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.

Wake me up when summer arrives. Zzzzzzz

Newsflash: Dutch would be better off if they had freedom to set their own economic policy

By Janet Daley World Last updated: February 6th, 2014

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/janetdaley/100258448/newsflash-dutch-would-be-better-off-if-they-had-freedom-to-set-their-own-economic-policy/


Well, fancy that. A study by Capital Economics (an organisation which won the Wolfson Prize, no less, in 2012), has concluded that the average Dutch household could be £8000 per year better off, and that the national income would grow if Netherlands left the EU. That's the political headline. But even more worthy of attention is the apparent banality of the report's basis for this assertion.

"…there are also good reasons to believe that a nation, untied from the bureaucracy of Brussels and able to make decisions for itself rather than have imposed one-size-fits-all policies will benefit economically…" You don't say. In fact, isn't that what you and I (and lots and lots of other people) have been saying ever since the inception of the single currency? Indeed, how could anyone in his right mind have thought that tying all the wildly differing states of the European Union, with their vastly disparate economic histories and cultural attitudes to taxation, debt, public spending, etc, etc, was a good – or even a remotely feasible – idea? How could locking them all into the same interest rate and monetary policy as the most successful and productive member (Germany) not result in the pauperisation of the southern Mediterranean countries? And how could those poorer countries possibly avoid permanent dependency on the richer ones? Without even the possibility of devaluation or lower interest rates, how could they ever emerge from their endemic poverty? And so on and on.

Yes sir, those are the questions we all asked at the time and answer came there none. And now the august Capital Economics report states portentously that the country would be able to manage its economy more successfully, "…by having the freedom to set monetary and fiscal policy to fit Dutch national conditions, and not the euro-zone as a whole." You bet.

I have always thought that politics and come to that politicians should not be involved with disputes over strikes....I know it's difficult to separate the two but it is between the management and the workforce to come to an agreement over pay and conditions....that should happen if both parties agree within reason to sit down and talk things over....it is irritating to see politics becoming the main issue !.....I feel sorry for commuters...passengers and such....and I'm pretty certain that the tube staff can't be too happy as well by striking....let's hope this dispute is quickly sorted out without the main parties sticking their noses in !...

Trebles all round for the lawyers!



Bill Roache found not guilty of rape and assault charges

81-year-old William Roache, who plays Ken Barlow in the ITV soap, is cleared of all charges of sexually abusing five youngsters following a trial at Preston Crown Court




The jury spent just under six hours deliberating before delivering its unanimous not guilty verdicts.




http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10621400/Bill-Roache-found-not-guilty-of-rape-and-assault-charges.html

Why don't they put the Police and others on trial for covering up what they knew about Jimmy Saville and other case's ?

These men like Bill Roach are mostly in their 70 to 80's , the stress they are put under could kill them , like what as been said before some of these cases should never have come to court on just so flimsey heresay , maybe they should look into the background of these accusers a great deal more

The extent of corruption in Europe is "breathtaking" and it costs the EU economy at least 120bn euros (£99bn) annually, the European Commission says.

EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem has presented a full report on the problem.

She said the true cost of corruption was "probably much higher" than 120bn.

Were is everybody today ?

Hello :-)

Lord Smith, Chairman of the Environment Agency and who is on a nice big fat salary managed to borrow some wellies at last and visit Somerset today;


Ahead of Lord Smith's visit, Conservative Mr Liddell-Grainger, who represents Bridgwater and West Somerset, said: "I will tell him what I bloody well think of him - he should go, he should walk.

"I'm livid. This little git has never even been on the telephone to me. When I find out where he is, I will give it to him.

"He has not told the local MPs, the local council or the local press where he is going to be. He's a coward."

He had the wellies last time. They were in the boot of his car. There is a lot of land flooded, but just 40 houses. It is just the farmers making a fuss. The rivers haven't been dredged since 1995 as expert opinion was that it was not needed. It is difficult to protect the area, which is below sea level, from such an abnormal storm. The cost to protect such a small number of properties is out of proportion.

