Sun News Network shuts down.

I’ve been somewhat out of the loop for a few days, but Friday, I got the shock of my life, when I found out that the owners of Sun News Network had decided to shutter the struggling channel.

Viewing figures were never great, their mix of so-called “Hard News & Straight Talk” was in fact mostly Conservative-leaning propaganda, the same blend and style propagated by Fox News Channel, and they never garnered enough momentum to become an essential channel, a basic cable channel.  They requested basic cable status from the CRTC time and again, and were refused.

But, the polarities of the commentaries online and on social media have been, as usual, at either ends of the scale.  On one side, you have those like the Facebook group that was trying to generate momentum to create a movement to save Sun News.  But just under 700 members, as significant a group as that is in Facebook terms, is never going to be enough to overcome any problems the broadcaster faced.

On the other side, you have those who hated it, like they hate Fox, and were basically cheering its closure, saying things like “good bye and good riddance”, and “Bye Felicia”.

As always in these situations, these are the polar opposites.  Reality is somewhere in between.  But where?

Well, as much as Sun News wants to blame the CRTC for their problems, that’s the wrong thing to do.  UK broadcast history will point to TWW, a station called Television West & Wales in the mid 1960s, who tried to take on the ITA, the regulator at the time, after being told that their licence would not be renewed in 1968, despite the ITA having asked TWW to essentially take over neighbouring company WWN (Wales West & North), which collapsed in 1964.  The ITA had decided to go with a new company called Harlech Television. 

Letters were exchanged between TWW head honcho Lord Derby, and the head of the ITA at the time, both privately, and in the London Times Letters Page.  Such behaviour was never going to go down well, and TWW made a decision to leave the air 6 months early, and sold their studios and airtime to Harlech.

So, taking on the regulator was not a good idea.  What about the programming?

This is one of the most important areas for any broadcaster.  Fall down here, and it’s curtains no matter what else you do.  And unfortunately, they fell down here badly.  And not for the reasons you think either.  It had nothing to do with having shows that had an editorial agenda.  Let’s face facts, every news broadcast has some kind of editorial agenda behind it, so the fact that they had opinion shows with a right wing slant, wasn’t enough of a reason on its own to bring about its downfall. 

They used the positioning statement, “Hard News & Straight Talk”, and whilst there was lots of talk, there was very little real news.  Yes, it had lots of flashy sets, and flashy graphics, but it didn’t really have any reporters doing any beat reporting.  Most of their coverage came from talking heads that they interviewed, and a lot of those had the same kind of editorial bias that Sun News did, so it looked like they were editorialising the news, which they were.  Now they would get some experts in, and unlike Fox, they would treat them with respect, but too many talking heads, and not enough reporters and expert voices, meant that their “Hard News” was more often “Hard to swallow” than real Hard News. 

I’d say the budget was shoestring, but they spent so little, that they actually had change from the shoestring.  If instead of having several different studios for every show, they had had one decent set, that could serve every show, and did enough to give the set a slightly different look for each show, then it would have helped.  They might have then considered putting together bureaux in Vancouver and Ottawa as a minimum, with options to create Bureaux in Montreal, Calgary and Winnipeg.

The other thing that might have contributed to their downfall, was their aggression and their attitude.  The station was basically a clone of Fox News Channel, and that contravenes the Golden Rule of all broadcasting, Be Yourself.  Don’t copy others.  They tried to copy the Fox News Channel style, with flashy graphics, multiple studios, regular talking heads, and a desire to create controversy, and Conservatives in Canada, are very different to the extremist Republicans in America.  And whilst there are a small minority of extreme right wingers in Canada, the prospective audience in a country of over 30 million, compared to a country of over 300 million, was just too small to make such a channel sustainable.

Fox News Channel does such a good job of spreading Conservative propaganda, that they basically are the home of Conservative propaganda worldwide.  Sun’s problem was it was trying to clone that for a Canadian perspective and audience, an audience that understood better than the people producing it, that Sun News wasn’t for Canada.

