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.

cynic
I agree. I didn't agree with him, but he was pretty straight and overall an influence for good. He was pretty extreme in left wing views as are other champagne socialists who were born into the aristocracy: in his case, he was Viscount Stansgate. He did manage 50 years as an MP.

He wanted to do away with the Trident system....look at the Russians now....perhaps a nice man in character..... but I have no confidence in Labour at all : they just blunder from one idiot decision to another and are even more corrupt that the right and that's saying something ....(I always think of Mike Yarwood and the generation game sketch as well...)...

Absolutely, left and proud. Unlike our host you wouldn't see him in a Conservative or Liberal club drinking ale or otherwise. GF floating voter, Benn's answer to that? I'll be polite BOLLOCKS! :O) But then what can you expect from a plastic Man U fan :O)

I remember that when Labour came to power...one of the first things they did...was to cancel the Acton bypass project (A40-M40)..which would have made the drive in and out of London towards Birmingham very easy......now look at it :...endless tailbacks and waits....and no sign of it getting any better .....one daft decision after another...always the same...always will be...

Tony Benn did oversee the first North sea oil coming to the UK from Brent....I think he had a bottle of oil (crude) which was classified as the first oil to arrive on our shores when he was Energy minister....what a shame that there was not a fund created like the Norwegians and Saudis have done at that time...

RF.

I have mixed feelings about Benn.

But when you consider Labour's period of government failures, consider the destruction of of Britain by Thatcher.

or consider the present period of mismanagement by the torid party.

Also, consider the blatant lying by Cameron , Osborne, Smith , (Nigel, Fox etc.)




http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/12/iain-duncan-smith-disability-crisis-fiasco-welfare


or consider the present period of mismanagement by the torid party.


Start with the following;

I take my hat off to Iain Duncan Smith. Only he could turn a disability crisis into a fiasco

The DWP's latest disaster – a report leaked to the Guardian about £1bn of welfare cuts – is typical of the incompetence ruining millions of lives

Sue Marsh

The Guardian, Wednesday 12 March 2014


#Alzheimer's care worker

'Up and down the country people with conditions such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, cancer and kidney failure are being left increasingly isolated.' Photograph: Gary Calton

We no longer discuss whether Iain Duncan Smith's reforms will succeed or fail. We no longer need thinktanks and charities to produce reports on what might happen if you attempt to reform every strand of the social security system at once, without taking any advice at all from people who actually live with illnesses or disabilities, and at a time when money is short and compassion shorter.

The chaos at the Department for Work and Pensions is now so widespread, so universal, that we can only report daily on each new disaster.

Last week alone, the doomed universal credit project bade farewell to yet another IT manager. Over budget, with more than £60m already written off in failed rollout, it seems increasingly unlikely that the scheme can be saved at all.

Reassessments of employment support allowance (ESA) have been suspended as Atos grinds to a halt under the sheer volume of new applications, reassessments, and transfers from old benefits – and the new personal independence payment (PIP) assessments. There are no doctors assessing disability living allowance any longer, and PIP decisions are taking up to eight months. The bulk of PIP reassessments have also been deferred until after the 2015 election, just too toxic to expose to the electorate.

The Work Programme has failed almost completely to help sick and disabled people into work, with fewer than 1% sustaining work over the longer term. Nick Clegg's Youth Contract has failed spectacularly to help younger people into work.

The new PIP benefit is resulting in a shocking two-thirds of disability claims being rejected, successful ESA appeals have soared to an unprecedented 43%, and tribunals say they cannot keep up with demand, leading to yet more frightening delays.

Food banks report that welfare changes now make up 50% of their referrals, but the welfare minister David Freud believes that it is "very hard to know" why people use them. Church groups are united, blaming Duncan Smith for creating "hardship and hunger".

