Woof Woof

A friend of mine sent me this picture of a new dog parlour in Ochsenfurt, Germany.

A shame the proprietor wasn't a better student of colloquial English, eh?

Top 100 Conservative Blogs

Today Total Politics announces the Top 100 Conservative blogs.

Here's the Top 20 but click HERE for the full list of 100.

1 (1) Iain Dale
2 (2) Conservative Home
3 (4) Daniel Hannan MEP
4 (3) Dizzy Thinks
5 (7) John Redwood MP
6 Norman Tebbit
7 (5) Tory Bear
8 (8) Douglas Carswell MP
9 (16) Working Class Tory
10 (10) Burning our Money
11 (6) Archbishop Cranmer
12 (12) Mr Eugenides
13 (15) Tory Radio
14 Bryantpedia
15 Armchair Politics
16 (17) Raedwald
17 (21) Paul Scully
18 (20) Richard Willis
19 Byrne Tofferings
20 (25) A Pint of Unionist Lite
21 (27) Steve Tierney
22 (35) Roger Helmer MEP
23 Jerry Hayes
24 (26) Cardiff Blogger
25 (63) Platform 10
26 Walaa Idris
27 (54) Oberon Houston
28 Sean Haffey
29 (51) Iain Lindley
30 (55) Tory Outcast
31 Lord Belmont in Northern Ireland
32 Thoughts of a Progressive
33 (39) James Cleverly AM
34 (29) Tory Rascal
35 (41) Neil Reddin
36 (37) Glyn Davies MP
37 (18) A Very British Dude
38 (68) City Hall (Roger Evans AM)
39 (44) Prodicus
40 (50) Steve Barclay MP
41 Dilletante
42 Adlib at You Never Can Tell
43 Mark Reckless MP
44 (53) Man in a Shed
45 Guy the Mac
46 (36) Fugitive Ink
47 Direct Democracy UK
48 (30) Chiswickite (Formerly Croydonian)
49 James Cousins
50 (60) Lightwater
51 Nanny Knows Best
52 (23) Unenlightened Commentary
53 (93) Alan W Collins
54 Blighty Andy
55 One Nation Tory
56 The Norton View
57 (28) Boris Johnson
58 Propa Politics
59 (88) Ellee Seymour
60 (43) Dylan Jones-Evans
61 (22) Tim Roll-Pickering
62 Reason & Madness
63 Tory Aardvark
64 Richard Normington
65 Spinwatch
66 (52) John Ward
67 (77) Tales from a Draughty Old Fen
68 (19) TrueBlueBlood
69 (46) Blue Blog
70 Disraeli Room
71 True Blue Tory Boy
72 (80) UCL Conservatives
73 Laura-Rose Saunders
74 Your Coleridge Conservative Action Team
75 Nick Webb
76 (81) Rene Kinzett
77 Blue Guerilla
78 Shane Greer
79 David Torrance
80 (56) Angels in Marble
81 (98) Tracey Crouch MP
82 Charles Barwell
83 (34) Matt Wardman
84 (73) Andrew Allison
85 Robert Halfon MP
86 England Left Forward
87 (71) Terrible Tory Girl
88 (89) A Conservative's Blog
89 Conservative History Journal
90 Contra Tory
91 (91) Jeremy Hunt MP
92 Prague Tory
93 (57) Tory Totty
94 (66) Posh Tory
95 Nigel Hastilow
96 (31) David Jones MP
97 (47) Dave Luckett
98 (48) Ewan Watt
99 (33) House of Dumb
100 (32) Mike Rouse


If your blog is one of the ones featured above, please feel free to put the following button in your sidebar and link it through to this post:

This list is the result of more than 2,200 people who voted in the Total Politics Annual Blog Poll during the second half of July.

Click on the blog to visit it.

All these lists, together with articles from leading blog commentators, will be published in the TOTAL POLITICS GUIDE TO POLITICAL BLOGGING, in association with APCO Worldwide. It will be published in October at £14.99. You can pre-order your copy HERE.

COMING NEXT: Top 60 Media Blogs

Ian Cameron Passes Away

It's just been announced that David Cameron's father Ian has just died, a short time after the PM arrived at his hospital bedside in France, having suffered a stroke earlier today. I so hope he knew that his son was there.

