Cameron: "Cuts will change our way of life"

[Nelly-Szoboszlai]

I saw a pic taken at PMQ's the other week. It looked like loads of Lib Dem MP's had been photoshopped out of it...

[Hand Shandy]

Unsure as to why SD is leaping to the Tories defence here.

[Hooch]

Unsure as to why SD is leaping to the Tories defence here.

It is odd.

[Strontium]

Unsure as to why SD is leaping to the Tories defence here.

 

Wasn't aware I was.

 

However it does anger me when folk talk about non-stories like this.

 

The Tories are plotting to cut welfare for the working poor while Labour are bravely abstaining on the proposals, but let's waste time chatting about the press office temp having a 'mare with MS Paint.

 

I despair.

[Nelly-Szoboszlai]

Wasn't aware I was.

 

However it does anger me when folk talk about non-stories like this.

 

The Tories are plotting to cut welfare for the working poor while Labour are bravely abstaining on the proposals, but let's waste time chatting about the press office temp having a 'mare with MS Paint.

 

I despair.

Angers you? You need to get out more.

[VladimirIlyich]

Wasn't aware I was.

 

However it does anger me when folk talk about non-stories like this.

 

The Tories are plotting to cut welfare for the working poor while Labour are bravely abstaining on the proposals, but let's waste time chatting about the press office temp having a 'mare with MS Paint.

 

I despair.

Here you go again with the party politics you think we all adhere to.

How many time have us lefties said we view the modern Labour Party as simply a milder faction of the Tories? We arent bound by ties to a party and try to judge each policy or idea on its merits. Unlike you it seems,who havent yet shaken off the Tory beliefs imposed on you.

[Stu Monty]

Wasn't aware I was.

 

However it does anger me when folk talk about non-stories like this.

 

The Tories are plotting to cut welfare for the working poor while Labour are bravely abstaining on the proposals, but let's waste time chatting about the press office temp having a 'mare with MS Paint.

 

I despair.

Funny that unprincipled abstentions for political reasons now anger you.

 

Almost as if it's more the party that does it that matters to you.

[Jairzinho]

http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/oct/31/alan-bennett-tories-govern-with-totalitarian-attitude?CMP=twt_a-stage_b-gdnstage

 

Award-winning playwright Alan Bennett has launched a withering attack on the Tories, describing their style of government as “quite close to a totalitarian attitude”.

 

In an interview with the Guardian’s Weekend magazine, Bennett said of the Conservatives: “It’s not merely that they want to be the governing party, but theonly party, and that’s never been a part of British political tradition,” he said. “That stems from Mrs Thatcher: she did believe that Labour was wicked.”

 

The Talking Heads writer, 81, has come out in support of the Labour leader,Jeremy Corbyn, saying: “I approve of him. If only because it brings Labour back to what they ought to be thinking about.”

 

He accepted the former veteran backbencher was a risk for the party, but added: “I’m sure Corbyn is a risk, but I very much approve of him – everything he’s said seems to me to ring bells.

 

“The notion that they [Labour] were wanting to choose somebody who would win the election when we are three, four years away from one, regardless of what half the nation wants – that seems to me far more risky than what they have done.”

 

Bennett, a regular passenger on the east coast mainline, said the opposition leader was “absolutely right” to want to nationalise the railways and that privatising it the “was pure ideology” of the Conservative-led coalition government. “It was making a profit and there was no reason to sell it back again,” Bennett explained. “No good arguments have been advanced for it.”

 

He attributed his sympathy for leftwing politics to his experience in the national service when he was a young man . “I was quite conservative and Christian and rather priggish when I went into the army,” he said.

 

In the wide-ranging and open interview before the release of his new film, theLady in the Van, starring Maggie Smith, Bennett also talked about life with his partner of 23 years, Rupert Thomas, and explains he would not have come out as gay while his parents were still alive for fear it would have “distressed both of them”. Bennett also revealed his love of comedian Stewart Lee and the TV show The Big Bang Theory.

 

The History Boys playwright has previously spoken out against private education. He said: “Private education is not fair … Those who provide it know it. Those who pay for it know it. Those who have to sacrifice in order to purchase it know it. And those who receive it know it, or should.”

 

He said in the same address to King’s College Cambridge: “There has been so little that has happened to England since the 1980s that I have been happy about or felt able to endorse. One has only had to stand still to become a radical.”

 

But he reserved his staunchest criticism for the state of British politics and the press, and attacked the Daily Mail for their coverage of Corbyn not singing the national anthem. “Half the royal family don’t even sing the anthem … they don’t even seem to know the words to Jerusalem. The notion that you are required to sing the national anthem in order to prove your patriotism, and if you don’t you’re not patriotic, is so absurd.”

 

“The lies on the front page of the Mail are so vulgar and glaring. Occasionally people say they like my work and then I see they have a copy of the Mail, and you think, ‘Well, how can you?’”

