Mr. Roger, that lawyer's statement sounds barking mad.
Mr. Pulpstar, there's a danger, I think, in over-reading how important Twitter is. Volume of tweets will not represent the overall population well.
That said, I still think the SNP will slaughter Labour.
It's not the volume of tweets, its the armies of volunteers in the pictures GOT SNP vote. Don't know what it's like near you but you'd barely guess there's an election here. Looks very different in Scotland - the SNP have gone in big and early.
'Ed M has such a poor team, both in terms of competence and presentation'
Surely Ed has addressed that minor issue, with the return of political Goliath, Baron Prescott?
But the Tories have such a mediocre team as well. None of them are good communicators.
In the reserves they have Rees-Mogg and Rory Stewart. Now I concede they don't strike anyone as men-of-the-people, but actually I think that both of them are very good communicators. In both cases I initially didn't rate them, but as they've appeared on QT and the like I've come to appreciate their views. They're almost certainly the wrong sort of 'toffs' to find favour in the Cameron government though.
I was a polar opposite to Rees-Mogg in my views on the recent "3 parents" DNA debate, but I felt he presented the counter arguments with great lucidity, and the debate was better aired for it - and ultimately I believe the legislation that Parliament approved will be the stronger for it.
If only opposition parties had such well -crafted arguments and forensic disection of say UK tax laws with emphasis on anti-avoidance....
'Ed M has such a poor team, both in terms of competence and presentation'
Surely Ed has addressed that minor issue, with the return of political Goliath, Baron Prescott?
But the Tories have such a mediocre team as well. None of them are good communicators.
In the reserves they have Rees-Mogg and Rory Stewart. Now I concede they don't strike anyone as men-of-the-people, but actually I think that both of them are very good communicators. In both cases I initially didn't rate them, but as they've appeared on QT and the like I've come to appreciate their views. They're almost certainly the wrong sort of 'toffs' to find favour in the Cameron government though.
I was a polar opposite to Rees-Mogg in my views on the recent "3 parents" DNA debate, but I felt he presented the counter arguments with great lucidity, and the debate was better aired for it - and ultimately I believe the legislation that Parliament approved will be the better for it.
If only opposition parties had such well -crafted arguments and forensic disection of say UK tax laws with emphasis on anti-avoidance....
Rees Mogg came across very well in the "Party Games" episode I watched.
B I'm persuaded that there is a real chance that EdM will try to make a change, although he may be forced out of that idea by the continual questions pre election. Just supposing there is a change though I wonder who actually is the least bad candidate? ... so we finish up with Chuka I guess.
Please. Pretty please!
Can you imagine how that sharp-faced slick salesman would go down with normal people?
Chuka would just lecture the peasants and tell them to be grateful for the crumbs from his table. His disdain for the working class is well known.
The SNP looks to be smashing it out the park in the social media war, Prescott getting alot of mentions on twitter too - most people trying to stop themselves laughing.
Check the hashtag #GE15 - the SNP completely own it.
I agree the YES45 brigade are swamping twitter. what I am less sure about is how much social media is reflecting the real world and in particular the people most likely to vote. I am one of the few people I know over the age of 50 who use any form of social media.
B I'm persuaded that there is a real chance that EdM will try to make a change, although he may be forced out of that idea by the continual questions pre election. Just supposing there is a change though I wonder who actually is the least bad candidate? ... so we finish up with Chuka I guess.
Please. Pretty please!
Can you imagine how that sharp-faced slick salesman would go down with normal people?
Chuka would just lecture the peasants and tell them to be grateful for the crumbs from his table. His disdain for the working class is well known.
The SNP looks to be smashing it out the park in the social media war, Prescott getting alot of mentions on twitter too - most people trying to stop themselves laughing.
Check the hashtag #GE15 - the SNP completely own it.
Ha Ha Ha , that just about sums them up. Best they can do is try to conflate a comment on pr Holyrood system with their puny pathetic "vote SNP get Tory". They are a bunch of losers. People rolling in the aisles at their pathetic squirming on how to try and pretend they are not the Tories lapdog chums.
Mr. Pulpstar, I suspect we'll get swamped with literature and some door-knocking. Right now, not much beyond a few pieces in the post. It's months till polling day, I'd be irritated rather than enticed to have more going on right now.
The continuing unbelievable stories of uk girls being attracted to ISIS reminds me of a tale I heard when a teacher in the 1970s. Schools then had been showing a Man Alive film, "Gale is Dead", a documentary recounting the squalid last days of a teenage drug addict. I was told that they had stopped showing it when they discovered that many girls became attracted to drugs, romanticising and fantasising a life being the centre of attention, punishing their parents etc.
Knocking on doors, there are still a great mass of unengaged and undecideds out there. The only unifying theme I've detected so far is that nobody - and I mean NOBODY- has wanted Ed Miliband as our next Prime Minister.
It looks to me like this tide of late-breakers are going to be really bad news for Labour.
"In fact, in every seat where Labour has treated its voters with contempt. Which, as Scotland is discovering, is a great many of them."
Ironically a story that a Scottish Labour MP that I know tells is of a constituent with a problem who he'd visited at his flat complaining that what was wrong was you never got to see your local MP.
Mr. Pulpstar, I suspect we'll get swamped with literature and some door-knocking. Right now, not much beyond a few pieces in the post. It's months till polling day, I'd be irritated rather than enticed to have more going on right now.
I've had a nice 4 page tabloid from the Tories. Nothing from anyone else. The only other parties I'd consider voting for are UKIP and the Lib Dems, but perhaps they just don't care about my vote .
"Taking over a recovering economy that had grown for four quarters and flatlining it for two years
Introducing a tax on Bedrooms causing suicides whilst cutting the rate of tax for the richest people in the country
NHS in crisis thanks to unwanted and unelected reorganisation plans as well as introducing a disastrous phone service staffed by non medical people directing everyone who calls to A and E
Record numbers of benefit sanctions, Record numbers at previously unheard of Food Banks..both connected
Wages behind inflation for over four years
Planning to help IS into power in Syria as part of "The Rebels' only to be stopped by Miliband, Lucas, Galloway, the Nats, Irish parties and a few sensible Tory rebels
Deficit still high despite the years of failed austerity and pointless cutting of vital services
Good public sector ft jobs replaced by zero hours and pt and bogus self employment and 2-80 an hour "apprenticeships""
Thanks...it should indeed but the Blairites in the party would never allow it given that they support most of the neo-liberal nonsense that led to the above and were amongst the most enthusiastic for arming IS to overthrow Assad
Roger..I have just seen that interview..The same people would probably sue for invasion of privacy When are parents going to take some responsibility for their own children.
Knocking on doors, there are still a great mass of unengaged and undecideds out there. The only unifying theme I've detected so far is that nobody - and I mean NOBODY- has wanted Ed Miliband as our next Prime Minister.
It looks to me like this tide of late-breakers are going to be really bad news for Labour.
Plus the people who gave us Benefits Street are about to bring us 'Kipper Street' and the lady who put ting tong into the kipper lexicon approved it.
I just get the impression that Balls' heart is not in this. He is a clever guy who had far more influence over the last government than Miliband and who has a much better idea of how government works.
I think he finds Miliband's bandwagon jumping incoherent and tiresome and I suspect he would have left if it was not for his wife. This is his problem. He cannot allow himself to be the fall guy for any failure of Miliband's because that will hurt her chances. So he has to solider on supporting rubbish and nonsense tolerating insults from Miliband's apparatchiks. It really can't be any fun for him at all.
Does his wife actually want to job? IIRC, she ruled herself out last time (I think because of her kids, who are obviously older now). Equally, she had ME before & I believe that stress can trigger a relapse of the condition, so not sure I'd want that risk in her shoes - even if it's only a 1% probability...
I thought she mainly ruled herself out the last time to support her husband and that he feels the need to do the same for her now. I really can't see why he would be putting up with what he is putting up with at the moment unless she still harboured such ambitions. I honestly think he would be happier in some sort of academic role.
David/Charles
It's the health reason. That's why Yvette wouldn't put herself up for the top job.
As for her husband, he was too heavily implicated in the Blair/Brown wars. He wouldn't be acceptable to half the Party.
He'd be OK as Chancellor though. Miliband wouldn't have a problem with him, knowing he could dismiss him in an instant if he played up.
