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.

How do you become constructive with a gov (all of them really) who are hell bent on changing the country for what they call better?

None of the three main parties want to defend our way of life, they are all seeking to change to a model that only works with hyper population expansion. (think Brazil)


Any of you lot want to live in Brazil?

Its more the arguing that Chris is pointing the finger at Max, I think we are all guilty.

Lets try and be a little less head strung and keep to facts going forward.

I certainly dont accept that this thread is unfreindly to new posters as was the intial charge and that they wouldnt fit in. Thats totaly wrong.

Right off to work to get sloshed and watch the cricket he he my kind of job.

Manuel.

Actually, my grandson at the age of 12 will never be as foolish as you seem to have become.

And from his chess which is coming on well, knows the difference between tactics and strategy and the quiet game against the more aggressive game.

Even he sees Cameron as full of bluster and responding to public reaction rather the having overall planning for the future.

Amusing to listen to him and I certainly try to answer his question if or when I know the answers.

-----

However, I am not your lackey and suggest that you read a little social and economic history to get your information for yourself.

Perhaps, if the information is not to your liking it would be wise to consider it more carefully before rejecting it. If you have that ability with in you.

=========


You are right about the Unions having some leaders in the past who were communists and certainly the majority of the leadership would be socialist and "left leaning" and there are still a smattering of members and leaders who maybe lean farther to the left than the majority.

Consider the reasoning for the formation of the unions and labour party you would expect it to be so.

But you can see by the deals which were done by sensible management and sensible unions many companies were kept open during this recession by the deals struck between them.

Also, if you look at relationships in many large companies working relationships are good, due to give and take on both sides.

Working relationships as Germany would be a further improvement. But those relationships are down to history.

==========

But when you consider the danger to the UK. I would suggest you consider the Cambridge five or more.

Burgess ‎ Blunt, Maclean, Philby to name just a few who sold out to Russia.

Check their background education.

The above were from those who practised elitism.

=========

Get real and stop being so bigoted.

A Bad And A Good Start To The New Year :-


I was working over Christmas so was looking forward to some time off and celebrating New Year. My youngest son flew up to Aberdeen from Luton he's 32 I only get to see him around twice a year so was looking forward to it. My wife and I picked him up from the airport and she dropped us off at his hotel and then drove home, unfortunately she is on medication so was unable to join us in our quest for the falling down water. However I did say we would be home by a quarter to midnight to open the champagne (one glass wouldn't hurt her) in time for the bells and let in the New Year. My son and I had a great night visiting several bars, a good catch up, and hit three more bars on the twenty minute walk home from the city centre. Good to my word (on fear of death) was in the house a quarter to twelve and we saw the New Year in together, received and made the usual phone calls to nearest and dearest, fabulous, great night! My son then went on his way back into town to hit the clubs (those were the days). I crawled off to bed (literally) :O)


At around 9am New Years Day my son rang to say that he came out of one of the clubs (god knows what time) everyone was happy (well pissed) wishing each other happy new year etc, he was chatting quite amicably with two guys when suddenly one of them pushed him into a back alley stuck a broken glass under his chin (didn't cut him) and said "I've just done an eight year stretch in prison and your being done, empty your pockets and hand your phone to my mate" Which he did obviously. They than ran off. Night ruined my son then went back to the hotel and went to bed. He'd just woken up and was ringing me on his Ipod to tell me. Happy New Year. So he went to the Police Headquarters in Queen Street to report it gave a statement and at least got a crime number for the insurance company, thinking all along never see that phone again.

I was blazing, feeling guilty cause I wasn't with him usual thoughts that go through a fathers head. So as you do, took him to the Pub tried to cheer him up, watch the footy, came out with the clichés unlucky son, just in the wrong place at the wrong time, scumbags, better to be mugged than be a mugger, you get the gist.
I gave him my phone told him to ring his number if they answered inform them what pieces of low life they were, might make him feel better. During the course of the day must have rung his phone a dozen times, of course they never answered it.

End of the day for obvious reasons I drove him back to his hotel.

The Wonders Of Modern Technology - And Aren't Our Police Marvelous.

