When too tired to blog... link to someone else's instead. Here's Hopi's idea for a party political broadcast. Which I like. Also worth reading his views on Cameron's flip-flopping on welfare reform, which I was thinking of commenting on. (Start off trying to appeal to traditional Tory voters, Daily Mail readers, etc, then realise there might just be a Labour left rebellion which would give you the chance to vote down the Government's proposals so decide you don't like them after all and come up with a tenuous reason to vote against...)
And also worth reading Tom Harris' views on IDS' proposals on asylum seekers. (Which annoyed me no end - not because I disagreed with him, although I kind of did, kind of didn't - but because I'd got halfway through drafting a post on the same topic, and then clicked over to Tom's site for a break and realised he'd got there at least 24 hours earlier. He does that a lot. Which is why I end up talking about seals and salmon and beavers instead.)
7 comments:
Tom's photo capture today of Cameron is a scream (even some of the comments add value for once): http://tomcharris.wordpress.com/2008/12/16/revealed-shadow-cabinet-rift/
Purnell is pushing back against Cameron's opportunist opposition to his welfare reforms here: http://www.labourmatters.com/the-labour-party/james-purnell-mp-cameron-is-wrong-to-say-he-wont-reform-welfare/
And I think we all like Hopi's PPB, which should guarantee it'll never be made!
Now you were saying something about seals, salmon and beavers? How did I miss that?
The beavers are eating all the seals and the salmon are eating all the beavers. Or something like that.
I think we do have to keep saying over and over again tho' - we're not requiring parents of one year olds to get a job. It's about 'preparing for work'. Which could be attending work-focussed interviews, to identify skills gaps or qualifications they could usefully acquire or things that would put them on the right career path. No-one will be 'made' to work unless they are 'better off in work'. Which is what I would have said in my speech yesterday...
The problem is that Politicians (especially party ones) totally lack imagination.
Instead of blowing more borrowed money on all the wasters to train them for non-existing industry they could be shown how to grow their own food on all that waste space that needs council gardeners to maintain.
How's that for a first taste of "aspiration", "work", "excercise", "diet" and "creativity"? Feel free to steal the idea.
Kerry, we never get bored of you. I am going to be off topic and back to my favourite subject s..k..g. I trust you have read the news that since the smoking ban, smoking has gone up, especially among the 16-34 years olds. Smoking is now cool, rebellious and the ideal way to stick two fingers up to the nanny state. The inference too is that people are smoking and drinking at home on an industrial scale. Instead of going down the pub they maybe doing it in front of their kids.
Meanwhile 2,500 pubs have closed, direct and indirect unemployment is calculated at 40,000. Social exclusion, did you read about the Cornish tax inspector who committed suicide because his social life collapsed after the smoking ban. The elderly and the disabled wheeled out in sub zero temperatures for what? More people smoking.
The ban has been an unmitigated disaster from start to finish with no benefits for anybody.
Is Labour going to be statesman like and have a rethink? I believe there is a 2% gain in the opinion polls waiting for a yes answer.
@Remember Remember: Nah, that one won't be stolen by the formidable brains in the Labour Party. It constitutes a materially-useful solution, for one thing.
It could also potentially undermine the self-esteem of the persons in question; an unthinkable thing as the entitlement to feeling like the most important person in the world is paramount for all under the munificent socialists. So they constantly imply, anyway.
Oh, and it would tread on the toes of those invaluable council workers and their vital, cost-effective workstreams.
And just think of the Health & Safety implications! Terrifying, I'm sure you'd agree.
Actually it's already happening in a lot of places.
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