Vote Conservatives on June 4th!

My decision of the year...

... which means I will no longer be a SDKU-DS member.

In my view this political party has failed to reach out and to become a natural home of all right-wing voters in my country.

Being a conservative, I may say "a very conservative", and a eurosceptic I haven't found the SDKU-DS tolerant enough to create just a tiny platform or any opportunity for these opinions within the party. This fact is even more startling when you are awake to one of the key ambitions of the SDKU-DS, which is to merge all centre-right parties in Slovakia.

In contrast the party has been continuously moving from the political right to the centre and beyond. Facing current left-wing government it has proposed few popular, but irresponsible policies in order to win some votes. Furthermore the SDKU-DS supported one of its deputy leaders to become Slovak president; the problem is the lady's obviously a left-wing liberal. I simply could not voted for her in the last month's presidential election!

I would probably not come to this tough decision if I saw that the party's grassroots are healthy. For example if there is an ideological lapse done by the Tory leadership, it is worrying, but not a catastrophe, because everybody knows that a clear majority of party members share 'the right view'. Unfortunately, one cannot say this about the SDKU-DS grassroots.

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I talked to many of them, tens maybe hundreds of them in the previous months and years, but it looks like no one considers ideological background of the policies, balance between liberals and conservatives, recognition of different views on the EU etc. to be important.

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Everything begins and ends with finding a way how to defeat Mr Fico's government; any means are good for the purpose. O.K., I appreciate these efforts and I wish the SDKU-DS well in it for the future. I just cannot stay in a political party which has resigned to fulfill its own long-term target: to become a big centre-right political subject, open to all decent people with a right-wing affiliation.

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If I had known that three years ago, I wouldn't have joined the SDKU-DS as it has refused to accept small 'c' conservatives and better-off-out activists among its ranks and an appalling behaviour of its elites as well as its rank-and-file shows that they insist to carry on futher like a common liberal, Brussels-loving party of the political centre, the members of which admire Obama, Havel or even Gorbachev. A ten minute talk to just one of them would convince every Tory that there is no hope things may get better.

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The result is that from now on I will only be involved in politics as a registered "friend" of the UK Conservative Party; a thing I am very very proud of!

Happy St George's Day!

Detoxificator

Yesterday a prestigious Slovak weekly called Tyzden published my comprehensive profile article on David Cameron and Conservative Party. It is 4-pages long and contains two large photos. 

It took some time, but I managed to translate approx. one third of it, so you can read it here as well. The article in its original Slovak version is HERE. Access to the full version is paid. 

You can use Google to translate the page and try to understand at least something :)

To exaggerate a little bit, we can say that while America has Obama, Britain has Cameron. Leader of the Conservatives would certainly like to become an embodiment of the change and a saviour of positions of his own party; just like the President-elect on the other side of Atlantic ocean. 

Without a tie and open-neck – this was how David Cameron used to present himself shortly after being elected leader of the British Conservatives. When being introduced to Baroness Thatcher following the election, they were talking quite a while and afterwards she asked this young pretender which constituency is he going to fight at the next election.

This story is not only about the burden of the age and illness the Iron Lady suffers from, but it is also about innovations which Cameron, the leader has brought. Baroness simply couldn’t imagine that this jovial young chap in an open-neck shirt may be a Tory leader. And she was not the only one.

Modernising agenda raised by Cameron was destroying one party idol after another. Although at the election he was not considered to be a candidate of the party’s left wing (their choice was unremitting Ken Clarke), he was promoting modernization of the party’s policies, structure as well as of its image.

After the victory he accelerated and his wild ride caused some people goosebumps; many members murmured and few rather quitted their membership. Three years have gone and the Conservative Party is now 17 points ahead of Labour in opinion polls, party‘s political programme is „going back home“ and grassroots are satisfied again. Such good prospects have not been here for too long.

Who is Cameron?

David Cameron was born in 1966 in the family of a stock broker. His ancestors include King William IV. and thanks to that David is a distant relatives of Queen Elizabeth II. Similar aristocratic background has also his wife, Samantha, with whom he has two sons and a daughter. David graduated from a prestigious Eton and later from the Oxford uni where he excelled in philosophy, political science and economics.

However, he did not abstain from some excesses: at the Eton he was caught smoking cannabis and at the university he was a member of the exclusive Bullingdon Club, known for wild drinking sprees and subsequent demolishing of the furniture. After Eton he volunteered for his uncle, a Conservative MP, which was his first encounter with politics.