It’s never a good thing to celebrate the loss of 150 jobs, that’s not good optics.  But, Sun News Network, was never anything to write home about, or indeed, get worked up about, because it never made the impact in the broadcast firmament, that it’s flashy style made it appear to have.

UK Local Elections 2013: What actually happened.

Well, that was a very interesting election.  Let me start with the three stories that I originally posted about after 10pm last night.

Let's start with the overall result in Cornwall.

Liberal Democrats - 36
Independent - 35
Conservative - 31
Labour - 6
UK Independence Party - 6
Mebyon Kernow - 4
The Labour and Co-operative Party - 2
Unspecified - 2
Green Party - 1
Liberal Party in Cornwall - 0

Compare that result, with the result from back in 2009

Conservative - 50
Liberal Democrat - 38
Independent - 32
Mebyon Kernow - 3
Labour - 0
UK Independence Party - 0
Green Party - 0
Liberal Party - 0
British National Party - 0
English Democrats - 0
Unspecified - 0

Now the first thing  you'll notice is that the Conservatives have lost a lot of seats, 19 in all, so yeah, not a great election for them, going down from first to third.  But the Liberal Democrats shouldn't be celebrating too much either.  They might be the largest party in the council now, but they have lost 2 seats overall, so not exactly a stellar performance either.

Labour had a reasonable election gaining back 6 seats, 8 if you include their Co-operative allies.  They had been totally wiped out when the county council became a Unitary authority in 2009, but this is a good result.  Most of the seats were in the old Falmouth and Camborne constituency, although two were in Penzance, one in Mevagissey and the biggest surprise was Labour winning the Gunnislake and Calstock ward, although the candidate who won this time, was orignally an Independent in 2009.

UKIP did well as well, gaining their first seats on the unitary authority.  They won 2 wards in Camborne, they also won in Four Lanes; Lynher; Mabe, Perranarwothal & St Gluvias; and Newquay Treviglas.

Mebyon Kernow made 2 gains in Penwithick and Boscoppa, & Crowan and Wendron, but lost a ward in Camborne, bring their seat count to 4.  The Greens made a gain in St Ives as well, and two candidates who got elected did not even specify their political affiliation  Kinda strange to think two councillors got elected and nobody knows their political affiliation, so you don't know what you were voting for.

Surprisingly, Independent candidates continued to do well with 3 more Independents being elected this time compared to 2009.  And one of those candidates who got elected was surprisingly, Colin Brewer.

The man who said disabled children cost the council too much money and should be put down, got re-elected by only 4 votes in Wadebridge East.  335 votes to 331 for the second place Liberal Democrat.  Unsurprisingly, there were a lot of boos ringing out in Wadebridge at the count when that result was announced.  There was a facebook campaign running to stop him running in the election, I imagine the campaign to get him out of office again will picking up steam.

However, one man who did lose his seat today was Alec Robertson, the former council leader, before he was forced to resign.  His seat in Helston North was won by Independent Phil Martin with 590 votes, with Robertson only getting 494 votes.  Robertson was one of 19 Tories as I said earlier who lost this time around.

Nationally, the picture wasn't much better for the Tories.  They lost control of 10 councils. Two councils Labour retook control of.  Those councils were Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.  The Liberal Democrats and UKIP gained no councils at all.  The Conservatives also lost 335 coucnil seats overall, with the Liberal Democrats, their coalition partners, also losing councillors, 124 in all.  Labour recovered most ground on the night, gaining 291 council seats, and UKIP, the major talking point in the news tonight, gained 139 seats.

Overall, the smaller parties made small gains.  Greens gained 5 seats overall, Residents Association gained 2 new seats, bringing their total to 12, and the Liberal Party, the remnants of the original Liberal party that didn't merge with the SDP to become the Liberal Democrats, they gained another seat too, bringing their total to 3.  However, not all the small parties gained ground.  The British National Party lost the 3 seats they held on councils.  So now, there are no BNP councillors.

