(Y)EU give me one more push...

I find it unbelievable that the EU has wanted an increase in their budget of 5.9%. As it is they will likely get 2.9%. At a time when member countries are struggling to pay off their deficits, with some nearly broke, it is madness to pay more to a load of bureaucrats in Brussels.

I don't understand where the thinking comes from. Do these people socialise with the normal people they are supposed to represent? You'd think they would try, but it is clear that they are kept in a giant bubble away from the people that put them there. They obviously don't live in the real world. The EU project is rapidly becoming a joke. Unfortunately, it's not a very funny one.

At every opportunity the leaders of Europe show that they just don't get it. They are remote, they are unaccountable, they promise subsidiarity whilst taking more powers, they ignore the problems of growth for policies which actively bring about unemployment, if they don't like what you've said they ignore it, they treat the people of Europe as fools. And the worst of it is that the National Governments are complicit.

I understand the benefits of free trade and the single market, which was enacted in 1986. Since then, what? Nothing that has been announced has made me think that the EU project is moving in the right direction. Directives, treaties and initiatives have come and gone. Nothing has turned this supertanker around.

What's more the EU and its members are duplicitous. Do you remember Tony Blair giving away some of our rebate for CAP reforms? What happened? Was that tumbleweed blowing past? That's right - nothing. 40% percent of the budget is still being spent on inefficient farmers, while those starving in Africa are priced out of our markets. If the CAP was gone, we wouldn't have to spend so much on International aid. The whole thing stinks and is verging on the downright wicked.

If Europe was doing anything right, I'd be in full support. And there is still a flicker of hope that someone will come along and make them wake up. But I suspect the whole gravy train has gone on for too long, views are too entrenched and that nothing will change for the better.

It will only take one more push before I join the long list of people in the UK wanting out altogether.

Squiffy.

The best programme on TV. Ever.

I'm just watching the third series of The West Wing. Again. I love it, and still miss it. It captures everything that I love to see on TV. It incorporates politics into a great story with fine acting, comedic moments whilst educating us on the behind the scenes. It also teaches a lot about US politics.

There were some fantastic episodes such as 'Let Bartlet be Bartlet' and fantastic moments such as when CJ cannot say 'root canal', after having root canal, leading to a secret plan for inflation being announced by Josh.

I thought it did lose it slightly near the end of its run. Especially after John Spencer's sad death, and the reshuffling of the cast. Even so, I remember bawling my eyes out when the series ended and feeling a sense of loss. I even cry when I re-watch the last episode. Such a wuss.

There's not many TV programmes which can raise the hairs on the back of my neck, but this is one. This and the opening music for Formula 1 by Fleetwood Mac.

Squiffy.

The FBU: Playing with fire

It sounds like something out of one of the Carry On films. Do you remember the one where they make toilets, and the union is always dragging them out on strike for one thing or another?

In many ways, that's just like Bob Crow's RMT. We, in London, get used to the annual tube strikes. It's really annoying and makes you want to pull your hair out. In the last few years we've had tube strikes because a train driver was fired after being found to be playing Squash when he was signed off sick with a bad leg. We've also had lines taken out by a lack of hand basins and the terminus toilet facities. Sometimes you want to scream at the stupidity.

Now we come to the Fire Brigades Union. At the moment fireman work two shifts, one during the day for 9 Hours, and one during the night for 15 Hours. They've been requested to change this to two 12 hour shifts. The same number of hours, the same number of days. Because of this new contract they've decided to go out on strike.

The days they have chosen is the 5th of November. Bonfire night. The busiest night for firemen. To say this is callous doesn't do it justice. On the night when they will be needed most, they'll be manning the barricades wanting sympathy for a cause which no-one understands. There may be serious injuries and, heaven forbid, fatalities. It maybe bluff, but they are playing a dangerous games.

They are, literally, playing with fire and are doing Unions a great disservice.

Later: Corrected the reason for one of the strikes

Squiffy.

Now let's get out the scissors

It's been a busy week in politics. It's also been a busy week for me which means I've not been able to fully absorb the Comprehensive Spending Review.

From my initial impressions, though, it looks to me as if it hits all the right buttons. Not just me though, the markets also seem to have taken that viewpoint too, with the interest rate on Government debt falling to below that of Germany.

A good sign indeed. I'm not moved by all the complaints about fairness. The richest ten percent are hit the hardest in their taxes, and the poorest ten percent are hit hardest by the cuts. Because Government spending in Welfare is designed to help the poorest most, any cuts will hurt the most too. That has to be put in the context of big increases over the last 13 years, and so a little retrenchment is to be expected.

A lot of the welfare changes are 'nudges', designed to change people's behaviour rather than just punish. Such as limiting the amount of housing benefit to anyone below the age 35, to a room in a shared house. This is what people in the private sector have to do to get on, so why should others be protected?

Overall it's look good. That's not to say that times are not going to be difficult. It is a gamble, but I think a gamble that will work and will shoot the collective foxes of all those talking about a double dip recession. I expect growth to start picking up next year, and within five years we'll see a flexibly growing economy averaging at 3% GDP growth 3% per annum.

I could be wrong though!

Squiffy

Ed Miliband: First PMQs Verdict

Today was Ed Miliband's first PMQs. I thought that he would be underwhelming, and at the start his low key pitch made me feel I would be right.

In the end though, he got the better of David Cameron. I suppose for someone confidant it may be easier for the opposition leader to go on the attack, and the PM will have to tread carefully to find out how to treat the new opposition.

