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

It's more likely that some rampaging Malcolm Tucker types have been piling pressure on him to go quickly and quietly since his cockup the other week. That poll lead will evaporate without economic credibility and there wouldn't be any economic credibility with Johnson shadowing the Treasury.

can imagine gove getting his stupid ugly wee face battered by football casuals in aberdeen while his pal legged it as a transformative event in his revolting tory life of the same order as bruce wayne witnessing the murder of his parents

Amazing

oh balls

Balls In

xpost

Balls will be able to give Osborne a hugely enjoyable savaging but given that he a) evidently completely disagrees with Miliband on cuts and b) wants his job there should be some, erm, lively exchanges behind the scenes.

In full: Alan Johnson's resignation statement

"I wish you all the best at this diffuclt time, I know you will contineuy to make a major contrinutoiopn to public life and the Labour Party".

:S

lol get an iphone

that was probably BECAUSE of an iphone. fucking useless touch keyboards

i'd put money on that being a blackberry fuck up. if it were an iphone it be like I wish you all the best at this octopus time, I know you will drainage to make a major artillery to public life and the Labour Party thanks to autocorrect

It's more likely that some rampaging Malcolm Tucker types have been piling pressure on him to go quickly and quietly since his cockup the other week

If only this was the case. Labour could do with a bit more malcolm tucker and a bit less introspection and "learning".

i never saw this before!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNR0AuGnoUg

suddenly liking ed balls more than i ever have. can't wait for him to do that to gosborne.

okay maybe the personal life stuff had some truth in it.

couple of questions:

1. Does being a good parliamentary performer make up for being a hugely dislikeable choad with strong connections to the last Brown administration?

2. Does Ed Balls really represent some kind of centre Left in the PLP?

3. Re this: Labour could do with a bit more malcolm tucker and a bit less introspection and "learning". Ned do you think that the Labour party as it exists today is more or less alright and shd just get on with bashing the Tories rather than trying to re-develop its own identity and turning back the Thatcherising that took place under Blair/Brown? Obv I don't but I'm interested in what you meant.

Think Balls is significantly to the left of Brown, at least in terms of economic analysis, and an effective attack dog, but a bit of a disaster as a politician (in terms of of communicating beyond the party) and is inevitably going to destabilise EMili.

Balls is significantly to the left of Brown
Balls is significantly to the left of Brown
Balls is significantly to the left of Brown
Balls is significantly to the left of Brown
Balls is significantly to the left of Brown
Balls is significantly to the left of Brown
Balls is significantly to the left of Brown
Balls is significantly to the left of Brown

Clever wording, cheers.

The thing about Balls's rep for being a savagely effective parliamentary attack-dog is that, well, for most of his front bench career his opposite number has been Michael cocking Gove. Obviously, you can only bully and humiliate what's put in front of you, and Balls has shown the ability to do that, but maybe expectations that he's going to bring the whoop-ass on George Osborne to the same extent are unrealistic.

i think he'll be more effective than alan johnson

True dat, yes.

I've been racking my brains to think of suitably analogous sociopaths who'd be more effective than Johnson. As true as that bald statement is, being more effective than a dude who nobody understands why he got the job is not the only measure of this being a good appointment really.

Staring down the barrel of 4 more years of the Axis of Evil is as good a time as any to think long term, surely to god?

I shdn't've watched The Weekly Politics last night really

Labour could do with a bit more malcolm tucker and a bit less introspection and "learning".

This is just flat-out wrong. Labour lost the election because, aside from the economy, NOBODY LIKED THEM. Unless they work out what to do about that then the whole exercise of electing a new leader, any new leader, is basically pointless. Classic New Labour approach appears to be all thinking about what you're going to do to achieve power and not enough about what you're going to do when you're there.

oh is it called This Week? point stands.

completely agree with Matt btw. this blanket realpolitik "the only thing is to keep the Tories out" crap is finished. why bother keeping them out if you're gonna be them, or be worse than them? For every small economic improvement NuLab made they did something horrible in another sphere HI HUMAN RIGHTS HI FOREIGN POLICY and even this macroeconomic tinkering bullshit did minus nothing to reverse inequalities of wealth

I don't agree with that 100%, I mean, the Tories are right now showing why they are worse and that's going to be in the forefront of people's minds at the ballot box, especially people who are feeling the squeeze. You could argue Labour would be doing many of the same things if they were in power, but there are also a lot of things that are happening right now that they wouldn't be doing. They'll do alright out of "we are not the coalition".

