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.

cynic, sorry, for the meantime I have given up trying to respond to your political questions! Suffice to say I will be voting Conservative at my local elections on Thursday and not just for the reason that the Conservative candidate is the only candidate, so far, who has taken the trouble to knock on my door to enquire about my voting intentions.

Perhaps, that is due to the blue smoke coming out of your chimney and border control posts around the mansion.

8-)

I have signs around mine of "Attention Chien Méchant" and pictures "Theresa May".

Nobody has knocked.

A little old.


I hope Miliband isn't morphing into Liam Fox.

I forget Cameron has already bust the economy.

Edit.

Ps.

He seems to have gone to ground with his partner, or is he too busy with a consultancy.

Ken Clarke ramped up Tory attacks on Ukip today, branding the party's politicians ‘clowns’ and some of their supporters racist.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2316033/Ken-Clarke-goes-offensive-Ukip-Tories-war-ahead-polls.html

Clarke also pointed out that some Labour councillors are ex BNP. So it is not just UKIP that have racists.

Ken Clarke talking about clowns, where is Fred. :-))

Fred - post 24429 - my God you are right, there is blue smoke coming out of my chimney tonight!

dc - I have just read that a couple have been recovered from a swimming pool at Down Hall Country Club, near you I would imagine. What a tragedy!!

3M, bit of a shock. 2 miles down the road, passed it this morning. Several ambulances /police vehicles passed the house last night with sirens going.

Oh Dear, there is always something, somewhere.

I would hope so!

Haystack re: rebate ... Tories feck up , Tories renegotiate and you think it's wonderful.

lol

Bit like Blair bombing Iraq then rebuilding a few bridges that we bloody bombed in the first place and claiming he responsible for improving infrastructure !

Is there really a north-south water taste divide?

Every year a slew of US localities fight over who has the tastiest tap water. These blind tasting competitions are yet to take off in the UK, but many would stick up for their tap water as the best.

There are many things that divide the north and the south of Britain - politics, the weather - but water is probably the oddest.

Amazing - but not totally surprising - Good life goes on as Syrian elite sit out war

(Reuters) - It might sound absurd to talk about normal life in Syria after two years of civil war which have killed more than 70,000 people and left five million more destitute and homeless.

Yet in the neighbourhood of Malki, a tree-lined enclave of central Damascus, a wealthy group of elite, pro-government Syrians still enjoy shopping for imported French cheeses, gourmet hand-made chocolates and iPad minis in the well-stocked, recently built Grand Mall and in nearby boutiques.

Hilary - many thanks for your customary intelligent response!

though we do indeed live in the "favoured" thames valley, that does not mean that we are unaware of the quantum of immigration and its affect on many communities, especially at a time of high unemployment .... indeed, high wycombe, slough and even maidenhead (though perhaps not hurley, jordans or seer green!) have quite significant immigrant populations, though more weighted towards asia than eastern europe

there is no question that the "open door" policy of recent years is verging on the disastrous .... this has been or will be exacerbated by the extended "free movement of labour" allowed under eu legislation ..... of course, uk is far from alone to suffer from the effect of this

with regard to organised crime, while the eastern europeans have brought in their own fair share, it is easy to forget the black drug fiefdoms and gang warfare that we saw 30/40 years ago and continues strongly to this day

i have already prattled far too long, but for sure there will be a strong anti-politicians, anti-government, anti-eu vote registered at the end of this week

however, i have doubts that, this time at least, there will be a significant change in the seats won by ukip and other slightly marginal parties ...... however, if the "senior" parties don't listen and act meaningfully over the next 12/24 months, then the next general election could bring a very interesting change to the political landscape