Politics Thread!

[pogo]

Like Germany before 1945 yes. I wonder what else he has in common with Herr Führer?

As for YouGov and the election, none of the main polling organisations got that right. Collectively they screwed up even worse than the 1992 election, their previous low point. Now there are more and they are far more scientific, or supposedly so.

[VNVObit]

not everyone thinks tories are bad
http://24dash.com/news/housing/2015-07- ... ank-Tories
and this lot aren't real tories

can believe the comment on RTB

[merman]

Spending review under way. Osborne asking for 40% budget cuts from "unprotected departments".

More than £20 billion in spending has to be saved by 2019-20.

Hope the people that voted for it are happy with all the under-funded and inadequate public services they get.

If it goes well they won’t need to. Because they managed to cut more last parliament without seriously impacting services. Most of the cuts happened last parliament, leaving less to be done this time round.

It will be harder this time, as the easiest cuts have already been made. But that does not mean nothing can be done. Departments are being asked to look at how to meet two targets, 25% and 40% by 2019-20, it’s not that everything is being cut by 40%. If the cuts are achieved spending will return to levels last seen in 2003, hardly disastrous.

"Ring-fenced" departments are seeing REAL TERMS CUTS. For example, in education the pupil premium will NOT increase with inflation. In health there has to be £22 billion in "savings".

And the quality of services HAS been seriously affected by the cuts so far and WILL be hit even further by this new spending review.

[(o)(o)]

Like Germany before 1945 yes. I wonder what else he has in common with Herr Führer?

It's no surprise you lap up Joseph Goebbels propaganda, as readily as you do that of Tory NASTZIS.

http://24dash.com/news/housing/2015-07-21-Opinion-Proper-Tories-versus-think-tank-Tories

That guy has his story mixed up.. "Think Tank Tory" doesn't make sense in my view..

The housing change I believe he speaks of came at the peak of the banking crisis 2008. Prior to this major land owners, predominantly Tories, did maintain some affordable housing mostly in rural areas, for local people, preferentially let to people who had local trade, or more likely those employed by the estate itself.

Post 2008 there was a switch to a more "commercial" approach, so many of these properties were (and are being) sold off, the money reinvested in more distinctly profitable enterprises. Rental properties moved to market rent model, tradesmen found themselves bidding for their previous work in a self-employed capacity, and many of these estates are being fragmented, commercialised, and trimmed back.

There is no clearer example of this than the Crown Estate and if you read their literature closely you can see the shift.

[VNVObit]

http://24dash.com/news/housing/2015-07-21-Opinion-Proper-Tories-versus-think-tank-Tories

That guy has his story mixed up.. "Think Tank Tory" doesn't make sense in my view..

The housing change I believe he speaks of came at the peak of the banking crisis 2008. Prior to this major land owners, predominantly Tories, did maintain some affordable housing mostly in rural areas, for local people, preferentially let to people who had local trade, or more likely those employed by the estate itself.

Post 2008 there was a switch to a more "commercial" approach, so many of these properties were (and are being) sold off, the money reinvested in more distinctly profitable enterprises. Rental properties moved to market rent model, tradesmen found themselves bidding for their previous work in a self-employed capacity, and many of these estates are being fragmented, commercialised, and trimmed back.

There is no clearer example of this than the Crown Estate and if you read their literature closely you can see the shift.

Crown estate were/are not social housing providers they were not set up with a mission to provide social housing unlike say Peabody or Guiness
Tory councillors tend to be divided between those who want to sell off social housing and move people out of borough (Wandsworth), sell off vacant properties when they can (hammersmith were like that) and those who have retained ownership (Kensington, Westminster) either through an Arms Length Management Organisation or Tenant Management Organisation

[(o)(o)]

Crown estate were/are not social housing providers they were not set up with a mission to provide social housing unlike say Peabody or Guiness

I felt by some of his cmments.. eg "A proper Tory fights tooth and nail to build houses for local people in villages.".. he's not referring about "social housing" per se but affordable tenancies.. mostly rural stuff.. and the gentry did hold a lot of such stock for local people and farmers

I'm sure you're aware of the Crown Estate sale of Cumberland Market, Millbank, Victoria Park and Lee Green housing estates, previously below market rent for key workers.. and the tenants there, including many low paid NHS workers, previously had peace of mind with the affordable rent regime, now living in fear that Peabody will ramp up the histrically low rents at the first opportunity..

[pogo]

[pogo]

Surprised no-one has mentioned this. Normally I would not direct anyone towards The Sun but they do have an exclusive and post images like this:



That is a rolled up fiver up his nose ready to snort coke off the breast of a prostitute. The things you can pay for with government expenses !

He looks a lot happier in that then the photo below, which accompanies The Economist’s piece on him which just reprints his letters to them defending the reputation of the House of Lords !

[gravy]

The video's of him doing his dirty deeds are all over YT. Amazing scenes

[Yak]

"snorting coke off a hooker's tits" is one of those things you hear invoked as an exaggerated exemplar of hedonistic excess.

Amazing that a British politician actually managed to get himself videoed doing exactly that.

[zip accident]

"snorting coke off a hooker's tits" is one of those things you hear invoked as an exaggerated exemplar of hedonistic excess.

Amazing that a British politician actually managed to get himself videoed doing exactly that.

Yeah, and going by that frame, with a totally awful camera.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00J ... cs&sr=1-11

Or is that camera that bad despite capturing in 4k?

I do wonder whether he's going to claim it was a photoshop, some other bloke with his face pasted on, but if there are more than a dozen frames, and it was less than a week ago that the event happened, that seems implausible to me.

Someone must have had access to the premises and left a camera running, the batteries wouldn't hold up that long on the one I found, so maybe the resolution had to be poor. Ah, that camcorder is controllable from a phone, so maybe the girls phoned it when they arrived.

[(o)(o)]

Lightweight !!

2 x lines

One for each labia lip... only way...

[tufty]

Frankly, "politician has consenting sex with adults" is something that should be applauded in these post-yewtree days.

[gravy]

Frankly, "politician has consenting sex with adults" is something that should be applauded in these post-yewtree days.

Good point They should use this as a training video

[pogo]

Frankly, "politician has consenting sex with adults" is something that should be applauded in these post-yewtree days.

Paid though. And paid for by us, i.e .by taxpayers who fund their generous allowances, as he makes clear in the video. Apart from that he was supposed to be the upholder of standards in the House of Lords. Even if he technically didn’t break any rules that meant he had to step down.

Did anyone else see this?

There are two ways out of the wilderness for Labour: Jeremy Corbyn or Liz Kendall

It makes a lot of sense to me. Kendall looks likely to come last but she looks like the only one able to take Labour back to the centre, where it needs to be to win.

Corbyn would take Labour in the other direction, and that might be a good thing for the Labour party, shoring up the support especially in Scotland where they lost support to the SNP and many places where they lost traditional Labour voters to UKIP. Then when it becomes clear that he cannot win in England he can stand down and be replaced. He would at least provide a genuine alternative to the government, and push them much harder on cuts, immigration and human rights.

The other two would I fear be a disaster, Ed Miliband all over again, against a Tory party with much more freedom to set the agenda. Burnham is the one who came way down in fourth in the last leadership election. Now he is many people’s favourite. Cooper too is too closely associated with Gordon Brown’s administration so will find it hard to distance herself from it.