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.

for years now stan .... hard to believe i know, but i used to be a really miserable and curmudgeonly sort of chap until i found that being jolly was more fun

Not if it makes you look like post 27702 :-))

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-23224826 these two should be strung, burt at the stake and ashes fed to pigs for what they've done.

Far better for the glass to be half-full than half-empty cynic and on that note I'm off to the fridge! Laithwaites have a very nice Sauvignon Blanc, Gooseberry Bush ( 11.5% alc) a very lovely, every day drinking, wine.

try a viognier for a change perhaps from oz .... those from southern rhone are generally too complex (and expensive) for everyday

You've lost me... Baffled.... I'll stick to Guiness I think

viognier, like sauvignon, is a grape variety and very different in character

The cheapest Viognier I can find on Laithwaites website is £8.99, Gooseberry Bush is £6.99 - I don't find it complex, it's quite light and refreshing, the only complaint I have is that it's far too drinkable!

sauvignon is, de facto, very light and tending to too great acidity
buy quality, not price!

Mugabe beats Tsvangirai in Zimbabwe election - ZANU-PF source

JOHANNESBURG | Thu Aug 1, 2013 8:03am BST
(Reuters) - A senior source in Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's party claimed a resounding victory in Wednesday's parliamentary and presidential election against Prime Minster Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

"We've taken this election. We've buried the MDC. We never had any doubt that we were going to win," the source, who could not be named, told Reuters by phone on Thursday.

Releasing results early in Zimbabwe is illegal, and police have said they will arrest anybody who makes premature claims about the result.

Consumer confidence in the UK jumps to 39-month high

Consumer confidence across the UK has risen to its highest level since April 2010, according to the latest GfK NOP Index.

The Index, which is carried out on behalf of the European Commission, had seen confidence jump from -27 in April and -22 in May to -21 in the past month (July 2013). These figures are a further rise from the -26 recorded across the entire first quarter of the year. In total, this is a marked improvement from the 2012 average of -29.

Industry analysts have suggested that this boost in confidence has come from consumers re-assessing economic forecasts and generally being more positive about where the future lies. Looking specifically at how individuals felt about the health of the UK economy, the outlook for the next 12 months increased by seven points and was actually an increase of 21 points when compared to July 2012.

The naming of business chiefs who have donated millions of pounds to the major political parties as new members of the House of Lords has provoked accusations that money is “polluting” Parliament.

The donors are included on a list of 30 new peers who will take the total membership of the Second Chamber to nearly 850 – the biggest number since it was reformed 14 years ago.

The swathe of appointments brings the number of people entitled to sit in the Lords to 838 (although 53 are currently absent), the largest figure since most hereditary peers were removed in 1999.

The new peers could cost the taxpayer about £1.2m, plus travel and other expenses, leaving Mr Cameron with awkward questions over his promise to cut the cost of politics.

Some of the new peers...!
1. Sir Anthony Bamford (Con) Veteran industrialist whose family is a long-standing, generous Tory supporter.

2. Danny Finkelstein (Con) Times columnist, below left, and old friend of George Osborne. A youthful supporter of the SDP.

3. John Horam (Con) Britain’s most travelled politician sat in the Commons for Labour, the SDP and finally the Tories.

4. Howard Leigh (Con) Chairman of the Leaders Group, a network for supporters requiring members to donate at least £50,000 a year.

5. Olly Grender (Lib Dem) First worked for the party in the 1980s and was Paddy Ashdown’s chief spin doctor. Has just stood down from a Downing Street stint.

6. Brian Paddick (Lib Dem) Former senior officer in the Metropolitan Police, above right, has twice been a candidate for London Mayor.

7. James Palumbo (Lib Dem) Friend of Nick Clegg and has lent his nightclub, free of charge, to the Lib Dems.

8. Sir William Haughey (Lab) Glaswegian businessman above right, who built a fortune in the refrigeration business. Has given more than £5m to charity.

9. Jon Mendelsohn (Lab) Chief fund-raiser for Labour who set up his own lobbying company with two party colleagues.

10. Jenny Jones (Green) One of their most prominent figures on the London Assembly for 13 years.

•Annabel Goldie DL MSP – Conservative Member of the Scottish Parliament; former Leader of the Scottish Conservatives.... say no more
•Daniel Finkelstein OBE – Associate Editor of The Times and former Head of Policy for the Conservative party...
•Doreen Lawrence OBE – campaigner for justice, race equality and better policing

lol... democracy, democratic what bollocks!!

