The 2015 General Election

[mjmooney]

Whusky, shirley?

[tonyh29]

"There's a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna' do?" - just use the other one.

 

 

Ed Miliband sorts out UB40's domestic problems

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

The problem with an open sewer is you cannot escape the stench. The Daily Mail is that open sewer, along with a sizable chunk of Britain’s Tory-dominated oligarch-owned “free press”. Let’s just have a quick recap about the level of political discourse we have reached in Britain. The big political controversy of the moment is not the national scandal of low pay or child poverty, not the housing crisis, the lack of secure work, food banks – you name it. No: it’s the kitchen arrangements of the leader of the opposition. The first outrage was that Ed Miliband’s kitchen was too drab. But then came the knockout blow: he has two kitchens.

 

The temptation with a character like Sarah Vine is to reciprocate the sort of nastiness she has woven into a sickly art form. That would cede too much moral ground, and in any case I suspect she would enjoy it. Let’s just settle on one rather indisputable fact: she is not a nice person. She once savaged the lesbian writer and activist Jack Monroe for becoming a mother, arguing that if she had been “uncertain of her sexual orientation, arguably she should have taken greater precautions”.

 

It is Vine who initiated this latest assault on Ed’s character. The drab kitchen was apparently sufficient grounds to suggest he and his wife are like “aliens”; Justine is compared to “the late Mr Spock”. But then Ed’s ever helpful friend Jenni Russell revealed that it was in fact, just a “functional kitchenette ... for tea and quick snacks”. And so the kitchen – sink and all – was thrown at Ed, or “two kitchens” Miliband as he is now to be known.

 

Why do I bother. Why do any of us bother. Try saying “political debate in Britain” without sniggering. It’s not about issues or people and their needs. It’s a mixture of the privileged scapegoating the largely voiceless – immigrants, people in poverty generally – and puerile character assassination.

 

The modus operandi of the right is to target anyone vaguely leftish and make the debate about them, rather than what they believe. I’ve written this before, but if you believe in social justice, they will find any reason to trash you. If you’re too poor, they’ll accuse you of envy; too rich, of hypocrisy; too young, of naivety; too old, of being a dinosaur. Above all, the right obsessively hunts anything that can be twisted into hypocrisy. If you think poverty is basically a bad thing and something needs to be done about it, then you have to live in a shed and forage for berries, otherwise you are a hypocritical champagne socialist.

 

The media have a wider narrative about Ed Miliband: sad pathetic geeky loser who cannot even eat a bacon sandwich with any dignity. You can easily select photographs to make any politician look undignified, or generally reinforce whatever narrative you have selected. This will not be an election about issues, but will mostly consist of making Miliband look a bit weird and thus unsuitable for No 10. Yes, if he offered a more inspiring, coherent alternative, he would be better placed to portray the personality attacks as a distraction. That does not deflect from the fact our media represent a colossal, organised insult to our collective intelligence.

 

And so we end up with the tragic truth of modern politics. A largely unpopular Tory party, bankrolled by rich people whose interests it exists to serve, maintains its grip on power with the help of a campaign of venom fanned by a Tory press run by rich people. Deflect from all the problems that afflict our country. Deflect from the ever-growing concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a tiny elite. Instead, vilify and humiliate anybody who challenges – however meekly – the status quo. The rich get richer while millions struggle, and we are left debating Miliband’s kitchens.

 

Owen Jones in the Guardian

Edited March 13, 2015 by CarewsEyebrowDesigner

[tonyh29]

Vines justification for being vile , as per This week , last night  ....

 

everyone else is doing it

 

I thought Portillo rightly gave her a bit of stick for what she writes  , funny how no longer being an MP suddenly makes Portillo a rather likeable person  ...

 

as per previous observations though , the Murdoch media only appears to have been vile prior to 1997 and after 2010 and the Mirror a rag equally as vile in it's personal attacks never seems to get a mention ..who'd have thunk it

[meregreen]

Vines justification for being vile , as per This week , last night  ....

 

everyone else is doing it

 

I thought Portillo rightly gave her a bit of stick for what she writes  , funny how no longer being an MP suddenly makes Portillo a rather likeable person  ...

 

as per previous observations though , the Murdoch media only appears to have been vile prior to 1997 and after 2010 and the Mirror a rag equally as vile in it's personal attacks never seems to get a mention ..who'd have thunk it

The Mirror are positively amateurs compared to the Mail, and any of Murdochs rags.Can't recall any attacks on Camerons father. The British press are a pretty shallow bunch. I stopped buying newspapers on a regular basis years ago. 

Edited March 13, 2015 by meregreen

[Demitri_C]

Cleggs policy on purchasing your "rented" home is actually a good idea. one of the best polices i have heard

[tonyh29]

 

Vines justification for being vile , as per This week , last night  ....

 

everyone else is doing it

 

I thought Portillo rightly gave her a bit of stick for what she writes  , funny how no longer being an MP suddenly makes Portillo a rather likeable person  ...

 

as per previous observations though , the Murdoch media only appears to have been vile prior to 1997 and after 2010 and the Mirror a rag equally as vile in it's personal attacks never seems to get a mention ..who'd have thunk it

The Mirror are positively amateurs compared to the Mail, and any of Murdochs rags.Can't recall any attacks on Camerons father. The British press are a pretty shallow bunch. I stopped buying newspapers on a regular basis years ago. 

 

 

that could be because Cameron's dad didn't hate Britain   but there were a few articles about how he made his money via tax avoidenace (entirely legal ) but yeah not in the Milliband league and of course we had the Mirror going through Camerons dustbins but that seems standard for newspapers

 

and of course the Mirror are currently going through a phone hacking trial ... we can but hope someone grasses up Piers Morgan  in the process

[Davkaus]

The problem with Clegg's policy, and other recent government policies like Help To Buy, is that it only applies to new builds. And most people don't want to live in identikit homes miles from anywhere with cardboard walls and no storage space.

