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.

Hays Hays Hays.......think again........

From the FT.........

Osborne leaned on EU to ease rules for Co-op
By Alex Barker in Brussels and Patrick Jenkins and George Parker in London

George Osborne pressed Brussels last year to spare the Co-operative Bank from tougher rules applied to big listed banks, a revelation that complicates Conservative attempts to drag Ed Miliband into the scandal engulfing the bank and its former chairman.

The chancellor’s attempt to win more lenient capital treatment for the Co-op came at a 2am negotiating session between finance ministers in May, shortly after he angrily criticised special carveouts, according to several people present.

His intervention provides further evidence that Tory politicians – as well as Labour – pulled out the stops to help what was seen as a bastion of banking respectability that they hoped could bolster competition in retail banking.

In particular, there was political momentum behind the idea that the Co-op’s bid for Lloyds’ TSB network would produce a strong challenger to the big four high street banks. Though talks on the deal had broken off a month before Mr Osborne’s intervention in Brussels, they resumed two months later. It is unclear whether there was any change to the regulator’s view of the Co-op’s capital situation during that period. The bank subsequently withdrew from the purchase, when it emerged that it had a £1.5bn capital hole.

Mr Osborne’s aides say the chancellor had tried to help the Co-op in Brussels and was not embarrassed about ensuring the bank was treated the same as other EU mutuals. “We are totally unashamed in trying to help a British institution and the British economy,” one said.

A person present at the talks in May spoke of “complete and absolute astonishment” when British officials asked for the Co-op to benefit from lenient terms that Mr Osborne had earlier mocked for breaching the Basel accord on bank capital.
Diplomats involved said the Co-op request came after Mr Osborne realised other countries would not back his call to tighten standards for all banks. The European Commission declined to comment.

The news muddied attempts by David Cameron to draw a direct link between the Labour party and the bank’s unfolding scandal. Revelations at the weekend that the Rev Paul Flowers, former chairman and once a local councillor, had allegedly been caught on film paying £300 for illegal substances have badly damaged the group.
Mr Cameron said the coalition was planning an inquiry – overseen by regulators – into what had gone wrong at the Co-op bank, possible regulatory failures, and the approval of Rev Flowers as the bank’s chairman in 2010 even though he lacked banking expertise.

“This bank, driven into the wall by this chairman, has been giving soft loans to the Labour party, donations to the Labour party, trooped in and out of Downing Street . . . now we know they knew about his past,” he said.
“Why did they do nothing to bring to the attention of the authorities this man who has broken a bank?”

Andrew Tyrie, who chairs the Treasury select committee, said any review must be led by an “independent person”.
“The authorities cannot be seen to be marking their own work,” he said.
The Co-op’s capital rules will be governed from next year by the EU’s latest capital requirements law, which give latitude to mutually owned banks on the types of instruments that count as top-notch capital.

However, the Co-op’s status as a public limited company wholly owned by a mutual group was a grey area that Mr Osborne’s officials clarified, potentially to the Co-op’s advantage. In its preliminary assessment of EU implementation, the Basel committee questioned whether the way co-operatives were treated was compliant with the accord.

Michael Dugher, co-head of Labour’s elections campaign, said: “The Tories were all over the Co-op like a cheap coat six months ago because they were desperate to try and get some distance between them and all the dodgy hedge funders who bankroll their party.”

In the end, Co-op’s capital advantage is an academic point as the restructuring deal to recapitalise the bank through a debt-for-equity swap will leave the mutual parent with only 30 per cent ownership of the bank. That will bar it unequivocally from qualifying from the capital latitude given to pure mutuals.

ITS ALL COMING OUT IN THE TORIES WASH.

From Peston on twitter.......

Someone should point out that the Britannia takeover which holed Co-op took place in 2009, a year before Flowers became chairman @Peston

Tories dug an hole for themselves here Im afraid, an own goal of the highest order.

The reports wont look at the tittle tattle but the real evidence.

