Cameron's first 10 days (U.K. interest)

[goat starer]

why would anyone want to do something before crewe and nantwich? crewe and nantwich very rarely do anything interesting.

answer to poser... no

don't be so silly

managing to stay in power for 18 years by consistently running up vast debt and selling off the states assets to pay for tax cuts for the rich is what is generally known as a bribe under electoral rules.

If that doesnt work the tories have the foolproof "engineer a war and kill a few hundred argentinian conscripts because it looks certain you will lose an election unless you satisfy the sun readers blood lust" form of electoral bribe which is simply genius.

compared to that rectifying a mistake from a government that has done more to cut taxation for the poor and tackle inequality than anyone since the the welfare state was set up does not even register.

[Aggie]

managing to stay in power for 18 years by consistently running up vast debt and selling off the states assets to pay for tax cuts for the rich is what is generally known as a bribe under electoral rules.

If that doesnt work the tories have the foolproof "engineer a war and kill a few hundred argentinian conscripts because it looks certain you will lose an election unless you satisfy the sun readers blood lust" form of electoral bribe which is simply genius.

Ayuh, but who invented these tactics - them or the Yanks?

[Griffin NoName]

I'm eagerly awaiting Gordon's memoirs. I think it would be effective if he were to publish them while still in office. 

I hear rumours he has begun a 42 day retreat - do retreats usually take that long and will he visit The Hermitage ?

[beagle]

answer to poser... no

don't be so silly

I approve of the correction, but it's been estimated at aproximately £5.5 million pounds per floating voter in that by-election. All so GB could have his quick "bonus for families" soundbite a while ago.

managing to stay in power for 18 years by consistently running up vast debt and selling off the states assets to pay for tax cuts for the rich is what is generally known as a bribe under electoral rules.

As compared to running up vast debt by expanding the public sector at every hint of a downturn, to the point where we have some of the worst finances in the EU and many FTSE 350 companies are plotting moving to Ireland where Corporation Tax is about 13% instead of 30%? You're in the regional development biz; you must have heard of this.

If that doesnt work the tories have the foolproof "engineer a war and kill a few hundred argentinian conscripts because it looks certain you will lose an election unless you satisfy the sun readers blood lust" form of electoral bribe which is simply genius.

Are you really serious?  The Falklands War and Gulf War 1 were responses to invasions of the Falklands and Kuwait respectively, whereas Labour did the invading, predicated on convincing the British electorate with falsified and deliberately misinterpreted documents. I know which I find morally defensible.

compared to that rectifying a mistake from a government that has done more to cut taxation for the poor and tackle inequality than anyone since the the welfare state was set up does not even register.

It has created a ridiculously complicated set of tax legislation (now bigger than India's), which is hugely costly to interpret, and for civil servants to implement, and which creates  means-tested traps where people actually lose money by working. It also relies on many of the poorest (e.g. pensioners) being too proud or confused by the system to claim the money to which they are legitimately entitled. Also many of the poorest (especially pensioners) will be paying ridiculous increases in council charges to pay gold-plated public sector pensions (after GB wrecked private sector pensions with stealth taxes).

I'm eagerly awaiting Gordon's memoirs. I think it would be effective if he were to publish them while still in office.

He'd better hurry. If the Tories don't get him, the grey suits will.

Prescott's and Cherie's comments not amusing enough for you then?

[goat starer]

thats not a vast debt.... this is a vast debt!



yes i am serious. there was no excuse the falklands. It was avoidable beforehand and the response was disproportionate. As for Kuwait prpping up unpleasant regimes in their petty wars with other oppressive regimes has always been the foriegn policy of the right wing

[beagle]

As for Kuwait prpping up unpleasant regimes in their petty wars with other oppressive regimes has always been the foriegn policy of the right wing

Can this be the same Goat who elsewhere criticised the U.S. for being late for WWII?

Look at the history of the Polish government in the years leading up to 1939 (The clue is is in the phrases "A dictatorship without a dictator"  and "The colonels"). We started a World War in an attempt to save an oppressive regime from a worse one, and I got the impression you approved of that.


P.S. Your graph doesn't include future liabilities.

[goat starer]

we went to war in 1939 to stop a monster who had already annexed half of central europe. it is nothig like the same thing.

when you say future liabilities are you talking about David Cameron?

