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

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/02/22/article-0-0D4F66DE000005DC-201_468x297.jpg

So I'll put you down for how many water cannons?

too much to hope somebody Sadat's him while he's there

I don't like the man and think he is toxic, but wishing for notional assassins is NAGL.

YMMV

might wanna get that cunt from the Telegraph to write a think-piece about this tho

The Daily Mail of all publications absolutely laid into him yesterday

daily mail commentariat tearing into him too

i read SAGAT and thought a tiger uppercut is highly acceptable and is a VGL
http://www.street.fighter.free.fr/sagat/tigeruppercut_b.jpg

i thought it was a sadat x references and yeah that punk can jump up to get beat down

Speaking in Kuwait, which is marking the 20th anniversary of the expulsion of Saddam Hussein's forces, Cameron said: "The idea that we should expect small and democratic countries like Kuwait to be able to manufacture all their means of defence seems to me completely at odds with reality."

Presumably he does know Kuwait is a dictatorship, too, doesn't he? It's got a National Assembly, but the prime minister is appointed by the emir, and all the assembly can do is ask awkward qustions. And political parties are illegal. No more democratic than Bahrain, really. But we've now banned arms sales there.

Obama's attitude of 'stfu and keep out of the way' is looking wiser and wiser.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/feb/22/new-disability-test-is-a-complete-mess
During the preliminary roll-out of the test, people with terminal cancer, multiple sclerosis and serious mental illnesses have been found fit to work.

serious mental illness isn't an impediment to being in the Cabinet so fair enough really

Speaking in Kuwait, which is marking the 20th anniversary of the expulsion of Saddam Hussein's forces, Cameron said: "The idea that we should expect small and democratic countries like Kuwait to be able to manufacture all their means of defence seems to me completely at odds with reality."

Presumably he does know Kuwait is a dictatorship, too, doesn't he? It's got a National Assembly, but the prime minister is appointed by the emir, and all the assembly can do is ask awkward qustions. And political parties are illegal. No more democratic than Bahrain, really. But we've now banned arms sales there.

not to mention that this implies democratic countries are inherently less capable of manufacturing means of defence.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/feb/22/new-disability-test-is-a-complete-mess
During the preliminary roll-out of the test, people with terminal cancer, multiple sclerosis and serious mental illnesses have been found fit to work.

I underwent this test last year, was scored zeroes for problems with standing, walking and carrying things, despite being 100% not able to stand, walk, or carry things. Viz. my mental health probs, they said, when I appealed (as had been signed off for a further month by my GP for severe anxiety & depression), that they work on the assumption that GP's are subject to pressure from patients and are therefore not fit to judge. So, um, that fits right on in with putting GPs in charge of the NHS, yes? Super.

I underwent this test last year, was scored zeroes for problems with standing, walking and carrying things, despite being 100% not able to stand, walk, or carry things. Viz. my mental health probs, they said, when I appealed (as had been signed off for a further month by my GP for severe anxiety & depression), that they work on the assumption that GP's are subject to pressure from patients and are therefore not fit to judge. So, um, that fits right on in with putting GPs in charge of the NHS, yes? Super.
― Also unknown as Zora (Surfing At Work), Wednesday, 23 February 2011 13:39 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

But the anecdote in your post supports that GPs are fit to judge, and so possibly fit to be in charge? So we're potentially going the right direction?

Atos is allowed to overrule the judgements of medical staff with better qualifications and superior knowledge of the patient, at additional cost to the taxpayer, for shareholder profit, all the while applying the tests incompetently, so that 40-70 per cent of claimants judged fit to work win appeals against the initial decision to reclassify. Sounds like an economy and simplicity drive to me!

OH BOY, also posting in Egypt thread...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/conservative/7908076/Palestinian-tycoons-with-Libya-links-behind-Tory-donations.html

But the anecdote in your post supports that GPs are fit to judge, and so possibly fit to be in charge? So we're potentially going the right direction?

Uh, I'm agnostic on whether GPs are up to being in charge of NHS budgets. I do think it's 'hilarious' that they are on the one hand competent enough to be in charge of NHS decision making but not, uhm, competent enough to tell if a patient is genuinely fit to work or not. Y'know. Money skills v. healthcare; what are GPs *supposed* to be good at?

Suzy OTM.

I think the NHS and DWP between them are perfectly able to determine fitness to work, and they work for the taxpayer already. That is why the fraud rate for incapacity bens and DLA is something like ONE per cent, which in any state or private org would normally be RESULT!.

