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

yeah ppl are mostly cunts and retards wrt criminal justice #truisms

100 expensive, badly run private prisons vs 50 well run ~state~ prisons = former, every time

she's doing it wrong

POLL RESULTS
Should 'subordinate' drug gang members be let off easy to free up prison space?

No 36%

Yes 64%

Thank you for voting

free the heroin dealers!

they've not done anyone any harm

right

I think they should be given a smack on the wrist.

Deja vu

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1372172/David-Willetts-Feminism-widened-poverty-gap-set-social-mobility-decades.html

the universities minister, ladies and gentlemen.

Which of his two brains was he using when he came out with that?

it's not untrue though, is it? the rise of the middle class two income family has made poor families relatively worse off. the daily mail wants to plant the idea that, therefore, feminism is bad and wrong, but willetts doesn't endorse that at all.

where that falls down is the assumption that double-income families postdate 'feminism' though?

‘But I think it certainly widened the gap in household incomes because you suddenly had two-earner couples, both of whom were well educated, compared with often workless households where nobody was educated.

... and why were the other households workless and uneducated, Mr Willetts?

Lack of bikes.

Lack of oestrogen perhaps

where that falls down is the assumption that double-income families postdate 'feminism' though?

― c sharp major, Friday, 1 April 2011 12:59 (10 minutes ago) Bookmark

sure, there have been double income families for ever, but usually out of economic necessity. large numbers of middle class women staying in work after marriage and children are a recognisable phenomenon of the late 20th century i'd have thought, obviously partly down to introduction of maternity pay, extension of employment rights etc. which it's not that odd to ascribe to "feminism". if you're hinting at an alternative history, you'll have to spell it out, this isn't my area of expertise. but i think it's possible to acknowledge that there may have been some trade-offs to the gains that feminism made without being reactionary, and i don't think willetts is, in this case.

argh didn't hit submit:

also the assumption, which is Willetts' though certainly shared by the DM, that feminism exists and existed solely to widen opportunities for middle-class women.

"Feminism has trumped egalitarianism" is a line from his book from last year, which focussed on the (now quite fashionable in left-leaning circles) idea that the baby boomers fucked things for the generations that came afterwards. If falls down because a) feminism IS egalitarianism and b) Tories by and large don't believe in egalitarianism in the first place. However I don't think he's actually attacking feminism even if the Daily Mail desperately wants to present him in that light.

feminism IS egalitarianism

yeah in the abstract, but he is talking about something specific, about university-educated women and that

but ya obvi the tories don't really like egalitarianism

But I think it certainly widened the gap in household incomes because you suddenly had two-earner couples, both of whom were well educated, compared with often workless households where nobody was educated.

solution is to ban marriages between same-education-status couples? if you have a degree you must only marry someone who has had no education. problem solved!!!

yh there is quite a nuanced argument in here (and one which is being had on the left) about the intersection of gender and class, and how the workforce has been changing, and stuff-- but seeing 'feminism' as the cause is historically illiterate and also, as a politician, he is in full knowledge of what messages that sends.

and tbh i'm in a funny position here because i find myself thinking 'but how can you even talk about this when it's going to get soundbitten down into something that ignores all the nuances?'-- which is something I don't want to think, because i would like to believe that these nuanced arguments can be available to all and comprehensible by all.

Isn't it the case that after campaigners in the 70s won the battle to have mortgages based on wives' incomes as well as husbands', house prices more or less doubled overnight? Not sure if this is strictly relevant, tbh.

Also pretty sure Willets went to public school, not grammar.

Isn't it the case that after campaigners in the 70s won the battle to have mortgages based on wives' incomes as well as husbands', house prices more or less doubled overnight?

an exaggeration i think, but that is how the housing 'market' works: the more 'credit' available, the higher the prices

a beautiful thing

xp it was a grammar school when willetts was there.

Willetts, in certain parts of the country, is a synonym for dingleberries. #fyi

So disgusting:

Jobcentres tricking people out of benefits to cut costs, says whistleblower: Soaring number of sanctions against unemployed amid claims that DWP staff are being told to trip people up with paperwork

winnets, surely.

can't believe dole offices indulge in class-based discrimination

Most workers want to work on when they reach 65, Iain Duncan Smith claimed yesterday.

He insisted that higher life expectancy meant people should – and usually want – to work for longer before taking their pension.

The Work and Pensions Secretary made the extraordinary claim on the eve of unveiling reforms that could push the retirement age beyond 70.

The idea that employees do not want to stop work at 65 was rubbished by critics last night.

Ros Altmann, of Saga, said all the research showed most over-50s wanted to retire as soon as was practical. ‘There are terrible consequences for many people if you increase the state pension age too quickly,’ she added.

hate to be 'that guy' but people living longer does kinda imply a recalculation. im sure most people over 50 (or indeed 20) would like to retire but paying for 'em for the next three-four decades is a 'practical' problem, no? and this has been coming down the track for a minute. idk, both my parents are working in their mid-60s.

Agreed but would still like to know what research Iain Duncan Smith is basing his working on.

Except he's making it all up, natch.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-12952344

Scottish Tories aim to get "time-wasters" out of school at 14. I hope there's enough apprenticeships to go round - last I heard youth unemployment in Scotland was soaring and 1000 apprentices were being made redundant every year. I suppose Job Seeker's is cheaper than school.

I hear conservatives complain all the time about kids these days not being able to do maths without a calculator, or young people lacking proper grammar - you have to have a little respect for an ideology that is so oblivious to it's contradictions.

Shouldn't that be 'its contradictions'? *waves a cane while thinking 'kids these days'*

Damn.

what is the point of toby young? http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/apr/04/pro-cuts-rally-against-debt

I can't imagine that even people who agree with him like the smug little bastard.

his entire schtick is "who haven't i pissed off yet?", right

He insisted that higher life expectancy meant people should – and usually want – to work for longer before taking their pension.

this is actually true (well idk about "want")

Going to balaclava up and head down to the protest to reasonably set fire to a waxwork of Laurie Penny and stuff banknotes into the letterbox of a former polytechnic.

occupy a lidl, vandalise it

stuff mocking banknotes into the letterboxes of anti-cuts protesters LIKE ME

Reactionary little shit. You know all this activism is the result of not being able to buy a house in Notting Hill, because he was priced out by bankers and furriners, right?

Annabelle Fuller, a former adviser to the Ukip leader, Nigel Farage, is a leading organiser.

He insisted that higher life expectancy meant people should – and usually want – to work for longer before taking their pension

There's a practical ceiling to this though - in most jobs you can't really go on working much past 65 even if you live for another 35 years. Getting up and working a full-time job when you're nearing your 70s can't really be conducive to increasing your life expectancy. And I can't think of many employers who'd employ someone in their late 60s.

Boris Johnson said: "I cannot conceive of a more fitting celebration of Her Majesty's 60 years on the throne than a majestic flotilla of vessels, large and small, winding their way along the iconic River Thames and showcasing our proud maritime history."

I cannot conceive of a more fitting celebration of Her Majesty's 60 years on the throne than a magnificent floater.

A floater curling out over a four day bank holiday weekend, no less.

Sounds like adult fun - don't forget to drop the kids off at the pool first!

"We're all in in together" they say, and with the price of wheat at an-all time high in austerity Britain, nothing really could sum up 2011 like the Queen of England pinching a loaf.