| Austerity my arse on 21:49 - Jun 26 with 1118 views | longlostjack |
| Austerity my arse on 17:44 - Jun 26 by Kilkennyjack |
Mayo found the Magic Money Tree.
Who would have thought ?
What a sad joke. |
They've known where that money tree is all along mun. How else could they promise to renew Trident and protect the NHS without raising taxation? |  |
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| Austerity my arse on 22:43 - Jun 26 with 1076 views | yescomeon |
| Austerity my arse on 21:15 - Jun 26 by londonlisa2001 |
According to friends in Ireland, the majority of people want nothing to do with the financial drain that they perceive the North to be? Particularly after just dragging themselves back to a healthy financial position after an austerity programme that makes the past seven years over here look like Viv Nicholson has been in charge of the public purse. That and they perceive the North to be bigoted and old fashioned on social issues. Happy that they're our problem is the message from them. |
Not exactly the sentiment you are expressing there but I enjoyed this little opinion piece in the Irish Times the other week:
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/fintan-o-toole-dup-s-crush-on-britain-will-en
Fintan O’Toole: DUP’s crush on Britain will end badly
Conservative party thinks of England as it clasps Democratic Unionists to its bosom
Dante and Beatrice. Quasimodo and Esmeralda. Cyrano and Roxane. Don Quixote and Esmeralda. These unrequited loves have great poignancy. But they’ve nothing on the tenderest, most poignant tale of unrequited love in our times, the tragically one-sided crush the DUP has on Britain.
It is one thing to be infatuated with someone who just ignores you. The unfulfilled love retains its bittersweet purity, its dreamy half-life of pure possibility. But the true tragedy occurs when your love is apparently consummated at last and you find that the loved one really despises you. The DUP has long dreamed of being wrapped fully in the warm embrace of the Tory world with which it strives so hard to identify. And now, miraculously, its moment has come. But the loved one is thinking of England, sneaking glances at her watch and praying “Oh god! When will this be over?”
The DUP used to be unionist but not really British. Ian Paisley was many things but no one could ever seriously think of him as a Brit. His touchstones were fundamentalist Presbyterian dissent and the place he called Ulster. Its hinterland was Calvinist Scotland, not Westminster.
The aphrodisiac that got the DUP all hot on Britishness was, of course, Brexit. David Cameron’s referendum gave the DUP a chance to indulge in a fantasy of ultra-Britishness. It had been forced, in its slow and reluctant acceptance of the Belfast Agreement, to come to terms with the complicated reality of its world, which is the island of Ireland in all its ambiguities of belonging. For the DUP, Brexit was a kind of holiday from this messy, compromised reality, a mental sojourn in a sunny Playa del Ingles where all the cafes fly the Union flag and serve fish and chips.
Moment of destiny
The problem, of course, is that the holiday turned out to be a semi-permanent relocation. The DUP was surely as perplexed as Boris Johnson was when the jolly jaunt to imperial nostalgia turned into a moment of destiny. The day trippers to Little Britain found out that there was no return train and that they were stranded on a beach far from reality with the tide of bad news slowly but relentlessly coming in. That’s not Land of Hope and Glory playing on the Tannoy — it’s Hotel California.
The other problem is that Northern Ireland, Paisley’s beloved Ulster, voted emphatically against Brexit. And this, paradoxically, has forced the DUP to double down on its besotted Britishness. It can justify ignoring the democratic wishes of the polity it actually leads only by reviving a notorious line from Margaret Thatcher. She said in 1981 that Northern Ireland is as British as her own constituency of Finchley. The DUP has to claim that Northern Ireland is as British as Lambeth or Edinburgh — it doesn’t matter that they all voted Remain because they are merely parts of the greater British whole.
This is nonsense, of course. Northern Ireland is not as British as Finchley and Brexit dramatises the difference: it is not the absolute right of the residents of Finchley to remain citizens of the European Union after Brexit. But it is, for the DUP, a necessary nonsense. It has to remain frozen in an absurd ultra-British posture that even Thatcher abandoned when she signed the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985.
Contradiction
The infatuation mires the DUP in a hopeless contradiction. Because it wants to be super-British, its manifesto in the Westminster election commits it to a hard Brexit, including exit from the customs union. But because it is actually an Irish political party, it really wants a soft Border. And these two desires are utterly incompatible. You can leave a customs union or you can remain within an arrangement where no customs barriers apply. You can’t do both.
The fortunes of electoral arithmetic have now given the DUP’s pretence a weird moment of apparent validation. It is, at last, a British political party, a key player in the Westminster game. Its hour has come. But does it notice that, even as the Tory party clasps it to its bosom, the lack of enthusiasm would be scarcely less evident if the Tories were wearing rubber gloves and surgical masks? They are not swooning with love, they are fainting with revulsion. The DUP may think it is coming home; most Tories think the mad woman has come out of the attic of an old hyper-Protestant British identity and is sitting in the parlour demanding tea and scones with lots of jam and a bucket of clotted cream. She has to be humoured for now, but only until there is some way to get rid of her.
