Archbishop

[Ferretfancy]

Gove's chum Woodhead has just got a gong!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Gove's chum Woodhead has just got a gong!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Has everyone forgotten this?

[hackneyvi]

Every time I see the title of this thread, I can't help thinking:

Treadmill! The mighty lager with the world's first, great taste of FISH!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvwNUvo4E9M

Subtitulado Español!!!

[hackneyvi]

Subtitulado Español!!!

Non subtitulado, this time, I'm afraid. But, if you have a moment, I can also recommend this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpv5kFMcq8I&feature=artist

[french frank]

Subtitulado Español!!!

Didn't do very well with 'Toodle-pip', did they?

[hackneyvi]

Didn't do very well with 'Toodle-pip', did they?

Il pippo toodleoodlo?

What's wrong with that?

[Lateralthinking1]

Proof that a formal coalition wasn't needed here and the idea of majority governments being stronger is a myth. (See particularly "The Caretaker's Record").

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13725277

[scottycelt]

Proof that a formal coalition wasn't needed here and the idea of majority governments being stronger is a myth. (See particularly "The Caretaker's Record").

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13725277

Fortunately or unfortunately the UK is not Belgium. The British like to be led even if it is by donkeys, and like it even better when they can kick those silly asses out, even if they then find themselves being led by sometimes even more stupid donkeys.

In short, the British must always have a recognised drove of donkeys that they can blame for anything and everything. The Belgian experience might be acceptable there but in the UK it would be a political (and pound sterling) nightmare.

[ahinton]

I actually agree with what the A of C is saying - I don't really see how anyone could disagree with it, whether you like the Coalition or not, the fact remains NOBODY VOTED FOR IT: hence, no mandate.

OK, so no one voted specifically for a coalition but, since one was an almost inevitable outcome of the last UK General Election, what do you think should have been done to ensure that we would not henceforward be governed by one - run it again and again as many times as necessary until a single party achieved a majority sufficient to assume the mantle of government?

But I don't think it is for the A of C to be coming out with this sort of statement - it should, by rights, be Mr. Miliband's repeated theme. Sadly, though, the task of even destructive opposition would seem to be beyond him.

I suspect that you're right about Mr Miliband - and we all now what dangers lie ahead when there's insufficient credible opposition from within the partiy/ies not in gevernment, although there's a strong agrument that there's already more than enough opposition WITHIN the government to make up for Mr Miliband's evident lack of it from outside; that said, the A of C is a voter like any other voter and, if it is deemed that he should keep out of voicing his thoughts in matters of politics, the same should surely be said of any other archbishop, bisop, priest - where would one stop?

And I'm not convined that the Archbishop's role has ever been to comment on society in this way - a part of his role is certainly to offer care and support to the most vulnerable, but not to make interventions in party politics.

But is it always possible to do the latter adequately whilst eschewing all comment on such matters?

Anwyay, isn't Williams far too often identified with left-wing statements/causes? His risible (and politically unwise) suggestion that Sharia law could be imposed in certain areas did neither him nor his Church any good.

Indeed - but then he is entitled to his own political views and surely as entitled as any of the rest of the electorate to air them when he deems it appropriate to do so - and, indeed, to take the consequences of so doing, especially being the public figure that he is.

[ahinton]

Actually , the archbishop didn't advocate the "imposition" of Sharia law, i thought he simply said that some people might want to use it for themselves, which is exactly what the CofE and Jewish folk do

Is it? I have to admit that I'd not noticed any examples of British or EU law being cast aside in favour of Anglican or Jewish law in a UK court...

[ahinton]

Jesus Christ certainly had few qualms about upsetting the Establishment.

Perhaps Nick Clegg could step down in favour of the Archbishop.

Er - care to explain how he could do that without Clegg resigning and his party voting him in as his replacement leader (an unlikely circumstance, surely)?

[ahinton]

What kind of mandate do you think would be provided in a system with frequent coalitions, as might well be the case with proportional representation? Might it not also result in the kind of 'compromises' we have seen in the current coalition?

Good question!

What do you mean? The tuition fees vote was only carried by 323 votes to 302, meaning that pretty much the whole of the Labour opposition plus some Libdems voted against it. Had the Libdems not supported it, then the tuition fees vote would have failed, thereby enabling the Libdems to have fulfilled the pledge that they had signed prior to the election.

And the money for fulfilling it would have come as a consequence of additional cuts to what? The arts budget, one may suppose...

In the absence of Libdem support, the Tories would have had to seek a consensus position with the opposition, possibly in favour of a graduate tax, or abandon their policy entirely.

I would like to know whether you think with the benefit of hindsight that the Libdems were right to abandon that opposition to tuition fees given that the image it created was of a party that would abandon any principles to have the chance of sharing power. Do you think the subsequent haemorrhaging of Libdem support in the local elections (and probable severe losses in the next general election) a price worth paying, or is it just down to the notorious untrustworthiness of the electorate who can't be relied on to understand grown-up politics?

Again, good questions - but aren't we who do "understand grown-up politics" all too familiar with the litany of excuses which are from time to time presented to the electorate in bids to justify changes - sometimes fundamental ones - to what had been particular parts of the election manifestos of the party in government? - you know, all those things that no one could possibly have prediceted at the time, such as Libya, climate change, the international economy, the X Factor results?

[ahinton]

The Belgian experience might be acceptable there but in the UK it would be a political (and pound sterling) nightmare.

I thought that we already had one of those...

[MrGongGong]

What do you mean? The tuition fees vote was only carried by 323 votes to 302, meaning that pretty much the whole of the Labour opposition plus some Libdems voted against it. Had the Libdems not supported it, then the tuition fees vote would have failed, thereby enabling the Libdems to have fulfilled the pledge that they had signed prior to the election.

And the money for fulfilling it would have come as a consequence of additional cuts to what? The arts budget, one may suppose...

this really misses the point about why so many people are justifiably angry about it
the dishonesty is what many find so objectionable