Politics at Westminster | BREAKING: UKIP

DiseaseOfTheAge said:
That's the point. She will do sod all. He would've done more.
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Unlikely that anything would happen between now and the election whoever is in place. Gove has implemented pretty much everything he wantes to do, and would be going into full time electioneering around now whatever job he had.
 
Sweet Square said:
They were saying on Newsnight yesterday that Nicky Morgan who replaced Gove voted against gay marriage so I imagine Cameron's plan of replacing the unpopular Gove with someone else to gain points with the public won't last too long.

Also might just be me but does anyone else find Tory scary.
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They're not aiming for the newsnight demographic. They're trying to up their standing amongst women, as well as moving Gove to a position he can do them more good from. Most of those target voters won't be aware of her voting record.
 
lynchie said:
Unlikely that anything would happen between now and the election whoever is in place. Gove has implemented pretty much everything he wantes to do, and would be going into full time electioneering around now whatever job he had.
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Don't agree. The man wants the top job. He wouldn't have been able to resist making more headlines.
 
lynchie said:
They're not aiming for the newsnight demographic. They're trying to up their standing amongst women, as well as moving Gove to a position he can do them more good from. Most of those target voters won't be aware of her voting record.
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Yeah I agree but I was more meaning that it won't take long before people start to question her on why she voted against gay marriage, she sort of in the spotlight now.
 
I'm not sure on this, but as far as I'm aware, there are plenty of MPs on both sides who voted against gay marriage. Surely some of those are already in high positions?

Gay marriage will be a great legacy left by Cameron. It was a brave move and he had to stand up to many members of his own party to push it through.
 
alastair said:
I'm not sure on this, but as far as I'm aware, there are plenty of MPs on both sides who voted against gay marriage. Surely some of those are already in high positions?

Gay marriage will be a great legacy left by Cameron. It was a brave move and he had to stand up to many members of his own party to push it through.
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To be clear, it was a majority of his own party.

I do grant Cameron praise for it, it was indeed brave. I give a lot more praise to the other two parties though who were both vastly in favour of the bill and were the ones that actually got it through parliament. But yeah, Cameron does deserve praise for being less bigoted than his party.
 
Cameron deserves credit for bringing in equal marriage, no question. The fact his own party were largely against it if anything means he should get more credit, rather than less. On the 'high positions' point, only two Cabinet members at the time voted against (Owen Paterson and David Jones) so Nicky Morgan in Cabinet having voted against is still fairly unusual. That said, it's all blown over now and I don't think she'll be grilled on it unless a similar issue comes up under the Education remit.

On the Esther McVey point, I find it funny how it's often voters who would class themselves as progressive who are the first to slag her off for being an ex-TV presenter, blonde, scouse etc. You can't say you want more varied politicians in Westminster in terms of professional backgrounds, class, gender, regional background etc. and then slag them off for being northern, female, working class, ex-tv presenters. If you're going to criticise someone then do it on their politics, rather than assuming they're not up to the job because they did a racy photo shoot for GMTV back in the 90s.
 
Agent Red said:
Cameron deserves credit for bringing in equal marriage, no question. The fact his own party were largely against it if anything means he should get more credit, rather than less. On the 'high positions' point, only two Cabinet members at the time voted against (Owen Paterson and David Jones) so Nicky Morgan in Cabinet having voted against is still fairly unusual. That said, it's all blown over now and I don't think she'll be grilled on it unless a similar issue comes up under the Education remit.

On the Esther McVey point, I find it funny how it's often voters who would class themselves as progressive who are the first to slag her off for being an ex-TV presenter, blonde, scouse etc. You can't say you want more varied politicians in Westminster in terms of professional backgrounds, class, gender, regional background etc. and then slag them off for being northern, female, working class, ex-tv presenters. If you're going to criticise someone then do it on their politics, rather than assuming they're not up to the job because they did a racy photo shoot for GMTV back in the 90s.
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Nailed it.
 
Really? My between-the-lines point was that she is yet another careerist rather than a serious politician. I'm damned if I'm going to be (more or less) accused of sexism when it comes to my opinions on McVey, Mensch and company; they are what they are, regardless of gender: a recognisable type of modern 'politician'.
 
SteveJ said:
Really? My between-the-lines point was that she is yet another careerist rather than a serious politician. I'm damned if I'm going to be (more or less) accused of sexism when it comes to my opinions on McVey, Mensch and company; they are what they are, regardless of gender: a recognisable type of modern 'politician'.
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She also looks like she's eating the air when she talks, something for which I will not stand.
 
SteveJ said:
Really? My between-the-lines point was that she is yet another careerist rather than a serious politician. I'm damned if I'm going to be (more or less) accused of sexism when it comes to my opinions on McVey, Mensch and company; they are what they are, regardless of gender: a recognisable type of modern 'politician'.
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You're a great poster and I know you're not sexist, so whilst it was your post that prompted my response, it's a general issue I've noticed from the majority of comments on social media etc.

I'm not sure where the point about your issue with her being a 'careerist' really came across with the picture and reference to her boobs though. Did seem to be an implication that because there are a few photos of her with her boobs out, she therefore less of a serious politician. I'm not saying you're wrong, it's a subjective matter, but on what grounds do you believe she is a careerist?
 
Yeah, I guess that was a misstep by me, mate. Instead of being sarcastic, I should have concentrated on Ms McVey's political reputation amongst Merseyside voters...which isn't the best, perhaps.
 
SteveJ said:
Yeah, I guess that was a misstep by me, mate. Instead of being sarcastic, I should have concentrated on Ms McVey's political reputation amongst Merseyside voters...which isn't the best, perhaps.
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No worries mate, wasn't a response meant to target you. Merseyside is so militant that I don't know they're the most objective of judges. More of a shock that one of their seats decided to vote Blue rather than the fact the neighbouring constituencies have attacked her ever since.

