Be Excellent To Each Other

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Cameron was at ASDA House just now. 1 year and 6 days after I left.

Russ Brand has a fun take on the Conservatives Party Political Broadcast. Bit of fun, init? Not for our kids.

Is anyone handing these out?



Seems folk either need a good cry, or a sack emptier. These work for both.

As an aside, how are Kleenex allowed to sell "mansize" tissues?
The sexism!

The same way Yorkie and Mccoys can sell man snacks. And Boots and Iceland can target mums.

I'm finally watching this. What was that scrappy letter that Cameron pulled out his pocket?

"Dear Sirs

Thank you for applying for a loan through Wonga.Com. There's no money.

Tatty bye.

Some guy"

*groan* "My disabled child went to the NHS..." Yes, you've used the NHS. So have lots of people.

I hate how he uses his dead child as an excuse to dismantle the NHS. Genuinely makes me angry.

I love that he talks about "shared sacrifice". Tax breaks for millionaires, Dave?

And his upper lip is distractingly sweaty.

And I'm amused how angry the crowd is. I hope that shows politicians that we, the public, are sick to death of their bullshit politician-talk that won't answer a straightforward question in a straightforward way. Seriously, we've had enough; we're not fooled and we aren't stupid.

If there is one conclusion I did draw from QT yesterday, and forgot, its that Dimbleby is past due for retirement.

Well this is an annoying trend:-

"Let me answer you directly"

"Let me tell you specifically"

Urgh, Milliband massively struggling to be credible when dealing with the financial crash. Tell them about the banks,tell them about the hedge funds, you moron. Nope, he's fucked up.

That raised Q platform is very distracting as well. They want to stand on the edge of the Q to get close to the crowd but are at risk of falling in the gap.

Then he almost fell off it. Genius. Not impressed by Milliband...

"I want to wipe the slate so our kids aren't paying for our generations debts" - Clegg. They ain't my debts. I didn't run them up. My neighbours didn't. My mum and dad certainly didn't. "Broken banking system" Clegg says. So what's he done about the banking system? Oh so, he's talking about people paying income tax and benefit sanctions. Erm... what about the banks, Nick. Oh, he's forgot about the banking system.

Aww, I think Clegg is the better speaker and loads more likeable. I'd vote for him on his own (and his views are probably more akin to my own views) but since he's got no chance, I'd rather waste my vote on the Greens before him.

Nope. He lost me on the final question on foreign policy since he didn't accept that the UK faces danger from "terrorists" for meddling in the Middle East. Sorry Nick. Least you noticeably looked down before you stepped off the Q.

Edit: autocorrections.

Tenuous I know, but it feels a little odd that BBC1 just showed Wallace and Grommet at 8:30 on a Friday night.

Well. Royal impartiality is a thing of the past: Kate is in Labour.

Arf!

Apparently, according to this infogram, that woman who was giving Miliband a rough ride has been on BBC a fair bit.

I thought the crowd would just be ordinary members of the public, not someone who has been courting the press.

Couldn't you have cropped that first?

I did think that woman's question was a little too much of a headshot for her to be a generic audience member. It stands to reason that the BBC have a pool of people they use for these kinds of things, so she's obviously one of those that puts herself up for as many things as possible. Also she sits in a demographic that the BBC are likely to want to tap - a female business owner with a significant number of employees in Leeds.

No real question she's Conservative, but that wouldn't make the BBC biased. They're supposed to put a mix of people in the audience, and it wouldn't be their fault if she represented herself as undecided when she wasn't. Still, it was a great question.

How's that? Did that on my phone an' all. I'm ace like that.

I don't know how they filtered the folks that were deemed as 'undecided' - Unless they lie detector tested them all you can't really know who is undecided or not. I guess there should have been some more stringent checks on the audience members to see if they had any known allegiances (and if they'd appeared on shows before with obvious political alignment, filtered them out) but I suspect it was partly" are you undecided who to vote for and would like to appear in the QT leader's edition? email us here:

I doubt it was some kind of BBC plant; rather a foolish/lazy mistake than impartiality.

