Monday 13th April

StephenDolan · Post by **StephenDolan** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 6:07 am

Morning all!
http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/krugman ... er-swerve/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

An excellent piece by Krugman dismantling the Laffer curve ideology. Clinton v Reagan is most enlightening.

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 6:20 am

Good morfternoon.

I haven't yet looked at the posts I missed post-bed yesterday, so I hope this brilliant article by Paul Mason isn't a repeat:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... hi-vis-ves

It's not a cheery piece - in fact, it's stomach churningly miserable, but I urge you to read it if you haven't already done so.

Edited to see if I can get a working link (thanks utopiandreams for letting me know that the original was broken).

utopiandreams · Post by **utopiandreams** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 6:57 am

PorFavor wrote:Good morfternoon.

I haven't yet looked at the posts I missed post-bed yesterday, so I hope this brilliant article by Paul Mason isn't a repeat:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... vis-vests-

It's not a cheery piece - in fact, it's stomach churningly miserable, but I urge you to read it if you haven't already done so.

Not read it yet, PorFavor, but your link is broken. Try this: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... s-bullying

utopiandreams · Post by **utopiandreams** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 6:58 am

Morning. I've seen several remarks about Labour's fiscaL responsibility. Is it really a surprise given what the two Eds have been saying these last few years?

Osborne studied Modern History and let's face it history is written by those in power and it is only with the passage of time that a more balanced view emerges (maybe the internet shall change that). How has he learned any of its lessons? Cameron on the other hand bases far too much on false premise, perhaps his First in PPE was gained on the back of self-referential or circular arguments. Who knows? I neither saw nor marked his assignments, besides I'm no economist. His thinking may also have been that money shall be found whenever a mess needs cleaning up as his Bullingdon days may attest. Apart from PPEs, Miliband also gained an MSc in Economics at the London School of Economics and Balls specialised in Economics when he attended the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard. Which of these people would you trust?

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 6:59 am

utopiandreams wrote:
PorFavor wrote:Good morfternoon.

I haven't yet looked at the posts I missed post-bed yesterday, so I hope this brilliant article by Paul Mason isn't a repeat:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... vis-vests-

It's not a cheery piece - in fact, it's stomach churningly miserable, but I urge you to read it if you haven't already done so.
Not read it yet, PorFavor, but your link is broken. Try this: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... s-bullying

Thank you. So it is - broken (I've just tried it). I'll try to fix it in my post, too.

Spacedone · Post by **Spacedone** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 7:04 am

Kevin Maguire ‏@Kevin_Maguire 22m22 minutes ago
Miliband & Cameron should swap parties if Labour's developed an austerity fetish while the Cons spend like Viv Nicholson

Pillock.

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 7:06 am

No. Still broken - but utopiandreams', one works fine.

TheGrimSqueaker · Post by **TheGrimSqueaker** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 7:10 am

Something to put a smile on your faces at the start of the week.

Britain Elects @britainelects
· 9h 9 hours ago
Latest YouGov poll (11 - 12 Apr):
LAB - 36% (+2)
CON - 33% (-1)
UKIP - 13% (-)
LDEM - 7% (-)
GRN - 5% (-1)

Morning all.

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 7:12 am

@ LadyCentauria

I mentioned those Labour posters the other day but don't know how to transfer pictures across - so thanks for doing it. They're lovely, aren't they? A bit like old TU banners.

And yes - I read the Nicholas Watt article and noted the final paragraph. It seemed almost a non sequitur but it obviously had to be in there somewhere, given the author. Why didn't he just write it as a proper "PS"?

Spacedone · Post by **Spacedone** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 7:16 am

TheGrimSqueaker wrote:Something to put a smile on your faces at the start of the week.
Britain Elects @britainelects
· 9h 9 hours ago
Latest YouGov poll (11 - 12 Apr):
LAB - 36% (+2)
CON - 33% (-1)
UKIP - 13% (-)
LDEM - 7% (-)
GRN - 5% (-1)
Morning all.

And something else.

