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[Coriolanus]

Sure nothing's incorrect, but there's a pretty strong undercurrent of "and what a shame it is that we don't now." as if the existence of the Soviet Union is better than its absence.

Without the full article, i can only go by the quote, but even there it is pretty clear what he's decrying, since it is explicitly stated. Namely, the lack of

– socialist political alternatives

and not the USSR itself.

 

[tomtom94]

At the risk of sounding like I'm changing the subject, I nearly put this in its own thread but I think the anti-IDS jerk had its fill last time around: £8.54m has been spent/wasted by the DWP on an advert campaign for workplace pensions featuring a CGI monster.

 

[Uzzy]

Shame about the Lords backing down already. It'd have been interesting to see some constitutional change in the offering.

Anyway, Cameron using the word 'delighted' in regards to the tax credit cuts is going to come back to haunt him.

 

[Beefy]

Shame about the Lords backing down already. It'd have been interesting to see some constitutional change in the offering.

Anyway, Cameron using the word 'delighted' in regards to the tax credit cuts is going to come back to haunt him.

It probably won't.

 

[Fernando Fernandez]

The Media's on their side, if it was Corbyn it would.

Alistair Campbell would have had a field day wirh Cameron by now.

 

[Beefy]

At the risk of sounding like I'm changing the subject, I nearly put this in its own thread but I think the anti-IDS jerk had its fill last time around: £8.54m has been spent/wasted by the DWP on an advert campaign for workplace pensions featuring a CGI monster.

But look at it! It's so cute and wants to work. Unlike them benefit claiming monsters.

 

[Jezbollah]

Labour MP for Oldham West and Royton, Michael Meacher has passed away aged 75.

No indication of when a by-election will take place, but it'll be the first in the Corbyn era.

 

[Par Score]

Meacher was a fine MP, the only dark mark being his credulousness towards and alliance with the 9/11 "truther" types, a rather harmless peccadillo when compared to many of his peers.

Oldham West is as safe a Labour seat as you'd like, so I don't expect the inevitable by-election to say much about anything.

 

[CyclopsRock]

Without the full article, i can only go by the quote, but even there it is pretty clear what he's decrying, since it is explicitly stated. Namely, the lack of

and not the USSR itself.

Perhaps his other writings are colouring my reading of it, but it seems pretty clear to me that he's not simply lamenting a lack of alternatives - afterall, we still have countries out there adhering to significantly less capitalism models than "the west" at large are - but rather lamenting the loss of the USSR due to it being a large, strong (well...) competitor to the US. Now he *could* just be lamenting that there's no big, strong competitor to the US who also doesn't follow the market model but, well, he said the Soviet Union specifically.

 

[Mindwipe]

Meacher was a fine MP, the only dark mark being his credulousness towards and alliance with the 9/11 "truther" types, a rather harmless peccadillo when compared to many of his peers.

Oldham West is as safe a Labour seat as you'd like, so I don't expect the inevitable by-election to say much about anything.

Yeah, the right of the PLP won't be able to claim the party is being dragged to the left by any replacement for Meacher, who was one of the people to nominate Corbyn in the first place.

 

[CyclopsRock]

Oldham West is as safe a Labour seat as you'd like, so I don't expect the inevitable by-election to say much about anything.

Indeedy but I believe UKIP beat the Tories to 2nd place last time. Traditionally UKIP do pretty well in by-elections but I feel like a bit of their buzz has worn off after their disappointing seat haul in April. Labour will certainly win it, but where the chips fall will be interesting to see.

 

[Roberto Larcos]

RIP.

It'll be interesting to see who Labour select as their candidate for the seat. Given Meacher's position as left-wing within the Labour party, there's cause to put in a more left-leaning candidate. Maybe a return to the Commons for one of the ousted Scottish Labour MPs, or even Ed Balls?

 

[tomtom94]

Meacher was a fine MP, the only dark mark being his credulousness towards and alliance with the 9/11 "truther" types, a rather harmless peccadillo when compared to many of his peers.

Oldham West is as safe a Labour seat as you'd like, so I don't expect the inevitable by-election to say much about anything.

The most important thing it could say is what Labour do to select Meacher's replacement, given that MP selection has been a thorny issue ever since Blair changed the process (by making it more centralised) and it will probably be seen as another test of Corbyn's decision-making and/or authority within the party.

RIP Michael Meacher.

 

[kmag]

That's the nuclear deal signed with China. And people think Corbyn's a threat to national security.

 

[Moosichu]

That's the nuclear deal signed with China. And people think Corbyn's a threat to national security.

The electricity from the plant is going to be sold at double the current wholesale cost of electricity for a guarenteed 35 years. It's absurd.

 

[Mindwipe]

The electricity from the plant is going to be sold at double the current wholesale cost of electricity for a guarenteed 35 years. It's absurd.

