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

Don't the LDs realise they've basically wiped themselves out for decades?

a friend's sister is an LD councillor (their parents are 1970s lefties) and i'd be astonished if she stuck with them. reckon some lib dems will be departing, as NV said upthread. can't see lynn featherstone retaining her seat for example.

So in by-elections, will both the Tories and the LDs be fielding separate candidates?

Yes, it's not like the LD party has been completely swallowed up by another party, oh wait...

NV isn't angry about the distinction between C&S and coalition.

I would've been less shocked by a C&S deal akshully

lol at the british not getting the concept of coalitions

ps: i'm not defending this, through

I think a Confidence & Supply dealy would've been defensible, just. I don't see anything in this coalition that promotes anything that the LDs campaigned for, and presumably won votes for.

Will Hutton is claiming that this is Cameron's "Clause 4 Moment" - that in a single stroke he's transformed the tories into a Euro style Christian Democrat centre-right type party. Surely ignores the fact that Blair/Mandy actually ripped the heart out of transformed Labour before taking power, rather than grafting on an external moderate wing on the fly?

Oh I am sure that people *get* coalitions - it's just that nobody *wants* this one.

hutton is off his meds if he thinks that

ashcroft ain't gonna 'ave it!

So in by-elections, will both the Tories and the LDs be fielding separate candidates?

Dunno. Will the LDs even have their own policies anymore?

What's depressing me at the moment is that the LDs actually proposed NOT ringfencing the NHS from cuts. I figure Cameron won't take too much convincing to "bend" on that issue.

Cameron and Clegg are the Jedward of politics. You hope they'll fuck off after a few months, but the fear is that they're here for the long term. So fucking glad I didn't vote LD as I'd be feeling ten times more burned than I feel right now.

Cable-Osborne is the interesting one here, given Cable is far more economically literate than Gosbourne there could be massive tensions there. One good thing here is that Cable is in a better position than anyone else to work out what to do with the banks, but whether he'll get any reform past the Tory Party is anyone's guess. Still, biggest potential flashpoint from what I can see.

New Labour leader is going to have to get used to being the third most important party leader in the country. That'll be chastening.

What's depressing me at the moment is that the LDs actually proposed NOT ringfencing the NHS from cuts. I figure Cameron won't take too much convincing to "bend" on that issue.

Dunno, this is pretty totemic for Cameron, it's like Blair's pledge not to raise income tax. He'll be hammered if he does that.

a horribly formed thread title for horribly formed times

― Greatest contributor: (history mayne), Wednesday, 12 May 2010 09:22 (1 hour ago) Bookmark

time to eat a pizza bagel and get stoked for the sadness, I guess

New Labour leader is going to have to get used to being the third most important party leader in the country. That'll be chastening.

Not sure about that. As Michael Crick pointed out last night, when there's a debate on telly you can't exactly have Labour, Con and an LD spokesman all on the show because that would mean the opposition was outnumbered 2-1. How long will it take for the LDs to start becoming more or less invisible?

given Cable is far more economically literate than Gosbourne there could be massive tensions there.

can't believe gideon osborne is actually chancellor of the fucking exchequer. incredible.

Osborne's first job was to provide data entry services to the National Health Service to record the names of people who had died in London.[8] He also briefly worked for Selfridges. He originally intended to pursue a career as a journalist, but after failing to become one at a national newspaper, was informed of a vacant job at the Conservative Central Office.[8]

Tory bloggers already going in on Cable as their #1 bogeyman for the next five years.

They'd still be less powerful than Cameron and Clegg, TV debates or no TV debates.

Don't think we're gonna get debates next time anyway, given two out of three parties seem to have decided they were A Bad Idea.

Just wondering if this means a flatshare at No 10? Couldn't give a toss about any of the other details in this ugly union tbh.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2010/5/12/1273654747693/David-Cameron-Nick-Clegg--001.jpg

so used to seeing no 10 waving pic of husband and wife that it looks like clegg and cameron just announced their civil partnership

nothing civil about it imo

hatesex as legislative process, should be interesting

Considering emigration, cd you put us up until I can get a cushy job as a builder?

