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

I suspect what they really want is to kill Mayday, as proposed last year. Too much association with radicalism. Well, they can fuck right off.

bank holidays were invented or codified by a victorian banker iirc

nv is apt with 'insect brains of the economists', fuck all those bawheid dorks, esp the selfconsciously reasonable and modest behavioural economists that the restoration enjoys

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/georgeosborne/9194558/George-Osborne-Im-going-after-the-wealthy-tax-dodgers.html

of course you're 'shocked'.
we believe you george.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/apr/19/metropolitan-police-accused-racism-firefighter

hey, the chief super said that half the allegations of racism against the Met were raised by police officers so obv they've got this shit sorted

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17815769

never thought I'd find myself agreeing with Nadine Dorries in any way!

she's been running with this line for a while now hasn't she? makes total sense that she's embracing the ~maverick backbencher~ role (and all she;s doing is aligning herself with the tory grassroots)

passion to want to understand the lives of others
passion to want to understand the lives of others
passion to want to understand the lives of others
passion to want to understand the lives of others
passion to want to understand the lives of others

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2133369/Eric-Joyce-gives-astonishing-interview-MP-youll-read.html

somewhat worrying that this twitchy psycho became a major and then a labour mp

Trainspotting sequel where Begbie's done pretty well for himself.

Recent Events

Unhappily, I resigned from the Labour Party in March this year but will continue my work in the House of Commons, as an Independent Member of Parliament for Falkirk. Readers should note that my commitment to Labour values is still the same and my work in Parliament and in Falkirk continues in much the same way, allowing for some minor adjustments in my priorities and with a few less party political constraints.

O_O that interview

not saying this kind of guy flags up the farce of representative democracy, just saying

on a related note, i find that now the prospect of house of lords reform is upon us, the idea of another elected chamber full of career politicians fills me with dread

yes. terrible as the Lords is, i'm willing to believe that a Lords as envisioned by the Commons wd be even more terrible.

considered re-starting a "representative democracy is the shabby veneer on the rotten edifice of capitalist power" thread but what's the point? cynics gonna cynic, nihilists gonna despair, apologists for this fucking shambling death factory we call the free world gonna apologise

(inspired by re-reading previous discussions of the political process rather than thinking too hard about the boneheaded thug upthread)

it's terrible now in the sense of being a ludicrous oddity that no one takes seriously and doesn't actually wield that much power.

also i do feel it's important that there's somewhere in the legislature that doesn't have to pander to the electorate

if you mean "making lowest common denominator appeals to achieve a 'majority'" then yeah.

this is biggest part of the problem tho, how do you have a second tier of government that has real checks and balances on the lower tier, isn't an old people's version of the lower tier, and still has some democratic accountability/doesn't just represent the most powerful vested interests in the country?

apart from forbidding membership of the existing political parties in the upper house

also how do you "represent" a group of people whose interests - conscious and unconscious - are radically opposed to each other?

The other problem is how you have all those things and still maintain it has 2% of the power / legitimacy of the Commons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Law_of_Oligarchy

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17821018

"It can't be right to have people able on housing benefit to live in streets and homes that hard-working people are unable to live in themselves."

1. fuuuuuuck youuuuuu shapps
2.'hard working' and 'on housing benefit' are not mutually exclusive
3. you know what's really not right? a council unable to house people because there's fuck all social housing and no control on private rents

impossible to reconcile the housing concept of both 'basic right' and 'marketable asset', innit.

this is biggest part of the problem tho, how do you have a second tier of government that has real checks and balances on the lower tier, isn't an old people's version of the lower tier, and still has some democratic accountability/doesn't just represent the most powerful vested interests in the country?

idk how important democratic accountability is in a second chamber - it's ideally meant to be a check ON the flaws of representative democracy. the trouble is how you balance that with having some form of credible composition

I don't see why we can't have an elected second chamber, just like every other representative democracy on earth.

we're getting rid of ours, tbf

well not so much democratic accountability but representation of sections of society that need representation, i.e. not those sections that already have all the power.

of course the problem for me is that the whole edifice is a sham, but it's interesting to think about what an upper chamber with actual teeth cd be if it wasn't just a mirror of the lower chamber.

arguably slightly less of a sham if you remove hereditary peers, retired MPs from the lower house, QCs, bishops etc. The problem is not replacing them with identikit career politicians. Wild ideas: ban party affiliation? Elect using full PR?

Appoint people at random like jury duty, idk.

i said ban party affiliation upthread, i'm all for that. the major parties are the biggest barrier to democracy within the system as it exists.

of course if you banned them then analogous structures wd probly coalesce within 5 years, see the Iron Law of Oligarchy article i posted.

sorry, didn't see that re. party affiliation. Agreed that oligarchy is an iron law, but political structures can be devised to ameliorate oligarchy to a greater or lesser extent- e.g. Rawls' veil of ignorance (admittedly a thought experiment rather than a working model).

xp jury service idea is an interesting one! That would be truly democratic in the sense of the Athenian polis...

you cd sign up to be eligible to sit in the upper house and they cd do a draw every year to decide the requisite number of members, paid at national average plus reasonable expenses or something.

some kind of weighting to be roughly proportionally representative of gender, race, sexuality maybe

age perhaps as well?

Sounds like Russell Brand is having fun at the HoC.. Guardian has been live blogging.

Keith Vaz says the committee is running out of time.

Brand says you can never run out of time. Theresa May might not show up. She might not know what day it is.

Labour's David Winnick tells Brand this is "not a variety show".

you cd sign up to be eligible to sit in the upper house and they cd do a draw every year to decide the requisite number of members, paid at national average plus reasonable expenses or something.

― aboulia banks (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, April 24, 2012 10:55 AM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

some kind of weighting to be roughly proportionally representative of gender, race, sexuality maybe

― aboulia banks (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, April 24, 2012 10:56 AM (21 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

age perhaps as well?

― good luck in your pyramid (Neil S), Tuesday, April 24, 2012 11:02 AM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

location too? make it an opt-out rather than opt-in system? obviously this is not foolproof but no system is, really.

agree with NV on party affiliation, but banning it would just conceal rather than eradicate it.

Random upper house prob needs hardline anti-corruption laws?

Back in recession, Murdoch hanging Jeremy Cunt out to dry... we're slipping people.

Hunt statement at 12:30

his special advisor has just quit.

"While it was part of my role to keep News Corporation informed throughout the BSkyB bid process, the content and extent of my contact was done without authorisation from the secretary of state. I do not recognise all of what Fréd Michel said, but nonetheless I appreciate that my activities at times went too far and have, taken together, created the perception that News Corporation had too close a relationship with the department, contrary to the clear requirements set out by Jeremy Hunt and the permanent secretary that this needed to be a fair and scrupulous process. Whilst I firmly believe that the process was in fact conducted scrupulously fairly, as a result of my activities it is only right for me to step down as special adviser to Jeremy Hunt."

"we didn't do anything wrong, which is why i'm resigning."

Advisor taking one for the team.

Hunt's absolute inability to recognise he over-stepped the line is one of many depressing things about this whole saga.

It's just par for the course for a hunt like him, it's not even depressing. Still good to see the Murdochs sticking the boot into Hunt and Salmond, two of the smuggest bastards in British politics... just a pity they couldn't have worked Gove and Grant Shapps in there too, oh and this guy...

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OVJbYBGOGlQ/TI9HCgnr_YI/AAAAAAAACpM/GTiR-BLT20o/s1600/05.jpg

... not that he's important or anything, just that he's a dick

jimmy somerville's in the coalition?

run away, run away, run away