I'm starting to think the Tories will actually manage a wafer thin majority government this time; the polls are giving them momentum just when they need it, at the expense of Labour and UKIP.

I could be wrong of course, but that is my prediction: Tory parliamentary majority by 2 seats.

As for this lady in the Leeds audience, I thought she was great. Employs 80 odd people, obviously a good businesswoman, certainly made never had a job Miliband look like a right berk!

Really? I think he's a great presenter. What makes you think that? I think he's sharp and witty, and picks around a dodged question.

I'm sure she was fine, but it's more than a little bit disingenuous to present yourself as an undecided when it doesn't seem that it could be further from the truth.

Quite, and I don't know who'd replace him if he ever did retire. Paxman? No thanks. Totally wrong temperament.

Depends how you define good businesswoman, I guess.

Well, someone who keeps 80 people in work, primarily, albeit she did also mention key ties with much larger UK businesses as well, and she seemed assertive, articulate and intelligent. Of course, I'm basing all of this on 2 mins on the telly though!

@Craster - true, agreed.

Must admit, he always seems to interrupt debate when in full flow, just to witter on about their being on Twitter, web etc (despite coming up on the screen, does he think people cannot read?)

Does it every single week, I throw my cushion at the TV every time. Drives me mad.

I've always felt that when he pipes up it's to ask an insightful question, or rather, to reiterate the heart of the original question which the other person is obliquely ignoring.

Edit: Dimbles this is, just realised you might be talking about Jeremy.

In a fit of maudlin introspection, Milliband has had a tombstone made for his political career.

Also, in 2014, he said "there's more to politics than the photo op," which is presumably why he's now stood next to a 8'6" stone block carved with six of the vaguest waffly election "promises" I have ever seen.

The tit.

Edit — also, "controls on immigration" — we've literally never had uncontrolled immigration in this country. Ridiculous.

how many cushions do you have on your sofa? Do you then have to retrieve your cushion to wait for the next time he says it?

do you use the cushion for comfort at all, or do you keep a cushion (or many) around, simple to use as Dimble-projectiles?

You have raised all kinds of unanswered questions here!

I think the same about Dimbledore. I think he is very good at re-stating teh actual core of the question when a politician tries to answer around it, and also is very sharp with any follow-up questions that arise from answer-waffle.

Mmmm, answer-waffle.

My lounge offers a near inexhaustible selection of projectiles, Meems
Just as well..

Really, I just think he is twinkly old-man cute.

Also, awesome ties.

Has there been any discussion here on the Nate Silver numbers for Panorama?

He suggests what a lot of people assume, that there will be no party with a majority and there is a possibility that we may have a situation where no two parties can form a majority (the best chance would be a Labour / SNP coalition...which would be interesting). No matter what though Friday will be chaos and for any one with an interest in politics (no matter where they sit on the spectrum) and more specifically the process of politics, it's going to be fascinating.

I for one have booked the day off on Friday (the bulk of the results should come in around 5/6 am local time) and will be VPNing to watch it all on UK TV with a big bag of popcorn and several large mugs of tea.

Yeah, I can only see a minority government forming at this point, not a formal coalition.

Scottish Leaders debate on BBC Scotland. It's politics-lite. A haggard Nicola Sturgeon squabbling with Jim Murphy over elements of policy that actually none of them can call the shots over. Most of it is over-shouting each other while blarting about food banks and zero hour contracts. I'm sure they'll get to bemoaning the bedroom tax next. In a very echoing venu and just generally lacking credibility of all involved.

Ruth Davidson is a sharp cookie though. Far better than Cameron.

Clegg hasn't ruled out the referendum and has other 'red lines' that would be part of a deal.

Hmmm. I can't see him agreeing to a referendum, really. He knows it's a bloody silly idea and potentially ruinous. Would he really sell his soul for the sake of carrying on in John Prescott's job?

Beeb's latest:



Call me crazy but I see the makings of a formal ConLib with the backing of whatever UKIP gain.

Oh crap.

You can't say the Tories haven't played Ed like a violin. He's gone defensively hard against the SNP and unless he plans a complete about face after the results he just hasn't got a hope.