UK General Discussion

[minionofmidas]

I don't see the issue. All gardening companies do that anyways.

(Oh, and a "jerrycan" is literally a German Army (WW I) style canister".

[minionofmidas]

I do think the Lords proposal is interesting. I'd prefer it to be 100% elected, not 80% elected and would rather the Bishops be booted. They seem to be trying to go for a pre 2004 style French Senate which makes sense if you want to create a neutered upper house almost from scratch.

Britain already has a neutered upper house, so a reform that recreates one makes no sense. Not that I'd expect the current government - or a Labour majority government for that matter - to come up with anything else.

[minionofmidas]

Cheryl Gillan announced AM Seats to be realigned to Boundary Review ones, number of list AMs to be increased to 30.

That would dramatically increase minor parties' chances to get into the Assembly.

Good news.

[minionofmidas]

Rosindell is, and always has been, a country supper.

As in what Brooks texts Cameron?

[minionofmidas]

Lol! Required watching. I wish we had interviews like that in Germany.

[minionofmidas]

If you think the public sector is lazy and bloated, you have never set foot in corporate bureaucracy. Or in the public sector, of course. (You're also technically right, of course.) Though Quangos can be even worse than that.

[minionofmidas]

He held Brent North for the Tories from 1974 until 1997 when he fell victim to the biggest ever post-1945 swing from the Tories to Labour (a barely believable 18.8%). Oddly enough this wasn't a personal rejection as such, but the result of local fury at hospital reorganisation and demographic changes combined with the national landslide.

I think that's (at least partially) a case of a strong personal vote evaporating in the face of too strong a wave/realignment.

[minionofmidas]

Chloe Smith is no longer Economic Secretary to the Treasury, but is instead Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office. Is that any kind of promotion or demotion? Obviously her career has been of interest to all and any observer since that memorable day in june.

[minionofmidas]

Well, yeah; the issue is that there have been enough bizarre little sexist episodes in public (and other attempts to make a point of what he clearly regards as his manly manness) that private behavior like that doesn't seem implausible.

It's his only male attribute (besides a penis, I suppose).

[minionofmidas]

Well coalitions are a bit of an alien concept in Britain (though not locally, actually), and the rules how they're supposed to work are unwritten in most countries.

The Lib Dems have allowed a reshuffle that significantly tilted the coalition to the right without even seeming to have been really consulted in the matter. Clegg should have told Cameron that demoting Clarke and promoting Hunt was out of the question.

Incidentally, Cameron could have done that in Germany. A party's government ministers are considered its own business here, pm excluded.

You can take it right back to the beginning: their big prize was a referendum they were always likely to lose on a voting system that they didn't actually want.

They should have at the very least bound the government - the entire government - to actively campaign for a yes vote.

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Reminds me of the very early Green government participations. The FDP would never, ever have consented to that, even if it stood at 5.1% and the CDU was one seat away from a majority.

[minionofmidas]

RIP.

"Sir Stuart was the son of Durham miner", though. That sentence should unite in crawling the flesh of anybody loving the British class system and its trappings and that of anybody looking at it with derision.

[minionofmidas]

That's my girl! Show that Tory bastard who's boss!

[minionofmidas]

That's Cameron's cat vs Osbourne's cat.

I know she lives in Osbourne's household, but you have to ignore some annoying facts when you want to construct a simple morality story out of a real life event.

And I'm not aware of any pictures of her like the smarmy one of him that the BBC is showing.

[minionofmidas]

Two SNP MSPs leave party over NATO policy change

Can't say I agree with the policy change.

Interesting that all three quoted opponents are Highlanders; is that coincidence or is opposition to Trident a specifically Highland issue? That would make only limited sense given that they're stationed off Bute.

[minionofmidas]

All the "former members for Bexley" are dead. I thought you could freely libel the dead in Britain.

[minionofmidas]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20157063

How important is this?

[minionofmidas]

Of course it has a future. It's just (probably) not going to win the next election.

[minionofmidas]

This is clearly Antiwelsh racism. They were impersonating Welshmen most of the time.

[minionofmidas]

Oh wow. That is hilarious. Hilariously stupid on account of the officer in question, that is.

[minionofmidas]

it's easy to indicate ukip in a poll, but when push comes to shove, most of them are going to vote tory.

On election day, they'll have the choice between their community MP and random Joe Blow (UKIP). That will affect a lot of people's choices.

[minionofmidas]

The Welsh language stats are out as well and are mildly depressing.

In the on-the-way-to-Irish-style-uselessness sense; down in Gwynedd, up among schoolchildren everywhere?

That would be the trendline of the past 25 years...

[minionofmidas]

comments sections on british political articles are almost always worth avoiding, due to the sheer misanthropy any reasonable person will develop from reading them.

Any reasonable person is a sheer misanthrope already.

But comments sections are for people too dumb to even find a real forum, so what do you expect?

[minionofmidas]

I think most parents would prefer their children not to be gay, knowing most parents want grandchildren if nothing else. And usually think gays have it harder growing up. And usually are not gay themselves.

[minionofmidas]

doesn't change the fact it was a silly and irrelevant comment.

The second one certainly, if also hilarious.

What was the context to the first one; did it come totally out of nowhere or what?

[minionofmidas]

Can't say I ever heard of him, but he had two nicknames for a surname and a surname for a first name?