Don't get us going on Name Dropping. IIRC Mr Eagles name dropped meeting Mr Boreanez from Bones/Angel/Buffy.
It's all very I Danced With A Girl Who Danced With The Prince Of Wales. Celebrity by proxy is a funny thing. I was once made to look like a Charlie by Peter Allen on R5 and recognised by a check-out lady in Tesco after appearing on local telly. I'd rather both were forgotten myself.
nearly half of defectors said either austerity was no longer necessary or had never been needed in the first place.
In other words, what we are seeing is similar to the denial of the late 60's and the 70s. It took the UK a decade and a half to come to its senses then and face reality. I see no reason to assume voters are any more realistic today than they were then.
As I always say, I just love the PBTories' double standards on democracy and public opinion. When the politicians (namely Labour) ignore the public on Europe and immigration, it's a scandal; yet when the public are against right-wing economic policies and austerity, it's the public's fault for being stupid and "in denial".
No 10 source on the Mark Reckless byelection: "We would hope to win it"
I've just been reading about Alan Clark's "hopes" about Margaret Thatcher in the Charles Moore biography; "I don't want actual penetration, just a really good snog."
I was shocked, I tell you.
To be fair, by Alan Clark standards that was hardly a remarkable reaction to any woman.
Yes, a very interesting article, which perhaps goes some way to explaining what is going on and why Labour and UKIP between them look as though they might put Ed M into No 10. Compare and contrast:
About 1 in 8 of those who did not vote for the party in 2010 say they may do so next time. These people are united by a positive view of the prime minister and the belief that the Tories are on the right track and need more time to finish the job.
They worry that a change of government could mean going back to square one on the deficit and undoing what progress has been made on immigration and welfare reform.
That's fine as far as it goes, but look at this:
nearly half of defectors said either austerity was no longer necessary or had never been needed in the first place.
In other words, what we are seeing is similar to the denial of the late 60's and the 70s. It took the UK a decade and a half to come to its senses then and face reality. I see no reason to assume voters are any more realistic today than they were then.
A very fair article, and one that accords more or less with my analysis as well. This is another key paragraph:
"But for most people the election might as well be eight years away, never mind eight months. Most of the uncommitted voters who took part in my research had given it little or no thought and did not intend to until much closer to the day. There is still time for the Tories to turn their fortunes around before next May."
I've been saying on here over the last few days: most people haven't given the election next year a moment's thought.
No 10 source on the Mark Reckless byelection: "We would hope to win it"
I've just been reading about Alan Clark's "hopes" about Margaret Thatcher in the Charles Moore biography; "I don't want actual penetration, just a really good snog."
nearly half of defectors said either austerity was no longer necessary or had never been needed in the first place.
And that's another reason why the deficit reduction target will be pushed back even further, to 2020 at least. People either don't like the austerity under any circumstances, or because we're told things are picking up there will be less political urgency to deal with it, and since no one chooses to make difficult decisions, the timetable will be altered yet further.
No 10 source on the Mark Reckless byelection: "We would hope to win it"
I've just been reading about Alan Clark's "hopes" about Margaret Thatcher in the Charles Moore biography; "I don't want actual penetration, just a really good snog."
All this talk of defections. I was starting to panic that Neil Hamilton might defect from UKIP to the Tory Party. We would politely have to decline.
Tories have long memories and never forgive political treachery. Kippers are kidding themselves if they think we will form a coalition with them. They can climb into bed with the Labour party they are doing their best to help get elected.
Most Kippers will tell you that there job isn't to prop up the Tory Party.
It's to replace them.
We are the UK's oldest political party and will still be around long after Nigel's kippers have been eaten for breakfast by Gideon's pet cat.
I believe there's still a few continuity-Liberal Party councillors around.
The so-called continuity Liberal party is a new party created in 1989.
The Liberal Democrats are the continuation of the old Liberal party and could make a claim about being the oldest political party (whether the Liberals or Conservatives are older is a very abitrary and semantic based discussion iirc).
We've had this discussion before, but when you add the Peelites, the Liberal Unionists, the Imperial Preferencers, the Gladstonian Radicals and the National Liberals all of the historical Liberal Party is now part of the Tory Party.
nearly half of defectors said either austerity was no longer necessary or had never been needed in the first place.
And that's another reason why the deficit reduction target will be pushed back even further, to 2020 at least. People either don't like the austerity under any circumstances, or because we're told things are picking up there will be less political urgency to deal with it, and since no one chooses to make difficult decisions, the timetable will be altered yet further.
All this talk of defections. I was starting to panic that Neil Hamilton might defect from UKIP to the Tory Party. We would politely have to decline.
Tories have long memories and never forgive political treachery. Kippers are kidding themselves if they think we will form a coalition with them. They can climb into bed with the Labour party they are doing their best to help get elected.
Most Kippers will tell you that there job isn't to prop up the Tory Party.
It's to replace them.
We are the UK's oldest political party and will still be around long after Nigel's kippers have been eaten for breakfast by Gideon's pet cat.
I believe there's still a few continuity-Liberal Party councillors around.
The so-called continuity Liberal party is a new party created in 1989.
The Liberal Democrats are the continuation of the old Liberal party and could make a claim about being the oldest political party (whether the Liberals or Conservatives are older is a very abitrary and semantic based discussion iirc).
We've had this discussion before, but when you add the Peelites, the Liberal Unionists, the Imperial Preferencers, the Gladstonian Radicals and the National Liberals all of the historical Liberal Party is now part of the Tory Party.
Pfsh, your conclusion is an exaggeration of your reasoning due to personal preference.
I've been saying on here over the last few days: most people haven't given the election next year a moment's thought.
There is still everything to play for.
I would agree with that, however the election is lost if, as seems quite likely, the Conservative Party collapses into disunity.
It will be ironic in the extreme. We have the best government (bar Maggie) in yonks, doing a very good job in the most difficult economic circumstances since the 1930s, getting all the big calls right, with perhaps one of the strongest teams of ministers I can remember, facing a disastrously weak opposition, at a time when we desperately need to continue dealing with a host of difficult problems on the economy, welfare and education, and a substantial chunk of the party, or people sympathetic to the party, deliberately want to throw it all away, for reasons so trivial that they beggar belief. Quite extraordinary, but there we are.
Yes, a very interesting article, which perhaps goes some way to explaining what is going on and why Labour and UKIP between them look as though they might put Ed M into No 10. Compare and contrast:
About 1 in 8 of those who did not vote for the party in 2010 say they may do so next time. These people are united by a positive view of the prime minister and the belief that the Tories are on the right track and need more time to finish the job.
They worry that a change of government could mean going back to square one on the deficit and undoing what progress has been made on immigration and welfare reform.
That's fine as far as it goes, but look at this:
nearly half of defectors said either austerity was no longer necessary or had never been needed in the first place.
In other words, what we are seeing is similar to the denial of the late 60's and the 70s. It took the UK a decade and a half to come to its senses then and face reality. I see no reason to assume voters are any more realistic today than they were then.
A very fair article, and one that accords more or less with my analysis as well. This is another key paragraph:
"But for most people the election might as well be eight years away, never mind eight months. Most of the uncommitted voters who took part in my research had given it little or no thought and did not intend to until much closer to the day. There is still time for the Tories to turn their fortunes around before next May."
I've been saying on here over the last few days: most people haven't given the election next year a moment's thought.
There is still everything to play for.
There is a pattern. Labour successfully bribes its clients but wrecks the economy. The Tories come in to fix the economy by prescribing tough medicine which makes them subject to claims by Labour that they are heartless. The electorate doesn't really care much about the debt/deficit as long as they have/will have money in their pockets. They think that Labour should get another chance, it will be less painful. Perhaps we need a period of hyperinflation as in Germany between the wars to burn in some sense of fiscal responsibility into the nation.
