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.

Red Balls! Knives are out for humiliated Ed: Day of mockery for the shadow chancellor who still can't accept he was wrong

#RedEd was trending on Twitter today as he suffered in the Commons
Labour source admitted point 'was not made well in the chamber today'
George Osborne says Balls should have gone to piano exam instead
Pair clash as figures show growth of 1.4% this year, up from 0.6% forecast

The knives were out for Ed Balls last night as Labour MPs denounced his performance as one of the worst they have seen in the Commons.

Red-faced and shouting, the Shadow Chancellor faced mockery as he refused to acknowledge rising growth and continued to insist that he was right to oppose austerity all along.

Labour MPs last night questioned whether their party’s focus on the cost of living was enough to win them the election without a better economic message.



One accused Mr Balls of having ‘f***** up’ Labour’s economic policy with his refusal to change course despite signs that the economy is improving.

Others questioned whether he should be sacked if Labour are to convince voters they can be trusted with the economy.

Mr Balls was greeted with a roar of derision from across the House when he claimed that it was the Chancellor who was ‘in complete denial’ about the state of the economy.

Mr Osborne hit back, saying: ‘The man who said that borrowing wouldn’t come down, unemployment wouldn’t come down, growth wouldn’t happen and the man who refuses to apologise for what he did to the British economy – he is the very epitome of denial.’

The Chancellor branded Mr Balls’s speech ‘a turkey’ and mercilessly ribbed him over his decision to cancel a grade three piano exam because it clashed with the Autumn Statement.

‘He probably should have gone ahead with his Chopsticks routine,’ Mr Osborne said.

Labour leader Ed Miliband grimaced as Mr Balls yelled himself hoarse, while Labour MPs sat mute and grim-faced behind him.

A senior Labour source admitted the party’s case on the economy ‘was not made well in the chamber today’.

One Labour MP went further, saying: ‘He f***** it up. I was watching it thinking “we are f*****”.

‘He’s supposed to be a bright bloke, but there was no analysis of the Autumn Statement in what he said. Ed Miliband should really have sacked him in the last reshuffle. It was a sign of weak leadership that he didn’t.’

Doubts about Mr Balls came as it emerged that former Labour Cabinet Minister Baroness Armstrong has privately said the approach of Mr Balls and Mr Miliband will leave the party ‘in deep shtook’.

Another Labour insider said Mr Balls would keep his job but should change course.

‘That is two quite shocking performances that he has turned in in his last two big appearances,’ the source said. ‘But what is concerning people is not just the performance.
‘There are lots of people in the Shadow Cabinet saying that the cost of living stuff is fine – but it’s not enough. It’s probably too late to move him now but today was a reality check.’

One Blairite said MPs were likely to demand a rethink of Labour’s economic policies in the coming days. ‘I’ll be amazed if you don’t see the New Labour elements start to say that we need something more than cost of living issues.’

Mr Balls tried to put a brave face on his performance. He said: ‘I’ve got a bit of a sore throat. It was very, very loud. There are a lot of working people in this country who are seeing their living standards falling and no one to speak for them. I’m not going to allow 300 Tory MPs to shout me down.’

11.55 to late for me

If they had free school meal's they would have to be healthy ones , otherwise there would be no point in having them. But if they did that you will have the problem of the chav mum's giving them KFC french fries over the school gates., why can't they feed they own kids won't cost much just give up smokeing, drink and drugs they get child allowence and their rent paid for them.

Its an election give away by the Tories. surely you realise that.

Repeated Just for hays as he seems to get up late in the morning.....

Hays read this and weep..........


Ipsos MORI Autumn Statement 2013 Poll

Britons more likely to agree with Ed Balls that George Osborne in denial about cost of living than to think Osborne’s long term plan for recovery is working

Public split over long term impact of government’s economic policies
An Ipsos MORI snap poll carried out in the evening following the Autumn Statement shows that when asked whether they agree with Ed Balls that George Osborne is in denial about the cost of living crisis or with George Osborne that his long term plan for economic recovery is working, the public agree with Mr Balls over Mr Osborne by 40% to 24%. A quarter (27%) say they agree with neither.

