A Law Unto Himself

It could just be wishful thinking after a delightful rosé fuelled afternoon rolling around in the garden, dressed up as a commando, with a six and four year old - but flicking through analysis and comment tonight, TB gets the feeling that things are aligned for a swift return for Mr Laws. Michael Moore shouldn't get too cosy in the Scotland Office.

The Prime Minister's reply to Law's resignation letter was unconventionally warm and the choice of Danny Alexander as a replacement for the Chief Secretary job is mind boggling. If the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner taps Laws on the knuckles, or clears him, could we see the former head of communications for the Cairngorms National Park, Danny Alexander, a man of no discernible talent or economic ability, return from whence he came and Mr Laws pick up his axe from where he left off? Fingers crossed.

There are four must read pieces that have emerged in the last 24 hours re David Laws:

Fraser Nelson

says

:

This whole story is a tragedy. No one, in any party, can doubt that an honourable and able man has gone. Those who had wanted fast fiscal consolidation have lost a trusted advocate. The government will be all the weaker for it.

James Forsyth

follows

his boss:

The other person in the government who could do the job—Phillip Hammond—can’t because he is a Tory and the role is reserved for a Lib Dem. With the best will in the world, it is hard to imagine that Danny Alexander will be able to do the job with the ability that Laws was doing it.

Matthew Parris is

bang on the money

:

Of course Mr Laws made an error of judgment. Hundreds of MPs have cocked up badly as parliamentarians scramble to keep abreast of violent and bewildering changes in the national mood. The present Defence Secretary handed back £22,000 in March. Hundreds have made repayments.

Meanwhile, other MPs across the United Kingdom are living, with a declared partner, in accommodation wholly or partially funded by the taxpayer — entirely within the rules.

Even old lefty Sir Michael White is

upset

:

So I regret his going and hope the Telegraph's more thoughtful readers are as unimpressed as I am. Perhaps the newspapers really are losing the plot in their – our – battle to retain sales share.

Bad Day for Country, Coalition and Telegraph

Last year The Telegraph undertook a fantastic public service in blowing the lid off the murky cover-up of MPs expenses. Without bias they gave all barrels to all guilty politicians of all colours. However it seems they haven't been quite as open and honest in their tactics as it first seemed. Why did they not unveil these details about David Laws when they were orgasmically pushing their "Expenses Files" a year ago? Could it have been that it wasn't quite deemed a big enough story? A minor infraction of the letter of the rules rather than some of the shameless abuse and flagrant fraud that went on elsewhere? Could it be that Mr Laws was clearly not gaining financially from the situation, in fact taking a cheaper option than renting his own flat? Or could it be that they are now willing to do someone's dirty work using their information to carry out political vendettas?

It now seems The Telegraph are happy to play politics with their small, but very powerful, memory stick. Since Laws became Chief Secretary hacks have seemed desperate to out him. TB hopes Holly Watt and Robert Winnett are feeling very smug and happy tonight. There is no doubt this story would have been tiny if the underlying aim hadn't been pointing a finger and screaming "SECRET GAYER!" If you have any doubt look at the headline of the original story. "Treasury chief David Laws, his secret lover and a £40,000 claim" - a sensationalist outburst worthy of the tabloids with a very carefully chosen order for the allegations. As for the £40k figure? TB can't get his head round that either - it was legal to pay rent to a dubiously named "partner" until 2006. So between 2001 and then Laws was claiming legally. So presumably the £40k figure mentioned included those legal payments. Though this is hardly surprising given the fact the story was a thinly disguised excuse at outing Laws.

It is no surprise that The Telegraph won the race to expose - they are now abusing their position as the leading light in the expenses fight. Without access to those files they wouldn't have the crucial name of the landlords, but it beggars belief that they found the link by themselves. Still the expenses scandal drags on, but now more viciously than the infringements deserve. The Telegraph need to release the rest of the expenses files so this scandal, thought dead, can be buried once and for all. The drip drip has to stop - it is fundamentally unfair- damn them all or damn none, don't play politics with timing and picking and choosing victims to fit agendas.

