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.

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.

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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. :-))

GF,

Agree with your sentiments about this thread.

In general arguments and/or banter are civilised.

Quite happy to disagree with the arguments of others and happy for them to disagree with contents of my postings.

What gets up my nose is argument based on direct personal attack of posters rather than the criticism or challenge of the argument.

Usually, I try to be polite and observant of my ignorance, and if posters are relatively polite in any replies given, hopefully I return in similar manner.

However, if somebody attempts to personally denigrate me, especially with little knowledge of the topic or myself, I don't feel restricted in replying in a similar manner.

As many others, I have a personal squelch list of those who I see no personal gain in having banter with and have found it makes this and many other threads more pleasurable.

As you say there doesn't seem to be any limit to the threads one can start or seemingly the topics one can discuss.

If one doesn't wish to see the "disturbing contents" of another's post, they can simply pass on, or start another thread

I enjoy this thread, as it makes me think, and try to organise what I think and also reappraise what I think.
(Also, interested by many of the other threads and their contents.)

I wish this thread and you a healthy and happy new year.

The tax transfer lark is going on wholesale...not just under the tories, No Lab had a big hand in it too. This article barely scratches the surface.



Britain's tax rules – now written for and by multinationals

The budget will usher in tax changes that will lose us £20bn, but it will be a bonanza for one interest group – big business


http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/mar/19/britains-tax-rules-written-by-multinationals


http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/dec/19/hmrc-lost-nerve-tax-avoiders-mps?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487

relativelWhat gets up my nose is argument based on direct personal attack of posters rather than the criticism or challenge of the argument.

Usually, I try to be polite and observant of my ignorance, and if posters are y polite in any replies given, hopefully I return in similar

Are you having a larf Fred , lol

aldo - he doesn't answer serious questions either; like i said, he's little better than charlatan .... my main objection is that he takes up so much damn space

The above 2 posts illustrate just what Chris Carson was pointing out last night on post 35307.

That said I think after a second look Chris was being just a little mischievous towards Fred.

Look its simple just filter posters you dont want to get involved with and try not to look at other posters debate with them, I know its difficult as Alders once pointed out to me about the squelch system something which I found out later for myself, but believe me IAN admin will not budge even given the rules and regulations set out at the bottom of this page. eg, do not be rude or upset other posters etc etc.

Ive been in touch with him several times well a lot of times not about you lot but the spoiler we had before xmas, and he wouldnt budge despite several attacks over and over again.

In the end Mike e-mailed me and it was sorted.

Lets try and be civilised but at the same time we dont want a thread thats censored with 'fairy boy talk'.

Just the man goldfinger post 35056 do you know the answer.

From another thread.

From unknown to some 03 Jan 2014

Improvements, can we please remove the poster known as Cynic.

Another unknown to some- 03 Jan 2014

Here here, I'll vote for that -):


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


Also, on that thread it was suggested that it as unfriendly to new posters.

Don't think so.

Max seems to me to be relatively new with many different opinions to myself and others but very acceptable.

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But, I guess the only "paper ?" some would allow the public to read would be the Mail, or a hand out from Redwood, or Fauxpage. Probably, after it had been appropriately used.

Was that the thread to remove halifax as well .:-))

SSSHHSSH!

Or I will complain about you.


Hell, that seems a good idea.


8-)

Go on then. I have never wound anyone up on the investor threads, that does not deserve it and I hope if I was banned I would be missed (perhaps not by you)lol.