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

not that labour conference was particularly inspiring, it was just less actively hateful

lib dem conference seemed even more irrelevant than ever if that was even possible

perfect representation of UK politics in 2012 then

oh yeah and a friend of mine was at a fringe where a tory mp welcomed localism because it would mean housebuilders wouldn't need to build more affordable housing

Who do you cover this for, lex?

Jesus Christ, this article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/oct/10/conservative-conference-return-nasty-party

Afterwards, I speak to a very tall, incredibly gentle elderly man from London, and ask why he thinks Cameron is so determined to force this unpopular policy on his party. "I really don't know," he ponders softly, bemused. "But the Tory party is obsessed with trying to be modern. It goes in a sort of sequence: to start off, you mustn't be prejudiced against BME [black and minority ethnic] people. Then women. Then it leads to the homosexuals. But you can't help being BME or a woman. Whether or not you can help being born with a homosexual orientation I don't know, but it is possible to refrain from practising. To be honest, I'm more or less bisexual myself. I find women attractive but men easier to get on with. I've never married. But I abstain. It is possible, you know."

Stay strong, lex!

maybe thanks to lex and other twitterers i'm more aware of this tory conference than i have been in the past, but it seems, amazingly, magnitudes more repulsive than it usually is. am i wrong in seeing it like that?

It's p much always been staring into the abyss as I recall.

‘When I used to push my son Ivan around in his wheelchair, I always thought that some people saw the wheelchair, not the boy.’
‘I think today more people would see the boy and not the wheelchair – and that’s because we have decided to cut the wheelchair budget!" (applause)

maybe thanks to lex and other twitterers i'm more aware of this tory conference than i have been in the past, but it seems, amazingly, magnitudes more repulsive than it usually is. am i wrong in seeing it like that?

no, i got that impression too, and a few people i talked to at the conference felt the same way. definitely less...holding back. stuff that would've have been vague dogwhistles in the past, people just came right out and said. i think i was at a couple of the same events as aitkenhead - the adam smith institute one was endlessly hellish not least cuz it was so packed and overheated, plus daniel hannan remains possibly the most viscerally loathsome tory mp of them all - but the britannia unchained stuff was kinda more terrifying because it's clearly being pushed by the rising stars of the party (kwasi kwarteng was easily the most basically stupid mp i encountered over all three conferences (there's a lot of competition)). i would say that the tories are becoming more racially diverse every year i go though, their efforts to reach out to the asian community in particular seem to be paying off.

(i covered it for a company i used to work full-time for, for private clients, so not really with my journalist hat on)

I read the Aitkenhead piece - interesting that the conference is ostensibly viewing Boris as their sort of Tony Benn mascot figure, i.e. God bless him but we don't want him leading. At least, that's what they say now but I've no idea whether that's what they're inwardly thinking.

Indian Tories in particular have been a big thing since forever.

Pretty sure the lack of holding back is symptomatic of Cameron's waning authority over his party.

the impatience of being almost but not quite in power. give them a workable 50-plus majority in parliament and these fringe nutters will be allowed out to play on big telly

dominic raab blethering on about the decline of the western work ethic, made me want to do nothing for the rest of my life but slob around in a dressing gown staring vacantly out of the window

Indeed, fuck "working hard", Cameron's never done it so why should the rest of us.

The very idea of Cameron imploring anyone else to work hard is hilarious

the impatience of being almost but not quite in power. give them a workable 50-plus majority in parliament and these fringe nutters will be allowed out to play on big telly

Basically they think that if Cameron had just let them off the leash and allowed them to be as vocally right-wing as they wanted then they'd have won the election outright and there'd be no need to fanny around with the LibDems. I mean it's idiotic but there you go.

I get the idea that with tory conferences i've paid attention to they weren't in power or weren't sure of their power, so they held back a bit on their obnoxious toryness knowing that people will hate them for their actual bullshit. now moreso than ever tho they have their time in the sun, they've had bigger cockups than some noname mp saying stupid shit to the side of a boris speech and they can just blurt out what they've wanted to say for the past 15 years

yeah, what's the point of winning if you can't take off your mask and cackle madly?

They also know they're preaching to the converted, in this instance.

yes, I guess I'm basically comparing this to the last time they were in power. The Thatcher conferences had some serious headslappers.

