Lt. Danger posted:

Doesn't this make the Lib Dems the Scarecrow?

Lt. Danger posted:

Doesn't this make the Lib Dems the Scarecrow?

TinTower posted:

And Nigel Farage is Dorothy, who just wants to find his way home.

LemonDrizzle posted:

Natalie Bennett was on the Marr show talking about how she wants to abolish trident, have a referendum on EU membership, and establish a universal basic income that is not actually universal (rich people need not apply; "rich" left undefined): http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b050j0fs/the-andrew-marr-show-18012015

Warning: program also contains several minutes of Clegging. The interview with Bennett starts at around 20:00, the Clegging starts at 32:20 or so.

TinTower posted:

And Nigel Farage is Dorothy, who just wants to find his way home.

Hallucinogenic Toreador posted:

I saw him interviewed on news 24 and although he apologised for the Birmingham comments he insisted he was right about London. Watch out for the Sharia police I guess.

goddamnedtwisto posted:

(I'm having brain fade here, there was a word before "atmosphere" in that last sentence that I really can't remember - the word "fetid" kept coming to mind but that's wrong, anyone know what I was thinking of?)

CancerCakes posted:

If you can persuade gamer personalities to stop obsessing over wow and do something productive then you can harness a lot of wasted potential. Maybe gamify citizen journalism with an app or something (only half joking).

winegums posted:

Our Nige is a girl who comes to a place she doesn't belong, upsets the status quo, MURDERS the indiginous population, then goes seeking benefits from the state (wizard)?

EDIT: At least he's going back where he came from.

goddamnedtwisto posted:

There were those nutters around Whitechapel a couple of years ago - basically 6-8 men wandering around occasionally telling women they were slags for wearing short shirts and posting it on Youtube. That got a lot of traction in the US press as proof of how Shariah was here and how they should nuke Mecca with a bomb made out of bacon or whatever masturbatory fantasy it is they have.

EmptyVessel posted:

febrile?

Ireland Sucks posted:

They also attacked some drinking dudes and got put in prison for it. It would have been fair game for Emerson to bring it up with a bit of context.

Ireland Sucks posted:

They also attacked some drinking dudes and got put in prison for it. It would have been fair game for Emerson to bring it up with a bit of context.

Lab posted:

Labour says it will "end the scandal of neglect" of child mental health issues if it wins May's general election.
Leader Ed Miliband will use a visit to a mental health group to say greater emphasis is needed on prevention, early intervention and better support.
It forms part of his plans to improve mental health provision in England.
Mr Miliband will say the proposals would save NHS money and improve care. Ministers have said they are working to improve mental health care.
[...]
"This government's failure and false economies on mental health need to be replaced with smart investments that will save money and put our NHS on a sustainable footing so it can meet the challenges of the 21st Century as well as it did the last," he said.

Lib posted:

Deputy PM Nick Clegg says many suicides are preventable and wants hospitals to aim to end all such deaths.

The approach is based on a successful scheme in the US city of Detroit, where the suicide rate among patients in the scheme fell by 75% within four years.
In 2001, it embarked on a wide-ranging programme that included improved staff training, increased contact with patients and better education for the families of people who were deemed to be at risk.

Inspired by what happened in Detroit, Merseycare NHS Trust in Liverpool is now embarking on a similar strategy.

It is going to:

• Create a Safe from Suicide Team, a 24/7 group of experts which rapidly and thoroughly assesses patients who are having suicidal thoughts
  
• Improve the care of people who present with self-harm injuries at accident and emergency units, offering them therapies on the spot and following up with them when they go home
  
• Improve data collection on patients to get a better understanding of how and where patients are most at risk of suicide and then targeting resources at them.
  

What Mr Clegg calls a "new ambition" for the NHS comes as mental health services are under increasing pressure, with demand soaring, budgets falling and patients regularly complaining about poor care.
While not denying the stresses on the system, the deputy prime minister insists that his goal of drastically reducing suicides is achievable.

Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of the mental health charity Sane, said there was plenty to consider first.

"Any reduction in suicides pledged by the government will never be achieved until it is accepted that psychiatric beds and units must be restored or replaced, and that we do not rely on overstretched crisis teams.
"As we have been told, you can't keep someone on suicide watch in the community."

Con posted:

"BBC posted:

"Obviously I want to see companies' success passed through in terms of wage increases.
"It has to be done in a way that's affordable, and in a way that companies can continue to grow, we need to see productivity increase."

