Lefties 7: Simples

[Ewe]

Hope this is ok, I was getting withdrawal symptoms!

Morning.
I'm with MMeLindt - I want to love the idea of Lib/Lab, but increasingly I worry that it's untenable and will fall over and then Labour will be screwed for the foreseeable. Blunkett was on Today this morning saying pretty much that. But the way I am at the moment I agree with everything anyone says.

I had a friend on the phone last night telling me he wanted a new party to rise from the ashes of all this - somewhere between Old Labour and the SWP. I nearly agreed with him, FFS. I must get my head together.

ds2 (aged 6) asked me this morning - 'do we know who the prime minister is yet' - to which I replied 'no, even less than yesterday' - he said 'oh, so it might still be gordon brown?'

Bookmarking as I should do some work and come back later.

We need to hold out for some kind of combo

To have a referendum

On PR (AV? I don't think that's good enough. DH says it's what we do for mayoral elections but I think it would still exclude the little parties)

Then hopefully PR gets put in and we have an election and this time everyone is ready for the concept of partnerships/coalitions/a little while to decide what's happening etc.

I agree with someone's post earlier about labour bungling it with stuff like ID cards. And of course the Iraq war which is when they lost my support. They have been in a long time and if I'm honest I feel like a change. Just not a change to the tories.

I have to say I admire those of you who have stepped out of this lovely comfort zone and participated elsewhere. I'm way too much of a wuss. I couldn't resist the urge to have a go at Mandelson last night, but other than that I've kept schtum in a scaredy-cat sort of way.

Oooh, I asked a question about the meerkats on the other thread. Will be interesting to see the answers, I truly do not understand the preconception that the Markets will not wait.

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?

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.

I think I might start a Meerkat worship thread.

"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!!!!!!

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.

LOL honestlty roffling at the meerkats

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

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?

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?

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?

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

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

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.

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.