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.

i see our resident, armchair, left-wing-tripe pedagogue is still cluttering up this thread with his usual rubbish diatribe

try asking him a question, but don't hold your breath for an answer

14 February 2014
Catholic archbishop attacks welfare reform

The Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal-designate Vincent Nichols
The Archbishop of Westminster says there is a "real dramatic crisis"

The leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales has labelled the government's social reform a "disgrace" for leaving people facing "destitution".

Cardinal-designate Vincent Nichols said the "basic safety net" for the poorest families has been "torn apart".

The Archbishop of Westminster claimed there was now a "real dramatic crisis".

The government responded by saying welfare reforms will "transform the lives" of the poorest families.

Speaking to the Telegraph, Archbishop Nichols, the most senior Roman Catholic cleric in England and Wales, said the welfare state was becoming "more punitive".

"I think what's happening is two things", he said.

"One is that the basic safety net, that was there to guarantee that people would not be left in hunger or in destitution has actually been torn apart. It no longer exists, and that is a real real dramatic crisis.

"And the second is that, in this context, the administration of social assistance - I am told - has become more and more punitive."

'Meet basic needs'
"So, if applicants don't get it right then they have to wait and they have to wait for 10 days, for two weeks - with nothing, with nothing. And that's why the role of food banks has become so crucial for so many people in Britain today.

"And for a country of our affluence that quite frankly is a disgrace."

The attack comes just days before Archbishop Nichols will be one of 19 new cardinals from around the world who will be appointed by Pope Francis at the Vatican.

A spokesman for the Department of Work and Pensions replied by saying the previous benefits system was "trapping" the very people it was designed to help.

"Our welfare reforms will transform the lives of some of the poorest families in our communities with universal credit making three million households better off and lifting hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty", the spokesman said.

"It's wrong to talk of removing a safety net when we're spending £94bn a year on working age benefits and the welfare system supports millions of people who are on low incomes or unemployed so they can meet their basic needs."

in many ways what he says is absolutely right ..... how far the church should get involved in politics is a different argument

of course the catholic church has a far greater augean stable of its own on which it might like to concentrate its mind - shall we mention its opposition to birth control? ... and that's just an easy one

How does this universal credit thingy work anyway?


anyone know?

Manuel was so quiet I thought that he was underwater.

Pity.

Cynic,

This reminded me of you and haze.

Aye Fred, and the silent majority WHO NO LONGER POST ON HERE, wish you had been drowned at birth. But I couldn't possibly comment. :O)

Or perhaps the grandees of the torrid party,

I see Simon Cowell has had a baby : congratulations are in order but...it's funny ; I thought...that.. women did...I suppose anything's possible !....anybody check it for claws...666...horns. ....that sort of thing ?..

Who speaks for England?

By johnredwood | Published: February 15, 2014

http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2014/02/15/who-speaks-for-england-2/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+JohnRedwoodsDiary+%28John+Redwood%27s+Diary%29


I asked the government this question earlier in this Parliament. There was no clear answer. It is becoming a more important question, as the Scottish government challenges the Union from within, and the European Union challenges it from without. It is especially important given the wish of the EU and its supporters to deny the very existence of England, as they seek to balkanise into regions with no resonance.

The Cabinet contains the nucleus of an English government. The Secretaries of State for Education, Health, the Environment, Communities and local government, and Transport are English Ministers, not Ministers of the Union. Their functions outside England are the responsibility of devolved governments. Parts of Culture Media and Sport are also devolved. It would be helpful if the word English was more commonly used to describe their remits and duties.

The UK Parliament contains a majority of English MPs. Many of us would like to see the proposal enforced that only English MPs should in future vote on English matters. Some nationalist MPs agree and usually absent themselves from votes on English education or health, seeing that they have no interest or constituency knowledge in these matters.

I see the Westminster Parliament as both the Parliament of the Union and the Parliament of England. I do not wish to see another expensive group of politicians elected to some new expensive building for a different English Parliament. I do want our Cabinet Ministers to be explicitly English in their words and work, and do want English MPs to stand up for England , with us debating and voting on these matters within the Westminster building.

Something to make you pucker up...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVB-F4v1czE

I think the leader of the Catholic Church in England & Wales should make a sizeable donation from the vast church coffers if he is really so concerned about people left in hunger and destitution.

in my post, i never ever mentioned the mountains of gold and silver and other treasures that the catholic church has squirrelled away for centuries, much of it from desperately impoverished peasants in south america or southern italy .... those poor mugs were led to believe that it would help them on the way to heaven

the picture of the over-stuffed cardinal and other church prelates still rings true today

=================

should one mention Pius Xll and his unholy alliance with Hitler?
..... how about the Inquisition then?

The Catholic church owns property all over the world from which they get rent. It is akin to the Church Commissioners of the Church of England here. They own large areas of the West End and towards Regents Park apart from land and buildings all over the UK.

except that the catholic church is obscenely wealthy, even relative to all others

It because it has a presence in most countries and has bought property there over the years. I have always liked the British museum with all of its antiquities. The Catholic church, under the umbrella of missionary work, has pilfered the world of priceless treasures. When I visited the Vatican museum, I was amazed to see what is on display. There are mummies and tomb treasures from Egypt. Rare items from almost every country in the world. Only a fraction of what they have is on display.

For over 14 centuries, the Vatican was the undisputed wealthest single economic entity in the world.

The problem is that the Catholic Church hides its wealth behind tens of thousands of front companies, blind trusts, off shore accounts and other financial loopholes to both avoid tax and the revelation of its wealth.

Globally, the wealth of the Catholic Church is estimated to be in excess of $3,000 Billion

The Vatican is by far the largest holder of land titles for any organisation or government in the world with visible title to around US $316 Billion of property (churches, schools, hospitals etc) and around US $2,623 Billion of investment property hidden in an extremely complex networks of hundreds of thousands of trusts and front companies.

The current market property value of Vatican City, in the heart of Rome alone is worth between US $1 Billion and $3 Billion. This excludes the value of the priceless artworks and valuables stored within its walls.

The most valuable property holdings of the Catholic Church by nation is the United States with around $50 Billion in visible property holdings and around $507 Billion in hidden property holdings through a massively complex network of front companies and trusts.

I was told two weeks ago by a man who's friend had a degree in economics left his job and became a Priest , not sure what church it was thing it was C&E , and the church asked him to work for them as an accountant. He found out that all the clergy in London had sandwiches delived to them every day from Fortam & Masons at a cost of £ 10,000 a week, when he reported this he was told his job was to do the accounts and not to question the workings of the church.

It sounds like some of the churches are akin to the the City of London and its apparatchiks, wannabes and other riff raff living on the Thames Embankments, begging for the state to bail them out.