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

Wikileaks bringing the LOLz (hopefully)

"A journalist with Britain's Guardian newspaper, which has been working with Wikileaks on publishing the files, said they would include an unflattering US assessment of UK PM David Cameron."

... everybody thought Mandelson was behind the "Obama thinks Cameron is a lightweight" rumour but, it would seem, apparently not

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11874406

Cable considering abstaining from the vote on his own policy. Batshit.

can someone punch this guy in the balls please?

yeah... i don't know much about parliamentary rules n shit but in some other context words like "vote of no confidence" spring to mind. i don't know how you can execute a policy you didn't vote for (or campaign on but i guess we've passed that moment).

haven't you heard the line they're peddling 'the manifesto and other pledges don't count because we didn't win'

to that I respond 'No backsies'

i don't know how you can execute a policy you didn't vote for (or campaign on but i guess we've passed that moment).

this does happen though and is not necessarily a problem. e.g. current government is still managing the implementation of labour policies.

assuming his views on this are those in the LD manifesto, i'm not sure what his best move is, but abstaining on a new vote a single policy that it's partly his job to implement is pretty batshit though.

He's trying to do a Prescott, staying in touching distance of the rank and file while also being in the government. It's probably not going to work, but then again it didn't work for Prescott either.

He's trying to do a Prescott, staying in touching distance of the rank and file

raises eyebrow

you can kind of see the point, if that's his game, but it seems guaranteed to draw the kind of attention to the reality of coalition govt that the LDs should avoid, e.g.

to that I respond 'No backsies'

yes, their response to labour and the conservatives after the election should have been, 'we'll join your coalition, but only if we implement all our policies and none of yours.'

I understand the logic, it still doesn't make them look very good especially when they made such a big noise about fees. It's not like anyone is holding them to their pledge to join the Euro.

(the bastards have a point when they say labour introduced fees and commissioned browne. be very interested to know what labour's response to browne would have been.)

Thing is that the LibDems still have their heads in the sand thinking that this is some European style utopian new way of doing politics proper coalition rather than a hung-parliament marriage of convenience from which they will be unceremoniously dumped sooner or later.

It was idiotic of the LibDems to make all those pre-election pledges knowing full well that coalition with the Tories was more likely than a) winning the election outright and b) all other outcomes. Either they were very short sighted or they never intended to keep them in the first place.

I agree that Labour don't really have a leg to stand on in this debate.

they were very short sighted i think

Thing is that the LibDems still have their heads in the sand thinking that this is some European style utopian new way of doing politics proper coalition rather than a hung-parliament marriage of convenience from which they will be unceremoniously dumped sooner or later.

this is otm

Well, at the time of the pledges, they presumably thought the Tories would walk it.

Closer to the elec, they thought that *they* might actually win.

xposts to h.mayne: browne would have been very different without a 40 per cent reduction in the teaching grant, though. labour commissioned him to find a less onerous way of charging fees, which he did: the level of those fees is pretty much all osborne.

i can see that browne is not *all* bad. though raising the interest rate? f.u.c.k. o.f.f. -- all these "loans" are guaranteed by the government fuck off even charging interest. that ain't banking.

browne was in negotiations with the govt while finishing the report and would have known about the teaching grant being shredded.

for me the bottom line is that going into early adulthood with £20–£30k debt is unfair for those who do it and mighty offputting to people without helpful parents, ie a lot of people.

and the pay gap is so out of control in this country that charging the top lawyers and bankers and ______ a few grand more means absolutely nothing to them.

browne was in negotiations with the govt while finishing the report and would have known about the teaching grant being shredded.

yeah, it's no secret that he did, the spending review figures are in his report. but yr q was, what would labour have done? and the answer in part is that they would have been responding to a very different browne report. so i don't think they're *that* vulnerable to hypocrisy claims from the other side.

not sure if you could raise c.£6 billion in income tax that easily, but (i've said it before) the corporation tax cut is almost exactly the same as the reduction in university funding.

^^^Collect rather than forgive Vodaphone's taxes. I know people who are cancelling their Vodaphone contracts because of the tax evasion/writeoff.

Osborne is so pro-tax haven that that's obviously not going to happen any time soon. I can see the point that the corporation tax cut is intended to stimulate growth (although I think that's wrong-headed) but Labour should be hammering him on tax evasion. But oh shit they turned a blind eye to billions being squirrelled away themselves.

Labour's new attack plan: Shite Christmas

http://www2.labour.org.uk/a-coalition-christmas

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/dec/02/cameron-pimping-world-cup-bid

"Assume we'll win the bid. Cameron wouldn't deign to do anything as unseemly as publicly plead for something otherwise."

Aide Miliband own goal

what the christ is an aide to a senior pol doing having a public twitter for his/her #opinions?

fuckin country

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11909607

Have the leaked US cables said anything at all about British politics that wasn't completely obvious?

yeah i whatevered this on the wikileaks thread

the ambassador not really getting the inside knowledge

VAT going up 2.5% in a bit huh

taste the progressiveness

Message from Morrissey.

I would like to, if I may, offer support to Johnny Marr who has spoken out to the media this week against David Cameron. To those who have expressed concern over Johnny's words in view of the fact that David Cameron has pledged immense allegiance to the music of the Smiths, I would like to try to explain why I think Johnny is right not to be flattered.

It is true that music is a universal language – the ONLY universal language, and belongs to all, one way or another. However, with fitting grimness I must report that David Cameron hunts and shoots and kills stags – apparently for pleasure. It was not for such people that either "Meat is Murder" or "The Queen is Dead" were recorded; in fact, they were made as a reaction against such violence.

"But I'm cool with him being a Tory cunt"

"Also thumbs up on his immigration policy tho I would question whether it goes far enough."

I'm a fairly unrepentant meat-eater and I like 'Meat Is Murder' more than most Smiths songs I've heard

dealwithit.gif

i smell a thread opportunity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1G6osCnsbA&feature=player_embedded

they should have a contest to see who can get away with the most. 'Up next, Cuntid Cuntcuntron.'

Andrew Marr's just done it again trying to explain, as the section of Start the Week where it's come up is providentially about Freudian slips.

Mr Hunt was interviewed on the programme about his plans for universal broadband provision and how superfast broadband will be delivered in the UK.

Naughtie inadvertently used the first letter of the Culture Secretary's title to replace the 'H' in Mr Hunt's surname.

Right, where's the scrabble?

Pretty sure Andrew Marr did that deliberately.

Obvious joke, I still laughed:

http://imgur.com/cyUpw.png

LibDem ministerial aide Mike Crockart has resigned over fees.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/8190379/National-Union-of-Students-secretly-urged-Government-to-make-deep-cuts-in-student-grants.html

I don't agree with him at all, but David Willetts can't half hold his own in a debate.

in a creepy way, yes

mps back, result imminent

They'll get it thru.

Repayments starting at £21,000 p.a. = not exactly megabucks graduates being taxed on their improved earning potential eh?

better than £15k, though i guess £15k in 2002 (when i started paying) is more like... £17-18k today

majority of 21

wonder how many abstained

Nice to know that new teachers and nurses will be doing their first year for free tho.

Pro tip for school leavers: you can probably be on the management ladder at Tesco by the time you're 22, and it won't cost you 30 grand.

Majority down from 84 to 21

Pro tip for angry students: if you're fishing round for examples of the ways that society benefits from Universities, probably best leave lawyers off the list.