Friday 6th February

[Tubby Isaacs]

Krugman says that the Greek banks do not need to be funded by the Greek goverment, that they already have other sources of liquidity and the amount currently backed by the Greek government is small. So it isn't about forcing Greece out of the Euro or back on the drachma.

It is still, seven years after the crash, about kicking the can down the road and using austerity to slowly drain wealth from nation states to prop up the useless behemothic banking system.

Hang on, austerity drains wealth, surely. 5% off British GDP for starters, per NIESR.

[rebeccariots2]

Kerry McCarthy MP ‏@KerryMP 6m6 minutes ago
Surgery casework. Trying to decipher Job Centre speak. How can someone be deemed "gainfully employed but not in remunerative work"?

[ephemerid]

Meant to say - what you said, OhSo, about people being scared of mental illness.

It's odd, because the truth is that people in psychosis (ie, have lost connection with our reality) are much more likely to harm themselves than others. Yes, they have odd ideas and can be aggressive, but that's usually because they cannot make sense of what's going on around them.

If you were constantly of the belief that you were being listened to by unseen enemies, or hearing voices in your head all the time telling you how worthless you are, imagine what that must actually feel like. You may have a part of you that knows this is not reasonable, but simply cannot shake off the fear. Or maybe you're getting hypomanic and are doing wild things which under normal circumstances you would never do - and have no inkling at the time that there's something odd about it, and no memory of what you've done after the event.

I also understand why people with acute illness stop taking their medicines and let the illness loose - it can't be easy to be doped up to the point you can't actually think at all. I have a lot of sympathy for people who will let their bi-polar or schizophrenia run riot, knowing it might cause some trouble, but would rather be happy in their craziness than sluggish and slow on anti-psychotic medication.

Modern society hasn't got the tolerance or the time to let people be what they are. We don't have the set-up to give people their right to be ill - but the worst thing of all is that we won't give them what they need to get better if they dare to exercise that right to not be a zombie....

[Tubby Isaacs]

I'm sick of this. A sovereign nation being held to ransom like this. Being told it must comply and run the government how the creditors dictate.
I don't care about what went on before any more - we know it was down to greed and corruption in politics and banking.

A sovereign nation can't unilaterally vote not to honour its debts. The biggest creditors, Germany and France, are sovereign nations too. German wages have been kept low for almost a decade now, despite booming exports. This is pretty much textbook capitalism, setting one group off against another, but the Germans surely have a point.

And forget all about Eurocrats- they're the servants of the member states.

What you're referring to, a blameless country undone by bankers and politicians, is basically Ireland. The Greece is a whole different kettle of fish, a ludicrously unsustainable pact between tax avoiding private sector and a public sector with incredible pensions.

This is good about the background from Michael Lewis.

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2010/10/ ... nds-201010" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Having said all this, the way the bail outs have had far too strict conditions attached to them, and squeezed the life out of the economy. I only understood recently that Germany probably wasn't doing this just to be nasty- German attitudes to debt, inflation, contract help explain it, along with the design flaws in the single currency. Also, I gather, Keynes isn't particularly influential in Germany. They're not privatizers like Britain has been, but they and the IMF could justifiably point to the Greek state's endemic problems. As I understand it, they've been less like that with Ireland.

There a few obvious retorts to that- like Germany being forgiven debt after WW2. But Germany might equally say that they've handed over a fortune in structural funds to the EU for donkeys years, not least to Greece.

I'm dreadful at economics am very simplistic. When Ireland is mentioned all I can think is: Poverty. Behind the times. Joined EU. Celtic Tiger. Boom. Bust. More emigrating now than during the potato famine.

Ireland had caught Britain up before the heady Celtic Tiger phase, I think before 2000. It's got lots of corporate HQs, and a well educated workforce and lots of space.

It's been treated appallingly by the Troika, but it'll still be a rich country when it's got over its "medicine".

[tinyclanger2]

I don't like jaffa cakes, they make my teeth curl - do we have a marmite situation developing?

Jaffa cakes - check
Marmite - check
Mushy peas - check

[rebeccariots2]

I don't like jaffa cakes, they make my teeth curl - do we have a marmite situation developing?

Jaffa cakes - check
Marmite - check
Mushy peas - check[/quote]

Cripes. I hadn't realised mushy peas were divisive...

I hope we aren't going to have unhealthy displays of food tribalisms on here.

