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.

it's the same for all coloured parties throughout history, yet we still get the barking dogs in each corner

it'll be interesting to see what the press makes of everything, especially the economic recovery, when we enter the home straight towards the next election ..... I saw little flickerings in the papers somewhere this w/e with regard to an uptick in confidence and feel-good across the board

Ps,






======

Yep, economy all fixed, sunlit uplands ahead for all!

perception and actuality are not always synonymous, but is nearly always perception that holds sway

At least, if USA doesn't settle the "debt" limit with a working agreement, George and wavy Davy will have somebody else to blame for their own failures.

Hey Ho.

.

A kiss goodbye: Sir Richard Branson is off to the Caribbean – but not for tax reasons

Entrepreneur insists he can raise money for charity just as well from his private island


Alex Delmar-Morgan
Sunday 13 October 2013





When Sir Richard Branson stood on a collection of man-made islands in the shape of the world off the coast of Dubai in 2006, and planted a British flag in the sand dressed in a flamboyant Union Flag suit, he said: “I stake my claim on England.”


Now it seems Britain’s best-known entrepreneur is quitting the country that has made him his fortune. The flamboyant businessman has moved permanently to the Caribbean island he bought in 1979 where he will continue his extensive charitable and philanthropic work.

Sir Richard’s spokesman confirmed that the entrepreneur had decided to live permanently on Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), but denied that the decision was related to tax matters.

“He moved there more than seven years ago, but rather than retiring there, he spends 90 per cent of his time starting not-for-profit ventures and raising millions for charity through speeches and other charitable engagements,” the spokesman said.

He added: “Since he gives 100 per cent of any monies he earns from these to charity, it makes no difference for tax purposes whether he is in the UK or the BVI.”

Writing on his personal blog, Sir Richard insisted that he had moved to the Caribbean to help preserve his health: “There is no better place to stay active and I can kitesurf, surf, play tennis, swim, do Pilates and just play.”

However, as a non-resident of the UK, he could save significant tax on income from his Virgin empire, experts said on Sunday.


More twaddle here:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/a-kiss-goodbye-sir-richard-branson-is-off-to-the-caribbean--but-not-for-tax-reasons-8877375.html

It is good to see Boris and George working together to turn UK into a Chinese colony.

But even better to see London becoming the play ground for the Chinese and Russian Mafia.

The take over has speeded up under Dave.

But, I have always got Royal Mail to remind me of the "old days".

Labour's Rachel Reeves comes out with a classic, Labour will be tougher on benefits than the Tories, I recall 13 years in power and they did nothing to curb benefits then, infact they encouraged the benefit culture as those claimants would be inclined to vote for Labour. Bunch of hypocrites on Labour front benches.
2517

Perhaps this is more representative of ?

No need to burn the Guardian, just use it for bog roll,

George and Boris being charming the Chinese and nudging them to come over here to the UK.

- And spend (there are no limits on the numbers of Chinese who are able to do so - or the amounts they can spend - or where they can go to spend it)

- And invest (apparently, they are already going to do so in our Nuclear Power industry - but we would like them to do more of it in other areas too)

Interestingly, during a Question and Answer Session, only one question was directed to George Osborne

Hays,

Are you feeling more than usually constipated to-day?

No surprise you are as usual full of shit Fred!

Cynic fancy it??????

Sky Future Talent‏@skyfuturetalent55m
We've got work experience opportunities in Sky News and Sky Sports News - check out all the info at

http://jobs.sky.com/starting-out/work-experience-opportunities/content-work-experience

'






'Leading the debate on employment, poverty and social security.'




Author: Rachel Reeves, Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary

It's a huge honour to be asked by Ed Miliband to head up Labour's shadow work and pensions team. It's a big responsibility with some tough challenges but also I think some real opportunities to lead the debate on employment, poverty and social security and campaign for a positive agenda rooted in Labour's values of work, responsibility and decency.

Families facing a cost of living crisis want to know we have a social security system that is fair and sustainable, with costs kept under control but there for them when they need it.