The following morning my son checked his Ipod, low and behold the scumbag had turned the phone on and the street where it was located was flashing away. He phoned the contact number of the detective he had given his statement to and informed him. About an hour later, by this time my son was with me at home, the detective rang me stated that they had a good idea who was responsible and could my son take a look at some photographs of possible suspects. He did. Armed with a warrant went to the address one Iphone recovered, one male arrested kept in custody overnight appearing before Sherrifs Court in the morn. RESULT! .....Happy New Year once again :o)

chris - i'm too old and canny to get wound up by fossy .... imo, he's little more than a charlatan and i rarely read his nonsense let alone pay much heed to what garbage he spouts

sticky's generally ok, for i think he mainly pokes fun at hays, rather than getting stupidly political like fossy, though hays consistently rises to nearly every crumb of bait

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

anyway, something a bit more interesting from MrsT's archive material just released ..... those of that era will no doubt remember the incident in question .....

:: A faked recording in which President Ronald Reagan upbraids Mrs Thatcher over the Falkland War telling her to "control yourself" nearly sparked an international incident but was rumbled. The Government thought it could have been a Soviet Union plant.

chris - reverting to your post above, a similar story here .....
my nextdoor neighbour installed some pretty sophisticated cctv kit ..... nearly a year ago, some local sillies decided to vandalise a few cars in the road just out side his property ..... unflortuantely for them, they were easily identified from the cctv footage

the good news? .... clearly word has gone round, and there has not been a single incident since

Cheers cynic,. you would hope even scum take a day off now and again. New Years Eve not on their calender in this case.

quite so Max, but that is thanks to the lib/dems ..... the concern to me - and probably a great many others - is that it is ONLY the tories who are prepared to have a referendum on this most important of issues ..... i hesitate to say it, but for a change, the tories are the only party which is (a) prepared to take up battle with the other members of eu and (b) have a referendum following the conclusion of those negotiations .... most assuredly, it is only the threat that uk will vote "no" in any referendum that carries real firepower, and will thus concentrate the minds of the other member countries

chris - surely you aren't referring to fossy :-)

Tempting though it is.........Nooooo :O)

Some cheering stats for the Conservatives

In modern times no party has ever gone on to form a government without at least once being over 50% in the polls. Labour not even close.

For at least the last 15 elections, the main Opposition Party has got a lower vote share than its poll rating 15 months out

No leader of the opposition has ever gone on to become Prime Minister with ratings anywhere near as bad as Ed Miliband's.

Manuel.

I know you won't read this as you posted you rarely read my posts. (Seemingly you do the same with the postings of others.

Mind by the rapidity of your postings and contents, I would consider you an unreliable witness.

P 25048

Marvellous!

"Prepared to take up battle."


Best way to negotiate.

Immature clap trap, the sign of yesterday's man, in the days of the Empire.


The referendum proposal is an attempt to placate his Euro-phobic right wing and burst Fauxpage balloon, by and weak and incompetent PM. (If you have forgotten who that is, his name begins with a C.

He knows, other than withdrawal from the EU he will have a cat in hell's chance of negotiating little of any significance, and is trying already to draw up PR pronouncements with "Bing" should he be re-elected and face up to the referendum.


As far a threatening the EU, my guess when it comes to the "renegotiation" the majority of EU members will be in favour of seeing of the back of the UK, who they
have seen as a persistent irritation and fed up with tory party right wingers trying to break it up.

"The Bring back Maggie Brigade of Hand Baggers."

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

But, if the UK is kicked out, it will be interesting to see the Europen Financial Relationship and Regulation regarding Trade, Taxation and Movement of Capital across its border, from UK to Europe.

Mind I suppose some will be fit enough to swim around Europe to the welcoming markets of "Communist China" and "Asia" with their lower costs markets.

==========

Wilson's introduction of referenda was to placate and prevent his own party splitting and probably he understood one to be necessary, but I wonder, retrospectively, would he think his action as being a mistake having seen its repeated usage to bail out weak governments and placate political allegiances.

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

Back to normal I see.

Anyway after much thought overnight Id rather have this thread anyday than the dictator threads over on advfn where a subscription member dictates the rules and regulations of the board and bans people at will because he cant accept a contrarian view or he doesnt like companys others want to discuss.

Throw in the kangaroo courts and the genuine ramping that goes on over there and this thread stands way above that dross.

If people dont like politics they dont have to get involved just skip around it or better still open a thread of your own on the subjects you wish to debate, eg, Cyners as opened a thread a very good thread on Cooking etc etc.

But best of all I think some posters like myself use this thread as A CHILL OUT THREAD a thread where you can go in the heat of battle of the trading day to chill out and relax and take your mind of trading for a while and re-energise.

