Saturday 10th & Sunday 11th January 2015

[Toby Latimer]

I don't know what happened to bring this about from a fine pair of disability campaigners.

ScreenShot00015.jpg

Hmmm. Doesn't look good. I'm presuming they - the campaigners - don't know why they've been blocked?

They won't endear themselves to increasing share of the vote unless they engage with campaigners a bit, they don't have to necessarily agree with them

[Tubby Isaacs]

Good days indeed, OhSo.

It shouldn't be difficult to be much more engaged now. Douglas Carswell, say what you like about him, has built up a following in Clacton. Doesn't seem to be rocket science- just hard work, not sounding like a party hack, and fish and chips.

[MsChin]

Funny how Labour are so strong in Nottinghamshire. Bassetlaw is a large constituency, and Sherwood quite large.

Are the Labour voters all in the towns, or are there some lefty countryfolk out there. I only thought you got those in County Durham in England. And Stroud, obviously.

Ex-mining communities in both, though that is the sort of area that is being strongly targeted by UKIP.

Mann gets a lot of stick on here and elsewhere, but his populist outlook probably isn't a bad fit for his seat tbh.

Does Thatcher worship go down well in ex-mining constituencies? I would have thought so.

UKIP got no seats at all in Nottinghamshire in the 2013 county council elections. Lincolnshire looks a much better fit for them.

Thatcher goes down like a cup of cold sick in most ex-mining communities (although it should be remembered that the Notts miners did not strike). What has happened in Notts, Derbys & Lincs is the arrival of migrant workers particularly in farming areas like Boston, which saw riots a few years ago.
Ukip are targeting those areas heavily much as the BNP did before them.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I suppose it could be less personalized v Thatcher in Notts, but I'd think she blurs into one with Hestletine and the later wave of pit closures.

I remember a few Tories been very worried about them, like Bill Cash, who decamped to a safer seat in Staffordshire.

Talking of which, we haven't seen a chicken run since then, have we? Not in 2010 or this time.

[Toby Latimer]

This kid had Bullingdon Betrie's card marked back in 2007 didn't he ?

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[Tubby Isaacs]

Be nice to have a bit more context for this.

That's not the SNP insulting Scotland by standing shoulder to shoulder with the Tories, is it?

There probably is more to it, to be fair. Very easy to manufacture rows. Could be something as straightforward as sums not adding up.

[mikems]

Tubby wrote:

But capital was much less mobile, and in any case, most of the big economies were doing those very high rates.



It doesn't mean you can go unilaterally go back to eg 83% top rate (1979). And I think a fair few people do now think they did hit "enterprise", for want of a better word- Robert Skidlelsky says that in his introduction to Keynes.
Tubby,

Even Northern Irish Sinn Fein are sure that having a higher Corporate Tax rate is unsustainable with the Republic next door.

I haven't read Picketty but I gather he makes his high top rates international.

I see the biggest problem has been governments serving up tax cuts for what Miliband calls "ordinary people". Sure they raise some other taxes as well, but income tax and CT has been cut below where it should be. Clegg's ludicrous tax policy, rightly called unaffordable by Cameron in the debates, has made it even worse. Osborne's now started to politicize petrol duty, which used to be something that was good for raising money.

I think the key events were the 1993 Budget and the absolute bath that that Tories took afterwards. Sure, they had made a lot about not raising taxes in 1992, but reading the chapter on this in Norman Lamont's autobiography, he comes across as adult by today's standards- broad based tax rises, kicking in as the economy grew. Since then, and the way Labour started to compete with the Tories on lower taxes, nobody much has dared to go there.

Of course it can't all be done at once, but it has to be done if we are to end inequality. We need capital controls, the abolition of tax havens, higher tax rates, fair trade agreements and democratisation away from the needs of 'enterprise' if necessary, which it is. We also need taxes on unearned incomes and I will swap you very high rates unearned income for lower high rates of income, if that makes sense.

As for Lamont, he may have led a traditional fiscal policy - and what else could he do after the failures of both monetarism and the Lawson nonsense. But his monetary policy was ruinous and stupid, simply because he supported a 'strong pound' for macho, not economic reasons. '

[Toby Latimer]

Now Hollande didn't want to get his hands dirty

B7F3YODIIAAUH5x.jpg (13.7 KiB) Viewed 8877 times

[TechnicalEphemera]

Tubby wrote:

But capital was much less mobile, and in any case, most of the big economies were doing those very high rates.



It doesn't mean you can go unilaterally go back to eg 83% top rate (1979). And I think a fair few people do now think they did hit "enterprise", for want of a better word- Robert Skidlelsky says that in his introduction to Keynes.
Tubby,

Even Northern Irish Sinn Fein are sure that having a higher Corporate Tax rate is unsustainable with the Republic next door.

I haven't read Picketty but I gather he makes his high top rates international.

I see the biggest problem has been governments serving up tax cuts for what Miliband calls "ordinary people". Sure they raise some other taxes as well, but income tax and CT has been cut below where it should be. Clegg's ludicrous tax policy, rightly called unaffordable by Cameron in the debates, has made it even worse. Osborne's now started to politicize petrol duty, which used to be something that was good for raising money.

