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Future historians will see that speech – the culmination of a decade of Labour's fiscal incontinence – as the moment when the UK was irrevocably relegated from the world's economic premier league. Amidst audible gasps in the Commons, Darling revealed the UK's national debt would swell from 37pc to 80pc of GDP by 2014, not including the bank bail-outs. Just 12 months before, he'd claimed that sovereign debt would stay below its 40pc ceiling. This country would borrow £703bn over the coming five years, Darling announced in April – a head-spinning 62pc more than his estimate five months earlier. Borrowing...

UK troops could be withdrawn from Germany if the Tories win power, the shadow defence secretary has said. Liam Fox said maintaining the current presence of more than 20,000 was "no longer necessary". Other Nato member states should take up the UK's responsibilities in Germany, allowing British troops to deploy elsewhere, he told the Daily Telegraph. The Ministry of Defence says the number of forces personnel in Germany has fallen and is under constant review. "Following the Cold War, we've drawn down our troops in Germany to reflect the changed strategic context. The UK always looks to share responsibility proportionally...

19 October 2009 Tories Could 'Rip Up' BBC Charter Mr Hunt said he had not decided the timing of changes to BBC governance A Conservative government could "rip up" the BBC's royal charter, the shadow culture secretary has suggested. The current royal charter allowing the BBC's licence fee expires in 2015. But Jeremy Hunt told the Financial Times that the corporation was "out of touch with the hard times the rest of the electorate is going through". He said the BBC's structure had "failed", adding that Tories in power would have a "very fundamental root-and-branch discussion with the BBC". Cheerleader...

Check out the two free ringtones, and DL them to your phone. I just did it. Works pretty easy. NOTE: If you have the iPhone, you have to send it to your phone, then go back to your computer and click on the links. Not sure if this will work, but here is the link to the iPhone file for Churchill's. http://www.myxer.com/ap/iphone/695738235/We%20shall%20fight%20on%20the%20beaches.m4r PS - Really hope this is not confusing!

Bono’s appearance in a pre-recorded video message at the Conservative Party Conference caused a bit of an internet uproar. Such was the outpouring of hostile comments on Twitter (with popular taglines including #Bonoisat— and #BonoToryScum) that the social networking site temporarily broke down. So you are a rock superstar for 30 years, a Nobel peace prize nominee and tireless charity proselytiser and what do you have to do to become a trending topic on Twitter? Talk to the Tories. (snip) If Bono speaks to the Labour party (as he did last week, introducing Gordon Brown’s key note speech), or sends...

David Cameron has been challenged to prove Tory support for the Health Service is more than 'skin deep'. Health Secretary Andy Burnham called on him to expel from his party Daniel Hannan, the MEP who went on U.S. television to call the NHS a '60-year-old mistake'. Lord Mandelson attacked Mr Cameron as 'a fraud'. The Business Secretary claimed: 'He's different when he thinks people aren't looking or listening. And the sentiments he expresses in Britain are not shared by his party, so there is a double fraud.' The Tory leader faced further pressure after evidence emerged that senior Tories would...

BNP wins European Parliament seat The British National Party has won its first seat in the European Parliament after gaining more than 120,000 votes in the Yorkshire and Humber region. Labour could be on course to dip below 20% of the vote in what Harriet Harman has called a "very dismal" night. After the first three English regions to declare, Labour is third on 15.9% of the vote behind the Tories on 26.8% and UKIP [UK Independence Party] on 18.1%. There are still nine regions to declare their results. But if repeated across the UK it will pile pressure on...

Parliament suffered its darkest day yesterday as MPs and peers were suspended for alleged misconduct and the Commons faced an exodus of shamed and demoralised Members. MPs caught up in the expenses scandal admitted that they could be dropped by their local parties. Others were said by colleagues to be ready to walk away. Some who have been unaffected declared that the attractions of life as an MP had disappeared. It was the grimmest time that most could remember, with many still fearful about future disclosures and none able to raise enthusiasm for immediate concerns such as the European and...

excerpt: [photo] a Christian minister in London because they didn’t like his gospel television show. “If you go back to the studio,” they threatened, “we’ll break your legs.” The Reverend Noble Samuel said, “(The first man) started slapping my face and punching my neck. He was trying to smash my head on the steering wheel. Then he grabbed my......

