Monday 15th December 2014

[Tubby Isaacs]

So apparently Labour is voting for Osborne's Charter of Budget Responsibility.

But, it appears Osborne's trap is not as clever as he thought, since it will still allow Labour to do what it plans anyway

Point might be that it allows the SNP to say "look all signed up to same austerity, exactly the same", as James Forsyth suggested.

Of course iScotland's would be rolling in money at the moment.

[PaulfromYorkshire]

Important piece

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehous ... e-deficit/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

shamefully-david-cameron-is-now-misleading-voters-about-the-deficit

[Tubby Isaacs]

Stefan Stern on Lib Dems. He's good.

http://labourlist.org/2014/12/what-if-t ... ly-had-it/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Personally, I'd happily have a few more Tory MPs to wipe out the Lib Dem ones.

[rebeccariots2]

Important piece

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehous ... e-deficit/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

shamefully-david-cameron-is-now-misleading-voters-about-the-deficit

Yes - very important. And see earlier post on this page with the precursor to this article - journalist probing really hard to get Cameron's spokesperson to admit the misleading .... painful to read ... but even more infuriating.

We musn't let them get away with this one.

[Tubby Isaacs]

As I always say, major shitstorm before of Gordo saying defence spending had gone up in real terms every year, when in one year it hadn't.

[rebeccariots2]

That UKIP EU money grab is even more dastardly and hypocritical than I could have imagined.

UKIP has secured control of a £1.5m pot of EU funds by creating a new pan-European party, Newsnight has learned.

The money is normally set aside for parties that want to promote European integration and the decision to seek the funding has split UKIP members.

Some members believe it is is wrong for an aggressively Eurosceptic party to jump aboard the "EU gravy train".

UKIP MEP Roger Helmer has defended the move and said the party needs to take a more pragmatic approach to funding.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30486154

[RogerOThornhill]

Important piece

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehous ... e-deficit/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

shamefully-david-cameron-is-now-misleading-voters-about-the-deficit

I picked this up at the time of the Autumn Statement - forget absolute cash and express it as % GDP because it sounds better. And if you "forget" to mention the % GDP bit, well, these things happen...

[Tubby Isaacs]

Important piece

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehous ... e-deficit/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

shamefully-david-cameron-is-now-misleading-voters-about-the-deficit

I picked this up at the time of the Autumn Statement - forget absolute cash and express it as % GDP because it sounds better. And if you "forget" to mention the % GDP bit, well, these things happen...

Cameron's still forgetting to mention productivity falling so badly.

[citizenJA]

g'night everyone
xx
JA

[RogerOThornhill]

Nelson's wrong in one respect though.

A deficit, as any fule no, is measured in pounds sterling.

It's not though...check out the OECD statistics and you find this:

Deficit General government financial balances, % of nominal GDP, forecast (EO96, November 2014)

http://www.oecd.org/statistics/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If you think about it makes sense as it's the only way you can compare with other countries as base cash won't be meaningful at all.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Ed Conway ‏@EdConwaySky 3m3 minutes ago
Lord God. Russia’s central bank just raised interest rates from 10.5% to 17%. That’s, erm, a lot...

All those DT fans of Putin look a bit stupid now. Then again the same people were telling us Cyprus was going to tell the EU to get lost.

[refitman]

g'night everyone
xx
JA

Night cJA.

[LadyCentauria]

Roger Helmer UKIP MEP says they are liberating UK money from the EU, not jumping on the EU gravy-train...


UKIP has founded a pan-European Party and a think-tank to go with it. In total that is worth about two million pounds!

From Newsnight, just now.

Edit to get his name correct...

[LadyCentauria]

11 dogs rescued at gorge near Aberystwyth
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-mid-wales-30481711

Something horrible gone on there. 11 dogs in one go ... that's not a natural occurrence, surely.

At least they are all ok. They probably got the scent of something and all tried to hurtle down the same narrow cliff path. Hounds lose sense on a scent and lose more sense when they've sighted summat. Huntsman'll be in a fair bit of trouble, likely...

[rebeccariots2]

Toby Perkins MP retweeted
Sun Politics ‏@Sun_Politics 10m10 minutes ago
YouGov/Sun poll tonight: Greens two points ahead of the Lib Dems for first time under @YouGov. LAB 34%, CON 32%, UKIP 14%, GRN 8%, LD 6%.

[rebeccariots2]

Toby Perkins MP retweeted
Dan Hodges ‏@DPJHodges 15m15 minutes ago Greenwich, London
Chris Leslie just took on David Gauke on the deficit on Newsnight, and won. If I were the Tories, I'd be nervous about this 1930 line.

I read that Newsnight interview the same way as D Hodges. Obviously nearly time for bed ... but Chris Leslie was sound.

[LadyCentauria]

One for Roger if he hasn't see it already

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

An amazing ancient mosaic just uncovered.

Oh wow
That is just wonderful and looks almost perfectly preserved

[LadyCentauria]

And snap with @RR2 on the UKIP/EU-funding business!

I have been reading really slowly again, in between dealing with 'stuff', and when I heard what Helmer said I leapt to the keyboard and posted. Making out UKIP are some kind of 21st century Robin Hood 'liberating our money' but not for 'the public good' - unless you think the public good constitutes its being spent on their UK General Election campaign and candidates. Cannot wait to hear who they employ to work in their brand new think tank. Reckon they'll try to poach people from CSJ and Migration Watch?

Any road, I shall hope your dreams are sweet and that you all wake refreshed.