Exactly - and if he really had honour he would resign his seat too and stand as an independent candidate. The way is acting now you would think he didn't know what was going on The quiet man is back and he turning up the volume - what a ****er
I agree with quite a bit of this. I think IDS was sincere in what he was trying to do for the disabled, particularly those that had lesser limiting physical problems or psychological, perhaps depressive, problems that weren't improved by spending the day on their own in a house. Any of us in these positions might find ourselves in a rut of taking benefits and lacking direction. IDS tried to help them to find work which was positive. He was also beginning to cut out the spongers that were milking the system - their money should go to the genuinely disabled. The resignation had quite a bit to do with the referendum imo. I suspect Cameron and Osbourne are marginalising the Brexit ministers in Cabinet and outside. It would make daily life for Brexit ministers intolerable. We may see more resignations. .
I'll try and answer without getting into your 'when did you stop beating your wife' questioning style... Membership of the Eurozone and Membership of the EU are two different things entirely, as you well know. To put my position on the Euro, Britain should never join the Euro, because without complete fiscal and economic union, it's doomed to failure. Countries like Greece were never going to compete with countries like Germany when their industrial base is so dissimilar. Whilst the ultimate aim of the EU may well have been full economic and fiscal union, that's never going to happen, because Germany knows that it would end up propping up the less affluent countries ad infinitum. The ultimate goal of continental domination through political union is only ever going to happen when the fiscal and economic union is complete, and as I say above, that's never going to happen, because there are far to many national interests that conflict too much to allow that to be an even remote possibility. The EU will splinter before that happens. My reason for voting to stay in is that - as I have listed before several times - there are simply far too many unknown elements that will affect everybody directly if we leave. Were we able to have a clear understanding of what these elements would look like post-exit, then things would be a lot more straight forward. However, as there are signs of another global downturn, throwing more and more uncertainty into the mix by committing the UK to an uncertain path is too great a risk. It's far easier to say what will happen if we remain a member of the EU. I hope that answers the questions you (rather loadedly) asked. If I may, I'll move on to the accusations of personal abuse from Goldie. Some of your posts HAVE been childish, dumb, and utter drivel. You've deliberately taken my posts out of context. My responses have been about what you wrote. If you took them as a personal insult, or I phrased them badly, then I apologise. You are not dumb or childish. However, I still think the same about what you wrote. And I still disagree that the way your posts twisted the change negotiated by Cameron on the tax rating for tampons was - to put it mildly - a bit pathetic and an unwarranted dig, when it's actually a good thing that we would not have had he not managed to get the EU to make that change.
Irritable Bowel Duncan Smith's biggest issue is that he is not very bright. Probably why he lied about having qualifications from a variety of places. Any person who has been kicked out of a job through a vote of no confidence (I.e hasn't got the wit to see what is coming and resign) from his own side as happened to him when he was Tory leader (they gave him two whole years!), has to have some question marks against them. He has had the DWP brief for 6 years. He has been caught out time after time with fake statistics and outright lying ( remember the leaflet in which non existent people said how happy they were to have their benefits cut? With photos of them with their made up names). His flagship policy of Universal Credit is in tatters. Honourable? My arse Competent? My arse Sincere? Possibly, but who cares? Serial failure? Most definitely A Pygmy amongst dwarves. Still, three cheers, he's ****ing up the Tories royally, so you gotta luv the baldy bastard really.
Yeah let's put Corbyn in charge or, even better, some sort of Corbyn/SNP coalition next. That'll really get the country going.
Sorry for providing a few facts about your hero that you didn't know. How that equates to putting Corbyn in charge I don't know. Surely there must be some classier Tories you'd like to try first? He's not a significant enough figure to feature in my update of Suetonius' 'Lives of the Ceasars'. Actually I'm struggling to think of any current MPs who merit more than a footnote. Any suggestions? Cameron's impact on the EU may be remembered but whether we stay in or out the outcome is beyond his control, his contribution was to lead us into a referendum by mistake by winning an election he didn't expect to.
Certainly not my hero but has been a good politician from what I can tell for most of my life. You said he's ****ing the Tories up which is a good thing so presumably you fancy the look of the alternatives.
Sorry, I didn't see your reply yesterday, Chaz, or I would have responded then. It's big of you to apologise, and of course I accept it. We need to use power of argument rather that insults to get our points across. We need to stay respectful of each other. I may make a satirical dig now and then at our prime minister (particularly if I perceive him going cap in hand to our EU masters for rights that should be ours anyway). I appreciate you disagree. You're more than articulate enough to put your argument across clearly on the merits.
