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

he will never be pm

there i said it

The Tories definitely have a common touch at the moment.

Who doesn't hate people on benefits, and fat cat public service workers? Here I am, trying to bring up my kids, getting screwed over by tax to pay for people who can't be bothered working, etc.

Who doesn't hate people on benefits, Here I am, trying to bring up my kids, getting screwed over by tax to pay for people who can't be bothered working, etc.

Must be tough being a model citizen? I hope you don't teach your children to hate so easily?
The daily mail's waiting for your comments!

By which I mean, there's a large body of people, enfranchised enough in the political system to vote, whose attitudes and concerns align more or less entirely with current tory policy. Real people - who vote but aren't interested in 'politics', or what some economist has to say about whether or not austerity will work. It's like a family with a credit card, yes?

NMV upthread, of course.

Negative solidarity is definitely a real phenomena - if I'm being screwed over at work, with wage cuts and hour cuts and precarity, and an improvement to my situation looks extremely unlikely, then my almost inevitable response is instead to want everyone else to have it just as bad as me.

lol the english character in a nutshell

my almost inevitable response is instead to want everyone else to have it just as bad as me.

As a squeezed middler I'm not sure I agree. I can pissed off about my own situation (year after year of pay freezes, increased pension contributions, increased transport and fuel costs, cuts to my tax credits, ever present spectre of job being cut) and still oppose bedroom tax and corrupt welfare to work practices and cuts to disability benefits and racist vans.

frankly bizarre

Asked whether he and his brother are “like” the Milibands, Boris Johnson said: “Absolutely not. We don't do things that way, that's a very left-wing thing ... only a socialist could do that to his brother, only a socialist could regard familial ties as being so trivial as to shaft his own brother.
“I mean, unbelievable. Only lefties can think like that ... they see people as discrete agents devoid of ties to society or to each other, and that's how Stalin could murder 20 million people.”

this is perhaps more terrifying though:

In an interview with The Australian newspaper, Boris Johnson was asked whether his brother could become Prime Minister before him. He replied: “I think it very likely and I think he'd be brilliant.”

kill them all

and that's how Stalin could murder 20 million people
and that's how Stalin could murder 20 million people
and that's how Stalin could murder 20 million people
and that's how Stalin could murder 20 million people
and that's how Stalin could murder 20 million people

lol boris amirite

Something something marital ties, something something shaft Petronella Wyatt....

It seems futile to pick him up on his ramblings at this stage, though.

i dont really think of johnson as a person so much as the incarnate wish-fulfillment of the evening standard and the bloodless vermin that predominate in the lower reaches of the city

yep

only a socialist could do that to his brother, only a socialist could regard familial ties as being so trivial as to shaft his own brother.

Wives are a different matter though, eh Boris?

Only lefties can think like that

is Godwin's Law still a thing and which subsection mentions Thatcher bcz

(things which didn't need posted but I had to give some kind of futile shrug to the ILX-choir while we're still in the vestry putting on our surplices away from the eyes of the LOL BORIS LEGERND congregation, or uh something)

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/aug/24/ed-miliband-labour-opinium-poll-ratings

on one level this is just a manifestation of the moronic TV personality non-democracy that passes for our political system

and on another level well the Labour party is dead lol who gives a shit

BUT how long is it going to take to realise that EMil is just never going to go over with vast swathes of ordinary, hard-working, pig-thick wankers who are allowed to vote for some reason?

the prospect of a working Tory majority after the next election is so horrible that everybody who isn't a dyed in the wool libertarian mentalist should be doing everything in their power to find some kind of credible opposition, and i don't mean sticking a flat cap on Ed and making him watch football

Two days left on the Migrant access to the NHS consultation. Act now to keep those awful people out of our GP surgeries.

http://consultations.dh.gov.uk/overseas-healthcare/migrant_access

Oh, it's the border agency one that closes in two days: http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/policyandlaw/consultations/34-healthcare/

The Government could not contain its fury. “No 10 and the Foreign Office think Miliband is a f****** c*** and a copper-bottomed s***. The French hate him now and he’s got no chance of building an alliance with the US Democratic Party,” said one Government source.

ok lol

(from this morning's times)

Seriously? Isn't that from the david cameron loltwitterfeed i follow?

