Tuesday 13th January 2015

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 5:06 pm

@PaulFromYorkshire

Let's get it ..

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 5:07 pm

over with.

citizenJA · Post by **citizenJA** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 5:09 pm

UK inflation and more from Bank of England governor Mark Carney
...interview between Carney and ITV’s Joel Hills

Q. Deflation?
“It’s possible prices will fall in a given month, on a year-on-year basis. That’s possible. But broad based price falls across a broad range of goods and service, a change in people’s expectations, no. Because the Bank of England has the means, we have the will and we have our responsibility and we will take our responsibility to provide the necessary stimulus again to be absolutely clear, the path of policy though in order to achieve our target is likely to be one of limited and gradual interest rate increases.”
Q. Does inflation this low mean interest rate rises are a long time off?
“Listen to what I said. You can expect over the course of the next couple of years, your viewers should expect gradual and limited interest rate increases.”
Q. The market is betting on an interest rate hike next summer. Does that sound sensible?
“I’m not going to put a precise timeline on it, I don’t have to.”

http://www.theguardian.com/business/liv ... 20af8e5ece

Touchy fellow, that Carney. Way too shrill - read the whole interview. Shrill.

ohsocynical · Post by **ohsocynical** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 5:10 pm

HindleA wrote:CJA :"I hate ritual abuse"

Yes,I do wish you would stop it.JOKE.

Whhhhhhhhhhhooooooooooooooooooo !

gilsey · Post by **gilsey** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 5:11 pm

Have we had this or did I get it from twitter?

http://speri.dept.shef.ac.uk/2015/01/13 ... nce-chaos/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Cameron’s claim to be promoting sound finance is a pretence, a political game

A true fiscal conservative like Andrew Mellon, US Treasury Secretary at the time of the last Great Crash in 1929, would not just have cut spending but would also have raised taxes to balance the budget. Contemporary governments find it very difficult to raise taxes; instead, they constantly seek to reduce taxes, but at the same time they also pledge to preserve the core entitlements (especially health, education and pensions) on which the majority of voters rely.
The reality is that the gap between spending aspirations and tax receipts can only be bridged by the extra revenues which flow from a growing economy and rising productivity, or by borrowing. In the last five years growth has only picked up in the last eighteen months and productivity and living standards are still flat. SPERI analysis following the recent Autumn Statement demonstrated how income tax revenues forecasts have been consistently revised down by the Office for Budget Responsibility, as forecasters continue to be surprised by sluggish tax revenues. So the Government has already had to resort to borrowing.

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 5:12 pm

Rory Cellan-Jones ‏@ruskin147 13m13 minutes ago
Tech trade body ISPA warns PM that plan to limit encryption "risks undermining the UK’s status as a good and safe place to do business"

He really is a dork.

I quite enjoyed the scathing comments by Glen Greenwald on Newsnight re Cameron's brazen, unseemly and utterly opportunistic rush to clamp down on our freedoms after the French attacks. He pointed out that even Bush took a few days after 9/11 before he came out raging against things beyond his control. What a liberty seems to be apt.

yahyah · Post by **yahyah** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 5:13 pm

I've got the garlic out.

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 5:21 pm

Apologies for last few posts,I really don't know what came over me.

yahyah · Post by **yahyah** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 5:25 pm

I meant garlic for Rusbridger [does it work on devils as well as vampires ?] not you Adrian.

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 5:37 pm

@yahyah It seems to have worked.

ohsocynical · Post by **ohsocynical** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 5:41 pm

ali retweeted
Angus Robertson ‏@MorayMP 49 mins49 minutes ago
28 Scottish Labour MPs just voted WITH the Tories, UKIP, DUP and Lib Dems on Coalition Govt austerity plan #RedTories #GE2015

Lots of finger pointing at Labour but then I find it's Scottish Labour that voted with the Tories....

So what's that all about? --- Genuine question.

ohsocynical · Post by **ohsocynical** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 5:43 pm

HindleA wrote:@yahyah It seems to have worked.

It was quite a nasty shock seeing that face on your profile....

ErnstRemarx · Post by **ErnstRemarx** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 6:03 pm

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015 ... new-threat" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Interesting observations - and all chillingly accurate, including Fat Eric and Lewis' refusal to listen to good advice. That pair have been a disaster for all local government in Engkland and Wales. Jabba should know better, given his time running Bradford, but it's worth remembering that he was so shit at that that the peole of Bradford gave him and the Tories the bum's rush.