What's depressing me at the moment is that the LDs actually proposed NOT ringfencing the NHS from cuts.

Why? I'm not one to stan for public sector cuts but if there are savings to be made in the NHS *without affecting quality patient care, staff well-being, etc.* why shouldn't they be made? Should we cut an efficient and useful branch in another department while ignoring a wasteful/useless branch in the NHS because the NHS is somehow untouchable?

(sounding like Vince Cable now. Hope NV's got some bleach left)

nah man I agree the NHS needs to be a bit less sacred cow

I'm not just talking about election debates, more that the way politics tends to get talked about and presented is binary. The LDs have struggled against this mightily with a bit of success - sometimes winning a place at the table in a panel discussion on the radio, for instance. But now that they're part of the ruling party even this half-hearted attempt at equal representation in the media will be out the window. Or at least up in the air. Hung out to dry?

this five years shit is so the conservatives can avoid the vestigial remains of the lib dems kinda like that american woman driving home with a critically injured vagrant on her caved-in windscreen

Should we cut an efficient and useful branch in another department while ignoring a wasteful/useless branch in the NHS because the NHS is somehow untouchable?

YES MY ARGUMENT IS OBVIOUSLY YES, WE SHOULD CUT EFFICIENT AND USEFUL THINGS WHILE KEEPING WASTEFUL ONES WELL DONE

No, the reason I'm depressed about NHS cuts is that I don't trust the Tories to do them.

Why? I'm not one to stan for public sector cuts but if there are savings to be made in the NHS *without affecting quality patient care, staff well-being, etc.* why shouldn't they be made? Should we cut an efficient and useful branch in another department while ignoring a wasteful/useless branch in the NHS because the NHS is somehow untouchable?

Any money that's being saved should be reinvested in the health service IMO.

saving money and improving services can be done
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/apr/28/doctors-nhs-cuts-guardian-letter

george osborne's approach to the nhs will be informed by his childhood vivisection experiments w/ rabbits and voles

New Labour leader is going to have to get used to being the third most important party leader in the country. That'll be chastening.

Heseltine was talking about the deputy PM role last night and called it an 'all or nothing' job iirc - suggestion seemed to be that his position there was 'all' and Clegg's... wouldn't be

xp. swans and peasants

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t16PTMOnLEc&feature=player_embedded#!

Funny

Considering emigration, cd you put us up until I can get a cushy job as a builder?

― Coalition (Remix) (Noodle Vague), 12 May 2010 09:50 (25 minutes ago)

jeez we really having been paying any attention to the Irish Politics thread, have we kids? a darraghmac will be starting an emigration nominations thread as of gf's graduation next year iirc

cable 'delighted'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8677174.stm

these two men look the same

So with two Eton boys in No.10, is Clegg basically Cameron's fag now?

YES MY ARGUMENT IS OBVIOUSLY YES, WE SHOULD CUT EFFICIENT AND USEFUL THINGS WHILE KEEPING WASTEFUL ONES WELL DONE

This is live on an international message board. Dignity. Dignity.

That's actually never going to get old.

clegg is a westminster boy.

terrible, terrible people

jokes bruv

ken clarke is justice minister. oof.

i keep forgetting the home office is split now. theresa may just in charge of keeping immigrants out then?

I for one am utterly shocked that the Liberals turned out to be Liberals to the core.

Liam Fox defence, Theresa May home sec. Awful, awful, awful. It's not going to go away. It's like 2004 when I thought everyone would see that we'd been conned and the Bush victory was illegitimate. You can't get rid of these bastards.

She's an idiot, based on not being able to win an argument with *me* at a youth in politics function - and if she's the only woman in Cabinet it will tell you all you need to know about her (Tory women suffer from Queen Bee syndrome ie. 'I'm the only bitch in this room, the rest just make the coffee').