Edited to change the order of the words so they mean what I meant them to mean - and protect me from being called a food snob.

[diGriz]

From yesterday's G.
Clegg says poll that suggests he will lose his seat is ‘utter bilge’
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... seat-bilge

Just wanted to mention that I have taken the day after the GE off so that I can stay up to watch him lose everything.

[TheGrimSqueaker]

Meant to say - what you said, OhSo, about people being scared of mental illness.

It's odd, because the truth is that people in psychosis (ie, have lost connection with our reality) are much more likely to harm themselves than others. Yes, they have odd ideas and can be aggressive, but that's usually because they cannot make sense of what's going on around them.

If you were constantly of the belief that you were being listened to by unseen enemies, or hearing voices in your head all the time telling you how worthless you are, imagine what that must actually feel like. You may have a part of you that knows this is not reasonable, but simply cannot shake off the fear. Or maybe you're getting hypomanic and are doing wild things which under normal circumstances you would never do - and have no inkling at the time that there's something odd about it, and no memory of what you've done after the event.

I also understand why people with acute illness stop taking their medicines and let the illness loose - it can't be easy to be doped up to the point you can't actually think at all. I have a lot of sympathy for people who will let their bi-polar or schizophrenia run riot, knowing it might cause some trouble, but would rather be happy in their craziness than sluggish and slow on anti-psychotic medication.

Modern society hasn't got the tolerance or the time to let people be what they are. We don't have the set-up to give people their right to be ill - but the worst thing of all is that we won't give them what they need to get better if they dare to exercise that right to not be a zombie....

I once had to get a friend committed. She was already on all sorts of meds for clinical depression and also has, although she will still not admit it, a serious drink problem; in retrospect (and it was diagnosed properly then) it was obvious she was bipolar, in a big way. When she was on a downward swing I used to pop around regularly to make sure she was ok and, this night, she was not; I doubt she would have lasted until the morning to be frank.

Anyway. Obviously I visited her and I was, apart from family, the only person she would agree to see while she was there because she felt that ashamed and she felt stigmatised. While we have a society that allows people who are ill to feel ashamed of their condition, a condition that so many (including myself) share, then something is not right; if this Labour Mental Health team initiative opens up the conversation and sheds light into the darkness I can't see how it can be a bad thing. But that is just my opinion, and I speak only for myself.

[rebeccariots2]

Kevin Schofield retweeted
Alan Roden ‏@AlanRoden 19m19 minutes ago
Probably not the endorsement that @NicolaSturgeon wants ahead of #ge2015: " onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; …

Link is to a video by Tommy Sheridan endorsing the SNP for the election ...

I haven't listened to the video (sound not great on this laptop) but I do hope this comment BTL isn't a direct quote from the video ...

We won't need elections in an independent Scotland because there is only one party that represents Scotland's needs?

[yahyah]

From yesterday's G.
Clegg says poll that suggests he will lose his seat is ‘utter bilge’
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... seat-bilge

Just wanted to mention that I have taken the day after the GE off so that I can stay up to watch him lose everything.

We'll be there with you

My husband, after I told him about the Hallam polling, told me to donate to Oliver Coppard's campaign. Later I told him about Clegg's phone-in comment about Labour causing the financial crash and not apologising for it and he said 'How much were you going to donate...well double it'.

[rebeccariots2]

John Rentoul ‏@JohnRentoul 28m28 minutes ago
This by @iMcKenzied is important if you want to know what is really going on in Rotherham http://mckenzied.com/?p=117" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It is actually well worth reading. The speech that the (just resigned) leader of Rotherham council gave re child abuse, acknowledging the failures of the agencies and council, and setting out what they would try to do ... which the UKIP councillors applauded.

[refitman]

Weekly review up in the usual place - didn't take that long today

(indeed, until the GE council by-elections will be fairly thin on the ground - but there are still a few)

'Ere we go:

Just one local council vacancy to report today:

Derbyshire CC - Labour hold a safe division with over 60% of the vote, though this was down slightly on the two thirds share they had in 2013, largely due to the intervention of a UKIP candidate who came an albeit distant second with 18% in their first contest at this level. Third place was taken by an Independent who was a LibDem councillor for Chesterfield DC until 2011 (and CC candidate here in 2009) beating narrowly the official LibDem whose vote declined further in an area where they regularly won district seats in the days they controlled Chesterfield with a big majority. Though they still did better than the Tories, who saw their share roughly halved as they dropped from an admittedly very token runners up spot last time to 5th and last now.

