Tuesday 22nd March 2016

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 7:30 am

Morning.

There has been explosions at Brussels (Zaventem) Airport.

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 7:50 am

http://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2 ... ve-updates" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 7:59 am

"Unconfirmed" 11 dead.

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 8:18 am

Morning.

Sam Coates Times ‏@SamCoatesTimes 16m16 minutes ago
As Welsh Secretary, Stephen Crabb ‘had doubts about credit reform’ and held meetings with officials http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/e33f2 ... 4af11483cb" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; …

He's going to face a lot more scrutiny from now on. I think that might be helpful for us here in Pembrokeshire in several ways.

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 8:21 am

Anushka Asthana ‏@GuardianAnushka 1m1 minute ago
Ken Clarke stresses govt not ruling out any welfare cuts ever. Which crabb didn't do. Bt he did seem to rule out finding £4.4bn from welfare

Ian Birrell ‏@ianbirrell 1m1 minute ago
Clarke also repeats DWP smear that Pip pays disabled people for appliances already funded. Many have substantial annual maintenance charges

Glad to see someone prepared to use the phrase 'DWP smear'.

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 8:33 am

Kenneth Clarke showing his ignorance about PIP in continuation of not having the foggiest of what he is talking about.I suppose that he thinks it is an out of work allowance is totally excuseable because it wasn't as if he was a Minister in the Government that introduced DLA,or anything.

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 8:36 am

Yes RR2,I am on record as suggesting that part of the aid/appliance non justification change presented as questioning honesty,it is also NOT TO PAY FOR THE AID/APPLIANCE.

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 8:42 am

Gets worried about brother.

utopiandreams · Post by **utopiandreams** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 8:45 am

Polly speaks plainly about the Lying Shit: Iain Duncan Smith will do anything for Brexit – even tell the truth (http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... e-minister).

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 8:46 am

To all those on twitter,or anyone else,stop with utilising it for in/out crap.Show some respect.

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 8:48 am

Multiple attacks.

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 8:50 am

: 8 percent Osborne.jpg (17.47 KiB) Viewed 6480 times

Matt Chorley ‏@MattChorley 3m3 minutes ago
A correction to this morning's email: Should read "2/3 of Tories DON'T think Osborne could cut it". Sorry George

StephenDolan · Post by **StephenDolan** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 8:53 am

Humphrys tickling Clarke's tummy. How predictable.

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 9:06 am

@HindleA

Only just realised what your earlier tweets re worrying about your brother and multiple attacks relate to. Thoughts are with you - and I hope he is well and safe.

It's awful news.

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 9:12 am

Children's social services also face forced 'academisation'
Ray Jones
The journey being shaped for children’s services is along the same route the government is going to impose on schools
http://www.theguardian.com/social-care- ... demisation" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I have already experienced this isolationism. When overseeing child protection in a local authority area, there were two large academy secondary schools controlled by a national chain. The senior managers in the chain were not visible or available locally. The schools did not participate in multi-agency child protection training and were seen as unwilling to engage constructively or to work in partnership with other agencies on behalf of children. Unlike other schools and agencies, they would not provide information requested by the children’s services improvement board, which I chaired.

Having failed to get these concerns addressed locally, with the council as powerless and frustrated by the schools as much as I was, my recourse was to write directly to Michael Gove, the then education secretary. No local politician and no one in the local area had any leverage with the schools or the academy chain. The only – limited – public and political accountability for what was happening in these schools was held by the secretary of state.

utopiandreams · Post by **utopiandreams** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 9:28 am

Who needs local accountability when we have computers to tell us no? Have you not seen the direction of travel? I even heard we'll be turning to them for love soon, rebecca. Now that really would be a 'no' too many.

NonOxCol · Post by **NonOxCol** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 9:44 am

HindleA wrote:To all those on twitter,or anyone else,stop with utilising it for in/out crap.Show some respect.

Would that be Allison Pearson, by any chance? Also known for columns about how proud she is of being a middle-lane hogger on motorways. Few more watertight definitions of utter self-absorbed fuckwittery than that.

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 9:48 am

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/ec ... -over-cuts" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

How George Osborne's view of humanity brought him unstuck over cuts

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 9:57 am

NonOxCol

Yes.

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 10:00 am

Complete with exclamation mark.

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 10:02 am

Think it is airport and one metro station.Hopefully that is it.

nickyinnorfolk · Post by **nickyinnorfolk** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 10:22 am

Only just catching up on Nicky Morgan being bamboozled by a graph. Just checked on yesterday's posts which covered Morgan's floundering in detail.

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thought Evan Davis was treating her with kid gloves - nevertheless highlighting her cluelessness.

