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.

Hays seems to forget theirs people following Gove in the Tory party ready with a dagger behind 'call me daves back'.

Far worse than any riff between the 2 Eds............

Perhaphs its his effective exclusion here from this thread thats now getting to him.

Ed Miliband's Budget speech was 'repetitive' admits Labour

Labour has conceded that Ed Miliband’s response to the Budget was “repetitive” after it emerged that large parts of his speech were lifted from previous yearsEyebrows were raised about why Ed Balls, the shadow Chancellor, did not appear to pass any notes to Mr Miliband to help with his response during the Budget.

Later Mr Balls told journalists that Mr Miliband had had to discard pages of his speech because of announcements that never came.

Labour had expected measures to lift the tax burden on lower and middle income families after reading and believing speculation by journalists on Twitter.

Insiders spoke of “panic” in the office of Mr Miliband in the hours leading up to his speech as advisers worried about how to respond to the Chancellor’s speech.

Separately, new research on Wednesday, published after he had spoken, showed a fall in Mr Miliband’s standing among voters.

A poll by Edelman on Wednesday evening – hours after Mr Miliband sat down – found that trust in Labour has fallen by a quarter to 31 per cent since January.

The poll found that only 23 per cent now trust the Labour leader, a drop of 10 per cent since January.

One in five people said the Budget had reduced their trust in his ability to manage the economy.

ahhhhhhh but look deeper Hays........Emails sent last week reveal the Miliband's team

petty anyway when the tory party are on the brink of imploding.

Twitter blunder that left Ed lost for words: Miliband's response flopped because he based it on predictions from social networking site

Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls revealed his leader had to tear up large sections of his speech when Twitter rumours proved false
He said Mr Miliband hastily inserted jibes about Michael Gove's attack on Etonian influence in Downing Street
Mr Miliband was widely criticised for spending 16 minutes reading out political attack lines while barely mentioning the content of the Budget

Ed Miliband’s Budget response flopped yesterday because he had based it on misleading predictions on Twitter, according to Ed Balls.

Hays says he as me and Fred filtered............................WHO IS HE TRYING TO KID.

EU leaders have signed an agreement on closer relations with Ukraine, in a show of support following Russia's annexation of Crimea.

Ukraine's interim PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk and the EU signed the deal in Brussels.
Pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych's abandonment of the deal had led to deadly protests, his removal and Russia taking over Crimea.
On Friday, Russia's upper house unanimously approved the treaty on Crimea joining the Russian Federation.
The EU Association Agreement is designed to give Ukraine's interim leadership economic and political support.

Now the truth on Millibands budget reply and not Hays fantasy...........

Apparently, Osborne's team didn't send an embargoed version of the speech to Labour an hour before the Budget- as they're supposed to. Which looked pretty much like a deliberate attempt to sabotage the Labour leader's speech.

The press were all informed of this but only the Mirror and Guardian reported the matter.

SAME OLD TORIES......

I think the party apparatchik Hazy One has been to party head quarters to get Chaff's latest mantras.

Same old schoolboy rants from Old Cons club of the party, who know they are are in the last throes of a dead in the water government.

The posing of Wavy Dave on Crimea reminds me of that famous tory PM Neville Chamberlain with a bit of toilet paper in his hand and claiming himself successful.

Keep on seeing a punt on the Thames with a motley crew of old etonians and camp followers like Haze singing row, row the boat ashore to the chorus of "We are sinking!"

What a mob!

THE SELF ADMITTING NASTY PARTY has proved itself.

Student fees policy likely to cost more than the system it replaced

The proportion of unpaid loans is approaching a critical level as write-offs are on track to pass the gains from tripling of fees



Shiv Malik


The Guardian, Friday 21 March 2014


The proportion of graduates failing to pay back student loans is increasing at such a rate that the Treasury is approaching the point at which it will get zero financial reward from the government's policy of tripling tuition fees to £9,000 a year.

New official forecasts suggest the write-off costs have reached 45% of the £10bn in student loans made each year, all but nullifying any savings to the public purse made following the introduction of the new fee system.

The universities minister, David Willetts, speaking in response to a parliamentary question from the shadow education minister, Liam Byrne, confirmed that the write-off figure – the resource accounting and budgeting (RAB) charge – is rapidly approaching the 48.6% mark. This is the threshold at which experts calculate that the government will lose more money than it would have saved by keeping the old £3,000 tuition fee system.