One Law for All, the group that campaigns against the adoption of Islamic law or sharia in the UK, is planning a mass demonstration in the centre of London tomorrow, Saturday. 'We know we have a huge fight ahead and can only win if we do this together. We must mobilise a mass anti-racist movement that defends people's rights and lives and gives them precedence over culture and religion,' says organiser Maryam Namazie. The protest is timed to coincide with International Women's Day. Maryam says: 'This is your chance to voice your opposition to sharia law and all religious-based tribunals...

Note: The following text is a quote: May 8, 2009 UK bans cross-shaped medal as offensive to Muslims and Hindus When in Muslim countries, non-Muslims must conform their behavior to Muslim sensibilities. In non-Muslim countries, non-Muslims must conform their behavior to Muslim sensibilities. Got it? It is a pity that the prevailing multiculturalist fog is such that the Hindus joined this initiative. They may ultimately find their allies in this struggle turning on them. Cultural Abdication Alert from Absurd Britannia: "Queen's medal of honour scrapped... because it's too Christian for Muslims and Hindus," from the Daily Mail, May 8 (thanks...

Aaqil Ahmed, the innovative and interesting programmer responsible for Channel 4's recent Christianity: A History series, has been appointed the first Muslim head of religion at the BBC, as we report today. The Church of England could have been a little warmer in its welcome. The Bishop of Manchester, the Right Rev Nigel McCulloch, said: 'The Church of England takes a close interest in the way Christianity, and other faiths, are portrayed by the BBC across all its programming. We are also interested in its specifically religious output, in light of this country's Judeo-Christian heritage. It is the quality and...

GORDON Brown was under pressure last night to call an immediate general election in the face of public fury over the Westminster expenses scandal. Angry voters across the country are demanding a mass clearout of MPs. At the same time, Scotland Yard has announced a team of leading police officers and prosecution lawyers will meet next week to decide what action to take against those who have abused the public’s trust. A poll of voters yesterday found two-thirds want an election called as soon as poss­ible. The same number want MPs who have been named and shamed to be forced...

Members of the BNP should be banned from being nurses, according to a motion passed at Unison’s Health Care Service Group Conference today. Delegates voted unanimously in favour of the motion, submitted by the National Nursing Sector, which calls for a law to prevent BNP members becoming nurses. It also calls for support from the NMC, which states that nurses should not discriminate against patients on the basis of race, but does not ban BNP membership outright. Proposing the motion, Mick McKeown, nursing sector committee member, said that the racist views of the BNP were incompatible with the public service...

Gordon Brown’s efforts to broker an £80billion bailout for world trade on a trip to Brazil hit a stumbling block tonight when the country’s President lashed out at ‘white, blue-eyed’ bankers for bringing the world economy to its knees.   Mr Brown watched on uneasily as his host, President Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva, launched a bizarre tirade in which he warned that next week’s G20 summit in London would be a ‘spicy’ affair.  President Lula said it was completely unfair that the poorest people in the world were suffering most for the mistakes of wealthy, Western financiers.  ...

Labour faces the possibility of being all but wiped out in the South in next month’s council elections, putting a swath of its parliamentary seats in jeopardy at the general election. Gordon Brown will launch the party’s local and European election campaign today in Derbyshire, one of Labour’s last four counties, all of which could fall on June 4. Although the four in jeopardy are in the Midlands or the North the Prime Minister will be equally worried that Labour councillors could disappear from a string of counties in the South. Labour has seen its local government base fall alarmingly...

