Entries from August 2009 ↓

Alan Scard, Conservative Party chairman in Gosport will support David Cameron in his efforts to get more women MPs provided they are attractive. Mr Scard says “I know it’s a sexist thing to say but you could get the blokes saying ‘Oh you know, I would vote for her because she’s really attractive’.” Gosport Conservative Association is currently organising a selection to replace Sir Peter Viggers.

Douglas Carswell MP

I see that Conservative MP Douglas Carswell is defending Daniel Hannan in a recent edition of the Clacton Gazette.

“Tory MEP Daniel Hannan has been criticised by Conservative leader David Cameron for attacking the NHS during a television debate on heathcare in the US, in which Republican politicians have opposed Barack Obama’s healthcare reform plans.

The NHS has been used by US commentators as an example of socialised medicine, claiming it has poor quality healthcare and poor efficiency. “I wouldn’t wish it on anybody,” said Mr Hannan, speaking about the NHS. “We have a system where the most salient facts of it is you get huge waiting lists, you have bad survival rates and you would much rather fall ill in the US.”

Mr Carswell said he did not want to comment on Mr Hannan’s statement, but supported his views on the need to reform the NHS. “I am a staunch supporter of the NHS and a staunch friend of Daniel Hannan,” he said. “I support the NHS, I use it and my family uses it, however, I think we can improve it by looking at what other countries do.

“In our book, the Plan, we look at what they do in France and Australia – we could have an even better system than we already do. Millions of pounds were spent on a hospital in Harwich which stood empty for three years – we can do better than that.”

Writing on his blog, Mr Hannan said his plans, co-authored by Mr Carswell, set out a scheme to replace the “current Government monopoly” in healthcare with a Singapore-style system of personal healthcare accounts.”

True Blue

I’ve just ordered True Blue: Strange Tales from a Tory Nation after a friend in the Labour Party emailed to recommend it. She pointed out a passage on the old “urban talisman’ himself, Conservative candidate Shaun Bailey.

“To keep them interested Shaun introduced a shock prison story that I had not heard him use before, thus suggesting the possibility that he was making it up as he went along. ‘If you go into Holloway women’s prison you have to share your knickers with other women,’ he told the blondes. But they didn’t really bit on that either. A girl who looked as if she might be fifteen or sixteen wandered into the circle. It seemed that she was the daughter of one of the blondes….

……Bailey was onto her straight away, warning her that she shouldn’t have sex with boys, because they would not respect her for it. The girl looked embarrassed and said nothing. Bailey then went on to outline a strangely conspiratorial theory: people in the entertainment and media businesses had conspired to create the idea of the teenager, and to foster divisions between children and parents which could be exploited to make money…..The girl looked at him as though he was mad and obviously wanted to get away….

Bailey who wasn’t drinking because of his standing as a gymnast, body builder and health fanatic, then began berating the girl about the need to avoid getting a sexually transmitted disease, warning her that if she had a baby it would ruin her changes of going to university.”

I hope it arrives before I go on holiday.