Alan Duncan discusses Mayor BoJo (amongst other things) on Have I Got News For You
Posted by Alan Collins on Monday, May 5th, 2008 at 13:58

The Conservative Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, Alan Duncan MP, appeared on Have I Got News For You on Friday night.

Mr Duncan, who will be the guest speaker at a Gillingham and Rainham Conservatives dinner this Thursday, made his third appearance on the hit topical quiz show, alongside guest host Brian Blessed, guest panelist Marcus Brigstocke and regular panelists Ian Hislop and Paul Merton.

The episode was undoubtedly one of the best in the show’s history, with hilarious references to the London Mayoral candidate Boris Johnson (”It might be Mayor BoJo” - Alan Duncan, “BoJo?” - Ian Hislop, “When you’ve got initials like that, you can’t use them on their own” - Alan Duncan) and Mr Duncan’s sexuality (”We let [the Labour Party] be nasty to each other, but in the Conservative Party we all love each other … not like that” - Alan Duncan, “A bit like that, I mean it’s the new liberal Tory Party, isn’t it?” - Ian Hislop, “No, just me” - Alan Duncan).

Even Brian Blessed put his foot in it when he was talking about characters in 300, calling them “nancy boys … poofs” before remembering who was sat on his right-hand side and hastily, mockingly apologising. The webisode continued the theme, including a clip of Alan Duncan commenting on Brian Blessed’s loudness, only for the joke to be turned back on him (”I’m now death in my left ear” - Alan Duncan, “Well you must be used to that” - Brian Blessed).

The show, which is well worth watching, can be viewed on the BBC’s iPlayer until this Friday, or you can catch the webisode on YouTube at any time (Warning! The webisode contains strong language).

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Mayor Boris!
Posted by Alan Collins on Saturday, May 3rd, 2008 at 00:07

Boris Johnson has just proved the election-day pundits right and taken the crown of Mayor of London.

I have stayed up longer than I’d wanted to (need to be up at 6.30) to see the result declared officially.

For rolling updates visit ConservativeHome, who had “balls of steel” in announcing his victory first - as soon as the polls closed on Thursday!

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A sad day for British politics
Posted by Alan Collins on Friday, April 18th, 2008 at 14:40

The longest serving woman MP in Parliament, Gwyneth Dunwoody, died yesterday aged 77.

Mrs Dunwoody has been the Labour Member of Parliament for Crewe and Nantwich since 1974, although she has remained famously independent. In her son’s words, “She defended people who didn’t have anyone else to defend them.”

Amongst politicians and journalists paying tribute, David Cameron said “I was saddened to hear about the death of Gwyneth Dunwoody. She was courageous in her political beliefs and an inspiration to many. Her defiance and willingness to stand up to the establishment was truly admirable. She will be a sad loss to the House of Commons.”

I would like to second that. Mrs Dunwoody was a fierce woman of strong principles, which she never abandoned. But she was still human, gentle and believed in peaceful persuasion.

She will be sadly missed by all in the political world.

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Cameron meets Mrs Newlove
Posted by Alan Collins on Friday, April 11th, 2008 at 02:30

David Cameron yesterday met the wife of Gary Newlove, who was brutally murdered by thugs outside his own home in broken Britain.

Both David Cameron and Helen Newlove spoke at a strengthening families summit. Mrs Newlove blames a breakdown in morals and family life for her husband’s death. Cameron said:

We need to build stronger families and more responsible communities, so that kids grow up knowing the difference between right and wrong. Most important of all, parents need to take the responsibility of parenthood seriously. That is a harder and longer task than sorting out the criminal justice system. It is a task for a generation.

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Let teachers restrain pupils physically
Posted by Alan Collins on Wednesday, April 9th, 2008 at 19:27

So the latest idea emerging from the Conservative Party is, according to the Daily Telegraph, to encourage teachers “to restrain disruptive pupils physically”.

David Cameron, the Leader of the Conservative Party, has said that he would advocate “grabbing” pupils who were misbehaving, changing the law in an attempt to improve behaviour in classrooms. Mr Cameron stressed, though, that he did not wish to bring back corporal punishment:

It’s about giving schools the power to control discipline, to bring order to the classroom and giving them the independence to do that as strong, independent institutions. We have got into a situation where we are treating children like adults and treating adults like children. I think we do need a restoration of common-sense. That means a lot of these no-touching policies have got to go. But, you do need quite strict controls, you do need rules.

Apparently, Jim Knight, the Labour School’s Minister hit back in defence of the current situation:

David Cameron’s plans are unfunded, unworkable and would make the problem worse.

If that is what counts as a defence these days then the Labour Party have serious issues to deal with. Their schools minister has admitted that there is a “problem” and has called the plans “unfunded” and “unworkable” with zero evidence to back up their claims.

Continue Reading “Let teachers restrain pupils physically” »

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