Bo-Jo says GO

Boris Johnson has come out in favour of leaving the EU today, delivering a personal blow to David Cameron who will have been banking on support from his Oxford chums.

The addition of Boris Johnson to the ranks of leave campaigners is a big boost for the independence campaign as he's hugely influential in the Conservative Party and with the general public.

The writing was on the wall for Boris campaigning to leave the EU when his wife laid into David Cameron for not kicking the EU courts into touch and instead deciding to "duck the issue entirely".

Describe David Cameron in one word? Sounds like ...

Ken Clarke and Boris Johnson: UKIP voters are elderly men with disappointing lives who have sex with vacuum cleaners

Shortly after Conservative MP, David Davies, warned against insulting UKIP voters, Ken Clarke and Boris Johnson both launched attacks on UKIPpers.

Ken Clarke said that UKIP voters are largely "elderly male people who have had disappointing lives". The elderly male MP who has had a disappointing life said that he wasn't surprised that Douglas Carwell and Mark Reckless had defected to UKIP and was surprised that they hadn't joined UKIP before. Membership of UKIP's youth wing, Young Independence, has more than doubled this year.

Boris Johnson also said that Conservatives defecting to UKIP are "utterly bonkers" and are the type of people who go to hospital with injuries from having sex with vacuum cleaners. He then went on to suggest that Nigel Farage should join the europhile Conservative Party and campaign to stay in the EU with David Cameron.

EU may agree budget by excluding UK

The EU is apparently considering pressing ahead with a budget agreement that includes every member state apart from the UK.  Quite how this would be legal or how it would work in practical terms is a mystery but anyone expecting Cameron to finally put his foot down and say enough is enough will be bitterly disappointed.  As usual.

Odds of a referendum? This much.

Speaking at the CBI conference in central London, Mr Cameron said he was "a good European" but signalled he was ready to take a tough line in negotiations on the 2014-20 budget.

"I make absolutely no apologies for standing up strongly for Britain in Europe on some of our priorities," Mr Cameron said.

Speaking about the harsh cuts Britain has faced, the Prime Minister said: "It is simply not credible to go to Europe and say we have made all these difficult decisions at home but when it comes to the European budget we are going to see it go up and up and up.

"I think I have got the people of Europe on my side in arguing that we should stop picking their pockets and spending more and more money through the EU budget, particularly when so many parts of the European budget are not well spent," he stated.

So Cameron is "a good European" and he makes "no apologies for standing up strongly for Britain in Europe".  Next thing you know he'll be telling us the Pope is Catholic and that bears carry out their ablutions amongst the trees.  After backtracking on a promised referendum when he came to power and then whipping his MPs to deny us a referendum earlier this year, does anyone seriously doubt that Cast Iron Dave is anything but an EU sockpuppet?  As for "many parts" of the EU budget being "not well spent" - we're talking about 3.9% of  the EU's budget of around £105bn for last year (over £4bn) being lost to fraud and error and the EU's own auditors refusing to sign off their accounts for the 18th year in a row.  This isn't a minor blip involving a few quid, it's a major systemic failure resulting in a sum of money being wasted roughly equivalent to the entire Icelandic government's 2011 budget!

And how have his colleagues responded to this statement of undying love for the EU from their leader?  Ken Clarke says that Cameron's "real terms freeze" (ie. a 2.9% increase) is only a "starting point" and he could accept an increase.  Could usually implies some semblance of doubt of which there is none - Cameron will agree to an outrageous increase in the EU budget.  Boris Johnson drifted off into some private fantasy about Cameron dressing up as Margaret Thatcher and saying no to the EU and David Davies - once one of the Conservative Party's most vocal eurosceptics - said that Cameron should give another Cast Iron Guarantee™ of a referendum after the next election and pass a law to make sure it happens.  There's already a law (the EU Act) that was supposed to give us a referendum when there was a new transfer of sovereignty to the EU but which was usefully worded so that the government of the day decides whether they feel like giving us a referendum and of course they don't so they haven't so another one would be quite pointless.  Aside from Cameron's utter determination not to allow us to vote ourselves out of the EU, should such a law actually make it onto the statute books any incoming LibLabCon government could (and probably would) simply repeal it because no parliament can bind its successors.

Opinion poll after opinion poll shows that most of us want out of the EU, it is morally and democratically indefensible to deny us the referendum the majority of the electorate clearly want.

Mad Nad: The Plight of a Fighter

Nadine Vanessa Dorries. An incredible woman by far. Her early career included being a trainee nurse at Warrington General Hospital and was formally in the practice from 1978 to 1981 in both Warrington and Liverpool. Before spending a year working in a Zambian community school, where her (now divorced from) husband ran a copper mine, she became a medical representative to Ethicla Ltd throughout 1982. She climbed up and by 1987 she had founded the Company Kids Ltd providing child day-care services for working parents.  The company was sold in 1998 to BUPA, at which she served as a director of the health provider for a year.

Dorries was elected to the House of Commons at the 2005 General Election for the safe seat of Mid-Bedfordshire. As a profound believer in pro-life for babies in harmony with her profound beliefs on pro-choice for women, had soon become a notable figure through her introduction of the Private Members Bill which called for the legal abortion time limit in Great Britain to be reduced from 24 to an eventually amended 20 weeks; introducing a ten day 'cooling-off' period for women wishing to have an abortion, during which time the woman would be required to undergo counseling. It was defeated by a large margin at the time but since then Health Minister, Jeremy Hunt has recently carried his interests of the proposals back into the Commons.

