Friday 10th April 2015

Post by **refitman** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 6:50 am

Morning all.

TheGrimSqueaker · Post by **TheGrimSqueaker** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 7:16 am

Morning Dan, morning all.

Martin Rowson @MartinRowson
· 33m 33 minutes ago
I see from the Daily Mail that the evil insane weakling MiliPolPot breathes oxygen. Language fails me. He'll eat your babies next, you fools

Rowson nails it again! This latest story is so pathetic that all you can do is laugh at their desperation.

Off to brave the morning commute, catch you later if I survive it.

Post by **letsskiptotheleft** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 7:49 am

Desperate times, desperate measures. I read that the long forgotten, hastily buried "Big Society" is back?!

That went so well last time didn't it! Pickles having a nightmare on R4 apparently?

Post by **letsskiptotheleft** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 8:01 am

Someone btl on the Daily Politics has worked out or the NHS alone, allowing staff three paid days to volunteer would cost 600 million, possibly more if agency staff provide cover. More economic bollocks from Pickles.

yahyah · Post by **yahyah** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 8:25 am

Morning.

For years the media have been telling us Ed is a weird geek who can barely manage basic levels of human contact.
Overnight, the right wing press have transformed him into a sex machine who had a string of attractive girl friends.

Could be another epic fail for Crosby's black ops.

Post by **refitman** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 8:26 am

Can anyone spot the problem with this statement from Pickles?

Eric Pickles:
We expect there to be give and take on this in the same way as we expect there to be give and take on annual leave.

(From the interview on Today)

yahyah · Post by **yahyah** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 8:28 am

letsskiptotheleft wrote:Someone btl on the Daily Politics has worked out or the NHS alone, allowing staff three paid days to volunteer would cost 600 million, possibly more if agency staff provide cover. More economic bollocks from Pickles.

Pickles was most evasive about that on Radio 4 earlier.
He also claimed the policy had been worked out a while ago, which probably means it's actually a Tory back of a fag packet panic response.

Post by **refitman** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 8:33 am

yahyah wrote:
letsskiptotheleft wrote:Someone btl on the Daily Politics has worked out or the NHS alone, allowing staff three paid days to volunteer would cost 600 million, possibly more if agency staff provide cover. More economic bollocks from Pickles.

Pickles was most evasive about that on Radio 4 earlier.
He also claimed the policy had been worked out a while ago, which probably means it's actually a Tory back of a fag packet panic response.

No, it was worked out a while ago...2008 to be precise:

Labour Press TeamVerified account
‏@labourpress

Tory volunteering proposal isn't only unfunded it's not even new - DC promised it in 2008. Another broken promise
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CCNlqfkUwAEvudt.png:large" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

yahyah · Post by **yahyah** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 8:39 am

Revisiting Cameron's 'big idea' Big Society surely just reminds voters what a load of failed crap it was.

utopiandreams · Post by **utopiandreams** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 8:41 am

So where are we this wonderful morning? Well I've heard it said that many a true word is spoken in jest... and so it was, although something tells me this is not quite what is meant. It appears that my joke to start the day was nearer the mark than I had expected, namely the later discovery of Notes for Speakers April 2015. I suspect however that Grant actually had relatively little input, he is after all better known for stealing others' material, perhaps it's the work of that wondrous marketing guru from down under. Not enough to instruct their team with think up some shit and throw it at the opposition, but here's some shit we prepared earlier.

Something tells me that such tactics are not popular with the British electorate. As for David our super prime ministerial president and his judgement. Why is it so poor? Need I remind people of those he has befriended or drawn close? Perhaps not.

In other news, Dave and George have been advised that they had better start showing their true faces to the electorate. No more silly fads and going on diets, be honest and show the people what greedy fucks you.really are. I believe the headlines were a little kinder, something about being under-weight and dementia, I think. Which reminds me... Sorry folks, what was I going to say?

yahyah · Post by **yahyah** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 8:42 am

This Telegraph headline typifies what is going on:

''Campaign turns ugly as Tories accuse 'back-stabber' Miliband''

They deliberately turn Labour complain about negative campaigning into a headline that looks as if ' Ed has done something ugly.

