And a big thank you to Nick Clegg and the LibDems without whom none of this would have been possible

[non sociopath skin]

Thanks for making Thatcher's dream come true at last, lads - and the Tories didn't even have to win an election to get there.

You must be very proud.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jul/16/austerity-drive-billions-private-sector

The Skin

[oldironside]

1. Bloody depressing.

They're going to turn the UK into a Thatcherite theme park.

[LeftishBrit]

2. I had hoped that the government's minority status would make it LESS radical

Instead they seem to want to get as much radical stuff done while they can, as it may not be long. Unfortunately, even if it's not long it's still too long.

Clegg is either totally out of his depth, or is a modern LibDem version of Ramsay Macdonald, prepared to sell his country and his party (which will be destroyed at the polls if he carries on like this) down the river for the sake of temporary trappings of power. Or quite possibly both. It's interesting that the LibDems who got Cabinet posts were those involved in the negotiationg team with the Tories - no other LibDems (including the two former leaders of the party who still sit as MPs) got anything at a high level.

Can we hope that Labour, once they've finally sorted out their endless leadership election, will be sufficiently united to be an effective Opposition - and hopefully before long an effective government? Once again the Tories are proving that NOTHING, even Blair, is worse than they are.

[oldironside]

3. The worst of all Labour governments...

is still better than the best of all Conservative governments, although Blair's joyous warmongering kind of undermines that arguement.

Still, I think we can agree that the past is over and it's now down to the Labour party to pull itself together and start opposing the indefensible.

I just wonder what the LibDem rank and file make of all this. As far as I can remember this wasn't in their manifesto, was it?

[non sociopath skin]

4. Not in their published one ...

... but I don't think it's a million miles away from what the Orange Book crowd was after.

Blair was centre-right - we got that bit right - but we forgot in our anger that today's Tories, like today's Republicans, are a lot further right.

The Skin