The Politics Thread

[Hoboh]

£1.7 bill, £850 Mill, who gives a sh*t? the point is we caved in and are paying.
The EU gets a budget and that should be that, bollocks to the 'add on's'.

[thebish]

£1.7 bill, £850 Mill, who gives a sh*t? the point is we caved in and are paying.
The EU gets a budget and that should be that, bollocks to the 'add on's'.

we haven't "caved in" to anything. we have merely paid an amount of money owed to the EU based on calculation that our parliament democratically approved and based on the figures that our democratically elected government submitted for the purpose...

[Harry Genshaw]

As far as I can tell. We're paying exactly what they asked us to pay, but not in the time they wanted us to pay it

[LeverEnd]

As far as I can tell. We're paying exactly what they asked us to pay, but not in the time they wanted us to pay it

Yes half now and the other half effectively after the election, but pretending that half is a discount to make it look like Osborne won some great victory over the EU. Apparently he expects us to believe this bollocks. They'll get away with it though because labour and Mr Ed are useless. Meanwhile Farage rubs his hands in glee.

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

Nope, no way whatsoever we're paying that. Nada, zilch, feck all hope they've got. We aint paying it

[thebish]

so - Miliband and the labour party...

what do folk think? The Labour Party is not famous for ditching poor leaders just before an election - BUT - would it actually give them a chance of a galvanising new-start effect much as Lennon has for the Wanderers??

surely it's only blindly loyal central party officials surrounding Ed who now cannot see that however nice or genuine a guy he is - he has now become a toxic liability to their election campaign??? I think he's been given a decent chance - but to "forget" to talk about the economy in your conference speech just before an election is a pretty suicidal blow to your credibility...

[Bruce Rioja]

^^ I still think, and am still astonished that the wrong Milliband is 'leading' the party. Imagine if Spitting Image was still around? If given a straight choice - who do I want to see as PM - DC or EM? Then it's a no-brainer for me, absolutely DC. However, if asked who do I want to see as Chancellor - GO or EB? Then the answer is, frankly, neither!

[Harry Genshaw]

I see Ed as totally unelectable. Sadly, I don't think the same could be said of Cameron. It really was a spectacular own goal when they chose the wrong brother.

[thebish]

^^ I still think, and am still astonished that the wrong Milliband is 'leading' the party. Imagine if Spitting Image was still around? If given a straight choice - who do I want to see as PM - DC or EM? Then it's a no-brainer for me, absolutely DC. However, if asked who do I want to see as Chancellor - GO or EB? Then the answer is, frankly, neither!

ahh - but DC is merely GO's puppet...

[Prufrock]

I actually think he'd be a pretty good PM, at least relative to Cameron and Clegg, in that he seems to sort of know what he thinks. I don't necessarily agree with all of it, but it's nice to see somehow whose entire outlook isn't driven by the latest opinion polls. Unfortunately he is utterly shite at getting it across. And he only seems like the one whose policy isn't driven by opinion polls compared to the other two; he still has enough flip-flops of his own (the Sun is bad; here's me posing with a copy of the Sun; sorry Liverpool). He is properly shite at the 'getting elected' bit though. So bad.

Having said that, people complained for ages that they were sick of identikit PR slicksters and that politics was all about image, and yet the media never gets past his inability to eat a bacon sandwich. He is rubbish at that stuff though, and doesn't have Cameron's teflon qualities.

Something about the people getting the government it deserves.

I don't think it's inconceivable that they could win though. UKIP will chip a couple of the Tories, Labour will lose a couple to the SNP. If the Lib Dem vote holds though, I reckon it'll be a Labour-Lib Dem pact.

[thebish]

I don't think it's inconceivable that they could win though. UKIP will chip a couple of the Tories, Labour will lose a couple to the SNP. If the Lib Dem vote holds though, I reckon it'll be a Labour-Lib Dem pact.

indeed - this is why they won't ditch him - because they believe that in spite of him - they can actually still achieve power...