The planning changes are all down to pressure from housebuilders, who when faced with the prospect of a Section 106 agreement, and the need for affordable housing, frequently plead poverty and say that the site won't be commercially profitable enough. Councils usually negotiate on this sort of thing and generally a compromise is reached.

The new legislation sweeps common sense away in favour of maxing out profits. Good new for developers; very bad news indeed for those in search of affordable housing. I look forward to May after which that fat fuck and his useless sidekick will no longer be able to cause councils further problems.

giselle97 · Post by **giselle97** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 6:16 pm

ohsocynical wrote:
ali retweeted
Angus Robertson ‏@MorayMP 49 mins49 minutes ago
28 Scottish Labour MPs just voted WITH the Tories, UKIP, DUP and Lib Dems on Coalition Govt austerity plan #RedTories #GE2015

Lots of finger pointing at Labour but then I find it's Scottish Labour that voted with the Tories....

So what's that all about? --- Genuine question.

I would ignore it as it was another George Osborne silly boy motion to trap Labour. EM tried, with the rude Marr constantly interrupting, to explain this in his interview.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/article ... ranscripts

EDITED - at least that was my understanding of the position from something someone else said!

TechnicalEphemera · Post by **TechnicalEphemera** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 6:29 pm

giselle97 wrote:
ohsocynical wrote:
ali retweeted
Angus Robertson ‏@MorayMP 49 mins49 minutes ago
28 Scottish Labour MPs just voted WITH the Tories, UKIP, DUP and Lib Dems on Coalition Govt austerity plan #RedTories #GE2015

Lots of finger pointing at Labour but then I find it's Scottish Labour that voted with the Tories....

So what's that all about? --- Genuine question.
I would ignore it as it was another George Osborne silly boy motion to trap Labour. EM tried, with the rude Marr constantly interrupting, to explain this in his interview.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/article ... ranscripts

It is a none binding motion that commits Labour to a balanced budget but is vague about what that means.

If does not commit Labour to the Tory Party austerity program, and anybody who claims otherwise is a lying tosser.

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 6:31 pm

Sounds like it's going swimmingly for Grayling - again.

Times Law ‏@TimesLaw 5m5 minutes ago
Chris Grayling forced into concessions on judicial review http://wp.me/p2iSQr-sGs" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Andy Slaughter MP ‏@hammersmithandy 5m5 minutes ago
The Government's amendments attract "derision of the courts" and contain "nonsensical expressions"...& that's just what Tory MPs are saying!

In the style of Tubby. I do like that Grayling. There's not an ounce of unpleasantness or vindictiveness about him or his policies. He's really brought common sense and fairness into the justice and penal systems. And the legal profession really respect him.

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 6:33 pm

Andy Slaughter MP ‏@hammersmithandy 1m1 minute ago
"I don't accept that I am banging my head against the wall." - Chris Grayling defending himself from repeated attack from Tory MPs.

Sadiq Khan MP ‏@SadiqKhan 1m1 minute ago
Grayling's #JudicialReview plans under attack from lawyers & experts on his own benches! He should take the hint & just abandon the plans

I reiterate my point - respect for Grayling exceeds all expectations.

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 6:35 pm

Mike Smithson ‏@MSmithsonPB 32m32 minutes ago
By 50% to 22% those sampled by ComRes for ITV news think that Cameron is using the Green party as an excuse to avoid TV debates

giselle97 · Post by **giselle97** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 6:36 pm

More comment OhSo

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/01 ... K+Politics

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 6:38 pm

Britain Elects @britainelects · 29m 29 minutes ago
Is it important to have the televised leaders debates this year? (ComRes):
Yes - 67%
No - 15%

Britain Elects @britainelects · 29m 29 minutes ago
Is the Prime Minister acting cowardly in trying to avoid the debates? (ComRes):
Yes - 55%
No - 23%

Cameron proving what a dab hand he is at judging public opinion and adopting a strategy accordingly. Fooling noone - or only the few very blinkered fools.

giselle97 · Post by **giselle97** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 6:39 pm

rebeccariots2 wrote:Sounds like it's going swimmingly for Grayling - again.

Times Law ‏@TimesLaw 5m5 minutes ago
Chris Grayling forced into concessions on judicial review http://wp.me/p2iSQr-sGs" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Andy Slaughter MP ‏@hammersmithandy 5m5 minutes ago
The Government's amendments attract "derision of the courts" and contain "nonsensical expressions"...& that's just what Tory MPs are saying!
In the style of Tubby. I do like that Grayling. There's not an ounce of unpleasantness or vindictiveness about him or his policies. He's really brought common sense and fairness into the justice and penal systems. And the legal profession really respect him.

