It’s now over a week since the dust settled and two new Labour MPs took their seats in the House of Commons. As many had initially predicted, Labour won both Ealing Southall and Sedgefield by a comfortable margin.

In Ealing Southall, Labour were a full five thousand votes ahead of the Liberal Democrats and seven thousand ahead of Tony Lit, with ‘David Cameron’s Conservative’ gaining about half the votes Labour polled. There has been an enormous amount of spinning on these two elections from all sides, however, make no mistake, the result in Ealing and Sedgefield were not good for the Conservatives – though it has to be said they were hardly good for Lib Dems or Labour either.

Like many others, I was extremely disappointed that the Conservatives didn’t do much better in either Ealing or Sedgefield than at the 2005 General Election. Tony Lit, who had only weeks before donated around £5,000 to the Labour party while head of Sunrise radio was not the type of candidate we should have been selecting to fight the seat in Ealing, and far too much hype was added to the campaign.

I do not believe in faceless opportunism and winning at any cost, though of course, in the end Tony Lit only exhibited faceless opportunism because he didn’t win. Also I can’t say I was happy that Mr Lit was installed by Cameron against the wishes of the local association and without any real consultation, even though Tony Lit had only been a party member for a few days. I suspect this is in part because the Conservative upper-echelons and general hierarchy care little for the grassroots and supporters, and in fact at times treat them with complete contempt (the new MEP Selection process comes to mind.) What’s more, what exactly is ‘David Cameron’s Conservatives’? I thought I belonged to a political party not a strange suedo-personality cult like ‘Alex Salmond’s Scottish National Party’. Thankfully, though I never involved myself in any active campaigning during the Ealing Comedy, so I have a clear conscious on that part.

In fact, I think I can say that I am actually rather glad Tony Lit did not win in Ealing Southall. Of course, the downside to this was that Labour did win and have installed yet another socialist posing as a ‘moderate’ in the Commons, similar to the ex-Communist Piara Khabra, who preceded him. However, many of the voters of Ealing Southall, whether wittingly or unwittingly, rejected the spin and opportunistic ways of Tony Lit. Therefore, at the next election the Conservatives have an opportunity of selecting a real conservative to fight the seat, not some opportunistic chancer who fancied the idea of being an MP.

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Gordon Brown told the House of Commons today that the Government would research and look carefully at the reclassification of Cannabis from a Class C drug to Class B. In other words, they might reclassify; they might not.

However, regardless of whether Cannabis is classified as Class B or C is largely irrelevant. More often than not, drugs laws are not enforced at a low or personal level. Individual users are rarely prosecuted, if ever, and it is only large scale importers and distributors or dealers that are sporadically targeted.

Celebrity addicts such as Kate Moss and Pete Doherty regularly flout the law without any consequence, other than the minor inconvenience of a court appearance which invariably leads to nothing. In fact, it’s probably fair to say that Pete Doherty is now better known for his drug abuse than his music. Such behaviour and lack of any retribution sends out completely the wrong signals about drug use to ordinary people who read about it in the media.

The use of illegal drugs needs to actually be enforced by the police - though unfortunately this seems unlikely in the foreseeable future since most of our political classes and the liberal media probably have used or continue to use these substances themselves, and so have little or no interest in discouraging their misuse.

Labour’s announcement is nothing more than another meaningless gesture that will do nothing to actually solve the growing drugs problem in Britain.

There has been some recent discussion on David Cameron’s policy to rescind Conservative party support for further Grammar schools. Mr Cameron says the Conservatives will ‘never be taken seriously by parents’ so long as the party backs selection.

There have been a number of justifiably angry squawks from the Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail, and an equally numerous number of whinges from Mr Cameron and his supporters who believe that majority of Conservatives should just back down on this issue.

Team Cameron think that because they, along with some unaccountable and nefarious policy group, in their infinite wisdom dreamt up the new policy, they are automatically right and we should not dare to question their judgement.

The Conservative party, which is supposed to be meritocratic, but whose Shadow Cabinet and associated periphery is curiously stuffed full of old Etonians, are effectively denying the academically bright to fulfil their potential and the less able a helping hand. Having said that, Mrs Thatcher, a Grammar school striver of the past, was, along with her previous Conservative governments, one of the main instigators in the decline of the two-tier system – so in part, David Cameron’s policy is merely a continuation of a gradual trend.

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Yesterday, David Cameron visited the University of Bath and gave a speech to the local party faithful at the Saltford Hall in Wansdyke. Only the previous night, members of the public assisted the local Conservative association in selecting Fabian Richter as the new Conservative candidate for Bath in an Open Primary; a decision which Mr Cameron took the chance to endorse.

David Cameron visited the University of Bath to discuss environmental and sustainability issues with local researchers and view some of the modern research and development facilities that had been constructed on site. He later gave a speech in the Wansdyke Room of the Saltford Hall in which he spoke out to previous Liberal Democrat voters to stand up to an authoritarian Gordon Brown and vote for a modern compassionate liberal Conservative party. A recording of his speech and the questions taken afterwards can be downloaded here (35mins – 8.2MB.)

Notably David Cameron is the only current leader of a major political party to visit Bath recently, taking the time to prove the Conservative party’s commitment to the people of Bath and the students at the University. Photographs from the day can be found here.

Channel Four broadcast the supposedly ‘controversial’ documentary, ‘The Great Global Warming Swindle’ last Thursday. I recommend that everyone takes the time to watch the programme which is around an hour and a quarter in length – click here to view.

