pap

Short and sweet.

Superb post, hypo.

Don't read a lot of fiction these days.

It's not often I say this, but fúcking genius.

Are you sure this is wise, St. Chalet?

Weird, isn't it? The Briton of a century ago would have said the complete opposite. Guess that's the difference between having your own Empire and being part of someone else's.

http://www.spurscommunity.co.uk/index.php?threads/what-our-opponents-fans-are-saying.81778/page-649

Ed Miliband is an electoral liability, I reckon. I read this week that his stuff appeals to Guardian readers, but he's failing to address the concerns of Labour's core vote. The economy is not the only elephant in the room he is not ignoring. The fringe groups at the Labour Party conference were talking about the UKIP threat, even if the leadership is pretending it's a Tory only issue. I've recently left the Labour Party, and have no intention of going back. Very tired of the negativity, the electoral gamesmanship and the fact that they expect people to go to blue collar houses without an appropriate answer on what Labour will do about the EU situation. Oh yeah, and cash to pay for it all! When genuinely seeking change, it's better to build new stuff than attack the existing system. Labour have failed to do this; the left-wing revolution that the unions thought they'd get by choosing "Red" Ed hasn't materialised. The nickname is fúcking preposterous in hindsight.

Nice post, bletch - and just a teeny bit to add. This was no mere line item on a manifesto. This is something their MPs held up next to students, while canvassing the student vote, each sporting a fúcking big placard and a cheesy grin. It was a tangible enough pledge for it to have been a core value for them. They could and should have walked away from any deal that didn't honour it. They didn't know it then, but they were signing death warrants for not only their own credibility, but also the entire party.

Dissent dealt with, home and abroad. Israel: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/27/opinion/how-israel-silences-dissent.html?_r=2 Salford: http://www.jewishnews.co.uk/orthodox-jewish-man-beaten-mob-criticising-israel/ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/noone-harmed-in-arson-attack-on-antiisrael-orthodox-rabbis-car-9749404.html

I did know that Major's govt introduced PFI, but didn't know that they were using it for the NHS. The Labour shadow cabinet called it privatisation by the back door, only for Milburn to later declare "PFI or bust" when using it for the Health Service. Going from your previous description of events, sounds like they were the only real implementers of PFI in the NHS, even if it was a matter of getting booted out of the office that prevented the Tories from implementing it fully themselves. If nothing else, the education you've provided here makes it more depressing. PFI run by Tories vs PFI run by Labour. What choice.

Milburn introduced PFI to the NHS. Fair play on your second point.

You are thinking of Alan Milburn.

I thought Boris was very funny on HIGNFY, and his popularity has been an asset to the Tory party. The stage-managed buffoonery and off-the-cuff remarks are great copy. Put it this way. I'm pleased Boris' powers is presently constrained to the city of London. This is a bloke that can't pick people correctly, suggesting few real political allies. He loses his rag on numerous occasions and with the benefit of hindsight, has plainly sought power all his adult life. Just gone the wolf in sheep's clothing route via the media. Don't get me wrong, he's very good at that. I'm just not sure he's a safe pair of hands off the leash.

Nope. The wording is not only clear, but damning. There is no such qualification, and every expectation that they will be outside the government they planned to pressure. EDIT: Fair do's; voting against an increase is not the same as pledging to abolish them. But they broke this pledge, which doesn't have a general election victory qualification.

I wonder if they'll be led by the same people come election time. Boris has clearly got broader appeal than either Cameron or Miliband. I think the ship has sailed for both Miliband brothers. Andy Burnham is being talked about as a possible successor to Ed. Delivered a decent speech at their party conference and gained a lot of credibility in the run up to the Hillsborough inquests.

Political opportunists; the kind of people who'll say anything to get votes with the almost certain knowledge that they'll never have to produce. The Lib Dems were top drawer at this until they accidentally got into government. Ended up choking on their own promises. The tuition fee was particularly damning as all the Lib Dem MPs were photographed holding up pledges to abolish them. They were done after that point, really.

I take it you don't stray too far from your warren, B Rabbit. That's a nursery school.

The character Boris plays in public is fine. The angry bastard I hear reports about, not so sure.

The Tories will probably walk the election if they can get Boris up front. In an age of vapid obsession with celebrity, he's ideal.

Loads of people are. Labour have been pretending that's not happening. Wouldn't vote for them myself, but they've got the benefit of having one big policy people can get behind, a bloke-down-the-pub leader and the perception of being anti-establishment, whether that's true or not.

It's party (conference) time! Yes, indeed ladies and gentlemen, this is the season in which political parties all bugger off to somewhere they pretend they care about, in order to regale their members with their breathtaking new ideas. Even better, there's an election in ten months, so the topics being discussed will probably end up on manifestos. We'll all be voting on them in May 2015. Ready to rumble? In the Red Corner, it's "Red" Ed Miliband, the Labour leader looking to trounce the Tory toffs at the next election. Ed gets a lot of criticism. People think he's unelectable, speaks funny, is a bit nerdish and seemed perfectly happy solving animal-led crimes with his canine pal Gromit. He has a couple of nice ideas, but doesn't go far enough with any of them. Why bother with mansion tax when land tax has a much more profound chance to effect taxation and supply and demand? Minimum wage rise of £1.50? By the end of 2020? Why, Mr Miliband, you spoil us! Also, if saving the NHS is such an admirable mission, why bother planting the seeds of its destruction with your Proper Fúcked Initiative, better known as PFI? Suffice to say, this Labour lot have one of the strongest opportunities to build a positive platform of policy and have largely failed. They've spent most of their time attacking the Tories instead of crafting desirable policy. All fart and no shít. Shít would actually be preferable. In the Blue Corner, it's David Cameron and his aristocratic band of bandit brothers. I honestly don't know what qualifies people who've had it all handed to them on a plate, and not really had to work a fúcking day in their lives to demonise the poor quite the way they do, particularly when they, and people like them have done their level best to keep the poor where they are. Osborne talking about people getting "something for nothing" is "Tony Blair Envoy For Peace in Middle East" levels of hypocrisy. Ok, ok - his vast inherited wealth means that he has probably never been a burden to the state, but you'd think that someone who'd had such advantage would have a teeny bit of self-awareness about his own privilege. Still, hordes of mindless c**ts will believe it because it confirms their own prejudices, compounded by the fact that they think voting Tory in a secret ballot somehow takes them up a social grade. Meanwhile, anything public and not nailed down will be flogged off at low cost to their mates. What a depressing fúcking spectacle. Thoughts?

Expect to do this all again in a generation, maybe less. http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/sep/22/snp-poised-become-largest-political-parties SNP membership up 70% within days of referendum result.

I think this launch is actually worse than the iPhone4 debacle (it was the phone that wasn't very good at making phone calls, remember). At least then, the Macsturbators could still rely on WiFi.

Nope. My mixed race nieces and nephews get it all the time. If you went round exclusively calling black kids monkeys, you might have a problem. Why are you smiling then? Certainly very little on this thread. Or literacy, it would seem.