Bolitics The New Condem Government

[blandy]

 

Manufacturing output in the UK grew at its strongest pace for nearly two decades in August, new figures show.

 

The improvement in the sector adds weight to evidence that the speed of economic recovery is increasing, with GDP for the second quarter of the year measured at 0.7%.

 

yet another reason 2015 won't be a good year for Ed 

 

It actually says the manufacturing sector recovery, while still lagging behind its pre-recession peak, is [at] its best level since February 2011 which is not reflected by the headline. In other words, it's not what it was even quite recently.It's better than a fall, but it's not actually much to trumpet.

 

I read recently that while things are improving, it's despite Osborne's policies not because of them - that he's effectively dragged things down by (I think it was) 4.8 % by what he's done. it was in the finance pages (actual paper) of the Indie, quoting some american academic fiscal study.

[villaajax]

 

 

Manufacturing output in the UK grew at its strongest pace for nearly two decades in August, new figures show.

 

The improvement in the sector adds weight to evidence that the speed of economic recovery is increasing, with GDP for the second quarter of the year measured at 0.7%.

 

yet another reason 2015 won't be a good year for Ed 

 

It actually says the manufacturing sector recovery, while still lagging behind its pre-recession peak, is [at] its best level since February 2011 which is not reflected by the headline. In other words, it's not what it was even quite recently.It's better than a fall, but it's not actually much to trumpet.

 

I read recently that while things are improving, it's despite Osborne's policies not because of them - that he's effectively dragged things down by (I think it was) 4.8 % by what he's done. it was in the finance pages (actual paper) of the Indie, quoting some american academic fiscal study.

 

 

Come on Blandy, don't let facts get in the way of Tony's little moment.

[Kingfisher]

totally serious , have you read their manifesto outside of we believe trees' should be hugged ? it's bonkers and the math is totally unsustainable ... they'd make Gordon look competent with money

Yes.....and they still don't make Gideon look good with money.

More seriously they've a couple of totally unreality based policies, but what's published (no parties detail their whole, real aims) is no less mad, in it's own way than any of the main ones. I mean it's mad to do exactly what got us into trouble the last times again and expect a different result. e.g. boost housing prices via cheap loans... or fail to control the banking and finance sector properly...or fail to regulate lobbying...and so on.

It's been the right wing media's agenda for as long as I've lived to portray anything on the left as mad, naive, pathetic etc etc. from donkey jackets, and ginger little welsh men to tree huggers with no grasp of the 'hard realities' of the world.

[tonyh29]

 

 

Manufacturing output in the UK grew at its strongest pace for nearly two decades in August, new figures show.

 

The improvement in the sector adds weight to evidence that the speed of economic recovery is increasing, with GDP for the second quarter of the year measured at 0.7%.

 

yet another reason 2015 won't be a good year for Ed 

 

It actually says the manufacturing sector recovery, while still lagging behind its pre-recession peak, is [at] its best level since February 2011 which is not reflected by the headline. In other words, it's not what it was even quite recently.It's better than a fall, but it's not actually much to trumpet.

 

I read recently that while things are improving, it's despite Osborne's policies not because of them - that he's effectively dragged things down by (I think it was) 4.8 % by what he's done. it was in the finance pages (actual paper) of the Indie, quoting some american academic fiscal study.

 

 

 

I think I said in this very thread back in 2011 that Osborne would get lucky and inherit the boom of the boom /bust cycle that Brown claimed to have eradicated

 

the problem for the 2 Ed's is that to a degree they made the economy their big policy saying the Tories had got it wrong  .... the headline figures that your average man on the street is going to take notice off , are showing the economy improving , come 2015 that could well be the big problem the Ed's will get horse whipped with as the Tories can (potentially ) say these are the figures and the upturn and Labour opposed us  ..Labour can counter argue that had they been in charge it would have been even better etc but they wont have any actual fact on which to convince people with

[tonyh29]

 

 

totally serious , have you read their manifesto outside of we believe trees' should be hugged ? it's bonkers and the math is totally unsustainable ... they'd make Gordon look competent with money

Yes.....and they still don't make Gideon look good with money.

