Today our dear leader, David Cameron has preached made a speech at a summit in Sweden about equality. Included in his utter bullshit words of wisdom he said “case is overwhelming that companies and countries run better if you have men and women working together at the top. So the real nub of the issue is how do we accelerate, how do we fast forward to having at least 30% of boards made up by women. The evidence is that there is a positive link between women in leadership and business performance, so if we fail to unlock the potential of women in the labour market, we’re not only failing those individuals, we’re failing our whole economy.”
“That’s where you get down to quotas, which I don’t think you should ever rule out. If you can’t get there in other ways, then maybe you have to have quotas.”
Time to practice what you preach Mr C?
http://www.number10.gov.uk/the-coalition/the-cabinet/ Currently in the 29 strong Coalition Cabinet we have just 5 female’s. Now, I’m not great at maths but even I can work out that a ratio of 29/5 is a tad short of the desired 30%…
Downing Street later said the government had no plans to introduce quotas and wanted the impetus to come from business….
In other news, David Cameron has shown his full support for his latest scapegoat Health Secretary Andrew Lansley. Here is David showing the rest of us “his full support” ; )
Following today’s bullying over-rule of The Lords’ amendments to the much feared Welfare Reform Bill, it seems that David Cameron has indeed got his new cap…
First up Nick Clegg who has copped on that he has effectively pissed off isolated a great deal of his GE2010 voters so in response to this obvious-to-everyone-else bolt from the blue has responded by re-naming “The Great Ignored” – “Alarm-Clock Britain” . He is now the Alarm-Clock Britain’s champion! Quite how he will convince them he is on-side is beyond me, his “no income tax for low earners” has been completely wiped out by the rise in VAT, Twit-Watch UK shall watch his struggle with interest.
Ken Tong announces “it was all a dweam” a ‘la Bobby Ewing.. well kind of.. He gave an interview to reporter Johann Hari who pointed out to him the dangers of pushing “managed anorexia” onto thousands of teenage girls and that he might be hoisted up by his balls and hung sued for damages. Tong then pleaded with Hari not to publish the interview and declared it was all just a social media joke to see if people would react.. well Ken, we did react, mostly by swearing!
Two miracles seem worthy of report.. firstly Pope John Paul ii has reportedly cured a nun of Parkinson’s disease, from beyond the grave.. He is now being made a Saint, Humph wonder’s if perhaps the nun’s immune system kicked in and did it’s job, I’m sure medical scientists would love to examine her and perhaps help other sufferers but let’s all go with the miracle theory shall we.. #papalfail
The second miracle is that Susan Hampshire is not actually dead as I previously wrote (thanks @fulhammatty for pointing it out), but sadly Susannah York IS dead.. so RIP and thanks for all the films : )
PMQs was a disappointment with David Cameron resorting to insults rather than making any attempt to answer the questions put to him. He ended by calling Ed Miliband “The Nothing Man”.. which put me in mind of this wonderful clip from the movie Shrek.
If Miliband is “The Nothing Man”, surely Cameron with his welfare reforms which include taking DLA from care-home residents is the bullying and disablist Lord Farquaad..
My name is Humphrey Cushion, I am a Lib-Dem… there, I’ve said it. Much to the disappointment and derision of my family, I have always been a Lib Dem – right from my first nervous entrance into my local church hall to vote in the council elections at 18ish.. Paddy Ashdown inspired trust in me, that along with a slight crush ; ) and when he handed over to Charles Kennedy I still supported them, although I was naturally disappointed Paddy was no longer the figurehead. “Old Labour” came across as too rough, too angry for me while the Lib Dems were kind but fair, green and more palatable by far than the Conservatives. We suited each other.
When Tony Blair became Labour leader I had a change of heart, I despised the Conservatives and so for the first time, put my cross in the Labour box. I have never regretted making that choice, indeed I am proud of Labour’s achievements and sing from the rooftops about them as you may know! This is mostly due to the changes Labour have made to mine and my families lives. I remember struggling for years, alongside my husband to make ends meet until the introduction of Tax Credits.
Some time after, we moved to Spain for a few years and upon my return I saw a real difference to the services in our country which, being so close you may not have noticed. There was an awful lot of red-tape, political correctness and intrusion though..
We came back from Spain smack in the middle of the so-called “Credit Crunch”.. how I hate that expression, my work colleagues talked about it constantly.. they couldn’t understand that it literally meant STOP BORROWING MONEY! If you want something, save up for it.. whatever happened to that? I sadly remember Woolworths going belly-up that year, it was awful, almost as though Christmas itself took a last, choking breath in sympathy.
Naturally, with the GE2010 was coming up I had to take a long, hard look at where the country was and who to support. Although I admired Nick Clegg a lot, (his performances in the Leaders Debates were outstanding) I did not think for one minute that the Lib Dems would garner enough votes to keep out the Conservatives. I threw myself headlong into supporting and became a card-carrying member of Labour. I even got to meet Gordon & Sarah when they visited Bedford (and nicked a couple of BIG signs to hang in my windows, shhh)
Sadly, Labour couldn’t pull in enough votes and the Coalition was born. Although very unhappy that Clegg & Co made what I think was the wrong choice, I trusted my natural party to lessen the impact of the Conservatives on Britain. How wrong I was. It seems that somebody fed the Lib Dem MPs after midnight and the sweet Mugwai became “The New Batch”…. instead of watering down Tory policies they have thrown themselves headlong into the havoc being wreaked on this country. I have images of Cameron and Osborne giggling maniacally whilst dropping water (wine) on them and feeding them Fois Gras after midnight. What will it take for them to wake up and smell the coffee? They deliberately and calculatedly courted the younger votes during their election campaign, focusing on social networking sites. Together they signed a pledge promising to vote AGAINST tuition fees.. the young believed them and gave their extra 1 million votes. Now the Lib Dem MPs are seemingly shocked that the students are rebelling and holding them to account and are desperately trying to wriggle out of their solumn, heart-felt and PERSONAL pledges.
I still love the real Liberal Democrats and what they stand for, the ones who voted to scrap tuition fees in their 2009 conference.. however I fear for their future. Unless “Stripe and Brains” do the decent thing and not only allow their MPs to vote against the tuition fees on Thursday but stand alongside them, I think the Lib Dems are history. The Coalition will continue to hit the vulnerable of Britain, the beggars will return to our tubes, jobcentre queues will become once more commonplace, the homeless will reinhabitate our doorways.
Come on Wild Things.. show you have some balls and vote AGAINST the tuition fees on Thursday!! #IAmGismo
(If you have a Lib Dem MP, please lobby your heart out this week! You can email them via this link: They Work For You )
There is a serious message as usual with my posts. This week Yvette Cooper revealed the findings of a report into the projeced affect the Coalition budget will have on women.
Yvette says:
“Cutting back measures like childcare and working tax credit, when women still earn much less than men, will mean women have more limited career prospects.
“Women live on lower incomes yet they have chosen to take the majority from women,” she said.
“You have to go back in history to find anything comparative. Not since the end of the first world war have we seen such a complete reversal of women’s opportunities and economic independence. We haven’t seen an attempt to turn the clock back like this for very many generations.”
The most sexist government for generations.. Benny Hill would be so proud..
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