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

SHE MARRIED LIAM FOX SHE DESERVES EVERYTHING SHE GETS

People threw websites in lieu of confetti!

xp yeah that thought crossed my mind too!

Phil Hammond new Defence Secretary.

Clearly a Murdoch influence:

http://i.imgur.com/ptueW.png

Did we cover Tony Blair helping controversial government of Kazakhstan yet or do we just shrug, think 'how very surprising' and move on to the Guardian shop?

LOL Tories

"Definitely not a disaster" = total disaster.

I always suspected Europe would come back and bite the Tories. On the down side, all this nonsense makes a referendum that bit more likely.

Yeah, when half of your backbenchers defy a three line whip to vote against you that is "definitely not a disaster"

The funny thing is that a row with the French should play quite well with the back benches. It wouldn't surprise me if the Sarkosy argument was staged.

Didn't work though did it? Is there any doubt that the current batch of Tory MPs is the most right wing ever? In spite of Cameron's "reforms".

Though what party isn't "the most right wing ever", tbf

These whips are issued to MPs in the form of a letter outlining the Parliamentary schedule, with a sentence such as "Your attendance is absolutely essential" next to each debate in which there will be a vote, underlined one, two or three times according to the severity of the whip

I did not know this.

hence the phrase "three line whip"

dunno how this is a disaster for Cameron really, he gets his way, his party gets to look hard to the sizeable chunk of the public that wants out of the EU, status quo continues, undemocratic super-state lumbers on

Having the worst ever rebellion by Tory MPs on a European vote, twice as bad as John Major ever managed, doesn't look great on your CV

Esp. if, as it seems to be the case, it's been provoked by your ineptitude and mismanagement

Then to deny there was any sort of issue!

xxp I suppose that a referendum might force the EU to look at the democratic deficit, but surely it could only be a disaster for the UK and (less so) the EU itself? Not saying that the EU is by any means perfect, but engagement is better than some spurious Atlanticist fairy tale, IMO.

in all honesty i'm not sure what's so great about it, and if somebody who sort of gives a shit about lol politics doesn't have a clue then there's a problem for the electorate at large.

the "rebellion" is just woo parliamentary sports fan shit, doesn't make an iota of difference to their electability

But it's the woo parliamentary sports fans (Nick Robinson et al) who frame these stories for the rest of us, and if those guys start thinking "sinking ship" it will come through in news stories, the tone of which I think that can have very serious consequences for a party's electability.

Wishful thinking of course but it's cumulative, it was just 'woo parliamentary sports fan shit' in Major's time too after all

spunking the nation's money up the wall on the ERM with irl economic consequences plus a spate of high profile MPs taking bungs is a bit wider-reaching than college green groupies.

Indeed, took him two terms to get there though, Fatboy's on his way there after one year

i fully understand the desire to want to see everything as a big hole under the waterline but there's zero credible opposition and no prospect of any political solution to problems that the whole of our political system has decided are forces of nature that we shd grimace at and suck up.

at this stage i'm more intrigued by the consensus across all shades of our parliamentary political spectrum that the EU must be saved at all costs. i can see why nutters might think of that as some kind of confederacy of dunces.

These whips are issued to MPs in the form of a letter outlining the Parliamentary schedule, with a sentence such as "Your attendance is absolutely essential" next to each debate in which there will be a vote, underlined one, two or three times according to the severity of the whip

I did not know this.

― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 25 October 2011 04:06 (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Neither did I, I always thought it meant 3 lines of Malcom Tuckeresque eviscera expounding on the doom that would befall an MP who voted against the party line.

i always imagined it was like a cat o' nine tails but with only three tails.

assumed it had something to do with cocaine

Yeah, I remember this.

One line is "be there plz"

Two lines is "Be there, unless you are pairing off with someone voting against, in which case say so and whom.

Three lines is "be there unless you are dying, and even then only if the leader says it's ok"

Got taught this at school. Wot are they teeachin' youfs these days?

At my school we learnt the skills that would enable us not to have to slum it as a backbench MP. ;-P

But it's the woo parliamentary sports fans (Nick Robinson et al) who frame these stories for the rest of us, and if those guys start thinking "sinking ship" it will come through in news stories, the tone of which I think that can have very serious consequences for a party's electability.

This won't happen properly until such time as the press decide they want Cameron to lose. Editors have to make a policy decision to start really shitting on him, as they did with Major and Brown. Don't see that happening with Cam for a while, partly because those editors that backed him last year will look like clowns.

Also this sort of posturing over the EU will help rebel Tory MPs more than it hinders them at the next election, especially if said MPs will be hit by boundary changes in the meantime.

I don't know about that, who else are Eurosceptic Tory voters going to vote for anyway? UKIP? Not in a general election.

It'll help if they're in competition with a less anti-European Tory MP for the nomination in a redrawn constituency.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/8849420/Give-firms-freedom-to-sack-unproductive-workers-leaked-Downing-Street-report-advises.html

:O

Mr Beecroft concedes that a “downside” under his new scheme is that employers could fire staff because they “did not like them”.

“While this is sad I believe it is a price worth paying for all the benefits that would result from the change”, he says.

the beginning of the end

even the daily mail comments box is angered by this, at least

MPs voting this thru wd be like turkeys voting for christmas

employers are left fearful of expanding because new staff may prove “unknown quantities”

The only venture capitalist ever to disagree with the philosophy of "speculate to accumulate"?

assume this is the old "leak Libertarian nutbar plan that we know will never get thru parliament then hit up parliament with some 'moderate' reductions in worker rights that sail straight thru" shuffle

“While this is sad I believe it is a price worth paying for all the benefits that would result from the change”, he says.

I thought the Government was going to abolish benefits.

the job-creators can only create jobs if they can get rid of jobs

assume this is the old "leak Libertarian nutbar plan that we know will never get thru parliament then hit up parliament with some 'moderate' reductions in worker rights that sail straight thru" shuffle

^this

If anyone out there seriously believes this will only affect 'unproductive' workers then they'll believe any old shit. You can sack unproductive workers already if you can prove they're unproductive.

I'd have been sacked from my current job if this legislation was already on the books.

I found it interesting that the Eurosceptics being interviewed on R4 earlier this week used as their first argument the idea that EU regulations were stifling growth. Of all the things they might object to, workers' rights are top of the list. These, of course, being the same people who spent the past three decades arguing for less and less regulation on, say, the financial industry, which worked out brilliantly.

assume this is the old "leak Libertarian nutbar plan that we know will never get thru parliament then hit up parliament with some 'moderate' reductions in worker rights that sail straight thru" shuffle

http://cache.dealbreaker.com/uploads/2010/11/drudge-siren1.gif Attention, this overton window is shifting. Attention, this overton window is shifting. http://cache.dealbreaker.com/uploads/2010/11/drudge-siren1.gif

Yeah it's nonsense, they're not even thinking, it's just either ideological blinkers or just pure cynicism. The thing that's stifling growth is lack of demand and/or confidence and making it easier to sack people won't do anything to change that.

And, y'know, a global financial crisis.

I reckon blinkers... and pigheaded stupidity (xp)

I was leaning towards pure cynicism myself but hey.