Three contests next week.

[refitman]

@RebeccaRiots - deleted your duplicate post.

[pk1]

From yesterday's G.
Clegg says poll that suggests he will lose his seat is ‘utter bilge’
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... seat-bilge

Just wanted to mention that I have taken the day after the GE off so that I can stay up to watch him lose everything.

We'll be there with you

My husband, after I told him about the Hallam polling, told me to donate to Oliver Coppard's campaign. Later I told him about Clegg's phone-in comment about Labour causing the financial crash and not apologising for it and he said 'How much were you going to donate...well double it'.

Count me in too

Lol, he & I must share similar thoughts. I donated a couple of weeks ago but after hearing what he said about 'bilge', I went & donated again.

Anybody else wanting to donate can do so via this link:

http://www.betterforsheffield.co.uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[rebeccariots2]

dominic dyer @domdyer70 · 26m 26 minutes ago
Voting Green luxury we cannot afford May 7th will lose Labour seats & let Tories back in & will be end of badgers in large parts of England

[ohsocynical]

Meant to say - what you said, OhSo, about people being scared of mental illness.

It's odd, because the truth is that people in psychosis (ie, have lost connection with our reality) are much more likely to harm themselves than others. Yes, they have odd ideas and can be aggressive, but that's usually because they cannot make sense of what's going on around them.

If you were constantly of the belief that you were being listened to by unseen enemies, or hearing voices in your head all the time telling you how worthless you are, imagine what that must actually feel like. You may have a part of you that knows this is not reasonable, but simply cannot shake off the fear. Or maybe you're getting hypomanic and are doing wild things which under normal circumstances you would never do - and have no inkling at the time that there's something odd about it, and no memory of what you've done after the event.

I also understand why people with acute illness stop taking their medicines and let the illness loose - it can't be easy to be doped up to the point you can't actually think at all. I have a lot of sympathy for people who will let their bi-polar or schizophrenia run riot, knowing it might cause some trouble, but would rather be happy in their craziness than sluggish and slow on anti-psychotic medication.

Modern society hasn't got the tolerance or the time to let people be what they are. We don't have the set-up to give people their right to be ill - but the worst thing of all is that we won't give them what they need to get better if they dare to exercise that right to not be a zombie....

Apologies before I start. But it might help if I tell it how it was [and suspect it still is in a lot of cases]
Please remember this was sixty years ago and since then we've come a long way in understanding and treating mental illness.

I remember the fear of having mental illness in the family. It meant your bloodline might be tainted. It was never ever spoken about.
My g.grandfather killed himself long before my mother was born, but she lived the whole of her life worrying that it was hereditary. She suffered badly from depression and although she never said, I'm sure she was convinced she'd inherited the 'madness' and could have passed it on to me and my sister.

All her fears came tumbling out just before she died, and I was able to check on g.granddads suicide which was probably caused by pressure from a metal plate he'd had put into his skull after an accident in [we think] the 1870s. The relief on her face had to be seen to be believed.

We had a lady lived in an adjoining street whose back garden backed onto ours. She used to spend a lot of time in Fairmile which was a local asylum but came home every so often. We had outside toilets and for some reason she'd always shut herself in their toilet when she had a bad spell. I'll never forget her shrieks and her poor husband trying to coax her out...Then it would go quiet which meant she'd been admitted again.
Her husband crept around and never mixed with the neighbours. They'd shake their heads and say 'poor soul', but no one knew what was wrong with her. Just that her brain had turned.

If a middle aged woman suffered depression or any sort of mental illness it was always attributed to her age. The 'change'. There was some sympathy, but that ran out if it went on for too long.

Post-natal depression was the same. They called it the baby blues. Too long and there'd be mutters about pulling herself together because the baby needed her.

Comparing then with now we have made great strides in diagnosis and treatment, but smaller strides in our attitudes. In the meantime people pay lip service because it's politically correct, without having a clue what mental illness is or means.
However I strongly believe they mean well.

[ohsocynical]

A sovereign nation can't unilaterally vote not to honour its debts. The biggest creditors, Germany and France, are sovereign nations too. German wages have been kept low for almost a decade now, despite booming exports. This is pretty much textbook capitalism, setting one group off against another, but the Germans surely have a point.

And forget all about Eurocrats- they're the servants of the member states.

