomach even a short cameo by Blair, here is his part of the script:

FORMER PRIME MINISTER TONY BLAIR: Congratulations Barney and Miss Beazley on becoming Junior Park Rangers. Well done.

As someone born in Edinburgh, Scotland, it's always good to see the Scots doing well.

Source: whitehouse.gov

For the uninitiated 'Barney' and 'Miss Beazley' are the Bush's two Aberdeen Terriers. It's noticeable that he finds it easier to congratulate dog's of distant Scottish heritage on fictional appointments than certain Scots to real jobs.

Then again, as ever, Blair speaks carefully in saying "it's always good to see the Scots doing well", as until Brown does something well, a somewhat distant prospect, he clearly feels little need to offer the same fulsome congratulations to his former chancellor.

Same S***, Different Treaty

Stitch-up Done

To call the documents that have emerged from the process that culminated with last week's Lisbon summit opaque is, to say the least, an understatement. Considering the fact that when Parliament debates the reform treaty in the New Year even they will not have a consolidated version of the treaties, as revised, to consider, this well-planned incomprehensibility comes as not the greatest of surprises.

Whatever one's views on the policies of the various components of the Independence and Democracy grouping in the European Parliament, they at least seem committed to informing the public debate in a way that more Eurofanatic organisations either only pay lip service to or actively despise.

This report from their EUWatch, on the impact of the treaty changes, is typical. True, in some of he commentary and choice of quotations they make clear their stance on the wretched project, but the heart of the document is a level headed analysis of what really is in the documents that the EU, and member states' governments so badly want us not to understand.

The simple statistical analysis is damning for Brown:



Even with four 'red lines', even if we are to take hope over experience and believe they will prove effective, it is abundantly clear that there is still a hell of a lot of substance to he proposed changes. To return to the ludicrous 'tidying-up exercise' argument is simply insulting to anyone other than the most rabid Eurofanatics or those without the wit to care.

Once more an organisation might have had promise and genuine worth to the people of Europe, has proved to be nothing more than a politician's plaything. Once more its latest incarnation is born in a climate of deceit and contempt for those that it claims to serve.

The Real Last Goodbye

I came across this a couple of weeks ago, but annoyingly when I came to post it, I couldn't remember the blog I found it on, in my normal disorganised way. Thankfully Daily Referendum has come to my rescue, so with apologies to whoever's blog I first saw it on, the hat-tip will go to him:



As with Daily Referendum I think the highlight has to be the "Tough On Crime, Tough On Manipulating The Statistics Of Crime" line.

New Cabinet, New Dangers

How does the new cabinet score?

Looking at my statistics page I discover that by far and away my most popular post was my statistical look at just how libertarian, or anti-libertarian the instincts of our Members of Parliament, outscoring its nearest rival by almost ten to one. The data used was based on voting records from web sites TheyWorkForYou.com and the Public Whip. Obviously there have been a few changes of late so I thought it was worth a quick update. All provisos and health warnings from the earlier posting, as well as those from the suppliers of the excellent source data, apply equally to this.

The changes to which I refer are not, as it happens, anything to do with that slug in human form, Quentin Davies. His transfer from Conservative to Labour ranks has, of course, boosted the overall Conservative liberality rating slightly and damaged NuLab's, however only his suspect record on gay rights was much of a stand-out achievement in the sea of illiberality into which he has now immersed himself.

The more significant changes are those in the cabinet where Broon has done some rather radical restructuring. It is a remarkable achievement, but he has actually managed to outdo his predecessor's last cabinet's illiberality rating. The Public Whip data records the voting records of individual MPs on a given topic, including all related bills and amendments to them, data which TheyWorkForYou.com then uses to rank them against an 'ideal' (or more often 'nightmare') scenario.

Aggregating up the scores for the issues that the TheyWorkForYou covers that have a relevance to a personal freedoms across the new cabinet shows a drop in their collective pro-liberty position to 27.3% from the outgoing cabinet's 30.7% liberality. The individual issue scores for the cabinet as a whole are as follows (outgoing Blair cabinet score in parentheses):

• ID Cards - 4.9% (8.7%)


• Fox Hunting - 15.9% (16.0%)


• Smoking Ban - 25.1% (34.6%)


• Gay Rights - 84.1% (85.9%)


• Anti-Terror Legislation - 6.5% (8.6%)

In each case a high score indicates a pro-freedom position, a low one the opposite.

The previous article also mentioned a number of issues I had excluded as being more to do with openness to public (or even Parliamentary) scrutiny, which I felt were more to do with the mechanisms by which our freedoms ought to be preserved rather than those freedoms themselves. The figures here show overall an even greater drop, from 30.1% in favour of an open form of government to 21.8%, the breakdown, on the same basis as above is as follows:

• Regulatory Reform Act - 16.7% (36.2%)


• Weakening the FOI Act - 45.2% (47.9%)


• Investigating the Iraq war - 3.5% (6.3%)

I do have my own issues with investigations into the Iraq war while our armed forces are still actively involved in an ongoing conflict, but as is clear from the figures above the majority of Broon's team's piss poor performance in this arena stems from the 2006 Regulatory Reform Act, which even its amended form is one of the most repulsive Acts of Parliament ever to reach the statute books.

Just to wrap up the remaining TheyWorkForYou data that is available, the strength of anti-Iraq war voting traits of the new cabinet has risen from 0.8% to 9.4%, records of being critical to Foundation Hospitals have risen from 1.9% to 5.2% and of student top-up fees from 1.9% to 5.2%. Support for a Trident replacement is still a rock-solid 100%.

Anyway, there you have it the nice freedom loving, live and let live spirit, the little of it that there was, of the Blairites has gone, and the even bigger nightmare has arrived. If I'm not careful I'm going to end up feeling like this junior member of the Tony Blair fan club. I doesn't surprise me, it is very much a cabinet in the image of Broon's own image, at least as I see it.