Willow904 · Post by **Willow904** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 10:23 am

HindleA wrote:http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/ec ... -over-cuts

How George Osborne's view of humanity brought him unstuck over cuts

I'd like to believe the essence of this article is true, but I need to see some serious movement in the polls before I'm convinced that swing voters genuinely hold those nuanced views, and aren't just using the phantom benefit scrounger as an excuse to assuage their conscience when knowingly voting for their own financial benefit at the expense of other, less fortunate people. I suspect they're ready and waiting to swallow any old line about how all PIP recipients have been outrageously overpaid money they don't need, whilst ignoring the fact that tax cuts reward people with money they don't need as well. Or am I being too cynical? Ho hum....

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 10:28 am

Good morfternoon.

Usual apologies if . . . .

Nicky Morgan, the education secretary, had an uncomfortable exchange with Newsnight’s Evan Davis last night when he asked her about an analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies showing that the poor lose most from the tax and benefit changes being introduced in this parliament. Newsnight screened the figures. Morgan claimed she had not seen them (Politics Live, Guardian)

There's a link (over at Politics Live) to the interview. Did anyone here see it (the interview - not the link)?

Anyway, these figures have been around for a while now, haven't they?

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 10:30 am

nickyinnorfolk wrote:Only just catching up on Nicky Morgan being bamboozled by a graph. Just checked on yesterday's posts which covered Morgan's floundering in detail.

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thought Evan Davis was treating her with kid gloves - nevertheless highlighting her cluelessness.

Whoops!

nickyinnorfolk · Post by **nickyinnorfolk** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 10:32 am

Allison Pearson getting stick over her amazingly stupid Brexit/Brussels tweet:

Rob
Twitter › Gatz77
@allisonpearson people are actually still bleeding at the scene and you're scoring cheap political points? What is wrong with you??

Daniel Maier
Twitter › danielmaier
Does Allison Pearson think that leaving Europe means we physically drift off into the middle of the sea where ISIS can't get us?

AnatolyKasparov · Post by **AnatolyKasparov** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 10:32 am

HindleA wrote:http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/ec ... -over-cuts

How George Osborne's view of humanity brought him unstuck over cuts

Actually, that is a very good piece. So what is it doing in the Staggers?

mbc1955 · Post by **mbc1955** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 10:44 am

nickyinnorfolk wrote:Allison Pearson getting stick over her amazingly stupid Brexit/Brussels tweet:

Rob
Twitter › Gatz77
@allisonpearson people are actually still bleeding at the scene and you're scoring cheap political points? What is wrong with you??

Daniel Maier
Twitter › danielmaier
Does Allison Pearson think that leaving Europe means we physically drift off into the middle of the sea where ISIS can't get us?

More tweets via Zelo Street

http://zelo-street.blogspot.co.uk/2016/ ... bigot.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 10:45 am

Ok. I've caught up with yesterday now. As you were.

(I hope yahyah is ok. I see she's not tuned in yet or I'd have sent her a message.)

Post by **refitman** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 12:29 pm

The Register have a nice timeline of failure for UC: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/03/21 ... ds_legacy/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 12:30 pm

Sorry that my last post was apparently such a conversation-stopper.

AnatolyKasparov · Post by **AnatolyKasparov** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 12:35 pm

Yeah, I always find the occasional long gaps in the threads intriguing

Re the mayoral poll yesterday showing a smaller Khan lead (though he still "wins" by 53-47) worth pointing out it was by ComRes, so shouldn't be directly compared with other recent surveys by YouGov and Opinium. Anybody know if they did a previous poll for this contest, and if so what it said?

citizenJA · Post by **citizenJA** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 12:40 pm

Good-afternoon, everyone.

yahyah · Post by **yahyah** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 12:51 pm

PorFavor wrote:Ok. I've caught up with yesterday now. As you were.

(I hope yahyah is ok. I see she's not tuned in yet or I'd have sent her a message.)

Hi PF.

Feeling rough today unfortunately.

But good news is I've had an out patient appointment letter this morning and an appt surprisingly soon.
Again well done Welsh NHS.

citizenJA · Post by **citizenJA** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 12:52 pm

UK government's borrowing target adrift after fall in tax receipts
Official figures show that the chancellor George Osborne will need to borrow more this financial year than the last

http://www.theguardian.com/business/201 ... x-receipts" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Nothing but failure this Tory Chancellor

seeingclearly · Post by **seeingclearly** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 12:55 pm

IDS compassionate department ignored cries of help for years.

http://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2016/03 ... p-for-year" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

citizenJA · Post by **citizenJA** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 1:13 pm

Osborne and that Tory front bench argue with all the finesse of trolls

AnatolyKasparov · Post by **AnatolyKasparov** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 1:14 pm

Its been overshadowed by Pearson, but Mad Mel's latest offering - basically "why oh why don't brown people read more fiction?" - is also pretty breathtaking.

I am not aware if Salman Rushdie (amongst several) has been asked to comment on it yet

yahyah · Post by **yahyah** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 1:38 pm

AS says Tory MPs are 'bellowing ''more'' ' as Osborne ends his speech.

AnatolyKasparov · Post by **AnatolyKasparov** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 1:42 pm

yahyah wrote:AS says Tory MPs are 'bellowing ''more'' ' as Osborne ends his speech.