As always this thread is open to all subjects and posters, and I believe the biggest on the board historically so we must be doing something right.

Hays politics is changing so are voters. Have you forgotten we have a coalition government.

Throw in UKIP and history means nothing now.

Buy-to-let property supremo shuts door on housing benefit tenants

One of Britain's best-known landlords, who owns nearly 1,000 homes, has sent out 200 eviction notices


Emma Lunn


The Guardian, Saturday 4 January 2014

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/jan/04/buy-to-let-landlord-evicts-housing-benefit-tenants



Fergus and Judith Wilson: "We've found that eastern Europeans are good tenants." Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian



One of Britain's best-known landlords has issued eviction notices to every tenant who is on welfare, and told letting agents that he will not accept any more applicants who need housing benefit.

Fergus Wilson, who with his wife Judith owns nearly 1,000 properties around the Ashford area of Kent, has sent the eviction notices to 200 tenants, saying he prefers eastern European migrants who default much less frequently than single mums on welfare. He says the move is purely an economic decision and points out that private landlords are running a business.

"Rents have gone north, and benefit levels south," he said. "The gap is such that I have taken the decision to withdraw from taking tenants on housing benefit. From what I can gather just about all other landlords have done the same. Our situation is that not one of our working tenants is in arrears – all those in arrears are on housing benefit."

A key factor for Wilson and other landlords is that it is impossible to obtain rent guarantee insurance for a tenant on housing benefit. This type of insurance is sold to landlords and is designed to cover the rent if the tenant stops paying for any reason.

Another issue Wilson raises is the number of tenancy applications landlords receive for each property.

"Tenants on benefits are competing with eastern Europeans who came to the UK in 2005 and have built up a good enough credit record to rent privately. We've found them to be a good category of tenant who don't default on the rent. With tenants on benefits the number of defaulters outnumbers the ones who pay on time," he said.

"Single mothers on benefits have been displaced to the bottom of the pile; sympathy for this group is disappearing. There aren't enough places for people to live."

Dan Wilson Craw, a spokesman for campaign group Priced Out, says he is dismayed to hear Wilson's announcement: "Evicting tenants because you're suddenly upset about new government policies is unbelievably heartless, and could lead to more people deciding not to claim benefit for fear of losing their home, and sinking further into poverty," he said, "This is just one symptom of a wider housing market that is simply not working in the consumer's interests. The instability and poor conditions that private tenants have to deal with would not be tolerated in any other market."

Wilson's decision comes after figures from the National Landlords' Association published in December, which showed that the number of private landlords letting to people on benefits has halved to just one in five.

Problems for tenants on benefits seem likely to get worse when universal credit is introduced. Under the scheme, six means-tested benefits, including housing benefit, will be combined into one monthly payment. Tenants on benefits will need to budget and pay the rent to their landlord themselves.

Universal credit started to be introduced in April 2013 and it is predicted that all claimants will be moved to the scheme by 2017.

The Wilsons shot to prominence in 2006 when it was revealed that they had built up Britain's biggest buy-to-let empire, sometimes snapping up a property every day in the early part of the decade.

Wilson is not the first large-scale landlord to raise concerns about low-income tenants. Last month Kevin Green, a landlord with more than 700 properties in Wales, said he may stop letting to people on welfare.

Is it possible to put a thread up on moneyam before the company IPO. I know I would not be able to add charts until the day. Never tried . Not sure if money am would recognise the company on the IPO day. Thanks.

Here's a man to blame for your high Electricity bills:



Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing’s offshore-controlled family companies could have channelled as much as £630 million in the past three years out of the UK electricity distribution network blamed for the Christmas blackouts.

Inquiries show that the Li family empire’s Bermuda, British Virgin Islands and Hong Kong companies pulled out £130 million and £135 million in dividends from UK Power Networks Holdings in 2011 and 2012 respectively. Analysts said there was nothing to suggest they would not be taking out a similar amount last year.

Meanwhile, they have made a loan to UKPN of £774 million at an interest rate of nearly 10%, thought to be costing £77 million a year in interest repayments.

The accounts show how the Li businesses, and UKPN chief executive Basil Scarsella, have been making massive profits from the company they bought in October 2010.

A UKPN spokesman declined to comment on the company’s finances but said it paid in full all UK taxes owed.

Is he laughing at us. :-))