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.

Max, just find the parody MPs very funny especially the IDS one.

CC - Don't give up! You will definitely feel the benefits. The only downside is that you will probably put on weight as nicotine is an appetite suppressant and also you will feel the need to snack instead of lighting up! Smoking related diseases or obesity related problems??? Tricky choice! ;o)

I smoked about 40 a day for many years. I gave up when we were trying for kids and so did my wife. It has now been about 19 years that I have stopped. I tried to give up many times, but always slipped back. I suppose that I had not made my mind up as completely as I thought. When I last gave up I found it fairly easy as I knew that it was for good. I have never had a puff since as I know the risks of starting again. My wife gave up a few months after me. That period was difficult as she was smoking and I was not.

I had a friend who drank too much and smoked too much. He was on 100 a day, lighting up each cigarette with the previous one. He gave up drinking and smoking on the same day and never touched either since. It shows you what will power can do.

Thanks Guys.

I am also a qualified hypnotherapist. Hypnosis can help in giving up smoking. The underlying process is that it helps to focus your mind on the will power aspect of the problem. If you had really made your mind up then you would already have stopped, so will power is the problem. Think of things you have done in the past that required a lot of will power. It might have been saving up for something, it could be running a marathon or doing something that was frightening. If you can get a grasp of that past feeling then apply it to the task of stopping smoking. The best way to stop is a resolute attitude.

Call me dave will have to send someone on a fact finding mission to see how it's done.



Azerbaijan releases election results… before the polls even open

Electoral commission accidentally publish results showing a victory for Ilham Aliyev, the country’s long-standing President, a day before voting

Alec Luhn


Wednesday 09 October 2013


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/azerbaijan-releases-election-results-before-the-polls-even-open-8869732.html

Just for info. - EDF are offering a fixed deal tariff, no price rises until March 2017. You can get a free online quote on edfenergy.com/fix

Since you can't really do much about them, you don't need to worry about energy prices.

What you do need to do, is to make sure you've ALWAYS got the best deal.

The best way of doing this, IMHO, is to join the MSE 'Cheap Energy Club':

Details at: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheapenergyclub

First off, get together your current likely usage details in kWh for both Gas and Electricity. Then, fully armed with all the info', duly click on the link.

They say:

How does Cheap Energy Club work?

It's designed to fix the problem that when you switch tariff, you risk that provider upping its rates. Even if it doesn't, the cheap rate normally only lasts 18 months or so before it ramps prices. That means it's hard work to stick with the cheapest. So we're going to do that work for you. There's a three step process to it:

Step 1. We find you the cheapest deal. Register for the Club and we'll check you're on the cheapest deal. If you are, great - move to step 2. If not, it'll do a full market comparison to find the cheapest (with lots of guidance) and we'll handle the switch for you. Plus to encourage you, there's up to £30 cashback if you switch via the Club, which you wouldn't get direct.

Step 2. In the background, each month we do a comparison for you. Energy prices change - yours may hike, others could get cheaper. So without you doing anything, whether you switched or not, from then on we do a comparison for you in the background each month, to check you're still on the cheapest deal.

Step 3. Alert you when it's worth switching again. You tell us what 'worth it' means. If you tell us you want to save £100/yr once you can we'll email you; and without you entering new info (unless it's changed), we'll tell you what the cheapest is, and let you shift at speed.

PS from ExecLine: Also investigate doing the provider swap through Quidco. You might get a better Cashback rate.

chris - i have read what you said, but it does not seem to me that you answer my question as to whether or not, in even simpler language, people should be allowed to smoke e-cigarettes in restaurants and similar

my view is unequivocally that they should not as I see that as a retrograde step for all sorts of reasons

I have never said that e-cigarettes should be banned, as I don't much care one way or another

Cynic You never ever answer other peoples questions so why should people answer yours.

Anyway youve always made your mind up what the answer is anyway before people reply.

Cynic,

I am beginning to understand you.

