Bolitics The New Condem Government

[TrentVilla]

you keep quoting that but you seem to forget that he actually said that as an open invite to Brown who promptly dismissed it

odd not how I recall it, in fact wasn't the 'end to punch and judgy politics' comment made before Brown was PM?

I believe Cameron's pledge on this was to the people not some open invite to Brown.

He said at the time;

Moderniser David Cameron claims he is turning his back on the "Punch and Judy" politics which, he believes, turns voters off.

If Tony Blair has a policy Mr Cameron believes is right, he will support it, with education reform offering a good example.

In his own words: "If the Labour Party puts forward proposals which we agree with, then we should support them and not just oppose for opposition's sake. That is the sort of Punch and Judy politics that people in Britain are tired of and which we must end."

Here

It was nothing to do with an offer to Labour it was simply election tactic against David Davis.

[tonyh29]

He said at the time;

Ah fair enough , I believed it was Brown he'd made the statement to as I don't recall PMQ's with Blair going down that route .. but it was frustration / anger with Brown that caused him to end the policy

If Tony Blair has a policy Mr Cameron believes is right, he will support it, with education reform offering a good example.

TBF he did at least try and keep to that one

[blandy]

and there are very strict rules which mean that the tech' can't be sold on, lest it get in the hands of people we wouldn't want to get it.

Out of interest Is that a new rule ? I seem to recall a few of our ships getting hit in the Falklands as they deemed it to be friendlies incoming .. so wondered if it was a result of that ?

My mate at BAE who is rather senior ( even been to a few cabinet meetings) was telling me once down the pub how they had water tight contracts signed with our government(s) that basically made it more expensive to cancel contracts than to fulfill them ..it all seems rather baffling to me but he gave me the impression that BAE seems to dictate terms to HM government

The difference is the ITAR is a U.S. regulation, Exocet was French, and therefore wouldn't be covered. As an aside, the French gave the UK all the data on Exocet, including seeker details and flight path stuff etc. and was probably the most helpful nation to the UK over the Falklands conflict.

Re your mate at BAE, re the carriers, he's pretty much reflecting what I've also been told.

Interestingly, the situation with the shipyard - "what capability do you (the Gov't wish to maintain as a sovereign capability, which capability do you wish to share, collaboratively, and which capability are you prepared to buy off the shelf from wherever"? is now one that needs addressing in Aviation, both in terms of current and future capability. My sense is that they don't know the answer, or they have an idea but it may not match with current financial constraints. I feel the short term (in procurement terms) considerations re defecit reduction are impacting upon what the Gov't feels they actually need in terms of defence capability. Hence the overly brief SDSR and incoherent result, that was clearly budget led, not defence capability need led. - Carriers with no planes, Nimrod cancelled and so on.

[avfc89]

I see Mr Cameron still speaking about Gordon Brown and the past.

[drat01]

A tory Gvmt - B'ham council to cut work force by a 1/3rd

One of the UK's biggest councils, Birmingham will reduce staff from 19,000 to 12,000 in response to government cuts

One of the UK's biggest councils is to get rid of more than a third of its workforce as it struggles to cope with spending cuts of more than 25%.

Birmingham city council will go from its current staffing level of just under 19,000 full time or full time-equivalent posts to just under 12,000 – primarily through redundancies – over the next four years, it said in its business plan for the period.

Not all of these will be job losses: just under 3,000 backroom roles, mainly in education, will be moved to cooperative organisations that the council plans to create, further details of which have yet to emerge. However, a total of 3,704 full time posts are earmarked for "voluntary redundancy, early retirement and other redundancies".

The GMB union said it had already received formal notice of 2,450 job losses during the next financial year alone, predicting that up to 5,000 jobs could go in all. With the government due to announce the amount of central support councils will receive in the next financial year, the GMB said it had thus far totalled up more than 59,000 jobs under threat at 52 councils in England.

Roger Jenkins, a GMB officer for Birmingham city council, said the plans involved "the wholesale dismantling of public services as we know them in Birmingham". He added: "There will, for example, be no remand centre for children in the city when these cuts have gone through. I think the city council needs to be frank with the citizens of Birmingham and make clear what services are going to go entirely."

The Birmingham council's plan spells out expected savings of £177m during next year, rising to £308m for the 2014/15 financial year.

In a letter to staff this week the council's chief executive said it was inevitable that the financial scaling back would require "a significant reduction in the workforce", which he hoped would be achieved mainly through voluntary redundancy. The council would begin consultations with trade unions ahead of final spending decisions next March, he added.

"Within the next week or so you will have much greater information about how our future budget is likely to affect you," he said, adding: "I cannot pretend that this is anything but difficult and painful."

[Richard]

Even Milliband's biographer said he performed poorly at PMQ so can't see how some think he did well

[Awol]

A tory Gvmt - B'ham council to cut work force by a 1/3rd

You seem to believe that cutting down the size of the public sector is a bad thing. I don't.

