The knives are out for everybody's favourite reincarnation of Uncle Joe.

I'd like to descend to my own bit of BBC bashing in the context of the Cable speech.
He'd clearly pre-leaked the main elements.
I had an early start and a long drive so tuned in to 5 live expecting the usual mix of news and sport.

I got a business program which couldn't get away from the "Outrage" ohh even on the BBC
that Vince Cable had suggested the Banking Crisis had done more harm than trade unions.
This went on for the best part of an hour "more harmful than Trade Unions", with the odd comments
"Bankers make money, trades unions don't"...

Has the (supposedly left biased) BBC really swung so far right to allow this kind of crap to go unchallenged for an entire program.
My general impression is that the BBC makes an honest if sometimes misguided effort at balance.
To suggest it's some beacon of left thinking appears ridiculous.
Some parts of the BBC (like the business and city sections) broadcast a consistent right-aligned view with no shame or apology.
If it weren't for the excellent Dr Feelgood documentary I mentioned about a week ago, I'd consider writing a strongly worded letter to Lord Reith.


Big up to Vince!
I wish there was a chance of some action behind the rhetoric.
Even so, I admire his guts for saying what he did.
He's pretty much checked out of the real "Gold plated pension" of the Westminster - City revolving door.

Considering how uncomfortable VC has looked when making recent public apearances (Newsnight etc) for the Marriage Made in Hell, and considering his own personal circumstances; I'd not be surprised if he's angling for a quick exit from the frontline in order to salvage his credibility and/or set himself up as the darling of the more sceptic Liberals.

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Ten seconds... the pain begins.

Fifteen seconds... you can't breathe.

Twenty seconds... you give up and turn off the Jeremy Vine show.

Also, his speech was a bit 6th form. Yes, he laid into bankers and the like, but the fact remains that unless every country in the world simultaneously introduced legislation to curb the free market (bonuses and all), all that will happen is that financial centres will locate to wherever offers them the most leeway.

As for 'attacking capitalism', he did no such thing. For all its sins, it's the system we're stuck with until a viable alternative comes along. And the last of those began with a C and ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall, and didn't work.

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Ten seconds... the pain begins.

Fifteen seconds... you can't breathe.

Twenty seconds... you give up and turn off the Jeremy Vine show.

Fuck him. If he had an ounce of integrity he wouldn't have had any part of this in the first place and he's come out with plenty of anti trade union crap in the past. Makes a nice smokescreen for his bosses anyway.

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MY COMMENTS ARE FROM THE HORSES MOUTH AND ARE ALL FACTS

I'm inclined to agree with mojojojo. This reeks of being 'good cop' as a favour to Clegg. He's babysitting the actual liberals in the party while Nick is off propping up our reactionary right-wing government.

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Soppy anti-British, pro-crime, anti-education, pro-immigration, anti-family nonentity

Vince is clearly being tribal - the bastard.

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I'm a nasty, violent lefty. You cunt.

Yeah, the Trade Union baiting has been very tedious. He also opposed the Working Time Directive before the election.

He does cause Osborne a fair bit of embarrassment seeing he can speak about economics as though he knows what he's talking about, as can Kenneth Clarke. So I quite like him. But he's basically rightwing.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15844614

"By your command CBI".

As for the rubbish that endless spurious cases are taken to tribunals, that is not true. If they are that poor they are not accepted in the first place. The reason that 'too many' tribunals are won is that far far too many workers are treated like shit.

Again, is there anyone left at all that thinks the Lib Dems are a moderating force on the Tories?

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MY COMMENTS ARE FROM THE HORSES MOUTH AND ARE ALL FACTS

My goldfish does. Don't worry, I shall put the slippery bastard right tonight.

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"Winterval is the favourite myth of the lunatic right who base most of their weekly columns on angry Brie-based dreams rather than looking out of their window." (Robin Ince)

The more lunatic fringe of the Tories do, simply because they genuinely think that if it were a Tory Government on its own they'd have smashed the welfare state and placed the country under a permanent military junta by now.

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"Even when you're a super-computer with an IQ of 2000 it's brown trousers time."

Reclaiming "methinks" for the nation

Latest blog post - 2011 - a review (updated 07/10)

We discussed this on the "If Mail readers got what they wanted" thread. I wonder if Cameron would actually go as far as his backbenchers want anyway. If you're a Tory voter, maybe middle management in an office, I can see how you'd want temporary shopworkers to have no rights. But you probably wouldn't want that for yourself. You'd realise that your employer could probably sack you and promote someone, and stick them at the bottom of the payscale. Take on a dead cheap graduate to replace the promoted one.

It suits Cameron to say "you know, can't do that, because of the Lib Dems"

You'd probably be perfectly happy to scrap all employment rights, because you'll never need them. Bad shit always happens to someone else, and they deserve it. it's the mantra of the Tory.

The Wolverhampton Express & Star (an evening version of the Mail, but without the pretence of tolerating anyone who isn't Anglo-Saxon unto the nth generation) recently applauded the proposed 80mph speed limit, but said the accompanying 20mph limits in some areas were a sop to the "unelected" Nick Clegg. They regularly say Cameron's biggest failing is to pay too much attention to the Lib Dems.

If we're to believe this, Cameron is indeed pressurising for tearing up employment laws:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2011/nov/ ... yment-laws

Cable's joined up with that dinosaur Marxist, Michael Hestletine, to oppose it. I suppose Hestletine's at least been about a bit and might have realised that there comes a time when even Tories would get scared about being done over by bosses.

What you need to remember is Mail readers (and Tories in general) like things like this and for things to generally be more shit on the condition that it doesn't happen to them, and some of them genuinely believe this is possible.

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"Even when you're a super-computer with an IQ of 2000 it's brown trousers time."

Reclaiming "methinks" for the nation

Latest blog post - 2011 - a review (updated 07/10)