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

The suicide rate is at its highest since the middle of the Thatcher years.

tbh the issue there is whether a lab/ld gov would have kept all welfare payments at pre-2010 levels despite yknow world economic collapse

No it isn't

There's no doubt anyone in power would have had to make huge cuts - the question imo is where the pain is targeted. This government seems more willing than any I can remember to take from those who already have least.

They seem to have let Osborne off the leash on the issue too, to deafening silence from the Lib Dems

There's also a difference between cutting to balance the books (although some would argue this doesn't ever work) and cutting out of ideology/naked spite. Plus ratio of tax rises to spending cuts, timing of cuts, where they're targeted etc. "Labour would have cut anyway" is true but doesn't equate to "they would be doing exactly the same things".

Also the vast majority of welfare spending (ie state pension) ISN'T BEING CUT at all, so the rest has a negligible impact on public finances. Most benefits money is immediately spent back into the wider economy anyway, it goes by and large to people who are not in a position to save, that's an incredible amount that is suddenly being withdrawn from economies at a local level in some already deprived places.

(xp) No, they just "abstain" and let "exactly the same things" become law.

Yeah I mean ultimately they aren't providing any intellectual or moral opposition or leadership but I don't think "cowardice characterises centre-left parties" is exactly news to anyone round here.

on the suicide stuff - isn't it usually true that richer countries have higher suicide rates?

Sort of true, sort of not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate

I think that colder, darker countries tend to have higher suicide rates (Norway was really high for a time) but looking at this it doesn't appear to be that simple:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate

Greenland though. Fuck, imagine living in Greenland.

The bottom of the list appears to be tropical islands and/or war zones, although there must be a major stigma with reporting suicides in some countries.

weird that uk and ireland are nearly identical

One in five people in Greenland attempts to kill themselves during their lifetime. Fucking hell.

The Baltic states and the Scandinavian countries barring Denmark are all above the UK

Why Guyana though?

Not good form to put Belgium in second with an eyebow raisingly high rate, with a [citation needed].

There's no difference in cutting for various reasons, that's just partisan support. All well and good that labour would do their cuts fairer, better, cleverer, to utopian effect- wouldnt all oppositions?

Guyana has a really small population so i guess it's prone to statistical spikes. Would have been interesting to see if after Jonestown!

But the ideology behind the cutting has an effect on where those cuts will be and where they will hit hardest.

There's no difference in cutting for various reasons, that's just partisan support. All well and good that labour would do their cuts fairer, better, cleverer, to utopian effect- wouldnt all oppositions?

Probly not ukip

Heh fair

You want patronising, condescending middle-class "pity"? Read this. What is this, 2013 or 1813? "That was enough: the boy was mine after that." Puke. I'd rather have honest rightwing fuckoff type blasts from Kelvin MacKenzie than this pathetic pile of piss. Listen, the working class existed before the middle class invented itself and it'll still be here after you're gone. We don't need or want your fucking nose-holding charity. Just all the chances you seem to think are your birthright.

weird that uk and ireland are nearly identical

Is it? Culture/peoples quite similar are they not?

OK so the Lib Dems have finally speak up

"Oh gosh," quipped Ozzy, "I'd better retract it. Don't want to upset Danny; he did such a good job with the Olympic ceremony."

Black man looks like a black man, no not that black man, the other one!

Nadine Dorries MP ‏@NadineDorriesMP 8 Apr
Chuka Umumma reminds me more of the guy with the monocle and the squeaky voice than Obama. Whats his name? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2305496/Did-rising-Labour-star-Chuka-Umunna-use-fake-identity-edit-Wikipedia-entry.html …

Nadine Dorries MP ‏@NadineDorriesMP 8 Apr
Chris Eubank! That's it . He's deffo more Eubank than Obama. #chukaumanna

Nadine Dorries MP ‏@NadineDorriesMP 56m
Apparently I'm racist because I think Chuck Umunna looks like Chris Eubank ?What would I be if I said he looked like someone who was white??

Separated at birth
http://www.chuka.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Chuka-Umunna-MP.jpg http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/entertainment/theatre/images/eubank_203x152.jpg

jesus fucking christ

one of them is a fucking buffoon given to endless self-promotion and devoid of any instincts deeper than popularity, and the other was a pretty good boxer

Umumma used to box?

SIKE

http://www.markpack.org.uk/40249/how-leaflets-used-to-look-colchester-1951/

Both teams going with an characteristically adventurous 1950s 2-3-5 formation. Tory FC somehow nicked it with an ugly forward line against hopelessly optimistic defending.

http://i2.wp.com/www.markpack.org.uk/files/2013/04/Colchester-1951-inside.jpg

the ref is blind

john justice and i. despair won't watch it

Spivy at right half MOM 4 me.

Labour lost that election and looking at the defensive naivety on show there it's hardly surprising.

Like I'm not sure Slummy and Unemployed would do much for you but no defender would want to be facing War when he's all fired up.

And Competition is always a fierce, er, competitor.

Also, 7am kick off? Seems that matches being shifted to awkward times long predates sky tv.

Anyone know who actually won the Colchester constituency?

Just checked, it was the Blue(s) team.

7am kickoff = time polls open in the UK.

<quiet cough>

Anyone know who actually won the Colchester constituency?

Anyone know if the Pope is a Catholic... actually the current MP is a Lib Dem and its first MP was Joseph Elianore in 1312

Ah, so maybe this wasn't about an actual football match? Is there any way we can check?

Some nit has gone and put this massive poster on his fence. It's the first thing you see when you get out the station :-(
https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/733957_10151633108629796_1341112139_n.jpg

surely that is not going to stay in its current pristine state for too long !?

needs a photo every week as the f*cking thing becomes more and more defaced ...

an eyesore. I hope someone puts a wind turbine in front of it.