Sweets for the good!

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Nope not a post about tonight's Halloween shenanigans - I'll leave it to the Mail to publish a story entitled "knife or treat" or something of that order...

Nope, today is the deadline for Welsh hospitals to have emptied their vending machines of sweets, fizzy drinks, stuff with sugar in etc.

Q. What's the one thing you need when you've just given blood?

A. Sugar!

Probably the sillies Government hospital rule since smoking outside in all the car parks was banned.

Hunt on Ross/Brand: progressive conservatism shakedown

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This quote from Jeremy Hunt (Shadow Culture Secretary) is fairly indicative of new conservatism.

"Just as it would be wrong in a plural and democratic society to require broadcasters to produce programmes that meet government objectives and promote positive social behaviour, so it is also wrong for broadcasters to produce programmes that legitimise negative social behaviour,"

That's actually his topline quote (and you thought the Tories were good at comms).

Put on the waffle filter and you're left with "We would never force you to make programmes we agree with, we just won't let you make programmes we don't agree with."

The authoritarian wing's not dead yet!

Facebook networking

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I'm not sure I'm that well connected.

'Life coaches' open up law careers (sarcasm)

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"Budding lawyers seeking advice and support in their efforts to join the legal profession will be helped by a Government initiative launched today by Justice Minister Lord Bach." - Ministry of Justice

Then they have to stump up £15k per annum fees and live in London working more than full time hours studying.

According to the Sutton Trust, 81% of current judges have an Oxbridge degree.

Johnson gives "green light" to longer waiting lists

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Health Secretary Alan Johnson announces today at the Chief Health Professions Officer Conference that he is giving a "green light" to self-referral and the bypassing of the GP system.

What better way to ensure that every hypochondriac in Britain clogs up the precious time of specialists. Oh for a minister who would just oil the wheels.

I don't suppose this move has anything to do with removing power from GPs in a shameless political war at the expense of the welfare of patients, dressed up as 'choice'. Surely not.

Spare a thought for Jacqui (she wants to capture them all)

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I do feel sorry for the keeper of the home affairs brief these days. Its not the typical kind of pity, sprung from the tug of common humanity, but rather a sadness watching one who has utterly forgotten the meaning of the word.

Her policies are irrelevant in the current political landscape to boot.

Not only has Jacqui Smith proposed the potential revocation of human dignity and liberty of any Briton (for a maximum of 42 days) and lost, she has also had to try to make a waves with an renewed call to tap EVERY telephone, email and SMS conversation. She may make waves but waves are often perilous and unpopular things.

At a time when Government borrowing as a proportion of income may double for the foreseeable future to maintain a semblance of public spending while bailing banks, Smith, who already has the exorbitant and unnecessary ID scheme to push must now ask us to cough up £12 billion for the privilege of sending her our emails and telephone conversations.

She'd actually gain more popularity for asking us to pay£12 billion not to be spied upon - the proceeds being spent on saving our economy.

Why did Kim Howells just get the sack?

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You tell me in the new poll on this blog!

The most terrifying interview ever...

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Not what you want to see when you walk into a job interview. Who'd work for them eh?

Tories like strip clubs

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This photo from conference will be wheeled out next time we get some sanctimonious blarb about strippers from Tory spokespeople.

The future Tory Environment and Energy Secretary?

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So its been announced that BERR and Defra are to merge and Ed Miliband will be the new Environment and Energy Secretary.

I had thought that Peter Ainsworth (Conservative Environment Spokesperson) would be demoted, and that Alan Duncan (Business Spokesperson) was in danger.

I now think they'll both stay where they are, with Jeremy Hunt being the likely occupant of the shadow energy and environment portfolio.

Keeping Duncan and Ainsworth where they are would be effectively demoting them both, especially Ainsworth, who would be rural affairs solely, a policy backwater under the latter years of Labour. Mandelson's position is high profile because of his name but may well be a neutered position. Duncan is a sparky media performer and would be a good counterfoil to Mandelson.

Jeremy Hunt may be a good choice to counter Ed Miliband despite the fact that I think Hunt is currently overrated and Miliband is still underrated.

Cameron speech: quick facetius response

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"We’ve had a good conference this week, an optimistic conference - but a sober one."

Obviously you weren't there when all the Tories were all chucked out of the hotel the bar at 4pm by the police last night.

"[This] human rights act culture, has infected every part of our life."

Yep, there's the true colours.

"And while we’re on this subject, there’s one other thing that destroys trust in politics. And that’s parties putting things in their manifesto and then doing the complete opposite."

Is that why you haven't announced any clear policy commitments?

"Next year [...] we will campaign with all our energy for that referendum on the European constitution that Labour promised but never delivered"

A breakthrough! A policy! Confirmed over the conference for the first time categorically! But the treaty isn't going to happen now. Ah... so you'd prefer to announce binding policies after there is absolutely no chance you'll have to implement them!

"For Labour there is only the state and the individual, nothing in between. No family to rely on, no friend to depend on, no community to call on. No neighbourhood to grow in, no faith to share in, no charities to work in. No-one but the Minister, nowhere but Whitehall, no such thing as society - just them, and their laws, and their rules, and their arrogance. You cannot run our country like this."

Yes you do see charities, faith communities, friends and families. You see them, and you mention them, because you will milk them dry asking them to perform functions of the state with less accountability (or "responsibility," you're key word of the conference) and fewer funds.

And by the way, "no such thing as society", congratulations, that is probably the most hilarious reading of a Thatcher quote in any political speech.

Well as you might have guessed I thought some of it paper thin.

I liked how again and again he turned Jo Biden's repetitive mantra of "That's not change, that's more of the same" on its head to form "it’s not more of the same we need, but change".

And some politicians are attacked for ripping of other politicians' speeches...

Oh and Dave, good job on the jokes. The one that got the biggest laugh was about suicide.

Tory rethink 24-hour drinking scepticism

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I wasn't there, but I just heard that last night the police in Birmingham got a bit fed up of the Conservatives flouting the licensing laws nightly and staying in the bar well into the wee hours. In the end policemen 'ushered' the Tories out, having turned a blind eye since Friday.

And I thought the Tories were so meticulously sanctimonious when it came to binge all-nighters. I suppose you're more likely to be sceptical of 24 drinking on Today at 7:00am if you have a hangover.