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

Cameron's playing as blinder this week. He gets someone to make noises about a royal yacht then gets to put the idea down and show he's in touch with the people, and in doing so he also gets Ed Miliband to agree with him on yet another issue (in the same week Ed's come out in support of civil service pay freezes and protecting the Union from upstart Scottish Nationalists).

Amazed that Miliband is stupid enough to fall for that one from Cameron, he is beyond redemption and parody by now. Given that forecasters are saying we might be in a recession already, this is a particularly dumb time for Labour to decide they actually agree with the coalition on significant chunks of economic policy.

I'm sorry, I forgot, it's about "credibility".

Cameron's playing as blinder this week.

Yeah, I keep waiting for this smug bastard to fall on his fat face and for it to be reported that he'd fallen on his fat face and for him to be admonish for falling on his fat face

Milliband is just such a pathetically useless fucknugget.

Next campaign slogan's leaked already?

just for a change i'll be fair.

to me, it sort of speaks well of emil that he's such a useless professional media-friendly politician. the problem being that his job is to be a professional media-friendly politician.

he's such a useless professional media-friendly politician

Yes, but what is he good at? I honestly can't work out what his strengths are.

i think his response to the dianne abbott furore was the last straw for me. what she said was clumsy and unwise, but the public dressing down made it clear whose side emil and labour are on - and its the daily mail readers.

i don't know either but anything's better than being a pro politician in the 21st century. maybe he's really funny when he's drunk or something.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jan/16/labour-mp-tom-harris-resign

"Labour MP Tom Harris had posted Downfall parody video likening Alex Salmond to Hitler"

It's the constant shitting on benefit claimants that's winding me up. You'd think that the question of 'WHERE ARE THE JOBS?' would be resonant enough to counter that but he's just not brave enough to make that case.

Also coming out in favour of a welfare cap now, when it could prove to be a complete disastrous clusterfuck, is really stupid.

If Miliband were leading Labour in 1990 he'd be constantly telling people that he was "not opposed to a poll tax in principle".

"Labour MP Tom Harris had posted Downfall parody video likening Alex Salmond to Hitler"

... his party's led by some called Johann!

I don't understand the current labour party.

Also lol if a Downfall parody gets someone fired. It truly is the age of meme.

Surely above all else, the fact he posted it in the first place without thinking through the consequences shows he's a completely inept social media tsar?

.. which is the point, yes.

"completely inept" "Scottish Labour Party" = interchangeable

could apply to any Scottish party tbh - SNP are lording it by being slightly less inept than the rest and having one politician with a big enough ego to carry them.

^lol. I was at a do before xmas and he turned up unexpectedly mob handed and his crew had to pull up chairs so they could still be within hearing (and laughing) distance of their leaders bon mots.

tbf he had a few good lines.

also xp. as downfall parodies go that one was quite funny.

fwiw this actually gets worse
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/feedarticle/10044408

like the best, most okay part of this article is the start

And now Cameron thinks a privately funded boat is a great idea. And so does the Daily Mail.

So say "Ho!" to the Santander Queen!

Well, she didn't travel as much as being in the armed services, but when she was design director at Smythson and I was an MP, sometimes she'd go off to New York for five days and I was left looking after the little ones, so it has happened...

And the rest:

...The children wouldn't starve or anything; the food was OK - I'm a reasonable cook - and they'd get to school on time, but I'm afraid the house would quite rapidly deteriorate. I'm not as good about tidying up as you go along as my wife is."

What a traditional man the dude is... Vote, um, whats the name again?

Couldn't care less whether there's a privately funded yacht. Privatise all royal funding as far as I'm concerned.

"...The citizens wouldn't starve or anything; the food is OK - Asda is very reasonable - and the Queen'd get to her island breaks on time, but I'm afraid the country would quite rapidly deteriorate. I'm not as good about tidying up as you go along as my wife is."

"which was nice."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/jan/17/michael-gove-king-james-bible

"A plan by the education secretary, Michael Gove, to send a copy of the King James Bible to every school in the country – each including a personal inscription from him – has run into trouble after government sources reported he has been told to find private funding for the project."

each including a personal inscription from him
each including a personal inscription from him
each including a personal inscription from him
each including a personal inscription from him
each including a personal inscription from him
each including a personal inscription from him
each including a personal inscription from him
each including a personal inscription from him
each including a personal inscription from him
each including a personal inscription from him

whoever it is in the Department of Education that is leaking all this stuff about Michael Gove has my undying eternal love.

Gove will make a really shit prime minister one day.

"each including a personal inscription from him"

CROPPIES LIE DOWN

Gove's basically the Mandelson of this Cabinet isn't he? In that no matter how shit he is and whatever he does you know full well he'll be back a couple of years after his first sacking. Whereas someone like Liam Fox is clearly never coming back.

At least Mandelson was clever

we're speaking relatively here, right?

Of course, devious is probably more accurate. Time for Vince Cable to dust off that old Stalin to Mr. Bean knee-slapper. Parliamentary wits, eh?

Proposed Thames Estuary airport already being refered to as 'Boris Island'. I kind of imagine it like a remake of 'Fantasy Island', with Johnson in the Richardo Montelban role.

Popbitch on our future prime minister:

According to an ex-girlfriend, which yacht and bible loving cabinet minister kept a curious jazz mag collection under his bed?

Future prime minister? Ex-girlfriend?

http://www.israbox.com/uploads/posts/2008-12/1228154172_va-jazz_magazine_vol_71-mag-2008.jpg

Love this hate-stirring thing on immigrants and benefits in the Telegraph by Damian Green and Chris Grayling. Amazing appearance on Today too.

yeah, john humph was pretty full-on re: actual amount of migrants cheating benefits schemes being 180 people... and all grayling could do was repeat his figures, which only damn him even further.

Grayling is an idiot, I'm surprised he's lasted as long as he has.

the tories mo on the today programme atm is hilariously predictable - do not be interrupted, spout yr bullshit and remember to say "we've only been in power for 18 months" and "we inherited this from the previous govt". marvellous how natural the phrase "we inherited this" comes to these fucks, its as if they've been saying it their whole lives.

Labour picked a brilliant time to decide they were in favour of capping benefits after all, didn't they? Useless cunts.

Labour party's dead man, let it go

christ how has THIS happened?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/jan/23/david-cameron-soars-in-poll

david cameron sours in pool

Only thing I'm holding on to is the hope that when the consequences of all this Tory bullshit become evident the support will collapse. I'm sure that's going to happen with the supposed 80% in favour of the benefit cuts. I don't think people have clocked yet that these really Tories and so the safety limits of the Labour days are gone.

That's why when I pick fights on Facebook with people going "yes, good stuff, cap those benefit scroungers, how do they even get to 26k anyway?!" you find their support vanishes when you explain what it *actually* means. Stuff like putting 500,000 more kids into poverty; stuff like hammering people who have literally just lost their jobs; stuff that they thought would be so self-evidently bad that they assumed nobody would try to do.

I guess that's the crux of it. 80% are in favour of "cuts in benefit (except the obviously mean and vicious stuff that nobody would do)", not realising that what they're actually getting is "all the mean, vicious and petty stuff we can dream up, and then some."

And I hadn't realised quite how much of a cunt IDS is until his pitiful "you can't ring fence child benefit, if we can't cut that there's no point having a cap at all!" mewling after the Lords defeat.