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

i never got the impression it mattered that much to the US, the people i've heard making a big case for it have been Hague and then, apparently, Gove

'trading nation' being the vision for a uk untethered from 'sclerotic europe' so we can just exist on the high seas of global commerce like a nuclear armed singapore

Gove would just rope in Toby Young to co-ordinate his own air strikes on Syria, free of government intervention.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10276410/David-Camerons-No-10-isnt-a-patch-on-Tony-Blairs.html

I was in the Commons, drinking with some MPs, on the day that the vote for the Iraq war was passed. “Hear that noise John? It’s limbs being broken.” That was the job, and it was done. No one who was in the House this week witnessed so much as a Chinese burn being inflicted.
Thursday’s defeat happened fundamentally because the Opposition (in this case, Labour) voted against military action – as it did not do over Suez or the Falklands, and nor did the Tories over Iraq. But this wasn’t a betrayal by Miliband, as some claim. It wasn’t personal; it was just business.

What do you do when faced with a weak opponent? Personally, I crush them. And that’s what Ed did. What did Cameron expect? Either he underestimated Miliband, or he misunderstood politics. You know what they say about Hollywood – it’s show-business, not show-friends. It’s best to play politics by that rule, too. Politics is a contact sport. If you want to win, you have to play to win. Have a plan. Execute it violently.

Dude is literally grabbing his crotch while bragging about being part of the most formidable disaster manufacturing machine in British politics.

You know what they say about Hollywood – it’s show-business, not show-friends

wd love to discuss democracy with this guy

the Richard Hammond of nations

this is going to stay with me

Either he underestimated Miliband

And who can blame him?

any links to intelligent discussion about pros/cons of intervention? (ie. not

this: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2013/08/the-debate-over-intervention-in-syria.html?mobify=0 )

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/britain-sold-nerve-gas-chemicals-2242520

still got a role to play on the world stage.

Great trading nation dontchaknow

We supply baddies for Hollywood!

I wonder if one day we will have nations where chief exports could be something like 'straight men for buddy action movies'.

i was gonna have a pop at the Gov's meaningless new maths & english policy until i heard a couple of thick, lazy bastards on the radio defending their right to remain in a state of pig ignorance, and now i'm like "yay Gove"

were they mp's on the radio

one of them was doing A-levels ffs

well naturally biased tbf

More American-born immigrants live in Britain than do those born in Jamaica. It is their imperial right. Immigration rules going the other way are indefensibly stricter.

yab in the indepent, is this true

Doesn't seem impossible - America is big and Jamaica is tiny.

the third sentence

It's definitely tricky to emigrate to the US, is that what you're asking?

relative difficulty vs us immigration to uk

Probably depends on what category of immigrant you fall in to. Most US immigrants to the UK are either students or on corporate transfers so it's relatively easy to clear any hurdles. Lower skilled British workers might struggle a bit more but, on balance, I think the UK is far tougher.

can see why the US would want to avoid being a melting pot tbh

Henry Smith ‏@HenrySmithMP 34m Putin really is a tosser.

it's so exhaustingly sad that that's more likely a bhurt reaction to the super-hilarious "britain is a small island that nobody pays attention to" than it is about, oooh idk, the fact that there's been a bill introduced in the duma to take the children of gay people away from them.

this govt is a parade of braying tossers who think they're in the crowd of some sporting event where they can masquerade some semblance of trad. masculinity their privileged upbringings and sour grinchiness have always denied them.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/06/recovery-election-question-living-standards

especially the first four paragraphs

Prime Minister says no other country has a 'prouder history or bigger heart'
UK leads the world in art, sport, music, philosophy and diplomacy, he says
Tribute likened to Hugh Grant's 'small country' speech in film Love Actually
Russia mocked the UK's size and boasted that oligarchs 'bought Chelsea'
Jibe sparked furious response from Britain at G20 summit in St Petersburg

Suggesting his tribute to Great Britain be 'set to music', Mr Cameron argued it had saved Europe from fascism

this is totally going to convince a country that was responsible for about 85% of wehrmacht casualties

Prime Minister says no other country has a 'prouder history or bigger heart'
UK leads the world in art, sport, music, philosophy and diplomacy, he says

what kind of shithead turns up to a global conference and chunders this self-serving bollocks?

He is like Basil Fawlty in The Germans

UK leads the world in art, sport, music, philosophy and diplomacy

LOL diplomacy, this speech being a case in point

boasted that oligarchs 'bought Chelsea'

The football team or the London borough? Either way, how is it a jibe?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23984730

"that has invented most of the things worth inventing"

(...)

"including every sport currently played around the world"

Mr Cameron said Russia had "absolutely denied" the remarks.

But he used the opportunity to champion Britain, saying few other nations had "a prouder history, a bigger heart or greater resilience".

Oh so there was absolutely no point to this whatsoever, then

congratulations dave

"... a bigger heart..."

Biggest hollowest LOL of all

Prime Minister says no other country has a 'prouder history or bigger heart'

Pretty sure he's just quoting a Mumford & Sons lyric there.

A Bigger Heart - title for Mumfords' next album?

Flashback to the headmaster in "If..." lecturing the prefects

Britain today is a power-house of ideas, experiments, imagination, on everything from pop music to pig breeding; from atom power stations to mini-skirts, and that's the challenge we've got to meet

Britain quashed the Mau Mau uprising in the firm but tender way one might put down a beloved family pet.

i'm welling up here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lvL4Bzyumg

Tomlinson even has the same haircut as Cameron there.