After his studies in 1988 he joined the CCHQ team. Soon afterwards he moved to Number 10 to brief PM Major before PM’s Questions. Even the newspapers has noticed that Major’s performances in the House have suddenly improved.

For the 1992 election Cameron was one of the "brats" who coordinated the party campaign. After the unexpected electoral victory, he worked briefly as an adviser to the Ministry of Finance, where he experienced a dramatic fall of the British Pound on Black Wednesday; then he entered a job at the Home Office alongside the uncompromising Michael Howard.

However, a year later Cameron left politics for business and he didn’t return before 2001 when he was elected an MP for Witney, Oxfordshire. His previous candidacy in 1997 had not been a success as the Stafford constituency fell victim to the Labour tide.

In the House of Commons Cameron quickly rose through the ranks to become shadow minister and coordinator for the next election. Manifesto he compiled was the most right-wing programme of the Conservative Party ever, but it didn’t work for the voters and the 2005 general elections ended in the third defeat in a row. Leader Michael Howard announced his resignation.

The party was annihilated: opinion polls stuck in the 30 per cent level and Labour not within eyeshot; 15 yeras of endless personal and ideological disputes and when a new leader was elected new plots to oust him immediately started. Conservatives suffered from a lack of self-confidence and worked systematically on their political suicide.

Fourth leader in five years

Outgoing Michael Howard set the half-year schedule for the election of a new leader. He did not want the so-called coronation, i.e. designation of a new leader without any contest. And particularly he did not want to make the way for his rival, David Davis, who was the hottest candidate for such a coronation. Concurrently there was a heated debate on a possibility to strip the grassroots from their right to vote for one of two candidates chosen by MPs. The reason for this was a danger that a new leader elected by grassroots might not be MPs’ favourite and they might oust him shortly after the election.

Howard reshuffled his shadow cabinet and he nominated serious candidates for a new leader to serve in high profile posts. Personal aversions caused that the Right in the party was divided. For a long time Davis was regarded to be a clear winner, but he overslept the starting signal and his feeble speech at the Annual conference decided his fate. On the other hand Cameron’s speech delivered without notes and off-the-desk secured him an affection of the members, despite its content was of no extraordinary ideas. Seen by the eyes of those famous Tory grannies with blue rossettes, Dave was certainly the type of a young man they would have liked to date with their daughters. Myth about Davis - favourite of the grassroots – was eroding. At the count Cameron got more than double the Davis‘ votes. On 6 Dec 2005 Cameron officialy became leader of the Conservative Party.

Chameleon on a bicycle

Since Cameron’s election Conservatives‘ shares in the opinion polls as well as number of party members have steadily grown. Yet the first polls predicted 9-point Tory advantage over Labour, giving them 40 per cent of the possible vote. New leader announced a concept of modern and compassionate conservative party. From the outside the change should have been symbolised even by a new party logo and there were rumours about changing the party’s name. Cameron didn’t feel uncomfortable to be called „an heir to Blair“. In an effort to cut the party brand away from Margaret Thatcher’s inheritance, who is still quite unpopular among some voters, Cameron said: „I am certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite.“

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US Missile Shield is vital for us

Better later than never... I wrote this article 4 months ago as a guest blogger for one of Fredrik Bertilsson's sites. Now I decided to publish it here as well. I know I know... it's far from being up-to-date; many things have changed since July, but... my conviction and general attitude to the issue stays the same!

Few thoughts on whether, in the end, Polish will change their minds; whether, in the end, Americans will satisfy Polish conditions or whether, in the end, any other country will allow location of the US Missile Shield. The one thing is certain: we need the thing and we need it quickly!

The story of the US Missile Shield is old as the post-WWII era itself. Known as the NMD (National Missile Defence) it is meant to protect the United States and their allies from long-range nuclear missiles launched by either Soviet Union (in the past) or by the Rough States (now). The technical solution is based upon a radar detection of such enemy missile followed by a launch of interceptor missiles that destroy the target up in the air before it reaches the land surface.

As we all know, significant advance in the development of the shield has been made during the presidency of George Walker Bush. This progress enabled the US government to seriously consider its putting in commission. The choice was made and the strategic areas in Poland and the Czech republic were picked. 

Shortly after the current Czech centre-right government passed its vote of confidence in January 2007, the United States‘ negotiators asked to move from unofficial, more or less technical dialogue to official political talks on location of the US radar base in the Czech republic. Similar move was concurrently taken by American diplomats towards Poland regarding the proposed missile defence base. 

Since this moment cabinets of both these Central European countries faced a strong public pressure to cancel the negotiations with the U.S.A. 