More seriously they've a couple of totally unreality based policies, but what's published (no parties detail their whole, real aims) is no less mad, in it's own way than any of the main ones. I mean it's mad to do exactly what got us into trouble the last times again and expect a different result. e.g. boost housing prices via cheap loans... or fail to control the banking and finance sector properly...or fail to regulate lobbying...and so on.

It's been the right wing media's agenda for as long as I've lived to portray anything on the left as mad, naive, pathetic etc etc. from donkey jackets, and ginger little welsh men to tree huggers with no grasp of the 'hard realities' of the world.

 

 

tbf they do have a point in all the examples you've cited

 

 

but I find it a bit disingenuous to suggest that anyone who doesn't subscribe to you views is brainwashed by the media  .... to my knowledge the media haven't actually ever branded the Greens as "bonkers "  .. this is an opinion I formed for myself based on reading through their policies   ... I understand what they are trying to offer , but it's like they've brainstormed a bunch of hippies and then scribbled ideas down on the back of a fag packet and made it a policy without any thought .. this isn't an endorsement of the big 3 , they all have their own share of bonkers ideas 

 

wasn't it Lucas herself that once said taking a holiday abroad was akin to stabbing someone in the street  - because people are dying from climate change  , had she been a UKIP MP the outrage would have had Stephen Fry on Twitter for months  ..

 

[Kingfisher]

Well, whether you're brainwashed or naturally stupid is neither here nor there to me

Lucas is a reasonable person and I'd like to see the context of that quote, comparing here to the bloody racists in UKIP for example shows a nativity in your conclusion.

[tonyh29]

Well, whether you're brainwashed or naturally stupid is neither here nor there to me

Lucas is a reasonable person and I'd like to see the context of that quote, comparing here to the bloody racists in UKIP for example shows a nativity in your conclusion.

I didn't compare her to anyone

But carry on luckily VT has an ignore feature in case my **** radar is switched off

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

 shows a nativity in your conclusion.

 

 

?

[snowychap]

 

Manufacturing output in the UK grew at its strongest pace for nearly two decades in August, new figures show.

 

The improvement in the sector adds weight to evidence that the speed of economic recovery is increasing, with GDP for the second quarter of the year measured at 0.7%.

 

yet another reason 2015 won't be a good year for Ed 

 

 

In the same way that not losing in 2010 hasn't done either of the two governing parties a great deal of good, not losing in 2015 may be just as much of a curse.

A 5 year term - so in office until 2020. Apart from the difficulties left over from 2008 (including having to keep base rates at 0.5% and not retracting QE for however long Carney can keep it up), surely we'll be due another recession before that parliament is out?

[tonyh29]

 

 

Manufacturing output in the UK grew at its strongest pace for nearly two decades in August, new figures show.

 

The improvement in the sector adds weight to evidence that the speed of economic recovery is increasing, with GDP for the second quarter of the year measured at 0.7%.

 

yet another reason 2015 won't be a good year for Ed 

 

 

In the same way that not losing in 2010 hasn't done either of the two governing parties a great deal of good, not losing in 2015 may be just as much of a curse.

A 5 year term - so in office until 2020. Apart from the difficulties left over from 2008 (including having to keep base rates at 0.5% and not retracting QE for however long Carney can keep it up), surely we'll be due another recession before that parliament is out?

 

yeah but then at least you get to leave a witty note in the treasury petty cash box before you leave office in 2020

[Jon]

 

 shows a nativity in your conclusion.

 

 

?

 

Whis is Jebus dressed as Santa is that picture? Could they be one and the same ......

[Jon]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23955577

 

GMB cuts funds it gives Labour from £1.2m to £150,000

The GMB union is to cut the affiliation funds it gives Labour from £1.2m to £150,000 in the wake of row over reforms, the union announces.

The union said there would also be cuts in spending on Labour Party campaigns and initiatives.