So the only real question is whether Ed B really wants to be Chancellor. My guess is that he would, for a while at least. After that, he all the credentials for a top academic post.
I've just seen the lawyer of the parents of the three ISIS groupies blaming the authorities for not knocking on their door and warning them what the girls had planned......... For not getting MI5 to pick them up from the airport ......"what" he said " are they doing allowing three 16 year old girls to fly alone to Turkey".......For not making them pack their thermal underwear...(I made that bit up)
But you really couldn't make it up.
Which is just as bad as letting your 14 year old get drunk in the gutter on vodka and then blaming the police.
Interestingly Scottish purchasers of the ST don't get the benefit of Balls' travails but a story about how Scottish children are losing out in University places to EU students because of the absurd no fee policy.
There is no question that the disaster (for Scots) that is the SNP tertiary education policy will play a part in the election. Some Scottish Universities are growing fat on English and foreign (non EU) fees but the access routes for Scots get ever more problematic.
Are we expecting Labour to get a majority? If not why not stick a LibDem in there? Gets Balls out of the way, reduces the need for too many concessions and gives Labour a plausible explanation for any uncanny similarities between their budgets and George Osborne's.
There might be something in that. The problem is that the LDs with the relevant experience are Danny Alexander who would presumably be unacceptable to the PLP as too right wing, or Uncle Vince who would be unacceptable to the general public as so far past it that he is the day before yesterday's man. Also Alexander may well not keep his seat, neither may Uncle Vince come to that. Not sure Labour would want to come into government with jumpy markets to settle and a host of financial issues and put some greenhorn in the driving seat.
Is there any recent polling on Cable? I take the point that he's getting on a bit but the last I recall the voters rated him highly. (Not saying they're right.) Alternatively, Nick Clegg is a competent politician and will probably keep his seat.
If Clegg survives the election and enters coalition with Labour, surely the obvious place for him in light of his experience as a de facto diplomat would be the Foreign Office (in the fairly likely event that Douglas Alexander loses his seat)?
David Laws might just be worth considering as Chancellor in a Lab/Lib coalition given his experience in banking, although it's not difficult to forecast the tabloid headlines...
Can't see Clegg entering coalition with Labour.
Ed Balls' notion of a graduate tax might just help Clegg get re-elected.
Tom Gordon of the Herald reporting that Labour councillors in East Kilbride are flatly refusing to campaign for the sitting SLAB MP because of his behaviour towards them. Wife of ex SLAB Holyrood minister Andy Kerr quoted and particularly hostile. Good news for the SNP in a key target seat.
I have a feeling that one or other party will suddenly take a commanding lead.
If group think decides 'the devil you know' the Tories will romp home. If they decide we shouldn't accept serfdom to an elite non tax paying aristocracy who have presided over the poor having to feed themselves in foodbanks they'll go Labour
Interestingly Scottish purchasers of the ST don't get the benefit of Balls' travails but a story about how Scottish children are losing out in University places to EU students because of the absurd no fee policy.
There is no question that the disaster (for Scots) that is the SNP tertiary education policy will play a part in the election. Some Scottish Universities are growing fat on English and foreign (non EU) fees but the access routes for Scots get ever more problematic.
LoL , Tories want it to be only their chums who can afford university, really sticks in their craw that the SNP have free education policy and surprised that it is popular.
I disagree with you on a commanding lead. I cannot see the SNP falling back significantly, which makes things hard for Labour. At the same time, I can't see the Conservatives retaining all their seats and gaining more besides. So, we'll end up with the most horridly hung of Parliaments.
Edited extra bit: Mr. G, free if you're Scottish. Free if you're French. But not if you're English.
I have a feeling that one or other party will suddenly take a commanding lead.
If group think decides 'the devil you know' the Tories will romp home. If they decide we shouldn't accept serfdom to an elite non tax paying aristocracy who have presided over the poor having to feed themselves in foodbanks they'll go Labour
And if the group think really just wants a vaguely competent government that does not screw up too often or waste truly excessive sums of money whilst letting them get on with their own lives, who do they vote for then?
Knocking on doors, there are still a great mass of unengaged and undecideds out there. The only unifying theme I've detected so far is that nobody - and I mean NOBODY- has wanted Ed Miliband as our next Prime Minister.
It looks to me like this tide of late-breakers are going to be really bad news for Labour.
Door knocking in Witney, Huntingdon and speaking to the angries of Tunbridge Wells isnt really illuminating re people wanting Mili as PM
In Wales, Scotland, the North, all the UKs major cities and Englands proudly multi cultural capital the thought of Cameron and the Riot Club still there after May isnt a thought at all..its simply unthinkable
Roger It will be a hung parliament, had the Tories delivered a surplus as they had promised they would get a majority, as they have not they will not, but with Labour having caused the mess in the first place and Miliband unpopular they will probably, just remain as largest party
That said, I think people - especially people supporting one or other of the main parties - tend to vastly overestimate the attractiveness of running a minority government. Basically you'd be continually haggling with your enemies to be able to get anything through parliament, and the point where the whole thing came crashing down would most likely be at one of the minor parties' convenience not yours, and over an issue of their choosing.
What would happen if Miliband proceeded as if he was a majority government (given that LAB+SNP > CON+LD) and just made any vote that matters defacto a vote of confidence. The SNP would have to either pass his votes, or bring the government down and put a Conservative government in.
I'm not sure - I guess Major did something similar with Europe votes, but I'm not sure if it would have meant an immediate end to the government if he'd lost; Has a government ever actually been brought down like this? "This House hereby passes the South Coast Bicycle Lane Act and has confidence in Her Majesty's Government."
Pulling this out of my bum, but if the opposition were agreed then couldn't they amend whatever motion the government proposed to take out the confidence motion part or split it into a separate motion?
Pulpstar Not, at all, the idea Dodds would prop up Miliband if he has less seats than Cameron is absurd. He said “We can do business with either of the two leaders, Ed Miliband or David Cameron. We will obviously judge what’s in the best interests of the UK as a whole,” he says.
Dodds, who tells me that the DUP is “not interested in a full-blown coalition government”, indicates that his party’s priorities in any negotiation will be greater protection for defence spending, stricter border controls and an in/out referendum on the EU'
So they want an EU referendum as much as Cameron, if Cameron leads the largest party they will back him!
I've just seen the lawyer of the parents of the three ISIS groupies blaming the authorities for not knocking on their door and warning them what the girls had planned......... For not getting MI5 to pick them up from the airport ......"what" he said " are they doing allowing three 16 year old girls to fly alone to Turkey".......For not making them pack their thermal underwear...(I made that bit up)
But you really couldn't make it up.
Which is just as bad as letting your 14 year old get drunk in the gutter on vodka and then blaming the police.
Otoh, while the families are clearly not without sin, we must question the competence of the security services who, while demanding ever greater sacrifice of our few remaining civil liberties, seem not to have taken such elementary precautions as monitoring flights or following known jihadi twitter feeds.
Knocking on doors, there are still a great mass of unengaged and undecideds out there. The only unifying theme I've detected so far is that nobody - and I mean NOBODY- has wanted Ed Miliband as our next Prime Minister.
It looks to me like this tide of late-breakers are going to be really bad news for Labour.
Errm do you not think this is because you're door knocking in Torbay, where Labour achieved a mighty 6%
Britain did not operate orthodox fiscal and monetary policies in the 30s. They had the very considerable advantage of a chap called Keynes who used innovative monetary policies to create demand, particularly for house building and of course for rearmenant latterly.
Is that right? Despite my great age I wasn't actually around then, but I thought he only became influential with the Government in the 40s during and after the war?
Knocking on doors, there are still a great mass of unengaged and undecideds out there. The only unifying theme I've detected so far is that nobody - and I mean NOBODY- has wanted Ed Miliband as our next Prime Minister.
It looks to me like this tide of late-breakers are going to be really bad news for Labour.
Door knocking in Witney, Huntingdon and speaking to the angries of Tunbridge Wells isnt really illuminating re people wanting Mili as PM
In Wales, Scotland, the North, all the UKs major cities and Englands proudly multi cultural capital the thought of Cameron and the Riot Club still there after May isnt a thought at all..its simply unthinkable
I think you mean STILL unthinkable. Five years after voting for that clown Brown.
