Posts Tagged ‘general’

The General Election is finally called

Tuesday, April 6 2010

David Cameron has welcomed the official announcement of the General Election date.

The election is a choice between five more years of Gordon Brown’s tired government making things worse - or change with the Conservatives, who have the energy, leadership and values to get Britain moving again.

Speaking to supporters this morning, David Cameron will say that the Consevatives are “fighting this election for the great ignored”.

“Young, old, rich, poor, black, white, gay, straight. They start our businesses, operate our factories, teach our children, clean our streets, grow our food, keep us safe. They work hard, pay their taxes, obey the law”, he will say.

“They’re good, decent people – they’re the people of Britain and they just want a reason to believe that anything is still possible in Britain.”

“This election is about giving them that reason, giving them that hope”.

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Sugar appointment criticised

Philip Hammond has criticised Labour’s announcement that Lord Alan Sugar will lead a new government task force designed to fight the corner of small businesses against the banks.

“Only Labour could announce on April Fool’s day that it had appointed the man who called credit-starved small businesses ‘moaners’ who lived in ‘Disney World’ to be the adjudicator on their applications for bank loans”, he said.

Lord Mandelson has selected Lord Sugar to sit on the task force which will set up the Small Business Credit Adjudicator. Lord Mandelson believes the people he has chosen “… understand the critical importance of new finance and credit flow to the growth of small, innovative companies”.

But Lord Sugar said last year: “The moaners are bust… they don’t need the bank, they need an insolvency practitioner”.

This comes on the same day that the Federation of Small Businesses, the British Retail Consortium and 23 business leaders attacked Labour’s planned tax on jobs.

“No wonder no-one believes Lord Mandelson’s claims to be the champion of small business when Labour would rather tax jobs and the recovery than cut government waste”, Hammond added.

Well this is news that small business can do without. Clearly Lord Alan Sugar has nothing in common with small business and is merely another puppet of Labour.

Jim Ferguson

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Pope could give Labour Party ‘hell’

catholic leader responds to Jim Murphy’s speech appealing for religious voters’ support

By Katrine Bussey

The Pope could give Labour “hell” over its record on family matters, the leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland said yesterday.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien hit out in the wake of a speech by Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy in which he attempted to appeal to religious voters.

Cardinal O’Brien accused the government of making “a systematic and unrelenting attack on family values”.

With Pope Benedict XVI due to visit Scotland later this year, the churchman revealed he had told Labour Holyrood leader Iain Gray that “he could really give you hell for what you have done in our country over the past 10 years”.

Cardinal O’Brien has criticised government policies on stem cell experimentation on human embryos, civil partnerships, same-sex adoption and abortion.

He said: “There’s a whole series of measures which have been legislated for over the past 10 years which are against basic Christian standards.

“I feel on behalf of my own Church and peoples of other faiths as well, that I am entering into this daily contest, fighting for the standards by which we stand as Christians here.”

Cardinal O’Brien said he had met the Pope in Rome recently and also said he had spoken to Mr Gray about the pontiff’s visit to Scotland.

He said the Labour Party had “accepted some praise” for playing a role in attracting the Pope to Scotland.

Cardinal O’Brien continued: “I said to Iain Gray ‘when the Pope does come I hope he emphasises to you the Christian teaching when he’s here, that’s what John Paul II did when he was here’.

“And in some ways I said to him he could really give you hell for what you have done in our country over the past 10 years, demeaning family and married life and these other things that have been happening over the past 10 years.”

Mr Murphy said on Tuesday night that “faith has always been important to Labour”.

The Scottish secretary, who was delivering the Progress lecture, stated: “In the US, faith has long played a central part in politics.

“Not surprising for a country where 60% of people say that God plays an important part in their lives.

“But it’s wrong to think that it plays no role in British politics.”

Mr Murphy, a Catholic, added research from the time of the 2005 general election suggested Labour support was strongest among religious people.

The Pope was invited to the UK by Prime Minister Gordon Brown during a private audience, and earlier this month the Catholic Church confirmed Scotland would be included in the visit which is expected to take place in the autumn.

Pope Benedict XVI’s visit will be the first since predecessor John Paul II’s visit in 1982.

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