Bar your view on marriage - I'm with you entirely here.
I'm a small C as well as a Big C conservative and like marriage the way it is. I was reluctant about it being same sex, but won over. I don't want it to become devalued as A Thing.
and yes, I'm a hypocrite as I'm a divorced atheist who got married in a church to please my MIL. I see the comedy of my stance!
RT Carswell voted against gay marriage and is sceptical of climate change, Reckless wants a much tougher line on immigration, they are not social liberals
Well I was against gay marriage on the grounds that we now have three different types of legal partnership all with slightly different rules, which is stupid. I would have abolished marriage and made civil partnership available to everyone.
I don't see why climate change is either way, a lot of warmists want to introduce quite swingeing restrictions on personal freedom.
Similarly immigration. I have nothing against people from different ethnic origins, I just think it is illiberal to tax people who already live here and give their money to anyone who feels like arriving in the country. If we banned immigrants from claiming benefits for 10 years after their arrival, I would be happy to agree a pretty liberal immigration policy. Short of that, I believe that nationality is a members' club and the members should be able to decide who to let in.
I think you are confusing left-liberal shibboleths with people who are actually in favour of personal freedom.
All of 3 of tonight's polls have one thing in common, LD's polling 6&7, LD's are still slowly digging lower.
You wouldn't think it possible for them to go lower.
But apparently it is.
Actually they have picked up a bit, at the moment they are averaging just under 8, a couple of weeks ago it was just over 7.5%. UKIP have fallen back from about 15.5% to 14% but seem to be moving up a bit again. The Labour lead did stretch to over 4 but is now back to just over 3.5%
(based on the unscientific method of a spreadsheet which averages the polls over approximately the same time period as the graph on the Wikipedia polls page)
Well the three most recent polls (tonight) have them 6-7.
At what stage do they cut and run?
There is a great scene in The Great Race where Tony Curtis, when marooned on an iceberg with his opponent Jack Lemmon, tells Lemmon not to panic. Lemmon responds "I'm not panicking. But when the water reaches my bottom lip I'm sure as hell going to do something...."
The Julie Andrews (stage version) My Fair Lady soundtrack is good one.
I'm squinting at your avatar - what is it? I loved the one of your house.
By the way, saw a story in the FT the other day that would amuse you.
It seems that one of the founders of Alcatel-Lucent (owners of Bell Laboratories) was on his way to set up the company when he came across a kitten drowning in the river. He rescued the poor things, had some cute postcards made up and then distributed them at the nearest train station.
Given that Alcatel was ultimately responsible for the invention of the internet, perhaps the desire to distribute cute pictures of kittens really was the motivating force behind it...
The problem is the Tories despise them. Well, so do the LDs and Labour. Not yet sure about UKIP.
Cameron's crap at politics. He's lazy, high handed and dismissive of people he doesn't know well. But he's actually been a pretty reasonable PM in the actual business of governing, despite a terrible legacy.
Farage has done nothing to demonstrate that he's anything more than a cheery pub bore.
As for intolerance: "nutters, fruitcakes, loonies" etc is rude. And dismissive. But not intolerant. Intolerant is judging people on the basis of the colour of their skin, or their religion. Or preventing people who love each other from getting married simply because they happen to be the same sex.
Now I doubt whether your understanding of the English language is as bad as your definition of intolerance suggests but I will give you the benefit of the doubt and provide the standard online definition to enlighten you.
1.lack of toleration; unwillingness or refusal to tolerate or respect contrary opinions or beliefs, persons of different races or backgrounds, etc. 2.incapacity or indisposition to bear or endure: intolerance to heat. 3.abnormal sensitivity or allergy to a food, drug, etc. 4.an intolerant act.
Intolerance is not a word that can be used selectively by you to fit the narrative of those you want to berate and feel superior to. It applies to all beliefs and I'm afraid with your every posts you demonstrate you are suffering from the same sort of intolerance that indeed your leader does and trying to excuse it away as you do only makes it worse.
As for Farage he's turned a party that was nowhere 4 years ago into a major insurgency who has won a major national election (winning well over 4 million votes in doing so) and now commands the second largest national group in the EU behind the German Christian democrats, has added hundreds of councillors to his party's ranks and is on the verge of breaking into the Westminster cartel. No political leader in the UK has achieved that sort of success from a cold start after just 20 years since perhaps the Labour Party did 120 years ago. But do keep dismissing him as a cheery pub bore
All this talk of defections. I was starting to panic that Neil Hamilton might defect from UKIP to the Tory Party. We would politely have to decline.
Tories have long memories and never forgive political treachery. Kippers are kidding themselves if they think we will form a coalition with them. They can climb into bed with the Labour party they are doing their best to help get elected.
Most Kippers will tell you that there job isn't to prop up the Tory Party.
It's to replace them.
We are the UK's oldest political party and will still be around long after Nigel's kippers have been eaten for breakfast by Gideon's pet cat.
I believe there's still a few continuity-Liberal Party councillors around.
The so-called continuity Liberal party is a new party created in 1989.
The Liberal Democrats are the continuation of the old Liberal party and could make a claim about being the oldest political party (whether the Liberals or Conservatives are older is a very abitrary and semantic based discussion iirc).
We've had this discussion before, but when you add the Peelites, the Liberal Unionists, the Imperial Preferencers, the Gladstonian Radicals and the National Liberals all of the historical Liberal Party is now part of the Tory Party.
Pfsh, your conclusion is an exaggeration of your reasoning due to personal preference.
After the National Liberals split off, how many Liberals vs how many National Liberals were there again?
Well - a good day in the golf and remarkably Spurs weren't drubbed and even got a point - how great is that.....
On the slightly negative, looks like the Tory EU-nutcases really don't want a referendum and prefer having Labour running the country. Turncoat Carswell was one thing but Reckless is a whole level higher in wankerdom. Apologies but it's late and post water-shed.
A grim day for the Blues and presumably there's one or more left for Cammo's speech - is Woolaston a possibility?
Now I doubt whether your understanding of the English language is as bad as your definition of intolerance suggests but I will give you the benefit of the doubt and provide the standard online definition to enlighten you.
1.lack of toleration; unwillingness or refusal to tolerate or respect contrary opinions or beliefs, persons of different races or backgrounds, etc. 2.incapacity or indisposition to bear or endure: intolerance to heat. 3.abnormal sensitivity or allergy to a food, drug, etc. 4.an intolerant act.
Intolerance is not a word that can be used selectively by you to fit the narrative of those you want to berate and feel superior to. It applies to all beliefs and I'm afraid with your every posts you demonstrate you are suffering from the same sort of intolerance that indeed your leader does and trying to excuse it away as you do only makes it worse.
As for Farage he's turned a party that was nowhere 4 years ago into a major insurgency who has won a major national election (winning well over 4 million votes in doing so) and now commands the second largest national group in the EU behind the German Christian democrats, has added hundreds of councillors to his party's ranks and is on the verge of breaking into the Westminster cartel. No political leader in the UK has achieved that sort of success from a cold start after just 20 years since perhaps the Labour Party did 120 years ago. But do keep dismissing him as a cheery pub bore
Farage is riding a wave of discontent effectively.
But I don't give a shit about politicians. What I care about is good government. Farage has done nothing to suggest that he is good at that.
You are terribly desperate to keep repeating lies like this . The issue was quite clearly put forward at a time when there was total uncertainty about when the treaty might be ratified. Both the 2009 and 2010 manifestos were quite clear and not misleading at all. And as promised Cameron has made clear that he does not want ever closer union and is proposing a referendum just as soon as he can get a majority for it in parliament.
