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The presentation seems rather too party political to be paid for by the taxpayer...

Documenting a new governments starting point is probably essential - but presenting it as labour bashing (rather than letting it speak for itself) will devalue the who idea as spin rather than substance.

Preparing for government is one thing, but preparing to gloat would be doing a 'Kinnock', and could have similar results.

I sincerely hope that an incomming tory government would be focused on putting things right, and let others decide for themselves who is to blame (as if there would be any doubt).

Agree with pp. There is a danger of us by trying to score party political points we will actually lose votes.
People are very frightened at the moment and I think will be uninterested in a stunt like this.

As long as it focused on the facts of the national landscape it needn't be political.

It looks like a very very good idea.

I think this would make a fine base from which to make this speech, which I think is essential:
http://conservativehome.blogs.com/centreright/2008/09/at-some-point-s.html

W E M U S T D O T H I S.

A great idea.

Blair and Brown must be held to account.

I think this is a great idea - something that I have been talking about with friends for ages. Just as the incoming CEO of a troubled business gets all the bad news out and in the open at the start of his time so that the state of play is very clear, so to must the Tories present a 'state of the nation' audit that says - right, this is what this lot have done, here is the state of play and the full extent of the turn around challenge. Politically powerful, it is also essential to have a clear stock take if they are to deliver an actual turnaround.

To hell with the politics of the thing - it is good business practice.

This is exactly what Boris promised to great effect.

A full audit of this awful government is A MUST!

It is in the public interest and considering what we have had to pay for, to benefit the Labour Party over the past decade, pp at 8.43, this will show the Labour Government to be the incompetents we all suspect they are!

This coupled with A ROYAL COMMISSION on The Iraq War would be welcomed by the people.

There has already been alot of data collected by individuals on the net. It just needs to be put in one nice giant database.

Labour loves databases!!!

Although I understand that there would be practical limits as to what could be done, this project must be started immediately and its results hung around the neck of the Labour Party well before the next election so that the British people have a clear idea of the choices open to them.

Let `s go get them !

An audit is a must, both so that the in coming goverment knows the extent of the mess and the public understands why hard measures are to be taken in their name.

It would be far more compelling if the Domesday Report includes the good things that NuLabour did (I know, I know).

So, rebuilding old schools is (generally) a good thing and should be recognised as such. Funding for such activities might not be such a good thing!

Adding more radiotherapy suites at a local hospital is (generally) a good thing.

Even PCSOs *might* be a good thing - as long as the 'real' police are up to scratch.

Freedom Of Information Act - a good thing from an individuals viewpoint, even if poorly implemented.

Human Rights Act - a good thing in principle, but in need of reform.

NuLabour have done a few good things, and recognising that fact will validate the Domesday Report. It's just that their greasy corrupt fingerprints will have to wiped off their good works.

As long as it can fit on a memory stick which can be 'lost' when required

An audit of off-balance sheet financing and pension obligations, with a new broad debt definition for national accounting (in addition to any international standard) is a good non-political idea.

How hard we stuff it down Gordon's throat is then a political question...

The other area requiring a counter-revolutionary 'restoration' is that of civil liberties, investigatory powers and the rule of law. Our equivalent of closing Camp Delta.

This is a must whatever the dangers of looking too party political. This is the third time Labour have messed up the country leaving us to sort it out and blamed for taking all the difficult decisions. This election is not about winning over another party, it is about defining forever the danger to the country that Labour represents.

The party wants to stop being obsessed by its political opponents and start concentrating on itself. What it is about and wants to do.
This is a cheap, silly political stunt that frankly I think would be outrageous if the taxpayer was ever forced to pay for it.

This would be a partisan waste of taxpayers' money for the narrow interest of the Conservative party. If this is how they were start, it bodes very poorly for the future of their administration.

However, if CCHQ financed this as a pre-election "State of the Nation" tool, that would be perfectly reasonable. With some exceptions, all the data is there available from the ONS.

An extremely good and important idea. Follow it with a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to audit the personnel inhabiting Quangoland.

