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

Maybe David Cameron can promise to have a cup of tea with her to sort it out:

One of the biggest private sector partners for the government’s welfare-to-work programme has hit back at critics following the disclosure that police are investigating possible fraud at the company.

A4e, which makes its income entirely from government contracts, has been under scrutiny for weeks after it emerged that its founder and chairman, Emma Harrison, was paid £8.6m in an annual dividend for 2010, mainly from taxpayers’ money.

It has since emerged that the police are looking into fraud allegations at the company. Police officers visited the company’s Slough headquarters on Friday.

In a statement the Thames Valley force said its officers had gone to the premises “as part of an allegation of fraud, which was referred to the force by the department for work and pensions”.

A4e declined to comment on reports that the company allegedly claimed funding for putting clients into jobs that lasted only a day.

Margaret Hodge, who chairs the Public Accounts Committee, charged with scrutinising whether government programmes deliver value for money for the taxpayer, has tabled a parliamentary question in which she demands that the department suspend its contracts with A4e until the police investigation has been completed.

Company that runs welfare-to-work programme found to be scumbags, what a shockah!

Lansley to the rescue... of the Labour Party. Thing that I don't get is who are all these people who are still supporting the Lib Dems?

Can't hear his name now without going "Andrew Lansley GREEDY Andrew Lansley TOSSER" in my head.

Can't hear his name now without going "Andrew Lansley GREEDY Andrew Lansley TOSSER" in my head.

my gf and i are exactly the same way...

you are both GREEDY TOSSERs?

if we're at a buffet then yes

Minister disappointed by shortened Adele speech.

The healing has begun.

Mr Cameron said he was "sick of anti-business snobbery".

"In recent months we've heard some dangerous rhetoric creep into our national debate that wealth creation is somehow anti-social”

I wonder why that might be you posh, upper class twat?

"In recent months we've heard some dangerous rhetoric creep into our national debate that grinding the faces of the poor is somehow anti-social"

nah seriously tho Dave good on ya. just think where we'd be without all these new private sector careers you've created.

"Put a young person into college for a month's learning, unpaid, and it's hailed a good thing.

"Put a young person into a supermarket for a month's learning, unpaid, and it's slammed as slave labour. Put a child into a great school run by a local authority – cause for celebration. Put them into a great school backed by a bank – and that is a cause for suspicion. Frankly I am sick of this anti-business snobbery."

Put a young person into college for a month's learning, unpaid, and it's hailed a good thing.

yeah we run a lot of dead useful month-long courses you nob

"Put a young person into college for a month's learning, unpaid, and it's hailed a good thing.

"Put a young person into a supermarket for a month's learning, unpaid, and it's slammed as slave labour.

did he actually say that?? i thought i'd used up my reserves of disgust already this month, but...

Its weird how I talk about D-Camz the same way my father talks about M-Thatchz, in so much as every other sentence is 'Would like to piss on their grave'. I think this NHS thing is when I really started to up my true anti-tory rhetoric and hate.

Warms the cockles that the young 'uns are learning the old ways vis a vis Tories being lower than vermin. I hate Clegg more though.

ch✧✧✧.grayl✧✧✧@d✧✧.g✧✧.u✧

shit guys I just the government's emails!!!!1

You've lost me

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9699000/9699350.stm

He is useless. First Gove with the Trots opposing his academies plasns and now Grayling with the SWP, reds under the beds or what?

look the SWP are a very real threat to democracy in this country

heard that live thursday night and still thought you meant ac grayling

Invited to respond to these issues, a Gove spokesman declined to comment.

This is going to be huge in the long term. I can see Murdoch moving away from news and media and towards education.

He's not really going to be around for the long-term, but I think there's a difference between providing online education materials and actually running a school. That article is about the former but heavily implying the latter. I wouldn't want Murdoch anywhere near a school but the article's being a tad dishonest.

Would love to see him try and make that tablet education model work in a Kennington comp though.

John Bird, writing in The Times:

Much of the controversy about work placements has been absurd and naive. Tesco was started by Jack Cohen. He worked off a barrow in the East End nearly a century ago. He started his business to make money and Tesco has never erred from that concern ever since. So, of course, there should be no surprise that when Tesco entered the scheme - before getting cold feet and withdrawing - it wanted to maximise the benefits that free labour brings them.

I assume that's not John Bird the satirist, but John Bird the Tory class traitor?

it's not my grandad

You know what really helps young people into work? Offering them jobs.

Works for all ages!

Amazing austerity news:

Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport Jeremy Hunt said: “This is great news. It shows what can be achieved when determination, goodwill and a tremendous amount of generosity come together. I am very pleased that we have been able to play our part by freeing up the National Gallery’s reserves, diverting more money to arts and heritage from the National Lottery and taking practical steps to encourage greater philanthropy. Diana and Callisto is a breathtakingly beautiful work of art and I am immensely grateful to everyone who has helped to keep it and its companion painting Diana and Actaeon in the UK in perpetuity.”

If you can afford it, you can't afford to be without it

Riiiiiight....

Dunno how much if any Treasury money was involved in that Titian deal but I don't really have a problem with an undisputed masterpiece being saved for one of London's big tourist attractions in an environment where it can be viewed by anyone for free.

Yeah, worse things are happening... at sea and elsewhere

Indeed, it seems like pretty terrible things are happening at sea at the moment.

I actually love the painting. Just think that website is vile.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/mar/02/police-privatisation-security-firms-crime?CMP=twt_gu

SHITSTORM INCOMING.

That is fucking insane

If I submit the winning bid, how many free police horses do I get?

as long as somebody builds Robocop i am cool with this

This is the UK, so it'll look like this...
http://i.thisislondon.co.uk/i/pix/2010/09/alansugar415.jpg
"Dead or alive, you're fired!"

no wait, like this...
http://www.hecklerspray.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/alan-sugar.jpg

a Robocop with a Jeremy Kyle face wd be fucking awesome

Mr Johnson said [Livingstone] presided over "a bunch of Trotskyist, car-hating, Hugo Chavez idolising, newt-fancying hypocrites and bendy bus fetishists".

wtf is 'newt-fancying'?

Everyone's favourite fact about Ken when he ran the GLC was that he kept newts.

the monster.

Lib Dems tentatively reaching out to see what remains of their student support

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/9125909/Students-should-face-paying-council-tax-Lib-Dems-say.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17275884

Blatantly leaked it himself.

Think this is the thread for this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17260020

pathetic wannabe stand-up comedian with zero political credibility told to stand down by Lembit Opik