Pass the crisps: UK Election watch

497 Responses

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  • Craig Ranapia,

    Perhaps I'm biased in all kinds of ways, but I'm still trying to get my head around Labour's irrational sense of entitlement and refusal to take the Lib-Dems seriously. It would be kind of funny if it wasn't so damn sad watching people in deep denial about how much things had really changed.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • George Darroch,

    Perhaps I'm biased in all kinds of ways, but I'm still trying to get my head around Labour's irrational sense of entitlement and refusal to take the Lib-Dems seriously. It would be kind of funny if it wasn't so damn sad watching people in deep denial about how much things had really changed.

    Nah, it's not just you. I don't have any emotional investment in the politics of that strange European country, but it confounds me to see how Labour have acted in such toxic ways for the last two decades, and particularly towards those with politics that in some imaginary world could be seen as similar to theirs.

    I think that it's time for more Radiohead.

    WLG • Since Nov 2006 • 2264 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Simon Jenkins' Guardian column on the challenges facing Cameron -- especially those within his own party -- is sympathetic and intriguing.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • recordari,

    Billy Bragg said:

    Well, whatever it is that I've helped to [be] elected by voting tactically, it certainly isn't a Tory govt. Look at the reform agenda and the civil liberties stuff as well.

    Happy much?

    AUCKLAND • Since Dec 2009 • 2607 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Happy much?

    Yeah, and as Russell tweeted earlier The Guardian's Henry Porter has looked at "the civil liberties stuff" and his judgement of the Coalition is a very good start they better deliver on.

    As I read through the list, I have an exhilarated sense of restoration. It is a relief to see the end of proposals that would have allowed the government to store and draw on the data from phone calls, emails, texts and net connections. This will do more than just save money: it reverses the arrogance and sense of entitlement that the Labour government displayed towards personal privacy and those that claimed it was a key element in any democracy.

    Hum... the funny this is that what I saw there was not only a liberal agenda but a truly conservative one that (re-)asserts the rule of law & limited government should strengthen citizens' historical liberties not erode them.

    The Earl Gray Teabaggers are shitting their pants, and so they should. I certainly hope its going to embolden the coffee drinkers in the GOP to man up and start taking their party back...

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Rich Lock,

    Perhaps I'm biased in all kinds of ways, but I'm still trying to get my head around Labour's irrational sense of entitlement and refusal to take the Lib-Dems seriously. It would be kind of funny if it wasn't so damn sad watching people in deep denial about how much things had really changed.

    From that link you posted:

    On Monday night, Lib Dem MPs and activists were aghast as Labour MPs took turns on television to denounce the idea of a pact between their two parties as a "coalition of losers" even as the two teams of negotiators were in talks.

    Every one of the Lib Dem negotiators gave an individual report back of their meeting with Harriet Harman, Lord Mandelson, Ed Miliband, Ed Balls and Lord Adonis, and they each reached the same conclusion: that the Labour team were uninterested, with no movement on ID cards, the third runway at Heathrow, or increasing the proportion of renewable energy from 15% to 40%.

    There are unconfirmed reports of shotguns being snatched out of the hands of passers-by so that senior labour figures could blast away merrily at their own feet.

    Like you said, Craig, there are only so many times you can get told to fuck off before you turn around and say 'ok then'.

    Still. Beds, lying in, and all that.

    back in the mother countr… • Since Feb 2007 • 2728 posts Report Reply

  • recordari,

    "The parties agree to implement a full programme of measures to reverse the substantial erosion of civil liberties under the Labour government and roll back state intrusion."

    Yes, without being too flippant, it would be nice to see a population treated with some dignity and respect, instead of constantly being told they are too stupid, or too poor, to make decisions for themselves.

    Until they act on it though, they are but words in the breeze.

    AUCKLAND • Since Dec 2009 • 2607 posts Report Reply

  • Rich Lock,

    From the other link:

    One minister inside the bunker in the final hours

    Did The Guardian just Godwin NuLab?

    Strange days indeed.

    back in the mother countr… • Since Feb 2007 • 2728 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Still. Beds, lying in, and all that.

    Fair enough, but you can hardly blame Clegg for not kicking in a locked bedroom door to try lying in a bed that was short-sheeted from the start. Silly me -- of course you can! :)

    Until they act on it though, they are but words in the breeze.

    A caveat Porter made himself, and to start on my cliché quota for the day the devil is always in the legislative details. But I think civil libertarians have good reason to be optimistic, however cautiously.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Rich Lock,

    My 'beds' comment was more aimed at Labour. When the rug is pulled out from under you, it's best to realise you can't talk down to people when you're flat on your arse...

    And Polly Toynbee has an epic toy-throwing, dummy spitting meltdown.

    back in the mother countr… • Since Feb 2007 • 2728 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    My 'beds' comment was more aimed at Labour.

    I stand corrected. Sir. :)

    And Polly Toynbee has an epic toy-throwing, dummy spitting meltdown.

    I was tempted to link, point and laugh but that would have been mean. Not so much mixing your metaphors as throwing them in a blender and making a 360 bpm mash-up of spluttering incoherence. Or your average Michael Laws column.

    Still, you do learn something new every day. Who'd have thunk you could get civilly unified with kitset furniture in the UK - damn perverted socialist hellhole. :)

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Rich Lock,

    had no idea you could get civilly unified with kitset furniture in the UK - damn perverted socialist hellhole.

    The love between a man and his chipboard coffee table can be a beautiful thing, Craig.

    back in the mother countr… • Since Feb 2007 • 2728 posts Report Reply

  • recordari,

    Not so much mixing your metaphors as throwing them in a blender and making a 360 bpm mash-up of spluttering incoherence. Or your average Michael Laws column.