That's Tubby RR2! You got him so good.

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 6:39 pm

Sadiq Khan MP ‏@SadiqKhan 2m2 minutes ago
Even former Attorney General Dominic Grieve says he's unable to support Govt's #JudicialReview plans - a vote of no confidence in Grayling

This needs a second glass of wine to fully appreciate.

StephenDolan · Post by **StephenDolan** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 6:40 pm

Come the end of this parliament I'm thinking we will have had a bumper session for worst ministers in living memory.

IDS, May, Grayling, Osborne and Cameron. 'Top' 3 for each of these in each position?

ohsocynical · Post by **ohsocynical** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 6:41 pm

StephenDolan wrote:Come the end of this parliament I'm thinking we will have had a bumper session for worst ministers in living memory.

IDS, May, Grayling, Osborne and Cameron. 'Top' 3 for each of these in each position?

Gove ought to be there too.

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 6:44 pm

ohsocynical wrote:
StephenDolan wrote:Come the end of this parliament I'm thinking we will have had a bumper session for worst ministers in living memory.

IDS, May, Grayling, Osborne and Cameron. 'Top' 3 for each of these in each position?
Gove ought to be there too.

Gotta add Paterson and Lansley to that list. Patsy and Shudder.

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 6:48 pm

Andy Slaughter MP ‏@hammersmithandy 7m7 minutes ago
Rough hour for Grayling as he is hammered by Labour & Tory MPs on #judicialreview reforms. Lib Dems still 100% behind him. #coalitionfriends

Sadiq Khan MP ‏@SadiqKhan 6m6 minutes ago
Now voting against the Govt's attack on #JudicialReview - hopeful some senior Tory MPs will join us. But what will the Lib Dems do?

Sorry Sadiq, I think we know only too well what the Lib Dems will do.

We have a new phrase in the Riots household - 'How very Lib Dem'. I'll leave you to work out what it means ... but it's not complimentary.

Editing to add:

Jack of Kent ‏@JackofKent 3m3 minutes ago
Shameful. RT @JohnHyde1982: Debate has now ended on #judicialreview. No opposition from any Lib Dem MP.

StephenDolan · Post by **StephenDolan** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 6:52 pm

'We now know, thanks to last week's Office for Budget Responsibility forecast, that the structural current deficit is significantly larger than we were told - 0.8 per cent of GDP or £12 billion next year. Thanks to my action today, the structural current balance will be minus 4.8 per cent of GDP this year. That deficit will then be eliminated to plus 0.3 per cent in 2014-15 and plus 0.8 per cent in 2015-16. In other words, it will be in surplus.'

Osborne 2010.

`George Osborne:
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. It is not enough to eliminate the deficit. We then have to get our national debt down. It is too high and leaves us exposed to the next economic shock. We do not want to go into the next economic shock with a debt-to-GDP ratio of 80%. That is precisely why, in good economic times, we need to be running an overall budget surplus. That is the only credible and sustained way to get national debt down. That is the way to fix the roof when the sun is shining.
Mr Brian H. Donohoe (Central Ayrshire) (Lab):
Was it not the case that the right hon. Gentleman’s boss, the Prime Minister, said that he would balance the books by 2015?
Mr Osborne:
What we have done is cut the deficit by a half. We have neither gone faster than we said we were going to go, nor gone slower than we said we were going to go. We have stuck to our spending plans when people were urging us to take either course. To get lectures in managing the public finances from the Labour party is extraordinary.
Several hon. Members
rose—
Mr Osborne:
I will give way in a moment. Labour are in the bizarre situation of complaining that we are borrowing too much, yet they want to borrow even more. Perhaps the shadow Chancellor can help to illuminate this debate and simply confirm that a Labour Government would borrow more than a Conservative Government.
Ed Balls:
The Chancellor just said to the House that he has not gone slower on the deficit than he intended to in 2010, but the Office for Budget Responsibility says he has borrowed more than £200 billion more than he planned. Can he explain that remark? I have to say that I think everybody in the country will be totally baffled by the Chancellor’s remark.
Mr Osborne:
We have delivered exactly the spending plans we set out in 2010—we have not gone faster, we have not gone slower. Indeed, spending this year is a little bit lower than I predicted in 2010.
Several hon. Members
rose—
Mr Osborne:
I will give way in a moment.
There is going to be a test in this debate: will Labour confirm it will borrow more? It cannot complain about our spending cuts if it does not confirm that it would borrow more.
Ed Balls
rose—
Mr Osborne:
Would the shadow Chancellor borrow more? Let us have the B word from him.
Ed Balls:
The Chancellor has told the House that he has not gone any slower on reducing the deficit than he planned in 2010. That is blatantly untrue. Will he clarify or withdraw his remark?
Mr Osborne:
We have delivered exactly the spending plans that I set out and which the shadow Chancellor opposed.'

