Cable in attack on US 'right wing nutters'

[mwooldri]

Source: BBC

Vince Cable has attacked leading US Republican politicians for holding up a deal to reduce US government debt.

Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show, the business secretary called them "a few right-wing nutters in the American Congress".

Unless a deal on Capitol Hill is agreed before 2 August, the US Treasury could run out of money to pay its bills.

Mr Cable said it presented a bigger risk to the global markets than the continuing debt woes in the eurozone.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14267091

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IMO we need a few people like Vince Cable over here in America - so it can be told exactly the way it is. I'm sure Cameron wouldn't be pleased but then Vince is a proper Liberal Democrat.

[tanyev]

1. More than a few, sadly.

[CBGLuthier]

2. same thought here

Wish it were just a few.

[gordianot]

3. I have been wondering when the rest of the world will wake up to what America is becoming.

The Republican Party in the United States have also targeted so called "European Socialism" for destruction along with "liberalism". The American GOP right wing believes in their own ascendancy and is not particularly concerned about allies unless they are subservient to their goals.

[annabanana]

7. Actually, they've known for quite some time.

Our craven CorpoMedia© isn't telling us that they're onto it, though.

(If a tree falls and no one hears it. . . . . . )

[BumRushDaShow]

4. The UK is the 3rd LARGEST holder of U.S. debt

behind China and Japan.

http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/tic/Documents/mfh.txt">http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/tic/Documents/mfh.txt

This has got to be roiling some folks there while being overshadowed by the Murdoch fiasco.

[dipsydoodle]

6. overshadowed by the Murdoch fiasco ?

Here in the UK ?

There's probably more interest here on DU on the subject of the Murdochs than the whole of the UK public put together. Don't be mislead by our newspaper headlines whatever. Broadly speaking the UK public have more concern about jobs. housing and rising fuel costs etc. none of which have anything whatsoever to do with the either the Murdochs or affairs in the USA.

[beac]

8. You keep saying that, but mr. beac was in the UK as

the scandal really got going and he said Murdoch and NotW were hot topics in the pub. And these were regular Brits, not expats or journalists or DUers on holiday.

[dipsydoodle]

12. I can only say

that the pubs and clubs where I drink whatever tend to be working class ones. Maybe there's a social difference if you husband found otherwise. :shrug:

That doesn't override agreement with what I said in tv discussions here. I've also yet to come across anyone in Watford in the least suspicious of Sean Hoare's death which was in the road where my grandson lives.

[beac]

15. I assure you, mr. beac WAS in "working class pubs."

Since you've mentioned several times your perception that your fellow countrymen don't care about Murdoch, Hoare, etc., I am curious... do you think that's a good thing or a bad thing?

[dipsydoodle]

18. do you think ?

Its neither - it just is. I don't think for other people in such respects. Those here that remember the '70 , the days of fit ups and verbals , may however have become even more cynical of the police.

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. No, I think the boycott of NotW advertisers showed there was wide public interest

Can you think of any other boycott that spread so quickly - and with the target closing just a few days later?

[dipsydoodle]

11. Boycotts by the advertisers

demonstrated concern that their buyers might be influenced by the issue. Given that the paper folded they lost the outlet with the highest readership in the UK. That may not have the intention of the advertisers some of whim may now rue the situation. I fully appreciate that was not the case with the Royal British Legion.

btw I've never bought a copy of either the NOWT or the Sun in my entire life.

[muriel_volestrangler]

19. Exactly - their customers had already told the advertisers they'd lose custom

There was no 'might' about it. Lists of the advertisers in the NotW were widely publicised on the net, and loads of people contacted them to say "don't advertise in the NotW, or we'll withdraw our custom". The point was that it wasn't just people who buy the NotW who were involved; companies were told, in no uncertain terms, that it was a toxic brand they couldn't afford to be associated with.

The advertisers may well rue the situation; but they had little choice, commercially.

Online activists take aim at Murdoch empire

One executive, who declined to be named, said the company he worked for was getting inundated with emails, partly because of what appeared to be co-ordinated campaigns to boycott the News of the World on social media such as Twitter and Facebook.
...
Liberal Conspiracy, the left-of-centre politics blog, launched a joint campaign across blogs and Facebook to target News of the World advertisers. They are providing readers with model emails to send to companies as well as press office contact details.

“Here’s how it can work … Companies are listed below … Contact as many as you can and politely but firmly express your disapproval … Tweet at them if you can,” the website says.

Justine Roberts, co-founder of Mumsnet, which is also involved in the boycott of advertising with Murdoch companies, said: “New media allows people to organise themselves very easily and self-protectively.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/968165ae-a7ef-11e0-afc2-00144feabdc0.html

Britain's biggest-selling Sunday newspaper had become a toxic brand. So toxic that advertisers including Ford, Halifax, Boots, Sainsbury's and the Co-operative Group deserted the News of the World in droves last week because of the latest shocking phone-hacking allegations involving murder and terrorist victims and war widows.

This was a boycott that snowballed quickly, driven by angry consumers who used social media sites such as Twitter to put pressure on brands to respond in real time. "Each of these major advertisers was targeted by consumers and had a mini-social media crisis of their own to deal with," says Robin Grant, managing director of We Are Social, a PR agency that specialises in social media. "It drowned out any normal marketing and communications activity that they were doing."

In the case of the Co-operative, the group initially vetoed the idea of a boycott but did a U-turn 24 hours later.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/markets/article-23968856-how-advertisers-and-social-media-helped-to-kill-toxic-news-of-the-world.do

[T_i_B]

14. I disagree

Up until the Norwegian terrorist and Amy Winehouse snuffing it, the News International was a big subject to a lot of people I know.

Besides which, it's a huge story involving the world's most powerful press baron, lawbreaking on a colossal scale, police corruption, politicans being utterly servile for many years and all sorts of porkie pies. It's been dragging on for a bit which does grate with some people, but given the scale of the wrongdoing that's not suprising.

[LeftishBrit]

16. I disagree that jobs and housing have nothing to do with the Murdochs

Unemployment and lack of affordable housing have quite a bit to do with the right-wing policies of this government, and of previous governments going back to Thatcher and including Blair. Both because such governments emphasized the banking and financial sectors and undervalued industry, thus making us more vulnerable to the credit crunch, and because of their hatred for unions and their contempt for poor people and for the public services.

And I do think that we would have had less of a lurch to the right over the years, and that we might not now have a Tory-dominated government, if not for the right-wing press, including, though not limited to, the Murdoch press.

The trouble with the Murdoch press isn't just that they hacked phones and invaded privacy, bad as that was; but that they ended up with enormous influence on our government and politics.

[dipsydoodle]

20. You may well recall

that the initial major problem with house price inflation was initiated by the Tories in the '80s removing multiple mortgagee tax allowances on individual mortgages. That as then followed by the crash in house prices due to high interest rates. The situation was then compounded the advent of non status mortgages from c. mid 90's on. If anything those mortages did the most damage as they have led to the current situation of rental accomodation being unaffordable too.

[Uncle Joe]

22. I see the Murdoch's long time political power and influence along with current economic conditions

as being intricately tied together.

[Red1]

5. Its Hilarious

isn't it? I'm sure the recognition by the Brits has been there for years but the victims of usually quiet demeanor are becoming vocal..

Conservatives tend to dig in their heels when confronted....a problem.

[beac]

9. Cable: right about Murdoch, right about the GOP. n/t

[T_i_B]

13. Cable's got enough problems dealing with his Conservative coalition partners.

Many of whom are "right wing nutters" themselves quite frankly.

[LeftishBrit]

17. Too true!

[Uncle Joe]

21. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, mwooldri.