The coalition's decision to introduce higher fees shortly after it formed led to rioting on the streets and forced a dramatic decline in the Liberal Democrats' poll ratings, from which the party has never fully recovered.

Lower pay for young adults, an over-supply of those with degrees and the worsening economic outlook have all contributed to the revised civil service forecasts which conclude that far fewer graduates will earn enough to pay back their loans over their working lives. Four months ago Willetts notified parliament that the rate had risen to 40% from 35%. In 2010 the estimate was 28%.



More: http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/mar/21/student-fees-policy-costing-more

As can be seen from the Times front page the first Budget polling by YouGov finds strong support from voters for the measures in Wednesday’s statement.

Full details from the polling are not available yet but the paper reports that The Chancellor’s dramatic announcement in Wednesday’s Budget is supported by 66 per cent in the YouGov survey published today in The Sun. The poll also shows strong backing for his other measures to support savers hit by low interest rates”

When reference was made by Osborne concerning the 800th Anniversary Celebrations next year to do with the signing of King John's Magna Carta, his 'disloyal brother' jokey comment, obviously directed towards Ed Milliband, caused quite a few laughs and sniggers.

Historically, Barons from 10 Charter Towns met in August 1213 at St Albans Abbey with the clergy to discuss their grievances against 'bad brother' King John, whom we all remember from, say 'The adventures of Robin Hood', had been disloyal to his brother, King Richard I, the Crusader.

That historic meeting eventually led to the articles that became Magna Carta, sealed at Runnymede, another Charter Town, in 1215.

Hazy One,

Is that you in Drag?

You scrub up better than expected!

It is difficult to understand the appeal of Richard I (Lionheart). He couln't speak English and only spent six months in England as he didn't like us. History has become a bit jumbled. Strictly speaking Magna Carta is illegal as King John signed it under duress.

goldfinger

Thank's for that info on the spreadbets/CFD's


Fred

I agree with you about Andy Burnham, nearly as bad as the other Labour pannelist last week. Val McDemid was good , but the best on the night was Danny Alexander.

Food Banks , does it mean the more there are the more the need ?

"This Week"

I also agree with you about Andrew Neil last night , but he met his match with Liam Halligan, [Liam wiped the floor with him ]. Diane Abbott is just a irritant. Portillo should be back on the front bench , he would make a good PM

The joke by Osborne was very pointed, "A weak leader who brtrayed his brother".

Two million extra middle-income earners pay 40p tax under Coalition

Budget cost higher rate taxpayers £546 a year, says Institute for Fiscal Studies






By Steven Swinford, Senior Political Correspondent

10:00PM GMT 20 Mar 2014



Comments221 Comments





More than two million additional middle-income earners will have been dragged into the 40p rate of income tax under the Coalition, independent economists have said.


The Institute for Fiscal Studies suggested that higher-rate taxpayers will be £546 a year worse off after Mr Osborne ignored calls to raise the 40p threshold in his Budget. It currently stands at £41,450.


The institute said that the number of people paying the 40p rate will have risen from three million in 2010-11 to almost five million in 2015-16.


On Wednesday the Chancellor used his Budget to increase the tax-free personal allowance from £10,000 to £10,500, a change that the Treasury says benefits all workers earning up to £100,000.


More: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/budget/10713043/Two-million-extra-middle-income-earners-pay-40p-tax-under-Coalition.html

Haze,

I think that Osborne's "joke" was at the level one expects from the nasty bunch of schoolboys who call themselves cabinet ministers and would naturally appeal to you!

But, I see Miliband is becoming a bigger threat to the incompetent U-turning bunch of poor comedians in the cabinet and probably will be the next PM.

I think it will be interesting to watch the blood spilling and recriminations at party HQ and Aschroft asking for his money back!

No wonder Boris doesn't want to be in their number and Gove's wishes to split the party.

Cash for leadership.

Osborne did raise the 40p tax threshold to £41,865, from £41,540

What is happening in the Rebecca trial?

What is happening in the Nigel approach to politics?

Very quiet!

Is Cameron going to be character witness for his old friends?

There is much to be seen in the phrase "birds of a feather flock together".

Reminds me of the old days;

Petrol price at a three year low and likely to go 2p lower due to wholesale price drop.

Osborne has been quite clever by freezing duty once again. The price falls and no duty rise have helped keep the inflation figures down thereby reducing the risk of interest rate rises. Lower furl prices are good for an improving economy.