It's hard to believe it's been 30 years since Margaret Thatcher became Britain's prime minister. She is now in declining health and no longer speaks in public, but if this week's anniversary of Mrs. Thatcher's election proves anything, it's that mention of her name can still start an argument. Some honor her as an unwavering champion of common people and simple principles. Others denounce her as an unbending, heartless ideologue. But virtually all agree that no American president has had a more reliable foreign ally. A generation later, facing tremendous international dangers, President Barack Obama could use such a partner....

Labour is heading for an election defeat as heavy as that suffered by John Major because Gordon Brown has lost control of the parliamentary party, two senior Cabinet ministers have privately warned. The Prime Minister was forced to surrender in his battle to reform MPs’ expenses yesterday after backbenchers threatened to defy his authority for the second time in two days. The retreat was announced to avert another humiliating loss in the Commons, only 24 hours after the Government was defeated over the right of Gurkhas to live in Britain. After another day of whips’ desperate bargaining with Labour MPs...

FURIOUS David Cameron tonight called for the dissolution of Parliament claiming that the political system in Britain is 'paralysed'. The Conservative leader said that the public 'wanted to pass judgement' on politicians in the wake of the expenses scandal and demanded a snap general election. As Commons Speaker Michael Martin refused to resign in chaotic scenes in the House, Mr Cameron said he wanted immediate action from Tory activists throughout the country to force the dissolution of Parliament. He also urged the general public, including Labour and LibDem supporters, to join in and start their own petitions or write to...

"David Cameron will head a party dominated by MPs more socially conservative and less concerned with the environment than their leader, an analysis of Conservative parliamentary candidates suggests. Mr Cameron has told close colleagues that he believes he is on course to win 140 new Tory MPs after the next election, The Times has been told. While such a net gain would give Mr Cameron an overall majority of about 15, it could place him to the left of most of his parliamentary party, in which the majority will be new to the Commons." "It finds that far from being...

The disabled 6-year-old son of Britain's top opposition leader David Cameron died Wednesday, the Conservative Party said.Ivan Cameron had cerebral palsy and Ohtahara syndrome, a rare and severe form of epilepsy. He was the eldest of three children of Cameron and his wife Samantha.Cameron, 42, is widely expected to become Britain's next prime minister. His party consistently leads Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labour Party in opinion polls.The Conservative Party said in a statement that Ivan became ill overnight and died early Wednesday in a London hospital.

As her special adviser in Downing Street, he played a vital role in two of the most important episodes of her premiership. In 1981 he was brought back from academia to stiffen her resolve in pushing though a budget that cut public spending during a recession, the decisive break with the Keynesian past.

David Cameron today led a furious outcry at the arrest and detention for nine hours of the Conservative Shadow Immigration Minister Damian Green. The Tory leader called the police operation 'extraordinary and frankly rather worrying', while former Shadow Home Secretary David Davis compared it with the arrest of opposition in Zimbabwe. Mr Green had his home, his Commons and constituency offices searched over claims that he leaked confidential Government documents... The information Mr Green, MP for Ashford in Kent, is accused of leaking includes a Home Office memo revealing that an illegal immigrant had been working in the House of...

THE Conservatives have smashed through the 50 per cent barrier in the polls for the first time since Margaret Thatcher's heyday, a further blow to Gordon Brown's struggling leadership. An Ipsos MORI poll published today showed the Tories up four points on 52 per cent. The news comes amid reports that another member of the government is set to quit within days over Mr Brown's leadership. Eric Joyce, the Falkirk MP and parliamentary private secretary to John Hutton, the Business Secretary, is reportedly considering resigning after the Labour conference which begins this weekend. And James Purnell, the Work and Pensions...

OTTAWA — The Harper Conservatives will enter a federal election campaign with a polling lead that puts them within striking distance of winning a majority government, according to a new survey taken on the eve of an expected vote. The new poll for The Globe and Mail-CTV News finds Canadian voters satisfied with the direction of the country and significantly more confident in the leadership abilities of the Tories and Prime Minister Stephen Harper than they are in those of his main rival, Stéphane Dion and the Liberals. According to the poll, conducted by the Strategic Counsel, 37 per cent...

