Thanks for the replies re:accounts/Gps. I guess I/we were being naïve. Plus - great card flashing OKC.
Purely academic now Mr Briskin, I assure you. Any opportunities would be referred to younger, much more up to date colleagues! And without any financial implications!
Richard: that's a very interesting read, an impressive piece of work, but very pro-Cameron.
It takes some doing to describe Oliver Letwin as an "Éminence grise".
Maybe just maybe Cameron is a bit more capable than many on here believe, I have always felt that he has done a fine job given the country he inherited. Can you imagine the position we would be if labour had won.
I don't see that it would have been that bad really. I mean, I don't like the narrative that all the parties are literally the same, but with big savings needed - and we are repeatedly told for 2015 that even if Labour are in denial now about what needs doing, they will end up doing what is needed just in a less planned fashion - you can tweak things here and there, but the biggest savings have to come from areas of biggest expenditure in the end. So what else would have been different? Fewer academies and some differences over welfare? Oh, and the income tax threshold maybe, though I don't know what Labour policy on that was.
The coalition government have done much to encourage people to get jobs rather than sit on welfare. Labour would never have done that, they have always produced policies which encourage welfare dependancy
So GO wants to make work pay by freezing in work benefits.
You do know most benefits go to those workers whose employers arent prepared to pay sufficient levels of wages. The taxpayer subsidising companies making millions or billions in profits really is a joke.
Of course most of our welfare state payments go to oldies.
So do you see it as a failure of the coalition to get people who were on benefit into work ?
O/T Local paper in Braintree has been running a poll of readers on whether or not Brooks Newmark should resign as an MP. 58% Yes, 42% No. No idea of how many votes or any other controls on the "poll".
Newmark should resign as an MP for this reason. If you were a young women that needed help, would you feel comfortable visiting a constituency surgery held by Newmark. If the answer is no, then he cannot perform an important function of being an MP.
Richard: that's a very interesting read, an impressive piece of work, but very pro-Cameron.
It takes some doing to describe Oliver Letwin as an "Éminence grise".
I think "Jonah" would be a better description for Oliver Letwin.
Quite. I've never understood the question to which Oliver Letwin is the answer. He's clever, and personally a charming man. But his political and personal judgement is naive in the extreme, and his competence somewhat variable.
Letwin is, to put it bluntly and with no malice intended, a fuckwit.
He might have made a good absent-minded professor in a highly intellectual non-real world subject.
But for anything connected with the other 99% of us ...
Tomb of Suleyman Shah...worth looking up as it may be of significance shortly.
Yes, I've seen the tanks amassing on the border. Will it lead to a wider invasion though? And the reaction to it by the west, by Iran, by Assad and the Kurds?
O/T Local paper in Braintree has been running a poll of readers on whether or not Brooks Newmark should resign as an MP. 58% Yes, 42% No. No idea of how many votes or any other controls on the "poll".
Newmark should resign as an MP for this reason. If you were a young women that needed help, would you feel comfortable visiting a constituency surgery held by Newmark. If the answer is no, then he cannot perform an important function of being an MP.
I shall, later this week, be involved in a discussion about a social gathering to which he is invited. “Twill be “interesting” to learn the opinion of the females in that discussion.
I keep receiving campaign literature in the post from CCHQ. They seem to be spending an awful lot of money. Is this how the Tories are getting around any election spending limits( if there are any) by sending out election campaign leaflets, before the offical campaign period has started ?
Did Reckless just have fewer friends than Carswell, or was it that his defection proved the Tories UKIP problem is catastrophic rather than isolated, that has led to him being given so much more crap than Carswell over his defection?
The Tories are panicing.
All the abuse being aimed at Reckless is to convince other would be defectors not to follow him.
I keep receiving campaign literature in the post from CCHQ. They seem to be spending an awful lot of money. Is this how the Tories are getting around any election spending limits( if there are any) by sending out election campaign leaflets, before the offical campaign period has started ?
Presumably you are in a marginal constituency? Are they generic (ie to all voters) or specific to something that you have commented on, replied to, etc?
At this point even if by some miracle they are in a position where a coalition with either is viable, why would the LDs even want to enter into a coalition again? They seem to get no benefit from doing so, not electorally, and there is less need to enter a coalition now even if the math works out.
O/T Local paper in Braintree has been running a poll of readers on whether or not Brooks Newmark should resign as an MP. 58% Yes, 42% No. No idea of how many votes or any other controls on the "poll".