Just hope voters can see it for what it is.

& thanks for[can't remember who posted it

] the link yesterday about the anti-semitic use of 'backstabbing'.

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 8:45 am

Ian Dunt ‏@IanDunt 46m46 minutes ago
First he stabbed his brother in the back, then Britain and now he's had sex and oh it's all too much.

Ian Dunt ‏@IanDunt 47m47 minutes ago
This is no small matter. A man who had sex before marriage is going to have his finger on the nuclear button. Open your eyes people.

Ian Dunt ‏@IanDunt 1h1 hour ago
DON'T VOTE FOR MILIBAND, HE'S HAD SEX pic.twitter.com/WlsyheFowg

Can't wait for Natalie Rowe's book to come out. Come on Natalie, you promised it would be before the election.

Lonewolfie · Post by **Lonewolfie** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 8:46 am

Morfteveninoon...

Things seem even brighter in Hope (just North of Peterborough and starting to get excited about Landslide) this morning...certain posters leaving/not showing up at the Graun/polls showing a negative weighted moving upscaled downgraded average/tories in meltdown...and the best they've got?

'Eds' quite dishy, honest and decent really so we'll be really snidey and derisory as it's always worked for Uncle Lynton before when he's been running the elections for Uncle Rupert.' (I suspect, though, that Crosby hasn't had the misfortune of meeting a group of people less able to understand what they're involved in and what they've done over the last 5 years (and less able to support each other to provide a united front))

That'll sway everyone - every single person - that with Mr Ed as Prime Minister, Britain will be 'CHAOS' and 'STABBED IN THE BACK'....not

Are we still talking about Non-Dom status? Tax avoidance? Tax havens? No? Quelle surprise! (WRT the witch, I wonder if any of her millions were salted away in Panama - someone went and made a fortune from hiding money from tax out there - if only I could remember who it was

)

...and there was some comment in the press 5 years ago (which, I have to say, gives me at least one point of respect for OGRFG - the fact that for 5 years, he/they have kept the ball rolling along so quickly that none of this stuck - Teflon Tories

)....from Oct 2010...

This combination has attracted finance from around the globe ever since the British developed some of its overseas territories as tax havens in the 1950s and 1960s. Of the 50 or so tax havens today, many are closely tied politically to Britain. The rules governing them are complicated, but essentially they allow investors or companies to conduct their business offshore and out of reach of HM Revenue & Customs. Avoiding paying tax in this way is legal; companies that take advantage of offshore banking are not illegally evading taxes.
Apart from the investors themselves, the winners from this system are the lawyers, bankers, accountants and financiers who take their cut along the way. The loser is Britain, because of the lost tax revenues—anything from £7bn to £25bn each year. So as the government grapples with a big gap in public finances, one might expect closing these loopholes to be an urgent priority. Yet the message so far has been mixed.
At the Liberal Democrat conference Danny Alexander, chief secretary to the treasury, promised to help “crack down on those hiding money offshore.” Despite planned job losses at HM Revenue & Customs, he has promised to allocate 900 inspectors to the task. Similarly, George Osborne has vowed to look at the possible introduction of a wide-ranging general anti-avoidance rule. Yet he was rather more silent on the subject at the Tory conference, foregoing the chance to attack tax avoiders.

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/opini ... dispatches

TTFN

ohsocynical · Post by **ohsocynical** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 8:46 am

yahyah wrote:Revisiting Cameron's 'big idea' Big Society surely just reminds voters what a load of failed crap it was.

And where did all the money go? After the Independent ran an article on it ... Silence. Amazing isn't it.

yahyah · Post by **yahyah** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 8:51 am

This comment on LabourList, under Mark Ferguson's piece on the Tory Ed the Sex Bomb dirty tricks, cheered me up.

''I know I shouldn't say this, but I can't stop myself.

If I'd managed to talk a woman as smart and attractive as Stephanie Flanders into bed, I'd have the fact printed on a T-shirt. Seriously, how is this meant to make me lose respect for him?''