The rest of Britain where the marginals are? Where I am putting in the effort? They give matters a little more thought than you do.
I just get the impression that Balls' heart is not in this. He is a clever guy who had far more influence over the last government than Miliband and who has a much better idea of how government works.
I think he finds Miliband's bandwagon jumping incoherent and tiresome and I suspect he would have left if it was not for his wife. This is his problem. He cannot allow himself to be the fall guy for any failure of Miliband's because that will hurt her chances. So he has to solider on supporting rubbish and nonsense tolerating insults from Miliband's apparatchiks. It really can't be any fun for him at all.
Does his wife actually want to job? IIRC, she ruled herself out last time (I think because of her kids, who are obviously older now). Equally, she had ME before & I believe that stress can trigger a relapse of the condition, so not sure I'd want that risk in her shoes - even if it's only a 1% probability...
I thought she mainly ruled herself out the last time to support her husband and that he feels the need to do the same for her now. I really can't see why he would be putting up with what he is putting up with at the moment unless she still harboured such ambitions. I honestly think he would be happier in some sort of academic role.
David/Charles
It's the health reason. That's why Yvette wouldn't put herself up for the top job.
As for her husband, he was too heavily implicated in the Blair/Brown wars. He wouldn't be acceptable to half the Party.
He'd be OK as Chancellor though. Miliband wouldn't have a problem with him, knowing he could dismiss him in an instant if he played up.
So the only real question is whether Ed B really wants to be Chancellor. My guess is that he would, for a while at least. After that, he all the credentials for a top academic post.
If you are right she has my sympathy. I had a touch of ME about 20 years ago now and it was very peculiar. I had been extremely stressed at work for some time and was finding myself in bed all weekend (and not for any particularly good reasons) unless I had to go into the office of course.
Then my body basically went on strike. The simplest thing was totally exhausting and concentration was almost impossible. I was lucky enough to break out of it after a few months and gradually get back to work making all sorts of promises about work/life balances very few of which were kept over the years.
It is never come back but there are times when I feel very aware of my limitations and can sense something like it hovering. A sufferer would find the job of leading a major political party quite dangerous I would think.
Roger..there seems to be lots of food banks all over the UK They seem very popular..in fact at some of them you have to prebook..they take all manner of folks..They are called restaurants..take aways.chippies etc. Maybe Groucho,s could give away some left over food
I have a feeling that one or other party will suddenly take a commanding lead.
If group think decides 'the devil you know' the Tories will romp home. If they decide we shouldn't accept serfdom to an elite non tax paying aristocracy who have presided over the poor having to feed themselves in foodbanks they'll go Labour
And if the group think really just wants a vaguely competent government that does not screw up too often or waste truly excessive sums of money whilst letting them get on with their own lives, who do they vote for then?
Knocking on doors, there are still a great mass of unengaged and undecideds out there. The only unifying theme I've detected so far is that nobody - and I mean NOBODY- has wanted Ed Miliband as our next Prime Minister.
It looks to me like this tide of late-breakers are going to be really bad news for Labour.
Door knocking in Witney, Huntingdon and speaking to the angries of Tunbridge Wells isnt really illuminating re people wanting Mili as PM
In Wales, Scotland, the North, all the UKs major cities and Englands proudly multi cultural capital the thought of Cameron and the Riot Club still there after May isnt a thought at all..its simply unthinkable
I think you mean STILL unthinkable. Five years after voting for that clown Brown.
The rest of Britain where the marginals are? Where I am putting in the effort? They give matters a little more thought than you do.
Marginals like Wirral West and Broxtowe where Awful Anna and the Wicked Witch of the Wirral are both odds on to lose their seats to the reds? Wirral West btw is no 50 on Labours target seat list and yet they are odds on to take it..and yet there are people who still bet on the Tories actually getting a MAJORITY in 2015 after 23 years without one
Knocking on doors, there are still a great mass of unengaged and undecideds out there. The only unifying theme I've detected so far is that nobody - and I mean NOBODY- has wanted Ed Miliband as our next Prime Minister.
It looks to me like this tide of late-breakers are going to be really bad news for Labour.
Door knocking in Witney, Huntingdon and speaking to the angries of Tunbridge Wells isnt really illuminating re people wanting Mili as PM
In Wales, Scotland, the North, all the UKs major cities and Englands proudly multi cultural capital the thought of Cameron and the Riot Club still there after May isnt a thought at all..its simply unthinkable
I think you mean STILL unthinkable. Five years after voting for that clown Brown.
The rest of Britain where the marginals are? Where I am putting in the effort? They give matters a little more thought than you do.
Marginals like Wirral West and Broxtowe where Awful Anna and the Wicked Witch of the Wirral are both odds on to lose their seats to the reds? Wirral West btw is no 50 on Labours target seat list and yet they are odds on to take it..and yet there are people who still bet on the Tories actually getting a MAJORITY in 2015 after 23 years without one
I wish I had some magic beans to sell them
You can lay them at 6.8 on Betfair if you want to.
B I'm persuaded that there is a real chance that EdM will try to make a change, although he may be forced out of that idea by the continual questions pre election. Just supposing there is a change though I wonder who actually is the least bad candidate? ... so we finish up with Chuka I guess.
Please. Pretty please!
Can you imagine how that sharp-faced slick salesman would go down with normal people?
Chuka would just lecture the peasants and tell them to be grateful for the crumbs from his table. His disdain for the working class is well known.
Any signs of the election up in Easter Ross ?
Considering this is supposed to be at least a 2-way marginal if not a 3-way marginal, no, nothing. Just had Lord Thurso's regular quarterly news sheet but that's it. The most active non-incumbent at the moment seems to be the Tory girl in Charles Kennedy's seat. She is constantly in the P&J and Ross-shire Journal. Daughter of well known and popular Black Isle farming family.
"had the Tories delivered a surplus as they had promised they would get a majority,"
This is under everybody's radar. Who knows whether we have a surplus or not? We hear the economy is going well and unemployment is going down but budget deficits or surpluses are just economist speak
F1: watching Ted's notebook (Day 3 of Test 2). Some highlights: Sauber gearboxes keep failing. As well as limiting running, this does not bode well. Order seems to be Mercedes-Ferrari-Red Bull with uncertainty over Williams and where they slot in (probably behind Mercedes, but beyond that it's unclear). McLaren still unreliable (eminently fixable, but it's screwing with their testing which won't help early season pace). Renault engine is reliable but underpowered. May improve later. Lotus much more consistent. Lacking a little pace, so midfield rather than frontrunners.
Knocking on doors, there are still a great mass of unengaged and undecideds out there. The only unifying theme I've detected so far is that nobody - and I mean NOBODY- has wanted Ed Miliband as our next Prime Minister.
It looks to me like this tide of late-breakers are going to be really bad news for Labour.
Door knocking in Witney, Huntingdon and speaking to the angries of Tunbridge Wells isnt really illuminating re people wanting Mili as PM
In Wales, Scotland, the North, all the UKs major cities and Englands proudly multi cultural capital the thought of Cameron and the Riot Club still there after May isnt a thought at all..its simply unthinkable
I think you mean STILL unthinkable. Five years after voting for that clown Brown.
The rest of Britain where the marginals are? Where I am putting in the effort? They give matters a little more thought than you do.
Marginals like Wirral West and Broxtowe where Awful Anna and the Wicked Witch of the Wirral are both odds on to lose their seats to the reds? Wirral West btw is no 50 on Labours target seat list and yet they are odds on to take it..and yet there are people who still bet on the Tories actually getting a MAJORITY in 2015 after 23 years without one
I wish I had some magic beans to sell them
There are very few Tories on here who don't think that
A) the Tories will lose some seats to Labour
B ) the Tories will gain some seats from the LibDems
C) Labour will lose a shedload of seats to the SNP
D) Labour will gain some seats from the LibDems
E) Ed is crap and will prevent a sizeable number of voters going to Labour
If you want to bet against any of those - you won't be short of people - of all political persuasions - wanting to make bets with you.
I just get the impression that Balls' heart is not in this. He is a clever guy who had far more influence over the last government than Miliband and who has a much better idea of how government works.
