UK politics - Hamsterwheel
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Down the airway.
Posts: 689
There's more than a little spin in that, making it appear that Johnson is an apologist for Brown.
Johnson continued the same speech to say:
“The thing I thought was revealing, and went to the way he runs things, was the instant blaming of Sue Nye [Mr Brown’s long-serving sidekick whom he held responsible for introducing him to Mrs Duffy]. It’s always someone’s fault and the world is always organised by a hidden hand to conspire against him. It’s a slightly paranoid view of the universe. But it’s fundamentally insignificant. What matters is his stewardship of the country and the complete mess that he has made.”
Johnson continued the same speech to say:
“The thing I thought was revealing, and went to the way he runs things, was the instant blaming of Sue Nye [Mr Brown’s long-serving sidekick whom he held responsible for introducing him to Mrs Duffy]. It’s always someone’s fault and the world is always organised by a hidden hand to conspire against him. It’s a slightly paranoid view of the universe. But it’s fundamentally insignificant. What matters is his stewardship of the country and the complete mess that he has made.”
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: northants
Posts: 205
Turin, while I am not claiming to be good with figures, and I am an engineer not a financial wizard, I was trying to get a handle on what the real debt position was, as none of the parties seem to want to tell us.
I agree that the £8k in extra tax over 25 years clears our debt, but no Government is going to clear it to zero, but reduce it to an acceptable percentage. Also as you have pointed out some money can come in from other sources. But taxing the banks as some suggest, infers the bank will not pass on this tax as increased charges to business and joe public, so we pay for it indirectly. Increasing business tax does the same, reduced employment and/or wage rises to pay the said tax increase, again we pay indirectly.
I agree.
I agree that the £8k in extra tax over 25 years clears our debt, but no Government is going to clear it to zero, but reduce it to an acceptable percentage. Also as you have pointed out some money can come in from other sources. But taxing the banks as some suggest, infers the bank will not pass on this tax as increased charges to business and joe public, so we pay for it indirectly. Increasing business tax does the same, reduced employment and/or wage rises to pay the said tax increase, again we pay indirectly.
Someone will no-doubt tell us it's not that simple.
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: UK.
Posts: 4,391
Brown's instant blaming of an aide reminded me of a builder I employed.
Nothing was ever his fault; the useless bricklayer he employed " . had told him he was good at bricklaying . " When I insisted he come on site on a Saturday to demolish an unsatisfactory wall before the mortar set he " . had appointments, overheads??, it was the weekend, the job was OK . " (he came - wall was demolished)
At the time I despised the man's lack of ability to shoulder responsibility for his actions but slightly excused him because of his background and the mindset it engendered.
I now hear my Prime Minister behaving in a similar fashion - it's a worry
Nothing was ever his fault; the useless bricklayer he employed " . had told him he was good at bricklaying . " When I insisted he come on site on a Saturday to demolish an unsatisfactory wall before the mortar set he " . had appointments, overheads??, it was the weekend, the job was OK . " (he came - wall was demolished)
At the time I despised the man's lack of ability to shoulder responsibility for his actions but slightly excused him because of his background and the mindset it engendered.
I now hear my Prime Minister behaving in a similar fashion - it's a worry
Join Date: May 2009
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 60
Posts: 211
You couldn't make it up!
Labour follows debate failure with car crash event - Times Online
I couldn't help smiling when I noted that poor Labour supported involved was 'unemployed'.
Labour's ill-starred election campaign took another hit today when Gordon Brown's launch of a poster designed to set the agenda for the final week was interrupted by a car crash.
Witnesses at the poster launch in Hockley, Birmingham, said that, after a long squealing of tyres, a green Volkswagen Golf smashed into a bus shelter on a traffic island only yards from the car park where the Prime Minister and nine Cabinet ministers were lined up.
Witnesses at the poster launch in Hockley, Birmingham, said that, after a long squealing of tyres, a green Volkswagen Golf smashed into a bus shelter on a traffic island only yards from the car park where the Prime Minister and nine Cabinet ministers were lined up.