Social care budgets, respite care, day centres and carers' support have been slashed by up to 40% up and down the country, leaving people with conditions such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, cancer and kidney failure increasingly isolated. Perhaps most shockingly, sick and disabled people are being forced into unlimited, unpaid workfare that takes no account of their conditions.

So, at a time when sick and disabled people face uncertainty in every aspect of the support and services they rely on to lead active, inclusive lives, we might think it vital for the DWP to be at the very top of its game. Firing on all cylinders. Cooking on gas.

But perhaps this government really is so incompetent as to believe that, at the same time as it attempts to dismantle the welfare state and rebuild in its own image, it can attempt to make unprecedented cuts to departmental running costs. Perhaps this has contributed to the repeated failures and forced U-turns.

Or consider the incompetence and lying about the NHS.

The wasted money of RE-ORGANISATION of the health service and palming out of contracts to pals etc..

Looking back many will see the Cameron and adherent's government as "governing over" a period of Moral Turpitude.

Changing subjects....this Malaysian aircraft disappearance wouldn't be the result of a collision with a new top secret space shuttle (Chinese or American) perhaps ?....would explain the cover-up that seems to be going on...

Meanwhile somebody is looking for another platform to ponce off!

Is it not Manuel and Hazy One's icon

RF.

I believe Maggie sold off the oil reserves of the North Sea for tax bribes.

Instead of using that cash to improve the infrastructure and revitalise industry.

Again short sighted tory policies.

The one thing Benn did have was thoughts about the long term needs of the UK.

Sometimes the pathways were ill-chosen appeared murky, but at least he did think,

Pity Brown didn't have the same foresight re Gold eh?

It was Tony Benn while Post Master General running the Post Office that shut down the pirate radio stations. In those days the Post Office included mail and telephone services. He opened the Post Office Tower in central London, now the BT Tower.

oh lord!
thank goodness fossy's predictable diatribes are not compulsory reading - but they don't half take up many yards of print

There is no specific political point to make, but several polls have recently shown the Link be ahead of UKIP. There was also a poll yesterday that listed UKIP as the least liked and most disliked party.

This is the latest Guardian/ICM poll

Just wait till the Euros come Hays.

What are these silly comments about Tony Benn and the other day B Crow got to do with me.!!!!!!!!

Im a self made man from a humble background now a multi millionaire living in a £7.4 million pound house but what have these people above got to do with me........NOTHING.

So going forward twa-s like buma Christine Carson and Hays think before you post

If we get decent government not just Eton boys Id back them again.

Dont ever lecture me bum boy Carson on ethics and politics.

Manuel.

I know your faculties are failing you and I do have some pity for you, but I am sorry I don't have the will, or time to abbreviate the short pieces enough for your mental time span.

----

Haze,

The tories must be relieved to see that, at this moment, the UKIP is not more popular than themselves.

Come the next election I can see more of the looney right wing of the torrid party flocking to follow Nigel.

=====


Just been told that about primary school in London which has had 5 changes of head in the last 4 years. Another Gove success.

When the tory successes stack up at the time of the next election the results may be very interesting.

Hear the Puppeteer in th Cayman Isles is getting fed up with his puppets.

There is an opportunity for Haze to make friends and influence people by a donation or two and help with his organisation skills.

8-)

By the way Cyners Im gobsmaked you associate so close to Hays.

Dont forget his actions pull YOU down aswel.

Id have a deep think about this matter. Dont forget we others associate you both together.

UKIP will do well in the Euro elections and probably come a good third. It is slightly bizzare that people would bother voting for UKIP in a EU context when they espouse leaving the EU.

yet another of your misrepresentations sticky
when will you ever learn to report truthfully?
perhaps you've been associating with too many political party clubbers of all hues - do own up to it; you're really something of a whore in that respect

Just stating the facts as you have presented them GF, no need to have a strop. Plastic Manc, member of Con, Lib and Labour clubs. Just in case syndrome. And being a obnoxious Yorkshire Txat, I rest my case!