You need to keep peddling your rubbish to keep yourself happy in your fantasy... and before you start off with all your whinging again, its a tough job having to point it out and the nasty habits of the ting tong tendancy in UKIP, but someone's got to do it.
What you and the rest of the tory party fail to understand is that lisbon was only one thing
I voted tory in 2010
I voted for abolishing the deficit....I get a government that still feels its ok to borrow 100 bn a year
I voted for an end to the nanny state.... I get Claire perry internet porn filters, minimum alcohol pricing and plain cigarette packs
I voted for a return to civil liberties ----I get increased surveillance powers for GCHQ
I voted for a reduction of state spending....I get none
I voted for a tougher line on the EU....I get Cameron hailing it as a victory that he limited the increase in budget to double inflation
I voted for free market energy policies....I get green shite foisted upon me
Frankly if I wanted to vote for a left of centre party I would have voted Labour at least they are honest about it.
The tories have lost my vote until they prove they are labour lite. They aren't going to do that with idiot boy Cameron in charge
Charles/Plato Yes, just finished, it was brilliant and I believe won best screenplay at the Academy Awards, Jeremy Irons and Kevin Spacey played off each other well. (Incidentally saw Irons at Hay 2 years ago and he was very engaging there too) Absolutely not about Goldman Sachs I agree (innocent face)
I might add I went looking through Reckless's recent tweets after the Iraq vote yesterday thinking he might be 'at risk' and was reassured with tweets about him being out campaigning and off to Clacton on Thursday..... otherwise I might have bet on him going...
" It's the Tories' failure to engage with the C1/C2s that has meant they have struggled to build a winning electoral platform for 20 years.
I don't believe that group is especially political - they was competant and efficient government, sensible economic policy (and I include immigration within that) and a leader who appears engaged with their needs. "
Indeed.
But if Charles can see it why can't the Cameroons. Why do the Cameroons support the Matthew Parris line ?
Why do you sound surprised?
I do my best to bridge the four nations in the UK, keep close to both London and the country, spend time with SMEs and multinationals and spend a significant amount of time building relationships in Europe and the States.
There is more to the Conservative tradition than a bunch of mediocre metropolitans
All this talk of defections. I was starting to panic that Neil Hamilton might defect from UKIP to the Tory Party. We would politely have to decline.
Tories have long memories and never forgive political treachery. Kippers are kidding themselves if they think we will form a coalition with them. They can climb into bed with the Labour party they are doing their best to help get elected.
Most Kippers will tell you that there job isn't to prop up the Tory Party.
It's to replace them.
We are the UK's oldest political party and will still be around long after Nigel's kippers have been eaten for breakfast by Gideon's pet cat.
I believe there's still a few continuity-Liberal Party councillors around.
The so-called continuity Liberal party is a new party created in 1989.
The Liberal Democrats are the continuation of the old Liberal party and could make a claim about being the oldest political party (whether the Liberals or Conservatives are older is a very abitrary and semantic based discussion iirc).
We've had this discussion before, but when you add the Peelites, the Liberal Unionists, the Imperial Preferencers, the Gladstonian Radicals and the National Liberals all of the historical Liberal Party is now part of the Tory Party.
Pfsh, your conclusion is an exaggeration of your reasoning due to personal preference.
After the National Liberals split off, how many Liberals vs how many National Liberals were there again?
Which set of National Liberals are we referring to? Also why are you mentioning the Peelites who were a Conservative faction that went to the Liberal party?
Assuming you mean the second set (i.e. the ones known as the Liberal Nationals initially and later the National Liberals) then there were massively more Liberals than National Liberals.
In MPs it was roughly even (with the Liberals generally slightly ahead, and NLs often bleeding back to Ls, Clement Davies for example) but in candidates and local organisations the Liberal party remained massively and utterly dominant. The idea that a major chunk of the party moved to the Tories is utterly false, and simply counting MP numbers hugely over-simplistic.
Maybe the conservative supporters on here should list the Conservative MPs they immensely dislike so that when they defect we can know that they're not just being bitter
It's just that I'd never heard bad words against Reckless or Carswell until they joined ukip, and now their every word is a lie...
" It's the Tories' failure to engage with the C1/C2s that has meant they have struggled to build a winning electoral platform for 20 years.
I don't believe that group is especially political - they was competant and efficient government, sensible economic policy (and I include immigration within that) and a leader who appears engaged with their needs. "
Indeed.
But if Charles can see it why can't the Cameroons. Why do the Cameroons support the Matthew Parris line ?
Why do you sound surprised?
I do my best to bridge the four nations in the UK, keep close to both London and the country, spend time with SMEs and multinationals and spend a significant amount of time building relationships in Europe and the States.
There is more to the Conservative tradition than a bunch of mediocre metropolitans
I'm flattered...but think my wife would object :-)
Maybe the conservative supporters on here should list the Conservative MPs they immensely dislike so that when they defect we can know that they're not just being bitter
It's just that I'd never heard bad words against Reckless or Carswell until they joined ukip, and now their every word is a lie...
Tories feel they are born to rule. It oozes from them. Just read PB.
Say what you like about Labour, they don't have that.
Now I doubt whether your understanding of the English language is as bad as your definition of intolerance suggests but I will give you the benefit of the doubt and provide the standard online definition to enlighten you.
1.lack of toleration; unwillingness or refusal to tolerate or respect contrary opinions or beliefs, persons of different races or backgrounds, etc. 2.incapacity or indisposition to bear or endure: intolerance to heat. 3.abnormal sensitivity or allergy to a food, drug, etc. 4.an intolerant act.
Intolerance is not a word that can be used selectively by you to fit the narrative of those you want to berate and feel superior to. It applies to all beliefs and I'm afraid with your every posts you demonstrate you are suffering from the same sort of intolerance that indeed your leader does and trying to excuse it away as you do only makes it worse.
As for Farage he's turned a party that was nowhere 4 years ago into a major insurgency who has won a major national election (winning well over 4 million votes in doing so) and now commands the second largest national group in the EU behind the German Christian democrats, has added hundreds of councillors to his party's ranks and is on the verge of breaking into the Westminster cartel. No political leader in the UK has achieved that sort of success from a cold start after just 20 years since perhaps the Labour Party did 120 years ago. But do keep dismissing him as a cheery pub bore
Farage is riding a wave of discontent effectively.
But I don't give a shit about politicians. What I care about is good government. Farage has done nothing to suggest that he is good at that.
Surely the first sign of good government is a lack of discontent both within an elected leaders political party and within the electorate as a whole?
Cameron may be a fine administrator in which case he should have stayed a SPAD or become a civil servant. He may be at home with his peers in the ruling class in which case he should have become a diplomat. However, to govern politicians need to be good leaders. Cameron is a bloody awful leader and always has been. His leadership has been riddled with discontent and division.
Farage on the other hand seems to have the leadership thing going quite well. Whether that could translate into good government I agree is another question but that really isn't going to be proven either way unless he gets the opportunity and that still seems unlikely. So further debate is really moot....
If they are still polling 6pts by December they might as well cut and run on some point of principle, hoping for a bounce.
6%
FFS. I voted for them in 2010.
I don't know. Ashdown was a man mountain compared to our current crop - just look at the Ed is Crap/Dave is Crap stuff on here. The current trio make Neil, Paddy and John look like a trio of giants!
Have you seen matt Fordes impression of Ed Miliband
Maybe the conservative supporters on here should list the Conservative MPs they immensely dislike so that when they defect we can know that they're not just being bitter
It's just that I'd never heard bad words against Reckless or Carswell until they joined ukip, and now their every word is a lie...
Tories feel they are born to rule. It oozes from them. Just read PB.
Say what you like about Labour, they don't have that.
