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Jon the Hat

2015 Election season ..........stuff it in here.

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That pretty much sums up twitter in a sentence.

I'll try and get the video from the last night. It really was great viewing, she really was expecting the left wing audience to absolutely lap it up and the shock on her face when she got shouted at and booed was superb.

Andrew Neil gave it to that racist cow Diane Abbott last night as well asking the question that if this was so disgraceful that he should resign,why did the Labour party hang on to it for two weeks rather than outing it straight away.

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Question Time was a good watch tonight for this.

The Labour girl got destroyed for trying to make political capital out of this and 90% of even a BBC audience seemed to realise what he actually trying to say and his intention was to help and not humiliate the disabled.

 

I'll try and get the video from the last night. It really was great viewing, she really was expecting the left wing audience to absolutely lap it up and the shock on her face when she got shouted at and booed was superb.

Andrew Neil gave it to that racist cow Diane Abbott last night as well asking the question that if this was so disgraceful that he should resign,why did the Labour party hang on to it for two weeks rather than outing it straight away.

 

Didn't see Question Time, but heard about it. It was Angela Eagle, so I wasn't surprised. She's notoriously dreary and humourless, and just parrots the party line. Why do 90% of politicians from the main parties have no understanding of how badly they come across to the public when they do that? Utterly cynical politics by Labour....as was Cameron in yet again bringing up his deceased disabled son. Seriously diminishing returns on that one, Dave!

 

Saw This Week. Diane Abbott effectively admitted that waiting 2 weeks to reveal the "scandal" was just cynical politics and pointed out that the other parties would have done the same. That might well be true, but Labour has probably been the most cynical of the lot since Alastair Campbell and his focus on media management...but most of the public are wise to that now so it often just generates justified cynicism now. It matters to the health of democracy that all the main parties stop these cheap attempts at manipulation.

 

Have you seen that Alan Johnson is supposedly going to be given a prominent role in Labour's general election campaign? Good move, as he's one of the few prominent politicians who come across as normal people. I still reckon that he should have gone for the Labour leadership - and that if he had, Labour might be looking at the prospect of winning a majority. If he felt that he might not have been up to some of the policy formation stuff, he could have employed good advisers and devolved more power to other ministers, been more of a coordinator & front man than a supreme leader. Attlee was more like that, as I understand it. Maybe Johnson just wanted to keep an eye on his wife, though, after she was caught shagging the security guard!  lol My Mum has read Johnson's autobiography and said that it was very good - what a story, from poverty-stricken orphan via postman and union leader to home secretary...a lot more impressive than Miliband, Cameron or any of the other greasy pole climbers.

 

Did you see Johnny Rotten on This Week? The bloke was an important figure in my youth and can still have some smart things to say, but he does become a self-parody at times - and last night was a prime example of that, dribbling on about himself, repeating himself, acting like an embarrassing teenager... I did wonder whether they'd let him loose in the Green Room for a couple of hours in the hope of another Bill Grundy moment!

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Eagle wasn't great at all, surely someone who has found herself in this position on the basis of equality and/or an all women shortlist, I can't believe she is the best they can put up even in the era of this day and age's politicians.

 

I don't get Diane Abbott at all, surely the Labour party can sew up the London black vote with Lammy and Umanna without having to inflict this hideous thing on us anymore, I don't think she actually understands what is going on half the time, she answers questions she isn't supposed to (like last night admitting that waiting 2 weeks to reveal the "scandal" was just cynical politics) and then answers other questions in a completely diffferent way, I don't think she even watches the news or reads anything about it.

 

I was very disappointed with John Gaunt as well, did a horrible case of a trying to argue why working people are pissed off with the EU, he should have been asking Diane Abbott and Michael Portillo how much difficulty they have had trying to get their child into a school (which would have been great to hear Diane Abbott's response since as soon as she got a few quid her kids came straight out of Hackney and into a posh 'white' private school) or how crowded their local doctors surgery was. Allowed Abbott to try and take the immigartion debate back twenty years as well when it was about race rather than numbers.