Interesting what strapworld says about a Royal Commission.
What would happen if it found that Blair, and possibly some of his cabinet had knowingly lied or been culpable in these hundreds of thousands of deaths by deception? Could they end up prosecuted as war criminals?

Could be a powerful tool if done right. I work for a citizen-journalism website that is running a competition with the Financial Times to find the photographs that define the economic crisis and we've had some very powerful entries.

http://www.demotix.com/crunch09

They should promise to do a thorough and transparent audit (not a party political gloat) and they should promise no legislation except a Finance Act for the first year but that they will also produce a list of all the legislation that they intend to repeal. During that first year Parliament will occupy its time by assisting in the audit process and by debating Government department by department what needs to be done to achieve the manifesto programme

Sounds good to me.

I agree, David Bouvier:

"An audit of off-balance sheet financing and pension obligations, with a new broad debt definition for national accounting (in addition to any international standard) is a good non-political idea".

Any audit must be objective and one needs doing, so that the public is as clear as the incoming government what the magnitude of the task is. However, although the idea might be non-political, it would clearly show how political Brown has been in his claims that public debt was until recently lower than that he inherited (Lord Falconer was trying to claim that still last night on Question Time).

In addition to the excellent suggestion of a Royal commission to look into the Iraq war, we should have an inquiry into the FSA's failure to spot Northern Rock's irresponsible lending - everyone else did but them.

Lax regulation and the easy availability of cheap credit - both down to Brown - were the root causes of our housing boom and bust.

A waste of time and effort and too "New Labour" in its philosophy. The Tory Party wont win by being New Lab Mk 2.

I agree with positioning this more as an 'audit', as you would expect or demand for any large organisation. As others have noted, we do run the risk as being seen as wasting tax pounds to make a political point. Would we have to create a new QUANGO or at least enlarge the Office of National Statistics to be able to do this? It would have to be independent and have to have a cycle (5 years?) we would then be saddled with this every cycle.
Look back at 1982, it seemed unlikely that Thatcher would win a 2nd term since she hadn't managed to turn the economy yet. Most of her reforms had to wait to the 2nd term, after the Falklands war had cemented her public support. What will we have to secure our 2nd term (supposing we win the first!). If we do this audit in 2010 and then again in 2015, do we really expect the picture to be that improved? It will take longer to fix Labour's economic incompetence. But if we ask the electorate to take the first audit in 2010 at face value, how can we not ask them to take the second one at face value in 2015?

Overall, I think this could be a costly millstone around our necks. But my question comes down to, how much can any government salvage and turn around an economy in its first term?

"The presentation seems rather too party political to be paid for by the taxpayer..."

how timid and how wrong.

This is an excellent idea and one which will resonate with the electorate. The lack of information and the obfuscation of whatever information is allowed out, is one of the most depressing features of the latter day British state. People are not so naive or gullible any more and they want clarity and facts.As said above, documenting a new government's starting point is an essential management tool and one which any one with any managerial exeperience at all will recognise immediately.

If it is any use, it should be noted that Scotland now under the control of its own parliament and government has more and more publicly available,information than ever before and is all the better for it.

Needless to say, we in England are treated to the usual blundering, disdainful,information-hoarding, secretive and often lying, fog which is now the hall- mark of the British government and particularly THIS British governemnt as it tries to continue denying us elementary democracy and kid us we are not being impoverished to subsidise the celts and others.

The British people need to be told of the depth of the deception perpetrated by Labour. So it cannot be perpetrated again.

In doing this, perhaps, to address the cost, scrap some costly totem of Labour's rule.

Now what would be appropriate?

Steve Foley is right. I hope the spin and soundbites that define the Cameron agenda are put to one side the second he enters No. 10.

"Blair and Brown must be held to account" I could not agree more. A national audit is an excellent idea and a way of bringing these people to book. Of course if we are going to look closely into the broom cupboard of Nu-labour we will have to remain squeaky clean ourselves. Our battle cry must include the promise of "no more sleaze" and we must be prepared to make examples (as we have) of those who do not take this promise seriously.