The tragic truth behind the DUP’s mooning infatuation is that for the British establishment, Northern Ireland is not a place but two places: out of sight and out of mind. And the DUP, to them, is Northern Ireland writ large, a thing from the swamp of bad history. They don’t like it and they dread having to pretend to love it. It is a frog that must be kissed but it is never going to turn into a prince. The Tories will endure the DUP while they must and betray it when they can. |  |
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| Austerity my arse on 23:06 - Jun 26 with 1057 views | oh_tommy_tommy |
Austerity is a made up word ,
Oh the absolute hypocritical irony facing Tory voters today.
- All the terrorist sympathiser attacks made of Corbyn, and now the Tories are supporting a party that had actual formal coalitions with terrorist organisations, and who even had party members who came from them too!
- All the chants about magic money tree's, and now the Tories are reversing their 'money saving' manifesto pledges left and right, and can also somehow afford a whopping £1.5 billion to bribe the DUP.
- All that malarkey about taking us back to the 1970's, and now the Tories are in a coalition with a party that is anti-abortion, anti-gay rights, anti-evolution, anti-environmental issues and so on.
- All the countless 'Strong and stable' soundbites, and ultimately we now have one of the most unstable and weak governments and leaders in recent memory, this coming off of having just unnecessarily lost the party majority!
- And all that scaremongering about a 'coalition of chaos' and now the Tories have one of the most chaotic coalitions humanly possible.
The Torys have mugged everyone off , even their most putrid supporters |  |
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| Austerity my arse on 23:31 - Jun 26 with 1039 views | Kilkennyjack |
| Austerity my arse on 23:06 - Jun 26 by oh_tommy_tommy |
Austerity is a made up word ,
Oh the absolute hypocritical irony facing Tory voters today.
- All the terrorist sympathiser attacks made of Corbyn, and now the Tories are supporting a party that had actual formal coalitions with terrorist organisations, and who even had party members who came from them too!
- All the chants about magic money tree's, and now the Tories are reversing their 'money saving' manifesto pledges left and right, and can also somehow afford a whopping £1.5 billion to bribe the DUP.
- All that malarkey about taking us back to the 1970's, and now the Tories are in a coalition with a party that is anti-abortion, anti-gay rights, anti-evolution, anti-environmental issues and so on.
- All the countless 'Strong and stable' soundbites, and ultimately we now have one of the most unstable and weak governments and leaders in recent memory, this coming off of having just unnecessarily lost the party majority!
- And all that scaremongering about a 'coalition of chaos' and now the Tories have one of the most chaotic coalitions humanly possible.
The Torys have mugged everyone off , even their most putrid supporters |
Top post. |  |
| Beware of the Risen People
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| Austerity my arse on 10:29 - Jun 27 with 968 views | oh_tommy_tommy |
"Bung parliament " | |
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| Austerity my arse on 10:37 - Jun 27 with 963 views | Pegojack |
| Austerity my arse on 21:13 - Jun 26 by exiledclaseboy |
Trident isn't going to be any good against a maniac with a van, a knife and murder in his mind. |
Exactly. Trident is a massive mis-allocation of resources.
The money should be spent on massively ramping up conventional forces, counter intelligence, special forces and the police in order to meet the terrorist threat, which is the real and present danger. And we'd still have change left over for the NHS, schools and social care. |  | | |
| Austerity my arse on 12:13 - Jun 27 with 918 views | felixstowe_jack |
It seems Labour tried to do a deal with the DUP after the 2010 and 2015 elections ust announced in the house of commons. Seems to show up Corbyn's and Labour's phony Hypocrisy.
Speaking in the House of Commons on Monday, Mr Dodds threatened to publish conversations after elections in 2010 and 2015.
To laughter in the House, he said: “We commit to transparency. We are fairly open to that and some day, I beg to think we might publish all of the correspondence and conversations we had in 2010 with the Labour front bench and in 2015 with the Labour front bench and indeed with the SNP as well.
“Because some of the full outrage that we have heard is hypocrisy of the highest order.
Gordon Brown was leader of the Labour party in 2010 and Ed Miliband in 2015, but the comments will still be a blow to Mr Corbyn. While Nicola Sturgeon took the SNP into the general election in 2015.
Mr Dodds added the DUP’s deal with the Conservative party would see the UK prosper. |  |
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| Austerity my arse on 12:24 - Jun 27 with 906 views | Ebo |
| Austerity my arse on 12:13 - Jun 27 by felixstowe_jack |
It seems Labour tried to do a deal with the DUP after the 2010 and 2015 elections ust announced in the house of commons. Seems to show up Corbyn's and Labour's phony Hypocrisy.