I think for those of us who are a similar age to David Cameron it's the thing we most dread in our lives - the passing of a parent. As I type this my eyes are moist just thinking how he, his mother, brother and sister will be feeling.

Whatever our views, whatever our politics, I hope we can all be united in thinking of the Cameron family this afternoon.

UPDATE: A commenter reports... "PA reports that Nicolas Sarkozy personally approved a helicopter to take DC to the hospital, without which, he may not have been there to say goodbye to his father. Say what you like about our French neighbours but when it comes down to it, they're a pretty civilized bunch. I'm sure the PM appreciated the gesture enormously."

Guest Post: Raising Money for a Rwandan Health Centre

In 2007 I visited Rwanda with the Conservative Party social action team. Each year since then they have returned to continue their work. Dr Sharon Mitchell has been back each year to work for two weeks in a Rwandan Health Centre. I've seen the work she does there for myself and it is humbling. Sharon is the wife of International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell, whose idea these visits were. I hope you will read her post and donate a feew points to a very good cause.

Dr Sharon Mitchell writes...

As you may know, over the last 3 years as part of my sabbatical I have spent some months working as a doctor in Rwanda and Uganda. In fact I have just returned from my fourth visit to the Kirambi Health Centre in Rwanda where I now have very strong ties with the people.

During my time at Kirambi I have seen almost a thousand patients, who previously had never had access to a doctor as the health centre is staffed solely by nurses. I have used these consultations as a way of helping the nurses to improve their care of patients. We have helped the nurses develop professionally in other ways as well, such as weekly in-house teaching sessions and provision of a reference library.

My visit this year has been very exciting. The focus this year was on setting up Family Planning services. With a view to this we organised training for the Government funded nurses on how to deliver modern contraceptive methods. We ran workshops in collaboration with the community social workers with post-natal and ante-natal women. We have also furnished and decorated the new family planning clinic. This is the first time many of the women of Kirambi have had access to any contraception methods.

Kirambi Health Centre is run by the Medical Missionaries of Mary and cares for a population of 10,000 people. Many of whom are very poor, often surviving on less than 25p a day. Average life expectancy in Rwanda is only 46 years. Malaria is rife and 45 % of children are malnourished. Contraception is available to only 27% of women. Locally there is no electricity, no running water and no public transport, whilst the nearest hospital is a four hour walk away.

The centre has twenty staff (12 nurses, 8 community workers). Despite the limited number of staff they run primary care, HIV, TB, antenatal and malnutrition clinics. There are in-patient beds for very sick patients and a maternity ward, which plays a vital role in providing safer deliveries for women. Many of whom would otherwise be forced to deliver at home far away from help. The centre also runs farming, public health and water sanitation projects for the community.

I have been so inspired by all the hard work that is done at Kirambi. The team there never fail to amaze me. What they achieve from day to day with minimal resources is quite astonishing. With so few doctors in Rwanda, these nurses provide essential medical care to their communities.

The centre would like to expand their services and set up a Health Outpost Satellite, three hours walk away in Cyahafi. This will allow them to reach more people through outreach immunisation, HIV, TB and antenatal clinics. They will combine this with health education and promotion for the local population on issues such as nutrition, disease prevention and hygiene. There will also be classes on community building skills in order to help local communities become more empowered and self-sufficient.

The MMM have put together a business plan and have enough funding to cover staffing and transportation costs for the proposed Health Outpost. They already own a suitable plot of land but they do not have a building! The building will cost £8728. It will have a class room, two consultation rooms and two pit latrines. So with quite modest additional funds this project, which will make a huge difference to local people, can be put into action very quickly.

Now this is where you come in - I and two other friends are going to do the Coast to Coast walk in September. We hope you might consider sponsoring us? This is a 190 mile walk over 12 days from St Bees to Robin Hood’s Bay.

I know how generous you are and understand if you have to donate to your hard earned money elsewhere. However I know if you can make a contribution that 100% of your money will be spent on the project and if we are lucky enough to rise more than our target we have many other worthwhile projects at the Centre.