 

Alan Johnson would be a magnificent addition, a brilliant man who goes down superbly with the public, in an age of the career politician someone who worked his way up from being a postman to his position would really resonate with the people. I've got his book (it's called the political postman or something) but never had time to read it. It was given to me a christmas present by a Labour supporting friend lol

 

I never lived through punk so I just can't get Johnny Rotten at all, to a lot of people my age now he's like the weird uncle who can't let go of his youth and is just so bonkers from all the drink and drugs he's done over the years. I listened to him for a bit but turned off and went to bed after a while.

 

I've always been gutted that I missed the 60's as it'sprobably my favourite era for music but I can't say I'm too upset at missing the punk era from what I've heard and seen of it! Knowing me I'd probably have been dragged into the Cockney Rejects and Skrewdriver scene :ph34r:

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??

 

Wasn't Oi music some sort of sequel from punk? I remember Garry Bushell used to talk about it a lot when he was on the scene.

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Wasn't Oi music some sort of sequel from punk? I remember Garry Bushell used to talk about it a lot when he was on the scene.

 

Yes, one of the less worthwhile punk offshoots, in my view. I don't generally like Alexis Petridis, but this is a good article, giving the flavour of it: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/mar/18/oi-cockney-rejects-garry-bushell-interview

 

Oi! was not my cup of tea on any level, as you'd imagine (though Peter & the Test-tube Babies were a laugh, and Sham 69 had some good anthems). Most people have "their era" and the punk / post-punk era was mine, but not Oi! Hopefully, you don't just get stuck in a time warp, though. Mr. Rotten is quite a bright bloke and can still have some intelligent things to stay, but last night was self-parody and self-promotion at it's worst. He needs to move on and do some more PiL stuff, and stop acting the arse!

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Video is up. (Move to 2.40 to hear the Labour MP start if you can't be arsed to do the whole 9 minutes)

 

 

Angela Eagle assumed she would automatically carry the Question Time audience with her as they discussed Lord Freud last night. Instead the room turned on Labour, jeering and heckling, coming down on the side of the stitched up welfare minister:

One audience member called Labour’s position “extremely disingenuous”, another was applauded by the whole room for calling out their “hypocritical point-scoring”, describing them as “disgusting”. Another said “the smirk on her face” showed Eagle knew she was telling fibs. If Labour can’t convince even the audience of Question Time, it suggests their attack on Freud may not have cut through as well as they’d hoped…

 

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Yes, one of the less worthwhile punk offshoots, in my view. I don't generally like Alexis Petridis, but this is a good article, giving the flavour of it: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/mar/18/oi-cockney-rejects-garry-bushell-interview

 

Oi! was not my cup of tea on any level, as you'd imagine (though Peter & the Test-tube Babies were a laugh, and Sham 69 had some good anthems). Most people have "their era" and the punk / post-punk era was mine, but not Oi! Hopefully, you don't just get stuck in a time warp, though. Mr. Rotten is quite a bright bloke and can still have some intelligent things to stay, but last night was self-parody and self-promotion at it's worst. He needs to move on and do some more PiL stuff, and stop acting the arse!

 

A bit of a diversion from the topic, but here are 1 or 2 of the better acts that got partly dragged into the Oi! categorisation (a lot of pointless categorisation went on back then) ...though Sham 69 were more populist hippy-punks in outlook, and the Test-tube Babies were just pissheads having a laugh. Skrewdriver were closely associated with the NF, Cockney Rejects more like football hooligans seized on by Bushell for his "Oi!" mission

 

Peter & Test-tube Babies: try from 4:15 and 11:00 for "Elvis is dead" (for which they got their heads kicked in by some Teddy-boy Revivalists!  lol ) and "Run like hell":

 

Sham 69:

 

Angelic Upstarts, with possibly the most politically misguided record of all time, basically calling for us to arm Bin Laden and his mates in Afghanistan (to fight the Soviets, admittedly)  :unsure:

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Video is up. (Move to 2.40 to hear the Labour MP start if you can't be arsed to do the whole 9 minutes)

 

Useless.