I think he finds Miliband's bandwagon jumping incoherent and tiresome and I suspect he would have left if it was not for his wife. This is his problem. He cannot allow himself to be the fall guy for any failure of Miliband's because that will hurt her chances. So he has to solider on supporting rubbish and nonsense tolerating insults from Miliband's apparatchiks. It really can't be any fun for him at all.
Does his wife actually want to job? IIRC, she ruled herself out last time (I think because of her kids, who are obviously older now). Equally, she had ME before & I believe that stress can trigger a relapse of the condition, so not sure I'd want that risk in her shoes - even if it's only a 1% probability...
I thought she mainly ruled herself out the last time to support her husband and that he feels the need to do the same for her now. I really can't see why he would be putting up with what he is putting up with at the moment unless she still harboured such ambitions. I honestly think he would be happier in some sort of academic role.
David/Charles
It's the health reason. That's why Yvette wouldn't put herself up for the top job.
As for her husband, he was too heavily implicated in the Blair/Brown wars. He wouldn't be acceptable to half the Party.
He'd be OK as Chancellor though. Miliband wouldn't have a problem with him, knowing he could dismiss him in an instant if he played up.
So the only real question is whether Ed B really wants to be Chancellor. My guess is that he would, for a while at least. After that, he all the credentials for a top academic post.
It is never come back but there are times when I feel very aware of my limitations and can sense something like it hovering. A sufferer would find the job of leading a major political party quite dangerous I would think.
Congratulations, David, on managing it so successfully.
The story as I understand it is that she too manages hers very successfully but suspects that the strains of top office would make continuing to do so much more difficult. Of course in a PM, a health breakdown could be disastrous in many senses.
You have to speculate on how Ed B feels about it all too. If it were my wife, I think I'd be more inclined than usual to spend time on domestic matters, but it's their business and I'm sure they've figured out what's right for them.
That said, I think people - especially people supporting one or other of the main parties - tend to vastly overestimate the attractiveness of running a minority government. Basically you'd be continually haggling with your enemies to be able to get anything through parliament, and the point where the whole thing came crashing down would most likely be at one of the minor parties' convenience not yours, and over an issue of their choosing.
What would happen if Miliband proceeded as if he was a majority government (given that LAB+SNP > CON+LD) and just made any vote that matters defacto a vote of confidence. The SNP would have to either pass his votes, or bring the government down and put a Conservative government in.
I don't think you can treat something as a de facto vote of confidence: it actually has to be framed as "the House has Confidence in Her Majesty's Government".
He might get away with it once or twice, but he'd be portrayed as lurching from crisis to crisis and end up looking like a complete muppet
"Roger..there seems to be lots of food banks all over the UK They seem very popular..in fact at some of them you have to prebook..they take all manner of folks..They are called restaurants..take aways.chippies etc."
Roger Austerity is the key, the surplus may be economist speak but further cuts to local libraries, the armed forces, the police, strains on the NHS etc most certainly are on the radar for most people. The economy is now doing a bit better, though still not yet fully at pre crash levels, so the voters are unlikely to give Labour a majority and put that at risk, however they will not give the Tories a majority either to prevent a slash and burn approach to public services
Knocking on doors, there are still a great mass of unengaged and undecideds out there. The only unifying theme I've detected so far is that nobody - and I mean NOBODY- has wanted Ed Miliband as our next Prime Minister.
It looks to me like this tide of late-breakers are going to be really bad news for Labour.
Door knocking in Witney, Huntingdon and speaking to the angries of Tunbridge Wells isnt really illuminating re people wanting Mili as PM
In Wales, Scotland, the North, all the UKs major cities and Englands proudly multi cultural capital the thought of Cameron and the Riot Club still there after May isnt a thought at all..its simply unthinkable
I think you mean STILL unthinkable. Five years after voting for that clown Brown.
The rest of Britain where the marginals are? Where I am putting in the effort? They give matters a little more thought than you do.
Marginals like Wirral West and Broxtowe where Awful Anna and the Wicked Witch of the Wirral are both odds on to lose their seats to the reds? Wirral West btw is no 50 on Labours target seat list and yet they are odds on to take it..and yet there are people who still bet on the Tories actually getting a MAJORITY in 2015 after 23 years without one
I wish I had some magic beans to sell them
You can lay them at 6.8 on Betfair if you want to.
That's a pretty good bet.
I do perceive an improvement for the Conservatives in the polls, but it is tiny and at the current rate of progress it would take another 12 months for them to be recording the levels of support where an OM might be a possibility.
Knocking on doors, there are still a great mass of unengaged and undecideds out there. The only unifying theme I've detected so far is that nobody - and I mean NOBODY- has wanted Ed Miliband as our next Prime Minister.
It looks to me like this tide of late-breakers are going to be really bad news for Labour.
Door knocking in Witney, Huntingdon and speaking to the angries of Tunbridge Wells isnt really illuminating re people wanting Mili as PM
In Wales, Scotland, the North, all the UKs major cities and Englands proudly multi cultural capital the thought of Cameron and the Riot Club still there after May isnt a thought at all..its simply unthinkable
I think you mean STILL unthinkable. Five years after voting for that clown Brown.
The rest of Britain where the marginals are? Where I am putting in the effort? They give matters a little more thought than you do.
Marginals like Wirral West and Broxtowe where Awful Anna and the Wicked Witch of the Wirral are both odds on to lose their seats to the reds? Wirral West btw is no 50 on Labours target seat list and yet they are odds on to take it..and yet there are people who still bet on the Tories actually getting a MAJORITY in 2015 after 23 years without one
I wish I had some magic beans to sell them
There are very few Tories on here who don't think that
A) the Tories will lose some seats to Labour
B ) the Tories will gain some seats from the LibDems
C) Labour will lose a shedload of seats to the SNP
D) Labour will gain some seats from the LibDems
E) Ed is crap and will prevent a sizeable number of voters going to Labour
If you want to bet against any of those - you won't be short of people - of all political persuasions - wanting to make bets with you.
Although it looks unlikely now the real value is a Labour overall majority in May at its current huge price
If Miliband as I expect comes across far better than expected once the undecided and uninterested in politics who just vote every five years but dont follow politics realise that he is not the bacon sarnie eating Aardman failure that their papers assure them he is and is actually quite likeable, self deprecating and has far more in common with wanting to improve the lives of most of them than Flashman ever could then the whole election could be transformed beyond the reach of the dying circulation Tory Press
Milimania anyone? I agree with Ed t shirts anyone?
Britain did not operate orthodox fiscal and monetary policies in the 30s. They had the very considerable advantage of a chap called Keynes who used innovative monetary policies to create demand, particularly for house building and of course for rearmenant latterly.
Is that right? Despite my great age I wasn't actually around then, but I thought he only became influential with the Government in the 40s during and after the war?
Keynes was very prominent in the fight to get Britain off the gold standard from 1930 onwards. His book in 1933 "The means to Prosperity" was very influential on government policy and his General Theory came out in 1936.
He persuaded the UK government to allow free and easy credit in the economy in the 1930s which created a phenomenal house building boom that is still very evident in our cities to this day. This expansion of credit is why the UK generally recovered so much better from the great recession than the US where credit remained very tight.
It is true that it was in the war years he had official government positions but his influence throughout the 30s was immense. He died in about 1946 or 7 as I recall after negotiating better terms for our war debt from the Americans.
Roger Austerity is the key, the surplus may be economist speak but further cuts to local libraries, the armed forces, the police, strains on the NHS etc most certainly are on the radar for most people. The economy is now doing a bit better, though still not yet fully at pre crash levels, so the voters are unlikely to give Labour a majority and put that at risk, however they will not give the Tories a majority either to prevent a slash and burn approach to public services
Labour MPs surely? With Lord Kinnock spending £250 on lunch?
Leading the list of donors unveiled tonight by Labour are Rod Aldridge, chair of the outsourcing giant Capita, who has a proliferation of contracts in the public sector. He loaned Labour £1m last year. Also on the list is Richard Caring, owner of the high-class Ivy restaurant. He offered Labour £2m.
This post is maybe a bit off topic but it’s something very close to my heart. I’ve been living with MND for the last 5 years and as SLAB and the SNP have both committed to improve care for patients with MND, I’m endeavoring to ensure these election promises get delivered. I've therefore started a JustGiving campaign to raise both MND awareness and funds. I've attached the link below:
My site went live 3 weeks ago and its focus is on the need to improve the provision of care, equipment and physiotherapy to MND patients and those with related conditions. I've already started meeting with politicians of all parties to get their buy in. I intend keeping the campaign going for as long as I can keep cycling !!