I can't think of a single MP it would be worth you waste your time over analysis and memoirs (unless you alight on something salacious) Cameron's getting nervous that the voters with IN sympathy may stay indoors on June 23rd, and let others go out and vote to keep the UK in. His fears may be justified. The whole Brussels set up seems to infect "status quo" voters with a malaise that will keep them stuck to their sofas
Depressing, isn't it? Ken Clarke is probably the most robust figure left in there, but not worth an asterisk, even though it was his economic policies that gave Blair his lengthy premiership. On a marginally lighter note, Clinton who is only the lesser of two evils, looks set to smash Trump in the presidential election as it seems a majority of white men will vote for nylon head, but everybody else prefers the weasel by some distance. IBS now looking terminally confused, claiming he came into politics to 'help to poor'. Really? Wrong party mate. And he very publically only noticed the poor when visiting Glasgow when he was already leader of the Tories. At which time he became some kind of nineteenth century 'own two feet support the deserving poor' bloke. Also find myself uncomfortably in agreement with Gideon who was quoted in a book on the coalition saying that IBS was 'just not clever enough' to do his job. But Iain says he has nothing personal against Gid.
Trump reminds me of Oswald Mosley in the way that he implacably divides society (although he hasn't yet started a private army). A vote for Hilary means getting Bill again for 4 years - perhaps Monica Lewinsky will make a come back at a low (around waist) level. In all, depressing. I read the IBS situation as follows - He and Osbourne have never liked each other - Osbourne had been constantly plundering Social Security for cuts, particularly since most of the other departments like Defence, Overseas Aid etc are ring-fenced - when IDS came out against the EU, Dave and Gid took it personally (Dave takes it very personally, his career and legacy) - they start to exclude IDS from inner sanctum/policy announcements - Hence IDS finds out about the current cuts to disabled benefits through the press - IDS is then left to take the flack for the money Gid has saved - IDS walks...
I'm finding it very difficult to read any more into this than pure personal motivation. This has been timed to do as much damage as possible to the In campaign. If anyone believes this is about his conscience, then where has that been over the past six years? No - this is about his trying to damage the In vote and position himself for a plum job in a post-EU Government. Nothing more, nothing less.
Is that the same Ken Clarke who wanted us to join the Euro? He's a waste of space imo. Bloody hell mate.....................has IDS slept with your missus or something?
Nah, I just find him an hysterically pathetic figure, on a par with Corbyn. We really aren't blessed with much talent in the political field are we? I must confess I have a morbid fascination with IBS. He spent seven years in the army, rising to the rank of lieutenant, one step higher than when he entered. Most (80%) of commissioned officers reach the rank of Major in that time. I don't think Corbyn is the smartest chook in the henhouse either, but at least he doesn't lie about his qualifications. The most amazing thing about IBS is that so many people think he is a good man and principled. Then why has he spent 6 years designing and implementing policies that he has just discovered he finds hateful? Bizarre. Meanwhile, corporate charlatans pWc, or PWc or however they brand themselves estimate Brexit will reduce the UK economy by £100bn and cost 1 million jobs by 2020. I know this doesn't bother you, and I doubt it's accurate anyway, just struck me how nice and round the figures are.
I think that the concept of benefit changes being formulated and announced without his knowledge is utterly impossible to conceive. Of COURSE he knew about the changes. Of COURSE he had a hand in formulating them - that was his job! So either he wasn't at all effective in doing his job (in which case his departure can surely be a good thing) or he's lying (in which case his departure is a very good thing). The fact that everyone else is now having to justify their performance in job is nothing more than a spoiling tactic on behalf of the Brexit camp, screwing up PR for those who disagree with the exit vote so that in the event of their side being victorious, IDS can claim his role and pick a plum job in a Boris-led post-EU Government. Simply this. Nothing to do with reduced benefits, nothing to do with the disabled and their rights, nothing to do with 'being a good egg'. It's all political machinations and hypocrisy of the worst sort, and I hope he gets found out and shamed for it.
You don't make estimates like that to decimal places! If a company like PWC made it, it is probably more accurate than anything else you are going to get apart from possibly 1 or 2 of their major competitors.
Not even John Redwood? Yeah, they never make mistakes. Except for Enron. And Tyco. Oh, and they were only £263m out with Tesco last year, even though they had access to the books and were paid to audit them. KPMG, Deloitte, and Ernst & Young have similar **** ups on their books. They never seem to suffer for them though, do they? There will undoubtedly be economic fall out from a Brexit, but why you would trust these crooks to estimate it is beyond me. The Brexiters may even be right, there could be benefits. I personally doubt it, but you never know.
