You are so right about the IoD's "Director" magazine which has morphed into a propaganda sheet for greenies, warmists, social entrepreneurs, sustainability nuts and multiple other parasites. A friend of mine recently was allowed to contribute a couple of hundred words on the subject of "Greenness" only to have his contribution filleted because he ventured to criticise (from evidence of its own financial accounts) the great temple of sustainability - the Eden project. If you want a convenient meeting place in central London, the IoD HQ in Pall Mall is pretty good: if you want a voice in favour of wealth-creating enterprise, forget it - the previous DG even got rid of Ruth Lea because she had the nerve to point out the . . er . . deficiencies in the government's economic policies.

Miss Stewart was specifically not convicted of fraud. She was convicted of lying to or not revealing all she knew to the investigators of the fraud. This is less serious than fraud but apparently more serious than rape and general thuggery. Pace Tom's fears about approving noises from the direction of the BNP but, in the absence of any contrary evidence, keeping Stewart out and letting Tyson in cannot but be a blatant example of racism on the part of our rulers and their apparatchiks.

Why stop at the winners? Any company that even bids for this contract should be boycotted.

"That England, that was wont to conquer others, Hath made a shameful conquest of itself." John of Gaunt from Richard II

I hope you're prepared for being accused by, for instance, this intellectual for being racist in opposing this urgent legislation. After all if you've got nothing to hide . . . .

esnonio "I really do wonder how this current lot of Conservative MPs would have stood up to the umions and the Soviets if they had been around in the 80s." They would have done what their predecessors did from 1945 until the late 70s which was to operate "slow-motion" socialism and manage British decline. Despite his "Selsdon Man" manifesto of 1970 Ted Heath funked it. In reality all Heath was interested in was signing up to the EEC. His solution to British decline was to shackle us to the emerging super-state across the Channel. Of course he never told us the bit about the super-state but, there again, when did Europhiles last tell the electorate any (let alone, all) of the truth? The acceptance by the Tory Party of the post-war "settlement" with Old Labour ran this country into the ground. You would have thought the last 10 years would have taught us something. But no, Messrs Cameron and Maude are doing exactly the same and are positioning the Conservative Party (if it ever gets to power) to manage a renewed British decline - this time with green knobs on.

Hooray! One swallow makes a summer!!

Tom Oh I think Cameron is very tough with his core vote, he is very big when it comes to the "blue rinse" brigade. Suicide nutjobs are a bit more controversial. You see there's an election to win, there's an image to create. We don't want to upset too many of those electors in the middle ground and outright condemnation (you remember those, the ones without the "but" phrase at the end) might not be touchy-feely enough.

changetowin "John McCain is a man of courage and principle". You are absolutely correct: McCain is "a perfect ally for David Cameron" since he would provide in spades exactly what DC lacks: courage and principle.

Editor You quote Francis Maude as saying that "with the NHS in crisis and crime soaring, the British people won’t share Mr Blair’s misty-eyed nostalgia" This is sheer chutzpah. Any statements of policy (well, burbles of policy) I've seen from the Cameron team concerning the NHS and law and order are mere echoes of Blair's policies. With Cameron/Maude in charge we will still be left with an NHS completely funded by the taxpayer and, as yet, we have no promises of wholesale repeal of the unnecessary and illiberal (in the original sense) "security" legislation pushed through under Blair? And anyway, who would believe promises made by somebody undertaking to leave the EPP on being made leader? OTOH Maude is correct that the British will not be nostalgic for the return of Blair. Why should they be when Blair Mark 2 is leading the Conservative party?

Tom "But the police? Have they nothing better to do?" Obviously not http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/13/1347.asp The scary things about this conviction for revving your car engine in a racist manner are that (1) the driver was slammed up for 2 days without due process, (2) he told the off-duty busybody police inspector to fuck off (quite rightly) who then used his official position to repair his damaged dignity, and (3) the magistrate convicted him instead of throwing out the case

Tom The tic of knee-jerk anti-Americanism has become a mania. The BBC is infected and harms itself and, as it happens, all of us by proxy. However, I doubt if the BBC deliberately seeks to aid anyone directly although the "enemy of my enemy is my friend" pathology allows the coalition of the left and militant Islam to receive a "get out of jail free" card from the BBC for every heinous act or statement. But this is a side effect: asking "cui bono" is like asking who benefits from leprosy?

Why would you imagine that the Daily Mail would not fall for the latest NuLabour "happy families" line? The Mail always runs with its own agenda which sometimes parallels that of the Conservative Party, sometimes not. The most conspicuous PC theme in the Mail's recent history is its role in the Stephen Lawrence affair. Having revealed the scandal of the complete failure of the Met investigation of the murder the Mail then accepted uncritically the whole package of the MacPherson Report, "institutional racism" and all. Further, and maybe I could be accused of a tad of paranoia, but the Mail has a hostage to fortune in the freesheet "Metro" distributed on the premises of London Transport: as long as the Mail is not too vociferous on matters close to Hizonner's heart (ostensibly but not invariably the NuLabour project), distribution rights on LT stay in place. Also, you only have to read the Evening Standard in London to realise that Associated Press, if not a fan of Hizonner, is more or less neutral when it comes to editorialising in respect of Livingstone's wider policies. Don't therefore expect the Mail to raise too many questions concerning NuLabour spin.