Monday 27th October 2014

[PaulfromYorkshire]

To cheer everyone up, here's a new Tesco product spotted in Ireland and reported in the Indy

[rebeccariots2]

Mike Smithson @MSmithsonPB · 27m 27 minutes ago
LAB down 5 UKIP up 4 in new ComRes phone poll for Indy
CON 30+1, LAB 30-5, LD 9-1, UKIP 19+4, GRN 4=

Mike Smithson @MSmithsonPB · 26m 26 minutes ago
The LAB 30% share in tonight's ComRes phone poll for the Indy is the same as Gordon Beown secured at GE10

Mike Smithson @MSmithsonPB · 25m 25 minutes ago
Latest YouGov has CON & LAB level pegging as well.
CON 32% (-1)
LAB 32% (-1)
UKIP 18% (+2)
LD 8% (=)

[AngryAsWell]

Night all

[rebeccariots2]

Night all

Night AAW.

[rebeccariots2]

People need hope, not more of the Tory austerity fairytale
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... -fairytale

Ha-Joon Chang (Opinion, 20 October) is right that “the country is in desperate need of a counter narrative” to the Tory story on the economy. I believe it should go like this.

First, Labour did not leave behind an economic mess; the bankers did. Labour was not profligate: the biggest Labour deficit in the pre-crash years was 3.3% of GDP; the Thatcher-Major governments racked up deficits bigger than that in 10 of their 18 years. So who was the profligate? It’s a no-brainer.

Second, the Tories have claimed that the reason for enforced austerity is to pay down the deficit. Yet, after six years of falling wages, private investment flat, productivity on the floor, and fast-rising trade deficits, the deficit is £100bn, when Osborne promised in 2010 it would now be next to zero. To cap it all, the deficit will almost certainly rise this year because income from taxes has sharply fallen as wages are increasingly squeezed. Austerity is now a busted policy that has turned toxic. It should be dropped.

Third, Osborne’s so-called recovery is bogus because it is too dependent on a housing asset bubble, too dependent on financial services rather than manufacturing, and has no demand to sustain it. It is already fading as growth slows.

Fourth, the only way now to get the deficit down is by public investment to kickstart sustainable growth via housebuilding, upgrading infrastructure, and greening the economy. Funding a £30bn package at interest rates of £150m a year would create 1.5m jobs within two/three years. Or it could be financed without any increase in public borrowing by printing money, or instructing the publicly owned banks to concentrate lending on British industry, or taxing the 0.1% ultra-rich whose wealth has doubled since the crash.

People need hope. The Tories are continuing with austerity because their real motive is to shrink the state and public services, not to cut the deficit. The alternative offers investment desperately needed, growth in the real economy, genuine jobs, rising wages – and really will pay down the deficit.

Michael Meacher MP
Labour, Oldham West and Royton

[ErnstRemarx]

Right then.

I've had the day to think about it.

My employers have been gold plated shits - please avoid Pepe and Ben Sherman products on my behalf. I've been temporarily scarred, but the measure of a person is how they react. I intend to react well, and somewhat better than those miserable, venal little shits.

I have Planning Committtee tomorrow, and thereafter is another day. That is fixed. I can hold my head high and tell people that I did my best, and that is the truth. I still have a loving and empathetic wife and a strange 8 year old daughter. I will not be ground down by those bastards (my previous recent employers, I mean).

I have no religious faith, but I believe in counting my blessings. You, as a collective, are one. Family are another, and there are more besides. I have not finished with the world yet, and although I may make no dent in it, it will not be because I crawled into a ball and gave up.

There is more to life than work, and there is rather more than opinion polls and Westminster pollsters. Let's get into those CLPs and out into our communities and tell people who we are.

I refuse to lie down and take this shit.

[TechnicalEphemera]

Mike Smithson @MSmithsonPB · 27m 27 minutes ago
LAB down 5 UKIP up 4 in new ComRes phone poll for Indy
CON 30+1, LAB 30-5, LD 9-1, UKIP 19+4, GRN 4=

Mike Smithson @MSmithsonPB · 26m 26 minutes ago
The LAB 30% share in tonight's ComRes phone poll for the Indy is the same as Gordon Beown secured at GE10

Mike Smithson @MSmithsonPB · 25m 25 minutes ago
Latest YouGov has CON & LAB level pegging as well.
CON 32% (-1)
LAB 32% (-1)
UKIP 18% (+2)
LD 8% (=)

We have been here before, remember the EU veto boost.

Give it five days and move on. The ComRes poll screams outlier.

[rebeccariots2]

Right then.

I've had the day to think about it.

My employers have been gold plated shits - please avoid Pepe and Ben Sherman products on my behalf. I've been temporarily scarred, but the measure of a person is how they react. I intend to react well, and somewhat better than those miserable, venal little shits.

I have Planning Committtee tomorrow, and thereafter is another day. That is fixed. I can hold my head high and tell people that I did my best, and that is the truth. I still have a loving and empathetic wife and a strange 8 year old daughter. I will not be ground down by those bastards (my previous recent employers, I mean).

