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.

Revealed: The top 50 most desirable places to live in Britain with Hart in Hampshire topping the list for third year in a row


Uttlesford No2 :-))

How is Woking no 37 know one lives in that shi - hole ? :-))

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-2527092/Revealed-The-50-desirable-places-live-Britain.html

Johnny45, Wolverhampton, United Kingdom, 4 hours ago

NO MULTI-CULTURAL CRAP HERE THEN. SHOULD SEE WOLVERHAMPTON., ITS LIKE MOGADISHU!!!

enoch powell spins ever faster in his grave, not least because hordes with machetes are not (yet) roaming the streets

Insight - The Great British tax giveaway


By Tom Bergin

LONDON Fri Dec 20, 2013 9:30am GMT



The sun rises above the financial district of the City of London in this April 23, 2011 file photo. A Reuters examination of available public records has found that for the most recent financial year, British shareholders of at least 11 major blue chip firms have received more in dividend tax credits from the UK tax authority than they lost through the corporate income tax levied on their companies. This means that in effect, the UK government is subsidising them to own shares.

Credit: Reuters/Kieran Doherty/Files



(Reuters) - When Neil Withington, the legal director of British American Tobacco (BAT) and the firm's largest British shareholder, files his next tax return, he will receive a little help from the state. Like every other UK taxpayer, he will be entitled to a tax credit on any dividend payment he receives. He can use it to reduce his total bill.

The credit is intended to compensate shareholders for the fact that dividends are paid out of income which has already been subject to UK corporate income tax. To help avoid the same money being taxed twice, the UK trims its levy on dividends.

There's just one problem: BAT, Europe's biggest cigarette maker by sales, didn't have a UK tax bill at all last year. In fact, its accounts show, over the past six years its total UK tax expense has been zero.


More: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/12/20/uk-tax-britain-credits-insight-idUKBRE9BJ09120131220

The top 50 most undesirable places to live in Britain with anywere close to Fred's place coming top.

A pair of turkeys .:-))

Max,

"There's just one problem: BAT, Europe's biggest cigarette maker by sales, didn't have a UK tax bill at all last year. In fact, its accounts show, over the past six years its total UK tax expense has been zero."


That is what it is all about!

immigration
Labour's David Hanson, shadow immigration minister, said the Government was "hopelessly split" on the issue.
"Rather than deal with genuine concerns in a calm and measured way the Prime Minister has sought headlines and panicked on issues he could have dealt with much earlier," he said.
"Once again the rhetoric fails to match the reality with this government on immigration."

=========

so now we've read labour's rhetoric on this important issue, and yes it's certainly true that the lib/dems are intrinsically very soft on the idea of restrictions
however, I see nowhere what would labour would actually do to remedy their own disastrous policies of the past, were they now in charge

quite how strong a policy dc will be able to force through remains to be seen, though i fear it will also be a bit wishy-washy, in part due to the legal straightjacket imposed on uk by european courts

well fawlty, you're always an instant source for perfect solutions (in your eyes anyway), so what's your idea, given that you can't change what is inherited?

The policy split is very interesting. The Conservatives are keen on setting tight caps on immigration. Clegg and Cable both say they will block any new restrictions. That may well pu them on the wrong side of the argument as regards the public. It won't do the Libs much good if they are seen to be blocking immigration controls as the public are in favour.

The public currently regard immigration as more important than the EU as an issue. Some backbenchers are worried that tight immigration controls will cost them votes in ethnic areas. As far as I can see immigration controls are actually welcome in ethnic areas. Once people get let in the UK that are in favour of stopping any more. I won't mention which ones, but there are several ethnic groups that are far more racist than what you might call white Anglo Saxons.

Manuel,

Once more you seem to be projecting your own traits on to another.


Suggest you listen to Vince Cable interview on the Andrew Marr show this morning and then sit back and consider what he said.


Perhaps, then to try thinking rather appearing like a "rent a mouth" in print.


------------------

I saw the Vince Cable. It was about the level of his usual rubbish.

Hays,

A reasonable assessment of policy differences between Lib/Dem and Cons.

But I am not sure that if it comes to the next election that the "question of immigration" will influence the result that much.

The little Englanders will split between Tories, and UKIP, but maybe the more "moderate" will stick with Labour and L/ds.

Still think the probable outcome will be either Labour or Labour/ L/D coalition government. Especially, if as many expect that the Con party will be savage by UKIP in the EU election.

