Category: UK politics
London’s killer app
January 31st, 2012, No Comments
In the comments at Blood & Treasure, Dsquared explains why banks threatening to leave London don’t have to be taken too seriously:
In actual fact, the thing that keeps everyone bolted down to the UK with little hope of escape, is that amazingly important national intangible asset called “the commercial common law of England & Wales”. [...]
Toughness
January 18th, 2012, No Comments
Chris Bertram is annoyed with Ed ‘N Ed:
In an attempt to demonstrate their credentials as the takers of “tough decisions”, British Labour leader Ed Miliband (whom I backed as leader) and his shadow Chancellor Ed Balls have been telling the world that a future Labour government can’t guarantee to reverse Tory public expenditure cuts, and [...]
Welfare “reform” kills
December 6th, 2011, 4 Comments
Just some of the people who committed suicide after their (disability) benefits were stopped:
Richard Sanderson, 44, an unemployed helicopter pilot of Southfields in London, who stabbed himself twice in the heart in May. He had been informed that his family faced a £30 a week cut in housing benefit and he feared this would leave [...]
Victory to the public sector workers
November 30th, 2011, No Comments
Today public sector workers in the UK are on strike. According to a BBC poll,
the majority of the British public supports them:
An opinion poll commissioned by BBC News suggests 61% of people believe public sector workers are justified in going on strike over pension changes.
[...]
Younger people, it also suggests, are considerably more supportive of the [...]
Middleclass families to adopt a scrounger?
August 29th, 2011, No Comments
Here’s the latest ConDemned brainwave to force scroungers to work: get middleclass volunteers to sort out trouble families:
It began in December when the prime minister said: “All evidence suggests that it’s no use offering a range of different services to these families – the help they’re offered just falls through the cracks of their chaotic [...]
Bankers steal, politicians cheat, the police is corrupt — why not loot?
August 9th, 2011, 2 Comments
Phil hits the nail on the head when looking for the reasons behind the London riots:
What people are saying (self included) is that politics doesn’t stop when crime starts. There are reasons why people steal and smash windows; more importantly, there are reasons why most people don’t steal and smash windows, most of the time. [...]
Weird drugs, bizarre sexual practises or something more sinister?
June 27th, 2011, No Comments
David Cameron’s constituency chairman dead at Glasto:
David Cameron said he was “devastated” after the chairman of his local constituency was found dead in a portable toilet in a backstage area at the Glastonbury festival.
Police said they did not yet know the cause of death of Christopher Shale, a 56-year old businessman, although friends said there [...]
Labour’s strategy: don’t oppose
May 31st, 2011, No Comments
Lenny riffs on Dan Hind’s observations on the need to break the ConDem coalition before the next election, and Labour’s role in this:
I would guess he rightly judges Labour’s position, which is that the last thing they want at this point is political power. The Blairites are convinced that they would have to implement the [...]
Your Happening World (20)
May 17th, 2011, 1 Comment
The perfect Daily Express cover.
“Labour is facing a deep crisis that threatens its survival as a party of power, Ed Milibandwill be warned, on Wednesday as he is told to avoid the “politics of protest” and to focus on establishing political credibility.” Better not rock the boat Ed, or your masters might get upset. Play [...]
Yet Clegg does speak Dutch…
May 11th, 2011, No Comments
Daniel Davies analyses the LibDem’s failings:
This is, to a large extent, why the vote share has collapsed. The median LibDem voter between about 2002 and 2010 was quite likely someone who believed (sensibly, a respectable case could certainly be made for this) that they were to the Left of Labour. Their signature policy was a [...]