Socialists protested against an inexcusable alliance with America, liberals criticized an impermissible „bypassing“ of the EU, greens protested against putative health hazards of the shield, nationalists resented any foreign military bases on their homeland’s soil. Villagers living near the chosen military zones marched through the Capitals and on top of all this, some artists & nation’s elite went on hunger strike. And despite governments‘ efforts opinion polls showed poor support for the U.S. Missile Shield.

Diplomatic talks were quite tough with both countries imposing conditions, placing requirements and demanding financial, military or scientific support or co-operation from the U.S. side. When sitting round the negotiating table all public declarations about the close bond between nations and a contribution to the common security were forgotten. Especially Polish negotiators were a hard nut to crack after the pro-NMD government of Mr Kaczynski’s social conservatives was succeeded by rather neutral liberal government of Mr Tusk. They asked the U.S. to completely modernise Polish army and to deploy Patriot missile system as well, which was something Americans cannot accept as it would cost US taxpayers huge packs of money.

It took more than a year to complete these talks and to prepare the treaty. Unfortunately, only the treaty with the Czech republic, because Poland insisted on the demands and no U-turn hasn’t been made. On July 8th Condi Rice came to Prague to sign the treaty and last week Americans showed the Czech defence minister how the system works when they carried out a successful test in Colorado Springs. 

Today it’s clear that the radar base will be in the military zone of Brdy, the Czech republic, irrespective of the talks collapse with Poland. The radar shall be useful enough even without „being twinned with“ a missile defence base. But it does not mean there’s a room for complacency. Now when we can see growing concerns about Iranian nuclear programme; when North Koreans are still very erratic; when there are numbers of different authoritarian leaders around the world and when we are witnesses to the increasing extreme nationalist tendencies within Russia, we simply cannot afford to resign to our security. 

Among the highest obligations of a society is to protect itself. And in order to do that we cannot be hesitant even to make sacrifices. We have to forgo some comfort we are used to and finally admit that this world is not a rose garden. We need to spend more on our armies, to use hi-tech weapons, not to be afraid of a military interference and not to rely solely on the U.S. that they solve everything for us. 

And here‘s what makes this Polish refusal even more fathomless. The fact that they haven’t had to contribute to the project by any means except for a piece of land. Nothing more, no additional costs. And the fact is further more surprising if we are aware that Poland has always been (in the post-Communist era) America’s close ally and that Polish have been very suspicious towards Russia.

And it is Russia that keeps trying to hold their ties and influence in this region. I think that they never really reconcile themselves to the fact that they’re no longer masters in this anteroom of theirs.  From time to time they send some spooks in, from time to time they threaten with new cold war, from time to time they instruct their politically active kindred spirits, from time to time they turn off pipeline taps. Having a complex about no more being a world’s empire, Russians overreact to every U.S. activity in what once was their sphere of interest. The latest example of such overreaction is a plan to establish a bomber’s base in Cuba.

I do not want to paint Russia as a devil, though there are still worries about a real democracy in this part of the world as well as about its sustainability. Towards them the U.S. Missile Shield should be more or less symbolic; a psychological matter that shall give them a notice that the Central Europe as a whole (not just Poland and the Czech republic) is no longer Russian playground.

The real function of the NMD shall be approved in relation to the so-called Rough States and an accidental & isolated attack of terrorists which is more probable than Russian aggression these days. Current technology is well-suited to eliminate such attack, i.e. a launch of a single missile from an enemy’s territory. The argument that an enemy would fire not a single one, but a number of missiles which would leave the system impotent, is valid though this situation is (meanwhile) not probable regarding the attack of terrorists (unfortunately, it’s different with the Rough State) and it is certainly not a reason for abandoning of our efforts. Technology (especially that of armed forces) is making progress and in the near future we can have even this problem solved. 

But today we need to implement today’s solution that is no doubt better than nothing, build the missile shield and raise our security a level higher. Just waste no time consulting left-wing freaks like the Slovak PM Fico. Poland or any other country, please, behave responsible!

The „Six Things You Didn‘t Know About Me” Meme

Another meme is going around the blogosphere and I have been so lucky and been tagged by Mr Damon Lord to reveal six things you didn’t know about me and you were afraid to ask :)

This one has the rules, so in compliance with its clause 2, I need to post them in their full and precise wording:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.

2. Post the rules on your blog.

3. Write six random things about yourself.

4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.

5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog

6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up

And now... tantara... 6 Things You Didn‘t Know About Me:

1. I don’t want to work as a lawyer for the rest of my life. I dream about moving to the Orkneys or the Scottish Highlands where I would be fishing or herding sheep.

