Quote of the Day

"Of those, six are ministers of state, the rest parliamentary under-secretaries. What's more, five of them are in the Upper House, so with the FLL that means more than half the department's complement are peers. Imagine that: a Labour government - a Labour government - looking like something Lord Salisbury cooked up. Delicious."

-The ever fantastic

Ben Brogan

discussing Mandy's new uber department.

Trouble with the kids

This sure as hell isn't the story TB wanted to be writing, but you might as well have a peek at this picture which made up a small part of a story that turned out to be dud yesterday.

Olivia Bailey is the Vice Chairman of

Young Labour

and was once ultra loyal to the Dear Leader. She even met with Gordon just weeks ago in No10 but it seems she sure as hell ain't going to be window dressing:

Anyone else from Young Labour got something to say?

PS - TB hasn't just put his tin foil hat on, but, can't help but think it's a bit odd that he spoke to the Number10 press office yesterday about Miss Bailey and weirdly

the video

of her talking to Gordon has today been pulled from the No10 website!? Thanks to an anon comment it seems it was TB's browser playing up. Just going to leave this story now. Brings out the very worst conspiracy theory streak in the bear.

Seems the Young Labour website is down though.

Country First.

TB understands that Conservative Future deputy chairman Christian May's weekly column over at

TYC

might make uncomfortable reading for some more senior Tories tomorrow. Here is a little juicy morsal to wet your appitites:

"There are many conservatives out there, including senior members of the conservative movement, who are delighted with the news that Gordon Brown is, for now, staying on as leader. Many speculate that David Cameron himself also breathed a sigh of relief when it looked like Brown had managed to survive Monday's meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party. However, I for one do not take such a view. We must remember the cry, "Country before Party." Keeping Gordon Brown on as PM will certainly mean that the Labour Party will continue to flounder in the polls, but won't somebody please think of the country?"

Bang on in this bear's view. Putting the party before country is why Labour are set to be punished so horrendously at the next election. Check out the rest of the piece

here

tomorrow.

"I can be Brown, I can be blue..."

Via

Dizzy

, TB laughed a lot when he saw this gem from Rory Bremner.

Now you see him..

...and now you don't.

According to

Paul Waugh

; "I'm told by a friend of James Purnell that he certainly won't be at the PLP tonight. "We do want him to actually see his 40th birthday," the pal joked."

Looks like Purnell might just be the Minister for silly walks. Worst coup ever.

UPDATE 18:38: Strike that, potentially - Guido is

reporting

that Purnell will put himself forward as the challenger if no credible candidate comes forward before noon tomorrow.

He who wields the knife never wears the crown.

Go on son...

Tom Harris MP

is clearly in a bit of a lairy mood today. He is defending Jane Kennedy, who this morning became the latest minister to quit Gordon's "government". It is far from a subtle dig, but seeing as he only has his seat to lose, rather than a government job, why doesn't he just go in for the kill?

The SNP beat Labour on his home patch last night and Harris is clearly playing the long game in raising his public profile through his blog this could be a bit of a problem. Come on Tom you might win some much needed support back home if you just come out and say what everyone knows you want to!

Or is there still some sort of secret brotherly code in the Scottish Labour Party?

The shame of the left.

CF Chairman Michael Rock

is on the case

:

"It is patently obvious that the BNP are racist but that doesn’t mean all the votes they receive come from racists; their message of protectionism, of support for a larger state, of restricting free trade is a classic mixture of left-wing politics. Not only have Labour let down the country with their mishandling of the economy, their sustained attack on our freedom and constitutional vandalism, they have let the left wing down by not fighting the BNP on political grounds.
We should all fight the BNP but Labour have to wake up; the BNP are left wing and are taking Labour votes."

Couldn't agree more.

Big round of applause to Gordon...

In the late 1970s the National Front peaked during the dying days of a Labour government, in 2009 the Labour Party lose two seats to the British National Party. Even the normally lefty loving

Independent

argue that Labour are to blame.

Hang your head in shame, get in the car, go to the palace and never come back.

Leave now.

Hannan's acceptance

speech

was inspired,

especially the comparison of Brown to Nixon.

No doubt it will become an instant youtube hit in the next few days.

More tomorrow.

Conservative Future Live Blog:

Let the games begin...

The booze is flowing, the pizza is on it's way, all we need now are a few results...

UPDATE 20:42: By popular request check out CF Chairman Michael Rock, who has come straight from displaying his cricket skills for the Carlton Club:

Be sure to join us at 10pm for CF's

live election debate

.

It's on Drudge, so it must be true...

Sound.

Classic:

Gordon Brown. Fail.

Hat-Tip:

GOT

Round two... Ding Dong.

Another day and another anticipated wait for the election results that could see our dear leader brought crashing down. There is plenty going on tonight and TB will be taking part in these two events:

Click for details.

TB is a bit of a bear with a sore head this afternoon after CF deputy Chairman Christian May's birthday last night. Chatham House. Sorry. Much fun had by all. Taking it easy this afternoon and waiting for things to kick off - will be a very late one.

Just watching the dear leader talking to the last remaining Labour supporters in the country with Harman and Mandy. Mute the TV and

play this at the same time

. Uncanny.

Exclusive: Harman nearly walked.