Many of the arguments put forward in the film challenged the growing consensus that carbon dioxide and human activity are the cause of climate change, and instead the programme laid claim that it was the sun’s activity that was by far more important. This was in striking contrast to the conclusions drawn in the film ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ by that great left-wing spiritual and moral leader, self proclaimed pseudo-scientist and failed US Presidential candidate, the Rev. Al Gore.

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It has emerged today that David Cameron has decided to cut yet more ties with his core support by effectively sacking front-bench MP, Patrick Mercer for his ‘racist’ comments about black soldiers. This latest act of preposterousness merely accentuates Cameron’s blind desire to become PM at the next election; by appearing to be ‘tough on racism’, he is desperately clutching at that elusive middle-ground vote.

When one actually reads Mr Mercer’s comments one will see that what he claimed was blunt, and rather eye-opening, but in no way racist. Mercer told The Times:

I came across a lot of ethnic minority soldiers who were idle and useless, but who used racism as cover for their misdemeanours. It was commonplace for troops to be given a hard time over their ethnicity, the colour of their hair, or because they were overweight.

But that’s the way it is in the army. If someone is slow on the assault course, you’d get people shouting: Come on you fat bastard, come on you ginger bastard, come on you black bastard.

But Cameron, frightened that this will distance his party from the black vote, forced his resignation immediately. It did not matter that Mercer’s comments were about life in the army, or that he was not necessarily representing his own views, or even that when looking at UK prison statistics one would feel obliged to agree with him.

Mr Mercer, who was granted an OBE in 1996 is clearly not a foolish man, and his words would not have been impulsive; it is just a shame that the same cannot be said about our leader.

Today, traditional hunts across the country have marked the second anniversary of the Hunting Act 2004 by riding out in much the same fashion as they did before the law was enacted. On the traditional Boxing Day meets this year (well, technically last year,) hunts produced record attendance figures as around 300,000 people braved the cold weather to turn out and show their support.

It has been reported in today’s Telegraph on Sunday that should the Conservative party led by David Cameron win the next general election, the Hunting Act 2004 will be placed as a top priority for being repealed. The newspaper reports:

The letter, from David MacLean, the former Tory chief whip, who says he is writing on behalf of Mr Cameron, says: ‘Over the last few months colleagues have been speculating on the different ways we could honour our commitment… There is a danger that our straightforward commitment to bring a Bill before Parliament to repeal the Act… could get confused. All colleagues are therefore urged to simply repeat our commitment to repeal the Act. This would be, of course, on a free vote.’

The Hunting Act itself has been a spectacular failure. Despite wasting hundreds of Parliamentary hours (which could have been spent on much needier issues,) the class-obsessed Labour party claim that the act has achieved their aims. However, hunts are killing just as many foxes now as previously and I would hardly imagine that the increased support registered by hunts was what the Labour party had either envisaged or desired.

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Only yesterday I posted about David Cameron and supposed media revelations that he had smoked cannabis while at Eton and Oxford University. Today Mr Cameron is reported in the Daily Mail as having commented that, under his leadership, the Conservative party would take a different approach to drugs.

He also took the opportunity to give a strong warning to young people about the dangers of drug abuse saying, “I would advise strongly against it. It’s against the law, it’s wrong. I have seen what’s happened to contemporaries and constituents who have gone badly off the rails with drugs.”

It is certainly a pleasant (and very welcome) surprise that David Cameron has chosen to make such a statement, although I would say that the simple reclassification of drugs which he advocates cannot be the only solution to Britain’s drugs problem. Still, better than nothing though.

It emerged in the Daily Mail just two days ago that David Cameron probably took cannabis when he was at Eton, and during his Oxford University days. Mr Cameron has still refused to directly comment on whether or not he took cannabis, though he has pointed out that he regrets some of what he did when he was younger but hopes that politicians do deserve a private past.

So, does it matter whether David Cameron took drugs at university or school? The Conservative party and commentators from across the political spectrum would have you believe that it does not matter what a man did when he was a school, but what he says and does now. In that they may be right. However, although Mr Cameron has already stated on his webcameron website that he is not in favour of legalisation, I think that he should use this opportunity to powerfully argue against the use of drugs such as cannabis and heroin that continue to completely destroy the lives of many. Whether or not he will however, is completely another thing.

Prime Minister’s Question time yesterday was marked by a strong performance from David Cameron quizzing Mr Blair on his rapidly waning authority. Cameron attacked Blair on recent comments made by Home Secretary John Reid who claimed that the Home Office was not “fit for purpose” and that it would take two years or more to reform. However, the real punch line from Mr Cameron was:

“The Government can’t plan. Ministers are treading water. They are all waiting for the Chancellor and not listening to you. Your authority is draining away. Why don’t you accept what everybody knows – it is now in the national interest for you to go.”

Strangely, Mr Blair disagreed and proceeded to list what he believed to be Labour’s “achievements” in office since 1997. This was classic Blair, but after ten years is wearing increasingly thin. Blair talks about falling levels of recorded crime falling. Well yes, according to government statistics (hardly the most accurate representation as it is,) recorded crime may have fallen – but there is a difference between recorded crime and actual levels of crime. Unrecorded crime is undoubtedly on the rise, along with levels of violent crime – that is where Blair and Labour have failed, but they continue to insist on hiding behind their misleading statistics.

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