Osborne January 2015.

The fucking liar.

TechnicalEphemera · Post by **TechnicalEphemera** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 7:01 pm

This is from the Guardian article on the Charlie Hebdo cover.

Omer el-Hamdoon, president of the Muslim Association of Britain, said: “My reaction to the cartoon is disgust, but tending more to annoyance as well because I feel that what’s happening here is not that different from what we witnessed back in 2005 with the Danish cartoons when media outlets went into a cycle of just publishing the cartoons just to show defiance. And what that caused is more offence.”

Now I am a tolerant person, but I have a serious issue with the individual quoted above.

And then there is this guy, who said it rather better than me.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 75459.html

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 7:04 pm

UK students are shunning home universities to study abroad, headteachers claim
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/educa ... 76025.html

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 7:08 pm

RobertSnozers wrote:
rebeccariots2 wrote:
ohsocynical wrote: Gove ought to be there too.
Gotta add Paterson and Lansley to that list. Patsy and Shudder.
I have three. Hunt, Hunt and Hunt. One for each of his faces.

Is that similar to a Galloway arse?

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 7:13 pm

Dave Watson ‏@UnisonDave 43m43 minutes ago
New fracking rules will not apply in Scotland, after Labour's Tom Greatrex amendment to UK bill. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-g ... t-30803788" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; …

Wonderful. Just us poor suckers in England and Wales affected then.

ohsocynical · Post by **ohsocynical** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 7:16 pm

StephenDolan wrote:'We now know, thanks to last week's Office for Budget Responsibility forecast, that the structural current deficit is significantly larger than we were told - 0.8 per cent of GDP or £12 billion next year. Thanks to my action today, the structural current balance will be minus 4.8 per cent of GDP this year. That deficit will then be eliminated to plus 0.3 per cent in 2014-15 and plus 0.8 per cent in 2015-16. In other words, it will be in surplus.'

Osborne 2010.

`George Osborne:
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. It is not enough to eliminate the deficit. We then have to get our national debt down. It is too high and leaves us exposed to the next economic shock. We do not want to go into the next economic shock with a debt-to-GDP ratio of 80%. That is precisely why, in good economic times, we need to be running an overall budget surplus. That is the only credible and sustained way to get national debt down. That is the way to fix the roof when the sun is shining.
Mr Brian H. Donohoe (Central Ayrshire) (Lab):
Was it not the case that the right hon. Gentleman’s boss, the Prime Minister, said that he would balance the books by 2015?
Mr Osborne:
What we have done is cut the deficit by a half. We have neither gone faster than we said we were going to go, nor gone slower than we said we were going to go. We have stuck to our spending plans when people were urging us to take either course. To get lectures in managing the public finances from the Labour party is extraordinary.
Several hon. Members
rose—
Mr Osborne:
I will give way in a moment. Labour are in the bizarre situation of complaining that we are borrowing too much, yet they want to borrow even more. Perhaps the shadow Chancellor can help to illuminate this debate and simply confirm that a Labour Government would borrow more than a Conservative Government.
Ed Balls:
The Chancellor just said to the House that he has not gone slower on the deficit than he intended to in 2010, but the Office for Budget Responsibility says he has borrowed more than £200 billion more than he planned. Can he explain that remark? I have to say that I think everybody in the country will be totally baffled by the Chancellor’s remark.
Mr Osborne:
We have delivered exactly the spending plans we set out in 2010—we have not gone faster, we have not gone slower. Indeed, spending this year is a little bit lower than I predicted in 2010.
Several hon. Members
rose—
Mr Osborne:
I will give way in a moment.
There is going to be a test in this debate: will Labour confirm it will borrow more? It cannot complain about our spending cuts if it does not confirm that it would borrow more.
Ed Balls
rose—
Mr Osborne:
Would the shadow Chancellor borrow more? Let us have the B word from him.
Ed Balls:
The Chancellor has told the House that he has not gone any slower on reducing the deficit than he planned in 2010. That is blatantly untrue. Will he clarify or withdraw his remark?
Mr Osborne:
We have delivered exactly the spending plans that I set out and which the shadow Chancellor opposed.'

