Polling Day

I cast my vote in the Euro elections first thing this morning with the polling station unusually quiet due to the fact that there are no local elections in my area this time.

I hope the turnout throughout the country is good and more Conservative Councillors and MEP’s are elected than ever before.

More MP’s To Step Down

As well as Douglas Hogg, two more Tory MP’s will be stepping down at the next general election. Anthony Steen and Sir Peter Viggers having been exposed in the Telegraph for questionable expenses have rightly decided not to seek re-election. Any attempts by MP’s to cling on to their seats who have been exposed making outrageous claims for expenses only serve to damage the Conservative Party’s attempt to gain power at the next election. All such MP’s will be vulnerable to anti sleaze campaign by their opponents and seats that the party should be holding on to would undoubtedly be at risk.

The Labour Party or its MP’s have yet to take similar action though two of its MP’s have been suspended and my local MP Shahid Malik has resigned from his post as Justice Minister pending a full investigation into his expenses claims. The public mood is one of disgust and if any party or associations drag their feet and leave in place those MP’s who to voters look to have abused the system, then they should not be surprised if ‘independent’ candidates stand on anti-sleaze tickets against them and turn the election campaign into an ‘expenses’ campaign only.

David Cameron thankfully has grasped the public mood and is one step ahead of the Prime Minister in his response. It is incredible that there are MP’s still peddling the ‘I didn’t break any law/rule’ defence instead of showing any remorse and contrition. Yesterday I met a person who said that those MP’s making outrageous claims were thieves. I wouldn’t use the same language or express the same sentiments and each case has to be looked at on its own but this does show how angry people are feeling and how badly let down they feel by their representatives.

This scandal will no doubt rumble on and there will be many more MP’s who will stand down before the next election.

Another New Anti Terrorism Strategy!

I am looking forward to viewing the BBC Panorama programme this evening in which details of a new Government counter terrorism strategy will be revealed.

The alleged aim of this new strategy will be to challenge Muslims who teach that Islam is incompatible with Western democracy and as Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker has already said to discontinue ‘to fund groups where we have evidence of them encouraging discrimination, undermining democracy and being ambiguous towards terrorism.’

All very well and well intentioned but if the Government hasn’t worked out 8 years after 9/11 and 18 months after 7/7 as well as numerous other atrocities who it should be funding and relying on for advice and assistance and who it should be avoiding, we have to ask and wonder what it has worked out?

I’ve often felt that there isn’t a cohesive Government strategy to deal with radicalisation of Muslims in the UK, and there are too many gimmicks and headline grabbing policies and proposals such as the 90 day detention and this last week to believe that anything the Government will do will prove effective. The relationships the Labour Government has built with the Muslim community is too narrow and focused primarily on maintaining the Muslim vote especially after the Iraq war rather than dealing with the concerns of Muslims and what it expects from them as fully signed up members of British Society. The embarrassing political sluttiness that Jack Straw and his cronies displayed at the last election in trying to get the Muslims to vote for Labour in Blackburn at all costs which I saw at the last general election was simply pathetic and those Muslims who danced to this tune were an embarrassment to their community.

I really do hope that an incoming Conservative Government gets to grips with the increased radicalisation in certain sections of the Muslim community and comes up with policies that are effective and sustained in the long term and not geared as this Government seems to be towards securing votes instead of dealing with the problem.

Labour’s Sums Don’t Add Up

From Do Nothing To Do Everything

Today’s announcement by the Government of the £20bn loan guarantee to small and medium-sized firms to help them deal with the recession is a watered down rip of Tory Policy announced by David Cameron a few weeks ago. This follows fast on the heels of the Tory policy to subsidise employers to take on people who have been out of work being adopted by the Government a few days ago.

Admittedly the Conservatives are calling for loan guarantees of £50bn but its very odd that the the Government accuses the Conservatives of being the ‘do nothing party’ (repeated again at PMQ’s by Brown today) when facing the most serious economic downturn this country has seen for decades yet is prepared to steal adopt policies put forward by the Conservatives.

If Gordon Brown and his team are unable to come up with ideas and policies of their own and are simply going to adopt everything the Conservatives propose – obviously after criticising them first, why don’t they just ask the Tories to take over and do everything to deal with the recession?