Don't mention the debt. I mentioned it twice and I never got away with it

It's almost a year since the Conservative Party launched a brief campaign called "Sort-It" which was about the culture of debt that we now have in Britain that has been fuelled by the Government. The campaign, as some might remember, had a character in it called the "inner tosser" and was designed to appeal to young people and drive a message about how "spend today, pay tomorrow" wasn't a good way to go about managing your finances.

At the time, the Conservative Party came under criticism for it mainly because it used the word "tosser" and was apparently insulting to people. David Cameron himself went on television and asked BBC Breakfast "don't we need to do something in our society about the problems of debt?'... Young people, I hope, will watch it and I hope it will make them think about debt." There was, as you'd expect, a holier than thou reaction from the Lib Dems and Labour about the campaign, to put it bluntly, it was derided.

Roll-forward 10 months, and David Cameron write in the Sunday Telegraph that the crisis at Northern Rock, which is primarily a mortage lender, has not in anyway been helped by the culture of debt that the Government has fostered over the past decade and what is the reaction this time? Opportunism.

Apparently he is only saying the same thing the Conservative Party has been saying for some time for cheap political gains. Some commentators have suggested that Cameron is wrong to draw links, the Business Editor at the Times this morning wrote, "To be clear, Northern Rock's problems cannot be blamed on the politicians. It built a business model that was designed for an era of cheap and easy money."

It is true that Northern Rock's problems cannot be blamed directly on politicians. However, the "era of cheap and easy money" can be. For the past ten years we have had historically low interest rates. These have been fed by political rhetoric reminding us, and the quasi-indpendent Bank of England, how wonderful the world is with cheap credit. Brown and Blair before him have made low intereat rates a central plank of their tub-thumping. To ignore the influence that has would be foolish.

The resulting cheap and easy money - not just for finanical institutions with questionable business models - but also consumers who want to spend today, and pay tomorrow, has led us into a culture of debt that has made us far more vulnerable to extrenal pressures. There is little opportunistic about making that statement when it remains in keeping with what the Conservative Party has been saying for some time.

In fact, the idea that when the fifth largest mortgage lender in the country finds itself in trouble the Leader of Opposition should not stand up and point out that the political leadership of the country has helped precipitate a financial culture that exposes people and institutions to these sort of dangers is absurd.

What is even more absurd though is the way in which the reaction to his statements have gone from being derided and dismissed out of hand, to somehow being just about political point-scoring. In both cases the argument has been ignored, and the Government appears to be sticking its head in the sandy foundations of Northern Rock.

Have to get to the church on time

Blogging will be light this weekend. Am off to the Peak District for a wedding in about an hour or so. Thge laptop is not going with me. Back tomorrow evening.

Tory MP under fire due to Thatcher blog article

It would appear that the Tory MP, Rob Wilson is under a little bit of pressure this morning after his article on ConservativeHome. In the article he accused Brown of using Thatcher saying that it was wrong because "she is elderly, she is lonely, she is frail and she has difficulty with her memory." Unsurprisingly the article has pissed off the Thatcher, and created Tories accuse Brown of using ‘frail and lonely’ Thatcher to his own ends along with Thatcher denies being exploited by Brown's 'political stunt'. In the Mail article there are calls for Wilson to be sacked from the front bench.

Anyway, I would just like to point out that this Tory still reckon it was she who exploited Brown, not the other way round. She may be old, she may not have her husband around anymore, and yes, she may sometimes forget where she's put something, but she still got her marbles. It's worth noting as well that yesterday's London Diary in the Evening Standard reported that Brown had in fact offered her the back door to make it low-key (after all, a former PM visiting a present one is not uncommon) and it was turned down. Thatcher and her office insisted on using the front door apparently, and also told the BBC that "[t]o suggest that she was not aware of the political implications of it would be wrong." Damn straight!

Most confusing (and worst) lyrics ever

The Fink is looking for the most confusing song lyrics. I have a suggestion, and I think, they may even be a contender for worst lyrics ever. They're worst because they're so confusing. Actually they're not just confusing, they're gibberish.

I give you Starship (or whatever Jefferson variation you want to call them depending on age) and, "We Built This City".

Say you dont know me or recognize my face
Say you dont care who goes to that kind of place
Knee deep in the hoopla sinking in your fight
Too many runaways eating up the night
Marconi plays the mamba, listen to the radio, dont you remember
We built this city, we built this city on rock and roll

Pure hell! You may think it's catchy after a skinful at a wedding, but seriously, just read them and try to tell me that they make any modicum of sense.

How to upset your teachers

I guess some people would say that I'm going straight to hell for laughing at this little gem which is listed on the b3ta newsletter.

Apparently it was a science project from middle school "to show how the electric chair works and discuss basic electricity - currents and conductivity." It also "completely disgusted the entire female staff of Benton Middle."

I can't imagine why, I mean it just looks like a 12-volt battery connected to a plastic doll to me. Harmless educational fun surely?

Quote of the Day

Taken from LabourHome, uttered by "doctordunc":

"This is frankly terrifying! So you're saying we needed Thatcher to reform the unions? I hope nobody on ConservativeHome spots this thread!!"

I think they found it.

Welsh Labour researcher calls Welsh "brain-dead language"

As you can imagine from the headline, Plaid have gone ballistic, and everyone is condeming him. Accept his boss, Vale of Clwyd AM Ann Jones. More here.

I don't speak Welsh, frankly it's all Greek to me! But one thing is for sure when you look at it, it ain't brain-dead.

Tax credit call to nowhere

He'll be taking credit for our Christmas presents next

I love these sort of press releases. It has the headline "Prime Minister hails £11 million boost for youth sports scheme" and says,

The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, today joined forces with the police, Football Foundation, Premier League and Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to announce an £11 million expansion of the Kickz project, and hailed its success in cutting anti-social behaviour.

All well and good huh? Brown doing his bit for sport, gettig the Government involved in massive investment. Then you get to paragraph two which says,

"The Football Foundation is investing £4.7 million into the scheme, the Metropolitan Police Service £3 million and £1 million through the DCMS from the Premier League's good causes fund. Matched funding provided by local bodies will boost the total amount to more than £11 million over three years."

So how much is the Government in for in this massive £11 million investment? Bugger all, that's how much. It's other people spending money and Brown is hanging on their coat tails and taking some of the credit.

Back in 2000, during the period we now know as the Blair Years, there was a memo that turned up where Blair talked about strategy and famously said about a specifci policy, "I, personally, should be associated with it". Clearl the cult of personality strategy lives on.

Beware parents of Britain. You may find yourselves getting a knock on the door when your holding your toddlers birthday party and find our Prime Minister there to take credit for all the presents you, your family and friends have bought your offspring.

Could it happen again?

Back in October 1995, Alan Howarth decided to defect to Labour, and the defection was orchestrated for maximum impact around the Tory Conference. This morning, in Hugo Rifkind's column in the Times, he notes that,

"Patrick Mercer, the Conservative MP who is so controversially working for Gordon Brown as a government adviser, isn’t going out of his way to rebuild bridges with his party. With his commitments to Gordon coming first, Mercer will be missing the Conservative Party conference. “His work for the Home Office has blocked the diary off,” explains a helpful soul in Mercer’s Commons office. “He doesn’t live too far from Blackpool, so he may nip in and out if he can. He isn’t going to commit himself."

This got me thinking about 1995 and wondering whether it could happen again. I'm not suggesting that Patrick Mercer is going to defect you udnerstand (although I am still curious about that comment the editor of the Spectator made), but could Brown's mission to destroy the Tory Party be in a final phase of an even bigger surprise? Who knows?