The Tories seek to use every opportunity to divide this country and set one group of people against another. But their approach is failing – with the result that people are left out of work for year after year and costs to the country continue to rise. The Work Programme isn't working, the roll-out of Universal Credit is in disarray, the Youth Contract has been a flop and there is mounting anger at the degrading and disgraceful treatment of disabled people by ATOS.

The complacent Tories are congratulating themselves about a long-delayed recovery. But almost a million young people are out of work. For those in work, increasing numbers of them aren't being paid a living wage, are stuck on zero hours contracts or working part time when they want to work full time, and are being hit by soaring rents because levels of house building are so low - all of which drive up the benefits bill.

Labour will control the costs of social security by getting more people into work, rewarding work and tackling low pay, investing in the future, and recognising contribution. We'll strive to make the right to work a reality for people with disabilities, working with them to design services and benefits that enable them to play their part.

A One Nation social security system will be one with responsibility at its heart - people receiving benefits who can work have a responsibility to look for work, prepare for work and take jobs that are available to them, but government has a responsibility to treat benefit recipients fairly and decently, help and support them and work with employers to ensure there are real jobs opportunities available.

Our compulsory jobs guarantees for young people and the long term unemployed, funded by repeating the tax on bank bonuses and limiting pensions tax relief for those on more than £150,000, would ensure there is work for under 25s out of work for more than a year and adults out of work for more than two years. These would be proper paid jobs - and people would be expected to take them or face losing benefits.

And unlike the Tories, we'll put an effective cap on structural social security spending by getting tough on the causes of unemployment and rising benefit bills: low pay, lack of economic opportunity, shortage of affordable housing.

We would repeal cruel and counterproductive measures like David Cameron's Bedroom Tax. I see constituents week in and week out with heart breaking stories about how this policy is hitting them and their families. Around the country hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people, many of them disabled, are being penalised by this perverse policy which could end up costing more than it saves because of the distress and disruption it's causing.

And we'll keep up the campaign for the living wage, and for the economic reforms we need to ensure that prosperity is fairly shared and welfare is not a substitute for good employment and decent jobs.

Poor Rachel Reeves must have a memory loss.

''And unlike the Tories, we'll put an effective cap on structural social security spending by getting tough on the causes of unemployment and rising benefit bills: low pay, lack of economic opportunity, shortage of affordable housing''.
2517

Union boss 'Red' Len McCluskey hails Ed Miliband as the best leader since Michael Foot (who took Labour to worst ever defeat)

Unite leader used a speech to hail Miliband as best leader for 30 years
Declares that New Labour is no more as party lurches to the left
Foot was responsible for 'longest suicide note in history' manifesto

ard-left union chief Len McCluskey has praised Ed Miliband as Labour’s best leader since Michael Foot.

The Unite boss used a speech to hail him as the most radical leader since 1983, the year of Labour’s ‘longest suicide note in history’ manifesto and worst election result since the War.

And he gloated over the fact that under Mr Miliband, New Labour and the centre-left policies pioneered by triple election-winning Tony Blair had been abandoned.

The trenchant speech will raise fears over Mr McCluskey’s influence over the Labour leader, dubbed Red Ed by critics. Unite is one of the largest trade unions, and the unions are responsible for three quarters of Labour’s funding.

Mr McCluskey gave the lecture in memory of Jimmy Reid, a left-wing activist who led a group of dockers who took over shipyards on the Clyde in 1971.

He praised Ed Miliband’s speech to last month’s Labour conference, when he promised 1970s-style price controls for energy bills and suggested developers who refuse to build on their land should see it confiscated by the state.

‘We should ask if the glass is filling up or draining way,’ he said. ‘Put like that, the answer cannot really be in doubt.

‘Ed Miliband’s speech to the Labour conference was – some would say – the most genuinely radical we have heard from a Labour leader for nigh on 30 years.’

Thirty years ago, Michael Foot led his party to a historic defeat, losing three million votes since the 1979 election.

His successor, Neil Kinnock, started the slow process of moving Labour towards the centre ground and making it more electable.

The trend is with Labour.Gap now up to 7 0r 8 % points.

Need just 38% of vote for overal majority.