2. A Very Public Sociologist explains why he, unlike other Lefties, can deal with the BNP.

3. Corrugated Soundbite describes what happens when political correctness goes wrong.

4. Adam Collyer tells David Cameron to clean up his party.

5. Newgate News discovers what happens when journalists don’t bother doing their research.

- Conservative MP Greg Hands, after it emerged that the trade union behind the British Airways strike has received almost £400,000 in taxpayers’ money in three years.  Unite is accused of having taken over the Labour party after donating £11 million and installing a former aide to Gordon Brown in a key role.  Britain’s biggest union, which has 2 million members, has also been the biggest beneficiary of a scheme set up by the Government to improve efficiency in the workers’ rights groups.  Unite, formed by a merger of Amicus and the Transport & General Workers Union in 2007, has received £334,934 from the Union Modernisation Fund over the past three financial years. When a separate payment to the TGWU is added, the total comes to £382,469.  (full story HERE)

First came ‘Change That Works For You. Building A Fairer Britain’ – without doubt one of the worst election slogans I have ever heard.  It means nothing, it tells me nothing, it will inspire no-one and it’s basically the same as the other two parties.

Now we have Nick Clegg calling for a 10% tax on bank profits.  In an interview with the Guardian, he said that ”bankers are Scargill in pin stripes. Scargill’s stated aim was to challenge who runs the country. The bankers have behaved in the same arrogant way … to benefit only themselves …”.  Obviously it is my mistake for thinking that a supposedly liberal party wouldn’t mind us occassionally doing things to benefit ourselves, and I think Cleggy seriously needs a history lesson or two if he thinks that bankers taking home a proportion of the money that they earn for their companies is comparable to the actions of the trade unions during the 1970s and 80s. *roll eyes*

2. Events Dear Boy thinks Labour might be deceiving us.  I know, shocking.

3. Dick Puddlecote lets the weapons-grade cock-sockets in Parliament know how he feels.

4. The Red Rag mocks the Lib Dem’s attempt to portray themselves as ‘fair’.

5. Pub Philosopher has an excellent example of Labour’s inability to make decent legislation.

- a note on the website of Anna Arrowsmith, a porn film director and the new PPC for the Lib Dems in the constituency of Gravesham.  Her website also mentions that she is “into all sorts of things, mainly partying and drinking – and porn, porn, porn!!!”.  A spokesman for the Lib Dems was previously quoted as saying: “The Liberal Democrats are proud to have candidates throughout the country with a great diversity of backgrounds and life experiences.”

(H/T Iain Dale)

From the Guardian:

2. Patently finds it hard to distinguish between political satire and political reality.

3. Hatfield Girl thinks Europeans have got to sort out the Euro, not us.

4. Obselete says we should beware of those who lie for a living.

5. They Are Joking waves goodbye to basic freedoms abroad thanks to religious nutters.

- Gordon Brown, who said today that the criticism he received for visiting Afghanistan a day after giving evidence to the Iraq war inquiry was “incredibly unfair”. During his Chilcot inquiry appearance, Brown had mounted a robust defence of his record as chancellor, saying he had never refused a request from the armed forces for equipment or resources.  However, within hours, two former chiefs of the defence staff, Lord Guthrie and his successor Lord Boyce, had challenged that view.  (full story HERE)

Thanks largely to the efforts of a few bloggers, you are now back home following a stint in Forest Bank jail in Pendlebury.  A huge amount of credit for this must go to Anna Raccoon and Old Holborn, who rallied to your cause and did some seriously speedy fundraising in order to secure your release through delivering £8,664.50 to your prison’s doorstep.  No doubt you are flattered and delighted that complete strangers dipped into their pockets for you and your family due to their enormous sense of grievance at what happened to you.  Even so, my mood is far from jubilant this morning.

The backstory to your prison sentence is a sad tale.  You were jailed for non-payment of a fine that was originally imposed for a ‘mass smoke-in’ on the day the smoking ban came into force in 2007 in your pub, the ‘Swan and Barristers’ in Bolton, which you no longer own.  You were fined again when council inspectors walked into your present pub and discovered a group of customers smoking, even though you weren’t on the premises.  The fines bankrupted you, and you went to court intending to argue that you could not afford the £500 a month payments demanded by the council towards their £10,000 bill for prosecuting you (although you had managed to pay off £1,600).  In response to your non-payment, the court gave you a 6-month jail sentence instead.  This left your wife to manage the pub and left you unable to earn the money which would ensure your release.  Your poor wife was not able to speak to you after you were sentenced and was merely informed of where you would be jailed.  I can imagine that the whole experience was very frightening and disorienting for her.  In short, you objected to the smoking ban and hosted a small demonstration against it on the day the ban came into force, and you paid a heavy price.

As Anna Raccoon said, “Nick was jailed as an example to us all, that when the State barks ‘jump’ you only question ‘how high’. He didn’t. He said ‘Why’? …The fact that so many of you responded is a powerful message from the voting public that politicians would be well advised to heed.  The Blogosphere will not be controlled by politicians, bound up in regulations, throttled by impenetrable legislation. It is not a single target that a ‘D’ notice can be fired at. We are not beholden to advertisers. We are the authentic, unfiltered, voice of your electorate.”  I’m sure you would agree that your release from jail has shown how quickly a small group of supporters can be mobilised to help someone, which is encouraging in itself.  However, I still have a heavy heart as I write this letter because I fear that even though the blogosphere has won the battle, we have not and will not win the war.

The relentless attacks on our civil liberties over the past 13 years will not be forgotten quickly by many bloggers, but it has gone largely unnoticed by many voters.  To most people, DNA databases are nothing but an abstract headline, 42-day detention was supported by many, ’stop and search’ is unlikely to affect them, wheelie bin computer chips are little more than an irritation and ‘benefit snoopers’ from the local council will never need to call at their house.  You don’t have to tell me about ‘first they came for the communists etc etc’ because I get it, but bloggers should never forget that we are all here because we care – many other people do not.  I am always amazed and even amused by the way that mainstream journalists talk about events in Westminster politics as if anyone other than a handful of voters actually give a crap.  The vast, vast majority of people in this country simply don’t have the time or energy or inclination to care about what the government does, and tragically that extends to civil liberties too.  Some of them even support draconian measures like ID cards because the government have such a powerful voice and can deceive and lie to their heart’s content about why they are doing things and what effect their plans will have.

I would love to think that your release from jail would be a turning point regarding the influence of the blogosphere on the world outside and on policymakers, but I know deep down that it isn’t.  Anna Raccoon felt that the help you received sent a “powerful message from the voting public that politicians would be well advised to heed”, but they won’t.  Politics has concentrated power into the hands of literally 10-15 people at the very top of the political tree, regardless of which party is in charge, and they have no reason to fear the electorate or bloggers as we have so little genuine power over them.  Yes, we can protest and yes, we can kick up an almighty fuss, but I wonder how much more we have to offer besides being a right royal pain in the arse.   I can only hope that a Conservative Party, which still contains the likes of David Davis and a few other staunch defenders of liberty, will start to roll back the tide of destruction that Labour have overseen on our liberties and freedom.  Sadly, I fear that ‘hope’ is all we can do.

Yours sincerely,

A.Tory 

2. Constantly Furious has found an excellent way to get rich quick.

3. 13th Spitfire thinks Britain should tell the EU to Foxtrot Oscar.

4. Daniel1979 produces some helpful graphs to explain why the Conservatives are a bit rubbish.

5. Heresy Corner discovers that some Lib Dems have interesting *ahem* tastes in films.