The reports wont look at the tittle tattle but the real evidence
that would be a first then :-)

actually, do we really care? ..... of course hays, sticky and one or two others seem to be getting excited about something or other that is probably a kot less untoward than mccluskey and unite and all that shenanigans

Cyners do you really read anyone elses posts but your own.....see here re- to your comment above......

goldfinger - 21 Nov 2013 13:38 - 33117 of 33154
Hays the public dont give a toss, but it would appear Osbourne is now being pulled in to the debate. That should be interesting and Camorons smear tactics back firing on him.

i read posts from several of you (including you actually!), but frankly, i find the political soapbox ranting that pervades this thread to be rarely other than seriously dull and i skip past it

Manuel.

For somebody who is obviously irritated by the content of this thread, you spend an awful lot of time on it.

I suppose it could be masochism, but why don't you go back to you COOK thread.

=====

But it appears to more and more voters than Cameron is a liar and his henchmen are similar.

A government who is not trusted, even by members of the "leader's" own party.

fred - you'll note that it is pretty rare for me to respond to anything you write

however, you're certainly right about the Cook thread ..... i have neglected it of late, but i could certainly add a very good and simple monkfish recipe if of interest

HO HO HO,

Monkfish use to be fish bait, until the pubs discovered scampi in baskets.

Ugly fish, but edible.

But, do post the recipe on the COOK thread, this one is for more important issues.


8-)

I can hear my father-in-law saying the last phrase.

my memory was using mackerel as fish bait, usually to catch more mackerel

surprised you don't have a well-tested recipe for tripe :-)

Tripe yep lovely raw with loads of vinegar and peper.

ohhhhhn them were the days when you had a few slices of toasted hovis with it.

Used to sit back in my armchair with my flat cap on watching my ferrets playing on the rug and tucking in.

Cant get it now around here. Shame.

Straight out of the sea fresh it was.

tripe from the sea? ...... that's a new one, and almost certainly not edible raw anyway
i used to quite like the seam in a mustardy sauce piquante which we used to get in southern germany at the local weinstube

Manuel,

Just for you,

You would comfortably as a bed mate of the greenest tory government I can remember.

Cyners LOL, well it looked raw my mum never boiled it like some do with onions. . Cows stomach lining isnt it.

It certainly looked raw and came straight from the local fish and chip shop.

it is indeed and i agree about tripe and onions ...... the french love it that way, especially in Caen i think

For Manuel.

As the public read it

"What a strange reversal: the husky-driving, hoody-hugging, all cycling, all focaccia-baking David Cameron says he wants to be more like John Major. To be precise, the prime minister has said he wants to learn lessons from the 1992 general election campaign.


I think we all know what he means. Faced with the resurgence of Sir John'spersonal and political profile, the men in No 10 have a choice. They can try to slap down the former PM as he makes a series of blistering interventions onsocial mobility and the cost of living. This is tricky, because he has struck a chord with voters. Or they can agree with Major and hope that some of his renewed popularity rubs off on them.

Cameron has obviously decided to go for option two with bells on. He identifies himself as an "underdog" like Major, campaigning for victory at the next election against the odds. Faced with an uphill battle to win a majority, he wants in on the act of the man portrayed in cartoons as grey, with his underpants over his trousers.

Cameron has done this before. At the last election, when he realised how popular Nick Clegg was suddenly becoming, he started saying "I agree with Nick", every five minutes. But while some will call it political savvy, Cameron's new strategy of saying "I agree with Sir John" is shot through with inconsistencies."

"Latest YouGov / The Sun results 21st November -

Con 32%,

Lab 39%,

LD 10%,

UKIP 12%; "

For the Cynic:

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/nov/17/1963-opinion-poll-westminster-public

Enough is enough Mr Cameron: Mail poll reveals voters' deep concern over wave of new migrants

82% of respondents said no to a new influx from Bulgaria and Romania
85% think migration was putting huge pressure on schools and hospitals
Only one in 20 think Brussels should be in charge of policies

Think tank Migrationwatch believes up to 70,000 migrants will arrive in 2014

By James Slack and Jack Doyle

PUBLISHED: 22:34, 21 November 2013 | UPDATED: 14:30, 22 November 2013



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2511491/Daily-Mail-poll-reveals-voters-deep-concern-wave-new-migrants.html