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

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/music/Pix/pictures/2009/1/19/1232380816672/William-Hague-at-Notting--001.jpg

the 2010 election has to be regarded as a bad joke, the most undemocratic shit ever pulled. they got away without saying what they would do. now they're doing it, surely people will... i dunno, *do something*.

Undemocratic? Hardly. The formed the govt legitmately. Getting away without saying what you're gonna do is exactly as Matt says, good opposition practice and very much a judgement on the incumbent. People don't get to 'do something' until the next general election, imo. Best off hoping that LibDems opt out early.

I never realized before how insufferably smug Hague's voice is! He comes on the radio and he sounds like a cartoon villain. Like he's been so pampered, so entitled, so looked-after his entire life that he never needs to raise his voice above this bemused it's-all-in-hand drone.

Getting away without saying what you're gonna do is exactly as Matt says, good opposition practice

Except this isn't what I said, this was the least scrutinised opposition in history, at least among those that had a realistic chance of forming a government. And clearly they didn't get away with it, because if they had they wouldn't be subject to the indignity of having to ask the LibDems to prop them up in a coalition they clearly hate.

Getting away without saying what you're gonna do

How about getting away with doing the opposite of what you said you were gonna do? Like their coalition partners?

The Jamie Oliver-approach will not work in tackling public health problems like obesity and smoking, the health secretary says... Andrew Lansley told the British Medical Association conference in Brighton ... He said the TV chef's approach to school food had not had the desired effect - the number of children eating school meals had gone down instead of up.

'More pupils' eat school lunches

How about getting away with doing the opposite of what you said you were gonna do? Like their coalition partners?

Very elastic use of the term "getting away with" going on here.

Re: the Lansley and G(r)ove(l) stories, could this be devious civil servants saying, "These fuckers might be putting us out of a job soon, maybe we can help them lose their jobs before then"

There are rather a lot of unauthorised leaks coming from sources close to ministers, aren't there? It took a good couple of years for the Labour govt to get this leaky, and even then it was usually rival spin doctors trying to steal a march on one another.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/7880253/UK-austerity-drive-threatens-to-snuff-out-recovery-IMF-warns.html

Not gonna click that link but is the accompanying picture got Osbourne with his fingers in his ears going "ner ner not listening"?

There is no plan B here, they seem to be staking everything on private sector growth picking up the slack but haven't really explained how that's going to happen.

Well, once interest rate cuts kick in.. oh wait.

How about once the price of oil drops? Er.

OK OK, we'll just export our way to growth by selling to all those other countries that have import-led strategies.. hmm.

Not gonna click that link but is the accompanying picture got Osbourne with his fingers in his ears going "ner ner not listening"?

Nah, it's better, Economics Hard Man Osbourne...

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01446/george_1446276c.jpg

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7885753/NHS-shake-up-grants-new-powers-to-doctors-and-patients.html

Patients will be handed more choice over how and where they are treated, pledged Mr Lansley.

i dunno who's asking for this. there *is* a problem to do with gps not wanting to prescribe the more expensive drugs (relative of mine is in a situation where a hospital consultant has said "u need these expensive drugs" and dbag GP is saying "no, have these shitty ones"... GPs are overpaid arseholes on the whole). but idk about having choice over how im treated. should schoolchildren get to choose how they are educated? doesn't sound very conservative to me.

Annoying. Can the consultant issue the prescription from his own budget as opposed to the GP's? Also would have thought in a game of NHS paper/scissors/rock, consultant crushes GP.

xp re choice... no, patients want to be treated as well as possible, as close to home as possible.

If I were properly sickly ill, the last thing I'd want to be stressed about is trying to choose a consultant/ surgeon/ whatever.

Also, I assume this info will be available online? if so then they're disadvantaging people (eg elderly / disabled etc) who may not have access to the internet or the appropriate research skills. More power to the people already in power, right? Conservatism in fucking ACTION.

Already saving money.

http://anmblog.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c565553ef0134856cc10a970c-500wi

Ah Bloxwich, land of my birthing.

She can't fucking write, though...

How much investment in schools?

200 million

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/economy/gfx/1956farthing220x224.jpg

She gets my vote for being In Touch and recognised for being hands on.

Putting a stop on more speed camera's

^ investment in education too late for her obv.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-10649459

This doesn't strike me as an inherently terrible idea if it were to replace student loans altogether, although I've no idea how one would go about actually implementing it.

Would still have to be loans for living expenses I think.

or they could just raise the higher rate of income tax to 50% regardless of degree or not, rather than wasting time and money on a separate tax scheme.

^^ exactly. but i guess that would upset the vast number of people on high salaries who didn't go to university.

^ but who benefit from the fact that lots of other people do.

Think the "vast" bit was a joke.

Glad tom has articulated what I've been internally screaming at the radio all day, anyway.

Tory peer Lord Taylor facing expenses prosecution

... errrr, what's he doing in the photo accompanying this story?

ya know that finger thing you do to make your eyes cross? He's trying to make both eyes face outwards.

Tough for this guy though, I mean, for years he was the only Black Tory and then David Cameron comes along, with his ideas for a modern Conservative Party, and now the Coalition benches are, uh, full of, ummmmmm, Afro-Caribbean, uh, MPs

fucking hell, zac goldsmith on channel 4 news this evening

someone should do a moaty on this assclown

Such a seething little pus-ball of entitlement.

Wow, that was a masterclass on how not to handle either the allegation or the tv interview. Total amateur hour stuff.

And you know he's going to be thinking - "well, that went well, completely vindicated"

He is definitely his father's son

Watching the above Zac Goldsmith debacle now, laughing/wincing/muting: http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid62612474001?bctid=129204519001

Thought this kind of stuff normally waited at least a year or two into a new government, thanks for getting ahead of schedule

I couldn't watch all of that clip, it made me want to beat the shit out of the hateful entitled piece of shit.

car crash television

Think Snow let himself get stonewalled tbh

kinda true, but at the expense of Goldsmith looking like a slimy cunt, so I guess it all balances out.

I do wish I hadn't used the phrase 'slimy cunt'.

all that "you'd better watch it" stuff made me want to take a brick to the guy's skull. i don't mean 'guy', but the word im after is unfortunately gendered.

He is definitely his father's son

Absolutely, this reminded me of his father heckling David Mellor at the 1997.

all that "you'd better watch it" stuff

... which also pure Jimmy Goldsmith, "you don't want to mess with me" bullying tactics

Don't know what happened to the end of my sentence '..at the 1997 general election', as if you didn't already know that.