Newmark should resign as an MP for this reason. If you were a young women that needed help, would you feel comfortable visiting a constituency surgery held by Newmark. If the answer is no, then he cannot perform an important function of being an MP.
A bit harsh old son (he who casts stones etc) - I have already said on PB his embarrassing spare time activities weren't compatible with continuing as a minister. However he was subject to a politically motivated and dodgy sting set up by the odious Mirror Group and as such he deserves a chance to redeem himself as a politician. If the illusory young woman you refer to really has a problem no doubt he can arrange for another female assistant to be present.
7 days GP working is a crap idea. The NHS is already horribly stretched after David Cameron's multi billion top-down reorganisation. GPs at breaking point with workload. An ageing population.
The NHS needs more money and the rolling back of the Lansley / Cameron privatisation agenda chaos, no doubt. It doesn't need precious cash diverted to electoral gimmicks.
Yes, it really doesn't get enough spent on it does it? If we could just get the world to lend us another £100billion to lavish on it, we might really get somewhere. Gold-plated flower vases for the elderly to drink out of would be good -and somewhere where you can get a nice head and shoulder massage -it's so stressful having to constantly ignore some old codger begging for a bedpan.
'The NHS needs more money and the rolling back of the Lansley / Cameron privatisation agenda chaos, no doubt. It doesn't need precious cash diverted to electoral gimmicks.'
And to think Labour in Wales cut their NHS budget by 8% you must be gobsmacked.
Tomb of Suleyman Shah...worth looking up as it may be of significance shortly.
It has already been of significance -Turkey planned a false flag attack upon it in order to justify them launching a ground invasion of Syria. When a recording of it became public, they banned twitter to try and shut the rumours down.
I keep receiving campaign literature in the post from CCHQ. They seem to be spending an awful lot of money. Is this how the Tories are getting around any election spending limits( if there are any) by sending out election campaign leaflets, before the offical campaign period has started ?
Presumably you are in a marginal constituency? Are they generic (ie to all voters) or specific to something that you have commented on, replied to, etc?
I live in Kingston-upon-Thames (Con/LibDem marginal). I've already had a survey on national supposedly from David Cameron (he seems to have moved out of Downing Street and into a data processing centre in Hull) as well as a flyer on local issues from the Conservative PPC
O/T Local paper in Braintree has been running a poll of readers on whether or not Brooks Newmark should resign as an MP. 58% Yes, 42% No. No idea of how many votes or any other controls on the "poll".
Newmark should resign as an MP for this reason. If you were a young women that needed help, would you feel comfortable visiting a constituency surgery held by Newmark. If the answer is no, then he cannot perform an important function of being an MP.
I suspect the poll (which anyway is a voodoo poll) reflects a general aversion to politicians. To be fair I don't think most young women would feel especially uncomfortable visiting Newmark for advice on benefits or the like just because he'd tried to send a smutty picture to someone whom he thought he knew. There must be loads of MPs, doctors, dentists and other people who've occasionally done something indiscreet in their private lives - we can't avoid them all. It's different from the serial groper type who tries his luck on any woman in range.
The question that Letwin answers is "Does the Conserv ative Party have any strategic thinkers that map out where they're trying to go?" Apart from maybe IDS, I can't think of anyone else. They're rare in all parties.
Tomb of Suleyman Shah...worth looking up as it may be of significance shortly.
Yes, I've seen the tanks amassing on the border. Will it lead to a wider invasion though? And the reaction to it by the west, by Iran, by Assad and the Kurds?
I keep receiving campaign literature in the post from CCHQ. They seem to be spending an awful lot of money. Is this how the Tories are getting around any election spending limits( if there are any) by sending out election campaign leaflets, before the offical campaign period has started ?
Presumably you are in a marginal constituency? Are they generic (ie to all voters) or specific to something that you have commented on, replied to, etc?
I got a survey from my MP through the door the other day? Is this usual?
I keep receiving campaign literature in the post from CCHQ. They seem to be spending an awful lot of money. Is this how the Tories are getting around any election spending limits( if there are any) by sending out election campaign leaflets, before the offical campaign period has started ?
Presumably you are in a marginal constituency? Are they generic (ie to all voters) or specific to something that you have commented on, replied to, etc?
