Define “our age”. I remember when Wilson was in power.

Define “our age”. I remember when Wilson was in power.

The original context was ‘of our generation’, so open to interpretation, but go for a 40 year old (roughly half mean life expectancy).

Oops my bad, ‘of our age’, but same thing really…

I think Dave has clinched it with this:

“he talked about a bicycle ride but I thought that might involve wearing more lycra than is consistent with re-election.”

footflaps – Member
What about the bedroom tax, or bombing Libya?
Or increasing VAT ?
Or doubling tuition fees ?
Or cutting the top rate of tax ?
Or introducing a benefit cap ?

All pretty minor things that will be forgotten / changed by the next Parliament etc. Tweaking tax rates here and there by a few % is not significant, it’s just tinkering.

You could argue that the bedroom tax was significant in being both economically ineffective yet utterly vindictive to the poor, but again in 2 yeas time no one (other than those evicted by it) will remember it.

Yeah, nobody will remember being forced to move out of their house because of the bedroom tax.
Or tha increase in the cost of living because or VAT
Or the billions of pound of debt added to young people
You can guarantee top rate tax payers will remember the lower rate once it goes up again
You can guarantee disabled and unemployed people will remember the time they had to live on less money than they used to.

it barely registers on the Give-a-shit scale

You appear to have changed the point you were making, which was : “Can’t think of a single significant thing he’s actually done”.

Bombing a country is significant, whether it registers on the Give-a-shit scale or not.

Likewise your comment : “Blair had the largest ever peace time demo with the Iraq War” doesn’t mean that the Iraq War wasn’t significant, it was.

Yeah, nobody will remember being forced to move out of their house because of the bedroom tax.
Or tha increase in the cost of living because or VAT
Or the billions of pound of debt added to young people
You can guarantee top rate tax payers will remember the lower rate once it goes up again
You can guarantee disabled and unemployed people will remember the time they had to live on less money than they used to.

can you read?

You could argue that the bedroom tax was significant in being both economically ineffective yet utterly vindictive to the poor, but again in 2 yeas time no one (other than those evicted by it) will remember it.

As for debt, the total UK debt hasn’t significantly changed under the coalition, neither has the deficit, so again pretty ineffective.

As for Tax rates and VAT, they go up and down all the time and no one remembers e.g. can you recall when and by how much Labour temporarily lowered VAT by and for? No, neither can I.

You appear to have changed the point you were making, which was : “Can’t think of a single significant thing he’s actually done”.

Bombing a country is significant, whether it registers on the Give-a-shit scale or not.

In the context of standout politician, I don’t think he will stand out for it no. Thatcher will always be remembered for the Falklands, Blair for the Iraq war but Cameron for Libya? NB I’d completely forgotten about it already.

It’s sad that you equate standout politicians to the wars they have got us into.

Junkyard: it was the “will you quit if there’s another UKIP defection where I thought Eddie lost it. Eddie asks VERY loaded questions with a clear baited trap waiting for the novice politician. Gove refused to step into that trap and gave a good retort when Eddie accused him of not giving straight answers.
All in my opinion of course. In contrast I though Andy Burnham gave a fab performance a week or two prior on R4 with candid straight answers to reasonable and probing questions.

Yes i agree there were parts where Gove performed well but it was one of those ding dong affairs without any real discussion…. I thought that was a fair question from Eddie actually and I thought give, skilfully, just ignored it. It showed a lack of confidence tin his prediction IMHO.
R4 does seem to like to trap them rather than let them discuss their views- Today is worse IMHO.

Re CMD – Gove does not think he is a stellar leader no one could but what else can he say? My boss he is pretty average isn’t he , its pointless asking him tbh

Interesting how we have divided views on what was good and bad though

I think perhaps we agree more than we realise! There are certain things that you are NEVER going to get a politician to say, so wasting interview time trying to do this just turns the whole thing into pantomime. Of course Gove can’t say 100% that more won’t defect to UKIP. If he had said this then Eddie would have questioned his “command and grip” on the loyalty of tory MP’s…so instead he dances round the question and the whole thing falls to farce.

Again Gove is never going to anything other than 100% loyal in the words he uses about Cameron, so the line of questioning on his failings was never going to trip up or progress anywhere.

There’s a real spectrum of R4 interviewers. Some of the better ones save their bullets for points that matter.

The thing is… Dave isn’t even a politician. He’s a spokesman. An effective one! He has zero interest in policy. His ego just dictated he fulfil his birthright and get the top job.

The man who really pulls the strings is quite happy for him to have the top job. George Osbourne is the real politician. The power behind the throne. Always sat in the background. But it’s him who’s running the show. Him dictating the agenda. Him who’s imposing his idealogical framework on the country, despite not even having a majority.

He’s the standout politician of his age. As clever as he is detestable!

The thing is… Dave isn’t even a politician. He’s a spokesman. An effective one! He has zero interest in policy.

??

Osbourne pulling the strings??? That is definetely a 3?er. He quietly changed policy is response to events and hardly implemented much of what he originally proposed. Then claims his policies have worked. More pushing the strings than pulling them.