" People are not so naive or gullible any more and they want clarity and facts"


They also want to hold to account those who rule over them, supposingly in their name.

My post obviously wasn't too clear... I support the idea 100%, but don't think it should be presented as a party political thing...

In fact I would fully support such an audit being done as a matter of course, independantly, at every general election !!

Then the incomming government can say what they want things to look like at the end of their term, and we can measure them against it...

Labour will always score badly, because they lie about their objectives - they do things that they think will look good, with no genuine business case for anything they do.

I have no problems with a proper audit of the country as it is (though we do have the census and national statistics all over the place) but it must be a proper one and not managed to look deliberately bad on Labour. We must never be vindictive for what theyve done to this country, instead learning to be above it. It must be a fair audit.

I would be opposed to a public document (database?) which attempts to capture everyone's personal and private information at the level of the original Doomsday book or worst still at the level it could be taken with today's technology. I shan't rehearse the reasons for this they are all well known.

That aside, I think its totally appropriate that an incoming government sets out a clear and transparent "state of the nation" baseline upon which it can be judged. The criteria should be as simple and clear as possible. It would be good practice if all incoming governments did this. Its compilation should be fully independent.

Let's bring in a breath of fresh air after the spin and revisionism which infests this disgusting Labour Government.

This would be a good opportunity to get the pensions liability as well as all the PPP stuff on-balance sheet.

Blair and Brown push the global agenda which has led to a lack of British skills and an unpreparedness to build our economy.

Gordon Brown wants a global solution.
Obama is doing his own thing with saving jobs.
Russia has already saved its jobs and America is following Russia.

Europe does nothing.
Britain does nothing.

Obama is mad as hell about US banks paying themselves bonuses with taxpayers money.

Europe and the UK say "nothing" and have protests occurring.

Without America or Russia, "WE" are NOT in a global economy so they shouldn't be acting like we are. They need to take action to save jobs like America and Russia.

Putin says, "Humankind must move away from a uni-polar world structure of politics, economy and finance"

Bill Clinton tried to talk him round at Davros.

Obama didn't attend.

Gordon Brown is talking Global Claptrap and he's "doing nothing" to save jobs, provide people with skills, or build our economy.

Brown is a damp squib and David Cameron HAS to tell people the truth about globalization. It is NOT working and it will never work without America and Russia.

http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/36634

A brilliant concept and it should be perfectly possible to do it on an objective non-partisan basis. It all comes down to the factual questions asked. A good example was Peter Tapsells PMQ. "What was the value of our gold reserves when sold in 1998 - and what is the value now ?"

You can't argue with the question or the answer.

I think I would prefer all efforts to be put into rectifying the mire that we are in than having a push on how we came to be in the mire.

And talking of mires - I have a new strap line for the next election (I say, frivolously) As we are in you know which creek our cry should be 'We have the paddle!' Let us go forth and fight the foe!

That's all in the past and the Tory’s hands are not clean either. For example, Callaghan’s “winter of discontent has its origins in the Heath/Barber “Dash for Growth” and the currently impending energy is a consequences of Major’s “Dash for Gas”. Then there is the EU and the consequential devastation of our fishing and farming industries, not to mention the massive and ongoing cost to the British exchequer.

Anyway, we are in a terrible mess now and the electorate wants to know about the policies of Her Majesty’s Opposition which might help mitigate the fall in our economy? Unfortunately, it seems that the Cameroon party leadership does not do policies, only “themes”.

I think the main thing to arise from Labours term during the last few years is our loss of freedom and invasion of privacy.

This strategy covers most of which makes us angry, bin police, cigarette police, ID Cards, stealing DNA from children and putting them on a database etc...

That and the credit bubble paint a decade of discontent!

Me MUST MUST MUST do this. I can't stress enough how important it is. Not just as an endightment of Labour and to show how many challenges face the Conservatives in power, but also to put people in touch with the economy again. It's not good enough -people could see that factories and farms were going to the wall, and our companies were being flogged wholesale to foreign rivals, but they were duped into thinking everything was ok because of rising house prices and the buoyant banking and retail sectors. This kind of sleepwalking into disaster must never happen again.