I know right. 'Govt source' clearly very tired and emotional.

This is like a chinese burn they weren't expecting.

It's like that Day Today vignette (or was it Brasseye?) with the minister walking out of No 10 and letting loose a volley of f-bombs.

Life imitates Chris Morris, I guess.

someone's got to replace Malcolm Tucker now he's off to play Dr Who.

LOOOOOOOL they don't like it up 'em, do they?

What they forget because of their hatecrush on Len McCluskey et al: Miliband won the leadership not because of 'trade unions' but because he was the only viable candidate who didn't have dirty hands over Iraq.

there is virtually nothing more despicable than uk govt pussyholes getting upset because they can't get to participate (provide 1-2% of ordinance and a political filigree) in a bombing campaign

dude it's a regrettable and measured response to an unspeakable violation of international law, i'm sure none of these guys get a bone-on at the thought of playing armchair missile command

they've got intelligence dossiers and everything

Downing Street also released a statement, based on the formal legal advice by the attorney general, Dominic Grieve, that limited military strikes to deter future chemical weapons attacks would be in line with international law.

This always makes me laugh. iirc Dominic Grieve's specialism is occupational health and safety regulations. He'll have asked for expert advice from someone whose answer he knew would be "yes" in advance. Had he wanted a "no" he'd have asked the expert advice of someone else.

there's probably no chance of an internation lawyer being appointed attorney general precisely because they might be expected to know something about international law and be more obviously compromised when they have to sign off on something unlawful

International law has so many grey areas you can usually find someone with excellent credentials who will say that the case you're trying to make is, at least, arguable. The fact that the case will never actually have to be argued in front of a court makes it easier.

The expert who signed off the invasion of Iraq genuinely believed that there was a case for saying that it was legal. He was one of the top people in the field, too. He was just in a tiny minority who felt that way.

are there lawyers/barristers/solicitors that will tell you that a case is not arguable? if you are offering them money if they will argue that case?

yes but that was christopher greenwood not the attorney general imbecile goldsmith

goldsmith doesn't seem to have any international law background which would have helped in coming to the conclusion that the iraq war was lawful

Yes, absolutely. The AG generally doesn't have any kind of academic or legal reputation in any field, i think. They aren't really expected to know anything other than who to ask for the right advice.

Which is understandable given the breadth of their role and the narrow specialisms most lawyers have.

with syria i would guess the international law bros are more eveninly split than they were in iraq, and the evidence for assad's use of chemical weapons is probably better than the iraq 'evidence'

Yeah. The Iraq justification was based on a creative interpretation of a UN resolution. This is being justified under the idea of humanitarian intervention which is much harder to rebut. There is no law that lets you intervene in civil wars unilaterally but, at the same time, it has been done quite a few times in the past so you can point to precedent.

tempted to suggest that specific expertise is usually avoided when making any ministerial appointments

else you end up with someone like estelle morris whose experience of teaching caused her to realize she wasn't very good at administering education

haha sometimes i love the guardian still

Miliband was already angry after a government source used expletives overnight to criticise Miliband. A government source told the Times on Wednesday night: "No 10 and the Foreign Office think Miliband is a fucking cunt and a copper-bottomed shit."

the phrasing 'a government source' makes it sound like they had a cabinet meeting and that was their official conclusion, time to write up the press release.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23892783

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9u5zqKvC7E

British MPs have voted to reject possible military action against the Assad regime in Syria to deter the use of chemical weapons.

A government motion was defeated 285 to 272, a majority of 13 votes.

Good stats for context here - http://nottspolitics.org/2013/08/29/why-the-outcome-of-the-commons-vote-on-syria-is-difficult-to-predict/ - and interesting line on the rise of backbench since 2003. Govt hasn't lost a vote on military action in 100 years.