Only six more years of misery - the Sandbox UK politics thread.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/11/27/article-2066711-0EF5CEC300000578-255_468x417.jpg

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/30/world/europe/british-hacking-scandal-widens-to-government-secrets.html

lol. apparently it's an open secret that this story is going to get bigger.

• David Davis at ConservativeHome says George Osborne should announce tax cuts and be wary of big infrastructure projects.

why what a wonderful coincidence

Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove in a speech to the think tank Policy Exchange said public sector unions "want to provide a platform for confrontation just when we all need to pull together".

Yes, let's all pull together at least until we sack you. Fair?

The new Economic and Fiscal Outlook published by the Office for Budget Responsibility includes a forecast that total job losses across the UK public sector will reach 710,000 by the first quarter of 2017, compared with the first quarter of this year.

That's a huge increase on the previous forecast that around 400,000 jobs would be lost between the first quarter of this year and the first three months of 2016, and indicates that the public sector is going to suffer even more pain than expected.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2011/11/28/1322504602853/Chancellor-George-Osborne-007.jpg

"Here youse, gie's yer fuckin' pension or else"

There's not a single picture where George Osbourne doesn't look like a total bastard, is there?

otm, it's kinda worse, like a bastard who knows he is a bastard and is having to kinda repress it or try to hide it or own it

How's your local strike going? Lots of people out round the Town Hall and various governmental buildings on my way to work. Strikers outside various colleges and uni type buildings in Central London.

Saw some strikers outside Pentonville Prison, but that was it. I want a badge or a sticker but there's no public sector workers near where I work.

I'm running a tab to see which Labour MPs come out with the hedge-iest hedging statements of trying to support strikers while toeing party lines (or maybe trying to maintain union support while selling them out quietly round the back, YMMV)

This cheered me up though. Get it up youse, Liberal + Tory bastids.

this strike is mint btw, might get dressed and pop to the shops for some bread in a bit

Greetings comrades. I did a chilly hour on the picket line this morning. There was a surprising amount of support from passing motorists, especially bus drivers.

PMQs: '"Mr Cameron says Mr Miliband backs the strike now - unlike earlier - "because he's left-wing, irresponsible and weak".'

LOL that's desperate

"Whereas he is right-wing, responsible and rub"

Consistent twattery is always better than finally seeing sense and bowing to the actual stated wishes of yr constituents, right?

Breaking News Prime Minister David Cameron says the strike "looks something like a damp squib", quoting reports suggesting 40% of schools are open, less than a third of the civil service is on strike and only 18 Job Centres closed.

On the other hand, the underlying principles of the strike have earned a massive increase of support from the general public over the last few days.

Still, that's the DM's front-page soundbite sorted.

Yeah, reckon Cameron + those Liberal traitor cunts Clegg hadn't even considered the possibility that the GBP might support the strikers, suggests troubles lie ahead for our wonderful, historic, Coalition

Then again, they are probably looking forward to the 'glorious Thatcher years' where they stay resolute in the face of massive unpopularity from the people they never liked in the first place.

Nah, the middle classes never turned against Thatcher

Was not meaning the middle classes.

lol iran by the way.

“The ‘British hand’ is said to be behind every major event of the past 150 years,” said Abbas Milani, a professor of Middle Eastern studies at Stanford University. “The Americans are seen as naïve malleable tools in the hands of the Brits.”

(xp) I know that, what I mean she never lost her popularity with her core voters, this lot might

(xp) LOL yes, saw a documentary about My Uncle Napoleon once - the main character is virulently anti-British - and they mentioned a famous Iranian saying when you trip over a rock or something, "An Englishman must have left it there".

hahaha

things iran hates in increasing order:

zion
america
britain
the bbc

and where does Radiohead fit into that list?

Death to Mumford and his sons

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gen/62925/thumbs/s-IRAN-large.jpg

now there's a fatwah i could get behind

Brighton march was pretty good - ended up at the rally with a beautiful rainbow above us, awww.

A lot of these sorts of stories on the BBC recently, wonder why that is?

Dobbed in by her ex, who obviously didn't have a lot of qualms about going away with her in the first place.