Osborne January 2015.

The fucking liar.

He barely makes sense to me

ohsocynical · Post by **ohsocynical** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 7:19 pm

rebeccariots2 wrote:
ohsocynical wrote:
StephenDolan wrote:Come the end of this parliament I'm thinking we will have had a bumper session for worst ministers in living memory.

IDS, May, Grayling, Osborne and Cameron. 'Top' 3 for each of these in each position?
Gove ought to be there too.
Gotta add Paterson and Lansley to that list. Patsy and Shudder.

I forgot Paterson, the badger bludger.

RogerOThornhill · Post by **RogerOThornhill** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 7:23 pm

Oh look.

Academies:Written question - 220154

Q Asked by Kevin Brennan(Cardiff West)[N] Asked on: 08 January 2015
Department for EducationAcademies220154
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will publish her Department's quality grade of academy sponsors.

A Answered by: Mr Edward Timpson Answered on: 13 January 2015
The disclosure of this information would prejudice, or would be likely to prejudice, the effective conduct of public affairs.

So (i) Ofsted can't inspect academy chains themselves only the schools whereas they have to for LAs and (ii) LAs are graded by Ofsted after their inspection but we're not allowed to know how the DfE grades academy sponsors.

Yeah, that makes perfect sense...

ohsocynical · Post by **ohsocynical** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 7:28 pm

TechnicalEphemera wrote:
giselle97 wrote:
ohsocynical wrote:
Lots of finger pointing at Labour but then I find it's Scottish Labour that voted with the Tories....

So what's that all about? --- Genuine question.
I would ignore it as it was another George Osborne silly boy motion to trap Labour. EM tried, with the rude Marr constantly interrupting, to explain this in his interview.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/article ... ranscripts
It is a none binding motion that commits Labour to a balanced budget but is vague about what that means.

If does not commit Labour to the Tory Party austerity program, and anybody who claims otherwise is a lying tosser.

Thanks. I wasn't quite sure what was what.

Caroline Lucas is crowing over the Labour vote, so I've just given her and a couple of other Tweeters your answer.

TechnicalEphemera · Post by **TechnicalEphemera** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 7:34 pm

I imagine I will finally get modded off Lib Dem Voice for this post in response to Caron's self congratulatory rubbish on the judicial review.

TechnicalEphemera 13th Jan '15 - 7:28pm
Doesn’t change the fact that it is still an awful bill, Grieve and Davis (Tories by the way) both spoke against it.
Doesn’t change the fact that the Lib Dems had the opportunity to vote it down and instead voted for it.
Not acceptable by any measure of decency, certainly not compatible with Liberal Democrat principles as I once understood them.

giselle97 · Post by **giselle97** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 7:34 pm

: 2015-01-13_193023 NHSpoll.jpg (79.79 KiB) Viewed 12687 times

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... t-nhs-poll

Edited to add - just look at those happy, smiling faces behind Cameron!

TechnicalEphemera · Post by **TechnicalEphemera** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 7:35 pm

ohsocynical wrote:
TechnicalEphemera wrote:
giselle97 wrote: I would ignore it as it was another George Osborne silly boy motion to trap Labour. EM tried, with the rude Marr constantly interrupting, to explain this in his interview.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/article ... ranscripts
It is a none binding motion that commits Labour to a balanced budget but is vague about what that means.

If does not commit Labour to the Tory Party austerity program, and anybody who claims otherwise is a lying tosser.
Thanks. I wasn't quite sure what was what.

Caroline Lucas is crowing over the Labour vote, so I've just given her and a couple of other Tweeters your answer.

Lucas can bite my shiny metal ass. I expect lies like that from the Cybernats but she should know better. Disgrace, it does her no credit.

Vote Green, get Blue.

ohsocynical · Post by **ohsocynical** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 7:48 pm

Another question. On Twitter is it acceptable or ethical to block what are plainly followers who are either touting for or running a business?

It's not a problem as such but it irritates me.

TechnicalEphemera · Post by **TechnicalEphemera** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 7:51 pm

ohsocynical wrote:Another question. On Twitter is it acceptable or ethical to block what are plainly followers who are either touting for or running a business?

It's not a problem as such but it irritates me.

C'mon think like a Tory.

Is it ethical to charge them a subscription in exchange for not blocking them (answer yes).

ohsocynical · Post by **ohsocynical** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 7:54 pm

TechnicalEphemera wrote:
ohsocynical wrote:
TechnicalEphemera wrote: It is a none binding motion that commits Labour to a balanced budget but is vague about what that means.