Gordon's desperate reshuffle is unraveling quicker than one of his budgets. Sources have let it be known that Harman came very close to quitting and was prepared to walk if Gordon had made Mandy Deputy Prime Minister. The idea of this was openly discussed and Harman got her claws out.

Hence why they went with the slightly greyer title of First Secretary of State.

So let's get this straight. Brown couldn't move his Chancellor, he couldn't move his Foreign Secretary and he couldn't even create a deputy. Let it ring out loud and clear. We have a lame duck Prime Minister. Brown's fate is no longer in his hands.

The kingmakers will decide when he goes.

Kudos - They still believe...

Yesterday Tory Bear mentioned the anger he had picked up when talking to Labour grassroots activists about the behaviour of the Parliamentary Labour Party. Though many of them hate Gordon with a passion, after they had slogged their guts out for days on end at the stump, they felt deeply betrayed by the plotters actions. Here's what one Labour PPC said to TB:

"It was a crippling blow and quite frankly a slight on those who have been working their bollocks off. It was a real slap to make everything you've done meaningless, but we don't agree, we errr still believe."

And still believe they do. The Labour grassroots seemingly "get it" in a way that Gordon and his cronies never will. This video surfaced yesterday over at the greatly improved, dare TB say it, independent

LabourList:

Well one thing is for sure, the grassroots are a damn sight more effective at conveying their message than Gordon Brown. The video was apparently knocked together in less than 24 hours with activists hitting the Blackberries and emailing their footage to

Stuart MacLennan

and

Blackburn Labour

bloggers. The music choice is inspired and, if anything, the bad sound quality adds to the true amateur grassroots feel to the whole thing.

Let's have a look at some of those who featured:

(Top left to right) Good to see one of TB's favourite Labour drinking buddies Ross Macrae, big on the Edinburgh student politics scene. Wouldn't like to stand against him. Next up Julie Milligan a North West activist. Dean Carlin the Chairman of Labour Students Scotland, quite what an ultra-Brown loyalist feels about the underlying message of the video remains to be seen. Ken Macintosh MSP, Jack Straw and Jim Murphy better look out for flying Nokias coming their way in the next few days.

(Bottom left to right) Stuart MacLennan, one of the creators of the video, followed by some token window dressing, followed by a mad lady with some warped ideas that Labour can stop the BNP (despite the fact it's the Labour vote bleeding to the BNP huh?) Next its Alex Smith the new editor of LabourList, and last but not least it's Laurence Durnan from Blackburn Labour.

Finally, and possibly the most impressive thing about the video was the fact they managed to get Michael Foot's evil twin Brian to appear:

TB despises their politics, and no doubt Peter Oborne would have a screw-the-political-classes-field day with this post, but credit where credit is due. It's a great idea and goes strongly against the current controlling Labour machine. It is purely grassroots driven and damn sight better than anything Gordon has Youtubed, despite the massive budget he has. Maybe those with the right ideas to take our country forward should get our own version going.

We want change because...

Brown personally dragged further into expenses mess...

The Telegraph

keeps the pressure on our friend from the north for Saturday:

"A detailed analysis of Mr Brown's expense claims also reveals that the Prime Minister claimed £30 on his office expenses for the cost of hiring a bagpiper to play at a ceremony for veterans.

...

Mr Brown flipped the designation of his second home from London to Scotland 10 days after Tony Blair announced he would be stepping down.
It meant he was able to carry on claiming a second home allowance after he moved into Downing Street."

Insert tight Scot joke here.

Has it come to this?

This is Lord Toby Jug.

On Thursday

he beat

the Labour candidate in St Ives.

"It is a Loony landslide. Democratic Loonyism has arrived in St Ives," he said despite not winning.

Glorious.

Glory Glory Tory Party

What a day. The map says it all. Britain is sick to the back teeth of this broken and bankrupt government and has spoken. They don't want Labour and they don't want the Lib Dems (except in Bristol, but they are all a bit odd there.) Just when it looked like Gordon was going to get away with it, another resignation throws the whole thing into turmoil once again. He may have bought a stay of execution, but, the noose is very much around his neck still. The euro results on Sunday night could make Monday evening's meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party one heck of a blood bath.

Thank you to the thousands of you who have popped by in the last few days and the hundreds who have taken part in the live chats. TB will be taking part in the Conservative Future election night coverage, so do come along to that! (See ad below.)

What a great day for the Conservative Party - we have wiped out Labour in the counties. The top two stories on the BBC website are calling for Brown to go and reporting the stunning electoral success of the Conservatives. Many a Tory have waited many years to see such an image. A special congratulations to Conservative Future Student Life big wig Paul "Bells" Wells, a long time friend of the bear and drinking legend who took the Tories from third place to win his ward and become the first Conservative councillor in Norwich South in nearly a generation.

On that note TB feels it would only be appropriate on an evening such as this to get hooned, for want of a better phrase.

From the Number10 website:

The Queen is pleased to approve the following Ministerial appointments:

List

The Queen has accepted the following resignations:

Cabinet resignations

The Rt Hon Hazel Blears MP
The Rt Hon Geoff Hoon MP
The Rt Hon John Hutton MP
The Rt Hon Paul Murphy MP
The Rt Hon James Purnell MP
The Rt Hon Jacqui Smith MP

Other resignations

The Rt Hon Tony McNulty MP
The Rt Hon Margaret Beckett MP
The Rt Hon Beverley Hughes MP

There is only one resignation that the Queen should be happy to see.