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.

an interesting comment - for once :-)

of course, what one does (and countries too) at a given moment in time, often has unforeseeable results, as arguably now with EU

i confess that i am uncomfortable with the ukraine situation, but perhaps not for the obvious reason
my concern is that i have no idea who was pulling the strings of this so-called popular uprising
i do not believe for one minute that it was just internally generated - but then i'm a cynical old fart at the best of times

February mortgage lending leaps 43%

Year-on-year increase underlines turnaround in housing market, according to Council of Mortgage Lenders


Hilary Osborne

theguardian.com, Thursday 20 March 2014 11.55 GMT


Gross mortgage lending increased by 43% in the year to February, according to the latest data from banks and buildings societies, underlining the turnaround in the housing market over the past 12 months.


Despite a seasonal dip, which saw lending drop 6% on January's figure, the Council of Mortgage Lenders said its members had recorded their strongest February performance since 2008.


A total of £15.2bn was advanced over the month, down from £16.1bn in January, but up on the £10.6bn of the previous February.
























It is now a year since the chancellor announced the Help to Buy scheme in his 2013 budget, underpinning a pick-up in housing market activity which began with the launch of the government's Funding for Lending scheme.


Help to Buy, the first part of which was extended on Sunday to offer loans on newbuild homes until 2020, has given buyers increased access to 95% mortgages, and helped first-time buyers to enter the market.


"Government initiatives have clearly acted to boost market sentiment and activity," the CML's chief economist, Bob Pannell said.


"This is especially true among first-time buyers, who have accounted for the lion's share of the two Help to Buy lending streams."



More: http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/mar/20/february-mortgage-lending-up

Fred I wonder if your Little Rag Doll (to play with) like this little ditty re- blunder boy Shapps. Does he still have a job?????, just back from fishing.

#torybingo
Posted on March 20, 2014

I’d like to see a selfie of that
Walking troika prat
With a whippet and a tankard
And an old flat cap

I’d like to see him at the old
Joanna playing bawdy tunes
And singing for his supper in
In a working man’s saloon

I’d like to see him do his very
Finest Colin Crompton at the
Wheeltappers and Shunters
And for Boyle or Lee to mock
Him

I’d like to see him in the bookies,
Down to his best guess in a worn
Out pair of slippers and a C&A
String vest

I’d like to see him at the Bingo
Marking down his desperation
Working hard to find his House
Competing for his aspiration

Most of all I’d like to see him, in
The interests of the nation, do one
- Yes, just do one – Shapps

Quick! Run and save that boorish,
Grubby, pompous Tory ass before
The proles stop laughing at you and
Come calling out your numbers and
Start baying for your brass.

Well bu-ger me (no I didnt literaly mean it cynic)just back from fishing and expected a whopping loss on my folio and its just the other way.

Pleasantly suprised.

Must thank Panto aka Master RSI (aka 50 others) for IMG yesterday.........FLYB,RR.,KBG,PHTM,TPT and a few others.

Doing very nicely thankyou.

Nothing like the outdoors to give one a healthy appetite Im starving.

Roast beef dinner for me.

Well bu-ger me (no I didnt literaly mean it cynic)just back from fishing and expected a whopping loss on my folio and its just the other way.

Pleasantly suprised.

Must thank Panto aka Master RSI (aka 50 others) for IMG yesterday.........FLYB,RR.,KBG,PHTM,TPT and a few others.

Doing very nicely thankyou.

Nothing like the outdoors to give one a healthy appetite m starving.

Roast beef dinner for me.

Posted on March 20, 2014

I’d like to see a selfie of that
Walking Trotsky prat
With a whippet and a tankard
And an old flat cap

I’d like to see him at the old
Joanna Lumley playing bawdy tunes
And singing for his supper in
In a working man’s saloon

I’d like to see him do his very
Finest Colin Crompton at the
Wheeltappers and Shunters
And for Susan Boyle to mock
Him

I’d like to see him in the bookies,
Down to his best guess in a worn
Out pair of slippers and a S&M
leather vest , I’d like to see Fred at the Bingo,

then Working hard to find his House after a few pint's

Why is the DWP being so coy about the Work Programme?