If does not commit Labour to the Tory Party austerity program, and anybody who claims otherwise is a lying tosser.
Thanks. I wasn't quite sure what was what.

Caroline Lucas is crowing over the Labour vote, so I've just given her and a couple of other Tweeters your answer.
Lucas can bite my shiny metal ass. I expect lies like that from the Cybernats but she should know better. Disgrace, it does her no credit.

Vote Green, get Blue.

Just finding ReTweets without my name on them, but they're definitely what I started posting, so your words of wisdom are doing the rounds nicely....Thanks.

TechnicalEphemera · Post by **TechnicalEphemera** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 8:02 pm

ohsocynical wrote:
TechnicalEphemera wrote:
ohsocynical wrote: Thanks. I wasn't quite sure what was what.

Caroline Lucas is crowing over the Labour vote, so I've just given her and a couple of other Tweeters your answer.
Lucas can bite my shiny metal ass. I expect lies like that from the Cybernats but she should know better. Disgrace, it does her no credit.

Vote Green, get Blue.
Just finding ReTweets without my name on them, but they're definitely what I started posting, so your words of wisdom are doing the rounds nicely....Thanks.

I assume it was edited for attitude.

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 8:18 pm

GENERAL ELECTION PREDICTIONS 64: BIRMINGHAM
http://www.iaindale.com/posts/2015/01/1 ... um=twitter
Seats: 9
Current Political Makeup: Lab 8, LibDem 1
Predicted Political Makeup after May 7: Lab 9
He's predicting Labour to take Birmingham Yardley from the Lib Dems.

GENERAL ELECTION PREDICTIONS 65: WEST MIDLANDS A-S
http://www.iaindale.com/posts/2015/01/1 ... um=twitter
Seats: 11
Current Political Makeup: Con 6, Lab 4, LibDem 1
Predicted Political Makeup after May 7: Con 6, Lab 5
Predicting Labour gain in Halesowen & Rowley Regis from Conservatives. And then Conservatives gain Solihull from Lorely Burt / Lib Dems.

TechnicalEphemera · Post by **TechnicalEphemera** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 8:29 pm

Time for an anti green comment, for which I apologise but this needs to be said.

Prior to the autumn statement I could understand the red Tories line and they are all the same. I didn't agree with it, but I understood it.

Then the autumn statement turned up, the Tory manifesto is utterly terrifying. If they get elected this country will change utterly. We will become a pound shop America, all of the poverty and none of the social mobility. Our welfare state will be over, people will die, the NHS will end. None of us will have seen anything like it.

The chasm between Labour and the Conservatives is huge. Don't believe me? Consider the IFS.

From Sparrow today.

Paul Johnson, the director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, has written an article for the Times (paywall) setting out the different approaches the Conservatives and Labour have to public spending. They are quite distinct, he says, and voters face “real, meaty political choices” at the election.

Labour has said that it wants to achieve balance or surplus on the present budget. That is, it would be happy to keep borrowing to pay for investment spending — at present levels of investment, spending that would allow it to borrow about £25 billion a year.

To achieve that, it would need to find spending cuts, or tax increases, of about £7 billion after 2015-16, perhaps not easy after so many years of austerity. And don’t forget that both parties are signed up to a tough spending round in 2015-16 itself. Yet cuts of this magnitude over the rest of the parliament would be modest relative to what has been delivered thus far.

The Conservative plans are rather different. They want to achieve a surplus on the overall budget and so would not be happy to borrow to invest. That means that they would need to find spending cuts of about £33 billion after 2015-16. Lest there be any doubt, there is a big difference between £7 billion of cuts and £33 billion of cuts.

Note also Labour's cuts are likely to be to a large degree offset by tax rises.

Now if people like Lucas are lying about this, which she seems to be, then I have to re-calibrate my view of her party.

I understand they want to get elected in a couple of Labour seats, good luck - I used to hope she won now I am not sure.

However by attacking Labour and claiming they are the same as the Tories they are doing Cameron's work for him. They are becoming Tory enablers and probably the biggest threat to this country since the Tory party.

It may be Bennett's strategy to displace Labour as the party of the left whilst inflicting two decades of Tory government on us (her Australian playbook), but it would be an utter disaster for the country. Not least because Cameron now wants massive state surveillance and to abolish our human rights (hello 1933).