Plus a suite of potential cleanup and security liabilities.

It's just an economically dunderheaded deal.

It's BNFL all over again.

 

[kmag]

Tories have lost the ability to ever moan about PFI (which they introduced anyway) this nuclear deal quite apart from literally being a direct threat to national security (funny how China is brought up as potential future threat when Trident is involved but the same folks don't bat an eyelid that Chinese software will be running nuclear plants on UK soil), is essentially the biggest and least cost effective PFI deal ever.

 

[Jezbollah]

I do wonder given the amount of old infrastructure we have in this country if this kind of inflated price will be the norm once it eventually gets replaced.

 

[Uzzy]

That's the nuclear deal signed with China. And people think Corbyn's a threat to national security.

At least it's not one of those terrible public sector utilities. Everyone knows the state is inefficient and delivers poor value to the tax payer, so it's reassuring to see that bastion of freedom and free market principles, the CCP, investing over here and showing us how great private enterprise is.

 

[tomtom94]

Tories have lost the ability to ever moan about PFI (which they introduced anyway) this nuclear deal quite apart from literally being a direct threat to national security (funny how China is brought up as potential future threat when Trident is involved but the same folks don't bat an eyelid that Chinese software will be running nuclear plants on UK soil), is essentially the biggest and least cost effective PFI deal ever.

So glad that Osborne is the bookies' favourite to become the next PM.

 

[War Peaceman]

So glad that Osborne is the bookies' favourite to become the next PM.

good politician but he has very little business nous or acumen

I like him a lot more than the alternatives, fwiw.

 

[phisheep]

At the risk of sounding like I'm changing the subject, I nearly put this in its own thread but I think the anti-IDS jerk had its fill last time around: £8.54m has been spent/wasted by the DWP on an advert campaign for workplace pensions featuring a CGI monster.

Seems fair enough to me. After all, there's a huge amount of work to be done by small businesses in setting up pensions schemes and apparently a whole lot of lack of awareness about it.

My business is more-or-less on track (and our staging date for pensions isn't until 2017) - but unless they get a lot more response there will be something of a shambles further down the line. And advertising seems to be a fairly sane way of reaching people.

 

[CyclopsRock]

Plus they said "they've paid £8.5m for this CGI monster" thing but I imagine that 80% of that budget is going on the direct advertising space - TV spots, posters etc. Producing it won't be much. CG is, sadly, cheap.

I just saw on C4 the fact that since 2000, 21 Labour MPs have died in office and only 1 Tory. The average age of the Labour members is, presumably, higher - I wonder why? (That's a genuine question, not snark). Maybe too many Tory MPs end up quitting to "spend more time with the family" or something.

 

[PJV3]

I just saw on C4 the fact that since 2000, 21 Labour MPs have died in office and only 1 Tory. The average age of the Labour members is, presumably, higher - I wonder why? (That's a genuine question, not snark). Maybe too many Tory MPs end up quitting to "spend more time with the family" or something.

Perhaps the big clear out in 97 had something to do with it.

 

[Moosichu]

Someone at the BBC have a bit of a giggle:

About £16bn worth of British goods were imported into China in 2014.
Some examples include vehicles and parts (worth £5.6bn) and medicines (£780m). They also include pig semen.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/artic...ina-as-its-president-xi-jinping-visits-the-uk

 

[CyclopsRock]

Someone at the BBC have a bit of a giggle:



http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/artic...ina-as-its-president-xi-jinping-visits-the-uk

Ha, maybe, but I remember it was a big story when the whole pig jizz trade thing happened.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

Lord ashcroft paying the price for breaking the first rule of Pig club.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

That's the nuclear deal signed with China. And people think Corbyn's a threat to national security.

Dat unequal treaty.

What a fucking shithole we've become.

 

[RobotNinjaHornets]

So EVEL has passed

Why the Tories are doing the SNP's job I don't quite know

 

[Jezbollah]

So EVEL has passed

Why the Tories are doing the SNP's job I don't quite know

Oh well. No excuses now why all that's been promised the Nos in the referendum cant be delivered quickly and in full now.

 

[Uzzy]

So EVEL has passed

Why the Tories are doing the SNP's job I don't quite know

It's such a stupid way of trying to resolve the long running constitutional issues facing the UK, and feels like a purely partisan attempt to prevent Labour having working majorities in the future. If that does occur, if a future Government has a UK majority but not an English majority, then we're going to see some real trouble.

 

[RedShift]

It's such a stupid way of trying to resolve the long running constitutional issues facing the UK, and feels like a purely partisan attempt to prevent Labour having working majorities in the future. If that does occur, if a future Government has a UK majority but not an English majority, then we're going to see some real trouble.

