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

If it had been Jonathan Ross it would have been a standing ovation.

No doubt. Suspect Wossy's comic timing might be a tad better. Bet you Cameron would have got a laugh.

― Euripides Trousers (Tom D.), Thursday, 8 September 2011 11:48 (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

Yeah, I think it's not so much what he said (despite it being daft and wholly incorrect), but more the fact the Politician of the Year shouldn't be making cheap wank jokes on stage.

It's not a fact, it's a received assertion. If more politicians made cheap wank jokes I'd think much better of them.

And if Jonathan Ross made less I'd think much better of him

Yeah, reading it back he's just calling the people who voted him in a bunch of wankers. I hadn't understood the "horribly formed" joke at first.

Margaret Thatcher, on walking into Number 10:

"Where there is discord, may we bring harmony. Where there is error, may ... Oy Ted! Ted! Ted Heath? Wankaaaaahhh"

You're missing the point, it is always funny when a politician makes an arse out of himself while awkwardly trying to show off to the cool kids (or what he thinks of as the cool kids). See also Alan Duncan on HAve I Got News For You.

That GQ are arseholes and read by arseholes is neither here nor there.

I say "himself" because it is usually men, occasional cringe-inducing Oonah King tweet notwithstanding.

It's always squirmingly embarrasing when someone takes the stage that isn't a 'comedian', but someone who decides suddenly that comedy is "easy" and decides to do 'unpracticed' humour.

He could have hired Michael McIntyre to knock him off a few funnies.

Or, indeed, Bob Mills COMEDIAN.

these events foster and batten on a kind of "sporting man of the year/all pals here/it's a game between consenting adults" fiction, complete with "licensed jester" roles, an unspoken etiquette, and a deliberate atmosphere of testing the limits that never actually tests limits (or even indicates them)

interesting -- and perhaps telling -- that the etiquette should fracture so sharply here, that certain participants should consider lines have been crossed (or more likely seize the chance to insist we think so): compare/contrast osborne here and julian clary fisting norman lamont back in the day, lines also crossed but in a very different direction

don't think you have to be a "Comedian" to do mildly funny acceptance speech, have seen plenty of professional comedians who wd be equally shit. Osborne misreading an audience that was probly mostly on his side is funny as fuck, GQ thinking it's above being a lads mag is almost as funny.

xp Officially the award was decided by the political editor Matthew D'Ancona, though I'm sure Tory suck-up Dylan Jones had a say. The idea that readers - even GQ readers - voted en masse for Osborne is too depressing to contemplate. As is the idea of anyone wanking over GQ.

Osborne misreading an audience that was probly mostly on his side is funny as fuck

He doesn't 'do' human beings

Ah, whatever happened to Bob Mills COMEDIAN ?

Bob Mills RETIRED? or Bob Mills TELEVISIONXVOICEOVERMAN?

Think Mills took a penalty for the Mighty O's last night.

Bob's friends say he is 'depressed and angry' following his controversial loss to Tom Watt in 2011's Fighting Talk Champions Final.

that was such a fucking fix

Osborne probably is "politician of the year" in that he encapsulates British politics now more than anyone else I can think of, including Cameron. But that's probably not what the GQ dudes had in mind.

these events foster and batten on a kind of "sporting man of the year/all pals here/it's a game between consenting adults" fiction, complete with "licensed jester" roles, an unspoken etiquette, and a deliberate atmosphere of testing the limits that never actually tests limits (or even indicates them)

You can say whatever you want at this sort of thing as long as you don't undermine the backslapping. I saw Michael McIntyre get booed at a magazine publishers' awards ceremony for doing a similar thing.

"don't rip the piss out of the client" wd seem to be a no-brainer for any corporate jolly

there's a strange oblivious carelessness about the way these guys approach everything -- not just not giving a fuck about the modalities, but not even being bothered to be aware there are modalities that might sometimes matter -- is so baked into their reckoning, when said reckoning comes

this in itself is something and nothing -- it was NOT GQ wot won it -- but it is an indicator i think of how lazily entitled and unself-aware they are all up and down the line all the time... stuff which will piece by piece add up and reach critical mass, not on a big set-piece move like the NHS, but on something possibly even sillier

even sillier than this GQ thing, i mean: the NHS stuff is the opposite of silly

Sensible?