Mike Smithson ‏@MSmithsonPB 39 mins39 minutes ago

ENGLAND & WALES ONLY figures from overnight YouGov Sun poll
CON 35
LAB 37
LD 7
UKIP 15
A CON to LAB swing of 6.1% since GE10

Mike Smithson ‏@MSmithsonPB 33m33 minutes ago
A 6.1% CON to LAB swing in England and Wales as in today's YouGov, would on a theoretical uniform swing see 77 LAB gains from CON

StephenDolan · Post by **StephenDolan** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 7:26 am

Spacedone wrote:
TheGrimSqueaker wrote:Something to put a smile on your faces at the start of the week.
Britain Elects @britainelects
· 9h 9 hours ago
Latest YouGov poll (11 - 12 Apr):
LAB - 36% (+2)
CON - 33% (-1)
UKIP - 13% (-)
LDEM - 7% (-)
GRN - 5% (-1)
Morning all.
And something else.

Mike Smithson ‏@MSmithsonPB 39 mins39 minutes ago

ENGLAND & WALES ONLY figures from overnight YouGov Sun poll
CON 35
LAB 37
LD 7
UKIP 15
A CON to LAB swing of 6.1% since GE10

Mike Smithson ‏@MSmithsonPB 33m33 minutes ago
A 6.1% CON to LAB swing in England and Wales as in today's YouGov, would on a theoretical uniform swing see 77 LAB gains from CON

Lib Dems will get more than 7% surely?

Spacedone · Post by **Spacedone** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 7:32 am

There's a hashtag on Twitter this morning called #SameOldLabour created by the Tories to post attacks on Labour whilst they launch their manifesto. Somehow it's trending in the top 10 UK tweets even though only 20 tweets have been made to it in the last 8 hours... And half of those are from Labour supporters...

yahyah · Post by **yahyah** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 7:59 am

Spacedone wrote:There's a hashtag on Twitter this morning called #SameOldLabour created by the Tories to post attacks on Labour whilst they launch their manifesto. Somehow it's trending in the top 10 UK tweets even though only 20 tweets have been made to it in the last 8 hours... And half of those are from Labour supporters...

How can that happen ?
Can someone who is pro-Tory at Twitter manipulate the algorithm thingies ?

Tish · Post by **Tish** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 8:00 am

Here's an article from Robert Peston looking at how Ed Miliband is looking to junk the past 35 years of economic orthodoxy, and how that makes him more of a Thatcher than a Foot (in terms of radicalism anyway).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32233887" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

LadyCentauria · Post by **LadyCentauria** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 8:05 am

PorFavor wrote:@ LadyCentauria

I mentioned those Labour posters the other day but don't know how to transfer pictures across - so thanks for doing it. They're lovely, aren't they? A bit like old TU banners.

And yes - I read the Nicholas Watt article and noted the final paragraph. It seemed almost a non sequitur but it obviously had to be in there somewhere, given the author. Why didn't he just write it as a proper "PS"?

Ah! It was you

I knew I'd seen someone posting about them but forgot who it was. Sorry about that. Yep, they really do have a slightly retro feel about them but they're beautifully up-to-date, at the same time.

There's a post here, called Help With Posting (in the Rules and Regulations section) about how to copy images over:
http://flythenest.org/viewtopic.php?p=1638#p1638

On a Mac it's a little different: find the image you want and place the mouse/trackpad pointer on it then hold the ctrl key down and click the mouse/trackpad. That will open a menu by the image. Select Copy Image URL. Now go to the post you're making here (in the Full Editor). Put the cursor/pointer where you want the image transferred to and click. Above the Editor select Img. That will put [ img ] [ /img ] into the Editor but without any spaces. Put the cursor/pointer in between the two bracketed sections and press ⌘V together. Bingo, the Image URL will be pasted into place and clicking on Preview should show the image in your post. If you're happy with it, click Post.

yahyah · Post by **yahyah** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 8:08 am

It's a lovely poster, and a shameful reminder to me.
This time five years ago, I had a Vote Lib Dem poster in my window.
Thankfully it was only seen by about 3 people and a field of sheep.

yahyah · Post by **yahyah** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 8:10 am

Ed Balls on Radio 4 now.