 

"According to the motion, we are facing an “extreme bubble in the housing market” and the “risk of recession”, and we must “act to prevent mass home repossessions” … Fortunately for all of us, however, that colourful and lurid fiction has no real bearing on the macro-economic reality … the economy is strong and stable … The housing situation will be unwound in a relatively calm and orderly way … It does not do the Liberal Democrats any good … tabling a hysterical motion, upsetting people and scaremongering."

 

That's what she said in April 2008 as well

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  • 4 weeks later...

Manifesto watch: Where parties stand on key issues

The main UK-wide political parties are putting together their manifestos for next May's general election. Here's a guide to where they currently stand on the issues voters say they care about most (according to pollsters IPSOS Mori).

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Immigration

Conservatives: David Cameron has promised to put reform of EU free movement rules at the heart of his renegotiation of Britain's relationship with the EU. This could involve caps on the number of new arrivals from certain countries but no details have been announced. The party has a continuing goal to bring net immigration down to below 100,000 people a year (it currently stands at 243,000).

Labour: "Stronger" border controls to tackle illegal immigration with "proper" entry and exit checks. "Smarter" targets to reduce low-skilled migration but ensure university students and high-skilled workers are not deterred. Employment agencies who only recruit abroad will be outlawed while the fines for employing illegal immigrants will be increased.

Lib Dems: Reintroduce exit checks at borders, so the government can identify people who are overstaying their visa. Will require all new claimants for Jobseekers Allowance to have their English language skills assessed, with JSA then being conditional on attending language courses for those whose English is poor.

UKIP: Introduce an Australian-style points policy, used to select migrants with the skills and attributes needed to work in the country - covering people from inside and outside the EU. Bring net immigration down to 50,000 people a year. Priority lanes for UK passport holders. Increase UK border staff by 2,500. Tougher English language tests for migrants seeking permanent residence. Opt out of the Dublin treaty to allow the UK to return asylum seekers to other EU countries without considering their claim.

Greens: Progressively reduce UK immigration controls. Migrants illegally in the UK for over five years will be allowed to remain unless they pose a serious danger to public safety. More legal rights for asylum seekers.

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Taxes and the economy

Conservatives: Eradicate the deficit by 2018. An income tax cut for 30 million people by 2020. Tax would start to kick in at £12,500 a year, instead of £10,500. This will cost £5,6bn. The higher tax rate, 40%, would start at £50,000 instead of £41,900, again by 2020, at a cost of £1,6bn. This will be paid for through £25bn in additional spending cuts and economic growth.

Labour: Get the current budget into surplus and the national debt falling "as soon as possible in the next parliament". No additional borrowing for new spending. Reintroduce the 50p top rate of income tax for earnings over £150,000. Cut income tax for 24 million people by bringing back the 10p rate. Bring in a "mansion tax" on properties worth over £2m, to raise £1.2bn. Abolish the Married Couples' Tax Allowance. A tax on bankers' bonuses. A 5% pay cut for every government minister.

Lib Dems: Raise the personal allowance - the point at which you start paying income tax - to £11,000 in April 2016 and then to £12,500 by 2020. "Strict new fiscal rules" to ensure the deficit has gone by April 2018, with the wealthy contributing the most. The Lib Dems invented the "mansion tax" but in contrast to Labour have set out how it would operate - along similar lines to council tax bands. There are also Lib Dem plans to increase capital gains tax - paid on profits from second homes or shares - from 28% to 35%.

UKIP: Increase the personal allowance to the level of full-time minimum wage earnings, about £13,500, by 2020. Abolish inheritance tax. Introduce a 35% income tax rate between £42,285 and £55,000, at which point the 40% rate becomes payable. Set up a Treasury Commission to design a turnover tax on large businesses. Cut foreign aid budget by £9bn a year. Scrap HS2. Save £8bn a year in membership fees by leaving the EU.

