Public sector unions are living in fantasy land | Matthew Elliott | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk‏

Public sector unions are living in fantasy land

Agreed. Please let's not go the way of Greece, they are retarded. They should probably never have been allowed into the Euro in the first place, and the strikes and riots against the necessary medicine aren't helping.

I disagree that the problem has been the state spending too much, but rather that it was spending more than it was raking in through tax. He then says tax isn't the way to raise the money, which I disagree with. I do, however, agree that a VAT rise will hit the poorest hardest and we should be wary of going down that route.

But when he says "In a report with the Institute of Directors last September we set out how to save £50 billion", it all makes sense. the Institute of Directors are a right bunch of bastards who look after the interests of the richest and most powerful, so anything they or their mates say should be looked at in that light. The author is chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance. Wankers. They are the ones who don't believe in any government, so they can fuck right off.

Labour's 13-year war on the motorist is over, pledges new Transport Secretary

There tends to be a paradox at work here.
The Daily Mail are always going on about catching and punishing those who brake the law, unless they are speeding in which case they are doing all they can to ENCOURAGE braking the law

BBC News - EU president Van Rompuy 'pities' Farage for tirade‏

That Farage really is a twat.
I stand by my assessment that he had too many Stellas and got lary.
He's a bloody national embarrassment.

Jeremy Clarkson can fuck off

It amazes me how those on the right who are always banging on about how great Britain is are always doing it down.
Clarkson has extended this to every other part of the world too.
"After describing Britain as “mosque-drenched” and denouncing Albanians for taking university places and stealing wheelbarrows" he went on to slagging off everywhere else too:
" “You can’t go to France because you need to complete 17 forms in triplicate every time you want to build a greenhouse, and you can’t go to Switzerland because you will be reported to your neighbours by the police and subsequently shot in the head if you don’t sweep your lawn properly, and you can’t go to Italy because you’ll soon tire of waking up in the morning to find a horse’s head in your bed because you forgot to give a man called Don a bundle of used notes for “organising” a plumber.

“You can’t go to Australia because it’s full of things that will eat you, you can’t go to New Zealand because they don’t accept anyone who is more than 40 and you can’t go to Monte Carlo because they don’t accept anyone who has less than 40 mill. And you can’t go to Spain because you’re not called Del and you weren’t involved in the Walthamstow blag. And you can’t go to Germany … because you just can’t.

Do we have to go on? Oh alright then:

“The Caribbean sounds tempting, but there is no work, which means that one day, whether you like it or not, you’ll end up like all the other expats, with a nose like a burst beetroot, wondering if it’s okay to have a small sharpener at 10 in the morning. And, as I keep explaining to my daughter, we can’t go to America because if you catch a cold over there, the health system is designed in such a way that you end up without a house. Or dead.

“Canada’s full of people pretending to be French, South Africa’s too risky, Russia’s worse and everywhere else is too full of snow, too full of flies or too full of people who want to cut your head off on the internet.”"


Fuck off Clarkson

At the end of the day

At the end of the day, George Ozzy Osborne and David Chameleon got it wrong on the big economic call:
"But the fact remains Osborne got the big call of the century wrong. When the crisis hit, Osborne said we shouldn't intervene, whereas Gordon Brown led the world on a Keynesian crusade which has saved us from the abyss. I know who I would prefer in charge of Britain's finances."

Katy Perry

I hate Katy Perry. She drives me nuts, up the wall and round the bend. I wish she'd just fuck off.

Tory crime policy based on TV show?

Sadly, not Strictly Come Dancing, where people phone-vote for which minor criminal has done the best tango.
But, in fact, The Wire. "The Conservatives have compared parts of the UK to The Wire, a US television show which portrays inner-city drugs and violence."
Some really top work by Sunny H at Liberal Conspiracy:
"So how well versed with The Wire was Mr Grayling?

When asked on BBC News this morning it seemed Mr Grayling was trying to wing it.

Interviewer: Have you really seen any more than that first episode?
Grayling: Yes I’ve seen a number of … I’ve seen most of the first series. I have seen a number of the other episodes yes. I have.

