No thank you, Gordon

From the man who "abolished boom and bust" comes the request to let him "finish the job". No matter which party you support, the reply must be "No, thank you." Here's why.

In 1997, the new Labour government inherited a thriving economy. By many measures, it was the strongest in Western world, with inflation low, debt low and unemployment dropping.

By April 2010, the UK economy was arguably the second worst after Greece's. National debt is higher than any time in living memory, excluding post-WW2. There is a good summary of the debt here, together with several clear charts. Debt is also forecast to increase for the next few years by well over £160 billion each year.

Let's put that in perspective: that's more than we spend on education, police and defence put together. If we shut down all our schools, closed all the police stations and disbanded our army, navy and air force we'd still be running up debt under Labour's economic policies.

So, no thank you Gordon Brown. You're a spendthrift. We don't want you to finish the job because we know in reality you would finish the country.

Thank you, Nick Clegg

It's been 10 days since Nick Clegg upset British politics with a strong performance in the first of the leaders' debates. At this moment, he appears to have lifted the Liberal Democrats from their traditional poor third place in British politics to a close second. In addition, he's changed the nature of the debate: young people, normally the least likely to vote, are chatting eagerly about politics at work, in universities and online. A lot more of the discussion is positive.

Most importantly, from my point of view, Clegg appears to have done what no other politician has managed in recent years: he's finished off Gordon Brown as a political force.

And you can't deny he has sex appeal. I was speaking to a young lady (remember I am over 50, so anyone under 30 is young) the other day and she was singing Clegg's praises. She'd never talked about politics before. I don't recall her exact words but in essence she said that previously she hadn't intended voting but now she was going to vote LibDem. Clegg, she felt, would make a great prime minister: well-spoken, clear ideas, representing real change, fresh, and so on. "What do you think of LibDem policies?" I asked. With a slightly embarrassed smile she admitted she didn't know much about the policies.

Actually, at this stage, that's OK. The important thing is getting young people interested and involved. Over the next ten days they will learn a lot about politics. Some will stay LibDem; others will find that once that first glow of romance dies out then they'll choose another party and I expect they will see a lot to encourage them in the Tory Party: sound finance, green policies and genuine caring about the individual. No party gets everything right but the Tories do more than most.

Democracy is at its best when it's vibrant and ideas and ideals are debated with good-natured passion. There are many young people who will become Young Conservatives who might never have shown any interest without the debates and the change they have brought to British politics.

So, indeed, I would like to thank Nick Clegg today for the change he's made in politics.

Vince Cable - Economic Expert

Andrew Neil (who chairs the BBC's parliamentary programme) interviews Vince Cable.



Thank you, Guido.

Who will you choose?

Thank you, Ian Dale, for creating this.

And for all my friends and acquaintances who are not sure whether they should vote this time ... well have a look!

Quote of the Day

"If we want to bring down unemployment in a sustainable way, neither rescuing [car manufacturers] nor funding more road construction will do it. We need to create a big bushel of new companies — fast. … Good-paying jobs don’t come from bailouts. They come from startups. And where do startups come from? They come from smart, creative, inspired risk-takers. How do we get more of those? There are only two ways: Grow more by improving our schools or import more by recruiting talented immigrants. Surely, we need to do both ... so we can develop a much more strategic approach to attracting more of the world’s creative risk-takers"

New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman

Thomas Friedman was talking about the US economy, but it applies equally well here.

It's the Economy

I once saw a Chinook fly like the one in the picture. It had done a rolling landing, with its nose in the air, paused, reversed and then taken off backwards and gradually raised its tail until this 20 tonne monster was hanging in the sky, nose down and facing me. I remember clearly this sense of utter disbelief that such a thing was possible.

I feel the same way when I listen to our leading politicians discuss the economy.

We have so much government debt in the UK that the interest bill alone is almost £30 billion pounds a year. This will continue to increase until we stop spending more than the government gets in income.

