Twisting the facts – and twisting my stomach

I was opposed to the war in Iraq and said so publicly before the first missile was fired.

But given the “facts” on WMDs laid out by Tony Blair in the days and weeks leading up to the conflict, I can understand why others – including my own party – took a different view.

However, as we now are all now very well aware, there were no WMDs, meaning British troops went to war on a false premise.

You might think that former Prime Minister Tony Blair would since have displayed a bit of regret and contrition – embarrassment, even – at what he had done.

But, of course, Tony Blair doesn’t “do” regret, contrition or embarrassment.

What he does “do” is fine lines in arrogance and bare-faced lying, as his performance at the Iraq Inquiry – which is still going on as I write – is clearly demonstrating.

Early this morning on the radio I heard the mother of the first British soldier to die in Iraq speak of her love for her son – and her understandably less warm views on Tony Blair who sent her boy to his death.

I genuinely don’t know how this man gets to sleep at night.

Change urgently required as national debt continues to mount

Figures released today show that the Labour Government borrowed an eye-watering £15.7 billion last month – an all-time record for December.

And it gets worse.

Because it has also been revealed that total borrowing for the first nine months of the 2009/10 financial year was an incredible £120 billion – the highest since records began in 1946.

The theme of my campaign to be the next Conservative Member of Parliament for Keighley and Ilkley is “Change.”

These figures underline why.

New Year, New Crisis for Labour

I hope you had a relaxing Christmas and have since got off to a positive start in this New Year.

Someone who clearly hasn’t got off to a good beginning is Gordon Brown who has begun 2010 in much the same way as he spent large parts of 2009 – dealing with yet another crisis over his leadership.

I was as surprised as everyone when I first heard that previously loyal ex-Labour Ministers Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt had plunged the knife into their long-time Cabinet colleague in the expectation that several members of the current top team would do the same.

But, like Gordon Brown himself and the General Election that never was in 2007, they bottled it.

Be in no doubt - this is a Labour Government in total meltdown. There has to be an election by June of this year – even Gordon Brown can’t get out of that one. And many Labour MPs are fearful over their own futures.

Indeed, self-preservation is clearly much higher up the personal agendas of Labour MPs than the problems faced by the people they claim to represent such as the economy, jobs, the NHS and schools – not to mention the difficulties faced by our troops in Afghanistan.

Political opponents of this dying Government, such as me, can chuckle at the damage Labour Ministers and MPs do to each other on what now seems to be a daily basis.

But I can assure you that it brings me no pleasure whatsoever when the damage being inflicted is to our country and, more specifically, to local residents in Keighley and Ilkley.

The sooner we have that General Election, the better it will be for us all.