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 8:54 am

The Tories are well on the way to creating the Shambles Society. They are just completing the circle with this latest volunteering scam. First put a load of people out of work - hey presto lots of jobs / work doesn't get done anymore. Don't allow anyone who is having to claim benefits to organise a volunteering role for themselves - that will get you sanctioned for not being available for work - instead provide them free of charge to companies as forced labour. Then, rather than start employing people to do the work that still needs doing - get people who are already employed to step in and do it.

Since when did volunteering become 'paid' - i.e. you are getting paid leave to do it. It is ridiculous and goes entirely against the grain of what volunteering should and generally has been about.

They are complete and utter idiots.

Lonewolfie · Post by **Lonewolfie** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 8:55 am

ohsocynical wrote:
yahyah wrote:Revisiting Cameron's 'big idea' Big Society surely just reminds voters what a load of failed crap it was.
And where did all the money go? After the Independent ran an article on it ... Silence. Amazing isn't it.

...am definitely going now...but just wanted to re-share this re 'silence'....

Guardian and Spectator writer Nick Cohen said the revelation was a sign that current leaders are "as determined as the last government to propagandise". He said: "Even when it is cutting essential public services, it will not cut the number of press officers back to a reasonable and affordable level. "We will soon be at the point when there are more PRs in Whitehall than there are journalists scrutinising Whitehall. Indeed we may already have passed it. Honest debate and accountable government are the first victims of our shift into manufactured political reality."

http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/central-g ... wers-until

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 8:58 am

Jane Merrick ‏@janemerrick23 33m33 minutes ago
The Daily Telegraph leader says: "Mr Fallon's attack was ill-judged" #GE2015

Paul Waugh ‏@paulwaugh 10m10 minutes ago
Tory MP on Fallon:“Our pitch to people is we’re competent bastards, but the risk from this is we just look like bastards" (via @jameskirkup)

Love to be a fly on the wall in the Crosby / Cameron den today. Wonder how the debriefing will go?

yahyah · Post by **yahyah** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 9:00 am

A reminder that [alleged] dirty tricks aren't only [allegedly] perpetrated by the right wing.

'George Galloway accused of having supporter pose as his rival candidate’s dead father to obtain her marriage certificate and smear her as a liar'
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/cr ... 66274.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 9:04 am

'Help to rent' scheme for young people proposed by Liberal Democrats
People aged 18 to 30 – the clipped wing generation, according to Nick Clegg – will benefit from scheme
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015 ... -democrats" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The Liberal Democrats have announced plans to provide government loans for tenancy deposits to help young people to rent their first home.

The party’s proposed “help to rent” scheme would allow people aged 18 to 30 to borrow up to £1,500 (£2,000 in London) from the government to use as a deposit on rented accommodation. The loans would be repaid over a period of either 12 or 24 months....

These would be the same young people that the Tories want to stop receiving any housing benefit ... rent and young people - anathema to Tories. Watch out Lib Dems, or anyone young thinking of voting Lib Dem - this has 'ready to be jettisoned the moment it looks like we can get back into government with the Tories written on it'. They must think young people are stupid ... hope they don't get fooled again.

utopiandreams · Post by **utopiandreams** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 9:05 am

Roger provided a link to Labour's manifesto for education, which I read in the early hours. Whilst doing so I was a little distracted by thoughts of this is all well and good but what about all those who are over educated for their roles? we're always hearing about business and their needs and the repeated suggestion that our youth are simply not good enough. Well I'm business friendly and am well aware that training people is more costly than some believe. There is not only greater wastage and lower output from trainees but also lower output and time constraints on those staff we elect to train them, external costs should we outsource.

Nevertheless I am sick and tired of those who constantly repeat the mantra that our kids are not up to it, especially the corporations. Over the years we have seen Tory government reduce corporation taxes and likewise public services. If these mega-rich corps don't like what they see, then bloody well pull your fingers out and invest in tomorrow.

Anyway for those who shan't read A better plan for education I have collated Labour's, I'd better not call it promise or pledge but stick to their term will, as stated in the document.

