There are many good reasons why the Conservative Party is taking time to announce a broad number of new policies. One of them is that Labour has a habit of stealing them.
One such example comes from Liam Fox’s statement before the party conference that members of the armed forces serving overseas should receive a bonus in their pay packets. This was duly taken up by the Secretary of State for Defence who said they had been planning something similar for a while. That may be true, but they had certainly not announced it.
Today, the BBC is reporting that due to an administrative cock-up, the Royal Marines will not receive their bonus! According to the MOD spokesman quoted, the fact that the Marines serving in some of the toughest areas of Afghanistan will not receive their bonus of up to £3,000 each was “regrettable”. Shadow Defence Minister Mark Harper MP pointed out that this will have negative effects on moral for years to come. He is not wrong.
On behalf of the TRG, I would like to propose another Tory policy that the Secretary of State for Defence will be welcome to copy. Given that the money has already been allocated to the MOD, the government should step in and over-ride the administrative error and in true “spirit of the season” style make sure the Marines have their due rewards by Christmas.
A number of Tory MPs have topped the annual poll for the introduction of private member’s bills. The top six were:
- Nick Hurd
- Tim Yeo
- Caroline Spelman
- Gary Streeter
- Graham Stringer
- Robert Walter
As many at the top of the poll have not yet decided what bills they might want to introduce, we thought we might canvass our supporters, asking for a few ideas. So, add a comment to this article by clicking on the link below and we will set up a poll of the best ideas!
For more detail on the story, the BBC covers it here.
So, what did I say on Web TV?
I was in fact on camera for two hours, which may sound a long time but actually it flew by. We discussed the big stories of the day, including the Queen’s Speech, stories on the compensation culture and what it means to be British. We then moved on to reviewing the first editions of the papers.
What it made it particularly interesting from my point of view were my fellow guests. They were Tim Montgomerie (the man behind the excellent Conservative Home site) and John Hayes MP. Now John is a leading member of the Cornerstone Group of Tory MP’s and as such is not generally thought of as being close to a TRG point of view. However, in two hours we really agreed on almost everything (and there is TV footage to back this up!). In particular, John did an excellent job talking to his brief of Further Education and I am sure that every TRG member would have endorsed what he had to say. All of this only goes to show, as we discussed during the show, what unites all members of the Tory Party is much greater than that which divides us.
Last night I had the pleasure of appearing on the web TV station 18 Doughty Street.
If you haven’t heard about it yet, you will. In the meantime, the BBC recently carried this little item about it all which you can view here
So, what is it all about? Well, 18 Doughty Street is TV with a viewpoint, largely a Conservative one, which of course we like, although it does throw a nod to other political viewpoints from time to time. As a TV station, the audiences are not that large yet, but it is a pointer as to where the future is going and what they have acheived so far is hugely impressive. The studio I was sitting in was well run and the quality is high.
This is a really great project. We wish everyone at 18 Doughty Street the best of luck!
