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.

Must be a big club then.

Me conned? I think not old fruit... Now someone get G/F out of there -):

Stan,

I feel a little sorry for GF drinking with a bunch of barrow boys.

But I suppose somebody has so the missionary work.


=========================


See Cameron is jumping on the witch hunt wagon.

As somebody said last night he is vile little man, fit for UKIP and BNP.


But I suppose he could be a suitable card carrying member of those illustrious "parties".

Cameron is only doing what the French and Germans have done. It is about time we were tougher on allowing unrestricted immigration. We have the Labour party to thank for the immigration mess we now have.

Hays.

Do you blame your Mummy and Daddy for your problems?


When will this bunch of etonian old boys going to stop blaming others for their own inadequacies? Haven't noted they are losing donors.

Manuel and you will be expected to dig deeper into your pockets to bail them out.

(See, if you can arrange a little bit of tax relief for doing so.)

Much of the public groan when Cameron appears on TV. or they hear the mantra "It is all down to the previous government" and helping "hard people", when members of cabinet are floating off for the winter breaks to tart up the sun tans.

===========

Actually, it is not attempting to resolving some of the problems with immigration which is wrong, but the glee in which some of the methods and actions which are proposed.

Again not thought out policies, but proposed on the spur of the moment for headline chasing.

Spurred on to satisfy the "barmy army" of little "englanders" and their ilk.


------

something arguably a bit more interesting ......

the guys on the front drive-in here are African - very very tall Ugandan as it happens
all have been given English names (and tags), to which i find myself surprisingly and strongly offended

one of the guys - I've known them all for a number of years - has reverted to his tribal name and (imo) quite rightly so, to show pride in his heritage

i spoke to one of the others, and it is clear that he is at least somewhat afraid to raise the issue with the management

On EU migrants, David Cameron is making promises he can't keep

Sadly for all of us, the Prime Minister does not have the guts to do what is necessary, says Nigel Farage.



By Nigel Farage

5:05PM GMT 27 Nov 2013


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ukip/10479013/On-EU-migrants-David-Cameron-is-making-promises-he-cant-keep.html


You have got to love European Commissioner Viviane Reding. Like a greyhound, she is immediately out of the traps pouncing on David Cameron’s rabbit. "But David, the UK supported enlargement which it could have vetoed" and again, "Any renegotiation of free movement can only be tabled by the European Commission and it has no plans to do so."


Mr Cameron’s plans are only out today and already they are in tatters.


Of course, she made clear earlier this year that Romanian and Bulgarian migrants to the UK will have the same rights to reside and draw benefits as British nationals. Unless he acts to stop mass migration from Romania and Bulgaria from January 1, 2014, what the Prime Minister is proposing does not amount to a row of beans.


Today Mr Cameron basically said: "Carry on coming but you can only claim benefits from April 1 rather than January 1 2014", which is hardly a severe penalty.


His light touch proposals will not deter Romanian and Bulgarian people who are living in severe poverty relative to the UK from coming here. The free movement of EU citizens is a binding EU rule from which Mr Cameron has refused to deviate.


Although he mentions a few sympathetic EU partners, the UK does not have sufficient support from other EU states to form a blocking minority, nor can he achieve Treaty change of fundamental EU law.

The UK is severely restricted by the EU on what it can do to EU migrants on both entry to the UK and access to our welfare benefits.

David Cameron is correct on one thing – when he says Labour made a “monumental mistake” by allowing EU mass immigration in 2004. On the other hand, he is repeating the same mistakes of Tony Blair, simply adding a few tweaks but this will not be an effective remedy to our problem. Indeed all the Lib/Lab/Con parties are in favour of greater EU enlargement, even to include Turkey. This is just madness.

Uniquely on the problem of mass immigration, Ukip has form. We told people the truth about the consequences of opening our doors to all EU migrants in 2004.

Many people realise the only reason for Mr Cameron’s limp proposal is to curb the rise of Ukip. He's trying to shoot Ukip's fox.

We in Ukip have driven the agenda in terms of warning of the dangers of opening up our doors to EU nations like Bulgaria and Romania next year and now we see Mr Cameron trying to recover from the Ukip surge

Ukip have outfoxed him at every turn, he is getting desperate, and is again making proposals and promises he knows he cannot keep. He raises the issue of “exporting child benefit”, something I raised in a speech in Strasbourg a few weeks ago. But there is nothing he can do about it without breaking EU law. So what is it going to be?

Under UK rules a range of benefits – child benefit, child tax credit, state pension credit, jobseekers' allowance and unemployment support allowance – are only given to those with a "right to reside". This “right to reside” test can easily be bypassed by them claiming to be self-employed, eg. selling the Big Issue.

The European Commission is already taking the UK to the European Court of Justice to ensure that all EU citizens have the same right as UK residents.

The clock is ticking towards January 1. Mr Cameron must act to stop mass immigration from Romania and Bulgaria. Sadly for all of us, he does not have the guts to do what is necessary.

Only Ukip’s stance of leaving the EU, restoring full border controls and choosing who enters the UK before they get here is the sensible way forward.

Haystacks

I didn't know Tony Blair and his wife were your parent's , no wonder you kept that hidden.

Or was that Fred's attempt at a witty comment ?

I wonder if Fred was a member of the Angry Brigade when he was a student ?

Now he is just one of the grumpy old men.

Pot and kettle alert!

Is it time for your Horlicks Stan

No but it's clearly time for your dummy.

27 November 2013 Last updated at 17:39

Npower to cut 1,400 jobs in the UK

Npower owner RWE to cut 6,750 jobs
RWE to close or idle power plants
Unions voice fears over Npower jobs

Energy giant Npower is to cut 1,400 jobs as part of a major restructuring of its UK operations.

There are to be closures at a number of the company's sites in the UK, while some back-office operations will be outsourced to India.

The BBC has learned that a further 570 jobs will be outsourced within the UK.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25127453

It is good to know Wavey Davey is sending the "clear messages" to the EU and the rest of the world.

It is a pity they either can't hear him or perhaps understand him.


OR PERHAPS THEY DO and SEE HIM AS YESTERDAY'S MAN.


Another U-turn, this time on Cigarette labelling.


Hays it is time for your bed time prays asking for him to be saved.


========



At a time like this you need a God to save your bacon.


(Unless of course your are one of the chosen ones.

8-) )

this cigarette labelling sounds a disgrace and with no logic or common sense, other than that the tobacco companies yield huge revenues to the exchequer.

haven't yet read the background, but surely the argument for reversal must be pretty pathetic

i had the story very much back to front

frankly, that's a u-turn to be applauded and it's a shame that the europeans don't also take a stronger or even any stance to cut down on smoking

there's certainly a fairly weak law in europe about smoking in restaurants and similar, but i think cancer sticks are half the price of uk ..... this must be at least a significant contributing factor as to why so many, especially the young, smoke there

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25129444 Name all the guilty ones ASLP.

sounds pretty minor stuff, but i'm sure there's much more to it than meets the eye

Any exposure of corruption must be good.