The most bizarre thing Cameron ever did was to ditch a policy that had been acclaimed across the country by all concerned and was welcomed in fishing circles everywhere. And it was a thoroughly researched policy created inside the party. He has made it dead certain that no progress will be made by the Tories in Scotland in their May elections The man has a death wish - for the Tory party. Christina Speight. ============================================ DUNDEE COURIER 1/2/07 Senior Scots Tory to quit over policy. By Steve Bargetson, political editor A MEMBER of the Scottish Conservative front bench team at Holyrood is set to resign his portfolio over a major split with the party in London, The Courier can exclusively reveal. It is understood Mid Scotland and Fife MSP Ted Brocklebank is preparing to resign as the party’s fisheries spokesman. =- =- =- =- =- =- =- Mr Brocklebank was appointed fisheries spokesman on election in May 2003 by former Scottish Tory leader David McLetchie. In negotiation with the party in London, Mr Brocklebank produced the blueprint for withdrawal from the EU common fisheries policy (CFP). This was adopted as official Conservative policy north and south of the border. In December 2003 the then Tory leader Michael Howard met fishermen’s leaders in Pittenweem in Fife and formally endorsed the policy. The policy was a Tory manifesto commitment in the 2005 general election. However, the policy of pulling out of the CFP has not found favour with the Tory leadership nationally under David Cameron. For the last seven months Ms Goldie and Mr Brocklebank have been discussing the issue with party colleagues in England. But Mr Cameron has refused to back it. As the architect of the policy, it is understood Mr Brocklebank feels he has no option but to resign as fisheries spokesman for the Scottish Tories. “This is nothing at all to do with Annabel (Goldie - Tory Scots leader) ,” said a party insider. “This is a disagreement with London on policy. Being the architect of this policy Ted feels the honourable thing to do is to tender his resignation.” CONSERVATIVEHOME BLOG 1/2/07 Hero of the day: Ted Brocklebank MSP Dundee's The Courier is reporting that Scottish fisheries spokesman Ted Brocklebank is to resign over the decision of London's Tory leadership to abandon the leave-the-Common-Fisheries-Policy commitment that he crafted with Owen Paterson MP before the last General Election. Although David Cameron has pledged to take Britain out of the job-destroying Social Chapter he has abandoned Michael Howard's policy on opting out of the CFP. It's an odd decision as opposition to the policy comes from environmentalists as well as Eurosceptics. ASDA has begun a campaign against the environmental impact of the current European fishing regime. If The Courier's story is accurate Mr Brocklebank deserves a great deal of credit for first attempting to overturn David Cameron's policy shift - since it was leaked last year - but now resigning having concluded that there will be no return to the Brocklebank-Paterson pledge. Richard North wrote this. His interest is that he did much of the research on this brilliant Tory Fishing Policy ditched by that idiot Cameron. Since he wrote this, comments on ConservativeHome have continued to come in ALL saying Cameron is an idiot. And as one Scottish reader of my original posting said to me, , , , “I suppose if you put a fishing rod in David Cameron's hand and sat him on the banks of the Thames; he'd give you a spiel on the rights of the fish and how the EU are more entitled to it than the British.” Christina Speight ================================== EU REFERENDUM BLOG 1/2/07 http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/ It always was going to be trouble You can ignore gravity if you like, but I would not suggest jumping out of an aeroplane at 10,000 without a parachute, to show your disdain. The political equivalent for the Conservative Party is to ignore the Common Fisheries Policy. Anyone with half-way sensitive political antennae would know it is trouble. Unfortunately for the Boy King, imprisoned in his Notting Hill bubble, his political antennae do not reach beyond the M25, which means he has failed to appreciate the significance of the Common Fisheries Policy. But it means that David Cameron has been flying false colours and now the CFP has risen up to bite him where it hurts. Reaction is beginning to trickle in on the Tory boy diary, poisoned slightly with the first posting by a self-important prat who clearly has not read the Green Paper.