So we need to do two things: reduce spending and increase income. The only challenge is how to do these without harming the economy further.

On reduced spending, it's time for the Tories to back off their pledge not to cut the NHS. It's the fourth largest organisation (by employees) in the world. There has to be significant inefficiency in there and turning a blind eye to it does no-one any good. The only budget that should be sacrosanct is Defence, and that should last only as long as we have a major commitment in Afghanistan.

It's also time to change the terms on which people get unemployment benefit. Those claiming this benefit should earn it, literally. They could work two days a week for the government, using whatever skills they have. That way, at no incremental cost, the government gets a great deal more done, whether surgery or street sweeping. It would improve the quality of life of everyone in the UK. In times of hardship, this is an obvious win.

Many people in private enterprise go without pay increases in tough years. I know in the 1990s I had no salary increase for three years, as did most of my colleagues. It's time to impose the same stringency on the public sector and, while we are about it, to get rid of unaffordable final salary pensions. They have been unaffordable in the private sector for years and there is no magic which makes them affordable for civil servants.

Raising more tax is a challenge. In the short term you can aggressively tax the highly-paid and profitable companies but if you do, in the long term they will leave. In other words, it's self defeating.

The alternative is not difficult: make it attractive for businesses and high-earning people to stay in the UK and, indeed, attract other businesses here as well. We have the most complicated tax laws in the Western world. That raises the costs of doing business here. We need to do away with 90% of this and make the UK a place where it is easier to do business. Bring tax down and attract business to the UK.

Two weeks ago Matthew Parris wrote that the first thing a new Tory government should do is pass a "Blanket Repeal of Legislation (Failure of New Labour, 1997-2010) Bill". As he explains "The effect of the Act will be to repeal en masse and at a stroke all new legislation brought in since the fall of the Conservative government in 1997. The only exceptions will be those measures which, by affirmative resolution of both Houses, Parliament votes to rescue."

Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes!

While we are about it, can we get rid of an enormous amount of duplicated effort countrywide? We do not need each of 389 local councils to create a policy on racial equality. It's the law. Get on with it. The same goes for the many of policies and practices in local government. We really don't need every council to have its own system of voter registration, email, benefits management or a dozen other matters. For heaven's sake, stop wasting time and let's get those bins collected and schools run well.

In short, and I am aware this is a long blog entry, if we want to cut the cost of government we need to stop waste - huge amounts of waste.

I remember clearly standing by and doing nothing other than goggle in disbelief while the Chinook flew at an impossible angle. It was being run by professionals who knew what they were doing. But I won't stand by and gape in disbelief at politicians, who appear astonishingly inept, doing little to fix the economy.

In 1992, Bill Clinton devastatingly used the line "It's the economy, stupid" in his election campaign. It's time UK politicians listened.

Can Spring be Far Behind?

Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote "If winter comes, can spring be far behind?" The answer this year seems to be "Yes!" Yesterday it was -5ºC when I left home and it's not a lot warmer now. So it's with longing that I look back to last spring, when Colleen and I went for a walk from Hook to West Green House in Mattingley. It's about four miles through pleasant fields when suddenly, near our destination, we came across this idyllic country scene. Click here for a larger picture.

Those cows are actually quite large and we made a point of giving them, and especially their calves (out of picture) a wide berth.

Roll on the warmer days of spring!

Photography

It's a while since I posted some photographs and looking through my collection it seemed to me that there are some that by good fortune came out quite well.

The photo above is an example. It was taken at my friend Russ's 60th birthday party. He's a neurologist by profession but has a band as well and they played some marvellous music. I'd been taking photos with my flash all evening and these pics were OK, but the flash failed on this picture and the lights of the stage came out in gorgeous colour.

So this photo was a mistake, but one I'm glad I made.

Footnote: Having blogged this, I see blogger has cut off the right 1/4 of the picture. If you click on the photo you'll see the whole picture and consequently the full range of colours.

