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

I now realise we simply can't implement in practice, that I wasn't going to try and put something in place that will really help generations of particularly poor, bright kids who don't presently go to university.

this is pretty much bullshit. of course university students are mostly middle-class. if he wants to help poor bright kids get into university, he needs to improve school-age (and pre-school) education. however many scholarships the new system creates, the recipients will have had to have got the grades by age 17. the new system won't radically increase the number of poor people at uni because it won't improve their chances of getting good a-levels.

there were rail fare caps??

http://conversation.which.co.uk/transport-travel/time-to-rage-at-rail-fare-price-rises/

...put something in place that will really help generations of particularly poor, bright kids who don't presently go to university.

If this happens I will, literally, eat my hat (but I don't just mean that one guy who wasn't going to go and then did, ok?).

however many scholarships the new system creates, the recipients will have had to have got the grades by age 17. the new system won't radically increase the number of poor people at uni because it won't improve their chances of getting good a-levels.

Surely if there are a set number of scholarships or funded places, then they'll be filled no matter what the grades are?

it might look a *bit* tokenistic

Mottos For Life #1 - Stop throwing shit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAGNJMQD1rA

Jesus, nice attempted murder there.

I guess the easiest thing for me would have been for me to say I've signed this pledge, I'm going to put my head in the sand, I'm not going to come up with a fair sustainable solution to universities and simply refuse to deal with it. I don't think that would have been the right thing. I wouldn't have been able to live, now that I'm in government, with the idea that because, yes, I had a policy before we went into government that I now realise we simply can't implement in practice, that I wasn't going to try and put something in place that will really help generations of particularly poor, bright kids who don't presently go to university.

this is incredible basically admitting that libdem never thought through the things they pledge because they never expected to be voted in anyway? good job

the condems are really trying to get people to swallow the idea that when they opened the Sekrit Box of Govt Knowledge it was filled with creepy crawly things they had scarcely imagined in their worst fever dreams, when in fact deficit projections are lower now than when he made the pledge

Liberal bloggers seem to be going nuts over tonight's Channel 4 'Britain's Trillion Pound Horror Story':

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/britains-trillion-pound-horror-story

The national debt is six times' higher than anyone thought! Let's cut taxes to solve it! Err...

where does he get that £4.8 trillion figure from? oh wait, he's the guy who did c4's anti-climate-change doc, i can safely ignore it.

Ugh, Durkin is such a huge troll.

Tory Suspended Over 'Stoning To Death' Tweet

Just jokes innit.

Oh, I'm a bit behind the times - now he's been arrested.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tory-gareth-compton-arrested-over-twitter-stoning-post-2131365.html

Sterling defence of the proposals by IDS:

1.16pm: Labour's Fiona Mactaggart says that in Slough the average bus fare is £3.50. A woman who gets a part-time job could find much of her extra money eaten up by her bus fare. Will Duncan Smith help people pay their travel costs?

Duncan Smith says that if people have more money, they will have more money to pay their travel costs.

1.14pm: Labour's David Winnick says that in the "real world" 18 people are chasing every vacancy. Some of Duncan Smith's comments are reminiscent of Norman Tebbit's claim that the unemployed should "get on their bikes".

Duncan Smith says Winnick should welcome the statement.

Birmingham police evidently not understanding that when someone says "this person should die" on the internet they are 99.9% of the time not actually saying they think they should die. Equating British Muslim women with being stoned to death is probably dodgier.

as a public figure saying something like that probably stupid
police being involved is definitely stupid

My experience is that local councillors of all stripes are fucking idiots when it comes to the internet/social media. It probably doesn't help that the same people slagging them off online are the same ones who are going at them at council meetings, but all the same you have to wonder how stupid these people are.

I think its mentioned somewhere further up this thread, but I unintentionally met a very drunken failed Tory councillor for Tooting at a pub a few months ago, who proceeded to obnoxiously and repellently hassle a female friend before describing the (Indian) Labour MP for the district as "that fucking N*****". Not saying the Labour dudes are much if any better, but these low-level Tories really struggle to keep their inner shitheel-ness from surfacing...

apparently on the radio show this guy was responding to, y.a.b. was talking about how british politicians had no right to speak out about the stoning of women in iran because they supported the illegal, imperialist, etc adventures in iraq and afghanistan. so i don't think he was just randomly wishing stoning upon her.

i've stopped being surprised by how stupid public figures can be, but im kinda surprised you can get arrested over this. of course the tories throw him under the bus.

ah strike out 'apparently', that's exactly what she said. we should also remember the opium wars before condemning chinese human rights abuses. also the common room is getting really untidy and will you vote for me as union rep?

