Saturday 8th & Sunday 9th November 2014

[Tubby Isaacs]

In other news, the FT have done some analysis of Osborne's numbers.

He needs £48bn cuts a year to make his target in 2019. It's not £25bn at all. And I presume it'll be more if those taxcuts happen.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I fucking love Will Self.

Miserable git in person. And kind of rude with it.

Yep. Recall him being v rude on HIGNFY (and unfunny) where he kept saying "bow down before the Lord Kinnock". Doubtless Kinnock just went to the Lords for that, rather than anything so silly as it being part of the legislature.

[pk1]

Tomorrows front pages have barely a mention of Ed.

The S*n has this but other than that, it's noticable how little there is.

[diGriz]

Tomorrows front pages have barely a mention of Ed.

The S*n has this but other than that, it's noticable how little there is.

The MSM is chucking in the towel on this charade? That's how I read it.

[pk1]

Tomorrows front pages have barely a mention of Ed.

The S*n has this but other than that, it's noticable how little there is.

The MSM is chucking in the towel on this charade? That's how I read it.

Here's hoping....

[LadyCentauria]

This last couple of days of vicious and lying mendacity from all quarters has at least made my mind up on one thing.

I've been dithering for the last four and a half years about what I was going to do in the 2015 Election. I've always been a Liberal/Lib Dem votes, since I first got the vote in time for the two 1974 Elections. I've only not voted Liberal during the Thatcher/Major years when I voted Labour as the only practical way in which to get rid of the Tory bastards. I'm one of those who voted Lib Dem in 2010, in expectation of something good coming of it, and I bear my part of the shame and blame for what occured: I never voted for a Conservative government, and after Nick Clegg made a mockery of my beliefs and expcetations, I will never vote Lib Dem again, barring some unexpected root and branch miraculous transformation of the entire Party that just isn't going to happen.

Which left me with a big question about what I would do in 2015.

Let me be honest: last time round, I believed that Labour had to go. It was exactly the same as in 1997: a long-standing Government that had run out of ideas, with the sole policy of 'we ought to be in charge', and in particular a menace to what I had always seen as Britain on the issue of Civil Liberties.

But could, would I vote for them in 2015?

I was among those who were pleased to see Ed Miliband win the leadership election, but I've been gravely disappointed with Labour and their preparation for most of the time since. Ed has not done even a fraction of what I hoped we might see from a rejuvenated Labour party that was worth taking power again.

Besides, for the last nearly thirty years I have lived in a solidly Labour constituency. My MP is Andrew Gwynne, but at any time Labour could have put forward a goat wearing a red rosette, and my MP would have been a goat in a red rosette. So, given that my vote made not the tiniest fraction of difference, what was the point of voting? I had no convictions about voting for anyone, and I was hardly needed for a vote against the Tories.

But I agree with so many people here that this country can't afford another five years of the Tories, It cannot, people cannot survive it. These past five years, my slow estrangement from the country of my birth has accelerated. I am growing to hate Britain, to hate what we have become, to hate the pettiness, selfishness, meanness and racial loathing that has been encouraged by this Government. To hate the licence for hatred it has peddled, to despair at the enthusiasm it has unleashed to hate and deride the poor, the sick, the disabled and the foreign. I loathe that racism has been re-legitimised.

Now this last weekend, with the wholesale lies about the plot to oust Miliband, the distortion and cheating, I have come to a decision.

I will vote in May. I will vote Labour. My vote may not be needed in my constituency, but it is needed in my country. Only Labour can save us from another Government like this and I think it's my duty to ensure that my vote adds to Labour's legitimacy as the governing party in the face of the lies and denigration that will come.

I had not been looking forward to the prospect of not registering my vote in a General Election for the first time, no matter its cause.


Editted for crap typing as usual.

Well said.

These past few days had left me lost for words, angered, and in some shock*; but also even more determined to put my cross next to our Labour PPC Sheila Boswell's name come May. She's up against Justine Greening, who increased her majority in 2010, so it will not be easy for Sheila to unseat her. But we will do our damnedest to succeed.

So far, I don't think anyone has mentioned Andrew Mackinlay (ex-MP) who has been telling anyone who will listen (BBC/Sky) that Alan Johnson only needs a bit more prodding to 'take over' (however much Johnson says 'no, ain't going to happen') So is Mackinlay one of the 'two senior' people who have been shit-stirring? He certainly sounded venomous to me.

*I'm still not right after a few days of sick-headachyness, which doesn't help. Anyway, I'm off to my pit in the hopes that I'll wake to hear Ed M's speech to the CBI has been successful. Goodnight to all you brilliant, lovely people x