I live in Kingston-upon-Thames (Con/LibDem marginal). I've already had a survey on national supposedly from David Cameron (he seems to have moved out of Downing Street and into a data processing centre in Hull)
I keep receiving campaign literature in the post from CCHQ. They seem to be spending an awful lot of money. Is this how the Tories are getting around any election spending limits( if there are any) by sending out election campaign leaflets, before the offical campaign period has started ?
Presumably you are in a marginal constituency? Are they generic (ie to all voters) or specific to something that you have commented on, replied to, etc?
I got a survey from my MP through the door the other day? Is this usual?
Hell, I only get 2 leaflets from my MP at GE time, and even then it barely mentions him so I doubt he has had anything to do with it, so if you are in a safe seat like me I suspect it is very unusual.
It's of no strategic importance except as a way to justify a Turkish invasion of Syria. Turkey also happens to be the one letting ISIS over the Syrian border. ISIS -our weapon against Syria. We need to realise this. We need to come to terms with the fact that our Governments put us in danger by nurturing Islamic extremism for their own ends. And then decide what we can do, democratically and peacefully, about this fact.
O/T Local paper in Braintree has been running a poll of readers on whether or not Brooks Newmark should resign as an MP. 58% Yes, 42% No. No idea of how many votes or any other controls on the "poll".
Newmark should resign as an MP for this reason. If you were a young women that needed help, would you feel comfortable visiting a constituency surgery held by Newmark. If the answer is no, then he cannot perform an important function of being an MP.
I suspect the poll (which anyway is a voodoo poll) reflects a general aversion to politicians. To be fair I don't think most young women would feel especially uncomfortable visiting Newmark for advice on benefits or the like just because he'd tried to send a smutty picture to someone whom he thought he knew. There must be loads of MPs, doctors, dentists and other people who've occasionally done something indiscreet in their private lives - we can't avoid them all. It's different from the serial groper type who tries his luck on any woman in range.
The question that Letwin answers is "Does the Conserv ative Party have any strategic thinkers that map out where they're trying to go?" Apart from maybe IDS, I can't think of anyone else. They're rare in all parties.
That was more Steve Hilton. Letwin is certainly a keen policy junkie, and obsessive about detail, but a real equivocater. I doubt he could map out his route back home from the office.
Right now, it's probably Crosby and Osborne. Strangely enough.
kle4 They are in government for the first time since Lloyd George, there is no point getting 23% of the vote as a party of protest if none of your plans can be put into practice
I keep receiving campaign literature in the post from CCHQ. They seem to be spending an awful lot of money. Is this how the Tories are getting around any election spending limits( if there are any) by sending out election campaign leaflets, before the offical campaign period has started ?
Presumably you are in a marginal constituency? Are they generic (ie to all voters) or specific to something that you have commented on, replied to, etc?
I got a survey from my MP through the door the other day? Is this usual?
Hell, I only get 2 leaflets from my MP at GE time, and even then it barely mentions him so I doubt he has had anything to do with it, so if you are in a safe seat like me I suspect it is very unusual.
Hornchurch & Upminster
Asking what I thought of the govt, their reaction to terrorism threat, who I voted for last time, likelihood (out of 10) to vote for the 4 main contenders
It was called "Angela's survey" as if it was correspondence from Dame Watkinson herself! Maybe it was!
kle4 They are in government for the first time since Lloyd George, there is no point getting 23% of the vote as a party of protest if none of your plans can be put into practice
Coalition is something they have been driving at for that very reason of course - but clearly if they want as many MPs as possible, they don't want to put that into practice. Apparently a lot of that 23% either had stricter limitations on when a coalition was a good idea, or just wanted a party of protest. Fair play to the LDs for sticking with the Coalition idea if they get the opportunity, but for those who just want to increase the size of the party, not doing so is probably a better option for them.
@Rob_Merrick: Pubs minister Kris Hopkins tells CAMRA meeting he lost his voice at a 'Good Riddance to Reckless You Treacherous Bastard' party #cpc14
Why on earth did the Conservatives pick him as a candidate in the first place?
Apparently Peter Oborne hated him so much he campaigned for Labour in 2005, and now everyones calling him all the names under the sun...
Yea, I've not really worked out why Oborne was so hostile in 2005. I was planning to canvass in Clacton on Saturday, but may go down to Rochester instead.
