Tag Archives: norman tebbit

Half a defence of John O’Farrell’s comments on Margaret Thatcher

OFarrell-things betterI wonder if Labour HQ wish they’d read John O’Farrell’s 1998 book, Things Can Only Get Better, a little more carefully before he was selected to fight the Eastleigh by-election?

First there was his call for Labour voters to vote tactically for the Lib Dems to beat the Tories, as uncovered by Mark Pack here: Should Labour supporters vote tactically to beat the Tories? “Go for it” said John O’Farrell. (Incidentally, the Telegraph then ran the story here without any credit.)

And then yesterday, the Mail ran with …

Posted in Parliamentary by-elections | Also tagged , , and | 68 Comments

Nick Clegg needs cutting down to size – Tebbit

It is always good fun when right-wing Tories get all het up about Nick Clegg, fulminating that David Cameron should jolly well do something about it.

Norman Tebbit provides today’s entertainment along these lines under the headline: Nick Clegg needs cutting down to size. If only the Prime Minister was brave enough to do the job.

He is specifically exercised about immigration and the Strasbourg Court of Human Rights. Employing all his skills as “the Chingford Skinhead” he culminates with this:

It seems that Mr Cameron is prevented from doing anything to bring the nonsense to an end – and the repeal

Posted in News | Also tagged | 17 Comments

Tebbit admits ‘I admire Clegg more than Cameron’

Well, there’s a headline that will cause equal consternation among both Lib Dem and Conservative supporters… and doubtless prompt some no-surprise-there snarks from Labourites too.

But what’s more interesting than the stark headline (prompted by this Telegraph interview) is Norman Tebbit’s reason for admiring Nick Clegg over his own party leader:

He says he is more of a Conservative than David Cameron. The Big Society is just a “buzzword. It’s a logo looking for a product”. He wants to turn the party back to being nationalist and jokes that he would like it to go into coalition with the UK

Posted in News | Also tagged and | 16 Comments

Opinion: One good reason to vote Lib Dem

With the looming by-election in Oldham East & Saddleworth and each candidate eager to win, with each of their respective parties hoping to be able to boast about the win for years to come, I’d imagine the people of OE&S are probably scratching their heads. A Labour party that endorsed the Phil Woolas who combined pretty much everything we hate about politicians in his lies intended to stir racial tensions? A Liberal Democrat party that, let’s be honest, is not the most glamorous of groups at the moment, still reeling from scandals and broken pledges? A Conservative party barely even …

Posted in Op-eds and Parliamentary by-elections | Also tagged , and | 49 Comments

LibLink: of Tebbit, c*nts and Clegg

Another great blog post from former Tory MP Jerry Hayes over at Think Politics.

Jerry touches on the way the Conservative blue rinse brigade have been a little left behind

It will be some time before the Colonel and Mrs Mads who run the coffee mornings and shepherd’s pie evenings in the Shires will fully come to terms with it all

Then pops up with a rather nice Norman Tebbit anecdote

”You, you little cu*t. I saw you on tv last night asking the government to spend more on pensioners and the Health Service”.

And finishes it off with some remarkably kind …

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged and | 8 Comments

Lord Tebbit’s praise for the Lib Dems’ tax plans

In his blog post in today’s Daily Telegraph Lord Tebbit asks, “Why won’t the two main parties do anything about the madness of taxing the poor?’.

“And I hate to say it, but only one party leader seems to have grasped that, if you construct a system where unskilled people are worse off by taking a job than by staying on welfare, they remain trapped in poverty – and that is Nick Clegg.

Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 33 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 12 July 2009

Welcome to the Sunday outing for The Voice’s near-daily Daily View series. As it’s a Sunday, today it comes with a special bonus singing unhappy customer.

2 Big Stories

Afghanistan: troops numbers to go up or down?

The papers are agreed that, following the tragic and symbolic news of the number of British military deaths in Afghanistan now exceeding those in Iraq, Afghanistan is one of the major news stories of the day.

But there’s rather less agreement on what they think the Government is going to do.

Either “Thousands more troops could be sent to Afghanistan within months” (Observer) or “Ministers are secretly planning to cut the number of British troops in Afghanistan” (Independent). All clear I trust.

Phone hacking: Tory MPs set to rebel?