If you feel you can help in this project please go to the just giving website and search on c2c4kirambi or you can send me a cheque made out to the Medical Missionaries of Mary c/o Andrew Mitchell MP, House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA

Thank you for taking the time to read about our small but life transforming project.

You can donate HERE.

Have You Ever Seen a Blogger on a Bike

I just took my first ride on a Boris Bike from Embankment Gardens to Vincent Square. I'm hooked already. And no, I didn't fall off, I obeyed red lights and managed to frighten a Tory MP as I shouted at him near Parliament Square.

And you never thought you'd see this particular blogger on a bike, did you?

Top 100 Labour Blogs

Today Total Politics announces the Top 100 Labour blogs. To view the full list click HERE. But here is the Top 20...

Here's the full list:

1 (3) Labour List
2 (1) Tom Harris MP
3 (2) Hopi Sen
4 (6) Next Left
5 (4) Alastair Campbell
6 Political Scrapbook
7 (5) Luke Akehurst
8 Labour Uncut
9 (14) Penny Red
10 Hadleigh Roberts
11 Socialist Unity
12 (31) Anthony Painter
13 (11) Tom Watson MP
14 (80) Mary Honeyball MEP
15 (12) LabourHome
16 (19) Harpymarx
17 (8) Blackburn Labour
18 (9) Kerry McCarthy MP
19 (24) Bob Piper
20 From One End of Kent


If your blog is one of the ones featured above, please feel free to put the following button in your sidebar and link it through to this post:

This list is the result of more than 2,200 people who voted in the Total Politics Annual Blog Poll during the second half of July.

Click on the blog to visit it.

All these lists, together with articles from leading blog commentators, will be published in the TOTAL POLITICS GUIDE TO POLITICAL BLOGGING, in association with APCO Worldwide. It will be published in October at £14.99. You can pre-order your copy HERE.

COMING NEXT: Top 100 Conservative Blogs

Queer Blue Water?

Next autumn, Biteback will be publishing book which will tell the history of homosexuality in the Conservative Party, telling how the party has struggled to come to terms with the issue. This is what the blurb says...

An authoritative but accessible account of the Conservative Party’s attitude towards homosexual law reform and gay rights, from the 1950s to the present day.

The book will draw upon extensive primary research and numerous exclusive interviews to chart the party’s progress from an unwillingness to decriminalise homosexuality, via Section 28 in the 1980s, to the current Liberal-Conservative Government, which has produced the first comprehensive statement on equal rights in British history. This will all be presented in the context of contemporary social and political developments. The book will be accompanied by a short documentary, which will tell the same story in a very different and complementary way.

The reason I am telling you this now is twofold. The author, Michael McManus, would like to talk to any of my readers who have a story to tell, or relevant views on the whole issue. If you'd like to get in touch with Michael, email me and I will pass on your details. Michael is a hugely accomplished author, having written a superb biography of Jo Grimond and assisted Ted Heath with his autobiography.

The second reason for posting this is that we're not sure about the title and wondered if any of you can think of anything better. I may have opened an unfortunate well by asking that, but if you have any (decent!) suggestions, please leave them in the comments. Personally, I liked Queer Blue Water, but that was felt by my colleagues to be a bit too risque!

Extradition Treaties to be Reviewed

I am delighted that Theresa May has announced a review of extradition arrangements with other countries, including the USA. It has long been felt that certain aspectss of our extradition treaties disadvantage UK citizens, as the Gary McKinnon case demonstrates so clearly. Labour negotiated a treaty with the US - if 'negotiated was the right word - which gave the US extradition rights over UK citizens not available to the UK government. Quite how and why they did that one can only guess.

Theresa May really is doing very well in her job as Home Secretary. I'd say she is one of the coalition's top five performers so far, and as readers know, I have in the past been quite critical of her.

Top 75 Liberal Democrat Blogs

Today Total Politics announces the top 75 Lib Dem blogs.