You agree with state intervention on occasions when it is for your personal and the public good.

uuunmhhh!

You are sounding like a Marxist.

What do market forces say about situations similar to this?

You should be ashamed of yourself.



8-))

Afternoon Fred thought youd gone out for the day. Taken Hilary for a pie and a pint in Brum.

Dave Camoron‏@EtonOldBoys

Just remember plebs, keep working hard.... #votetory

Dave Camoron

@EtonOldBoys


Studied Piss Taking and Tory Satire at Oxford, gaining a first class honours degree. I am so lucky to have never worked a day, in my life

London

GF,

Do you mean Moneyam's own shrivelled up Anne Robinson look alike.


------

Haven't been out, but lost again at chess last night and mugging up my openings and defences.

Looking around the club last night the average age must have been over 70, that included the visiting team.

Felt quite young until I lost.

But next time.

9-)

Always takes a while Fred to get back into any game.

So Hilarys a ginger nut is he.

LOL just look at this guys and it wasnt meant to be a set up. Parody I D Smith from twitter.........................

goldfinger- 10 Oct 2013 08:34 - 30845 of 30878

Iain Duncan Smith MP ‏@IDS_MP 30m
It's World Mental Health Day... Let's remove the stigma by applauding those with mental issues (be careful though, they are dangerous)

doodlebug4 - 10 Oct 2013 09:44 - 30851 of 30878

A stupid comment by IDS - "It's World Mental Health Day... Let's remove the stigma by applauding those with mental issues (be careful though, they are dangerous) "- that's like implying all dogs are dangerous.

goldfinger- 10 Oct 2013 09:52 - 30852 of 30878

Check the spelling of his name.

hilary- 10 Oct 2013 09:52 - 30853 of 30878

Doods,

I'm guessing the IDS Twitter account is a parody account...................ENDS


Havent laughed as much for a long long time.

Labour has acknowledged that it still has its work cut out to win the argument on welfare, after a party pollster said it faced a "very severe" challenge to overcome a Tory lead on benefit cuts.

A spokesman agreed that the party would have to work hard to sell to voters its plans for a social security cap, after the leak of a recording of a briefing by James Morris, from Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research. Reflecting a belief that the Tories are scoring better with the public on the welfare issue, Morris is quoted as saying: "The challenge is very severe … if you look at politically salient target groups those numbers get worse."

Morris told a meeting at the Trades Union Congress last Friday that a poll of 3,000 voters had found that 53% of those questioned supported changes to the benefits system. Just over a quarter (27%) opposed the changes.

The poll also found that the only groups of voters who opposed the government's changes were likely to be Labour supporters, indicating that the party was not well placed to win over floating voters on the issues. Opponents included Labour voters and people who identified with the party, as well as Guardian and Mirror readers.

Morris told the meeting at the TUC, which commissioned the poll, that support for the government's reforms increased among voters that would be targeted by the Tories and Liberal Democrats. More than three quarters (77%) of Conservative/Lib Dem voters supported the reforms. Nearly two thirds (64%) of Labour/Conservative swing voters supported the government.

Priti Patel, the Tory MP for Witham, said: "Labour's rocketing welfare bill is what got us into this mess in the first place. Ed Miliband is the same old Labour; he has opposed every one of the £83bn of welfare savings so far, and he still wants unlimited benefit handouts. It's taxpayers who would pay the price for this, through higher taxes and higher bills."

A Labour spokesman said: "We always have more to do to win the welfare arguments. We have to make people recognise our spending cap on social security spending will tackle the underlying causes of rising social security bills."

The party announced in the summer that it would cap the structural elements of social spending, on areas such as long-term worklessness and on housing costs. The cap is designed to target the long-term pressures on welfare spending.

Another poll out today.........no change labour still hold overall majority.

electionista‏@electionista
UK - YouGov/Sun poll: CON 32%, LAB 38%, LDEM 11%, UKIP 13%

fred and others - I can't help it if you don't like my views but at least they're made without political claptrap