Tapestry Talks

Scaramella Has A story To Tell

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/11cd2d4c-95cb-11db-9976-0000779e2340.html

The FT runs the story that Scaramella stands accused of aggravated defamation against Romano Prodi, Italy's Prime Minister.  The story that Romano Prodi is a KGB agent - in fact the KGB's top agent in Italy - was in fact exposed by Litvinenko, not Scaramella.  Litvinenko has been silenced by Polonium.  Scaramella is now being silenced by legal threat.

The video produced by Scaramella recording Litvinenko's revelations about KGB penetration into European capitals is not mentioned.  And it is not likely to be mentioned.

The embarrassing fact that the former Head of The EU Commission is alleged to have been working for the KGB has to be silenced, if the credibility of the EU is to survive - let alone Italy's credibility.  Prodi, also implicated in the murder of Aldo Moro,  a previous Italian Prime MInister (he revealed the body's whereabouts) is desperately trying to shore up Italy's banklrupt economy.

It is not only the truth about Prodi which Scaramella thratens to reveal, which is worrying the EU.  The Euro is also threatened by Italy's economic situation.  Italy cannot stay in the Euro forever.  When will this come home to roost?

Is Francis Maude Batting For Europe?

According to the Guardian poll of voting intentions, Greens come more from labour than Conservative, and UKIP comes more from Conservative than Labour.

If we stem any haemorrage to UKIP (How do you spell that word?), a Green party surge would hurt Labour more than us, and the growth of the minor parties need not harm us.

Is that why John Redwood and IDS have been brought out of the shadows recently - to address the anger generated by the Polly Toynbee play, and the lift provided to Nigel Farage?  It would be quite a coincidence if it were not.

To FM, I would like to ask why are so many selections on the A List bringing in Europhiles?  Isn't the story of Bromley that Conservatives will no longer vote for Europhiles?  Is Francis Maude manilpulating the A Lists to bring in the maximum number of europhiles that he can - and is that why Bernard jenkin was sacked from maiing the selections - the only eurosceptic amongst the selection panel?

Cameron And The End Of The EU

Report on Conservativehome suggests that Cameron has persuaded the Barclay Brothers, owners of The Telegraph to provide him and the Conservatives with solid editorial support.

Cameron seems able to swing people behind him when he meets them face to face. That's a great skill. He appears to be offering nothing in terms of favours in return for support as he wins backers in the media and elsewhere.

Blair managed to get all behing him but only by agreeing to everything his targets requested. To the EU he promised the Euro. To Bush he promised unconditional support for the Iraq War. To others he promised all kinds of things most of which he failed to deliver - e.g PR to Paddy Ashdown.

Being tradeable for favours, in particular made Blair the all time favourite for Rupert Murdoch. According to Lance Price, Murdoch has more or less controlled Britain's relations with the EU 'under' Blair.

It is pleasing that Murdoch is finding Cameron less of a sucker, and Murdoch is having to learn respect for Cameron, even if that means he is taking the occasional pot shot at him to see if he can bowl him over. Murdoch must be beginning to realise that taking pot shots at Cameron could soon become a highly counterproductive strategy in terms of hanging on to all his media/sports privileges.

The EU is the fountain of power in Murdoch's mindset, and he imagines that if he keeps the EU sweet, all will flow for him in the UK. But with Turkey's accession now stalled, Italy's ability to remain within the eurozone in doubt, and France/Germany talking of consolidating a central EU bloc, allowing others to choose how far they want to be 'in' the game is opening up a new era of Europe a la carte (See Roger Helmer's December newsletter about Segolene Royal and her EU proposals - http://www.rogerhelmer.com/straighttalk58.asp).

Power could swing quickly back to Westminster under a new Conservatiove government with the EU reaching a period of less certainty as to how to stabilise let alone progress.

Murdoch has seen the light about Gordon Brown. Only Paul Dacre is getting that one completely wrong still. He will have to retract on that front or look pretty foolish before long, with the Brown/EU era of big government/centralisation about to crack, and power about to swing back the other way. Cameron is the vanguard.

Domestic Bliss

Just logged on to British politics from a time zone 8 hours away.  Seems like Labour continue to self destruct, and the Conservative right are becoming more vocal.  Must have a look at John Redwood's new blog.  In between finding an apartment and kitting out the kitchen.

Belgium TV Warns Of Civil War

Belgium thought that Belgium was finished yesterday. The RTBS1 main French language channel broke the programme in progress to announce that a coup d'etat had occurred, the king had left the country for his safety with the army, and the Flemish had taken over the country.

People panicked. 5000 people called the TV Channel and everyone called each other on their mobile phones.

After 40 minutes, RTBS1 then admitted that it was only a fiction, and that they had done it because they wanted people to realise how dangerous the Flemish separatist movement was becoming, and they wanted people to discuss how horrific it would be if the country split. 

The Flemish need the water and the electricity from the French side, but they are sick of the foreigners in Brussels and elsewhere engaging in so much crime. 

Today, now people realise the programme was a 'hoax', it's all calm again, and people are relieved.  But yesterday they had a powerful shock.

The Flemish separatists are growing in power, insulting the Royal family at every opportunity.  People compare them to the Nazis as they have a powerful far right politcal base. (report based on a telephone interview with a Belgian family the following day)

The TV 'hoax' was an attempt to stop the advance of the Flemish breakaway movement.

It was meant to be a warning of what could happen...and an attempt to demonstrate the importance of the EU to Belgium.  But disorder and crime in Belgium is out of control.  Mirrroing the progress of the BNP in Britain, it is the collapse of civilised standards in society that is driving the collapse of the previous political consensus. 