It’s amazing how the Department for Work and Pensions will bend over backwards to make it seem one of its madcap schemes has been successful.

It’s also amazing how little evidence DWP press officers will provide to support the claim.

Today we’re being told that more than a quarter of a million people have escaped unemployment via the Work Programme. The fiddle? This is an aggregate figure, including all placements – not people – since the scheme was launched in June 2011.

To register as someone who has achieved a lasting job through the programme, one must stay in work for six months or more (three months in “hardest to help” cases). A figure covering 33 months could include the same person five times over.

Never mind. How many people – who are currently in work as a result of time on this scheme – have, in fact, been employed for six months or more (three months for the “hardest to help”), as this is the only relevant period of time that can be applied?

No comment.

The press release has nothing to say about this.

It seems 44,000 people were “helped” into work during the last three months, but that’s neither here nor there. The DWP does not measure its success that way, and neither should we.

But the figure by which we should be judging this work is conspicuous by its absence.

In a similar vein, we learned yesterday (March 19) that unemployment fell by 63,000 in the last three months. But the number of employees also fell by 60,000, while registered self-employment has risen by 211,000 in the same period.

Remember the scam in which DWP employees at job centres dupe people into pretending they are self-employed when they really aren’t, in order to claim tax credits rather than unemployment benefits?

If you are one of these ‘self-employed’ people, were you told that HM Revenue and Customs might investigate your circumstances and demand repayment of all tax credits paid to you, if investigators decide that you’re not doing the work?

No?

I’d have a little think about what might happen, if I were you.

Strange we were all debating this aspect of employment a couple of days back......

Remember the scam in which DWP employees at job centres dupe people into pretending they are self-employed when they really aren’t, in order to claim tax credits rather than unemployment benefits?

If you are one of these ‘self-employed’ people, were you told that HM Revenue and Customs might investigate your circumstances and demand repayment of all tax credits paid to you, if investigators decide that you’re not doing the work?

No?

I’d have a little think about what might happen, if I were you.

he he he NAUGHTY alders..............I’d like to see Fred and Stan at the Bingo,

then Working hard to find his House after a few pint's........LOL.

New edited version , Stan stood Fred up

LOL. he he.

Sorry Fred.

I think I would only go to Bingo if it was to escape from Alds.

Wheres your 'Little Rag Doll' to play with Fred.????

Im missing the little twerp.

Poor little Chris Leslie always gets given the gigs no one else wants. Yesterday Guido noted that Labour did not include the bedroom ‘tax’ on their list of Tory tax rises, well on the Daily Politics today Andrew Neil asked him why:

He replied, "The Bedroom ‘Tax’ is Not a Tax"

Still going to kick it out whatever its called.

Will be replaced with a Balcony Tax aimed at the rich.

elsewhere in answer to your question :-)
please may we now put the toys back in the pram?

I posted this a little earlier, and wonder if anyone has any (sensible!) thoughts .......

i confess that i am uncomfortable with the ukraine situation, but perhaps not for the obvious reason
my concern is that i have no idea who was pulling the strings of this so-called popular uprising
i do not believe for one minute that it was just internally generated - but then i'm a cynical old fart at the best of times

So Fred Phelps, founder of the westboro baptist church, died today.

At last, Adolf Hitler gets to watch somebody else having a pineapple shoved up his arse.

G
Whatever that means.

Cynic
In this case I don't see any string pulling except by Putin. The current problems started when the Ukraine president suddenly cancelled the expected signing of an EU deal after a visit to Putin in favour of a deal with Russia. Putin seemed to have used some leverage whether it was help in staying president for ever or a bribe. It became clear that he had become Putin's bitch.