In the South West, whilst Cornwall and Bristol remained in No Overall Control, the Tories did manage to hold onto Devon, Somerset and Dorset councils.  As I reported earlier, the Tories barely held onto Somerset, whilst Dorset was more comfortable.  Devon also ended up being reasonably comfortable for the Tories, winning 38 of the 62 seats available.  No other party got into double figures.  Liberal Democrats won 9 seats, Labour 7 seats, UKIP 4 seats, Independents 3 seats and Greens 1 seat.

Bristol remians in No Overall Control, but the picture was very interesting.  Out of the 23 seats contested this time, 10 changed hands, and they were all from the Liberal Democrats.  7 went to Labour, 2 to the Green Party and one to an Independent.  Bristol was one of the few areas where UKIP failed to win a seat.

UKIP though did have a good night overall.  In Lincolnshire, they won 16 seats from a total standing start.  In a few councils, UKIP are now the official opposition, mostly to the Tories, who should really be their right wing allies, but are splitting the right wing vote, in much the same way that the SDP caused a major split in the left wing vote in the 1980s after they split from Labour.

So there we have it.  Good night for Labour, better for UKIP, not so good for the Conservatives, and the Liberal Democrats could have come out worse, but they also could have faired a lot better.

UK Local Elections 2013: Overnight Developments

So far, not a lot of surprises in the local elections, or indeed, in the one By-Election that was held yesterday to replace David Milliband in South Shields.  Labour held onto the seat with a reduced majority in terms of votes. 

Labour's Emma Lewell-Buck got 12,493 votes, with UKIP's Richard Elvin coming in second with 5,988 votes. Karen Allen for the Conservatives was a distant third with 2,857 votes. Ahmed Khan, who stood as an Independent came in fourth with a respectable 1,331 votes.  Hugh Annand for the Liberal Democrats came in a very disappointing 7th with just 352 votes, coming behind the Independent Socialist Party candidate and the BNP candidate, losing their deposit.  Overall, an unsurprising result, though the Liberal Democrats coming in only 7th with less votes than an Independent, Independent Socialist and BNP, is a big surprise, I don't think I can ever recall them doing worse in any election ever.

In the Local Elections overnight, Conservatives lost control of 2 councils.  Lincolnshire had been strongly Tory with the Conservatives holding 60 out of the 77 seats in the council.  Today they are still the largest party in council, but hold on 36 seats, 3 seats short of an overall majority.  However, the council maintains a storng right wing slant, with UKIP being the second major party with 16 seats, all gains.  Labour came in third with 12 seats, an increase of 8 on last time, with 10 Independents and 3 Liberal Democrats.

The other council they lost was Gloucestershire, where they had previously 34 seats on the 53 seat council.  Now they have just 23.  Liberal Democrats came second here with 14, gaining 2 seats, in an election where they have so far mostly lost seats, Labour came third with 9 seats, with 3 Indepenents, 3 UKIP and 1 Green.  There is no obvious coalition to be made here, with Conservatives and UKIP being 1 seat short of a total majority. 

In Somerset the Conservatives just managed to hold onto control of the council by just 1 seat.  They won 28 out of the 55 seats available, with 18 Liberal Democrats, 3 Labour, 3 UKIP and 3 Independents.  There is 1 seat unfilled currently, the Coker Division, the election for that is being held on May 16th, so we will have two weeks before we know if the Conservatives can win that one and make that council just a little bit safer.

Dorset however remained true blue as the Conservatives only lost 1 seat there, still easily maintaining control with 27 out of the 45 available seats.  The remaining seats, 12 have gone to the Liberal Democrats, 5 have gone to Labour, and 1 UKIP.

Today, we will see the remaining councils declare their results, one already has, where they only elected a third of the council, that is Bristol. which remains under No Overall Control, as there have been some unusual gains across the political spectrum, Greens have gained 2 seats in Ashley and Bishopston, Conservatives have gained seats, Labour have gained seats, in fact, out of the 12 seats so far declared in Bristol, only 4 have been held onto by the party that held the seat before.  Also going to follow Cornwall and Devon county council results, but already UKIP are showing they have done far better this year, than they have previously done before.

UK Local Elections 2013: What I'm looking at.

Okay, so it's after 10pm, and I can now talk about the local elections.  In Cornwall, where I'm based, we have three particular stories that are going to be commanding my attention.  Two are about individual councillors, and the third is the council as a whole.

