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

xps
Talking of which...

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/music/news/a349958/blurs-alex-james-apologises-as-harvest-festival-hits-administration.html

See, we really are all in this together, etc.

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/56694000/jpg/_56694763_unemp464x248.jpg

feel like it doesnt matter that the labour party dont have a charismatic leader or any policy or anything, they should just turn this into a sticker and swot it on cams head everytime he gets up to speak in parliament.

Dunno tbh if you zoomed in on the last few years it tells you unemployment ramped up under Gordon Brown and Cam has stopped the rot while reducing the total claimants.

Yeah a large section of the population would view reducing claimant numbers as a worthy achievement, irrespective of whether (or especially when) unemployment is not falling.

Not sure who's going to be on the streets protesting about the plight of people on benefits tbh

Combination of lefty usual suspects and the thousands of people out on the street smashing stuff up because they suddenly can't afford to live. The idea of the working poor and the fact that a sizeable proportion of benefit claimants are already in jobs is seemingly completely edited out of public discourse. Obviously this is 1x massive failure on Labour's part.

Did anyone see that horrible episode of Police Camera Action dressed up as an 'England Riots' episode of Panorama last night?

Briefly, not enough to make an impression either way.

I find those PCA shows fascinating, from the viewpoint of 'blatant editorialising'..

Commentator: "hurn.. not so smart now, banged up overnight!"
(....)
Commentator: "he was later released without chaaarge..."

'Look at this bozo...What is he thinkin'?'

Nah, I grew up thinking shows like Dispatches and Panorama were supposed to be gritty, unbiased, hard-factual documentaries but this was about 25 minutes of footage of people throwing bricks at cops while police chiefs go on about "wanton violence and destruction". The penultimate 4 minutes they asked "Is there maybe a reason why this is happening? And are the gaol sentences too harsh and generalised for crimes such as nicking a pack of fags or telling a policeman to fuck off?". And in the last minute a police chief came on and said "no, it's wanton violence and destruction". And then it ended.

The first show I saw Paul Ross presenting was one of those "Police 5"/"Crimewatch" type shows. The first part was the usual (and reasonable) "do you recognise this lad breaking into a granny's house" type stuff.

Part two were freeze-frames of the anti-polltax demonstration and "If you know this girl, ring Westminster police on ..."

At that point, I decided I did not like Paul Ross.

Funnily enough, nothing he's done has been good enough to revise that opinion (his bro J has at least done the occasional interesting thing)..

Anarchy in the UK: 20 years on from the Poll Tax & Strangeways riots

Can't wait for Dave's impression of Goodluck Jonathan.

Ed Miliband will call for "more responsible capitalism", amid mounting fears of a double-dip recession and record youth unemployment.

He will follow this up with a call for "less ugly politicians" and "dryer water".

"bankers and protestors should shake hands. that would verse them well in compassion"

Young jobseekers told to work without pay or lose unemployment benefits

Like someone said on FB: "Cunts" is the word.

The first show I saw Paul Ross presenting was one of those "Police 5"/"Crimewatch" type shows

Me too! and he did it so badly that for the first 5-10 minutes I was convinced it was a *spoof* of a "Police 5"/"Crimewatch" type show.

At last my crappy star spotting comes in handy - I once saw Paul Ross and his lovely wife sharing a table with Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and his lovely wife at now defunct London eaterie Mash. I could him from the cheap seats.

you never him

Young jobseekers told to work without pay or lose unemployment benefits

Like someone said on FB: "Cunts" is the word.

Corvee labour.

It's eighties work experience back again. Doesn't begin to replace apprenticeships but it's not exactly Indonesia.

think they pay people in indonesia tbf

tbf they already 'offered' this in pre-coalition days if you were unfortunate enough to be young and six months on JSA, with the alternative being sitting an office 9-5, five days a week, with absolutely nothing to do (hey guys spend the next three hours doing job searches!).

i say tbf, but fuck em rly the cunts.

I can't believe that pledging to lay off half a million public sector workers would damage the economy. Who saw that coming?????

it's funny cos i can do a job search in about 30 mins from home and guess what? there's fuck all jobs

Because your local supermarket is full of kids working for free?

Like I know working in Asda isn't exactly anyone's dream but some people have to and what incentive is there for them to employ anyone else when there's a massive supply of kids being frogmarched in to work for free?

