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.

Update - Labour lead at 3
by YouGov in Politics
Wed January 29, 2014 6 a.m. GMT

Latest YouGov / The Sun results 28th January - Con 34%, Lab 37%, LD 9%, UKIP 12%;

The Labour party is to call on the government to issue an apology for the conduct of Margaret Thatcher's administration during the miners' strike of 1984-85, after recently released Whitehall papers showed a secret plan to close 75 pits.

In a sign of how Ed Miliband is returning the Labour party to its traditional roots, the shadow cabinet office minister Michael Dugher will say that the "shocking" conduct of the Conservative government warranted an apology.

Dugher will challenge the cabinet office minister Francis Maude to apologise in the House of Commons after Whitehall papers released under the 30-year rule showed that the Thatcher government considered deploying troops at the height of the strike, which lasted from March 1984 to March 1985.

The move by Labour will be seen as one of the most controversial attempts by the party to distance itself from its recent past under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown because the high court ruled in 1984 that the National Union of Mineworkers broke its own constitution by failing to hold a ballot. Arthur Scargill, the NUM president, was fined and the union's assets were sequestere

Neil Kinnock, the Labour leader during the strike who criticised the "suicidal vanity" of Scargill, said in 2009 that he regretted not calling publicly for a national strike ballot.

Lord Tebbit, the trade and industry secretary during the strike who featured in the recent Whitehall papers, said on Tuesday night: "This is plain absurd. Next they'll want an apology for freeing the Falklands. I presume Ed Miliband is doing this in order to get some more money from Unite.

"My recollection is that the police were principally used to protect miners who wanted to go to work but who were being prevented from doing so by Arthur Scargill's hate mob. Neither Labour nor Scargill has ever apologised for that. I trust the government will merely laugh at this ridiculous campaign."

Just about sums it up:

Is Cameron going to appear in court as a character witness for Coulson and Rebecca, who he seem quite close to at one time?

Or perhaps, should Cameron, IDS and Georgie Boy appear in the same court sometime in future, be the question ?

Cyners & Fishfinger,

Dunno if you'll find this of any use, but the AUD has fallen about 20% against the USD over the last year or so.

BHP Billiton estimates that each 1 cent change in the AUD/USD exchange rate has a $100m impact on net profits

thanks hilary .... always useful info but would rather see a general rise in ore price ..... it's not something i follow, but AUD has apparently made oz a very expensive country to visit, and perhaps to live in .... i'll get an update in a few weeks when a very good pal of mine returns from there, and where he also has family

Today is shaping into a day whereby I'd have been more productive if I stayed in bed...

Would you like to expand on that statement Shortie?:-)

I just closed out a couple of positions this morning which nett of to nearly zero when looking at them now I'd have big profits if I'd have done nothing.. Nothing lost except my time and sanity.. Frustrating to have called it wrong.

Have the police and the crown prosecution service nothing better to do?





Men charged with stealing food from Iceland supermarket bins



One of the men is to be tried in February for allegedly stealing cheese, mushrooms, tomatoes, and cake in the middle of the night last year


Kashmira Gander


Tuesday 28 January 2014

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/men-charged-with-stealing-food-from-iceland-supermarket-bins-9091967.html


A man is to be put on trial in February after he was allegedly caught stealing from the bins behind a supermarket in London, it has been reported.


Paul May, a freelance web designer, is expected to argue in court that he does not consider taking the mushrooms, tomatoes, cheese, and cakes from the garbage outside of Iceland as illegal, because the food was going to be disposed of and he needed it to feed himself, the Guardian reported.

As part of Mr May’s case, magistrates are expected to take into consideration the practice of “skipping”, where people retrieve and eat food discarded by supermarkets as waste, as well as the reasons why people may need to resort eating food from bins.

Lawyers for the three men have asked the Crown Prosecution Service to consider dropping the case, but the CPS said this month that the case would continue, citing “significant public interest in prosecuting these three individuals".

The 35-year-old and his squat-mates Jason Chan and William James, were arrested at around midnight in Kentish Town on 25 October, when a member of the public called the police to report three men climbing over a wall at the back of the supermarket.

Police arrested the men who were allegedly found with a total of £33 worth of food in a holdall and a trolley. Following the arrest, the men were held for 19 hours before being released, and the police returned the items to the store.

Originally, the three men were arrested for burglary but they were later charged under an obscure section of the 1824 Vagrancy Act.