The first story is Alec Robertson.  He was the leader of Cornwall Council until last year when he was forced to resign by some of those within the Conservative/Independent administration running Cornwall Council over privatising some council services.  In 2009, Alec Robertson won his ward of Helston North by 244 votes.  Will he win again, or will UKIP having a candidate there, by the name of Leonie Gough, reduce his vote to the point where either the Independent candidate Phil Martin or the Liberal Democrat candidate Mollie Scrase can pull out the victory.  Or indeed will UKIP pull out a victory?

The second story is Colin Brewer.  He was an independent councillor until the end of February 2013, when he resigned over a comment that he made at an information event at County Hall in 2011, that disbaled children cost the council too much money and should be put down.  But by April, he had submitted papers to be a candidate once again for the ward of Wadebridge East.  But this time, he has a much tougher task ahead of him.  In 2009, Colin Brewer won his ward by 145 votes, but he was only up against a Conservative and another Independent.  This time, he's up against another Independent, Conservative, UKIP, Labour and Liberal Democrat candidates.  I think it's safe to say that he has a much tougher task ahead of him this time.

Now, onto the Council itself.  123 councillors being elected in 122 wards, and last time in 2009, the Conservatives were the largest overall party with 50 seats, the Liberal Democrats had 38 seats, Independents had 32 seats, and the remaining 3 seats went to Mebyon Kernow.  Labour, UKIP and the Greens were all seatless in Cornwall.  But remember, that was in 2009, when Gordon Brown was Prime Minister and Labour was the party in power.  Nowadays, David Cameron is Prime Minister, and there is a coalition of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in power.

Now Cornwall has traditionally been a 3 way political battle, between Independents, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.  But nationally, the Con/Dem coalition, as it is known in some circles, has not been very popular.  With austerity biting harder than expected and for longer, neither party is expected to do well.  But there is an added wrinkle here.  The council has been run by Conservatives and Independents, some of whom are not expected to do well either.

This means that we could see more minor parties making headway in Cornwall.  Labour have traditionally not been strong in Cornwall, although Candy Atherton did have some limited success as a Labour MP in Falmouth and Camborne.  And if we are to see any surge in Labour vote, it is most likely in the areas around Falmouth and Camborne.  Mebyon Kernow is the only one of the minor parties to have seats currently, and they would be expecting to do better than in 2009, but whether they do or not is something we will see over the coming hours.

UKIP have been making slow headway nationally, and they are expecting to get at least one councillor elected at the expense of the Conservatives.  The Greens do have candidates standing in some wards, but little is expected.  Also standing in some wards are The Liberal Party in Cornwall and the Labour and Co-Operative Party,  as well as the obligatory plethora of independents, with some wards having as many as 4 independent candidates on the ballot.

Outside of Cornwall, it's mostly England that is electing councillors today, though the Isle of Anglesey in Wales is also holding an election.  Full county council elections are happening in 27 counties, but most are counting tomorrow.  The notable exceptions are Somerset, Dorset and Hampshire, who start counting tonight.  Labour and UKIP will be expecting to make gains in this election, with Conservatives and Liberal Democrats losing ground.  Whether we will see other parties like the Greens, BNP and the English Democrats making any headway as well as a result, is up in the air.  7 unitary authorities are also holding elections, Cornwall is one of those.  Only Bristol though is not electing a full council, they elect a third of the council this year.

There are two mayoral elections, in Doncaster and North Tyneside, and the Isles of Scilly is also electing their unitary authority.  In some council areas as well, such as Cornwall, there are parish, town and city council elections also taking place.  This means that in some areas, counting will be going on until about 10pm Friday night.

All in all, a lot of ground to be covered over the next 24 hours or so, and this will be a key electoral test, more so for Ed Milliband and Nigel Farage, than for David Cameron or Nick Clegg.  We will see what happens over the next 24 hours.

Margaret Thatcher 1935-2013

Margaret Thatcher, the former British Prime Minister from 1979-1990, has died after suffering a stroke.  She was 87.

