RUTH DAVIDSON IGNORING PEOPLE

THIS LITTLE PIGGIE WENT TO MANCHESTER

So, excitingly for Brits, today saw the start of their Tory Party Conference in Manchester, England. 

Given that the government is so popular with ordinary hard working people up and down the country, it attracted a lot of attention from their adoring public. People were queuing across the streets to congratulate the likes of Jeremy Hunt for expertly steering the English Health Service through these difficult times and straight into a ditch.

They were clearly overwhelming supportive of the trades union legislation which will see it become almost impossible to strike, no matter what your employers do to you, and the welfare reforms which are not too slowly but very surely killing off the old, the sick and the vulnerable.

So popular have the policies of the Tory Party been that the delegates had to be shut in behind steel barriers and warned not to go out of the hotel wearing anything that would identify them as being Tories.  Still they were getting the booze in just in case they they are marooned. 

On the rooftops there were police marksmen with rifles trained on the great unwashed. Just like the London Olympics. I was looking around for one of their new drones, now that Cameron has decided summary execution forms part of his powers.

There was much mirth as the lowly common people enjoyed recounting the jolly stories of the somewhat naughty activities of their betters who had been at Eton and Oxford and taken part in weird sexual rituals way beyond the understanding of your ordinary hard working family man or woman.

This is the Tory government that was elected only 5 short months ago, as proudly boasted by the Telegraph, albeit with a pretty small majority, on the votes of 27% of the eligible population.

I'd not like to see the security they will need when they come to their party conference in 2019!

Just thought here it would be nice to see a little photograph of our Nicola, our head of government, visiting one of our northern cities and compare it with Cameron visiting one of theirs.

I look forward to our Tory Party Conference. I do hope that it won't cause the same disruption to one of our towns.

WHEN WILL THEY EVER LEARN? STILL, OFF TO WAR WE GO...

How the Sunday Mirror reporter must have laughed (or maybe cried) when she received a text of Brooks Nomark with his pants down. Seemingly the ex "Minister for Civil Society" whatever that is, thought he was going to be getting it on with some sexy young Tory activist... but was mistaken. 

Now he is spending more time with the family with which, hitherto, he clearly wished to spend less time.

Corrr.....

It says something about the man's ego that, given that he is past his first flushes of youth, he would seriously think that a young lass would be interested in looking at texted pictures of his privates for the sheer joy of it. Did he never think.... nah... can't be... must be an ulterior motive?

Anyway, what was the minister for civil society at all? 

Answers on a post card.

In more general terms, isn't the Tory Party Conference going well... sex scandals and defections to UKIP. Even the thought of killing foreigners hasn't cheered them up this time.

Never happier than when they are killing Johnny Foreigner

Ha ha ha ha ha,... you need to ask that?

That's about it...

Bless it, where would vinegar lips be without the Daily Mail?

AMAZINGLY THEY ACTUALLY TURNED SOMEONE DOWN

This is a corker!

Probably there to spot the "bear" faced lies, this fellow joined the
pensioners afternoon out.
Well, it's warm and free, and you get a cup of tea and a biscuit
and a "blether together" about the good old days
 when they sent little boys up lums.

A Tory-supporter was banned from the party’s Scottish conference because he backs independence.

Henry Christian had his application for the conference rejected when the organisers discovered that he had campaigned with Yes Scotland.

He has been a party member since he was a teenager; he stood in Edinburgh for the Tories in the 2012 council elections and he was, until it folded, vice chairman of Edinburgh West Conservatives.

Mr Christian, who is now 41 was, not surprisingly, very angry at how he had been treated, especially in light of the fact that the Tories had sent out invitations to people in the area of the conference, whether or not they were members of the party, in an effort to fill empty seats.

He has been an independence supporter since the 1980s and has not previously been banned from conferences.

A Scottish Conservative spokesman said that the Party reserved the right to refuse admission to any applicant. You’d not have thought though, desperate as they are to get bums on seats, that that would have included someone who was considered good enough to stand for the council in their name. Specially not when they happy to invite Alistair Darling to address them last year!

That worked well... My recollection was
that she closed anything that was open

According to the Sunday Post people living in the EH3 postcode area of Edinburgh were invited to the conference in a bid to fill up the auditorium, which had rows of empty seats even when Cameron was speaking.

And this is the party that we didn't vote for, but which overall runs our country and which, in government, runs around the world preaching about democracy.

They wouldn't recognise it if it bit them on their collective fat cat posteriors.

But Mr Christian, I can tell you, from what I've heard, you missed nothing, except a succession of public school toffs from London telling us how difficult they would make life for us after independence (whilst knowing perfectly well that they wouldn't), and regurgitating already disproved scare stories about the EU, borders, barbed wire, etc...

It was a bucket full of negativity and deceit!

Even the star turn couldn't fill more than the front
and they are mostly MPs and MSPs

But, then again, if you've been to a Scottish Tory conference before, you'd have been expecting it.

For those who want to see just how pathetic the turn out was for wee Ruth Stuart has posted these photographs of what the BBC has described (for some odd reason, not perhaps unconnected with Chris Paten, "resurgent". If that's it resurging, I'd hate to have seen it on a decline.

