DEM not gonna CON dis NATION: Rolling UK politics in the short-lived post-Murdoch era

Interesting choice of day to announce this eh?

The Guardian has the Lansley announcement story on page 15, the Independent on page 21, The Times on page 17 and the Daily Mail on page 31. And that's your lot.

iirc this was something that was going to happen. and now it has happened, kind of thing.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/benedictbrogan/100098140/george-osborne-wants-a-single-euro-state/

what does this all mean?

Osborne's lost his (Jonny) marbles?

Dorset County Council is closing 9 of its 34 libraries, with 11 of those left to be run by unpaid volunteers and community groups.

Apparently it's OK because 75 per cent of Dorset residents never set foot inside a library.

Wonder what the percentage of primary school age children is. Oh.

They all vote Tory down there anyway, so fuck 'em, they're getting what they voted for

those primary school age child tory voters are the fuckin worst

Let them take it up with their parents

d-cam is editing the next issue of the big issue o_0 o_0

whose ideas was that? good god

sure that's "editing" and not "selling" ?

get on with running the country into the ground you prick

Yeah, in this current situation, that's bound to be a good idea.

Next up, Harold Shipman opens his own old people's home...

d-cam is editing the next issue of the big issue o_0 o_0

whose ideas was that?

[Big Issue founder, John] Bird revealed in 2010 "My guilty secret is that I’m really a working class Tory. There, I’ve said it. I’d love to be a liberal because they’re the nice people but it’s really hard work – I can’t swallow their gullibility and I think their ideas are stupid. I’d love to be someone who wonders around in a kind of Utopian paradise seeing only the good in everybody but I just can’t. I support capital punishment for a start. I know this will destroy my reputation among middle-class liberals but I’m 64 now and I should be able to breathe a bit. Wearing the corsetry of liberalism means that every now and then you have to take it off."

My guilty secret is that I’m really a working class Tory

Form what i've seen of this guy over the years I wouldn't exactly call that a secret

"working class"

Is that the British meaning of 'liberal' or the American definition?

US I imagine, I assume the sneer used when saying it is the same in any case

Getting people to sell your product without having to worry about if they have enough to pay their mortgages...

Plus, of course, being pure 'profit-share' means the minimum wage doesn't apply, right?

I'm not slagging the whole enterprise, just defining it.

I used to write for the Big Issue in the '90s. I seldom see people buying them with the same enthusiasm today.

Yes, it's only middle-class liberals who wonder around in a kind of Utopian paradise seeing only the good in everybody who seem to buy it these days

The rest of us have taken our corsets off and say "no thanks"

Huhne's a naughty boy then?

Re: RAF Leuchars

Dowd / Billy Dods - please email me at albaba at gmail dot com if you're interested in writing a short blogpost about the closure for this series:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/series/the-cuts-get-personal

... or could put me in touch with someone who might be.

Cheers

Does ilx just not have a norway massarcre thread? Or am I being dense looking at sna?

2011 Oslo/Utoeya Norway attacks

Cheers.

What an amazing old duffer:

A DISTINGUISHED barrister has called on Theresa May to ban “left-wing” marches in Piccadilly after damage to the Ritz at anti-cuts protests earlier this year.

John Beveridge QC (pictured) co-founder and chairman of amenity group the St James’s Conservation Trust, said such marches attracted “ragtag” protesters who “become violent and urinate all over the place”.

He added: “I have written to the Home Secretary, who has responded in the usual pusillanimous and ambiguous way, that these marches should be sent on routes that don’t take them past Fortnum and Mason and Cartier and the Ritz, that pass ordinary shops that won’t so inflame them. There’s no fun for them in attacking Safeway or Costcutter, but they love beating up the Ritz.

“The Home Secretary should have a bit more political guts and say that this type of march must be diverted elsewhere.”

ahem, safeway haven't existed in the UK for a decade or thereabouts?

Think the 73 year-old barister might be a little out-of-touch.

Personally I want my protesters to be urinating everywhere!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14315442

can't wait for the next series of the thick of it:

Steve Hilton, David Cameron’s enigmatic strategy director, has startled colleagues by proposing the abolition of maternity leave and all consumer rights legislation, as part of an initiative to inject life into Britain’s sluggish economy.Mr Hilton’s crusade against employment legislation also saw him suggest that Mr Cameron just ignore European labour regulations on temporary workers, prompting an exasperated exchange with Jeremy Heywood, Downing Street’s permanent secretary.
“Steve asked why the PM had to obey the law,” said one Whitehall insider of a meeting in March to discuss the government’s growth strategy. “Jeremy had to explain that if David Cameron breaks the law he could be put in prison.”
Mr Hilton is highly admired by Mr Cameron for his original thinking, but the shaven-headed policy guru’s friends admit that three-quarters of his ideas fail to get off the drawing board – to the relief of colleagues.

even the FT raising an eyebrow there.

but they love beating up the Ritz.

If you're blue and you don't know where to go to
Why don't you go where lefties have fits
Beating up the Ritz.

holy shit the thick of it best come back now

That Thick of It special must have been thrown off course so many times in the last 18 months or so. The level of rewriting going on must have been ridiculous.

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2011/07/blue-labour-conservative-mood

These people are the most appalling cocks.

who? the SWP, Blu Labor or Mandy?

i know what the answer is really :)

'all of them' iirc

Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, who was at Oxford University at the same time as Mrs Mensch, insisted he had only ever witnessed her enjoying a "small glass of sherry".

Presumably the stern, disapproving glare of Jacob Rees-Mogg's nanny ensured that she behaved appropriately when in his vicinity.

class bigotry is a terrible thing so i take no pleasure in wanting to set Jacob Rees-Mogg's tweed suit on fire

"I saw her taking snuff occasionally but what's wrong with that?"

oh jacob she was never gonna share her coke with you ;_;

http://i.imgur.com/cq0UE.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/cq0UE.jpg

tottenham appears to be burning

needs more 'comedians' with pies.

Given this overlong era is drawing to a close (in one way or another) I'm going to lock this one and keep the conversation going on the other thread:

2015 UK General Election campaign & aftermath discussion thread.