Your Mileage WILL Vary

The man in the car waved at me. So did the woman in the next car. They didn't use all their fingers.

I think it was because I was driving on the motorway at 60 mph. The speed limit was 70 as far as other drivers were concerned but they didn't realise I was conducting a Scientific Experiment.

You see a few months ago I bought a Bluemotion Golf. It's wonderful: comfortable, quiet, solid German engineering, good to drive and well-equipped. And its fuel consumption is phenomenal: 60.1 mpg urban, 83.1 extra-urban and 74.3 combined. That's about 900 miles on a tank of diesel.

The problem is that I've been getting just 600 miles from a tank.

So I designed an experiment. I decided that in the Golf I would

• Turn off the air conditioning
  
• Drive half a mile to the local service station
  
• Check that the tyre pressures were optimal
  
• Go to the motorway and drive along at 60 mph to the next junction.
  
• Drive back along the motorway and go home.
  

This should be closer to an "extra urban" cycle than a combined one.

I must say it is a little nerve wracking driving along the motorway at 60. One is constantly checking the rear-view mirror to see whether some speed fiend is burning rubber in his attempt to avoid running up your exhaust pipe, but I managed. The majority of the motorway journey was actually done at 50 mph, because of roadworks, which should have made the journey even more economical.

And then, as a scientific control, I did the same with my wife's Mercedes C220CDI. Here's what we found.

Have a look at what's happening here.

In the Mercedes, my little drive (shown in the purple bar) achieved pretty close to the official Extra-urban (red bar) economy of the car. It was way better than the Combined figure, which is what I'd expect.

But in the Golf, the fuel consumption is far worse than I'd been led to expect from the official figures. Although 80% of the drive was at 50-60mph on the motorway, I achieved barely more than the Urban figure and way less than the Combined one.

What going on here? To find out, my wife phoned our dealer, Martins of Basingstoke, who promised to get a technician to call back. She phoned three times, but we've had no call back from technicians.

This is really a pity, because in every other respect we're very happy with this Golf. But we bought it for fuel efficiency and it's just not living up to its claims and it appears our dealer couldn't care less.

I feel like waving at VW. Not using all my fingers.

Snake oil

The Wild West was notorious for its snake oil salesmen, who rode into town with a wagon of elixirs and used their smooth sales patter to convince the ignorant and gullible that these concoctions, including "snake oil", would fix every malady.

Oh, how we laugh at their naivety!

Yet today, sadly, we see practices that are not much different - and just as many people falling for the con.

Earlier on today I visited Southampton. The reason for the visit was simple - to take part in the 1023 protest. The essence of this is simple: Boots, a huge chain of pharmacies in the UK, sells homeopathic medicine which it knows has no therapeutic (ie medical) benefit. Gullible people buy this in the hope that it may cure them. Indeed, when I bought some, it was in the aisle marked "Medicine".

This is extremely disappointing. Boots is an otherwise respectable and respected chain of pharmacies. As far as I can tell, in their role of dispensing scientifically-proven medicine, they do an excellent job. Yet they persist in also purveying products which are little different from witchcraft. We scorn the late South African minister who claimed you could cure HIV with beetroot, but homeopathic remedies are no different. With no proven benefit, they offer false hope to the ill. The superintendent pharmacist at Boots has admitted "I have no evidence ... they they are efficacious" - in simple English he means he has no evidence that they work.

So, we did a test.

23 of us (by coincidence) took part in the 10:23 campaign this morning outside Boots in Southampton. We all massively "overdosed" on homeopathic medicine, swallowing a bottle of pills, as did hundreds (thousands?) of others all over the world. As I write this, three hours later, I'm feeling fine.

It's deeply disappointing that a company as reputable as Boots should promote such bogus treatments.

Media Flash And now it's been Youtubed

Oh, God

My most wonderful university lecturer, Pat Terry, instilled rigour into his students and I think this has helped me throughout my life. Because he made me think through things, I speak with confidence when I am sure am right, which is not often. I also listen more carefully to others, although Pat can't take all the credit because the current Mrs Haffey has helped there.