[Navman]

I would recommend everyone getting heath insurance if you can

The end is really nigh with the NHS

Will likely go the way of dentists I imagine

 

I actually don't think its particularly politically party driven - but it isnt really helped by the current incumbents

[VladimirIlyich]

I would recommend everyone getting heath insurance if you can

The end is really nigh with the NHS

Will likely go the way of dentists I imagine

 

I actually don't think its particularly politically party driven - but it isnt really helped by the current incumbents

I disagree that its not politically party driven. The Tories have been waiting since the 1940's to carve the NHS up and give it to their friends and backers. I wholeheartedly concede that the last Labour PM(the tory in Labour clothing) was a major force in helping partly privatise the NHS and kickstarting its carve up.

 

A lot of people simply can't afford private health insurance and the Tories know this and couldnt give a shit as will kill off people they couldnt give a shit about anyhow.

The fact that the modern Labour and Liberal parties are not much different from the Tories means there is very little resistance from the so called opposition parties.

[Skidfingers McGonical]

ignore me. As per.

[Red Phoenix]

The Labour stance on mass surveillance is fucking shocking. From The Guardian :

 

Burnham said it was important to stress the proposals were “neither a snooper’s charter nor a plan for mass surveillance”. The Labour frontbencher said the UK’s laws were outdated given that changes in technology had made the jobs of the security services and police much harder.

Burnham said: “In a world where the threats we face internationally and domestically are growing, parliament cannot sit on its hands and leave blind spots where the authorities can’t see.”

He said strong powers must be balanced by strong protections for the public, adding: “What the home secretary has said today, it seems clear to me both she and the government have been listening carefully to the concerns that were expressed about the original legislation presented in the last parliament.”

Burnham added: “I think it would help the future conduct of this important public debate if this House sent out a unified message today that this is neither a snooper’s charter nor a plan for mass surveillance.”

 

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/04/theresa-may-surveillance-measures-edward-snowden

 

Of course it's mass surveillance. They can't (but of course they can, this is just what they're "saying") get every page you visit on every website, but they can get every website you visit under this plan, with no warrant needed. This guy would've been a fucking shambles as leader if that stance and those words are mostly his. What's more worrying is that it could be the general view of Labour, and that speech was given to him. I can't see how Corbyn would want much of a part in this, so it'd be interesting finding out what's happened here.

 

This country is a fucking joke.

[Bobby Hundreds]

The political class are all arseholes. Fuck them and I go on chunkyarses.com purely for research on a paper i'm writing.

[Red Phoenix]

[Captain Turdseye]

I'm trying to be outraged about this but I can't be arsed. It's not like they'll be watching everyone all of the time, is it? I've always assumed my phone network provider was capable of knowing I only really ring the same few numbers and I always click on the 'Big Tits' category first on Redtube anyway. I suppose the way they can hack into your camera and microphone is a bit scary but why the fuck would they unless you were suspected of being involved in seriously dodgy shit?

 

Educate me.

[Anubis]

What constitutes seriously dodgy shit? To you it may mean proper terrorism. But this is a government trying to outlaw public protest, and force unions to name organisers and basically report themselves to the police. Follow Edward Snowdon or Glenn Greenwalt on Twitter and in the eyes of some intelligence agencies your halfway to being a domestic terrorist. To them the bar is likely to be much lower.

[Bobby Hundreds]

It becomes the tip of the wedge for more sinister future laws. We noticed you read political sites that are anti establishment that is a threat to national security, you terrorist no trial for you.

 

Or whatever bad example but I don't believe a government should have the right to spy on anybody without just cause and legal authority. I'd be pissed off if i opened my front door to see a copper opening and reading all my mail say everything is fine here and then fucks off. 

[Liverpool lad]

Ill watch more mainstream porn if I know people are able to see it

[General Dryness]

What Anubis said. Pretty much what I was going to say.

 

It could be used to stamp on anything the government see as contrary to their agenda before it even gets started i.e. protests, strike action.

[Rico1304]

How will it work? Is it proactive so when you visit certain sites you'll get flagged or reactive so once you've done something wrong they'll be able to see what you've looked at?

 

I must admit it doesn't sit well with me, it's benign with a 'decent' government but could be horrendous in the wrong hands.

 

What's that Tony Benn quote about asking why?

[Red Phoenix]

I can see a lot of thoughtcrime building up in this thread now, you'd better watch it!

[Captain Turdseye]

What constitutes seriously dodgy shit? To you it may mean proper terrorism. But this is a government trying to outlaw public protest, and force unions to name organisers and basically report themselves to the police. Follow Edward Snowdon or Glenn Greenwalt on Twitter and in the eyes of some intelligence agencies your halfway to being a domestic terrorist. To them the bar is likely to be much lower.

Consider me educated. Maybe I'd underestimated how low the government could stoop or maybe I didn't actually give it that much thought. I'll keep reading this thread with interest.

[Bjornebye]

ignore me. As per.

This post worries me

[lifetime fan]

How will it work? Is it proactive so when you visit certain sites you'll get flagged or reactive so once you've done something wrong they'll be able to see what you've looked at?

 

I must admit it doesn't sit well with me, it's benign with a 'decent' government but could be horrendous in the wrong hands.

 

What's that Tony Benn quote about asking why?

 

[Rico1304]

That's the one - thanks

 

Seems very apt.