Connections # 323- Mon 29 April
Quizzes & Puzzles2 mins ago
Labour Lead At 7 Points
Thought Sqad may be interested !...Just to keep the pot boiling !
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Not much change to the LibDems or the ghastly UKIP, so this large lead seems to have all come from the Tories.
http://
Not much change to the LibDems or the ghastly UKIP, so this large lead seems to have all come from the Tories.
Answers
I think it is a question of trust Mikey. To be told that we are all in it together, see families and disabled people made destitute by their Dickensian austerity measures and then have some upper class twits claiming expenses for dredging their moat and fixing a leak under their tennis courts does smack of lying, immoral gits with double standards, not to...
08:15 Sun 11th May 2014
"I cannot believe you actually want that anti British marxist in No 10"
Oh, please. There really is no need to stoop to the levels set by Labour's recent PPB. Miliband is not a Marxist, nor is he anti-British. Both of those things imply a degree of thought and conviction, which I'm not sure Miliband has.
I agree with Naomi about Ed - it's just impossible to imagine him stepping up to the challenges of leadership. But there again I thought the same thing about Cameron (and still do) - so apparently being useless isn't an obstacle to being elected.
Oh, please. There really is no need to stoop to the levels set by Labour's recent PPB. Miliband is not a Marxist, nor is he anti-British. Both of those things imply a degree of thought and conviction, which I'm not sure Miliband has.
I agree with Naomi about Ed - it's just impossible to imagine him stepping up to the challenges of leadership. But there again I thought the same thing about Cameron (and still do) - so apparently being useless isn't an obstacle to being elected.
Could this just be natural variation in polling? As I've mentioned before, polls based on asking about 1,000 people usually carry an uncertainty of something like +/- 5%. So maybe it's just that.
Still a long way to go, and if the economy continues to be appearing to recover I think people might end up sticking with the Tories. Despite all the targets they've missed along the way...
Still a long way to go, and if the economy continues to be appearing to recover I think people might end up sticking with the Tories. Despite all the targets they've missed along the way...
There's no point in us trading blows, kvalidir. My views on many of the issues you raise are well known if you've read my answers. You believe people are living in squalor and I have seen very little evidence of it. Fifty years ago I may have agreed; today I do not. You only need to look around to see that people who are allegedly potless are far from living in poverty (in absolute terms, not the meaningless comparative term you describe which, if used, means it is unlikely that poverty will ever be eradicated).
I must say I've never heard of "Dickensian" being used as you describe. I've looked at a couple of online dictionaries and these are the definitions I found, taken at random:
"Reminiscent of the environments and situations most commonly portrayed in Dickens' writings, such as poverty and social injustice and other aspects of Victorian England."
"of or like the novels of Charles Dickens (especially with regard to poor social and economic conditions)"
And finally the Oxford dictionary:
"Of or reminiscent of the novels of Charles Dickens, especially in suggesting the poor social conditions or comically repulsive characters that they portray"
There may be some sources that suggest the adjective being used euphemistically to describe the appalling conditions that you suggest people find themselves in today. Personally I find the term inappropriate to describe the modest cuts that the Coalition are trying to achieve.
I must say I've never heard of "Dickensian" being used as you describe. I've looked at a couple of online dictionaries and these are the definitions I found, taken at random:
"Reminiscent of the environments and situations most commonly portrayed in Dickens' writings, such as poverty and social injustice and other aspects of Victorian England."
"of or like the novels of Charles Dickens (especially with regard to poor social and economic conditions)"
And finally the Oxford dictionary:
"Of or reminiscent of the novels of Charles Dickens, especially in suggesting the poor social conditions or comically repulsive characters that they portray"
There may be some sources that suggest the adjective being used euphemistically to describe the appalling conditions that you suggest people find themselves in today. Personally I find the term inappropriate to describe the modest cuts that the Coalition are trying to achieve.
NJ...I agree with you that we are far from Dickensian conditions today but don't you find the huge rise in the use of Food Banks even a little bit worrying ? Even in the worse of the Thatcher years, we never seem to need them, apart from the soup kitchens that kept miners and their families from starving.
I know this from first hand as I assist at one a couple of times a month, although I do not share their religious beliefs. The people that run these are not "Marxists" or even "Lefties" just normal, decent people that find that it is shocking that in the 21st century, Food Banks are even necessary, let alone besieged on a weekly basis.
I know this from first hand as I assist at one a couple of times a month, although I do not share their religious beliefs. The people that run these are not "Marxists" or even "Lefties" just normal, decent people that find that it is shocking that in the 21st century, Food Banks are even necessary, let alone besieged on a weekly basis.
I'm not sure it's right to describe the cuts as "Modest". There were already cuts being instituted towards the end of the Labour government, and these certainly were modest. The incoming government extended these cuts, in some cases very significantly. Parts of the DWP in particular have come under attack to the level of 40% or so in staffing cuts. And this at the same time as two major benefits reforms on the trot. IN the first case, the transfer of people on the old Incapacity Benefit to the new (Labour-created) Employment and Support Allowance, which is a switch that is still going on; and then the switch-over from seven benefits to Universal credit, including Housing Benefit (administered previously by all the local authorities), Tax Credits (HMRC) and some of the new ESA. This is a massive administrative task, and there are now a great deal fewer people to accomplish it.
At any rate, such extensive cuts sometimes make no sense and undermine what else the government is trying to achieve. This was a lesson you would have thought the Conservatives learned in the early 80s, after yet another set of massive cuts to the Public Services -- followed rather quickly by a recruitment drive as they realised that they needed these people to do the work they wanted doing.
I've probably gone off on a tangent here, but never mind -- the cuts are certainly rather more than just modest, and not necessarily targeted very well either. It's hard not to see a certain amount of philosophy, rather than realism, in the way the cuts are targeted. Some of the measures taken are precisely the same as those that were intended, and abandoned, during the Major Government, so it's almost as if the current lot are using the Economic crisis as an excuse to force through cuts they were going to make anyway.
I'm not looking forward to the prospect of this government continuing. On the other hand, I'm not exactly confident about the most likely replacement, either...
At any rate, such extensive cuts sometimes make no sense and undermine what else the government is trying to achieve. This was a lesson you would have thought the Conservatives learned in the early 80s, after yet another set of massive cuts to the Public Services -- followed rather quickly by a recruitment drive as they realised that they needed these people to do the work they wanted doing.
I've probably gone off on a tangent here, but never mind -- the cuts are certainly rather more than just modest, and not necessarily targeted very well either. It's hard not to see a certain amount of philosophy, rather than realism, in the way the cuts are targeted. Some of the measures taken are precisely the same as those that were intended, and abandoned, during the Major Government, so it's almost as if the current lot are using the Economic crisis as an excuse to force through cuts they were going to make anyway.
I'm not looking forward to the prospect of this government continuing. On the other hand, I'm not exactly confident about the most likely replacement, either...
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