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

NB don't think it'll happen, but it does make strategic sense for the non-Cameronista sections of the Party.

Yeah the thing that'll be putting off Cameron (and probably put off Brown) is that if you call a snap election after only a few months in government and then lose then you'll go down in history as one of the biggest numpties ever to have inhabited Number 10.

Quite. While tory support has held up pretty well so far, Labour's actually quite impressive Brown's-fucked-off Bounce means the polls don't look anywhere near good enough for the Cameron brains trust to risk a new election. I wouldn't have thought. Think this is largely wishful thinking for the hard right at present.

(xp) ^ That's right, and while there's more chance Brown would have won than lost, there was still a significant chance he would have lost outright or ended up with a hung parliament. Even if he'd won, it might well have been with a majority reduced from its already low position, which wouldn't have made him look that great.

The ideal thing would be for this government to collapse late next year. This should give Labour enough time to get its act together, and hopefully allow just enough of the Tory cuts to have gone through to *really* piss people off, but not enough to have irreversibly fucked things up.

Thing is, I really don't think the coalition will collapse unless the Tories (by which I mean the ones that matter) actively want it to, and they're not going to do so under your ideal scenario.

Gay Labour MP Chris Bryant has accused Chancellor George Osborne of homophobia for calling him a “pantomime dame”.

The pair clashed over cuts today during an exchange in the House of Commons.

According to PoliticsHome editor Paul Waugh, Mr Bryant said that the chancellor should play “Prince Charming” over the spending cuts.

Mr Osborne is said to have retorted: “At least I’m not a pantomime dame.”

Mr Bryant then demanded that the remark was withdrawn and said that “homophobia” should not be allowed in the chamber but was apparently ignored by the chancellor.

The Labour MP tweeted: “So George Osborne clearly doesn’t know how to be charming with his jibe at me as ‘pantomime dame’. Homophobic or just nasty?”

Honestly can't believe Osborne started a retort with "at least I'm not..."

Bryant should have just responded with "your mum".

looking forward to his shop getting trashed in the near future

Gonna be photoshopped onto a turnip before the end of the year

under what circumstances could they call a snap election? (considering they immediately crowbarred in that 5 yr minimum term rule)

oh look at this, the bad guys are fighting each otherrrrr

So the Telegraph presumably witheld that last bit because they wanted Cable to go ahead and block the Newscorp-Sky deal, which it will now be difficult for him to do. Does that put the paper in dodgy territory legally?

Nice of the Beeb to get so worked up on Murdoch's behalf, I'm sure if Cable had said something similar about them then Sky News wd be howling with outrage.

Can anyone clarify for me how a newspaper can "covertly" record conversations? Isn't that unethical?

OMG! Kay Burley apparently just reported Vince Cable's "resignation" on Sky News, based on the fake Daily Mail Twitter account.

lol she shd resign

she has!

If the next series of the Thick of It doesn't have a) LibDems and b) an enormous misunderstanding stemming from a fake Twitter account then I will be enormously disappointed.

loooooool

fake Daily Mail Twitter account should def report Burley's resignation

is it supposed to be a fucking problem that Cable said this? wtf do people expect

I think if you have the final say on a very large corporate merger then saying "I have declared war" on one or both of the relevant parties might call your impartiality into question.

There's something really quite sad about the speed at which the Labour Party shot back up Murdoch's arse this afternoon. It's like they don't remember the last election.

I don't get it - ordinary people mistrust and loathe Rupert Murdoch - politicians could win in the poll of public opinion if they echoed it. Obviously not Cable in his present position, but the rest of them don't have to worry about impartiality in the face of a report.

I wd say if we were taking straw polls then the ordinary people who mistrust and loathe the BBC wd balance out the scales.

then saying "I have declared war" on one or both of the relevant parties might call your impartiality into question

of course of course its just the ommmggggg politician not impartial tone of the story with the focus on his choice of words

Most ppl in this country don't care about Murdoch. The rise in public support from such an action would be more than offset by having The Sun hammer into you at any given opportunity.

Hope all realise Vince is fucked because he'll be on the front page of The Times and in The Sun and on Sky News every day until he resigns.

A News Corporation spokesman said: "News Corporation is shocked and dismayed by reports of Mr Cable's comments. They raise serious questions about fairness and due process."