That's the thing - you'd think they'd be more self-aware. David Cameron basically got where he is by knowing when not to look like a lazily entitled dick but he's been shooting himself repeatedly in the foot of late. Pretty sure it won't do too much damage though when offset against something like being suitably bellicose about the riots.

yes it's not the general public optics i'm thinking of here, it's the absolute indifference to the amour propre of a contained constituency -- a fairly risible in this case, but also one that it would have cost NO time or effort to pander to --> my conclusion is that they do this all the time, and that all the "contained constituencies", which jigsaw together to make up the professional classes as a whole, from high-end specialist down to anyone with a qualification of any kind, are put in the position of offsetting their (perhaps positive) response how the general optics are managed (re eg riot response) to how the expertise and ethos and self-esteem of their own small sector is respected

any one of these sectors pissed off =small beer
all of them pissed off = manageable provided they don't mutually communicate this pissed-off-ness
all of them pissed off and aware everyone else is = the reckoning

all happening in the context of a general (quite scary) political sea-change in global politics... which may reach us quite late

Actually, I think I disagree with that - Osborne's problem here isn't that he's failing to pander to the contained consitituency, it's that he's trying too hard to be one of the lads and failing.

yes fair enough, pander is the wrong word here: but it's still about not having antennae remotely attuned, or even imagining this is a thing

A Worcestershire council has defended plans to increase the pay of five of its senior managers by up to 15%.

Conservative-controlled Wychavon District Council is having to make £2m in budget cuts.

Paul Middlebrough, the council leader, said: "This is a fair approach because the jobs they are doing have changed fairly significantly."

Esther Lowe from the Unison union said the rises would leave other workers "very annoyed and angry".

Under the proposals the maximum salary for the managing director would increase from £107,004 to £115,000.

The maximum salary for the deputy managing director would be increased to £90,000, from £77,971.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/9/8/1315494922633/cameron-v-boris-johnson-i-003.jpg

Looking like he could do with some exercise these days

Tell your local Liberal Democrat MP how much you love them

xp

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45125000/jpg/_45125997_436e322d-06e3-450a-b8c5-1527070a150a.jpg

Gove: "We cannot say often enough that what we saw this summer was a straightforward conflict between right and wrong."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-14748268

"When fines are imposed they are often reduced to take account of an adult's expenditure on satellite TV, alcohol and cigarettes," Mr Gove said.

big shout out to Daily Mail comments land there

Can't say it often enough that Tory MPs are disgusting fucking vermin.

from October
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-11606799

The Conservative-controlled authority said it faced a 25% funding cut over the next four years.
...

Truancy officers will have 75% of their funding cut

dunno how this (and a hundred similar stories up and down the country) square with the review of truancy sanctions

Wholesale attack on the principles of the welfare state, innit.

need tougher fines for ventriloquist's dummies that escape their boxes and stand for parliament imho

Gove, yesterday

http://evertak.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/gabbo.gif?w=248&h=186

However, the changes are set to cause problems for key coalition figures. Chancellor George Osborne’s seat in Tatton, Cheshire, looks likely to be merged with another, while the Sheffield Hallam constituency of Nick Clegg, deputy prime minister, is expected to be redrawn significantly to bring in new wards.

Psephologists forecast high-level disputes between MPs whose neighbouring constituencies may be condensed into one, including Danny Alexander, chief secretary to the Treasury, against former Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy and Ed Balls, shadow chancellor, against fellow Labour MP Hilary Benn.

Grant Shapps, housing minister, and Chris Huhne, energy secretary, could also see their seats placed under threat.

The Chancellor caused more embarrassment backstage when he demanded a flunkie get rapper Tinie Tempah’s autograph for his daughter. When it was produced, he snapped: “It’s not for my daughter, it’s for my son. Now please go and rectify the matter.” His demand was ignored.

o_o

wotta dick

(assuming the quote is accurate)

(not that there isn't a cornucopia of other evidence, obv)

His demand was ignored.

lol

deliciously unspecific

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/audio/video/2011/9/15/1316097674344/Ken-Clarkes-roof-007.jpg

Would take a squat on a Tory, says Gideon.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14960364

Hiring 2000 tax collectors is a fantastic policy from the LDs. It's as if they are truly of one mind with the electorate. Plus good job BBC on a fantastic Danny Alexander pic.

Is it a move to allow them to say that they've found so much extra revenue they can cave on the 50p rate?

David Cameron was on hand to open the new Freeland Village Hall after a two-year, £500,000 campaign yesterday afternoon.

It came hours after Witney's Tory MP was on the streets of Tripoli, in Libya, with French President Nicolas Sarkozy giving support to rebel forces battling to oust Colonel Gaddafi.

And Mr Cameron told Freeland villagers: "It is lovely to have a warm reception instead of people shouting Allahu Akbah and firing AK-47's into the air."