Click HERE to read the full list. Here's the Top 20

1 (2) LibDem Voice
2 (5) Mark Reckons
3 (7) Caron's Musings
4 (6) Liberal Vision
5 (36) Mark Pack
6 (8) Liberal England
7 (11) Stephen's Liberal Journal
8 (12) Jennie Rigg
9 (22) Always Win When You're Singing
10 (19) Andrew Reeves
11 (13) Cicero's Songs
12 Bureau of Sabotage
13 (10) Quaequam Blog
14 (15) Lynne Featherstone MP
15 (14) Millennium Dome Elephant
16 (60) A Lanson Boy
17 (17) Peter Black AM
18 (31) Fraser Macpherson
19 Men in Suits
20 (56) Max Atkinson

If your blog is one of the ones featured above, please feel free to put the following button in your sidebar and link it through to this post:

This list is the result of more than 2,200 people who voted in the Total Politics Annual Blog Poll during the second half of July.

Click on the blog to visit it.

All these lists, together with articles from leading blog commentators, will be published in the TOTAL POLITICS GUIDE TO POLITICAL BLOGGING, in association with APCO Worldwide. It will be published in October at £14.99. You can pre-order your copy HERE.

COMING NEXT: Top 100 Labour Blogs

Blair Wimps Out of Book Signing

Sky are reporting that Tony Blair has pulled out of his London book signing for security reasons and on the grounds of the expense the Police will incur.

Chicken.

What does it say about him that he can't even sign books without people wanting to berate him? It never happened to Margaret Thatcher... She would happily chat with bookbuyers and pose for photos.

Or perhaps I am being unfair.

It may be that we now live in a more hostile age, where people are less deferential and don't hesitate to have a go at ex-politicians in quite an aggressive way, even years after they have left office.

Coulson: Am I Being Machiavellian?

I am sure he will be surprised to find me linking to a blog which essentially is critical of me, but I found Paul Sagar's article on my reaction to the Bad Conscience blog a fascinating read. Read it for yourself HERE.

Essentially he says my reaction fits in entirely with Machiavellian thought! Here's an extract...

Iain Dale is currently illustrating a fundamental dynamic of politics, and
helpfully demonstrating a valuable Machiavellian insight.

Dale has written what can only be described, at least from an anti-Tory perspective, as a desperate blog attempting to defend Andy Coulson. The argument (such as there is one) runs: Coulson is good at his job now; allegations against him relate to his
former job which he has already resigned from; accessing people’s voicemail
without their knowledge is not hacking; John Prescott and Alastair Campbell were
terrible media manipulators and are thus hypocrites to attack Coulson.

There’s several dozes things wrong with this, and I don’t need to spell
them out. So just the most obvious will do: if Coulson is implicated to the
extent the New York Times alleges, then he oversaw systematic criminal activity.
If so, Coulson is not suitable for a role coordinating the Conservative Party’s
relations with the media, and with access to the Prime Minister’s ear.

But I reckon Iain Dale knows all this, because he isn’t stupid. I’ve seen him debate and he is sharp and very quick off the mark. So what’s going on?

Quite simply, Dale is doing what is required of the high-placed party animal: fighting for his pack.

Regardless of the rights and wrongs of the situation, Dale is prepared to ignore the truth and go so far as to apologies for what may be criminal, and is certainly immoral...

...For Dale is being manifestly Machiavellian. And I use that term technically, in line with the great Florentine himself. Namely, that Dale is prepared to defend immorality and the possibly criminal in the service of his primary political aim: promoting and defending the Tory party, insofar as he sees this as necessary for achieving his fundamental political goal of a strong Conservative government

To those outside of Dale’s party this appears abhorrent. Non-Conservatives hold the relevant standards of morality and non-criminality above the career of Andy Coulson or the reputation of the Tory Party. But to Tory loyalists, what matters most right now is the perceived higher political value of defending the party. Hence obfuscation and defence of the indefensible are not only permitted – they are required.

And within the realm of politics, in a certain sense there’s simply nothing wrong with this. Because it’s just what politics is about: the visceral defence and promotion of your tribe, sometimes by accepting dubious means, to promote what you believe is a higher good.

Now, I can see why he thinks this, because he's right, political parties are tribes and when one of our own is in trouble there is a definite tendency to circle the wagons. And maybe there is a subconcious part of me that is doing just that. But that is certainly not my primary motivation in defending Andy Coulson from the left wing vultures that are determined to pick over his carcass.