Speaking in the House of Commons on Monday, Mr Dodds threatened to publish conversations after elections in 2010 and 2015.
To laughter in the House, he said: “We commit to transparency. We are fairly open to that and some day, I beg to think we might publish all of the correspondence and conversations we had in 2010 with the Labour front bench and in 2015 with the Labour front bench and indeed with the SNP as well.
“Because some of the full outrage that we have heard is hypocrisy of the highest order.
Gordon Brown was leader of the Labour party in 2010 and Ed Miliband in 2015, but the comments will still be a blow to Mr Corbyn. While Nicola Sturgeon took the SNP into the general election in 2015.
Mr Dodds added the DUP’s deal with the Conservative party would see the UK prosper. |
So you are blaming Corbyn for that are you when it is clear it was Gordon Brown's red conservatives?
You are just as thick as them.
A total non story as everyone knows there is no way JC would get into bed with them. |  |
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| Austerity my arse on 12:32 - Jun 27 with 900 views | felixstowe_jack |
No Corbyn would prefer his IRA friends but they don't turn up to parliament to take their seats. | |
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| Austerity my arse on 12:37 - Jun 27 with 894 views | raynor94 |
| Austerity my arse on 12:24 - Jun 27 by Ebo |
So you are blaming Corbyn for that are you when it is clear it was Gordon Brown's red conservatives?
You are just as thick as them.
A total non story as everyone knows there is no way JC would get into bed with them. |
Of course he wouldn't, he prefers the Republicans, sorry but it was a tap in  |  |
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| Austerity my arse on 13:55 - Jun 27 with 843 views | Ebo |
| Austerity my arse on 12:37 - Jun 27 by raynor94 |
Of course he wouldn't, he prefers the Republicans, sorry but it was a tap in |
Clive Thomas just blew the whistle Rayn.
No goal | |
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| Austerity my arse on 15:05 - Jun 27 with 804 views | oh_tommy_tommy |
| Austerity my arse on 12:32 - Jun 27 by felixstowe_jack |
No Corbyn would prefer his IRA friends but they don't turn up to parliament to take their seats. |
You are Bluey and I claim my reward of £1.5 billion. | |
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| Austerity my arse on 20:14 - Jun 27 with 748 views | Loyal |
DUP Sinn Fein no difference, both have blood on their hands. |  |
| Nolan sympathiser, clout expert, personal friend of Leigh Dineen, advocate and enforcer of porridge swallows.
The official inventor of the tit w@nk. | | Poll: | Who should be Swansea number 1 |
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| Austerity my arse on 19:46 - Jun 29 with 658 views | oh_tommy_tommy |
And so it continues .
when will it end | |
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| Austerity my arse on 20:12 - Jun 29 with 639 views | LeonWasGod |
| Austerity my arse on 23:06 - Jun 26 by oh_tommy_tommy |
Austerity is a made up word ,
Oh the absolute hypocritical irony facing Tory voters today.
- All the terrorist sympathiser attacks made of Corbyn, and now the Tories are supporting a party that had actual formal coalitions with terrorist organisations, and who even had party members who came from them too!
- All the chants about magic money tree's, and now the Tories are reversing their 'money saving' manifesto pledges left and right, and can also somehow afford a whopping £1.5 billion to bribe the DUP.
- All that malarkey about taking us back to the 1970's, and now the Tories are in a coalition with a party that is anti-abortion, anti-gay rights, anti-evolution, anti-environmental issues and so on.
- All the countless 'Strong and stable' soundbites, and ultimately we now have one of the most unstable and weak governments and leaders in recent memory, this coming off of having just unnecessarily lost the party majority!
- And all that scaremongering about a 'coalition of chaos' and now the Tories have one of the most chaotic coalitions humanly possible.
The Torys have mugged everyone off , even their most putrid supporters |
Sort of. Although the reality is that you need to speak to people, even those who in the past who were violent, if you want to progress. Otherwise we all stay as we are killing each other. Political types need to let this go and move on. Both Labour and Tories have supported terrorists; conservatives going further imo but that's history. We/they should bury the hatchet, and move on for the benefit of the country. In this case the benefit is an extra £1bn for infrastructure in NI (who can genuinely begrudge the NI people that?), NI women can now obtain abortions on the NHS in England, and the future of pensioners' incomes across all UK looks better of than it did 2 weeks ago. And as a result of all this it's likely that purse strings will be loosened for other regions.
A lot of good has come out of this arrangement so far, if people could only stop calling each other names for 10 minutes so they could see it. |  | | |
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