I think the effect on Labour being able to form a working majority is overstated. None of a lairs majorities relied on Scotland did they? I think only one since the war has.

Plus, nowadays Labour only has one seat north of the border anyway.

I think this is pretty low on the list of reasons why Labour won't be forming a working majority any time soon.

EDIT: I do think EVEL is fucking stupid and awful though.

 

[blazinglord]

It's such a stupid way of trying to resolve the long running constitutional issues facing the UK, and feels like a purely partisan attempt to prevent Labour having working majorities in the future. If that does occur, if a future Government has a UK majority but not an English majority, then we're going to see some real trouble.

Maybe Labour needs to focus on getting a working English majority then? I don't know why some people on the left seem to have a defeatist attitude that it will be impossible for a left-wing party to win the political argument again in England. Nor does it seem particularly fair if a political party has a 'UK majority' but not an English majority when England accounts for 84% of the UK population but lacks it's own parliament.

Maybe this EVEL will go some way in holding future governments (with a UK majority but not an English majority) to account in ensuring that legislation that only affects England has the majority support of English MPs. However, it is my understanding that EVEL has been watered down so English MPs won't be able to veto legislation anyway which is a shame.

 

[tomtom94]

Labour lost Tottington council tonight. Looks like the Conservatives held all four of the councils they were defending (which doesn't look like a surprise really, all of them look like safe areas)

Maybe this EVEL will go some way in holding future governments (with a UK majority but not an English majority) to account in ensuring that legislation that only affects England has the majority support of English MPs. However, it is my understanding that EVEL has been watered down so English MPs won't be able to veto legislation anyway which is a shame.

The idea of an "English veto" is ridiculous because it implies that English legislation (ith the divvying up of budgets and all that that entails) has no impact on Scotland.

Then again, I don't believe Scotland should have been offered more devolution in the first place, so what do I know.

EDIT: In retrospect, those are some harsh words, so take your pick from "I am a staunch internationalist who believes you can have either sovereign democracy or believe in the greater good, but not both" or "I am bitter at how the SNP have driven a wedge through the left of British politics"

 

[blazinglord]

Labour lost Tottington council tonight. Looks like the Conservatives held all four of the councils they were defending (which doesn't look like a surprise really, all of them look like safe areas)



The idea of an "English veto" is ridiculous because it implies that English legislation (ith the divvying up of budgets and all that that entails) has no impact on Scotland.

Then again, I don't believe Scotland should have been offered more devolution in the first place, so what do I know.

EDIT: In retrospect, those are some harsh words, so take your pick from "I am a staunch internationalist who believes you can have either sovereign democracy or believe in the greater good, but not both" or "I am bitter at how the SNP have driven a wedge through the left of British politics"

I hear what you're saying and you are perfectly entitled to take the internationalist view to political matters. However, I do think too much emphasis on the 'greater good' leaves people in individual communities feeling alienated and left out as the world passes them by - which stores up future problems down the line (i.e. resurgent nationalism of a more virulent type).

I don't mind Scotland having more devolution if that means keeping Scotland in the union and leaves Scottish people feeling they have some control over their destiny. But I also think that A. Wales should be offered more devolution and B. some sort of EVEL is necessary at Westminster if England (rightly or wrongly) is considered too big to have its own assembly.

Ideally we would have federalism. Abolishing the House of Lords and have the House of Commons as the upper house for the UK, and then creating a smaller English Assembly equal to the Scottish parliament and Welsh Assembly. But this is a pipe dream, especially considering the mess that is Northern Ireland which seems incapable of governing itself in the same way as Scotland or Wales.

 

[Nicktendo86]

Huge swing to to the Tories from Labour in the Bury by election last night. The outgoing labour Councillor was a convicted paedophile, however.

 

[Moosichu]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...n-square-survivor-over-peaceful-a6704911.html

DC selling out our rights for overpriced electricity.

 

[tomtom94]

Huge swing to to the Tories from Labour in the Bury by election last night. The outgoing labour Councillor was a convicted paedophile, however.

Further proof that Tom Watson's position is untenable.

Spoiler

/s

 

[ruttyboy]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...n-square-survivor-over-peaceful-a6704911.html

DC selling out our rights for overpriced electricity.

"The three were initially arrested to prevent a breach of the peace he said but were later rearrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit threatening behaviour."

What a load of trumped up bullshit. Still in a country where you have to apply to the government for permission to protest against the government I guess we already are a mini-China.

 

[CyclopsRock]

I hear what you're saying and you are perfectly entitled to take the internationalist view to political matters. However, I do think too much emphasis on the 'greater good' leaves people in individual communities feeling alienated and left out as the world passes them by - which stores up future problems down the line (i.e. resurgent nationalism of a more virulent type).