Mayne, don't you ever get bored of responding to "complex situation is complex" polemic with "OMG, student radical politics, LOL" ?

Never mind, don't answer that, I forgot where I was for a second.

wow, it would be great if Wise never came back. in fact, if anyone has to suffer and be lost to the tragic carnage of the Middle East right now, let it be him.

― the pinefox, Monday, 15 September 2008 11:32 (1 year ago)

^^^ arrest this man for incitement to violence against dennis wise.

that's exactly what im not doing. im saying it's complex. she's saying, british politicians, because of this country's past, cannot ever make judgements of the conduct of other countries.

im saying that no-one out there in the world of state-actors is clean.

on the chinese thing in particular i think she's just challopsing really.

xpost

oh in context that isn't so bad actually. everybody's stupid

reinstate that tory dude i'd say

Tory dude is a barrister, I'm sure he'll be fine.

Well no, because I haven’t hired a personal photographer. This is someone working for the Government and this is someone who is going to save the Government and the taxpayer a lot of money.”

can't wait till the labour leadership contest is over and they really start sticking it to the coalition

They need to give the ConDems time to come up with some unpopular policies first tho, something that will cause controversy and outrage amongst their own natural supporters.

Once Clegg starts breaking manifesto promises the Lib Dems will split right down the middle, can't see a guy like Cable turning into a Thatcherite running dog overnight.

something that will cause controversy and outrage amongst their own natural supporters.

Defence cuts, dude.

I mean, we all know that not being able to defend the Falklands against the Argy junta is going to cause considerably more uproar than a few scroungers on the breadline, right?

I had my sarcasm tags on.

The only peeps that will get truly upset by defence cuts are likely to be true blue Tories, and those guys will drag themselves out to vote on shattered limbs if need be. Plus let's see how much defence they actually cut - the armed forces are more or less at their feasible minimum now, I thought.

Yeah it's more than I didn't think it was deserving of sarcasm just yet.

Has there been an opinion poll lately? I know they don't mean shit but general disgruntlement appears to have stepped up a notch or five in the last few weeks.

What's worrying is specifically what hm joked about. I'm sure there's a good deal of disgruntlement around at the moment. Her Majesty's Opposition shd probably think about focusing that and challenging the ConDems now, rather than hoping it hasn't evaporated in 4 years' time.

My guess would be that Emily's eye isn't really on the ball what with just becoming a father and all. Of course, that doesn't seem to have hampered Cameron given that he spent most of this summer dealing with either a new baby or a dead father.

Has there been an opinion poll lately?

http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/blog/uk-polling-report-average
The latest average is Con 39, Lab 38, Lib Dem 13.

YouGov/Sun results 11th Nov CON 40%, LAB 40%, LD 10%; APPROVAL -8

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/nov/12/lib-dems-tuition-fees-clegg

wonder if these guys still want that recall thing

Good work by the Guardian newspaper there, who did they urge us to vote for in the General Election again?

And who remembers the Lib Dems are the party of progress? Or does that belong on the Rolling UK Comedy thread? Sort of a Bullingdon Club pic thing going on there, can be pulled out at any time and guaranteed a surefire reaction.

READ MY LIPS!

NO RISE IN... is that a squirrel over there?

Same old Tories, talk the big talk about small government and reducing the power of Whitehall and then go ahead and centralise even more power, plus they just hate local democracy (too many proles voting I suppose, can't trust 'em)

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v32/n22/ross-mckibbin/nothing-to-do-with-the-economy

It would be a mistake to think that this is a well-considered assault on local government. Rather the cuts are an assault on the means by which local government can discharge its responsibilities; this has been achieved primarily by reducing funding, but also by capping the council tax. If local government dies – which many Tories no doubt would like – it will be of starvation rather than murder. Nonetheless, the cuts, together with the further weakening of the LEAs as a result of Michael Gove’s education ‘reforms’, conform to a pattern of persistent Conservative attacks on the scope and autonomy of local government. Where this attack differs from its predecessors is that the Tories’ partners in crime are the arch-defenders of local government and community politics, the Liberal Democrats. The attack might not fundamentally reshape local government, but it might fundamentally reshape the Lib Dems.

Depressing stuff. Fuck it, I'm going down to Millbank to throw a paper cup off the roof.