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.

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?

I hope she doesn't throw another sickie before she gives him either 15 years or 25 years. It's murder surely, whichever way you look at it - even if he did think it was a burglar.

If he thought it was a burglar it wouldn't be murder. It would be manslaughter at most or even just accidental death or unlawful killing. No death penalty with max sentence 25 years I think.

That's the technical answer Haystack and you're quite right. I just hope he gets a minimum of 15 years.

Sensationalist, NWO tripe...perhaps, but it makes more sense than the rubbish shown on the gogglebox.



The Looting Of Ukraine Has Begun


March 6, 2014


Paul Craig Roberts



This supporter of the Ukraine joining the EU has received her reward: a 50% cut in her pension.

According to a report in Kommersant-Ukraine, the finance ministry of Washington’s stooges in Kiev who are pretending to be a government has prepared an economic austerity plan that will cut Ukrainian pensions from $160 to $80 so that Western bankers who lent money to Ukraine can be repaid at the expense of Ukraine’s poor. http://www.kommersant.ua/doc/2424454 It is Greece all over again.

Before anything approaching stability and legitimacy has been obtained for the puppet government put in power by the Washington orchestrated coup against the legitimate, elected Ukraine government, the Western looters are already at work. Naive protesters who believed the propaganda that EU membership offered a better life are due to lose half of their pension by April. But this is only the beginning.

The corrupt Western media describes loans as “aid.” However, the 11 billion euros that the EU is offering Kiev is not aid. It is a loan. Moreover, it comes with many strings, including Kiev’s acceptance of an IMF austerity plan.

Remember now, gullible Ukrainians participated in the protests that were used to overthrow their elected government, because they believed the lies told to them by Washington-financed NGOs that once they joined the EU they would have streets paved with gold. Instead they are getting cuts in their pensions and an IMF austerity plan.

The austerity plan will cut social services, funds for education, layoff government workers, devalue the currency, thus raising the prices of imports which include Russian gas, thus electricity, and open Ukrainian assets to takeover by Western corporations.

Ukraine’s agriculture lands will pass into the hands of American agribusiness



more: http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/03/06/looting-ukraine-begun/

They need an austerity plan as the president that has run away stole billions of dollars and run the country into the ground. The Ukraine is broke to the tune of at least $50b. They need money. They will get some cash from the EU and some from the US. That will last a couple of weeks. What they really need is an IMF loan which will come with conditions. Those conditions involve a strong measure of austerity.

face up to it .... putin has no intent of allowing ukraine to escape being a russian satellite ..... he knows full well that no one will take any decisive let alone pre-emptive action to prevent this - and in all honesty, i don't think anyone should

for sure, there'll be a lot of huff and puff by "the west" and eu, but most assuredly no unanimity with regard to action to take - so there will be none

germany would seem to have most at risk, as i think she gets a lot of gas through ukraine, but she'll fight her own battle