Another way to deal with private companies submitting misleading or inaccurate info about you to a third party: remind them that doing so is actionable, and becomes 'malicious' if an individual deliberately concocts a thing they know will adversely affect you out of whole cloth.

Off topic for this thread a bit but... They sent me a 300-page document outlining the reasons they bounced my claim and invited me to go to court. I folded. I was depressed. Gawd love the people who had terminal cancer and had to deal with these twunts.

think in those circumstances a spree shooting would be a top idea

Yuck, that's just needlessly belligerent, Zora.

my mum went for one of these joke interviews (in 2009, sorry labour bros), got scored zero after explaining how she can't use her hands (chronic pain) and got thrown off incapacity benefit but not dla (which makes a lot of sense eh); examiner made some remark about having filled his quota for the day

appealed, appeal failed, awaiting tribunal date (not hopeful)

The same people do the work fitness assessments for those of us who are unfortunate to actually work for the Civil Service. We had one of them come in to give us a talk on our new sickness policy, which pretty much boiled down to: "I don't care how fucking sick you are, if you don't come into work you're a malingerer and we'll do our level best to get you fired..."

Presumably it's cheaper if we die in service than it is if we live long enough to collect our pension.

http://www.atoshealthcarejobs.com/

We aim to give people autonomy and dignity - and improve their quality of life.

DG, that is apalling. Best of luck to your mum with the tribunal.

How is it that we are an allegedly progressive democracy and yet this country is so disgusting? Time to set fire to something.

this scares the hell out of me for my mum, good luck dg.

thank you but yes, these people are sinister fuckers

People need to look up the US company Unum Provident, banned from several states and now sniffing around markets where class action suits aren't as easy to launch against their shit, like here. They are the generators of welfare-to-work bullshit and are involved with Atos.

they look like a barrel of laughs

Amazing, considering there's a McDonald's right there that always has its litter blowing about:

Daniel Astaire, cabinet member for society, families and adult services, said: "It is wrong and undignified that people are being fed on the streets.

"Efforts by local organisations responding to the needs of the most vulnerable within their own community are to be applauded.

"However, soup runs on the streets in Westminster actually encourage people to sleep rough in central London, with all the dangers that entails."

Such cocks. You'd expect the cathedral to appeal against this but maybe not.

NIMBigSocietY.

think i'm gonna go homeless for free soup

wow, they do soup runs on the street in Westminster? I'm gonna go and sleep rough there tonight, should be lulz

"However, soup runs on the streets in Westminster actually encourage people to sleep rough in central London, with all the dangers that entails."

Upsetting tourists et al being the biggest danger I assume?

@dpastaire - just sayin'

how easy is it for homeless ppl to get places in hostels etc?

don't understand these ppl whose first thought when confronted with ppl sleeping on the streets of a wealthy city is 'omg how unsightly! will nobody think of the tourists'

These ppl = small businessmen/ shopkeepers i.e. the very beating heart and raging soul of this once great nation, sir

It does just strike me as such a weird thing to do when your entire schtick is about charity taking over the role of the state - are you not just going against the whole meaning of your own Big Society here?

These ppl = small businessmen/ shopkeepers i.e. the very beating heart and raging soul of this once great nation, sir

Kind of unfair projection I reckon.

However, soup runs on the streets in Westminster actually encourage people to sleep rough in central London

wut

srsly liz jones had a better understanding of homelessness than this

till you've tried their soup you haven't lived (rough)

However, soup runs on the streets in Westminster actually encourage people to sleep rough in central London

Translation = "they're going to sleep rough anyway, we just don't want them doing it anywhere near us".

"It is wrong and undignified that people are being fed on the streets.

At least let them starve with dignity!

About 150 people sleep rough in Westminster on any given night and 98% of those people "have no connection to the borough", the council said.

this wd be hilarious if not so repugnant -- homeless people by definition have no connection to any particular place

Be interested to know what the two homeless charities' stance on this is - presumably they feel there should be more shelters etc?

nother story linked from that one about homeless (sixth form?) students

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12342627

one was sleeping on the streets

shit is totally fucked imo, how difficult would it be to provide overspill hostels etc

homeless people by definition have no connection to any particular place

Not so, really - this is more of a throwback to old-school parish laws which would bounce tramps/travellers back to their 'home' parish straight away in order not to have to expend resources on them.