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
The NHS is fine. The A&E problems are historical and due to increased use. The other cause is the stupid contracts that Labour allowed the GPs where they could opt out of evening and weekend cover.

The idiotic tory party were warned 3 years ago and could have change contracts during this period.

They didn't listen to advice and operated on outdated ideology.

It suits them to have chaos and they are unable to undertake their responsibilities and unfit for government.

Do you mean the outdated ideology of the Labour party that set up the system and did nothing to fix it for all those years? Or was it the idiotic Labour party that spent all our money and laughed about it? Perhap it was the stupid Labour party that wants to borrow even more to pay off the debt. Maybe it was the crazy Labour party that appointed a shadow Chancellor without GCSE maths. Is it possible it could be the nutty Labour party that is not trusted by its own supporters and not even by its biggest doner...............................

so fred, you smartarse who sits in his padded armchair and pontificates, what party do you suggest IS fit for gov't, and will you then get off your bum and actually vote for them?

How can he get off his bum when his head is up it. :-))

he rolls across the floor

lol

Cyners,

Yes, I know that I asked what evidence you had that housing starts were on the up. I only asked because the data I look at doesn't suggest that it is on the up.

I'm also well aware that general construction and house building are different, and when I suggested that I knew one or two hairy-arsed builders, I was actually being a little sarcastic and very economic with the truth. But, hey, that's no problem.

Haystack,

Yes, I know the publication you quoted refers to seasonally adjusted figures. Data is normally seasonally adjusted by taking average historic seasonal difference which tend to occur at the same time each year over, say, the last 10 or 20 years. Even so, it's impossible to adequately determine the localised differences which may or may not be relevant in any one particular year.

For instance, the construction industry traditionally closes for 2 weeks over Christmas and the new year. One year, building firms might finish on the 19th or 20th December for instance. Another year, because of how the days and dates might fall, those same firms might not close until the 24th December. Because Q4 ends during the Xmas shutdown period, there is a potential 3% or 4% difference in Q4 productivity from one year to the next, which won't be reflected in the seasonal adjustment.

Similarly, firms may or may not defer purchases and starts on the run up to Xmas until the new year. There is no point in them taking delivery of materials that need to be paid for, if those same materials are going to sit around unused for a few weeks.

I'm not saying that Q4 seasonally adjusted figures are wrong. I'm simply saying that they could be unreliable and it's important to look at longer term trends to get a clearer picture.

The major legacy of your darlings Thatcher, and to a lesser degree Major governments, was that of a state of dilapidated buildings of the Schools, some of the Universities, the hospitals with antiquated laboratories and other services, as well as other institutions and the country’s decaying infrastructure, in a disgusting state of dilapidation.

The foolhardy treatment of the Technical Colleges and money raising initiatives by the Universities was based on fallacious judgement.

This suited the Thatcherite philosophy and the tory ideology of that period, who rather that using the “cash” raise from North Sea Oil and Gas to repair the period of decay in services they squandered it and tax perks to “friends” and other stupidities.

Even a decent Tory ex-prime minister Macmillan criticized the greed and corrupt practices with a lack of future planning and lack of compassion for society as a whole.

Money was spent by labour on trying to revert that period of decline, which was camouflaged by a give way of the National Silver by the previous tory government.

Did Labour spend too much? Probably yes, and as has some suggested more should have been done to pay down “debt”, but somebody had to repair the roofs. (Those living in castles may have been comfortable, but those living in tents were less than happy.)

But the main fact is that the state of public institutions were repaired and improved, but once again they are being neglected by a tory government, which is once again squandering of state money on their ideological pie in the sky dreams.


I think you are sniggering at Alan Johnson.

I have to admit the more I hear him speak and read what he has written the more respect I have for him.

Although, I disagree with some of his thinking, I believed that he is highly intelligent and from the disadvantage base he originated from, has achieved a tremendous amount.

Also, can see how his thinking and career developed and he shows this in his manners and respect for all sections of society.

I find him to be one of the few sincere thoughtful politicians in active UK political life.

In the roles he played in the cabinet and ministries he ran under the previous administration he appears to have successful.

As far as his “qualifications” are concerned, in comparison with those you seem to think highly qualified i.e., Cameron and side kick Osborne he shows common sense, while the latter are responsible for our stagnating economy.

Again in comparison with Johnson, what have you achieved, coming from a probably more privileged part of society.
======

Manuel,

Get back to your dishes.

I cannot believe that this video is real. How can the law in the UK tolerate this?
http://youtu.be/OS-oANzdoOo

Hilary
The publication is the government

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/house-building-in-england-october-to-december-2012

Just got back to London. Left at 8:00am. I have spent 10 hours on a train. On the way there, the train stopped at Machynlleth station. You can see some of the town from the train. There are still large numbers of pink ribbons everywhere.

Haystack,

Yes, thank you, I know it is produced by the government and I was already fully aware of its contents long before today. As I said previously, I know a couple of builders, and they make it their business to know the contents of those quarterly reports from cover to cover - just in case they decide the time is right to build a few hundred homes in the near future.

