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

how does cost of living in dublin compare to the uk, big man?

who me?

you know more than me re: this, so yeah

never lived in Dublin tbh, but it's hellish expensive all things taken into account.

though i'd say property rental has probably dropped to something like a reasonable level now.

yay crossrail tbf

really? don't get why they have demolish a bunch of soho

i'd do that just for fun tbqh

Because Tottenham Court Road station was and is a total shithole, regardless of Paolozzi mosaics?

also a whole block at the top of dean st

are you opposed to crossrail because of that?

im pretty whatevs about it

nvr lived on the central line

new rolling stock had better be sexy or i'm going to be totes outraged, sick of the manky old 315s :(

I do live on the Central line but I almost never use TCR because if I'm on foot near there, I might as well walk the quarter-mile home.

OTOH there is one reason I miss bendy buses: free shuttle service from Centre Point. Sorry, but fuck 'tapping in' for three stops' worth of ride.

finally they came for the bendy-bus freeloaders
and by that time there was no-one left to speak up

LOLLLLLL, could be much worse: N29, anyone?

N29 is kind of pleasant as a bendy compared with the old days on the double decker.

when your bus is jam packed it's kind of nice to have 3 exits.

never 'got' bendy bus hate

no nice upstairs view, fewer seats, fucked up heating

tbf the lack of panoramic vista isn't top of my concerns first thing in the morning

vive la différence

bendy buses were fine. people hating on them must not have had very much else to complain about.

we do have pretty much perfect lives its true

think i preferred bendy buses tbh

more moderner

more room to stand up -- obvs would 'rather' sit down on a bus, but standing up on a double-decker, where there's no room, is worse tha standing up on a bendy, where there's more

osbourne consoled after being caught travelling 3 stops without beeping

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2010/10/20/1287587387285/George-Osborne-delivers-t-005.jpg

reminds me of

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gen/51285/thumbs/s-OBAMAECONOMIC-large.jpg

winchester school remix of that, maybe

st pauls

just a day boy iirc

Other Bullingdon members called him Oik.

my own major benefactor, the bf1, whose budget has been frozen for years, and isn't exactly large to begin with, had a 15% cut. i mean sure, 'every little helps' and all that, and everyone has their own sob-story, but that's pretty much purely symbolic, the equivalent of a few hours' national debt interest repayments.

can't get beyond osborne's face. he looks like some schoolboy prick who gleefully causes trouble just to get off on people's outrage. bona fide "can't believe i'm getting away with this shit" faintly-surprised perma-sneer

Probably already covered this, only just had a chance to watch the clips, but Tories braying and cheering Osborne was disgusting. Only 19% cuts! Well bloody hell, that's brilliant, crack out the champers!

e-mil's face even more bizarre than usual throughout i thought

I thought this was a very OTM comment from one of the Guardian's columnnists:

'Osborne's strategy is to pick losers'
Aditya Chakrabortty

When it comes to running an economy, it's usually said that the big no-no for politicians is to pick winners – which companies and industries should receive government cash. Well, what you got today was the photo-negative of that, because George Osborne's strategy for achieving his spending cuts is to pick losers – groups that will be hardest hit by his plans.

Who do I mean? Try the disabled, who will be hit hard by the welfare cuts. Commuters who will be paying through the nose for bus and train fares. Anyone who works in a social science or humanities department at a university. Local government, which has been landed with a massive cut. Public sector workers – most of whom have already had a pay freeze and will now suffer a pay cut, through contributing more to their pensions. Oh yes, and staff at the BBC.

I am not saying these groups are small or select – that couldn't apply to commuters or the BBC. But the picking losers strategy is the consequence of making huge cuts to public spending without trying to annoy that notional and very fierce creature middle Britain.

This is the political arithmetic: hit public services too hard and voters are liable to kick off. So you move heaven and earth to cut headline departmental spending by less than Alistair Darling said he would. Which means smacking people on benefits. But after the furore over touching universal child benefit, you can see why Osborne wouldn't want to fiddle with universal benefits like the winter-fuel allowance or pensioners' bus passes. So he has gone after small-groups on means-tested benefits.