This is more like it

"Benefit fraud takes money away from the most vulnerable."

.. and that's the Govt's job.

But then again....

can't afford our own thread tbh

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2011/12/6/1323208482288/07.12.11-Steve-Bell-on-th-001.jpg

lol wot a bunch of legernds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3Jdq_nZXNg

Shithole of a country

... more detail here

Yeah, I wonder why people would blame lazy scroungers and think that benefits enable people to live in luxury. I wonder indeed. *cough*dailymail*cough*fuckingtorypropaganda*coughcoughcough*

*cough* the BBC *cough* every fucking political party incl. Labour

*cough* otm *cough*

Our tabloid press may be staggering towards its death but its divide-and-rule mission will have been fully accomplished by the time it finally pops its clogs.

Haha, yeah, I just couldn't be bothered to do the entire coughing fit. Though it should be pointed out that I consider much of what comes from the Labour party to be 'fucking Tory propaganda' anyway.

Labour's approach now tends to be "hmmm no one's listening to us on this maybe if we just say what the Tories are saying then we might get elected a bit?" See recent movement from Blue Labour to Black Labour whatever the fuck they're supposed to mean.

the shame of it is that if there are hearts and minds to be won then the welfare state and the benefits system are pretty easy to defend. by dragging itself into the PR mire, constantly focus-grouping and trying to guess at a public mood instead of campaigning around a set of policies borne out of conviction, the Labour party has lost its reason to exist, beyond the ability of any in-party group to resurrect it imo. the longer the Party represents nothing but the interests of the woolly Right, the further Right it'll slide. if there are still conviction Leftists within the Party now it's time for them to breakaway.

since none of this is gonna happen i'd suggest we've got a lot more than 6 years of misery to go.

^^otm

silver lining: our current politics inspires marina hyde to write like this:

It is now clear that the tuition fees U-turn was merely the gateway drug to the big one. Clegg is now mainlining U. His story arc is like some Westminster version of Trainspotting, featuring grotesque scenes of personal degradation in pursuit of what must surely now be an ever-diminishing high. Perhaps a physicist would care to get in touch to explain whether there is a theoretical point at which a being has switch-backed on so many positions that he might simply atomise, leaving nothing but a thin coating of yellow dust and a pair of shoes he never grew into.
...
Of more ghoulish fascination, though, is the next Lib Dem manifesto. What could this document possibly include? There are whole areas that in any sane universe it would be literally too embarrassing to mention, and given that these include major planks of what used to be called Liberal Democrat policy, such as Europe and education, I've genuinely no idea where they'll go with this one. Blank pages? Something nice and inclusive about fish? The mere fact of something appearing as a Liberal Democrat manifesto pledge has come to symbolise that it is terminally doomed as an idea. Perhaps the best way to eradicate poverty would be to draft up a Lib Dem manifesto commitment to perpetuating it.

<3 <3 <3

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/dec/09/david-cameron-europe-raspberry-nick-clegg

They'll just write "We promise to make the Tories less nasty and right-wing" across twelve pages in really big print.

Of more ghoulish fascination, though, is the next Lib Dem manifesto. What could this document possibly include? There are whole areas that in any sane universe it would be literally too embarrassing to mention, and given that these include major planks of what used to be called Liberal Democrat policy, such as Europe and education, I've genuinely no idea where they'll go with this one. Blank pages? Something nice and inclusive about fish? The mere fact of something appearing as a Liberal Democrat manifesto pledge has come to symbolise that it is terminally doomed as an idea. Perhaps the best way to eradicate poverty would be to draft up a Lib Dem manifesto commitment to perpetuating it.

lol, this is excellent, had not even considered how they would suggest that people vote for them, had just concentrated on how people would not

Actually, it's a t-shirt with "Yes, we do exist", and that's it. (xpost)

I think that now they've got that little bit of power coursing through their veins, the Lib Dems would probably agree to the reintroduction of the slavery just so they could enjoy the feeling of power for a little longer - and that goes for the Simon Hughes's too not just the Danny Alexanders. I imagine they will be shortly twisting themselves into all sorts of shapes over Europe... Labour is now being talked about as the The Pro-Europe Party!

