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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Yesterday, the Government announced that unclaimed money from ‘abandoned’ British bank accounts will be used to fund the building of ‘a youth centre in every town’.

The Government’s reasoning is that if they create a large number of very expensive youth centres, teenage thugs and ruffians will just suddenly stop causing trouble and enjoy using the new facilities instead.

Apparently many youths go out and cause ‘trouble’ (government speak for getting drunk, beating up other people, causing criminal damage to property, etc) because they have nothing to do. It’s not their fault you see. The fact that there are many other children who have ‘nothing’ to do and yet do not go around breaching the law does not seem to register as applicable to a government and a Labour party that just loves to waste your money on pointless and ineffective schemes.

But that is not really what this post is about. This post is about how the Government are attempting to legalise the theft of private money so that they can waste it on further unnecessary state projects, and unfortunately, this plan has been on the cards for sometime. With most British pension plans already pillaged and with government borrowing and taxation at unprecedented levels, Gordon Brown has been forced to pursue new ways of raising money for yet more unnecessary and wasteful government spending.

Currently the plan is to allow the Government to claim any money in any UK bank account, so long as it has remained dormant for fifteen years. Apparently there is £15bn of such money is stashed away in UK bank accounts. However, what individuals do with their own money is up to them. If they wish to keep money in an account for fifteen years or more, then that is their right. The Government should not be able to take an individual’s money whether they wish to make use of it or not. In the event that a person dies and leaves money in an account, then the bank should make efforts to trace the relatives of that person’s family and they should receive the money.

The government has plenty of other nasty ways of taking money which they have no right to – inheritance tax being a perfect example. Legalised theft from private accounts should not be another way.

At long last, the light is visible at the end of the tunnel. The shadow of Blair over Britain and the Labour party slowly recedes after what was yet another speech of arguably epic proportions at the end book chapter of a mighty frontline political career – that was, in the end, far overshadowed by spin, incompetence and political decadence.

Today, the curtain falls on a political career that began so full of hope and promise, but ended in failure and despair. The master at work, for perhaps the last time, delivered as memorable a speech as anything made in the prime of his career. He bid farewell to an audience in his constituency of Sedgefield that thunderously applauded as he finally bowed out – but how many of the faces in that crowd wished for him to be gone ‘sooner rather than later?’ The man that brought his party two landslide electoral victories and a third decisive victory only two and a half years ago is soon to be struck off and forced out of office into exile.

In the Conservative party; we might despise Mr Blair and what he has done to our country in ten years of misrule – but we perhaps, and it is hard for many of us to admit, still have some small and barely registerable amount of respect for the abilities of a man who has thwarted us for so long. Clearly there is little love for Anthony Blair left in the Labour party. On June the 27th, he is gone – and all eyes shall turn to the man looming in the shadows, Gordon Brown.

Gordon Brown yesterday told MPs in Parliament that, ‘tax rises for small firms were needed to counter East European scams’. He claimed that East European workers were being encouraged to register themselves as companies to avoid paying income tax when they arrived in the UK.

That is, quite possibly, the most ridiculous excuse since ‘the dog ate my homework’. To punish all small businesses with a tax rise for the misdemeanours of a few seems completely unfair. The Federation of Small Business rightly accused Mr Brown of being ‘disingenuous’ and commented:

Why did he not close that particular loophole, rather than increasing tax on small firms, the vast majority of whom don’t incorporate as a tax dodge.

In truth, Gordon Brown is an archaic socialist who hates enterprise, freedom, personal effort and self-furtherment. He desperately wishes to curb such behaviour by stifling everyone and everything through ever increasing levels of taxation, regulation and bureaucracy. These were the reasons for the small business tax increase; nothing to do with Eastern European immigrants.

Such a deceitful man does not deserve to leader this country as Prime Minister. So far it would appear that there is no challenge to the seeming inevitability of Brown’s Labour leadership victory. David Miliband waits in the wings – though he too is equally as bad a prospect, being another Blairite clone who has never had a real job in his life. Future British prospects seem bleak.

As the results of the last elections for the Assembly of Northern Ireland are known for sure, we are now able to have a clear picture of what could be the next devolved assembly.

The main parties would be; the Democratic Unionist Party with 36 seats, the Sinn Fein with 28 seats, the Ulster Unionist Party with 18 seats and the Social Democratic and Labour Party with 16 seats. If a power sharing agreement is to be concluded, Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams would be respectively First Minister and Deputy first minister with a government composed by members of the four main parties.

