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	<title>Cllr. Steve Cooke &#187; General Politics</title>
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	<link>http://www.stevecooke.org</link>
	<description>Political Musings from Greater Manchester</description>
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		<title>Homophobia</title>
		<link>http://www.stevecooke.org/2010/06/homphobia/</link>
		<comments>http://www.stevecooke.org/2010/06/homphobia/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 02 Jun 2010 07:47:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Steve</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Polemic]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.stevecooke.org/?p=1180</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[British Social Attitudes survey,  published in January, found that 36% believed  homosexuality to be  wrong. So much for nobody in Britain caring about a person&#8217;s sexuality  any more. It&#8217;s a lot better than the 62% in 1983, but there&#8217;s a long,  long way to go.
Yesterday the Sun published a poll [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Did David Laws do wrong &#8211; a moral philosopher&#8217;s perspective.</title>
		<link>http://www.stevecooke.org/2010/05/did-david-laws-do-wrong-a-moral-philosophers-perspective/</link>
		<comments>http://www.stevecooke.org/2010/05/did-david-laws-do-wrong-a-moral-philosophers-perspective/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 31 May 2010 22:29:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Steve</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Party]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Polemic]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.stevecooke.org/?p=1176</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The David Laws story has infuriated me – I&#8217;m angry at the press, angry at David, angry at Labour for being utter dicks over this, and angry at many gay commentators who have argued that he should have been open about his sexuality.
The angry part of me is my inner Lib Dem politician. However, when [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.stevecooke.org/2010/05/did-david-laws-do-wrong-a-moral-philosophers-perspective/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The Coalition Programme for Government</title>
		<link>http://www.stevecooke.org/2010/05/the-coalition-programme-for-government/</link>
		<comments>http://www.stevecooke.org/2010/05/the-coalition-programme-for-government/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 20 May 2010 09:05:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Steve</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General Politics]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.stevecooke.org/?p=1167</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The government (our government &#8211; can&#8217;t get used to saying/writing that) has published its programme for the next five years based on the negotiations of the two parties. You can read the programme here: http://programmeforgovernment.hmg.gov.uk/ and you can also respond to it by commenting on the various proposals &#8211; why not get involved?
]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Labour&#8217;s undemocratic and bizarre leadership election</title>
		<link>http://www.stevecooke.org/2010/05/labours-undemocratic-and-bizarre-leadership-election/</link>
		<comments>http://www.stevecooke.org/2010/05/labours-undemocratic-and-bizarre-leadership-election/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 18 May 2010 21:34:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Steve</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Polemic]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.stevecooke.org/?p=1162</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Labour&#8217;s leadership contest is terribly confusing. Potential candidate John McDonald MP has already said that the 4 day period for nominations set, without a vote by Labour&#8217;s NEC is designed to fix the election in favour of the Millibands and stop any left wing candidates from getting enough nominations. Apparently lots of the MPs needed [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>How Labour wrecked the economy to punish the Tories</title>
		<link>http://www.stevecooke.org/2010/05/labpunish/</link>
		<comments>http://www.stevecooke.org/2010/05/labpunish/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 18 May 2010 16:06:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Steve</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Polemic]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.stevecooke.org/?p=1153</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A picture is beginning to emerge of Labour&#8217;s last days in office, and it is a picture that shows how petty and selfish Labour has become. A picture that reinforces a point I have made previously that Labour are unable to differentiate between the national interest and their own electoral interests.
Two stories in particular have [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>The so-called &#8216;betrayal&#8217; of the left.</title>
		<link>http://www.stevecooke.org/2010/05/the-so-called-betrayal-of-the-left/</link>
		<comments>http://www.stevecooke.org/2010/05/the-so-called-betrayal-of-the-left/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 14 May 2010 11:31:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Steve</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Polemic]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.stevecooke.org/?p=1141</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;ve become so sick of Labour and Red Greens wailing and gnashing their teeth at the so-called &#8216;betrayal&#8217; by the Lib Dems in forming a coalition that I&#8217;ve written a post on Lib Dem Voice.
To those people: we&#8217;ve not betrayed you because there was never anything to betray &#8211; you wanted to be in opposition [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Coalition agreement</title>
		<link>http://www.stevecooke.org/2010/05/coalition-agreement/</link>
		<comments>http://www.stevecooke.org/2010/05/coalition-agreement/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 12 May 2010 13:28:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Steve</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General Politics]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.stevecooke.org/?p=1132</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The party has published the basis of the coalition between us and the Conservatives in Parliament.
The statement can be found here: http://libdems.org.uk/latest_news_detail.aspx?title=Conservative_Liberal_Democrat_coalition_agreements&#38;pPK=2697bcdc-7483-47a7-a517-7778979458ff
What really heartens me, aside from the improvements to our democracy, huge investment in the eduction of the poorest, tax breaks for the poorest and linking pensions with earnings (a big list of Lib [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Coalition</title>
		<link>http://www.stevecooke.org/2010/05/coalition/</link>
		<comments>http://www.stevecooke.org/2010/05/coalition/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 11 May 2010 19:52:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Steve</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General Politics]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.stevecooke.org/?p=1130</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Well it looks like a Conservative/Lib Dem coalition, which given the numbers on each side offered the only possibility of a remotely stable government. I&#8217;m sure it will harm us to some degree to work with the Tories, but I&#8217;m confident that Nick and the team have acted in the national interest &#8211; acting with [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.stevecooke.org/2010/05/coalition/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
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		<title>Proportional Representation</title>
		<link>http://www.stevecooke.org/2010/05/proportional-representation/</link>
		<comments>http://www.stevecooke.org/2010/05/proportional-representation/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 11 May 2010 10:11:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Steve</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General Politics]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.stevecooke.org/?p=1123</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Take Back Parliament&#8217;s campaign to get proportional representation (PR)* introduced as our electoral system seems to have really taken off and is incredibly exciting. On Friday when I heard about the campaign and they launched their petetition they had some  10,000 signatures by the end of the day. Now they have nearly 50,000. Protests in [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.stevecooke.org/2010/05/proportional-representation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Post election</title>
		<link>http://www.stevecooke.org/2010/05/post-election/</link>
		<comments>http://www.stevecooke.org/2010/05/post-election/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 11 May 2010 09:20:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Steve</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Local Issues]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.stevecooke.org/?p=1121</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A huge thanks to everyone who came and and voted on May the 6th. We had pretty rough time of it in Salford &#8211; losing a couple of local seats as the bost in turnout really helped Labour and led to surpise results for all the parties. On the plus side, &#8216;cheque-book&#8217; Blears had her [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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