A big hat-tip to Iain Dale for the clip which I suspect will crop up on virtually every blog I read at some appropriate moment, and that I will still click the 'Play' button each time.

Bugsy Blair

On the lookout for amusing 'anti-tributes' to celebrate Blair's departure, I knew someone would be able to better the Blair/Bush love song, and Tim Ireland has done.

The first couple of minutes are the best after which it goes a bit weird, but it's worth it for those couple of minutes alone.



I'm even prepared to forgive the 'puppet' motif which is the thinking man's 'poodle'. I must say though, not quite sure why Jack Straw takes a place in the chorus line over more worthy candidates like Chas Clarke, who only makes a cameo appearance. Straw may be associated with some of the more sordid acts of NuLab but I do often feel that in Straw I am seeing a man who at least has the grace to have a troubled conscience about it, and in the past he has had a good track record on the sensible wing of the rights and liberties lobby.

Perhaps Clarke's chins were too much of a challenge to animate.

Just Another Love Song

Grand master of self deception, but no poodle

I'm no fan of Blair. Or to be more precise I'm not a fan of much Blair has done. Ulster aside, for me, he has been a disaster from start to finish in terms of his domestic policies. Despite this I can't help liking something about the bloke, even if I was too sensible to vote for any of his Muppets in any poll. When you look at the stature he has on the world stage, even after involving us in the Iraq debacle, he certainly has a certain class, even if he wouldn't know a decent policy if it hit him between the eyes.

At the end of the day though, it is his team of assorted misfits who have spent ten years messing up just about everything they can get their hands on, and he carries the can for this. I don't get the feeling he was fully signed up to some of the more interfering, nitpicking legislation that his government introduced, but he let it slide in anyway as he jetted round the world focused on bigger pictures.

There are other things he has done that I think, though wrong, do come from deep personal beliefs, and for these I will accept his plea for forgiveness in his resignation speech. I will even go so far as to attack any sloppy thinking POL who uses lazily uses the term 'poodle' to explain Iraq. Anyone who thinks, useless as he is in many ways, that he is the type of person who would commit a country to war simply to please a US president is the whole sandwich box short of a picnic, and should be treated with complete scorn. Fine, disagree with Iraq, there are many good reasons to do so, but a million repetitions of the words 'poodle' and/or 'illegal' will not make them relevant to an intelligent debate on the matter. Has he lied at times? probably, but I'm not sure he isn't better of convincing himself than the public at large when he does, and he really is a Saint when compared to the honesty of some of his Ministers.

I couldn't help liking this though, it's a bit better than most of the 'lipsync' offerings...


Enjoy!

Good News for Brown

Brown: The nightmare soon to grow worse

At least it looks as though Brown is going to have a shoulder to lean on come the end of June when he takes up his new post. Obviously painfully aware of the chancellor's lack of confidence in his abilities President Bush has very decently offered to help him through this traumatic and unexpected change in his life.

I'm sure the President will have wise words for poor old Gordon on how do deal with the pressure of having power so unexpectedly thrust upon him. As the humble team player who has been prowling the media for the last few days would have been perfectly happy to quietly do his little bit for the side and would never actively seek such high office, so it must all come as quite a shock for him.

According to the President yesterday at a news conference with Blair:

"I hope to help him in office the way Tony Blair helped me. Newly elected President, Tony Blair came over and he reached out, he was gracious -- was able to converse in a way where our shared interests were the most important aspect of the relationship. I would hope I would provide the same opportunities for Gordon Brown. I met him, thought he was a good fellow."

Let's be honest though, I'm not a Bush Basher, but this little comment does show a little naivety, above and beyond the 'good fellow' comment. A sensible person taking up the role would seek all good advice he can get, unfortunately arrogant prats don't.

It is at least possible though that as his portfolio widens so much in the near future Brown might be seen to listen to more than the narrow group of people he currently keeps buried in the Treasury. His record suggests that the headline ministerial appointments won't be the whole picture of who's words he heeds, any more than who has ended up with junior ministerial positions in the treasury has done.

Once out of office, I doubt Blair would pick up the phone to tell Gord where the spare box of paperclips in the PM's office is, so it will be interesting to see who do end up having some influence on him. I do suspect suspect though that President Bush won't be among them.

The whole Blair/Bush session from the White House:



I'm far from a Blair, in fact I loathe him intensely, but I think moments like this do show why he goes down so well overseas. He doesn't need to go in for over-emoting to make a mark, in the same way as he does on the domestic stage. He handles the whole thing with real class from beginning to end, especially the Q&A where Bush, to be honest, stumbles quite badly and temporises.

On the specific issues I don't think anyone can hear his thoughts on Iraq and not realise he did what he did out of conviction. The idea that he only did it to suck up to Bush is ludicrous. There was though something less certain in his tone on other issues, especially climate change. It might be the audience he was addressing, but he seems to get less and less evangelical on the environmental stuff. Maybe he knows something Cameron doesn't yet.

SNP Goodbye to Tony...

I might be an Anglo-Scot but I have no time at all for the policies of the SNP. That said they have some pretty effective advocates. It's hard to dislike the likes of Salmond, who come over with a passion and sincerity that seems a damn sight more genuine than most of their mainstream Westminster counterparts. Beyond these figureheads I'd probably disagree most political views held by the creator of this YouTube offering, other than a shared loathing of NuLab and Blair. It might be from a left wing, nationalist and republican perspective but it's a wittier and more talented slagging of both than I could ever manage.

It made me laugh anyway (and there's only one direct derogatory reference to 'tory')...

"...out-lefted by the Sunday Post."

"...a generation's waste of space."

Classic.