Tuesday 26th May

2 ½ weeks is a long time. Tomorrow will be the Queen’s Speech. 2 ½ weeks ago many thought we may not get to this point. They thought the political parties would be in the midst of trying to form a government that could get a Queens Speech voted for. Little did we know!

We know some of the things it will contain…EU Referendum, devolved power to Scotland, more money for the NHS, more free childcare, reduced welfare cap…but it will also include some more controversial proposals…..the right to buy housing association houses, the ‘snoopers charter’, tighter rules on trade union strikes, the abolition of the Human Rights Act (possibly).

And Nicky’s back on TV saying all the right things for now, and for her future Conservative party leadership challenge that will come around pretty quickly…I feel.

And how did I miss the announcement that Chris Leslie was the Shadow Chancellor? I actually think he’s quite good so I’m keen to see how he responds to the Queens Speech. If I don’t know who’s holding what shadow job then I am sure the public don’t know…could the Labour Party out some ‘comms’ please?

Mary Creagh sounds like she’s being interviewed for a job by Evan Davies. I know she is going for a job…sort of…but she sounds like she has learnt her answers t o the expected questions rather than portraying what she really feels and thinks. I think I prefer what she writes than what she says in person.

Finally…Chukka’s come out to support Liz. That won’t do her any harm and it now looks like it will be a straight battle between the post 2010 and pre 2010 camp…how they will work together after the vote who knows.

Wednesday 27th May

Pleased that Cameron has decided not to go full steam ahead on abolishing the Human Rights Act. It demonstrates that it is the wrong thing to do and that Cameron hasn’t got the guts to go ahead with such a controversial change. It could easily still be his ‘poll tax’ moment but not right now…although it would have been good to see how he handled a backbench revolt and public anger…it may mean he would have to go! Only time will tell.

And from what I can see Cameron hasn’t explained how all this is going to be funded. Where is the money coming from for the NHS, childcare, selling off housing association houses…without raising taxes? Financially incredible.

Making it harder to strike is just going to make the union members more active, more engaged and more likely to vote rather than the inactive, unengaged, uncommitted members so many of them currently are. If they know they need to get a 50% turnout they will work so much harder to achieve it. It may also mean union leaders will need to spend more time communicating with their members rather than trying to influence leadership elections. Good things all round! Probably not want Cameron thought he’d get.

Thursday 28th May

Bribery in FIFA has knocked politics out of the news! At least we don’t have a day of conservatives telling everyone how lovely they are and how much they are on the side of ‘working’ people…I feel we all need to resign from our jobs so there will no one working and they won’t be able to use that phrase again.

Friday 29th May…the day of 3’s!

Has it only been 3 weeks since the election? It feels so much longer. 3 weeks gone 257 weeks to go!

And 3 (out of the 4 labour leader hopefuls) were out and about today. Andy singing the praises of business, Liz talking about how important education is and Yvette’s going on a walkabout around the UK to listen to people…ahhh, how lovely!

Maybe Andy’s strap line should be ’embrace an entrepreneur’. I’m not convinced he spoke so fervently about how brilliant business was when he was in the shadow cabinet, but, like everyone else…in hindsight/now they have listened to what they heard on the doorsteps/looked at where we are…he now realises business contribute a lot to the UK and the economy! They always have and always will do so not too sure what’s changed! Oh yes…we badly lost an election 3 weeks ago!

And Liz, I actually agree with you that education is a key way to improve a person’s life chances and provide people with more opportunities. But she must stop supporting free schools. Last year figures showed that 30% of free schools inspected by OFSTED were marked inadequate or in need of improvement compared to the 20% of state schools. Even Sweden are falling out of love with them and want to tighten the quality controls over them and return control over to their local authorities. Since introducing them Sweden’s educational standards have reduced and now lag behind the UK and the USA. Even our own education select committee is unclear on whether free schools are effective and worth the money…and that committee is lead by a Tory! Are they really the right solution to improving standards when money is scarce? I don’t think so and Liz should not promote them.

And Yvette should carry on listening because I haven’t heard much from her yet,

So the 3 key words for the contest seem to be ‘business, education and listening’.

All very well, but what they must all remember is that people vote based on which party they feel will give them what they want as individuals and how that government will help their own lives; we don’t vote altruistically based on whether the party will help the country as a whole. So, however good or right our policies may be for the country if people don’t think they will help them personally, sadly, they don’t really care.

And, they still need to watch out for UKIP…they haven’t gone away. Whether the Labour Party likes to believe it or not, many potential and previous labour voters in England voted UKIP because UKIP said what they wanted to hear! Labour need to do a lot to ensure they start to say what these people want to hear…which will be hard for the party.