Cameron: "Cuts will change our way of life"

[dennis tooth]

Tory landslide

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

It's a lot of ifs and buts. I'm shitting it.

Seems likely to me. As long as it's not a Tory-led government again, I'd be happy. Labour-led with LDs backing them up, that'd be okay. Still, I think it'll be a Labour majority, barring any major fuck ups. LDs, in my view, are going to be hit pretty hard. Shame, really, because they're a mile and a half better than UKIP.

[Barney_Rubble]

I am divided over Scotland though. On one hand I want them to become an independent country, on the other hand I don't want the tories to increase their share of the national vote.

 

The solution - UKIP to split the tory vote, while LD voters to switch to Labour this time. Win-win, quite literally.

[lifetime fan]

I am divided over Scotland though. On one hand I want them to become an independent country, on the other hand I don't want the tories to increase their share of the national vote.

 

The solution - UKIP to split the tory vote, while LD voters to switch to Labour this time. Win-win, quite literally.

I'm a bloody hypocrite when it comes to Scotland. If I was Scottish or living there I'd be all for independence. I'm hoping and praying they'll lose the referendum though.

[lifetime fan]

Seems likely to me. As long as it's not a Tory-led government again, I'd be happy. Labour-led with LDs backing them up, that'd be okay. Still, I think it'll be a Labour majority, barring any major fuck ups. LDs, in my view, are going to be hit pretty hard. Shame, really, because they're a mile and a half better than UKIP.

It'll really depend on who's leader. Hasn't Milliband already he wouldn't join a coalition with Clegg as leader?

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

It'll really depend on who's leader. Hasn't Milliband already he wouldn't join a coalition with Clegg as leader?

I wonder if Clegg will be leader going into 2015. I'd guess Miliband would backtrack on that if it was the difference between number 10 or nothing.

[Strontium]

That is one reason why I despise that oxygen thief Clegg and his mickey-mouse party so much. Utterly incompetent wankers who were only interested to get in bed with the tories at any cost.

You are a fucking cretin.

 

I can see them well behind UKIP at the next election.

Get used to disappointment.

[Strontium]

Hasn't Milliband already he wouldn't join a coalition with Clegg as leader?

You don't fuck your own brother over for the Labour leadership unless you are absolutely desperate to be Prime Minister. Miliband would go into coalition with Heinrich Himmler if that was the price of power.

[lifetime fan]

I wonder if Clegg will be leader going into 2015. I'd guess Miliband would backtrack on that if it was the difference between number 10 or nothing.

Clegg won't step down, he knows he's out after the election and who would want to lead them into the next election.

 

If there is a hung parliament it'll be interesting to see how long the libs take to elect a leader.

[lifetime fan]

You don't fuck your own brother over for the Labour leadership unless you are absolutely desperate to be Prime Minister. Miliband would go into coalition with Heinrich Himmler if that was the price of power.

How exactly did he fuck his brother over?

[Barney_Rubble]

You are a fucking cretin.

Better than being an amoeba, I guess.

 

Get used to disappointment.

Is that like "preparing for government"?

 

Miliband would go into coalition with Heinrich Himmler if that was the price of power.

And that fucking meff Clegg wouldn't?

[dennis tooth]

As a libdem he can probably tell you a few things about fucking siblings and noncing activities.

[L19red]

LD would finish behind UKIP at the next election if the PR referendum had gone their way, as it is they'll probably only drop about 15-20 seats.

Isn't it ironic?

[Strontium]

How exactly did he fuck his brother over?

Ed plotted secretly to make a bid for the leadership over several years. Had David challenged Brown for the leadership before the general election, he would have beaten him. Ed talked David out of it so he could make his own leadership bid after the election.

 

Incidentally, this isn't a criticism of Ed. I consider ruthlessness to be a desirable trait in a leader.

[Strontium]

LD would finish behind UKIP at the next election if the PR referendum had gone their way, as it is they'll probably only drop about 15-20 seats.

Isn't it ironic?

AV is not PR. And it wouldn't make any difference; UKIP would wind up with 0 seats either way.

