We're All In This Together?

ezinra · **Posted:** Sun May 13, 2012 3:04 pm

Hammond again, wheeling out the 'straight man in the street' argument:

Quote:

Hammond told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: "Clearly it [gay marriage] is not the number one priority. If you stop people in the street and ask them what their concerns are, they'll talk to you about jobs and economic growth, they'll talk to you about the level of the wages they're earning, wanting to see real growth in wages again."

Well he didn't stop me in the street.

The Osbornites' strategy on gay marriage is odious. It's "we're in favour of it (so you can't accuse us of being nasty homophobes like the bad old Tories) but we're not going to do anything about it." If the government does indeed drop the policy, it's nothing less than betrayal — and not just of gay people, but of every minority group they wooed under the pretence that they'd become all cuddly and modern.

PS Where the fuck are the Lib Dem voices on this issue?

Althea · **Posted:** Sun May 13, 2012 3:08 pm

And aren't Lib Dems the ones usually referred to as being full of homosexuals? They do seem to have a higher percentage of gay members than the other big parties, so you'd think they'd naturally be backing it.

One thing has come up often via American politics, though. Why the fuck are we even having to have a debate about civil rights?

Tubby Isaacs · **Posted:** Sun May 13, 2012 3:10 pm

Those fucking gays stopping the economy growing.

mojojojo · **Joined:** Fri Mar 19, 2010 1:33 pm **Posts:** 4311

If the man in the street doesn't care about gay marriages why do they think u-turning on them will win his vote?

new puritan · **Posted:** Sun May 13, 2012 3:58 pm

Messianic Trees wrote:

William Hague tells us to work harder:

Quote:

"There's only one growth strategy - work hard! And do more with less - that's the 21st century ... We're trying to rescue the work ethic just in the nick of time.

"With the introduction of the universal benefit next year, with the cap on benefits that we're bringing in, this is part of making sure we are recreating the work ethic for everybody in Britain.

"I think that these reforms will be seen in the 2020's as being as important to this country as the trade Union reforms and privatisations were of the 1980s. This is as fundamental as that.

This is the purpose of the coalition government."

This comment nails it:

Quote:

blackfirscharlie
Today 06:32 AM
Why is it when a right-wing administration goes off the rails they always trot out the usual phrases-'we need to work harder', 'we need to put our message over more clearly'?. Basically, this government's austerity drive has depressed, not revived, the economy and they have been fully exposed in the limelight as corrupt and inept. Hague's piece is nothing but waffle and flannel as the party bosses seek to deflect attention away from a prime minister as useless as Alec Douglas-Home.

Tubby Isaacs · **Posted:** Sun May 13, 2012 4:05 pm

Douglas Home wasn't that bad. I think he narrowed Wilson's lead a fair bit.

Malcolm Armsteen · **Posted:** Sun May 13, 2012 4:07 pm

That's excellent. He could have added the fact that The White Skull didn't have the worst depression for 100 years to deal with...

In other news I have seen a Tweet to the effect that Hague charges £25k a pop as an after-dinner speaker. Is that true, does anyone know? Where does the money go? (I ask because teachers paid fees in similar circumstances are expected to pass it over to their school...)

Tubby Isaacs · **Posted:** Sun May 13, 2012 4:09 pm

Hague can't have another job as a minister, can he? He did when he was a shadow minister, I know.

Bones McCoy · **Joined:** Mon Aug 16, 2010 9:08 am **Posts:** 7342

Malcolm Armsteen wrote:

That's excellent. He could have added the fact that The White Skull didn't have the worst depression for 100 years to deal with...

In other news I have seen a Tweet to the effect that Hague charges £25k a pop as an after-dinner speaker. Is that true, does anyone know? Where does the money go? (I ask because teachers paid fees in similar circumstances are expected to pass it over to their school...)

This, along with Gove's columnist sinecure (and all the fat bastards like Littlejohn and Gaunt pulling in 6 figures for a couple of hours work) is just another way of large corporations disguising political sponsorship.

smod · **Posted:** Sun May 13, 2012 9:01 pm

Hague is deeply out of touch. How can you tell people to work harder in a double-dip recession. The arrogance indeed.

Althea · **Posted:** Sun May 13, 2012 9:02 pm

Maybe the Government could work harder at not being incompetent?

Just a thought.

Malcolm Armsteen · **Posted:** Sun May 13, 2012 10:05 pm

smod wrote:

Hague is deeply out of touch. How can you tell people to work harder in a double-dip recession. The arrogance indeed.

It's the 'one more heave' syndrome I mentioned earlier, so beloved of the General Staff in WW1. He can't admit to himself that his policies are so abysmally useless so he comes up with the excuse that people aren't working hard enough...

mattomac · **Posted:** Mon May 14, 2012 11:56 am

This excellent piece about sums it up in regards to Cameron.

http://www.newstatesman.com/2012/05/don%E2%80%99t-overestimate-cameron-association-growing-numbers

Quote:

During his stint as leader of the opposition, Cameron was once asked why he wanted to be prime minister. “Because I think I would be quite good at it,” he is said to have replied with a familiar mix of arrogance and overconfidence. But the inconvenient truth – for his media apologists, his cabinet colleagues and, naturally, for Cameron himself – is that he isn’t.

mattomac · **Posted:** Mon May 14, 2012 12:53 pm

Apparently Eric Pickles also suggested we work harder.....

oboogie · **Posted:** Mon May 14, 2012 5:24 pm

mattomac wrote:

Apparently Eric Pickles also suggested we work harder.....

Yep, on The Sunday Politics yesterday in an interview with Andrew Neil.

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