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

So Thatcherbabies do exist...

does my society look big in this

h8 u britain

So Thatcherbabies do exist...

And they all get their comments in first on Guardian articles.

Buried in the body of an article about Ed Miliband's response to EMA demos today:

Mr Cameron faced angry claims by Tory MPs that they are being treated more harshly than Liberal Democrats in the coalition.

Senior Conservative David Davis said there was "hostility" towards the Prime Minister and Nick Clegg among backbench MPs over the vote to treble university fees.

One backbencher claimed that some Tory MPs considering rebelling were told that if they did they would not get help in finding a new seat when the number of MPs is cut by 50 following boundary changes. Government sources denied this threat had been made.

for ref, that article - http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23906448-sixth-formers-should-be-free-to-join-protests-says-ed-miliband.do

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/12/14/article-0-0C785063000005DC-829_306x499.jpg

unacceptable

One backbencher claimed that some Tory MPs considering rebelling were told that if they did they would not get help in finding a new seat when the number of MPs is cut by 50 following boundary changes. Government sources denied this threat had been made.

government sources are lying so-and-sos. the whole point of the boundary changes is to increase beyond its already absurd level the power of the payroll vote. it's not the sort of thing anyone demonstrates over and it sure as hell isn't something labour would oppose.

won't these boundary changes negatively affect labours chances in the next election?

yeah -- that's how it goes, labour did its own gerrymandering. this'll probably be worse; but my point was, labour continued the rise in the payroll vote.

labour did its own gerrymandering

Just out of interest - can you give examples?

it happens by inaction as well as positive action -- maybe i mean positive inaction, as when they overturned boundary commission reports (that's a long time ago). more recently population shifts benefitted labour so that they got a majority of seats with only a fractionally higher share of the vote, and they did nothing to change this (obviously). if the two parties had got an equal share of votes, labour would have trounced the tories. i don't think it's a field where you can really mount a high horse, and there are arguments on both sides, but in the radical spirit of 1832, equally sized constituencies sort of make sense, yes? and labour is said to be for voting reform, or was until it became government policy. i don't want it because the tories will benefit, but well, there is the case.

What is 'the payroll vote'?

junior minsters, pps's, etc, the number of whom has exploded in the last few decades

So are you saying the motivation behind the proposed reduction in the number of constituencies is to increase the proportion of MPs who make up the 'payroll vote'?

it's *a* motivation, yeah, and i think that report of the whips's threats in last week's vote is partial proof

So yeah, unemployment up 37,000 or so, and the government are still refusing to work on any kind of Plan B from what I can see.

http://blogs.ft.com/westminster/2010/12/downing-streets-response-to-the-riddle-of-plan-b/

The FT is right to highlight that quote, the kind of arrogance and complacency on show here is mindboggling. Would be a line of attack from Labour if of course they actually had a Plan A. As it stands they'll have to stand about and wait for things to fuck up.

jesus christ. sometimes the kneejerk reaction is the right one. these really are a bunch of inexperienced, arrogant, poxbridge cunts.

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/05_04/035ostrich_468x538.jpg

“Ministers have not asked for any advice on alternative approaches because we are very clear that our approach for the economy is the right one.”

http://www.dankat.net/about/iraqi_information_minister.jpg

“Ministers have not asked for any advice on alternative approaches because we are very clear that our approach for the economy is the right one.”

http://www.fustar.info/wp-content/images/mclaren.jpg

“Ministers have not asked for any advice on alternative approaches because we are very clear that our approach for the economy is the right one.”

http://nhne-pulse.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/titanic.jpeg

“Ministers have not asked for any advice on alternative approaches because we are very clear that our approach for the economy is the right one.”

idk why i still f/w the guardian when the ft is (on this kind of thing, ie real news) so much better

paywall : /

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/dec/14/tuition-fees-market

Also sad little lol at the very idea of this.

I really don't know where else to put this but disgruntled employees are getting very creative:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_ldgyh0scYK1qbwflao1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=0RYTHV9YYQ4W5Q3HQMG2&Expires=1292527345&Signature=Q4K7uTZIzpH0rfeKMbIqqQxjbqA%3D

woah. is that real, suzy??

doh just checked the url

Thank you for closing my local library, sorry, not closing at all, merely stopping their funding to encourage good old Big Society to step in and volunteer

because a volunteer will be able to find a new location rent-free, acquire and maintain an up-to-date selection of books all catalogued and barcoded and run the stock database, and act as a one-stop community hub for information, cheap web access, scanning, photocopying

it's going to be lovely

I think the point of the Big Society will ultimately be that where The Community falls short in its delivery of essential services then private enterprise will take up the slack. Libraries, of course, won't come under "essential services".

