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.

I am in London as well. I didn't see you cyners!

Swedish tourists

i was in portobello and then down to bond street and savile row ...... and yes, pervs paradise indeed :-)

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btw, am now also short dow, but shall almost certainly close that tonight ..... i would have thought odds on a strong finish to the week

You did look a bit short in that photo.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/06/welfare-speech-ed-miliband-credible-alternative
Any serious assessment of Ed Miliband's extremely important speech on welfare spending on Thursday morning needs to start with a reality check. That reality check can be found in two recent YouGov polls. One shows the Conservatives leading Labour by four points on ability to handle the economy. The other is a damning verdict on the Labour leader himself, with large majorities believing Miliband ineffective, unclear about what he stands for, and not up to the job of prime minister.

And there's another thing that doesn't help the Labour leader much either. For most of the last two years, political friend and foe have muttered noisily about Miliband's need to lay out a credible economic account of Labour's governing past and governing future. Now that he is about to do so in a speech in London's East End, he is already being denounced for his pains. And denounced not just on the right, where you would expect it – though David Cameron yesterday was quick to mock the speech's well-trailed commitment not to restore universal child benefit. On the wider left, and in parts of his own party, many are quick to complain that Labour's fiscal caution this week is a betrayal of much they hold dear.

All this adds up to a salutary reminder that Miliband still has a mountain to climb in translating Labour's consistent but not massive opinion poll lead into something more ironclad and irresistible as 2015 nears. A reminder too that he is sailing into a strong political wind when he delivers his speech on Thursday morning. Unless he is very successful, Miliband may find that this significant speech has already been framed by his enemies as the work either of a flip-flopper or of someone who is imprisoned by New Labour neoliberalism. Neither of these silly charges is in fact true. But that doesn't mean they won't get a fair amount of purchase. Miliband is running the risk of doing the right thing while gaining no political reward for it.

I use my free travel pass all the time. I am about to use it for bus and tube.

I hope as a member of we are all in it together you put your cost of fares into the “we are all in it together charity box”.

But somehow I doubt it.


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I couldn't agree more, we are all bearing the cost of Labour's spending.
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Do you mean labour had to pay for the Con party purloining of the Nations Silver and avoiding repairing the infrastructure, while at the same time paying tax benefits to the idle rich on holidays in the Cayman Isles.
Again this bunch of Etonian school boys repeat their stupidity and are strangling the economy.
Due to the incompetence, banks aren’t lending, businesses can’t borrow and the businesses with money aren’t investing.

They don’t trust this disastrous government
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With the rate of U-turns this government are making don’t have a coronary to-night, as there may not be an A and E or an ambulance for you.

PS. I know the U-turn which Cameron made yesterday, but haven’t read to-day’s yet.
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None of Cameron's U turns can compare to the 'road to Damascus conversion' that the two Eds have made over welfare reforms and cap. The only proper comparison to be made is that St Paul was a well known con man leading up to his revelation. It seems likely that his conversion was a lie to get elected. No, oops, I meant to spread Christianity. Paul was known up to that point as 'Paul the liar'.

I am in a cafe, but about to use my free travel to get home. I deserve it because of all the tax I have paid personaly and as an employer that my staff have paid. In total it comes to well into 8 figures.

I only got my bus pass last year purely out of devilment - not used it yet so may give it a go before it is too late. As I am restricted in walking I found the tokens which were taken away from us more user friendly i.e. taxis. Will certainly endevour to hobble on a bus and try to enjoy the gerky ride. Ha Ha! No comments from the back benchers please!!!!

as i don't live in london, i am not even sure if i'm entitled to a free bus pass - not that it would do me much good, nor for the matter, free tube pass which i think one also gets as an OAP

Your London borough pays for it, so I guess you wouldn't get one.

glad i was in front of the screen while watching espn rugby .... phew! that could have been very hairy scary .... as it is, i managed to bounce in and out and am now in with small longs both dow and ftse and both in the money, so i'll keep my fingers x'ed and leave them open o'night

cynic
How often are you in Central London?

There is a very odd cafe called the Rapha Cycle Club. It is at 85 Brewer St. They play cycling videos or live cycle racing on a big screen. You can take your cycle in and there are virtical racks at the back to put it on.

http://www.rapha.cc/london?locale=UK

Bikes? not one of your interests are they H/S?

rarely hays, though it only takes me about 45 mins to say notting hill or even harley street ...... i walk to my office having given up commuting a great many years ago

post 25805, made my day. :-))

No, but cynic's I think.

there was certainly plenty on the hoof ..... warm sunshine sure brings them all out on the street

Mervyn King is on Desert island discs this morning.