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

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.

ya well obv everyone has relation to a particular place, but it's kinda arbitrary where homeless ppl go to......various reasons why they congregate in city centres i guess

looking forward to london tory councils trying to outdo each other in the destruction of civil infrastructure stakes in the 2k10s

Oh yeah, don't think I'm defending the cocking Tories and their cleansing strategies or anything! They're obv despicable, just trying to position the argument historically, you know. I mean, those parish laws were terrible - a lot of people just moving to try to find work got 'bounced' out of town, never mind people who were actually much more vulnerable.

xpost

The Hare Krishnas also give out free food all over Westminster - can we send a big fat jingling bunch of them to surround Dolphin Square or something? Or they can offer to feed the unpaid interns working in Portcullis House.

Amazing performance by @dpastaire on London Tonight, tonight: http://www.itv.com/london/soup-runs-to-be-banned77332/

- gadaffi is in venezuela
- we're going to do a no-fly zone (using... um...)

fucking dynamite work lads

He's in Venezuela? Sterling work there Ken.

Reporters should start asking William Hague where various heads of state are, on a regular basis.

This is fucking hilarious in an "inevitable spiral of doom" way:

NHS reform could see GP surgeries on stock market

IHP is in talks with three GP consortiums to set up a company that would turn underspends in their annual budget – in effect, savings on patient spending – into profits. This company, which aims to list on the stock market in three to five years, would treat patients at 95% of the cost of the NHS. This putative saving, amounting to £40 per patient, would be booked as "profit".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/mar/02/nhs-reform-surgeries-stock-market

Obviously it hasn't happened yet but I'm sure it sounds like a great idea to my local MP Mr Lansley.

What a wonderful set of incentives there.

I would buy shares in them and then get really really sick.

Think we missed this yesterday:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/mar/01/mervyn-king-blames-banks-cuts?CMP=twt_gu

When revolutionary socialists like Mervyn King agree the deficit is the banks' fault, I'm surprised that the opposition aren't going in harder.

Barnsley Central by-election results:
Dan Jarvis (Lab) 14724 60.8%
Jane Collins (UKIP) 2953 12.2%
James Hockney (Con) 1999 8.3%
Enis Dalton (BNP) 1463 6.0%
Tony Devoy (Ind) 1266 5.2%
Dominic Carman (LD) 1012 4.2%
Kevin Riddiough (Eng Dem) 544 2.2%
Howling Laud Hope (Loony) 198 0.8%
Michael Val Davies (Ind) 60 0.2%

Lib Dems doing well to hold off the English Democrats to grab that all important sixth place, but sadly would have needed a coalition with the Loony party to save their deposit.

Result doesn't mean a huge amount for anyone other than the LibDems, as its about as safe a Labour seat as exists. But wow @ LibDem slump. Short-sighted idiots.

Be very interested to see a southern marginal seat come up for by-election sometime soon - my guess would be increased Tory majority at the LibDems' expense but you never know.

you never, tru.

Should we have a new thread? I think the Cleggeron era is pretty much over. May Day getting abolished, minimum wage under attack, councils privatising "everything".

(also 4.7k messages seems quite a lot)

Naah, they'll be right back together again before you know it.

need a good title first