And, as I said in an earlier post, the most recent publication covering Q1 2013 has been available since May 16. One of the headlines of that particular report says "annual housing starts totalled 101,920 in the 12 months to March 2013, down by 3% compared with the year before". With that already in mind, I asked Cyners what evidence he had to support his assertion that housing starts were up.

http://www.construction-manager.co.uk/news/house-building-set-surge/

3 May 2013
New home starts up as output decline slows

Registration figures released today show housebuilders are gearing up for a significant new wave of activity. The number of new homes registered prior to the start of construction with the National House-Building Council in the UK during the first quarter of this year reached 31,739 – the highest level for this period since 2008 and a 22% increase over last year.

London registrations led the surge, with a 61% increase in new houses registered in the first quarter of 2013 compared to Q1 last year. The landmark Battersea Power Station redevelopment helped boost the figures as more than 800 new properties were registered during the first phase of the project. Over the next 15 years, more than 3,000 new homes will ultimately be built on the site.

The nationwide housing rise has been fuelled by an increase in public sector registrations of 43% in Q1 this year compared to the same period last year. The main driver for this rise has been the government’s £2.2 billion Affordable Homes Programme which aims to deliver 170,000 new homes by April 2015 and in some parts of the country is only now getting into gear.

Commenting on the Q1 figures, NHBC commercial director Richard Tamayo said: “This rise in new homes being registered – particularly affordable homes – is very encouraging news for Britain’s house-building industry which has been through a very difficult time in recent years. These figures may be an indication that much-needed confidence is returning to the industry, although they should be viewed in the context of overall new homes volumes remaining significantly below historic levels.”

SYRIA
Can anyone explain to me in simple, impartial language ......

why
Russia (and almost certainly China) overtly support the Assad regime.
Assad, hand in hand with Iran, (can) then openly support and arm Hezbollah.


and why in turn do
Saudi + EU (+ probably USA) support the "rebels".
The "rebels" in turn, are a ragbag of assorted groups including a significant band of of Al Qaeda followers.


for my part,
I don't think "The West" can just ignore this conflict as it has the potential to further destabilise this permanent tinderbox of the whole M/E.
However, I do not pretend to be able to offer up a suggested course, though remain firmly of the opinion that Syria cannot be left to sort itself out - the world doesn't come in little isolated pockets

Russia supports Syria because they make money from arms, but more importantly that is their only sphere of influence the in the ME. Increasingly, Russia is finding that countries are not interested in their help. If China are supporting Assad then I would guess it is for similar reasons as Russia.

This the BBBC's take on Russia/Syria

Foreign policy analysts usually tend to explain Moscow's inflexible stance on Syria by evoking arms sales to Damascus (Bashar al-Assad's regime is said to have placed orders for Russian hardware to the tune of $3.5bn) and the Russian naval station in the Syrian port of Tartous.

But this alone does not account for Russia's seeming indifference to the adverse effect that its international advocacy of the Assad government has on its relations with the United States, the European Union and the majority of the Arab states.

The explanation has a lot to do with Russia's domestic policies and the obsessions of the Russian political class.

By standing up for Damascus, the Kremlin is telling the world that neither the UN, nor any other body or group of countries has the right to decide who should or should not govern a sovereign state.

If one looks at the Syrian crisis from this angle, many of Moscow's previously inexplicable actions take on a new, clearer meaning.

Ever since the fall of Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, but especially after the 2004 "Orange Revolution" in Ukraine, the Russian leadership has been obsessed with the idea of America and the EU engineering the overthrow of governments that, for whatever reason, they find unsuitable.

President Vladimir Putin and his team seem to be convinced that something like that could happen to Russia.

Russia's political class never accepted concepts like "responsibility to protect", which aim to limit the ability of authoritarian governments to repress their own people.

Sovereignty, to the Russian leadership, means an unlimited licence for governments to do as they please within their national borders.

There is more here.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18462813

many thanks Hays - an interesting read indeed
of course none of the supporters of either side in these conflicts is ever working for altruistic or even humanitarian reasons - any more than the crusades had much or even anything to do with freeing jerusalem from the muslims for religious reasons

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcEtlLOyBxs

has I have said many times the uk is now CESSPIT OF CORRUPTION
ever MP should now resign and call an election and have a fresh start
more MPS scandals to come out they are all at some form of scam .
if you are a MP you should work has a MP not making money for asking questions
or giving out insider info and being paid to do it
it is a scandal and corruption ..

and still a big scandal to come out this week big time

what about your 2 (or is it 3?) labour pals in house of lords, or have you managed to miss that little story?

if ukip had any let alone a decent number of mps, it is a racing certainty that much muck would be uncovered about them too
it's a fact of life, that where's there's money to be made or advantage to be gained by the offering of same, there'll be takers of all hues

==============

and in the interim, if we can shut up the village idiot for long enough, a purely hypothetical question .....

if there was a mayoral election tomorrow between boris and ken, for whom would you cast your vote?