Let's also publish and publicise the yearly balance of payments, so people know whether we're importing more than we're exporting; let's get people thinking how they are connected to the economy. Of course, we must also publish the extent of our national endebtedness, and we should declare (and get cross party support for) a national holiday on the day the debt is finally paid off.

I do get that this process has to be above party politics and I suspect that we may well find a few skeletons in our own wardrobe as well. Many of course will claim that such a process is a witch hunt, but to fail to proceed because we might find out things that others would prefer hidden, would be a real error.

We really do need an honest warts and all, look at the end of the 20th Century and an up to date audit of were we really stand.

The concept is fine but I am sick of NuLab blaming everything on the last Conservative government pre 1997 so I would hate the Conservatives to get into that sort of mindset.

Set the record straight, clearly and boldly.
Describe how the Conservatives will mend Britain.
Get on with the job.

If two or three years on the Conservatives are still saying "This is all the fault of Gordon Brown..." I will be disappointed

An accurate summary is required. However even William the Conqueror did not blame Harold for what he found. Knocking copy does not work at all welleven in politics but an audit is vital and people can work out who was guilty for themselves.

The guilty party was of course we Tories, for letting Labour's instincts rule.

I agree with the Bishop Swine, it's an audit and royal commision we need.
Everything found must be made available to the public.

At the moment it just sounds like a nice political move to try and gain votes, which will actualy cost votes.

End lies and sleaze within politics, get rid of the quangos and fake (goverment funded) charities.
Tell people how you are going to help rebuild what has been torn apart (as well get rid of the acts put through that remove peoples liberies of which their are an awfull lot unfortunately)

Give facts and not spin, ensure you deliver on what you promise.
If something is a long term proposition, then tell the public that, let them know how long it will take and keep them up to date with how it is working.

Brown is not going to walk away easily to watch him trashed by this "Domesday book" and an Iraq war Royal Commission. If the polls continue downwards for Labour then:
Look of offer of a government of national unity led by you know who...we Tories should clearly reject but the LibDems could waver and be destroyed
Look for offer of a Lib/Lab pact to secure Labour in office....again the LibDems could be destroyed
Politics has become interesting....

A very proper thing to do. I demand to know the true position we are in. Get PFIs, Northern Rock and network rail on the balance sheet and any other liabilities we may have.

And go further, let us have the truth about how much of our taxes is spent servicing the pensions of public sector employees.

"Politics has become interesting"

I agree for the first time in 15 years I'm enjoying politics and feel like everything is up for grabs.

I concur with a lot of the posters here – the Conservatives must tell the taxpayer the extent of fiscal damage done by the government(s) of all the Comrades since 1997. [BTW – rugfish @12.32 – a slip of your typing finger – it’s Davos, not Davros – the latter was one of Dr Who’s archenemies.]

As a salutary lesson in this respect, when the Conservatives booted out the Yellow Peril from Richmond council in 2002, they discovered that – if it had been a privately run company – it was on the verge of bankruptcy. Initially the Conservatives thought the ‘black hole’ was £6m, but this turned out to be a whopping £60m! Unfortunately, this wasn’t widely publicised – Richmond Borough’s Conservatives being far too nice – and, of course, council tax had to rise to build up some reserves due to this Liberal legacy of debt.

Four years later – because the perpetrators of this penury weren’t ‘named and shamed’, and the council taxpayers weren’t constantly reminded of the Yellow Peril’s tax-guzzling tendencies – the ever-opportunistic Yellow Peril alleged ‘Daylight Robbery’ on Richmond’s council taxpayers, and promised to return the so-called ‘hoarded’ money – but only verbally to ensure there was no written evidence. Unfortunately, the Yellow Peril returned, and instantly awarded themselves a pay rise, and then – when challenged about returning any money – their leader claimed it would be ‘illegal’!

The Conservatives should be included in this tome as the most useless opposition in history. They have sat like stunned mullets for 11 years and done nothing to stop new labour.They have, and still do, draw their parliamentary wages under false pretences.