That said, I think people - especially people supporting one or other of the main parties - tend to vastly overestimate the attractiveness of running a minority government. Basically you'd be continually haggling with your enemies to be able to get anything through parliament, and the point where the whole thing came crashing down would most likely be at one of the minor parties' convenience not yours, and over an issue of their choosing.
What would happen if Miliband proceeded as if he was a majority government (given that LAB+SNP > CON+LD) and just made any vote that matters defacto a vote of confidence. The SNP would have to either pass his votes, or bring the government down and put a Conservative government in.
I don't think you can treat something as a de facto vote of confidence: it actually has to be framed as "the House has Confidence in Her Majesty's Government".
He might get away with it once or twice, but he'd be portrayed as lurching from crisis to crisis and end up looking like a complete muppet
Wikipedia says this about the John Major one:
On the next day (the Friday) the government tabled a differently worded motion to its predecessor, seeking the "confidence" of the House in their policy on the Social Chapter instead of merely "taking note" thereof. As a result, the Government easily won the substantive question by 339–299. Had the government lost this motion of confidence, a dissolution would have been requested and probably granted.
I'm not sure if there are other things that could have happened had they lost the vote, eg whether somebody could have raised a proper No Confidence motion which the government would have won.
I suppose it's a bit different now with the Fixed Term Parliament Act, because the government losing a vote doesn't result in an automatic election. I wonder what would happen if Ed Miliband (for example) lost the Bicycle Lanes And Vote Of Confidence division, then during the two weeks that followed some bright spark said, "I know who has enough votes to win a confidence motion: Ed Miliband!".
"Taking over a recovering economy that had grown for four quarters and flatlining it for two years
Introducing a tax on Bedrooms causing suicides whilst cutting the rate of tax for the richest people in the country
NHS in crisis thanks to unwanted and unelected reorganisation plans as well as introducing a disastrous phone service staffed by non medical people directing everyone who calls to A and E
Record numbers of benefit sanctions, Record numbers at previously unheard of Food Banks..both connected
Wages behind inflation for over four years
Planning to help IS into power in Syria as part of "The Rebels' only to be stopped by Miliband, Lucas, Galloway, the Nats, Irish parties and a few sensible Tory rebels
Deficit still high despite the years of failed austerity and pointless cutting of vital services
Good public sector ft jobs replaced by zero hours and pt and bogus self employment and 2-80 an hour "apprenticeships""
Thanks...it should indeed but the Blairites in the party would never allow it given that they support most of the neo-liberal nonsense that led to the above and were amongst the most enthusiastic for arming IS to overthrow Assad
1) The bedroom tax isn't a tax at all. It is the removal of benefits to encourage people to downsize and release larger properties for those families that need them. 2) It was introduced by Labour
Roger Austerity is the key, the surplus may be economist speak but further cuts to local libraries, the armed forces, the police, strains on the NHS etc most certainly are on the radar for most people. The economy is now doing a bit better, though still not yet fully at pre crash levels, so the voters are unlikely to give Labour a majority and put that at risk, however they will not give the Tories a majority either to prevent a slash and burn approach to public services
For all its faults FPTP is quite likely to deliver that apparently popular position. Whether such a government can last more than a few months is however looking unlikely. To me the chance of a second election like '74 seems very likely.
Some populist moves, divide the Tories over Europe , then fresh elections before the wheels come off, is the way to a Miliband majority.
"Taking over a recovering economy that had grown for four quarters and flatlining it for two years
Introducing a tax on Bedrooms causing suicides whilst cutting the rate of tax for the richest people in the country
NHS in crisis thanks to unwanted and unelected reorganisation plans as well as introducing a disastrous phone service staffed by non medical people directing everyone who calls to A and E
Record numbers of benefit sanctions, Record numbers at previously unheard of Food Banks..both connected
Wages behind inflation for over four years
Planning to help IS into power in Syria as part of "The Rebels' only to be stopped by Miliband, Lucas, Galloway, the Nats, Irish parties and a few sensible Tory rebels
Deficit still high despite the years of failed austerity and pointless cutting of vital services
Good public sector ft jobs replaced by zero hours and pt and bogus self employment and 2-80 an hour "apprenticeships""
Thanks...it should indeed but the Blairites in the party would never allow it given that they support most of the neo-liberal nonsense that led to the above and were amongst the most enthusiastic for arming IS to overthrow Assad
1) The bedroom tax isn't a tax at all. It is the removal of benefits to encourage people to downsize and release larger properties for those families that need them. 2) It was introduced by Labour
Is VAT a tax?
Who put that up to 20%
Despite telling Porkies they had no plans to do so.
"Taking over a recovering economy that had grown for four quarters and flatlining it for two years
Introducing a tax on Bedrooms causing suicides whilst cutting the rate of tax for the richest people in the country
NHS in crisis thanks to unwanted and unelected reorganisation plans as well as introducing a disastrous phone service staffed by non medical people directing everyone who calls to A and E
Record numbers of benefit sanctions, Record numbers at previously unheard of Food Banks..both connected
Wages behind inflation for over four years
Planning to help IS into power in Syria as part of "The Rebels' only to be stopped by Miliband, Lucas, Galloway, the Nats, Irish parties and a few sensible Tory rebels
Deficit still high despite the years of failed austerity and pointless cutting of vital services
Good public sector ft jobs replaced by zero hours and pt and bogus self employment and 2-80 an hour "apprenticeships""
Thanks...it should indeed but the Blairites in the party would never allow it given that they support most of the neo-liberal nonsense that led to the above and were amongst the most enthusiastic for arming IS to overthrow Assad
1) The bedroom tax isn't a tax at all. It is the removal of benefits to encourage people to downsize and release larger properties for those families that need them. 2) It was introduced by Labour
Labours policy in the private rented sector only applied to future claimants not current ones...many sensible Tories oppose the Bedroom.Tax (which it is...it will NEVER be the Spare Room Subsidy...just as no one refers to the 1990 Community Charge Riots bringing down Thatchers reign)
Roger..you are a member of one of the elitist luvvie clubs in the UK,you probably put all of your bought meals on expenses and I recall some time ago you were fretting about a junior member of your family getting by on her fifty thousand a year allowance..and you make a living shooting commercials..I think,that you and Chuka,Kinnock, may be a little out of touch.
Knocking on doors, there are still a great mass of unengaged and undecideds out there. The only unifying theme I've detected so far is that nobody - and I mean NOBODY- has wanted Ed Miliband as our next Prime Minister.
It looks to me like this tide of late-breakers are going to be really bad news for Labour.
Door knocking in Witney, Huntingdon and speaking to the angries of Tunbridge Wells isnt really illuminating re people wanting Mili as PM
In Wales, Scotland, the North, all the UKs major cities and Englands proudly multi cultural capital the thought of Cameron and the Riot Club still there after May isnt a thought at all..its simply unthinkable
I think you mean STILL unthinkable. Five years after voting for that clown Brown.
The rest of Britain where the marginals are? Where I am putting in the effort? They give matters a little more thought than you do.
Marginals like Wirral West and Broxtowe where Awful Anna and the Wicked Witch of the Wirral are both odds on to lose their seats to the reds? Wirral West btw is no 50 on Labours target seat list and yet they are odds on to take it..and yet there are people who still bet on the Tories actually getting a MAJORITY in 2015 after 23 years without one
I wish I had some magic beans to sell them
If you want to bet against any of those - you won't be short of people - of all political persuasions - wanting to make bets with you.
Although it looks unlikely now the real value is a Labour overall majority in May at its current huge price
If Miliband as I expect comes across far better than expected once the undecided and uninterested in politics who just vote every five years but dont follow politics realise that he is not the bacon sarnie eating Aardman failure that their papers assure them he is and is actually quite likeable, self deprecating and has far more in common with wanting to improve the lives of most of them than Flashman ever could then the whole election could be transformed beyond the reach of the dying circulation Tory Press
Milimania anyone? I agree with Ed t shirts anyone?