Labour will:
• Protect spending on the early years in real terms
• Restore the role of Sure Start as family hubs in the community, with an obligation to provide childcare and a focus on early intervention
• Extend free childcare from 15 to 25 hours for working parents of three and four year olds, paid for by an increase in the bank levy
• Give parents a legal guarantee of access to childcare from 8am to 6pm through their local primary school

• Protect schools spending in real terms, so we can drive up standards
• Tackle areas of underachievement, with new Directors of School Standards to support local schools to improve and respond to the concerns of parents
• Deliver smaller class sizes for five, six and seven year-olds, paid for by ending the wasteful Free Schools programme
• Require private schools to partner with state schools, as a condition of receiving Business Rates Relief

• Ensure all teachers become qualified
• Raise standards through new Master Teachers, expert in their subject
• Require all teachers to build their skills throughout their careers, as a condition of remaining in the classroom.
• Improve school discipline by ensuring teachers are trained to control a class
• Support and improve school leadership with a new Leadership Institute and gold standard head teacher qualifications and training

• Deliver a new gold-standard Technical Baccalaureate for 16 to 18 year olds
• Ensure all young people study English and maths to 18
• Raise standards in FE, with new Institutes of Technical Education
• Guarantee all young people face-to-face careers advice
• Give every young person that gets the grades has the right to a high quality apprenticeship
• Introduce new Technical Degrees delivered by universities and employers

• Ensure all schools deliver age appropriate sex and relationships education
• Update and strengthen the Citizenship curriculum
• Introduce compulsory work experience for 14 to 16 year-olds
• Give kinship carers access to support and give vulnerable children in kinship care priority in school admissions
• Give teachers better training in mental health awareness

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 9:07 am

yahyah wrote:A reminder that [alleged] dirty tricks aren't only [allegedly] perpetrated by the right wing.

'George Galloway accused of having supporter pose as his rival candidate’s dead father to obtain her marriage certificate and smear her as a liar'
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/cr ... 66274.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It has an absolutely vile and disgusting feel to it - this story. I really hope Bradford can emerge from the nastiness and infighting that seems to have taken it over at present.

TheGrimSqueaker · Post by **TheGrimSqueaker** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 9:09 am

yahyah wrote:Revisiting Cameron's 'big idea' Big Society surely just reminds voters what a load of failed crap it was.

Especially if the stories about the Charity Commission investigation of the Big Society Network get another airing; that one leads right to the door of Number 10, so this is a very risky strategy. The smell of fear at CCHQ must be overwhelming.

(Sorry Ohso, I really should have read the whole thread before posting

)

Post by **refitman** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 9:21 am

rebeccariots2 wrote:
'Help to rent' scheme for young people proposed by Liberal Democrats
People aged 18 to 30 – the clipped wing generation, according to Nick Clegg – will benefit from scheme
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015 ... -democrats" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The Liberal Democrats have announced plans to provide government loans for tenancy deposits to help young people to rent their first home.

The party’s proposed “help to rent” scheme would allow people aged 18 to 30 to borrow up to £1,500 (£2,000 in London) from the government to use as a deposit on rented accommodation. The loans would be repaid over a period of either 12 or 24 months....
These would be the same young people that the Tories want to stop receiving any housing benefit ... rent and young people - anathema to Tories. Watch out Lib Dems, or anyone young thinking of voting Lib Dem - this has 'ready to be jettisoned the moment it looks like we can get back into government with the Tories written on it'. They must think young people are stupid ... hope they don't get fooled again.

Franz sums it up quote well, at the other place:

FranzSherbet jforbes
21m ago
6 7

Remember when "help to rent" was called "wages"

We are truly through the looking glass.

Up next "help for groceries"

utopiandreams · Post by **utopiandreams** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 9:26 am

I believe George isn't happy with the way that Lynton's tactics are playing out. He's been overheard saying it's time to take another line.

Edit: missed the apostrophe s in he's.

yahyah · Post by **yahyah** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 9:27 am

I think a day transplanting seedlings and slug hunting will be more fruitful than reading AS's blog.

Sparrow says, sarcastically, after quoting Cameron's condolence message about Richie Benaud's death: ''Will Ed Miliband feel obliged to chip in too? Probably not. I don’t think Miliband spent much of his teenage years listening to cricket.''