What you're referring to, a blameless country undone by bankers and politicians, is basically Ireland. The Greece is a whole different kettle of fish, a ludicrously unsustainable pact between tax avoiding private sector and a public sector with incredible pensions.

This is good about the background from Michael Lewis.

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2010/10/ ... nds-201010" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Having said all this, the way the bail outs have had far too strict conditions attached to them, and squeezed the life out of the economy. I only understood recently that Germany probably wasn't doing this just to be nasty- German attitudes to debt, inflation, contract help explain it, along with the design flaws in the single currency. Also, I gather, Keynes isn't particularly influential in Germany. They're not privatizers like Britain has been, but they and the IMF could justifiably point to the Greek state's endemic problems. As I understand it, they've been less like that with Ireland.

There a few obvious retorts to that- like Germany being forgiven debt after WW2. But Germany might equally say that they've handed over a fortune in structural funds to the EU for donkeys years, not least to Greece.

I'm dreadful at economics am very simplistic. When Ireland is mentioned all I can think is: Poverty. Behind the times. Joined EU. Celtic Tiger. Boom. Bust. More emigrating now than during the potato famine.

Ireland had caught Britain up before the heady Celtic Tiger phase, I think before 2000. It's got lots of corporate HQs, and a well educated workforce and lots of space.

It's been treated appallingly by the Troika, but it'll still be a rich country when it's got over its "medicine".

Good. It was distressing to read so many were emigrating. They must be hemorrhaging talent.

[rebeccariots2]

Truss With Her Hands Full.jpg (56.32 KiB) Viewed 10657 times

I'm saying nothing.

[martinson]

Good evening.
Just a query really - did the Government ever publish the Risk Register for their NHS reforms? I seem to remember some resistance to do so. It would be interesting to compare it with today's Kings Fund analysis to see if the Government wilfully ignored sensible advice before ploughing on. What's the betting they did? I've also seen Lansley's response saying the reforms have saved something like £5b so far! Tell that to those who've suffered, the usual cost of everything value of nothing Tory ideology.
Also,
Marmite no
Vegemite even more no
Mushy peas very much yes
Jaffa cakes yes and recommended as treats in a fitness regime! What's commonly known as a win win!

[TheGrimSqueaker]

Good evening.
Just a query really - did the Government ever publish the Risk Register for their NHS reforms? I seem to remember some resistance to do so. It would be interesting to compare it with today's Kings Fund analysis to see if the Government wilfully ignored sensible advice before ploughing on. What's the betting they did? I've also seen Lansley's response saying the reforms have saved something like £5b so far! Tell that to those who've suffered, the usual cost of everything value of nothing Tory ideology.
Also,
Marmite no
Vegemite even more no
Mushy peas very much yes
Jaffa cakes yes and recommended as treats in a fitness regime! What's commonly known as a win win!

No, they never published it, despite several rulings saying that they should.

Plenty of jaffa cakes in the cupboard now, I restocked this afternoon so help yourselves.

[rebeccariots2]

Good evening.
Just a query really - did the Government ever publish the Risk Register for their NHS reforms? I seem to remember some resistance to do so. It would be interesting to compare it with today's Kings Fund analysis to see if the Government wilfully ignored sensible advice before ploughing on. What's the betting they did? I've also seen Lansley's response saying the reforms have saved something like £5b so far! Tell that to those who've suffered, the usual cost of everything value of nothing Tory ideology.
Also,
Marmite no
Vegemite even more no
Mushy peas very much yes
Jaffa cakes yes and recommended as treats in a fitness regime! What's commonly known as a win win!

No, they never published it, despite several rulings saying that they should.

Plenty of jaffa cakes in the cupboard now, I restocked this afternoon so help yourselves.

Jaffa cakes sort of encapsulate all the good bits of my childhood ... very definitely treats.

[diGriz]

I'm saying nothing.

'Bangers' - legal speak for not sausages (which have to have a certain amount of meat in them to be labelled 'sausages') but contain all the other bits and some rusk.

[ohsocynical]

Good evening.
Just a query really - did the Government ever publish the Risk Register for their NHS reforms? I seem to remember some resistance to do so. It would be interesting to compare it with today's Kings Fund analysis to see if the Government wilfully ignored sensible advice before ploughing on. What's the betting they did? I've also seen Lansley's response saying the reforms have saved something like £5b so far! Tell that to those who've suffered, the usual cost of everything value of nothing Tory ideology.
Also,
Marmite no
Vegemite even more no
Mushy peas very much yes
Jaffa cakes yes and recommended as treats in a fitness regime! What's commonly known as a win win!

