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.

Welcome to ‘Letters From A Tory’, covering British politics from a conservative perspective. Please leave a comment if you have any thoughts about today’s letter, and don’t forget that you can CLICK HERE to get my letters sent to you by RSS every morning.Dear Ed Balls,
We all know that the Darling/Mandelson double-act has made [...]

From the Daily Mail:
Gordon Brown hurled a torrent of abuse at EU Foreign Minister Baroness Ashton in a row over the way she is doing her job, it was disclosed last night.  The Prime Minister swore repeatedly at the Baroness over the telephone, leaving her shaken, according to well-placed sources. Details of Mr Brown’s latest [...]

“I find it quite unusual for people to criticise me for doing what I consider to be my duty. …This was nothing to do with partisan politics.”
- Gordon Brown, who said today that the criticism he received for visiting Afghanistan a day after giving evidence to the Iraq war inquiry was “incredibly unfair”. During his Chilcot inquiry [...]

Dear David Cameron,
It’s been a rocky few weeks to say the least, although you seem to be just about keeping your head above water in the national and marginals polls.  Today Gordon Brown will make a speech about the economy at the same time as more bad news pours in.  I’m not a fan of [...]

“The truth is that [Gordon Brown] is to reforming public services what Nero was to fire safety; or Tiger Woods to marital fidelity.”
- David Cameron, speaking at the Welsh Conservatives’ annual conference

“If Gordon Brown is on course to win the next election, then Elvis Presley is on course to win The X Factor and Shergar to win the Grand National”
- London’s Mayor Boris Johnson

Dear David Cameron,
There is no doubt in my mind that you will be watching the polls over the next few days with even more interest than usual.  Your spring conference in Brighton, which was considerably smaller than the main party conference in October, attracted some reasonably positive coverage but yet again your hand is being [...]

“What you see is what you get with him.”
- Sarah Brown on her husband Gordon, providing yet another reason why we should kick Labour out at the next election. (not literally, though, because that would be bullying – Ed)

From the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills website:
Now you see it (taken at 10am):
 
 Now you don’t (taken at 3:30pm):

Dear Christine Pratt,
I have no doubt that your anger at the denials by No 10 about Gordon Brown’s alleged bullying is very genuine, because your role as chief executive of the National Bullying Helpline demonstrates a genuine concern about these sorts of cases.  However, I feel extremely uneasy about your intervention in what was a [...]

“I think the country wants someone that will push things forward, and not allow things to be stagnant and stale”
- Gordon Brown, explaining why you should vote Conservative at the general election he sometimes gets angry, in the face of accusations that he bullied and mistreated staff and was warned about his violent conduct by [...]

Dear readers,
If you have a spare moment today, why not join the hilarious fun over at Comment Is Free.  They have asked (in full anticipation of what would follow, I’m sure) the following question:
What slogan for Labour? – Gordon Brown is set to unveil Labour’s new election slogan this weekend. Can you think of a [...]

“Today Mr Brown will unveil his party’s election slogan. Its ‘themes’ for the campaign include ‘Ensuring the recovery’, ‘Protecting front line services’, ‘Standing up for the many’ and ‘Protecting future jobs and new industries’. I fear that he will not embrace a much-needed spirit of truthfulness and go for ‘Finishing off Britain’, ‘Lying for Labour’, [...]

First Labour stole ‘British Jobs for British Workers’.
Now Labour steal the BNP campaign slogan ‘Operation Fightback’ as their general election branding.
As if that wasn’t comical enough, Labour’s ‘Operation Fightback’ leaflet for Labour candidates explicitly warns Labour activists against asking for support on the basis of Labour’s record in office.  “Labour needs to ensure that the next election [...]

Dear Alistair Darling,
I’m sure No 10 and No 11 are tempted to feel quite smug at the news that more than 60 senior economists have signed two open letters that back the chancellor’s decision to delay government spending cuts until 2011.  The letters in the Financial Times say that any measures to trim the budget [...]

“Yesterday’s newspapers included the headline ‘Scotsman Bares All’. Actually it was about a rugby fan dropping his kilt but it might as easily have been about Gordon Brown talking to ITV interviewer Piers Morgan.  Weeks short of a general election, our previously private Prime Minister blurted out a strange mixture of old jokes, windy smiles [...]

 
“shouting at staff, jabbing an angry finger, throwing down papers, kicking the furniture”.
“unforgivable”
“extraordinary flashes of anger”
“typical self-delusion”
“psychological flaws”
“pathetic”
“self-pity”
“He is psychologically and emotionally incapable of leadership of any kind.”
So says ‘Where Power Lies: Prime Ministers v The Media’ - a collection of interviews with current and former No 10 staff conducted by Lance Price, deputy to Tony [...]

First we had this:
Ed Balls reveals his struggle with secret stammer (23rd January 2010) – Schools Secretary Ed Balls spoke last night for the first time about his lifelong struggle to overcome a stammer. He revealed that he faced a daily battle to deliver his words and had to memorise all his speeches because he [...]

BBC News, 2nd February 2010: Britain’s “first past the post” voting system could be scrapped if Labour wins the general election, under plans which have been outlined by Gordon Brown. The prime minister wants a referendum on changing to an “alternative vote” system, where candidates are ranked in order of voters’ preference. MPs will vote [...]

Dear Gordon Brown,
It wasn’t long after Kraft’s audacious takeover bid for Cadbury got the green light that the unions starting stomping their feet about potential job losses.  The deal ends more than more than 150 years of independence for the maker of Dairy Milk, which will now be subsumed within the world’s second-biggest food company.  [...]

“What comes out of No 10 is lots of barmy ideas. It’s the worst possible kind of policy making, which is ‘here is a problem, let’s have a kneejerk reaction to it tomorrow on what we’re going to announce’ and quite frankly the less contact with No 10 the better.”
- how a director-general in one [...]

“This is not so much a government in crisis as a crisis pretending to be a government.”
- the verdict from the Mail on Sunday

Dear readers,
If there is any thought in your mind about voting Labour at the next election, let Ed Miliband’s article for the Observer quash any such rumblings.  Not only is it a blatant pitch for Brown’s favour as well as pumping up his own leadership credentials (well, trying to anyway), it demonstrates why misinformation, ignorance [...]