Yet two seconds search online finds an interview of Ed talking to Agnew & Boycott on Test Match Special, and in it he talks of seeing Boycott's last county cricket match, and would have been a teenager at the time.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01d1zx0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

frightful_oik · Post by **frightful_oik** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 9:32 am

yahyah wrote:I think a day transplanting seedlings and slug hunting will be more fruitful than reading AS's blog.

Sparrow says, sarcastically, after quoting Cameron's condolence message about Richie Benaud's death: ''Will Ed Miliband feel obliged to chip in too? Probably not. I don’t think Miliband spent much of his teenage years listening to cricket.''

Yet two seconds search online finds an interview of Ed talking to Agnew & Boycott on Test Match Special, and in it he talks of seeing Boycott's last county cricket match, and would have been a teenager at the time.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01d1zx0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I don't know, given all the lovemaking EM was allegedly doing, it's a tribute to him that he found time to watch cricket as well.
I'm no fan of cricket but I can say I saw Benaud play. And I found him by far the easiest on the ear of the cricket commentators. A decent man who will be missed.

utopiandreams · Post by **utopiandreams** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 9:33 am

rebeccariots2 wrote:... They are complete and utter idiots.

Shush, don't be unkind, rebecca, it's all part of that long-term economic plan.

TheGrimSqueaker · Post by **TheGrimSqueaker** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 9:33 am

Well, is today's headline any less ridiculous?

RogerOThornhill · Post by **RogerOThornhill** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 9:38 am

RobertSnozers wrote:Thanks for that list utopiandreams. The one that caught my eye was 'ending the wasteful Free Schools programme'. This is good news. I thought the policy was to limit them where more places weren't needed, so it's good to see Labour take a further step.

Hunt had already said that he'd stop funding the New Schools Network so it was obvious that school opening would be devolved downwards rather than the DfE and its chums having the final say.

I suspect also that having more localised decision making and getting schools to work together will call a halt to national chains and promote local ones (if they're any good).

Also, giving Ofsted the power to inspect the chains themselves is excellent - he has Wilshaw and the Edu Select Committee backing for that.

The cosy cartel of the DfE and its mates seems to be over. Assuming of course...

TheGrimSqueaker · Post by **TheGrimSqueaker** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 9:39 am

yahyah wrote:I think a day transplanting seedlings and slug hunting will be more fruitful than reading AS's blog.

Sparrow says, sarcastically, after quoting Cameron's condolence message about Richie Benaud's death: ''Will Ed Miliband feel obliged to chip in too? Probably not. I don’t think Miliband spent much of his teenage years listening to cricket.''

Yet two seconds search online finds an interview of Ed talking to Agnew & Boycott on Test Match Special, and in it he talks of seeing Boycott's last county cricket match, and would have been a teenager at the time.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01d1zx0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Another snide dig at Miliband. At least Sparrow isn't pretending anymore.

TheGrimSqueaker · Post by **TheGrimSqueaker** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 9:51 am

Regarding the Mail & Telegraph stories, Ed Miliband said this morning that he could care less but he thought it appalling that the Mail and Telegraph are using the names and photographs of his ex-girlfriends to make a tawdry point; Mark Ferguson has expanded on that in a LabourList piece, mentioning the fact that one of the ladies being exploited by the Mail lost her husband a couple of months back, and now finds herself dragged into this piece of gutter journalism.

You want a really, really good reason to vote Labour? Miliband will implement Leveson and stop evil little weasels * like Dacre, Desmond and Murdoch peddling this kind of shit.

http://labourlist.org/2015/04/is-this-a ... onal-life/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

* As there are ladies present I have not used the word I really want to.

StephenDolan · Post by **StephenDolan** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 9:53 am

Conservative energy and climate change minister Matthew Hancock has taken £18,000 from a key backer of the UK’s leading climate sceptic lobby group, the Guardian can disclose.

Can we expect this to feature on the BBC news?

StephenDolan · Post by **StephenDolan** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 10:09 am

Pound dips to 5-year low after weak UK industrial production data – business live

http://gu.com/p/47d2x" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

No wonder they want to keep mentioning Miliband, their 'plan' for a recovery prior to the election has gone to shit.