I don't mind Scotland having more devolution if that means keeping Scotland in the union and leaves Scottish people feeling they have some control over their destiny. But I also think that A. Wales should be offered more devolution and B. some sort of EVEL is necessary at Westminster if England (rightly or wrongly) is considered too big to have its own assembly.

Ideally we would have federalism. Abolishing the House of Lords and have the House of Commons as the upper house for the UK, and then creating a smaller English Assembly equal to the Scottish parliament and Welsh Assembly. But this is a pipe dream, especially considering the mess that is Northern Ireland which seems incapable of governing itself in the same way as Scotland or Wales.

I'm still a fan of the idea of scrapping MSP's and Welsh and NI Assembly members and just have the Westminster MPs fulfil that role - divide Westminster's time in half and have half of it as it currently is, dealing with UK legislation. Then on Thursday's and Friday's the Irish, Scottish and Welsh MP's go to their local parliament's/assemblys and represent their same constituents on the devolved issues, leaving only the English MPs in Westminster to deal with English-only issues. This solves the problem of having second-class MPs because each MP has the same power as one another, only some execute legislative votes in different chambers (but on the same issues). It also saves us from having another 3 set of politicians representing the same people. The biggest problem with this is that of cabinet and the government - how is it formed? A Scottish politician is unlikely to ever end up in a Cabinet position if that position is one of a largely devolved policy area (ie Education).

 

[kitch9]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...n-square-survivor-over-peaceful-a6704911.html

DC selling out our rights for overpriced electricity.

The home raiding sounds a little OTT without knowing the normal procedure for these things but I would think it would be safe to assume anyone standing in front of a mobile official government motorcade would be quickly fingered by the rozzers or security, regardless of what their history may be.

 

[ruttyboy]

The home raiding sounds a little OTT without knowing the normal procedure for these things but I would think it would be safe to assume anyone standing in front of a mobile official government motorcade would be quickly fingered by the rozzers or security, regardless of what their history may be.

What about threatening flag waving?

Two Tibetan women were also arrested by police after they attempted to wave Tibetan flags at the passing motorcade.

 

[tomtom94]

I'm still a fan of the idea of scrapping MSP's and Welsh and NI Assembly members and just have the Westminster MPs fulfil that role - divide Westminster's time in half and have half of it as it currently is, dealing with UK legislation. Then on Thursday's and Friday's the Irish, Scottish and Welsh MP's go to their local parliament's/assemblys and represent their same constituents on the devolved issues, leaving only the English MPs in Westminster to deal with English-only issues. This solves the problem of having second-class MPs because each MP has the same power as one another, only some execute legislative votes in different chambers (but on the same issues). It also saves us from having another 3 set of politicians representing the same people. The biggest problem with this is that of cabinet and the government - how is it formed? A Scottish politician is unlikely to ever end up in a Cabinet position if that position is one of a largely devolved policy area (ie Education).

EDIT: I can't read and thus this post is now redundant, so instead I'll just say burn it all down.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

http://www.breitbart.com/london/201...isis-can-keep-children-passports-judge-rules/

At-least they aren't UKIP voters.

/joyce thacker

 

[Jezbollah]

What about threatening flag waving?

Have they had their homes raided too?

 

[ruttyboy]

Have they had their homes raided too?

Who knows, it doesn't say? They were all three rearrested for the same charge of "suspicion of conspiracy to commit threatening behaviour" so it would seem likely if it hasn't happened already.

Of course that logic would only make sense if there was any merit to the charges in the first place of course.

 

[Huw_Dawson]

It's such a stupid way of trying to resolve the long running constitutional issues facing the UK, and feels like a purely partisan attempt to prevent Labour having working majorities in the future. If that does occur, if a future Government has a UK majority but not an English majority, then we're going to see some real trouble.

Unless the Tory vote in England collapses one day, it basically gives them strong controls over English-only areas of policy, like NHS reform.

On the one hand I'm pretty unhappy about this - but the more and more the current situation prevails (Labour unable to form a majority without the SNP, the Tories in perpetual control in England) the more and more likely it is that Labour's will will snap and they'll back electoral reform.

 

[JonathanEx]

Further proof that Tom Watson's position is untenable.

Spoiler

/s

Is this the new 'Dan Hodges says it's a disaster for Ed Miliband' as a go-to position

 

[Jezbollah]

Who knows, it doesn't say? They were all three rearrested for the same charge of "suspicion of conspiracy to commit threatening behaviour" so it would seem likely if it hasn't happened already.

Of course that logic would only make sense if there was any merit to the charges in the first place of course.

Indeed. The fact the first search happened grates me considerably.

 

[ruttyboy]

Indeed. The fact the first search happened grates me considerably.

I'm wondering how long before the Chinese are given a copy of the data on his computer, probably already happened. Maybe it was a favour to clinch the crap nuclear deal?