The economic security of the country has been undermined by The Telegraph's ego and flogging of a dead horse. The General Election was meant to clear the air, but it seems the Telegraph are still sitting on much much more than they let out originally. A line needs to be drawn under this scandal and if Laws's position was untenable, the many of the blue and red front-benches should also be hounded out of office too. But hold on, they weren't choosing to keep the fact that they were gay out of the soiled pages of the newspapers.

One thought that TB can't get out of his head is this whole affair reeks of a stitch up. Who tipped The Telegraph to the name of the landlord/boyfriend? Who might have know about the former Chief Secretary's expense arrangements? Former deputy leaders and presidents of parties are privy to that sort of information about their MPs. Who is on internal party manoeuvres? Who is in cahoots to see the left of Liberal Democrats have a stronger voice? Who are more opposed to the right-wing Laws than the likes of Vince Cable and Simon Hughes, both rocking the boats behind the scenes. Just sayin'.

As you might be able to tell TB is still seething about the fact Laws had to go though he sees why this honourable man felt he should go. Yes he was stupid, but on the scale of the expenses scandal this was not a resigning issue. His swift return is needed for the country and coalition, the figures being discussed for Laws pale in comparison to the figures he was slicing off the deficit. Osborne put it perfectly that he seemed to be put on the earth to undertake the drastic reforms and cuts needed to the state, Danny Alexander looks like a simpleton in comparison and there is no way the Emergency Budget is going to be as successful as it would have been under Laws's careful eye. Laws in the Treasury was by in far the best thing about this coalition and now that has been shattered.  In a desire for a quick scoop and cheap thrill The Telegraph have really blundered this time. Two people that are sadly missed - Will Lewis and David Laws.

♫ And you're working for no one but me... ♫

Taxman!

Kiddy Polling

Keen bean

Keep Right Online

has prepared another poll for the Conservative Future election. TB hears that the ballot won't be for awhile, but the handover is ideally planned for conference.

There is some debate that the whole thing should be done online to save money on mailing out 20,000 ballot papers. TB is inclined to agree. Apparently this is "unconstitutional" though. Seeing as the constitution has been ignored for the last ten years why the sudden concern?

Either way,have your say on who you will back here:

www.conservativefuture.info

The site will be polling for a week.

Quote of the Day - Tin Foil Hat Edition

"I'm also of sound mind; it's the situation that's crazy"

-The water tight defence of definitely-not-a-nutter Tim "

Manic

" Ireland who proves he isn't an obsessive by sending two thousand word long emails.

Winner

"I wonder if I could persuade David Laws to defect to the democrats"

Congratulations to

"Uncle Bob"

who wins the tickets to tonight's debate. Email TB Bob and he will sort you out with Intelligence2.

A Win Win Situation, Sort Of

Given Obama seems to have enough problems trying to fix a hole, who knows how he will react if North Korea shell Seoul. Tomorrow evening

Intelligence2

in collaboration with BBC World News will be hosting a debate at the Methodist Hall. "Obama’s foreign policy is a gift to his enemies" could get pretty heated.

Speakers for the motion are:

General Jack Keane
Retired four-star general, former
Vice Chief of Staff of the US Army
and a key strategist in Iraq.

Bill Kristol
Conservative political commentator,
and founder and editor of The
Weekly Standard magazine.

Con Coughlin
Executive foreign editor of the
Telegraph and expert on the Middle
East and Islamic terrorism.

And against...

Simon Schama
Professor at Columbia University,
broadcaster, critic and contributing
editor at the Financial Times.

Bernard-Henri Lévy
France's leading philosopher and a
publisher, novelist, journalist and
filmmaker.

Philip Bobbitt
Herbert Wechsler Professor of
Federal Jurisprudence at Columbia
Law School.

It will be chaired by Zeinab Badawi one of the  BBC World News presenters. Full details about the event can be found

here

.

TB has a couple of tickets worth £50 up for grabs for the wittiest person who tells us before tomorrow lunchtime what POTUS is thinking...

Stephen "Fairy" Pound

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Stephen Pound is a foul mouthed bruiser. You should have heard him at the otherwise serene

Parliamentary Pancake race

. So what a

surprise

:

"Labour MP Stephen Pound has been accused of calling Arsenal’s former England defender Sol Campbell a “fairy” during a recent Premier League football match.