So, with a degree in science, what makes me believe in God?

First, let's eliminate one thing that people often say to encourage belief in God.

Blaming misfortune on a lack of piety is a good place to start. "Your pet died because you are a bad person." So did Mother Theresa's pet. Was she bad, too?

I am afraid that I am sceptical about people who claim to know what God wants.

So why the belief in God?

I was driving along listening to BBC Radio4 in the car the other day and I heard a discussion of cavemen paintings and their subtlety. This led me to think about cavemen looking at the stars at night - the same stars we see - and wondering about the Meaning of Life. And these are the same Big Questions that face us today. What is life about? And for the purpose of this blog entry, where did it come from?

One thing we know for sure: you can't create or destroy matter. You can change matter into energy and vice versa, but that's about it. So we have this unbelievably large universe with no explanation about where it came from.

How big is "unbelievably big"?

The universe is about 10²⁸ times as big as you or me. That's 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times as big, based on our mass. By one of these astonishing coincidences that pop up from time to time, you and I have almost 10²⁸atoms in us. Whether we want to explore Outer Space or Inner Space, we have the same amount of work to do.

So where did it come from?

A trivial answer is the Big Bang. But who or what made the Big Bang and the vast number of physical laws that emerged from it? Here science can't help. Something started it (or possibly there is an infinity of Big Bangs followed by Big Crunches) but where did it all come from? And how come it all works with just the Four Fundamental Forces of Nature to orchestrate it?

In the absence of a better alternative, I choose to believe that God was responsible. I happen to think that the Bible provides a reasonable description of God, but I haven't read other religious texts. It seems to me to be impossibly unlikely that this glorious universe, with relativity, quantum physics, evolution, double choc chip cookies, colour, classics, compassion and uncountable other wonders could be an accident.

And so, logically I infer that there is a God.

It's a FACT - using legal media is a PITA

You may have heard that it snowed recently here.

As a result of being snowed in, after a while I started to become stir crazy. So I broke out one of my Christmas presents, a DVD, and sat down to watch it, at which stage a red mist of rage descended.

Picture this: I have settled into a comfortable armchair, drink in hand. The DVD is spinning up and I am ready to relax and enjoy watching this movie. Then, out of the blue, some advertisement for an organisation called FACT pops up. I really don't want an advertisement at that point so I push the Fast Forward and Skips buttons but nothing happens. Somehow the unholy alliance between DVD player manufacturers and DVD manufacturers has led to this advertisement being the one mandatory piece of viewing on the entire DVD. I can skip the whole movie if I wish, but I can't skip the FACT advertisement.

So what is this advertisement for FACT? FACT is the self-righteous Federation Against Copyright Theft. Not everyone is a fan. I know I am not. Every time I want to watch my own, legal, DVD these illegitimate children of their parents steal a minute of my time and force me to watch this blasted ad. It's not even a convenient amount of time: too short to make a cup of coffee or take a comfort break. And it's on every legal DVD.

This is utterly bizarre when you think about it. What other industry does its best to annoy its legitimate customers?

I have no illegal DVDs or CDs in my house but if anything is likely to drive me to buy some it would be the promise that there would be no infuriating FACT advertisement on the DVD.

FACT is a right royal PITA.

In his Master's Steps He Trod

We stopped off in the UK 17 years ago on our way to America and we liked it so much we stayed. The people are friendly, the countryside pretty and the weather ... not as bad as we had been led to believe.

Until now.

The third Big Freeze in 12 months, the biggest of the three, set in two days ago. Normally if we have an inch of snow in a year it's a lot. On Tuesday evening we had 9 inches. I think we have two snow ploughs in England so we are snowed in for the duration.

