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

Today Labour Are Voting To Maintain a System That Allows Employers to Pay Workers Less Money Than They Need to Live On

what a horribly formed sentence

xp!

Also In Case You Haven't Noticed Workers Wages Have Been Consistently Cut Since We Came to Power

So Really What They're Voting For Is for Benefits To Be Cut Less Aggressively Than Low Paid Workers' Wages

Arbeit Macht Frei, That Will Be All You Plebs

Their sudden concern over public service workers' wages strikes me as, uh, somewhat less than convincing

we're all in this together - not you, tax credit scum

private sector workers have been taking real terms pay cuts as well tho, right? almost as if the current government was creating a climate where that was okay and people were too frightened for their jobs to fight back

"It's just not on, these scroungers and scumbags are getting larger benefits rises than ummmm, the, ummmmm, hard-working public sector workers who we were characterising as layabouts and spongers, uh, last year"

private sector workers have been taking real terms pay cuts as well tho, right? almost as if the current government was creating a climate where that was okay and people were too frightened for their jobs to fight back

Vote Liberal Democrat

Sick of seeing Lib Dems saying, "We don't agree with this characterisation of people on benefits as layabouts and scroungers", in other words "We don't care if you live or die either but at least we're nice about it, you've got to give us that at least"

Ugh. That propaganda is already hanging over the underpass bit of the Holborn one-way system, sandwiched in between American Apparel and some other shite.

I don't think anyone wants to be governed by people who are essentially trolling the 64 per cent of the population who did not vote for them.

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20978487

Tory MPs want to be paid £20k more than Lib & Lab MPs.

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

"we are cunts in power."

Fuck me, the next two years worth of tabloid political discourse are going to be even worse than the last few, aren't they?

2017, ffs.

What options does this leave Labour? A) Promise referendum too, which they don't want to do, or b) face endless "why won't you give the people a voice on the hated Europe" shit during election.

It leaves them in trouble from what I can see. Miliband looks weak if he agrees to a referendum and undemocratic if he doesn't. Both promised referendums have the added advantage of shafting Labour from what I can see, especially if Scotland votes for independence.

Given Cameron's already committed to campaign against an exit I doubt this will quite be the boost to the Tories they imagine it will be, and probably not enough to secure them a majority unless something radically changes with the economy. Surely a referendum will be off the table if the Tories have to go back into coalition with the LibDems and much of the right of the country (and the Tory party themselves) will erupt in fury if that happens.

if we leave the EU then its pretty much UK RIP, right?

Yes.

UK leaves EU = we are affected by what happens in the EU but have no say in it.
UK stays in EU = we are affected by what happens in the EU but have some voice and input into EU decisions.

and I find myself agreeing with scourge Cameron AGAIN, Jaysus FUCK

yeah but that tosser also probably likes oxygen and sausages, its okay to agree with him sometimes

The other significant thing that might happen in the near future is the establishment of a US-EU free trade zone. Which Britain would be voluntarily opting out of. Doubt there'd be many European leaders prepared to offer Britain any Norway-style concessions either.

Hence Obama's recent big hint that the UK should stay in the EU.

anything to distract from the economy, and god knows this will do that, as fucked as that is given the dangers of leaving.

Which other EU state will give me a passport?

This is probably not what Cameron wants to focus on as it has torn the party apart every other time it has come up. He has been fairly adept at keeping a lid on it until now.

this looks like the nuclear option to me. and there are a shitload of issues with the EU that some of its more zealous evangelists like to ignore, but this is gonna fuck the UK economy from now until god knows when.

It's a combination of being terrified of the Eurosceptics in his party and wanting to nullify UKIP at the box office. The latter is probably unnecessary (if UKIP get more than a couple of seats I'll be amazed), the former is more of an issue.

It's less about UKIP winning seats and more about UKIP gifting marginals to labour

i dunno, i don't believe UKIP can win a parliamentary seat, and the Eurosceptics are fairly comfortably consigned to the party fringe, i think this does give him a massive advantage over Labour and i feel like that's where it's mainly aimed

Cameron is flailing horribly at pmqs

they must be pretty convinced they're gonna lose the next election unless they pull something like this

This is probably not what Cameron wants to focus on as it has torn the party apart every other time it has come up. He has been fairly adept at keeping a lid on it until now.

― Tullamorte Tullamore (ShariVari), Wednesday, 23 January 2013 11:51 (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

tradeoff: keepng a lid on it until after the next election...

what else is he gonna focus on? can't see the economy improving any time soon, Labour aren't gonna announce any policy commitments before the next election is called - except now presumably they'll have to take a stance on this

i guess this will further brutalise the Lib Dems' vote but half of nothing is still nothing so

1228: Labour's Dennis Skinner brands Mr Cameron a "posh boy", as the decibel level rises once again in the House.

Olde Laboure bantz at its best

This whole thing is a dog's dinner, it's idiotic and short-sighted on so many fronts it beggars belief, basically, it's who cares if we fuck up the country as long we're still in power, Tories eh? Even so I'm still worried that a lot of idiots in England might fall for it.

Still, breaking up the Union and then leading what's left of the UK out of Europe will certainly get Cameron into the history books

This feels fairly shrewd of Cameron:

Makes Europe a talking point (rather than tanking economy and disgusting ideological cuts taking place on back of it).
Forces Labour to follow or declare they are not going to (passing on some of the Tories' typical divisions to Labour).
Best bet for winning next election (nothing else to win it on, other than 'we're all in it together, we all need to tighten our belts' bullshit, which was tired and dishonest the first time around).
Can stay in Europe (which Cameron wants, I think), with impunity

Wins all ways, apart from fucking Britain if we do exit of course.

Speech itself was notable for its nauseating config of this stinking archipelago as 'independent island mentality' 'strong-minded' (swore violently at that point), and general historical saviour and moral fucking conscience of Europe. 'There is no European demos' was an indication of how badly he needs some sort of support from other European nations.)

or this:

This whole thing is a dog's dinner, it's idiotic and short-sighted on so many fronts it beggars belief, basically, it's who cares if we fuck up the country as long we're still in power, Tories eh? Even so I'm still worried that a lot of idiots in England might fall for it.

Still, breaking up the Union and then leading what's left of the UK out of Europe will certainly get Cameron into the history books

While the separatists try to work out how to get IN to Europe and what currency they will use.

I don't think it's shrewd at all, it's the usual Cameron/Osborne back-of-fag-packet will-this-do botch job

(xp)

Portillo was almost incandescent talking about it on This Week, he stopped sort of calling Cameron a fat-faced idiot but only just. Mind you he might fall back into line like a good obedient little Tory twat like the rest of them are doing for the sake of winning the next election

I think it's a big enough story that it will deflect away from a lot of other horrible shite without them actually having to do much before the election

Thing is, what powers do they actually want to take back from the EU? I mean, obviously, being Tories they want to fuck over workers when and where they can - Cameron even seems to be hankering after some Europe wide campaign for workers everywhere to be fucked over - but it's the usual vague blather about mythical red tape and regulations. I think he said at one point, "We don't want Europe to tell us how many hours junior doctors should work", uh, right Dave, that's a vote winner.