I'm wondering if - IF - Ed gets in, he'll release some of the stuff the Cons have refused to reveal. It surely had to be damaging to them otherwise why the secrecy?

[ohsocynical]

I'm saying nothing.

'Bangers' - legal speak for not sausages (which have to have a certain amount of meat in them to be labelled 'sausages') but contain all the other bits and some rusk.

Lots of rusk and lots of water in order to make the correct explosion when they're cooking.

[rebeccariots2]

nottsbadgergroup ‏@nottsbadgers Feb 5
Tiny #badger cubs are starting to appear - let's make sure they are protected from the #badgercull and #wildlifecrime #stopthecull

Yes - they are. The earliest born cubs will be starting to come out with their mums now.

'Our' badgers have been having one of their periodic bedding changes and sett clean-out. Badgers are very clean mammals BTW. Large piles of discarded old grass and punk have been left by the side of our track. Wisps of the clean grass and vegetation make a trail to the sett hole on the bend. They have plenty of good pickings from our verges and pastures so they should be very comfy in their newly furbished sleeping chambers. I particularly love seeing the tunnels they make through the old bracken in our steeply sloping fields. Our cats disappear down these when cars or people come up the track.

[Tonibel]

From yesterday's G.
Clegg says poll that suggests he will lose his seat is ‘utter bilge’
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... seat-bilge

Just wanted to mention that I have taken the day after the GE off so that I can stay up to watch him lose everything.

We'll be there with you

My husband, after I told him about the Hallam polling, told me to donate to Oliver Coppard's campaign. Later I told him about Clegg's phone-in comment about Labour causing the financial crash and not apologising for it and he said 'How much were you going to donate...well double it'.

I was also inspired to make another donation to Oliver Coppard today. Fingers crossed.

[rebeccariots2]

I'm saying nothing.

'Bangers' - legal speak for not sausages (which have to have a certain amount of meat in them to be labelled 'sausages') but contain all the other bits and some rusk.

You mean the 'unmentionables'.

[ephemerid]

Meant to say - what you said, OhSo, about people being scared of mental illness.

It's odd, because the truth is that people in psychosis (ie, have lost connection with our reality) are much more likely to harm themselves than others. Yes, they have odd ideas and can be aggressive, but that's usually because they cannot make sense of what's going on around them.

If you were constantly of the belief that you were being listened to by unseen enemies, or hearing voices in your head all the time telling you how worthless you are, imagine what that must actually feel like. You may have a part of you that knows this is not reasonable, but simply cannot shake off the fear. Or maybe you're getting hypomanic and are doing wild things which under normal circumstances you would never do - and have no inkling at the time that there's something odd about it, and no memory of what you've done after the event.

I also understand why people with acute illness stop taking their medicines and let the illness loose - it can't be easy to be doped up to the point you can't actually think at all. I have a lot of sympathy for people who will let their bi-polar or schizophrenia run riot, knowing it might cause some trouble, but would rather be happy in their craziness than sluggish and slow on anti-psychotic medication.

Modern society hasn't got the tolerance or the time to let people be what they are. We don't have the set-up to give people their right to be ill - but the worst thing of all is that we won't give them what they need to get better if they dare to exercise that right to not be a zombie....

I once had to get a friend committed. She was already on all sorts of meds for clinical depression and also has, although she will still not admit it, a serious drink problem; in retrospect (and it was diagnosed properly then) it was obvious she was bipolar, in a big way. When she was on a downward swing I used to pop around regularly to make sure she was ok and, this night, she was not; I doubt she would have lasted until the morning to be frank.

Anyway. Obviously I visited her and I was, apart from family, the only person she would agree to see while she was there because she felt that ashamed and she felt stigmatised. While we have a society that allows people who are ill to feel ashamed of their condition, a condition that so many (including myself) share, then something is not right; if this Labour Mental Health team initiative opens up the conversation and sheds light into the darkness I can't see how it can be a bad thing. But that is just my opinion, and I speak only for myself.