A similar story applies to the other losers. You can't smack all of higher education, for fear of suffering death by tweed – so you protect science (which is "good") and squeeze other faculties. You need to point to some road repairs but you need to save from transport so you pick off commuters. Oh, and none of the rightwing press like the BBC anyway, so why not give Auntie a shake down?

You have to admit it's a clever strategy, if a cynical one. Few of these losers have much in the way of lobbying power or political influence. So an enterprising chancellor in need of a spare £83bn can hit them as hard as possible with little comeback.

libdems Bonham Carter: Lib Dems are the BBC's strongest supporters and we are delighted at its new agreement with the government http://j.mp/auOQn2
about 16 hours ago via web
Retweeted by julianhuppert and 5 others

ok using the thread as an aide memoire here re my mp. gonna compile these tweets and put them in a letter explaining what a cunt he is. this is practically orwellian.

You're not joking...

"The new arrangement sees BBC funding guaranteed for six years, a secure future for S4C and the BBC World Service, and more support for the roll-out of high speed broadband.

"We can be confident that this agreement marks the best possible outcome for the Beeb.

In further news the poor and the disabled danced in the streets at the remarkable generosity shown by the Chancellor chanting that his was Truly The Only Way and waving banners declaring "We're All In This Together" and "It's What Everybody Wants".

Don't read up on the changes to the "employment support allowance" unless you want to swear a lot and tear some hair out.

If you can make a cup of tea you are not disabled and should be stacking shelves in Aldi or blowing sailors down the docks, your choice.

I spoke to one of the civil servants who worked on the CSR yesterday and they agree the "there is no alternative" bit is bullshit.

Lady Thatcher's son Mark visited his mother earlier yesterday and said she was "in good order" and had been talking about the Government's Comprehensive Spending Review.

He said: "She's a little bit drowsy but she had a good night and is slightly sedated at the moment."

He added: "She's good, chirpy, talking about the CSR, so in good order."

Asked what his mother's thought about the planned cuts, he said: "She was interested it was going on and wanted the television on."

"The usual sort of stuff, 'Give me information'."

did they do anything to jobseeker's allowance?

what escaped relatively unscathed? i read yesterday that the govt used the age-old tactic of leaking horror stories to the press in the run up to this, so that people would be all 'oh not as bad as expected' about it. does kindof seem that way so far.

what escaped relatively unscathed?

Pensioners mostly unscathed, other than a freeze on the savings element of pension credit. Everyone else fucked iirc

No change to jobseeker's allowance - that's the one they want to put all the sick (and "sick") people on as it's cheaper.

what escaped relatively unscathed?

um, the rich

this is practically orwellian.

Let Osborne mentioning (spitting out, morelikeamirite?) "fairness" every second sentence

"Fairness" is up there with "empowerment" as one of those useless words only used by really slippery politicians or party-line idiots these days.

“It is a relief that after fifteen months I can once again hold my head up. I am delighted to have my name cleared. Over 52% of my constituencts who know me were wonderful and put their faith in me once again at the 2005 2010 election returning me with a massively increased majority of over 15,000. I am thankful that I can now demonstrate their faith was well placed."

My blog is 70% fiction and 30% fact. It is written as a tool to enable my constituents to know me better and to reassure them of my commitment to Mid Bedfordshire. I rely heavily on poetic licence and frequently replace one place name/event/fact with another.

In light of the bullying onslaught of the Daily Telegraph I used my blog to its best effect in reassuring my constituents of my commitment to Mid Beds.

My commitment is absolute and is always my first consideration regardless of where I sleep at night. However, I have always been aware that should my personal domestic arrangements become the knowledge of my political opponents, they would be able to exaggerate that to good effect. Hence the reason for my blog and my need to reassure my constituents...

My dogs are looked after by myself and various family members.