But my wife and I are made of Stern Stuff so at 7 o'clock on Wednesday morning we left home in moon boots to walk to the railway station. For completeness I should emphasise we were also wearing a good deal of other clothes. The snow came up to our calves and I have to say it is at the very least disconcerting walking through snow that deep.

Actually it's bloody difficult.

You don't really know how far to put down each foot and then when you pick it up you have to raise it above the level of the snow to move on to the next step. I realised then why good King Wenleslas's page stepped in his footprints: not so much for the warmth as the fact that it's a lot easier. Colleen and I struggled manfully on (in her case womanfully), taking turns leading, until eventually we gave up, exhausted, at the top of the drive.

That's where I took the photograph of the neighbour's house, cars and rubbish bin. Due to the previous big freeze, our bin-collections are way behind. Indeed, one of our binmen broke his wrist sliding on ice about a week ago. We're clearly going to end up way behind in collections for the rest of the month.

We trudged to the supermarket a few hours later and this was a big mistake. It made my wife feel guilty that she had not made it to the train earlier so the following day we did walk through the compacted snow to the station. Colleen got on the train which broke down 3 miles up the track. There was some kind of electrical fault which meant it not only broke down but had no heating. After a while they managed to get the train going and she arrived at the office an hour late, only to find the office almost completely empty. Not wanting to get delayed on the way home in the dark, she left the office early only to find many trains had been cancelled, so she waited 90 minutes on the cold Waterloo Station platform before one did arise. Travel time, 6 hours: office time, 5.

In the mean time, I had decided to be a good citizen and try digging out our street.

I must have been mad. I don't have a snow shovel, just a garden one so after 30 minutes of effort I had managed to clear about 5 square yards. Mind you, they were perfectly cleared because after I had shovelled off the snow I used the yard broom to sweep away the traces. I did some calculations and reckoned that if my younger son and I spelled each other and did 6 hours a day we would have a small but sufficient channel in the road cleared after 3 days, which given we're not expecting a thaw for a week would be pretty good.

Then some guy came by driving one of these things. "Over here!" called my neighbour.

These are very good at moving snow and in three minutes he had reduced the covering of snow from 9" to about 1/2". He had also obliterated my hard work. Under my breath I thanked and cursed him simultaneously.

The only problem is that the treads of his tyres have crushed the small remaining bits of snow into snice and getting rid of that last 1/2" is ... not easy. I tried brushing vigorously with the yard brush and chipping away with the shovel and got about 4 yards done before I gave up.

My dearly beloved has just put a bowl of hot porridge on the table, so I will retreat to that and contemplate the future.

Bloody, but unbowed

I remember clearly what I did on June 24th, 1995. It was a warm and sunny day in England and I was at a school fete, yet most of the parents at that fete spent two hours crowded into a marquee, watching the final of the Rugby World Cup. Against the odds and with the very public support of Nelson Mandela, South Africa won.

So when I saw that a film, Invictus, had been made describing that World Cup I was intrigued. The raw story was astonishing from many points of view. The South African team was not expected to do well. The newly-elected president was hardly expected to be interested in a game that is almost a religion to his political opponents, the Afrikaners. Both Mandela and the Springboks (as the SA rugby team is called) drew inspiration from a Victorian, yet Victorians treated both black and Afrikaner South Africans dreadfully.

On the other hand, South African films tend to be schmaltzy and I was sceptical that Morgan Freeman (Mandela) or Matt Damon (the South African rugby captain, Francois Pienaar) could do justice to their roles, or even do a reasonable accent. Too often, doing another country's accent ends up in caricature.

However, my curiousity won out and I went.

I am so glad I did. The film did a fine job of telling the story of South Africa's newly-won freedom from apartheid, the tensions and suspicions between white and black in the new South Africa, the abysmal state of SA rugby in the months leading up to the World Cup and a few of the many challenges faced by Mandela.