The Human Rights Laws that underlie the EU are the cause of the problem.  It is no good just suppressing the growing anger in law-abiding communities.  One day it will explode, as the TV hoax tried to show.  It is essential that fear and punishment is reintroduced into the criminal justice system.  The EU is not the cure but the cause of the problem. 

Has Cameron Pulled Murdoch?

The political geography is moving this week.  First Rupert Murdoch, who's been sycophantically supportive of Gordon Brown for a long while, openly criticised him in the Sun and the ST this weekend. 

http://politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2006/12/10/this-mornings-press-targets-luntz-and-brown/

That gave a clue that someone must have done a deal with Murdoch to replace Brown as the man most likely to ....keep Murdoch in possession of his privileged media and sports market positions.   (also see Irwin Stelzer in The Telegraph - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/12/12/do1201.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2006/12/12/ixopinion.html)

And Anantole Kaletsky in The Times -

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,6-2502124,00.html

And yet there was no indication as to which direction Murdoch's support might be swinging. 

Later on in the week, another significant event has happened - the opening up of Cameron's pitch to the Right.  Quite noticeably David Cameron has opened up operations on the right flank after denying that this would be necessary only a year ago.

http://conservativehome.blogs.com/torydiary/2006/12/camerons_big_te.html

The question in my mind is whether Cameron feels safe to move right because he knows that he will be getting enough media support.  So far Murdoch has not been favourable to Cameron, saying he didn't think 'much' about him.  Cameron has not been willing to brown nose the EU, and that has been enough to keep Murdoch onside with Brown.

Do the above movements of the political tectonic plates indicate anything? 

The EU seems to be splitting.  Royal is talking of an 'a la carte' Europe where France and Germany press ahead with the Constitution and others can choose if they want to join or not.  The accession of Turkey looks increasingly doubtful, as well as further expansion of the EU.  Italy is on the verge of breaking out of the Euro.  Are the pressures holding the EU in place at last starting to unravel?

Is Murdoch starting to look beyond the EU as the principle power source that controls his affairs in Britain?  If he is starting to think 'beyond the EU' that would explain why he's thinking of dumping Gordon Brown, and could also indicate that he will be backing David Cameron before too long.

There might be other explanations than this for what we are seeing this week, but my mind cannot yet create any other likelier scenarios.

Toynbee Impoverishes Millions

Give people a start in life and some will grab the opportunity and build from there. Others will take what's on offer and then sit around waiting for the next handout.

In fact, in Britain, about 80% are the latter. Only 20% become the former and get going.

The 80% tend to vote left wing. The 20% right.

The deprivation of the 80% these days is not material. It is mental. The ones who help themselevs and their families feel a strong sense of purpose and self worth. Those who cannot get themselves started as it is made too easy to get by, suffer from low self worth, and no sense of purpose.

The mistake of the left is to focus 100% on money. Toynbee deprives the very people she claims to help. Millions are being needlessly supported by the state. If that support hadn't been there, they would have had to get going with helping themselves out of necessity. Most would have discovered a wonderful thing that no one thinks about these days - a feeling of self-respect. Toynbee is depriving millions of psychological and social fulfilment. That is the greatest of all poverties - never to feel good about yourself.

Prescott Will Outlive Blair

Prescott is untouchable.  He fucks up. No consequences.  His story is yet to be told. He’s the shadow Prime Minister of Britain.  Blair and Brown are a cover for what’s really going on.

Prescott’s running the Civil Service preparing it for takeover from Brussels, all on the quiet.  The shadow organization which trains Civil Servants with the coming government of Britain from Brussels is called ‘Common Purpose’. 

Britain is a pseudo-democracy where Prescott is the unmoveable EU Gauleiter who cannot be evicted from office. He will outlive Blair, no worries.

Trad Tories, Steady Your Nerves Lads!

Toynbee play from Cameron makes him ever more popular - while traditional Tories who don’t realise it’s all a PR game go off in a huff and say they intend to vote UKIP.

It’s not Cameron who needs a Plan B. He’s doing very well. It’s Conservatives who want more traditional policies. They would do better to deselect europhile candidates and MP’s within the Conservative Party than run off to UKIP wastelands. Cameron has shown himself willing to challenge the Europhiles but he will need 100% support from the trads to take them on. If they run off to UKIP, they only delay the inevitable battle and help their enemies. Cameron should not ’sort’ the europhiles until he’s secured power. Any other strategy would be suicidal. Trad Tories should steady their nerve and stay with Cameron.

The Quiet Man Will Speak For A Century

IDS was out of his depth as leader (we are told), but at that moment (2001) the Conservative Party was in danger of falling into europhile hands - whether the openly europhile Ken Clarke - or the cryptically europhile Portillo.  We should be eternally grateful to IDS that he barred the way to Clarke and Portillo for over two crucial years from his election in 2001 until his assassination in October 2003.  If he hadn't done that, the Party would have been finished.

IDS founded the Conservative Social Justice movement, and it was during his leadership that the Policy of Direct Democracy and Localism came to the fore.  Cameron is son of IDS.  It is thanks to IDS that we are still here.  Was he a great leader? 

He lead us through our time of greatest danger.  Isn't that the key role of leadership?  I rank him as one of the Party's greatest leaders, although apparently he was out of his depth.  He was strong becasue he had unmoveable values and beliefs, while everyone else around him was tradeable for position.  He will be seen as the crucial link between the Thatcher Conservative Party and the more 'modern' Party that comes along now.  People are far more interested in values again now chastened by war experience and terrorism.  In 2001 no one gave a toss.  The good times rolled. 

IDS crucially won and equally crucially held on just long enough to see off Ken Clarke and Portillo, and we now have a chance of winning power once more and rebuilding the damage done by NU Lab to our country.  It will be IDS' achievement as much as anyone's when we do.