tomrichmond's blog

Rudy Giuliani's demise from Republican frontrunner into failure and dejection has been an astonishing tale.  Looking back on his campaign (or, technically, the lack of one) it is perhaps not surprising that it has ended this way.  Can you imagine if David Cameron said in the run up to the next General Election that he was going to leave his campaigning until about a month before election day itself?  The logic is baffling.  What's more, I don't remember hearing of a candidate in previous years leaving it all to the last minute and still becoming President of the United States.
 
So how much of a loss is Giuliani to the Republican cause?  It's reasonable to assume that most people in this country remember Giuliani most for his role in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in New York, but he is certainly not your typical Republican.  He is pro-choice on abortion, supported recent legislation curbing gun ownership, pro-immigration and supports gay rights to some extent as well.  For all his efforts, it is hard to believe that Republicans saw him as their ideal candidate.  Whether or not he had a better chance of beating Clinton or Obama than the remaining Republican contenders will forever remain a hot topic, should the next president be a Democrat.

Bookmark/Search this post with:

 •    •    •    •  

In the eyes of the public, the latest donation scandal to hit the Labour Party courtesy of Peter Hain is extremely damaging.  It is still hard to believe that no-one of any significance lost their job after the previous round of ooops-I-forgot-to-declare-a-large-sum-of-money, but Peter Hain looks vulnerable and will be lucky to keep his cabinet job.
 
The electorate will be unimpressed by another scandal after the shocking run of Labour Party failures towards the end of 2007.  The latest polls certainly support this theory.  But it isn't all sweetness and joy for David Cameron.  In the run-up to the next election, there will undoubtedly be Conservative scandals to contend with.  David Cameron cannot prevent this from happening, nor can anyone else.  The only variable that he can control is how decisively he deals with problems when they arise.  Gordon Brown has considerably increased the damage to his Government by dithering about sacking people.  If Peter Hain (or for that matter Harriet Harman or Wendy Alexander) had been sacked with immediate effect, the headlines would have disappeared.
 
The lesson for David Cameron is simple: crises will happen, scandals will occur - just make damn sure you fire people who need to be fired.

Bookmark/Search this post with:

 •    •    •    •  

Cynicism towards the Labour government is well-founded.  The recent donation scandal is alarming but not surprising, and it is even less surprising that the government has chosen to revisit the proposals to extend the detention period without charge, such is the controversial and headline-grabbing nature of Jacqui Smith's plan (nicely deflecting attention away from Mr Abrahams et al).  What is baffling is that extending the 28-day detention period seems to be without purpose or objective, which is unusual for Labour as they normally try to sneak some hidden motive past the public's nose even if it isn't immediately apparent.  In the complete absence of any public or confidential evidence supporting changes to the law, the whole process seems absurd.  MPs don't want the law changed and numerous legal experts also fail to see the logic.
 
Gordon Brown's own Security Minister, Admiral Lord West of Spithead, did a spectacular U-turn on his views about these proposed changes.  After recently telling Radio 4's Today programme that was not "fully convinced" of the need to raise the detention limit, he emerged from a meeting with Gordon Brown about an hour later saying "My feeling is, yes, we need more than 28 days,".  His subsequent remark was even more revealing: "I personally absolutely believe that within the next two to three years, we will require more than that for one of these complex plots."  So, in short, Gordon Brown's own Security Minister admits that there has never been a case where a limit above 28 days would have helped.

Bookmark/Search this post with:

 •    •    •    •  

I will admit to being a little forgetful sometimes, but the government losing 15 million people's confidential details is truly in a different league.  What will come of this?  There's already been one resignation at the time of writing and there may be more to follow.  Even if a few more Treasury heads are chopped in the coming days, the message to take away from this is quite simple: Labour cannot be trusted.  Their lack of respect for the British public is astounding. 
 
Let us not forget that this latest blunder comes hot on the heels of HM Revenue & Customs losing the details of 15,000 Standard Life customers earlier this month after a CD never showed up at its destination, and a laptop with the details of around 2000 people with investment ISAs was stolen at the beginning of October.