In its portrayal of the game of rugby this film is in its element, and this is why you should see it at the cinema rather than see it on TV. Unlike in American football, rugby offers no body armour to its players. Tackles by players are brutally hard: injuries not uncommon. The film makers created great feeling for this by a number of clever approaches, including filming the scrum from underneath.

There is a fairytale ending in which a match of two hours, drawn at full-time is won in extra time by a last minute drop kick at goal. This united a new nation in pride and seems the kind of thing that could only happen in fiction. Yet in all its essential elements this story is a true record of what happened. Morgan Freemen is an excellent and credible Mandela: Matt Damon plays Francois Pienaar superbly. My South African wife tells me that his Afrikaans accent is virtually perfect.

There are touching moments: there are harsh moments. There is hope and frustration. Finally, as happened on June 24th, there is incredible victory and exhilaration. It's a great film, and one of my rare recommendations. Go and see it now and get 2010 off to a great start.

Footnote: the Victorian who inspired both Mandela and Pienaar was English poet William Ernest Henley (1849–1903). His poem gives the film its title.

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Golfing for Cats

The late humorist Alan Coren had a deft way of dissecting his victims. In one particular article he depicted the Inland Revenue (the tax man for those not in the UK) as Nazi storm troopers, inflicting terror on small businesses. The reality behind the wit is that indeed the Inland Revenue has truly frightening powers under the law, but rarely uses them.

One has to wonder whether Alan Coren was prescient.

Since the tragic events of September 11th, 2001 (and 7th July 2005 bombings in London), Western governments have acted to preserve our liberty. Often it appears that they preserve our liberty by removing it:

• A woman was arrested under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act and was convicted. Her crime was to read out a list of those soldiers killed in Iraq, while standing at the Cenotaph, which is itself a monument to those killed in the two World Wars.
  
• Harrassment of photographers has become routine, often as suspected terrorists. There are too many cases to mention here but one I read about yesterday shows hows the laws are being abused. His crime? Apparently at 5'11" and 168lbs weight, his size was threatening.
  
• The Regulation of Inspectory Powers Act (RIPA), designed to track criminals and terrorists, has been used frequently by local councils to track residents who are littering and commiting other minor offences.
  

Earlier this month, the government proposed to give power to a wide range of civil servants and council officials to spy on UK citizens by giving access to every phone call, email, text message and other electronic communication.

It's time to stop this assault on our liberty.

Hart District Council is one of the smallest councils in the country. Last night we discussed the extent to which existing powers have been abused and the extent to which proposed power might be. We voted overwhelmingly to direct our council officers not to use these powers except where they are obliged by law to do so.

It's a small step, but it represents an important change in direction in winning back our freedom, not from terrorists but from Government interference.

I hope Alan Coren would have approved (although he may well have poked fun at us while doing so).

Footnote: Why "Golfing for Cats"? Alan Coren explained simply he was choosing a book title to appeal to the widest possible audience. He is missed.

Who?

I am sure that across Europe today, people reading or hearing the news about the new European President and Foreign Affairs minister are wondering who on earth they are. I certainly am.

Now I am not someone who is violently anti-Europe. However, the way in which these posts were decided is exactly what makes Eurosceptics froth at the mouth. The selection of these people was patently undemocratic and chaotic, to the extent that Baroness Catherine Ashton did not even have an acceptance speech prepared.

This is bizarre. How can people chosen in such a way have any claim to legitimately represent Europe?

(The usual defence of the establishment in such cases is to pompously criticise anyone who asks such questions and point out how the winning candidates are utterly suitable for their new posts. If that's the case it begs the question: then why weren't they democratically elected?)

I feel like I have gone back to the Feudal Ages and just been presented with my new Lord and Master (and his Lady).

24 hours to save the NHS

In 1997, Labour famously campaigned that voters had "24 hours to save the National Health Service" (who knew Google would give so many hits when searching on this phrase?)