David Cameron today threw his weight behind international condemnation of Russia with a call for the suspension of European negotiations with the superpower. The Conservative party leader also urged the European Union to accelerate its trade talks with Georgia. Speaking on Sky News, Cameron explained: "There are still Russian troops in Georgia proper and this is after they signed a peace agreement saying they would pull out all their troops. "They really have behaved in a way that is quite wrong and will I believe turn out to be counterproductive." He added: "If European countries come together and send out...

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - The British Conservative party has a solid advantage over the governing Labour party, according to a poll by YouGov. 45 per cent of respondents would vote for the official opposition party in the next election to the House of Commons, down three points in a week. The Labour party is second with 25 per cent, followed by the Liberal Democrats with 18 per cent. 12 per cent of respondents would vote for other parties. In June 2007, Gordon Brown officially became Labour leader and prime minister, replacing Tony Blair. Brown had worked as chancellor of...

Opposition leader David Cameron on Saturday became the first top British politician to visit Georgia since the conflict with Russia began and slammed Moscow for "invading" the country. "I wanted to come to show the strongest possible support of the British people, the British government and the British opposition," Cameron told reporters after talks with Georgian Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze. "Russia invaded another sovereign country and that should not be allowed to stand. The Russian troops must leave... it is remarkable how close they are to Tbilisi," said the leader of the right-wing Conservative party. Foreign Secretary David Miliband has...

The travelling summer fair was already here when the political circus rolled into this town that time forgot, just west of Quebec City. But there were 1,500 people waiting at the local arena for Stephen Harper, a show of strength arranged Wednesday evening by Jacques Gourde, the sitting Conservative MP for the riding of Lotbinière-Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, 30 km west of South Shore Levis, where the party’s national caucus met over the last two days. The former Bloc Québécois member, Odina Desrochers, whom Gourd defeated in 2006, was among the friendly faces in the rural crowd. The road to a Conservative majority...

David Cameron is to launch the biggest shake-up of the Conservative Party for decades as part of a bold plan to win support across the whole of the United Kingdom. The Tories are to forge a new party with the Ulster Unionists to try to secure broader backing for Mr Cameron before the next election. The move to restore a link severed more than 30 years ago forms a central plank in a new Conservative strategy to broaden the party's appeal outside England.

David Cameron declared yesterday that some people who are poor, fat or addicted to alcohol or drugs have only themselves to blame. He said that society had been too sensitive in failing to judge the behaviour of others as good or bad, right or wrong, and that it was time for him to speak out against "moral neutrality"... "We talk about people being 'at risk of obesity' instead of talking about people who eat too much and take too little exercise," he said. "We talk about people being at risk of poverty, or social exclusion: it's as if these things...

Cameron hails by-election victory   Conservative leader David Cameron has hailed an "excellent result" in the Henley by-election, which saw Labour beaten into fifth place.Mr Cameron said his party's win showed people were starting to think of the Tories as an alternative government. But Gordon Brown - speaking a year after he became PM - said "by-elections come and by-elections go". Labour lost its deposit with just 1,066 votes - fewer than the BNP, Greens, Lib Dems and Tory victor John Howell. Mr Howell took the seat with 19,796 votes - a majority of 10,116 to the Lib Dem...

For reasons of media and opposition bias that are all too familiar, the words of Ms. Julie Couillard are being accorded Triple A rating for credibility while whatever Prime Minister Harper says is being downgraded to junk. Ms. Couillard (an alleged security expert) says her bed had been electronically bugged, so reporters begin a speculative romp to find the possible perpetrators of the bugging. None plausibly come to light, leaving the media with the task of cornering the Prime Minister on whether, maybe, the government was the perpetrator. "I didn't do it," Mr. Harper was essentially forced to say, if...

Like pensions and insurance, defence is one of those subjects to which too many people only pay attention when things go wrong. You might think, in the light of the past decade, that this would have changed. But you would be sadly mistaken. Even today, even after Iraq, few mainstream MPs without an immediate personal or constituency interest in the subject turn up in the Commons for defence debates. Many politicians who are thoughtful about a range of domestic issues still pass by on the other side when the conversation gravitates to the military. In this they reflect the British...

