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[Antsan]

So who's on that list? Berlusconi, Kim-Jong-Un, Bush... Putin?

I don't think Putin is on that list. While he is generally disliked I don't see many people making fun of him. If he is a clown, he seems to be a scary one.

[SirQuiamus]

No-one in their right mind would ever make fun of Uncle Volodya. He fights for peace, and brings gifts to poor children. He is the last hope of civilization in this degenerate world.

[Sheb]

But nipples!

[SirQuiamus]

The Nipples of Vova are a cornucopia of pristine, sacred OIL. Do not mock them!

[ChairmanPoo]

Mocking Bad Vlad has a high correlation with polonium poisoning and/or long visits to Syberia. Just something to keep in mind

[SirQuiamus]

Exactly. Sheb should recant his allusive remark before someone offers him a nice cup of tea.

[Guardian G.I.]

Mocking Bad Vlad has a high correlation with polonium poisoning and/or long visits to Syberia. Just something to keep in mind

So, you'll be searching for surviving mammoths with a clockwork automaton and an old eccentric inventor?

[mainiac]

That is wonderful.

[Sinistar]

Well played, Guardian, well played.

[WarRoot]

Juncker Tow the bane of handshake photographs takes his first victim!

[Loud Whispers]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

A great victory has been won in Scottish and British politics. According to these articles the Green Party, the SNP and Plaid Cymru are to join the rest of the main UK parties in two out of three of the TV debates coming up for the general election. The BBC debate and the ITV debate will have 7 parties present, kind of like a Scandinavian debate; including Labour, Conservative, UKIP, SNP, Green, Plaid Cymru and Liberal Democrat Parties. The final debate on Channel 4/Sky will be hosted by Jeremy Paxman and Kay Burleigh and will be Ed Miliband vs David Cameron. 
I am, needless to say, very happy with this settlement. Previously it seemed as though UKIP were the only party besides Labour and the Tories that were going to get on the debates. After a particularly ferocious outcry from the Greens, SNP and Plaid Cymru it seems like the broadcasters have changed their mind. Quite tellingly the excuse they gave originally was that there should only be "national parties" present - evidently Scotland is not a nation, nor is Wales. Rather, the only national parties are English ones - because Labour and the Tories don't stand in Northern Ireland. No party is truly "national". If only more people understood that Scotland and Wales are not viewed as equal nations within a union of equals or whatever the hell it's supposed to be, maybe we'd make more breakthroughs in future referendums.
Interestingly Northern Irish parties are nowhere to be seen, but it seems like Northern Ireland isn't really a part of the UK in the eyes of the broadcasters so it's not included. Certainly its politics are so far removed it would be difficult to include them, but I still think it's a failing on the part of the BBC/ITV.

The outcry of Greens, SNP and Plaid Cymru was insignificant compared to Cameron's refusal to take part unless the Greens were also present. As such it's pretty clear what Cameron wants: Going up against Miliband and Farage on a TV debate is likely to lose him votes as Farage loves swelling his popularity on TV debates and although Miliband has the likeability of mouldy bread he can keep bringing up the NHS for debate  whilst Cameron's opinion on TV debates is more along the lines of: 'it sucked the life out of the campaign.'
So obviously with the Libdems waning Cameron would want another alternative left party to also suck up Labour votes, hence his insistence on the Greens being there. SNP also get a ticket due to their forecast of possibly wiping the floor with ScotLab in Scotland and Plaid Cymru for Wales as Cameron is called out on his threat.

I don't even understand why UKIP are on it. They've got what, 2 seats in parliament?

This helps

They've got 5 seats in Parliament, do well in polls, are still growing; likely to ensure Con do not get overall majority without coalition and have already debated the major party leaders before (with exception to Cameron).

Fine they'll get the alt/protest votes, probably, in England and maybe Wales, but come on man. Farage is a fucking clown!

edmilipigdisgusting vot 4 mai husbandu onl3

Also, what would happen if Farage didn't get a seat in parliament? Would he have to step down as leader so we don't have to hear the nonsense he spouts?