 ----

 

Hmmmm. Not sure what to think about this TBH. Where is Labour going to get it's funding from, if the Unions cut back or sever their ties? I'm not really that surprised by the mopve either. Labour increasingly is not representing the interests of the Unions.

[Eames]

Labour spent enough time in the late 90s early 00s snuggling up to big business. Their new found "friends" will see them alright - perhaps moreso in fact the less they appear "tainted" with Socialism. 

 

It will be interesting to see what happens... since the Labour party doesn't really represent the interests of those whose name it bears and hasn't done since Foot was in charge. 

[Jon]

The 'problem' is (and this is only a problem for left leaning people/voters) that there is no credible alternative outflanking them on the left. Greens maybe? There seems to be no (credible) socialist alternative.

 

Compare and contrast to the problem the Tories have with UKIP outflanking them on the right.

Edited September 4, 2013 by Jon

[Kingfisher]

As I said up the page, the media have for many years, at best ignored, and at worst ridiculed anything that isn't right wing.

[tonyh29]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23955577

 

GMB cuts funds it gives Labour from £1.2m to £150,000

The GMB union is to cut the affiliation funds it gives Labour from £1.2m to £150,000 in the wake of row over reforms, the union announces.

The union said there would also be cuts in spending on Labour Party campaigns and initiatives.

 ----

 

Hmmmm. Not sure what to think about this TBH. Where is Labour going to get it's funding from, if the Unions cut back or sever their ties? I'm not really that surprised by the mopve either. Labour increasingly is not representing the interests of the Unions.

 

 

does make you wonder why they rigged the election to get Ed in the first place

 

As Eames said , Labour went after Big Business for funding under Blair ,they all defected rather quickly once Gordon took charge , but it would appear Ed may have no choice but to go and court them again  ...

[chrisp65]

it is a strange game they are playing, I'm sure there is a great brain somewhere with a master plan whereby it ends with us funding the parties

 

state sponsoring of the political classes is a stinking idea but we might get to a point where we have to hold our noses

 

 

 

 

in other news...Lib Dems are having their Autumn Conference in Glasgow, apparently they haven't been able to sell a single business / trade stand at the event

[snowychap]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23955577

 

GMB cuts funds it gives Labour from £1.2m to £150,000

The GMB union is to cut the affiliation funds it gives Labour from £1.2m to £150,000 in the wake of row over reforms, the union announces.

The union said there would also be cuts in spending on Labour Party campaigns and initiatives.

 ----

 

Hmmmm. Not sure what to think about this TBH. Where is Labour going to get it's funding from, if the Unions cut back or sever their ties? I'm not really that surprised by the mopve either. Labour increasingly is not representing the interests of the Unions.

 

Isn't the point of Miliband's suggested reform (whether anything comes of it is another question) that it shouldn't be about Union funding but about Union members' funding.

I'm not up on the intricacies of the funding but surely if the recipient of the funding will only allow it on a particular basis (i.e. that it is opt in rather than opt out), the organization choosing to do it on the raising of a wet finger to the air will get its bottom spanked by any legal process people choose to take?

 

[chrisp65]

I think it's not a straight forward suicide. I think there may be a tactic in the background whereby Ed M thinks if he can shake out the Labour funding problems, i.e. people not wanting to or not realising they are paying 3p a week to be a Labour member, then he can throw stones at the Tory Greenhouse.

 

It's a thin plan, but I hope that is the plan. As opposed to simply winding down the Labour party as he'd realised they were just another flavour of shit, as opposed to an alternative to shit.

[peterms]

Lib Dem notices imminent electoral annihilation.

 

Top Lib Dem Sarah Teather to step down in despair at Nick Clegg's policies

Sarah Teather says party is not fighting for justice and describes how immigration policy left her 'desolate'

 

The prominent Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Teather – who shot to fame when she became the youngest member of parliament a decade ago – has announced that she is to quit the House of Commons because she no longer feels that Nick Clegg's party fights sufficiently for social justice and liberal values on immigration.