Her death is not to be mourned, as she was suffering from dementia in her later years, so in many ways for her, it will be a release.  Nor is her death a matter for celebration.  It is a time for reflection.

She entered Parliament in 1959, after winning the safe Conservative seat of Finchley.  In those early years in Parliament, she managed to get a private members bill through, requiring local authorities to hold their council meetings in public.  She was one of the few Conservative MPs to support decriminalising Male Homosexuality, as well as supporting legalising abortion, and banning hare coursing.

Her first real controversy came during her time as Education Secretary from 1970 to 1974, with the abolition of free milk for 7-11 year olds in school, during which time the phrase "Margaret Thatcher, Milk Snatcher" was coined.  It was a policy that hurt her, as she later wrote about it, as it brought "... the maximum of political odium for the minimum of political benefit...".

When Edward Heath lost both elections in 1974, she ended up being elected to replace him, defeating both Heath, and his preferred successor William Whitelaw.  She never expected that she would become Prime Minister though, and she might have been right, had it not been for the Winter Of Discontent over the winter of 1978/79.  James Callaghan's government lost a vote of no-confidence on 28th March 1979 by just one single vote, 311 to 310, and Parliament was dissolved on Saturday 7th April 1979.

That election was memorable in many ways.  It was the first election since 1959 to feature three leaders who had not previously faced a general election as leader of their party.  Neither Margaret Thatcher, James Callaghan nor David Steel had led their party into a general election.  The result was memorable too, and not just for the obvious reason.  The swing to the Conservatives was 5.2%, the largest swing since 1945.  The SNP would rather forget that election though, as they lost 9 of the 11 seats they had previously held.  And of course, Britain had it's first, and so far only, woman Prime Minister.

After that 1979 election she began the process of changing the country, what she thought of as reform and modernisation.  Her first major target was the power of the unions.  But it would be a foreign affairs crisis that would overshadow everything else in her first term.  When Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands on 2nd April 1982, she acted against the advice of foreign policy experts and sent our troops into battle.  Neither Margaret Thatcher nor the Argentinian President at the time, General Leopoldo Galtieri, actually declared war over the Falkalnds, however a war cabinet was set up, the first time that had been done since the end of the second World War. 

74 days after hostilities began, the Falklands War was over.  Britiain had emerged victorious, and the Military Junta that had ruled Argentina since 1976 found their grip on power to be crumbling.  In 1983, elections were held in Argentina, returning the country to democratic rule.  That same year, Mrs Thatcher called her own election, and unsurprisingly, won a landslide.  A majority of 144, the biggest margin of victory since Labour in 1945.

During her second term, the defining moment, was the miners strike that began in 1984 and lasted almost a year.  It was the most divisive of industrial disputes, and the pain some say she caused, is still felt in some communities today.  But the strike was eventually defeated, and miners returned to work.

But she almost did not live to defeat the miners.  But for a few walls, and the grace of whatever god you believe in, we might have been talking about an assassination of Margaret Thatcher at Brighton on 12th October 1984.  A time bomb had been planted in a room in the Grand Hotel in Brighton, just less than a month earlier.  It exploded at 2.54am on October 12th.  5 people died, 31 were injured.  Margaret Thatcher had been the target, but she survivied without injury. 

She privatised many state monopolies, and sold off much of the council housing stock.  She constantly challenged some in the European Economic Community, who were looking for closer integration into a European Union.  Not only was she often on her own in EEC affairs, she was sometimes on her own in Commonwealth matters too, especially South Africa. 

The 1987 General Election saw her majority in the House of Commons cut to 102.  It was to be her last General Election victory. 

What led to her leaving office is open to question.  Most say it was her stance on Europe.  But unquestionably, the Community Charge, or Poll Tax as it became better known by, played a huge part.  It replaced the rating system, which was based on a notional rental value, and the charge was a per person charge, which was the same whether you lived in a £100,000 house or a £1,000,000 house.  The Poll Tax riots became the visual symbol of Margaret Thatcher's growing unpopularity.  She was seen as out of touch, someone who had lost touch with their own background, and had become part of the elite.