Greens: People earning more than £100,000 a year would pay 50% income tax. Wealth tax of 1% to 2% on people worth £3m or more. Renationalise the railways and energy companies. Scrap HS2. Allow councils to impose extra business rates on out-of-town supermarkets to fund small local businesses. Crackdown on tax avoidance by multinationals. Allow "the current dependence on economic growth to cease, and allow zero or negative growth to be feasible without individual hardship". Commit Britain to a "zero carbon" future.

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The NHS

Conservatives: No real terms cuts in the health budget. In England, everyone would be able to see a GP seven days a week by 2020. Recruit 5,000 more doctors.

Labour: An extra £2.5bn a year to recruit more staff. The money will come from three sources - a new "mansion" tax, clamping down on tax avoidance by big corporations and a new tax on tobacco companies. Patients in England would get a GP appointment within 48 hours and would not have to wait longer than a week for cancer tests and results. Scrap the Health and Social Care Act and end "creeping privatisation" of the NHS. Integrate health and social care services into a system of "whole-person care". Give greater priority to mental health services.

Lib Dems: An extra £1bn for the NHS every year, to be funded by - amongst other things - making higher earners pay more tax on their shares. Half of this will go towards mental health. People who need therapy for conditions such as depression will be guaranteed treatment within 18 weeks. For young patients experiencing psychosis for the first time treatment will be provided within two weeks of being referred by a GP. This is all going to happen from April, with more mental health targets to follow if the Lib Dems return to government. Wants a cross-party review of the future of NHS funding.

UKIP: Ensure all migrants and visitors have NHS approved medical insurance as a condition of entry to UK, with £200m of the £2bn saved to be spent on ending hospital parking charges in England. Tougher regulation of NHS managers. Bring back state-enrolled nurses and return powers to matrons. Monitor and Care Quality Commission to be replaced with county health boards. Stop spending £90m a year on gastric band and breast enhancement operations.

Greens: Funding to be diverted away from centralised facilities towards community healthcare, illness prevention and health promotion. Stop privatisation. Abolish prescription charges. Dedicated NHS Tax to go direct to the health service. Ban proactive recruitment of non-British NHS staff from overseas. A complete ban on the promotion of tobacco and alcohol products, including sponsorship.

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Security, defence and foreign affairs

Conservatives: Hold a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU by 2017, after negotiating the return of some powers from Brussels. Protect foreign aid budget. Replace Trident.

Labour: Push for reform of European Union and prevent Britain from "sleepwalking" towards exit. Commit in law to holding a Strategic Defence and Security Review every 5 years.

Lib Dems: Campaign to reduce the number of Trident nuclear submarines. Push for greater European Union efficiency.

UKIP: Leave the European Union. Remove the passports of any person who has gone to fight for a terrorist organisation and deport anyone who has committed a terrorist act. Cut foreign aid budget by £9bn. Create a Veterans Department to look after the interests of ex-service men and women.

Greens: Referendum on Britain's EU membership. Want reform of EU to hand powers back to local communities. Boost overseas aid to 1% of GDP within 10 years. Scrap Britain's nuclear weapons. Take the UK out of NATO unilaterally. End the so-called "special relationship" between the UK and the US. Stop EU-US free trade deal TTIP.

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Jobs

Conservatives: Create three million apprenticeships to be paid for by benefit cuts.

Labour: Guarantee a job for under 25s unemployed for over a year and adults unemployed for more than two years. As many young people to go on an apprenticeship as currently go to university by 2025.

Lib Dems: An extra £1 an hour for the lowest paid apprentices. Campaign to create a million more jobs.

UKIP: Allow firms to offer jobs to British workers first "without the fear of being sued for discrimination".

Greens: A national energy conservation scheme to create thousands of new jobs. The party wants to create "sustainable jobs" and promotes more local production of food and goods.

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Education

Conservatives: Continue with free school and academy programme.

Labour: All teachers would have to be qualified. Parents of primary school children would be guaranteed childcare from 8am to 6pm. The amount of free childcare for three and four year olds would be increased from 15 to 25 hours a week. Compulsory sex and relationship education in all schools.

