It's the Sun wot dun* it

What an astonishingly arrogant and pompous front page by the "Currant Bun" today.

"After 12 long years in power, this government has lost its way. Now it's lost the Sun's support too", it thundered.

Who the hell does the Sun think it is?
A tawdry rag purveying second rate filth, and third rate political analysis.

Trevor Kavanagh (its politics editor) let the cat out of the bag when he owned up to the fact that both Murdoch pere and fils were fully aware and behind the decision to change political horses.

Murdoch has form on that front, forget Britain in the 1990s, back in the 1970s he threw his weight and media empire behind the Australian Labor Party under Gough Whitlam and duly saw it elected. As the Whitlam government began to lose public support, Murdoch turned against him and supported his dismissal by the Governor-General.

This is the Murdoch who during the 1980s and early 1990s, was supportive of Mrs Thatcher and her Tory government.
This is the Murdoch who sacked 6,000 workers who had the temerity to strike upon being told that their jobs were being moved to Wapping. Many suspected then and still do that there was collusion with the highest level of Tory government in order to further damage the trade union movement.

This is the Murdoch who in the dying days of the Major government switched to Labour and Tony Blair. The closeness of their relationship, their secret trysts to discuss national policies was scandalous then and is still today.

This is Murdoch the patriot who became a US citizen simply to satisfy laws that only American citizens could own US TV stations, and yet also managed to have himself defined as an Australian citizen to retain his ownership of Australian media outlets.

This is the Murdoch who owns nigh on 200 newspapers worldwide, ALL of which editorialised in favour of the war on Iraq.

This is the Murdoch, whose Fox News portrayed Obama whilst running for President "as suspicious, foreign, fearsome, just short of a terrorist".

Should a man like this and his media empire (think Darth Vader, though not as cuddly) tell the British electorate how to vote and for whom.

The paper then goes on to say, "The Sun believes - and prays (to whom Mammon?)- that the Conservative leadership can put the great back into Great Britain".

You have been warned, if you sup with the devil, use a long spoon.

*dun (verb) to make repeated and insistent demands upon, esp. for the payment of a debt.

The current state of Britain...

Labour have now been in government for more than a dozen years.
This government started with so much hope, (do you remember "Things can only get better"? I do) but now we are left with so much disappointment.
Labour has wasted its opportunities and wasted your money.
They've invested in health and education but lacked the courage that would have allowed them to spend it effectively.
They've failed to build a fairer society and instead inequality has increased and social mobility fallen.
They're the party of redistribution but in the wrong direction.

Above all they will be remembered for going to war in Iraq. It was an illegal war waged on false claims. Labour may have taken the decision to go to war but the Tories voted it through.

Even before the current Economic Crisis, the gap between rich and poor is now wider than at any time than under Mrs T.

Shame!

We want a "Public" enquiry on Iraq

Gordon Brown's announcement that an independent inquiry into the country's role in the Iraq War will be held in private, is just not good enough.

We Lib Dems want, demand an full open public enquiry. We are not alone in this the overwhelming majority of the public demands it and more poignantly so do the families of the 179 sevice personnel who've lost their lives there.

Iraq has been a terrible "adventure", horribly wrong and catastrphic for the Iraqi people, hundreds of thousands of whom have died and been injured, and millions made homeless or become refugees.

We Lib Dems were the ONLY major party against the war, and I fought Keighley in 2005 on a policy of withdrawal.

We need that full and open public enquiry now.

UK combat operations end in Iraq

After six years of an illegal, immoral, and unnecessary war, UK combat operations in Iraq ended in Basra.

This is not the time and place to go further into the whys and wherefores. Our thoughts turn to the nearly 200 service personnel who lost their lives in Iraq and of course their friends and family.

I am sure that there is a sense of relief for many that their final tour of Iraq is ending, and I look forward to welcoming them home.

However, we should not forget the toll on Iraq itself, with at least 100,000, and up to 1 million violent deaths as a result of the conflict.

The country is in a much worse condition than six years ago, its population depleted and demoralised, its infrastructure devastated.