 

In a blow to Clegg a week before his party gathers for its annual conference in Glasgow, Teather said his tougher approach to immigration – including a plan for some immigrants to pay a £1,000 deposit when applying for visas – left her feeling so "desolate" and "catastrophically depressed" that she was unable even to confront him over the issue. "It was an absolutely black moment. I couldn't even move from my seat when I read it. I was so depressed I couldn't even be angry. I was utterly desolate," she says.

 

Announcing her decision to turn her back on frontline politics in an interview with the Observer, she adds that "something broke" in her when the Lib Dems responded to public concern about the cost of welfare by backing a government cap on benefits.

 

Teather believes the £26,000-a-year limit is a political stunt that will not work, and complains that it will force many of her constituents in the ethnically diverse constituency of Brent Central, in north London, to leave their homes and seek work in cheaper areas where fewer jobs would be available.

 

"It was the moment of realising that my own party was just as afraid of public opinion as the Labour party," she says. "Something did break for me that was never ever repaired."

 

While she insists that she still has a lot of respect for Clegg, whom she regards as a "decent bloke", she says that too often he seems to lead a party that no longer appears passionate about the values that attracted her to it as a teenager.

 

"When I joined the party I had this really strong instinct that it was the party of social justice and liberalism. It was the only party that operated in that space." But now, with the pressure of coalition bearing down on him, Teather, 39, says Clegg and his team react too easily to immediate pressure to appease public opinion. "It is about the reactive pursuit of the latest poll irrespective of what is right and wrong.

 

"What really gets me is that we remove ourselves from any responsibility for forming public opinion … You achieve change not just through policy but by presenting arguments and having debate and leading debate, and using all the platforms you have in television, parliament, the media. All of those things form and respond to public opinion."

 

The former charity worker, who served as minister for children in the coalition until 2012, shot to prominence when she won the safe Labour seat of Brent East in September 2003, overturning a 13,047 Labour majority.

 

While insisting her decade in parliament has been "wonderful" in many ways, she says she no longer feels able to operate within the Liberal Democrat parliamentary party while disagreeing with its approach on fundamental issues. She will remain in parliament until the 2015 general election, and continue as a member of the party, but says she has "no idea" what she will do after that.

 

Her announcement creates an unfortunate backdrop to the Lib Dem meeting in Glasgow, where the party will try to present itself as distinct from the Tories as it prepares to put together a radical manifesto for 2015. The party faces a series of awkward debates on the economy, tuition fees, green policy and taxation, among other things, as it wrestles with how to present a strikingly distinct policy offering that can still be moderated in potential future coalitions with the Tories or Labour.

 

The Lib Dems' period in government has coincided with sharp falls not only in the opinion polls but also in party membership and income. The latest figures show it now has a membership of just 42,501. This represents a 35% drop since the height of "Cleggmania" in 2010. The fall in membership fees has also contributed to an operating deficit of £410,000 in the latest annual accounts.

 

The latest Opinium/Observer poll puts the Lib Dems down percentage point on a fortnight ago, at just 7%. This compares with a vote share of 23% at the 2010 general election and scores of more than 30% in some polls in the runup to polling day. Opinium has Labour on 35% (done one percentage point compared to a fortnight ago), the Tories up one at 30% and Ukip down one on 17%.

 

Teather says she was dismayed to be told by her party to back the recent motion paving the way for military action in Syria because it was an issue of "loyalty". "If it was a minor aspect of administrative policy then fine – talk to me about loyalty. But if they are wanting to launch military action on another country you can't tell me I need to give permission on the basis of loyalty," she says. She voted no.

 

A Liberal Democrat spokesman said: "Of course we are disappointed by Sarah's decision.

 

"The Liberal Democrats have a proud record in government, including cutting taxes for working people by £700 and lifting the poorest paid out of tax altogether; helping businesses create a million jobs; investing billions more in schools to help the poorest children and introducing radical plans for shared parental leave.

 

"Sarah was a part of this when she served as a minister in the coalition, as well as playing a key role in ending Labour's disgraceful policy of locking up children for immigration purposes."