UK General Discussion

[Leftbehind]

Are you proposing the EVILS of state regulation!111!

[Leftbehind]

Is the Tory party in its present incarnation fundamentally impossible to lead?

Pretty much. The backbenchers are the UK's tea party, mostly demanding EU withdrawal and opposing any social liberalism or austerity impacting upon the military; regardless of whether they're in a coalition or not.

[Leftbehind]

Aye, but if steady Eddy doesn't do any daft deals we've no worries.

[Leftbehind]

Bigger picture Conservatives release that David Cameron is an asset. His favourable are still relatively favourable and in most polls out paces Ed Miliband and that’s the man who he will face in two years time. Furthermore, Tory strategists had expected to be some 20 points behind at this stage (as Tory governments have usually been) and been pleasantly surprised at Labour’s relatively low polling numbers.

Why do the Tories poll so badly between elections?

They don't - it's an exaggeration their supporters like to use to claim they're doing well now. In reality beyond brief moments in 1980 (Thatcher's recession/no split left) and 1990 (poll tax), Labour struggled to get consistently into double digits until 1993 (after a near decade and half of Tory rule).

[Leftbehind]

Awesome.

I would advise against taking ComRes even slightly seriously; I mean I'd say that anyway because they're awful, but they've just published three strikingly different polls within 48 hours...

Think there's only been two IIRC - the recent telephone Westminster one and then the joint Euro/Westminster online poll, that turns out used a draconian 10/10 certainty to vote for the baffling Euro figures.

[Leftbehind]

Dunno if it's just me, but Anna Soubry reminds me of Thatcher (style, not substance).

[Leftbehind]

Opinium: LAB 37%(nc), CON 26%(-1), UKIP 21%(+1), LDEM 6%(-1)

6% is the lowest I've ever seen them - 7 seems to be their absolute baseline with YouGov. This also had the Greens and SNP on 4%.

[Leftbehind]

Apparently there's more implicated in corruption as well.

[Leftbehind]

Wonders of UK democracy. He's also dropped the principle of universalism. Blairite triangulation begins.

[Leftbehind]

Well one thing's for certain, we can no longer be confident that UKIP will be Alliance mark II (but for the Right), because Thatcher managed to satisfy and hold on to her voters by being sufficiently right-wing. Labour triangulating and disillusioning leftists will just let the Right straight back in (if it even ousts them in the first place), and so I've a horrible feeling those switching to UKIP will be richly rewarded by either a newly aligned radically-Thatcherite Tory party, or UKIP gaining more protest and becoming a credible vehicle itself.

[Leftbehind]

HOL passed the gay marriage bill.

Also, lol:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22764884

[Leftbehind]

I'd find this 'we need to make use of what money we have' easier to accept if Labour were looking seriously at recouping as much money as they can - the cut itself doesn't even save much, but Labour still seem willing to sacrifice universality for it. Yet you can't even get them to commit to re-instating the 50p tax rate (consequently making their opposition to it completely hollow) and where was their opposition to the repeated slashing of the corporation tax to a record low? That's just two examples of an innumerable amount that discredits the 'make-do' excuse for why continuing the Tories' cuts and austerity are right when Labour do it, but wrong for the Tories. Really, I think this is just more Blairite triangulation, with all the familiar hallmarks - Miliband 'proving' he can show 'iron discipline' by conceding Tory ground (this is a relatively benign one, but I fully expect much more to come) and live in the 'sensible', 'real-world' now the election's dawning.

As you probably realise, I wasn't a committed Labour voter anyway but they've done well in dissuading me so far from voting Labour.  

 

[Leftbehind]

Means testing undermines the aim of directing them to the most needy - already £16bn of benefits go unclaimed because people don't wish to/can't tackle the complex forms needed to prove you're poor enough to deserve them (let alone the stigma that comes attached with it). If we can't afford them then raise the income tax on those wealthy who don't need them instead, or reverse this endless drive to let businesses use our society and pay record lows back.

[Leftbehind]

The controversial Bilderberg conference is taking place in Watford today and will run through to Sunday. A lot of political activists, as well as members of the media (I believe Sky News has some coverage), will be present over the next 4 days. A lot of security is around.

According to the official guest list, Ken Clarke, George Osborne and Ed Balls will be attending at some point over the next few days.

Wikipedia page for Bilderberg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilderberg_Group

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KapTRbwDGKM (Labour MP Michael Meacher being interviewed at Bilderberg)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-22793804 (Watford mayor expressing her concern)

Why the F**K did the BBC have US conspiracy nutjob on Sunday Politics over this?! To discredit legitimate inquiry? Because that's what it seems like. Hoho what an awful interview - as if they were expecting anything else.

[Leftbehind]

Awesome Mitchell rant re Tories, awfulness, austerity, gay-marriage etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4xBbcCpfDc

[Leftbehind]

Fantastic, we share a 0/10 on commonality. Feels awkward when I have to agree with a Thatcherite.

[Leftbehind]

Plus, of course, doing away with the BBC. Makes me laugh how many proposing re-introducing national service conveniently never had to do it themselves.

[Leftbehind]

How liberal of you...

[Leftbehind]

I doubt any amount of charisma or good speech-making could've saved Brown - as his economic legacy came crashing down on him (there's a reason why incumbents have been dropping like flies).

[Leftbehind]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-23025311

6-month jail sentence (40% of what Stuart Hall is currently serving after raping and assaulting over a dozen children) and deportation (never mind his family) for disrupting some toff boat race. Such a shower of sh**t in charge.

[Leftbehind]

disrupting some toff boat race

FFS, Oxbridge aren't toff institutions, you clearly either have no idea about them or you've got a massive chip on your shoulder about not having gone to them. I never even applied to them, and am objectively of the working class,  but I have little but admiration for those institutions. Two class friends have offers for Oxford and they are the most hardworking grounded lads I know.

LOL Only a Tory would contest what is demonstrably true. Your two friends may go toward the 11/12% of working class students attending there - not the 88-89% middle-class to upper.

[Leftbehind]

Better than sounding like you think middle and upper class students are inherently brighter than their working class counterpart.

[Leftbehind]

All anyone needs to know about Daniel Kawczynski is he's a f**king horrible bastard.

[Leftbehind]

That and exploiting the desperate conditions for workers here, by using unpaid internships or rather creating phoney positions and then plagiarising the submissions he got for his books. Just another hypocritical capitalist scumbag, all in all.

[Leftbehind]

Well they don't have to jump behind the existing options. What's the point jumping behind a bloke itching to symbolically attack you? I mean, they jumped behind Ed because the alternative was David.

But that's largely devil's advocate - I don't think the unions will depart, either. Although I have to laugh, you'd think selection stitch-ups were a new thing the way Labour HQ have reacted - perhaps it's more because of who's doing it.