I couldn't help smiling when I noted that poor Labour supported involved was 'unemployed'.
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Peripatetic
Posts: 12,906
Not so much a car crash as a train wreck in slow motion.... 
I especially like the comment:..... "A junior official was more candid - "I feel like a dog that can't be kicked any more."
I especially like the comment:..... "A junior official was more candid - "I feel like a dog that can't be kicked any more."
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: London
Age: 60
Posts: 68
Das war ein Befehl! Feiglinge! Versager! Verraeter!
It gives a rare insight into the mind of Our Glorious Leader when we learn that instead of admitting that he's cocked up, he wanted to know who was responsible for allowing him to cock up. It wisnae me. A big boy did it and ran away.
He'll be blaming his DNA next.
SO
It gives a rare insight into the mind of Our Glorious Leader when we learn that instead of admitting that he's cocked up, he wanted to know who was responsible for allowing him to cock up. It wisnae me. A big boy did it and ran away.
He'll be blaming his DNA next.
SO
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Peripatetic
Posts: 12,906
1980s throwback Harriet Harman calls black audience 'brothers and sisters'. Audience falls about in laughter
Is this a record? There are now four far-Left groups fighting against Harriet Harman in Camberwell and Peckham. As well as Socialist Labour, there is the Workers’ Revolutionary party and the Alliance for Workers Liberty, plus the Green Party, whose policies are so far-Left they’re almost far-Right (economically, they’re extremely close to the BNP, with the emphasis on extreme). Nice though they are – my local candidate looks like just the sort of man I’d trust to buy weed off on holiday – given the chance they’d have half of us starving to death in no time.
Still, I’d vote for any of these losers if it meant chucking out Hattie, who meanwhile is having a hard time trying to keep it real in south London. According to this Guardian report, her attempts to win over an assembly of black voters didn’t go entirely well.
And things got worse with her opening line: “Good evening, brothers and sisters.” The audience fell about in a mixture of laughter, anger and disbelief. Why is she addressing us like some 1980s community activist when we know the feeble record of her, and her government, over the last 13 years, they asked themselves?
Ouch. It could have been worse, I suppose. She could have tried to rap or sucked her teeth and said “wagwan”. But never let it be said that this St Paul’s-educated daughter of a Harley St doctor who walks around south London with a bullet-proof vest does not understand the needs of the black community.Joseph Harker is certainly right about the 1980s community activist tag – for the people behind Gordon Brown’s misfired “Gene Hunt” poster attacking David Cameron, that decade was one of spivs, yuppies and Thatcherism, but for many others it was a decade of extreme Left-wing local politics, the birth pangs of the Loony left, political correctness, multiculturalism and lots of other phrases everyone is sick of hearing about. The tragedy is that they’re now in power forcing their crazy ideas on millions rather than thousands – and it’s a sad look out for the people of Camberwell when the authoress of the Equality Act is the voice of reason and sanity.
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: London
Age: 60
Posts: 68
NamibFox
I had not seen that one, thank you.
I find it poignant to see this shambolic, quivering wreck of a ruthless and obscene dictator desperately attempting to shore up the smoking ruins of a once-great nation he has destroyed. His deranged sycophants are too scared of him to breach ranks and do what's good for the county - they slavishly carry out his perverse and insane commands, loyalty to the Party comes first.
Then I watch the film about Hitler.
SO
I had not seen that one, thank you.
I find it poignant to see this shambolic, quivering wreck of a ruthless and obscene dictator desperately attempting to shore up the smoking ruins of a once-great nation he has destroyed. His deranged sycophants are too scared of him to breach ranks and do what's good for the county - they slavishly carry out his perverse and insane commands, loyalty to the Party comes first.
Then I watch the film about Hitler.