She faced Michael Heseltine in a leadership vote in 1990, and whilst she won the vote, she was short of the margin needed to avoid a second ballot.  It was a ballot she wanted to contest, but she was persuaded by her cabinet to not contest the ballot.  It would be the one time, the lady would turn, and it was a turn that would take her out of power.  She resigned on the 22nd November 1990.

Whether you loved her or hated her, her determnination and strength of belief rarely wavered.  She felt she was doing what needed to be done.  Unquestionably, she shifted the political system in this country away from socialism, towards individualism.  She is one of the few politicians that people responded to passionately, either loved or loathed, and in an era, that has been dominated since she left office by grey suits and spin, her Iron Lady persona will continue to make her the most memorable of British politicians, long after today.

The Resignation of Dr Liam Fox

Sky News, and BBC News Channel are reporting the resignation of the Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox.

It’s about time he resigned!

He had previously acknowledged he had allowed the situation where people thought that his friend Adam Werritty was an advisor of his, when in fact he wasn’t even part of the government or the Conservative party.

He should have resigned when he made that statement.

But he didn’t.

He tried to hang on, he tried to defuse the situation, which we ALL knew was a time bomb just waiting to go off.

David Cameron could have shown some leadership, and basically told Dr Fox to go on Monday, when the preliminary findings where released.

But he didn’t.

He tried to keep his friend in government, despite it being clear that he had broken the ministerial code.

This government has shown contempt for  following process and has avoided trying to do the right thing.

Nick Clegg, now should show some leadership.

In the face of this scandal, and the revealations about Oliver Letwin disposing of government documents and correspondence with constituents in a public bin in a park, he needs to turn around and say to David Cameron, this…

“You and your party have shown a lack of respect for the processes of government.  As such, either you need to resign as Prime Minister, or the Liberal Democrats will walk out of this coalition and force a general election.”

This is a government that has brought itself into disrepute in record time.  It needs to be kicked out of office.

Aftermath of the UK Election Debates.

Well, the final debate has ended, and we are now in the final countdown to election day itself. I have seen all the debates, and here's my take on all 3.

The first one, shown live on ITV1, was very much a surprise. Nick Clegg came out on top rather convincingly. Cameron came in a decent second, with Gordon Brown a poor third.

The second one, shown live on Sky News was much closer, with Cameron perhaps just edging it. Gordon Brown still way back off the pace.

Tonight, it seems, there is a difference of opinion as to whose won. Channel 4 News vote said Brown won by 2%, with Clegg second and Cameron a poor third. ITV News said Cameron won by 2% with Clegg second and Brown third. YouGov said Cameron won by 9% with Clegg second and Brown third.

I say tonight, Clegg won again, but not by much. Brown was the close second, and Cameron looked like he was way off the pace, constantly fighting a rear guard action, and not doing a good job of it.

So, to my mind, we're heading for a hung parliament. But how will Brown and Cameron react to the surge in the Liberal Democrats? I forsee an unlikely, but possible Brown/Cameron coalition, to keep Clegg out of power. Wouldn't say it was likely to happen, but I think it is possible.

Viewpoint Extra - NY 23: Republican backs Democrat not Conservative

There has been a further fascinating development in the story of Congressional District NY-23's special election.  Ian Beaumont examines these and looks at the possibilities for US right wing politics in the future.

Viewpoint - NY 23: Conservatism's first big election breakthrough?

In New York, a special election for the House of Representatives has garnered a lot of attention.  Ian Beaumont analyses developments.

Viewpoint – Review of Season 1

Ian Beaumont looks back on the stories that have most influenced Viewpoint over this past season just gone. 

Viewpoint Election Special – They think it’s all over…

Despite the fact that the media have moved on to other stories, the European Elections are still not quite over.  Ian Beaumont looks at where we are, and rounds up the facts and figures from this European Election.

Viewpoint Election Special – European Elections

The European Election results have been much slower to declare tonight than was originally planned.  Recorded after 1am in the morning, Ian Beaumont reviews developments to this point.

