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

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.

lol. turns out the complaint against her came from a law and order spokesman for the bnp. weird.

Attention fans of making Nick Robinson look like a dick:

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

lol at the replacement sign popping up

"Fairness" is a NuLab invention, right? A nice way to sound Labour-y without having to talk about Socialism or economics or anything voter unfriendly like that. Only natural that the ConDems wd jump on it, really.

But "fairness" doesn't mean anything, or at least can mean completely oppositional things. A lot of people don't think it's fair that their taxes subsidise people who don't work.

Well exactly.

All those people who don't think it's fair that their taxes subsidise others clearly arrived on the planet fully-formed at the age of 21, having cost all the other taxpayers not a penny, right? FUCK OFF AND DIE YOU SELFISH ASSHOLES. Then you won't cost me anything!

Along with 'fairness' and 'empowerment' please add 'choice' and 'flexibility'...

not really feeling that nick robinson video
maybe contemporary american politics has just heightened the bar for ______ loses it videos

I refuse to support any revolution that spells it "looses" tbh

The Institute for Fiscal Studies is ripping into the Spending Review at a briefing:

half way thru briefing, already the most devastating critique of flaky claims, policy inconsistencies, dodgy maths, ive ever seen by IFS 34 minutes ago via Twitter for iPad faisalislam

[/i]It gets worse... Laughter at the IFS briefing as it shows the most regressive looking graph in history vs the puny looking treasury version[/i] about 1 hour ago via Twitter for iPad faisalislam

nick robinson loosens up xp

Appalling juxtaposition of post and display name there.

inpartisan bowel syndrome

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/oct/21/spending-review-cuts-will-hit-poorest-harder-says-ifs
Report on that IFS analysis.

Paxman asking Danny Alexander if public sector workers in e.g. Swansea should "get on their bikes".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/default.stm

We had a fantastic meeting this afternoon where they told us we're going to be losing approx 1/3 of our headcount. You could see people looking around and mentally subtracting one in three of their colleagues. It really made the day go with a swing...

Clegg says the IFS review is "distorted and a complete nonsense".

He just gets worse and worse.

Sorry to hear that, Stone Monkey

I think he's getting a bit grumpy. It's very obviously not "a complete nonsense" as he well knows. By chance I got an invite to-day to hear him next month but I don't think I can face it.

Nick Clegg that is (not Stone Monkey - although he would have very right to be grumpy and I'm sure he could do a speech as well as Clegg...).

It sounds horribly self serving, but I think my office might be in pretty good shape for it. We're the only one of our offices that opens late and we've got a load of specialist teams here too. If I were in one of the other offices I'd be totally shitting bricks right now. We're looking at probably the closure of two out of the seven offices nationally. One of the Scottish and the Wales office is probably safe. The rest? We just don't know. They say they'll tell us more in November.

It's been a completely shitty day.

People do not live only on the basis of the benefits they receive. They also depend on public services, such as childcare and social care...

You're not helping your case there Cleggy old chap.

Should his next sentence perhaps have been; "So we're going to cut you off from those too..."?

remembering that brief period when I liked Nick Clegg is making me feel ever grubbier.

You can take the boy out of Winchester....

I'd happily take bets that Clegg officially become a Tory, and be provided with a safe-seat, before the decade is out.

I have a deep and abiding hope that he gets home of an eveing and his mrs looks at him with utter disgust.

don't 'get' why tory OKW lets philip hammond on the telly, dude doesn't even have a proper mouth

Paxman asking Danny Alexander if public sector workers in e.g. Swansea should "get on their bikes".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/default.stm

― Tilting at Bushmills (onimo), Thursday, 21 October 2010 17:59 (5 hours ago) Bookmark

Also on Newsnight - Iain Duncan Smith: 'Get on the bus to find work'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/9116107.stm

IDS of course inherited his seat from norman tebbitt, not too far from me. perhaps i should go put some dog poo through his constituency office's letterbox

I think you should do that, in the interest of 'fairness'. There's no alternative really.

Wait a sec, I thought we were having a conversation to define what "fairness" "is"

beyoncé says get on the bus yourself, IDS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijD5WLTGnYY

GIVE BACK OUR STUFF

i hope this has mileage in it - go fawcett society go

What's the deal with Labour ministers chickening out from saying these cuts are "ideologically driven"?

Hazarding a guess that the fact that Labour agrees that some cuts have to be made means it's an argument that isn't as clear cut and easily conveyed (tho obvious to anyone with their head screwed on) as the 'economic suicide' one, the latter also having possible idea behind it of getting people to trust Labour on the economy again, something i'd imagine their policy wonks are quite keen on?

Reading an article about the South Korean grand prix circuit this morning reminded me of the Tories' attitude towards the north -

The circuit might even represent nearby Mokpo, for this sprawling coastal city on South Korea's south-western tip was the home of the main opposition party and funding was deliberately cut in an attempt to marginalise the area.

Good to see the protests against excessive wages starting though.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-11604098

STORM THE BARRICADES!
http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01149/SNE2201P-682_1149111a.jpg

What's the deal with Labour ministers chickening out from saying these cuts are "ideologically driven"?

Eh? Alan Johnson said they were ideologically driven in his response immediately after.

He did at first then realised what he'd said and nuanced it severely to "some of those on the benches opposite". He then explictly said on the Andrew Marr show that he din't think the cuts were ideologically driven.

it's an argument that isn't as clear cut and easily conveyed

You tell that to the Tories and the *Scum

(this is how I will refer to the Liberal Democrats form now on)

do you think convincing people they're ideologically driven is the big vote-winner then?

Personally I think they should stfu and work out what THEY would do and how to look like a serious opposition rather than just going "THIS IS BAD!" across the house.

Sadly I think unless the coalition collapses, then the damage will be done by the next election and they should be also be thinking how they're going to clean up the mess. I'd like to think they won't just meekly accept the new status quo like they did last time, but I'm not confident in that at all.

do you think convincing people they're ideologically driven is the big vote-winner then?

Telling the truth isn't generally a vote winner, true

The Tories seem to have no problems saying the public spending of the last government was ideologaically driven nonetheless