StephenDolan · Post by **StephenDolan** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 10:12 am

'I missed this yesterday: Candidate called Michael Green is to stand against Grant Shapps in Welwyn Hatfield' Nick Sutton from WATO.

ephemerid · Post by **ephemerid** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 10:36 am

It's no use kvetching about Help To Rent.

Mainly because it isn't help for rent at all.

It's help for landlords to be guaranteed a deposit.

As we know, people who are young and who can't/won't/don't live with their parents (if they've got any) can't have Housing Benefit.
So they have to have a job to pay their rent.
But because they are young and have no money, they can't pay the landlords their hefty deposits/key money/agents fees/ripoff charges.
Step up, taxpayers!
We can't have the landlords unable to profit from rents because nobody can afford the up-front cash, now can we?

So - kid gets McJob and needs a room. Has no cash for deposit etc. so borrows it. From us.
Landlord gets his dosh because we pay for it.
Kid does crapola job and just makes the rent and loan repayments.
Until the rent goes up.
Or his employer gets a workfare slave. Which we also pay for.

Before, we had a jobless homeless kid.
Now, we've got a jobless, homeless kid in debt.

There's helpful.

utopiandreams · Post by **utopiandreams** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 11:12 am

I'm catching the news on BBC2 about the Tory pledge for 3 days volunteering leave at the moment. If I'm not mistaken the presenters are having difficulty masking their amusement.

LadyCentauria · Post by **LadyCentauria** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 11:38 am

Ed Miliband has joined Jim Murphy and Ed Balls in Edinburgh, unexpectedly

It's being shown live on BBC News now (and possibly Sky, I haven't looked there.)

ohsocynical · Post by **ohsocynical** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 11:43 am

yahyah wrote:I think a day transplanting seedlings and slug hunting will be more fruitful than reading AS's blog.

Sparrow says, sarcastically, after quoting Cameron's condolence message about Richie Benaud's death: ''Will Ed Miliband feel obliged to chip in too? Probably not. I don’t think Miliband spent much of his teenage years listening to cricket.''

Yet two seconds search online finds an interview of Ed talking to Agnew & Boycott on Test Match Special, and in it he talks of seeing Boycott's last county cricket match, and would have been a teenager at the time.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01d1zx0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ed's on first name terms with one of the older famous cricketers...Boycott? I think it was in that nice interview he had the other week, Ed took a phone call from him and they were joking about.

fedup59 · Post by **fedup59** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 11:43 am

Morning all

The Tory strategy seems to be really, really terrible – thank goodness!

I’ve come to the conclusion it’s mainly because you’ve got a bunch of public school boys telling each other ‘and then we’ll do that and that will happen’, being advised by SPADs (also public school boys/ girls), an Australian mega man and an American specialist. Their connection to any real people in what is left of their constituency parties is micro managed by said SPADs. No real interaction with the people they believe will just believe them because they say something is true. They have absolutely no understanding of what it is like to live outside their private estates. Add to this the media disconnect from their readers and the narrative they use becomes their reality. The ultimate groupthink meets an election. I’m hoping it is the groupthink that sinks without trace!

Glad Ed is in Edinburgh. I'm not a great Murphy fan but he's done well in challenging the SNP on what they actually do with the power they already have. They've got away with far too much crap policy in Scotland while they claimed the high moral ground as more socialist than Labour, in my opinion.

TheGrimSqueaker · Post by **TheGrimSqueaker** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 11:44 am

You remember all those digs from the "Real Left" ™ about the pink van, and how Labour were too embarrassed to use red any more? Whoops!!!

Nick Eardley ‏@nickeardley · 41m41 minutes ago
I'm at Canary Wharf in London where the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition is launching its manifesto

ohsocynical · Post by **ohsocynical** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 11:49 am

Apologies if this has been posted above, I've only just come in. Haven't had time to catch up yet...

Labour Policies
‏@LabourPolicies

Labour will prevent above inflationary price rises in Rail Fares & create a State Rail firm to start to bring Rail back under Public Control

Bam, bam, bam. Not giving the Tories time to think...Masterful.....

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 11:59 am

Good morfternoon.

