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

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...