I can just imagine a few of them scribbling the likely candidates to defect down now, to make it look like they always held them in disregard
Which set of National Liberals are we referring to? Also why are you mentioning the Peelites who were a Conservative faction that went to the Liberal party?
Assuming you mean the second set (i.e. the ones known as the Liberal Nationals initially and later the National Liberals) then there were massively more Liberals than National Liberals.
In MPs it was roughly even (with the Liberals generally slightly ahead, and NLs often bleeding back to Ls, Clement Davies for example) but in candidates and local organisations the Liberal party remained massively and utterly dominant. The idea that a major chunk of the party moved to the Tories is utterly false, and simply counting MP numbers hugely over-simplistic.
Because the modern Liberal party was founded by the Peelites (as opposed to the Foxites who you are trying to claim). And then they returned to the Conservatives by the time of Derby/Disraeli.
MPs is the clearest and easiest way to measure relative success.
But I suppose you could also consider the fact that Walter Runciman remainder President of the National Federation despite being a Liberal National/National Liberal
If they are still polling 6pts by December they might as well cut and run on some point of principle, hoping for a bounce.
6%
FFS. I voted for them in 2010.
I don't know. Ashdown was a man mountain compared to our current crop - just look at the Ed is Crap/Dave is Crap stuff on here. The current trio make Neil, Paddy and John look like a trio of giants!
Have you seen matt Fordes impression of Ed Miliband
I can't find one... He was in the daily politics on Wednesday I think, it was brilliant
But I don't give a shit about politicians. What I care about is good government. Farage has done nothing to suggest that he is good at that.
Surely the first sign of good government is a lack of discontent both within an elected leaders political party and within the electorate as a whole?
Cameron may be a fine administrator in which case he should have stayed a SPAD or become a civil servant. He may be at home with his peers in the ruling class in which case he should have become a diplomat. However, to govern politicians need to be good leaders. Cameron is a bloody awful leader and always has been. His leadership has been riddled with discontent and division.
Farage on the other hand seems to have the leadership thing going quite well. Whether that could translate into good government I agree is another question but that really isn't going to be proven either way unless he gets the opportunity and that still seems unlikely. So further debate is really moot....
You forget that Cameron is leading a Coalition. That's put some pretty unique strains on the ability to keep the party happy - reduced ability to hand out patronage and to drive cherished policies.
But the job of PM is that of administrator and diplomat. Not that of a politician.
Maybe the conservative supporters on here should list the Conservative MPs they immensely dislike so that when they defect we can know that they're not just being bitter
It's just that I'd never heard bad words against Reckless or Carswell until they joined ukip, and now their every word is a lie...
Tories feel they are born to rule. It oozes from them. Just read PB.
Say what you like about Labour, they don't have that.
I can just imagine a few of them scribbling the likely candidates to defect down now, to make it look like they always held them in disregard
1984
Best thing is, they don't know why people hate them. Have Not. Got. A. Clue.
TimB Actually several of the Ryder Cup shots I saw today showed clear blue skies and even some sunshine, certainly early afternoon
Several players had woolly hats on during the afternoon round, and the crowd were all wrapped up. The commentators said it was in the 50s. I don't have to endure that until January, and even then the average high is about 60.
The other thing was that the course looks like a US country club course - wide fairways etc - rather than the usual fare for a Scottish course. It screams Nicklaus, which of course it is - opened in 1993, and updated by him in 2012.
But I don't give a shit about politicians. What I care about is good government. Farage has done nothing to suggest that he is good at that.
Surely the first sign of good government is a lack of discontent both within an elected leaders political party and within the electorate as a whole?
Cameron may be a fine administrator in which case he should have stayed a SPAD or become a civil servant. He may be at home with his peers in the ruling class in which case he should have become a diplomat. However, to govern politicians need to be good leaders. Cameron is a bloody awful leader and always has been. His leadership has been riddled with discontent and division.
Farage on the other hand seems to have the leadership thing going quite well. Whether that could translate into good government I agree is another question but that really isn't going to be proven either way unless he gets the opportunity and that still seems unlikely. So further debate is really moot....
You forget that Cameron is leading a Coalition. That's put some pretty unique strains on the ability to keep the party happy - reduced ability to hand out patronage and to drive cherished policies.
But the job of PM is that of administrator and diplomat. Not that of a politician.
Well that's where you and I disagree. The Prime Minister is the democratic elected political leader of this country and if the person who fills the role either does not recognise that or is no good at it then he won't be Prime Minister for longer than his term allows. He may also be a part time diplomat but he is not an administrator that is the role of the Head Of the Civil Service supported by his Mandarins.
As for the Coalition it is no excuse for the vast majority of Cameron's problems.
Reminds me of Mitel and Newbridge - and Carphone Warehouse company names. Mitel IIRC was a kluge of Mike and Terry.
And Charles Dunstone wanted his lock-up garage sized business to sound BIG.
What ever happened to Underware?! My ex's business was named after a village up the road from us and had a crappy antique/junk shop. I convinced him to use it as it was memorable and visual. horsebridge.net/
I'm squinting at your avatar - what is it? I loved the one of your house.
By the way, saw a story in the FT the other day that would amuse you.
It seems that one of the founders of Alcatel-Lucent (owners of Bell Laboratories) was on his way to set up the company when he came across a kitten drowning in the river. He rescued the poor things, had some cute postcards made up and then distributed them at the nearest train station.
Given that Alcatel was ultimately responsible for the invention of the internet, perhaps the desire to distribute cute pictures of kittens really was the motivating force behind it...
Well that's where you and I disagree. The Prime Minister is the democratic elected political leader of this country and if the person who fills the role either does not recognise that or is no good at it then he won't be Prime Minister for longer than his term allows. He may also be a part time diplomat but he is not an administrator that is the role of the Head Of the Civil Service supported by his Mandarins.
As for the Coalition it is no excuse for the vast majority of Cameron's problems.
Anyway time to go......
The Prime Minister is simply the person who can command a majority in the house of commons. The business of government is administration in its purest sense.
The Coalition has made Party management a lot harder, and perhaps magnified the impact of Cameron's own weaknesses
HurstLlama - ah! the Sheraton in Munich, a few years ago mind.
Try the Plaza Athenee in Paris...
Some 25 years or so ago, I was in a bar across the street from the St Francis in San Francisco, when an attractive looking woman sat on the stool next to me at the bar, and engaged me in conversation.
She eventually went to the bathroom, and I could see the barman trying to catch my eye. He was mouthing something I couldn't understand. I shrugged to show I didn't understand and he came over and said "Adam's Apple."
Plato Presently watching margin call on BBC2 with Kevin Spacey
Absolutely fantastic film.
Not about about Goldman Sachs. Not even one little bit.
Leftist propaganda claiming the financial crisis started in America.
It was the reaction to the financial crisis that was the problem.
If Brown wasn't to blame, how come we had such a dreadful *structural* deficit in 2010. That wasn't caused by the bail outs.
It was caused by Brown believing his own bullshit (no more boom and bust) and then, for entirely political reasons, not reducing spending to reflect the new reality of permanently lower tax income from financial services.
TimB Well it is Scotland at the beginning of autumn, not Florida in July, but I take your point. It was at least not grey and rainy all day. I would assume you are not in New England, the Great Lakes or Canada where it can get far colder than that.
It is a Nicklaus course and as you say has perhaps lost some of the charm of a Scottish course like St Andrews in its country club design
Reminds me of Mitel and Newbridge - and Carphone Warehouse company names. Mitel IIRC was a kluge of Mike and Terry.
And Charles Dunstone wanted his lock-up garage sized business to sound BIG.
What ever happened to Underware?! My ex's business was named after a village up the road from us and had a crappy antique/junk shop. I convinced him to use it as it was memorable and visual. horsebridge.net/
I'm squinting at your avatar - what is it? I loved the one of your house.