On Radio 5 Live Jeremy Hunt also said he would vote to leave the EU if the Conservatives did not secure significant reforms. He said:

If we don’t get the deal that we need, yes I would [vote to leave]. But I think we can get the deal we need, because I have confidence in David Cameron. He has stood up to European leaders before. (Election Blog, Guardian - my emphasis)

I don't know if I've just not been paying attention but have we yet been told exactly what this much vaunted "deal" actually comprises of?

And as for the bit I've bolded . . .

ohsocynical · Post by **ohsocynical** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 12:04 pm

fedup59 wrote:Morning all

The Tory strategy seems to be really, really terrible – thank goodness!

I’ve come to the conclusion it’s mainly because you’ve got a bunch of public school boys telling each other ‘and then we’ll do that and that will happen’, being advised by SPADs (also public school boys/ girls), an Australian mega man and an American specialist. Their connection to any real people in what is left of their constituency parties is micro managed by said SPADs. No real interaction with the people they believe will just believe them because they say something is true. They have absolutely no understanding of what it is like to live outside their private estates. Add to this the media disconnect from their readers and the narrative they use becomes their reality. The ultimate groupthink meets an election. I’m hoping it is the groupthink that sinks without trace!

Glad Ed is in Edinburgh. I'm not a great Murphy fan but he's done well in challenging the SNP on what they actually do with the power they already have. They've got away with far too much crap policy in Scotland while they claimed the high moral ground as more socialist than Labour, in my opinion.

Practically ever since they got in I've had visions of a bunch of little boys sitting with their heads together saying, 'I know, lets do'. Or, I know, 'let's say'. And without an adult in sight, off they go.

Also it's being born into the ruling class which their education bolsters...It's always been that way but I think the difference with this lot is they learned or should I say lost their any values thanks to Maggies

ohsocynical · Post by **ohsocynical** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 12:07 pm

PorFavor wrote:Good morfternoon.

On Radio 5 Live Jeremy Hunt also said he would vote to leave the EU if the Conservatives did not secure significant reforms. He said:

If we don’t get the deal that we need, yes I would [vote to leave]. But I think we can get the deal we need, because I have confidence in David Cameron. He has stood up to European leaders before. (Election Blog, Guardian - my emphasis)
I don't know if I've just not been paying attention but have we yet been told exactly what this much vaunted "deal" actually comprises of?

And as for the bit I've bolded . . .

I'm increasingly speechless.

LadyCentauria · Post by **LadyCentauria** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 12:07 pm

Nominations are now open for the "Victims and Survivors Consultative Panel" in the statutory Independent Child Sexual Abuse Inquiry. This was posted yesterday (9th April) on the Inquiry's website's news page – contains links to the Nomination document:

https://childsexualabuseinquiry.independent.gov.uk/

citizenJA · Post by **citizenJA** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 12:07 pm

Hey, good afternoon, friends.
I've been away from the news less than twenty-four hours & it's great to read your posts before anything else.
You people are wonderful.

Willow904 · Post by **Willow904** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 12:19 pm

Official! It's too close to call! - well, NE Somerset is at any rate, according to YouGov's handy new Nowcast:

https://yougov.co.uk/#/constituency/317/nowcast/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

utopiandreams · Post by **utopiandreams** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 12:28 pm

Was Jo Coburn having a subtle dig at Pickles when she remarked that she thought they'd binned the Big Society?

citizenJA · Post by **citizenJA** » Fri 10 Apr, 2015 12:36 pm

A major spike in air pollution across much of England poses a risk to those suffering from respiratory diseases, older people and children, health charities warned on Friday.

The government pushed its smog alert levels to “very high” - its most extreme pollution warning - for some parts of south east England.

In Brighton, Eastbourne and Hastings the official advice is for all residents - regardless of their health - to reduce their physical exertion. Older people and children on Easter school holidays have been urged to avoid any strenuous activity at all.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ ... -charities" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

My usual air quality checker isn't currently showing air quality for the UK available (website below)
The air is currently crap here in Stoke
My partner is asthmatic

http://aqicn.org/city/united-kingdom/ma ... iccadilly/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;