[lifetime fan]

Ed plotted secretly to make a bid for the leadership over several years. Had David challenged Brown for the leadership before the general election, he would have beaten him. Ed talked David out of it so he could make his own leadership bid after the election.

 

Incidentally, this isn't a criticism of Ed. I consider ruthlessness to be a desirable trait in a leader.

I think you're giving Ed far too much credit there.

[stringvest]

Any chance of a tag team Miliband swap before the election?  I fear Ed is not about to excite enough people into voting for him, and I'm not sure his cabinet is 100% behind him taking the party into the next election either. 

[Red Phoenix]

Spent a decent while last night researching a few things, then remembered how much I just don't agree with any of these parties, or the actual system, at all. I think Marxian economics could probably teach us a lot about how false things actually are, and I think capitalism is a pretty big fail in general, or at least the way that it's corruptly implemented. Doesn't Chomsky say that we've never had real capitalism in the west? That it's all fake, and that if a truly capitalist society really did occur it'd fall to pieces virtually overnight. Will maybe have to look further into why he thinks that.

 

Am definitely more anarchist-socialist anyway, so anything these governments are doing is clearly miles off from any of that. I mean libertarian socialism too for anyone who knows a bit about it, definitely not state socialism. To be honest I think a blend of non-corrupt capitalism and a decent type of anarchism-socialism blended in some way could be a good thing in the future, if we're ever in the position to give it a try. The current power structures won't last forever anyway, that's for sure. At some point there's going to be a big change, and hopefully things won't have to get too much worse before they get better.

[Red Phoenix]

This guy is a Marxian economist, speaks a lot of sense :

 

[L19red]

AV is not PR. And it wouldn't make any difference; UKIP would wind up with 0 seats either way.

 

My mistake, I forgot the referendum was for AV and yes they get 0 under AV but can you explain how UKIP would get no seats under genuine PR when they are currently at 12% in the polls?

[Strontium]

My mistake, I forgot the referendum was for AV and yes they get 0 under AV but can you explain how UKIP would get no seats under genuine PR when they are currently at 12% in the polls?

I meant it wouldn't make any difference if we had FPTP or AV.

 

It may make a difference depending on what kind of PR was brought in.

 

It's academic anyway: we don't have PR, and if we did, I don't think UKIP would be as high as 12% in the polls. Not that I expect them to poll 12% in a general election 18 months from now.

[Skidfingers McGonical]

How exactly did he fuck his brother over?

He slapped him across the face with his gloves and said " I challenge you to a duel"

[Stu Monty]

The Lib Dem crime wasn't "grabbing for power" it was what they've done, and allowed to be done, with that power.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

I chuckled.

 

Because make no mistake: that sketch will be in the style of David Cameron’s speech.

 

Listing things. Listing some more things. Hawking truisms. Gesturing emptily. Looking knackered. Phoning it in. Talking in the sort of tone you might use when patiently giving directions to a tourist who looks a bit dim and speaks hardly a word of English.

 

And yes – lots of sentences beginning “And yes”.

 

Let’s be absolutely clear. This sketch will contain straw men. Straw men who say: “You shouldn’t do things that are good.” Straw men who say: “You should do things that are bad.”

 

But to those straw men I say: “No.” I say: “We shouldn’t do things that are bad.” I say: “We should do things that are good.” Because we are the party that believes good things are good – and that bad things are bad.

 

[Leave gap for lethargic applause.]

 

Of course, we know what Labour is saying. Labour is saying, “Insert misrepresentation of what Labour is saying here.”

 

And isn’t that just typical of the Left?

 

[stare down lens of TV camera while jabbing finger crossly.]

 

This sketch will also contain jokes. And make no mistake: some of those jokes will be a bit weird. Especially the one that ends with me saying to Ed Miliband: “You keep your shirt on – and I’ll keep the lights on!” That one will just sound like a very odd chat-up line. There will also be a joke at the expense of Labour’s education spokesman Stephen Twigg where I misread the autocue and mess it up completely. Never mind. I’ll soldier on.

 

Just like our brave Armed Forces. [Leave gap for standing ovation.]

