Psychoactive Substances: Rolling UK Politics in The Neo-Con Era

This government's strategy -- in the way in which Osborne seems to go over there every couple of months/talk about it endlessly, and now Hunt's remarks that we work like the Chinese -- is to place a bet on China, an economy which is faltering.

But where people know their place!

The fact that George Osborne likes overgentrified indie-rock should surprise precisely no-one, surely?

Oh nothing surprising about it at all, anymore than it's surprising that posh boys at Eton should be into gangsta rap, too. It just saddens me.

Fighting the urge to google this now. xp

I didn't know what St Vincent was :-) until now :-(

He means the film in which Bill Murray becomes very good friends with a sex worker.

it's the conference ok but tories really ratcheting rhetoric left right and centre it's difficult to keep track

https://twitter.com/mrdaveturner/status/651312419281719296

Also thanks to Theresa May for trying to make myself and my colleagues redundant.

surely only you can make yourself redundant

Most of these speeches are the start of a long pitch for next Tory leader (and likely next PM). 10+ years ago May was positioning herself as the detoxifying option but this speech looks like a big bet on the more right-wing end of the party. She might win as well, especially if Osborne and Boris split the toff vote.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/30/its-all-very-well-jeremy-corbyn-showing-us-he-understands-but-does-he-have-the-strength-a-leader-needs

May is offering confrontation Suzanne - maybe you can vote for her in 2020.

Most of these speeches are the start of a long pitch for next Tory leader (and likely next PM).

Boris is in the middle of one right now.

differences between the parties being sharpened at the moment, aren't they? go on, theresa may, let's have this argument you evil piece of hot vomit

Isabel Hardman ‏@IsabelHardman · 33 mins33 minutes ago
This is a delightful speech from Boris but personally think it could do with even more heft and vision than he's put in.

Isabel Hardman ‏@IsabelHardman · 30 mins30 minutes ago
But what this speech shows is that leadership contest will be do you want leader who makes Conservatism exciting or do you want safe guy

Every time I'm reminded how much Teresa May bothers me, I also remember exposing her as a moron when we were both on the panel of a feminist talk, and I did it while dressed up like a displaced Shibuya-kei person. At least I can take solace in knowing that there are 600 young women who are probably 35ish now who will never vote for her, but shiiiiiiit - if I can take her down wearing five-inch Mary Janes and a mini-crini, what's wrong with you, Britishers?

[I may have mentioned this before ;-)]

How nice: http://www.standard.co.uk/news/mayor/zac-goldsmith-knock-down-ugly-estates-to-build-better-homes-for-londoners-a3083756.html

I guess a bit of aggressive gentrification will get the full backing of the new infrastructure tsar. How can you realistically demolish whole social housing estates without making people homeless? Stupid question I know the answer is who gaf.

well, increased homelessness is a policy objective, so that's cool. Also, old cliches about 'high-rise blocks' and pledges to knock down council housing gets lapped up by tory rank and file, even more than anti-europe or yay-army stuff. Feel this is more a speech for them than for the London electorate so much.

One underreported aspect of social housing is that despite endemic drug/crime problems there are a lot of people who love their social housing and know enough to know that the lawless badlands of the private rental sector or homelessness is far worse.

Ugh, they even had Peter Hitchens on the BBC Politics show today. The. Worst.

high-rise blocks built as social housing = bad, high rise blocks built for property speculators that remain three quarters empty = cool, or perhaps, completely invisible

Not sure that among Theresa May's goals in giving that speech was having the arse torn off her in the Telegraph.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/11913927/Theresa-Mays-immigration-speech-is-dangerous-and-factually-wrong.html

lol 61% against her in their poll

The Telegraph wants the Tories to win the next election, and they know that Theresa May isn't their best chance of achieving that outcome. James Kirkup himself appears to be a major Osborne shill, so it makes sense in that context as well.

Yes, she's an impediment to the coronation of King George so she must be disposed of, fwiw I think she's more electable than Osborne.

Yep, I think Boris is too. Fingers crossed for Osborne? Christ that could come back to bite me though

Cameron: "That’s right, Labour: you’re not for working people, but hurting people."

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/14/Farfromthehurtingkind.jpg/220px-Farfromthehurtingkind.jpg

Cameron saying the British people "want a government that protects the vulnerable" is sailing pretty close to the wind.

Not sure that among Theresa May's goals in giving that speech was having the arse torn off her in the Telegraph.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/11913927/Theresa-Mays-immigration-speech-is-dangerous-and-factually-wrong.html

― Andrew Farrell, Wednesday, 7 October 2015 10:43 (39 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

But the DM loves her!

[ img ]broken image of the daily mail front page[ /img ]

From what I can see Boris is setting himself up as the (lol) One Nation candidate, with May going for the socially conservative right and Osborne claiming the centre ground for austerity.

@DPJHodges
David Cameron is now the leader of the British left.

"We cannot let that man inflict his security-threatening, terrorist-sympathising, Britain-hating ideology on the country we love."

Can't even bring himself to utter the traitorous swine's name, huzzah!

may went for the racist dogwhistle bc osborne and johnson are both pretty firmly pro-immigrant. i don't believe for a minute it's the issue that most exercises her, it's pure staking out a vacant position in the leadership battle

(and i doubt she expected press support, even the RW press - look at the comments on the spectator and telegraph, the ppl she's going for think both those publications are terrible liberal metropolitan elite rags)

funny how these conservatives, who we'd been led to believe were going to just leave corbyn in the dust as a laughable irrelevance, can't stop talking about him now

I think they know when these tax-credit cuts kick in that a lot of people are going to feel visceral hatred for them, it will prove about as popular as the poll tax was in the 90's. They ought to be worried.

Just saw Gove using the Jeremy Hunt line that tax credit cuts will "incentivize" work... how the fuck? Seriously.

I think what he was driving at is that it'll force the plebs to improve their wages by working harder.

Or unionising and making their bosses pay them more.

A lot of people (those who can, at least), will have to take a second job, which of course deprives some even more vulnerable people of a first job. It's a complete clusterfuck in the waiting, and that's before we have to deal with the inevitable bungling of the Universal Credit implementation.

this flagship "starter homes" policy of redefining what the "affordable housing" is that developers can provide also throws up approx 10000000 questions as to its implication on several fronts

I don't know many people who could buy a 'starter home' for a quarter of a million pounds, although I guess it's just about feasible if you're a couple each earning circa £26k (which is approx average wage) and have a £30k deposit. How you save that deposit when rent is not protected I don't know. Our first flat cost £150k. Average wage here is not £26k.

And of course that's going to be £450k in London, isn't it.

"security-threatening, terrorist-sympathising", just how close is cameron getting to slander here?

Dan Hodges ‏@DPJHodges 1 hr

I'm not going to join the Tories. But it may take me a while to come up with a coherent reason why.

Just saw Gove using the Jeremy Hunt line that tax credit cuts will "incentivize" work... how the fuck? Seriously.

― Terry Micawber (Tom D.), Wednesday, October 7, 2015 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Also read Hunt apparently saying that people on tax credits lack dignity. That gem hasn't been widely reported but hey he believes it so who cares about accuracy.

I believe Tory press office batted that one down and said those were comments made at a fringe meeting. It was a pretty big fringe meeting from the photo I saw.

is it widely accepted that things said at fringe meetings don't...count?