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.

"Its the 2 at the top that need replacing."

Hey! That's at least two things we agree on, GF.

I'm a Boris fan and think he''d be OK for PM. He's a very, very clever guy and tells it mostly how it is. I think Cameron is too full of rhetoric.

But I'm not sure who I want for Chancellor.

Suggestions on a postcard, please.

Exclusive: Government 'has its head in the sand' over extent of zero hours



Simon Neville


Wednesday 02 October 2013





The Government is failing to recognise the true extent of workers employed on controversial zero-hours contracts, by continuing to use data that is acknowledged by the Office for National Statistics – which publishes the statistics – to understate the problem, according to MPs and campaigners.


The ONS had previously said 250,000 workers were on the contracts, which leave workers with no guaranteed hours each week and subject to last-minute changes in working patterns. But it has since admitted that the data undershoots the true number, and some estimates put it at as high as 1 million.

Campaigners have argued that the "head in the sand" attitude to the extent of the problem could be behind the Government's failure to take action to defend employees' rights.

Companies using zero-hours contracts include Sports Direct, McDonald's and Burger King. Despite the ONS's concerns, the Government stated in a recent answer to MPs that it continues to believe the low number is correct.

The ONS's regulator, Sir Andrew Dilnot, chairman of the UK Statistics Authority, has promised it will change the way it calculates zero-hours contracts, admitting the estimates were probably too low as individuals do not necessarily realise contracts are "zero hours". The ONS will now start polling employers instead of just workers.

The shadow Business Secretary, Chuka Umunna, said: "Ministers have their heads in the sand and are refusing to admit the huge proliferation we've seen on their watch of growing insecurity at work. Labour has recently announced plans to outlaw zero-hours contracts where they exploit people. In contrast, out-of-touch ministers have failed even to properly investigate the issue or how widespread these contracts have become."

The insistence of the Department for Business that the 250,000 number is correct is also at odds with the admission of the Government's own care minister, Norman Lamb, that there are 307,000 workers on zero-hours contracts in the care sector alone.



more:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/exclusive-government-has-its-head-in-the-sand-over-extent-of-zero-hours-8852326.html

Poor speech from Cameron. Uninspiring nothing new. READING FROM A SCRIPT.

He says the land of opportunity for all!!!!!!!! who is he trying to kid.

Come up North Davey and tell that to all the unemployed kids up here.

Also very smug and patronising towards labour. That does you no good Camoron, wins you no freinds.

ps, forgot to say .........looks like a big fat budgie.

Don't know why, but Cameron and the orchestrated clapping, stand ups and views of the audience and henchmen reminded me of :




Who are the scapegoats for a failing government?

Looks like Cameron is UKIP's sacrificial lamb.

I like mine with mint sauce.

======

Like the joke about burning and effigy of him.

Pity it wasn't the real thing.

It's no different at a No Lab Conference.

Land of Hope and Glory.

Eton Old Boys at the front.

Fix bayonets. Over the top and at them.

A party led by a donkey.

=======

What is the average age of the tory party followers?

No mention of 'The Big Society' no mention of 'we are all in this together'.

Wont have picked up any new voters with this speech.

As ExecLine says bring on BORIS, the conservatives need his passion and personality.

Good speech.

lol :-)

ha ha he he ho ho..........Hays, hes a comedian that chap.

Iain Duncan Smith MP‏@IDS_MP10m
Wonderful speech by the Prime Minister. You can replay its best bits at venues across the nation. Vote Tory!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BVkTQoqIcAArsTb.jpg:large

No.

The torid party needs the new appeal of sylph like Gove for its leader.

2000 quid a day to produce that in a spar.

How many weeks dole is that?

8-)
-----

I have a sister who was a "young conservative" back in the 50s and 60s and I can remember being dragged to the tea or garden parties on a Saturday afternoon and listening to similar spiel as Cameron is spouting now.

It seems the relics of those "parties" are now attending conferences.

Looking back I suppose the parties were stock breeding markets for perusing future breeding possibilities.

---

Just heard Michael Heseltine saying, "we now know what Cameron stands for"!

Yes, a privileged elitist ruling class which is divorced from the "big society" but ruling as the BIG BOYS SOCIETY!

Conservative Party conference: David Cameron reveals young people under 25 would not be able to claim benefits under Tory government

PM offers prospect of income tax cuts as he pleads for chance to 'finish the job' of balancing nation’s books in closing speech


Andrew Grice Author Biography
Political Editor

Wednesday 02 October 2013


chubby bloke who has never had a proper job lays into lazy tossers



Young people under 25 could lose state benefits if they are not in work, education or training, David Cameron revealed today as he promised to extend the Conservatives’ welfare reforms.


In his closing speech the Tory conference in Manchester, the Prime Minister disclosed that his party’s manifesto at the 2015 election would include proposals to tackle the problem of so-called “Neets” – young people not in education, employment or training.

Later Tory sources suggested that under-25s could lose Housing Benefit or Jobseeker’s Allowance if they refused to take up offers of work, training or education. The move is unlikely to be introduced before the 2015 election because the Liberal Democrats have already blocked proposals by Tory ministers to curb Housing Benefit for under-25s.

Mr Cameron told the conference: “We should give young people a clear, positive choice: Go to school. Go to college. Do an apprenticeship. Get a job. But just choose the dole? We’ve got to offer them something better than that.” Insisting that such an approach is not “callous,” he said: “This is what we want to see: everyone under 25 – earning or learning.”


More loony tunes stuff here: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/conservative-party-conference-david-cameron-reveals-young-people-under-25-would-not-be-able-to-claim-benefits-under-tory-government-8853560.html

Lots of good things have come from the Tory conference.

Excuse me from butting into this political thread, but I've just read this in the Independent and thought it worth passing on for the benefit of any hay fever sufferers.

What Doctors definitely wont tell you;

Holistic hay fever prevention

Hay fever is a common allergy, suffered by countless people every summer. So-called experts would treat it with antihistamines and other poisons, but this narrow-minded view ignores the interconnected way the natural world works. Hay fever is caused by pollen, which is how plants reproduce. Pollen is entirely natural, and nothing natural is harmful, so hay fever is caused by an imbalance. In order to address this imbalance, simply masturbate regularly into a flowerbed or other convenient foliage.

Interesting that Mikiband's dad was a Marxist. Marx came from a very privileged family and spent a large part of his life getting drunk in London pubs. Why do a handful of loonies follow him. He was just another champagne socialist.

Hays tell me, do you have any freinds other than cynic on here in the make believe world?.

Is your world and life very shallow.

Iain Duncan Smith MP‏@IDS_MP21m
Labour is red, the Tories are blue. None of us give a fuck about you!