 

Not to mention that it's only 6,000 new homes a year.

Edited March 13, 2015 by Davkaus

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

I think we should and probably will move away from a culture obsessed with house ownership and start renting homes in the manner of some European countries, but the problem is regulation and I think in those countries you can get leases for a considerable amount of time.

[blandy]

as per previous observations though , the Murdoch media only appears to have been vile prior to 1997 and after 2010 and the Mirror a rag equally as vile in it's personal attacks never seems to get a mention ..who'd have thunk it

That's not true at all. Murdoch media (excluding the Times) has always been vile. The Mirror was vile when Piers Morgan was editing it. Other than that it has mostly been not so much vile as just not up to much commendable.

If they did hacking before or after Morgan, then it was vile then, too.

That Owen Jones thing above is spot on, by the way.

[tonyh29]

Blandy in agreeing with Sandal wearing journalist shocker

the 97-2010 reference is a private joke based around the selective outrage from this forum against Murdoch , rather than any serious opinion on his papers...

As for Owen , of course your entitled to your opinion but any journalist that makes lazy inaccurate sweeping statements about the MO of a group of people based on their voting intent is stealing a living in a job they don't deserve .... I stop reading at that point he may have added something profound .... But i seriously doubt it

[tonyh29]

I think we should and probably will move away from a culture obsessed with house ownership and start renting homes in the manner of some European countries, but the problem is regulation and I think in those countries you can get leases for a considerable amount of time.

We'd all have nothing to talk about at dinner parties though if we couldn't talk about how much our houses are worth

[AshVilla]

Will anybody be voting for FUKP?

Edited March 13, 2015 by AshVilla

[Demitri_C]

The problem with Clegg's policy, and other recent government policies like Help To Buy, is that it only applies to new builds. And most people don't want to live in identikit homes miles from anywhere with cardboard walls and no storage space.

 

Not to mention that it's only 6,000 new homes a year.

The problem fundamentally is that the population is growing and there are too many people here. There just isn't enough space to build houses hence all the flats. London is heading just like Paris and Barcelona where most people live in flats and only the wealthy live in nice big houses.

[tonyh29]

The problem with Clegg's policy, and other recent government policies like Help To Buy, is that it only applies to new builds. And most people don't want to live in identikit homes miles from anywhere with cardboard walls and no storage space.

Not to mention that it's only 6,000 new homes a year.

The problem fundamentally is that the population is growing and there are too many people here. There just isn't enough space to build houses hence all the flats. London is heading just like Paris and Barcelona where most people live in flats and only those using a deed of variation live in nice big houses.

Fixed Edited March 14, 2015 by tonyh29

[blandy]

Blandy in agreeing with Sandal wearing journalist shocker

the 97-2010 reference is a private joke based around the selective outrage from this forum against Murdoch , rather than any serious opinion on his papers...

As for Owen , of course your entitled to your opinion but any journalist that makes lazy inaccurate sweeping statements about the MO of a group of people based on their voting intent is stealing a living in a job they don't deserve .... I stop reading at that point he may have added something profound .... But i seriously doubt it

Q.E.D.

[chrisp65]

 

The problem with Clegg's policy, and other recent government policies like Help To Buy, is that it only applies to new builds. And most people don't want to live in identikit homes miles from anywhere with cardboard walls and no storage space.

 

Not to mention that it's only 6,000 new homes a year.

The problem fundamentally is that the population is growing and there are too many people here. There just isn't enough space to build houses hence all the flats. London is heading just like Paris and Barcelona where most people live in flats and only the wealthy live in nice big houses.

 

 

More than enough land in the UK. Though the point about all wanting to live in exactly the same place is valid.

Perhaps if we built new towns with decent infrastructure and transport hubs we'd boost the economy, improve lives and give an alternative location to live thus softening the demand and prices in other hot spots. But that's a crazy big idea. Better we all argue over whether Barrat should shoe horn 12 houses onto that roundabout on my already congested commuting route.

 

Incidentally, the 'green belt' around cities. That's 50% bigger now than it was in the 1950's. You wouldn't think so from the news headlines every time some green party hippy finds a new vital type of earth worm and sets up tents that prevent development. 

[Xela]

The problem with Clegg's policy, and other recent government policies like Help To Buy, is that it only applies to new builds. And most people don't want to live in identikit homes miles from anywhere with cardboard walls and no storage space.

 

Not to mention that it's only 6,000 new homes a year.

 

Phase 2 of Help to Buy, the mortgage guarantee scheme, includes existing as well as new build homes

 

Playing devils advocate, first time buyers perhaps need to a little less fussy about the type of property they want and how they get on the ladder and then use the government incentives to assist with that. Your first home is never your dream home but its the first step to that. 

[MakemineVanilla]

 

The problem with Clegg's policy, and other recent government policies like Help To Buy, is that it only applies to new builds. And most people don't want to live in identikit homes miles from anywhere with cardboard walls and no storage space.

 

Not to mention that it's only 6,000 new homes a year.

The problem fundamentally is that the population is growing and there are too many people here. There just isn't enough space to build houses hence all the flats. London is heading just like Paris and Barcelona where most people live in flats and only the wealthy live in nice big houses.

 

 

Edited March 14, 2015 by MakemineVanilla

[tonyh29]

I'm not sure which case you are trying to prove here ( are you agreeing or trying to disprove the statement made ? )but that still equals an extra million people in 4 years ...

Presumably unless they are all Romanian gypsies bringing their own caravans ( see stereotyping) those that come on short term (I.e not counted on that graph) still also have to live somewhere

Finally didn't the home office admit they had no idea how many people had come and gone ?