During the Revolutionary War, particularly in the rural areas of the American South, much of the violence could be attributed not to members of the military but to civilians. Even neighbors became mortal enemies depending upon whether or not they aligned themselves against or with the British Crown, and partisan bands of patriots and loyalists often roamed the countryside, causing a great deal of mayhem. On a 400-acre farmstead on the Georgia frontier in Elbert County, near the banks of the Broad River, lived the Hart family whose matriarch Nancy became a legendary figure in our national war for independence....

Cameron makes 'progressive alliance' offer to Lib Dems - David Cameron today launches an audacious attempt to realign the centre ground of British politics when he offers to join forces with the new leader of the Liberal Democrats and forge a 'new progressive alliance' to challenge Gordon Brown.

Cameron's pint-sized Rasputin - by the blonde from Tory HQDavid Cameron is not the nice guy he appears to be - and rarely does or says anything in public without taking advice from a shadowy aide who is described as a "pint-sized Rasputin". That is the picture that is painted of the Conservative leader in a BBC documentary made by Britain's leading political film-maker, Michael Cockerell. Mr Cameron refused to let Mr Cockerell and his team film what goes on in his inner circle but the crew managed to ambush them on several occasions and caught his senior political adviser,...

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/26758/Tories-Government-are-monkeys-THE Tories branded members of the Labour Government 'three wise monkeys' today in the wake of the secret donations scandal. Theresa May, the Shadow Leader of the Commons, blasted Harriet Harman, the Prime Minister and the Labour Party treasurer in a stormy Commons row. Ms May said: “You, the Prime Minister and the Labour Party treasurer are like the three wise monkeys. "You see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil.” The 44-year-old warned Mrs Harman that the “dodgy donations” scandal could result in a further boost for the Conservatives in the opinion polls. She said: “Quite simply...

TORIES VOW TO END THE SCANDAL OF JAIL SYSTEM THE Tories yesterday promised to provide at least 1,200 extra prison places so they can scrap the Government’s controversial early release scheme. In a major review of prisons and sentencing, they further signalled that judges would be given the power to set minimum terms with no possibility of early parole. Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Herbert also set out proposals to flatten and sell off some of the crumbling Victorian jails and build smaller ones to provide hundreds of extra cells. At the same time, Mr Herbert launched a scathing attack on...

GOVERNMENT ON ROCKS, SAYS CAMERONConservative leader David Cameron accused the Government of being "on the rocks" as he launched a fresh attack on its economic record. He told a conference of business leaders that the UK needs a "big change" to cut regulations and help firms prosper. Mr Cameron told the annual conference of the CBI that the Government has created centralised bureaucracies which have become incompetent and cannot be trusted. He referred to recent scandals, including the Northern Rock crisis and money being "wasted" in departments such as the NHS. "What we have learnt over the last few days...

CAMERON SLAMS 'ENEMIES OF FREEDOM'David Cameron has branded the Labour Government "enemies of freedom" and claimed the force of history was now on his party's side. The Conservative leader said Labour shared with EU bureaucrats a belief that officials know better than ordinary people, and accused both of trying to involve the state ever deeper in day-to-day life. In a speech in the Czech capital, Prague, Mr Cameron cited the loss of personal data by HM Revenue and Customs, the tax credit system and the proposed national identity register as examples of the Government's "bureaucratic over-reach". And he accused ministers...

Muslim Tories: 'Iran has right to nuclear arms' By Andrew Porter Last Updated: 2:56am BST 19/10/2007 A body set up by David Cameron to advise the Conservatives on Muslim issues has criticised the Government's relationship with Israel and concluded that Iran has "legitimate" reasons for wanting nuclear weapons. The Conservative Muslim Forum also wants the compulsory history curriculum in schools changed to give "full recognition to the massive contribution that Islam has made to the development of Western civilisation". It also argues that preachers who advocate a rejection of democracy and its institutions should not be denied entry into Britain....

