rjt

He appears on This Week a late night political talk show with Diane Abbott the MP for Hackney, the show is hosted by Andrew Neil.

He has a newspaper collum, (The Guardian I think)

Broadly he is on Camerons side but I woud not say he is that helpfull, keeps saying publically Cameron is not in a good enough position to win yet.

Whilst still a sitting MP in 2005 just a couple of weeks away from Blair calling theelection he announced on air Blair was well on his way to a comftable amjority which did not please Mr Howard very much.

He is a totally discredited figure now, he even came out with a call for nuclear disarmament last year.

22ANDUK

Enfield Southgate results, 1997.

Hereward77

Portillo cannot be trusted, 'hardline Thatcherite' in the 80s and now a left-liberal. He started out as a communist, like his father.

Britannist

It's the Times actually.

A foolish thing to do - and quite unhelpful coming from an ex-Secretary of State for Defence. Thank goodness Blair ignored his (Mr. Michael Portillo's) advice and supported the renewal of the UK nuclear missile system.

Mikeuk

You may very well think that... :twisted:

rjt

Thanks for that I could not remember.

I was very shocked by his call not to renew Trident given his famous who dares win speach in 1995.

Portillo in fact took a Cameron type stance in 2001 when he ran for the Tory leadership suddenly introducing policys such as the legiisation of canabis and admitting to gay experiences at university.

This infuriated the Tory right, he was supposed to be Thatchers heir and the very unremarkable and as Lord Tebbitt said normal Iain Duncan Smith slipped through to take the leadership.

After another defeat in 2005 the Tory party was so desperate they voted for Cameron and this breed of new conservatism which Portillo tried to introduce.

Tony Bennett

Has anyone read the article about Cameron's stunt?

There are some highly controversial paragraphs in the account of his 2-day visit, here are the ones proving most controversial:

__________________________________________________ ______________________________________

What I learnt from my stay with a Muslim family
__________________________________________________ ______________________________________

Last week, Tory leader David Cameron spent two days in Birmingham with the Rehmans

Sunday May 13, 2007 - The Observer

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The challenges of cohesion and integration are among the greatest we face. I wrote in these pages in January that we cannot bully people into feeling British: we have to inspire them...The second priority for building cohesion in our country is more integration: people from different backgrounds sharing public services, neighbourhoods, social networks. As I found in Birmingham, this is something they naturally want to do [is that true? - T.B.] , and local institutions - including religious ones [what, mosques? - T.B.] - provide the opportunity.

And the third step in promoting integration is to ensure there's something worth integrating into [er, so why do people migrate here?]. 'To make men love their country,' said Edmund Burke, 'their country ought to be lovable.' Integration has to be about more than immigrant communities, 'their' responsibilities and 'their' duties. It has to be about 'us' too - the quality of life that we offer, our society and our values.

Here the picture is bleak: family breakdown, drugs, crime and incivility are part of the normal experience of modern Britain. Many British Asians see a society that hardly inspires them to integrate. Indeed, they see aspects of modern Britain which are a threat to the values they hold dear - values which we should all hold dear. Asian families and communities are incredibly strong and cohesive, and have a sense of civic responsibility which puts the rest of us to shame. Not for the first time, I found myself thinking that it is mainstream Britain which needs to integrate more with the British Asian way of life, not the other way around.

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Mikeuk

Why doesn't C A Moron become a Muslim?

He's obviously circumcised. Shame they threw away the wrong bit.

Percentage

Talking a lot of sense now he's a journalist & not a politician,as an analyst he can give a very good "insiders" view of politics,which he pragmatically achieves on a weekly basis along with Andrew Neil & Dianne Abbott.

A must see for the enthusiast of all things political

He sceptically supports Cameron (as he felt the tories had to change)& awaits policy's like everyone else as to whether he can cut the mustard,i get the feeling he has his doubts.

http://www.michaelportillo.co.uk/index.htm

rjt