Here you go guys.....have this one on me! ;O)

10 years and so much to show for it!

The illegal Iraq War
Afghanistan ‘peacekeeping’ - Now a war, because of government incompetence.
Fixing the evidence around WMD
BAE inquiry prevented by government croney Goldsmith
Arms sales to Saudi Terrorists
Pandering to the Saudi ruling family whilst ‘blind-eyeing’ democracy
Refusal to call ceasefire whilst Lebanon was burning
Blunketts penal reform ideas ie; removal of freedom
Lord Levy Pimping Peerages to Nulabour slush funders.
Billions wasted on non functioning IT systems
Ex Labour ministers becoming pimps for crap IT companies
Prescott & the Super Casino Dome fiasco.
Encouraging the vulnerable & gullible to gamble their livelihoods away
Mandelsons Neo liberal Trade deals
Jowells Mortagage & her crook of an ‘estranged’ (yeah right!) husband
Jowell ripping off the public to pay for the Olympics
Privatisation and cuts to the NHS
Trade Union Freedom Bills talked out by Labour ministers
The PPP taxpayer rip off
The PFI taxpayer rip off
Homelessness sky high
Prison population at record level
Crime increasing despite the above point
Home Secretary who scapegoats immigrants and asylum seekers
Allowing a Department ‘not fit for purpose’ to ‘carry on regardless’!
Attacks on Social Housing
Attacks on Pension rights
Raids on pension funds plunging pensioners into poverty.
Forcing us all to work until we drop to make up for the above point.
Attacks on Civil Liberties
Attacks on free speech and the right to free assembly
Like the Tories staging Nurses Pay rises and offering a pay cut to thousands of Nursing staff
Allowing Murdoch massive influence over economic and foreign policy
Inability to reform the House of Lords
Renaging on the 1997 election pledge to bring in PR.
Increasing the gap between rich & poor to a massive extent.
Croneyism.
Alastair Campbell & the Spin Doctors big hit – LIES, LIES, LIES !
The debasement of our political process.
Toadying to vested Corporate Greed – to stuff humanitarian need.
Cheries lucrative deals talking about her husband.
Education, Edukasion, Edukashun....... Get my drift?
Dr. Kelly's 'suicide'.
Tonys pseudo chistianity – pass the sick bag.
Bernie Ecclestone - remember that one?

And that was just under Tony the Liar !

Then came Gordon the Ditherer.

