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

Lib Dems starting to wonder if their mother was right about that nasty wife-beating brute they've shacked up with

did they not pass that 55 shit yet?

Anyone know the answer to this?

I thought it was one of the first things they did? I don't know.

Thought they had to get it through the Lords?

i don't think it's been passed, it was maybe tacked onto the gerrymandering that the Labour lords tried to talk out?

ya i think it's still somewhere in george osborne's office under an empty jeroboam of veuve and a black and white minstrels dvd

top signifier bombing.

right now I feel britain is a terrible place, a shitstain on the globe.

70%-30% in favour of No at the moment. Frankly that bothers me less than the Tory vote holding up.

can't see how lib dems can stop their support evaporating now they have no clout to put the brakes on, the next election could be a dire two party affair. I suppose the best shot at constitutional reform is still through europe.

god i don't think i can face a general election with just the one Tory party

lib dumbs innit

can't remember the last time i voted for 2 winning teams on the same day

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/52589000/jpg/_52589579_011904950-1.jpg
"My thumbs have gone all weird!"

Norn Iron really slow at counting eh?

PARTY 	COUNCIL 	+/- 	ASSEMBLY 	+/-
DUP 	0 		0 	23 	0
SF 	0 		0 	15 	0
UUP 	0 		0 	6 	0
SDLP 	0 		0 	4 	0
AP 	0 		0 	3 	0
OTH 	0 		0 	0 	0
After 0 of 18 constituencies declared

I suppose the best shot at constitutional reform is still through europe.

― ogmor, Friday, May 6, 2011 6:28 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

lol democracy

in order to save democracy we have to over-rule democracy

obv like a good democrat i am just hoping democracy will spring from the ground like lifestream & overwhelm all parliamentary shenanigans & bureaucratic powerbases. but maybe it'll find slightly less resistance w/ the EU despite the way it's forced through the lisbon treaty.

Clegg's lost his shit already. Beautiful.

kind of feel like the worst thing that could happen to the NHS is nick clegg opposing Conservative plans for it

Especially when he's only opposing them in a post election show of defiance.

New guidelines to be shared with Lib Dem headquarters:

Staff working for jobcentres and other Department for Work and Pensions contractors have been given guidelines on how to deal with suicide threats from claimants as the squeeze on benefits takes hold.

A document sent to jobcentre staff in April details what it calls a "new policy for all DWP businesses to help them manage suicide and self-harm declarations from customers".

OMG:

Universities shakeup could allow UK students to enrol in college of their choice as long as they pay vastly higher fees up front

Teenagers from the wealthiest families would be able to pay for extra places at the most competitive universities under government proposals that could allow institutions to charge some British students the same high fees as overseas undergraduates.

Candidates who take up the extra places would not be eligible for publicly funded loans to pay tuition fees or living costs, limiting this option to all but the most privileged households who could pay fees up front.

Under the plans, the extra students may be charged as much as international undergraduates. At the most competitive universities, these students face fees ranging from £12,000 a year for arts subjects to £18,000 for sciences and more than £28,000 for medicine. Applicants would be required to meet the course entry requirements.

The changes would give more students the chance to attend their first choice of university. At present, the government sets a quota of undergraduate places that English universities are allowed to offer each year.

Employers and charities will also be encouraged to sponsor "off-quota" places under the plans to be outlined in a higher education white paper in the summer.

Ministers argue that the creation of extra places will boost social mobility by freeing up more publicly subsidised places for undergraduates from poorer homes.

But the proposals are likely to be criticised as a means for the wealthiest to "buy places" at a time when the government is to cut 10,000 publicly funded places.

Under one version of the scheme, universities might operate a "needs-blind" admissions process, which assesses all candidates regardless of their ability to pay, but then offers places off-quota to candidates from the most privileged homes.

!!!

and to think i thought oxbridge grads were already too fucking insufferable.

Ministers argue that the creation of extra places will boost social mobility by freeing up more publicly subsidised places for undergraduates from poorer homes.

good lord i can't even

Trickle Down Education

need a bit more evidence: the government doesn't currently determine admissions policy (not directly like this)

Candidates who take up the extra places would not be eligible for publicly funded loans to pay tuition fees or living costs, limiting this option to all but the most privileged households who could pay fees up front.

this is a really weird way of putting it.

xp, yeah, the fact that government does not have the power over HE to do the things the article says "could happen" seems like something they might have mentioned, alongside the two quotes they got, i.e. the month-old one from cable saying it would be a bad idea, and the new one from willits quote saying he thinks charities should be able to sponsor students.

Populus’s monthly poll for the Times is published today. Topline figures with changes from last month are CON 37%(+1), LAB 39%(-1), LDEM 11%(nc). There’s no obvious sign of a post-election drop for the Lib Dems here, but it is the smaller Labour lead Populus have recorded since last year.