I'M HEADING DOWNTOWN TO SEE PETULA CLARK, BUT WITH THE TORIES THE COUNTRY IS JUST HEADING DOWN

No blogging for me today, as I am shortly off to Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall to see the awesome Petula Clark in concert.

Petula signing cd's after last night's concert

However, I was amused by this article from Facebook, and I thought you might enjoy the read.

I highlighter a couple of things towards the bottom, which, in all the fun, are the stinking reality of what our lives are like in the UK.

Maria Miller, government minister addressing the Tory faithful

So what did we learn from the Tory party conference this week that finally came to an end with a gushing speech from David Cameron that made you feel that a Roman orgy was going to break out any minute.

First of all we learned that George Osborne has changed his hairdresser when he rocked up to the conference with what looked like a decomposing raccoon perched on top of his brainless head.

Yes this was the news that George was going for Russell Crowes tough look in gladiator but managed to pull off a kind of ''carry on gladiator'' look, but he was not the only bizarre thing prancing around in Manchester !! Theresa May turned up as the last tribute act to the Bay City Rollers complete with tartan suit and shiny shoes with sparkly stones in the heels, She did get a large round of applause as she took to the stage though which turned to a sigh of disappointment when the audience realised it was not Billy Connolly but that mad old bird from the home office.

Iain Duncan Smith turned up looking like a national front skin head snarling at everyone while the conference security guards made sure there was no disabled people lurking around for fear that ''Gripper Smith'' would tip them from their wheel chairs and give them bloody scroungers a damned good kicking.

Defence secretary Philip Hammond was busy telling everybody how brilliant he was and how he had single handedly destroyed the British army with nothing more than his pen when two old soldiers stood up and made their last stand, surrounded by hostile natives and before they were overcome by sheer weight of numbers they were able to tell Hammond, who was already waving a white handkerchief while cowering behind the plinth and sobbing for them not to hurt him, just what a proper tool he was and how he had wiped out regiments that had bled young men's lives for hundreds of years to protect the people of the British Empire. It may not have been Zulu Dawn but at least these two old warriors made their last stand against the enemy within.

So what about what they all had to say. Well they said very little. Yet again was no mention of these tough new tax avoidance laws to claw back the 70 odd billion that their donors and friends owe the tax payer. There was defiance that there would be no mansion tax and there would be more tax cuts for the big corporations of who's shareholders sit on their front benches and drink for free in the house of lords.

According to the over whelming theme to this conference, the only thing that matters is to take and punish the people who already have nothing, the key word was ''Hard working people'' which they creepily said as much as possible and in every TV interview as if to hypnotically burn it in to our subconscious that we would start to go about our day chanting ''we must work hard, we must work hard, we must kill those that don't, we must kill those that don't''

It was pretty pathetic and insulting to most people’s intelligence and we probably paid somebody a few million quid to come up with the idea of repeating this silly verse to us out of our TVs and radio and also reading it in the papers, in fact I heard it said so many times it was stupid but a tiny bit sinister and make no mistake it is intended to further isolate and stigmatise the unemployed and the disabled and silence the injustice of the punishments being continually heaped upon them under the flag that everyone is playing the system.

It is a disgrace and it is divisive and shameful and will damage the villages, towns and cities and their community spirit, which has seen this country prevail over hundreds of years and through its darkest hours and when everything seemed to be lost.

Make no mistake the Tories are now asking the working class to side with them, against the lower classes and all the while they are enjoying tax cuts and corporation tax cuts, huge privatising contracts and tax havens, in fact the very wealthy have seen their fortunes grow sharply under this governments protection and it is no coincidence that tax returns have fallen under the Tories and so public services are cut to make up the difference.

I am astounded that so many people have been so easily fooled and diverted their gaze from what this government is up to and are now just staring at the scapegoats as the Tories make hay in the sun.

A bedroom tax for the poor but no mansion tax for the wealthiest

A rise in VAT for us and a tax cut just for the wealthiest

A war on the welfare state and a blind eye for tax avoidance

A failing NHS for us and a money cow for the wealthy in its privatisation

A freeze or drop in wages for us and huge bonus payments for the banking wealthy

A freeze in tax credits for the WORKING poor and expenses and benefits now at an all time high for the political wealthy

So I ask you once more? Where should your gaze really be fixed because all the time your back is turned the sly old Tory fox is in the hen house.

Finally what about David Cameron's speech! Well it reminded me of that boy at school who would always enjoy reporting you to the teacher and smile as you were punished.

In Cameron's case he would be running to the teacher whining that Labour had done this or its all Labours fault, and I was only cleaning up Labours mess and Labour got me into trouble.....

You get the just, even after over three years, he still wants to blame Labour for the weak economy and the lack of housing and the failing NHS and the disaster that is universal credit.

This was not a conference it was a finger pointing exercise, no real fresh ideas, just fresh accusations and fresh punishments and more hints that we will be on the sharp end of more cuts and to get your vote in a years’ time, a few crumbs from the high table like 3 pound a week to get married or £2.70 per week extra for the lowest paid.

