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.

and what do you have in stock to depict EM + EB? :-)

This might cheer up a few on here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-25805474

Jobless migrants from within the European Union will be denied access to housing benefit from April this year, senior government ministers have said.

Home Secretary Theresa May and Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith told the Daily Mail it would prevent exploitation of the UK welfare system.

They will also only be able to claim jobseeker's cash for six months, unless they have a "genuine" chance of work.

Labour want bring in English and Maths tests for immigrants

in that case, correct english should also be taught to whoever writes the the questionnaire! ..... try "how much would you like?" :-)

Scary! It's the grammar police.

http://news.sky.com/story/1197837/imf-upgrades-uk-growth-forecast-above-rivals

The International Monetary Fund is on the brink of upgrading its growth forecast for the UK more than any other major economy, Sky News has learnt.

The Fund is poised to increase its projection for UK growth in 2014 from 1.9% to 2.4%. Although the Fund will also lift its forecasts for world economic growth, the UK upgrade is significantly stronger.

It is the latest boost to the fortunes of the Chancellor, coming barely 24 hours after the Ernst & Young ITEM Club also increased its projection for UK economic growth this year.

but how long until a reflection in general living standards and income levels?

That all depends on your place at the table, notice how designer brands never feel a recession..

Farage: 'Working Mothers Worth Less Than Men'
that'll win ukip a lot of votes ...... as a wannabe serious politician, how stupidly naive can you be, even if there is an underlying truth in it (read the article)?

And Camoron lies through his teeth each week at PMqs when he says we have more people in work. What we want is a return to the old claimant count.

Ms Reeves revealed plans to pay a higher JSA rate for an initial period to people with a record of work. “People who have worked for longer should get a bit of extra support if they lose their job,” she said.

She attacked the “cost of failure” in “part-time Britain” under the current Government. She revealed that taxpayers are footing a £4.7bn a year bill for the record 1.472m people working part-time who want to work full-time. Analysis commissioned by Labour found that £3bn is lost in tax and national insurance payments, £1.8bn paid out in tax credits and £1.8bn paid in housing benefit.

U TURN TORIES

sticky - i've said it lots of times, but i'll say it again ..... it doesn't matter (too) much what methodology or formula is used, so long as it is not forever being tinkered with ..... however, once a formula has been in place for at least a year, a fair trend is apparent, even if you don't like the result shown

if the system you are now suggestingwas to be used, i'm perfectly sure that it would have just as many shortcomings as the current one ..... which i think has been in place now for a good number of years -ie certainly during the previous regime

There is very little point in using logic in explanations to gf, especially when you have made the point numerous times.

RUBBISH.

For once his post is a completely accurate description of itself.

Explain the relationship between part time workers (but wish they were full full time)

AND

1.Food Banks (record levels)
2.Pay Day Loans (record levels)
3.Savings accounts at lowest level in history
4.Credit Card Debt at highest level ever
5.Charity Shops, increasing by the day
6.Red Cross having to feed poor families
7.Kids going to school not having had a breakfast
8.Tax credits and housing benefit at historic highs

sticky - if you are disputing what i have written, please do not go off at a tangent and tell me specifically why
your long list of things does not remotely destroy the argument i put forward

no system of counting (statistics) can ever be free of argument as to how those figures can or should be interpreted, as that very old saying points out about lies, damned lies and statistics

35622........READ it.

electionista ‏@electionista Jan 19
UK - YouGov/Sunday Times poll:

CON 33%
LAB 39%
LDEM 8%
UKIP 13%

electionista ‏@electionista Jan 19
UK - YouGov/Sunday Times poll:

CON 33%
LAB 39%
LDEM 8%
UKIP 13%

You can blather all day Hays (over age yuppy) but you cant change the stats above.