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.

It's about the money, stupid... RICHARD LITTLEJOHN on the Maria Miller scandal

By Richard Littlejohn

PUBLISHED: 01:54, 8 April 2014 | UPDATED: 01:59, 8 April 2014





Put aside the politics. Forget the fact that Maria Miller is the minister responsible for imposing the Leveson controls on the Press, yet treats Parliament’s own independent expenses regulator with undisguised contempt.


What does her continuing presence in Cabinet tell us about the Prime Minister’s judgment? Frankly, other than within the hermetically sealed Westminster bubble, who cares?


Does it really matter, to anyone outside Fleet Street, whether her special adviser tried to put the frighteners on the Daily Telegraph?


Not that these aspects are unimportant. They are as pertinent as they are disgraceful, even if they don’t excite the wider public.


The Miller affair is further evidence that our so-called democracy is rotten to the core, a game played by a professional political class which appears to have learned nothing from the expenses scandal.

At heart, though, this isn’t about process, precedent or perception. It’s about the money, stupid.


If you’re reading this sitting in a pub in Miller’s Basingstoke constituency, with a damp labrador and a cold bottle of Guinness, I doubt you’re that bothered about the political ramifications.


What you will almost certainly be wondering is: what did she do with all that money and how has she managed to get away with it?


I keep returning to the point I made here last Tuesday, before the official report into Miller’s exes was published. She bought her house in Wimbledon for £234,000. Over the years, the mortgage on the property was increased to £575,000.



The overriding questions are: What did she do with all that money and how has she managed to get away with it?



As I wrote last week, most of us have taken on an extra loan against the value of our house, for a new kitchen or a holiday. But how many people do you know who have borrowed more than twice the original price?


A quarter of a million pounds is an awful lot to spend on home improvements, even for an upwardly-mobile Tory MP with an exaggerated sense of entitlement.


According to Which? magazine, the average price of a new kitchen is £8,000. Updating a bathroom can cost between £2,000 and £6,000, depending on your choice of fittings.


Maybe Miller went for the full Smallbone and a hotel spa-style wet room. If she was spending her own money, fair enough. But when she became an MP, she put the bill in to the taxpayer.


After she was elected, she immediately took out an extra £150,000 on her mortgage and claimed the entire interest on her parliamentary expenses by pretending that the Wimbledon house was her ‘second’ home.


How many jobs do you know which give you an instant six-figure, interest-free loan, on top of your salary?


Miller obviously saw the money as some kind of signing-on fee. Why did she need that £150,000? Out in the real world, that’s a shed-load of money, more than most people can dream about. What did she spend it on?


More: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2599367/Maria-Miller-Its-money-stupid-RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN-Culture-Secretarys-scandal.html

There is a new Populus online poll out today which shows Labour’s lead over the Conservatives down to 3%:

Conservative 34% (up 1%)
Labour 37% (no change)
Lib Dem 9% (down 1%)
UKIP 14% (up 1%)

That should give the Labour party an overall 40+ seat majority..

8-)

Yep 40 plus seats will do me Fred.

No phone calls or taxis for those ill.

40s just fine.

In Max s piece above from Richard Littlejohn he states.........

"Does it really matter, to anyone outside Fleet Street, whether her special adviser tried to put the frighteners on the Daily Telegraph? etc etc....


Not that these aspects are unimportant. They are as pertinent as they are disgraceful, even if they don’t excite the wider public.".....ends


well sorry littlejohn they are important to the public and in the recent polls 80% say they are important as this is the number calling for Millers head. Its not just about money figures but obverall respect. Little wonder those bothering to turn up to vote gets less and less.

Call me Dave is a fool to keep her in position.

goldie

I have been looking at some of those video's on investing on the Moneyweek site , fellow named Ed Browser explaining spread bet's , haven't seen many of them yet most you can see on you tube.

