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

Blimey, this doesn't happen very often. Woolas is such a cunt... I had no idea that Miliband had appointed him as a Shadow Minister with this hanging over his head, doesn't look like great judgement there.

Two High Court judges have ordered a re-run of this year's General Election

Only read that far and got excited for a sec.

Just me or has Ed Miliband so far failed to make any impression whatsoever?

Biding his time until the leadership election's over.

i know it shouldn't matter but watching ed in PMQs the other day all i could think about was his lisp and how childlike and callow it made him seem.

Unlike the elder statesmanlike gravitas that Cameron brings to leaning on a podium.
PMQs just makes me angry. Both of them need to get down to business.

They're both so so bad, I imagine them going over their lines beforehand and deludely going "lolol, this will kill him".

Seems to me EdM needs to definitely step up a gear or three and stop playing silly buggers. And, yes, fuck knows what making Woollas anything (let alone the fucking Home Office) was about. But, also, lols at LD's taking the high ground when it comes to campaigning.

i haven't been following the uk papers/radio since the leadership election, but my impression is that emills has been a bit of a damp squib. is that fair?

(not just at pmqs, more generally)

Problem is we only ever see him at PMQs!

Woolas should step down now but I don't suppose he will. I really don't understand his appointment. EdM knew this was coming, surely, he owes Woolas nothing - big supporter of his bro during the election iirc (except for haha - nominating Abbott at the last moment to make sure she got on the ballot) - and the man was hopeless at immigration (although tbf that's a no-win position for just about anyone anyway).

It's all very depressing anyway.

no, some media people think he's done better than expected

but they aren't, you know, against the cuts, not wholeheartedly

they're sitting it out and (i would imagine) slightly hoping it all blows up in osborne's face

meantime alan johnson is reading his economics primer (ha bloody ha)

speaker's office has confirmed woolas is no longer an mp.

Hoorah!

* waves bit of paper *

According to the Telegraph he's planning a judicial review of the decision. Just drag the whole thing out a bit longer why don't you.

the lib dems campaigned on basis of getting rid of tuition fees

In that particular constituency? Not going to go down well now is it...

Can E-Mili bump Woolas and put in someone less divisive? Not sure how that would look seeing as he's already backed him to some extent.

suspended from the labour party too now.

Gonna say, could Woolas stand again?

xposts, guess not.

he can't stand for parliament for 3 years

wonder how the by election will go guessing lib dem support would be somewhat er.. weaker than a few months ago.

According to Ladbrokes Labour are 1/2 to win.

To be fair to Emil, he is probly v. aware that the CuntDems are gonna see out another 4 and a half years and it's a bit early in the game to start dishing out hostages to fortune. Cameron was an amorphous fucker for at least his first year as party leader. Don't talk about specifics unless you really have to. Not saying this is any way good or right, but it is the game as it's now played.

I think Emily will have learned lessons from both William Hague and Nick Clegg actually. Hague cemented his public persona way too early and people never got over it, Clegg was virtually anonymous until suddenly bursting into public consciousness a bit too late. Cameron probably the right way to pitch it.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/nov/05/nigel-farage-elected-ukip-leader

i figure if you leave yourself undefined you give your opponents the room to define you

There is that, yes...

though frankly that could apply to cameron at this stage as well - he's still kind of a question mark i think

should take a few leaves out of farage's book, that guy is serious business

Even plane crashes can't stop that dude

though frankly that could apply to cameron at this stage as well - he's still kind of a question mark i think

I think we're all well aware what Cameron stands for at this point...

sure, but he hasn't been really "defined"

- iron lady
- grey man
- bright-eyed debutante
- dour ditherer
- ?

- etonian cunt lecturing us on pulling up ourselves up by our bootstraps and cutting back and not asking for a handout from a position of great wealth and privilege

^ politics of envy

cameron in a nutshell xp

frustrating that more isn't made of this, it's the key thing that 95% of the gbp can get behind

Nah, we're a classless society where everybody aspires to send their kids to Eton and be rich feckless scumbags.

Everyone knows (I hope) that the Torys will lose power at the next election. All EMill has to do is bide his time.

Yeah, that's what Kinnock thought too.

Sure, but Cameron couldn't even win the last election. And anyway, it was never really part of the plan for the Tories to win next time - they just want a term to fulfil Norquist's dream and hope that whoever takes over can't pull the state out of the bath and revive it.

rot.

yeah that's not really true, is it? state will still account for pushing 40% of gdp after the cuts

Actually, I was struck upon reading Nixonland that the author criticised Reagan's economic policy of cutting 10% of every department, saying that it was like trying to lose 10% of your body fat by trimming 10% off each organ. Anyway, whatever Labour try to do next time will be impossible because every department will be starved and understaffed. It's hard to see what positives can be delivered by whoever inherits power.

the author criticised Reagan's economic policy of cutting 10% of every department, saying that it was like trying to lose 10% of your body fat by trimming 10% off each organ.

don't really understand this. how? it isn't a very good analogy, in any way.

spending in certain areas increased under labour after 1997. that could happen again. but this is a sterile way of looking at politics. labour has to offer something better than a return to the 'glory days' of the mid-2000s. how about full employment? how about slimming the wealth-poverty gap?

I guess the author meant that weight loss/spending cuts should be targetted. Anyway, didn't wprk for Reagan (this was when he was governor - he had to take out the biggest loan in California's history to fix his mess).

And you won't hear any argument from me about Labour's aimlessness. But people will feel worse off after this government, and that will be enough. I'd like to see it, but I think the re-emergence of a socialist Labour party is unlikely to happen at this point. I guess I just don't understand the Tories - these cuts seem to be ideological, not practical. Admittedly, most people I know are servicemen/ex-servicemen and their families, who has voted Conservative since Thatcher increased their wages, but their sense of betrayal is palpable.

hope that whoever takes over can't pull the state out of the bath and revive it

evocative image!

the reagan/fat analogy makes total sense to me. as someone who worked in the civil service for a few years (alongside my erstwhile companions stone monkey and not-godwin) it's clear that lopping off huge chunks of the workforce is going to lead to disaster - things were already tight even 5 years ago. as for the tories not winning the next election, it's reassuring to hear but it's far too early to say with any conviction. can sense cameron waiting for his falklands moment, or trying to manufacture one just in time for that handily fixed election date.

have labour made any noise about reversing any of these cuts or will it be a case of making do? another irritating thing about edmil's labour is they're not making clear what they will do, not making any concrete promises for the future, just muddling along not committing to anything just like cameron did pre-may 2010.

have any reputable economists predicted how the uk economy will look in 2015? is it likely that things will be back to full strength by then?

adam curtis's trap series made a big deal about the whole dehumanising stats & figures thing that new labour brought in. any sense of the tories doing anything to alter this?

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/11/conspiracy-theories.html did we discuss this anywhere? Although I'm not sure there's anything to say but 'wtf'.

(no idea what this site is or how legit it is, but it's really just quoting straight from Hansard.)

haven't really been paying enough attention to have a direct reason why to say this but i think i've gone a whole day without saying it so here we go-

FUCK YOU GEORGE OSBOURNE.