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 8:25 am

Andrew Sparrow

Good morning. I’m taking over now. (Election Blog, Guardian)

Blimey. Cancel the election!

ephemerid · Post by **ephemerid** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 8:27 am

Good morning, everyone.

So - Our Glorious Ronsealed Fishpointer General has decided to postpone the publication of his party's manifesto.
By one day.
He says the reason for this is that Labour were going to publish theirs on the same day and that wouldn't give him a chance to scrutinise their promises.
Clearly, he is so unaware of what he's saying that it hasn't occurred to him that he is doing exactly the same thing he is accusing his opponents of doing.

He's really not very clever, is he?

There is an appalling article on the Spectator by one Thomas Byrne (who he?) which opines taxing DLA is a really good idea because "...the majority of people claiming DLA are the sharp-elbowed middle classes, with incomes placing them in the top half of those in the UK".

Byrne is not very clever either. Obviously he is unaware that DLA is being replaced by PIP and he patently does not understand what these benefits are actually for. He's a nasty piece of work, as are some of the commenters below the line.

yahyah · Post by **yahyah** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 8:39 am

Mike Smithson @MSmithsonPB · 3h 3 hours ago
YouGov/Times poll finds 43% saying NHS would get worse under CON compared with 25% under LAB. Fieldwork after the Tory £8bn extra pledge

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 8:40 am

yahyah wrote:Ed Balls on Radio 4 now.

He kept his cool pretty well I thought.

I hope the message re the cuts identified through their spending reviews of current coalition department budgets / measures being sensible and restrained gets across to people - i.e. it's not the all out war on departmental spending that the Tories want - it's mostly cutting out some of the dross the Tories introduced. I for one can't wait for the abolition of the Police & Crime Commissioners - what a dreadful waste of money that is. And I can't help but think about the billions squandered on the NHS reorganisation and IDS's vanity projects that we can't get back.

If I have understood Balls correctly it's those already identified cuts in non protected departmental budgets, plus additional tax revenues from getting more people into better paying work, and money raised from the new taxes / fines on tax avoidance etc ... that will enable them to repeal the excesses of the coalition and provide a balanced current budget over the next few years.

The budget responsibility lock is a bold and potentially difficult message for many of us on the left ... but if they can explain it properly it will take a lot of the wind from the Tory sails. The SNP, Greens and Plaid are going to say Labour are signed up to 30 billion of cuts - regardless of the truth - so not much to lose there from this. Possibly more to gain if it means they are given the space to explain the much more restricted nature of the cuts - and how that is balanced by repeals of the unfairest of coalition measures and new spending in other areas.

Tish · Post by **Tish** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 8:45 am

Just seen this from last night, posted by diGriz:

"Sky Press Preview, Drip Girl left on chairs in hospital for five hours in tomorrow's Sun.

Nothing to link yet but it's damning.

[Edit] Due to no free beds, the woman on a drip-feed is draped over three chairs (seemingly in a waiting room) at Ashya hospital."

As it says "at Ashya hospital" I'm assuming that this is at Southampton General, but I can't find any coverage of this story on line. Has anybody read it, or seen a screen grab?

Edited to add: Never mind, I've just found a follow up story in the Southampton Echo
http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/1288563 ... _shortage/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 8:50 am

Tish wrote:Just seen this from last night, posted by diGriz:

"Sky Press Preview, Drip Girl left on chairs in hospital for five hours in tomorrow's Sun.

Nothing to link yet but it's damning.

[Edit] Due to no free beds, the woman on a drip-feed is draped over three chairs (seemingly in a waiting room) at Ashya hospital."

As it says "at Ashya hospital" I'm assuming that this is at Southampton General, but I can't find any coverage of this story on line. Has anybody read it, or seen a screen grab?

No - I can't find anything. And, yes, it is Southampton General.

yahyah · Post by **yahyah** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 8:53 am

The Mail tried to ridicule Ed Balls by showing a pic of him with holding superhero t-shirt with 'SJ' on it.