[drat01]

Disgusting attitude Jon - so you are happy so many people are losing their jobs. I suppose the "nasty Tory" line is a myth also?

[drat01]

and as it seems to fly in the face of the overwhelming opinion why was Cameron woeful in your opinion ?

Tony at least have the decency to read the posts - read exactly what Cameron (and interesting that at PMQ - that is Prime Minister - i.e. Cameron and hi cronies question time, the Tory supporters are more interested in what Milliband appeared like on TV) said or more importantly didn't say. It seems the only defence this minority Tory part of the Gvmt have is to deflect and blame, rather than trying to justify their weak and idealogical led BS. More U turns on education, no wonder he cannot trust any of his people to speak and has to try and do everything.

at least we now have the proof from his own mouth that he is a Thatcherite something he will regret admitting

[Awol]

Disgusting attitude Jon - so you are happy so many people are losing their jobs. I suppose the "nasty Tory" line is a myth also?

You may find it disgusting Ian, but that's probably because you live in a political la la land where government is the answer to everything. I'm not "happy" about people being made redundant but neither am I naive enough to believe the State can afford to employ so many people when the country is skint.

The last government bloated the public sector to unsustainable levels and now a necessary downsizing will take place. It's not nice but on the upside does enable you to fall back on your "nasty Tory" sterotype instead of having to confront the facts.

[Awol]

at least we now have the proof from his own mouth that he is a Thatcherite something he will regret admitting

Why? I guess you'll not be acknowledging that she was 100% correct in her analysis of how the euro monetary union would end up?

[drat01]

Disgusting attitude Jon - so you are happy so many people are losing their jobs. I suppose the "nasty Tory" line is a myth also?

You may find it disgusting Ian, but that's probably because you live in a political la la land where government is the answer to everything. I'm not "happy" about people being made redundant but neither am I naive enough to believe the State can afford to employ so many people when the country is skint.

The last government bloated the public sector to unsustainable levels and now a necessary downsizing will take place. It's not nice but on the upside does enable you to fall back on your "nasty Tory" sterotype instead of having to confront the facts.

Yes I find it disgusting that you are happy with people loosing their jobs. You don't think its bad news so stop hiding the fact that you are OK with it. We had the frankly obscene Tory MP's cheering and whooping in the HOP a few weeks back after all of the cuts announced by the "lightweight" Gideon.

As for living in political la la land, what a ridiculous, but not unexpected from you statement. Frankly the "nasty Tory" attitude is one that they have tried to hide, but this Gvmt are letting it ooze out

I have to laugh at your constant trotting out of the country being "skint", a total buy in on the pre election stuff from Gideon. Shame that he is being proven wrong time after time, but still the Tory party will use that as a justification for the totally vindictive idealogical based cuts and attacks on those they do not see as supporters of their party.

But as said I expected nothing more and am not enjoying the experience of being proven correct

[drat01]

at least we now have the proof from his own mouth that he is a Thatcherite something he will regret admitting

Why? I guess you'll not be acknowledging that she was 100% correct in her analysis of how the euro monetary union would end up?

You are obsessed with your hatred of Europe. For me your stance is exactly that which causes so many issues both politically and also socially and economically not only in this country but also worldwide.

As for Thatcher if being associated with her policies was so bad how come Cameron spent so long trying to say he was not. Or was that just another election "lie"?

Cameron is a marketing man, he proved what he was about just in the presentation at the World Cup thing. No substance but says the things he hopes people will like to hear.

Lets see how much more he tries to dump on his lapdog Clegg in the coming weeks, it seems that he was happy to bring them in because as the Wikileaks thing said the others in the Tory party are somewhat weak.

[Awol]

Yes I find it disgusting that you are happy with people loosing their jobs. You don't think its bad news so stop hiding the fact that you are OK with it.

Okey dokey Ian. If your abilities now include knowing that another poster thinks one thing even though they have specifically said the opposite then it's going to be difficult to discuss much with you, but if you don't think Labour were planning massive public spending cuts before the election then you obviously didn't listen to Alistair Darling very much.

You are obsessed with your hatred of Europe.

No, Europe is great, but I hate the EU because I believe in democracy.

For me your stance is exactly that which causes so many issues both politically and also socially and economically not only in this country but also worldwide.

Lol @ that. Please explain, it should be quite funny.

[Risso]

Do these threads always have to these tediously predictable turns for the worse?

[Jon]

Do these threads always have to these tediously predictable turns for the worse?

Yes.

[tonyh29]

wasn't me this time ..... :-)

[jonno_2004]

No prizes for guessing who either...

[blandy]

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[PauloBarnesi]

Did anyone see the Ian Hislop fronted programme The Do Gooders. Seems to be me that it had a message for today.