I once had a lovely patient called Marjorie. She had severe bi-polar (we called it manic depression back then) and she often pretended to take her medicines but didn't; her hypomanic phases were a wonder to watch. She was brilliant at disguising it while she was going up, but once she was really high there was no stopping her.
On one occasion she escaped from her ward and went shopping - she sent for a taxi, got the driver to drive her about for a bit, ordered something like 80 hats from every shop in Putney from her seat in the taxi, then demanded to be taken to the Dorchester for tea. The taxi-driver knew her by reputation, and delivered her safely back to us - and didn't charge, bless him.

But when she went down it was really frightening - she was sectioned most of the time because she had very nearly managed to kill herself on more than one occasion. It was so awful to watch because she had such a lovely personality when she was vaguely OK, but what she hated was the way the drugs dulled everything. So sad. I have to say I couldn't blame her for wanting to be free from the dope every now and then. She could never remember what she'd done, but had a vague recollection that she'd had a bit of fun.

One of the things that struck me when I was doing psych nursing was how so many of the long-term staff treated the patients as though they were stupid. It may be better now, but back then some of the staff were shocking.
Just because some of them were stupefied by drugs or ECT, it didn't mean they were stupid - I can honestly say that some of those poorly people were the most intelligent and aware individuals I've met before or since once in recovery. They certainly had a lot more empathy and understanding than the people caring for them - which is one reason why I didn't specialise in psych after qualifying because I loved the patients but would have been struck off for attacking the staff!

I've found a horrible thing today - whatdotheyknow.com have a copy of the DWP's "Employment & Wellbeing - a toolkit for work coaches and employment advisers". The stuff they are telling the advisers to do is just ridiculous - these people are clerks, not trained nurses.
It's so wrong - and I really hope it gets out there so people can see what DWP is telling its workers to do.
It gives scenarios etc. of the type of person, what they might say, what their problems might be - and goes on to suggest that the adviser supervises all manner of stuff that is manifestly not their business; worse, any person with half the problems described has no business being in a jobcentre being coached into work anyway.

Enough already. I'm mad enough without driving myself into a slough od despond reading this crap any more.

I'm off to watch our lovely boys beat the English at our national game. And sing very very loudly. Laters!

[martinson]

Good evening.
Just a query really - did the Government ever publish the Risk Register for their NHS reforms? I seem to remember some resistance to do so. It would be interesting to compare it with today's Kings Fund analysis to see if the Government wilfully ignored sensible advice before ploughing on. What's the betting they did? I've also seen Lansley's response saying the reforms have saved something like £5b so far! Tell that to those who've suffered, the usual cost of everything value of nothing Tory ideology.
Also,
Marmite no
Vegemite even more no
Mushy peas very much yes
Jaffa cakes yes and recommended as treats in a fitness regime! What's commonly known as a win win!

I'm wondering if - IF - Ed gets in, he'll release some of the stuff the Cons have refused to reveal. It surely had to be damaging to the them otherwise why the secrecy?

[Tonibel]

Yahyah RR2 and any other immigrants to Wales from over the border, where do you stand on the Tebbitt rugby test? One pass one fail in this household.

[rebeccariots2]

Yahyah RR2 and any other immigrants to Wales from over the border, where do you stand on the Tebbitt rugby test? One pass one fail in this household.

Mr Riots is being annoyingly diplomatic and says all he cares about is that it's a good game....

I'm for Wales meself.

[Rednorth]

Care in the Community was good in principle but what has happened is exactly what I expected - it's become 'couldn't care less in the community' with people left to fend for themselves with antagonism and worse ramped up by politicians and tabloids and their 'scrounger' rhetoric. Some of the old institutions were pretty awful, but even they were better than police cells and shop doorways and the cemetery, which is where some people are ending up.

We can see how much they really care about helping by the fact that both Tory & Labour shut down Remploy, leaving the people at the mercy of Work Programme bullying and sanctions. This interest from the parties is a mixture of political expediency, dressing up cuts as help in pure Orwellian fashion, and electioneering. They don't give a damn unless they can find a way to make money out of us, which is what the WCA and Work Programme are all about, redistributing funds from the needy to the party donors.

[TheGrimSqueaker]

Is this a proper 6 Nations Game, or one of the friendlies?

[martinson]

For all you lot in Wales I guess it's a win Wynn situation!
Apologies offered!
I do think that the pressure is on Wales tonight because this is their likely World Cup starting line up whereas it almost certainly won't be England's. Tremendous atmosphere in Cardiff as usual.

[Rednorth]

Apologies for the earlier rants, folks, I'm at a pretty low ebb at the moment.

