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.

The raison d'être of the SNP is leaving the UK. If Salmond loses badly in the referendum, what will become of him and the SNP? How long before the next push for a referendum? They can't have one every year. Would gap of a generation be enough?

Is it time to tell the yanks to f/off?



Ukraine crisis: US imposes first sanctions on Russians

US senator warns Britain that sanctions are "a test" of transatlantic relationship




Senator Chris Murphy, the chair of the Senate's Europe committee, warned Britain and other European nations that the US expected them to take a stronger stand against Moscow Photo: GETTY IMAGES


Raf Sanchez
By Raf Sanchez, Peter Foster in Washington

5:24PM GMT 06 Mar 2014


The US has imposed travel bans on Russian and Ukrainian officials deemed responsible for the Crimean crisis as a leading senator warned the British government that its willingness to place sanctions would be "a test" of the transatlantic relationship.


In its first sanctions since Russian forces seized control of Crimea, the White House announced visa restrictions banning "those who are most directly involved in destabilising Ukraine" from entering the US.


The Obama administration also granted itself powers to freeze the assets of individuals and companies involved in the Russian invasion, but said it had not yet put those sanctions in place.


"Anybody involved or complicit in activities that threaten the sovereignty, territorial integrity or stability of Ukraine is on notice that they may be targeted for US sanctions," a White House official said.


The American sanctions can also be extended to the subordinates of any Russian or Ukrainian officials judged to be responsible for the incursion.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/10681360/Ukraine-crisis-US-imposes-first-sanctions-on-Russians.html

I think the US is right. We need to confront aggression and not ignore it. Ukraine may be in the balance. Putin could take advantage of weakness. The appeasement prior to WWII was partly responsible to Hitler thinking he could get away with his expansionism.

Aberdeen City Council has been accused of "promoting a No vote" in September's independence referendum by endorsing Scotland's membership of the UK in a letter circulated to council tax payers.

In a message outlining the council's budget plans, leader Barney Crockett writes:

"The Council's position is clear,as we agreed in our meeting in December last year we recognise that Aberdeen is stronger now and will be stronger in the future - economically, politically and socially - as a partner in the United Kingdom."

The statement goes on to attack the Scottish Government for giving the city council the lowest grant of any local authority in Scotland, saying: "This cannot be acceptable."

Mark McDonald, SNP MSP for Aberdeen Donside, accused the council of using public money to support the No campaign and claimed the Labour-led coalition running the city was "out of control."

He said "I have demanded to know who authorised the approach and that the Chief Executive must intervene to ensure that this attempt to misuse council resources is stopped.

"The simple truth is that this would be a grotesque misuse of council resources by the council leader, attempting to influence the voting behaviour of the citizens of Aberdeen and using local authority money to pay for it."

The row is the latest in a series of confrontations between the Scottish Government and the city council.

On Wednesday Labour councillor Willie Young suggested a motion calling for First Minister Alex Salmond to be banned from all council-owned facilities.

Mr Young claimed the First Minister "abused his position" by visiting Bramble Brae Primary school in the run-up to the Donside by-election last year.

He said: "Our relationship with the Scottish Government has reached an all-time low and all we are saying to Mr Salmond and his ministers is that Aberdeen doesn't want you here."

SNP councillors responded by proposing a motion of no confidence in Mr Young in his capacity as finance convenor. The motion was ruled incompetent and not debated.

(City council leader Barney Crockett and Donside MSP Mark McDonald discussed the row on Scotland Tonight on Thursday.).

Hey you Jimmy, want a fight?

Certainly no love lost there for Salmond :O)

goldie

I will take a look at ABG

Yep alders but dont expect too much please remember this is a beaten up sector looking to recover. I had a good look at all the miners last saturday and was suprised what a beating they had all taken because of falling prices and lack of demand.

Certainly the chart is one of the best gold miners charts around.

Osborne said to face £20bn black hole in Budget
07 Mar 2014 | 07:38
Investment Week

George Osborne is potentially facing a £20bn black hole in the public purse when he delivers the next Budget, according to a re-creation of government models put together by the Financial Times.
Ahead of the upcoming 2014 Budget in under two weeks, the paper said models it had created which replicate the Office for Budget Responsibility's own forecasts showed a huge gap in the public finances.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer could now face a difficult challenge to cut back on spending - having already reduced welfare allowances sharply - and may have to announce spending cuts or tax rises to tackle the overspend.
The FT said the black hole it had found stems from the difference between the actual deficit - expected to be close to £111bn in 2013-14 - and the cyclically adjusted deficit estimated to be £85bn this financial year.
So far politicians have assumed that they only need to look at the lower figure, but this could change in the coming weeks.
The upshot is that it could cause austerity - which has already been extended - to remain in place for longer.
Changes in the OBR's cyclically adjusted estimates have already been the primary cause of the government's extension of austerity policies from the five years planned in 2010 to the nine years currently thought needed.