Ed Miliband did do very well though. He made his points well and pointed out when DC was not answering the questions. I think it is too easy for the PM of the day to deal in generalisations rather than specifics, and I was hoping that David Cameron would be able to tackle the questions directly. This may be difficult when the PM has to master all areas when he doesn't know what the question will be.

So my marks: EM 7, DC 5

The Breeder's charter

Jeremy Hunt is on our TV screens rather a lot. Although he runs the culture department, one of the lowest rungs of cabinet Government, he is used more often as the public face of the Government. It's obviously because he's attractive, reasonable and eloquent. The kid will go far!

The other night, though, he caused a stir on Newsnight, in response to the proposal to cap overall benefits, by saying that it is not the Government's role to support the choices of parents. In this he was referring to the choices that parents make when they have children.

I was really happy that someone had finally said that and I couldn't agree more. The edge cases of the benefits system show families, either single parent or with both, who don't work and have too many children. You may say, "what is too many?". I think most normal thinking people will have an idea. And it's probably somewhere below four.

It used to be the culture that you would have children when you could afford to support them. Somehow, amongst the new client state, this has passed by the wayside. It is now seen as a 'right' to be able to have children rather than a privilege, and the way the state doles out the money for each child supports this view. For some, there is no incentive to try to limit the number of children to their means.

This has to change. There has to be responsibility. The fact is that a minority of these families live on close to £100,000 per year with upwards of 8 children need to have a reality check. It is not healthy for the country, either, for children to witness their unemployed parents doing fine on benefits, popping another child out when they feel like it. What kind of moral example is that? One generation on, the problem is multiplied.

The proposed system is harsh for those families, but absolutely necessary. The message has to be sent out. Life on benefits is not an option. Supporting children is going to cost. Responsibility is paramount.

Only then will this problem diminish.

Squiffy.

Could the child benefit cut be a clever piece of political management?

Is it possible that David Cameron and George Osborne are quite happy with the way the child benefit cut has been received?

It sounds quite mad because a lot of people have been squealing about unfairness and the coverage has been quite negative.

Look at it this way though. In 12 days time the comprehensive spending review will set the spending for the next three years, it is going to be harsh and the news is going to be bad for the people dependent on the state. By deliberately releasing the child benefit cut now and letting the bad news run and run, it will show that higher earners are being hit as well as those less well off.

It may be clever in the long run although unpopular now.

Squiffy.

David Cameron Speech: The Verdict

I guess most people, who wanted to, watched the speech on television. I listened to it through Sky Audio. I think you can get a different impression on the success of a speech if you only have the words.

From watching some of the coverage, it seemed that the speech was workmanlike but nothing special. Whilst I was listening, though, I found the speech to be fantastic - and not just because I'm a bit of a fan.

It had the right structure, firstly a bit of joviality, then Labour bashing and covering what had happened in the first few months. All this was useful to get the conference on side and make evryone sympathetic to the more difficult messages in the second half. Not everyone gets the 'Big Society' and it is a slightly nebulous concept but it is the underpinning for the Cameron credo and everything done in his name is attached to the concept.

He has been explaining the same thing through his time as party leader, but only gave it a title in the election campaign. At the time, people seemed to be unaware of where this idea had come from but you only had to listen to earlier speeches to knit the idea together into the principles behind it.

Yesterday, he did some public knitting trying to explain the concept again. From this moment onwards, real projects must be shown to take up the ideas of the Big Society and sythesize the idea into concrete examples. It is only when real projects start to touch our lives will everyone be in a position to understand the credo. And, incidentally, that will be the time where there is no going back to the statism of the last 13 years.

If the 80's and 90's were about economic restructuring and confidence then this period is when Britain changes from within the very nature of our society and the relationship between Government and its citizens.

Margaret Thatcher is rightly praised (in some quarters at least) for revolutionizing our economy, and it is going through the usual turmoil of having a Labour Government running it, but the new Government is embarking on something much bolder. If they succeed we shall all benefit, if not then we are doomed to statism for a much longer period.

This was the point of the speech, and he said it impressively. He is challenging his party in the same way that Tony Blair did. That's why I thought the speech was much better than last year's and should have had great coverage.

Squiffy.

David Cameron has to make the case for cuts

This afternoon David Cameron will make his first conference speech as Prime Minister. It goes without saying that every speech is important, and each one gets billed as make or break.

I won't make that assertion, but it is important that DC makes a good case for the situation we are in right now. He should say it in a way which most people will understand. I know that they have been trying but they must find the correct language.

DC also needs make the case for optimism after this period of austerity. We all know it is going to be tough, but we need to see light at the end of the tunnel.

I've said this before that those better off get more money taken off them by Labour Governments in good times and bad, but Tories try to give some back in good times. They need to make this case for middle England now after the child benefit cut for higher earners.

I do think that the child benefit issue had been badly handled. When Ian Duncan-Smith's proposal to taper off benefits whilst a low earner's pay packet rises is seen as the right thing to do (and it absolutely is) it seems like madness to introduce a cut-off without tapering for those rising above the forty percent threshold. What incentive would there be to step over the limit? Not forgetting the issue of two people just below the threshold getting more benefits than one person earning the equivalent.

The principle is right though. People on middle incomes should not be receiving any benefits, but you cannot throw a switch like this and expect happy people - it should be phased in.

I think DC should recognize this and say something along these lines in the speech today. I'll be waiting for such a moment.

Squiffy.