United Kingdom
Related: About this forumIain Duncan-Smith has resigned after public outcry against proposed disability benefit cuts.
No source yet...just saw it on the BBC news(which is rebroadcast in the States).
TheDormouse
(1,168 posts)Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)After that, why would Cameron ever give him a place in the Cabinet?
Denzil_DC
(7,227 posts)Denzil_DC
(7,227 posts)Stunned at IDS resignation letter. I was about to vote against ESA cuts when he sought me out - he personally and angrily begged me not to.
Promised me he was introducing a white paper which guaranteed enhanced and more easily accessible benefits for the seriously disabled
]
Said the paper would include automatic enhanced benefit qualification for a long list of disabilities including AIDS MS RA MND etc
Told me he was angry I was rebelling because it was his bill and reflected on him and now he resigns bcse disability cuts a step too far.
I am angry that he made me vote for something I did not want to vote for, bribing me with a promise and now HE resigns
Closely followed by:
And to all the lefties polluting my timeline, just check out how often your favourite Labour MP ever voted against the Labour whip
At which point she was buried by a multitude of Tweets pointing out JEREMY CORBYN!!!1!
LeftishBrit
(41,205 posts)She may even be worse as a person, though less powerful. She is a vile religious-right nutcase, and is also inclined (as here) to turn everything into some sort of personal feud. At least if she's feuding with Duncan-Smith she has less time to smear other people's pro-choice MPs as 'Dr. Death' or the Archbishop of Canterbury for not being sufficiently religious-right, or worse still, to constantly demonize disabled constituents who have criticized her and accuse them of benefit fraud because they can't be disabled if they can use Twitter so much!
Denzil_DC
(7,227 posts)IDS's resignation:
Cameron's retaliation reply:
LeftishBrit
(41,205 posts)toward poor people.
No doubt there are other things involved - IDS is also in conflict with Cameron over whether we should stay in the EU. But it's still a shock. If Osborne has become too viciously right-wing on disability issues for Duncan-Smith, well - he's become too right-wing on these issues for practically anyone!
I was glad to see a number of Tory MPs rebelling on the issue: it shows that the UK hasn't yet TOTALLY degenerated into moral slime. My Tory twit of an MP, who normally never rebels over anything, actually joined the rebels over this, making this the first time since 2010 that I haven't felt thoroughly ashamed of my MP.
Bad Dog
(2,025 posts)Adam Hills cracked open a bottle of champagne, and yes IDS is a terrible person who was the architect of these cuts. Yet even he is not so awful that he would sanction them along with tax giveaways for the very rich, which is what Osborne did.
It says something when a rightwinger like IDS thinks Cameron and Osborne's policies are just too harsh.
Denzil_DC
(7,227 posts)Last edited Sat Mar 19, 2016, 01:34 PM - Edit history (1)
Wikipedia crashed under the weight of journos trying to figure out who the hell he is. The BBC eventually got through:
Appointed amid the furore of Iain Duncan Smith's explosive resignation, Stephen Crabb has already been tipped to make the headlines in his own right.
The 43-year-old former Welsh secretary, raised by his mother on a council estate in Haverfordwest, has a back story that contrasts sharply with that of many of his cabinet colleagues.
He has spoken in interviews of the "horrible decisions about what food and clothing was affordable" as he was growing up.
Many see his personal story as well suited to his new role at the Department for Work and Pensions, where he will take on the reforms championed by Mr Duncan Smith and fiercely opposed by some charities and opposition MPs.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-35851269
Denzil_DC
(7,227 posts)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Crabb
muriel_volestrangler
(101,295 posts)Amazing how much people find to say in a news cycle.
forest444
(5,902 posts)We all remember what happened to Maggot shortly thereafter.
T_i_B
(14,737 posts)Is like 1997 Tories v 1983 Labour.
The worst of either side.
forest444
(5,902 posts)I suppose one could say that ours is like the 2000 Democrats vs. the 1948 Dixiecrats - fence-sitting moderates vs. unabashed fascists.
And we all know who, historically, usually wins such contests.
LeftishBrit
(41,205 posts)The worst in the past in terms of dangerous policies might perhaps be Tories 1983 vs Labour 2005.
Anyway, both parties are at the moment hopelessly divided and uncontrollable, or at least uncontrolled, by their leaders. Until recently, I used to say that the First Law of British Politics was that any party would sooner or later be dragged hopelessly to the right by its leader (Thatcher/Blair/Clegg). Nowadays, both parties are led by people on the left of their party (slightly so in the case of Cameron, very much so in the case of Corbyn), except that 'led' is a bit of a misnomer in both cases, and the parties are imploding through infighting over policies, and even more through the personal ambitions of the individuals hoping to be the next leader.
Part of it is that IMO neither Party Leader really likes being a political leader. Cameron likes strutting around and looking important but the actual WORK of a leader is something else, and indeed he's already indicated that he will be quitting. His constant tendency to leave the actual work to other people is now exploding in his face as they have turned to fighting each other. Corbyn almost certainly never expected to be leader, but simply to show that the Left still exists and to promote some key Left policies. His lack of interest in power makes him more likeable as a person - but not effective as a leader of a party which tends to be divided and fractious at its best.
Actually there is nothing intrinsically wrong with within-party division; it is better than everyone being robots or cloned sheep. If 'wets' in the Thatcher era, or anti-war Labourites in the Blair era, had been able to have more influence, it would have been a very good thing! The problem is that our system is not really set up to manage such divisions. In some Europaean countries, virtually all governments consist of multi-party coalitions, and with some exceptions, they find ways of handling and negotiating the divisions. In the USA pre-Reagan, and to some extent beyond, it was automatically accepted that there would be liberals and right-wingers in both parties, though the proportions differed between the parties. This is still to some extent true of the Democrats (though contrary to some DU myths, there were FAR more truly right-wing Democrats 40 years ago than now). In our system, there is very little room for MPs voting independently on most issues, and thus there seems to be nothing much in between a strong leader 'sitting' on the party and pushing their own agenda and stifling dissent, and a weak leader watching helplessly as the party imitates the Cats of Kilkenny ('...so they fought and they fit and they scratched and they bit , till instead of two cats there weren't any!')