I think the key events were the 1993 Budget and the absolute bath that that Tories took afterwards. Sure, they had made a lot about not raising taxes in 1992, but reading the chapter on this in Norman Lamont's autobiography, he comes across as adult by today's standards- broad based tax rises, kicking in as the economy grew. Since then, and the way Labour started to compete with the Tories on lower taxes, nobody much has dared to go there.

Of course it can't all be done at once, but it has to be done if we are to end inequality. We need capital controls, the abolition of tax havens, higher tax rates, fair trade agreements and democratisation away from the needs of 'enterprise' if necessary, which it is. We also need taxes on unearned incomes and I will swap you very high rates unearned income for lower high rates of income, if that makes sense.

As for Lamont, he may have led a traditional fiscal policy - and what else could he do after the failures of both monetarism and the Lawson nonsense. But his monetary policy was ruinous and stupid, simply because he supported a 'strong pound' for macho, not economic reasons. '

Lamont was forced to support a strong pound because of the ERM. As evidence these fuckwits never learn the UK had been lecturing Germany on how to run an economy a few weeks earlier. When the crunch came Lamont asked the Germans to let him devalue and they told him to piss off (although they had permitted Ireland to do just that).

While I agree with all of the above, the reality of the modern world is most of that won't happen. We can tax unearned income by taxing assets of the rich, if they sell their houses at least we will have some prime real estate at knock down prices.

There is a chance corporation tax will be fixed, everybody is pissed off about that except Ireland and Luxembourg. Both of those countries will be ignored.

[TechnicalEphemera]

I suppose it could be less personalized v Thatcher in Notts, but I'd think she blurs into one with Hestletine and the later wave of pit closures.

I remember a few Tories been very worried about them, like Bill Cash, who decamped to a safer seat in Staffordshire.

Talking of which, we haven't seen a chicken run since then, have we? Not in 2010 or this time.

We have had a number of Tory MPs throw in the towel though.

[Hobiejoe]

Crikey, of all programmes (although I don't see many) tonight's episode of Foyles War is exceptionally political. Can't say anymore - the ads have just finished...

[Tubby Isaacs]

As for Lamont, he may have led a traditional fiscal policy - and what else could he do after the failures of both monetarism and the Lawson nonsense. But his monetary policy was ruinous and stupid, simply because he supported a 'strong pound' for macho, not economic reasons. '

"Enterprise" in the post-war period meant something different to what it does now. Surely it's a matter of record that Britain underformed post war compared with other European countries? That's what Skidelsky is talking about, not letting banks run amok.

Lamont's concern was inflation and he supported the ERM very much as a means to an end, and because without it the government wouldn't do what he thought was necessary to deflate the economy. He thought it had run its course some time before Britain got kicked out of it.

He was very grim in a "price worth paying" way, but it wasn't purely macho, and he hadn't caused the inflation he inherited.

I make no great claim for him, beyond that he approached the deficit in a serious way, and hit lots of his own supporters rather than take it all out of social security.

I think the hammering the government took for it was very important in explaining where we are now.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I suppose it could be less personalized v Thatcher in Notts, but I'd think she blurs into one with Hestletine and the later wave of pit closures.

I remember a few Tories been very worried about them, like Bill Cash, who decamped to a safer seat in Staffordshire.

Talking of which, we haven't seen a chicken run since then, have we? Not in 2010 or this time.

We have had a number of Tory MPs throw in the towel though.

Very true. Lots seem to be first time MPs, so wonder if there's something more to it.

[RogerOThornhill]

Oh dear...Sajid Javid makes a bit of a faux pas...

https://twitter.com/wmarybeard/status/5 ... 7851892737

mary beard
‏@wmarybeard
whoops. I'm all with this sentiment, but..err .. Socrates didn't write anything (that's the point of Plato).

[Tubby Isaacs]

Note that in the 90s, the state took till the last year of Major to nudge below 40%.

I think that's quite instructive. About the same level as it was in the high Brownite phase. New Labour would have been wary of going much above that, hence the focus on growth, the embrace of the City etc.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I've put Tim Fenton on to Gilligan. Hopefully he'll write something good. He sounds suitably unimpressed.

[Tubby Isaacs]

There is a chance corporation tax will be fixed, everybody is pissed off about that except Ireland and Luxembourg. Both of those countries will be ignored.

Yes indeed- and tax avoidance too, to some extent. They've tried to compete on tax rates and linked tax havens, but those days should be over.

[ohsocynical]

There's a brilliant hashtag running on Twitter at the moment... #FoxNewFacts Caused by Fox saying Birmingham is wholly Moslem

Some funny comments, and even funnier is the suspicion the dopey twits at Fox will believe some of them....

[TheGrimSqueaker]

I don't know what happened to bring this about from a fine pair of disability campaigners.

ScreenShot00015.jpg

Hmmm. Doesn't look good. I'm presuming they - the campaigners - don't know why they've been blocked?

