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

Has IDS ever said anything that wasn't a lie?

Apparently Matthew D'Ancona's book about the coalition very strongly implies that IDS is a simpleton and the rest of the cabinet know it. I'm not going to read it to find out because it is a book by Matthew D'Ancona.

Duncan Smith was educated at what is now St. Peter's RC Secondary School, Solihull until the age of 14,[5] then at HMS Conway, a Royal Navy training school on the Isle of Anglesey (where he allegedly played rugby union in the position of fly-half alongside Clive Woodward at centre) until he was 18.

His claim that he studied at the University of Perugia (founded 1308) was later found to be false after an investigation by the BBC.[6] His office subsequently admitted that he attended the Italian Università per Stranieri (founded 1921) in Perugia for a year but he did not obtain any qualifications or finish his exams.[6] In 1975 he attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and was subsequently commissioned into the Scots Guards.[7] Duncan-Smith's biography, on the Conservative Party website, claimed he was "educated at Dunchurch College of Management" but following questioning by the BBC his office confirmed that he did not get any qualifications there either, stating that he completed six separate courses lasting a few days each, adding up to about a month in total.[6] Dunchurch was the former staff college for GEC Marconi, for whom Duncan-Smith worked in the 1980s.[6]

BEAUTIFUL

now i hate education snobs and people who judge personality or even intelligence by the number of quals a person passes, but i think Henry Fielding once made the point that it's okay to take the piss out of people who are hypocrites about their own shortcomings

i dunno, maybe IDS wd argue that falsifying your CV is entrepreneurial

it certainly hasn't held him back

he does work in one of the highest paid careers that requires zero qualifications tbf

i mean, i was gonna make the point that anybody who proudly self-identified as being "the quiet man" whilst leader of the opposition probably wasn't the sharpest knife in the block, but this Jeffrey Archeresque reinvention is gold

he probably gets bullied a lot by his public school compatriots and has to unleash his resentment on the lowliest victims in the pecking order he can find

his career in the army would have given him plenty of experience in doing exactly that I would think

There have been rumours flying around for ages that Cameron bottled sacking/demoting him because everyone could see Universal Credit was an enormous fuck-up in the making. It would be amusing were it not for the millions of people pushed into poverty.

never assume any Tory policy that pushes people into poverty is a mistake

There have been rumours flying around for ages that Cameron bottled sacking/demoting him because everyone could see Universal Credit was an enormous fuck-up in the making.

He bottled sacking him because that would draw attention to the fact Universal Credit was a complete fuck up? Or he bottled sacking him because he wanted to wait until Universal Credit had inevitably fucked up so that he would have a scapegoat to sack?

c

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24546370

^^^ How fucking out of touch do you need to be, post-Hillsborough, post-Tomlinson, post-Duggan, post-stop and search, to think that the fucking Andrew Mitchell thing might "damage confidence in the police".

lol i wanted to address that yesterday but i think you found les mots juste

^^^ How fucking out of touch do you need to be, post-Hillsborough, post-Tomlinson, post-Duggan, post-stop and search, to think that the fucking Andrew Mitchell thing might "damage confidence in the police".

It's just maddening isn't it. Was the main thrust of Today this morning but perhaps I was in the shower when one of the presenters addressed this issue.

i dunno, i find the blatant butthurt hypocrisy of it quite amusing. nice to see the veneer of the party of law and order get a few chips in it.

The party of Law and Order, excluding tax avoidance, death by dangerous driving, Parking fines and speed cameras.

i.e. anything they might conceivably be wanting to get away with.,

The thing is Mitchell might not have actually called the plods plebs and effed and blinded and what have you, but everybody believed that he did (ncl. Cameron et al) because it's exactly the sort of thing he might have done

It all seems to revolve around the technicality that he didn't use the precise word "pleb". There's no doubt in my mind that he considers himself a higher class citizen than the policeman he yelled at - because the policeman was doing his job, while Mitchell considered himself exempt from the rules, due to being such a Super Fucking Important Dude.

... with a famously short fuse

everybody believed that he did (ncl. Cameron et al) because it's exactly the sort of thing he might have done

― Tommy McTommy (Tom D.), Wednesday, 16 October 2013 13:36 (16 minutes ago)

this is just a confirmation bias because 'everybody' ie you and whoever else like you would happily believe he does any nefarious thing you can imagine

Alleged use of the word 'pleb' is exactly what made the story such a big deal though, right? (and so toxic for the Conservatives).

this is just a confirmation bias because 'everybody' ie you and whoever else like you would happily believe he does any nefarious thing you can imagine

And you didn't believe it, of course

I think someone points out upthread that he probably would have been better off calling the police 'cunts'.

the reason most sentient people suspected it was true is because of the two unfeasible scenarios of a minister going postal or a police-orcestrated conspiracy that would leave them open to prosecution, the former is less unfeasible

/orchestrated/

or castrated

The transcript of the meeting between Mitchell and the police chiefs is a masterclass of political weedling.

AM: I never called them plebs.
PC: So did the officers lie in their notes?
AM: I'm not saying that.
PC: Well either you're lying now . . .
AM: I'm not!
PC: Or the officers lied.
AM: I'm not saying that. Can we just draw a line under it?

(repeat for 20 pages)

Police filling their notes with the-kind-of-thing-that-kind-of-person-would-do is a perennial, so it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest. And I suppose that's why both Mitchell and the CSs wanted to "draw a line under it", since the reality looks bad for everyone.

Which makes it an odd move tactically for the PM to push it?

Work 'may be no way out of poverty'

... I'm showing my age here (and possibly my background) but is this anything new?

British Gas raises prices by 9.2%

of course it's new Tom, up until this month everybody could start a paper round at 14 and after 10 years' hard graft they'd be the Duke of Devonshire

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24616801

Argh this is so fucking stupid. a) "Health tourism" is a stupid made-up problem and b) deterring foreigners from using the NHS is de facto a health risk to UK citizens, especially in the event of any future epidemic, when it would be a false economy.

c) Could Jeremy Hunt's face be more punchable?

Yes, it could be Michael Gove's

has the government had a look down the back of the sofa yet, there could be a few quid there for tax cuts

nah they'll just blow it on lottery scratch cards

GO HOME vans resulted in one immigrant leaving the country. May to announce they'll be scrapped.

how on earth did they find that out - was there a questionnaire?

"What was it that finally made you decide it wasn't worth the hassle? please tick all that apply"

turns out it wasn't that racist then

espirit d'escalier: should have said "was there an exit interview"

Somalia just suddenly seemed more appealing.

GO HOME vans resulted in one immigrant leaving the country

He'll be back shortly to use the NHS for free though

'If a fit for work decision is overturned at appeal, it does not necessarily mean that the original decision was inaccurate - often, claimants produce new evidence in their appeal which wasn't available when the original decision was made.'

Aye, right

87% of appeals in Islington were won, jesus.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24621391

dear Mr Major, i know the energy companies are very naughty people who need telling off, but just maybe the fact that many many people will have to choose between heating and eating this winter has more complex causes, most of which you agree with

I would imagine his main concern is protecting the public purse from increased winter fuel payments rather than uncharacteristic altruism.