By the way, saw a story in the FT the other day that would amuse you.
It seems that one of the founders of Alcatel-Lucent (owners of Bell Laboratories) was on his way to set up the company when he came across a kitten drowning in the river. He rescued the poor things, had some cute postcards made up and then distributed them at the nearest train station.
Given that Alcatel was ultimately responsible for the invention of the internet, perhaps the desire to distribute cute pictures of kittens really was the motivating force behind it...
Here we go... 56 mins in... Great impression of Ed
Which set of National Liberals are we referring to? Also why are you mentioning the Peelites who were a Conservative faction that went to the Liberal party?
Assuming you mean the second set (i.e. the ones known as the Liberal Nationals initially and later the National Liberals) then there were massively more Liberals than National Liberals.
In MPs it was roughly even (with the Liberals generally slightly ahead, and NLs often bleeding back to Ls, Clement Davies for example) but in candidates and local organisations the Liberal party remained massively and utterly dominant. The idea that a major chunk of the party moved to the Tories is utterly false, and simply counting MP numbers hugely over-simplistic.
Because the modern Liberal party was founded by the Peelites (as opposed to the Foxites who you are trying to claim). And then they returned to the Conservatives by the time of Derby/Disraeli.
MPs is the clearest and easiest way to measure relative success.
But I suppose you could also consider the fact that Walter Runciman remainder President of the National Federation despite being a Liberal National/National Liberal
*shrugs*
If you're going for which party is older then that's just a case of picking semantics and doesn't really tell you much. Fox, Russell, Gladstone. You can make your case about what was the real beginnings of parties. When the name was first used, when national memberships were set up, Willis Rooms Meeting or (for the Conservatives) the Tamworth manifesto. It's just not a useful argument to have imho.
Also, only some of them returned, far from all. Why imply they all returned to the Conservatives but underplay the National Liberals returning the main Liberal party?
No chance. If you're claiming that a large part of the party moved to the Conservatives then you can't simply point to a few dozen MPs that survived on Conservative votes they gained from not being opposed by them (and often not opposed by Liberals either in the hopes of them coming back) compared to many times as many local organisations, members, candidates, generally votes and usually more MPs won in the face of Conservative opposition.
Or are you saying that a party is solely vested in its MPs, which'd be an odd stance for you.
TimB Well it is Scotland at the beginning of autumn, not Florida in July, but I take your point. It was at least not grey and rainy all day. I would assume you are not in New England, the Great Lakes or Canada where it can get far colder than that.
It is a Nicklaus course and as you say has perhaps lost some of the charm of a Scottish course like St Andrews in its country club design
I'm just outside Atlanta, Georgia. I have lived in Toronto and upstate New York also.
My wife was born and raised in Glasgow, and she is still chagrined at the fact that in all the times I have been to Scotland, I have never seen it without rain. We would drive up the M6/A74 and within a few minutes of crossing the border into Scotland it would start to rain. Every time. Likewise driving south - on or around the English border the rain would stop.
Re Brooks resignation - the Mirror is very unreasonable in linking him to Lehman Brothers and the financial crisis (although technically accurate it's very misleading).
(1) He worked for Shearson Lehman Hutton - a subsidiary of American Express. Amex sold Lehman Brothers in the early 90s - 15 years before the crisis. He never worked at Lehman Brothers
(2) He was a VP for goodness sake. That's the sort of job a 28 year old has. By no means important or senior despite the rather grand title.
Or are you saying that a party is solely vested in its MPs, which'd be an odd stance for you.
Simply that the Peelites took the thought leadership; the Liberal Unionists the money; the Gladstonians the moral purpose; the Chamberlains Birmingham; and the National Liberals picked over the remaining carcase.
The fact that the Liberals barely hung on after the war and weren't relevant until the 70s hardly suggests that they were the main part of the party. They were just the bitter rejectionists who happened to survive.
Yes, a very interesting article, which perhaps goes some way to explaining what is going on and why Labour and UKIP between them look as though they might put Ed M into No 10. Compare and contrast:
About 1 in 8 of those who did not vote for the party in 2010 say they may do so next time. These people are united by a positive view of the prime minister and the belief that the Tories are on the right track and need more time to finish the job.
They worry that a change of government could mean going back to square one on the deficit and undoing what progress has been made on immigration and welfare reform.
That's fine as far as it goes, but look at this:
nearly half of defectors said either austerity was no longer necessary or had never been needed in the first place.
In other words, what we are seeing is similar to the denial of the late 60's and the 70s. It took the UK a decade and a half to come to its senses then and face reality. I see no reason to assume voters are any more realistic today than they were then.
A very fair article, and one that accords more or less with my analysis as well. This is another key paragraph:
"But for most people the election might as well be eight years away, never mind eight months. Most of the uncommitted voters who took part in my research had given it little or no thought and did not intend to until much closer to the day. There is still time for the Tories to turn their fortunes around before next May."
I've been saying on here over the last few days: most people haven't given the election next year a moment's thought.
There is still everything to play for.
There is a pattern. Labour successfully bribes its clients but wrecks the economy. The Tories come in to fix the economy by prescribing tough medicine which makes them subject to claims by Labour that they are heartless. The electorate doesn't really care much about the debt/deficit as long as they have/will have money in their pockets. They think that Labour should get another chance, it will be less painful. Perhaps we need a period of hyperinflation as in Germany between the wars to burn in some sense of fiscal responsibility into the nation.
Plato Presently watching margin call on BBC2 with Kevin Spacey
Absolutely fantastic film.
Not about about Goldman Sachs. Not even one little bit.
Leftist propaganda claiming the financial crisis started in America.
It was the reaction to the financial crisis that was the problem.
If Brown wasn't to blame, how come we had such a dreadful *structural* deficit in 2010. That wasn't caused by the bail outs.
It was caused by Brown believing his own bullshit (no more boom and bust) and then, for entirely political reasons, not reducing spending to reflect the new reality of permanently lower tax income from financial services.
Brown led the international response to the crisis. Spending and quantitative easing was to stave off recession. QE was continued by the present government, and is only now about to end in the United States.
And that sums up why I had a serious tiff with Mr Cameron in about 2011ish.
I forgave him over his PMishness. He does look and sound like someone born to do it well. And when the chips are down, he does it really well.
So, I've put my ARGH to bed and backing him.
I see no reason to change my view
We need a good dose of austerity. This government has had 5 years to deliver they have instead given tax cuts (which before people shout laffer I fully agree its a sane move practically to raise more revenue) which politically is sending out a signal that this austerity they talk about obviously isnt as important as they claim.
In addition they have found money to splash around when it suits them such as the first time buyer schemes. All this is telling joe public that the debt situation isnt that bad. Joe public knows what being badly in debt is like...it means cutting every last piece of unnecessary expenditure then cutting a load more until the debt is paid off and if that means a few missed meals then so be it. What Cameron and osborne have done is the household equivalent of
"We are badly in debt...but its friday night so let's get a takeaway and rent a movie anyway"
Mr Irons was a great baddie in Die Hard something too. I didn't think it was possible to top Alan Rickman - but I think he equalled him.
Simon Baker was great in Margin Call too - he plays himself in The Mentalist too.
TBH, most actors seem to play themselves best. Ian Somerhalder is himself as well - just variants of OTTness - from LOST to Law & Order to Tell Me You Love Me to Vampire Diaries.
I'm wary of Alexander Skarsgord being Tarzan. He was super as Eric Northman in True Blood - I'm a Johnny Wiesmuller/Ron Ely girl when it comes to Tarzan.