If this is all it takes to make you feel that you are a Tory at the next election then it may be that all hope is lost and the good honest caring folk of these green and pleasant lands will not prevail against a second term, under the likes of David Cameron, George Osborne and Iain Duncan Smith.

THE CAT WAS THE STAR OF THE SHOW.

I noted that journalists have started calling Kate Middleton and Samantha Cameron, 'queens of recycled fashion'. What this actually means of course is that, despite being as rich as Croesus, they have both worn some of their clothes more than once. Probably as an example to us lower orders that such things are quite permissible (phew, thank goodness). Why exactly it matters Cameroness wears, I'm not sure, but it may to some extent have taken people's minds off the crap that her husband was talking in his speech.

Talking of what people wear taking people's minds off what they say, old Tessy Kinky-Boots, was wearing leopard skin shoes for her blethers about immigrants and their CATS. How appropriate! I heard that Ken has been hauled over the coals by Dave for making a fool of the daft old biddy's haverings. Dave should be careful taking on Ken. Mr Clarke has more intellect in his little finger than Dave has in his entire body. BTW, what was she doing using Primal Scream's song, "Rocks" as her theme? Has she listened to the lyrics, about drug dealing and having sex? Is her image consultant as inept as her speech writer? 

George's speech wasn't much better. What a load of guff. He warbled on about the economy and the mess they inherited from Labour without mentioning that when Labour demitted office the economy was starting to improve and that since the Tories took over it has gone back downhill. He talked about the banks but failed to explain why the government is now going to be doing the bank's jobs for them, by lending to companies that the banks don't consider good risks. Goodbye to some more of our money. Still, as the banks and the City provide more than half of Tory funding, I suppose we can't expect much more. The self congratulatory stuff about the Euro was pretty revolting. It wasn't even a Tory government which decided that Britain should not join the currency. It was Gordon Brown who made that decision. Presumably one that George would like to congratulate him for. As for his assertion that he will find the tax withholders and make them pay up, well,  he won't have very far to look for his first victims.


It appears that Ramsay Jones, the Tory's Spin Manager in Scotland, has been suspended for allegedly helping Ruth Davidson with her campaign. Both Annabel Goldie and Cameron are supposedly behind her, but all Tory staff are supposed to be neutral, for obvious reasons. However, Mr Jones appears to have been a little less so than was expected of him. Do these guys ever get it right?

Making volunteering and the Big Society a political issue was a massive mistake. Immediately a section of society decided that if it was a direction from the government, then they wouldn't do it. David Cameron said it would be his legacy; Francis Maude made a fool of himself when he couldn't remember one thing HE did voluntarily and Nat Wei, who was the Big Society Czar, and did the work unpaid, (apart from the seat in the HoL, worth £300+ a day) resigned  because he could no longer afford to work for nothing. All have all been embarrassments to the government. Now we are told by Nick Hurd (a junior minister, related to Douglas Hurd) that people moving into retirement should volunteer instead of playing golf all day. Well, Eton, Oxford and Bullingdon, with DC...what else would you expect? He's not even semi-detached. He lives in another universe. 


Pics: Sam Cam, the clothes horse; Tess of the Horrible's CAT-skin shoes; George looking superior with his tie squint; and Nick Hurd getting a handful.

YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS YOU

So, my country needs me. And if I help David Cameron create the Big Society, then within a few years we can reap the rewards and we can all be rich and successful.

But we must ALL pull together in the (British) national interest and soon everything will be peaches and cream.

Right.

And then the fairy god mother gave me a big kiss and, in keeping with the season, I turned into a pumpkin.

Jam tomorrow. I’ve heard it all my life. It never happens.

This afternoon Mr Cameron gave his conference speech which even his biggest fans would have been hard pressed to call stirring. He told the faithful (and the not so faithful, still angry that they were going to lose some money in the child benefit) that "The big society is ................ an attempt to create a citizenship that is not simply a transaction in which you put your taxes in and get your services out. When we say 'we are all in this together'", he intoned in a serious voice, "that is not a cry for help, but a call to arms."

A call to arms? What on earth is he on about?

I had no part in causing any of this mess. It is a mess caused by bankers, finance people, government and a compliant parliament. It’s all very well blaming Labour, but where was the opposition to credit gone crazy? Did the shadow chancellor not realize it was happening? Did he not understand it? Or was he making too much money from it all?

In a mad rush to get rich bankers and their management took wild mad gambles and made obscene amounts of money. The government truly believed its own spin, in a mind blowing conceit and incredible stupidity, that it had delivered the impossible: an end to boom and bust, and the back benchers were too busy filling in their expense forms, buying, selling and flipping their houses to bother with that kind trivia.

They got us into this mess. I, like everyone else, will have to pay, through higher taxes and fewer services, but that’s an end to my participation in whole nasty mess. I’m certainly not taking any part in his Big Society. So he can stuff it!

.........

PS: Is it me, or does Mrs Cameron have a hole in her dress?