Lib Dems: Protect the education budget from cuts. Guarantee qualified teachers and a core curriculum set by independent experts, as well as compulsory sex education, in all state schools including academies and free schools. More money for disadvantaged school children and free childcare for all two year olds. A two-thirds discount on all local bus fares for young people aged 16-21.

UKIP: More grammar schools. Scrap sex education for children aged under seven. Scrap tuition fees for students from poorer backgrounds who take degree courses in the sciences, technology, maths or engineering. Greater emphasis on vocational education with new Apprenticeship Qualification Option. School governing boards must be made up of at least 30% parents of children at the school. Allow universities to charge same amount for EU students as non-EU students.

Greens: End performance related pay for teachers. Replace Ofsted with an independent National Council for Educational Excellence. Bring Free Schools and Academies into local authority control. Ensure all teachers are properly qualified, abolish SATS and Year 1 phonics tests. Raise school starting age to 6 if parents want it. Scrap National Curriculum.

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Housing

Conservatives: First-time buyers in England under the age of 40 would be able to buy a house at 20% below the market rate, with 100,000 starter homes to be built for them.

Labour: Build 200,000 houses a year by 2020, including new towns and garden cities. Cap rent increases in the private sector and scrap letting fees to estate agents to give a "fairer deal" to tenants.

Lib Dems: Build 300,000 houses a year, with up to five new garden cities in Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.

UKIP: Protect greenbelt land by incentivising the building of affordable homes on brownfield sites. Establish a UK Brownfield Agency to hand out grants, tax breaks and low interest loans. Major planning decisions to be ratified by local referendum.

Greens: Abolish right to buy. Give councils the power to borrow money to build houses or buy them on the open market. Introduce a rent cap to prevent exploitation by private landlords. Set up a living rent commission, to work out how to bring rents back in line with incomes. Home owners unable to meet mortgage payments or under threat of repossession would get right to transfer ownership to the council, at less than market value, and pay rent as council tenants.

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Law and order

The Conservatives say that public sector workers - like police officers - are being dragged into higher rate tax

Conservatives: Banning orders to outlaw groups that incite hatred or cause fear. Extremism Disruption Orders (EXDOs) to stop "disruptive" individuals from speaking in public or holding a position of authority. A new law setting out victims' rights. New laws to make it easier for the police to collect information about internet activity by suspected criminals. A Communications Data Act, requiring companies to start storing certain types of information. Replace Human Rights Act with Bill of Rights to give UK courts and Parliament the "final say".

Labour: Scrap Police and Crime Commissioners, which the party says would save £50m. Local residents to be given a say in deciding crime fighting priorities and have access to police planning meetings. Bring back control orders to combat extremism and revive Prevent strategy. Ban convicted child sex offenders from working with children. More money for frontline policing to prevent cuts in officer numbers. End £17m "subsidy" for cheap gun licences. New commissioner on domestic and sexual abuse and cash for a national network of refuges.

Lib Dems: End prison sentences for personal drugs possession. Users would instead receive non-custodial sentences and appropriate medical treatment. Replace Police and Crime Commissioners with Police Boards made up of councillors from across the force area. . Pass a Digital Bill of Rights to help protect people from unwarranted intrusion and give them more control over their own data. Make 'stop and search' more accountable by making the wearing of body cameras by officers compulsory in some areas and for firearms officers.

UKIP: Repeal Human Rights Act and replace it with UK Bill of Rights. Withdraw from European arrest warrant. No votes for prisoners. Those responsible for criminal damage forced to carry out unpaid work in area where it was committed. Those jailed for offences affecting their community should be banned from returning to live in the area, as a condition of their release. "Complete overhaul" of police taking into account "best practice from other countries".

Greens: Decriminalise cannabis and axe prison sentences for possession of other drugs. Legalise prostitution. Ensure terror suspects have the same legal rights as those accused of more conventional criminal activities.

