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

Coalition government defeated for first time!

OK, so it's just a technicality but still well done Your Lordships.

I'm pretty sure that the money spent on buying stakes in banks isn't counted in the deficit figures because the government assumes it will get that money back.

I expect it is counted, because there's no guarantee they'll get it back, and even if we assume they'll get it back we have no idea how much money they'll get for it.

Also for all the "lol 'the markets' all they do is fuck us over" they're also a big part of the reason the govt has been able to borrow so much money in the first place.

Yeah, see, there are people who might argue this isn't an entirely great thing.

Also: "we must cut" vs "hai guyz vote for your fave service in Britain's Got Cutz" plus I dunno some mad notion that maybe the lowest paid sector of society shouldn't maybe be the peeps to pay for fuck-ups inflicted by unaffected bankscum plus hey maybe the IMF is a tool of capitalolist hegemony and fuck them with a rusty barge pole or something

agreed that we're all post-history now tho

akshully recognise that I'm out of step with economic realism here now tho so Good Luck UK and i'm gonna give up on giving a fuck any more. pretty sure all's for the best and I will go live in russia

Also: "we must cut" vs "hai guyz vote for your fave service in Britain's Got Cutz" plus I dunno some mad notion that maybe the lowest paid sector of society shouldn't maybe be the peeps to pay for fuck-ups inflicted by unaffected bankscum

Yeah this is the core of it really. Unfortunately there's almost no one in mainstream politics that can articulate this effectively, given the dog of a position that Labour maneuvered itself into.

akshully recognise that I'm out of step with economic realism here now tho so Good Luck UK and i'm gonna give up on giving a fuck any more. pretty sure all's for the best and I will go live in russia

― every time i pull a j/k off the shelf (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 9 June 2010 09:31

this probably explains why this thread has a fraction of the traffic of the us politics thread, even while this country's in a far busier phase of the political cycle

maybe not the bit about going to russia, but the sentiment

even while this country's in a far busier phase of the political cycle

It isn't though. They haven't started screwing the poor just yet.

While this "you get to choose which public services to cut" thing is so obviously a smokescreen to deflect the responsibility when the cuts bite and the public start to hate them, it probably isn't going to work.

Also I'd hazard a guess that the first thing many people would choose to cut would be the international development budget and I'm not sure the govt even have the power to cut that.

Saw an interview with a GBP member on this issue:

GBP: "Well, if they cut anything that affects me then I won't vote for them again."
Inteviewer: "But you're in favour of cuts for other people?"
GBP: "Yes."

A lot of creeps making appearances on rolling news that would make Maggie blush with the scale of cuts they are proposing. They also would not VAT to rise by a penny.

The ratio of cuts to tax rises will be a big battleground.

The ratio of cuts to tax rises will be a big battleground.

Who's battling who though?

Like I said upthread, the litmus test will be how they structure and present the banking levy they've been talking about.

Who's battling who though?

The creeps vs certain members of the coalition? Members of the coalition vs other members? We'll see...

Don't look to the Lib Dems to put up much of a fight over this one

Good timing of the Budget on Osborne's part. Wait until the last possible moment when England will definitely be in the World Cup.

They also would not VAT to rise by a penny

VAT is a tax against the poor so tbh I'm cool if they abolish that shit

VAT rise would suck.

VAT is a tax against the poor

They're bound to put it up then

I believe they're planning to. But it was invented by Tories so big shock.

They said they wouldn't *hollow laugh*

Don't you understand??!?!??! Labour lied about the finances man!!! All bets are off!!!! Patriotic nurses throw yrselves under nearest tram now!!!!!!

Look for increasingly overcrowded waiting rooms at local GPs as Liberal Democrat supporters turn up complaining of inability to sleep at night

Just reading a rather resonant section of Chesterton, writing of his childhood in the late 1800s -

Anyhow, there has been a change from a middle-class that trusted a business man to look after money because he was dull and careful, to one that trusts a business man to get more money because he is dashing and worldly. It has not always asked itself for whom he would get more money, or whose money he would get.

fa la.

Labour was always going to increase taxes too -- not that it makes it any less shit. xp

Prime Minister of England David Cameron is to fly the flag of St George above Downing Street for the duration of the World Cup.

That's wretched.

At least he is English

Hang on, I've just fallen for something there haven't I? There's no way he'd possibly do that.

ha ha, xpost - got your St George's cross flying already, Tom?

Well, if Scotland had made it, he'd be etc...

Cameron confirmed it during PMQs today!

White 'n' red facepaint at the ready

Can see George Osborne complaining the neighbourhood's going to the dogs since the chavs moved in next door. Big glowing inflatable Santa to go up over Christmas too.

No matter what part of the UK people came from, he said he hoped they would be shouting 'come on England'.

"The prime minister told MPs that the move would not cost anything"

<buries head in hands>

Apart from the one remaining Tory seat in Scotland

My once-in-a-generation cut? The armed forces. All of them

A+++ trolling there Simon.

Tell me about Diane Abbott?

Quite a lot of discussion of her here.

Yeah, sorry, just saw that. Carry on.

Tell me about Diane Abbott?

I'm more likely to be the next leader of the Labour Party than her... and I'm not even a member of the Labour Party

You are less likely, then.

Prime Minister of England David Cameron is to fly the flag of St George above Downing Street for the duration of the World Cup.

― James Mitchell, Wednesday, June 9, 2010 2:29 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

although there are bigger things to be pissed off about, i guess im resigned to them. this is effing lame though.

Should hang a really big one out of the window.

Wonder if this will drive a wedge between him and all the people who are wondering why he's doing nothing to stop the mass graves full of people shot for wearing England shirts on buses.

Have we had the big tourney revival of the FUCKING ENGLAND FLAGS thread yet? I haven't noticed it pop up.

it was revived a few days ago then sank again, I figured the chaveron flag thing would make it pop up.