    Boing!

    AUCKLAND • Since Dec 2009 • 2607 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    The love between a man and his chipboard coffee table can be a beautiful thing, Craig.

    I'll defer to your superior expertise in Ikeaphilia. And perhaps I shouldn't be such a bitch, given that I've breeched the UN Convention on the Elimination of Torture of Metaphors, Analogies and Other Rhetorical Tropes one or two times myself. :)

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Sofie Bribiesca,

    I'll defer to your superior expertise in Ikeaphilia.

    At least ye ol' flatpack Ikea has considered function with it's form, not like the "Freedom" crap we claim the big all, end all of the Pacific. Admittedly I do try to afford the finer things in life and am lucky to have been handed down originals that would make my purse hide in my Tardis of a hand bag, but can't knock Ikea. Affordable form with function is a great lesson for anyone interested in design. One can pick up any design mag in NZ and it becomes apparent just how influential the flatpack has become. :)

    here and there. • Since Nov 2007 • 6796 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    can't knock Ikea. Affordable form with function is a great lesson for anyone interested in design

    Hear, hear.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Sofie :

    QFT -- last time I visited Sydney, several hours were spent drooling softly in Ikea. (Relatively) cheap and functional doesn't have to be nasty and dull after all, and weren't they planning to move into New Zealand before the recession bit...

    Then again, I do like Scandinavian Modern design, period. At its best it is very elegant and austere without being feeling like you're trapped in a Bauhaus hotel lobby.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    Opening an Auckland store from memory.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Tom Semmens,

    Gracious, anyone else struck by the giddy bromance going on between Clegg & Cameron?


    It'll end in tears, I tells ya!

    Sevilla, Espana • Since Nov 2006 • 2217 posts Report Reply

  • recordari,

    One can pick up any design mag in NZ and it becomes apparent just how influential the flatpack has become. :)

    What are the chances we could turn a UK election thread into Furniture Fetish? My chair collection is only just getting started. It hasn't yet reached my self imposed 'your obsessed and need help' limit of 12 yet, but it's not far off.

    No, wait, the cinema seats blow that one well out the window. Help!

    AUCKLAND • Since Dec 2009 • 2607 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    It'll end in tears, I tells ya!

    Oh, dulling, one always thinks that. Every, every time. (Virtual chocolate fish to the person who identifies where I stole that from -- with extra points if you see the joke.)

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • recordari,

    (Virtual chocolate fish to the person who identifies where I stole that from -- with extra points if you see the joke.)

    Not this Teledaft piece from the Obama inauguration?

    At first I was going to say This Mortal Coil's 1984 Album It'll End In Tears, but that sort of obscure reference is best saved for a music thread.

    Ahh, so in reading through in more detail, you may be referring to mister Blair. Dull enough?

    Sorry, I couldn't get past this comment by WeeJonnie;

    He ’sold the sizzle’ – but what is inside the sausage?

    That's not the joke, but it appealed to my puerile sense of ironic humour ;-)

    AUCKLAND • Since Dec 2009 • 2607 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Clue: Scan the works of the Mitford sisters who didn't have a crush on Hitler.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Rob Stowell,

    Polly Toynbee has an epic toy-throwing, dummy spitting meltdown.

    Really? She simply opines the coalition will face too many hard choices they can't agree on. Not an unreasonable opinion, I'd have thought, even if it turns out to be wrong.
    Then a good lashing of:

    Look hard at the agreement and the bitter truth Labour must swallow is that much here is more radical than their own manifesto.

    Before they rush to pour scorn, a little sombre reflection would be in order. There are policies here that Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling adamantly, and wrongly, refused to contemplate so wedded were they to New Labour's rigid caution, triangulating themselves to death. What better example that the raising of capital gains tax back towards 40%, where it was until Brown disastrously cut it to 10%, unleashing the private equity explosion? The Lib Dems' raising of the tax threshold to £10,000, starting next April with £5bn worth, will redress the losses of average and low earners who have not done well; it won't help the very poorest but that doesn't make it wrong. A big tax avoidance push is long overdue, as is splitting the banks. So is a green tax on planes – and more.

    When you factor in the one-time-pot-smoking Mr Cameron's genuine (I think) socially liberal instincts, it looks like Labour may have well and truely lost the covetted "centre".

    Whakaraupo • Since Nov 2006 • 2120 posts Report Reply

  • simon g,

    Lots to comment on with this deal, much of it better than I feared. Damn offline life is interfering today, so here's the nutshell:

    I'd love to believe this will work, but I'm not optimistic. Here's why - the Guardian (not the execrable tabloids, but the great liberal voice) telling its readers:

    Sky News has been running snippets from the televised leaders' debate which showed Cameron and Clegg pitted against each other. It offers what I imagine is the unprecedented situation of having a public display of vehement disagreements between two senior members of the same team, simply because they were bitter opponents at the time.

    (my italics)

    Yes, it's so unprecedented, that it happens all over the world, all the time. They argue, then they deal. And that's just in the campaign. They carry on arguing, in government. We had a "public display of vehement disagreement" from Minister Rodney Hide last month, and Minister Tariana Turia this week. So when's the election?

    The parallels with NZ 1996 are uncanny. We stuffed it up first time, and then we got smarter. Because we had to. Thanks to MMP, the rules had changed.

    The difference in the UK is that the rules haven't changed. I'm not sure they ever will. I really, really want to be wrong about that.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1333 posts Report Reply

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