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.

Ed Miliband in power 'like a turbine on a windless day'

It is astounding that people are falling for the opposition leader’s Wonga-like offer, writes Boris Johnson.

I don’t think I have ever told you about my last official meeting with Ed Miliband. I must have somehow blanked it out, as one of those experiences that is just too harrowing to relate. It took place a few years ago, and my City Hall team was very excited in the run-up. We had an absolute corker of a plan, you see. We had the spreadsheets, the data, the options – and all we really needed was for Government to get behind it, and make sure that London got its fair share of the funding.

We were going to launch a huge drive to improve the energy efficiency in the capital’s homes. We were going to hit all sorts of nails pretty smartly on the head: we were going to cut CO₂ emissions, and thereby stop the polar bears from plopping off the ice floes. We were going to cut NO₂ emissions from our noisome old boilers, and so improve air quality. We were going to help get thousands of people into work as retro-fitters – people who went around helping to insulate homes.

As I told my team during the preparations, Britain might be lagging in some respects, but once our programme was under way we would certainly not be lagging in lagging. Above all, we were going to achieve the number one objective of the scheme: we were going to help cut the cost of heating people’s homes and help stabilise fuel bills.

I was interested in the plan as a way of helping the planet and helping people in tough times. As for Ed – well, it was, frankly, a bit disheartening. He wasn’t remotely interested. He didn’t want to talk about retro-fitting and, as I gabbled away about a new legion of “boiler bunnies” bouncing up to your door, I was aware that a deep tranquillity had settled on the minister.

He didn’t want to talk about cutting the cost of living. He just wanted to trade jokes about the forthcoming general election; and as one of my team put it later: “He was only vaguely in command of his brief and had no interest in achieving anything.” We wrote a long and optimistic follow-up letter, hoping that perhaps he had been taking it in. Nada. Not a peep.

So now that he is in opposition, and struggling with his ratings, I find it rather incredible that he can seriously pretend to want to do something for the hard-pressed energy consumers in this country, and I find it astounding that so many people are falling for his Wonga-like offer.

He says he will imitate the catastrophic policies of the emperor Diocletian, by imposing a price freeze on energy bills for the 20 months succeeding the election. And, er, then what? Well, then the energy companies will of course recoup their losses by whacking the prices jaggedly upwards again.

In the meantime, the Labour government would have achieved all sorts of undesirable outcomes. By their meddling jiggery-pokery, they will send out the worst possible message to anyone thinking of investing in this country, or buying shares in British businesses.

Worse still, perhaps, he will trigger all sorts of perverse behaviour by the companies – none of which is likely to be in the interests of the consumer. The energy companies will sullenly cut costs by laying off staff – so that you spend even longer waiting for a human being to answer the phone, and have to wait in all day for a repair man to come.

They will seize the opportunity to go slow on the investment that this country so desperately needs. According to Ofgem, there is an increasing risk of brown-outs – about one chance in four – and we are in the absurd position of having to ask some of our more energy-intensive industries to cut production in peak times.

And whose fault is that? Who was sitting there, luxuriating at the Department of Energy and Climate Change? It was Ed Miliband, whose sole discernible contribution was to continue the pointless desecration of the moors and dales and valleys of this country with wind farms. There they stand – wrecking some of the most gorgeous views in the world and producing derisible quantities of energy. He totally flunked his main task, which was to get on with building the new nuclear reactors that this country needs. Why do the French have lower energy bills than the British? Because 80 per cent of their needs are supplied by nuclear power. They are laughing at us.

Yes, we need to help bring down the costs of living – but you do that by investment, not by attacking the private sector companies that are indispensable to that investment. We need to help people with the cost of housing; but that means building hundreds of thousands of homes – homes for sale, for affordable rent, for private rent. But you won’t get developers risking their cash to build, if they are told they are vulnerable to Mugabe-style expropriations and a new mansion tax.

We need new transport infrastructure – and that means a government with boldness and vision, such as the one led by David Cameron and the Conservatives, not a Labour government that can’t make its mind up on the crucial challenges facing the country. Ed Miliband is against the third runway at Heathrow; Ed Balls is for it, even though it would be environmentally catastrophic and politically undeliverable.

We need a government with the guts to go for the real solution that will let this country compete with our neighbours – and help British business and consumers to fly to more destinations.

I know how hard it is to fight against a Labour Party that dishonestly pretends it can cut your costs. I’ve done it; and I know that in the end people see through the con. The public will go for the party with vision and ambition and sheer courage to take the big long-term decisions that will boost Britain’s competitiveness, cut costs and improve the standard of living for everyone.

What would Ed do if we were mad enough to put him back into office? What he did last time. Sit like a panda masticating bean shoots, or like a turbine inert on a windless day.

Hays,

Perhaps, he recognised you as a prat.

Yep a tax evading prat.

Makes me wonder though what tax evasion can you take on selling bottles of pop.

Fat Dave didnt go down well today at PMqs.

Labour snatch another 2% points...............

electionista‏@electionista
UK - YouGov/Sun poll: CON 33%, LAB 39%, LDEM 10%, UKIP10%

Depends on how many. Coca-Cola does pretty well.

Mikibland gets worse every PMQs.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh beuty theyr all over Camoron on twitter now after another porkie....

ex Belardinelli‏@abelardinelli5m
RT @JBeattieMirror: On marriage tax bluster, don't forget Cameron has form when it comes to telling whoppers at PMQs .

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/david-camerons-three-lies-in-30-287770

Boris for PM

Twitter attracts the loonies like gf.

Fat Dave didnt go down well today at PMqs.

And what about slimey Ball's , sorry I ment slim ball's, if he was looking in one of those funny mirror's

Hays and camp followers,

Just in case you wish to boast about recovery :

The ONS said industrial output fell by 1.1% in August, surprising analysts who had expected an increase.

The pound fell 0.9% against the dollar to $1.5942 and dropped 0.4% against the euro to 1.17980 euros.

Also, the con party's recovery seems to have feet planted in sand ie. another con.




Osborne has strangled the economy and now is a busted flush.

=====


VOTE UKIP

now for something a bit more interesting and topical .....

should e-cigarettes have the same strictures attaching as tobacco ones?

in my opinion, yes very much so
e-cigarettes convey exactly the same image as their tobacco cousins
i cannot think of a single good reason why e-cigarettes should be deemed acceptable other than in "pariah-land"

Hi cyners were have you been all day, haystack as been pining for you.

He felt isolated without your support.

Fred talk of % rates rising in the US today will start alarm bells ringing here.

evening tosspot ... was playing in a charity golf event .... anyway, you know i almost never respond to your (tiresome and perpetual) political postings

Britain's biggest privatisation in decades captured the imagination of the public, with 700,000 individuals applying for seven times the number of Royal Mail shares on offer to private investors.

an interesting reaction from which one could draw all sorts of conclusions
and no, i didn't bother to apply for any

No tar , But they should be banned in public places because I don't like seeing the clouds of vapour .

Now for something a bit more interesting. Fred's school photo.

Yes.

For some it will be a start of another addiction.

But this spineless government will duck "social" intervention similarly to ducking raising duty on alcohol.

Perhaps it relying on market forces or a boost to its economy!

<8-0)

There is a stalker is back on the thread.

I wonder if he has made any false accusations lately.

Yes.For some it will be a start of another addiction. would have been more than sufficient .... the added political nonsense merely encourages one to reach for the brandy