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

Scotland won't have any buckfast. West Country ukip will almost certainly have trade sanctions against Calondonia.

Buckfast to Cameron and Scotland as gas is to Putin and Ukraine

I wonder where the united kingdom of ex-M25 england, wales (sorry wales) and northern ireland will have its parliament

Thurrock

so farage want to legalise guns?

So this "trojan horse" thing...

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/jun/09/trojan-horse-row-birmingham-schools-special-measures-ofsted

Seems to have started with an unsubstantiated, possibly hoax, letter and might end with every school in Birmingham turned into an academy.

i wonder if there are any other schools in the country with strong religious affiliations

That's the thing. The allegations have been downgraded, as far as I can tell, from "promoting extremism" to "failing to adequately prepare children for life in a modern multicultural society" which would apply to more than a few schools in my area alone.

That also seems to be the division between Gove and May.

i wouldn't argue a strong case for faith schools of any persuasion, but this whole argument has taken place in a context that can't help but appear to be, well let's say "sectarian" as the most charitable construction. the rules regarding governance and funding of all faith schools are problematic imo, but of course this isn't about that because there are more than a few middle England voters whose children attend Catholic or C of E schools.

My American high school was so secular, we used the pre-Red Menace version of the Pledge of Allegiance where God is not invoked. Even though the religions on offer pretty much lost me at Eve from the second I was old enough to have an opinion, I do think studying world religions is important (and the course on offer at my school was offered nationwide as the best of its kind).

Theresa May has also just scuppered including mothers' names on marriage certificates as 'too costly/complicated' so basically, if your dad is effectively a sperm donor and you've been raised well by a single mum, you can't have her name on your marriage docs.

should just take out the parents' names altogether tbh

The letter is ridiculous. Why was it written in English? Is the Trojan Horse a likely cultural reference for an Islamic extremist? Why would anyone write the details of their secret plot down for anyone to read?

Pickles sandwich:

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/6/9/1402340645366/cd3dd92f-727c-4d56-b5fe-961f78e99058-460x276.jpeg

Is the original letter online anywhere?

Oh and:

David Blunkett, the former education secretary, said the government's excessive relaxation of oversight over schools had led to a vacuum that had allowed forces opposed to British liberal values to flourish in them.

Blunkett pointed to the removal of the national curriculum from academies and the lack of regional oversight of schools, leaving too much responsibility in the hands of the Department for Education.

He said there was a muddle in the heart of government about whether schools should be left alone in an atomised, fractured system.

Oh good so if we want to end the free-market sell-out of the schools we need to bring back Blair era extremism talk

Or I suppose more accurately, 'The academies are bad because they're letting the Muslims take over'. But the logical response from someone who doesn't want the Muslims to take over is to vote Conservative

Or UKIP.

Wow the knives are really out for Theresa May right now aren't they?

Can't think of many things likely to lose you votes more quickly than ruining a load of people's holidays.

She's seen as a threat to Cameron, i think. His tame hacks are circling.

It's kind of amazing that she has been HS for nearly five years, given how quickly the Labour ones got shunted.

https://scontent-b-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/t1.0-9/10419032_10152566809926807_1911706892946300114_n.jpg

genuinely thought that was photoshopped before the horrible truth started to dawn

WHYYYYYYY

how is he still leader? ffs

xp I had to debate TM at a panel about 15 years ago and based on her performance there, it's a ceaseless wonder to me that she's in charge of ANYTHING.

Miliband has to start looking like someone who isn't going along with what his press officer might consider a 'great idea.' As to the free Sun, when I received that I had to wonder if they'd Peter Blaked all the phone-hacking victims for their cover.

why does miliband try so hard to squander any respect he might have earned among all but the most shitheaded of the populace?

listens to really terrible advice?

didn't realise that Miliband is actually on the cover as one of the 'English people who makes us proud to be English' (also Cameron and Clegg)

The Sun: It's Not Just for Racists Any More

Blimey if Clegg can still get on it then there's basically no lower limit to this thing.

pwn-ed.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jun/11/jk-rowling-donates-scotland-anti-independence-campaign

Her gift to Better Together was welcomed by Margaret Curran, Labour's shadow Scottish secretary, who said it was a "significant and welcome intervention from one of this country's most talented and successful women". "Separation is failing to win support among women and more and more of us are saying 'No thanks' to Alex Salmond's plan. It doesn't take a wizard to work out that Alex Salmond's case for breaking up the UK simply isn't a risk worth taking," she said.

I love this kind of thing

miliband's apologised already

just embarrassing levels of bumbling

even if Hillsborough didn't happen and the Sun wasn't such a horrible jingoistic piece of shit paper, look at the company he's keeping ffs

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/75505000/jpg/_75505722_camsun.jpg

maybe he's trying to send a subtle message through the fact that he's the only one of the 4 not actually reading it?

i don't know what kind of message is that

Just found out about this passport thing. I sent mine in for renewal a few weeks ago! I guess all overseas applicants will get an extension? I already hate Theresa May tho'.

well, only Michael White is relevant there. Talking about the main Westminster beat correspondents, him, Martin Kettle, Patrick Wintour. Yeah, they give those others space on the comments, but the slant of the paper's political news reporting is plainly anti-Miliband.

http://s15.postimg.org/tbhc3tpln/Guardian.jpg

Sterling work today.

http://s3.postimg.org/dbq05vho3/Bqp_P4_XPIAAAl_RUq_jpg_large.jpg

ffs

1. ffs
2. wtf
3. middle stage is quite Jim Hacker, no?
4. ffs wtf

middle stage is quite Jim Hacker, no?

THANK YOU, spent the last 2 hours trying to work out who that was reminding me of

Having dissonance here because the last two news broadcasts I've seen featured reporters doing vox pops where they're out asking people if they think Ed Miliband sucks, getting four out of five respondents who say 'he's all right, I like him' and then not even acknowledging that their sample is fine with dude before going back to the studio to talk about all this trouble he's in because he had problems eating a bacon sandwich at a photocall. FFS.

Blunkett... Hain... Straw... any more worthless cunts planning to throw in the towel any time soon? Roll up now!

(Actually I don't know if Straw is standing down... I heartily recommend it though)

We shouldn't overlook the very important detail that Ed M really does suck.

It's like when opposing football fans sing "you're shit and you know you are" and you hate them for it but mostly because it's true.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jun/24/andy-coulson-rebekah-brooks-phone-hacking-trial

Hmmm.

Seems extraordinary that Brooks could walk but there you go.

Seen that '10,600 dead after being declared fit for work by ATOS' pic doing the rounds. Looked for source, there is none, decided it was clearly made up/trolling but the thing keeps resurfacing and it turns out it is based on a badly written FOI response (according to Telegraph: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tomchiversscience/100279306/the-10600-people-died-within-six-weeks-of-being-declared-fit-to-work-by-atos-stat-is-simply-wrong/)

Clearly ATOS are appalling but this 10,600 figure doesn't really have anything to do with that. And clearly to see the real extent of ATOS shittiness you'd have to compare actual outcomes and numbers vs those that occur 'naturally' in the general population. But people seem to be resistant to this e.g. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/real-life/john-niven-how-can-cameron-3849719
"what number IS acceptable then?" http://twitter.com/NivenJ1

There's obviously a story here - but am I the only one who finds this attitude frustrating and simply contributing to the disinformation that allows orgs like ATOS to carry on being appalling? People just blindly accepting /retweeting without requesting their own FOI figures/looking for real data to get to the real story?