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.

And dying quicker.

But unfortunately an increasing cost to the Tax payer in providing long term medical treatment for diabetes and other related problems.

Obesity problem amongst men? look no further http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18380173

Are you insinuating anything.

I have been eating lettuce for weeks.

Evidently all the slugs in lettuce feast on the fat in a human body! :-)

DB

You must be a vegetable.

Slugs are vegetarians.


Have you ever eaten slugs is sweet chilli sauce?

lol - no, but I've eaten raw squid and I cannot imagine anything much worse. I couldn't get out of the bathroom for 24 hours!

Labour Party's property firm cashed in on cheap loans from Co-op

Opposition’s property portfolio benefited from low rates of interest offered by the bank

By Matthew Holehouse, Political Correspondent

10:00PM GMT 24 Nov 2013

Labour's property portfolio, including Ed Balls’s constituency buildings, have benefited from cheap loans from the Co-operative Bank, the Telegraph can disclose.


Labour Party Properties Ltd (LPPL), a property firm wholly owned by the Labour Party, has used its £6.3 million portfolio to secure £3.8 million of cheap finance from the Co-op Bank. The properties used as collateral in the deal include Morley Labour Rooms in the shadow chancellor’s West Yorkshire constituency.


The revelation raises fresh questions about Labour’s close relationship with the Co-operative Bank, whose former chairman and Labour councillor, Rev Paul Flowers, has been arrested and bailed on suspicion of drug offences. It follows the revelation the Co-op donated £50,000 to Mr Balls’s office.


LPPL paid 2.88 per cent interest on the loan, according to the company's 2012 accounts – a far cheaper rate than would typically be offered to property firms on the open market, one expert said.


If the bank had charged a commercial rate of interest, LPPL’s tenants could face significantly higher rents, he added. Tenants include the constituency offices of Mary Creagh, the shadow transport secretary, and Tom Watson, the former elections co-ordinator.


A Labour spokesman disputed that assessment, and insisted the party paid a commercial rate of interest. It is a “smear” to call them soft loans, a spokesman said.

The loans are channelled through the Labour Party accounts into LPPL, a subsidiary company. It owns 20 buildings across Britain, including the Morley property, which is valued at £80,000 and carries a 2007 Co-op charge.

A commercial mortgage broker who inspected the accounts said: “This is a ratbag collection of second and third-rate properties, and any of my clients would not get money at that rate of interest out of any bank on the face of the planet.

“They are paying half the rate of interest that the rest of us would pay. This is not a genuine arm’s-length transaction – it’s far too cosy. Poor little Co-op bondholders who are taking a haircut should be asking why they are doing it.”

Mark Garnier, a Conservative MP who sits on the Treasury Select Committee, said the mortgage-backed loans should be examined by the independent inquiry into the Co-op, announced by Chancellor George Osborne.

“Many hardworking depositors with the Co-op Bank will want to know why the Labour Party has been receiving loans at preferential rates – despite the party being in a precarious financial position and despite the massive black hole in the bank’s balance sheet,” Mr Garnier said.

Mr Balls does not use the Morley Labour Rooms as his constituency office, but it is regularly used for party meetings and election campaigns. A party spokesman said the local party does not pay any rent to LPPL for the rooms and as such does not benefit financially from the cheap loans.

The Co-op Bank on Sunday declined to comment on reports it is poised to axe its donations to the Labour Party, citing client confidentiality rules, as it is taken over in a rescue deal prepared by US-based hedge funds.

At least a third of the company’s £850,000 annual donation to Labour MPs could be cut, it emerged on Sunday. The bank provides campaign funding to 32 MPs who are members of both the Labour and Co-operative Parties. There are also fears the bank could ask Labour to repay its loans early. That could trigger a cash crisis ahead of the next election, forcing the sale of the property portfolio.

The Telegraph has previously revealed how LPPL has paid no tax since 2003 despite collecting millions of pounds in revenues, after declaring successive losses. Labour denies doing anything to intentionally lower its tax bill.

Should have picked a smaller squid to bite.

Try raw marinated tripe.

------

Chilli slugs.

Ask Manuel for the recipes.













I have never eaten or seen them, but read recipes for sea slugs, which again I will leave for the braver.