@Rob_Merrick: Pubs minister Kris Hopkins tells CAMRA meeting he lost his voice at a 'Good Riddance to Reckless You Treacherous Bastard' party #cpc14
Why on earth did the Conservatives pick him as a candidate in the first place?
Apparently Peter Oborne hated him so much he campaigned for Labour in 2005, and now everyones calling him all the names under the sun...
Yea, I've not really worked out why Oborne was so hostile in 2005. I was planning to canvass in Clacton on Saturday, but may go down to Rochester instead.
Wasn't it more a case of Oborne being pro Bob Marshall Andrews?
kle4 It is a pointless idea anyway, after the Tuition fees u-turn and their support for austerity I doubt the LDs will breach 20% again for a generation, so if they are offered a chance at power they should snap the hands off the party which offers it
I keep receiving campaign literature in the post from CCHQ. They seem to be spending an awful lot of money. Is this how the Tories are getting around any election spending limits( if there are any) by sending out election campaign leaflets, before the offical campaign period has started ?
Yes - in fact you'll find they will do it during the election too, since only correspondence relating to the specific constituency counts against spending limits (apart from the high national limit). It's a loophole. Cameron can write to you ever day between now and May 7 and so long as he's writing to other people too, it doesn't count against the constituency limit.
The MP surveys are used by all parties partly to harvest your personal details (phone number, email address, etc.) and anything you're willing to disclose about your leanings - if it's paid for by the House of Commons, the MP can't ask your party prerference, but can ask if you think they're doing a good job, which is a surrogate. As a bonus, the MP gets credit for being in touch. It's possible that your MP is also interested in your views on whatever it was in the surbey, but it'd be naive to think that was the only reason. People here used to go on about the annual report that MPs wrote, which has been abolished, but the surveys are in the same tradition.
I'd like to see it tightened up a lot. That said, it does seem to have diminishing returns - if the MP actually has anything important to say, it risks getting chucked away as "more bloody junk mail from the politiicans".
kle4 It is a pointless idea anyway, after the Tuition fees u-turn and their support for austerity I doubt the LDs will breach 20% again for a generation, so if they are offered a chance at power they should snap the hands off the party which offers it
Yeah, good point. Whoever picks up the scraps after Clegg and co are ousted might as well get some real achievements down if they can.
Surely the whole point of the 7 day a week GP is to take pressure off casualty and to try to divert some of the madding crowds who turn up there because no one else is interested. If it achieves that it will be a good idea.
Surely the whole point of the 7 day a week GP is to take pressure off casualty and to try to divert some of the madding crowds who turn up there because no one else is interested. If it achieves that it will be a good idea.
Agreed but cant get enough GP trainees to cover a 5 day 9-5 service so unless we allow in more non EU immigrants it will not happen.
@Rob_Merrick: Pubs minister Kris Hopkins tells CAMRA meeting he lost his voice at a 'Good Riddance to Reckless You Treacherous Bastard' party #cpc14
Thing is that is utterly meaningless. I could host a 'Michael Gove is a useless Bastard who should be hung up by his balls party' * and probably fill the Albert Hall and it would be just as meaningless.
* I wouldn't of course as I believe Gove was one of the few unquestionably good things about the Government.
Did Reckless just have fewer friends than Carswell, or was it that his defection proved the Tories UKIP problem is catastrophic rather than isolated, that has led to him being given so much more crap than Carswell over his defection?
Don't let the current narrative fool you, Carswell was accused of theaving party data by the Conservatives, & being a traitor to his constituents etc on here when he first defected, while it was doubted that he would retain his seat until the polls showed him with a 44 point lead...
Then they rumbled it was pointless and left it. Now they act as if it was always the case
If a poll shows Reckless well in the lead in R&S no doubt the slime will be put back in the bucket for the next defector
@Rob_Merrick: Pubs minister Kris Hopkins tells CAMRA meeting he lost his voice at a 'Good Riddance to Reckless You Treacherous Bastard' party #cpc14
Thing is that is utterly meaningless. I could host a 'Michael Gove is a useless Bastard who should be hung up by his balls party' * and probably fill the Albert Hall and it would be just as meaningless.
* I wouldn't of course as I believe Gove was one of the few unquestionably good things about the Government.
Is this for real? I thought it was a piss take.
Someone reassure me that the Tories didn't hold a party in Reckless's dishonour.
kle4 It is a pointless idea anyway, after the Tuition fees u-turn and their support for austerity I doubt the LDs will breach 20% again for a generation, so if they are offered a chance at power they should snap the hands off the party which offers it
Yeah, good point. Whoever picks up the scraps after Clegg and co are ousted might as well get some real achievements down if they can.
