Reply #1: Here's the cheat sheet, which i cut and pasted from a poster [View All]

[number six]

at the guardian (apologies!)
Basically he's a right-wing disaster who couldn't even beat a drum.


Michael Howard

As Home Secretary, he believed that the answer to crime was simply to lock more people up: "an increase in the number of criminals in prison leads to a large fall in crime" (POLITICS, MORALITY AND THE NATION STATE lecture, ST. MICHAEL CHURCH, CORNHILL, CITY OF LONDON, 10 January 2003)

Howard was the Minister in Charge of bringing in the Poll Tax in 1988. Even after Thatcher had gone, and after the poll tax riots, he insisted he still believed in the policy (July 1991)
Howard was the Minister who brought in Clause 28 of the Local
Government Act banning the "promotion" of homosexuality (March 1988)
Howard voted in favour of anti-abortion campaigner David Alton's Bill to reduce access to abortion (January 1988)

As Environment Secretary, Howard allowed power generators to keep their pollution levels secret (Nov 1992)
Howard the hypocrite - he said very clearly that "I will never stand again for the leadership of the Conservative Party" less than a year ago in November 2002 (BBC News Online - see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2503737.stm)

Howard makes George Bush look like an anti-war protestor. In November 1998, Howard criticised Blair and then Foreign Secretary Robin Cook for not acting fast enough to launch air strikes against Iraq. On the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, Howard said that Tony Blair and Bill Clinton should attack without warning and try to remove Saddam Hussein from office.

Howard opposed the introduction of the Human Rights Act.
According to an ICM poll for the Guardian in October 2003, 26% of people are LESS likely to vote Tory with Michael Howard as the leader. (Guardian 21 Oct 2003)