So sure fight your target seats, and campaign for left wing values, but the deliberate targeting of the Labour vote by misrepresenting Labour policy has to stop, unless of course a Tory government is their desired outcome.

giselle97 · Post by **giselle97** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 8:29 pm

Does anyone know what happened to PayGuy at the G? I know he then became PayGuy 2.

https://profile.theguardian.com/user/id/4152572

http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/4912/ ... bt-matter/

I remember him vanishing - it was not too long after someone BTL actually commented that they thought he was Ed Balls!

TechnicalEphemera · Post by **TechnicalEphemera** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 8:31 pm

rebeccariots2 wrote:
GENERAL ELECTION PREDICTIONS 64: BIRMINGHAM
http://www.iaindale.com/posts/2015/01/1 ... um=twitter
Seats: 9
Current Political Makeup: Lab 8, LibDem 1
Predicted Political Makeup after May 7: Lab 9
He's predicting Labour to take Birmingham Yardley from the Lib Dems.

GENERAL ELECTION PREDICTIONS 65: WEST MIDLANDS A-S
http://www.iaindale.com/posts/2015/01/1 ... um=twitter
Seats: 11
Current Political Makeup: Con 6, Lab 4, LibDem 1
Predicted Political Makeup after May 7: Con 6, Lab 5
Predicting Labour gain in Halesowen & Rowley Regis from Conservatives. And then Conservatives gain Solihull from Lorely Burt / Lib Dems.

Given the schools issue I think they are going to lose Dudley South.

gilsey · Post by **gilsey** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 8:37 pm

ohsocynical wrote:
StephenDolan wrote:'We now know, thanks to last week's Office for Budget Responsibility forecast, that the structural current deficit is significantly larger than we were told - 0.8 per cent of GDP or £12 billion next year. Thanks to my action today, the structural current balance will be minus 4.8 per cent of GDP this year. That deficit will then be eliminated to plus 0.3 per cent in 2014-15 and plus 0.8 per cent in 2015-16. In other words, it will be in surplus.'

Osborne 2010.

`George Osborne:
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. It is not enough to eliminate the deficit. We then have to get our national debt down. It is too high and leaves us exposed to the next economic shock. We do not want to go into the next economic shock with a debt-to-GDP ratio of 80%. That is precisely why, in good economic times, we need to be running an overall budget surplus. That is the only credible and sustained way to get national debt down. That is the way to fix the roof when the sun is shining.
Mr Brian H. Donohoe (Central Ayrshire) (Lab):
Was it not the case that the right hon. Gentleman’s boss, the Prime Minister, said that he would balance the books by 2015?
Mr Osborne:
What we have done is cut the deficit by a half. We have neither gone faster than we said we were going to go, nor gone slower than we said we were going to go. We have stuck to our spending plans when people were urging us to take either course. To get lectures in managing the public finances from the Labour party is extraordinary.
Several hon. Members
rose—
Mr Osborne:
I will give way in a moment. Labour are in the bizarre situation of complaining that we are borrowing too much, yet they want to borrow even more. Perhaps the shadow Chancellor can help to illuminate this debate and simply confirm that a Labour Government would borrow more than a Conservative Government.
Ed Balls:
The Chancellor just said to the House that he has not gone slower on the deficit than he intended to in 2010, but the Office for Budget Responsibility says he has borrowed more than £200 billion more than he planned. Can he explain that remark? I have to say that I think everybody in the country will be totally baffled by the Chancellor’s remark.
Mr Osborne:
We have delivered exactly the spending plans we set out in 2010—we have not gone faster, we have not gone slower. Indeed, spending this year is a little bit lower than I predicted in 2010.
Several hon. Members
rose—
Mr Osborne:
I will give way in a moment.
There is going to be a test in this debate: will Labour confirm it will borrow more? It cannot complain about our spending cuts if it does not confirm that it would borrow more.
Ed Balls
rose—
Mr Osborne:
Would the shadow Chancellor borrow more? Let us have the B word from him.
Ed Balls:
The Chancellor has told the House that he has not gone any slower on reducing the deficit than he planned in 2010. That is blatantly untrue. Will he clarify or withdraw his remark?
Mr Osborne:
We have delivered exactly the spending plans that I set out and which the shadow Chancellor opposed.'

Osborne January 2015.

The fucking liar.
He barely makes sense to me

Possibly the spending cuts have been delivered as planned, but there's a black hole where the tax receipts should be. As many predicted.

Did anyone else see Osborne on news24 this morning, asked about inflation and the oil price? He did his usual hardworkingfamilies yada yada longtermecnomicplan yada yada, I wasn't really paying attention. Then the journalist asked him about the possibility of a fuel duty increase. I am almost certain Gideon repeated word for word his previous lines, apparently having completely failed to register the question.
Pretty sure it wasn't deliberate because the journalist asked again and he answered it then.

