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.

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?




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What was G3S scandal?

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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.

Why Tory MPs are fleeing Westminster




By Tim Wigmore Politics Last updated: February 4th, 2014


http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/timwigmore/100257978/why-tory-mps-are-fleeing-westminster/



Tim Yeo has been deselected

The Curse of Cameron is back. The Prime Minister used to specialise in dooming British sportsmen to defeat. Now he has a new hobby: helping backbenchers get sacked. In the last week, local constituency associations have handed out P45s to both Tim Yeo and Anne McIntosh. In publicly trying to save both from the chop, David Cameron has only embarrassed himself.

To local Tory associations, an endorsement from Mr Cameron now carries about as much weight as one from Nick Clegg. As party membership has collapsed – halving under Cameron's leadership of the Conservative Party to accelerate a long-running trend – so party selection has fallen to a progressively smaller selection of people. Disillusioned members who haven't left want to reclaim their party – and that means cleansing it of MPs like Mr Yeo, who has publicly blamed his decapitation on his moderation. Constituencies are becoming increasingly adroit at pressuring their MPs to vote against the Government. Being a bland party stooge may offer hope of advancement within Westminster – but it now carries the increasing risk of being booted out of it.

The reassertion of backbench power will be welcomed as long overdue. Downing Street, though, does not agree. These rumbles of discontent have contributed to five of the Tory 2010 intake quitting (including Louise Mensch, who has already left Westminster). Four of these are women, prompting endless dissection of Mr Cameron's "women problem". There is something in this. But it's exacerbated by the Conservative leadership's disdain for dissident voices: a simplistic "with us or against us" thinking. The Policy Board was meant to open Number 10 up to new ideas – but it's become merely "a way to increase the payroll vote", one MP complains. The attitude at the top of the party is likened to "group think", with anything outside the top five issues discarded, so "lots of MPs ask: am I making more of a difference here than I would outside?"

That's particularly true of Conservatives in marginal seats, which is why there could be more Conservative departures to come. Tories with narrow majorities over Labour and a strong third-placed Lib Dem vote are particularly vulnerable: some "will see Ukip doing well and think f––– me. I can't be bothered with this any more", a Conservative MP fears.

CCHQ needs to stop the drip-drip of Tory departures. Each new MP who resigns costs the party an average of 1,000 votes at the next election. Even as the economy grows, this is support that the Tories can't afford to shed.

I think Cameron is doing a good job for the country, may he continue.

hear, hear!

LOL!

More bad news for Miliband/Balls

The cost of living crisis is about to turn around, according to a forecast from the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS).

In its so-called "green budget", the IFS predicted that wages will start to rise faster than inflation in just a few months' time.

Picture of Tube booth worker 'sleeping on the job at Paddington' emerges as strike starts

This is one of the jobs that Bob Crow is calling a strike over

He should be in the cabinet.

They spend half their life asleep.

He should be in the cabinet.

They spend half their life asleep.

You can say that again:-)

They should spend more time asleep, less time to do damage.

There might be something in that.

Some of them should be put to sleep.