I see that the Scots Nats have decided to tard up the hunting vote.

How are they not going to shoot themselves in the foot with this and bring about the 'English Votes' legislation? Or is that their intent?

The problem is, on many occasions, changes made only in England affect public spending, which has a direct effect on the block grants each devolved parliament receives. There's also the factor of being able to vote against Tory policies for the sake of solidarity with those in England who will be adversely affected by Tory legislation.

If they want their own parliament, they should seek it through the democratic process, not simply eliminate non-English MPs from voting on Westminster matters.

Yeah, 'English votes for English laws' realistically means only regulatory measures in the UK which are free to implement.

Sturgeon had previously said they wouldn't vote on this and she has now gone back on that. It's just another opportunity for them to be divisive.

Marty, if you care enough, there was a short video on Newsnight last night explaining it which should still be on Iplayer (would find you the minutes but I'm on ****ty uni computers with out of date flash player, it was well over half way in though). It's quite complicated but ultimately amounts to this:

.

I'll have a look Joejoe, ta.

It's very depressing that prisons are so bad that even Gove can do something unequivocally good.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-33497581

Rules restricting the number of books a prisoner can have have been overturned by Justice Secretary Michael Gove.

A limit of 12 books per cell has been removed, while relatives and friends can now send books to inmates directly.

The rule changes, affecting more than 80,000 inmates in England and Wales, are meant to help prepare inmates for work when released.

Mr Gove said those "languishing in prison" were "potential assets" who could be "productive and contribute".

The scrapping of the rules from 1 September is one of Mr Gove's first key changes to prison policy since being appointed as justice secretary.

The restriction on receiving books directly came as a result of the Incentives and Earned Privileges scheme, introduced in November 2013 under Mr Gove's predecessor, Chris Grayling. It prevented prisoners from receiving direct parcels unless there were "exceptional circumstances", such as a medical condition.

Although inmates were still allowed to use prison libraries, critics claimed they were often inadequately stocked and could be hard to access because of staff shortages.

That scheme was relaxed after a High Court ruling in December found that restricting prisoners' access to books was unlawful.

Subsequently, people were allowed to buy new books for prisoners through four approved retailers - Blackwell's, Foyles, Waterstones or WH Smith - who would send them to prisoners directly.

Mr Gove's changes will remove the limit of 12 books to a cell, as long as prisoners observe overall limits on the volume of personal possessions.

Replace WHS with a discount book store so it's not ridiculously expensive (I mean, who really needs more than Blackwells) and the scheme looks good.

Austerity all around except for the MP's and their 10% pay rise.

:trollface:

Baids and I had a pretty ineffectual stab at this last night, but how much is the average first team squad player at Celtic on per week? At ICT? At Hibs?

I don't see the relevance.

I wouldn't necessarily agree with him that Scotland's independence is the only way.. I'd say that the SNP fielding candidates across the UK would be a good move.

Surge in English SNP members: 'the core message is very attractive'

^ mentioned this before but particularly if Labour choose a Blairite leader it makes a lot of sense for SNP to start moving into England in some way. I'd assumed that would mean a left wing English party for them to have an arrangement with or renaming the party. Maybe SNP candidates work though it's a bit strange.

I'd definitely vote for a non-myopic version of the SNP ahead of Kendall, Cooper or Burnham.

They seem to be the only credible alternative to the blue and red Tories. England is very conservative though so for sure a name change would be necessary. They kind of went with the Greens at the GE, with Sturgeon saying she'd vote for them if she lived down south. Am pretty sure they'd be taken much more seriously than the Greens unfortunately are.

Lol weren't you claiming after the election that labour lost so badly due to the fear of an SNP deal? What makes you think an SNP style party (especially the SNP by another name) could have a meaningful impact other than to guarantee a greater majority for the tories?

Note the only winning labour PM in my lifetime was basically just Cameron with bloodier hands and even fewer core values.

Things that your mind will never understand.

Can't believe that Labour are actually gonna make the choice to commit electoral suicide for the foreseeable future.

I assume you mean JC. Not much chance of him winning. Not even Tony Blair can make that happen though very cynical me wonders if TB would love him to win.

JC's best hope was to win unexpectedly. Being some sort of favourite at this stage is bad unless his supporting organisations can organise a 'coup' by getting enough new members to join the labour party before the voting deadline on 12th August.

I doubt he is the "front runner" and most likely to win, at this point, but given union support and vote splitting I genuinely think his chances are well above "not much".

kendall (current odds: 28/1) will probably end up withdrawing before the vote so as to not fracture the "same old same old" vote quite that much

His had a very easy ride so far but it wont last and their is plenty of material that will worry too much of his electorate.

Kendall withdrawing is also likely. The pressure on her will build while JC stays credible.

Ever since the calls for her to withdraw I've not understood why it's on her and not Cooper.

Cooper is just a more unlikeable Burnham, she brings nothing different to the table. If the goal is to cut out the sane right to stop the insane left and let Milliband 2.0 win they may as well have just stuck with Ed.

Also lol at the best choice, both in chances to gain ground and best aligned with the country, being 4th of 4. Lolabour at this rate you'll never be relevant again in my lifetime.

The problem is that people see Labour presenting itself as 'economically competent' (inevitably by drifting to the right) as some great goal which will earn it electability. The problems with this are numerous. Not only does that strategy completely fail to win votes off the right, who will remain staunchly Tory, it loses the remaining scraps of the core voter-base. It also assumes that your average member of the public knows the first thing about economics. This is far from true. Finally, it suggests that centre-right politics are the only reasonable economics, when in fact several world-leading economists argue that austerity has been, and will continue to be an abject failure.

Labour needs to start making politics more about ideology for them to have a chance, and you don't do that by adopting a Tory-lite stance.

+1