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Benefits/Poverty

Conservatives: No increase in benefits for working-age people for two years to save £3bn. Affects those receiving jobseekers' allowance, income support, tax credits and child benefit. Cut maximum amount a household can claim each year from £26,000 to £23,000. Withdraw Jobseeker's Allowance from young people after six months unless they take part in "community projects". And 18 to 21-year-olds wouldn't be entitled to housing benefit. Ban on zero-hours contracts which stop people getting work elsewhere. Raise the personal allowance - the point at which you start paying income tax - to £11,000 in April 2016 and then to £12,500 by 2020, which means that if you work on minimum wage for 30 hours you will pay no income tax.

Labour: Freeze energy prices until 2017. Increase in the minimum wage from £6.50-an-hour to £8-an-hour by 2020. Ban "exploitative" zero hours contracts. Rises in child benefit capped at 1% for the first two years of the next parliament. Winter fuel allowance would be withdrawn from the wealthiest pensioners. Repeal what the government calls the removal of the spare room subsidy, dubbed the "bedroom tax" by Labour. A million interest-free loans to help people insulate their homes. Rail fares would be capped.

Lib Dems: Raise the personal allowance - the point at which you start paying income tax - to £11,000 in April 2016 and then to £12,500 by 2020 (the Conservatives are promising the same thing). Nick Clegg has said he would not accept Conservative plans to freeze working-age benefits without taxing the rich too. He hasn't said he would block welfare cuts altogether. Withdraw eligibility for the Winter Fuel Payment and free TV Licence from pensioners on the 40% rate of income tax. A "yellow card" system to deal with benefit claimants breaking the rules, rather than imposing sanctions without warning.

UKIP: Only pay child benefit for the first two children for new claimants. Increase the Carers' Allowance to the same level as Jobseekers' Allowance (JSA) and pay a higher rate of JSA if you've been in work and already made tax and National Insurance contributions. Prevent anyone taking up permanent residence in Britain unless they're able to support themselves and any dependents they bring with them for at least five years and stop them receiving benefits. Stop paying child benefit for children who don't live in Britain. Scrap what UKIP calls the "detested bedroom tax". Boost "credit unions".

Greens: The party backs a Citizen's Income, a fixed amount to be paid to every individual, whether they are in work or not, to be funded by higher taxes on the better off and green levies. But in the short-term it would increase the minimum wage to £10 by 2020. Ban zero hours contracts. Axe the "bedroom tax". Abolish the work capability assessment and restore the level of the former disability living allowance.

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Interesting.

 

Imagine if the Greens got in. I think a lot of their politics will be commonplace in 100-200 years but we aren't ready for it yet.

Their policies are what Labour's should be if only Blair and Miliband hadn't wrecked the party and turned it into the Tory Reserve Team. Amazes me how they are still ahead in the polls and will probably gain the most seats at the General Election. 

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Their policies are what Labour's should be if only Blair and Miliband hadn't wrecked the party and turned it into the Tory Reserve Team. Amazes me how they are still ahead in the polls and will probably gain the most seats at the General Election. 

 

Either way, the public wouldn't vote for it.

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A bit of a diversion from the topic, but here are 1 or 2 of the better acts that got partly dragged into the Oi! categorisation (a lot of pointless categorisation went on back then) ...though Sham 69 were more populist hippy-punks in outlook, and the Test-tube Babies were just pissheads having a laugh. Skrewdriver were closely associated with the NF, Cockney Rejects more like football hooligans seized on by Bushell for his "Oi!" mission

Peter & Test-tube Babies: try from 4:15 and 11:00 for "Elvis is dead" (for which they got their heads kicked in by some Teddy-boy Revivalists! lol ) and "Run like hell":

Sham 69:

Angelic Upstarts, with possibly the most politically misguided record of all time, basically calling for us to arm Bin Laden and his mates in Afghanistan (to fight the Soviets, admittedly) :unsure:

I see your Sham 69 and raise you this...

Useless Pieces of Shit - **** Shit Up (7' Vinyl…:

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Had an email off Boris Johnson asking me to do a survey and telling him what I thought. I never did the survey but told him what I thought. And yes I was polite. I doubt he will read it anyway. Its a bog standard message with just his sig pasted on. I have had similar emails from Cameron and others of their party. Also had some from the other lot which I have also ignored so I am not favouring one or the other.

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