David Cameron signals today that he will try to extend the dramatic political gains the Conservatives have made over the last fortnight by pressing ahead with his centrist, liberal agenda, inspired by California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, the Tory leader says his success in halting Gordon Brown's general election plans was not down solely to the Tories' promise to cut inheritance tax, but the product of two years of recasting his party as ready for the 21st century. Turning his back on calls from party hardliners for distinctive rightwing policies, he will move into...

Cameron says Brown 'looks phoney'Conservative leader David Cameron said Gordon Brown looked like "a phoney" as they went head-to-head in their first Commons battle since July. The clash came with the PM facing claims he "bottled" a snap election and stole Tory policy ideas on tax. Mr Cameron said the PM was treating people "like fools" by denying opinion polls led him to reject a snap poll. But Mr Brown pointed to the Tory grammar school row and said he would take "no lectures" from Mr Cameron. Since his weekend decision not to hold a general election Mr Brown...

If it was not the speech of his life, it came pretty close. David Cameron's performance yesterday in Blackpool was convincing enough to suggest that he will make speeches at Tory conferences as his party's leader for quite a few years to come. It will also have delivered a sharp jolt to the very clever young Labour strategists who have landed Gordon Brown in the rather tricky position of having to decide this weekend whether he really wants an election. Just days ago, those masters of the Brownite universe, urging on their boss, appeared to be touched by genius. Now,...

Unhappy Tories switch to Brown as Labour gears up for October electionDavid Cameron is under renewed pressure in the polls after Labour claimed it has secured the support of disillusioned Conservative voters. Mr Brown's aides stoked rumours of a snap autumn general election by saying they have identified a new type of voter - 'Brown Tories' - who could be the key to a Labour victory. They said these traditional Conservatives had been won over by the Prime Minister's 'strong leadership'. On the eve of his first conference as leader, Mr Brown's aides also seized on a symbolic blow in...

The conservative movement that for a generation has been the source of the Republican Party's strength is in the dumps. THIRTY years ago Eric Hobsbawm, the dean of Marxist historians, chose as his subject, for the Marx memorial lecture, “The forward march of labour halted?” Things turned out even worse, for his side, than he had expected, thanks in part to the rise of a very American brand of conservatism. But are we now witnessing Mr Hobsbawm's revenge: the forward march of American conservatism halted? The right has dominated American politics since at least 1980. The Republicans' electoral successes have...

The Tories' green oak tree logo has turned a more traditional shade of blue as an embattled David Cameron seeks to reassure Conservative activists that he is not abandoning the party's core values. A year after the controversial doodle replaced the party's traditional red white and blue flaming torch of freedom, it has lost its environmentally friendly green leaves. Designers were paid £40,000 last summer to replace the torch with the oak tree logo The blue-sky version of the logo was unveiled earlier this week when William Hague, the party's foreign affairs spokesman, published a “plain English guide” to the...

David Cameron yesterday stepped up the Tories' modernising drive by becoming the first party leader to appoint a Muslim to an Opposition shadow cabinet. Sayeeda Warsi, 36, a British-born Muslim of Pakistani origin who has been nominated for a peerage, was named the 10th most influential Asian woman in a poll this year. At the 2005 election, Mrs Warsi, who is married with one child, was the first Asian woman to be selected by the Tories to fight a parliamentary seat. She will be responsible for community cohesion. But Mr Cameron's attempt to regain the political initiative with a wide-ranging...

Tories send a 'clear signal' about marriage By George Jones, Political Editor Last Updated: 1:33pm BST 10/07/2007 It is time to stand up for marriage and send out a signal that it is good for society, a Tory policy group said today. Iain Duncan Smith wants the party to send a 'clear and unambiguous signal' about marriage The group called for a "reinstatement and full public use" of the term martial status and associated terms "husband, wife, spouse and marriage" in government forms and statements. This would send a "clear and unambiguous signal" about marriage, said the report drawn up...