Also there's a lot of speculation out there that Osborne is about to put his hands up and admit they won't eliminate the deficit this parliament AND some reports that they're going to end up borrowing more than Labour. Pretty sure that would just amount to an admission of incompetence and/or idiotic intransigence but that they'll get through it all by blaming the Euro.

and the last government

This has been doing the rounds on Twitter etc., but it's definitely worth a read if you haven't already done so:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/nov/16/why-britain-doesnt-make-things-manufacturing

Good article, I look forward to the radio 3 talk. Also a bonus for a good slagging of Richard FLorida, that guy is a fucknugget of the highest order who has had far too much influence on US/UK economic policy with his shonky research.

The odd thing is that all this techno-utopianism came from men who would struggle to order a book off Amazon. Alistair Campbell tells a story about how Blair got his first-ever mobile phone after stepping down as prime minister in 2007. His first text to Campbell read: "This is amazing, you can send words on a phone."

But indeed, good article. Florida being Cameron's 'guru' is so wrong. This: But what really stuck out was how Florida fenced off creative work. You were either a knowledge worker or a factory worker – as if the other stuff didn't require brains. is so so so otm.

It also chimes with the position of Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary. In July he appeared to echo Gordon Brown's infamous plea for "British jobs for British workers" but has since said that he rejects that in favour of a policy of "getting British workers ready for British jobs".

http://files.list.co.uk/images/w/godot.jpg

how come you haven't used the nemanja vidic ~song~

he comes from serbia, he'll fuckin

as a display name?

a poor ear for a good bad pun.

http://i.imgur.com/7fOTQ.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/7fOTQ.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/7fOTQ.jpg

A Conservative MP has suggested that caps should be put on benefits paid for children in workless households.

http://i.imgur.com/7fOTQ.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/7fOTQ.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/7fOTQ.jpg

In an article for ConservativeHome, backbench MP Harriett Baldwin proposed that unemployed families get child tax credits for no more than four children.

http://i.imgur.com/7fOTQ.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/7fOTQ.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/7fOTQ.jpg

If those who are in a workless household were told that they would not receive additional benefits for any new babies until such time as the household has a wage-earner, work incentives would be stronger.

what to bump, what to bump

hm

Not politics but...

Stephen Lawrence verdict: Dobson and Norris guilty of racist murder
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jan/03/stephen-lawrence-verdict-guilty-murder

In a bid to exercise new regulations to curb "the commercialisation and sexualisation" of childhood, Prime Minister David Cameron has suggested that music videos should perhaps come with age ratings.

This proposal comes in addition to suggestions from Cameron that include banning sexualised images in public advertising and covering up explicit magazine displays. The issues are set to be discussed imminently with retailers and advertisers in the hope of agreeing a new nationwide code of conduct that may be introduced for businesses.

Cameron also wants to stop under-16-year-olds becoming "brand ambassadors" in "peer to peer" marketing campaigns for toys and other goods.

The plans were revealed in a pre-Christmas letter from Children's Minister Sarah Teather to industry figures, seen by the Daily Telegraph, inviting them to meet with Mr. Cameron early this year.

Artists such as Rihanna and Lady Gaga have been criticised for the content of their videos that has been deemed unsuitable for children as well as some outdoor advertising campaigns related to some of their records.

"Cameron also wants to stop under-16-year-olds becoming "brand ambassadors" in "peer to peer" marketing campaigns for toys and other goods."

this seems like a good idea tbh.

the 'age ratings' stuff is ridiculous though - doesn't cameron have children? doesn't he realise that putting "13+" on something is practically a way of guaranteeing that 11-year-olds desperately want to see it?

i can see a point about something like "S & M" not being played out on daytime radio but hey, simple solution to the rest, ban advertising.

"brand ambassadors" in "peer to peer" marketing campaigns for toys and other goods."

Is this like when I go round a friends house and they've got an AT-AT and I want one and I go home and pester my parents to buy one but they don't. Stupid parents.

I notice how they're not falling back on the smug "unless we can get it to work globally it won't work" line here.

broadcasting is one of the few areas where the gov can still exert a good degree of control against global forces i'd've thought

The fuss about Diane Abbott sort of proves what she said, right?

Nadhim Zahawi seems to be the only public figure being a dick about this so I dunno.

ok Clegg too, jesus. seems like such an innocuous discussion of tactics/representation when u read it back but then maybe i lack sufficient pride in my race than to get all lynch-y about it

getting really tired of watching the Great British public and its lol leaders trying to work out what racism is like puzzled 4 year-olds now tho

The Torygraph calls it a “gaffe” (i.e. “saying what you actually think”).

In the end though it’s nothing to do with any race debate and everything to do with pitiful parliamentary points-scoring.