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

What are you really annoyed about?

I'm annoyed about this shitty govt and I don't really see what GMTV has to do with it but if that's how you process stuff then get on with it

I'd argue that as an ex-GMTV presenter, one should not complain about the demographic that provided a great deal of one's viewers and thusly a sizeable slice of the ratings which kept one salaried and clothed in low-level designer fashions.

Really, what is it with Scousers who become rich and turn Tory? Is there some kind of extended self-denial going on, or is it some form of rebellion against their having to grow up in socialist Liverpool?

Low-level designer fashion oh the shame

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10591755/Iain-Duncan-Smith-welfare-reform-is-like-struggle-against-slavery.html

they just keep topping themselves

I'm sure that's the hoped for outcome.

Oh wait, you meant the tories topping their own rhetoric, yeah, that too.

Mr Duncan Smith said people should stop “disapproving” of people on benefits, whom he terms “our fellow citizens”, and instead blame politicians for creating a failing welfare system that traps people on benefits.
The current benefits system encourages people to turn to crime and the cash-in-hand economy because they are penalised for earning money legitimately, he said.
But he indicated the Government is preparing a crackdown on in-work tax credits, which cost £170bn a year between 2003 and 2010, saying some families spend the extra money on drink and drugs while their children go unfed.

well that lasted a whole paragraph

http://politicalscrapbook.net/2014/01/tory-councillor-matthew-palmer-checks-shares-in-cuts-meeting/

saying some families spend the extra money on drink and drugs while their children go unfed.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18391663

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51gTiYjxpSL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg

would facebook have been better/worse than shares?

http://politicalscrapbook.net/2014/01/labour-councillor-checks-guardian-food-blog-in-cuts-meeting/

I can't work out if IDS is a cretin or an evil cunt or both

...but Evil Cretin seems to fit tbh

... do not underestimate the determination of an evil cretin, to paraphrase an evil cretin

From a Nick Cohen article a while ago:

One told me that I and other opponents of the coalition did not understand the Conservative party's leading figures. Cameron had a human face. He may be tetchy and rude in private, but if he saw that a government policy was causing avoidable harm, there was a faint chance he would change it. Iain Duncan Smith had a Christian conscience and did not like seeing suffering. He was a "decent" man, despite everything. If you showed him he was hurting people, he was hurt in turn.

But George Osborne… well, Osborne was another matter. He was like a computer program. You couldn't appeal to his better nature, or to any notion of the public good.

Iain Duncan Smith had a Christian conscience and did not like seeing suffering. He was a "decent" man, despite everything. If you showed him he was hurting people, he was hurt in turn.

I mean clearly this is bollocks right?

Suspect this means hurt as in 'bays like wounded dog when challenged on Question Time'.

Feeling the hurt

http://i3.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article2942256.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/Ian-Duncan-Smith-and-Esther-McVey-2942256.jpg

Suspect this means hurt as in 'bays like wounded dog when challenged on Question Time'.

What he does he shout and puts on a pathetic show of anger if anyone dare doubt his decency and Christian conscience

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SKCN8--wISc/T4AEwoViSRI/AAAAAAAAAZk/k5CA00HG0CM/s1600/invasion-of-the-body-snatchers-1978.jpg

so the lobbying/gagging bill has gone through minus any amendment to exempt charities from electoral law, & leaving a super vague definition of campaigning for electoral purposes

I don't understand our complicated medieval political system, but can someone please explain to me how "the vote is a tie" means we have to have it anyway?

Tied votes

If the vote is tied - which is very unusual - in the Commons the Speaker has the casting vote. The Speaker casts his vote according to what was done in similar circumstances in the past. Where possible the issue should remain open for further discussion and no final decision should be made by a casting vote.

In the Lords, the Lord Speaker does not have a casting vote. Instead, the tied vote is resolved according to established rules (called the Standing Orders).

http://www.parliament.uk/about/how/business/divisions/

http://www.election.demon.co.uk/ties.html

Thanks, Ken.

I guess it is this bit
"The final rule is that the Speaker, in any division upon a bill, should vote to leave a bill in its existing form. "

which I guess must have trumped this bit
"The Speaker should vote so as not to decide the question - in other words, to give the House the opportunity for further debate on an issue. Therefore, if there is a tie on a division such as a Second Reading vote, where failure would kill the Bill being debated, the Speaker will always vote to continue the Bill"

They're joking with this school 9-6, 45 weeks of the year stuff surely? Christ, I'd never have survived school if it was these hours. 8am-2.15pm was bad enough.

Dunno how Laurence Sterne managed with his 6 am-8 pm, seven days a week hours.

he died in his late 40s iirc

He was 54. That wasn't bad for the 18th century.

I wonder whether zero hours opt-out schooling will be an option.

anyway i don't think historical models of treating children like chattels are useful comparisons to our existing education system

Oh, the irony.

i'm aware of how bad it is now, i just thought you were saying "hey it could be worse" which, while strictly true...

I think it’s coming full circle.

it's worse in many ways, the old model tended to use brutish methods to inculcate knowledge that was considered necessary and improving for civilized adults, the new model uses technocrat methods to turn children into machine tools

i thought this new model is to turn school into baby sitters so that parents can work longer hours

sorry, that too

They're joking with this school 9-6, 45 weeks of the year stuff surely? Christ, I'd never have survived school if it was these hours. 8am-2.15pm was bad enough.

long school hours is v much an ARK schools thing - it goes along with their super rigid focus on discipline, school as controlling influence. Wouldn't be any sort of surprise if Gove wanted to take their academies as a model for all schools.

Don't understand the ARK system at all. How can "high achieving" and "non-selective" not contradict each other?

i suppose they believe that anyone can be made to be "high achieving"

That's dangerous socialist talk is that.

when oh when will the organizations that founded the Labour party stop trying to influence the Labour party?

How about when the Labour party stops standing for the interests of the working man/woman? Oh wait...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BS81PTvIYAAyS6C.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BS81ccHIgAAVmpv.jpg

the guantanamo threads all seem dead, idk where it should go