Probably for the same reason Tom Watson has blocked me, being a right royal pita and not knowing when to stop.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Roger covered this yesterday, but here's more. Cameron publicly receiving a Wales "cancer drugs" petition.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-30137020" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Fuck off, you shithead exploiter of desperate sick people. And that your son suffered so makes it worse, not better.

Sorry.

[Tubby Isaacs]

There's a brilliant hashtag running on Twitter at the moment... #FoxNewFacts Caused by Fox saying Birmingham is wholly Moslem

Some funny comments, and even funnier is the suspicion the dopey twits at Fox will believe some of them....

The bloke also talked up Whitechapel's long nicked "Muslim Patrol" into a terrifying paramilitary force.

[rebeccariots2]

Oooh Cameron On Hinchingbrooke.jpg (62.25 KiB) Viewed 8815 times

Dr Éoin Clarke @LabourEoin · 51m 51 minutes ago
Oooh. This is 1 quote David Cameron will want to forget...... Great research from @GabrielScally to dig it out.

[HindleA]

@TubbyIsaacs


I wish he would ,the cynical excuse of a human,what a barsteward of the highest order.

[rebeccariots2]

There's a brilliant hashtag running on Twitter at the moment... #FoxNewFacts Caused by Fox saying Birmingham is wholly Moslem

Some funny comments, and even funnier is the suspicion the dopey twits at Fox will believe some of them....

The bloke also talked up Whitechapel's long nicked "Muslim Patrol" into a terrifying paramilitary force.

I love this one:

Jonathan Reynolds MP retweeted
Felicity Morse ‏@FelicityMorse 52m52 minutes ago
there is now a petition asking the mayor of Birmingham to let non-Muslims back into the city https://www.change.org/p/the-city-of-bi ... birmingham" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; … #foxnewsfacts

[TheGrimSqueaker]

Oooh Cameron On Hinchingbrooke.jpg

Dr Éoin Clarke @LabourEoin · 51m 51 minutes ago
Oooh. This is 1 quote David Cameron will want to forget...... Great research from @GabrielScally to dig it out.

Eoin thinks I'm a pita too!!

[HindleA]

@TheGrimSqueaker


Eventually sinks in that you are not referring to unleavened bread.

[TheGrimSqueaker]

@TheGrimSqueaker


Eventually sinks in that you are not referring to unleavened bread.

I am not so versatile.

[ohsocynical]

There's a brilliant hashtag running on Twitter at the moment... #FoxNewFacts Caused by Fox saying Birmingham is wholly Moslem

Some funny comments, and even funnier is the suspicion the dopey twits at Fox will believe some of them....

The bloke also talked up Whitechapel's long nicked "Muslim Patrol" into a terrifying paramilitary force.

I hang my head in total shame having to admit my daughter avidly follows Fox News. Every so often she comes out with a corker about the Muslim community over here, so today isn't the first time Fox has twisted facts, but it is the first time they've been outed on Twitter.

I've driven Mr Ohso into bed with my cackling.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Good luck with making her see sense, Oh So!

[adam]

Apologies if this has been posted before, but some tv from BBC2 a few nights ago

The Super-Rich and Us

First of a series...

[citizenJA]

Oooh Cameron On Hinchingbrooke.jpg

Dr Éoin Clarke @LabourEoin · 51m 51 minutes ago
Oooh. This is 1 quote David Cameron will want to forget...... Great research from @GabrielScally to dig it out.

5 Mar 2014 : Column 891

Q14. [902847] Grahame M. Morris (Easington) (Lab):
Recently, East Coast Ambulance Service, a private company, has gone bust, owing thousands of pounds in wages to hard-working staff. Does the Prime Minister agree that the best way to protect patients, staff and national health service resources is to extend freedom of information to private companies bidding for NHS contracts and stop the invasion of our NHS by predatory private health care companies?

The Prime Minister:
Obviously, I will look carefully at the individual case that the hon. Gentleman raised, but this Government are putting £12.7 billion into the NHS. I do not believe that we should say that other organisations cannot help to deliver NHS services. Hinchingbrooke hospital in Cambridge is now providing much better services because of the changes that we have made. I shall look at what he said about freedom I shall look at what he said about freedom of information requests, but it is important that we have a health service that can access the best of public, private and voluntary.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/p ... 0567000312

[HindleA]

Fox news offerred on air psychiatric help on Obama's election to help people to come to terms with it,say no more.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Fox news offerred on air psychiatric help on Obama's election to help people to come to terms with it,say no more.

Did Karl Rove take them up on it?

[HindleA]

I was so traumatised by it I cannot remember:D

[Tubby Isaacs]

A Muslim from Birmingham, enforcing Sharia with a big stick.

[HindleA]

Chain of restaurants called "Burqa King",this is hilarious.

[refitman]

Chain of restaurants called "Burqa King",this is hilarious.

I liked:

TrudiChandler C.B.A. ‏@Trudski2012 16m16 minutes ago

All cinemas in Birmingham are showing Dude, Where’s Mecca? on a continuous loop #FoxNewFacts

[Tubby Isaacs]

Who's going to tell Malala that she's moved to a Caliphate?

[citizenJA]

goodnight, friends
Love
JA