Oh dear.

Perhaps he should heed the call of the show’s writer himself, who once said it would was dangerous to create policy based on the show.

It is possible that a few thinking viewers, after experiencing a season or two of The Wire, might be inclined, the next time they hear some politician declaring that with more prison cells, more cops, more lawyers, and more mandatory sentences that the war on drugs is winnable, to say, aloud: “You are hopelessly full of shit.”"



Now, the interesting bit: the statistics:

Why, he may be talking directly about Chris Grayling himself.

And what about the stats themselves then? Michael White writes:

Now down to the stats. The city of Baltimore, where The Wire was set by local reporter David Simon, has a population of around 640,000 and a murder rate – falling, I am happy to note – of 234 in 2008, down from 282 in 2007 after rows about fiddled figures – a detail which echoes the TV series.

Is that around 40 murders per 100,000? That’s around six times the New York rate of 6.3 per 100,000 in 2008 (523 murders, slightly up on 2007) and a lot, lot higher than the UK – where the murder rate per 100,000 is around 1.4, slightly higher than France, lower than Scotland (2.56), a lot lower than South Africa (49.6). The overall US murder rate is 5.5 – a quarter of post-Soviet Russia’s.
…
In fact, the common thread linking murder rates in every country appears to be extremes of wealth and poverty, despair, plus the easy jump that makes to drug-related crime.
…
PS Context: of the 1,574 youngsters who died between 10 and 19 in 2008 half did so because of illness, 546 in accidents, and 84 in suicides – slightly more than those murdered.

But when you’ve got a ‘Broken Society’ narrative to sell, who cares about the stats or thoughts of whether it’s wise to make judgements after watching a couple of episodes of a TV series?"

I like the end bit so much i'm going to say it again for added effect:
"But when you’ve got a ‘Broken Society’ narrative to sell, who cares about the stats or thoughts of whether it’s wise to make judgements after watching a couple of episodes of a TV series?"

George Osborne

George Bloody Osborne.
The Progressive, apparently.
This morning, I had the displeasure of listening to George Osborne on the Today programme. As I was in a rush to get to work, I didn't get the full details so I will listen to it again later and add detail.
But the progressive George Osborne was keen to stress the progressive credentials of the progressive Tory party, of which he is a key progressive element. Apparently.
For me, a Tory going on and on about being progressive is balls. I mean, you don't JOIN the Tory party to be a progressive, people join to be a Tory.
Progressive is what alot of people who are scared of the word 'socialist' use.
There was the usual rubbish about how the Tories are going to cut taxes and increase spending. Here I am very light on detail but I do remember him promising to make money appear out of thin air, again.
And going on about being progressive.
Twat


As the 'man' himself says:

"He said they planned to reform public services such as schools in a way which could achieve necessary spending cuts without harming frontline services."

"He added that people should not be "over-taxed" because of Labour's "overspending"."

""Because of the debt crisis the country faces we have a choice. You can either reform the way these services are delivered - so the money goes further and you get more for less - or you can face frontline service cuts."


Ah yes. Now, from what I can see, it's this thing about spending levels that's key. Progressive means lefty means spending money. We love it. To now go on about being 'over-taxed' and how Labour have 'overspent', well, you don't need to be a genius to see where this is going.

From BBC

Nadine Dorries

Do I hate Nadine Dorries? Oh yes I do!
Why? Because she's one of these people who thinks that anyone who disagrees with her is 'unfair'. Example of John Bercow. Reading about how she was allegedly given an easy ride on Today, I looked up her blog. Her opposition to Bercow is due to his wife being a lefty, and him disagreeing with her over abortion, means that she has "grave concerns regarding his neutrality on certain issues."
All that means is that she disagrees with her. Typical.

Later in her attack on him, for it is nothing more than an attack, she states that her attempts to stop abortions "was widely reported in both the media and reflected in various polls, the majority of doctors and the general public were right behind us." Lies. Not true. I worked for an MP when this was being debated, and many scientific and medical groups were begging and pleading that the limit not be changed. it was ONLY regilious groups who wanted the limit reduced.