[beagle]

we went to war in 1939 to stop a monster who had already annexed half of central europe. it is nothig like the same thing.

Whereas Saddam was a cutie who planned to stop at Kuwait and convert it to a liberal democratic paradise after the initial raping, murder and pillaging phase.

Incidentally, those reasonable, negotiating people in the Argentinian junta killed something like 30,000 people in 400 death camps. They had almost as many death camps as there were Argentinian fatalities in the Falklands. I'm not too sorry Mrs. T hastened the regime's demise, though to suggest she engineered the war from the outset is pure fantasy.

when you say future liabilities are you talking about David Cameron?

No.

[goat starer]

are you talking about Boris Johnson then? he is more of a present liability.

perhaps william hague?

[Griffin NoName]

are you talking about Boris Johnson then? he is more of a present liability.

Don't think that's quite what The Beagle meant when he referred to Sadam as a sweetie. 

[beagle]

When "The History Boys" gets to the top of you viewing list you'll recognize the resemblance to the "I did the Stalin was a cutie stuff too" line from the film/play.

are you talking about Boris Johnson then? he is more of a present liability.

Boris is doing a good job. He's sent the auditors into the LDA, cancelled the Mayor's vanity magazine and used a million of the savings to plant trees in Brixton.  He's also put £25,000 of his own money into after school classics lessons. When he gets started on his crime initiatives it may even be safe for Labour M.P.s to buy a kebab without a bodyguard.

perhaps william hague?

... and he's doing just as good a job, particularly in regularly reminding the electorate about Labour's Euro referendum lie.

[goat starer]

are you talking about Boris Johnson then? he is more of a present liability.

Boris is doing a good job. He's sent the auditors into the LDA, cancelled the Mayor's vanity magazine and used a million of the savings to plant trees in Brixton.  He's also put £25,000 of his own money into after school classics lessons. When he gets started on his crime initiatives it may even be safe for Labour M.P.s to buy a kebab without a bodyguard.

perhaps william hague?

... and he's doing just as good a job, particularly in regularly reminding the electorate about Labour's Euro referendum lie.

I am sure the poor of brixton will appreciate the trees. The can eat them when Boris leaves the capital a desolate wasteland of unemployment like Thatcher did. Compared to spending a million quid on trees producing a working public transport system for one of the largest cities in the world, reducing the number of cars visiting london by 70,000 per annum, hundreds of thousands of extra bus journeys per day, more police on the cities streets and falls in crime 4 years running look like a pretty shabby performance! Not spending your own money on useless lessons for kids? SHAME ON YOU KEN!

All it needed was a visionary floppy haired etonian fop and Londons problems are solved overnight.

As for Hague reminding people about the referendum it is impossible to argue with people who look at an apple and a banana and see two oranges. I realise that this is a collective blind spot that runs through the tory party but it still depresses me. It depresses me even more when people who allegedly have brains can still confuse propoganda and spin for fact but the world was ever thus.

Planet Beagle sounds nice! when is the next spaceship leaving? I have a pair of rose tinted spectacles and a big blue rosette ready.

[beagle]

Planet Beagle sounds nice! when is the next spaceship leaving? I have a pair of rose tinted spectacles and a big blue rosette ready.

Could be as early as Thursday if Labour's attempts to ignite class warfare in Crewe backfire. In which case things can only get bitter*.

I'm sure London is the crime free Utopia you describe, and all these murders and stabbings I keep reading about are the machinations of the evil Tory Press. Make allowances for my senility. I can remember when New York was dangerous and London safe, which shows you how old I am.

I realise that this is a collective blind spot that runs through the tory party but it still depresses me.

It ran through the Commons committee which said the Constitution and treaty were effectively the same too, but I expect the Labour members were really Tory infiltrators.

Don't feel too sorry for Ken by the way, he's not so left wing he hasn't picked up a  few tips from TB. 



* My copyright, before the Sun grabs it.

P.S.

Have the other siblings seen Fight Club? Do you think they've realised yet?

[Griffin NoName]

Have the other siblings seen Fight Club? Do you think they've realised yet?

Ken and Boris tee hee.

Just put the gun down gently.

[Aggie]

P.S.

Have the other siblings seen Fight Club? Do you think they've realised yet?

Wot, you and Goat are the same person?

Eh, we're all part of the same compost heap, Mr. Durden.

But thanks for helping with my ongoing campaign to have Griffin read the original novel.