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

A Nazi-themed troupe of dancers and a 16-tonne Second World War tank gatecrashed the start of Ukip’s spring party conference.

Performers in hot pants, jackboots and Nazi insignia high-kicked to the Springtime For Hitler tune as delegates arrived.

The dancers, from Mel Brooks’s musical The Producers, caused the scene outside Ukip’s conference venue - the Winter Gardens in Margate, Kent.

The seven-strong troupe of female dancers performed a choreographed routine as Springtime For Hitler blared from a PA system on the tank turret.

It emerged that the cast were in Margate to promote the new touring production of Brooks’s acclaimed musical comedy, which opens in Bromley on March 7.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B-1vWv4UEAEORv3.jpg

http://www.psywar.org/psywar/images/SSGBpostcard.jpg

Afzal Amin suspended by Conservatives in Dudley North
The Conservative candidate trying to become an MP for a battleground Black Country seat has tonight been suspended by his party, accused of trying to work with the far-right English Defence League.

Afzal Amin was filmed allegedly telling members of the protest group that they should organise a march against the planned multi-million pound new Dudley Mosque, then for it to be called off so he could take the credit, the Mail on Sunday has reported.
The newspaper said the plan was that in return for the EDL's co-operation, he said he would be their 'unshakeable ally' and bring their views into the mainstream if he won election to Parliament

Noticing a lot of talking up of George Osborne at the moment, Tim Montgomerie popping up everywhere to say how much popular he is with public than he used to be (stats please). I'm assuming this is to head off any post-Cameron leadership challenge from Boris.

No UK election 2015 thread yet? US posters have had their 2016 threads running for months.

it's so fucking depressing

Cameron won't serve third term

Ha! I knew something was going on!

Pretty smart move all things considered. I'm not sure it'll play to much electoral advantage but there's no way he's winning an outright majority and it'll head off the threat of regicide. The Tories would otherwise almost definitely try and unseat him as the head of a minority government, and maybe even as the head of another coalition.

Don't know how this made lead item on the news, never mind how it took the whole of the first 14 fucking minutes

come on UKers, this is an important and sensible discussion forum for the important debate around what colour rosette the next govern ment prime minister will be wearing come May!

Yes, I've still got a good few weeks to pretend it makes any difference whether I vote Green or Labour.

full body cringe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?t=31&v=A1J0lwqDPgk

UK political parties should be forced to use only death metal in their campaigns.

christ

https://shop.labour.org.uk/products/pledge-4-mug-controls-on-immigration-551/

hashtag why not join the labour party

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2gqsaMdcoY

In stock (498 available)

might get a few of those to send as gifts to the next "but they're better than the Tories" apologists i come across online

Despite everything, including that mug, they still are.

http://i.giphy.com/SFO2VjsS7m0ak.gif

I mean, it's a pretty low bar pit

This would be grim and exasperating even without the never-acknowledged current of anti-Semitism behind a lot of Miliband criticism.

re that http://tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/189623/a-polite-hatred-4-british-left

This means appealing to the party’s base, which includes the trade unions, groups like the PSC, and Britain’s growing Muslim vote. Railing against the iniquities of Israel is a good way of garnering support in these constituencies.

Trade unions?

there's a "surprising" number of Unions allied to pro-Palestinian campaigns

you can't support any pro-Palestinian campaigns without being Julius Streicher iirc

there are other threads for discussing the peculiarly unnuanced response of kneejerk left liberals to Palestine - but i was just explaining the sentence quoted above as to why Railing against the iniquities of Israel is a good way of garnering support amongst Trade Unions

Trade Unions don't vote in elections, trade union members do, no proof that railing against the iniquities of Israel is a vote winner with that constituency.

I suppose depends on what is meant by 'garnering support'.

there are other threads for discussing the peculiarly unnuanced response of kneejerk left liberals to Palestine

lol is that why ur being so painstakingly even-handed here

"Now is the not the moment to interrogate the vicious genocidal totalitarianism of the effete ivory tower liberal pansy left"

it's weird i cd've sworn i picked different words

Miliband actually voted to recognise Palestinian statehood, which takes guts to do wherever you are on the spectrum of Jewish beliefs and heritage.

Maureen Lipman begs to differ.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbHNVtsAD2M#t=108

can feel my cynicism dropping away as he lays into "those 'orrible zero hour contracts", had to stand up and sing The Red Flag

Probably time to repost this.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-563570/Martin-Freeman-life-shouldnt-just-day-office.html

"Multiculturalism hasn't and doesn't help, because rightly or wrongly it polarises people so much," he continues.
"Racism is one thing – and I don't agree with that in any form – but noticing that there are differences is normal and fine and to be encouraged.
"We've reached a state now where it's, 'You shouldn't notice. Why are you noticing he's got a bomb and has a beard and is Muslim and wants to kill your family?"
"There is no country in the world like this. If all of a sudden all the traffic wardens in Ghana were Welsh, they'd really notice and might not love it…

'The funny thing about the acting business is that there are more poofs in it than you can have hot dinners thrown at you,'"

That is entirely unsurprising, the complacency of people who branded themselves "left-liberal" at some point in the early 90s and never thought about it ever again.

^ entire labour party to thread lol

'The funny thing about the acting business is that there are more poofs dimwits in it than you can have hot dinners thrown at you,'"

maybe we could do with a separate thread for annoying photos of politicians on the campaign trail but for now...

http://www.theargus.co.uk/resources/images/3645434.jpg

Not really surprised that tim from the office is a dreadful person, he is tim from the office after all

The really outrageous thing about this story isn't tim from the office settling into the loveable racist national treasure slot he was always destined for but "you can have hot dinners thrown at you" ffs that is not the expression you moron

would queue for a long time for the chance to throw a hot dinner at tim from the office

Labour fundraising ideas.

You know what'd help things? Involving Joey Essex.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32127044

zing

https://40.media.tumblr.com/39f5a07de5b8d354a915939fd8e24915/tumblr_nm2wf38XKS1sqmjg8o1_500.jpg

It's going to upset a lot of zingers if Salmond doesn't win a seat.

Little Englanders will need a new bogeyman.

that's no way to refer to Brenda

I was in a bar in Westminster this afternoon for a work meeting, and Grant Shapps was being interviewed at a table literally a couple of feet away. No idea who was interviewing him but he was getting a ludicrously easy ride.