Election
Blog
Twirling
in the Wind
20th April
Red Hawk Down - Where's Blair/Brown?
A few days ago, the billionaire Barclay brothers decided to close down 126
Index Catalogue shops with the loss of 3,200 workers.
Presumably, Brown and Blair are still planning to land in a red
helicopter outside each Index Store and dish out a multi-million package
to soften the blow.
But
there's no sign of that red election attack 'copter yet. Unlike the
5000 Rover workers, the Index people are not concentrated around marginal
constituencies.
A
net total of 11,000 people joined the unemployment register in March.
No red helicopters for them.
Manufacturing
jobs are at new record low of 3.23m after another 85,000 posts were lost
in the quarter to February compared with a year earlier (ONS)
As a visitor
to our Scandalblog
has pointed out, 83% of the net jobs created last year were in the state
sector.
'And New Labour is fighting this election on the economy....', says
our visitor.
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18th
April
Good New for House Buyers
It is too early to concede defeat, but it doesn't we are going
to succeed in our goal of toppling Blair, Brown, Prezza and co this time
round.
But there's a sliver lining in every cloud.
A Labour victory means that the long awaited housing crash is now a certainty.
All that extra spending, borrowing andtaxing will tip the balance.
Interest rates are on the way up. And now unemployment is heading
the wrong way.
If
you want to buy a home, you should be able to get one 30% cheaper this time
next year.
19th April
Confused by the polls?
New
Labour began the campaign by accusing the Tories of planning £35 Billion
in spending cuts.
The Tories' rating started to rise in the polls.
Labour jumped on a speech by the Tories' Howard Flight implying that his party
wanted to make deeper tax cuts than they had announced.
The
Tories and Labour were almost neck and neck.
Tory
leader Michael Howard sacked Flight and began to speak a little too often
about immigration.
Labour
started to pull ahead.
Now
New Labour is attacking the Tories' plans to pay people half the cost of
an operation if they go private.
Expect
gap between Labour and the Tories to narrow again.
Of course New Labour are trying to muddy the waters by saying that the Tories
want to charge people for NHS operations. Even we are shocked at how shamelessly
they distort their opponents' position.
If
the Tories start talking about their plans for school vouchers - so that
parents can send their children to private schools - they might win this
election.
16th
April
Lib Dems biggest fibbers of all
The
election is clouded by a widespread misunderstanding of how tax works.
The Lib Dems are probably the worst offenders. The 'honest'
Lib Dems claim they can fund their spending plans by putting the top rate
of income tax up to 50%.
Putting
up the top rate of tax will not raise a single penny more in revenue for
the Government. Of course Stealth Socialists like the Lib Dems
don't like this truth.
We
can be sure that 50% income tax plus 11% National Insurance is above the
point that will yield more money for the national coffers.
It's
been proven time and again, and the Lib Dems know this, but they won't be
in power, so they won't have to eat their words. But by fuelling
this misconception, they help New Labour imply that their stealth taxes
will help pay for the NHS.
In
fact, revenues flowing into the coffers of the Treasury have
been much lower than Gordon Brown predicted. Why? He put up
taxes in 2002 (having promised not to in the 2001 election).
The economy then grew more slowly than he predicted. Only he
was surprised. (see The Economist ('Did
I Get Away with It?')
The
hated Mrs. T cut tax and raised more revenue, so smashing Socialist delusions.
So did Reagan. And if those examples are too right wing for
you, Kennedy did the same, as did the Socialist Government of the Netherlands.
And Denmark. And Ireland. There are many other examples. See the Adam Smith
Institute's article,
Soak the rich: Cut taxes !
Ibn
Khaldun, a 14th century Muslim philosopher, wrote in his work The
Muqaddimah: "It should be known that at the beginning of the dynasty,
taxation yields a large revenue from small assessments. At the end of the
dynasty, taxation yields a small revenue from large assessments."
Maynard
Keynes compared putting up taxes to a shoemaker, who finding he isn't selling
enough shoes, puts up his prices. In other words, the idea is
a load of old Cobblers.
The
Laffer Curve: Past, Present and Future by Arthur Laffer.
15th April
Brown Fibs
For
the record, interest rates were 6% and falling when New Labour came to power.
