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.

A lot of fuss about nothing.

that it's not, but whether much will be remembered in 18 months time is another matter.

the convener + unite in grangemouth has at least as much mileage

Nah!

The public don't care about the phone jacking. I certainly don't mind if they have listened to the messages of a few celebs.

Nah Nah!

Labour leader Ed Miliband has been urged to consider reopening an inquiry into alleged vote-rigging in the Falkirk constituency party, after the release of a dossier of emails suggested attempts by Unite union officials to undermine it.

The investigation was closed in September after key witnesses withdrew evidence suggesting that they had been recruited to join Labour as part of a drive by Unite to bolster the constituency party with supporters who would back its favoured candidate in a selection battle.

But the Sunday Times reported that it had seen emails suggesting that the retraction letter was written by Unite officials and approved by one of the figures at the heart of the dispute, Falkirk constituency party chairman Stevie Deans, the union's convenor at the Grangemouth petrochemical plant.

The emails, sent from a company address, were reportedly obtained by lawyers working for Grangemouth's owners, Ineos, during the recent industrial dispute, as the firm sought to prove that Mr Deans was spending work time on political activities.

They reportedly included a draft of the retraction letter which was sent to Mr Deans for him to get it signed by Michael and Lorraine Kane, the witnesses who initially complained to the party against him and Karie Murphy, who was Unite's choice to become Labour prospective parliamentary candidate in Falkirk after MP Eric Joyce announced he would not stand again following his arrest in a House of Commons bar brawl.

Mr Deans and Ms Murphy were suspended by Labour when the inquiry was launched, but charges against them were later dropped and they were reinstated as members after the Kanes withdrew their complaint.

The Sunday Times reported that a dossier of around 1000 emails has been handed to police in Scotland, who were initially called in by Labour when allegations of irregularities emerged in July but determined that there was not enough evidence of wrongdoing to launch an investigation.

A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: "Information was handed in to Falkirk police on Friday and this information will be looked at by police."

Labour's former general secretary Peter Watt told the Sunday Times: "Understandably, the initial inquiry was pulled because of lack of evidence. If new information has surfaced that puts a question mark over that lack of evidence, the party should consider reopening its inquiry."

A Unite spokesman said: "Unite was the subject of entirely unjustified attacks in relation to the Labour parliamentary selection in Falkirk. Both the Labour Party and Police Scotland investigated the issue and found that neither the law nor the party's rules were broken by the union.

"The email exchanges, apparently leaked by an employer for its own purposes, do nothing to change that.

"Unite's own quite proper investigations into what had occurred in Falkirk, which we were enjoined to undertake, were all conducted through the medium of external solicitors. The union had no direct contact with anyone involved in the Labour Party investigation.

"This continuing media witch-hunt demonstrates how threatening some elements in society continue to find such involvement by working people."

Conservative Party chairman Grant Shapps said: "Labour must reopen the Falkirk inquiry immediately. These emails confirm that Unite planned to infiltrate the Falkirk Labour Party to ensure their candidate was selected and, when the inquiry was opened, went so far as to write the statements from key witnesses withdrawing their evidence.

"Ed Miliband failed to stand up to the unions in Falkirk and backed down in the face of pressure from [Unite general secretary] Len McCluskey. If he is too weak to stand up to his union bosses and tackle what he himself called 'bad practices', how can he stand up for hard-working people?"

They do and it sells papers.

Old boring news. here today gone tomorrow.

Ginger and the spin doctor far more interesting.

Who, or what is Grant Shapps?

Somebody look for dirt on the BBC or anybody which will draw attention from fragmenting party of cons.

=====

Interesting that Cameron seems to be trying to close the guardian down, rather than address the abuse that Snowden has reveal about phone tapping.

Has Cameron being tapping (hacking) Ed's phones?

Wavey Dave is a an ?????

I like to see what action the government can do which is effective.


But Cameron is huffing and puffing and acting as firmly as blancmange.



The majority of the public see Snowden as doing a public service, by his exposing of corruption and illegalities.

Good luck to him.

I wonder what Cameron is trying to hide.

The opinion polls I would think.....

He can run, but he can't hide!

The majority of the public see Snowden as doing a public service ...... says who?
In any other age he would have been rightly labelled as a traitor and dealt with accordingly

A difficult call. He has exposed clear illegality on the part of the US government. The rest action of various governments around the world shows how important it is. It is somewhat of a double standard to complain of phone hacking and then the UK is monitoring our calls.

NoW phone-hacked for solely commercial purposes

if those who run the country's security feel they need to garner info from wherever primarily to ensure our safety, then I am very happy for them to do so, albeit within some kind of monitored framework

Hays Hays Hays..........

electionista ‏@electionista 1h
UK - YouGov/Sun poll: CON 31%, LAB 40%, LDEM 9%, UKIP 12%

It opens it's mouth, and guess what comes out?



Britain must say 'no' to eastern European workers, says Cameron

The Prime Minister says young Brits cannot "fully" compete with hard-working immigrants from Eastern Europe


"In 2011 official figures uncovered by the Labour MP Frank Field disclosed nine out of 10 new jobs had gone to immigrants in the first year of the Coalition."


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/10409062/Britain-must-say-no-to-eastern-European-workers-says-Cameron.html

2011?... but that's 2 years ago!

... So what exactly have the "Con" Government done about it?

Encouraged more of the same, what else?

For Manuel,