Letters From A Tory Daily views on British politics and the Conservative Party from a centre-right thinker who writes letters on his blog to politicians, journalists and many others.

…I’m going on holiday so blogging is postponed until 7/8th January.  Have a fantastic New Year and I will return to the blogosphere in 2008, fully refreshed from some scuba diving in Egypt.
Best wishes
A.Tory

Dear readers,
I admit to being quite poorly versed in the intracies of Pakistani politics, but the death of Benazir Bhutto strikes me as a serious blow to establishing a stable and peaceful country.  Here is a short news report from the excellent Al-Jazeera TV on the background to yesterday’s assasination:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3jh91p98Hw]
Another very helpful video was produced [...]

“I get to hang around with all the best women. Drive the fastest cars, travel in speedboats and private jets, sleep in the best hotels and have beautiful women pursuing me from all over the world. It’s absolutely bloody awful”
- James Bond actor Daniel Craig

I consider myself very fortunate to have acquired a hint of political clairvoyance over the Christmas period.  For example, many commentators are already suggesting that Hilary Clinton has left it too late to start a fightback against Obama in the race for the Democratic nomination – but through my incredible clairvoyance I can predict with some certainty that she will [...]

“So, remind me again, how does the Thunderball thing work?”

There are many people in and around the world of politics who deserve to be mocked for all sorts of reasons – be it incompetence, poor dress sense, inability to make any sense, compulsive liars etc.  I am usually happy to jump on the bandwagon and make fun of these people like everyone else – but [...]

Dear David Davis,
I assure you that many other people also have grave concerns about gun crime in this country.  On Christmas Eve, London witnessed yet another horrific shooting that has left a boy fighting for his life.  In a bizarre parallel, this reminds me of the frequent scandals about the government losing our personal data [...]

There are approximately two billion children (persons under 18) in the world. However, since Santa does not visit children of Muslim, Hindu, Jewish or Buddhist religions, this reduces the workload for Christmas night to 15% of the total, or 378 million. At an average of 3.5 children per household, that comes to 108 million homes, [...]

… here is something that always makes me laugh.  Put the volume up and enjoy this classic clip from South Park.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bfr_LOZCZpQ]

“Please have a wonderful Christmas. Drink too much. Eat too much. Don’t feel guilty about the presents you give or those that you receive. Care not for your carbon footprint or the impact of your naked consumerism. Be happy. And remember, you are having a much better time than Gordon Brown because he has no [...]

Dear Allan Mallinson,
I think what surprised me most about your article in the Telegraph this morning was that you sounded surprised.  With Labour getting hammered in the polls week after week, it does not surprise me in the slightest that Gordon Brown is trying to appear more ‘British’ and provide some nice soundbites that suggest [...]

In the fight against global terror, I am always happy to see a government planning for all eventualities in order to protect the public.  However, sometimes I really feel that governments can take their planning a little too far.

Dear Royal Mail,
Your managers must clearly be living in a bottomless pit, because otherwise they would have noticed that over the past few years online shopping has become increasingly popular.  With the extremely cold weather (by British standards, anyway) that we’ve had for the last couple of weeks, it was blindingly obvious that Christmas shopping [...]

“I think anyone who knows me will tell you I’d make a pretty disruptive sheep”
- Iain Dale, being interviewed about his new political magazine (no, seriously)

Dear Unite,
I am sick and tired of this.  Here you are yet again, crying like little babies about BAA, who own most of the airports in this country, closing their final salary pension scheme to new employees and now you are threatening to strike.
There are two things I would like to say to this.  Firstly, [...]

Everyone knows how much trauma can be inflicted on a child throughout their time at school purely on the basis of having a weird first name or surname, but some parents really do have it in for their kids.

Dear Nick Herbert,
Good job on holding the government to account over the spectacular failure in deporting foreign criminals, despite Gordon Brown pretending to talk tough a little while ago on this very subject.
I don’t know what the Conservative Party’s plans would be if they come to power at the next election.  To my mind, this [...]

“I think this team is the strongest political team in British politics today”
- Nick Clegg, on announcing his Lib Dem cabinet after having a few too many down the pub

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmB937L0bDY]
A charming and pleasant political moment or cynical electioneering using your family?

Dear Alan Johnson,
It is hard to know where to direct this letter, seeing as the current situation with regard to GP’s pay has been building up for years.  Even so, your tough talking on the latest pay increase for GPs will ultimately be fruitless unless you bribe them with even more taxpayers’ money.
Let’s start by [...]

I always assumed that most people enjoyed seeing Santa Claus around town when they do their Christmas shopping, which goes some way to explaining why I didn’t realise that his work sometimes entails negotiating a hail of bullets.

Dear Jim Knight,
Very clever indeed.  Most impartial observers might think nothing of it, but the fact that UCAS made a key announcement about the new school diplomas about an hour before the Lib Dem leadership announcement was as deliberate and cynical as it gets – a good day to bury disgraceful news.
So let’s cut to [...]

“Now I know what you’re all thinking – 3 million sounds like a large number….”

If any readers of this blog remain unconvinced about the intelligence of the average American, it will come as no surprise that there is now scientific evidence demonstrating that Americans can be out-smarted by a monkey.

Dear The Independent,
Thank you for an interesting leading article today on the government’s proposals to set in motion “the biggest shake-up of the immigration system in its history”.  As always with Labour, it is more of a step sideways than a step forwards.
For the government to believe that cutting a tourist visa from six to three [...]