SO
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Newcastle/UK
Posts: 1,476
When and where was the Paxo interview Mr Basil? one forgot about it
One can seek it out on Iplayer
I see being called a bigot can be quite lucrative,Mrs Duffy has been offered 100 grand for her story by one of our magnificent newspapers.
One can seek it out on Iplayer
I see being called a bigot can be quite lucrative,Mrs Duffy has been offered 100 grand for her story by one of our magnificent newspapers.
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Peripatetic
Posts: 12,906
Seismic shock in the UK press - The Grauniad deserts Labour for the Lib Dems... 
General election 2010: The liberal moment has come
General election 2010: The liberal moment has come
Resident insomniac
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: N54 58 34 W02 01 21
Age: 78
Posts: 1,870
Originally Posted by ORAC
The Grauniad deserts Labour for the Lib Dems...
For reasons that I don't quite understand, it has been said that the LibDems would get less seats than Labour for the same number of votes . . .
At their first election in 1992, they won 17.8% of the vote and twenty seats. They more than doubled their representation at the 1997 general election, when they gained 46 seats.
At the 2005 general election, the Lib Dems gained their highest share of the vote since the SDP-Liberal Alliance (22.1%), receiving 62 seats. Many had anticipated that this election would be the Lib Dem's breakthrough at Westminster; party activists hoped to better the 25.4% support of the 1983 election, or to reach 100 MPs.
2005 could be considered a wasted opportunity for the party; but much of the apparent lack of success was a result of the Westminster first-past-the-post elections: the party got almost a quarter of the total votes nationally but only one-tenth of the seats in the Commons.
At the 2005 general election, the Lib Dems gained their highest share of the vote since the SDP-Liberal Alliance (22.1%), receiving 62 seats. Many had anticipated that this election would be the Lib Dem's breakthrough at Westminster; party activists hoped to better the 25.4% support of the 1983 election, or to reach 100 MPs.
2005 could be considered a wasted opportunity for the party; but much of the apparent lack of success was a result of the Westminster first-past-the-post elections: the party got almost a quarter of the total votes nationally but only one-tenth of the seats in the Commons.
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: UK.
Posts: 4,391
Tony,
Paxo int GB
BBC1 Fri 30 Apr 2030
Not very exciting - I just kept going counting the 'globals'.
As an old timer, I sometimes feel a little uncomfortable watching journalists being rude to our leaders and then I think "You b^stard, you deserve every bit of it!"
Generally speaking, I'd guess that the despair in Labour ranks is leavened with a wee bit of schadenfreude.
Paxo int GB
BBC1 Fri 30 Apr 2030
Not very exciting - I just kept going counting the 'globals'.
As an old timer, I sometimes feel a little uncomfortable watching journalists being rude to our leaders and then I think "You b^stard, you deserve every bit of it!"
Generally speaking, I'd guess that the despair in Labour ranks is leavened with a wee bit of schadenfreude.
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: UK.
Posts: 4,391
For reasons that I don't quite understand, it has been said that the LibDems would get less seats than Labour for the same number of votes . . .
There must be a table showing the number of voters in each constituency.
I suspect that we, in Beaconsfield / High Wycombe have just been subjected to a bit of gerrymandering but haven't yet taken the trouble to look at the precise figures.
p.s. The Harman story is priceless! Got to hand it to NuLab; they do provide an entertaining Deputy PM or two - no kidding, even I was rooting for the steward when he lamped mullet man
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Peripatetic
Posts: 12,906
There are a variety of reasons why all votes aren't equal. The two main reasons are large majorities in small areas and the disparate number of votes per constituency. e.g. one seat may have around 20K voters, another 40K voters.
In the 2005 general election the number of votes required for each of the main parties to win a seat was as follows:
Liberal Democrats 96,476 votes
Conservatives 41,819 votes
Labour 27,423 votes
In the 2005 general election the number of votes required for each of the main parties to win a seat was as follows:
Liberal Democrats 96,476 votes
Conservatives 41,819 votes
Labour 27,423 votes