2. I want to have at least 4 kids, three girls named Amalia, Eliska and Olivia plus a boy. I am now in a phase of persuading my girlfriend :)

3. I am an awful stickler for detail, something similar to Monica from Friends. Well, I am a Virgo, so what would you think?!

4. My head hurts if I don’t have a strong coffee in the morning.

5. I am used to eat apples completely, i.e. even with a core; and when I was younger, I used to eat pumpkin seeds altogether with a hull.

6. I wear a cap or a hat very very rarely as I simply don’t look good in it. Is it due to a shape of my head?

I believe you have been shocked and appalled at the dark secrets that I was hiding deep down inside me :)

I tag Benjamin Gray, Praguetory, St Crispin's Day, Theo Spark, Croydonian and Ellee Seymour.

Her Majesty is here!

Her Majesty the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh are paying a two-days visit to Slovakia.

See HERE.

I feel happy and humbled. Long live the Queen, long live the Monarchy!

Btw. in compliance with a protocol David Miliband is here as well. Huh!

Does that make me a Cameroonian?

Fed up with stereotypes of everyday life and dissatisfied with a lack of exercise and other activities (and even inspired by my recent stay in the UK) I’ve come to a decision that I need to do something; actually to do anything in order to change the way I live day in day out.

It’s not that I plan to turn my whole life upside down. I just want to liven it up a bit; add new things to bring in some freshness, energy and also excitement. You shouldn’t think that I am totally passive and some kind of a couch potato, but generally there’s a lot of truth in saying that after spending a whole day sitting at my PC desk at work, my back hurts as well as my eyes and when I get back home in the evening I am too tired to do anything but to fell to bed or sofa. And this must end!

Mmm… I may have exaggerated it in the lines above, but I really hear those alarm bells and an inner voice keeps telling me: “It’s time for a change.” It can only mean two things – either I am a schizophrenic or I am a voter of Barack Obama :-)

One way or another I am now firmly determined to promote a change. Since this Wednesday I’ve been getting up at 6 o’clock every morning and jogging for at least half an hour. I’ve set up a daily schedule for months to come where I want to write down how long I’ve been jogging, length and number of laps on that particular day. And I intend to honour it.

Second thing is that I bought a new bike on Wednesday. My old one was virtually unrepairable and after a brief consultation I admitted I would have rather bought a new one. It’s not a Scott as DC has, but it cost me £ 250 as well. Except that I’m used to walk to my office (and never go by car), I’d like to cycle at least twice a week to work and further two cycling rides after work or at the wekends.

Aaand finally: I am going to enrol for English conversation courses next week. I don’t want to offend anybody, but especially my encounters with Scottish in the recent weeks have convinced me that I should practise speaking and even understanding of a spoken word. It’s also about socializing and it should be fun as well.

I think the things I do or going to do don’t have any ideological hues, but a friend of mine told me that it is not a coincidence and that all those activities got something in common: according to him they make me a Cameroonian. To put it plainly: it’s about an active and healthy lifestyle of an urban young man who wants to rule his world. Gosh, is it possible??? I cannot believe that morning jogging could be used against you. But no wonder. It is me who keeps saying for years that everything is political and that even the way you eat bread reveals whether you are to the Right or to the Left of the political spectre.

Back in reality... Arrgh!

Well, what can I say... Do welcome me back to work, back to blogging, back to normal way of life. Everything now seem to be stuck in the groove. Oooo... I am not depressed, despite the previous words. I’m only going through a common post-holiday gloom.

I miss breakfasts in Astor Victoria; I miss squirrels in London‘s St James‘ Park; I miss Sainsbury’s Local in Buckingham Palace Road; I miss good-natured yeomen from the Tower of London; I miss the atmosphere of Olympic handover party; l miss lying on the grass of Hyde Park; I miss a lady in Winchester who asked us to answer questions from her questionnaire on life in the city, I miss the pier in Bournemouth and its Zig-Zags on the beach; I miss Children’s garden called „Seeds of hope“ located behind Guildford’s cathedral and red boats on the river Wey; I miss Edinburgh’s panorama as could be seen from the Castle and a tea at The Tass; I miss...

As I wrote yesterday in my message of apology to my blog friends Damon Lord, Jonathan Craig, Dominic Fisher and Samuel Coates (who I didn’t have a chance to meet, though I wanted to very very much), people of Great Britain have a lot to be proud of! They live in the most wonderful place on Earth! I am grateful I could spend such amazing time in the UK and look forward to another trip around Christmas.

Leaving for Britain...

For details see HERE.

See you in September!