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

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

Remember that less than a year ago, Cable was Britain's most popular politican, the Sage of the Credit Crunch, darling of the liberal left etc etc. That shit obviously went to his head, because now he's the face of the coalition's most unpopular policy he's shooting his mouth off to pretty young "constituents" assuring them that he's some sort of entryist and is still fighting the good fight really. I don't think it's any secret he'd rather be in coalition with Labour, he was trying to talk Alistair Darling round before Clegg sided with the Tories.

dude should go out howard beale style with a thermonuclear takedown of media and state

then get employed by the bbc as robert peston's replacement as the latter retires to his dorset ranch

peston's alright imo

dude should go out howard beale style with a thermonuclear takedown of media and state

― smexy fishy hawt joey martin (acoleuthic), Tuesday, December 21, 2010 8:40 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

vince cable isn't that guy louis!

he really isn't

don't think it's actively malevolent, like geo. osborne, but he's not that guy

seems like a stitch-up on Cable - depends to what extent the Torygraph is divided on Murdoch-BSkyB issue

But the Torygraph suppressed that bit of the story, they don't want a more powerful Murdoch.

if Peston hadn't revealed what cable said surely the whistleblower would have just gone to The Times? & the BBC would have got in shit for sitting on the information (like the Telegraph). At least they had the integrity to release it (like with FIFA Panaroma programme).

...or the BBC have just gone to the right really fast. Complete lack of neutrality in covering the student protests (particularly with that Jody McIntyre interview), Mark Thompson calling for non-biased TV news programmes & now this all in a fortnight. If that's the case it's really worrying - they don't need to cosy up to the Tory's, they've got the liscense fee agreed for the next 5 years.

and there's no way Jeremy Hunt won't pass the deal now. He hates the BBC & has been championing Murdoch all year, saying this:

Rather than worry about Rupert Murdoch owning another TV channel, what we should recognise is that he has probably done more to create variety and choice in British TV than any other single person

http://www.jeremyhunt.org/newsshow.aspx?ref=452

So clearly not 'impartial'. The Tory's & Murdoch win again.

variety and choice!

come the revolution, great cross way will burn first

*west cross way, even

aahh, hadn't seen this part of the article:

We would be the poorer and wouldn't be saying that British TV is the envy of the world if it hadn't been for Murdoch being prepared to take that commercial risk. We need to encourage that kind of investment.

I've never heard anyone say that UK TV is the "envy of the world" because of Sky - is he deliberately trying to turn on its head that it's the BBC's broadcasting that has always been considered the envy of the world? All Sky do is buy up US imports.

That article has made as angry as is possible to be. Fuck Hunt and his clueless philistine ignorant cuntfaced Tory mates. Fuck them all.

Cheers.

oh man what would i have done without thousands of repeats of shitty american shows and the occasional bit of football that murdoch wasnt the first to pay for to put on television! starved until my eyeballs popped, thats what.

Rather than worry about Rupert Murdoch owning another TV channel, what we should recognise is that he has probably done more to create variety and choice in British TV than any other single person

http://www.jeremyhunt.org/newsshow.aspx?ref=452

So clearly not 'impartial'. The Tory's & Murdoch win again.

― prolego, Tuesday, December 21, 2010 9:07 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

fucking hell. well found.

Three more LibDem ministers' criticisms of the coalition to be outed tomorrow apparently.

Rather than worry about Rupert Murdoch owning another TV channel, what we should recognise is that he has probably done more to create variety and choice in British TV than any other single person
http://www.jeremyhunt.org/newsshow.aspx?ref=452

So clearly not 'impartial'. The Tory's & Murdoch win again.

― prolego, Tuesday, December 21, 2010 9:07 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

tbf the link makes clear he isn't talking about the newscorp purchase of bskyb there but a hypothetical "fox news uk". c/hunt's views on further concentrating media ownership might be different to his ones about increasing choice (probably they won't be, but that's why he'll get away with that.)

apparently if ofcom reports a case to answer hunt can either quash it, which i'd guess is less likely now because of the "optics", or refer it to the competition commission, so presumably this'll end up in their hands, and if there is undue pressure it'll only be of the depressingly routine kind, exactly as would have happened under vince. (i know someone who works for cc and is involved with a separate inquiry into sky, virgin etc and exclusive deals over movies and the atmosphere is apparently v. tense and heavily lawyered compared to other inquiries.)

reportedly news corp is prepared to give "undertakings" to address the concerns of regulators which supposedly heads off a verdict of "substantial lessensing of competition" anyway, so i'm not entirely clear that vince's war wasn't always headed for surrender. think he was just trying to impress a couple of young female "lib dem supporters" - he seems like quite a vain man, or (more charitably) he wants to be liked in an unlikeable job.

Three more LibDem ministers' criticisms of the coalition to be outed tomorrow apparently.

― Matt DC, Wednesday, December 22, 2010 12:12 AM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark

yep. but no-one has heard of these cats.

fuck

Amazing how this slipped over the holiday when no one was paying attention: the Cabinet Office's Behavioural Insights Team wants to introduce musical stairs and rebrand vegetables as "sports candy" as part of efforts to combat obesity.