They are now 4.75% and expected to rise to 5% after the election.
Blair
has the reputation for fibs, but Brown tells the biggest whoppers and generally
gets away with it. See our Hush Puppy Legacy
14th April
Labour Launches New Election Slogan
13th April
Who is the Weakest Link? (Manifesto Launch).
As New Labour
ministers, Kelly, Prezza, Brown and Blair stand in a line on the stage behind
white lecterns, it's hard not to think of the Weakest Link.
Brown
is plotting a tactical ejection of Blair at the end of the first round.
But
it's a pity for Brown that IMF has just issued
a report saying taxes are on the way up.
And
as Steve Jay, a visitor to our scandalblog
has pointed out, the internet has already delivered its verdict on New Labour's
promises. Tap in the word 'liar' into Google and see what happens.
12
April
Soft Focus on Tony and Gordon
If
you missed 'Tony and Gordon in Love' on the TV last night, you
can view it in glorious broadband on the
Labour Party's site here.
If you want to recap the true story, you can
read our Blair v Brown page.
The Official Royal Wedding Photograph
Note
the deliberate grammatical mistake in Tony's hushed voiceover at the very
end. 'Until everyone, whatever their wealth, or their class, or
their colour, or their creed, get the chance they need.'
This is New Labour equality of opportunity. A public schoolboy can't
do singular and plural. Everyone gets it, Tony.
11th April
A Friend Called Fraud
I was not
surprised to learn on my return from Athens that New Labour intends to win
the election by postal fraud.
A
judge has identified 15 types of fraud involving six Labour councilors in
Birmingham and has described postal voting as 'farcical', 'hopelessly insecure',
containing 'no effective safeguards' and 'an invitation to fraud', that
would 'disgrace a banana republic.'
Another
Labour Party councilor in Blackburn has been sentenced to three years for
similar crimes.
Labour Party documents say that their supporters are four
times as more likely to vote if they have a postal ballot. It's hardly
surprising when you consider that many Labour voters don't get out of bed
until after 2.pm. They are too lazy to go to the polling station,
and are only too happy to give their ballots to 'activists' to post, especially
if they send in their sick notes at the same time.
There's nothing new in this - In 1997 Labour activists
went around old peoples' homes telling residents that the Tories would take
their pensions away, 'Just write 'X' here dear, and we won't let it happen.'
It's the scale that's different this time. In 1997, 740,000
postal votes were cast (or forged). This time the number is likely
to be 4 million or 15 % of the vote.
New Labour's response is that it will deal with the problem,
'after the election.'
(Facts and figures from Sunday
Times leader)
Banana Republic Judgment
- The
Times
11th April
Return From Greece
It
seems like the political parties have been holding their fire while the
Scandalblogger was away in Greece. The election was called, but not
so that you would notice.
Greece
serves as a warning: the country has suffered for decades under the
blight of Socialism. My friends tell me that if a barber or a tobacconist
wants to sell his business, he faces three years of form filling and
bureaucracy. Now at last the people have elected a conservative government
that wants to change all that, but it's proving tough to root out the pen-pushers.
Back
here in New Labour Britain, Brown is doing his best to Balkanise our
economy with 15 new regulations a day and over 800,000 new state employees
since 1997.
Another
four years of this, and they will be saying that we have taken up the Greek
model, just as Greece has taken up the British model.
30th
March
Blair to Announce Election Date
There
is relief at Labour Party HQ. The Blogmaster of New Labour Scandals
has been called to Athens on a business trip until April 10th.
We
expect Tony Blair to take advantage of our absence and to announce the election
for May 5th while we are away.
Visitors
can keep the site up-to-date by posting scandals on our ScandalBlog.
Normal
combat will resume on our return.
30th
March
School Dinners - You read it here first
Just
as we predicted last week (see below) New Labour has put School Dinners
at the heart (or should that be 'in the stomach') of its election campaign.
TV chef Jamie Oliver, has breakfast at Number 10 with Tony Blair and is
told that schools will spend 50p instead of 37p on each meal.
New
Labour now makes policy by watching celebrity chef shows on telly.
This
follows yesterday's straight bribe:
"Ian
McCartney MP, Labour Party Chair, said "Labour stands for 8 days bank
holidays in addition to 20 days paid holidays. 28 days under Labour."'