For four and a half years, Ed Miliband has tried to show us the leader he can be - and all he's achieved is to create new lows. In the next couple of months, the best he can hope to aspire to is "meh....". That he doesn't actually put his oddly-formed body between Labour voters' pencils and their ballot papers. But the entrails have not fallen well so far.
Btw, have you still got that pile of "Johann Lamont Kicks Ass" T-shirts?
Fox I think a second election unlikely because of the Fixed Parliaments Act, even if it does require a Tory-LD-DUP deal including an EU referendum. If Miliband fails to win most seats, he is clearly a big part of Labour's problem, and they would have to dump him first
Labour MPs surely? With Lord Kinnock spending £250 on lunch?
Leading the list of donors unveiled tonight by Labour are Rod Aldridge, chair of the outsourcing giant Capita, who has a proliferation of contracts in the public sector. He loaned Labour £1m last year. Also on the list is Richard Caring, owner of the high-class Ivy restaurant. He offered Labour £2m.
Is that the same Richard Caring who has/had an account at HSBC Switzerland?
I should stress, of course, that - as Ed Miliband will attest - having a foreign bank account is entirely legal and in no way evidence of anything dodgy going on.
So Chubby Prescott is back on the gravy train according to EdM he will travel the world to meet with foreign heads of state to ..and get this...Raise their Ambitions re global warming..How effing patronising can the Geek get.
Good morning all and yesterday I saw at least one paper reporting Labour is planning to raid private pension funds (again) if elected in May, this time to pay for tuition fee reductions.
Speaking personally: 1997 when John Major left office pension fund worth £100,000 1997-2010 under Gordon Brown pension fund worth £66,000 2010-2015 under George Osborne £140,000
So for me its no contest. Labour are thieving bastards who have already cheated my generation out of the comfortable retirement we were lectured about saving for by Blair and Brown. Last time they stole £125 billion from private pension funds. Thank goodness I can start drawing on my pension later this year. If Labour wins, others may not be so lucky.
Given that the FTSE100 was nearly 20% higher in May 2010 than in May 1997 and has increased by less than a third since then your valuations are not believable.
That said, I think people - especially people supporting one or other of the main parties - tend to vastly overestimate the attractiveness of running a minority government. Basically you'd be continually haggling with your enemies to be able to get anything through parliament, and the point where the whole thing came crashing down would most likely be at one of the minor parties' convenience not yours, and over an issue of their choosing.
What would happen if Miliband proceeded as if he was a majority government (given that LAB+SNP > CON+LD) and just made any vote that matters defacto a vote of confidence. The SNP would have to either pass his votes, or bring the government down and put a Conservative government in.
I don't think you can treat something as a de facto vote of confidence: it actually has to be framed as "the House has Confidence in Her Majesty's Government".
He might get away with it once or twice, but he'd be portrayed as lurching from crisis to crisis and end up looking like a complete muppet
Wikipedia says this about the John Major one:
On the next day (the Friday) the government tabled a differently worded motion to its predecessor, seeking the "confidence" of the House in their policy on the Social Chapter instead of merely "taking note" thereof. As a result, the Government easily won the substantive question by 339–299. Had the government lost this motion of confidence, a dissolution would have been requested and probably granted.
I'm not sure if there are other things that could have happened had they lost the vote, eg whether somebody could have raised a proper No Confidence motion which the government would have won.
I suppose it's a bit different now with the Fixed Term Parliament Act, because the government losing a vote doesn't result in an automatic election. I wonder what would happen if Ed Miliband (for example) lost the Bicycle Lanes And Vote Of Confidence division, then during the two weeks that followed some bright spark said, "I know who has enough votes to win a confidence motion: Ed Miliband!".
That's slightly different though: it's not seeking to pass legislation, but if a classic confidence motion (which is usually tied to a specific policy)
Labour MPs surely? With Lord Kinnock spending £250 on lunch?
Leading the list of donors unveiled tonight by Labour are Rod Aldridge, chair of the outsourcing giant Capita, who has a proliferation of contracts in the public sector. He loaned Labour £1m last year. Also on the list is Richard Caring, owner of the high-class Ivy restaurant. He offered Labour £2m.
Is that the same Richard Caring who has/had an account at HSBC Switzerland?
I should stress, of course, that - as Ed Miliband will attest - having a foreign bank account is entirely legal and in no way evidence of anything dodgy going on.
Just for full disclosure, I too have a foreign bank account.
"Taking over a recovering economy that had grown for four quarters and flatlining it for two years
Introducing a tax on Bedrooms causing suicides whilst cutting the rate of tax for the richest people in the country
NHS in crisis thanks to unwanted and unelected reorganisation plans as well as introducing a disastrous phone service staffed by non medical people directing everyone who calls to A and E
Record numbers of benefit sanctions, Record numbers at previously unheard of Food Banks..both connected
Wages behind inflation for over four years
Planning to help IS into power in Syria as part of "The Rebels' only to be stopped by Miliband, Lucas, Galloway, the Nats, Irish parties and a few sensible Tory rebels
Deficit still high despite the years of failed austerity and pointless cutting of vital services
Good public sector ft jobs replaced by zero hours and pt and bogus self employment and 2-80 an hour "apprenticeships""
Thanks...it should indeed but the Blairites in the party would never allow it given that they support most of the neo-liberal nonsense that led to the above and were amongst the most enthusiastic for arming IS to overthrow Assad
1) The bedroom tax isn't a tax at all. It is the removal of benefits to encourage people to downsize and release larger properties for those families that need them. 2) It was introduced by Labour
Is VAT a tax?
Who put that up to 20%
Despite telling Porkies they had no plans to do so.
Do you know, for a fact, that they had plans to do so before the election?
"Taking over a recovering economy that had grown for four quarters and flatlining it for two years
Introducing a tax on Bedrooms causing suicides whilst cutting the rate of tax for the richest people in the country
NHS in crisis thanks to unwanted and unelected reorganisation plans as well as introducing a disastrous phone service staffed by non medical people directing everyone who calls to A and E
Record numbers of benefit sanctions, Record numbers at previously unheard of Food Banks..both connected
Wages behind inflation for over four years
Planning to help IS into power in Syria as part of "The Rebels' only to be stopped by Miliband, Lucas, Galloway, the Nats, Irish parties and a few sensible Tory rebels
Deficit still high despite the years of failed austerity and pointless cutting of vital services
Good public sector ft jobs replaced by zero hours and pt and bogus self employment and 2-80 an hour "apprenticeships""
Thanks...it should indeed but the Blairites in the party would never allow it given that they support most of the neo-liberal nonsense that led to the above and were amongst the most enthusiastic for arming IS to overthrow Assad
1) The bedroom tax isn't a tax at all. It is the removal of benefits to encourage people to downsize and release larger properties for those families that need them. 2) It was introduced by Labour
Labours policy in the private rented sector only applied to future claimants not current ones...many sensible Tories oppose the Bedroom.Tax (which it is...it will NEVER be the Spare Room Subsidy...just as no one refers to the 1990 Community Charge Riots bringing down Thatchers reign)
Glad you agree all the rest are 100% accurate
Welcome to PB
You need to vote in the February PB GE15 Competition from 18/2/15
Currently stands at
Count 320 Cons (Avg) 284.67 Lab (Avg) 280.41 Lib Dem (Avg) 27.31 UKIP (Avg) 4.36 Green (Avg) 1.01 SNP (Avg) 33.08
Labour MPs surely? With Lord Kinnock spending £250 on lunch?
Leading the list of donors unveiled tonight by Labour are Rod Aldridge, chair of the outsourcing giant Capita, who has a proliferation of contracts in the public sector. He loaned Labour £1m last year. Also on the list is Richard Caring, owner of the high-class Ivy restaurant. He offered Labour £2m.
Is that the same Richard Caring who has/had an account at HSBC Switzerland?
I should stress, of course, that - as Ed Miliband will attest - having a foreign bank account is entirely legal and in no way evidence of anything dodgy going on.
Just for full disclosure, I too have a foreign bank account.
Roger Austerity is the key, the surplus may be economist speak but further cuts to local libraries, the armed forces, the police, strains on the NHS etc most certainly are on the radar for most people. The economy is now doing a bit better, though still not yet fully at pre crash levels, so the voters are unlikely to give Labour a majority and put that at risk, however they will not give the Tories a majority either to prevent a slash and burn approach to public services
For all its faults FPTP is quite likely to deliver that apparently popular position. Whether such a government can last more than a few months is however looking unlikely. To me the chance of a second election like '74 seems very likely.