But where Paul is wrong is that I would never, ever defend anyone - no matter how strong the tribal loyalty is - if I thought they were guilty of a criminal act. I suppose there is a bit of a devil in me in that I have a track record of sticking up for people who hit on hard times politically - Neil Hamilton over Fayed and both Hamiltons over the Ilford rape case, immediately come to mind. It wasn't a popular thing to do at the time, and many of my friends told me I shouldn't have gone public. But in the end, if you believe someone is being traduced unfairly, and you don't speak out, what sort of person are you?

So although I may not like some of the things Paul Sagar has written, or indeed what his blogreaders say in the comments, I'd point to his blogpost as an example of top quality blogging.

The Anti-AV Campaign Must Be Positive

Today sees the first stage in the parliamentary battle over AV. Labour is cynically going to vote against the bill even though the measure was in its manifesto. Their reasoning is that they will vote against because the bill also contains measures to make constituencies more equal in size - as if any rational person could think that is a bad thing.

I too am against AV, yet I would have no problem in voting this bill through. Why? Because it was in the coalition agreement. Simple as that. But that's as far as my support would go. Once it is passed it's then open season, and those of us who wish to defend the status quo mustn't be defensive about putting forward our arguments. But rather than just attack AV, we should explain why FPTP works and why we should continue with it for Westminster elections.

And let's not pretend the political roof will come crashing down over our heads if AV is adopted. We all know that it's actually a tepid sort of FPTP-lite - i.e the least worst alternative to FPTP.

One thing, though, is that I think serious consideration should be given to a threshhold level in any referendum. I suggest this should be based on turnout rather than set an artificially high level for a Yes vote. Say, for example, only 20 per cent actually bother to vote, and only 51 per cent of those vote Yes. You'd have to question whether 10 per cent of the whole electorate voting Yes constitutes a real mandate for an important constitutional change, wouldn't you?

Podcast: 7 Days Show: Episode 39

The latest edition of the Seven Days Show is now online.

We discuss William Hague; Andy Coulson and phone tapping; Tony Blair and his book; Ed Balls and the Labour leadership campaign; and why would anyone defect to Labour from the Conservatives over cuts?

To listen to the podcast click HERE, or you can also subscribe to the show in the Tory Radio section in the podcast area of Itunes.

Tony Blair, Emotion & Politics

Charles Crawford, who was our ambassador in Sarajevo in the 1990s has written an absolutely fascinating account of a visit by Tony Blair to the Balkans in 1998. He catalogues how his spinmeisters took control of the visit and how Blair himself was curiously detached from the whole thing. He also reveals that Robin Cook had scuppered Blairs plans to make Michael Portillo the High Representative in Bosnia after the departure of Carl Bildt. As I say, fascinating stuff.

Read the blogpost HERE.

When Lawyers Bring Themselves Into Disrepute

There's an astonishing story in the Mail on Sunday today about Cherie Blair and Peter Mandelson. Mandelson quotes a private note from her which she kindly sent him after his first resignation. In the note the makes critical comments of Gordon Brown.

She has now instructed lawyers who have written to Mandelson's publishers, HarperCollins, and demanded that the passage be taken out of the book and the note returned to her.

This sort of thing is becoming increasingly common, with publishers continually receiving veiled threats, which the lawyers must no have no basis in law. My company, Biteback, stood up to the threats of Wayne Rooney and his lawyers when we published a biography of him, Rooney's Gold, by John Sweeney. I can't say it didn't give me the odd uncomfortable moment, but in the end, if publishers give in to this sort of legal blackmail we might as well all give up.

So I hope Peter Mandelson and his lawyers will tell Cherie Blair's lawyers exactly what they can do with their letter, for which, by the way, her lawyers are charging £800 plus VAT. And they also have the cheek to demand those "costs" from HarperCollins.

They bring their own profession into disrepute.

How Does PC World Stay in Business?

