The Barnsby Blog

David Cameron,
House of Commons,

Dear David

Congratulations on being elected the new leader of the Conservative Party. That’s the easy part done.

You will recall that in October I wrote to all the candidates as an 86 year old lifetime Communist and anti-racist suggesting what you would have to do to win the confidence of the British people. The first part read ‘that you must eschew all notions of imperial grandeur and neo-con politics.’. You did not reply to me. Perhaps you were too busy, but that does not auger well for a man who promises to listen to everyone.

Your task is indeed a daunting one for Tony Blair occupies not only the centre ground but also the centre-right which once belonged to you Tories. The only time I have seen you really animated was when you criticised terrorists as being people prepared to kill innocent people. Yet this is exactly what Tony Blair is doing, killing innocent people. It thus follows that he is the terrorist and you must denounce Blair, repudiate the war in Iraq and demand the troops be brought home if you are to modernise the Tory party. The rest is simply froth.

You have sufficient examples to show that the Iraq war is the sticking point for the British people. The most recent polls show that the majority of people obstinately continue to oppose the war in Iraq. These include many Conservative supporters in Wolverhampton and elsewhere. Among your candidates was Ken Clarke. He opposed the war in Iraq from the beginning, the fact that he was dumped first was a straw in the wind . The fact that your three predecessors William Hague, Duncan Smith and Michael Howard were enthusiastic supporters of the war have led to your present predicament and unless you oppose the war you will be the fourth and you will never bother Teflon Tony. Only the Liberal Democrats opposed the war from the beginning and Charles Kennedy makes the connection that Blair is the terrorist. But it will need great strength of mind for you to denounce Blair as the war criminal, serial killer and barbarian that he is.

How much strength of mind is exemplified by the two most important TV persons, Jeremy Paxman of the BBC and Jon Snow of Channel 4 both of whom have long been distinguished opponents of the war. Both of them have interviewed Tony Blair recently and neither of them has had the courage/sense to confront Blair with the obvious fact that he is the terrorist. This failure of nerve afflicts also the Guardian newspaper and also the Sunday Times as well as most of the press which is almost Tory to a man, if one exempts perhaps the Mirror Group.

But principled opposition to the war has long come from the Spectator, a Tory paper if there ever was one. This has come from Max Hastings and Peter Oborne and possibly Fabricant.

The removal of Blair will require a coalition of interests ranging from the left to the right and we commend the attitude of the important regional paper Express and Star whose opposition to the war in Iraq has not wavered since Bush and Blair declared the war officially over.

You must be strengthened by the realisation that by opposing the war you will also be the protector of our civil liberties since ‘terrorism’ would virtually cease if this happened and Tony Blair’s headlong flight to a totalitarian society would be seen to be the attempt that it is to make every protester a criminal and destroy our liberties.

The job of Socialists is to win back the Labour Party from the New Labourites who have hi-jacked it; the job of the Tory Party is to advocate the ending of the war and protection of our civil liberties.

Are you up to this task, David Cameron?

GEORGE BARNSBY

Dianne Abbott
Michael Portillo
Andrew Neill

Dear Friends,

I write, partly to vent my irritation, on what is the most popular TV political programme of the week, and yet it could be so much more.

Take two of the most attractive political personalities in Britain; Diane Abbott the good looking black woman with the imperishable laurel of having been one of the fabulous 52 Labour MPs who voted against the war in Iraq. Add the oh, so handsome Tory Michael Portillo, famously ousted from his safe seat by pip-squeak Stephen Twigg, who is proving to be little more than a New Labour Blairite who history is passing by. Portillo, the son of a Spanish civil war republican father, now seems to have resigned himself to being the most attractive man (much more handsome than Davis and Davies) who never became a Tory Prime Minister.

Add to this the great interlocutor Andrew Neill (fiercer than Paxman) editor of the Sunday Times for more than a decade and the most famous newspaper editor of his generation.

Yet all three sell themselves short by not recognising the obvious truth that when Tony Blair talks of ‘fighting terrorism’ he is inverting reality. Tony Blair is the second most important terrorist, serial killer, and Barbarian in the world making illegal war on Iraq and continuing to devastate the very cradles of civilisation. If Blair ended the war and brought the troops home NOW terrorism would virtually cease in Britain, although much damage has already been done and Muslims rightly see Blair and Bush as terrorists. Blair’s misbegotten programme will destroy the civil liberties of blacks, whites and coloureds in Britain, if he is allowed to continue. This Week could lead this struggle against Blair. Why doesn’t it?

Sincerely

George Barnsby