[rebeccariots2]

The poisoned chalice: who will succeed Alan Rusbridger?
https://twitter.com/zoesqwilliams/statu ... 4194922497

Zoe Williams ‏@zoesqwilliams 4h4 hours ago
Reads like a succession of insiders have given him duff info for a joke http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/comment/ar ... hael-wolff" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; …. Also, petty-minded, jaw-droppingly sexist

[rebeccariots2]

Apologies for the earlier rants, folks, I'm at a pretty low ebb at the moment.

No apologies needed Rednorth.

I'm being quiet on this because more than a few of the stories are a bit too close to home for me to be my usual free self in posting. No other reason.

[ohsocynical]

Apologies for the earlier rants, folks, I'm at a pretty low ebb at the moment.

No need to apologise. We're all friends here.

[Maeght]

Krugman says that the Greek banks do not need to be funded by the Greek goverment, that they already have other sources of liquidity and the amount currently backed by the Greek government is small. So it isn't about forcing Greece out of the Euro or back on the drachma.

It is still, seven years after the crash, about kicking the can down the road and using austerity to slowly drain wealth from nation states to prop up the useless behemothic banking system.

Exactly!

[HindleA]

@TGS

Yes 6 Nations.

[frightful_oik]

Jonathon Dimbleby currently proving he's as bad as his brother.

[Rednorth]

The appalling death of a man caught up in benefits nightmare

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/ho ... 29754.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[ohsocynical]

Douglas Alexander ‏@DAlexanderMP 10 hrs10 hours ago
It's a serious indictment of Cameron that the former top British commander in Nato, has warned he is becoming a "foreign policy irrelevance"

Humiliating.

[rebeccariots2]

The appalling death of a man caught up in benefits nightmare

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/ho ... 29754.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Newham was one of the first boroughs to go uber digital / internet access for it's services. They had lots of warnings about what might happen if they didn't make sure other forms of access were available and equally responsive.

This poor poor man. It's so distressing to see how dehumanised and dehumanising our systems have become - the systems which we are funding.

[AngryAsWell]

Ed Miliband Is Honest, Decent & Truthful - Gove

http://www.lbc.co.uk/miliband-is-honest ... ove-104503" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[RogerOThornhill]

From a poster on another board. More academy success- though converted before Gove's time, his lot "oversaw" it for 4 years. In which time it lost £1m in a scam, got about the worst GCSE results in the country (17% A-C inc Maths and English) and was put into special measures. The sponsor stepped aside but no other took it on, and the LA wasn't brought in.

Now it's closed to all but the GCSE year because no-one wants to teach there. And a girl in the GCSE year says teachers aren't turning up for some of her classes. Suspiciously, there's been a uniform blitz too, which has seen her and other sent home.

Is this the worst ever? Not quite the Hackney Downs to Mossbourne narrative we're fed, is it?

And the location of this basket case of low achievement? Moss Side? Dagenham? Scunthorpe?

Poole.

http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/1 ... ht_before/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Not sure that;'s true - the DfE spreadsheet says it was Sponsored w.e.f. 1st September 2010 i.e. one of the earliest of Gove's time.

[refitman]

Ed Miliband Is Honest, Decent & Truthful - Gove

http://www.lbc.co.uk/miliband-is-honest ... ove-104503" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Jon Swindon ‏@jon_swindon

The things Tories say. I agree wholeheartedly Mr Gove. #EMForNo10

[ohsocynical]

Ed Miliband Is Honest, Decent & Truthful - Gove

http://www.lbc.co.uk/miliband-is-honest ... ove-104503" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Jon Swindon ‏@jon_swindon

The things Tories say. I agree wholeheartedly Mr Gove. #EMForNo10

Nasty little dig though at the end.

[rebeccariots2]

Ed Miliband Is Honest, Decent & Truthful - Gove

http://www.lbc.co.uk/miliband-is-honest ... ove-104503" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Jon Swindon ‏@jon_swindon

The things Tories say. I agree wholeheartedly Mr Gove. #EMForNo10

Nasty little dig though at the end.

I agree. It reads to me as though he only said things about Ed Miliband so he could say what he wanted to at the end - and know it would get widely reported.

[ohsocynical]

Nasty little dig though at the end.

I agree. It reads to me as though he only said things about Ed Miliband so he could say what he wanted to at the end - and know it would get widely reported.

Snidey little toe rag!