Today it has been revealed that

• up to a quarter of all patients in hospitals suffer from dementia
  
• half of these patients leave hospital ina worse state than they arrive
  
• in many cases nursing staff feel that don't have adequate training to deal with people with dementia
  

This is despite the NHS budget rising from £65bn in 2002-3 to 110bn in 2010-11, an increase about the same as the total budget for defence. The talk this year in the NHS has been about "cuts" and "shortfalls".

A simple calculation shows that NHS spending is approximately £1,800 for every man, woman and child. How can there be so many ongoing problems after so much has been spent? I hope that voters will remember Labour's 1997 slogan come the next election.

Make Pontificating History

Am I the only one to be annoyed by pointless and deceitful campaign slogans? Let's take just a few:

• Make Poverty History.
  
• Every Child Matters.
  
• Millenium Development Goals.
  
• Abolish Youth Unemployment.
  

All of these have good intentions, but all seem disconnected from reality.

Make Poverty History

Jesus himself said "The poor will always be with us". Now I am not making a case for abandoning the poor, but in reality throwing money at countries or organisations which have shown themselves quite incapable of handling it isn't going to help anyone, least of all the poor. The home page of MPH is full of loaded political terms and devoid of ideas that will solve poverty long term. In fact, some of the actions suggested are little more than a left-wing rant ("vulture funds" "climate debt"). The only way to have any chance of making poverty history is to build democratic and commercial systems where the rule of law drives government. Throwing funds at dysfunctional states will only serve to impoverish ourselves and encourage and enrich the corrupt.

Every Child Matters.
Of course every child matters. This programme seems to be mainly to do with "joined up government". Whenever I hear the words "joined up government" I know what it means: people doing only what's in the official procedure instead of using their God-given brains. Every Child Matters so children can't paddle in water. Every Child Matters so teachers can't put sunscreen on children in their care. Every Child Matters so don't let them learn about losing; rather let them learn that if they lose, then it must be somebody's fault.

If every child does matter, why don't we do more to teach children about the world as it is, full of opportunity but also subject to disappointment? If every child matters, why don't we do a better job of educating our children so they are better able to cope with life and succeed?

Millenium Development Goals

Among these are the goal to reduce maternal deaths by 75% by 2015. This is surely a worthy goal. But we need to understand that many or most of those deaths come about because of society and culture in poor countries. These issues include women having more children (and each pregnancy is a health risk), poor care before during and after birth, sexual violence and poor condom use. All of these will take a considerable time to fix: setting a goal of 2015 is unrealistic.

Abolish Youth Unemployment

The obvious question is: How? I don't know any country in the world where there is zero unemployment. Now of course, we could abolish youth unemployment by introducing some kind of national service but I suspect not too many people would find that acceptable (but who knows)?

...

The common problem with all of these is that they set out an aspiration that is unrealistic. When the goal is missed, as was bound to happen, this is often followed by a tirade against right wing politicians or capitalism or both which almost by definition are uncaring and therefore must be to blame.

And this is the biggest pity of all, because these aspirations are often worthy goals. If we could reject the rhetoric and set realistic goals we would achieve a great deal more for those who desperately need our help.

These matters are too important to fall prey to petty politics.

Education, education, uh ... and lying

A major item in the news today has been about parents who lie to get their children into popular schools. The essence of the news is whether it's "right" to do so.

It seems to me we are missing the point. Twelve years ago, Tony Blair said his three main priorities for government were "education, education, education".

The real reason parents lie to get their children into schools is that, after twelve years of Labour rule, they realise that some schools do a much better job of educating their children. Labour has spent huge sums on education and delivered some improvements but too many schools fall short and parents aren't prepared to wait: their childrens' education is too precious.

The debate shouldn't be about how to punish parents who lie, but how to fix the problem: too many schools just don't measure up.

WMMMs are a mass distraction

So it's easy to get selected as a Tory WMMM (White, Middle-aged, Middle-class Male) candidate for parliament then, is it?

I wonder. Here's a little tale.

