Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

fred - i cannot believe even you are such an arsehole as to neglect look after your finances and assets .... if you do so neglect, then your children (and wife) will not have much polite to say about you.

so you think it's a pity that i would not move abroad? ..... is that so you could gripe and whinge about people who choose to do so to minimise their taxes? ..... btw, i don't recollect that either mafia or berlusconi have a reputation let alone record of working within the permitted framework, but no doubt you know differently (because you know it all)

i would not move abroad because, inter alia, (a) taxes in most other countries (e.g. france) are much nastier than in uk, and (b) those countries that do have a benevolent tax regime (e.g. switzerland, gibraltar or even channel islands) have little appeal to me - and that assumes acceptance as a resident there in the first place

back to eu budget debate and preliminary agreement to reduce same
it is now heavily flagged that eu parliament will refuse to ratify that agreement in its present form .....

assuredly there will be much behind the scenes lobbying and offers of patronage - before you get on your high horses, that has happened since time immemorial - but the end result will be interesting to see, as will the interpretation of it by those with genuine expertise (no, fred only likes to imagine he is superior to everyone else here)

of more direct interest to uk, is how that will colour the arguments for/against staying in and of course the wording of any referendum question - should the milli-band even allow such a thing to take place (very doubtful)

Once upon a time, there was a non-conforming sparrow who decided not to fly south for the winter. However, soon the weather turned so cold that he reluctantly started to fly south.

In a short time ice began to form on his wings and he fell to earth in a barnyard. Almost frozen, a cow passed by and crapped on the little sparrow. The sparrow thought it was the end. But, the manure warmed him and defrosted his wings. Warm and happy, able to breathe, he started to sing. Just then, a large cat came by and hearing the chirping, investigated the sounds. The cat cleared away the manure, found the chirping bird and ate him.

Morals to the Story
1.Everyone who shits on you is not necessarily your enemy.
2.Everyone who gets you out of the shit is not necessarily your friend.
3.And, if you're warm and happy in a pile of shit, keep your mouth shut!!!

Well said DC, Fred you listening? Gobshite Of The Year (recurring) :O)

perhaps DC was sending me a warning rather than our resident whinger

I'm not getting involved, its my relaxing day Sunday. :-))

Cynic.
"within the permitted framework," as defined by whom.

An action may be legal, but still corrupt and the morality of the Mafia and some corporations and individuals are morally questionable.

But morality can be common as well as personal.
---------

As far as “whinge” is concerned, I refer you back to your whining postings on many other threads. You seem to me to be a past master in that skill.
==========

I think if you re-read my posting correctly and with a little help from somebody else, you may see that I was intimating at the consequences of the Pyrrhic victory.

Also, I was be a little facetious at your expense, which you obviously you didn’t recognise.

But, even if you don’t agree with me, you may able to recognise the scepticism in the media of Cameron’s supposed success. Even from the cartoon in and earlier post.

======

And no, once again I don’t consider myself superior to others, nor do I think I belong to an elite, with the “God given right” to rule, or the only group to have the omniscience to rule. Nor do I ignore out of hand the opinion of others, even if the opinions seemed based on a sense of party allegiances rather than common sense.

I wonder whether the assertion of superiority and the manner in which you do so, is once again a projection of your own problems, which seems to me, to be demonstrate in some of your postings on others threads, and to which I haven’t contributed on.

As far as the debate in the EU is concerned I relate you back first statement of this posting and I wait and see the outcome of the vote and its consequences.

---------------

Again, it seems to me, obvious what you would consider to a democracy and you wish to how it should be applied.

You are entitled to wish, as I am to my actions.

----------

Have a peaceful night.

one thing i do wish ... that you learnt to write rather more succinctly ....
while you do indeed have a legal, though questionably not moral, entitlement not to vote, my view and that of a number of others here, is that you thereby forego your right to whinge (incessantly) about any gov't that you have (allowed to be) elected .... almost like the frogs of aesop's fable

Cynic,

Brevity is often an unreliable brief.

------------------
For your future reading.

It is quite succinct and with a little patience and help you will be able to read and understand it.

"EU Budget - when is a cut not a cut

The UK's payments to the EU may rise even if total spending by Brussels falls
More from Nick

Exams: U-turn or tweak?
Tory divisions - Why gay marriage has exposed them
Appealing to the people
Is the defence budget safe from more cuts?
A cut in the European Union's budget.

That is what Parliament voted for last year when Tory eurosceptics united with Labour to defeat the government. That is what David Cameron's advisers believe he may soon be able to say he's achieved.

Although no deal has yet been done the numbers currently being discussed for the next seven year EU budget are more than 30 billion euros (£25.5bn) lower than the one it will replace.

It has been a long and dull night for the prime minister.

He and the 26 other EU leaders left the Brussels negotiating table at around 12.30 in the morning and were only called back about six hours later. .

Besides a brief meeting with Germany's Chancellor Merkel and France's President Hollande there was not a great deal - beyond I'm told a supply of espressos, haribos, and fruit - to fill the small hours as Brussels negotiators put pressure on other countries to accept a squeeze.

