2010 Mid Term Congressional Elections in the US

The New York Times: Reports on a local House race in Cincinnati and how much trouble the Democratic Congressman could be in due to the fact Obama will not be on top of the ballot. As stated this blog had predicted that the Republicans will take the House and come close the Senate, the US voter has really turned on the Obama Presidency, the Obama Economic Agenda has not turned the economy around, the Oval pushed health care reform through against the wishes of a majority of Americans, the oil slick on the Gulf is still going on and now Obama wants to give amnesty to illegal immigrants. Obama had a chance to unite the country after his election in 2008 but he threw it away to push a extreme liberal agenda. Also the Bush Tax cuts come to an end, this will place more taxes on the voter. At the end of the day the US voter will want a VETO on the Obama Agenda, and a Republican Congress will force him to the centre or he will spend two years as a impotent President before being thrown out in 2012 by the US voter. What ever you think of Bill Clinton he was a great political operator, he came back from his big political loss of 1994 and won in 1996, Obama is not pragmatic he cant cope with not being loved, thus my prediction that he will not run in 2012 or will lose by 48 to 49 states.

On the Bookstand with Views!

The Alastair Campbell Diaries, The Complete Edition, Edited by Alastair Campbell and Bill Hagerty. This is a great read folks, you see the birth of New Labour, the political cancer at its heart with the political war between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The brooding Gordon Brown, the political dark arts of Peter Mandelson. The political spinning of Alastair Campebell. As a Conservative you cant help but wonder how we lost to these bunch of out of control Ego’s, but since this blog is a Conservative Blog its fun to see the history of the other side, if the press had known half the stuff or had reported it the New Labour birth would have been aborted at birth.
　
Also have Kissinger’s Year:1973 by Alistair Horne. It’s a great read folks, you see the destructive power of Watergate on Richard Nixon and how a domestic scandal had a damaging effect on Foreign Policy. The book covers Watergate, Vietnam, Yom Kippur War and Détente. A Great introduction to Foreign Policy folks.

On the fiction side we have:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. A great way to focus the mind, relax but also gives the mind a murder mystery to solve. A great read on public transport.

Coalition Break over Referendum Vote ?

Telegraph: Reports that Lord Ashdown the former Liberal Democrat Leader has stated the Party will not walk away from the Coalition should it lose the Referendum on a change to the UK voting system. The question has to be asked what happens if backbench Tories and Labour MPs force an amendment through that states that for any change in the voting system must be approved by 40% of electorate. Thus the Lib Dems might win a Referendum but due to a low voter turn out lose the referendum. The Labour Party will place political minefields in the way of the Referendum vote, although a majority of the Leadership Candidates support a new voting system the Referendum Bill also balances the numbers of electors needed to elect an MP, thus this will hit inner City Labour MPs and help rural Torie MPs. This referendum could still bring down the Coalition folks.

40% Government Departments CUTS - The Spin

BBC News: Reports on the order from the UK Treasury for Government Departments to find cuts of up to 40% from their Budgets. This is clever political spin folks, by stressing the 40% number the actual cuts of around 25% - 33% will look mild. Nice to see old New Labour spin is not dead in the new Government.

Tony Blair and Iraq

The Independent: Reports that some anti Iraq War MPs want the former UK Tony Blair to be recalled to the Iraq Inquiry to answer questions on recent released secret documents that show the evolution of the legal opinion for going to War in Iraq. This is good news for the Coalition Government, it places the Labour Party in having to defend his former leader Tony Blair. Also as long as the Iraq inquiry is on it allows Iraq to be in the news, thus a twin problem for the Labour Party, it has to defend its management of the economy and for taking the UK in to war in 2003. The content of the documents had been in the public eye for some time but to see the documents and how in many respects it can be postulated that the Government Lawyers had pressure placed on them to change their minds from supporting a new resolution for War to saying that it was not needed, as to recalling Tony Blair would be of any use that is up to debate, as he stated in an interview before the Inquiry he would have used a different argument if not WMD for going to war if he had too. The War was on folks, WMD was fig leave. Lets be clear folks this blog supported the War if not the aftermath, but don’t treat the voter as fools, that is hubris that even this blog can not and will not support.

Death in Afghanistan

MOD: Reports that a UK Soldier was killed Yesterday in Afghanistan, the Soldier was a " Royal Marine ". Thus since 2001 the UK has lost 310 of its Armed Forces Personnel in Afghanistan, of that total it has lost 272 in combat operations and 38 due to illness, accidents or other incidents.

Non Paywall Blog - Times to Guardian

Guardian: A Legal Blog has moved from the Times to the Guardian. Support those blogs that are not behind a pay wall, show with clicks the mistake the Times and the Sunday Times are doing with pay walls. Good on the Guardian.