Some populist moves, divide the Tories over Europe , then fresh elections before the wheels come off, is the way to a Miliband majority.
The public doesn't seem to like politicians much, Fox.
It seems to me quite likely it will deliver a verdict which makes government in the traditional way virtually unworkable, and say 'get on with, and make it work'.
Taffys.. I imagine travelling the world..first class of course..and demolishing all that foreign food..free of course..will make the temperature globally rise just a little bit more. And will anyone understand what he says
Labour MPs surely? With Lord Kinnock spending £250 on lunch?
Leading the list of donors unveiled tonight by Labour are Rod Aldridge, chair of the outsourcing giant Capita, who has a proliferation of contracts in the public sector. He loaned Labour £1m last year. Also on the list is Richard Caring, owner of the high-class Ivy restaurant. He offered Labour £2m.
Is that the same Richard Caring who has/had an account at HSBC Switzerland?
I should stress, of course, that - as Ed Miliband will attest - having a foreign bank account is entirely legal and in no way evidence of anything dodgy going on.
Just for full disclosure, I too have a foreign bank account.
As do I.
Me too. It has a hundred euros in it.
Shall we hand ourselves in, Charles, and throw ourselves on the mercy of the Authorities?
Mr. Owls, when you say 'PB Tories' who are you referring to? Me, someone on the right but not a Conservative (yet often labelled such by leftwingers, when I'm not being called a Kipper)? Mr. Neil, that renowned Conservative mole in the Green Party?
It's tedious to create a strawman by using one individual's comments and then applying them to a whole mass of people who don't actually fall into the category which others like to pretend they do.
Mr. Owls, when you say 'PB Tories' who are you referring to? Me, someone on the right but not a Conservative (yet often labelled such by leftwingers, when I'm not being called a Kipper)? Mr. Neil, that renowned Conservative mole in the Green Party?
It's tedious to create a strawman by using one individual's comments and then applying them to a whole mass of people who don't actually fall into the category which others like to pretend they do.
He is referring to the people who are always right, and always learn
"Taking over a recovering economy that had grown for four quarters and flatlining it for two years
Introducing a tax on Bedrooms causing suicides whilst cutting the rate of tax for the richest people in the country
NHS in crisis thanks to unwanted and unelected reorganisation plans as well as introducing a disastrous phone service staffed by non medical people directing everyone who calls to A and E
Record numbers of benefit sanctions, Record numbers at previously unheard of Food Banks..both connected
Wages behind inflation for over four years
Planning to help IS into power in Syria as part of "The Rebels' only to be stopped by Miliband, Lucas, Galloway, the Nats, Irish parties and a few sensible Tory rebels
Deficit still high despite the years of failed austerity and pointless cutting of vital services
Good public sector ft jobs replaced by zero hours and pt and bogus self employment and 2-80 an hour "apprenticeships""
Thanks...it should indeed but the Blairites in the party would never allow it given that they support most of the neo-liberal nonsense that led to the above and were amongst the most enthusiastic for arming IS to overthrow Assad
1) The bedroom tax isn't a tax at all. It is the removal of benefits to encourage people to downsize and release larger properties for those families that need them. 2) It was introduced by Labour
Is VAT a tax?
Who put that up to 20%
Despite telling Porkies they had no plans to do so.
Do you know, for a fact, that they had plans to do so before the election?
Are you serious?
Of course the same phrase is being used now by the same party. You know the one that the IFS says has the biggest black hole in its plans
I imagine travelling the world..first class of course..and demolishing all that foreign food..free of course..will make the temperature globally rise just a little bit more. And will anyone understand what he says
You can just imagine the conversation at labour HQ can't you?
Anybody know somebody WORKING CLASS?? (silence)
Bright young staffer: IF we get somebody working class, chances are they'll be a UKIP supporter. Much better to have someone who WAS working class. You know like, when the working class supported labour...??
Comments
If only opposition parties had such well -crafted arguments and forensic disection of say UK tax laws with emphasis on anti-avoidance....
Oh, wait...
It loses a 2 horse one every time.
They are a bunch of losers. People rolling in the aisles at their pathetic squirming on how to try and pretend they are not the Tories lapdog chums.
It looks to me like this tide of late-breakers are going to be really bad news for Labour.
"In fact, in every seat where Labour has treated its voters with contempt. Which, as Scotland is discovering, is a great many of them."
Ironically a story that a Scottish Labour MP that I know tells is of a constituent with a problem who he'd visited at his flat complaining that what was wrong was you never got to see your local MP.
"But I'm here sitting in your kitchen!"
http://sluggerotoole.com/2015/02/22/you-cant-mistake-ideology-the-way-mps-talk-the-way-that-they-walk/
Tory it is at the moment
"Taking over a recovering economy that had grown for four
quarters and flatlining it for two years
Introducing a tax on Bedrooms causing suicides whilst cutting
the rate of tax for the richest people in the country
NHS in crisis thanks to unwanted and unelected reorganisation
plans as well as introducing a disastrous phone service staffed
by non medical people directing everyone who calls to A and E
Record numbers of benefit sanctions, Record numbers at previously
unheard of Food Banks..both connected
Wages behind inflation for over four years
Planning to help IS into power in Syria as part of "The Rebels'
only to be stopped by Miliband, Lucas, Galloway, the Nats, Irish
parties and a few sensible Tory rebels
Deficit still high despite the years of failed austerity and
pointless cutting of vital services
Good public sector ft jobs replaced by zero hours and pt and
bogus self employment and 2-80 an hour "apprenticeships""
Thanks...it should indeed but the Blairites in the party would never
allow it given that they support most of the neo-liberal nonsense
that led to the above and were amongst the most enthusiastic for
arming IS to overthrow Assad
Mr. Mark, are you suggesting Miliband's as popular as Joffrey?
[Just finished watching series 4 of Game of Thrones].
"8 point Tory lead. Basically, the public are still in 2010 where money is concerned."
Which just shows how much they've pissed off the electorate in most other respects.
[Reminds me, I must get on with Shakespeare].
It's the health reason. That's why Yvette wouldn't put herself up for the top job.
As for her husband, he was too heavily implicated in the Blair/Brown wars. He wouldn't be acceptable to half the Party.
He'd be OK as Chancellor though. Miliband wouldn't have a problem with him, knowing he could dismiss him in an instant if he played up.
So the only real question is whether Ed B really wants to be Chancellor. My guess is that he would, for a while at least. After that, he all the credentials for a top academic post.
There is no question that the disaster (for Scots) that is the SNP tertiary education policy will play a part in the election. Some Scottish Universities are growing fat on English and foreign (non EU) fees but the access routes for Scots get ever more problematic.
If group think decides 'the devil you know' the Tories will romp home. If they decide we shouldn't accept serfdom to an elite non tax paying aristocracy who have presided over the poor having to feed themselves in foodbanks they'll go Labour
I disagree with you on a commanding lead. I cannot see the SNP falling back significantly, which makes things hard for Labour. At the same time, I can't see the Conservatives retaining all their seats and gaining more besides. So, we'll end up with the most horridly hung of Parliaments.
Edited extra bit: Mr. G, free if you're Scottish. Free if you're French. But not if you're English.
the angries of Tunbridge Wells isnt really illuminating
re people wanting Mili as PM
In Wales, Scotland, the North, all the UKs major cities and
Englands proudly multi cultural capital the thought of Cameron
and the Riot Club still there after May isnt a thought at
all..its simply unthinkable
"This House hereby passes the South Coast Bicycle Lane Act and has confidence in Her Majesty's Government."
Pulling this out of my bum, but if the opposition were agreed then couldn't they amend whatever motion the government proposed to take out the confidence motion part or split it into a separate motion?
If your assessment is accurate then Labour would get an outright majority of landslide proportions.
Dodds, who tells me that the DUP is “not interested in a full-blown coalition government”, indicates that his party’s priorities in any negotiation will be greater protection for defence spending, stricter border controls and an in/out referendum on the EU'
So they want an EU referendum as much as Cameron, if Cameron leads the largest party they will back him!
http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk
The rest of Britain where the marginals are? Where I am putting in the effort? They give matters a little more thought than you do.