The SJ referred to Super Josh, a charity campaign in memory of a lad who died of a brain tumour six months ago & Balls was helping the campaign.

His mum, Dawn Fidler, is understandably upset at the Mail and there is a call for the Mail to apologise and donate to the charity.

https://twitter.com/DawnFidler" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://twitter.com/hashtag/SuperJosh?src=hash" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 9:04 am

yahyah wrote:The Mail tried to ridicule Ed Balls by showing a pic of him with holding superhero t-shirt with 'SJ' on it.

The SJ referred to Super Josh, a charity campaign in memory of a lad who died of a brain tumour six months ago & Balls was helping the campaign.

His mum, Dawn Fidler, is understandably upset at the Mail and there is a call for the Mail to apologise and donate to the charity.

https://twitter.com/DawnFidler" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://twitter.com/hashtag/SuperJosh?src=hash" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I posted a tweet with that picture here yesterday ... how on earth would that pic be considered a source of ridicule for Balls? It was tweeted out by the charity and Labour people as a measure of support for the charity and showing Balls out in Bury North supporting the candidate there. There's low and then there's Tory and Mail low.

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 9:08 am

Just a hat tip to Toby if he's lurking. To say I've been missing you and hope you are OK.

yahyah · Post by **yahyah** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 9:10 am

The Mail's take on it RR:

LadyCentauria · Post by **LadyCentauria** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 9:17 am

Tish wrote:Just seen this from last night, posted by diGriz:

"Sky Press Preview, Drip Girl left on chairs in hospital for five hours in tomorrow's Sun.

Nothing to link yet but it's damning.

[Edit] Due to no free beds, the woman on a drip-feed is draped over three chairs (seemingly in a waiting room) at Ashya hospital."

As it says "at Ashya hospital" I'm assuming that this is at Southampton General, but I can't find any coverage of this story on line. Has anybody read it, or seen a screen grab?

Edited to add: Never mind, I've just found a follow up story in the Southampton Echo
http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/1288563 ... _shortage/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This:

It's from The Sun: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/ne ... hours.html

yahyah · Post by **yahyah** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 9:22 am

Our local leisure centres have just had their opening hours slashed which is causing a lot of upset and exercise classes have ceased because they will not be given access.

More 'anti-austerity' from a council with a Plaid mayor and 19 Plaid councillors [the largest group].
What Leanne Wood says, and Plaid does, are not the same.

TheGrimSqueaker · Post by **TheGrimSqueaker** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 9:25 am

yahyah wrote:The Mail's take on it RR:

No sign of an apology, but it looks as though the Fail have hastily removed the article.

citizenJA · Post by **citizenJA** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 9:27 am

Good-morning.

utopiandreams · Post by **utopiandreams** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 9:52 am

rebeccariots2 wrote:Just a hat tip to Toby if he's lurking. To say I've been missing you and hope you are OK.

Just saying that Toby's appeared in the other place, rebecca, but have to agree I miss his PhotoShopping, or whatever he uses, amongst his other posts.

ohsocynical · Post by **ohsocynical** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 10:05 am

Institute for Fiscal Studies.

http://election2015.ifs.org.uk/article/ ... main-homes

onebuttonmonkey · Post by **onebuttonmonkey** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 10:09 am

Morning all. I posted this over at the other place, but, by rights it belongs here where we're less in awe of Lynton The Narrative Crosby et al. Given the furious "Labour broke the money" nonsense both ATL and BTL, I thought I might dust it off (it was originally ranted out a couple years ago) and update it:

George and the Magic Money Car

Once upon a time, there was a man called Gordon who had a big car made of numbers.

Gordon didn’t really look after the car as well as he should, and the laws about looking after cars – which Gordon was partly in charge of – weren’t strict enough. Another man called George wanted very much to drive Gordon's car, and, for a while, when everything looked good, he used to shout about how we didn’t need any regulations for running cars. In fact, telling people they had to look after the car was holding back car-ownership, said George. Everyone will be better off if we don’t look after cars or driving at all, said George. George wasn't very good at counting, but he was good at sneering, which more than made up for it (thought George).

