The poor don’t have a party

by Dave Osler    
October 6, 2011 at 1:59 pm

The Tories are now the party of the poor, Iain Duncan Smith told a fringe meeting at Conservative Party conference this week.

That he can even get away with such a surreal claim without attracting widespread derision underlines just how far the issue of poverty reduction no longer looms large on the political agenda.

I don’t underestimate the sincerity of a quiet man. Ever since he was forced out of the Tory leadership, IDS has devoted much of his political time to the question of welfare reform. He has been widely commended for taking the problem seriously, and for developing a new approach within a centre-right framework.

IDS was also indisputably correct when he observed that under New Labour, income inequality in this country rose to the highest level seen since 1961, the first year for which calculations of the so-called Gini Coefficient are available.

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We don’t need to talk about Tony Blair

by Jonn Elledge    
October 6, 2011 at 11:02 am

I am, I should think, about as centrist as Liberal Conspiracy writers get. I edit a business magazine. I reckon a successful left-wing government needs, at least, the acquiescence of the private sector.

I feel no need to seize the means of production, and if it weren’t for the fact that the full implications of the label make my skin crawl, I’d probably call my politics ‘Blairite’.

So believe me when I ask: why all the hysteria that Ed Miliband is distancing himself from the legacy of Tony Blair?
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Brilliant: Jon Stewart on #OWS protests & Fox

by Sunny Hundal    
October 6, 2011 at 10:30 am

Last night, the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart covered the Occupy Wall Street protests, explaining that the media’s coverage as gone from “blackout” to its only other setting, “circus”.

He also asks how there protests are that different from the Tea Party protests, and why Fox covers them differently.

Brilliant, as always.

Watch: NY cops beat #OccupyWallStreet’ers

by Newswire    
October 6, 2011 at 9:20 am

Tens of thousands of people marched in New York yesterday for the #OccupyWallStreet demonstrations.

Thousands of union workers joined protesters marching through the Financial District Wednesday for Occupy Wall Street’s largest rally yet against “corporate greed.”

Even Fox News journalists got beaten and maced in the face.

Watch

Why Cameron’s debt repayment idea will lead to disaster

by Duncan Weldon    
October 6, 2011 at 8:50 am

David Cameron’s conference speech yesterday featured a call for households to “pay off their credit cards”. This seems an odd call to be making at a time when we now know that the economy hasn’t grown for 3 quarters and household consumption has fallen for four consecutive quarters.

I can’t think of a time that a major political leader has ever stood up and essentially argued – ‘we face a renewed risk of recession – therefore you should probably spent less’. If an opposition figure made the same case they would undoubtedly be accused of talking the economy down.
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Embarrassing: Warsi tries cat jokes at #cpc11

by Sunny Hundal    
October 5, 2011 at 2:11 pm

At her speech at Conservative Party Conference, Sayeeda Warsi tries some puns on yesterday’s events.

The audience manage a sympathy laugh at the end. Embarrassing

Surprised the BBC is ignoring #occupywallstreet? You shouldn’t be

by Guest    
October 5, 2011 at 1:40 pm

contribution by James Bloodworth

To get an idea of just how many people there are currently protesting in New York one could do better than to watch the BBC.

Despite the fact that thousands have rallied in recent weeks against what has become known in the popular lexicon as the ‘feral rich’, the Corporation has dedicated little time to this mass protest.

The BBC is often held up in right-wing mythology as a kind of Marxist propaganda outlet staffed by ageing lefties who still think that they are still living in 1968.
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Why do we have a problem with ‘faith, family and flag’?

by Guest    
October 5, 2011 at 11:06 am

contribution by Joe Sarling

Even in online political discussions, some phrases invite recoil or aghast worthy of taboo. On the left, I think ‘family, faith and flag’ is such a phrase.

Those who know their political factions will know that The Cornerstone Group, a traditional conservative faction of the Conservative Party, uses ‘faith, flag and family’ as their motto. Furthermore, the title of Sarah Palin’s book, ‘America By Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith and Flag’, will further isolate casual centre-left sympathisers.
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Osborne admits UK banks ran ‘ponzi schemes’

by Sunny Hundal    
October 5, 2011 at 10:20 am

I missed this key passage from George Osborne’s speech to Tory conference:

The banks and those regulating them believed that the bubble would never stop growing, that markets were always self- correcting, that greed was always good, that their Ponzi schemes would never collapse, and that none of the debts would ever turn bad.

They let down their customers, they let down their shareholders, and they let down their country.

Bizarrely, no one seems to have picked up on this. Ponzi schemes are of course fraudulent scams.

If Osborne believes the banks ran fraudulent schemes, why hasn’t anyone from the financial services sector been prosecuted?

Where is the plan to make the banks pay for the damage they caused to the economy?

Why the Labour party website should be shut down – it’s rubbish

by Sunny Hundal    
October 5, 2011 at 8:45 am

Picture the scenario: your party’s annual conference has just finished. It’s been a year since the new leader took over and the shadow cabinet team have strong messages that need to get out to the public and party activists.

1) Do you publish their conference speeches on the website and update it with press releases and reactions to Tory announcements?

OR, 2) Do you produce and publish a series of one-page pamphlets (in PDF format) with simple, key messages from the party leader and shadow cabinet members, for the public and party activists?
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