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.

"really?" he said in total astonishment

I know, shocked and stunned here!

Update - Labour lead at 5
by YouGov in Politics
Tue February 4, 2014 6 a.m. GMT

Latest YouGov / The Sun results 3rd February - Con 33%, Lab 38%, LD 11%, UKIP 11%; APP -25

Cabinet look alikes!

It's duff up Gove day.

David Cameron’s choice – to stand firm, or dance to Ukip’s tune


By Benedict Brogan Politics Last updated: February 3rd, 2014






long excuse for cameroons failings:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/benedictbrogan/100257895/david-camerons-choice-to-stand-firm-or-dance-to-ukips-tune/

Which one is leading the conners party?.

Which has the best pedigree to do so?

What are the latest torrid U-turns?

Manuel and Haze should get 3 out of 3 right.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26014387

The extent of corruption in Europe is "breathtaking" and it costs the EU economy at least 120bn euros (£99bn) annually, the European Commission says.
nothing new there then, for we all were fully aware of that for years
what about the bloated gravy train that keeps getting fatter and fatter and over which the voters have no control whatsoever?

What has the Macaroon done about the corruption in the 4 years he has led his purer than white government.

Why is he being ignored.

Are there any Gravy Trains in the UK?

Or lucrative government contracts to the Private sector?




-----

What was G3S scandal?

---------

nothing changes. only the weather

10+ years of war on terror, soldiers dead, billions of £'s wasted.

And for what?




New Afghanistan law to silence victims of violence against women

Small change to criminal code has huge consequences in country where 'honour' killings and forced marriage are rife


Emma Graham-Harrison


The Guardian, Tuesday 4 February 2014 18.33 GMT


A new Afghan law will allow men to attack their wives, children and sisters without fear of judicial punishment, undoing years of slow progress in tackling violence in a country blighted by so-called "honour" killings, forced marriage and vicious domestic abuse.

The small but significant change to Afghanistan's criminal prosecution code bans relatives of an accused person from testifying against them. Most violence against women in Afghanistan is within the family, so the law – passed by parliament but awaiting the signature of the president, Hamid Karzai – will effectively silence victims as well as most potential witnesses to their suffering.

"It is a travesty this is happening," said Manizha Naderi, director of the charity and campaign group Women for Afghan Women. "It will make it impossible to prosecute cases of violence against women … The most vulnerable people won't get justice now."



http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/04/afghanistan-law-victims-violence-women

A new Afghan law will allow men to attack their wives, children and sisters without fear of judicial punishment
i'm afraid that has always been the case anyway in a great many muslim states, just as female circumcision is still rife throughout many parts of africa

Timothy Yeo's deselection: Is this the start of a Tory Spring?

The deselection of two Conservative MPs in the past week is leading some to suggest that grassroots members have had enough



By Tim Bale

6:30AM GMT 05 Feb 2014

Comments90 Comments





The result of the ballot of local members was decisive. After a long and bloody deselection battle with his constituency association, the sitting MP had to admit defeat. Tim Yeo, Suffolk South, February 2014? No. Nigel Nicholson, Bournemouth East, 45 years ago in February 1959.


Just over five years before Nicholson got the chop, the Conservative Party had decided to count its membership. The total was 2,805,032. Sixty years later, in 2013, the figure was only 134,000. Some will argue that those figures tell you all you need to know about the so‑called “Tory Spring” that has seen two MPs dumped by their local associations in under a week.


What do you expect, the argument runs, when the only people prepared to join the party these days are a bunch of swivel-eyed loons? No wonder that David Cameron has no more control over the grassroots than he does over the green benches. Welcome to the 21st-century Tory party, where deference has disappeared, ideological tests can be set and failed, and where there is no longer any such thing as a safe seat.



More: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/10614852/Timothy-Yeos-deselection-Is-this-the-start-of-a-Tory-Spring.html



Taken from the comment section, Tory HQ take note:


michaelpm
• an hour ago


That word "modernising" should be inscribed on Cameron's tomb.

It sums up completely what has been nothing more than the most transparent, infantile, opportunistic, dishonest, self-serving PR exercise in British political history.

I never thought that I would see another politician as shallow and untrustworthy as Blair. But there he is, like some deluded Don Quixote, standing with his chest puffed out atop the pile of rubble that used to be the Conservative Party.

I've voted Conservative all my long life, but never again. UKIP may still struggle occasionally to acquire the PR gloss of the LibLabCon coalition, but as the only party that has a set of policies that is identifiably Conservative, I have no doubt where my cross is going from now on.

What an utter disaster Cameron and his cronies have been for the Tories. The abominable Yeo's departure, as welcome as it is, doesn't even begin to address the problem.

electionista ‏@electionista 11h
UK - YouGov/Sun poll:

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

Which begs the question are the Tories relying more and more on Hedge funds and rich donations gathered at evening dinners.

How on earth can Camoron stand up and have a go at labour over Union funding, its really laughable.