Populus also asked some questions on whether the Lib Dems entering coalition has had any positive impact on their image – 38% of people think that by entering coalition the Liberal Democrats have shown they are a “responsible party of government”, 37% think they have shown that “coalition governments can be strong and decisive”, 30% that the Lib Dems have made a difference and 36% that a vote for the Lib Dems is not a wasted vote. Compared to the proportion of the public who say they’d vote Liberal Democrat these are all very positive findings…alas, I expect we’ll find once we see the detailled tables that most of these warm opinions come from Conservative voters who may think it’s good of the Lib Dems to support a Tory government, but wouldn’t actually vote for them.

Finally Populus asked people too look at a list of words for the three party leaders and say which three they most associated with them. Alas, the Times presents the findings as wordles, rather than duller but infinitely more usuable tables, but peering at the font sizes it looks to me like the words most associated with Clegg were “Out of his depth”, followed by “Weak” then “out of touch”. Ed Miliband is most associated with the words “Out of his depth”, followed by “weak”, then it looks like a close call between “Out of touch”, “smug” and “weird”. David Cameron is the only leader to have a positive term in his top three – he is seen as “Determined”, followed by the far less positive “Smug” and “Arrogant” – I’ll have a better look at these once we get some numbers.

The only remaining Lib Dem opposition member on Leicester City Council says he is open to forming a coalition with the only remaining Tory.

[...]

If they paired up, one would be entitled to £1,294 annually as group leader, while the other could claim £2,768 as group whip. Coun Porter said money was not the reason behind his willingness to work with Coun Grant, and said he would donate his share to charity if a coalition was formed.

However, Coun Grant said: "I don't have a great deal of respect for him so it would be difficult for us to work together.

"I can work with people who I don't particularly like, but not those who I don't respect."

So, he's not like Cameron, who can.

The background to that is that Grant suspended Porter as a councillor, Porter then joined the LDs and leaked an email about the whole thing to the local rags political editor who put it on his blog. All quite amusing. I should imagine they will sit at seperate ends of the council table with the 50 Lab councillors keeping them apart.

More local politics

David Laws 'broke six MP's expenses rules'

Hopefully should keep the little creep out of the goverment for a while yet

Prime Minister David Cameron will reportedly back an independent review which could recommend that expressions of affection between gay couples be restricted to after-9pm.

Editors would do well to get Russell T Davies, Jonathan Harvey, Sarah Waters and Shaun Duggan (writer of Brookie lesbo kiss script) on the attack.

just to temporarily think the best of him for a moment, even only in terms of his capacity for political calculation: i can't imagine he would support something so obviously symbolically negative, for such minimal reward. i don't know that LGBT issues have really come up much so far ..?, this government (totally open to being corrected here, maybe i was distracted)?, but through the campaign there were a lot of instances of DC trying awkwardly & failingly to shrug off accusations of being anti-gay, through shaky & shitty interviews (maybe with attitude, i forget).

You're maybe thinking of this?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/mar/24/david-cameron-stumbles-gay-rights

Don't understand what you're trying to say there. Seems to me Cameron is hyper-sensitive, to the point of neurosis, about two things: being seen as posh/privileged and being seen to be an old-fashioned "nasty" Tory. (xp)

yeah, that's right. and so supporting a bill which would make a pretty minor change to the landscape of the country but loudly signify HIDE IT AWAY GAYS would not be the kind of thing he would be into.

ps thx onimo that's right. think the guy actively & ridiculously denies voting to re-up clause 28 within the past ten years.

He can't help himself sometimes tho, the mask slips

i need schooling w/this, & i was trying to think of what broadly 'social' issues the coalition has raised so far, and kind of blanking. most of the things that would have a targeted social effect have been raised as ostensibly economical measures, ie disability support and community services. but have they done much else? there's the (positive) re-jig of maternity/paternity leave, and the (terrible) marriage allowance thing. what else is there?

suicide counselling for dole offices

and Cameron doing the odd "send the buggers back" speech in code

I wonder if Clegg's comment about voters in the North remembering Thatcher got under Cameron's skin, I saw him interviewed yesterday and he was going on about how he had changed the Conservative Party and it wasn't the same blah blah blah, haven't heard him use that spiel since they won the election I think. Having said that, the Tories, nasty or not, aren't exactly losing support.

He can't help himself sometimes tho, the mask slips

yeah i don't know, i just don't get this - like that it's something he's obviously sensitive about makes me feel like he isn't going to just drift into it. that doing so would align him with various gross aspects of conservative history makes it seem weird.
xxxp

Pretty sure this story is bullshit "I am down with the gays and black people" is basially the be-all-and-end-all of Cameron's so-called social liberalism and it's too precious to his own image to throw it away for no reason. The only reason he'd do it would be as a sop to the Tory Right (yeah I know) and given local election results he shouldn't need to do that right now. It's more likely that the Sun is in the early stages of getting a bandwagon rolling here.

But yeah that comment of Clegg's visibly annoyed Cameron. If the two of them don't fucking hate each other now they will soon.