Labour stretching their lead........

electionista‏@electionista16m
UK - Populus poll: CON 29%, LAB 40%, LDEM 11%, UKIP 12%

Daniel Pelka murder: Mother and partner given life

Magdelena Luczak and Mariusz Krezolek were convicted of four-year-old Daniel's murder at Birmingham Crown Court on Wednesday.

Mrs Justice Cox said the sentence reflected the '"incomprehensible brutality by both of you up to his death".

Luczak, 27, and Krezolek, 34, had denied murder and blamed each other.

The judge told the pair they had "caused [Daniel] severe physical and mental suffering".

'Designed to humiliate'
"We will never know exactly what form it took because you have not explained it - he must have been absolutely terrified," she added.

Mrs Justice Cox said the two had killed Daniel with a "campaign of cruelty".

"Complicity in ill treatment started with a broken arm when he was just three and a half.

"What was handed out to Daniel was incomprehensible brutality by both of you," she told the pair.

Daniel's punishments were "designed to humiliate", the judge said, and he was "a victim of chronic and systematic starvation".

Labour lead at 6 and UKIP down again, Conservatives +1

Latest YouGov / The Sun results 1st August - Con 34%, Lab 40%, LD 10%, UKIP 11%;

Magdelena Luczak and Mariusz Krezolek, 30 years, lets hope its the worst 30 years of their lives and they don't get away with an easy ride and early release.

Balcombe oil drilling starts after fracking protests

Energy company Cuadrilla has begun drilling for oil at a site in West Sussex after being held up by more than a week of protests.

The company said it started drilling in Balcombe at 11:15 BST after completing tests on the equipment.

Yet More Government Enforced Sex Work On Mandatory Job Seeking Website

Posted on August 2, 2013 by johnny void |

'READ ADVERT BELOW'

http://johnnyvoid.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/lap-dancing-uj.png?w=500&h=320


“In addition to our main stage entertainment we offer private dances in our basement booths or on one of dance beds from topless to fully nude.”

These are the type of vacancies still being advertised on the sleazy Government job seeking website Universal Jobmatch which has just been revealed to cost an astonishing £5 million a year (spotted via @refuted).

And once again there is nothing to stop people under 18 from applying for the jobs, possibly even unaware of the true nature of the role. Appallingly, people could even be forced into making an application for these vacancies or face having benefits stopped for up to three years. This is not scare-mongering – if whoever is monitoring Universal Jobmatch is unable to spot obvious vacancies for sex workers then what chance do front line Jobcentre staff have? Claimants are already being threatened with sanctions for not applying for enough vacancies via this shabby website*.

These vacancies (seven in total at time of writing) at least appear to be for a legitimate business based in Norwich. But with seemingly no real checks over whether employers are who they say they are, then what is to stop any old pimp from attempting to recruit young, and quite possibly vulnerable unemployed women through the site?

There is no safety information on Universal Jobmatch despite the website being plagued with a string of spoof vacancies and out and out scams. It seems that if you are unemployed, sick or disabled, then this Government couldn’t give a shit if your identity is stolen or worse you end up butchered by some crazed pervert as happened recently to job seekers in the US.

Whilst David Cameron is pretending to go back to basics with his clampdown on online porn, Iain Duncan Smith’s department is actively involved in recruiting sex workers for strip clubs at a huge cost to the tax payer. The DWP is making this Government a grim laughing stock, and it’s not like Cameron and Osborne needed any help with that.

*This advice for claimants mandated to register for Universal Jobmatch has not changed. Whilst you can be issued with a Jobseeker’s Direction forcing you to sign up to and use the site, you do not have to tick the box giving Jobcentre staff access to snoop on your job search. You can not be forced to use Universal Jobmatch on your home computer, or anywhere but inside the Jobcentre. Should your bungling Jobcentre advisor attempt to force you to apply for sex work then ask to speak to the Jobcentre manager immediately.


http://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2013/08/02/yet-more-government-enforced-sex-work/

The jobs are legal, so why not advertise them. If you don't like the jobs being legal then campaign for a change in the law rather than whinge as usual.

sticky has applied to vet the sites and the applicants for suitability and enthusiasm!