Anti-strike laws not ruled out ahead of union summit (UK)

[Big Orange]

Take the Daily Fail with a pinch of salt, but it's interesting how a Tory rag for purple faced Tory voters seems to be turning on the Torytards. And the somewhat more respectable The Guardian and The Telegraph have also done articles about Lang's ill guarded opinion about the normal citizens he doesn't seem to be looking out for. And in light of the Expenses Scandal, are Lang's opinion so shocking?

If he thinks bus drivers, waitresses, and such are unimportant, what will happen to London when they vanish?

[Zaune]

Hardly. The Mail are currently cheerleading for the British National Party (though in a "they're awful neo-Nazis... but" kind of way that's fooling nobody except their readers), so not surprising they don't think much of the Tories.

And don't get me started on the expenses "scandal". Members of Parliament exploiting loopholes and grey areas in the law to top up their frankly mediocre basic rate of pay? Shocking! Yes, some of them crossed the line from bending the rules into outright fraud, but by and large they were doing the same thing as most of the white-collar workers in the country.

[Big Orange]

I did say take the Daily Mail with a pinch of salt; Googling Lord Lang's supposed gaffe doesn't seem to turn up much from other sources, however while the Expenses Scandal may have been blown out of proportion (when compared to Italy and Romania or maybe Greece and Ireland) it was enough to change the popular perception of the UK's political corruption in a negative way according to Transparency International.

[Zaune]

Sorry. Something of a pet peeve of mine, I'm afraid. The two main parties have been collectively doing their level best to roll civil liberties and social security back to the 1820s since as long as I've been old enough to care about politics and the best most of us could summon up is a long-suffering tut, but we scream blue bloody murder about a few MPs gundecking their sodding expenses claims. What does that say about us as a society?

[Thanas]

No I won't support it until the EU (a) stops becoming a massive black-hole of pointless beurecracy and public-sector waste that puts the UK civil service to shame and (b) stops being primarily a French 'force all of Europe to be our bitches and pay for our subsidies' program.

What now? Please provide evidence for this.

BTW, the french make a net payment into the EU, so they actually pay more in subsidies than they receive.

[Big Orange]

The Tories have backtracked on selling off trees under the Forestry Commision, after stirring up an almighty shit-storm amongst legions of well spoken people. It's heartening, but at the same time I don't think the Torytards would have any qualms of pulling the plug on something like inner-city drug rehab programs:

David Cameron bows to pressure over English forest sale
Government set for another major U-turn over plans to dispose of Forestry Commission land

David Cameron is to back away from plans to change the ownership of 258,000 hectares of state-owned woodland in England after admitting to MPs he is unhappy with the policy.

The prime minister indicated that the government would embark on another major U-turn after Ed Miliband asked him in the Commons whether he was happy with his flagship policy to sell off the forests.

To laughter, the prime minister replied: "The short answer to that is, no."

The government will clarify its plans in the next few days, but Cameron will argue the coalition is not being forced into a policy about-turn because the forest plans are no more than a consultation.

"It is a consultation that was put forward," Cameron said. "We've had a range of interesting responses to this consultation. What is important is that we should be making sure that, whatever happens, we increase access to our forests, we increase biodiversity and we don't make the mistake that was made under the last government where they sold forests with no access rights at all."

The government has been under intense pressure since the environment secretary, Caroline Spelman, unveiled plans last year to dispose of about half of the 748,000 hectares of woodland run by the Forestry Commission by 2020. Spelman has faced intense criticism from Conservative MPs who have been confronted by angry protests from constituents who believe the government is showing a lack of sensitivity to a key fabric of the nation.

The government, which hoped the sale would generate as much as £100m, had earmarked the Forestry Commission for substantial reform in its review of quangos.

The government indicated over the weekend that it was shying away from the sale when it took 40,000 hectares of public forest off the market. The last Labour government had allowed about 15% of England's public forests to be sold.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said it would refrain from selling the forests until the government had decided what to do with the rest of the Forestry Commission's land.

Miliband mocked Cameron during prime minister's questions over the plans. The Labour leader said: "Even he must appreciate the irony. The guy who made the tree the symbol of the Conservative party flogging them off round this country. He says they are consulting on this policy. They are actually consulting on how to flog off the forests, not whether to sell off the forests. Is the prime minister now saying that he might drop the policy completely?"

Cameron replied: "I would have thought the whole point about a consultation is that you put forward some proposals, you listen to the answer and then you make a decision. I know it is a totally alien concept but what is so complicated about that?"

Miliband said: "Everybody knows you have to drop this ludicrous policy. Let me give him the chance to do it. Nobody voted for this policy; 500,000 people have signed a petition against the policy. Why doesn't he, when he gets up at the dispatch box, say not say he is postponing the sale but say he is cancelling it?"

Cameron replied: "Once again, he read the question before he listened to the answer. I think the bandwagon has just hit a bit of a tree."

The government embarked on U-turns last year over school playing fields and the provision of books to schools.

The Guardian