1 May 2008: I win re-election for the second time in Hart, with the biggest majority in the district. Hubris whispers slyly in my ear that this is because of how wonderful I am: Truth forces me to admit I have two excellent fellow councillors in the ward and possibly the best constituency MP in the land.

3 May 2008: Still feeling good about myself, I email my local constituency chairman, asking how to apply to become a Conservative parliamentary candidate (PPC).

7 June 2008: Not having heard, I email again. Again I get no reply.

14 May 2009: It's 11 months later and we have a new constituency chairman. So I email him to ask how to become a PPC.

19 May 2009: The chairman replies apologetically that he has made enquiries and CCO (Conservative Central Office) has recently closed the lists and is not accepting any more applications.

19 May 2009: I write back, pointing out that I'd twice enquired in mid 2008, almost a year before lists closed.

19 May 2009: A somewhat dismissive email comes back from CCO, saying they have no record of me applying. Well, that's right, they don't because my email got either lost or ignored in the local office.

21 May 2009: Having slept on it for 2 nights because it is not necessarily wise to send an email while exasperated, I write to CCO politely pointing out (with attached evidence) that I had twice previously asked to be considered but that the request had somehow fallen through the cracks and would they kindly reconsider having closed their lists?

24 May 2009: David Cameron announces he is re-opening candidates lists.

26 May 2009: I write in and ask for an application form.

29 May 2009: I get a reply from Eric Pickles which says, among other things, "It is clear that our political system needs radical change if we are to restore public trust – and that change involves new people putting themselves forward as MPs." An application form is attached.

Early June 2009: I fill in the forms, get referees, submit the forms.

25 June 2009: I get a reply from CCO, part of which says "... because of the large number of applications, it will not be possible for us to enter into individual correspondence with you about your application, but you will hear from us, probably by the end of July."

15 Aug 2009: I am feeling a touch neurotic now but I don't want to appear too neurotic so I wait a couple of weeks after the end of July deadline before sending CCO an email asking "Have I missed your reply, or are things running slowly over the holiday period?"

20 Aug 2009: A reply arrives. The essence is "We will contact you should you be progressed to the next stage. You will, however, be advised either way."

13 Sep 2009: The Sunday Times runs a story on "A-List" outsiders who've applied when I did and now have completed the whole process. I wonder. I am just a local Tory councillor. Where in the alphabet does that put me? I hope it's not the Z-List.

Early October 2009: I am sadly getting used to being ignored by my party. I see that in Bracknell (where I work), the Tory party has interviewed a lot of candidates and drawn up a short list. I realise I might not have made the short list but it would have been nice to been given the opportunity.

Part of me hopes I make the list before I retire.

Part of me thinks that Bracknell is a pretty good constituency where I have worked for most of the last decade and where I have a large collection of friends.

Part of me wonders whether it wouldn't be easier to run as an independent candidate.

Many people believe that as a white middle-aged middle class man I will have received preferential treatment. I am still waiting for CCO to get back to me. If it's true that men get preference, I wonder how much longer I would have to wait if I were a woman.

Update:
My older son, who is flu'-ridden but whose judgement I respect unquestioningly, told me that what I have written above sounds bitter. I am sorry about this: I didn't intend to sound that way but I must admit to feeling let-down. What I had intended to write was more about getting more women Tory MPs until I got distracted into looking up dates. So, dear reader, having read this far please stay with me!

I have a very good friend who until recently was the UK CFO of one of the best known retailers in the world. She left them when they moved their offices to continental Europe, as she has children who are happily settled in schools and whom she did not want to move. I've tried to persuade her to become a Tory candidate on several occasions but she's been adamant that she feels Tories don't want people like her.

I've attempted to explain this isn't true, but I may be labouring in vain in this case. If we want to attract more high quality women candidates we need to make women feel that they will be welcome. I think all-women candidate lists do the opposite and are patronising. And if we get high quality women candidates to come forward, we'd better be prepared for them and not give them the run-around.