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.

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!

Wonder what posters here would feel like if THEIR daughter had had her benefits sanctioned (CUT OR NOT GIVEN)if she had refused to take the job.

And this is happening!!!!!

Its a fact of life under this present NASTY Tory Government led by Lynton Crosby.

gf
Your usual nonsense.

Lynton is obviously doing an excellent job judging by the left wing hype against him.

Skinny your fracking drilling report above.

Ive seen a report on TV which says its conventional drilling at the moment and not fracking drilling.

Ive read a lot of info on this fracking and the more I read the more I dislike it. Ive even flogged my IGAS shares because at some time I reckon theirs going to be an awfull accident may it be a earth quake or water pollution.

I just dont think they know enough here in this country.

In the US I here its a lot more surface drilling rather than the deep fracking drilling we have here.

I do hope its a success for this country but Im not easy with the reassurances given so far by health and safety etc etc.

though i have yet to see this prog, so will refrain from any comment that might be perceived to be biased, i can tell you for sure that fracking is done in a variety of ways depending on the geological structure, though the required result is the same

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

I just dont think they know enough here in this country.
on what basis do you make that assumption?
i suppose you think that the oil companies employ a bunch of pikeys to dig a big 'ole in the ground and then direct them sideways like in the great escape!

Watch the Horizon prog chaps.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is to probe operations including new spot checks by UK Border Agency staff on people's immigration status at London train and tube stations.
The Home Office has been accused of targeting non-whites and using "heavy-handed" tactics in the crackdown to tackle people working illegally in the UK, with witnesses claiming the checks appear to be only targeting members of ethnic minority communities.


of course they damn well do, and quite right too .... i'ld guess that also includes a bunch of eastern europeans - e.g. croatians, romanians and other scallywag nationals

Keep seeing Bill and Ben the posh retard boys posting after my posts.

Could someone please remind them I have them on a life squelch.

well i know that doesn't include me - just yet, though i don't know why not :-)

perhaps i'm seen as being too retarded and thus more deserving of pity than censure

An interesting read - although nothing anyone of a certain age didn't already know.

How German cars beat British motors - and kept going

The UK car industry was once one of Germany's biggest competitors; now it has become one of its biggest assets, argues author Dominic Sandbrook. How did Germany accelerate away?

ask red robbo and his ilk, coupled with some pretty appalling management at the time

==================
an extract ....
we lacked the right management, the right unions, the right priorities, and, quite frankly, the right work ethic

which of those 4 do you think played the largest part?

i'ld plump for #4 which thus allowed the militant unions to take control of the workforce and the factory floor