The UDR's 40th anniversary

Today is the 40th anniversary of the UDR becoming operational.



More on their history can be read here.

They're all Christian Democrats now...

From The Economist:

Those looking for the Big Idea from Mr Cameron will be disappointed. He has a very English scepticism about grand theories. His identity lies somewhere between liberal London, where he has spent his adult life, and the conservative Home Counties, where he grew up. Ironically for a man whose Euroscepticism has irked Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, he may at heart be what continental Europeans would recognise as a Christian Democrat. He espouses a social conservatism that dwells on broad issues, such as the cultural causes of poverty, not on the narrow lifestyle questions such as gay rights (on which he is anyway tolerant) that obsess some on the American right. He is an Atlanticist, though not a passionate one, and a gentle free-marketeer.

Big Ideas are not that important, core distinguising principles are.
Christian Democracy, as practised by Merkel's CDU (as opposed to the pseudo-version on offer from the statist and quasi national-socialist, Sarkozy), is conservativism on cultural, social and moral issues and progressiveness on fiscal and economic issues.
Kind of describes New Labour under the reign of Tony, doesn't it?
In which case, what makes Cameronian Conservativism different and better than what's on offer from Tony's heirs?
That's what is needed to be firstly isolated and then, hopefully, sold.

Celtic Alliance gets ready to rumble

It took a while...

From: "Mr O'Neill"
To: "snp hq"
Sent: Sunday, 14 March, 2010 11:55:19 AM
Subject: Negotiations with N.Irish Parties

Dear Sir-Madam,

Two weeks ago, your party mentioned that you were planning negotiations with both Plaid Cymru and the Northern Irish parties about some kind of informal pact in the case of a hung parliament.
I was wondering if there had been any progress with the N. Irish parties?

Thanks,
Mr O'Neill

...but two weeks later, I got my answer:

from SNP HQ
to Mr O'Neill

Dear O'Neill,

Many thanks for your e-mail.

The SNP has set out it's joint proposals with Plaid Cymru today, details of which are available on the BBC website:

www.bbc.co.uk

Neither the SNP nor Plaid have made agreements with any of the Northern Irish parties.

Best wishes

SNP HQ

Whether negotiations took place with the one party whose narrow, regionalist economic priorities would have tied in with those of the Celtic Alliance (ie the DUP), is something we're not going to find out, I guess.

As I have mentioned before, from a nationalist point of view the Alliance makes perfect sense, even if we are not to be lumbered with a hung parliament:

"A Celtic alliance of Plaid and SNP MPs would be in a position to negotiate real benefits for the people of Wales and Scotland," Jones said. "The greater the vote for Plaid and the SNP, the better the deal for Wales and Scotland. This is an exciting opportunity to make a real difference."

The new nationalist coalition, called 4 Wales 4 Scotland, commits the two parties to press for "fair funding" for the devolved governments, protecting local services and the most vulnerable, help for the green economy and support for business growth.

Yes, officially. Unofficially, any rise in blood pressure suffered by the English electorate due to such pork-barrelling would also, no doubt, be a welcomed bonus.

"Honest Politician Of The Year Award" cancelled.

Fresh off the press from the Adam Smith Institute:

A Westminster think-tank has had to scrap its annual Honest Politician Of The Year Award because no qualifying candidates could be found.

The influential Adam Smith Institute, which organises the annual Award, said that it had considered a number of promising nominees, but found insufficient evidence to prove their honesty to the Award jury.

Anthony Steen MP was nominated for his frank view that people were "jealous" of his Balmoral-type second home. However, the jury ruled this untruthful because Balmoral lacks a taxpayer-funded duck house.

Nicholas Winterton MP also reached the shortlist for so truthfully expressing his opinion of standard-class travellers as "a totally different type of people." But he was disqualified for falsely claiming that his views had been "misrepresented".

Next year the Adam Smith Institute will give its award instead to the Corrupt Politician Of The Year. "This should give us many more candidates, said Institute director Dr Eamonn Butler. “Indeed, I can think of 646 already."

"Corrupt politicians are actually the most honest. They have to do what they are bribed to do in order to stay in business. So when bought, they stay bought."

Another problem for the Awards is that the trophy, depicting a golden hand in a back pocket, and sponsored by Lord Mandelson’s mortgage broker, has been lost. Stephen Byers held it in recognition of his sincere contempt for Railtrack shareholders, but somehow managed to leave it in a cab for hire. Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt have been hired to ask questions, for the usual consultancy fee.

Press enquiries:
G Brown 020 7930 4433

Several of our local politicians were also considered alongside Nicholas Winterton and Anthony Steen for the award; their legal advisors modesty and humility prevents me from naming names.