Despite those silly Lib Dems getting in the way all the time, we’ve achieved a lot of things in government. Here’s a list of them all. Except for gay marriage, that one seems to have slipped my mind for the moment.

 

The fact is this. We ran out of big shiny policies to announce earlier in the week. So instead, here’s something woolly about dreams. Something woolly about opportunity. Something woolly about our children and our grandchildren. And most important of all: a reminder that I married a woman. [Gaze damply at woman, to applause.]

 

Last week Ed Miliband gave a speech full of feeble sound bites. Well, two can play that game. See how you like this one. The land of hope is Tory. That sounds a bit like “Land of hope and glory”. No? Come on, you lot are supposed to lap that sort of thing right up. We were really pleased with that one back in the office.

 

Not to worry. Nearly finished now. Voice getting faster, voice getting louder, lots of repetition, end on the slogan!

 

Thank you.

 

[Parade wife round hall, smiling painfully.]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/10351508/Make-no-mistake-this-is-a-sketch.-Cue-applause.html

[thetruthaboutunemployment]

 

 

 

Definitely, and well said.

 

But I think things just got a whole lot stranger if this is right, I think it might be best for some of you to have a read through and see what you think : http://thetruthaboutunemployment.wordpress.com/

 

The idea is that, as far as I can tell from a quick read so far : unemployment is deliberate. They don't want full employment because it leads to hyper-inflation. So if that's right, all this from Osborne and so on is so much worse that I'm struggling to get my head around it. Will have to have a full read though later.

 

I typed into google "how the bank of england rigs the market", because as far as I remember the bank of england is a private bank, that like the federal reserve in the US, basically works with the banks to control and manipulate the economy.

 

Anyway, will have to look at it again later, but I definitely suggest having a read.

 

edit - I can't resist quoting some of it :

 

 

http://thetruthaboutunemployment.wordpress.com/2012/09/17/what-causes-unemployment-2/

 

Just checked and the part quoted is from page 11 of the annex section, page 19 of the .pdf, listed as number A44.

Hi Red Phoenix,

 

I don`t want to freak you out but I noticed that people from TLW were visiting my blog about unemployment (because of the wordpress stats I receive).

Thanks for your interest in how unemployment is used as a weapon in the class war. The hidden policy of using unemployment to control wages is obviously one that can`t be defended publicly, especially at the same time as the unemployed are being demonised by politicians and the mainstream media.

 

The extract you posted describes the Bank of England`s (BoE) concern in 1997 that the long-term unemployed don`t exert as much "downward pressure on wages" as the short-term unemployed. It just so happens that the BoE returned to that preoccupation yet again in August this year. Here`s an extract from the bank`s August Inflation Report (see page 28 under the heading "The equilibrium unemployment rate is affected by a range of factors that change over time") where it says:  

 

"The longer that people are out of work, the more their skills will deteriorate and as a result, the probability of them finding a job decreases — those who have been unemployed for over a year are, on average, around a third as likely to find work as the short-term unemployed. That is likely to mean that they will exert less downward pressure on wages and so the equilibrium unemployment rate in the medium term will remain elevated."

 

http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Documents/inflationreport/2013/ir13aug.pdf

 

The "equilibrium unemployment rate" is the rate of unemployment necessary to control inflation in the bank`s estimation.

 

You may remember that the new governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, said in August that the bank would hold interest rates at their current very low level until

unemployment fell to 7%. Although this was widely reported I didn`t hear any journalist explain the connection between interest rates & unemployment.

 

The only instrument the BoE Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has at its disposal is the interest rate. A higher interest rate will, by degree, reduce the number of new business start-ups, will force more struggling businesses to the wall, and will reduce the number of businesses choosing to borrow for expansion. Additionally, consumers will also have less money to spend on goods & services if more of their earnings go into paying their mortgage & any other variable-rate loans. These factors combine to reduce the demand for labour and, all other things being equal, will lead to higher unemployment and lower wages. This ensures higher profitablility and prevents businesses from striving to increase their profits through price increases (inflation).

 

Other factors also affect the level of unemployment, most obviously at the moment the huge cuts in public spending. But the BoE`s Monetary Policy Committee is only concerned with the inflation target, which is set by the government.