From the Sunday Times:

Rebel Conservative MPs plan to refer Andy Coulson, David Cameron’s chief spin doctor, to the party’s sleaze watchdog over his role in the illegal phone hacking row.

Some Tory backbenchers believe Cameron took an excessively tough stance on the expenses scandal. Now they hope to exploit the row over Coulson, the former News of the World editor who resigned when the paper was caught hacking into royal aides’ phones.

Yesterday, Lord Tebbit lent his voice to the Tory rebels. “Cameron has talked a lot about ‘detoxifying’ the Conservative brand,” he said. “Perhaps he should now think about a ‘detoxification’ of his own office.”

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

Sunday Bonus

One man gets his revenge on United Airlines for bad customer service through the medium of song:

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Opinion: We’re a diverse party, get over it already

You do have to wonder who writes the Liberator Magazine Editorial sometimes. In February’s issue, the Collective launch into a fabulously splenetic rant (even by this shy retiring organ’s own standards) against the “blues under the bed” who they demand “should accept (their) defeat and clear off”.

That the majority of Liberator’s editorial board dislike the classical-liberal or economic-liberal or (shudder) right-wing of the party has never been in doubt, but you do wonder if there will be a point, after over 30 years of publication, where this Hamas-like Commentariat will proclaim an acceptance of the rights of the other side to exist, even if they do not always agree with them.

I should note that away from the left-wing sermon that is their editorial and Radical Bulletin they do print a variety of articles and even tolerate token eco-lib Jonathan Calder on their committee; but he is funny and occasionally pretends to be a post-centennial peer, so presumably fulfills some exclusive acceptability criteria of being ‘a bit right’ but Bonkers, and thus in need of some kind of compassionate care in their community.

There has always been a ‘left’ and ‘right’ to this liberal party, and even if the centre of gravity has shifted in response to events, what unites them, internationalism, tolerance, a belief in human rights, the importance of caring for each other and the environment etc., has always been greater than what divides… more often than not tax, spending, and other economic policies.

It is surely evident though, even to Liberator’s most bilious wordsmiths, that their perennial hate figures… Nick Clegg, David Laws, Gavin Grant, Mark Littlewood et. al. have more in common with them than Norman Tebbit and George Galloway?

Their clinching ‘evidence’ to demand for a schism though is the bizarre argument that:

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , and | 40 Comments

Tebbit backs Lib Dem Euro policy

Former Tory party chairman Lord (Norman) Tebbit has urged David Cameron to follow the lead of Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg in demanding the British public be allowed an ‘in or out’ referendum choice on the UK’s membership of the EU. Okay, Tebbo didn’t put it quite like that… but, still, the effect’s the same:

David Cameron must promise a referendum on whether the UK should leave the European Union, former Tory chairman Lord Tebbit is expected to say. In a speech on Monday, he will call on the Conservative leader to show “Thatcherite courage” on the issue. This should

Posted in Europe / International and News | Also tagged | 23 Comments

Norman Baker: time to ditch the oath of allegiance

For those who are surprised that Norman Baker should have come third in our poll of most-rated Lib Dem shadow cabinet members, much of Stormin’ Norm’s popularity is the result of his championing of causes just like this:

A collection of 22 cross party MPs are launching a campaign to end the tradition of swearing allegiance to the Queen when entering parliament. Led by Liberal Democrat Norman Baker, the MPs are calling for the choice to swear an oath to their constituents and the nation instead.

“This is a matter of democracy,” said Mr Baker. “I’m put here by my constituents

Posted in News | Also tagged | 70 Comments

QT’s pro-Tory bias: the BBC replies to Lib Dem Voice

Its a month since Lib Dem Voice found that the BBC’s Question Time is “officially pro-Tory”, with considerably more Conservative-aligned panellists than Labour, let alone the Lib Dems. (We even produced the obligatory bar-chart as conclusive proof.) As promised, we emailed the BBC with the link to our story, and have today received their reply:

Dear Mr Tall

Thank you for your e-mail and I’d like to start by apologising for the time it has taken to get back to you. I hope you haven’t been inconvenienced.

Turning to your concerns I did raise the issue with the programme’s editor

Posted in News | Also tagged and | 24 Comments
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