Politics Thread!

[(o)(o)]

If they execute on their promises there will surely be riots.

Was gonna say.. This..

There will be blood on the streets.

Seems we have our first civil unrest - *unconfirmed* reports coming in of 17 people arrest in a skirmish in the regions of No.10

But get this, they are saying it was unplanned - 1000 people just gathered around Conservative Party HQ and marched on to Downing Street

[(o)(o)]

Video http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32678518

Is that a Policeman shouting "Fuck off" at protestor at 39 sec ?

[(o)(o)]

[pogo]

So a few dozen attention seekers use a solemn commemoration of the end of WWII to get themselves on TV by attacking the police. Well they succeeded in that. They’re not going to achieve anything political like that though – the election was two days ago and that was their chance.

It really was their chance. That election was very winnable for Labour. The coalition was unpopular. So were Cameron and Clegg. They had failed to deliver in many areas. All Labour had to do is choose someone likeable for leader, from the centre of the party not the left. They choose Miliband instead.

[Cloudane]

Welcome to the next 5 years..

They could've chosen a charismatic leader, but it'd be much better if people could learn not to be so damn shallow. Oh no he looks a bit funny, eats a bacon sandwich awkwardly and stumbles off stage... if he can do his actual job, who cares?

Labour had a charismatic leader in 1997, he was called Tony Blair. The war criminal. Charisma isn't everything..

[pogo]

It’s not just or even mostly charisma – Cameron is no Blair either. It’s that Miliband shifted the Labour party decisively to the left, and so far to the left of the electorate. Tony Blair wasn’t just charismatic, he also managed to drag Labour back to the centre and make it electable, after 18 years in the wilderness. I hope it doesn’t take another four parliaments for Labour to become electable again.

[gravy]

Oh they're not fucking about. Now they know they're in charge, it's all guns blazing!

Shall we see how they're also screwing over the disabled? http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/po ... 37191.html

Yeah, it's looking likely to be disabled and long term sick they'll be gunning for to get the welfare bill down.

Fuck knows how they'll do it, last term they tried to clamp down on incapacity benefit based on the idea loads of of skivers were milking the state.

They tested that theory to the point of actually killing people but it was wrong and hasn't resulted in savings. On top of that it's been a costly failure, hounding the vulnerable to the point of killing them isn't cheap.

To be honest I hope, to an extent, this is like last time. Loud trumpeting through bullshit forecasts about how they're going to CUT CUT CUT but the reality is more reasonable.

[offyoutoddle]

Welcome to the next 5 years..

They could've chosen a charismatic leader, but it'd be much better if people could learn not to be so damn shallow. Oh no he looks a bit funny, eats a bacon sandwich awkwardly and stumbles off stage... if he can do his actual job, who cares?

Labour had a charismatic leader in 1997, he was called Tony Blair. The war criminal. Charisma isn't everything..

Before all this, I described Miliband as the most unelectable leader since Neil Kinnock. Which unfortunately turned out to be all too true. I can't speak for the bulk of the electorate but his Mr Bean routine was merely a side show siezed on by the media - the problem surely appeared to be his policies. What may have done the most harm was turning up on TV and stating in the run up to the election that Labour didn't wreck the economy last time round. I beleve he specifically defended their record on overspending, but it was to most peoples mind a technicality, because it was under their stewardship the economy ran aground, and arguing that it wasn't because of so-and-so a reason just came across as less politically wise than, say an apology and statement of lessons learned might of. Having the arrogant bully boy Balls (ahhh gone, my happy thought..) who was part of the team involved at the helm would not have helped too - it confirmed what too many feared - that they would do it all over again.

Miliband may have been a clown, but what lost the election for Labour for most was surely, rightly or wrongly, fear of their capability with the economy? That and the greatest british failing of all - the falling back on the 'better the devil you know' mindset.

[offyoutoddle]

Anyone got any ideas how they're going to pull £12bn PA out of the welfare budget then?

Isn't it fair to say now they have won an election they probably think they don't have to care about that? They can stick their fingers back in their ears for another 5 years and lie and wriggle out of any and all such failures when dreaming up their next manifesto.

True to form would be to create a false narrative about how its all to do with some particularly vulnerable group in society and how they were addressing this injustice in ways that their opponents never would have and give themselves massive backslaps (and pay rises)?

Honestly I doubt they will do anything but fail on finding 12bn to cut, and spin the failure in some way. I'm sure they will do immeasurable harm searching for it though.

[gravy]

Anyone got any ideas how they're going to pull £12bn PA out of the welfare budget then?

Isn't it fair to say now they have won an election they probably think they don't have to care about that? They can stick their fingers back in their ears for another 5 years and lie and wriggle out of any and all such failures when dreaming up their next manifesto.

The passed a law a little while back meaning that welfare spending is capped. If they want to spend more they have to go back to parliament to get permission.

They have a majority and they could probably secure that vote. However it'd be a very public climbdown and something, I think, they'd have to do anually.

[pogo]

Here’s the Labour MP for Streatham on where Labour went wrong and what it should do next:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... es-we-made

Mostly obvious and sensible, though he also puts forward one idea I’ve not seen from mainstream politicians, but which I’ve advocated for before:

it is time for parliament to move out of the relic that is the Palace of Westminster and into a new, modern, accessible site fit for purpose

This has a lot to recommend it, if the site is outside London, in the Midlands for example. Obviously it would be a great boost to wherever was chosen, as well as more central and so more accessible. But it would also help address the housing problem in London and the economic imbalances associated with it. The housing problem is both a supply and a demand problem and in London the demand in large part stems from both the City and the government being based there. Not just the Commons and Lords but various departments, the head offices of other departments and branches of government. All the firms with large presences in London to be near the government. All the foreign embassies.

Of course moving people out of London does not fix the national housing shortage, but if it were accompanied by a large building programme to establish a new centre of government then it would help with the supply side too. Shame all this is very unlikely to happen, unless someone government now sees how sensible something like this would be. It could e.g. be accompanied by real constitutional reform of so the new sites were launched with new elections for a new Senate replacing the Lords for example.

[Istar]

I always get a good chuckle when I see butthurt mouth-breathers throwing tantrums because they disagree with who won in a free and fair election.

That coupled with the outrageously-illiterate spouting of plaintive simple-minded calls-to-arms in the letters pages and across social media only serve to remind me that an IQ of 100 is the average, which in turn means that 50% of the people that breathe the same air as me have trouble tying their shoelaces let alone making decisions about who should be running the country.

[gravy]

I always get a good chuckle when I see butthurt mouth-breathers throwing tantrums because they disagree with who won in a free and fair election.

That coupled with the outrageously-illiterate spouting of plaintive simple-minded calls-to-arms in the letters pages and across social media only serve to remind me that an IQ of 100 is the average, which in turn means that 50% of the people that breathe the same air as me have trouble tying their shoelaces let alone making decisions about who should be running the country.

Lol, using that logic everyone who had problems with the National Socialists being elected to power in free and fair election were mouth breathers with shoelace dextirity issues and utterly the worse people to have a view on who should be running Germany.

[gravy]

Phew! Thank cripes for that!

[zip accident]

Oh no he looks a bit funny, eats a bacon sandwich awkwardly and stumbles off stage...

A stumble did for Neil Kinnock.