Interesting to watch.

so fawlty, you have no ideas at all and are just hot air, but you'll still just whinge, and gripe and grizzle incessantly at whatever is cobbled together ..... why would one expect otherwise?

personally, and as I have written several times in the past, i'ld like to see a (strict) points system introduced as they have had in australia for a great many years ...... I guess that means that one's wife and dependant children would also be allowed in, but assuredly not the extended family.

that is a certainly a very simplified and simplistic version as one would also have to attach rights(or restrictions) to welfare benefits etc

Judge for yourselves, consider whether the loony right are just chasing the UKIP vote rather an misleading the voters.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/dec/22/vince-cable-tory-anti-immigration-panic

"The business secretary, Vince Cable, has accused the Conservatives of creating an anti-immigration panic in a doomed and damaging attempt to ward off the UK Independence party. He said the Tories were stoking an atmosphere similar to that created by Enoch Powell with his "rivers of blood" speech in the 1960s.

Cable confirmed the Liberal Democrats would not be supporting a cap on EU migrants coming to Britain, saying the policy was "not only illegal but impossible to implement".

He was echoing Nick Clegg, who has pledged to block any fresh attempts to curb immigration from the EU, insisting "this is where we draw the line".

Clegg dismissed as "pointless" Home Office proposals for a 75,000 cap on EU migrants and claimed without freedom of movement the NHS would "fall over".

The issue is certain to be one of the dividing lines between the parties at the next general election, and David Cameron will need to work hard to show he would be able to construct a viable coalition in the EU for a policy of national caps on immigration from within it.

Anna Soubry, Conservative public health minister, said she was not opposed to the Cameron plan but warned newspapers against creating fear of "stranger danger" in difficult economic times. She said some newspaper headlines on immigration made her stomach churn, adding that the majority of migrants came to Britain to work and often do work that UK nationals reject.


Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show, Cable said: "The Conservatives are in a bit of a panic here because of Ukip. Reacting in the way they are, it is not going to help them politically but it is doing a great deal of damage. The responsibility of politicians in this situation is to look at the facts and the simple point is that there is very little evidence of benefit tourism of people coming from eastern Europe. All the evidence is that they put far more into the economy in tax than they take out in benefits.

"It was right to stop abuse of the benefit systems. Freedom of movement, albeit constrained as it is in the European treaty, is an absolutely basic principle a lot of British people take advantage of.

Referring to the proposed immigration cap of 75,000 a year from the EU, floated last weekend by Theresa May, the home secretary, Cable said: "It is not going to happen and Nick Clegg has made it very clear it is not going to happen. There is a bigger picture here. We periodically get these immigration panics in the UK. I remember going back to Enoch Powell and the 'rivers of blood' and going back a century there was panic over Jewish immigrants coming from eastern Europe. The responsibility of politicians in this situation when people are getting anxious is to try to reassure them and give them facts and not panic or resort to populist measures that do harm."

In an article for the Sunday Times, Clegg wrote: "Sticking a big no-entry sign on the cliffs of Dover may be politically popular, but at a huge economic cost. What would happen if tonight every European living in the UK boarded a ship or plane and went home?



"Are we really that keen to see the back of German lawyers, Dutch accountants or Finnish engineers? Do we want the NHS to fall over and the City of London to grind to a halt?"

He said the issue was "the biggest dividing line in politics today" and that plans for a cap are arbitrary, pointless and distracting.

Cable admitted there was "quite a lot of tension" around the issue in the coalition, saying "there are big differences over fairness, tax and immigration and we will argue our corner.

"It's not just illegal, but I do not see how you implement a cap when you want people's skills and investment coming to this country. There are an awful lot of British people that benefit from the right to circulate in Europe's single market."

He added he was still fighting a battle over the rights of skilled migrants from outside the EU to come to the UK: "What we have got to stop is damaging policies that do harm." He said the measures discouraging overseas students and visa restrictions were so tight they were stopping people from China and India from doing business.

Soubry said: "The overwhelming majority that come here come to work, but clearly there are some that don't. They are a small number and they are going quite rightly going to be discouraged. The majority come to work and they benefit the country. In certain parts of the country they do the jobs that others unfortunately are not doing. Some of the headlines of some newspapers make my stomach churn. There is a fear of immigration, but we are not getting all the facts. When times are tough there is a danger we blame the stranger and history tells us that is very dangerous."

I care not what you're griping and sniping about now, but by the looks of it, you have no opinion of your own - and I really can't be bothered to read the above

my opinion is one I have held for at least the last couple of years, and if this gov't is belatedly doing something about what probably the majority of this country's populace feel, then about time too .... unfortunately, legalities will almost certainly prevent anything very effective being proposed, let alone effectively acted upon

and yes, it will certainly be an important issue come election time