The public are split on the long-term impact of the government’s policies on Britain’s economy: 40% think they will improve the economy, while 38% disagree. However, they are more pessimistic on public services. One in five (21%) think the government’s policies will improve Britain’s public services in the long term, but 54% disagree.
On the Autumn Statement itself, just over half (56%) said they saw, read or heard something about it on the news or online, while another 8% said they watched it in full. A third, 34%, hadn’t seen anything about it - and young people were much less likely to have seen anything about it than older people
.
On one of the measures announced today, linking retirement age to life expectancy, 30% support the policy and 58% say they oppose it.

Perhaps not surprisingly, many people are unable to estimate the impact of the Autumn Statement at this early stage (although this is less the case for those who had watched it on the news). Among those who do have a view, they are much more likely to think it will benefit rich people (47% think it was good for rich people, 5% bad) than poor people (14% good, 44% bad). Their initial reactions on the impact for people like themselves are also on balance negative – 42% think it was bad for people like them, compared with 15% who think it was good.

Download the poll topline (PDF)
Download the charts (PDF)

Gideon Skinner, Head of Political Research at Ipsos MORI, said:
“The Conservatives have seen their ratings on managing the economy rise in line with general optimism about the economy. However, many people also feel that the growth in the economy is not benefiting their own standard of living, and this is reflected in the finding that 40% agree with Ed Balls that George Osborne is in denial about the cost of living crisis. But these are people’s initial reactions – there is still time for them to change as they digest the Autumn Statement - and in particular the media’s interpretation of it.”

Technical Note
Ipsos MORI interviewed 1,071 online adults aged between 18 to 75 across Great Britain. Interviews were conducted using Ipsos’ online panel on the evening of 5th December 2013. Data are weighted to match the profile of the population.

http://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/3309/Ipsos-MORI-Autumn-Statement-2013-Poll.aspx

And hays you have missed this aswel from your own sides wrag.........

Tory boys .......BALLS was right Giddeon is in denial.............and this is the SUN the Tory wrag flagship.

labour go into a 12% lead.......

electionista ‏@electionista 11h
UK - YouGov/Sun poll: CON 29%, LAB 41%, LDEM 9%, UKIP 14%

YOU CANT CON THE PUBLIC/ELECTORATE. take note Tories.

NUFF SAID, its their in black and white.

BUT a shock coming up.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh dear David. Can we ever trust you again.........

https://twitter.com/Kieran_Psyl/status/408888441922142208/photo/1

Just a rogue poll as it was 6% day before.

Looks like Milibland will have to axe Balls.

Cameron not just a liar but a hypocrit of the highest order.


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bayp3xaIYAA2t5t.jpg

Nothing to say then hays about Cameron above???????????

Hays,

I think from what I see, that the CON artists should be concentrating on doing a hatchet job on their own leadership rather than hope they can smear labour as they usually do coming up to an election.

This is the reason for being called the NASTY PARTY but now known as the NASTY INCOMPETENT PARTY of LOSERS.

here here...... more more more.

papers waving........ more more more.

Hypocrite's, the lot of em!



Another Clegg betrayal: Now he's accused of U-turn over curbs on High St gambling machines
Nick Clegg posed for pictures in March alongside anti-betting campaigners

Group was trying to reduce the stakes and payouts on machines where punters can lose £100 every 20 seconds

Clegg has backed government plan to keep stakes of up to £500 the same

By Tim Shipman

PUBLISHED: 01:14, 5 December 2013 | UPDATED: 01:14, 5 December 2013

Nick Clegg was yesterday accused of a betrayal on gambling reminiscent of his U-turn on tuition fees as Liberal Democrats refused to act to curb fixed odds betting machines.

The Deputy Prime Minister had posed for pictures in March alongside campaigners trying to reduce the stakes and payouts on the machines where punters can lose £100 every 20 seconds.

They have been dubbed the crack cocaine of the high street. But last night Mr Clegg and senior Lib Dem colleagues backed a government plan to keep the stakes and payouts of up to £500 the same.



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2518482/Another-Clegg-betrayal-Now-hes-accused-U-turn-curbs-High-St-gambling-machines.html

This is a better headline

Even the Sun couldn't have thought of a better front page

she certainly scrubs up well, or to be a bit harsher, she knows how to apply her make-up to best advantage ..... 2/3 years ago I saw her out at breakfast without the glam, and it was a bit of a disappointment to put it politely

The increase in student fees would also have happened under Labour. The study set up to advise was their study.

I don't remember the raising of uni fee's to be in any manifesto.

cynic - I don't think any amount of scrubbing up would make her ex husband look any better!