Charles/Plato Yes, just finished, it was brilliant and I believe won best screenplay at the Academy Awards, Jeremy Irons and Kevin Spacey played off each other well. (Incidentally saw Irons at Hay 2 years ago and he was very engaging there too) Absolutely not about Goldman Sachs I agree (innocent face)
Plato Presently watching margin call on BBC2 with Kevin Spacey
Absolutely fantastic film.
Not about about Goldman Sachs. Not even one little bit.
Leftist propaganda claiming the financial crisis started in America.
It was the reaction to the financial crisis that was the problem.
If Brown wasn't to blame, how come we had such a dreadful *structural* deficit in 2010. That wasn't caused by the bail outs.
It was caused by Brown believing his own bullshit (no more boom and bust) and then, for entirely political reasons, not reducing spending to reflect the new reality of permanently lower tax income from financial services.
Brown led the international response to the crisis. Spending and quantitative easing was to stave off recession. QE was continued by the present government, and is only now about to end in the United States.
It helped that he was responding to a crisis he had brought about. That meant that he was able to get the timing right -if only by accident.
Plato Presently watching margin call on BBC2 with Kevin Spacey
Absolutely fantastic film.
Not about about Goldman Sachs. Not even one little bit.
Leftist propaganda claiming the financial crisis started in America.
It was the reaction to the financial crisis that was the problem.
If Brown wasn't to blame, how come we had such a dreadful *structural* deficit in 2010. That wasn't caused by the bail outs.
It was caused by Brown believing his own bullshit (no more boom and bust) and then, for entirely political reasons, not reducing spending to reflect the new reality of permanently lower tax income from financial services.
Brown led the international response to the crisis. Spending and quantitative easing was to stave off recession. QE was continued by the present government, and is only now about to end in the United States.
It helped that he was responding to a crisis he had brought about. That meant that he was able to get the timing right -if only by accident.
And yet the Presidential Commission failed to conclude it was all Gordon Brown's fault. Of course, they weren't fighting an election against him.
HurstLlama - ah! the Sheraton in Munich, a few years ago mind.
Try the Plaza Athenee in Paris...
Some 25 years or so ago, I was in a bar across the street from the St Francis in San Francisco, when an attractive looking woman sat on the stool next to me at the bar, and engaged me in conversation.
She eventually went to the bathroom, and I could see the barman trying to catch my eye. He was mouthing something I couldn't understand. I shrugged to show I didn't understand and he came over and said "Adam's Apple."
Shocking, but how many other towns has this happened in?
That's the question that's not going away. Where is the PM on this?
Probably at a gay wedding.
I'm not joking. When the Savile scandal exploded, the minister responsible for the BBC, Maria Miller, gave a speech at the Tory party conference. Her subject? Same sex marriage.
Now, although I'm biased in this, I'm sure I'm not the only one to regard this a rather skewed set of priorities.
You must have been watching a different speech to the rest of us
This Brooks Newmark scandal is the most rubbish scandal in the entire rubbish history of rubbish scandals. Why on earth is he resigning over this? Can we get a petition together or something to get him reinstated?
Or are you saying that a party is solely vested in its MPs, which'd be an odd stance for you.
Simply that the Peelites took the thought leadership; the Liberal Unionists the money; the Gladstonians the moral purpose; the Chamberlains Birmingham; and the National Liberals picked over the remaining carcase.
The fact that the Liberals barely hung on after the war and weren't relevant until the 70s hardly suggests that they were the main part of the party. They were just the bitter rejectionists who happened to survive.
You keep saying that like all the Peelites returned, which they didn't, not even close to all of them.
That the Liberal Unionists took the money is false. The party was never in better financial state than after the 1906 election when they were raking it in hand over fist. The money problems came in with the division between LG and Asquith when LG was sitting on the warchest.
You're doubling up Liberal Unionism and Chamberlains to make your list more impressive. They did indeed take Birmingham but that didn't stop the Liberal party winning majorities.
What you mean by the departure of the Gladstonians I'm not sure to be honest, care to clarify?
The National Liberals (as in the second lot) was a breakaway group of a few dozen MPs who survived solely because of Conservative votes and many ended up bleeding back to the Liberals anyway, and were never supported by the vast majority of the party.
That the Liberal party got squeezed down was a lot to do with the split persisting in the election of 1924. And of all the reasons you can argue about the reasons for its fall, the idea that its period in the electoral wasteland proves that the national Liberals took the great part of the party with it is nonsense.
People tend to like using the LG children as an analogy, one to the Conservatives, one to Labour to illustrated how the Liberals had been squeezed between the two.
This is just you being driven by desire to claim the legacy rather than historical fact.
This Brooks Newmark scandal is the most rubbish scandal in the entire rubbish history of rubbish scandals. Why on earth is he resigning over this? Can we get a petition together or something to get him reinstated?
I've not seen the news so can't comment on the scandal itself, though note it follows the DLT verdict. One can't help wondering though if it is not a shot across Murdoch's bows -- to show the Sun is not the only paper with a safe full of ready-to-print stories about its political opponents in the run-up to the election.
Christ on a bike,and the PB Hodges thought Miliband was having a baddun forgetting some of his speech. Hugh, I hope you have a pallet full of popcorn as we will need it. This Tory coference is going to be epic.Two defections and a resignation........ARF!
This Brooks Newmark scandal is the most rubbish scandal in the entire rubbish history of rubbish scandals. Why on earth is he resigning over this? Can we get a petition together or something to get him reinstated?
I'm not so impressed.
Mr Newmark, 56, a married father of five, apologised after the scandal came to light.
And
He sent a text message to an undercover reporter on Saturday, asking if she would like to meet him at the party conference.
This Brooks Newmark scandal is the most rubbish scandal in the entire rubbish history of rubbish scandals. Why on earth is he resigning over this? Can we get a petition together or something to get him reinstated?
I'm not so impressed.
Mr Newmark, 56, a married father of five, apologised after the scandal came to light.
And
He sent a text message to an undercover reporter on Saturday, asking if she would like to meet him at the party conference.
Not everyone is as flippant over family life as you.
It may be old-fashioned, but people elevated to run the country are also expected to show some kind of example. Lack of financial or sexual probity are still considered as showing a bad example, I suspect, by the majority of people.
Aside from that, Newmark should go for demonstrating he has the IQ of a grapefruit, in allowing himself to be so easily entrapped...
This Brooks Newmark scandal is the most rubbish scandal in the entire rubbish history of rubbish scandals. Why on earth is he resigning over this? Can we get a petition together or something to get him reinstated?
I'm not so impressed.
Mr Newmark, 56, a married father of five, apologised after the scandal came to light.
And
He sent a text message to an undercover reporter on Saturday, asking if she would like to meet him at the party conference.
This Brooks Newmark scandal is the most rubbish scandal in the entire rubbish history of rubbish scandals. Why on earth is he resigning over this? Can we get a petition together or something to get him reinstated?
I've not seen the news so can't comment on the scandal itself, though note it follows the DLT verdict. One can't help wondering though if it is not a shot across Murdoch's bows -- to show the Sun is not the only paper with a safe full of ready-to-print stories about its political opponents in the run-up to the election.
Don't get me wrong, it's a great newspaper story... I think any British journalist would want to run it regardless of the inter-proprietor politics.
I didn't think much of Simon Baker in The Guardian.
Ian Somerhalder is brilliant as a cocky nihilistic vampire - the background music is Black Strobe - I'm A Man [cover of a Bo Diddly track] youtube.com/watch?v=zTXbkkUqS_0
Tim B Yes, you said you were a migrant to Georgia and though you do get your deluges you have the warmer climate to make up, if perhaps a little too hot in the height of summer. Seattle has an average annual temperature about the same as that of the UK, as for the 'dampness' well it depends on perspective I suppose
Tim B Yes, you said you were a migrant to Georgia and though you do get your deluges you have the warmer climate to make up, if perhaps a little too hot in the height of summer. Seattle has an average annual temperature about the same as that of the UK, as for the 'dampness' well it depends on perspective I suppose
Classic advert night
I find that here I can turn off my a/c in my car from November to late February.