Viewpoint – from City Media Productions - 1l

Viewpoint – from City Media Productions - 1i

In this edition of Viewpoint, I look at the election chances of the Liberal Democrats and update you on the continuing developments in the UK MPs expenses scandal.

Viewpoint – from City Media Productions - 1f

Dick Cheney shows up the failure of Conservative-Republicanism.

The Republican Party as of late seems to resemble a circular firing squad.  Even when they're aiming at the opposition, they do a "Dick Cheney" and hit their own men.  But now, the original has decided to add his bullets into the mix, and despite being aimed at US President Barack Obama, he manages to only shoot the Republicans collectively in the foot.

He appeared on CNN's State of the Union with John King, and proceeded to demonstrate yet again why the Republican Party not only lost both in 2006, and 2008, and why it will continue to lose until it disengages itself from rabid right wing conservatives like Rush "Limburger" Limbaugh.

"Limburger" and his fellow right wing talk show hosts, such as Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck, are the public face of the GOP right now.  And Ugh!!! What a revolting face it is.  And the likes of Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, John McCain and Lindsay Graham, do nothing to improve the public face of Republicanism.  In fact, if anything, they've actually managed to make it look worse now, than at election time back in November 2008.  Add into that mix, the new, and perhaps soon to be evicted, RNC Chairman Michael Steele, and former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Newt "Gingrinch" Gingrich, and a few others, and you have the political equivalent of a mass of bird poop!

The "circular firing squad" description that has become prevalent over the last couple of weeks, is very apt, but in some ways, doesn't do the situation real justice.  On top of this, you have moderate republicans, and rabid conservatives fighting for what is left, of the soul of the party, after "Emperor" Cheney and "Darth" Bush basically tore it out.  It's not just random shots being fired, it's an ideological battle, between unmoveable, unshakeable, unfathomable conservatism, which believes it is right, and everybody else is wrong, even the majority, and the more moderate republicans who have read the tea leaves correctly and realise that the centre ground NEEDS to be retaken in order to make the party electable again, and believe that conservatism will ultimately destroy the party.

Perhaps the conservative movement should get behind their own parties.  They have two of them after all.  The American Conservative Party, and the Conservative Party of the United States of America.  Why tack themselves onto the Republican Party?

The answer of course is simple.  The conservative movement, knows full well that it cannot run and win under its own banner.  Therefore, they tack themselves onto the more moderate Republican banner to become winners.  They think that by doing that, the public won't notice that Conservatism, and Republicanism, aren't necessarily the same thing.  The only time they go against that meme is a time like now when by linking the two, they've brought the Republican Party down badly, so they try to highlight the fact that Republicanism and Conservatism are different agendas.  Sorry guys, but you can't have it both ways!

At this point in time, it's difficult to see how the Republican Party can come back into electability, because right now, it looks like it's heading further and further out towards the extremities, and as the UK's Conservative Party proved from 1997 until recently, heading back to your base is a sure fire way to make yourself unelectable.

Conservative chairman facing standards inquiry

BBC News is repoting that UK Conservative Party chairman Caroline Spelman is to face an inquiry from the UK's Parliamentary Standards Commissioner into her use of MP's expenses to pay her nanny.

If the inquiry proves she misused her expenses, it will be another nail against the leadership of David Cameron.  The Conservative leader has been blessed with the same kind of media in-attention that John McCain has been blessed with.   Whilst in the US, that is a mix of conservative talk radio and newspapers, as well as the moderately conservative ABC News and the rather more extreme conservative Fox News Channel, over here in the UK, there are far less sources of conservative media, mostly the newspapers, although Sky News seems to have taken a slight conservative bias recently, but nowhere near as much as the conservative press. 

Cameron has largely been given a free-pass by most of the media, and it's a pass he's undeserving of.  Labour has been targetted many times by the conservative press, and not all of them have been justified.  It's about time David Cameron took some heat for things his party has done wrong.

Jonathan Aitken to head conservative think tank on Prison reform!

And now, from Viewpoint, an extra special commentary on Johnathan Aitken and the insanity that is modern politics.