What they should do in that case (and probably should have done this time) is get a half-dozen flagship policies (which have to be ones that people actually care about) which are feasible to make it through Coalition negotiations, get them in, and scream it from the rooftops.
That, and a slack handful of "red lines" to prevent one or t'other of the Big Two from implementing - but ones that they could actually hold to. Breaching a red-line promise is, as we've seen, damn near fatal.
Of course, actually achieving all of this isn't exactly trivial.
Also, he's a bit of a green, which doesn't fit with UKIP energy policies. And the LibDems might slip through and win Richmond in the case of a by-election.
Comments
He might have made a good absent-minded professor in a highly intellectual non-real world subject.
But for anything connected with the other 99% of us ...
We don't need our own GP. It is an anachronism in the modern world that heaps cost on the system with very little benefit.
Radical change, top down is the way to approach the rotund corporate feline executives that masquerade as GPs.
Will it lead to a wider invasion though?
And the reaction to it by the west, by Iran, by Assad and the Kurds?
All the abuse being aimed at Reckless is to convince other would be defectors not to follow him.
Ashley Cole plays for Roma now? Who knew.
I canna keep up.
See you all in 45
'The NHS needs more money and the rolling back of the Lansley / Cameron privatisation agenda chaos, no doubt. It doesn't need precious cash diverted to electoral gimmicks.'
And to think Labour in Wales cut their NHS budget by 8% you must be gobsmacked.
Are they reviving this plan?
The question that Letwin answers is "Does the Conserv ative Party have any strategic thinkers that map out where they're trying to go?" Apart from maybe IDS, I can't think of anyone else. They're rare in all parties.
It's of no strategic importance except as a way to justify a Turkish invasion of Syria. Turkey also happens to be the one letting ISIS over the Syrian border. ISIS -our weapon against Syria. We need to realise this. We need to come to terms with the fact that our Governments put us in danger by nurturing Islamic extremism for their own ends. And then decide what we can do, democratically and peacefully, about this fact.
Right now, it's probably Crosby and Osborne. Strangely enough.
Asking what I thought of the govt, their reaction to terrorism threat, who I voted for last time, likelihood (out of 10) to vote for the 4 main contenders
It was called "Angela's survey" as if it was correspondence from Dame Watkinson herself! Maybe it was!
The MP surveys are used by all parties partly to harvest your personal details (phone number, email address, etc.) and anything you're willing to disclose about your leanings - if it's paid for by the House of Commons, the MP can't ask your party prerference, but can ask if you think they're doing a good job, which is a surrogate. As a bonus, the MP gets credit for being in touch. It's possible that your MP is also interested in your views on whatever it was in the surbey, but it'd be naive to think that was the only reason. People here used to go on about the annual report that MPs wrote, which has been abolished, but the surveys are in the same tradition.
I'd like to see it tightened up a lot. That said, it does seem to have diminishing returns - if the MP actually has anything important to say, it risks getting chucked away as "more bloody junk mail from the politiicans".
If it achieves that it will be a good idea.
* I wouldn't of course as I believe Gove was one of the few unquestionably good things about the Government.
On, no, he has been hoodwinked by the establishment...
5 mins do not get more exciting than that
borrow til we go bust.
And exactly right.
http://www.oddschecker.com/politics/british-politics/boston-and-skegness/winning-party
Someone reassure me that the Tories didn't hold a party in Reckless's dishonour.
That, and a slack handful of "red lines" to prevent one or t'other of the Big Two from implementing - but ones that they could actually hold to. Breaching a red-line promise is, as we've seen, damn near fatal.
Of course, actually achieving all of this isn't exactly trivial.
YouGov/Sun poll tonight - Labour lead remains five points: CON 31%, LAB 36%, LD 7%, UKIP 15%
One good turn now turns deadly:
Ian Geldard @igeldard 13m2 minutes ago
First Case Of Ebola In The US Confirmed http://read.bi/1poUaCl by @fedira
ComRes phone poll for Indy
CON 29
LAB 35
LD 10
UKIP 15
ComRes phone poll for Indy
CON 29
LAB 35
LD 10
UKIP 15
Tonights Com Res LAB 360 CON 229 LD 33 EICIPM