Metal Reviews

That kind of shit severely screwed over South Africa when Mandela talked about land redistribution. Countless times that has fucked over developing countries forcing them to turn to the IMF which privatized and billionaires bought back into their currency, leading the IMF to claim their work fucking over the country as a successful save.

Trapt, I've been reading a lot of Giovanni Arrighi lately- do you know him? He died last year but was a big part of the New Left Review crowd and all that World Systems Theory jazz. He has some interesting things to say about "the hidden sphere of the anti-market".

Basically he says that the "committee room" of global capitalism itself is that lofty stratosphere where the interests of finance capital and and hegemonic states become mutually dependent on empire building, and "market forces" themselves have very little relevance at that level.

He also had some odd (but very thought provoking) ideas about modern China essentially being the practical manifestation of Adam Smith's preferred social ideal and the way forward for the world.

Anyway, er... how bout that UK election? Looks like Cameron is off to see Queenie as we speak

So it's now PM Cameron.

Labour gets left behind for failing to actually want to change things. Go figure.

Weep no tears for Labour. They had thirteen years in which to make a change, and didn't. According to Simon Hughes the coalition offer is a good one for radical centre-lefties, which is good enough for me - we have a Tory Prime Minister, now let's make sure we have a Liberal-Tory government.

Simon Hughes is hardly going to come out and say "Nick's given us a crap deal", though.

I predict a big let down for progressives. A couple of cabinet seats for for a few Lib Dems? Bah humbug

I've heard there are lots of concessions on policy to us, and Tory commentators are already calling Cameron a sell-out. Things are looking up compared to the alternative, letting the Tories run the country themselves.

I still think "bah humbug" sums it up

Mark's last two blog posts just about sum up my thoughts on the election and express them in a more eloquent and funny way.

http://www.marksteelinfo.com/pt/blog/

And the collosal roar of "OH SHIT!" reverberated from the north...

Bad times, despite what the Goat and his new found affinity to the Tories may say. Scotland is going to be fucked royally here and God forbid it makes Salmond look good.

I have no affinity to the Tories. PM Cameron is reality, whatever you think, and Liberals have no choice but to take the Tories for all they're worth. Danny Alexander seems likely to be the Secretary for Scotland, which is surely better than some random Tory.

In a place where they're now valued as much as Tories and Labour outnumbers the sum total of every other party 2 to 1 I'd be inclined to disagree. It's a shame really, as the Lib Dem MPs from up here aren't all that bad and are now being dropped into this mess.

Oh well, the Scottish elections next year should be lulzy.

ZaNu LieBore is dead, long live the Lie-Bore-al Dumb-o-Craps/C**t-serva-Tits coalition?

On a lighter note, WTF is up with one of the Libs' key extractions from the tories being a constitutionally set length for parliaments? On what planet does anybody give a shit?

The Tories have given us PR for the Lords and a referendum on AV - Labour wouldn't even consider dismantling the database state and ending the detention of immigrant children. I hope Labour rots in opposition, frankly - thirteen years of corruption ended is cause for celebration whoever you are.

@ rio - you really don't care about that? An end to snap elections called whenever it suits the PM?

What, a precise limit of term lengths to four years instead of four and a half or five? (correct me if I've misread- entirely possible with me as you know)

Not especially, I must admit. I don't think I've ever met anyone who has, tbh- or at least nobody who's listed it as a priority. I'd guess the typical reaction would be similar to my own upon reading it: "urm, yeah, I guess, there's some logic to it... not too bothered though, there are bigger things to worry about".



I would love to be wrong here, but I can't see the bolded part ending under this govt. in a month of Sundays.

Come on, Lib Dems, don't pull up the rope ladder... The LDs have got a couple of cabinet seats, so let's hope that no strong, principled and uncompromised centre-left opposition emerges? Nah, man, if you're serious about progressive/moderate left principles instead of just Lib Dem loyalty, you should hope for a labour party that gets its house in order and comes back as something better. Just my opinion.

But no doubt we agree- For some of the shit they've pulled, obviously Labour DESERVE to lose. But there's no avoiding the fact that ultimately they've been replaced by the Tories.

I've never quite understood to what extent Westminster can affect what happens in Northern Ireland, but if the Lib Dems can wield some influence in scuppering this rather sinister piece of legislation, I would definitely feel more enthused about the whole thing.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=1 ... 202&ref=ts

Also- Yvetter Cooper has pulled out of Labour leadership challenge.

Which means there won't be any Cooper vs Balls husband and wife smackdowns

Well, we're due the complete coalition agreement today so the details will soon emerge. And if our local party are right, Labour are already preparing themselves for an anti-liberal campaign - there's a rumour that the local Labour councillors will refuse a Lab-Lib coalition as that'd mean they can't bash us. Pretty sinister, considering that we could now have centre-left alliances the length and breadth of the country, but no, they've stabbed us, themselves and left voters everywhere in the back, scuttled into the shadows to lick their wounds, and will probably emerge in a few months with Ed Balls at the healm, decrying the removal of the database state as allowing burglars to run riot or some such nonsense. Obviously I hope that NuLab is dead, but I think the corruption runs too deep.

I don't know about that. I think labour activists at a grassroots level are still the most progressive of the three main parties, and some of the most progressive MPs in the house are labour MPs.

For sure, whether that equates to a progressive leaderhsip is another story.

The Labour lot around here are certainly dirty, I'll give them that. Nothing but lies about how we'll flood the country with immigrants and let criminals off with a warning.

Heh, it was the Labs in leeds who put in by far the biggest anti-BNP effort, and who've been trying to get all this cross-community organising stuff going.

But yeah, then you actually get one of Fabian Hamilton's leaflets and it's all "bloody immigrants".

I think they do a lot of good work that goes unregistered but at election times have to toe the political labour line.