Is he going to make it to May? And does anyone take him seriously as a future PM?

giselle97 · Post by **giselle97** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 8:43 pm

Bloody hell TechnicalEphemera! That post of yours at 8:29pm is going to be circulated around my friends PDQ! Terrifying.

Toby Latimer · Post by **Toby Latimer** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 8:46 pm

gilsey wrote:
ohsocynical wrote:
StephenDolan wrote:'We now know, thanks to last week's Office for Budget Responsibility forecast, that the structural current deficit is significantly larger than we were told - 0.8 per cent of GDP or £12 billion next year. Thanks to my action today, the structural current balance will be minus 4.8 per cent of GDP this year. That deficit will then be eliminated to plus 0.3 per cent in 2014-15 and plus 0.8 per cent in 2015-16. In other words, it will be in surplus.'

Osborne 2010.

`George Osborne:
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. It is not enough to eliminate the deficit. We then have to get our national debt down. It is too high and leaves us exposed to the next economic shock. We do not want to go into the next economic shock with a debt-to-GDP ratio of 80%. That is precisely why, in good economic times, we need to be running an overall budget surplus. That is the only credible and sustained way to get national debt down. That is the way to fix the roof when the sun is shining.
Mr Brian H. Donohoe (Central Ayrshire) (Lab):
Was it not the case that the right hon. Gentleman’s boss, the Prime Minister, said that he would balance the books by 2015?
Mr Osborne:
What we have done is cut the deficit by a half. We have neither gone faster than we said we were going to go, nor gone slower than we said we were going to go. We have stuck to our spending plans when people were urging us to take either course. To get lectures in managing the public finances from the Labour party is extraordinary.
Several hon. Members
rose—
Mr Osborne:
I will give way in a moment. Labour are in the bizarre situation of complaining that we are borrowing too much, yet they want to borrow even more. Perhaps the shadow Chancellor can help to illuminate this debate and simply confirm that a Labour Government would borrow more than a Conservative Government.
Ed Balls:
The Chancellor just said to the House that he has not gone slower on the deficit than he intended to in 2010, but the Office for Budget Responsibility says he has borrowed more than £200 billion more than he planned. Can he explain that remark? I have to say that I think everybody in the country will be totally baffled by the Chancellor’s remark.
Mr Osborne:
We have delivered exactly the spending plans we set out in 2010—we have not gone faster, we have not gone slower. Indeed, spending this year is a little bit lower than I predicted in 2010.
Several hon. Members
rose—
Mr Osborne:
I will give way in a moment.
There is going to be a test in this debate: will Labour confirm it will borrow more? It cannot complain about our spending cuts if it does not confirm that it would borrow more.
Ed Balls
rose—
Mr Osborne:
Would the shadow Chancellor borrow more? Let us have the B word from him.
Ed Balls:
The Chancellor has told the House that he has not gone any slower on reducing the deficit than he planned in 2010. That is blatantly untrue. Will he clarify or withdraw his remark?
Mr Osborne:
We have delivered exactly the spending plans that I set out and which the shadow Chancellor opposed.'

Osborne January 2015.

The fucking liar.
He barely makes sense to me
Possibly the spending cuts have been delivered as planned, but there's a black hole where the tax receipts should be. As many predicted.

Did anyone else see Osborne on news24 this morning, asked about inflation and the oil price? He did his usual hardworkingfamilies yada yada longtermecnomicplan yada yada, I wasn't really paying attention. Then the journalist asked him about the possibility of a fuel duty increase. I am almost certain Gideon repeated word for word his previous lines, apparently having completely failed to register the question.
Pretty sure it wasn't deliberate because the journalist asked again and he answered it then.

Is he going to make it to May? And does anyone take him seriously as a future PM?

I had to seek it out, what a plonker - word for word same answer for the first two questions http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30795668" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

ohsocynical · Post by **ohsocynical** » Tue 13 Jan, 2015 8:57 pm

TechnicalEphemera wrote:
ohsocynical wrote:
TechnicalEphemera wrote: Lucas can bite my shiny metal ass. I expect lies like that from the Cybernats but she should know better. Disgrace, it does her no credit.

Vote Green, get Blue.
Just finding ReTweets without my name on them, but they're definitely what I started posting, so your words of wisdom are doing the rounds nicely....Thanks.
I assume it was edited for attitude.

I didn't offer to let her bite my shiny metal ass.