[Hoboh]

I actually think he'd be a pretty good PM, at least relative to Cameron and Clegg, in that he seems to sort of know what he thinks. I don't necessarily agree with all of it, but it's nice to see somehow whose entire outlook isn't driven by the latest opinion polls. Unfortunately he is utterly shite at getting it across. And he only seems like the one whose policy isn't driven by opinion polls compared to the other two; he still has enough flip-flops of his own (the Sun is bad; here's me posing with a copy of the Sun; sorry Liverpool). He is properly shite at the 'getting elected' bit though. So bad.

Having said that, people complained for ages that they were sick of identikit PR slicksters and that politics was all about image, and yet the media never gets past his inability to eat a bacon sandwich. He is rubbish at that stuff though, and doesn't have Cameron's teflon qualities.

Something about the people getting the government it deserves.

I don't think it's inconceivable that they could win though. UKIP will chip a couple of the Tories, Labour will lose a couple to the SNP. If the Lib Dem vote holds though, I reckon it'll be a Labour-Lib Dem pact.

Pie in the sky thinking that is, the Mariana Trench awaits.

[Little Green Man]

Something about the people getting the government it deserves.

For fear of sounding po-faced, it's a parliament of universal suffrage - we always get what we deserve within the bounds set by the voting system (which again is collectively within our power to change if we felt it to be unrepresentative).

I don't think it's inconceivable that they could win though. UKIP will chip a couple of the Tories, Labour will lose a couple to the SNP. If the Lib Dem vote holds though, I reckon it'll be a Labour-Lib Dem pact.

The latest polls up here suggest Labour will lose a lot of MPs to the SNP and I very much doubt the Lib Dem vote will hold up (although if they concentrate their resources in their safer seats they might save more than a few).

At the moment I'd have thought there's a decent chance there'll be a three party coalition of some kind (maybe Con/LibDem/Unionist or Lab/LibDem/SNP). You could easily imagine the SNP's number one bargaining chip being another referendum at the end of the next parliament.



Of course that's all subject the next major economic/geographical/political upheaval.

[Bruce Rioja]

If the Lib Dem vote holds though, I reckon it'll be a Labour-Lib Dem pact.

I reckon the Greens will poll more votes than the Lib Dem's next time out.

[thebish]

If the Lib Dem vote holds though, I reckon it'll be a Labour-Lib Dem pact.

I reckon the Greens will poll more votes than the Lib Dem's next time out.

dunno abt that - they won't win more seats, which is the more crucial question...

[Harry Genshaw]

What's folks thoughts on the proposed mayor and greater powers for Manchester?

Seems an odd proposal given Manchester only voted against having one a couple of years ago. More money and greater bureaucracy(?) at a time local authorities are being ground down - 500 LA jobs to go in Bolton according to the BEN

[Lord Kangana]

The other Miliband will be along after Ed "loses" the election to "rebuild trust with the electorate" (it'll be some weasel words or other like this, maybe a "reconnect with our core values/voters" in there). Its all cyclical, we'll probably see a slim majority Tory government who'll piss everyone off enough that David will be in charge in about 4-5 years.

[Harry Genshaw]

The other Miliband will be along after Ed "loses" the election to "rebuild trust with the electorate" (it'll be some weasel words or other like this, maybe a "reconnect with our core values/voters" in there). Its all cyclical, we'll probably see a slim majority Tory government who'll piss everyone off enough that David will be in charge in about 4-5 years.

Apart from DM, do they have many in the background that could feasibly be leader? That Chukks fella whose name escapes me, seems to make a lot of sense but after him, I'm struggling to see a potential PM in their party.

[Lord Kangana]

Douglas Alexander probably. That lad who's MP for Leigh seems to be a mover and shaker, but I don't think he's serious Leader material.

[thebish]

alan Johnstone and yvette cooper are ioften mentioned in despatches...