Shane Greer

…back again, Shaney’s back, tell a friend. 

Ok, so it’s fair to say I didn’t quite keep to my promise of returning to the blog by 12th June.  Things have been a little hectic of late with the magazine launch and as a result I simply haven’t had the time for the blog.  My intention is to get things going again in the not too distant future, but the reality is that I can’t currently commit to it.  Accordingly I have decided to focus instead on my blogging for the Telegraph’s Brassneck blog. 

Fear not though, the shanegreer.com blog will be back to normal sometime later in the year!

As you’ll have gathered from the lack of blogging things are a little hectic at the moment; apparently launching a magazine is time consuming (who would have though!?). That being so I’ve decided to stop blogging until 12th June, when things will have calmed down a bit.

Until then though I’ll still be blogging at the Telegraph’s Brassneck blog and on the CPS blog.

Both politics and blogging have been a bit light today (although in fairness the latter is nobodies fault but my own). The LibDems however have used the lull to kick-off their re-launch; and let’s be fair that’s exactly what it is. Forced into a corner by the rise of two-party politics and with their its against the wall the cuddly party has come out kicking, and in particular kicking in the direction of the Conservatives.

But whilst to some the howls of Nick Clegg might sound shrill when compared to the meaty conflict between Brown and Cameron, it would be a mistake to discount the remarks as merely the last desperate flinches of a dying animal. Make no mistake, Clegg is gearing up for the political fight of his and his party’s life - the fight to remain relevant in British politics.

The battleground for this fight will surprise many, but considered fully this particular theatre of political war may very well provide the LibDems with a very realistic hope of success.

Where is the battleground? Henley.

And make no mistake, the LibDems can win there; it just depends on how you define victory.

For what it’s worth though the film was awful, really awful.  Really, really awful. 

Seriously, who thought mixing aliens and Indiana Jones was a good idea!? 

…Edward Timpson will be sitting behind David Cameron during PMQs tomorrow? 

Hmm…

It’s a sign of the times, or perhaps more accurately a sign of the degree to which the Party’s image has changed, that the Conservatives have today been able to propose boot camps for the unemployed.  Imagine if such an announcement had been made this time last year; something tells me Labour would have been quick to attack the Conservatives, claiming such a policy would amount to effective slave Labour. 

Today though Labour had very little to say other than to dispute the number of people they’ve apparently helped into work. 

The political agenda is now very much in David Cameron’s hands. 

I’ll be on Sky News this evening between 7.30 and 8 discussing some of the more interesting stories on the web today.  Later in the show though I’ll be discussing Gordon Brown’s predicament with Mike Smithson of Political Betting. 

The question is how would I rate Gordon’s chances on a scale of zero to ten?  Hmm…

In my weekly piece for the Telegraph’s Brassneck blog I analyse David Cameron’s use of his tax speech to communicate multiple messages to distinct groups:

"The current stage in project Cameron of course affords him with the opportunity to convince those within the party who remain sceptical; those who see clear commitments to specific tax cuts as the only way to win a conservative victory at the next election (because it’s worked so well in the last couple).  But in attempting to convince the doubters Cameron is forced to walk a perilous tightrope; a tightrope below which there is no safety net.  To fall would mean undoing all the work which has come before this point.

To walk this tightrope Cameron has employed one of the oldest tools in the political workshop: saying different things to different people, using exactly the same words." 

You can read the whole piece here. 

Last night’s result in Crewe and Nantwich was nothing short of astonishing, a 17.6% swing giving a Conservative majority of 7,860. And let’s not forget that in the past few days subtle rumblings were starting to appear from the Labour camp that anything less than a 3,000 majority for the Conservatives would be a disaster.

I wonder what’s going through Gordon Brown’s mind this morning…?