Opposition conferences are generally a bit more reined in, unless the party's imploding a la 80s Labour

kinda wish we'd import clint eastwood moments tho

what, cameron talking to an empty chair?

Or, as we call him, Boris.

More like an overstuffed recliner.

Despite the change of government following the May 2010 General Election. it was reported in August 2010 that Milburn had been offered a role in the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition as 'social mobility tsar'.[10]

social mobility tsar

haha

"democracy fuhrer"

http://www.itv.com/news/granada/2012-10-19/george-osborne-refuses-to-sit-in-standard-class-despite-not-having-first-class-ticket/

love that pic too

Disappointed lines of coke are out of shot.

is £160 a special upgrade price for ppl who bought the wrong ticket or does that + standard price (has be £40/£50ish at least right?) = the actual price for a fucking train tikcet from cheshire to london?

yes special on-the-train-fuck-you price

his aide there looks more like a lib dem apparatchik than a proper foxblood and claret sodden tory imo

they seem to be having a fun time together anyway

double checked this but it's £70 off peak single, £140 anytime, £189 first class. not sure where the £160 comes from, mb he booked in advance

£49 to fly

Aaaaaaaaand Andrew Mitchell has resigned.

terrible management from dcam

the whole 'oh firing him straightaway would call his judgment in appointing him into question' was stupid, the police fed / tabs were going to make this run and run

a small amount of derision for appointing a slightly too unpleasant & obnoxious chief whip but a missed chance for the eton crowd to reaffirm symbolic fealty to the shire tory rank and file

felt-tip pen for sincerity

https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/259346331263463424/photo/1/large

As he disembarked at London's Euston station and found himself greeted by a small posse of reporters and photographers, Osborne smiled grimly and declined to answer questions fired at him by journalists and Labour party and student activists.

Asked if reports suggesting he had bought a standard-class ticket but had sat in first class were correct, he replied: "I'm sure it will be, um … "

George Osborne and his aide on the train. Photograph: ITV/Granada
The chancellor appeared increasingly awkward as his minders and members of Network Rail staff ushered him through a security gate and in the direction of a government car.

Osborne found himself at the centre of a Twitter storm after his apparently innocuous arrival on the 15.11 from Wilmslow was spotted by an ITV journalist also on board. Rachel Townsend posted reports on Twitter that, despite having a standard ticket, the chancellor had gone directly to sit in a first-class carriage.

There is nothing I don't love about this.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/oct/19/george-osborne-inspector-train-ticket

"The guard went on gathering tickets and later told me Osborne had agreed to cough up the £160."

"cough up the £160" presumably = "add £160 to expenses claim"

Which begs the question, why he didn't pay up immediately without fuss?

something something entitlement something plebs something place something

I'm sure he had nothing at all to do with ticket purchasing and just went to where he'd expect to sit. I think there's every chance someone's taken a bollocking for buying pleb class in the first place.

daily mail laying hard into osborne, mitchell and some other loser today. did they ever shiv thatch like this BITD?

Don't think so. Her cabinet, maybe, but not her.

In 2010 Osborne issued new rules that any dept with staff travelling First would have their budgets docked unless they could show exceptional circumstances

innit marvelous

It's nice that Osborne's actions so perfectly encapsulate the way he treats the country as a whole.

Suppose the thing with this lot is blend of casual arrogance with incompetence which I don't really remember with Thatcher's lot in quite the same way. This sense that they don't really give a shit how it looks even to their own voters.

Oh hang on it's Tebbit himself sticking the knife in.

*michaeljacksonpopcorn.gif*

Suppose the thing with this lot is blend of casual arrogance with incompetence which I don't really remember with Thatcher's lot in quite the same way

Oh no, it's pretty much exactly the same it's just that, post-Falklands, Thatcher herself went into full Iron Lady/ She Who Must Be Obeyed mode and became less of a Prime Minister and more of a Generalissimo. Noticing the reactions here, from... uh... our younger contributors, on the Tory Party conference, along the lines of "Were they always this bad?", the answer is YES. Why do you think us old farts hate them so much?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8583592/Disabled-should-work-for-less-than-minimum-wage-Tory-MP-suggests.html