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.

Max, I'm sure Dave will see the light and sack the thieving ****

Has Maria got anything on Dave.

In the majority of cabinets her feet wouldn't have hit the floor on the way out.


But I forgot that Cameron is a principal man with, or without principles.

An icon of standards for the party and the public to look up to?

Call Me Dave's vanity project comes off the rails....




HS2: this environmental report should be the final blow

The Commons environmental audit committee has demolished any green pretensions the high-speed rail project may have had


Stanley Johnson


theguardian.com, Monday 7 April 2014 08.49 BST


The faster a train goes, the more energy it needs. An HS2 train travelling at 225 mph would use three times as much energy as an Intercity train travelling at 125 mph. According to the committee's report, HS2 "told us that the possibility of lower train operation speeds had not been considered".

Happily, the committee makes good that omission by recommending that "the government should examine the scope for requiring a reduced maximum speed for the trains until electricity generation has been sufficiently decarbonised".


If anything is a killer paragraph, this is it. Decoded, it means that the committee is in practice recommending that high-speed trains should run at normal speeds, since nobody realistically imagines (short of a massive switch to nuclear power) that electricity generation is going to be "decarbonised" in the foreseeable future. But if high-speed trains are to run at normal speeds, why do we need them at all?


Full story here: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/07/hs2-environmental-report-final-blow-rail-project

Max,

You are not suggesting that another U-turn is on the cards?


Now, that worries me!

It's a cock up Fred!


And the Miller burd is still hanging round his neck, I wonder what that's all about?

Rather him than me.

But like for like?

It is not Cameron's vanity project. In January 2009, the Labour government established High Speed Two Limited (HS2 Ltd) and Labour had been discussing it for quite a while before that. Labour are still behind and the project. So, in reality it is a Labour vanity project that has been passed on to the Conservatives.

So why did Dave pick up the baton and run with it, if it was a loony labour enterprise to start with? He could have ditched it.

As an aside to that, he managed to enrage his natural supporters into the bargain.

Clever politics.

The longer Maria hangs around the less and less Street Cred call me Dave as.

Milliband must be rubbing his hands in glee that Camoron is set in keeping her when 80% plus of the public and big named back benches in the Tory Party wont her out.

The best thing about it though is that the Press arent going to let this one go to sleep, so as long as she stays the more damaging and damaging for Camoron.

HS2 looks like a good idea, especially now the new report said it should terminate in Camden Town and not in west London at Wormwood Scrubs. HS is a trend that cannot be ignored.

Max same thing can be said about the ATOS contract on welfare.

IDS was there yesterday morning on BBC saying it was Labours fault because it was a badly drawn up contract, what he didnt say was that he had in 2010 signed up to keeping the contract and extending it without making any changes.

Are this lot really GOVERNING!!!!!

NO

GF - FFS google as and has, please mate!

Sorry chris dyslexia.

Cant help it.

Right, that explains it, I'm sorry.

No probs mate. For some reason you cant focus on certain easy words there and thier is another one, always getting them wrong and dont realise it.

7 April 2014 Last updated at 13:31

Maria Miller's expenses: The mood among Tory MPs
By Ross Hawkins
Political correspondent


Some MPs are frustrated that the row is dominating the headlines

Mention Maria Miller to Tory MPs and many turn gloomy. Some sound rather angry.

"She's pretty low grade," says one. "But she is slavishly loyal to Dave."

The prime minister's defence of his culture secretary has caused frustration.

Returning from their constituencies, a number of Conservatives have spent the weekend campaigning ahead of the coming local and European elections.

The story about Mrs Miller's expenses has been unhelpful.

"It's not going down well on the doorstep," says one Conservative MP. "It's blown away the positive economic message."

Those close to Cameron get looked after, he says, while others are more easily discarded.

'Embarrassment'
Another backbencher is more strident.

"She's becoming an embarrassment for No 10," he says.

Her future is in the balance, he adds, and events are moving against her.

Oxford West MP Nicola Blackwood told the BBC: "Clearly it's very unhelpful for this to drag on in the way that it is."

Mrs Miller's colleagues do not need to know all the details of a complicated story to fear that its presence on the front pages of newspapers day in, day out is harming the party.

Her 32 second apology to the House of Commons did not help, according to her detractors. It was - says one MP - pretty appalling.

The hostility does not surprise those close to the minister.

'Newspaper scalp'
Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has suggested that her role in pushing through same sex marriage proposals and negotiating a new system of press regulation has won her plenty of Tory critics.

His view is shared by her supporters.

One Tory MP says plenty of people believe the newspapers' coverage is driven by Mrs Miller's role in the aftermath of the Leveson inquiry into press standards.

No close friend of the minister, who he says does not have a huge amount of personal support, he is loath to hand the newspapers a scalp.

"We don't want the Daily Mail driving her out," he says. "If she goes they'll think they can choose the cabinet."

Asked about Mrs Miller's future, another Tory MP hangs his head, and looks thoroughly weary.

Mrs Miller is decent, he says, and has his sympathy, but rows about MPs' expenses just "go on and on and on".

Whether the minister's actions, her brief apology or an angry press is to blame, his conclusion is difficult to dispute.

:-))

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyfTclIt0kg

:-))

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMJPrNQxPNA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dii2T8x7iTY