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

scotland hates tories, tories hate us. this will never change.

also the nats don't want rid of the brit armed forces, salmond campaigned against this iirc.

Yes, he did - he gave a speech n the village hall across the road from my house. The SNP's position was that we've already lost a base, so expecting Scotland to bear 2 of it's 3 bases closed was ridiculous, so both Lossiemouth and Leuchars should stay open.

At least it will be quieter here - the Typhoons are noisy as hell. Now it'll just be rifle drills and the odd helicopter (assuming the vague ideas about an army barracks come to fruition, and even then it'll probably be about five years)

imo the defence review is classic osbornomics, ie unserious. it wasn't a real review: if they don't want the uk to be one of the big clubs, they should make that case, but doing it as part of a defence review *and then launching into a new war* was just derrrrrrrrrrrrp.

Fox kept responding to questions by saying things like 'in order to achieve a regular/reservist proportion similar to the US we have to...' but he never explained why such a ratio was desirable. Of course, it's all about the £££'s, but he should have the guts to say so.

November 2006:

Shadow Olympics minister Hugh Robertson said: "The secretary of state has admitted to a 40% increase.

"She has failed to disclose the true cost of VAT, contingency, building cost inflation and security, much of which was entirely predictable at the time of the bid.

"Today's increase is just a starting point. While the figures remain ambiguous, we can only expect further increases."

July 2011:

The Olympic Delivery Authority has announced 88% of the building programme for London 2012 is now complete.

It has also been announced the anticipated final cost of the project fell by £16m during the last quarter.

This has prompted Sports Minister Hugh Robertson to say for the first time he is "confident" the project will come in under its £9.3bn budget.

He said: "With one year to go construction is 88% complete, ahead of time and under budget."

NHS services opened to competition

FUCK THESE PEOPLE.

Wheelchair services an interesting choice for the first round, given Cameron's been talking about his troubles with them.

Seriously, fuck these guys. They know it's completely buried.

I hear Champneys in Tring treats people in wheelchairs well...

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.

dunno if they're even running. i didn't see any flyers or anything. you'd barely know anyone is running here, i got a few flyers but no other sense of anything going on.

i find it kind of pathetic that they wouldn't canvass based on "o well labour are going to win this anyway" - like is it not part of the point of this that you might meet your future mp or whatever? it's p symptomatic of the rank state of politics in this country.

FPTP

it's just such a farcical system, the powerlessness...

bg & bow I've had a few election flyers in the past fortnight but half as many as takeaway flyers

otm - they really bombard you with those - tho i've voted top taste szechuan on roman road since about 2013 and they've always got the job done.

Time for a change?

possibly, recently i was in my room listening to music and didn't hear the bell and the driver rang expressing concern for my safety - "you always answer the door quickly so i wondered if something was up"

Christ the front pages this morning are abysmal. The Mail's in particular is farcical with the "Don't Vote Ed!11!!1!/In other news the NHS is fucked" double-hit.

i was saying on the other thread or maybe this one, that nobody has called to my door

Tory/LD marginal here and nobody has called, or at least not while I've been in. Labour haven't even sent any leaflets round.

There are as many posters up around me as I've seen in any previous election or maybe more, though; have seen quite a few for each of the 3 (formerly?) main parties, plus Greens, but no UKIP that I recall.

Some of the Tory and Lib Dem posters are comically huge, like a couple of places have Lib Dem diamonds several feet across, just on a suburban fence or the side of their house or w/e. Also the Lib Dem ones say "winning here" which is slightly questionable since they didn't win in 2010 and they're not ahead in the most recent local poll I saw either.

I'm not really sure who'll win scrape into govt locally or nationally (not even sure who I'll vote for), but I am beginning to brace myself for either another 5 years of horrible Tory-led coalitions or 5 years of Labour ever more desperately pretending to be the Tories and having any non-horrible policies defeated (if they think of any), all to daily shrieking front pages about nanny state reds under the bed end of proud tradition of British democracy whatever. What fun we'll have.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_Yx0X-eHn8

i was promised a "short-lived" era, wtf

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.