(release)
Meanwhile
The Labour Party has launched a 'Michael
Howard Bandwagon watch' on its site asking, 'How Low Do You think He
will Go?'
24th March
Howard 'Delight' for New Labour
Jubilation
among the New Labour Groupies! A mole has infiltrated a private dinner
of the right wing Conservative group, The Way Forward. The hither
too unknown Tory MP Howard Flight is secretly recorded as implying that the
opposition has a secret 'cuts' agenda.
New
Labour lines up a row of Ministers to denounce the 'truth' as told
by a 'Top Tory.' Conservative leader Michael Howard wields
his samurai sword and lops of the head of the hapless Flight
who is 'out' and no longer a Conservative MP.
A pall of silence hangs over the battle field as everyone is stunned by
the ruthless execution.
21st
March
School Dinners
At last New Labour's election campaign finds a theme to resound
throughout the country. Blair announces that celebrity chef, Jamie
Oliver has helped him see the light. School dinners should not be
poisonous.
He dispatches Children Minister Margaret Hodge to
spread the word. She does not say that New Labour will spend more
than the current 37p per dinner - but the message is received uncritically
by the media.
School
Dinners could form the central plank of the 'radical' election manifesto.
17th
March
Blair and Brown launch 'cuts' scare and immediately back
down.
Blair
and Brown appear jointly at Billingsgate Fish Market to sell a slightly
putrid story to TV journalists. It's the old Tory 'cuts' scare.
Blair
claims that the Tories have promised spending 'cuts' that are the equivalent
to sacking "every nurse, every teacher, every doctor."
Nick
Robinson of ITN asks Blair how come a Tory rise in public spending,
but one that is just a little more modest than New Labour's promised splurge,
could be deemed a 'cut'?
Blair
becomes flustered and starts jabbing his finger in the air. Brown does not
help. He just stands and grins, obviously enjoying Blair's discomfort.
It
turns out that New Labour is basing its claim on a comparison of New Labour
and Tory projected spending figures in 2011-12.
It
seems like a watershed. New Labour can't get away with talking nonsense
so freely as in the past.
Or as Gordon once put it to Tony: 'I will never again be able to believe
a single word you say to me.'
(Treasury Figures)
March
16
Gordon
Brown delivers his last ever budget
Brown is skillfully stealthy as ever, bringing forward £1 billion of
oil revenues to pay for a few election sweetners, but he has little room for
manoeuvre. He's already promised a great spending spree, and everyone
knows taxes are going up after the election.
The Institute of Fiscal Studies is still saying Brown has an £11
Billion black hole in his sums.
The
worrying point for Gordon is that he is actually pulling in less tax than
he predicted. It seems that the economy won't take any more tax rises.
The money just slips away elsewhere.
Gordon's
Black Hole
March
12
Peter Hain Calls Howard 'a mongrel'
New Labour's
Leader of the House, Peter Hain, called Michael Howard an 'attack-mongrel'
in the wake of the fight in Parliament over the Terror Bill.
No doubt, he was picking up on the row between the BBC's Jeremy Paxman and
New Labour Health Secretary 'Dr.' John Reid.
Dr. Read was left frothing and snarling at being called an 'attack-dog'
by the Newsnight presenter.
Dr.
Reid (baring his teeth) :
"If you have a PhD and a posh accent from a school like yours, you
are regarded as a sophisticate. You called me an attack-dog because I've
got a Glasgow accent.
Jeremy
Poshman:
"What on earth are you talking about? … Who's mentioned anything
about a Glasgow accent?"
March
8
John Reid's Shoulder (NHS has cancelled operation to remove large malignant
chip).
A source close to New Labour Health Secretary, John Reid,
is quoted in The Mirror as growling:
"These
people are not living in the real world. They are just wankers living in
a west London bubble.'
Who does the 'friend of Reid' mean to include in that elegant
description?
Surely not the Blairs, who have just bought and enormous
house in West London?
March
2
Margaret's Shoulder
Tory leader,
Michael Howard highlights the case of pensioner Margaret Dixon whose
operation on her shoulder has been cancelled seven times.