^ exactly

just the rather smarmy justification of closing these places by our Tory council leader in the linked news article - He said he was "confident" Big Society initiatives in towns and villages would save some but not all of the threatened libraries and youth centres

like, everyone knows the Big Society is just to sneak-privatise anything which might possibly be coopted into making some profit, and that libraries aren't going to do that, but Mr Mitchell wants us to think he isn't closing anything, just letting some kind-hearted people do it for fun instead

I think the point of the Big Society will ultimately be that where The Community falls short in its delivery of essential services then private enterprise will take up the slack. Libraries, of course, won't come under "essential services".

i forget exactly which tory said this, but at their conference this year, the argument was that if the community and private companies didn't pick up where public funding left off, that would be proof that those services weren't wanted or important in the first place

I KNOW RIGHT

all my life ive had this belief that progress of time = progress. that as time passes things like public services get better, more efficient, better for everyone. this 'big society' thing has completely destroyed that idea, it feels like a real turning point where we once had it good and now this is it, good times are over. demolishing the library system is one of the most genuinely upsetting things, they meant *so* much to me growing up. heartbreaking that it would come to this

lol death of a Whig Historian

"We didn't close the library, on the contrary we left them open after sacking all the staff, so that the local community could look after it. BUT THEY ONLY NICKED ALL THE BOOKS!!! and squatted."

Councils have been closing down libraries (and swimming pools as well for that matter) for as long as I can remember. What we'll probably end up with is a situation where every borough/town has one massive library and the local ones disappear.

Not in my city they haven't. Ok, one swimming pool - but within a five or six mile radius of me there are three new pools and and several refurbished libraries. I'd be interested to see some figures for the country as a whole though..

Harrods thing is a shop imo

thought that was obv yes

all my life ive had this belief that progress of time = progress. that as time passes things like public services get better, more efficient, better for everyone. this 'big society' thing has completely destroyed that idea, it feels like a real turning point where we once had it good and now this is it, good times are over. demolishing the library system is one of the most genuinely upsetting things, they meant *so* much to me growing up. heartbreaking that it would come to this

I'm guessing this may be common for people born in the 1980s (no idea whether this actually applies to you). While we were growing up, things went from grim to getting better to boom economy in rapid succession and this is the first time that sliding back down to the beginning looks like a serious probability.

yeah man those halcyon days of Nu Labour's socialist utopia are gonna be a fading ember to cling onto

The dream is over.

Rolling cuts thread:
http://www.maritimejournal.com/news101/uk-coastguard-stations-under-threat-of-closure
The ones left are pretty far apart, what are the chances of being rescued in time if you're halfway between two of them?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-11985929
Privatised? "I'm sorry sir, but if you can't pay, you'll have to drown. By the way, last month everyone we rescued opted to drown and so this month we've had to double our fees, so remember, it's in everyone's best interests for you to pay."

Front page of City AM today puts the City of London's tax contribution as £53bn or just over a tenth of the govt's total tax receipts. Regardless of whether you think that number should be higher or lower, 1/10th of all tax is just o_0 - it hardly reflects a well-balanced economy.

Rolling cuts thread:
http://www.maritimejournal.com/news101/uk-coastguard-stations-under-threat-of-closure
The ones left are pretty far apart, what are the chances of being rescued in time if you're halfway between two of them?

Big society at work RNLI will fill in the gaps although they don't do anything against smugglers, polluters and the like.

Front page of City AM today puts the City of London's tax contribution as £53bn or just over a tenth of the govt's total tax receipts. Regardless of whether you think that number should be higher or lower, 1/10th of all tax is just o_0 - it hardly reflects a well-balanced economy.

― Matt DC, Thursday, December 16, 2010 4:06 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark

christ. that's bad news. it's gambling, for the most part.

hmm!

In the coming days, The Daily Telegraph will expose further concerns among Lib Dem ministers about Coalition policy and senior Conservative figures.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/liberaldemocrats/8215462/Vince-Cable-I-could-bring-down-the-Government.html

Either Cable's got an inflated sense of self-esteem or he's got hard numbers as to how many Lib Dem MPs wd follow him.

Yes, and he's quite prepared to tell the ladies all about the powers at his disposal...

i guess it happened to that tory guy, but this seems like very unusual reporting practice. lobby hacks must hear things like this and worse every day, and from both sides, but the code of honour means they say nowt. not sure whose axe is being ground here.