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

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.

Good article in Spiked addressing some of the issues around the Tories' dislike of the state. The programme it refers to was ridiculously simplistic and I did half think of ringing up/emailing Channel 4 to complain when watching it.

The latest film from serial offender of liberals Martin Durkin, on the perilous state of the UK’s finances, was witty but one-sided.

Didn't see the film but saw the trailer with Mark Littlewood *shiver* and that was enough. That guy really gives me the creeps, I can't help thinking "What would he have been doing in Nazi Germany?" whenever I see him.

oddly enough he'd always struck me as looking like a BNP dude

... and sounding like one, that nasal Estuary English voice

sadistic side-parting too

my god just as my ire towards torys and lib dems peaks again for the fifth time this month this labour MP goes and decides it's okay to insult traditional scottish dress and imply that all women should be made to wear skirts

the Observer has learned that defence firms are working closely with UK armed forces and contemplating a "militarisation" strategy to counter the threat of civil disorder.

The trade group representing the military and security industry says firms are in negotiation with senior officers over possible orders for armoured vehicles, body scanners and better surveillance equipment.

The move coincides with government-backed attempts to introduce the use of unmanned spy drones throughout UK airspace, facilitating an expansion of covert surveillance that could provide intelligence on future demonstrations.

wtf???

1)

The trade group representing the military and security industry says firms are in negotiation with senior officers
The trade group representing the military and security industry says firms are in negotiation with senior officers
The trade group representing the military and security industry says firms are in negotiation with senior officers

2) the police already have armoured vehicles and surveillance equipment

3) what are "body scanners" in this context?

all this mopping up makes cuts an expensive business.

Why is the NUS bothering with this "right to recall" thing with the LibDems? Surely they realise it's not going to legally stand up? There are better lines of attack... still, students I suppose.

also if they take down clegg then they will give the conservatives an extra mp (via hallam)

It's more that making a pre-election promise and then breaking it after the election doesn't actually break any rules even if the government ahs an outright majority. In a coalition it's virtually impossible. Right to recall will surely only work if an MP has either been breaking actual rules, Woolas style, or done something illegal?

Better off targeting the LibDem MPs who are never going to get into the government and hoping they get enough No votes to take the proposals down. There have to be enough of them - one reason so many Labour MPs voted for Iraq was that they had one eye on their future careers. There has to be a greater proportion of LibDem MPs without a hope in hell of making the Cabinet who might just think "fuck it".

But actually, they'll probably just keep going "wheee we're in government!" and do what they're told.

well yes, what the nus are suggesting it probably impossible from a legal pov.

Deluded of Tunbridge Wells:

Greg Clark, the decentralisation minister, has said that community groups need to have more power to stop assets disappearing. "For too long, people have been powerless as they watch community assets disappear," he said. Clark made his comments to coincide with the launch of a report from the thinktank ResPublica saying that community groups should have the right to take over public sector assets such as libraries, schools, hospitals and even prisons and police stations. "Public assets can and, wherever desirable, should become community assets, owned mutually or by individual shareholders or stakeholders in association with communities," ResPublica says. "These public goods can, if properly directed and organised, capitalise both civil society and the bottom 10% of society, which currently has negative net wealth."

He added that the upcoming Localism Bill would put flesh on the bones of the Report's recommendations by enshrining communities' 'right to know' about monies currently being disbursed by local authorities on managing community assets. This expansion of consumer rights in the private sector to community groups would, he went on to say, help the latter bid successfully to run these assets themselves, dismantling in the process entrenched local authority monopolies.

Prisons? Seriously?

Yes, we can!

Good way to cut the deficit by selling off everything to the bottom 25% of the population with their 1% of the liquid capital.

another day, another reason to emigrate basically

gonna move to italy -- governance-wise, they 'get it', i think

but the TV is terrible

I'm actually reading that Philip Blond PDF and they keep repeating the word "community" over and over again. But there doesn't seem to be any joined up thinking across government, how are you meant to foster these communities and also "capitalise the poor" when the government is simultaneously breaking communities down through massive changes to housing benefit and social housing? It doesn't make sense.

No, communities are "fragmented" currently - soon they will be consolidated: the poor in the outskirts of northern towns and the rich in city centres in the south. It'll do wonders for class solidarity.

all kind of make sense.

Lolololololol

What has caused this Irish miracle, and how can we in Britain emulate it?

in Ireland they have doubled spending on public services in the past decade while reducing taxes and shrinking the State’s share of national income.

What a neat trick! Oh wait.

Haha! Classic.

Meanwhile in the craaazzzzy world of polling.
YouGov/Sun results 15th Nov CON 40%, LAB 42%, LD 10%
http://today.yougov.co.uk/politics/govt-trackers-update-15th-nov

Not expecting that to be front page news in The Sun tomorrow.

well, it's four years until the next general election and none of those numbers have changed by a statistically significant amount in the last 3 months so fair enough

Well, except for the Lib Dem total.

no

http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/550pxVotInt151110.jpg

Well, that seems like a clear Labour lead for the first time tho.

"clear"

Private industry stepping in to create jobs, just like the government said.
That's ASDA price.

Related stories
Asda to close its pension scheme

See, for years the Pension Scheme was looked on as an 'emergency' fund should the need arise. The Maxwell scandal showed that. So, legislation was passed preventing company boards from using this.

Now, of course, company boards don't care about it so much. Also, why their own pensions are largely kept in separate schemes to their employees.

was expecting a bit more 'controversy' tbqh

Well, that seems like a clear Labour lead for the first time tho.

no. the polling error is 3%. even if the polling error was 0%, the change is within the fluctuations over the last few months. the latest result is not a trend or even an outlier.

I meant clear as in "in the lead for longer than 10 mins". But, hokay.