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

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

Way I'm feeling to-day it would just be a load of swear words with the words Cameron, Gove and Osbourne inserted at random points.

Result doesn't mean a huge amount for anyone other than the LibDems, as its about as safe a Labour seat as exists.

Maybe, but the Tory vote collapsed, tho not as spectacularly as the LOLDems (and seems to have gone to UKIP, so obv. it's going to go back come a general election). Also, it might be a safe Labour but they did pretty well considering the last MP ended up in prison!

Abolishing the May Day bank holiday is some dumb shit. You don't fuck with England's bank holidys. Any money says they row back from that one.

Nooh, they were grousing about it being "Labour Day" and preferring "glorious Saint George or Battle of Trafalgar Day plz" ever since it was 'granted'....

... I wondered about that but surely the LibDems can tell them all about Mayday, they all hang about folk clubs and drink real ale, don't they?

Getting rid of May Day? Is there anything more transparently ideological and useless? Don't they have actual things to be doing??

they're Tory cunts, this is what they do ffs

Fella on R4 this morning seemed to suggest that having an october bank holiday would improve tourism by giving en essentially longer summer. Not sure if this holds water tho.

Nah it holds a lot of water, that's the problem.

An October bank holiday would just ensure that people sit in the pub/in their house watching telly, it won't actually boost tourism at all, because it'll be shitting it down. April wouldn't be as bad.

not very conservative, these conservatives

Yes, and/or an April bank holiday would begin the holiday season with a rip-roaring hurrah for St George oops shh.

even apart from the politics, i don't want a bank holiday in october. i want 'em in the springtime.

the april idea faces the intractable easter issue.

... also it's St. George's Day, so I assume Scotland, Wales + Norniron would pass on that one. Unless they did the decent thing and called it Shakespeare Day.

5 bank holidays btwn now and first week in june, what've ye got?

Each of them, a Celtic vs Rangers match.

ah yeah they arrange it like that, not us

The more the, uh, merrier (xp)

Scotland and Ireland have a bunch more Bank Holidays than we do iirc

as well as the rest of the world apart from the US

well we get to celebrate independence from ye fuckers for a start

too much work to get done for us to have too many bank holidays.

Nah, we'll be needing lots more bank holidays, so the people who work in banks have time to run the libraries.

i'd rather bankers volunteered to pick up the maccie-d detritus dropped out of idling cars once the scum inside have finished their meals.

how is one day going to make any difference?

Getting rid of May Day? Is there anything more transparently ideological and useless? Don't they have actual things to be doing??

― progressive cuts (Tracer Hand), Friday, March 4, 2011 12:17 PM (7 hours ago)

totally

You do know that's not really how government/projects/any kind of business works, right?

Don't they have actual things to be doing = haven't the police got any real criminals to catch instead of annoying innocent speeding drivers

lol!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Forget Two Jags, here comes David "new Jags" Cameron.

Less than a year after he came to power, the prime minister has been told by the police that he must not follow his advice to colleagues to tighten their belts and travel by Tube and train. Instead, he has to make use of two new gas-guzzling luxury Jaguars - at a cost of more than £400,000 to the taxpayer.

The pair of XJ X351 models were spotted for the first time outside Downing Street last week. They were bought recently by the Metropolitan police as part of a replacement programme of its small fleet for protecting VIPs.

Costing more than £200,000 each, the two XJs are said to have been specially modified to protect the prime minister at a time of heightened terrorist threat.

For comfort, the interior is lined with leather and standard models are equipped with surround soundspeakers, iPod docking and sat nav.

While Cameron cultivated a green image in opposition by bicycling to work, his new mode of transport is less environmentally friendly.

The top-of-the-range model does 23 miles to the gallon. Filing the tank will cost the taxpayer about £105 - for just 420 miles of driving.

During his first two months in office, Cameron had the use of a 15-year-old Jaguar, one which had come into service when John Major was prime minister in the mid-1990s. Cameron made play of eschewing the vehicle by walking around Whitehall and refusing his police motorcycle outriders. Downing Street said at the time that he viewed the outriders as "an unnecessary extravagance".

insurance premiums

Entrepreneurs our only hope, according to Cameron. It's like he's a 14 year old kid who just read Atlas Shrugged.

http://images.mirror.co.uk/upl/m4/mar2011/8/4/map-of-coalition-cuts-674426863.jpg

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/2011/03/07/save-our-services-david-cameron-s-cabinet-constituencies-escape-worst-of-the-cuts-while-poorest-are-hit-hardest-115875-22971531/

well, Andrew Mitchell and Nick Clegg's areas got some of the largest cuts.

Still though, Labour's lowest is -4.4%

Also Nick Clegg's surely inflated by that Forgemasters thing?

Entrepreneurs our only hope, according to Cameron

Our only hope, that's a bit desperate sounding isn't it?

Meanwhile Hague lurches from one cock-up to another

could have been worse, they could have been stalked by an alien that hunts humans for sport

Andrew Mitchell and Nick Clegg's areas got some of the largest cuts.

There are 11 MPs covering Brum. 9 of them are Labour, 1 LD and 1 Con, so I suppose it's a "Labour" area, but it's a Con/LD coalition council. But after May Labour will prob have the most councillors but the ConLD will still have a majority overall. Could be interesting.

Also Nick Clegg's surely inflated by that Forgemasters thing?

― anna sui generis (suzy), Monday, March 7, 2011 10:45 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

those are constituency boundaries (note two doncasters), and forgemasters is not in hallam.

tbf map is misleading

Mandelson now saying that Labour would've raised fees to £6k a year if they'd won. Don't all wet yourselves with surprise now.

Hague takes full responsibility for SAS mission but you can't blame him for it not going to plan.

a spokesman for the Libyan opposition [who] told the Times that he did not understand why the British team did not just make a normal appointment to see the revolutionary council.

What does the rest of the world think of Hague (or Cameron for that matter)? Does he even register?