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.

Sultaana Freeman, a Muslim, had testified that a state order requesting that she remove her veil -- a hijab, which covers all of her face except her eyes -- infringed upon her right to observe her religion, to which she converted in 1997.

Freeman initially was allowed to wear a veil in her driver's license photograph, as she was allowed to do for a license she got while living in Illinois, but was asked to retake the photo to show her face. When she refused, the state revoked her license.

Here's one for the album

Skinny,

If you think it the truth and think his record good have a look at below and also compound it.

Also, check debt levels.

"The UK economy grew by 0.7% in the second quarter of 2013, up from 0.3% in the first quarter of the year, according to revised figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The figures mean that the economy has now recouped almost half of its total 7.2% contraction during the 2008-09 recession, with output remaining 3.3% below its pre-recession peak."

Hays,

Your last image reminds me of the Masonic Lodge on party night with everybody wearing their medallions and rolled up trousers.

Are you a member of any lodge?

Independence is more of a religion to Scottish nationalists than a political belief


By Graeme Archer Politics Last updated: September 9th, 2013

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/graemearcher/100235011/independence-is-more-of-a-religion-to-scottish-nationalists-than-a-political-belief/




Lord Ashcroft has commissioned one of his mega-polls, this time in Scotland. Opinion polls are always fascinating (said the statistician) … though it's not the headline figures that really shock here, in which there are no surprises. The Independence (i.e. separatist, nationalist) campaign is doomed, though we sort of knew that. Only 26 per cent of voters (way fewer than support the SNP in general elections) will vote against Union. So that'll be the end of it, then?

No, of course it won't. Looking back, I can't remember any period over my entire life when there wasn't the tiresome noise of Alex Salmond bleating on about Scottish Independence. The answer to everything, but the solution to nothing: "Independence" is more of a religion to the uber-nat than a politics. A small event, such as a crushing defeat at the hands of the people, is never going to dent Mr Salmond's (self-) belief system. In the Hitchhiker's Guide to Nationalism, the answer to life, the universe and everything is "more power for Alex".

Which is why the Scots are right: though only 3 per cent would put Independence at the top of their priority list, nearly half believe it's the No. 1 goal for the SNP government.

This made me laugh:


On the Scottish Parliament’s main achievements, 27 per cent replied free prescriptions, 16 per cent free university tuition and 13 per cent free care for the elderly. However, 31 per cent said they did not know and 13 per cent replied "none".



Notice anything about those achievements? What government wouldn't be popular if it made stuff "free".

The SNP always tell us that to bang on about the free prescriptions and so on is to miss the point; we could all (in the UK) have everything for free, if only we shared their mystical Celtic system of values. The poll shows most Scots don't believe this rubbish any more than they want separatism. Asked what they thought would happen under "Devo Max" (the proposed next step when the independence vote fails: Devo Max means all money spent in Scotland would be raised there) the survey said:


Fifty-nine per cent of Scots said taxes would increase, compared to only seven who predicted a cut and 29 per cent who said they would remain the same. The largest group also thought spending (46 per cent) and borrowing (55 per cent) would rise.

In other words, money doesn't grow on trees – you don't have to be canny to Scottish levels to understand this – and whatever the SNP prints on its leaflets, most Scots are aware that the subsidy from England plays a large role in Nationalist largesse over prescriptions and so on.

That's one reason I wrote on Saturday that the Labour case for Union should be about solidarity. If we don't share nationhood, why should income tax be collected on the English poor, and Barnett-formulated into a block grant to Mr Salmond, to help keep him sweet with the voters? In the absence of Union, what bond would exist to provide the political support for any cross-border subsidy?

It's not only socialists who should draw solidarity from their unionism. I don't find Devo Max appealing either: where does it end? Should London have Devo Max? Why should Londoners send money to Newcastle? Cheshire is full of rich people, too: should they be able to go it alone?

Why do we feel, instinctively, that the rich in the UK have obligations to the poor, regardless of postcode? Yet we balk – don't we – at the cross-border transfers of the European type?

