That's called having your cake and eating it !

So you want home ownership with a small stigmatised, ghettoised social housing safety net; an NHS without reform and modernisation; and proportional representation to ensure the Lib Dems gain perpetual disproportionate power so that nothing much changes.

I seem to recall NF cited a long and painful divorce as the reason he couldn't carry on his bid to be the Mayor.

I didn't got where I am today by focussing narrowly on the practicalities.


Thanks dcpc - and Stryker - for the extra info about Nick's Mayoral ambitions.

If NF had run for mayor and won, would he still believe that breaking electoral promises and manifestos "is gross lying. It is simple deceit. And people have had enough" or would he have suddenly started down the line of convenient pragmatism a.k.a. doing exactly what he wanted once he had power?

I wonder. Well, no I don't wonder at all. I think we all know the answer

The only "checks and balances" politicians receive are cheques from corporate lobbyists that lead to fat bank balances. It still astounds me how blatantly and routinely politicians can simply not even appear to be doing their jobs and yet they remain in them. Imagine doing that at your work and only having a performance review once every 5 years.

No party actually represents the people. Not a one.

I think that is an excellent point.

I do wish David Mellor would quit using that silly & meaningless phrase, 'The Politics of Envy'.

Yes he seems to have repeated that quite often. He and ken are currently discussing the proposed 50p tax rate.

Personally I think they should do it, given the size of the national deficit. I think there's a lot of right wing guff about the high rate taxpayer's quitting the system. Maybe a small number will, but by and large, I suspect the majority won't.

Absolutely. If you're on a PAYE salary of £150K, you're not likely to be in a position to quit the UK anyway. I think that really only applies to people who are not PAYE (who, say, own their own business) and are pulling in millions, not thousands.

For all of this, though, I do think it's a trivial issue. They should really be looking at getting the big corporations to pay tax properly first.

Andrew Neil wrote a well known report on the ins and outs of the high earning tax rate. I have been trying to find a link to it.

Does anyone else think/agree that Iain Dale is an "accidental conservative"? I do think that. The more and more I have heard him in his time at LBC the more I have thought this.

I have heard him say a few times that it was his grandmother who influenced him into supporting the Conservatives and I think he said this was around the late 70's which wasn't a good time for Labour and I think if it wasn't for the influence of his grandmother, Iain would have ended up supporting the Labour Party.

Not really. I think this is more about the point I make every so often about left/right being fairly useless descriptions. There are plenty of Tories who are right on economics but liberal (left) on social matters (e.g. gay marriage) and vice versa for Labour.

One of the most stupid things I've heard on the radio is callers conflating the Left with being pro-Europe, for example.

Regardless of who you vote for, the government always win

There is Emma Goldman's famous saying.

Along with

'race to the bottom'

'tax cut for millionaires'

'cost of living crisis'

Don't forget P.J O'Rourke's "Don't vote. It only encourages the b******s"

Hmmm, I don't know. I really get the impression that Iain fell into the being a Tory supporter by accident and because he got drawn into it, and his support of the party over the years, sometimes in my view, sees him come out with views that is contrary to his general being, which is a nice person.

There are some Tories who are classed as on the "left of the Tory party" and are seen in the way you kind of described above but they are no longer the majority at all, not at Westminster anyway. The remaining one's who I'd describe as being of the left of the Tory party are the likes of Ken Clarle, Peter Bottomley, Michael Portillo and a few others. Even then, there isn't a one size that fits all in this or any situation when it comes to describing someone's politics as there are far too many issues/subjects that come up into politics and it will be very rare I think to get anyone to agree on everything in politics.

Political parties are like religions. Every individual member has their own personal ideas and experience of what life is all about, but if you want to join the official group you have to compromise and accept the groupthink.

The downside is you don't get to do exactly as your conscience tells you, but the upside is you get the increased power and support of the group. So every adherent must assess if it's worth it or not.

I could never align myself with any one political party. Life is far too nuanced and colourful for an either-or template to fit over it in any meaningful way.

That nice person Iain 'Biffa' Dale, you say?

Actually, I do sort of know what you mean, though. I just don't necessarily agree. And ultimately, I guess we can't really know anyway.

Re the other half of your post, I wasn't necessarily talking about just the Tory MP's.

I agree with HappyTree.

More cynical vacuous opportunism masquerading as opposition by Labour. The decision not to renew the post as head of Ofsted broke on saturday. The liberal (small 'l' ) establishment immediately looked to protect their own, and she was given a platform on the BBC to bleat about the nasty Tories wanting to appoint someone different. It took a full day before Labour criticised it on gender grounds. Labour's lie machine took a day to work out the new angle (oh look Tories hate women) and will now be running with that. No policies, just carping.

Trouble is we are expected to vote for someone.

Imagine what would happen if only a handful of people voted because the rest didn't like any of the political parties?

I thought they were criticising because she was a Labour Peer and they presumed she would be replaced by a Tory for purely political reasons.

Obviously they are not sure what to complain about !

James Whale (ex-LBC) was very good on BBC Essex this morning. He actually spoke to John Kent (our Labour Council leader) about the state of the A13 etc. Down to the Tory Essex County Council not bothering with us peasants in the unitary authority.

I like your website answering questions re your role as LBC Foamarmeister (see other thread).

Not mine, mate. The Wayback Machine was used for retrieving old websites.

What irks me about James Whale going back to the BBC is that I clearly remember him slating the BBC nuerous times while he was at Talksport saying how the BBC had "selection panels" as to who gets to go on air, callers wise and Talk Sport didn't. If he thoughts of the BBC were so low why did he go back to them and why do the BBC keep on taking on presenters who keep on slating them over and over again and or act unprofessionally?

Re that latter point about unprofessionalism, I'm not on about Whale but someone else who I won't mention at the moment but he was sacked in the past for being rude to callers only to come back, god knows how many times to the BBC, on both TV and radio shows!

What does Biffa mean? I think I've only seen that name on a private dustbin company!

Let's see - hmmm! One one hand there's principals, on the other there's council tax/heating bills/road tax/wife's birthday/tiles falling off the roof.......