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.

I see that not only is Cameron and Cronies considering flogging the Railways to the Chinese but flogging off the Gas supply to France.

After this con coalition Cameron EU negotiations will he will have to negotiate with the Chinese.

GHU.

Did you watch the programme Cyners? truly awful and made benefit receipitents out to be thieves hooligans and scummy deadbeats.

They always focus on the worst 1% and misrepresent the other 99%.

Dont forget if your 65 YOU are in receipt of benefits.

no i didn't, but most assuredly wouldn't sign some nonsense petition even if i did .... in fact, i know how difficult it is for genuine cases to get the benefits to which they are or should be entitled .... nevertheless, there is a significant minority who assuredly know how to work and milk the system

as for my "benefits" assuming you leave aside pension, i think it's ridiculous that i am entitled to tax-free winter heating allowance and even some sort of bus pass (somewhere) .... i don't get any other to my knowledge

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

fossy - as usual, you're spouting absolute rubbish

I do not wish to intrude cynic but if the government states that over a certain age gets an entitlement for winter fuel whether you are rich or not then take it with the grace which it is given or give it to someone you may know who may be less fortunate than yourself to help them keep warm - there are hundreds and thousands of them out there. Bus pass well I have one but have never used it and hope I never have to use it. If Tony Blair had the balls to be interviewed about his last child and whether or not he would take the child allowance and he stood/sat proud in front of the world and said "Yes" he would then why feel bad???? I rest my case.

Cyners youve forgotten your free TV license.

do i get free tv? .... was not even aware as that is something Beloved looks after, and as she is younger than me, we may not qualify, but equally silly ... hence make all those "small" things either taxable or not even given in the first place in your (combined) income is more than say 30/50k

Free TV over 75.

More than 50% of the benefits budget is state pension.

I think you should get everything your entitled to.

Its not charity you have paid for it.

What about the winter fuel allowance for people who live abroad.

Yep but they have still paid for it.

And lets not forget that survey last year where it was found over 90% of the winter fuel allowance went on ANYTHING but fuel . In fact it was found to go on xmas shopping and lets face it was an election bribe by I think by Gordon Brown and the Tories to be honest dare not remove it, although Sir Giddeon is having a good try.

Thanks for verifying the TV license freebie Hays. I stand corrected.

Interesting to see Farage and Benn in the top 20!!!!!!!!!! in the UK.

Very interesting , Putin number 3 in the World ?

It tell's you a lot of the mind set of countrys of the World.

Bush 4
Bill Clinton 8

No Winston Churchill on the list , or Thatcher . Well what would you expect if Lady Gaga was 9th in Germany just behind the Queen

Haystack - I don't personally agree with people who live abroad getting Winter Fuel Allowance as in the main they are not living in in a cold climate and I would suggest that the majority of people in the UK (genuine people) spend it on keeping warm. As for the TV licence - if one was to reach the age of 75 years young then they deserve a free licence for putting up with the crap which has been on the TV for years and which they have paid for practically most of their lives. Getting off my soap box now, good night all.

i question whether someone with a good standard of living, even if of pensionable age, should get these tax-free fringe benefits, which patently they do not need ..... if they're taxable, then fine, as i think much pension income also is

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/01/12/iraq-war-crimes-uk-blair_n_4583610.html?ncid=webmail1

After 12 years, £390bn, and countless dead, we leave poverty, fraud – and the Taliban in Afghanistan


World View: The country is in such a bad way as western troops depart that leaders can only spin, almost to the point of lying


Patrick Cockburn

Sunday 12 January 2014



A few years ago in Kabul, I was listening to a spokesman for an Afghan government organisation who was giving me a long, upbeat and not very convincing account of the achievements of the institution for which he worked. To relieve the tedium, and without much expectation of getting an interesting reply, I asked him – with a guarantee of non-attribution – what benefits the Afghan government had brought to its people. Without hesitation the spokesman replied that these benefits were likely to be very limited "so long as our country is run by gangsters and warlords".



It was at about this time that I decided that the main problem in Afghanistan was not the strength of the Taliban but the weakness of the government. It does not matter how many Nato troops are in the country because they are there in support of a government detested by much of the population. Everywhere I went in the capital there were signs of this, even among prosperous people who might be expected to be natural supporters of the status quo. I interviewed an estate agent who should not have had much to complain about since, in the 10 years after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, Kabul was the world's fastest growing city. He pointed to some workmen outside his office window saying they earned between $5 and $6 a day in a city where to rent a decent house for their families would cost $1,000 a month. He said: "It is impossible for this situation to continue without a revolution."

The year 2014 has long been billed as a decisive year for Afghanistan because most of the remaining foreign troops, 38,000 US and 5,200 British, will pull out before the end of it. Predictions of an exact date for a historic turning point usually turn out to be mistaken, but in this case conventional wisdom may well be correct. Already there are signs of drastic political change, such as the Afghan government's announcement last week of its intention to release 72 hard-core Taliban prisoners, provoking furious protests from Washington. Probably President Hamid Karzai's motive is to conciliate local leaders who want their relatives out of jail and whose support Karzai needs in the presidential election in April, in which he cannot run, having served two terms, although he wants to determine his successor.


More: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/after-12-years-390bn-and-countless-dead-we-leave-poverty-fraud--and-the-taliban-in-afghanistan-9053627.html