In the UK from late 90s to mid 2000s I found I had to keep it on year round, as in winter the windows would fog up without it. Needed the heater too of course.
I lived in Toronto for 4 years, and even when the temperature went below 0 fahrenheit - so cold that touching metal would take the skin off your fingertips - it never felt so cold as in the UK.
That's great ! Wasn't the second chappy Loki from The Avengers?
I've watched so many superhero/supernatural shows and movies that I get confused.
Loki was actually Gabriel the arch angel in Supernatural. And not a pagan at all. Then again, Lilith was the ultimate demon not Adam's wife. Mind-bending stuff.
That's great ! Wasn't the second chappy Loki from The Avengers?
I've watched so many superhero/supernatural shows and movies that I get confused.
Loki was actually Gabriel the arch angel in Supernatural. And not a pagan at all. Then again, Lilith was the ultimate demon not Adam's wife. Mind-bending stuff.
His family life is between him and his family. No need for him to stop being minister for civil society over that.
On the contrary, the family is the building block of society. To trash it is to trash any chance of a life even partially not dependent on the State, certainly for us non-rich folk.
And to think Cameron thought this guy fit to be Minister for Civil Society.
Comments
It's all very I Danced With A Girl Who Danced With The Prince Of Wales. Celebrity by proxy is a funny thing. I was once made to look like a Charlie by Peter Allen on R5 and recognised by a check-out lady in Tesco after appearing on local telly. I'd rather both were forgotten myself.
My fav Spacey flick is K-Pax. He's just so convincing. Have you seen him in the remake of House of Cards? Just perfect.
"But for most people the election might as well be eight years away, never mind eight months. Most of the uncommitted voters who took part in my research had given it little or no thought and did not intend to until much closer to the day. There is still time for the Tories to turn their fortunes around before next May."
I've been saying on here over the last few days: most people haven't given the election next year a moment's thought.
There is still everything to play for.
And that's another reason why the deficit reduction target will be pushed back even further, to 2020 at least. People either don't like the austerity under any circumstances, or because we're told things are picking up there will be less political urgency to deal with it, and since no one chooses to make difficult decisions, the timetable will be altered yet further.
And with that, good night.
Not about about Goldman Sachs. Not even one little bit.
It will be ironic in the extreme. We have the best government (bar Maggie) in yonks, doing a very good job in the most difficult economic circumstances since the 1930s, getting all the big calls right, with perhaps one of the strongest teams of ministers I can remember, facing a disastrously weak opposition, at a time when we desperately need to continue dealing with a host of difficult problems on the economy, welfare and education, and a substantial chunk of the party, or people sympathetic to the party, deliberately want to throw it all away, for reasons so trivial that they beggar belief. Quite extraordinary, but there we are.
Perhaps we need a period of hyperinflation as in Germany between the wars to burn in some sense of fiscal responsibility into the nation.
I'm a small C as well as a Big C conservative and like marriage the way it is. I was reluctant about it being same sex, but won over. I don't want it to become devalued as A Thing.
and yes, I'm a hypocrite as I'm a divorced atheist who got married in a church to please my MIL. I see the comedy of my stance!
On the other side there's one holding a light bulb in the air while his friend is turning the handle on an electricity generator
Also adore Chitty Chitty Bang Bang's and Cabaret. We were talking about Tomorrow Belongs To Me just the other day on here.
It seems that one of the founders of Alcatel-Lucent (owners of Bell Laboratories) was on his way to set up the company when he came across a kitten drowning in the river. He rescued the poor things, had some cute postcards made up and then distributed them at the nearest train station.
Given that Alcatel was ultimately responsible for the invention of the internet, perhaps the desire to distribute cute pictures of kittens really was the motivating force behind it...
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/intolerance
1.lack of toleration; unwillingness or refusal to tolerate or respect contrary opinions or beliefs, persons of different races or backgrounds, etc.
2.incapacity or indisposition to bear or endure:
intolerance to heat.
3.abnormal sensitivity or allergy to a food, drug, etc.
4.an intolerant act.
Intolerance is not a word that can be used selectively by you to fit the narrative of those you want to berate and feel superior to. It applies to all beliefs and I'm afraid with your every posts you demonstrate you are suffering from the same sort of intolerance that indeed your leader does and trying to excuse it away as you do only makes it worse.
As for Farage he's turned a party that was nowhere 4 years ago into a major insurgency who has won a major national election (winning well over 4 million votes in doing so) and now commands the second largest national group in the EU behind the German Christian democrats, has added hundreds of councillors to his party's ranks and is on the verge of breaking into the Westminster cartel. No political leader in the UK has achieved that sort of success from a cold start after just 20 years since perhaps the Labour Party did 120 years ago. But do keep dismissing him as a cheery pub bore
On the slightly negative, looks like the Tory EU-nutcases really don't want a referendum and prefer having Labour running the country. Turncoat Carswell was one thing but Reckless is a whole level higher in wankerdom. Apologies but it's late and post water-shed.
A grim day for the Blues and presumably there's one or more left for Cammo's speech - is Woolaston a possibility?
But I don't give a shit about politicians. What I care about is good government. Farage has done nothing to suggest that he is good at that.
I forgave him over his PMishness. He does look and sound like someone born to do it well. And when the chips are down, he does it really well.
So, I've put my ARGH to bed and backing him.
Looking at how cold and miserable it looks, I felt rather smug as it's nice and warm where I am.
Then it occurred to me that while they are all out in daylight, I'm the poor schmuck getting up at 2.30am to watch it!
Tomorow it starts at a reasonable 7am, just like an F1 race.
I know someone who gave up work to live off benefits because he didn't like getting up early!
Then his partner gave up her job too.......
Assuming you mean the second set (i.e. the ones known as the Liberal Nationals initially and later the National Liberals) then there were massively more Liberals than National Liberals.
In MPs it was roughly even (with the Liberals generally slightly ahead, and NLs often bleeding back to Ls, Clement Davies for example) but in candidates and local organisations the Liberal party remained massively and utterly dominant. The idea that a major chunk of the party moved to the Tories is utterly false, and simply counting MP numbers hugely over-simplistic.
Argg! Golly! I'm fresh out of popcorn!
*Looks for a boxset of Dave's Greatest Hits*
It's just that I'd never heard bad words against Reckless or Carswell until they joined ukip, and now their every word is a lie...
Say what you like about Labour, they don't have that.
Cameron may be a fine administrator in which case he should have stayed a SPAD or become a civil servant. He may be at home with his peers in the ruling class in which case he should have become a diplomat. However, to govern politicians need to be good leaders. Cameron is a bloody awful leader and always has been. His leadership has been riddled with discontent and division.
Farage on the other hand seems to have the leadership thing going quite well. Whether that could translate into good government I agree is another question but that really isn't going to be proven either way unless he gets the opportunity and that still seems unlikely. So further debate is really moot....
Personally I prefer La Gavroche. The cakes at Claridges are too Mr Kipling for me.
1984
MPs is the clearest and easiest way to measure relative success.
But I suppose you could also consider the fact that Walter Runciman remainder President of the National Federation despite being a Liberal National/National Liberal
But the job of PM is that of administrator and diplomat. Not that of a politician.
Great for your party, and mine.
Catalonia president signs independence referendum decree
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-29390774
The other thing was that the course looks like a US country club course - wide fairways etc - rather than the usual fare for a Scottish course. It screams Nicklaus, which of course it is - opened in 1993, and updated by him in 2012.
