http://www.bathcf.co.uk Mon, 12 May 2008 05:54:39 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Congratulations to Boris Johnson for successfully overcoming the incumbent Ken Livingstone by 139,772 votes. Boris polled 53% (1,168,738 votes) to Ken’s 47% (1,028,966) of 1st and 2nd preference votes. Boris has been likened to Marmite. You either love him, or hate him. You either see him as a highly intelligent, capable ... http://www.bathcf.co.uk/2008/05/12/boris-the-new-mayor-of-london/ Where better an institution to take a group of budding politicians, than the centre of British democracy that are the Houses of Parliament? On February the 13th a dozen members of Bath Conservative Future made the trip to London accompanied by Bath’s next MP (well, we are optimistic) Fabian ... http://www.bathcf.co.uk/2008/02/14/bath-cf-visit-parliament/ At any of our events, a large topic rears it's head when discussion gets flowing. Europe is the largest part of our daily lives that fails to be widely discussed, apart from during Conservative Future meetings. Over recent years the debate has inexorably changed from “What is the UK's role ... http://www.bathcf.co.uk/2007/11/06/the-role-of-the-european-union/ In a ‘secret’ document revealed in today’s Daily Telegraph, Labour ministers are planning to slash the number of ships in the Royal Navy from 103 at present to 50 in 2027. While the purchase of two new carriers is confirmed, in others domains news are bleak to say the least. ... http://www.bathcf.co.uk/2007/09/30/save-the-royal-navy/ Everybody must have heard about the tube strike in London, affecting millions of commuters, tourists and visitors alike. While the strike itself was unjustified, it has the merit of putting the light on one of Gordon Brown greatest failures, the Public Private Partnership for London Underground. For Labour politicians, PPP ... http://www.bathcf.co.uk/2007/09/05/pfi-fiasco/ Today’s announcement from the Russian president Vladimir Putin, on strategic bombers flights being resumed, is after a series of other earlier events, another reminder that the situation between the West and Russia has never been so tense since the end of the Cold War. This could very easily be dismissed, ... http://www.bathcf.co.uk/2007/08/17/shadows-of-the-cold-war/ Judging from the announcement of the East Coast railway franchise being awarded today to National Express plc, it seems that the DfT civil servants did not understood what happened earlier last year for this franchise. Indeed if the current operator GNER was forced to stand down, that was because they ... http://www.bathcf.co.uk/2007/08/14/the-dft-is-still-on-another-planet/ While I welcome most of the proposals outlined today by John Redwood, I have to say that I am a bit sceptical on some points. The painted picture of weak and a crumbling infrastructure is undoubtedly the right one as, are the failures of Labour policies in that respect. Yet ... http://www.bathcf.co.uk/2007/08/13/pragmatism-is-needed-not-dogma/ The changes in the United Kingdom economic structure, from a manufacturing based economy to a service based economy are often the subject of debates and are most often considered as positive. However, before making any conclusion on this, it is very important to have an historical look at what happened, ... http://www.bathcf.co.uk/2007/08/07/on-the-decline-of-british-manufacturing/ The recent actuality is full of news concerning UK’s air industry, whose symbol of Heathrow airport is again under the fire from critics. This time it’s almost look like everybody is guilty in the affair, BAA for its management failures especially since its recent takeover by the Spanish firm Ferroviara ... http://www.bathcf.co.uk/2007/08/03/airports-meltdown/