Would Community Right-to-Buy Help These People?

Royal Park Primary School in Hyde Park was closed in 2004. Local residents recently moved in without council permission to try and stop its condition deteriorating. There is an eviction hearing on 23rd November.

The Conservatives have just announced a Community Right-to-Buy policy. Details are a bit sketchy, but is this the kind of proposal that would help these people?

Could the people in this video be persuaded to vote Conservative?

Britishness: We're Still No Closer To A Definition

It seems everybody is expected to have an opinion on the X Factor these days which is a problem for me because I never watch it. I was wondering whether the Queen's Speech would have a proposal for new legislation to make it illegal to not have an opinion about the X Factor.

As revenge for having to put up with all that X Factor stuff here's an ace pop video. Posting pop videos on blogs is lazy and self-indulgent but there is a reason for this one. Somebody has written this in the comments on YouTube:

i put this in my "Doesn't it just make you proud to be British?" playlist!
sais it all!
RULE BRITANNIA!

There is something terribly British about this track which is difficult to pin down. It just goes to prove the "Britishness" isn't about flags or national holidays.

Rachel Reeves Starting To Sound Like Margaret Thatcher

Just looking at this statement from Labour's Leeds West candidate Rachel Reeves:

...we must ensure that we get back to balanced budgets again to support growth and prosperity in the future.

and I though it looked a bit familiar. Oh yes, here it is:

My policies are based not on some economics theory, but on things I and millions like me were brought up with: an honest day's work for an honest day's pay; live within your means; put by a nest egg for a rainy day; pay your bills on time; support the police.

Just such a shame that her boss isn't listening to her. He's still proposing unaffordable and unworkable schemes.

The Betrayal Of Savers

The Daily Mail rightly led this morning with the fact that, following the recent rise in inflation, many high street savings accounts are now losing money. Cameron has pledged to build a savings culture in Britain but I fear that this could take at least a generation. The ultimate goal of socialism is to make everybody dependent on the state and sadly they seem to be winning at the moment. People who try to save and be self-sufficient just end up throwing their hands in the air and saying "why bother? I'm better off just depending on the government."

In August the Mail also quite rightly singled out the Nationwide for particular criticism. The fall from grace of this building society has been spectacular. For years, the interest rate on its instant cash ISA was consistently one of the best. Now it is one of the worst, paying 0.25 per cent at the time of writing. That's even worse than the paltry one per cent paid by taxpayer owned Lloyds.

Our high street banks used to be bastions of stability and good sense. In the days before Lloyds succombed to Marxist political correctness by sponsoring gay marches it used to be so confident of its old fashioned conservatism that it actually used to poke fun at itself. Here is a TV commercial from 1986. Perhaps we can go back to stability and good sense sometime soon.

Media Impartiality

Some people are saying that the next General Election will be the dirtiest ever. I think it will be the first election where the media becomes part of the battleground. The media simply cannot sit back and pretend that it's a neutral observer anymore.

Media impartiality is a myth. News in particular always has an agenda, even if it's an unconscious one. People even write academic papers about it.

Controlling the media message is a classic warning sign of totalitarianism. People have to be "reprogrammed" to accept socialism and the media is a major tool. The most worrying aspect recently is the politicisation of the National Union of Journalists. Broadcaster Jon Snow resigned last year in protest saying:

I did not like being told what to think by my union...I am completely outraged that the union that I joined, and remain a member of to protect and work for the interest of journalists, should take such a high-horse position on a private issue for countries and individuals themselves.

Jeremy Hunt's comments on the BBC have seen a robust response from the NUJ's general secretary in an unashamedly partisan piece at Tribune. A group called NUJLeft, which was formed by three socialist factions, makes no secret of its political agenda and is trying to get its members into key positions in the union. On top of that falling revenue is threatening the existence of newspapers in particular and the Conservatives seem to be getting all the blame for this despite not being in power for 12 years.

I don't personally want to see the BBC stripped down and I'm not even a big fan of Rupert Murdoch. Media concentration and monopoly are an issue which would have to be controlled by regulation. The problem is that the once high minded and noble concept of "impartiality" is being abused by individuals and groups with covert and overt agendas. It is insulting to the public at large to keep up the pretence that the media is impartial. The only sensible option is to scrap impartiality rules.

The problem in the short run is how can the Conservatives and people who advocate conservative values - often deliberately referred to derogatively as "right wing" - get a fair hearing in the run up to the election?

Quote Of The Week

You can’t point a loaded weapon at these people. That’s an act of aggression.

Sailor being reprimanded for pointing his weapon at a suspect vessel from the USS Cole, hours after it was struck by suicide bombers, as related by Stephanie Gutmann.

Why Celebrities Should Stay Out Of Politics

Of course I'll still vote for him [Gordon Brown]...I can't not vote Labour.

Lily Allen in the Times, 15th May 2009.

It’s no one’s business how I intend to vote, which is the reason that voting happens in private booths.

Lily Allen in the Times, 14th November 2009.