Why is Brown laughing?

Gordon Brown was memorably once described as "psychologically flawed". The quote is often attributed to Alastair Campbell which he denies.

Anyway, somebody has clearly told Brown that he needs to seem more human. The result is the scary grin he now uses at every available opportunity. The problem is that while he can tell his face to perform the action he still likes the emotional awareness to use it appropriately.

How else to explain his mysterious gurning during his online video announcing his plans on MPs expenses? He was at it again during Cameron's budget response yesterday.

Stop it Gordon. These are serious times and the people losing their homes and jobs aren't smiling. Take the risk of looking like an emotional retard and stick to glowering. At least it fits the awful mess we're in.

VFTN makes a comeback

VFTN is making a comeback, more follows.

EU: The politics equivalent to the hokey cokey

Can't we have a more subtle debate about the EU than being in or out? David Cameron (or whoever wrote it for him) has a go in the Daily Telegraph today. It's not the most coherent article ever written but its broad theme is an important one: that the EU is bogged down in talks about mechanisms when it should be a forum for collective action on the major challenges facing member states.
Rather than having "red-lines" to defend, when will a British PM head to one of these summits with a positive agenda? Why is Britain always on the defensive rather than putting forward its own vision for the future of the EU?

Bernard Manning

Whenever a public figure dies there is a tendency to play down their failings. This comes from the basic decency most people have that results in a laudable reluctance to speak ill of those who have died.
Bernard Manning's death is undoubtedly a sad event for his friends and family. It would be a terrible error however to ignore the tasteless material he used in acts that was hugely offensive to both ethnic minorities and gay people and portray him as some kind of Northern working class hero.
If we accept it is wrong to criticise those who cannot defend themselves it would perhaps be best for those of us who disliked him to note Mr Manning's death, nothing more. It is certainly misguided for the Manchester Evening News to invite people to pay tribute to him.

Tories back on the attack

David Cameron's speech in Tooting today and his comments on the Tories being progressive have elicited much comment. VFTN agrees there is much in his remarks to mull over but for now expresses a simple gratitude that DC has finally got past the grammar schools debacle and got back on the front foot before Blair leaves office.

Grammar schools: it just won't go away.

Tucked away in the Yorkshire Post today, Francis Maude having his say on the grammar school row. It was all DC's fault it would seem.
Time for all Tories to just take a vow of silence on this one and make setting out a coherent education policy a priority for conference.

Biofuels blarney

A little while ago, VFTN pointed out Cameron's half-term holiday to Greece was far from environmentally friendly and put the argument as to why off-setting is pointless. That post is here.
In a similar vein, Guido has today set out why the current enthusiasm for biofuels is misplaced. Again, for the purposes of the argument, it does not matter whether one is convinced about global warming or not. The fact is that if you wanted to produce biofuels on a scale necessary to replace oil it would remove so much land from food production as to trigger a food crisis. Those who are trying to push the green agenda are doing nobody any favours by suggesting biofuels and offsetting are somehow magic solutions.