Her national reputation is mixed and some of the criticism of course will be fair, but I do find it interesting that the vast majority of it focuses on looks, voice and 'slept to the top' accusations when I imagine the majority of those people would say they thinks it's positive to have more working class, female MPs who have experience of a career outside Westminster and a background outside of London. No need to like someone just for those reasons of course, but a quick Twitter search will show you that 90% of the flack is along those lines rather than a critique of voting records or the latest Employment policies.
 
To be honest, I now think that my former post was a catastrophe. :D In fact, I (rightly or wrongly) view MPs like Ms McV as people whose ambition far outstrips their talent and devotion to the job. I guess I just despair of some modern politicians and, while Esther probably isn't the worst of these, she happens to be in the firing line right now. I also feel that Cameron doesn't much care for political women in general and, ironically, his recent reshuffle only underlines this: tokenism and attempted vote-snaring rather than promotion via merit. I view this as a crying shame because, I believe, it's vitally important to involve women in politics at the highest levels (IMO).
 
SteveJ said:
To be honest, I now think that my former post was a catastrophe. :D In fact, I (rightly or wrongly) view MPs like Ms McV as people whose ambition far outstrips their talent and devotion to the job. I guess I just despair of some modern politicians and, while Esther probably isn't the worst of these, she happens to be in the firing line right now. I also feel that Cameron doesn't much care for political women in general and, ironically, his recent reshuffle only underlines this: tokenism and attempted vote-snaring rather than promotion via merit. I view this as a crying shame because, I believe, it's vitally important to involve women in politics at the highest levels (IMO).
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All completely fair enough and on the last point I agree entirely, if someone is to be there representing a certain 'group' then they unfortunately have the added pressure of doing that job well because it's more important that they do well for the sake of Westminster, not just their policy area. From my own experiences I don't personally think those criticisms apply to McVey, but there are several MPs/Ministers who do fall under that bracket and they should be viewed dimly. I'm also against things like all-women shortlists and agree this particular re-shuffle did contain an element of tokenism. Not so much that I don't think Truss or Morgan aren't equal to their predecessors (and Tina Stowell is very impressive), but whether the former two would have been first choice candidates had they been men…I'm not sure.
 
Well yeah, if Labour end up a dozen or more short of a majority (extremely plausible), who else are they going to turn to for a coalition?
 
Pah, it's not the same without Al to prod with my pitchfork.*


*Not a euphemism, scandal fans.
 
The Green Party has added a wealth tax to its list of policies.

The party said the tax would affect around 300,000 people with assets of more than £3m – the richest 1% of people in the UK. In a report on possible rates, it suggested the tax could be set between 1% and 2%, which would raise £23bn at the lower end or up to £43bn at the higher end of the spectrum.

The report points out that wealth taxes of different kinds are already in place in France, Spain, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland. It also cites the work of French economist Thomas Piketty, who has found that the rate of return on capital outstrips the rate of growth and that inherited wealth will therefore always grow faster than earned income.

The wealth tax policy is one of a number of offers from the Greens, whose pledges also include re-nationalising the railways, bringing in a living wage, capping bankers' bonuses, opposing austerity and scrapping the welfare cap.
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http://www.theguardian.com/politics...rty-calls-wealth-tax-assets-multimillionaires

I can't see why anyone on the left wing would vote for anyone else.
 
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quick recap, with links to the main points in the blog.

Britain has finally recovered all the output lost in the Great Recession, but MPs on all sides of the political divide say there is more to do to repair the economy.

The Office for National Statistics reported this morning that UK GDP grew by 0.8% in April-June, confirming that Britain is growing much faster than its rivals this year.

Finally, GDP is above the level reached in the first three months of 2008.

But the growth wasn't very balanced - the service sector expanded by 1.0%, but industy only grew by 0.4% and both agriculture and construction shrunk.
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Chancellor George Osborne says:

"Thanks to the hard work of the British people, today we reach a major milestone in our long term economic plan.

But there is still a long way to go – the Great Recession was one of the deepest of any major economy and cost Britain six years."

While shadow chancellor Ed Balls points out that the UK is three years behind other many other advanced nations:

“With GDP per head not set to recover for three more years and most people still seeing their living standards squeezed this is no time for complacent claims that the economy is fixed.

“Wages after inflation are down over £1,600 a year since 2010, housebuilding under this government is at its lowest level since the 1920s and business investment is lagging behind our competitors.

​
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http://www.theguardian.com/business...-growth-gdp-peak-george-osborne-business-live
 
Silva said:
Literally No One Has Actually Built Any Houses Under This Government Scheme To Build More Houses

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jonstone/coalitions-radical-new-power-to-kickstart-housebuilding-has
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Why has the UK built so few/not enough homes over the past decade or two (longer?) Building homes must surely be lucrative in this high demand market? Too much red tape for investors/developers? Tax too high?

Does it suit governments to keep the status quo of the mainly voting-aged generation just having the value of their houses ever increasing at the expense of everyone else? To many people below 30 it is literally unaffordable to buy a home. Should they just piss off to somewhere cheaper in the country or are they being wronged? What is the real reason not enough houses are being built...
 
I have a disproportionate level of objection to working class Tories. It feels like selling out your own. Always held that against Warsi.

Very much with her on this one though.
 
DiseaseOfTheAge said:
I have a disproportionate level of objection to working class Tories. It feels like selling out your own. Always held that against Warsi.

Very much with her on this one though.
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Maybe pushing it a bit far, but this governments treatment of our own disabled, unemployed and poor population is grounds for resignation if she find all that immoral. Yeah, working class tories, I have no time for them.
 
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