After years of disagreements, scandals, rows over nothing and before that almost thirty years of what can only be called in my opinion, a civil war. Normal political debates may resume for good, in Northern Ireland, more than ever the needs for this are huge if we believe. A recent BBC Newsnight document by Jeremy Paxman, is showing that now more than ever the issues, of tax rates and schooling matter more than anything else in Northern Ireland. Yet when some politicians and Mr Paisley is among them, are still rambling about the ghosts of the past and even if the climate has now changed separations between the communities are on the rise.
Sectarian politics, will never provide an answer to the actual problems of Northern Ireland and entrenching division will only create more waste, by dividing resources in schooling and health provision. When in order to allow tax rates to be as low as possible, the public services must be as efficient as possible; this is not possible when everything needs to be doubled. The time has now come for Northern Ireland, to get out sectarian politics and to enter in a new era of genuine ideological debate.

The trend in polarisations to the extreme ends of the existing spectrum, has now reached an end. Clearly both the DUP and the Sinn Fein won’t be able to increase their share of the votes in the future, since the swing was not as big as some envisioned and turnout is even lower than for the previous elections. In the mean time, the Green Party was able to gain its first seat in Stormont and the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland gained another seat.

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The veteran left-winger Michael Meacher has today thrown his hat into the ring with a direct challenge to lead the Labour party while calling for Trident nuclear weapons to be scrapped, huge investment in renewable energy, curbs on City bonuses and nationalisation of the railways.

For Gordon Brown at least, this can only be good news. Michael Meacher has stepped up to the podium as yet another willing sacrificial lamb for the slaughter – just another no-hope candidate for Gordon to beat. However, as one Labour MP commented last year, “We don’t do coronations.” The Labour party therefore need to put on the appearance of a democratically contested selection, but I think there is little doubt in the ultimate outcome.

Despite Tony Blair being, in my opinion, the main reason for Labour’s previous three electoral victories, it now seems to have become common practice for leadership and deputy leadership candidates to openly attack the Prime Minister, his record in office and his polices – each doing their level best to undermine Blair in the waning days of his leadership and gain favourability with the Unions and grassroots party membership whom will ultimately decide their fate.

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News reaches us that Tony Blair’s top Downing Street aide, Ruth Turner, has been arrested yet again in the police investigation over the alleged sale of Peerages for Loans. She is currently under the suspicion of perverting the course of justice and colluding to sell House of Lords peerages to Labour party donors.

Miss Turner, Labour’s chief fund-raiser Lord Levy and Tony Blair must be becoming quite familiar with their local constabulary. These three core suspects are however not the only people that should be having sleepless nights. The ongoing investigation will undoubtedly have implications for Gordon Brown as Primeministerial heir apparent. Had there been any misdoings, it is highly unlikely that Chancellor would have been out of the frame and completely uninformed – he has extended his tentacles and all-seeing-eye into most other operations, so why not the illegal sale of peerages?

Sometimes in this country and not only in Britain, but anywhere else in the world where governments desire to promote public transportation; I think that it is worth asking if bureaucrats in the Department for Transportation are ever using “their” advocated types of transport instead of their own private cars? Considering the not so infrequent scenes of overcrowded trains with standing space only in the South East, but also on an increasing scale elsewhere in places like the West Midlands, the North West and now the Bristol-Bath region.

If passengers numbers are exceeded to the point of people not showing valid tickets to conductors as a mean of protestation then I think that comparing them with sardines in their box is fairly correct. Some readers might probably comment that “it’s the Tories who privatised the railways” and Major government certainly bears a responsibility by fractionating the systems into 27 different operators, three companies owning and leasing the rolling stock to the same trains operators and dozens of contractors for renewals and maintenance work. The creation of Network Rail was a very wise move in that respect but apart from this, the railway of today is already vastly different from the one of ten years ago when the last BR service ran in Scotland. Changes were made by previous Labour governments and the “benefits” of some of them are currently being reaped.

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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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As most now know, Tony Blair’s chief of staff in Downing Street, Ruth Turner, was arrested early on the morning of Friday the 19th by police and taken for questioning in relation to the loans for peerages scandal.

After just over a week it has certainly been interesting to observe the immediate reaction of those in the Labour party and their political allies in the papers and media. The Editor of the Guardian, Michael White, took to the stage on BBC News 24 to give a particularly cringing analysis on the character of Ruth Turner, whom he apparently once met and duly described as a “kind, innocent girl” who seemed to “giggle a lot.” And? What was his point exactly? That Miss Turner being a young “innocent” woman makes her somehow incapable of attempting to pervert the course of justice? What Michael White was actually attempting was to register a vote of sympathy with the viewing general public – if those watching somehow believed Miss Turner to have been unfairly and extremely treated then they would be far less critical of the Labour party as a whole. Of course, Michael White would have us believe that he and others were only being defensive on the grounds of being naturally protective towards such an “innocent girl.” Rubbish. Not that surprisingly I, like many, believe otherwise.

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