As in any negotiation nothing is agreed until everything is agreed and the signs are that there is still a way to go before Europe's leaders sign on the dotted line.

Even if a deal is done with a headline cut to the EU budget there will be much to scrutinise."

Will the cut be as big as the one Britain aimed for?

The benchmark Downing Street seem keen to use is the so-called EU payments ceiling - what David Cameron likes to call Europe's credit card. It was €942.8bn (£803.9bn) for the seven years from 2007-2013. The expectation is that the new ceiling may end up being around €908bn (£774bn).

His critics may point out that he has not achieved a freeze in line with the figure of €886 billion the Treasury has previously used.

This number was produced by taking the EU's spending in 2011 - as it happens a relatively low spending year - and multiplying it by seven to cover the period of the EU's budget. It was always an arbitrary figure but it is one that ministers used.

How much spending has Brussels managed to classify as "off budget"?

Some EU spending is and always has been classified in this way - for instance Europe's solidarity fund which gives member states help in the event of floods, forest fires and the like.

British officials insist that no existing spending will be reclassified but will the figures for this and other off budget funds grow?

How much will Britain's contributions to the EU increase?

David Cameron has always insisted that Britain's EU rebate was non negotiable. Nevertheless the value of it has been falling thanks to the last budget deal done by Tony Blair.

The result is that in the looking glass world of EU budgets the EU's total spending may fall whilst Britain's payments actually increase.

Article written by Nick Robinson
Nick Robinson
Political editor

i've read the piece with an unjaundiced eye .... it actually doesn't say much at all, though the author's intentionally provocative stance is fairly apparent - he has a history for same, but that's not a bad thing

i've already written what i think is likely to happen, so i won't bother to repeat .... though to repeat(!!) it's the subsequent lines taken for/against staying in eu that will be of more long-term interest

For sometime many of us have wondered who is Jack Shit? We find ourselves at a loss when someone says, You dont know Jack shit! Well, thanks to my efforts you can now respond in an intellectual way. Jack Shit is the only son of Awe Shit who married O. Shit the owner of Knee Deep in Shit Inc. In turn Jack shit married Noe shit. The deeply religious couple had six children : Holy Shit, Giva Shit, Fulla Shit, Bull Shit, and the twins Deep Shit and Dip Shit. Deep Shit married Dumb Shit, a high school dropout. After 15 years , Jack and Noe Shit got divorced and She married Ted Sherlock and became Noe Shit Shirlock . Meanwhile, Dip Shit married Loda Shit and had a rather nervous deposition named Chicken Shit. Fulla Shit and Giva Shit married the Happens brothers and had a double wedding. The newspaper invited everyone to the Shit-Happens wedding. Bull Shit traveled the world and returned home with an Italian bride, Pisa Shit. So from now on, no one can tell you that you dont know Jack shit!

When the body was first made, all the parts wanted to be Boss. The brain said, "I should be Boss because I control the whole body's responses and functions." The feet said, "We should be Boss as we carry the brain about and get him to where he wants to go." The Hands said, "We should be the Boss because we do all the work and earn all the money." And so it went on and on with the heart, the lungs and the eyes until finally the asshole spoke up. All the parts laughed at the idea of the asshole being the Boss. Promptly, the asshole went on strike, blocked itself up and refused to work. Within a short time the eyes became crossed, the hands clenched, the feet twitched, the heart and lungs began to panic and the brain fevered. Eventually they all decided that the asshole should be the Boss, so the motion was passed. All the other parts did all the work while the Boss just sat and passed out the shit!

Management Lesson: You don't need brains to be a Boss - any asshole will do.

Gosh I wish I had spent my day having a laugh with you.

Have not visited for a while, but after reading dreamcatchers last 2 posts, have to say what a great laugh.
I have seen the second post before, but still worth a re read.

Re the horse meat scandal.

We keep being reassured that the horse meat is safe and yet they still do not know if all of the meat was uncontaminated by veterinary drugs.

I am also willing to bet that we will soon find out that some, if not all the horse meat involved was originally destined for pet food, after all if you are carrying out a fraud scam, then why bother with quality horse meat (still cheaper than beef) when you can get hold of even cheaper pet food.

Chum and Gravy anyone!

Good to have a laugh. There has been no quality control checks on the meat. By the looks of the papers on the weekend , the Findus playboy boss, perhaps he should be taking a lesser interest in the birds (not the ones with feathers :-))and more interest in his business.

the EU is a shit hole we want out

Don't mince your words Tanker!

Just thinking the same. lol

Polish mafia gangs are blamed for horsemeat scandal as government warns MORE British products will be contaminated

Experts say beef is substituted for horse as part of multimillion pound scams
Environment secretary raises concerns of worldwide 'criminal conspiracy'
Food officials are being intimidated by cartels to sign off products as beefs

Testing is stepped up in Britain for horse DNA and results due within days

Wild horses in Romania are being slaughtered and shipped to Britain as beef
The animals suffer appalling cruelty, including being beaten with crowbars

these polish criminals should be hanged