Davids Blog

London, Monday 5th March

Posted by David on Monday, 05 March 2007 15:03:51

Back in the office, but after a busy weekend. This time of year is mini conference season. Sunday was the Welsh conference in Cardiff. This weekend it's the Scottish conference in Perth - and next week the national spring conference in Nottingham. Well, I asked for this job....

I still get some true relaxation. Last night Sam and I slumped in front of Lewis on ITV. Beautiful views of Oxford - but nowhere near as good as Morse. And, unless I fell asleep, the second murder was left completely unsolved.

The Liberals have had their spring conference first. Unless I'm missing something, the leadership's briefing that they've set "5 tests" for Brown and will only contemplate working with Labour, is a massive own goal. Ming Campbell is effectively saying that there's only one way to get rid of an exhausted Labour government - and that's by voting Conservative. Thanks Ming.

The best thing about this job is the people you meet. This morning I was in Hammersmith with a social enterprise called Spear, which helps young people who are neither in work, education, employment or training - the so called NEETs.

Spear consists of just 4 people, spends just £150,000 a year but places over 90 young people into employment. It gets no core funding from the government. Some of the young people are hard cases - one young guy I talked with was just 20 years old and had already been to prison five times. He was now turning his life around, doing a marketing diploma and preparing for job interviews.

Gordon Brown says only the State can guarantee fairness. He should get out more.


Post edited by David on Tuesday, 06 March 2007 16:42:12

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Posted by Votedave on Monday, 05 March 2007 18:28:43

Yes, David - it looks like a vote for the Liberal Democrats is a vote for Labour now. Just like it was under David Steel as Liberal leader in the late 1970s.

Posted by Geddes on Monday, 05 March 2007 19:05:55

Fantastic, I must say. You are definitely making yourself sound so much more human and like a real person by giving more personal opinions rather than "On the behalf of the Conservative Party" :) Keep it going, interesting what you say :D

Posted by andyst on Monday, 05 March 2007 20:14:13

:P I like this type of post quite well - keep it coming.

Posted by canvas on Monday, 05 March 2007 20:25:02

Barack Obama said earlier in the week that the worst thing about being a politician is not the travelling, or the names people call you - it's the time spent away from his two precious daughters.

Posted by songsmith237 on Tuesday, 06 March 2007 02:30:36

Yeah Gordon should get out more

Posted by srfielding on Tuesday, 06 March 2007 14:12:30

Yeah Gordon shhould get out more, maybe he'll take that advice and visit Blair and Levy inside!!!

Posted by ReverendJasonGraves on Wednesday, 07 March 2007 11:13:28

"
Gordon Brown says only the State can guarantee fairness.
"


Ya, Gordon Brown should go to a gym and definately see a little more of the sunlight!


The "state" is a state. All these young men and women in need of a little REAL direction and true education, not more lies fed from a Government that is systemically corrupted and poisoned from the leadership downwards.


Ya, I'd like to see what would happen in Tony Blair or Gordon Brown walked around that same housing estate you did David. Their policies will be the reason they will be living behind high security systems for the rest of their lives. Reach out to these generations and ya, am here, ready to pitch in...

Jesus

Posted by monwat on Thursday, 08 March 2007 19:30:46

08.03.07

I was very impressed with this 'Webcameron' blog: the interviewees sounded genuinely interested in the idea of 'social enterprise', and as if they thought that the Conservative Party could help them individually. I would suggest David act literally upon the 'soundbite' that Gordon Brown 'should get out more....' : a noticeable feature of Mr Brown's career to date is his reluctance to travel around England meeting the electorate. People distrust politicians when they never see them, and, to date, Brown has only ventured to the Middle and Far East! One of Labour's major errors in constructing policy is its dependence on statistics and the 'general' rather than the real and the individual - David Cameron will build individual's confidence in his party's promises, the more he is 'out and about' and thus will spread Conservative ideas among the electorate through word of mouth.