Because we're a nation. One nation. The strains within Union come from questions of the West Lothian type, not about how to spend money, which are only the downstream correlates of not tackling the big issue. (We object to Scotland's free tuition because MPs from there voted to introduce them in England, while English MPs have no say in what happens north of the border.)

How do we foster a politics where we're prepared to look out for one another? The answer isn't "42". It's not "independence", either. Though the SNP find it impossible to swallow, the answer to that question is "Union".

Cynic,

Manuel.

Corrected.

--------

You are a man of experience and know France

Have you any experience of driving the road from Pau to Zaragoza (N-330) via the Tunnel of Somport?

(Or anybody else.)

=========

not me, and certainly not by bike ... far too many hills!

Umh,

Debating whether to drive my tank through it.

you could always practice in gaza, lebanon or syria

if I took it to those countries, at this moment in, time I think it would probably end up as my coffin, .

Oh, I see what you mean.

8-)

i'ld vote for that :-)

Be careful of the tap at the door.

You never know who may be there!

Strangely enough, I once went into a house where the owner showed me a coffin he had bought for himself.

No previous owner.

be careful of the tap of the hammer!

Can he sue? And if so, who??



Coronation Street actor Michael Le Vell not guilty of child sex charges

Michael Le Vell, the Coronation Street actor, has been cleared of a string of child sex charges.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10299456/Coronation-Street-actor-Michael-Le-Vell-not-guilty-of-child-sex-charges.html

Who is he going to sue?

The girl is 17 now. Maybe she should be prosecuted. No point in suing her as she probably doesn't have any money. I doubt that he could sue the police. The girl's story did not amount to enough for the CPS, so she came back after a few days and said she remembered a few more assaults. That should have rang alarm bells.

The whole thing stank. I thought he was probably innocent. The assaults went on for years and she had almost no details.

Exactly!

But I suspect he is considerably out of pocket, not to mention his career is fooked.

Surely someone has to account?

A slap in the teeth for Giddeon. ............


BBC NEWS... Politics.

11 September 2013 Last updated at 00:42

Vince Cable warns against economic complacency
The business secretary is due to speak at a joint government/CBI conference

Lib Dem Cabinet minister Vince Cable is to warn the government against getting complacent over the economy.

It comes two days after Chancellor George Osborne said the UK was "turning a corner" amid signs of recovery.

But Mr Cable is due to say he and fellow ministers "can't rest on our laurels".

In a speech to business leaders he will claim that "a few quarters of good economic data" did not mean the country was out of the danger zone.

The business secretary is expected to say the UK is experiencing the "beginnings of a recovery story", but that it would not become "meaningful" until there was strong and sustained business investment.

Earlier this week the chancellor said there were "tentative signs of a balanced, broad-based and sustainable recovery".

The two coalition ministers have clashed in the past over economic policy.

'Embarrassing slap-down'

In a CBI conference speech at Warwick University, Mr Cable is expected to say: "We can't rest on our laurels.

"The kind of growth we want won't simply emerge of its own volition. In fact, I see a number of dangers. One is complacency, generated by a few quarters of good economic data."

However he is expected to add: "It isn't difficult to see evidence of confidence returning." and will talk of "positive trends in production".

"Taken together with success stories like the car industry and export growth in emerging markets, we have the beginnings of a recovery story," Mr Cable will go on.

"But there are risks, not least the housing market getting out of control. Recovery will not be meaningful until we see strong and sustained business investment, and this... as a share of GDP, is currently the lowest in the G7."

Shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna said Mr Cable had issued an "embarrassing slap-down" to the chancellor.

But the Labour MP added: "It also reminds everyone that you can't trust a word the Lib Dems say.

"Vince Cable has supported the chancellor's policies which choked off the recovery in 2010."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24042555#

The fiddled fiddled unemployment figures pretend to be better again but look.......

Laura Kuenssberg ‏@ITVLauraK 7m
But again average earnings behind inflation - growing at only 1.1 pc so wages go less far each week.


A further drop in Standard Of Living For Most.

What a limp lettuce millipede was yesterday.
2517

Well hes not a compulsive liar like Camoron and Osbourne.

In fact I thought he did quite well given the comments and threats made by the unions prior to him addressing the TUC.

I also notice the polls have swung back in labours favour since the speech.