Who knows? Granted, he's said that he wants to focus on being an MEP, and he's certainly made moves to do so what with him leading the Eurosceptic party with the Italians' David Borelli. Keep in mind even when he did step down as UKIP leader before the media still loved him, so you're going to be stuck with him until he retires or dies.

In more recent news what do you all think about ScotLab's recent blunder?

UK Labour leader Ed Miliband has not been consulted on the policy, but Mr Murphy said he is sure it will meet with his approval and be welcomed by the vast majority of people in England where much of the tax burden will fall.
“I'm the Scottish Labour Party leader - I'm just doing what I think is best for Scotland,” he told the Press Association.
“I think it is right and fair that we tax properties worth over £2 million across the UK - a small number are in Scotland but the vast majority are in London and the South East.
“It is then fair that you share that tax across the country, and it just so happens that Scotland would get an enormous boost from that.
“I think it's popular in Scotland and I think it will also be popular in the vast areas all across the UK.
“I accept people who live in houses worth over £2 million - not all of them will be convinced, but I think most people will be.”
He added: “I think in the South East the vast majority of people, and I don't want to speak for them, understand that when times are tough, rather than increase the taxes on the middle classes this is a fairer way of doing it and in Scotland you get the double advantage.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-will-use-mansion-tax-in-london-to-fund-1000-scottish-nurses-9960202.html

Cue laughing Salmons as Labour are caught between pissing off their considerable Scottish support or their considerable London support. The 'mansion tax' hits middle class Londoners who have a zone 1&2 house but little in the way of anything else, be it in salary or liquid assets, and the vast majority of people who will be taxed will be Londoners leading to many accusing Milipede of trying to make London pay an SNP levy to try and stave off obliteration with an ill-thought out tax.

[Owlbread]

It's actually not a blunder. It was a very calculated move on the part of Jim Murphy to deliberately undermine Ed Miliband and establish his own independence as a political leader.

You see, the departing Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont called the Labour Party in Scotland "a branch office" that has to do basically anything London Labour says. Which it is, of course, but Jim Murphy is trying to prove her wrong by trying to cut his own path in whatever way he can. Part of that was the mansion tax thing. By arguing that a Labour government should use the funds received from the so-called mansion tax to recruit 1000 more Scottish nurses, he's both asserting his own independence from Ed Miliband (it goes against the grain of Ed's proposals) and also encouraging Scots to see potential benefits from the union i.e. situations like this where English money can be used to fund projects in Scotland (possibly exploiting anti-Englishness in the process). It encourages us to think of ourselves as people that can be helped by a London Labour government - rather than a country regaining a tiny proportion of the money we actually send to England through taxation.

It's complicated, I know, but you need to understand it's not a mistake - Murphy is actually being very sneaky indeed. Of course, this all took place quite a while ago now (at least, it feels like that) and it hasn't made a dent in the SNP's popularity juggernaut so Jim's been contorting himself in all sorts of ways in a bid to appear somehow non-Unionist and non-traditional Blairite Scottish Labour. He even said at one point (I'm not joking) something like "I'm from a Roman Catholic Irish background, Unionism isn't in my political creed", which is an enormous about-face when you contrast him now with the way he was during the independence campaign (shouting about the evil SNP through a microphone at old ladies). Mr. Murphy is still the Scottish face of Blairism, that hasn't changed. The fact that he was chief whip during the Iraq War vote haunts him to this day. He can't escape his past.

[Loud Whispers]

That's a convincing argument; at least I'm convinced. 'Diane Abbott attacks 'unscrupulous' Jim Murphy over Mansion Tax Plan.' senior LonLab supposedly sees it that way too. I'm not sure if Scottish Labour really does do anything London Labour says though, since no one listens to Miliband anyways.

[Owlbread]

I think Miliband is a non-entity. There are other grandees pulling the strings that Scottish Labour listen to. The Scottish Labour representatives were never off the phone to their London masters during the latest devolution negotiations - constantly consulting with them whenever anything was agreed.

[ChairmanPoo]

I think Miliband is a non-entity. There are other grandees

Slightly off topic: I find the pronounciation of grandee somewhat amusing.