Day 8 of the Cameroonites or Cleggons....apparently Rupert Murdoch paid a visit to Downing street yesterday...doubtless to receive the grateful thanks of Cameron for all the assistance of the Murdoch empire (it was Sky what won it...well done Boulton....you disgrace to balanced and fair reporting). Doubtless Dave and Murdoch discussed payback and how Dave could help get rid of obstacles to Rupert such as Ofcom (very inconvenient inquiry into monopoly powers cobber....can you do something?)....
Cameron seems determined to nip any possible objections in the bud by annexing the tory 1922 committee -thus ensuring that a possible source of dissent is stifled at birth. Cameron is doing this by promoting a rule change so that all tory mps (rather than just backbenchers) can vote. Normally this wouldn't go anywhere, but with the large influx of new, ambitious tory mps, it probably will.
Meanwhile, the other half of the dynamic duo (the monkey rather than the organ grinder) put forward his vision for a freer society. Which admittedly has some good points, such as scrapping id cards. I'm not so sure about the plans to limit the DNA database - there have been a number of offenders who have been convicted as a result of samples being maintained on this -I think the benefits outweigh the civil liberties risks.
The odd couple are still persisting with their plans to set the percentage of mps for dissolution to 55% despite growing opposition. It will be interesting to see if they can muster the 51% of votes needed to pass the new law.....
Meanwhile, in the alternate reality that is labour in opposition, the list of candidates for labour leader grows. Ed Balls has now joined the list, along with the token outsider, John McDonnell. Balls seems to be positioning himself to the left of the Milibands - he has good union connections and has spent the last 2 years on the rubber chicken circuit delivering after dinner speeches to local labour parties. All the candidates talk of reconnecting to the voter - not an unusual sentiment, I seem to recall the same from labour in the 80's and the tories in the 90's/00's. Labour certainly has a lot of reconnecting to do to overcome the handicaps of association with Iraq, the credit crunch and all the other ills defined by the media. The media seem to be building a campaign against Balls - which may be telling in itself - perhaps they fear he may make a decent fist of it? The main attraction of the Miliband brothers seems to be their visual appeal - either could appear attractive alongside Cleggamon. But is that really how the labour party wants to pick its leader?
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