Bookmark/Search this post with:

 •    •    •    •  

The use of drug treatments for children diagnosed with ADHD has proved controversial within the medical community for many years.  Parents often see Ritalin and Concerta, two of the more popular ADHD treatments, as cause for hope that their child's behaviour can finally be brought under control.  Today's news that drug treatments are no more effective than therapy will come as a shock to many parents and doctors in the UK and should hopefully bring about a major rethink in how this disorder is dealt with.  In fact, the author of the original study supporting the use of drugs to treat ADHD has said that "there's no indication that medication's better than nothing in the long run", which is a truly astounding comment.
 
It doesn't take a medical genius to appreciate that giving children a daily dose of strong medication when their brains and bodies are still developing puts them at risk for developing serious side effects, and in the case of ADHD drugs children have poorer growth rates and do not physically develop in the same way as other children.  Society's obsession with prescribing drugs to children and adults for a range of disorders such as ADHD and depression is a dangerous habit and opens up problems with dependence and tolerance rather than treating the root causes of these problems.  Perhaps today's report will be the wake-up call that doctors and patients so desperately need.

Bookmark/Search this post with:

 •    •    •    •  

Across the whole political spectrum, public servants who waste taxpayers' hard-earned money are rarely popular.  In fact, the majority of voters and politicians would be happy for individuals who squander public funds to be punished in some way.  One might also be tempted into thinking that people who spend public funds wisely would be rewarded in some way.  Ooops, what a mistake.
 
Earlier this week, the government announced plans for local councils to take back any money from schools that they haven't spent.  Far from encouraging prudence and sensible financial planning, the government has evidently decided to penalise Headteachers and their manangement teams for running within their budgets.  Bearing in mind that many schools find it hard to make ends meet, this has got to be one of the most ridiculous policies aired by the government for quite some time (and that's saying something).
 
David Cameron is challenging the government's plan and is likely to receive considerable support for doing so.  He is quoted as saying "Why do you think you know best how to spend this money, rather than the head teachers?" and it is hard to argue with him.

Bookmark/Search this post with:

 •    •    •    •  

After being relatively quiet since the Conservative Party conference, David Davis made a low-key yet incredibly important statement today.  With support for the party at a 15-year high and a poll lead of around 7% according to the Sunday papers David Davis called for cool heads from Conservatives around the country, who are probably still busy bouncing off the walls.  But if we wind back the clock a few months, you will remember that the Conservatives had an even bigger lead in the polls and thought the end was nigh for the Labour Party, only for Gordon Brown to enjoy his (thankfully short-lived) honeymoon.
 
Let's face it - things really can't get much worse for Labour.  The likelihood is that in the next six months there will be a new and dynamic Lib Dem leader and Gordon Brown will have steadied the ship to some extent - both of which are likely to crank up the pressure on the Conservatives.  Hopefully they will be able to resist these attacks with a combination of strong leadership and continued progress with policy initiatives, but despite the Labour Party self-destructing and Ming Campbell's career coming to an end there will be little margin for error over the next two years.

Bookmark/Search this post with:

 •    •    •    •  

When it comes to improving the NHS, there is a constant chatter of opinions and ideas that more often than not conflict with each other.  Deciding on exactly how the NHS should develop in the future is debatable - the need for clean hospitals is not.  To read about 90 people being killed by dirty hospitals is chilling.  What greater example is there of a failing government than a government that has invested so much money in healthcare and yet people are dying not through botched operations or tragic accidents, but through incompetence and disturbingly low standards of cleanliness.
 
Labour's desire to control everything from Whitehall has made a huge contribution to this awful situation.  It is time we get the government out of running the NHS, because their arrogant belief that they can do keep hospitals clean from a desk in Westminster is quite literally costing lives.

Bookmark/Search this post with:

 •    •    •    •  

Everyone knows that Boris Johnson is a bit of an enigma, but who would have thought he could get the phrase "the mating ritual of a pair of giant black hairy caterpillars" into his article for the Telegraph today?
 
Underestimate Boris at your peril.  Especially you, Mr Livingstone.

Bookmark/Search this post with:

 •    •    •    •  

Here is a list of the buzzwords that David Cameron used, and the number of times he used them, in his speech to the Conservative Party conference yesterday - which seems to sum up his message rather well (courtesy of Steve Richard's article for the Independent):
 
Change 39
Children 24
Britain 16
Family 12
Proud 11
Election 10
Modern 10
Afghanistan 9
Prime Minister 8
Terrorism 7
Broken 5
Green/greener 4

Bookmark/Search this post with:

 •    •    •    •