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.

Three-quarters of Europeans surveyed for the Commission study said that corruption was widespread, and more than half said the level had increased.

6
MAR
2014
Iain Duncan Smith Faces Probe Over ‘Bogus’ Jobs On Jobseekers Website
posted in Job Centre, Job Seekers allowance, Sanctions, Unemployment, Universal Jobmatch by argotina1

Iain Duncan Smith‘s Department of Work and Pensions could be investigated after it emerged that over a third of a million jobs it advertises for job hunters could be bogus or unlawful.

Labour MP Frank Field has asked the National Audit Office to launch a probe into the scale of job fraud on the DWP’s Universal Jobmatch site, which all jobseeker’s allowance claimants are forced to use to look for work and must apply for a minimum number of jobs each week.

The DWP admitted to Field that 179 employer accounts advertising 352,569 jobs may potentially be in breach of the website’s Terms and Conditions. Ministers were recently embarrassed by a a £10-per-hour prostitute job advert popping up in error on the Direct Gov website.

Teresa Pearce, Labour member of Parliament’s work and pensions committee, told HuffPostUK: “Jobs are posted on Universal Jobmatch by “employers” but a large number, specifically in sales, are commission only door-to-door catalogue sales – not proper jobs at all. Also, there are some “self-employed” jobs which are clearly bogus employment.

“The worst thing is that if a jobseeker failed to take one of these “jobs” they could have their benefit stopped. Universal Jobmatch is a deeply flawed tool which delivers for neither job seeker nor possible employer.”

Field said: “The heart of the government’s welfare reform programme is bedevilled with fraud and, in its current state, it is out of control. Anyone can place an advertisement on the site in the space of five minutes by ticking a few boxes.

“Ministers need to get a grip before more people fall victim to fraudsters preying on them with the helping hand of a major government department.”

The DWP was forced to investigate allegations earlier in February that a Coventry recruiter posted 11,000 fake jobs on the government website, which has itself won an award for being the “worst online recruitment site”.

Employment minister Esther McVey admitted in February that the department does not collect data on where the jobseekers who use Universal Jobmatch end up or how many complaints are lodged about the system.

She told MPs: “Universal Jobmatch is part of the Government’s plan for providing easy online access to Government services for all and is one of the services we use to help claimants back into work.

“We are unable to produce data for the number of claimants referred to Universal Jobmatch, who have entered employment. However, we know that the majority of JSA claimants are now registered on Universal Jobmatch with an account and are applying for jobs using the service.”

A DWP spokesman said bogus adverts were common to all on-line job sites, adding: “The truth is that the vast majority of employers post genuine jobs, and we crack down on those who don’t play by the rules. We also regularly monitor the site and remove jobs that don’t meet our rules, such as duplicate advertisements or jobs for franchises.”

by Asa Bennett in the Huffington Post, 6th March 2014: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/03/05/iain-duncan-smith-jobmatch_n_4904627.html?utm_hp_ref=uk

Evidence this morning that Pretorius fired a gun out of the sunshine roof of a car.

Hes a nutter. Always as been but I bet he gets off.

No jury as jury trials not available in SA. At least he only has one judge to bribe. Burlesconi would like that system.

Lots of fuss in the Scottish referendum saga. Salmond did a press conference in a school. Aberdeen council have banned SNP and all government officials from all Aberdeenshire public property.

They then followed this by a vote in council to add a letter to rate demands recommending a NO vote. Salmond is incredibly angry.

Courtesy of mro on the other site.


Putin said off the record:

"Negotiating with Obama is like playing chess with a pigeon.
The pigeon knocks over all the pieces, shits on the board and
then struts around like it won the game."

37847 - why would we be surprised? ...... and who thinks that anyone in brussels is remotely interested in doing anything about it?

It is the last case for the 'M'Lady' judge running the Pistorius trial before she finally retires. Her name is Thokozile Matilda Masipa and she is 66 yrs old. She was appointed to this trial by routine allocation.

Apparently, her health is a little bit suspect and if she goes off on 'a sickie' for even a short time, never mind a long one, I wondered what would happen to the trial, since she is the only judge on it? And there is no jury!

I felt that this was a quite ridiculous situation! Do they just do a complete re-start with a yet another brand new single person judge? And what if he/she throws another sickie? Does this mean yet another re-start?