The continuing illegal Iraq War
Afghanistan ‘peacekeeping’ - Still a war, because of government incompetence.
Northern Rock bail out costing every man, woman & child in this country - £3,500 each……& rising!
The 10p tax band abolition hitting 5.6 million of the most vulnerable people in society whilst allowing Uber Rich Non Doms to escape paying tax.
Cash for Favours to Labour Party donors like David Abrams.
His planning permission having been ‘denied’ by a Labour Council previously, suddenly changed to ‘approval’ after a substantial donation made to the Labour Party….how fortunate for him. Of course I’m not suggesting that the two events are connected in any way. :O)
Labour MP’s living in Greater London but claiming £20K for ‘overnight accommodation’
ID Cards – “papers, please”!
Blunkett advising Government about introduction of ID Cards, whilst he is also chairman of the international advisory committee of Entrust Inc, the Texas-based security company which is closely involved in the bidding to provide software for the aforementioned ID card implementation.
Introduction of a nascent Police State.
Ed Ball’s complete Balls Up of our Education System & the SATs test fiasco.
Speaker Martin and his ‘family flights & Shopping Trips’ at the expense of the taxpayer.
Launching a committee to look into expenses, chaired by…….Speaker Martin!
Wendy Alexander………..need we say more! LOL
The Charities Commission sitting on evidence in their so called ‘investigation’ into the Smith Institute……..a supposedly ‘non political’ charity which just happens to have regular meetings at No11, presided over by……one Gordon Brown Esq.
Cherie Blair allowed to keep her ministerial car & driver for 7 months AFTER Tony the Liar left No10……..and £700,000 of taxpayers money spent on Tony’s ego massaging farewell tour.
Brown lying about Road Tax not impacting upon poorer drivers and then having to postpone the 2p tax hike in petrol duty to placate the public ahead of another by-election…….sound familiar?
The £4.2 million TAX BRIBE to the voters of Crewe & Nantwich.
Brown telling us to be frugal & eat scraps whilst he tucks into a 26 course gourmet banquet at the G8 conference.
Ed Balls & Yvette Cooper under investigation over expenses……..again!
42 days detention & a fundamental attack on Magna Carta; only achieved by dodgy deals with the Ulster Unionists and several Labour MP’s.
What were they promised?……..Step forward….. Lord Vaz of Slime.
Big Brother plans to make a database of every phone call, e-mail and text made by the public of this country…..welcome to Labours very own 1984.
Playing the Class War card at Crewe & Nantwich; this spectacularly backfired.
Peter Hain and how he ‘forgets’ where his funding comes from for his bid for deputy leadership of the Liebour Party.
Gordon sells off the countries Gold Reserves at a rock bottom price.
Harriet Harman wearing a stab proof vest whilst surrounded by burly policemen as she tells us all that crime has fallen under New Labour.
Gordon allowing pale blue track suited Chinese goons to push our own people around in our own Capital City and then fêting them at Downing Street……..but showing his support for the people of Tibet ……by not actually ‘touching the torch’.
Showing his support for Tibet (again) by meeting the Chinese delegation in Downing Street, but refusing to offer the same courtesy to the Dalai Lama.
Allowing ‘rendition’ flights to use Prestwick Airport but denying the fact even though you can see photographic evidence of this on Google Earth of all places LOL
Making Des Brown a ‘part time’ secretary for Defence whilst we are fighting TWO wars!
Pretending to support the Police but reneging on their pay increase, triggering a mass protest by Police marching in London, an event never seen before in this country……………and now! Jacqui Smith postpones their pay award by another year. I wonder what the Police will do now?
Gordon Brown presiding over a financial market that allowed investment in ‘junk bonds’ and ‘sub prime mortgages’ which have now triggered a recession.
Saying that New Labour are going to ‘build 3 million new homes’ when the developers are laying off workers and NOT building anything as the recession bites………another of what has become to be known as …..a “Brownie”.
“Brownie”……a word used in place of a LIE.

AND
Finally to finish with the words of one of my hero’s…………


“Labour got £180,000 to train itself on it’s own laws!
The more we know, the worse it gets. It makes you wonder what this money was spent on.
This goes beyond farce, beyond satire, beyond a joke! If I were a member of the Labour Party, I would probably be ashamed to admit it!”


The antisleaze campaigner and former Independent MP Martin Bell

I am not a member of any particular party but this seems a great idea in principle.

However, as Martin Bell's amazing and accurate list makes clear, the terms of reference for such an audit may have to be so wide as to make the exercise almost meaningless. Where the hell do you START with this ghastly government?

Maybe the costs of the exercise could be covered by immediately scrapping various horrendous initiatives (ID cards, anyone?) when (not if) the Conservatives come to power.

If such an audit is made (and do we seriously mean to say that incoming governments do not do this as a matter of course?) it should be dispassionate, thorough and ruthlessly analytical. The key points arising from it should be emphasised and nailed home without resorting to petty point scoring. To sift, marshal and use evidence is the mark of the good advocate. Why should it not also be the mark of the good and benevolent leader?

All the best to DC and co - time to go for the jugular! For the good of all...

This is essential and is needed within 2 to 4 days not weeks.

Indeed 2 to 4 hours.

Labours debauched inheritance needs exposing IMMEDIATELY.

The Doomsday book doesn't change anything, in that its not a solution.

Part of the solution will be raising taxes. What's needed here is that the tax needs to be clearly hypothecated against paying off the Doomsday debt.

I susgest a new payroll tax like and NI, and perhaps a new VAT tax. They would appear on pay slips and receipts listing how much is being used to pay the debt.

Now for a name?

How about a 'Labour Tax' for the extra line on the payslips?

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