2015 UK General Election campaign & aftermath discussion thread.

among the extremists theresa may has said she's looking to root out are the 'neo-marxists', i'm gonna be so bummed out when all of my friends are in prison

“For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens: as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone."

This is truly an astonishing quote.

utterly crazy

The supposed context just makes it worse. Apparently now the government has to decide to take a stand on what "views" are acceptable.

The Tories are mental authoritarians, but they also have a long tradition of small-state pro-liberty types, and I think a good faction of their MPs are still subscribers. Surely this won't swing with them?

Oh, they would also like to curtail freedom of information, in the wake of the black spider ruling.

The aim is to catch not just those who spread or incite hatred on the grounds of gender, race or religion but also those who undertake harmful activities for the “purpose of overthrowing democracy”

hold on maybe it'll have its uses

Protecting free speech by banning hate-speakers. No longer tolerating the causing of extremism through neutrality.

a requirement to submit to the police in advance any proposed publication on the web and social media

stet can you get the system to do this automatically? v inconvenient if neo-marxists have to go to the police station to post.

They don't recognise the state, the newsagent next door is getting quite annoyed.

Most of the blame, inevitably, is being aimed at the leader’s office. ‘When the campaign started we were told we had to clear all leaflet design past the leader’s office,’ said one party worker. ‘We thought that would be a nightmare, but for the first part of the campaign it worked really well. We’d email the art, and about an hour or so later we’d get the response, “Great. Go with this.” Then one day someone got the message, “Excellent. All good.” But when they went to respond they realised they’d failed to insert the original attachment.

http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/9528312/inside-the-milibunker-the-last-days-of-ed-did-ed-miliband-sacrifice-ed-balls/

trigger warning: dan hodges

wtf

Another Labour insider told of the scene in the press office when Miliband posed with the notorious Ed stone, the 8ft 6in slab of limestone upon which his six key election pledges were inscribed. When it appeared on TV, a press officer ‘started screaming. He stood in the office, just screaming over and over again at the screen. It was so bad they thought he was having a breakdown.’

Mary Creagh has thrown her hat in the ring for Labour leader. Even smaller majority than Ben Bradshaw, iirc.

She has always struck me as broadly competent but not a particularly confident speaker.

As far as I can see, Chuka Umunna is the only one to have had a job outside politics, and that was at a law firm so doesn't count. Surely they can't all be so lacking in self awareness not to see this is a problem.

How they position themselves on the issue of austerity will be instructive, my suspicion is they will all just bobble their heads around while going "tough choices, financial discipline, aspiration" over again.

they can sort of hope that by the time any of them get a shot at PM there'll be no welfare state left and austerity will cease to be meaningful tbf

Austerity clearly doesn't work, what would have been so hard about taking that and running with it?

A group of disabled people is taking the government to the High Court over delays in benefit payments.

This was on News 24 this morning and then it abruptly disappeared and is now just a minute paragraph on the bbc website.

When it appeared on TV, a press officer ‘started screaming. He stood in the office, just screaming over and over again at the screen. It was so bad they thought he was having a breakdown.’

2001. apes. monolith.

Then one day someone got the message, “Excellent. All good.” But when they went to respond they realised they’d failed to insert the original attachment.

I laughed. I read the article. And then, god help me, I read the comments. People who think Miliband is a Marxist and the BBC was "relentlessly" pro-Labour.

I know, I know, it's the Spectator.

5 years of this. And then...

...then...

Unless there's another economic disaster in the next five years, I can't foresee any situation in which they don't get back in in 5yrs time, especially if Scotland continues down this path, the LibDems remain toxic and the Tories get free reign to redraw constituency boundaries, all of which seem extremely likely right now.

discrediting of the Major government in the run up to 1997 was barely about the economic record/situation and all about a sustained portrayal of the Gov as corrupt, complacent etc. one of the key factors that allowed this strategy to work was the relative ungovernability of backbenchers in a government with a tiny majority.

all those conditions are in place given a Labour leader sufficiently Mandelsonian/morally vacant

Yeah but the right wing press wouldn't have thrown all that shit at them in the first place if they hadn't been furious at them for Black Wednesday and the collapse in value of their houses.

fair enough. plenty of scope over the next 5 years for economic mismanagement tho.

(NB I'm only speculating, god knows there's nothing to look forward to in a nu-Blairite victory in 2020)

Anthony King believes that the Tories lost two seats in 1997 due to perceived corruption and that everything else was set in stone after Black Wednesday.

PA reporting this:

#Breaking Shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna has withdrawn from the Labour party leadership contest
https://twitter.com/pressassoc/status/599146131294027776

Thing is, if every thingwas wine and roses as far as te economy was concerned, there could well be a swell of people saying "Yes, but where is my reward?" because the Tories will be very keen to keep the proceeds to those they perceive to have the right to it.

Your reward is waiting around the bend, you non-aspirational loser.

more on Chuka Umunna

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-32748106

But he said in a statement that he was not comfortable with the level of pressure that came with being a leadership candidate.

what a choke

As far as I can see, Chuka Umunna is the only one to have had a job outside politics, and that was at a law firm so doesn't count.

the other lol exception is Hunt.

now there are rumours it's because he's putting himself forward as london mayor.

Either that or he's decided 2020 is beyond Labour and he'd rather follow the next loser than be the next loser. At 36, he can afford to wait.

Other rumours are that he's quit ahead of a Sunday newspaper exposé

this map shows the constituencies (in pink) where the number of people registered to vote who didn't was larger than the wining party.

http://www.redpepper.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/didnotvote-800x480.jpg

look at all the red that's left

i guess Labour was too left wing for all those constituencies

How many seats would that give DNV?

i'm not sure it says but here's the article.

http://www.redpepper.org.uk/after-the-election-picking-up-the-pieces/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/10007828/David-Cameron-gives-backing-to-15million-Thatcher-museum.html

As fundraising got seriously under way, the project, first revealed by The Sunday Telegraph last week, also received support from leading conservative figures from overseas - including John Howard, the former Australian prime minister, Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House of Representatives in the US, Fred Ryan, President Reagan’s chief of staff and Karl Rove, who performed the same role for President George W Bush.

Mr Rove said: “Baroness Thatcher championed freedom around the world and was a strong friend of America in the dangerous days of the Cold War. The Margaret Thatcher Centre will be a timeless tribute to her fighting spirit, unwavering courage, and principled conservative leadership.”

"In or close to Westminster" I did wonder.

https://41.media.tumblr.com/4fb072672657a43264388a9b7c536451/tumblr_noeppdORHf1sy67obo1_540.jpg

the Thatcher museum thing is just grisly

has there been some development wrt it or are tons of people linking a story from April 2013 without checking the date

oh yes, I'm probs a victim of that now I think of it - saw someone post a story about Cameron green-lighting £15m for the museum on FB.

Fucking Osborne. Again. Pointless legislation designed purely to fuck over Labour leadership election, but which will poison the debate for years. He is such a prize cunt it's deeply frustrating even to have to look at this face.

Oh wait, this is the wrong thread. What's our rolling pol thread now?

Now would be a pretty good time to start one.

Psychoactive Substances: Rolling UK Politics in The Neo-Con Era