― Tony Hart land (Deep in the Tony Hart land), Thursday, 8 December 2011 13:57 (Yesterday) Bookmark Permalink

Told you!

Of more ghoulish fascination, though, is the next Lib Dem manifesto.

FWIW I reckon there won't be one, as such, there will be a Coalition manifesto of some kind instead.

... unless the Tories are absolutely sure they can win, in which case it's bye bye Lib Dems forever

is there precedent for that? i woulda thought that would be kinda a mutually unconvincing move

Tony, the Tories can only lose 'helping' LibDem by making it a coalition manifesto, no?

(btw love your msgs on here but i have no idea who you are/were on ilx... sigh)

is there precedent for that? i woulda thought that would be kinda a mutually unconvincing move

Danny Alexander hinted strongly that was the direction they were headed, mind you he's gone so native he's began out-nativing the natives

is there precedent for that? i woulda thought that would be kinda a mutually unconvincing move

When Melody Maker folded, they 'merged' with the NME, and the 'band classifieds' pages in the NME had a Melody Maker logo for, ooh, around three weeks.

Apparently Coalition strategy for the next election, when the country will still be totally fucked with the prospect of several years more of the same, is LET US FINISH YOU OFF THE JOB

the ol' mercy killing vote

i've got a feeling the lib dems will split over this eventually, the same way the liberal party split when Lloyd George became a tory

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/dec/10/nick-clegg-david-cameron-europe-veto

lol
i have no idea how this jives w/his supportive statement earlier
& tbh who is interested in how 'nick clegg would have played this hand' given how shitty he is at playing nick clegg's hand?

Lol, just heard Clegg speaking about this, it's as if someone died. "We are all bitterly disappointed" and he fears isolation, said the strategy was all wrong.

Help me understand why he's doing this, Britishers. Is it plausible a majority of his party (finally) see this government is a suicide for them? Is he trying to act tough for them? Idgi.

Tom this is kind of tiresome now, I think you just don't understand the LibDems, if they really wanted to be Tories they'd have become Tories by now. There's an innate squeamishness to them that's both stopping them becoming full-blown Tories (or Labour members) that at the same time is keeping them in the coalition.

I reckon Clegg's in pretty much in the same situation as Gordon Brown a couple of years ago, terror of going down in history as one of political history's greatest fuckwits, and he'll do pretty much anything to avoid that happening. Reckon if Cable goes the prospect of the coalition breaking is very real now but Clegg will look like an absolute moron if that happens.

Also most of the Tory party would never in a million years countenance a joint manifesto, they fucking hate being in coalition.

Also Will Hutton's furious savaging today brought the lols.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/dec/11/will-hutton-david-cameron-wrong-on-europe?newsfeed=true

Also a short-term election would be very much in the Tories' favour I'd say, a bounce from their heartlands due to this Euro thing, plus a massive defeat for the LibDems in marginals, before the economic consequences of govt policy have really hurt too many people. Plus it would wrongfoot Labour with it's unpopular leadership that would have to cook up a load of policies pretty much on the hoof. Would probably go so far as to say that if there were an election tomorrow the Tories would win outright, especially if the SNP do well enough in Scotland.

Hutton hmmm

It was wrong to resist revolutions in France and the US; wrong to go slow over abolishing the slave trade; wrong to champion the Corn Laws; wrong to embrace appeasement in the 1930s; wrong to contest the decolonisation of India. The British right's instincts – jingoistic, imperialistic, anti-progressive and isolationist – have consistently led this country into calamities.

The thing is, you smug, insipid Whig, "wrong" don't come into it. They are, after all, the Conservative party. That's the point. Their natural xenophobia and resistance to change has a counterpoint in kneejerk Europhiles and the "modernisers" who utterly corrupted the Labour party and the Lib Dems. And of course Cameron and his crew are only "Conservative" in limited socio-political ways, as inheritors of Thatcherism/Monetarism they're as radical as you like, in the same way that religious fundamentalists are a product of modernity.

rambling. anyway fuck them but trying to drag the Corn Laws in is some weak-ass ahistorical showboating imo

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/dec/11/charlie-brooker-2011-season-finale/print

2011 has been like one big end-of-season finale; a climactic episode in which multiple story arcs come to a head. It's used up far too much news for one year. How can 2012 possibly compete?

hmnnnnnn

Ur doing it wrong Brooker.