The recently re-elected Labour politician is said to have made the homophobic remark when his football team, Fulham, failed to overcome rivals Arsenal during a game at the Emirates Stadium in North London, last weekend.

The 61-year-old was heard making a string of offensive remarks whilst ranting from his £35,000-a-year executive box."

Charming. Cue lefty outrage.. oh wait.. no, silence? Of course.

What You Pay For

Here's a corker from a

BBC hack

. Right now beeboids are having lessons on how to use... wait for it.. Twitter:

Maybe Osborne and Laws should be sent round to White City with their axe.

Nice Work...

If you can

get it:

IPSA - while meant to be cleaning up MPs expenses has had a PR disaster of a first week back at school. No wonder they need a spinner, but is paying them more than an MP really appropriate?

Polls'n'Stuff

Look away now if you don't care, but if traffic levels are anything to go by on that poll last week the CF traffic on this site is more than ever. Over to

KRO

for some analysis.

So, the poll’s closed and the results are in.  Non-Conservative Party member Sara Scarlett (ineligible) has romped home to victory in our straw poll in association with ToryBear.com.  But what do the results really tell us?

Firstly, it appears some people on all sides had people attempting to rig the results in their favour.  It’s a good thing we weren’t born yesterday.  The candidates may or may not have known about these attempts but nonetheless the results you see in front of you reflect the polling after duplicates (triplicates, decuplicates etc) were factored out.

Secondly, the vote seems to tell us that the ‘Other’ category for write-in candidates will command a huge portion of the real results, which is thought to be put to vote in September.  Many people are undecided, while some write-in candidates include:

-  Andy Peterkin

-  Tory Bear 

-  Rowan Cole (?)

And a few people thought they were funny, with Margaret Thatcher, Obo the Clown, A Low-Fat Yoghurt and ‘Scrap CF’ being called to stand.  One that tickled this editor was ‘Tory Twat Bear’.  Some people are far too witty.

Thirdly, of those eligible to stand, it looks like Emma Carr has the momentum at this point.  The North-Eastern lass is well known for her effective and tireless activism.  Disappointments may be in store for some potential candidates who thought they would have been able to sweep the board on this one. Time will tell.

T'wireless

TB will be on LBC for an hour at eight. You can listen

here

.

Utter Balls

TB was gearing up to rip chunks out of this vomit inducing piece on the

Guardian website

by Ellie Gellard:

I am well aware that Ed Balls is not the most popular candidate for Labour leader. Vilification by the rightwing press has led to an image of Balls which many who know him personally, many of whom I’ve spoken to, do not recognise. This will be an opportunity for the public to see the real Ed. Quite simply, it will be a cold day in hell when Labour party members choose our leader based on his popularity in the sections of the media we rightly loathe. Ed has the hunger, the drive and the fire in the belly to lead our party back into Downing Street. It is perhaps just that which the rightwing media fear.

However it seems

Toby Young

has beat him to it:

Allow me to correct this misapprehension. The truth is that most rightwing commentators would dearly love to see Ed Balls as the next Labour leader. Not only does he come across badly on television – a Stalinist thug trying, unsuccessfully, to seem human – but he’s fatally tainted by his close association with Gordon Brown. He would be a terrible electoral liability, worse even than the insufferably smug Diane Abbott. Next to him, Michael Foot seems positively Churchillian.

The problem is. he produces such an instant, visceral dislike that we find it impossible to stop ourselves pointing out how ghastly he is. We all recognise, I think, that we should either keep quiet or relentlessly attack his politics, allowing the Ellie Gerard’s of this world to portray him as the leadership candidate we fear the most. But we simply can’t repress our violent hatred of the man. To adapt a phrase of Edward Heath’s, he is the unacceptable face of socialism.

What he said.

Where's Yvette?

As 

Iain Dale

 said... judge a man by the company he keeps. So it's no surprise then that Ed Balls has secured the backing of Kerry McCarthy. There are 13 Labour MPs now backing Balls.