As for the Coalition it is no excuse for the vast majority of Cameron's problems.
Anyway time to go......
Reminds me of Mitel and Newbridge - and Carphone Warehouse company names. Mitel IIRC was a kluge of Mike and Terry.
And Charles Dunstone wanted his lock-up garage sized business to sound BIG.
What ever happened to Underware?! My ex's business was named after a village up the road from us and had a crappy antique/junk shop. I convinced him to use it as it was memorable and visual. horsebridge.net/
The Coalition has made Party management a lot harder, and perhaps magnified the impact of Cameron's own weaknesses
She eventually went to the bathroom, and I could see the barman trying to catch my eye. He was mouthing something I couldn't understand. I shrugged to show I didn't understand and he came over and said "Adam's Apple."
I had absolutely no idea.......
If Brown wasn't to blame, how come we had such a dreadful *structural* deficit in 2010. That wasn't caused by the bail outs.
It was caused by Brown believing his own bullshit (no more boom and bust) and then, for entirely political reasons, not reducing spending to reflect the new reality of permanently lower tax income from financial services.
It is a Nicklaus course and as you say has perhaps lost some of the charm of a Scottish course like St Andrews in its country club design
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04jttw8/daily-politics-23092014
If you're going for which party is older then that's just a case of picking semantics and doesn't really tell you much. Fox, Russell, Gladstone. You can make your case about what was the real beginnings of parties. When the name was first used, when national memberships were set up, Willis Rooms Meeting or (for the Conservatives) the Tamworth manifesto. It's just not a useful argument to have imho.
Also, only some of them returned, far from all. Why imply they all returned to the Conservatives but underplay the National Liberals returning the main Liberal party?
No chance. If you're claiming that a large part of the party moved to the Conservatives then you can't simply point to a few dozen MPs that survived on Conservative votes they gained from not being opposed by them (and often not opposed by Liberals either in the hopes of them coming back) compared to many times as many local organisations, members, candidates, generally votes and usually more MPs won in the face of Conservative opposition.
Or are you saying that a party is solely vested in its MPs, which'd be an odd stance for you.
My wife was born and raised in Glasgow, and she is still chagrined at the fact that in all the times I have been to Scotland, I have never seen it without rain. We would drive up the M6/A74 and within a few minutes of crossing the border into Scotland it would start to rain. Every time. Likewise driving south - on or around the English border the rain would stop.
(1) He worked for Shearson Lehman Hutton - a subsidiary of American Express. Amex sold Lehman Brothers in the early 90s - 15 years before the crisis. He never worked at Lehman Brothers
(2) He was a VP for goodness sake. That's the sort of job a 28 year old has. By no means important or senior despite the rather grand title.
Regrettably the Scots didn't deliver in that respect but I'm still hoping for a positive result for the Catalans.
The fact that the Liberals barely hung on after the war and weren't relevant until the 70s hardly suggests that they were the main part of the party. They were just the bitter rejectionists who happened to survive.
We need a good dose of austerity. This government has had 5 years to deliver they have instead given tax cuts (which before people shout laffer I fully agree its a sane move practically to raise more revenue) which politically is sending out a signal that this austerity they talk about obviously isnt as important as they claim.
In addition they have found money to splash around when it suits them such as the first time buyer schemes. All this is telling joe public that the debt situation isnt that bad. Joe public knows what being badly in debt is like...it means cutting every last piece of unnecessary expenditure then cutting a load more until the debt is paid off and if that means a few missed meals then so be it. What Cameron and osborne have done is the household equivalent of
"We are badly in debt...but its friday night so let's get a takeaway and rent a movie anyway"
Simon Baker was great in Margin Call too - he plays himself in The Mentalist too.
TBH, most actors seem to play themselves best. Ian Somerhalder is himself as well - just variants of OTTness - from LOST to Law & Order to Tell Me You Love Me to Vampire Diaries.
I'm wary of Alexander Skarsgord being Tarzan. He was super as Eric Northman in True Blood - I'm a Johnny Wiesmuller/Ron Ely girl when it comes to Tarzan.
That meant that he was able to get the timing right -if only by accident.
I loved Billy Bob Thornton in Fargo's line about never enjoying apple pie so much since the Garden of Eden. Just perfect.
As the BBC would never be charged with an offence, there was no legal issue there either.
No, in Ed Miliband style, she "forgot", the same way Cameron "forgets" to do anything about Rotherham.
What puzzles me is why the Tories owe any favours to the BBC or Labour Party.
There must be some serious dirt in the Conservative Party they are absolutely scared of being revealed by the BBC or Labour.
Simon Baker is my namesake so have followed his career, he was in the Guardian too and The Devil Wears Prada.
As you say, the best actors find a niche
That the Liberal Unionists took the money is false. The party was never in better financial state than after the 1906 election when they were raking it in hand over fist. The money problems came in with the division between LG and Asquith when LG was sitting on the warchest.
You're doubling up Liberal Unionism and Chamberlains to make your list more impressive. They did indeed take Birmingham but that didn't stop the Liberal party winning majorities.
What you mean by the departure of the Gladstonians I'm not sure to be honest, care to clarify?
The National Liberals (as in the second lot) was a breakaway group of a few dozen MPs who survived solely because of Conservative votes and many ended up bleeding back to the Liberals anyway, and were never supported by the vast majority of the party.
That the Liberal party got squeezed down was a lot to do with the split persisting in the election of 1924. And of all the reasons you can argue about the reasons for its fall, the idea that its period in the electoral wasteland proves that the national Liberals took the great part of the party with it is nonsense.
People tend to like using the LG children as an analogy, one to the Conservatives, one to Labour to illustrated how the Liberals had been squeezed between the two.
This is just you being driven by desire to claim the legacy rather than historical fact.
Not everyone is as flippant over family life as you.
Rain in Seattle is different to UK rain. It's the dampness about the UK climate that just chills your bones. Rain in Seattle is not that bad.
Rain here, on the other hand, is very different too. We don't get drizzle. When it rains here it comes down like a cloudburst.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Bls1KKDwmo
It's good to be bad....
Not everyone is as flippant over family life as you.
It may be old-fashioned, but people elevated to run the country are also expected to show some kind of example. Lack of financial or sexual probity are still considered as showing a bad example, I suspect, by the majority of people.
Aside from that, Newmark should go for demonstrating he has the IQ of a grapefruit, in allowing himself to be so easily entrapped...
Not everyone is as flippant over family life as you.
His family life is between him and his family. No need for him to stop being minister for civil society over that. ...on the other hand it might be better to resign from that one...
Ian Somerhalder is brilliant as a cocky nihilistic vampire - the background music is Black Strobe - I'm A Man [cover of a Bo Diddly track] youtube.com/watch?v=zTXbkkUqS_0
Classic advert night
How do you embed a YTube here?
In the UK from late 90s to mid 2000s I found I had to keep it on year round, as in winter the windows would fog up without it. Needed the heater too of course.
I lived in Toronto for 4 years, and even when the temperature went below 0 fahrenheit - so cold that touching metal would take the skin off your fingertips - it never felt so cold as in the UK.
It's subjective I know.
I've watched so many superhero/supernatural shows and movies that I get confused.
Loki was actually Gabriel the arch angel in Supernatural. And not a pagan at all. Then again, Lilith was the ultimate demon not Adam's wife. Mind-bending stuff.
Speaking of TV, do you have Sleepy Hollow over there yet?
amazon.co.uk had a ridiculous offer on the complete All Creatures Great and Small box set, so I am slowly wending my way through that.
Plato Yes, seen Somerhalder in a few things, he is an interesting actor, night!
And to think Cameron thought this guy fit to be Minister for Civil Society.