Meanwhile, here are some reassuring perennial lols:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/8949176/Tory-MP-Aidan-Burley-extremely-sorry-over-Nazi-themed-stag-party.html

They must have used that URL before.

He (Vince Cable) will speak out aggressively against Cameron's veto; his decision is whether to resign to do so or say so in office, courting his sacking.

Or, better still, say nothing and sit alongside Cameron as he smirks his way through his statement to the Commons

Ms Portas added that new businesses needed to be given tax breaks because they could not afford to base themselves on Britain's high streets.

Speaking on the BBC's Today programme, she said car boot sales were a strong example of the ways people want to spend money.

However, she said: "We've got car boot sales in some really horrible car parks off the M25. Why would you go there? Put them on the high street. It makes absolute sense.

This must be an amazing time to be a Tory MP, you can just do anything you want knowing full-well that the LibDems are too terrified of electoral oblivion to do anything other than mutter away in private.

clegg ~refusing to sit on the front bench~ is a p good example of what coalition dissent looks like

http://images.mirror.co.uk/upl/m4/dec2010/1/7/nick-clegg-pic-pa-528353147.jpg

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww...

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^sensitive boy 101. Just get him a guitar and a looping pedal.

There are so many pics of Cleggy looking miserable/ haunted/ suicidal to chose from

.. and the words to "any way that you want me"

xpost TIMIG!

Have noticed David Laws sneaking back into the media spotlight recently, I imagine he'll be back in the cabinet soon

PMs usually look pretty haggard within a year or so but Cameron still looks like he sleeps like a baby. Clegg looking much rougher which is weird seeing as he technically doesn't have anything to do.

Painting, attic, botox, selling yr soul to the devil... sprinkle into jokes as you see fit.

Nick is the sensitive type, writing tear stained letters back to Mummy about how horrid the other boys in his dorm are to him, Dave's a "roarer, a rogerer, a gorger and a puker"

Westminster School vs. Eton

Westminster boys tend to be better adjusted but Eton boys are weirder in bed?

Wait I didn't say that.

This hasn't come up yet?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/shortcuts/2011/dec/12/david-cameron-full-bladder-technique?intcmp=239

Cameron, it is said, used his tried-and-tested "full-bladder technique" to achieve maximum focus and clarity of thought throughout the gruelling nine-hour session in Brussels. During the formal dinner and subsequent horse-trading into the early hours, the prime minister remained intentionally "desperate for a pee".

Sounds like an overheard conversation at a Tory Party conference (xp)

Cameron, it is said, used his tried-and-tested "full-bladder technique" to achieve maximum focus and clarity of thought throughout the gruelling nine-hour session in Brussels. During the formal dinner and subsequent horse-trading into the early hours, the prime minister remained intentionally "desperate for a pee".

He'd left his pissboy, young Nick, at home

i'd've thought the full bladder technique wd be offset by his full of shit technique

Full bladder technique, yup. Like I said, Eton boys are ~weird~ in bed.

Is that really going to help your negotiating position? If I'd been holding it for as much as a couple of hours I'd basically be willing to give Sarkozy anything he asked for just to get out of the room.

Nine hours, he's asking for trouble on the prostate front there.

Hmm, sounds like he gave him nothing, just so he could get out of the room.

does seem to indicate that if you're ever engaged in tense negotiations with Cameron then a swift blow to the abdomen cd have hilarious consequences

If only Laws and Clegg hadn't held Vince Cable back and he'd connected that time during the coalition talks...

wait what, re: full bladder technique

why are our politicians such massive weirdos

though actually it's one of those stories that just makes you feel a lot better about yourself

The fact that we have a PM who thinks that Enoch Powell is someone to *emmulate*... but at least we know the sources of those metphors, then. Rivers of Blood? Rivers of piss coursing through his mind, more like.

