labour is a ****ing shambles. they chose the wrong brother and ed balls is awful.

fallen a long way from blair/brown.

Parliament TV shows PMQs, both live and archived: Parliament TV. They're done for the summer though.

Blair wrecked PMQs. They should go back to biweeklies. Although they were shorter, the PM was more regularly answerable to Parliament. These days it's 30 minutes lip service, yelling, and fluffery, and you won't see the man again for a week. It's also disgraceful to see those weebrains reading what passes for a question from a sheet of paper, and that should be banned again.

Its a sad tale of UK and European politics that they have managed to make a twerp like Farage seem like a heavyweight on occasions.

He provides a bit of light relief but can you imagine what fun a serious political beast could have had - imagine Churchill making those speches or Enoch Powell or even Hesletiny.

I don't really get people's problem with labour atm. I'm not gunna vote for them, but EdM is pretty astute, and Balls is a steamroller who is doing a pretty ace job at predicting how and where Osborne is getting things wrong, and an ok job of saying how to get it right.

But he is a mad man. That is what makes him awesome.

He'd lose though, and he's too close to Osborne and Cameron that if they failed they'll just gut the current leadership imho. This current clique couldn't even beat Brown outright, who they claimed was universally hated. Couldn't see them excusing him into govt.

True dat.
Huhne is a mad man. I think people see him as too unelectable (like Balls imho)- would be good as a senior member though. I forgot about Hughes though, he's like a younger Cable innit

Sounds like a labour voter trying to pretend he isnt

Edm is a ****ing ******. An intellectual lightweight incapable of getting any policy across ( what are his notable policy positions? I have no idea - other than saying the tories are bad and should feel bad ) - Balls was a special advisor at the start of new labour and got parachuted into a safe seat, backed everything Tony and Gordon did, including all their mistakes and now we're supposed to believe he isn't associated with that and if he got the chance he'd do it all right?

Balls is positioning himself as the next labour leader, and will probably get it after Ed loses the next election.
Ed is like a new labour version of william hague - it doesn't matter how smart he is or what he does - he sounds and looks like a 6th former who hasn't gone through puberty yet.

He was only elected leader of labour because the trade unions got him through - the party and the MPs preferred David.


The current backbench tory stuff is because the lib dems are getting shat on in the polls - all the disillusioned labour voters who switched to lib dem were pissed off at the coalition and went straight back to labour. The tory back bench want a new general election because it would put ed into television debates that he would lose by virtue of being himself and put the tories in with their own majority rather than relying on the coalition.

re EdM, I really knew very little about him until recently when I decided to listen to some of his speeches, and I was not impressed. I heard an awful lot of populist 'we need to take action, the time is right to take action' type fluff and basically 0 substantive policy proposals.

Plus his presentation is of course D-.

I also hate that labour are ~guaranteed to take the opposite side of a minor issue at every possible ****ing turn as if it's their duty to disagree with everything the govt does, although I guess that's probably a criticism of politics rather than labour. Still, it feels like they're doing it more than the tories did.

edit: posted that before I read dlorcs post, glad i'm not the only one to spot it

Hey! Never voted labour... LibDem and Green. Banging it out for the little guy.


Isn't that the media's fault? He facilitated the downfall of Murdoch, and got the public inquiry going. They want to raise taxes and protect the NHS etc.. Their main time is spent opposing the idiotic measures of the Tories- which is just easy to do. It's hard for them to get reasonable policy across because there not yet running for office- when it matters. Also pretty intellectual heavyweight imho, but political lightweight.

Up 3% today... 12% now i think, which is their standard.

Labour will win the next election outright- their so far ahead in the polls and the Tories will be falling apart by then

You are joking.

Normally we just have some short term stuff and a very strong suspicision our politicians haven't got a clue, its rare we have the luxury of being up to look back at proof of total and utter ignorance and incompetence on the grandest scale. Then we have Ed Balls.