Utterly predictable and means less than nothing.

Even somebody as anti-Corbyn as Rentoul has pointed out that GO apparently only said there were "no plans" for further cuts.

I think we all know what that means by now.......

RogerOThornhill · Post by **RogerOThornhill** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 1:43 pm

Tory MPs in "taking the piss" non-shocker.

A Tory MP says the national debt would be £900bn higher under Labour’s plans.
Osborne rounds this up. Labour would have left the country with £1 trillion more of debt, he says.

A Tory MP asks Osborne to remind people of Gordon Brown’s 10p tax rate fiasco.

AnatolyKasparov · Post by **AnatolyKasparov** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 1:45 pm

RogerOThornhill wrote:Tory MPs in "taking the piss" non-shocker.

A Tory MP says the national debt would be £900bn higher under Labour’s plans.
Osborne rounds this up. Labour would have left the country with £1 trillion more of debt, he says.

A Tory MP asks Osborne to remind people of Gordon Brown’s 10p tax rate fiasco.

I mean, seriously, do they actually think this stuff impresses anybody at all outside the bubble - or even that many within it??

nickyinnorfolk · Post by **nickyinnorfolk** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 1:57 pm

Good stuff from Owen Jones:

This is the moment to attack the Tories’ undeserved reputation for competence

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

I couldn't agree more. A major reason the Tories got a majority last time was because too many people erroneously thought 'I know the Tories are bastards but at least they're competent bastards'.

Truth is they are both cruel and incompetent.

Labour should have banged on about this, with stats, in 2015 - especially since the Tories were using the catchphrase 'competence versus chaos'.

Good comment from Hacklesup as well.

He has failed by every substantial measure – the deficit, debt, growth, living standards, productivity, you name it – and yet, for a long time, has been presented as a strategic genius

quite right

This must be hammered home to the electortate to whom the Tories have constantly LIED about the economy

Else in the G. this morning we learn

Official figures show that the chancellor George Osborne will need to borrow more this financial year than the last

That's on top of all the borrowing he has already done ...

His management ,particularly the strangling of growth in the years 2010-2013 which led to the Loss of the Triple A which he HAD claimed was his overall priority to maintain has been the complete opposite of their claims

It's not just nonsense , it is a COMPLETE LIE , that Osborne has rescued our economy as the Tories constantly tell the electorate

yahyah · Post by **yahyah** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 1:58 pm

Isn't the constant refrain 'modern, compassionate Conservatives' in danger of reminding people that they used to be seen as the nasty party ?

yahyah · Post by **yahyah** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 2:00 pm

Just had a boring YouGov banking survey, but was asked at the end about support for IDS' resignation and whether his resignation excuse was genuine or not.

edited to add: the first question used the word support - which means that people like me, happy to see the old ghoul gone, will probably be quoted as 'supporting' IDS' decision - but not why.

Tubby Isaacs · Post by **Tubby Isaacs** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 2:06 pm

10p tax rate fiasco?!

Something in budget was unpopular. Hardly unique?

yahyah · Post by **yahyah** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 2:07 pm

& Brown did re-imburse people later on for some of the financial loss.

NonOxCol · Post by **NonOxCol** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 2:10 pm

I've reached the point where I think I viscerally loathe not just these fucking despicable excuses for humanity, but every last bastard that voted for them.

Sorry.

StephenDolan · Post by **StephenDolan** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 2:10 pm

James Cartlidge, your constituents must be so proud.

nickyinnorfolk · Post by **nickyinnorfolk** » Tue 22 Mar, 2016 2:11 pm

News Toad's take on the Tory crisis:

Conservatives divided over whether to be total bastards or utter bastards

The Conservative party is thought to be divided today over whether to be total bastards or utter bastards.

Prime Minister David Cameron has denied that now the Conservative Government has disenfranchised just about every sector of society that isn’t them, they were ready to turn on each other like a pack of rabid dogs.

However, a source from within the party told us:
“There are some of us that want to shit on everybody struggling to make ends meet, and others that only want to shit on some people who are struggling to make ends meet in order to further their own political career, so as to manoeuvre themselves into a position where they can shit on absolutely everyone that struggles to make ends meet.

“Iain Duncan smith was clearly a total bastard. But when he left the cabinet citing his own policies as the reason that made him an utter bastard. There’s a big difference.”

However, the former Work and Pensions Secretary has argued that he has always been an utter bastard and could name a number of colleagues who feel the same way.

“We’ve had enough quite enough of ourselves and our unfair policies so we’re forming a separate faction that is going to do exactly the same thing.” He explained.

“And in the meantime, George Osborne should resign. And re-apply for his old job. And get it. And stand up. And sit down. And then get on with the serious business of ensuring a quarter of the population don’t have enough to eat.” He added.

Former Tory Leader Michael Howard urged conservative MPs to calm down and remember that ultimately they were all bastards.