The ‘skipping’ or ‘freegan’ movement, which is believed to have started in New York, has evolved over the past decade. Freegans can generally afford to buy the products that they take, but see retrieving goods, including food and clothes, from waste-bins as a viable alternative to consumerism, and a way to minimise waste

Even the store(Iceland) is amazed and annoyed.

The case has been dropped. Apparantly Iceland talked the prosecution service/police out of it. They were going to say in court that the people were free to take the items.

They should ask Cameron how to do another U-Turn and get Theresa to take the flack of Syrian immigration.

The Houses of Parliament is becoming a The House of Cards, or Laughs with Cameron as master of ceremonies.

I think if Cameron was a horse Rebecca would put blinkers on him and lead him.

Perhaps, she did?

WELL WELL WELL, I KNEW IT EXISTED BUT COULD NEVER FIND IT...........check this out just goes to show what liars the PRESENT Tory SCUM are.................

Last Updated: Monday, 3 September 2007, 19:56 GMT 20:56 UK

Tories 'to match Labour spending'

George Osborne
Mr Osborne has promised to make economic stability the priority

Osborne on spending

A Conservative government would match Labour's projected public spending totals for the next three years, shadow chancellor George Osborne has said.
He pledged two years of 2% increases. The final year total would be reviewed.

He told the BBC he wanted to see a shift in taxation from income being taxed to pollution being taxed.

But Chancellor Alistair Darling said the Tories had given a "panicked response" to Labour's plans and that the sums did not "add up".

'No up-front tax cuts'

Mr Osborne said government spending under the Conservatives would rise from £615bn next year to £674bn in 2010/11. He said, like Labour, the final year total would be reviewed in 2009.


See public spending breakdown
He said the move would create "headroom" for lower taxes because the economy is expected to grow faster than public spending.

Mr Osborne said: "The result of adopting these spending totals is that under a Conservative government there will be real increases in spending on public services, year after year.

"The charge from our opponents that we will cut services becomes transparently false."

He added: "At the same time the share of national income taken by the state will start to fall, as the economy grows faster than the government does.


Any reduction we offer in one tax will have to be matched by a tax rise elsewhere
George Osborne, shadow chancellor

Send us your comments
"Pursuing this approach over an economic cycle creates the headroom for sustainably lower taxes."

He added no unfunded tax cuts would be promised at the next election.

He said: "There will also be no election promises of up-front, unfunded tax cuts.

"Any reduction we offer in one tax will have to be matched by a tax rise elsewhere."

Mrr Darling dismissed Mr Osborne's announcement, saying the Tories would not be able to make good their promises.

'Panicked response'

"In recent weeks the Conservatives have been proposing tax cuts amounting to £21bn," he said in a statement.

"Now they claim they can match Labour on public spending. They can't and their sums don't add up.

"This is the latest panicked response from the Conservative Party who have simply not thought their arguments through."

Mr Osborne's announcement came as it emerged Johan Eliasch had resigned as a deputy treasurer of the Conservatives.

Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown said he wanted to reach out to new supporters
A Tory spokesman said the sportswear tycoon - who loaned the party £2.6m - would continue to offer financial and political support.

But a report in The Times said the businessman had quit his post because of Tory leader David Cameron's "lurch to the right" in policy making.

A Conservative spokesman said: "He has resigned because he didn't feel he had time to do the job properly."

Election speculation

Mr Osborne told BBC Radio 4's Today that Mr Eliasch wanted to spend more time concentrating on combating climate change.

Meanwhile the prime minister has told the Daily Telegraph he wants to attract support from non-Labour voters.

Gordon Brown's interview has increased speculation he could call a general election in the autumn.

In Mr Brown's wide-ranging Telegraph interview he said he wanted to attract people not thought of traditionally as Labour supporters.

He said: "I see British politics as us always seeking to unite and to be part of an enlarged centre ground.

"And us reaching out to those who might not be thought of as our supporters or identified with us.

"By showing them that we can meet these challenges we can have a better country and have a more positive view of the future of Britain."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6975536.stm

George Osborne
Mr Osborne has promised to make economic stability the priority

Osborne on spending

A Conservative government would match Labour's projected public spending totals for the next three years, shadow chancellor George Osborne has said.
He pledged two years of 2% increases.

OSBOURNE......" "The charge from our opponents that we will cut services becomes transparently false."...............ends

LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL.

A plague on all their houses!

We have economic stability. Osborne is dong a good job.

DONG yes couldnt agree more. Perhaphs it should read DUNG. Keep of the Meths.

Your cheats have been found out Hays.

Why is the gov borrowing more money?