Then my body basically went on strike. The simplest thing was totally exhausting and concentration was almost impossible. I was lucky enough to break out of it after a few months and gradually get back to work making all sorts of promises about work/life balances very few of which were kept over the years.
It is never come back but there are times when I feel very aware of my limitations and can sense something like it hovering. A sufferer would find the job of leading a major political party quite dangerous I would think.
Maybe Groucho,s could give away some left over food
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IOO-xQ_Vew
and the Wicked Witch of the Wirral are both odds on to lose
their seats to the reds? Wirral West btw is no 50 on Labours
target seat list and yet they are odds on to take it..and yet
there are people who still bet on the Tories actually getting
a MAJORITY in 2015 after 23 years without one
I wish I had some magic beans to sell them
"had the Tories delivered a surplus as they had promised they would get a majority,"
This is under everybody's radar. Who knows whether we have a surplus or not? We hear the economy is going well and unemployment is going down but budget deficits or surpluses are just economist speak
Sauber gearboxes keep failing. As well as limiting running, this does not bode well.
Order seems to be Mercedes-Ferrari-Red Bull with uncertainty over Williams and where they slot in (probably behind Mercedes, but beyond that it's unclear).
McLaren still unreliable (eminently fixable, but it's screwing with their testing which won't help early season pace).
Renault engine is reliable but underpowered. May improve later.
Lotus much more consistent. Lacking a little pace, so midfield rather than frontrunners.
True but what will not be under everybody's radar is the tax cut Osborne is going to deliver in the budget.
Where and how much, that is the question.
A) the Tories will lose some seats to Labour
B ) the Tories will gain some seats from the LibDems
C) Labour will lose a shedload of seats to the SNP
D) Labour will gain some seats from the LibDems
E) Ed is crap and will prevent a sizeable number of voters going to Labour
If you want to bet against any of those - you won't be short of people - of all political persuasions - wanting to make bets with you.
The story as I understand it is that she too manages hers very successfully but suspects that the strains of top office would make continuing to do so much more difficult. Of course in a PM, a health breakdown could be disastrous in many senses.
You have to speculate on how Ed B feels about it all too. If it were my wife, I think I'd be more inclined than usual to spend time on domestic matters, but it's their business and I'm sure they've figured out what's right for them.
He might get away with it once or twice, but he'd be portrayed as lurching from crisis to crisis and end up looking like a complete muppet
"Roger..there seems to be lots of food banks all over the UK They seem very popular..in fact at some of them you have to prebook..they take all manner of folks..They are called restaurants..take aways.chippies etc."
A foodbank for Tory MP's
http://www.the-ivy.co.uk/private-dining-room/
I do perceive an improvement for the Conservatives in the polls, but it is tiny and at the current rate of progress it would take another 12 months for them to be recording the levels of support where an OM might be a possibility.
Although it looks unlikely now the real value is a Labour overall
majority in May at its current huge price
If Miliband as I expect comes across far better than expected
once the undecided and uninterested in politics who just vote
every five years but dont follow politics realise that he is not the
bacon sarnie eating Aardman failure that their papers assure
them he is and is actually quite likeable, self deprecating and
has far more in common with wanting to improve the lives of most
of them than Flashman ever could then the whole election could
be transformed beyond the reach of the dying circulation Tory Press
Milimania anyone? I agree with Ed t shirts anyone?
He persuaded the UK government to allow free and easy credit in the economy in the 1930s which created a phenomenal house building boom that is still very evident in our cities to this day. This expansion of credit is why the UK generally recovered so much better from the great recession than the US where credit remained very tight.
It is true that it was in the war years he had official government positions but his influence throughout the 30s was immense. He died in about 1946 or 7 as I recall after negotiating better terms for our war debt from the Americans.
more later
Leading the list of donors unveiled tonight by Labour are Rod Aldridge, chair of the outsourcing giant Capita, who has a proliferation of contracts in the public sector. He loaned Labour £1m last year. Also on the list is Richard Caring, owner of the high-class Ivy restaurant. He offered Labour £2m.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2006/mar/20/constitution.uk
https://www.justgiving.com/Calum-Ferguson1
My site went live 3 weeks ago and its focus is on the need to improve the provision of care, equipment and physiotherapy to MND patients and those with related conditions. I've already started meeting with politicians of all parties to get their buy in. I intend keeping the campaign going for as long as I can keep cycling !!
I suppose it's a bit different now with the Fixed Term Parliament Act, because the government losing a vote doesn't result in an automatic election. I wonder what would happen if Ed Miliband (for example) lost the Bicycle Lanes And Vote Of Confidence division, then during the two weeks that followed some bright spark said, "I know who has enough votes to win a confidence motion: Ed Miliband!".
1) The bedroom tax isn't a tax at all. It is the removal of benefits to encourage people to downsize and release larger properties for those families that need them.
2) It was introduced by Labour
Some populist moves, divide the Tories over Europe , then fresh elections before the wheels come off, is the way to a Miliband majority.
1) The bedroom tax isn't a tax at all. It is the removal of benefits to encourage people to downsize and release larger properties for those families that need them.
2) It was introduced by Labour
Is VAT a tax?
Who put that up to 20%
Despite telling Porkies they had no plans to do so.
1) The bedroom tax isn't a tax at all. It is the removal of benefits to encourage people to downsize and release larger properties for those families that need them.
2) It was introduced by Labour
Labours policy in the private rented sector only applied to future
claimants not current ones...many sensible Tories oppose
the Bedroom.Tax (which it is...it will NEVER be the Spare Room
Subsidy...just as no one refers to the 1990 Community Charge
Riots bringing down Thatchers reign)
Glad you agree all the rest are 100% accurate
Btw, have you still got that pile of "Johann Lamont Kicks Ass" T-shirts?
Aaaah, the cuddly bunny who knifed his own, much more talented, brother.
I should stress, of course, that - as Ed Miliband will attest - having a foreign bank account is entirely legal and in no way evidence of anything dodgy going on.
And given your personal history especially so.
I suppose it's a bit different now with the Fixed Term Parliament Act, because the government losing a vote doesn't result in an automatic election. I wonder what would happen if Ed Miliband (for example) lost the Bicycle Lanes And Vote Of Confidence division, then during the two weeks that followed some bright spark said, "I know who has enough votes to win a confidence motion: Ed Miliband!".
That's slightly different though: it's not seeking to pass legislation, but if a classic confidence motion (which is usually tied to a specific policy)
2) It was introduced by Labour
Is VAT a tax?
Who put that up to 20%
Despite telling Porkies they had no plans to do so.
Do you know, for a fact, that they had plans to do so before the election?
2) It was introduced by Labour
Labours policy in the private rented sector only applied to future
claimants not current ones...many sensible Tories oppose
the Bedroom.Tax (which it is...it will NEVER be the Spare Room
Subsidy...just as no one refers to the 1990 Community Charge
Riots bringing down Thatchers reign)
Glad you agree all the rest are 100% accurate
Welcome to PB
You need to vote in the February PB GE15 Competition from 18/2/15
Currently stands at
Count 320
Cons (Avg) 284.67
Lab (Avg) 280.41
Lib Dem (Avg) 27.31
UKIP (Avg) 4.36
Green (Avg) 1.01
SNP (Avg) 33.08
Prescott FFS. How desperate are labour???
It seems to me quite likely it will deliver a verdict which makes government in the traditional way virtually unworkable, and say 'get on with, and make it work'.
It will be interesting, to say the least.
Shall we hand ourselves in, Charles, and throw ourselves on the mercy of the Authorities?
It's tedious to create a strawman by using one individual's comments and then applying them to a whole mass of people who don't actually fall into the category which others like to pretend they do.
Who put that up to 20%
Despite telling Porkies they had no plans to do so.
Do you know, for a fact, that they had plans to do so before the election?
Are you serious?
Of course the same phrase is being used now by the same party. You know the one that the IFS says has the biggest black hole in its plans
You can just imagine the conversation at labour HQ can't you?
Anybody know somebody WORKING CLASS?? (silence)
Bright young staffer: IF we get somebody working class, chances are they'll be a UKIP supporter. Much better to have someone who WAS working class. You know like, when the working class supported labour...??