Nine hours, he's asking for trouble on the prostate front there.

We can just hope.

Perhaps this CD would be of use for background listening during future negotiations:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61HR60NNAHL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

Expect more Euro bashing and Enoch Powell evoking if this is anything to go by.

http://cdn.yougov.com/cumulus_uploads/document/n9x15djpsk/YG-Archives-Pol-Sun-results-141211.pdf

nice to see no evidence of a North/South divide there

xp Having said that - interesting disconnect between voting intention and "disapproval of Government"?

Is it "I don't like it so it must be good for me"?

or a percentage of the disapprovers are disapproving cos the gov isn't right wing enough

Not enjoying the voting intention percentages, but I am enjoying that 50% of people who voted for Clegg in 2010 believe he has no redeeming qualities

Striking that Labour have a healthy lead with every age group apart from the over-60s. Shame they're the only people who vote.

Twisted old bastards

wow i hadn't picked that up, man a nice long cold winter cd completely decimate the Tories' support

REPEAL THE WINTER FUEL ALLOWANCE

"They don't like it up 'em, the EU"

On those numbers could the LDs get wiped out in scotland?

Fingers crossed. Lots of their 'star' MPs are from Scotland.

Most of their Scottish voters are on the right, so I imagine the SNP and (possibly) the Tories would benefit.

wow i hadn't picked that up, man a nice long cold winter cd completely decimate the Tories' support

― Angles that bitch (Julie Lagger), Thursday, December 15, 2011 1:06 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Permalink

REPEAL THE WINTER FUEL ALLOWANCE

― Angles that bitch (Julie Lagger), Thursday, December 15, 2011 1:06 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Permalink

:D

HOPE!

Sixty years of free health care, free bus travel and discounts at the National Trust tea shop and this is how they repay you...

Disappointing night for Bus-Pass Elvis supporters

Amusing (intentionally?) quote from Simon 'Scumbag' Hughes:

"What happened here was what normally happens in a by-election. People protest against the government, so government parties take a hit and the opposition normally moves forward."

Lib Dems - 1,364 (5.87%)

Much lower than the 9-11% they've been polling nationally for the past year.

They've changed that article - originally the Tory quote came from the defeated candidate (I think) and was along the lines of 'well, it's a good result because people said we were going to get hammered and that hasn't happened'. Except there was a swing of 8.6% from the Tories to Labour (which would give Labour an 88-seat majority if repeated nationally), the Labour lead over the Tories was over 26% and they got almost double the Tory vote in a seat which the Tories held in the 90s, and less than 8% of the electorate could be bothered to vote for the Tories. I know it's only a by-election and the result means nothing in the long-term, but it's still a shit result for them.

(which would give Labour an 88-seat majority if repeated nationally)

is so meaningless it doesn't even deserve saying with the "i know this means nothing" caveat

28% turnout. Turnout in Homs was probably higher.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-16224394

"I'm saying something obnoxious that will piss you off, but I'm trying hard to say it in a way that won't piss you off. However that just pisses you off even more."

Describing himself as a "committed" but only "vaguely practising" Christian

So which is it then, hypocrite or fucking liar?

The bible contains plenty of both. Cameron would have fit right in.

http://i.imgur.com/LAQwV.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/LAQwV.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/LAQwV.jpg

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/12/21/1324498566521/Simon-Heffer-Mail-columni-007.jpghttp://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/12/21/1324498566521/Simon-Heffer-Mail-columni-007.jpghttp://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/12/21/1324498566521/Simon-Heffer-Mail-columni-007.jpghttp://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/12/21/1324498566521/Simon-Heffer-Mail-columni-007.jpg

Sir Peter Lytton "Baz" Bazalgette (born on 22 May 1953) is a British media expert who helped create the independent TV production sector in the UK and went on to be the leading creative figure in the global TV company Endemol.

It is the second year running that the former Prime Minister spent Christmas Day separated from her children in her elegant London home. Although increasingly forgetful, it will surely have been obvious to her that she was spending the festive period without her children, right, once again.

Who would want to spend Christmas with Mark and Carol Thatcher?