She considers Mr Bercow to have "strident zealot views" on abortion. I think she has. The difference is, she's an MP and people read her blog. And i'm right, of course.

A doctor, who may know a thing or two about abortion, although he's probably a zealot for criticising Dorries, attacks her here for her views on sex education and abortion.

If nothing else, I hope Labour wins the next election to keep the likes of her out of government. SHE IS MENTAL

same old tories

"Ah, bliss. The face of Cameron's new enlightened Tories. Posted this evening on Conservativehome:

"If John Bercow wins things will just go from bad to worst. It will be a disaster for Parliament and the future of politics in the UK. This is spiteful Labour MPs having their final bad joke as they sink with their ship. I hope after the next election there is a new vote for Speaker as John Bercow's liberal leftie views are not shared by more than 90% of Conservative MPs. How will he ever be fair or impartial when moral issues are discussed like the protection of unborn children? If John Bercow gets his way there will be abortion on demand right up to term. The militant left wing feminist will be celebrating tonight if he is the winner. For real traditional conservatives it will be a very sad day and they will be shaking their head in dispair. Just watch the smirking faces on the labour benches if he is declared the winner. But let's hope David Cameron and the Conservative Government have the last laugh when they vote for a new speaker after the next General Election..""

Cameron's houses

How many houses does David Cameron own?
Simple enough question. The answer is:
"I own a house in North Kensington and… in the constituency in Oxfordshire and that is, as far as I know, all I have."
He then started to get confused, said he might own four homes after all, and pleaded: “Do not make me sound like a prat for not knowing how many houses I’ve got.”

Firstly, how can a bloke run a country if he doesn't even know how many houses he owns? Perhaps because he's got so many, or because his estates are so big he looses count of how many he has on the land.
Secondly, why is he so unsure? I'd imagine that his vast estates, and those of his wife, may not go down too well with voters, especially as he's trying to present himself as the mate of the everyman, Dave Cameron, innit?

So much for his honesty eh?

It also shows his obsession with sound bites and how he will be percieved. Blair was attacked for being good at it, Brown for being bad at it. Can't win eh?

Good work Next Left:
"The fact that David and Samantha Cameron are worth an almost-entirely-inherited £30m, according to financial expert Philip Beresford, isn’t in itself damning. Franklin Roosevelt was very rich, but became a great crusader for the poor. But Cameron is advocating policies that will benefit his tiny class of super-rich Trustafarians at the expense of the rest of us. He is committed to spending billions on a massive tax cut for the richest inheritees, paid for by the bottom 94 percent of us – and now he has announced his enthusiasm for a bogus economic theory that will justify shovelling far more of our money their way."

George Osborne

George Osborne writing here on how progressive he is.
Even IF Cameron and Osborne ARE as lefty as they claim, their party is not and therefore their claim is not really valid.
New Labour are still to the left of the Conservatives, and the Conservatives are still to the right of Labour.


So, after my initial noticing of it, i've now read it.
The thing that stands out to me is "make use of open source IT to drive down costs and improve standards."
Wow, that's big. A Conservative twat shadow chancellor has just committed to using something non-profit instead of standard private (by definition).

He does let himself down when trying to attack Brown for his attempts to "fight on the old terrain of "Tory cuts versus Labour spending"."
Well, that IS how it is.
In this article Osborne is trying to say that the Conservatives are a bit like Labour, slightly different and more competant.
I believe that his assment of Labour's lack of ideas would reflect equally onto his party. Their idea is to get experts in to help micromanage the odd policy, while getting a Labour-ish think tank into bed briefly so as not to put off too many middle/floaters/moderates/Lib Dem etc. They are making a centre-right appeal to the odd centre lefty. Not unwise really, apart from the centre-RIGHT bit which is obviously silly and wrong by definition. Of course.

Of course I don't like it, I'm a lefty. I make no pretense to impartiality.
The use of phrases such as "age of austerity" are their attempt to justify their planned cuts with the use of "austerity" to give them weight and the appearance of being ready to govern