Well worth a read - Douglas Carswell was certainly impressed!!

Was the title of last nights Richard Dimbleby lecture that was, this year, by author Sir Terry Pratchett.

 

This was one of the best things I have seen on TV for ages.

 

Sir Terry's lecture (actually delivered by actor Tony Robinson owing to the nature of Sir Terry's illness) was thought provoking, intelligent, emotional, controversial, entertaining and a fantastic contribution to the debate on a massively sensitive subject.

 

Tony Robinson's delivery of the lecture was also quite outstanding.

 

Look out for this on BBC iPlayer, on You Tube, anywhere and watch it!!

You can tell that the general election is imminent by the almost daily announcement of popularist policies by Cameron, Brown et al.

 

One such example is David Cameron's proposal that burglars will effectively lose their "human rights" once they enter into a home illegally.

 

Clearly this is designed to give comfort to the view that too many homeowners are treated as criminals when they defend their homes, family & property when the criminals are often treated very leniently.

 

Now, I agree with Cameron on this - as far as I am concerned as soon as anybody enters a home without the owner's permission they deserve anything they get but..................

 

Does anybody really think that a Conservative Government will really do this?

 

The liberal establishment will conspire to prevent any progress, the human rights lobby will squeal (I note the ubiquitous Shami Chakrabati is already protesting) and the policy will be quietly shelved shortly after the election.

 

Given this, it does occur that politicians do end up looking like opportunists when they announce what would undoubtedly be popular but unrealistic policies.

 

I wonder how much support a bill along the lines of Cameron's statement, introduced by a Conservative backbencher say 6 months after a Tory election victory, would get from Prime Minister Cameron and the Cabinet?

I'd like to draw your attention to a fairly new website set up by the Conservative Party for the forthcoming election campaign.

 

 

This site contains details of many local campaign's and campaigning activities being undertaken by Conservatives all over the UK - it's well worth a visit.

Well against my expectations Blair gave his evidence in public but really was it worth it?

 

What do we know today that we didn't know at 9am yesterday?

 

Blair is a good performer in public - yep, knew that

 

He has an extraordinary ability to lie through his teeth - yep, knew that as well.

 

That he didn't give a stuff about his Cabinet or our Parliament - no news there either.

 

That there was no apology to bereaved forces families - again no surprise.

 

Just about the only thing he said that was unexpected was linking 9/11 to the Iraq war.

 

I thought this particular piece of spin was only used to justify the war to the American public (whose knowledge of the world outside of the USA is, generally, about the same as my understanding of quantum physics!

 

Unbelievable that Blair thought he could use that particular piece of bull**it on the British people - probably says quite a lot about the contempt he holds us in.