Health Secretary
John Reid says anyone suffering delays should write to him personally.
Margaret reveals that her Euro-MP wrote to him months ago and is yet to
receive a reply.
Blair spits
that Howard 's use of the Margaret Dixon's case "should make any decent
person turn away in disgust" and insists that her case is not typical.
The following
Sunday, Health Secretary John Reid announces fines for hospitals that cancel
operations.
New Labour
consistency.
February
24
Onwards and upwards with New Labour
Christine Wheatley is dropped from New Labour's shortlist of candidates
for Copeland, Cumbria after she reveals her past as a Paris hooker in the
1970s:
"We have
single mothers who want to be MPs, and gay and lesbian candidates, so why
not former sex workers? Yes, I worked as a tart. I hit Paris with £300,
I didn't have much to spend, I had to find money."
February
13
Tony Blair and the Kitchen Sink
Blair addresses
New Labour's 'Spring' Conference in the depths of winter. We
reach for the sick bags as he compares his relationship with the British
public to an argument around the kitchen sink:
"And,
and then all of a sudden there you are, the British people, thinking: 'you're
not listening' and I think: 'you're not hearing me'. And before you know
it you raise your voice. I raise mine. Some of you throw a bit of crockery."
And then he
rolls his eyes, Diana-like, and putting on a hurt voice says, 'But if you
like Michael Howard more than me, go on and vote for him and see if I care',
or words to that effect.
February
12
New Labour reveals its Election Slogan:
'Britain Forward Not Back.'
So now we know.
New Labour is 'Not Back.' Presumably they mean that Tony Blair is
'Not Michael Howard.' Nobody is inspired.
It transpires
that this same slogan was used by Bill Clinton in an episode of 'The
Simpsons' - a case of real life aping a cartoon.
Meanwhile the
Tory's slogan, 'Are you thinking what we are thinking?' tries to connect
with the voters and signals a campaign based on policies. It looks
like New Labour is being out-slicked in the PR stakes. Few would have
thought this possible even a few weeks ago.
11
February
New Labour launches its most vacuous 'Pledge Card' yet.
Blair drops
in on a school in the North East in a bright red helicopter and hands out
New Labour's pledge cards to startled children.
At the last
moment New Labour has added a sixth pledge, 'Your country's borders protected'
to imply that it will get tough on immigration.
8th
February 2005
Campbell tells BBC to fuck-Off (again).
Spin doctor
Alistair Campbell - resurrected as New Labour's election strategist - is
asked by the BBC's Newsnight programme about New Labour's anti-semitic poster
campaign. He replies in an email from his BlackBerry.
"Just
spoke to trev. think tbwa shd give statement to newsnight saying party and
agency work together well and nobody here has spoken to standard. Posters
done by by tbwa according to political brief.
"Now
fuck off and cover something important you twats!"
He probably
meant to send it to one of his acolytes, but we are reminded that Campbell
edified the Hutton Enquiry with his
'Fuck Gilligan' diary entry.
7th
February
Quick Volte-Face on Immigration.
Blair announces
plans to turn away immigrants who do not bring economic benefits to the
country.
Just a few
days earlier New Labour attacked the Tories' Michael Howard for planning
quotas on asylum seekers.
Rattled by
an uplift in the polls for the Tories, New Labour, sticking to its principles
as always, puts popularity first and completely reverses its policy.
No one can
accuse New Labour of not being flexible. It reminds us of how it reversed
its plans to ban tobacco advertising at sports events (back in 1997), following
a £1 million gift from Formula One chief Bernie Eccleston.
31
January
New Labour uses anti-semitic images to woo Muslim vote.
Two Posters
appear on New Labour's website. The first, depicting Tory Leader Michael
Howard and Oliver Letwin as pigs is seen as possibly anti-semitic,
but New Labour generally receives benefit of doubt.
The second
and now notorious 'Fagin' poster is more explicit in its use of traditional
anti-semitic imagery.
At the same
time New Labour Energy Minister, Mike O'Brien, is quoted in Muslim News:
“Ask yourself what will Michael Howard do for British Muslims?
Few can doubt
that New Labour is making a play for Muslim voters by slyly reminding
them that the two leading Tories are Jews.
New Labour Scandals
