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.

Ed Balls has repeatedly refused to apologise the way that the national debt built up under the last Labour Government.


In a pugnacious display on national television, the shadow Chancellor said that he “couldn’t give a toss” about speculation that he might be sacked.


The news came as a former Labour frontbencher openly speculated that “ruthless” Ed Miliband might replace Mr Balls with former Chancellor Alistair Darling.


Mr Balls was pressed half a dozen times about whether he would say sorry on behalf of the Labour party for the way that the debt had been allowed to increase.


However he repeatedly declined to apologise, preferring to blame macro-economic factors, such as the global financial crisis.

He said: “I’m not going to apologise that the Labour government spent too much on the National Health Service. Do I think that we didn’t spend every pound of money wisely in that period? Of course not.

“If we had known though, and this is the point, when the deficit went up so much if we had known in advance that was going to happen, would we have decided to have raise taxes or cut spending?

“No, we would have decided to intervene in the banking world to stop that financial crisis happening in the first place. That is why I go back to that as the big mistake of that period.”

Mr Ball was played clips of his speech in the debate following George Osborne’s Autumn statement in the Commons, when he was repeatedly barracked by Tory MPs.

Asked by presenter Dermot Murnaghan if he was worried he might be sacked because of the poor showing, Mr Balls replied: “The thing is, the reason why you’re asking me this question is that you want me to be bothered.

“Frankly, Dermot, I couldn’t give a toss, I couldn’t give a toss. What I’m worried about this is in my constituency people are in real trouble.”

Speaking moments later, Diane Abbott, a former shadow Education minister, said Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, was “absolutely ruthless enough” to sack Mr Balls.

She told BBC One's Sunday Politics: “One thing you should not under-estimate in Ed Miliband is the capacity for ruthlessness. If he feels it is right to bring in Alistair Darling, or whatever, he will do it.”

Miss Abbott admitted that Mr Balls’ Commons speech was “not his best performance”.

She suggested that Conservative MPs had noisily barracked Mr Balls in a bid to try to goad him into stammering, which Mr Balls has admitted to trying to conquer.

She said: “What they know is that under pressure his stammer may come back, and that is what they were trying to incite.”

i'm sure some of our left wing pals here said what a blinder balls had played in the autumn statement debate ..... it's therefore rather strange that everyone, including other labour mps, reckon it was about as good as england's cricketing in oz

His reply of not giving a toss was in reply to being asked his opinion of bookmakers giving odds of his being sacked. As a conservative supporter, I would be pleased if Labour kept him.

MPs' pay authority faces mass defiance over proposal to raise salaries by 11%

Decision to reject calls for restraint branded 'incomprehensible', with many parliamentarians saying they will not accept pay rise


Andrew Sparrow, political correspondent


theguardian.com, Sunday 8 December 2013 13.27 GMT




The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) faces mass defiance from parliamentarians when it presses ahead with plans to increase their pay to £74,000, it has emerged.

Danny Alexander, the chief secretary to the Treasury, said the proposed increase was "utterly incomprehensible", while Philip Hammond, the defence secretary, said he would expect the cabinet to take a collective stand against the Ipsa ruling. Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, said he could not see himself telling Labour MPs to accept the money.


the rest of the cough splutter article is here: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/dec/08/mp-pay-authority-defiance-raise-salaries

The MP pay thingy is a convenient distraction!



Most people classed as being in poverty 'have job'

8 December 2013


More working households were living in poverty in the UK last year than non-working ones - for the first time, a charity has reported.

Just over half of the 13 million people in poverty - surviving on less than 60% of the national median (middle) income - were from working families, it said.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation said low pay and part-time work had prompted an unprecedented fall in living standards.

But it said the number of pensioners in poverty was at a 30-year low.

Ministers insisted that work remained the best route out of poverty and said the government's welfare reforms would further encourage people to get a job.


More: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25287068

The 46-year-old, who has taken up trying to learn the piano, took to the stage to show off his skills after being mocked in the week by Tory Chancellor George Osborne. Balls had revealed last month he postponed his Grade III exam because it fell on the same day his opposite number was due give his Autumn Statement.

'Red' Ed takes to the stage to show George Osborne he CAN play the piano (and there's no sign of Chopsticks!)




What can you really say. :-))

That's two jobs he is trying to learn. I hope he can make a good career from his lessons as he may well need too, very soon.

lol :-)

by the way, it was "relative poverty", though i have no idea how that was calculated .... bet the majority still have the latest cell phones, manage to buy cigarettes and eat ready-made meals from the supermarket

I would like to make a suggestion that no MP should be able to draw their pension until they are 75 years old.

That would also apply to the hazy one and Manuel.

--------
I hope I am not breaking the rules again, but just read this regarding Mandela on my return :

lightacandle kingcreosote
07 December 2013 6:37am

But even in death he still speaks. Witnessed lots of younger people, yesterday, on reading about the past, realising the hypocrisy behind plaudits made; while learning about what present day leaders were involved with in the past also. Noting too that while those present day politicians stand there and praise everything Mandela stood for, in reality they are, and do, the opposite. So thankfully the truth getting out there.
It was good to see too, on twitter, younger ones vaguely remembering their parents protesting, not buying South African goods etc.during the apartheid years and now realising what it was all about, and feeling the better for that. So in death he has reached future generations too. And they will know the truth.
And, yes, definitely pygmies in the shadow of a giant, their inadequacies showing up even more, and in the same sense liked this other cartoon too....
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BazIstHCAAA1vnA.jpg:large

Mandela was certainly a giant once he was president. His biggest contribution was not seeking retribution on the previous government and seeking reconciliation. His legacy is a corrupt ANC that just looks after the SA elite. It looks like being another country run by corrupt politicians.

.

apart from state pension, which comes to me automatically along with (for me) the ridiculous winter heating allowance, i have no intent of drawing from my personal pension scheme for as long as i can ... certainly i'm contracted to work until i'm 70/71 and, provided i'm still enjoying my work, i hope to extend it

i'ld guess that fawlty-fred on the (far) left is happy enough to be drawing his pension from all quarters available already, thus leaving him far too much time to pontificate without commitment from his well-padded armchair

Hays,


For a moment I thought you were growing up.

Mandela is not responsible for others behaving corruptly, they are responsible for their own actions.

But I doubt that the the Members of the ANC etc. are any more corrupt than many members of the present UK government, the only thing is that the latter is more sophisticated in their actions.

What I mean is that there is no real legacy of Mandela. SA is drifting towards the other corrupt African countries. Politicians like Zuma pay lip service to Mandela because it is popular.

It's snouts in the trough, different time, different snouts, same result.

Living standards to be lower in 2015 than in 2010, IFS warns

Delivering its judgment on George Osborne's autumn statement, Institute for Fiscal Studies backs claims by Ed Balls that family budgets are being squeezed hard


Larry Elliott and Phillip Inman


The Guardian, Friday 6 December 2013 16.11 GMT



http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/dec/06/ifs-living-standards-lower-osborne-autumn-statement

But not for MP's of course.