Then, around seven years ago, the car crashed. Gordon was driving at the time, but there were a whole lot of other cars involved that had nothing to do with Gordon at all. Funnily enough, even though George was nowhere near the car or the wheel when it crashed, the crash caused him a terrible bout of amnesia, and he promptly forgot everything he used to say about how we didn’t need any regulations about maintaining cars. All of a sudden, said George, we need car regulations again (as long as they were nothing like the kind of rules that applied to French or German cars, and as long as the drivers with the biggest wallets could still drive as recklessly as they wanted).

George blamed Gordon for the crash, but while the car was quite knackered, it was by no means beyond repair. Gordon tried to patch it up with a mechanic called Alasdair, and the car started running again, although not as fast as it had done before. But even despite that, George started telling everyone that the car was so broken that it might never run again, even though it wasn’t true. And George said that Gordon had crashed the car on purpose, even though it wasn’t true. And George said that only Gordon was responsible for the crash, even though it wasn’t true.

And as a result, a lot of people who could still easily afford chauffeurs wrote nice stories about how lovely George was in their newspapers. They seemed to have caught amnesia from George, too.

Then, at last, in 2010, George finally got to drive the car.

First, George proceeded to deliberately drive the car into a wall for three years, claiming that his inability to choose another route was everyone else’s fault but his own (even though it was a choice he made every day). Sometimes he said Gordon built the wall, and, at other times, he said that hitting the wall would make us drive faster in the end. And then, when he still didn’t get anywhere, he said that standing still was the right direction, and he tried selling the bonnet, and the wheels, and the engine to some of his friends for far less than they were worth.

When the car still didn’t get anywhere, he stuck a picture of The Confidence Fairy on the dashboard, forced a bunch of unemployed people to push what was left of the car into the same wall he’d been crashing into for the last five years, for which he gave them no money, and claimed this meant they were now employed. But this was OK, because while they were doing it they wore T-shirts that said “Long Term Economic Plan” on them, which is much better than being able to afford to feed themselves or rent a house.

There’s a map that George himself drew, which showed us lots of destinations he promised we’d visit if George got to drive. So far, we’ve failed to be able to reach any of them. But because George’s five year standing-still car journey looks like it might be at an end, he’s now telling us a fairy story about how far we’ve come, as if words were the same as numbers.

Fairy stories always end with a moral, and so does this one: while it’s perfectly reasonable to talk about a car's service history, and point out that things haven’t always been perfect, blaming George’s choices over the last five years on the previous owner is almost as dishonest as George himself. There's no Big Bad Wolf called Gordon breaking everything forever - that man only lives in the newspapers. There's just a horrible, lumpen, dangly-armed smear of an incompetent little man called George who's no better at driving or counting than he is at telling the truth.

ohsocynical · Post by **ohsocynical** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 10:13 am

Jamie Ross @JamieRoss7
The Tories have parked no less than SIX Sturgeon/Salmond vans outside the Labour manifesto launch.

StephenDolan · Post by **StephenDolan** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 10:28 am

Excellent as usual OBM!

The Tories really are oozing class this campaign. Maybe Crosby needs it pointing out to him that Britain's tolerance and acceptance of others, although knocked, is still strong. On second thoughts carry on.

Coming soon, Mail exclusive.
SamCam - Miliband made a pass at me.

ohsocynical · Post by **ohsocynical** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 10:32 am

There has been a TNS poll showing a huge majority and swing to SNP going the rounds on Twitter this morning.
But Smithson has just posted this.

Mike Smithson ‏@MSmithsonPB 17 mins17 minutes ago

Fieldwork for TNS Scotland poll VERY OLD
March 18 to April 8

ohsocynical · Post by **ohsocynical** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 10:35 am

StephenDolan wrote:Excellent as usual OBM!

The Tories really are oozing class this campaign. Maybe Crosby needs it pointing out to him that Britain's tolerance and acceptance of others, although knocked, is still strong. On second thoughts carry on.