I have no religious faith, but I believe in counting my blessings. You, as a collective, are one. Family are another, and there are more besides. I have not finished with the world yet, and although I may make no dent in it, it will not be because I crawled into a ball and gave up.

There is more to life than work, and there is rather more than opinion polls and Westminster pollsters. Let's get into those CLPs and out into our communities and tell people who we are.

I refuse to lie down and take this shit.

Consider them avoided. You did do your best - and I'm sure it was good. Seize the moments with your lovely wife and lovely strange 8 year old daughter.

Editing to add: I know they must have had crap judgement Ernst because you have shown here how good a communicator you are ... yes, communication is key to most jobs ... and you're brilliant at it. I think of the spats and differences and tricky issues you have mediated us through with deftness and great charm. Bloody idiots.

[rebeccariots2]

Tory MPs threaten trouble for PM over EU bill
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehous ... r-eu-bill/

... Another eurosceptic MP says:

‘This is risible. It’s like the Grand Old Duke of York. I’m not sure how far up the hill we have got this afternoon. But I’m certain we will be back down shortly to hand over a cheque. It won’t be a significant drop. Combined with the European Arrest Warrant, this is dangerous territory.’..

[HindleA]

@ErnstRemarx

Sorry you've been treated shabbilly.Ive never bought a Sherman product or heard of Pepe but I will avoid their goods even more.regards.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Two polls with Tories and Labour neck and neck.

Not very good.

But after the week of shocking Labour news not that surprising.

Hardly a shocker though. All the other polls suggest it is close.

Not sure a row with someone in Scotland in terms of national polls is that much of a jolt.

I don't think it's very good at all. Some decent announcements needed. Though like the housing one (subject to what we discussed on here last night) it'll just get ignored.

[TechnicalEphemera]

Two polls with Tories and Labour neck and neck.

Not very good.

But after the week of shocking Labour news not that surprising.

Hardly a shocker though. All the other polls suggest it is close.

Not sure a row with someone in Scotland in terms of national polls is that much of a jolt.

I don't think it's very good at all. Some decent announcements needed. Though like the housing one (subject to what we discussed on here last night) it'll just get ignored.

Scotland, and EU and race all at once. Plus if you ignore Comedy Results (who seem to chase outliers) the poll shifts are small. A few months ago the Tories polled 29%.

I think people have to remember this is not the election campaign. Cameron continues to paint himself into corners (he will be paying that bill). I still don't think when all is said and done he can win from the extreme right.

Labour needs to launch an attack, but realistically not now (nobody is listening).

[Tubby Isaacs]

I think Cameron is painting into corners, but EU should be neutral issue for Labour.

I'm pretty patient (with somethings) but feels like we need something now. LAs being able to open schools, which is implied, I think. That could be made much clearer.

[RogerOThornhill]

So...all that money spent on converting academies and what's the line now?

School clusters the answer to a lack of outstanding headteachers, commissioner says

http://news.tes.co.uk/b/news/2014/10/27 ... ioner.aspx

All schools should operate in groups because there are not enough “outstanding” headteachers, according to England’s national schools commissioner.

Frank Green, appointed by ministers to head their academies and free schools programme, has also warned that free schools will struggle to survive in isolation.

“I don’t think any school should be an academy on its own,” he told a conference in London last week. “I think we should always put them into groups.”

Mr Green’s vision would mean a huge rearrangement of the schools system and a change in government policy.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Trouble with that article is that nobody will believe you if you tell them Brown didn't overspend by miles or that we aren't still bankrupt.

[Tubby Isaacs]

So...all that money spent on converting academies and what's the line now?

School clusters the answer to a lack of outstanding headteachers, commissioner says

http://news.tes.co.uk/b/news/2014/10/27 ... ioner.aspx

All schools should operate in groups because there are not enough “outstanding” headteachers, according to England’s national schools commissioner.

Frank Green, appointed by ministers to head their academies and free schools programme, has also warned that free schools will struggle to survive in isolation.

“I don’t think any school should be an academy on its own,” he told a conference in London last week. “I think we should always put them into groups.”

Mr Green’s vision would mean a huge rearrangement of the schools system and a change in government policy.

Dear O lord.

Labour apparently just the same though because they had 280 academies.

[seeingclearly]

@Ernst. Sorry you've had a crap day, but reading you post I had an inexplicable thought of you perched atop a giant lotus bud quickly emerging from a steamy pool. I haven't a clue what you look like but it doesnt matter, in my iconography it's good.

It will probably burn a bit somewhere inside in the next few days, you've been treated wretchedly. If it does, just think, you won't be tending that mans built from scratch system this winter, struggling with its purposely inbuilt quirks. You'll hopefully be doing something far better.

It's been a bad day all round but the fur cups are gathering, as Rowson knew they would, around the bizarre bunch in power, and their real nature is starting to show.

Let's keep our fingers crossed that Labour hold their nerve. It's altogether a bit better than it was a day ago.