Would you put a convicted criminal in charge of the criminal justice system? Would you task a fare evader with catching fare evaders on our transport system? Would you trust a proven liar to actually come clean and tell you the truth? Would you buy a used car from Arthur Daley or an item from DelBoy's market stall?

So why would David Cameron ask Jonathan Aitken to lead a conservative think tank to look into prison reform?

Cameron has made some gaffes in his time, but this has to rank as the biggest gaffe of the lot so far. This is like putting a tax evader in charge of the Inland Revenue. You've put a convicted criminal, a perjurer, and someone who actually spent time in prison, in charge of reforming them? There is a kind of logic to it, but unfortuantely, it is the logic of the madman. You'd have made the idea more popular if you had put a victim of crime in charge, not a convicted criminal.

Unfortunately, this situation is a symptom of a situation that exists not just in the UK, but around the world. Politics is becoming insane. It has become about trying to prove your opponents are wrong, and you are right, at any cost. Truth no longer seems to matter to politicians, who seem ready to lie, spin, and promote propoganda, rather than tell the truth.

And unfortunately, more and more people, like myself, are getting fed up of it.

Politics is NOT about proving yourself right, by lying and spouting political propoganda. It IS about finding REAL solutions to REAL problems. It is about serving the public, not helping yourself.

It is about making a positive difference to people's lives, not about petty political point scoring, or shameless self promotion.

Unfortunately we've had too little of the problem solving, public helping politics, and far too much of the shameless, propogandist, petty, point scoring politics, which just deepens people's cynicism in a dying political system. Political parties are not helping politics, but hindering it, hindering it so much that it is making politics very unpopular.

And it's not just the big name politicians that are doing this.

Around the world, the political "netroots", those who post on blogs, just like I do, are putting their opinions on the web for all to read, but unlike me, they do not think about what they write, other than just how well they are pushing their political points.

What they do not consider, are the realities of their opinions. What would happen as a result of their ideas. The "netroots" can and do get their political parties who they support into a lot of trouble. Take the Republican netroots, who not long ago were promoting the idea of sending all 12 million plus illegal immigrants back where they came from. Like so many ideas, it sounded great in theory, but unfortunately it would have so spectacularly backfired on them, that if they had followed it through as a policy, the Republican Party would have gone straight over the cliff, like a multitude of lemmings, hurtling off the cliff of political reason, into the abyss of political destruction. The Republican party would have commited political suicide, and there would have been nothing that the netroots or anyone else could have done to prevent that.

Fortunately for political discourse, cooler heads did prevail, but it was a close run thing.

But even though the "netroots" must also take some blame, there are still others who must also take their share.

And this time, it's not the "new" media I am looking at, but rather the "old" media.

I'm looking straight at the people, who I refer to as the "politicos", the talking heads, who appear on 24 hour news channels, and host talk radio shows, the ones who believe their point of view is the only one that matters and that others need to be "educated" into their way of thinking.

I'm looking at you, Bill O'Reilly. I'm looking at you, Sean Hannity. I'm looking at you, Rush Limbaugh. I'm looking at you, Michael Savage, Laura Ingrahm, Glenn Beck, Don Imus, Pat Buchanan, Tony Blankley, Eleanor Clift, Michelle Malkin, Kirsten Powers, Mort Kondracke, Fred Barnes, Chales Krauthammer, and all the other "talking heads", "columnists" and "contributors", who waste more time in pointless political discussions that, like a lot of Enterprise set pipes from the original Star Trek TV series which were lablled GNDN, Go Nowhere, Do Nothing.

All you guys do, is promote your own party's talking points, rather than trying to find real solutions. You contribute NOTHING to the political discourse, and only reinforce the political divide, and in some cases, make the divide wider.

As Sherlock Holmes used to say, It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has enough data to do so. One ostensibly twists facts to suit theories, rather than theories to suit facts. Perhaps the political world should remember to twist theories to suit facts, rather than facts to suit their own politcal agendas.

Newsbusters bust their own guts!

Okay, now if THIS is not the most biased, egotistical, unscientific poll I've ever seen, I don't know what is.

I feel like adding a fourth option to the list... Stupid Conservative!