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

we shouldn't have fixed term parliaments. if we are going to have them, make them four years, and don't put this pissy 55% rule in.

talking about democracy with a straight face when what you are advocating is rolling coalition governments is a hollow joke.

http://iaindale.blogspot.com/2010/05/exclusive-ming-vote-out-bercow-let-me.html

Bizarre behaviour, Ming lining himself up with the Nadine Dorries of the world.

Conservative whips are unlikely to rally to Speaker Bercow's defence. After all, at their final dinner of the last parliament they voted Bercow 'C*** of the Year'.

Just think what they say about people they don't like.

Ming would be a pretty great speaker actually.

too old

labour shdn't have installed whatsisname

the convention is to have a speaker from the other team

most tories regard bercow as labour, so appointing him was a big FU from labour

Seems to be little more than "westminister gossip"

the convention is to have a speaker from the other team

Parliament likes to pretend this but it's not really tru

Wetherill was made speaker by the conservative gov.

I thought the convention was to alternate, not have a member of the opposition.

Which happened, and hey if the conservatives 'don't like' one of their own, hey you picked him!

They set a precedent by removing Michael Martin, so they assume they can go ahead and do the same to Bercow. And probably every successive Speaker once they start getting a bit annoying, which surely they all do?

On the other hand I'm not sure this really matters against the backdrop of everything else going on right now.

Yeah, but it's part of the EVERYTHING IS OURS FOR THE TAKING mood going round at the moment.

Foxhunting legalised in 10.. 9...

BBC reckons this is a load of bollocks anyway:

John Bercow has his opponents, but he will win. Why?

* Most of the front benches will support him. There is no official whip - this is a House of Commons not a party matter - but the main party leaderships do not want a row over the Speakership and will make their support for Mr Bercow known. Some senior Tories at the highest level of government have their reservations about Mr Bercow, but will bite their lips.
* Most new MPs will support him. Remember there are 227 new MPs and most are still trying to find out where their lockers and loos are located. It will be their first time in a division lobby. Woe betide any who incur the unofficial wrath of their whips so early on in this Parliament. Or make a fool of themselves by voting in the wrong lobby by mistake.
* It is not a secret ballot. Thus anyone who votes against the Speaker will be known and can expect to be called but rarely in future debates. The procedure committee earlier this year recommended that the re-election of the Speaker be a secret ballot. But the then Leader of the House of Commons, Harriet Harman, chose never to put this recommendation to a vote in the Commons. Tory MPs say she told them that she did not want to give them "John Bercow's head on a plate". If there were a secret ballot, Mr Bercow's fate would be much less secure.
* But, watch for the abstentions. Many MPs who object to Mr Bercow will register their opposition by just not voting at all. This is not a whipped division - they do not have to turn up.

hmm:

1) Says there is no official whip
2) says the new MPs do not want to go against the whip...

PLEASE GOD DON'T LET THEM REPEAL THE LABOUR GOV'S GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT THE FOXHUNTING BAN

And if he loses, he'd be totally within his rights to cross the chamber, wouldn't he?

xpost ABSOLUTELY!! BUT IF (ahem), if DCameron does not repeal this, that's a whole bunch of Tory voters who care about nothing else but this, that he loses.

I am mildly in favour of repealing the ban tbh. Field Sports is one of those things that might/mightn't be morally dubious but isn't a criminal issue for me.

must ... not ... s...

I thought the convention was to alternate, not have a member of the opposition.

Which happened, and hey if the conservatives 'don't like' one of their own, hey you picked him!

nah betty boothroyd preceded michael martin innit

i coldn't give 1x fuck about foxhunting. banning it was a massive diversionary tactic.

yeah that too, plus tactically a bad move. A lot of the dudes that suffered under the ban were not comedy toffs. I've got no desire to go chasing foxes down holes but I don't want to criminalise people who do. ILX animal-cuddlersd will find the SB button just after my log-in.

ehh i don't think animal welfare comes into it.

this govt orders badger culls!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/apr/16/badger-cull-wales-challenge-rejected

or shd i say the last one but im sure dave will take a similarly robust line

I get the word "Tuesday" after your log-in..

(I joke, obv, still have never sb'ed and never will, yo)

and the Labour gov didn't rush to outlaw, say, Angling. Despite what the Tony Banks fringe might've wanted.

Remember that BBC one-off drama from the mid-'90s - Giving Tongue? Michael Angelis, Charlotte Coleman, etc. A new, young, female MP from hunting country drives through a fox-hunting ban in a new Labour administration but she's just a PAWN in a political GAME to expose the Lords as an anachronism and get it abolished (cos they will inevitably oppose it, utterly at odds with public opinion). But OH NOES she actually gets it passed. So she wins but the party machine loses. What a downer.

I often think of this when the foxy-boxing ban comes up. I often think of Charlotte Coleman anyway.

Yeah, poor girl...

I am mildly in favour of repealing the ban tbh. Field Sports is one of those things that might/mightn't be morally dubious but isn't a criminal issue for me.

Can't agree with this. That sort of institutionalised sadism belongs in the past. You may as well legalise dog fighting and badger-baiting.

A lot of the dudes that suffered under the ban were not comedy toffs.

Think that this line was overplayed by the pro-hunt lobby. I'm all for the government investing in rural economies and creating local jobs, but the quaint old hobby of animal mutilation is not the way to go.

i coldn't give 1x fuck about foxhunting. banning it was a massive diversionary tactic.

And repealing it will be that tenfold, just a political move without any sort of moral basis.

I think it's easy enough to draw a distinction between dog fighting and fox hunting. There's probably a bunch of other threads for this so I won't go on but I still think that a thing can be morally abhorrent (not my opinion on hunting but anyway) without being illegal.

I still think that a thing can be morally abhorrent ... without being illegal.

That's an interesting discussion a total clusterfuck in itself, I think. Where do we set the bar for legislation against moral wrongdoing?

"capitalism has killed more people than Hitler"

– ken livingstone

^ pfft. obviously. i can think of more victims of capitalism than just hitler.

lawl

I sb'd NV because he only started driving at 53, tbh

too creepy
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01637/cleggeron3_1637590f.jpg

NSFW: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teresa_May

ha ha i saw teresa a while ago

Which one?

without the h (just the wiki)

sad that there isn't a tehresa may

Brecow returned as speaker virtually unopposed although I think I heard Dorries shout "nay".

Bercow obviously.

http://www.bloggerheads.com/images/nad-banner.gif

Cameron goes after the 1922 Committee: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8693078.stm

Liberal Conservatives in 2015, anyone?

Murdoch has already visited Downing Street

Breaking news: LATEST: Extradition of computer hacker Gary McKinnon on hold as home secretary reviews medical evidence. More details soon …

Hooray for Theresa May?

Jeremy Hunt's Twitter assault on Clegg mysteriously disappears
http://www.bloggerheads.com/archives/2010/05/jeremy-hunt-memory-hole.asp

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/may/19/royal-mail-privatisation-plan

er

Cable believes that while Royal Mail remains in state ownership it cannot compete in a liberalised postal market.

vs

The company made an operating profit of £184m in the first six months of the year, up slightly on the previous year.

And here was us foolishly saying "how much damage can they do? what else is there left for them to privatise?"

The company made an operating profit of £184m in the first six months of the year, up slightly on the previous year.

tbf the issue is getting the pensions liability off govt books

The government is likely to offer to meet workers' retirement benefits if privatisation goes ahead, as Mandelson did last year.

what else is there left for them to privatise?

Welfare (don't know how that would work tho) ... NHS, of course ... still a lot I'd say