There's a reason I hate going to PC World, and yet like a dog returning to its sick, I continue to do so. Today's visit illustrates why I reckon its the chain store with the worst customer service in Britain. It's staffed by acne-ridden, monosyllabic teenagers with barely a GCSE between them, few of whom know anything about the products they are supposed to be flogging. And its computer system seems to hail from the time of Noah's Arc. It makes BBC Basic look state of the art.

Anyway, why did I end up there today? Because Olly Grender, bless her heart, finally persuaded me to buy an iPad after she showed me all the things she did on hers. She has a lot to answer for. So, I've decided to go over to the dark side. I started to order one online from the Apple Store, but then thought, bugger it, I want one and I want it now, so off I trolled down to PC World in Tunbridge Wells. Normally when I try to buy anything from there, there's some sort of problem. Usually they haven't got what I want in stock, but today I thought I had struck lucky, as yes, they had a 65GB 3G iPad in stock and also a Vodafone SIM to go with it. Excellent, I thought.

Then their computer system seized up. Five minutes later the assistant started asking me my marital status. I never quite know how to answer that one. They don't have a box for 'civil partnered'. So I said 'married'. He then asked how many credit cards I had. Er, none of your business, I said. In any case, I haven't a clue. Why do you need to know that, I asked. I should have known the answer. The computer says so, said the nerd-geek. He then told me all the other personal info they would require. This was all to set up a direct debit for Vodafone, nothing to do with PC World! I have never had to give any of that sort of info to Vodafone, so I am damned if I am going to give it to PC World, supposedly on their behalf.

I told them exactly where they could shove their iPad and have just come home and ordered it via the Apple Store. Which of course I should have done in the first place. Lesson learned.

How does PC World manage to stay in business? Because I am buggered if I know.

Coulson's Accusers Can Go to Hell

Andy Coulson is bloody good at his job. That's why the likes of The Guardian, Alastair Campbell, Prescott and Johnson are doing their best to jump on the back of the New York Times story about an ex News of the World journalist who was sacked by the paper for persistent drug and alcohol problems. You don't think he might have a grudge, do you?

They all want Coulson's scalp. Well, sod 'em.

The Police investigated this and found that Coulson had nothing to answer for. So did the DCMS Select Committee. Clearly that's not good enough for Campbell and Prescott - those very models of good media practice and personal conduct.

Coulson took responsibility for the episode at the time and resigned. What do they want him to do - resign a second time from a job which has nothing to do his previous incarnation?

Dizzy's take is interesting HERE. And he takes to task those who refer to hacking and tapping without really knowing what they are talking about...

* Calling someone's mobile, waiting for it to go to voicemail and then entering
their four digit pin (0000) is not hacking. Hacking is about circumventing
security, not being presented with them and passing them.

** Calling someone's mobile, waiting for it to go to voicemail and then entering their four digit pin (0000) is not tapping. Tapping is the covert act of real-time
interception of active communication links.

I quote Dizzy not to condone the practice but to point out things might not quite always be as they seem.

Whatever people thought of Andy Coulson's appointment back in 2006, over the last four years he has proved himself in the job. He's bloody good at it. His accusers are political opportunists who were part of a government which did far worse things than anything Coulson is accused of.
As far as I am concerned they can go to hell. Coulson is innocent until proven guilty.

Top 30 MP Blogs

Today Total Politics announces the top 30 MP blogs. You can view the full list HERE, but here are the Top Ten...

Here's the full list:

1 (1) Tom Harris MP
2 (2) John Redwood MP
3 (3) Douglas Carswell MP
4 (6) Tom Watson MP
5 (5) Kerry McCarthy MP
6 (8) Lynne Featherstone MP
7 Glyn Davies MP
8 Steve Barclay MP
9 (26) Andrew Gwynne MP
10 John Leech MP

If your blog is one of the ones featured above, please feel free to put the following button in your sidebar and link it through to this post:

This list is the result of more than 2,200 people who voted in the Total Politics Annual Blog Poll during the second half of July.

Click on the blog to visit it.

All these lists, together with articles from leading blog commentators, will be published in the TOTAL POLITICS GUIDE TO POLITICAL BLOGGING, in association with APCO Worldwide. It will be published in October at £14.99. You can pre-order your copy HERE.

COMING NEXT: Top 75 Lib Dem blogs