I suppose i'm the only one on Ed Balls' side then.
He's been good at deriding the Osborne budget, and i just found this on wiki re. his economic policy-
Seem's pretty small other than national insurance break, but its hard to disagree on any of the policies.

He's an attack dog, and great at it. He is rabid, and I like the description dlorc gave him as a 6th former who hasn't gone through puberty yet, but i'm still ok about him.

He's way better than Gideon anyway.
Common people- the Tory version

I think we're living in alternate realities.

What is his main problem?
Is it just that he's a bit of an absurd human?

Lets attack what he did instead

End of boom and bust - remember that.
The banks
Financial regulation
Fred the shred - lets not get started.
running the economy
etc
etc

Are you old enough to remember Heseltines speech?http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=4NB3neSNfmg that was 1994 ffs.

I link it because it was probably the first time most had heard of him. Sadly not the last and beyond belief that anyone would let him near anything.

That was really quite funny.

Agree with lots of what you said there though. Should have tightened up all these things yes. But he is better than the alternative surely?
The economy failed because the global economy failed, due to lax regulation etc.., and they failed to tighten it up, but austerity isn't the answer.

Who was in charge of the city of London's tax breaks, is that the govt.'s, or the mayor?

Also re. Fred the shred. He did know how to build a headquarters. If you ever get the chance go visit, it's an incredible complex. Completely unnecessary, but quite magnificent.

Most of us are Brits.....

how can he be the answer to anyhting? he doesn't have a clue wht he is doing and doesn't realise it.

You do realise he believes in austerity? he makes a great deal of a hairwidth difference in policy. The time to avoid austerity was when things were going well, its a bit late to complain about it now.

He was part of the global economy and from the UK pov a very significant part. He could have done so much if he had a clue what wa going on instead he took credit for and helped fuel the folly while it was booming and disowns it now its busted. now you want more - thank you sir may I have another?

Not sure what you're referring to but sounds like the government.

Will do. Just remember not to give him a knighthood or appoint him as an advisor and then pretend you had a clue what was going on.

.

I've just never really been as appalled by what he says as you guys all are. He has more of a grasp on it than Osborne. He is pro austerity which is annoying, but less so than the Tories, which ipso facto makes him better.
I realise how much i'm backpeddaling here, and i'm not about to vote for him. I just see a whole bunch of hate on Ed Balls, when Gideon is worse

Companies in the city of London have minimal regulations and pay like 0 tax, its like its own judicial area.

How badly does someone have to **** up and for how long before you dont care what they say?

not getting into the details but pretty sure the mayor is not responsible for this area.

When I have to pick between a bunch of different **** up's

There's a huge difference between looking back at what someone did and judging how you think people are doing. The success of the austerity measures will be judged in the future.

Still at least moderate your support for the EDs to: 'I know Ed Balls is a total ****ing disaster but in my view his better than the alternative and I supprt Ed Milliband even though for some reason he has appointed a total ****ing disaster in such a vital role"

I think it would be better if Milliband was left in no doubt that many of us will never consider voting labour while Balls is there. Enough of us and Labour get rid of Balls, that is how a healthy democracy has to work, we cant expect them to enforce some sort of accountability if we dont.

People slating Ed Milliband for being populist and having no concrete policy proposals - I'm sure Labour are hatching a bunch of policies, but the election is possibly 3 years away. It'd be pretty unwise politically to show your hand this early. Cameron was criticised at first for the same reason. He says all the populist stuff because that's what you have to do in opposition to be heard. Don't worry, I'm sure that nothing much will actually change if he gets elected (vested interests too strong, etc).

I think he's actually steered a pretty astute path so far. He managed to get the party more-or-less behind him when he clearly wasn't the choice of some of the leadership. After becoming pretty unpopular in the last years of Brown they have a solid poll lead. His problem is that he neither looks nor sounds like a PM. He looks more like the gen sec of a student's union. Cameron, for all his faults, has done a good job of seeming Prime Ministerial.

Apparently a new poll has Labour as the most economically competent party. First time since 2010.