June 2010

Cabinet In Bradford Today - Osborne Speaks

Submitted by Tom on Tue, 29/06/2010 - 23:43

"The cabinet taking a day trip out of London is not going to solve Britain’s economic problems."

George Osborne, 2008.

[via @rich_w on Twitter]

Coalition : Jobs In The UK Are Just Too Secure

Submitted by Tom on Tue, 29/06/2010 - 22:26

Police Reform - Cop A Load Of This

Submitted by Tom on Mon, 28/06/2010 - 23:15

Now, if Theresa May decides that its time to trim ACPO, the shadowy is-it-public-or-not organisation of senior rozzers led by Sir Hugh Orde that has an interesting sideline in setting up its own CCTV surveillance nets I don't think we'll shed much of a tear.

Two Liberal Democrats Rebel On VAT

Submitted by Tom on Mon, 28/06/2010 - 22:32

Mike Hancock (Portsmouth South) and Bob Russell (Colchester) both rebelled against the Coalition on VAT tonight, as had been suggested earlier in the week.

School Conflicts Ahead

Submitted by Tom on Sun, 27/06/2010 - 17:02

The 'Free School' movement championed by Education Secretary Michael Gove, of which more later, has a number of fairly obvious drawbacks pointed out by a lot of people, a short summary of which in a West London context (and this is a West London story) could read roughly as follows:

LibDem Concern Grows?

Submitted by Tom on Mon, 21/06/2010 - 10:32

Living as I do mainly on Twitter (as @Boriswatch, mostly) it's been interesting to watch the reaction of LibDem political tweeters. It can, roughly and with no attempt at balance, be summed up as:

Who Could Possibly Have It In For Chris Huhne?

Submitted by Tom on Sun, 20/06/2010 - 22:17

Well, someone does appear to be bumping off Lib Dem cabinet ministers serial killer style, don't they?  I've drawn up a shortlist of candidates that should help the police track down the villains:

Our Straussian Coalition

Submitted by Alex on Sun, 20/06/2010 - 16:31

Coalition adviser Lawrence Mead:

Hitler was non-democratic, whereas work requirements claim a popular mandate. There is something wrong when because of fascism we have to solve every problem with freedom and benefits

This is possibly the most chilling remark I have heard in some time. Those fucking fascists, eh? If it wasn't for them, we wouldn't be forced to indulge the feckless masses' irrational desire for anarchic licence. What the fuck are Liberals, to say nothing of self-declared libertarians, doing anywhere near this guy?

Whip it

Submitted by Alex on Sun, 20/06/2010 - 13:37

There's an interesting machinery of government story over at the Watch; we've pointed out the importance of cabinet committees in the Whitehall system before, and this particular change probably explains a lot of the turn towards a hard-right cuts agenda.

You Choose Your Leaders And Place Your Trust, Then Their Lies Wash You Down As Their Promises Rust

Submitted by Alex on Sun, 20/06/2010 - 13:27

So, the suggestion that the replacement of David Laws by Danny Alexander might tilt the coalition leftwards is now officially looking like a StabPrin Bad Call.

Professor J. Bradford DeLong Is Shrill, But We Knew That Anyway

Submitted by Alex on Tue, 15/06/2010 - 16:31

Professor DeLong is shrill: David "Herbert Hoover" Cameron and George "Andrew Mellon" Osborne Destroy Confidence in the British Economy.

Austerity Schmausterity

Submitted by Tom on Tue, 15/06/2010 - 00:11

If we didn't already suspect as much, today's economic news does rather confirm that all that talk about Greece, defaults and deficits the size of a planet were basically hogwash, and the reality, as Whitehall Watch point out, is that we have a government that has a choice.