Coming soon, Mail exclusive.
SamCam - Miliband made a pass at me.

Someone Tweeted, Bing Crosby would be more effective and he's dead.

utopiandreams · Post by **utopiandreams** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 10:37 am

Has anyone seen or heard any of the Victoria Derbyshire programme, which I have on in the background? She doesn't appear to think much of Matthew Hancock's arguments, the latest being her less than impressed agreement that this government have indeed upped the daily allowance component for the most disabled by 65p. per week.

TheGrimSqueaker · Post by **TheGrimSqueaker** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 10:41 am

With George's attempts to turn AAA into AA, that motoring analogy is a good 'un OneButtonMichael.

onebuttonmonkey · Post by **onebuttonmonkey** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 10:52 am

TheGrimSqueaker wrote:With George's attempts to turn AAA into AA, that motoring analogy is a good 'un OneButtonMichael.

It's true: George can no longer call either the AAA or the AA - now he has to call the AA1.

gilsey · Post by **gilsey** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 11:03 am

StephenDolan wrote:Excellent as usual OBM!

The Tories really are oozing class this campaign. Maybe Crosby needs it pointing out to him that Britain's tolerance and acceptance of others, although knocked, is still strong. On second thoughts carry on.

Coming soon, Mail exclusive.
SamCam - Miliband made a pass at me.

She should be so lucky.

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 11:04 am

utopiandreams wrote:Has anyone seen or heard any of the Victoria Derbyshire programme, which I have on in the background? She doesn't appear to think much of Matthew Hancock's arguments, the latest being her less than impressed agreement that this government have indeed upped the daily allowance component for the most disabled by 65p. per week.

Ha! Yes. He owns a house in London, you know (when asked a question, and desperately trying not to answer it, on whether or not he would benefit from the Conservative Inheritance Tax proposals).

Which, I should have noted, was a pretty stupid answer unless he's planning on dying in the near future. Surely what he is, or isn't, in line to inherit is more to the point.

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 11:25 am

Patrick Wintour
✔
@patrickwintour
Follow

There is a big blue Labour passage - work family community trust mutual obligation common good
10:46 AM - 13 Apr 2015

Rubbish. Since when has the "common good" been of the slightest interest to the present government?

pk1 · Post by **pk1** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 11:30 am

The bit I have put in bold should especially please Roger:

Setting up a national primary childcare service

The Tories have let down working families by scrapping the legal requirement to provide after-school or breakfast clubs and allowing numbers to fall with only half of parents able to find suitable term-time childcare to fit with their working hours. Only 17 local authorities in England able to provide after-school clubs at all primary schools.

Today Labour is announcing a new National Primary Childcare Service, underpinning a legal right to guaranteed access to wrap-around childcare in breakfast or after-school clubs from 8am-6pm.

This will increase the amount of affordable wrap-around childcare by delivering it through CRB-vetted volunteers and using the lower overheads of primary schools. And it will increase the amount of high quality childcare by providing a route for talented people from arts, sports or music organisations to bring their skills and expertise into primary schools.

The NPCS will be a not-for-profit organisation acting as a hub to match primary schools with volunteers and a range of quality extracurricular sports, art and music activities before and after school. It will be paid for by ending Government funding for the New Schools Network, an organisation set up to promote the Free Schools programme.

citizenJA · Post by **citizenJA** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 11:31 am

Morning, PorFavor - why'd Wintour write 'big, blue' prior to the good parts?
Is it an intentional slight at Labour?

pk1 · Post by **pk1** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 11:33 am

Jack Blanchard:

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 11:33 am

citizenJA wrote:Morning, PorFavor - why'd Wintour write 'big, blue' prior to the good parts?
Is it an intentional slight at Labour?

Hello, there.

To answer your question - it would be a first if it wasn't.

pk1 · Post by **pk1** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 11:38 am

Andrew has linked to the manifesto document:

http://www.labouremail.org.uk/files/upl ... 2816d2.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Mon 13 Apr, 2015 11:45 am

Oh, no! Ed Miliband has just uttered the dreadful words "I don't recognise ".