Is Sion Simon ok? His Youtube misadventure is misjudged but his interview on Sky was so much worse. Perhaps we should all note that in order to do comedy it is first necessary to have a sense of humour.

Coming soon the Tory - NHS Independence Bill

In todays speech to the Kings Fund David Cameron said that the Conservative Party would be bringing forward a NHS Independence Bill to "offer a statutory framework that will take politicians out of the day to day running of the NHS."

These are clever tactics again as introducing an actual Bill has lots of positive spin offs. Firstly it will give the story legs asit provides new angles, secondly it is a positive position to be taking helping balance the more traditionally oppositional negative stance when opposing Gordon Browns NHS cuts, thirdly it will potentially get the Labour Party in a tizz. As Gordon Brown has publicly said similar things to Cameron in recent weeks regarding NHS Independence will he and the PM back Cameron's Bill. Of course not but DC will make sure they have plenty of opportunities to explain why in coming weeks.

What is also plain is that this is a medium term message the Bill won't be published until the new year so we can expect this to be a recurring theme for the next 4 or 5 months.

Boris and Matthew

Make sure you check out the Conference Choice Debate featureing Boris Johnson and Matthew Parris. Its' the funniest thing I've seen in ages.

Conservative Party - Conservative Party Conference 2006 - Bournemouth - Video Gallery

The tax debate

The Conservative leadership has the right approach to tax policy. Make no mistake they understand and favour low taxes. They have said so repeatedly. Indeed at the Conservative Party Conference;

David Cameron "Everyone in this hall, me included, knows that a low tax economy is a strong economy."

George Osbourne "Sound money is the only sustainable path to lower taxes. It is also the bedrock upon which we will build simpler, flatter, and fairer taxes."

What they aren't going to do is make specific pledges with 3 years to go before the election. This is eminently sensible and conservative. What seems to irritates some Conservatives is the current mantra that they will put "stability before tax cuts".

It partly irritates them because they fail to recognise the distiction that it is "before" rather than "instead of".

But it mostly irritates them though because the message isn't for them - it's for the public.

The public to be reassurred that we won't screw up the economy and for the last eight years Conservative economis policy has focused on dramatic tax cuts that opened us up to political attacks and worried too many voters.

It's a message that for Conservatives goes without saying - obviously we don't expect a Conservative governemnt to screw up the economy - so for some they read more into the mantra than is there. They shouldn't worry.