Mr Cameron said companies "that can afford to pay the living wage should".

He said: "It's good and helps to reduce the welfare bill."

He added: "Falling oil prices is going to benefit a lot of businesses and a lot of countries and we want to see those benefits passed through in all the ways they can be."

quote:

"They have denied the cost of living crisis. They have been woefully out of touch with the daily struggles of families.

"They have rubbished the idea that people are worse off. Even this week, George Osborne was saying we were set under him to be 'the richest country in the world', and that his economic victory is complete.

"But we wake up this morning to hear that the prime minister thinks 'Britain needs a pay rise'.
"People across the country will have been choking on their cornflakes.

"Five years of denial, complacency and failure on living standards, and less than four months before an election, he claims to have woken up to the problem.
"You can't wipe out five years of failure on living standards with pre-election pleading.
"You can't magic away people being £1,600 a year worse off by trying to take credit for falling oil prices."

Oberleutnant posted:

They just shift staff over to early intervention away from long term support, so overall support for those who are worst off is reduced, but stats can be padded with increased efficiency in dealing with larger numbers of comparatively minor cases.

LemonDrizzle posted:

Isn't the general point of early intervention to catch minor cases and treat them before they have the chance to develop into something more serious?

LemonDrizzle posted:

Isn't the general point of early intervention to catch minor cases and treat them before they have the chance to develop into something more serious?

Oberleutnant posted:

Doesn't do much for people who are already hosed.

quote:

Britain will have the highest employment rate of any major world economy, David Cameron will promise, as he says Britain will be the ‘jobs factory of Europe’ by limiting immigrants’ access to welfare.
David Cameron will promise “full employment” for Britain, as he announces a series of manifesto commitments designed to reduce unemployment to the lowest among the G7 countries.
As well as committing to control immigration, the Prime Minister will promise to lower the benefit cap, as he insists that Britain is “coming out the other side.”
The Prime Minister will insist the Conservatives are the party of small businesses, as he reaches out to traditional Labour voters. Mr Cameron is determined to make the case for jobs and growth, in response to Labour claims that voters are being hit by the rising cost of living.
“We’re the party of the roofers and the retailers; the builders and the businesswomen,” he will say on a visit to the east of England. “Other parties preach about this sort of stuff, but we’re the ones who really deliver.”

Mr Cameron wants to ensure that Britain has the highest rate of employment among the G7 countries. At the moment, British employment is at 72 per cent, having risen from 69 per cent in 2010. The UK is currently fourth behind Canada, Japan and Germany, which has the highest rate at 74 per cent. Mr Cameron wants to overtake Germany.

The EY ITEM Club's winter forecast predicts that GDP will grow by 2.9% in 2015, up by 0.5% compared with its previous estimate in October.

quote:

The charity's research shows that the share of the world's wealth owned by the richest 1% increased from 44% in 2009 to 48% last year.

On current trends, Oxfam says it expects the wealthiest 1% to own more than 50% of the world's wealth by 2016.

ukle posted:

Serious question.

Can anyone remember any promises the Tories have ever kept once they are in power? Its got to be going back to pre Thatcher era, as I assume this outright lying on election promises and saying the world will be candy and roses and we will all poo poo money is down to her, as I remember it being similar back in her time.

quote:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

Phoon posted:

How will restricting migrant benefits create jobs how

hookerbot 5000 posted:

Because they won't come here to steal our jobs (I'm assuming the welfare he's talking about is in work benefits like tax credits).

Phoon posted:

How will restricting migrant benefits create jobs how

namesake posted:

I hate to keep banging on about it but it does seem Malthusian at its core: the surplus population will infinitely consume any welfare system until it is exhausted and cause them all to starve so its better to simply give them nothing and divert those resources into industry which will allow some of them to have gainful sustained employment.

namesake posted:

I hate to keep banging on about it but it does seem Malthusian at its core: the surplus population will infinitely consume any welfare system until it is exhausted and cause them all to starve so its better to simply give them nothing and divert those resources into industry which will allow some of them to have gainful sustained employment.

Phoon posted:

It's astonishing that they're directly linking the two things because it makes no loving sense

hookerbot 5000 posted:

But isn't surplus labour important to capitalism as it allows employers to keep wages low and stuff? And it must be in the best interest of the capitalist overlords that the surplus population, while obviously not enjoying being unemployed too much so they are keen to get ahead and strive, aren't actually all starving and dead when they are needed.