Tuesday 20 October 2009

Thank god for the Generals

On the day that the Generals have taken on the BNP, I find myself wondering where all the politicians are. They were queuing up last week to comment on Sir Thomas Legg's intervention on their expenses but I have heard not a peep from a senior Labour, Conservative or Lib Dem MP, or even a not so senior one. They appear to be adhering to the view that it is best not to engage in debate with, or indeed on, the BNP. And they are wrong. Very wrong. This is why the BNP has been able to gain ground. They have been allowed to get away with spreading vicious lies by politicians not prepared to tackle them for fear of getting into difficult territory. So we are left with Lord Guthrie and Generals Cordingley, Jackson and Dannatt to make stand against racism and extremism. And never have I been so pleased to see men in uniform getting stuck in - those of you who know me will know how uncharacteristic this is, believe me I would be the first on the streets in the event of a military coup - good on them. And let me add special mention of and indeed thanks to Simon Weston who has been on the airwaves all day filling the vacuum left by the mainstream politicians and calling Nick Griffin and his hateful party what they are - racist liars.

Monday 12 October 2009

Shrit - not again!

So the conference season is finally over. Thank god. I returned to London exhausted by the hours of standing at stands, fringe meetings and bars. My liver and digestive system have suffered untold damage, my spleen took a bit of a battering as well. I was asked yesterday for my conference highs. Clearly the questioner had never experienced "conference" for he would not otherwise have asked. How can the massing of politicians, political journalists and grassroots activists possibly result in any highs? Well, I say that but a funny thing happened, indeed it happened twice. At the Labour Conference, as we waited for the Dear Leader to give his speech, I was approached by a young man from Dow Jones online and asked to give my thoughts on the occasion. Not that funny you might think, this is not the first time I have been asked to give an interview and I am sure it would be the last. But this time, the wording of the request "Ms Vadera, Would you like to talk to Dow Jones about Mr Brown's speech?" I should of course have proceeded to opine away. Alas I laughed and when my colleague declared himself Neil Kinnock the game was up. The hapless reporter skulked away, very embrassed. But he needn't have been for a far more experienced journalist made the same mistake the following week. Yes, Mr Jon Snow, for it was he, strode up to me in the lobby of the Palace Hotel in Manchester, kissed me on both cheeks and said "How lovely to see you in your new guise". It was evident he had mistaken me for the good baroness but what he thought she was doing at the Tory Conference I do not know. What I do know is that both Shriti and I are of Asian descent but as far as I am concerned that is the limit of our similarity. What do you think?