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

xp I like the fact he tried to pass himself off as Andrew McMaster. Not MAX POWER then?

The McMaster Race

The PM and deputy PM described their agreement as a "Ronseal deal" which "does what it says on the tin".

Good to see they're keeping up to date with their cultural references.

they're Jewson useless

That Ronseal thing doesn't actually make any sense.

That depends what it says on the tin, tbf.

They could be on an inspired-by-Piero-Manzoni tip, is what I'm saying.

lol

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/jan/07/nick-clegg-protests-shirkers

Clegg: "I don't think it helps at all to try and portray that decision as one that divides one set of people against another, the deserving and the undeserving poor, people in work and out of work."

O RLY?

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/3341539/.html

What a fucking cunt.

Talking of cunts

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/930812/thumbs/o-TORY-BENEFITS-VOTE-570.jpg?7

Today Labour Are Voting To Maintain a System That Allows Employers to Pay Workers Less Money Than They Need to Live On

what a horribly formed sentence

xp!

Also In Case You Haven't Noticed Workers Wages Have Been Consistently Cut Since We Came to Power

So Really What They're Voting For Is for Benefits To Be Cut Less Aggressively Than Low Paid Workers' Wages

Arbeit Macht Frei, That Will Be All You Plebs

Their sudden concern over public service workers' wages strikes me as, uh, somewhat less than convincing

we're all in this together - not you, tax credit scum

private sector workers have been taking real terms pay cuts as well tho, right? almost as if the current government was creating a climate where that was okay and people were too frightened for their jobs to fight back

"It's just not on, these scroungers and scumbags are getting larger benefits rises than ummmm, the, ummmmm, hard-working public sector workers who we were characterising as layabouts and spongers, uh, last year"

private sector workers have been taking real terms pay cuts as well tho, right? almost as if the current government was creating a climate where that was okay and people were too frightened for their jobs to fight back

Vote Liberal Democrat

Sick of seeing Lib Dems saying, "We don't agree with this characterisation of people on benefits as layabouts and scroungers", in other words "We don't care if you live or die either but at least we're nice about it, you've got to give us that at least"

Ugh. That propaganda is already hanging over the underpass bit of the Holborn one-way system, sandwiched in between American Apparel and some other shite.

I don't think anyone wants to be governed by people who are essentially trolling the 64 per cent of the population who did not vote for them.

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20978487

Tory MPs want to be paid £20k more than Lib & Lab MPs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDHYZtwjFTs

"we are cunts in power."

Fuck me, the next two years worth of tabloid political discourse are going to be even worse than the last few, aren't they?

2017, ffs.

What options does this leave Labour? A) Promise referendum too, which they don't want to do, or b) face endless "why won't you give the people a voice on the hated Europe" shit during election.

It leaves them in trouble from what I can see. Miliband looks weak if he agrees to a referendum and undemocratic if he doesn't. Both promised referendums have the added advantage of shafting Labour from what I can see, especially if Scotland votes for independence.

Given Cameron's already committed to campaign against an exit I doubt this will quite be the boost to the Tories they imagine it will be, and probably not enough to secure them a majority unless something radically changes with the economy. Surely a referendum will be off the table if the Tories have to go back into coalition with the LibDems and much of the right of the country (and the Tory party themselves) will erupt in fury if that happens.

if we leave the EU then its pretty much UK RIP, right?

Yes.

UK leaves EU = we are affected by what happens in the EU but have no say in it.
UK stays in EU = we are affected by what happens in the EU but have some voice and input into EU decisions.

and I find myself agreeing with scourge Cameron AGAIN, Jaysus FUCK

yeah but that tosser also probably likes oxygen and sausages, its okay to agree with him sometimes

The other significant thing that might happen in the near future is the establishment of a US-EU free trade zone. Which Britain would be voluntarily opting out of. Doubt there'd be many European leaders prepared to offer Britain any Norway-style concessions either.

Hence Obama's recent big hint that the UK should stay in the EU.

anything to distract from the economy, and god knows this will do that, as fucked as that is given the dangers of leaving.

Which other EU state will give me a passport?

This is probably not what Cameron wants to focus on as it has torn the party apart every other time it has come up. He has been fairly adept at keeping a lid on it until now.

this looks like the nuclear option to me. and there are a shitload of issues with the EU that some of its more zealous evangelists like to ignore, but this is gonna fuck the UK economy from now until god knows when.

It's a combination of being terrified of the Eurosceptics in his party and wanting to nullify UKIP at the box office. The latter is probably unnecessary (if UKIP get more than a couple of seats I'll be amazed), the former is more of an issue.

It's less about UKIP winning seats and more about UKIP gifting marginals to labour

i dunno, i don't believe UKIP can win a parliamentary seat, and the Eurosceptics are fairly comfortably consigned to the party fringe, i think this does give him a massive advantage over Labour and i feel like that's where it's mainly aimed

Cameron is flailing horribly at pmqs

they must be pretty convinced they're gonna lose the next election unless they pull something like this

This is probably not what Cameron wants to focus on as it has torn the party apart every other time it has come up. He has been fairly adept at keeping a lid on it until now.

― Tullamorte Tullamore (ShariVari), Wednesday, 23 January 2013 11:51 (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

tradeoff: keepng a lid on it until after the next election...

what else is he gonna focus on? can't see the economy improving any time soon, Labour aren't gonna announce any policy commitments before the next election is called - except now presumably they'll have to take a stance on this