Sky's political editor Adam Boulton said the latest development could mean Mr Cable was not seen as impartial enough to rule on the bid.

Can I declare war on this cock?

5.06pm: The Tory MP Douglas Carswell has put a post on his blog saying that he is cheering for Murdoch in his "war" with Vince Cable:

'We must not get angry with Vince. Instead we must laugh at his absurdity.

'Murdoch's "empire", however, is the product of millions of free citizens willingly paying for products and services that Murdoch provides them. And doing so not through coercion - the way the BBC is funded - but freely from what remains of their own salaries and wages after Vince and co have helped themselves to it through taxation.

'Politicians like Mr Cable and I are only able to do all the things we claim to be able to do because of the wealth creators like Murdoch. We should not forget it.'

aaaaaaaaaaaa

Rt Hon Douglas Carswell MP, OBN

http://twitter.com/#!/DouglasCarswell

Hope all realise Vince is fucked because he'll be on the front page of The Times and in The Sun and on Sky News every day until he resigns.

They might keep him around for a bit as a lightning conductor for all bad news, Blair did that with a succesion of ministers.

Douglas Carswell MP used some of that coercion to get himself a £700 love seat.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/5431746/MPs-expenses-Douglas-Carswell-claimed-700-in-expenses-for-love-seat.html

Total second home claims

2005-06: £10,869
2006-07: £18,953
2007-08: £23,083

= 371 licence fees

what the hell is a love seat. also, this guy's a cunt.

A loveseat is a two-seat sofa. The papers call it that to make you think of a "love swing", which is something else entirely.

i imagined george clooney's gift to his wife in 'burn after reading'.

Politicians like Mr Cable and I are only able to do all the things we claim to be able to do because of the wealth creators like Murdoch.

hang on, doesn't Murdoch pay fuck all tax to HM Gov?

Nothing. My support for him is based purely on admiration of what he has achieved

Fee of £400 for article from News of the World, 1 Virginia Street, London E98 1SY. Hours: 3 hrs. (Registered 11 June 2010)

Fee of £400 for article for The Times newspaper, 1 Virginia Street, London E98 1XY, on 28 October 2010. Hours: 3 hrs. (Registered 2 November 2010)

ok after a cursory examination of this, fuck the BBC - also fuck the Government for making a hoo-hah about stopping Murdoch but doing nothing of the sort

destroy Sky with nukes. you fuckers are running scared that everyone's watching illegal streams, and rightly so. tick tock.

Can anyone clarify for me how a newspaper can "covertly" record conversations? Isn't that unethical?

― sean gramophone, Tuesday, 21 December 2010 16:44 (2 hours ago)

Somewhat connected with how a tabloid sunday newspaper can covertly intectept the telephone conversations of our elected representatives, and it's editor, rather than getting thrown in the slammer, gets to be press secretary for our unelected government!

lol. well, 'lol'.

I cannot actually get 'lol' about the NoTW phone hacking thing, it makes me fucking furious.

ok after a cursory examination of this, fuck the BBC - also fuck the Government for making a hoo-hah about stopping Murdoch but doing nothing of the sort

I can see why the BBC, well, Peston, reported it. Whichever way you look at it it's a huge and significant business news story. It's not actually in the BBC's long-term interests to report it (and therefore ease the way to a unified Sky-NewsCorp) - quite the opposite.

Ther merger is in the hands of Jeremy Cunt now so there'll be champagne corks popping in both Wapping and Isleworth tonight I'd imagine.

Cable's now there with Liam Fox in that distrusted circle who'll probably get demoted at the next reshuffle. The banks will be overjoyed with that as well.

Also, notice how Clegg has suddenly gone very quiet indeed?

Don't think the rest of the govt have any interest in even talking about stopping Murdoch, if anything the reverse is true.

Cable speaks for the Government. He's given a chink of light and simultaneously blown it out for good. Heil Murdoch.

And of course it isn't in the BBC's interest. Short-termist idiocy wins again. Peston himself is too fucking loaded to care, the cunt

louis, they can't not report this. they shouldn't gloat, but it's news. cable was foolish to speak candidly to people he didn't know.

possibly his self-loathing is leading him to take foolish risks

he definitely had the air of a man in the wildly terminal stages of regret when he defended the student fees increase on R5 a few weeks back