Vernon Coaker (Gedling)
Sharon Hodgson (Washington & Sunderland West)
Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West)
Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East)
Iain Wright (Hartlepool)
Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North)
David Wright (Telford)
Khalid Mahmood (Birmingham Perry Barr)
Andrew Gwynne (Denton & Reddish)
Helen Jones (Warrington North)
Eric Joyce (Falkirk)
Dave Anderson (Blaydon)
John Robertson (Glasgow North West)

Aren't we missing someone there? Is there a reason his MP wife isn't on the list?


On the day of his big launch, here is some information you might like to know about Ed Balls:



Just sayin'.

A Very Scarlett Coup

Though in no way is TB as accurate as someone like err Tweetminster of YouGov at predicting election outcomes, the straw poll released this morning about the old upcoming CF Chairman election has thrown up some interesting results:

The coalition is deep and strong! Sara Scarlett, a Liberal Democrat libertarian is way out in front despite never having actually defected. There was talk of it once but now the two parties are in coalition what's the point? Something tells TB the old guard in Conservative Future wouldn't put up with it in reality.

In all seriousness TB is up for one lass hurrah in terms of kid politics by covering this election along with Keep Right Online. The lovely Emma Carr seemingly has a strong chance if she were to run. It looks like it could be a big field and the showing in this early poll for "Other" is very high.

A Liberal Democrat take over of the youth wing of the Conservative Party?  What larks.

Quote of the Day

"Thousands of millions of working class people feel let down"

-Ed Balls

Polling

In coordination with

Keep Right Online

, TB is happy to help poll young Tories for their thoughts for the next Chairman of Conservative Future after Michael Rock has finally been convinced to stand down after 21 years. So yes, within three months there will be that glorious bunfight which is a Tory youth election. A wet dream for the Guardian and just what the Party wants right now...



TB writing about CF? Lordy, it's like the old days.

A Handy Guide to the Labour Candidates

Via

Twitter

!

Wonk?

Game Time for Bercow

Dear new Member,

Many congratulations and welcome to the House.

Please forgive me for this generic email being brief and to the point.

The first job of the House today is to appoint the Speaker. The Father of the House, Sir Peter Tapsell, will present a motion to the House that John Bercow remains as Speaker.

At this point, members will shout 'Aye', on this occasion there will also be members from all parties shouting 'No'. If enough members shout 'No', this will force a division and your first vote as new members will be to vote for or against appointing John Bercow as Speaker.

At this point, the green monitors will flash with the words 'Division' and the division bell will ring. This is a free vote and is entirely unwhipped and so whether to vote or not is wholly your decision. You will also have the option to abstain, and so you do not enter either of the voting lobbies.

Despite scare mongering by some left-wing commentators, there will be no repercussions according to which way you vote.

I am sure you are aware that during the previous Parliamentary term Mr Bercow was appointed as Speaker, with unanimous Labour and a handful of Conservative votes. In the words of a Labour whip, it was done to 'stick it to the Tories'.

That aside, there are a number of reasons why, since his appointment, Mr Bercow has proven unsuitable in the Speaker's role. Not least, on the occasions during the last session when Mr Bercow found remaining impartial, a crucial quality in the role of Speaker, very difficult, leading to a number of heated exchanges between the Speaker and Conservative MPs.

We are about to head into choppy political waters. It is imperative we have a Speaker who possesses dignity, gravitas, ability, wisdom and who can command respect from all sides of the House. A Speaker beyond reproach, who via his experience has earned the entitlement to such an important office.

There are a number of candidates from all sides imminently more suitable, able and willing; Edward Leigh, Sir Menzies Campbell, Alan Hazlehurst, and Margaret Beckett.

It is imperative that we are seen to begin this Parliament renewed and afresh. We can only do that with a democratic vote for the Speaker. If Mr Bercow wins the vote, he will have the endorsement of the whole House and not just the Labour party.

The Labour MP Kate Hoey, who is supporting the vote and I will be acting as tellers. If you come to the division lobby there will be members on the doors directing you to the lobby depending on which way you wish to vote. I am sure you understand the importance of this vote. I look forward to counting you out of the lobby during your first division.
With very best wishes,

Yours,

Nadine Dorries.

Will it be enough? Fingers crossed...