Can you lot stop talking about eating slugs, it's putting me off me lunch -):

DB4

This is more interesting from one of the right wing rags.


By Peter Dominiczak
Former Conservative Party donors have given almost £750,000 to the UK Independence Party, figures have disclosed.
Seventeen Tory supporters who between them gave over £5 million in donations now appear to have switched their allegiance to Nigel Farage’s Ukip, giving almost £750,000 to the Eurosceptic party.
The revelation came as Paul Sykes, a self-made tycoon, promised to do “whatever it takes” financially to help Ukip in May’s European elections.
Mr Sykes supported the Tories under Margaret Thatcher and Michael Howard, but has backed Ukip in the past, giving the party £1.5 million in 2004. His latest investment in the party is expected to run into millions and will come as a significant blow to the Tories, who are fighting to stop grassroots supporters defecting to Ukip over their position on the European Union and policies such as legalising gay marriage.
The most recent donation figures available from the Electoral Commission show that two more donors who had between them donated nearly £60,000 to the Tory party since the last election have started giving money to Ukip.

DB,


For your perusal.

Political financing stinks, but what has the coalition done,

Allowed MPs who attempted or have defrauded the country over their expenses to sit in parliament.

One apparently claiming for keeping his horses warm.


"David Cameron has been urged to investigate why the Tory Party took over £420,000 from the telecoms group Lycamobile, which has close links to Sri Lanka's controversial President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Labour MP Tom Blenkinsop told the Huffington Post UK: "The Prime Minister knows his party has received over £420k from a company closely associated with the Sri Lankan regime. He was obviously so concerned that his own MPs were recently prevented from visiting there.

The MP, who has written directly to the Prime Minister, added: "So in the interests of transparency I want to know if the Prime Minister is going to investigate why his party has received over £420k from this company so closely associated with the Sri Lankan government."



I do hope Wavey Dave is investigating the case.

Stan - you got in one, though you didn't mean to ...... what's the point in revamping a house in Blaenau if the nearest jobs are in l'pool? ...... houses, jobs, people all go hand in hand

Manuel,


Your are an idiot.

Move the pool nearer the house.

----------

Have a look at the 30s around the country with the introduction of small trading estates in or on the borders of "high unemployment". They were very successful of the local or overall economies and the unemployed.
===

The strength of a community and society was built on the strength of the unit family.

One of the problems of society at the moment may be the dispersal of those in the family units. Not sure that this is a progressive or regressive development.

But, I think something has to alter the present pattern of wealth distribution to the S.E. and London and disperse it more generally.

Perhaps, increasing trade to the more peripheral towns rather than trading to London.

UMMH

=========

Edited, added a "un"

We seem to be missing gf again. Has he been banned?

of course i'm an idiot - I live in the real world

go to Aberdeen and you'll find that house prices are no bargain (relatively damn expensive in real-world-speak)
why would that be?
golly-gosh, surely not because that is where the business is and so people need to live there?

Don't talk wet Alf, Aberdeen is an exception and you know it as it's Oil based.

you don't say!
to repeat .... houses are required and will be built where there are jobs to which people migrate - simples!

in case you haven't woken up to it (clearly not!) that has always been the case, certainly as far back as the industrial revolution and arguably much earlier

you can't just "wish" that businesses/jobs will "relocate" ..... like I said, I live in the real world though patently fred does not and perhaps you are migrating to his world too (for a job?)

cynic is completely right. Farming communities lived at or close to the poverty line. They had huge families of which only a few survived. As the industrial revolution came along life expectancy was increasing. In particular infant mortality was improving fast. The result was that rural populations migrated to the cities as their local environment could not support all the children in families. As prosperity in the towns and cities improved, people went to the cities to work in service. In every area of London and similar cities every large house had servants. There were hundreds of thousands in service. A butcher might have a family of say 6 and a couple of servants. The two world wars killed off service. Those in service stayed in the cities and needed their own housing. Since that period housing has always been short.

The situation has been made much worse by the influx of immigrants who typically have large families again. There is a major shortage of housing because we have a population that is too big. It creates a strain on services such as schooling,GPs, hospitals.

If you want a job go to a major city.

cynic
What is the local opinion where you are regarding the Iran nuclear deal?