[seeingclearly]

Can't copy and paste but just caught sight of tweet via illegal. One million awaiting assessments, 1.3 awaiting appeals, 1.7 threats of sanction. The totals correct, 4 million. (I think I got the last two the right way round)

By my estimation if that's individual people/clients/claimants then thats 6% of the population, plus whoever they live with, depend on, care for. It's a monumental **** up. And very visible tonight. IDS's chicken are coming home to roost. I hope he sleeps uneasy tonight.

[HindleA]

@seeingclearly

I don't know if you are aware but part of the Opposition day debate tomorrow is "Effect of the Government's policies on disabled people"
IDS is in front of the DWP Select Committee,next Wednesday 5th at 09.30

[LadyCentauria]

Just got pissed off again. Watching DP on iPlayer because I missed it earlier and am at the section talking about immigration and Fallon making that comment the other day. He said people, particularly on the East Coast were "feeling swamped by immigrants and people claiming benefits." But there has been almost total silence on that part of his comment.

Now, I know, from listening to a lot of people on the Kent coast, that many have been complaining for donkeys-years about being a 'dumping-ground' for benefit-claimants – long before the 'immigrants' they're talking about were from overseas. Think hotels turned into hostels housing London's homeless because there was nowhere left (or affordable) for councils to put people they have/had a statutory duty to house temporarily. Temporarily being anything from days to years. Of course, the hotels-cum-hostels and boarding houses and private landlords need the income because the holiday-makers just aren't there in the numbers there were before cheap flights to warm places. And they charge a premium so do very nicely out of it. But, with lack of holiday-makers and tourists comes lack of the seasonal jobs that have, historically, been relied upon to make the money that locals depend upon to get them at least part of the way through the off-season - and add the competition from all the in-comers trying to get themselves off benefits and out of temporary housing. As I say, this was before many of those in-comers were foreign. The 'scroungers' and 'layabouts' labels were well-established before the accession countries had free-movement restrictions lifted. Add to that the problem of in-comers (often employed commuters, early-retired, or with redundancy packages) moving out to the coast and out-competing the locals on house-prices and, again, often on jobs.

Now, I can sympathise (to some extent) with the fears of people who have seen their local economy flattened – it's happened all over the country, after all – but I am quite furious that just about everyone, amongst the commentariat, fails to stand up for people who have no option but to rely upon the Social Security safety-net. One or two have picked up on the claiming benefits part of his sentence but they have immediately tied it to the question of migrants (usually European) and whether or not they should have a right to make claims. But the claimants being complained about are not necessarily (or even mostly foreign migrants. It is a lumping-in of a new bogey-man on top of an existing one. Both types of prejudice are wrong – and often misplaced. Both need addressing. Bloody Fallon 'could have chosen his words more carefully'. Hah!

Getting some good community-workers in to try to improve relations (is 'community-cohesion' the phrase?) would be a start. But solving the problems these areas face - lack of jobs, lack (or disrepair) of housing and infrastructure, shortages of GP surgeries, clinics, school places, adult education colleges, inadequate transport and communications networks, etc., – would go a heck of a long way towards reducing, or removing, the lack of hope that leads to so much zenophobia and distrust in the first place.

More to say but I've ranted long enough

[LadyCentauria]

Can't copy and paste but just caught sight of tweet via illegal. One million awaiting assessments, 1.3 awaiting appeals, 1.7 threats of sanction. The totals correct, 4 million. (I think I got the last two the right way round)

By my estimation if that's individual people/clients/claimants then thats 6% of the population, plus whoever they live with, depend on, care for. It's a monumental **** up. And very visible tonight. IDS's chicken are coming home to roost. I hope he sleeps uneasy tonight.

Can I say fuck!? That is appalling news
GIDS will sleep like a baby and declare that everything is proceeding to plan and the figures are out of date and the reality is that it's improving but it's all someone else's fault...

[LadyCentauria]

And in further appalling news:

UK axes support for Mediterranean migrant rescue operation
Refugees and human rights organisations react with anger as minister says saving people encourages others to risk voyage

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... escue-plan

[HindleA]

@LadyCenturia


Yes.We happen to receive benefits,after over fifty years of combined contribution and in my wife's case after working for decades when she has been ill/disabled since childhood.Our receivership saves the State hundreds of pounds a week given.any alternative ,on presumption that instant elimination isn't an.option.Of course,they're are many like us.Fallon et al are scum.of the highest order they are not worthy to breathe the same air as us.A regret I have is that I am not religious ,for if I was I could have solace that these bastards will burn in hell for an eternity.l

[HindleA]

The tactic of late is to claim "clumsily phrased",rather like the daily rags printing hatefilled propaganda and then reprinting the hate filled propaganda with an extra line saying it was lies as "clarification".The words are deliberately chosen of course.

[HindleA]

"Why the Conservatives could still lose seats to Labour even if it manages to get a six point lead"

http://www1.politicalbetting.com/index. ... -a-6-lead/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;