Do you think it's out of proportion to spending about £50billion on the HS2 project Haystack? I think if your house was 1 of the 40 you might be a little upset. "Just the farmers making a fuss" - don't you value the contribution farmers make to the country?

I hear Captain Bluster LE after his morning bluster is putting on his Wellies and going to hide from Corporal Alex SNP in Somerset.

Ducking and weaving to avoid a confrontation with the Haggis, but serving up a little Darling instead of him.

As usual Wavey Davey is all mouth and no trousers.

==========

What are they doing farming below sea level? I would let it flood and then fix the problem when better weather comes. There is just a handful of farms there. It looks bad due to the size of the fields.

“Retreat is the only sensible policy,” says Colin Thorne, professor of physical geography at Nottingham University and a leading flood expert. “If we fight nature, we will lose in the end.”

This view has until now strongly influenced government policy on the Levels. Much stress has been placed on the area’s role as a flood plain where people should expect to get wet. The perhaps brutal calculation has been that it was not worth spending millions dredging rivers and building barriers to protect a few thousand people – especially when the scientists say that it will merely buy time.

“Can the Somerset Levels be defended between now and the end of the century? No,” says Prof Thorne.

No explicit decision would be taken to abandon the Levels. But the much-hated end to the dredging of the area’s rivers, and the increased flooding that may have resulted, were at least pushing in that direction and letting nature, in at least some places, gradually take its course.

There are, however, a few problems for the “swampist tendency,” as Anthony Gibson, a former farmer’s union official now closely involved with efforts to plan for the area, calls them. The first, as he says, is that “the Levels are very far from a typical flood plain”.

They are a deeply artificial, man-made environment, criss-crossed with rivers, canals and channels whose banks have been built up higher than the surrounding land to carry large volumes of water through and out of the area.

Because of these banks, the water level in the two main local rivers, the Parrett and the Tone, is up to 10ft higher than the land around it. In flood times, when the rivers burst even these banks, floodwater cannot escape until the level of water in the river is lower than the level on the land around it, and that can take months

How many tory mp's in that area?

Not enough to get Cameron out of bed until the flood started hitting his doorstops.

The whole scenario with Lord Smith makes me angry and I don't even live in Somerset. What on earth does he think he's getting paid for, to sit in a car trying to avoid the press, dodge awkward questions and then scurry back to his lovely warm home as soon as possible? If he doesn't think the buck stops with him, then he should stop getting paid big bucks.

David Cameron promises to help flood victims on visit to Somerset

Prime minister says he will do 'everything that can be done' as he meets locals in flooded county


Patrick Wintour


theguardian.com, Friday 7 February 2014 17.33 GMT





The prime minister, under growing pressure for not visiting the flood-hit Somerset levels, finally made a trip to the area on Friday where he vowed to do everything he could to help.

On his visit in the company of the local Bridgwater Conservative MP, Ian Liddell-Grainger, David Cameron said: "Clearly people here faced a very tough time and continue to face a tough time, and that is why we have got to do everything we can to help.

"So more pumps – we brought in more pumps; more help from the emergency services – more help is there; money to help Somerset to get back on its feet – the money is there; the army coming in to help with sandbags, as they have other the past 24 hours."



He suggested the cause of the problems lay with decisions taken by the last Labour government. "The pause in dredging that took place in the late 90s – that was wrong. We need to get dredging again and I have said when the water levels come down and it is safe to dredge we will be dredging to make sure that these rivers and ditches can carry a better capacity of water. There are lessons to be learned and I will make sure they are learned.

"Some dredging was done but clearly we need to go back to a period of much more intensive dredging. It is not the whole answer. Right now the priority is that anyone in Somerset who needs help gets help."


Full story: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/feb/07/david-cameron-help-flood-victims-somerset-farm

It just stupid politics. Who wants to spend millions to protect a handful of farms. Let them drown as they will eventually. If climate change is a reality then they will be under water soon no matter what is done. There may be climate change, but it may just be a natural cycle and not man made.

It certainly true that it was Labour that stopped the dredging.

an interesting question today was whether or not part of the £11bn overseas aid should be diverted to pressing home flood relief requirements - and not just a paltry £100m earmarked for 2015