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

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/oct/01/george-osborne-bullingdon-club-chancellor

this is such disappointing bullshit - i'd be more satisfied by an article that said

"The all-male dining club, which the prime minister, David Cameron, also belonged to as an undergraduate, is open only to sons of aristocratic families or the super-rich"

and ended there.

Yeah the sanctimonious "Osborne got drunk at university and had friends who got in fights" tone of that article is utterly pointless.

keeping my fingers crossed the Graun doesn't start digging into Hull's notorious Marlborough Acid Posse.

Also today: the Louise Mensch interview careens into more judgemental editorialising than I'd expect - I'm basically sympathetic to ridiculing Mensch's "I've been poor too" nonsense but obsessing about her (alleged) plastic surgery is weird and over-the-top:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/sep/30/louise-mensch-phone-hacking-politics

tim farron on question time the other night wearing a jesus fish on his lapel

'jesus fish' should be a way trippier lapel ornament than the thing you mean

Philip Hammond believes that the 70mph limit is outdated, because cars are far safer now than they were when the limit was introduced in 1965. "The economic benefits will outweigh the very, very small impact in casualty numbers," he said, adding that the move will "put Britain back in the fast lane of global economies."

time is money, speed means time, speed needs fuel, fuel gets tax, tax funds NHS, NHS treats road accident victims but any additional road accident victims that result from faster driving are more likely to just die and thus not increase the burden upon it - we all win

it could even decrease the NHS burden as if everyone is driving faster then the fatalities:mere serious injuries ratio in crashes that would have happened anyway would be higher. o glorious day.

Vote Liberal Democrat

Tory doublespeak never more tortuous and beautiful than when they're explaining away employment rights.

How are the Liberal Democrats explaining it?

they seem to be oddly reticent.

i'm liking "if we make it easier for employers to sack staff on a whim then it will boost employment", cd see it being usefully applied to the machinery of government for example

"What about the rights of people currently sitting at home with nothing to do, desperate to get work, but the business can't afford to employ them because they fear they are going to be taken to the tribunal?"

Gotta love this though. It would be funny if it didn't fuck up a lot of people's lives.

Still, to quote Philip Hammond, "The economic benefits will outweigh the very, very small impact in casualty numbers"

I'd expect to see more efforts to casualise full-time employment as we go on. People acting as temps or agency workers make up a significant percentage of the workforce. If you can't create new jobs, you can boost the figures for 'permanent employment' by getting rid of the barriers that stop people hiring full-time staff - like the expectation that you're going to need to treat them fairly.

"vexatious employment tribunals"

NSFW

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/oct/02/david-cameron-sorry-female-mps

"If I offended anyone, I'm hugely sorry."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/oct/03/nhs-bill-doctors-lords

it would be nice if this was a big deal

btw those last two links posted above are gross & have rattled around my head since i read them. the fetishism involved in supporting 'faster deeper harder' cuts - which i don't really think anyone is pushing for at this stage, other than weird contrarian rich kid tories for whom it must seem radical and dispassionately principled - & then, while semi-erect, staying up on indesign til three am eagerly designing a risque poster towards the same end, is really gross.

which i don't really think anyone is pushing for at this stage

Some are, right wing thinktank wonks, pretty sure a few Tory MPs too but have probably been told to button it

just wanna c&p http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2011/oct/04/conservative-conference-2011-live-coverage here

lots of winning ideas like cutting taxes, encouraging job seekers to seek for several hours a day (to find those jobs that hide between the cracks!) to reduce unemployment, etc.

encouraging job seekers to seek for several hours a day

Uhhhhh, how exactly? Stand on the sidelines, shouting "Get on with it, you lazy sods"

The PM will force claimants to spend more time every day looking for work... Only unemployed people with a long record of previous hard work will be allowed time to ponder future job offers.

Fucking idiots

amusing to watch may blunder into an obvious trap on the bbc coverage re the non-existent criminal and his cat

What's postman pat been up to now?

I want to know what our Home Secretary plans to do about Facebook's plans to introduce monthly charges and the fact that we all swallow eight spiders a year whilst sleeping.

This thing about having to spend "several hours per day" looking for work... I take these unemployed layabouts will all be given access to the internet for several hours a day, 'cos it's next to impossible to find a job without it, and how is that going to work exactly?

From spring next year, a new Jobcentre Plus computer system will allow people to apply for jobs online, with Jobcentre Plus staff monitoring their activities.

LOL, like that's going to work!

Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, has issued this statement about Theresa May's speech: "I had thought rather better of this home secretary ..."

... well you're another fucking idiot then

come now there has to be a thin surface of respect paid to secretaries of state so that when they lie about a cat on telly to justify scrapping the human right act you can have a go at them and it have some weight

Chakrabarti's been snuggling up to the Tories for ages now, idiot

Idiot = Liberal

"The only way out of a debt crisis is to deal with your debts. That means households - all of us - paying off the credit card and store card bills. It means banks getting their books in order."

From my local paper, gaun' yerself Emily!

Apparently the government have nixxed proposals to put some kind of financial education on the National Curriculum? That above post in italics is why. You don't pay your fucking mortgage off in one lump sum at the expense of eating.

"Most hideous of LibDems" = "the ones most likely to take my seat", right?

Also stop telling the voters things like "we are the progressive party". Everyone says it now. Most of the electorate don't have any idea what it means, and assume you're bullshitting them.

xxp

No, you pay your fucking mortgage off in one lump sum at the expense of the taxpayer.

Chakrabarti's been snuggling up to the Tories for ages now, idiot

― Dios mio! This kid is FUN to hit! (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 4 October 2011 17:29 (Yesterday) Permalink

More than snuggling (allegedly).

Cameron isn't that interested in winning the next election. If anyone pays attention to him then anaemic growth will stall as money gets destroyed in mass debt repayment, whacking growth just as the cuts bite.

What's he interested in then?

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmregmem/051214/memi06.htm

Oh wait that was years ago...

This is the latest one...

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmregmem/100927/cameron_rt-hon-david.htm

Name of donor: News International Supply Company Ltd

Address of donor: 1 Virginia Street, London E98 1XY

Amount of donation or nature and value if donation in kind: Costs incurred from hosting the Leader of the Opposition’s Combat Stress Summit at the House of Commons; total £1241.55 remitted directly to the relevant House of Commons Departments.

Cameron isn't that interested in winning the next election. If anyone pays attention to him then anaemic growth will stall as money gets destroyed in mass debt repayment, whacking growth just as the cuts bite.

― American Fear of Pranksterism (Ed), Wednesday, 5 October 2011 10:52 (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

eh?

that reminds me of deathdrone's poker logic tbh

It's a funny Tory who's not interested in winning an election

Apparently the government have nixxed proposals to put some kind of financial education on the National Curriculum?

this has been such a bugbear of mine over the three conferences

Of course Cameron is interested in winning the election, or at least not losing it. He may be increasingly disinterested in being popular, but being unpopular is different to losing elections.

That they're not going to get anywhere near eliminating the deficit in this parliament must surely be the elephant in the room at the conference. They've over-promised.