Dorries is an outspoken figure who is hailed for representing the working class power of the Conservative backbench and being a leading rebel against November 2011's notorious 'three line whip' fabricated in Cameron's exceeding fear that the motion calling for a referendum on the UK's membership of the EU could have actually been passed.

Frankly, Dorries has been humiliated and kicked into the sand by the very leadership she blasted as "a bunch of posh boys" in the wake of Dorries's submission to the eye screeching, nonetheless popular TV show 'I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here'. She has been suspended from the Conservative's parliamentary whip for disregarding the fact that Chancellor of the Exchequer's budget plans are set to be stated soon (perhaps there is a political message to it: that Osborn's say is worthless to that of the European Commission - we know her). From return to Westminster, which I fear will be an early one because of the shenanigans her party, particularly Theresa May (...and Louise Mensch), have unleashed, and will see Dorries having to explain her "misconduct" to the Tory chief whip.

This shows indignity towards her status in parliament, or at least, if everyone in there have abandoned The Voter, Dorries's demotic national status. But don't belittle the reality of things and say these sanctions are out of mere concern, the Tory mantra is "Frankly, I think an MP's job is in their constituency and in the House of Commons." This, frankly May, is absolute baloney. When Boris Johnson hung off the zip wire who warned him never to do something that silly again? It was all "aww, that's so cute". (More like "Tory piñata!") Because, frankly, the only threat Johnson brings is that of Cameron's leadership... allegedly. He has a spark which can relieve the Tories from their plight in 2015... apparently. Dorries, on the other hand, is feared to be - quite simply - the Antichrist of Conservative stability: possessing a petition which could see, if completed, the post of Conservative leader up for re-election; and leading a secret legion of backbench rebels which could instantly...turn purple.

Attending 'I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here' is a wonderful attempt by Nadine Dorries to enhance her political platform, to discuss her ideas and values by the fire. She wants to be a human being as well as a politician - and you rarely get the two intertwined in this day and age. And if her party can't respect the means she's taking to get her message across, which her constituency voted for her to do, then frankly she's in the wrong party. I wish her well for the show and hope that these inane controversies do not blight the prospects of real success which is winning the title 'Queen of the Jungle'.

Cameron makes more promises

David Cameron has made yet another promise of an EU referendum at the Tory Party conference and like his infamous Cast Iron Guarantee™ he's promising it after the next election.  Oh, and it won't be an in/out referendum, it'll be a status quo or the mythical repatriation of powers that he keeps promising but won't ever tell us how and when it might ever happen when there is no legal basis for it in the Lisbon Treaty.

Cameron is particularly vague and contradictory about this referendum, suggesting it would be held some time after a new, trade-only relationship has already been negotiated and then says that a referendum would be needed as a mandate to negotiate a trade-only relationship.  A self-imposed chicken and egg situation from Cast Iron Dave offering a perpetual get-out clause.

The EU Commission is demanding a big increase of 6.85% (€137.9bn) in its budget and the EU Parliament have agreed to it.  While the French and Germans called for a cut in the EU budget, the Tories and Lib Dems voted for a budget freeze and Labour voted for the increase.  Cameron says that he'll consider using a veto to stop any "outrageous" budget increase but of course he doesn't say what "outrageous" means so don't be surprised if, by a happy co-incidence, 6.85% is just shy of "outrageous".

Boris Johnson has scored a massive own goal by backing Cameron's vague and impossible repatriation of powers guff and saying he sees no reason for having an in/out referendum on the EU now.  Many in the City will be astounded that Mayor Boris doesn't consider the sustained assault by the EU on London's financial sector - an attack that is still ongoing - as a good enough reason to leave the EU.

Cameron has also claimed that he will impose visa controls on some EU immigrants.  This is completely illegal under EU rules and the EU have already stomped on the last promise to try and limit immigration and that was only for non-EU immigration!  Membership of the EU removes your right to control your own borders.

The Tories simply can't be trusted.  We've had a string of broken promises by Cameron and Tory MPs have rallied round him, making excuses and calling for the Tory faithful to keep the faith.  Anyone who votes for a Tory with their record is a damn fool.

Conservatives continue to take money from peer who broke his tax promise

The Conservative peer Lord Laidlaw was criticised by the Lords Appointments Commission last year for failing to keep his promise to stop being a tax exile if he was appointed to the House of Lords:

The commission said it had informed the prime minister of Lord Laidlaw’s situation and said it would not have approved his peerage if it had known that he would not honour his promise.

And how have the Conservatives reacted to this broken promise and public criticism? By continuing to take money from him, as today’s Daily Telegraph reports:

In March, June and September last year, the married peer made three donations of £27,000 each, through the Glasgow-based company Abbey Business Centres.

He also gave £25,000 to Boris Johnson’s London mayoral campaign.

The disclosure is likely to re-ignite the row over how the Tories are funded.

Questions have already been raised over donations from deputy party chairman Lord Ashcroft, who has failed to say if he is now officially resident in the UK.

Lord Laidlaw has donated almost £4million to the Tories since 2005

You can read their full Lord Laidlaw report here