Lefties 7: Simples

Nick Robinson is interesting. I want to hear a bit more from the individuals involved - Blunkett was outspoken this morning, but I want some sense of how many Labour figures would have issues with Lib/Lab.

Agree meerkats and their worshippers acting like arses, Euro stuff MUCH more important that what is happening here (which is why Alistair Darling has been doing important stuff representing the UK interests in the Eurozone - don't see anybody complaining about that).

I'm actually pretty impressed with the conduct of the most of politicians so far - am I cynical to think that until the deal is done a semi truce has been called so that they all keep in the public's good books provide the public with the 'strong government' we 'deserve' but unfortunately failed to vote for.

Thing is, and while I agree with John Dunn that democracy and capitalism are - in theory - incompatible, since capitalism demands inequality - it is also true that - in practice - the history of Western democracy from the 18thC onwards is one precisely linked to capitalism and the free markets. So, if we truly wish to be truly democratic, we need radically to rethink how we "do" democracy. So, sadly, the meerkats do have a place in contemporary Western democracy as it stands, whether we like that or not.

meerkats, shmeerkats, that's what i say

on that note I'm going out

aargh I've missed loads and no time to catch up yet

didn't even really hear the news properly this morning before work as dd1 was tantruming about socks

I take it there's nothing decided though yet?

morning all btw

i suppose the meerkats are like a modern day god aren;t they

unpredictable, they exact terrible revenge when you do things wrong, even though you don't understand the rules and know when you're doing it wrong. as such they must be appeased at all costs. or doom will befall us all.

DH has been talking about the Credit Rating Agencies, Moodies et al. He is doing a Moodies Credit Training as part of his job at present and there has been a fair bit in the press about the credit agencies recently.

Prolesworth linked earlier to that article, and I did not get around to reading it. New link to save you scrolling down down down

Tried to catch up, but got waylaid by GetOrf designing aeroplanes. How cool is that?

Exactimundo, MmeLindt. Reeks of bad faith, to my mind. Money where your mouth is, and all that.

Actually, on a related note, scratch the surface and some Tories are looking surprisingly - or not so surprisingly - like little Englanders: questioning the Union (297/306 Tory MPs in England; too much money to Scotland, etc.). Ironic for the party of Union, non?

I can't post links from here but there's an excellent article by leftie journalist Gary Younge in yesterday's Guardian objecting to the fact that whatever we vote for the markets believe that they have the right to decide both the government we have and the policies they pursue.

Whatever government we have the next few months/years look pretty grim - I would prefer not to have the Tories, backed up by Lib Dems or not - if we do have them I'd prefer them to be on their own.

I think that savage cuts now will be terrible for the country, for public sector workers, for working parents and for lots of other people. My wages (and dp's) go back into our economy provding work for other people, self employed, large and small private businesses, paying for public services through taxes, several times over. Doesn't that mean that if you cut lots of public sector jobs, you're actually taking money/employment opps etc out of the economy several times over?

Absolutely, Penth.

Those who are most vocal right now about not upsetting the meerkats are not letting it stop them putting a bet on the £ dropping. Or rising.

Look at the way the stocks bounced yesterday. Someone is making a killing, and you can bet your bottom dollar that it is the same folk who are wailing about the meerkats crashing by Friday.

Why Friday, btw? Because it is a traditional crash day?

Have posted on the meerkats thread. Couldn't help myself.

LOL honestlty roffling at the meerkats

What I find baffling also is that a number of people who claim to want a stable Conservative government for the good of the nation also crow about making a killing on the meerkats, getting up early on Friday morning to buy gilts (is that right? ), ie. they want the volatility so that they can snap up shares at bargain basement prices. Not very patriotic, if volatile meerkats are such a bad thing for the nation and taming them is the be all and end all of government.

The meerkat is a dangerous beast.

Someone else somewhere else has already pointed it out, but given the level of volatility, unreliability and general fickleness of the meerkats, being beholden to them is rather like being ruled by a toddler particularly prone to tantrums.

Oh, and LOL LOL at Hameron clinging on to CLEggy.

"Or is it just that the posters who are going on about the meerkats work in the city/are married to men who work in the city and are brainwashed into meerkat worship? "

brilliant

we need to free ourselves from the tyranny of meercat rule!!!!!!

I think I might start a Meerkat worship thread.

I have long said I'm a bit nervous about a Lib/Lab pact. Like it or loathe it (and I loathe it), the RW press in the UK would tear into such a coalition ON A DAILY BASIS. Can you even imagine? I am already feeling sick at the thought of the endless, relentless negative headlines... Not to mention the TV news, etc.

I would much rather a minority Conservative govt. falls at the first hurdle, the Labour Party turn themselves around sharpish (taking a dignified note from Gordon's book), and step up for the next election in a year's time.

How do people on the continent get any work done, ever, if their coalition governments take 2 weeks to a month to decide? I am on tenterhooks, and achieving nothing.