The purpose of morality is to teach you, not to suffer and die,
but to enjoy yourself and live.

Via ConservativeHome:

Via Cranmer: Conservatives launch Debt Clock:

What you could buy with the interest on Labour’s debt:

If Britain was not going to spend £63.7 billion a year on debt interest, we could:

Abolish fuel duty, inheritance tax, and stamp duty or

Abolish council tax or

Pay for 1.5 million extra police officers or

Pay for 1.6 million extra teachers or

Pay for 1.9 million extra nurses or

Cut the basic rate of income tax by over 13p.

Britain will spend more next year on paying the interest on Labour’s debt than on educating our schoolchildren. The Dedicated Schools Grant in 2010-11 will be £31.9 billion. Debt interest payments will be £42.9 billion in 2010-11, and are estimated to rise to £63.7 billion by 2013-4.

And so on…

Foreign Secretary Milliband disgraces himself with propaganda worthy of the old Marxists:

The foreign secretary, David Miliband, today made a politically sensitive attack on the Tories, saying the Conservative party’s new alliances in Europe made him feel “sick”, and meant that the party was run by “a bunch of schoolboys”.

Much of Miliband’s annual speech to the Labour conference was devoted to a critique of the Tories’ foreign policy and, in particular, their new relationships being forged in Europe. Miliband told delegates that the Tories were now in alliance in the European parliament with the For Fatherland and Freedom party, a Latvian party that participates in an annual event commemorating the Latvian Waffen SS.

via Tory ties with EU extremists are sickening, says David Miliband |Politics |The Guardian.

However:

William Hague has described smears made by David Miliband in his speech to the Labour Party Conference as “disgraceful”.

Miliband’s speech included insults towards the Latvian Government, accusations of anti-Semitism against Polish politician Michal Kaminski and allegations against Eric Pickles.

William said that Mr. Miliband’s remarks were “cheap party spin” and “represent a failure of his duty to promote Britain’s interests”.

“This kind of shoddy politics should be beneath a Foreign Secretary”, William added.

via The Conservative Party | News | News | William Hague responds to Miliband’s “disgraceful” smears .

These dreadful new left politicos can’t be ejected too soon.

Fleeced!

Via the Taxpayers’ Alliance:

On Monday, Matthew Elliott and David Craig released their new book Fleeced! How we’ve been betrayed by the politicians, bureaucrats and bankers… and how much they’ve cost us, published by Constable. Fleeced! is the very first book to analyse the financial, fiscal and political crisis resulting from a decade spent under the stewardship of Gordon Brown and is a devastating indictment of Brown’s time as Chancellor and Prime Minister. The authors, who were the first to reveal the shocking truth about Brown’s overspending since 1997 in their previous books, show that in 12 years of New Labour around £1.5 trillion of taxpayers’ money has been squandered on an acceleration in profligate government spending fuelled by the economic boom; and around another £1.5 trillion has evaporated in the bust.

Fleeced! was given a big preview in the Daily Mail who summarised the key chapters, explaining how the authors arrived at the eye-watering total of £3 trillion for Gordon Brown’s mishandling of the economy. The release of Fleeced! and Brown’s £3 trillion con were also reported in:

The Sun, Labour blunders cost taxpayers £3 trillion

Daily Express, Brown the bungler has cost every person in Britain £50,000

Daily Mail, Brown’s mishandling of the economy has cost £50,000 for every person in Britain, according to new book

Daily Star, Bungler Brown has bled Britain dry

Daily Telegraph, Gordon Brown ‘wasted three trillion’

The Guardian, Comment Is Free: I see no wisdom, Mandelson

This is Money, Brown ‘cost us £50,000 each’ in tax

Press Association, ‘Brown cost taxpayers £3 trillion’

Matthew Elliott was interviewed on Sky Sunrise on Monday morning and on John Gaunt’s Suntalk radio show on Tuesday.

Fleeced! RRP £8.99, is now available in all good bookshops and on Amazon here

Few could forget the images of the Green Goddesses rolling into service during the national fire strikes of 2002 and 2003, manned by the Armed Forces. This week the threat of fire strikes hang over us again as a result of local industrial disputes spanning London, South Yorkshire, Humberside, Merseyside and Essex.

The prospect of being without our firefighters is very worrying indeed, but all the more so because of the reckless way in which the Government has left us without and emergency fire cover for this critical period – despite knowing for some time the threat of industrial action was looming.

The Green Goddesses have been sold off and government policy now excludes the possibility of the military stepping in to cover during fire strikes.

via ConservativeHome’s Platform: Caroline Spelman MP: The Labour Government has shamefully neglected its duty to defend the realm by leaving the country dangerously exposed if firefighters go out on strike.

There has been a spate of books recently on liberty and democracy. On my desk as I write there are half a dozen published within the past few months with titles such as What Price Liberty?; The Assault on Liberty; Democracy: a Thousand Years in Pursuit of British Liberty; and A Useful Fiction: Adventures in British Democracy. Their publication is a timely reminder of how we got where we are and evidence that cracks were appearing in our political system long before the expenses scandal that has engulfed Westminster.

via The rot that set in as New Labour took root – Telegraph.

When I read the following, I think of all those individuals and families in modestly- and low-paid jobs, who still pay tax, and I get really quite angry. Perhaps it is due to my ordinary upbringing and my personal knowledge of family and family friends who are not well-off, but who are apparently still funding this:

Lynne Jones, the far-Left Labour MP, billed the taxpayer more than £1,100 for upmarket Farrow & Ball wallpaper as part of a redecoration programme at her second home in London.

Miss Jones, a leading member of the Socialist Campaign Group founded by supporters of Tony Benn, gave her Lambeth flat a £22,000 facelift which also included £6,100 for a new bathroom, £600 for Persian rugs and £518 for an LCD television.

Almost £7,000 of claims for painting and decorating, furnishings and a new boiler were paid out after the date in 2007 when Miss Jones announced her intention to stand down as MP for Birmingham Selly Oak at the next general election.

via MPs’ expenses: Lynne Jones claimed £1,000 for wallpaper – Telegraph.

We have all had enough. It is time for immediate reform, fresh candidates, a general election and yet more reform, pushed by a new team who feel the burning indignation of the public.

In the meantime, I’m off to do some work for the Centre for Social Justice. I need to remind myself why we must press on and fix not just the expenses system but society itself.

William Hague once promised that New Labour would first be greeted with fascination, then admiration, then disillusionment and finally contempt.

Speaking to Tory candidates in Cheltenham (right) he made the strongest and most negative attack on Labour of the Cameron era.

via ConservativeHome’s ToryDiary: Hague throws rhetorical kitchen sink at the “decomposing political muckheap” that is Labour’s frontbench.

George Osborne reacts to today’s budget:

Including a neat summary of the latest dramas:

Alistair Darling has claimed thousands of pounds in expenses on his family home while renting out his privately owned London flat and living in a grace-and-favour apartment in Downing Street, it was reported last night.

The Chancellor has on a number of occasions swapped the title of main home between his house in Edinburgh and his flat in London, reportedly enabling him to claim expenses for both dwellings while also earning rent from his South London flat.

Mr Darling joins Jacqui Smith and Geoff Hoon as the latest senior members of the Cabinet to have their expenses put under scrutiny.

via Now Chancellor Alistair Darling under fire for expenses – Times Online .

When military officers serve unaccompanied in a consistent location, they take a room in the officers’ mess, which provides a modest room plus shared dining, lounge and bar facilities. I wonder if such an arrangement could work cost-effectively for our MPs…