But none of that answers the question "what is Labour for?" There need to be positive reasons to vote for them as well, especially if the economy has recovered or is recovering by the next election.

The other thing is that the economic status quo that New Labour's successes were built on doesn't exist any more and very possibly won't come back (and if it does, it shouldn't). They can't rely on a booming and unregulated City and property market to generate revenue next time round.

Really feel sorry for you guys. We're in a vaguely similar situation here but at least our centre-left third party (Greens) is still centre-left; tbh I don't know what we'd do if they went arse-up Lib Dem style.

i also feel like there's residual karmic payback for LYING about going to WAR but i don't know if anything can reverse that curse as such

xxpost

They might do quite well out of being the Opposition to this but there's no big picture at all. 5 years of the Coalition frantically rolling back the State to be followed by a gentle rearrangement of the furniture that repairs some of the worst excesses? Repeat that a couple of times over 20 years. Two of the biggest Parliamentary majorities of all time were flushed, really, with no lasting improvement to the lives of millions of people. Think the Party needs to sort that out before they begin to worry about scoring the disgruntled middle ground on the rebound.

Yes there is also the issue that by the end Labour were seen as the party of warmongers, corporate arselickers, authoritarians and creeps. I think Miliband has successfully killed the Iraq issue and it certainly won't be much of an election issue in five years time. It's the rest of the stuff they need to sort out.

5 years of the Coalition frantically rolling back the State to be followed by a gentle rearrangement of the furniture that repairs some of the worst excesses? Repeat that a couple of times over 20 years. Two of the biggest Parliamentary majorities of all time were flushed, really, with no lasting improvement to the lives of millions of people.

OTM.

Haha Blair has just described New Labour as "the most successful centre left government in the world" which is just mindboggling.

Oooh Andy Coulson to make a statement later today.

what, he's taking over from Oooh Gary Davis?

Agree with Matt. Johnson was one of the few Labour politicians who was actually likeable. Balls isn't at all likeable. There's also something weird about a party that just had a leadership election dominated by two lifelong politico-geek brothers and now has a husband and wife in the two biggest shadow cabinet jobs. The impression is of a party totally given over to the interests of a clique of ultra-ambitious, hard-nosed political obsessives tailoring their beliefs as seems necessary for power. I don't think the impressive intellectual and professional competence claimed for these folk will compensate for the perception that they're detached from the real world and devoid of real principle.

One thing that's struck me, watching "This Week" (I haven't seen this week's episode) is that with Diane Abbott gone the Labour representatives have been a really unattractive bunch, many tainted with the expenses scandal. If you're hoping to see the back of this obnoxious coalition as quickly as possible it's depressing to realise these people are the best Labour can field in probably the most important TV show about British politics. It's hard to believe these people can get themselves elected, or that they will be much of an improvment if they are.

Rumour is that suspended NOTW News Editor Ian Edmonson was about to turn Coulson in, hence the statement.

So now it's a game of Your Leader's Judgement's Worse Than My Leader's Judgement?

So that thing about Coulson resigning before a May election, then?

Coulson should be in jail.

I hope Gazza sues the arse off him

Rumour is that suspended NOTW News Editor Ian Edmonson was about to turn Coulson in, hence the statement.

Yeah I think that's probably going to happen whatever.

Labour could do with a bit more malcolm tucker and a bit less introspection and "learning".

This is just flat-out wrong. Labour lost the election because, aside from the economy, NOBODY LIKED THEM. Unless they work out what to do about that then the whole exercise of electing a new leader, any new leader, is basically pointless. Classic New Labour approach appears to be all thinking about what you're going to do to achieve power and not enough about what you're going to do when you're there.

― Matt DC

I wasn't saying that. I was talking specifically about the people the party has "backstage" who seriously need to get a bit tougher.

That's probably true.

Did He Jump Or Was He Pushed, Part 2

Is being "likeable" a good thing even? At the moment all I want is someone who can take Osbourne apart every time he opens his mouth. Is that too much to ask for?

xps.

Chancellors of the Exchequer aren't generally employed on the grounds of likeability, are they?

http://twitter.com/piersmorgan/status/28418458743996416

what a cunt, eh?

^^^One of the reasons I want Marina Hyde to come back from wherever she's been hiding.

Almost tempted to register a twitter acct just so I can hurl abuse at that stupid motherfucker. A "good man" does not allow the illegal interception of our elected representative's telephones to happen under his watch.