Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

Socialist Worker Party Newspaper

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/

Billions more in cuts on way - let's make the Tories extinct

Slasher Tory chancellor George Osborne unveiled £3 billion more cuts last week - on top of the £13 billion cuts already planned.

The cuts will hit public services including education, transport and local government. They will make it even harder for councils to deliver key services such as social care.

Together with the selloff of the government's remaining shares in Royal Mail, Osborne hopes to make a total of £4.5 billion in "savings".

The cuts are three times higher than Osborne's Office for Budget Responsibility predicted.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies said the Tories were "misleading" over the scale of the cuts in their manifesto.

It said the Tories would need to slash £33 billion a year to meet their promise to cut the deficit - not the £13 billion previously claimed.

Osborne's budget on 8 July could unveil even more. The Tories hope to drive through savage cuts fast.

They have raised the stakes. We need to do the same.

Trade unionists say to Labour, ‘Stop copying Tory austerity’

The news that left Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn had put his name forward in the Labour leadership election cheered many trade unionists and socialists.

Blairites from the Labour right have dominated the debate about the way forward after the party’s defeat in May’s general election.

Liz Kendall refused to denounce the Tories’ latest cuts package. Yvette Cooper accused her of “swallowing the Tory manifesto”.

Yet she backs a benefit cap and thinks people on benefits should be forced into compulsory jobs.

Interim Labour leader Harriet Harman even said many Labour voters are “relieved” that Labour is not in government.

Such views offer nothing to workers looking to Labour to take on the Tories.

Jim Carlin, a Bfawu union member from Glasgow, told Socialist Worker that Labour should be “more supportive of trade unions and vote for left wing candidates”.

He added, “There needs to be debate in the unions about the future of the Labour Party because the Blairites keep coming to the fore.”

Jeremy Corbyn told Socialist Worker that Labour lost the general election because its “fundamental economic message was that austerity in a lighter form would carry on” (see right).

Nominations

However Corbyn had won 11 nominations, as Socialist Worker went to press far below the minimum 35 needed by 15 June to in order to stand.

It’s a sign of the weakness of the Labour left that getting on the ballot rests on securing “excess” nominations from other candidates.

Some in Labour want a genuine debate. Others would like to see Corbyn included because they believe it would make Andy Burnham seem a more credible alternative to the Blairites.

Burnham is the favoured candidate of the big unions—despite Corbyn’s record of fighting cuts and supporting workers’ rights.

New rules mean members of trade unions affiliated to Labour must opt in to have the right to vote.

Burnham seeks to distance himself from the right. But he doesn’t want the label of being the candidate of the left or the unions.

He has publicly shunned trade union financial support.

GMB union member Scott Robertson from Rochdale was a delegate at GMB conference this week (see page 19).

He told Socialist Worker, “You listen to Andy Burnham—he is not left wing. Most people in this room would vote for Jeremy Corbyn. But would the Labour Party support him? Probably not.”

Like many workers, Scott was frustrated with talk of Labour being too left wing.

“Labour needs to put clear water between it and the Tories,” he said. “It needs to say, ‘This is where we stand and we’re not going to change our minds to get a few more votes’.”

The EU referendum bill goes to the committee stage on 16 June, then there is the report stage and the 3rd reading and then its off to the Lords. There is no opposition at all so far. It should be law very soon.

Hays - do you think that ministers should be unshackled from "follow the leader" once the referendum campaigns start?

It is difficult as there is the ministerial code involving collective cabinet responsibility. The convention is that if you publicly speak against cabinet policy then you have to leave. After any new concessions from the EU, the government will choose which side it is on and campaign for that view. That will become the official government position and the cabinet will therefore have to support it. Of course, we know right now that the view will be to stay in. I would like to see ministers free to choose sides for themselves, but I can't see it happening. It was the same situation on the previous referendum on Europe. The government campaigned actively pro Europe.

it didn't need the preamble :-)

as this is a countrywide free vote - aka a referendum - then i think any mp has the right to speak as he feels

however, if a minister decides he wants to campaign against the gov't's stance, then he should have the courage of his convictions and resign from cabinet
less tautologically - on reflection, i also think the cabinet needs to campaign as an entity

The preamble was for the benefit of people who don't know about the ministerial code convention.

cyners - 10 Jun 2015 12:42 - 60737 of 60738
it didn't need the preamble :-)

Assuredly. Why do the words pot, kettle and black spring to mind?

it is now is coming to light of fifa fixing football matches .
with players

quite right hils ..... i've actually been a bit preoccupied today so was not my usual succinct self :-)

You are rambling as per usual!

I reckon you should get an invite to cynics place for Christmas Fred ..

Jb,

Please don't write such things, I already have enough nightmares.

8-)

we always go away just in case fred turns up uninvited :-)

Which day do you go.

I will take a look around.

-[8-)

Fred's house

One for cynic

What you have all been suspecting!

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jun/10/raheem-kassam-ukip-nigel-farage-rag-tag-unprofessional-embarrassing-people

Raheem Kassam: Ukip full of 'rag-tag, unprofessional, embarrassing people'

Former closest adviser to Nigel Farage says Ukip leader’s election campaign was let down by party being ‘in a mess because there’s no discipline’

Nigel Farage’s election campaign was hampered by a party which is in a mess and full of “rag-tag, unprofessional, embarrassing people”, according his closest adviser in the election campaign.

Raheem Kassam, who left Ukip during a bout of bitter infighting after the election, warned the party itself is in a “mess because there’s no discipline” and came near to being completely broke after throwing everything at the general election campaign. Ukip is now in the process of moving from its Mayfair office and downsizing to a much smaller location in Westminster.

The Farage adviser said he looked back on many people within Ukip as “a bunch of rag-tag, unprofessional, embarrassing people who let Nigel down at every juncture.

- Described Ukip’s headquarters as “like a fucking playground”, where he and another aide would show journalists around and “have to lock certain doors because the people behind those doors were too embarrassing to be seen”.

That last paragraph sounds like Fred's place. Signed photographs of Neil Kinnock falling arse over tit into the sea. Gordon Brown smiling over the fireplace. And Michael Foot in his donkey jacket dishing out Tetley T Bags in the kitchen. :0)