Seeing Nick Clegg and the Blair babes and all the rest of the Blair clones is like watching sign languish and i find myself just watching their hands , Cleggy also trys to make himself one of the people by allways remembering names of members of the audiance like on QT, last week " Were's Sally i can't see you , there you are"

I agree with littlejohn.

It shows Cameron and crew for what they are and the public who had little respect for them have even less now.

But it is because it percolates "down" through society into "if they can get away with it, so can and should I".

It stinks.

The death throws of a government not fit to rule a Banana Republic.

Why don't they retire to the Cayman Isles with their puppeteers?

======


But it would be interesting to see Faupage's books, before he gets his feet on the UK gravy train!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGWI7mjmnNk

I must have missed this.

Alders said.....

"Moneyweek site , fellow named Ed Browser"....ends

yep hes good that bloke also good with the charts aswel on tramlines. Plenty of examples on Utube.

WOW what a bad day on the market and yesterday I thought Id had a good one and got away scot free, sadly not today, worst day for me in about 7 years.

Cant take your eye of the market.

goldie

Some days its best not to trade [ no new postions ]. Maybe a bit of juggling around the end of tax year. Got a business in the Philippines and the tax year ends on 15th April, new tax forms with the option of delaring 40% of profit or just submit itemised profits, also you have to pay a sales tax of 3 % every month on total sales

I wish I had taken my eyes off the market.

Not the best of days, but flogged some in profit and extended stop losses.

Today the IMF said that the UK will be the fastest growing of all the G7 countries. Their estimate is 2.9% for this year.

at least thank goodness i took the profit in my C+M Index holding yesterday when it was there ..... it subsequently disappeared rapidly and indeed much worse; in fact, bought back in late this afternoon so keeping buttocks clenched

interesting alders........Philippines business,what is it a Cat House.........wink.... kidding.

Sales tax 3% every month on total sales........wonder how that racks up against our tax system. Bet it works out far cheaper.

Yep not been buying new stocks been hedging and getting rid of a few top heavy winners, that said I was caught out at the open and didnt close fast enough.

When I place charts on the chart thread they are just ideas thrown up by my system. If I buy them I put a note on the thread that I have done so as quickly as possible sometimes before i have bought.

Was a deadly start to the market with it opening slightly up.

Think I was conned by analysts on CNBC last night saying everything was oversold and a bounce would be on today.

Turned out right now, how long can it last though with the talk of Ruskys maybe going into the ukraine again.

Hays the reason we are the fastest growing company in the G7 is because we have lagged behind the others for the last 3 years.

Anyway the market and the economy never go step and step together, the market is a leading indicator usualy 9 months in front of the economy.

At this point its pricing in bad news, but hoping its only temporary.

Earnings season starts in US tonight, should give some direction as to where markets are going.

Cameron takes heart as polls show just 4 people want Maria Miller to go
08
Tuesday
Apr 2014
Posted by Tom Pride

The PM David Cameron has brushed off claims that culture secretary Maria Miller should resign after he cited polls showing just 4 people out of 5 want her to go.

In an interview yesterday, Mr Cameron strongly reiterated his support for his embattled culture secretary:

“I’ve looked closely at the polls and they clearly show that only 4 people want her to resign. Admittedly another poll showed 8 out of 10 people wanted her to go but that’s still only 12 people altogether so it’s not very many people at all, is it?“

Osborne – 20 million people want Miller to stay

The prime minister was strongly supported in his backing of the culture secretary by the government’s expert number-cruncher chancellor George Osborne who pointed out that recent polls indicated as many as 20 million people wanted Ms Miller to remain in her post out of a possible 100 million people.

Ms Miller was also supported by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Mr Iain Duncan Smith who argued that in his opinion he couldn’t really give a flying f*ck about facts.

GF<

If you carry on like that you will have Hazy One believing his own interpretation of the economic figures.


======



Sorry, he already does.

He has had them confirmed by an E-mail from party HQ.!

LOL !

Watch Peaches Geldoff and Katie Hopkins debating 'attachment parenting':



My conclusion?

Beautiful, sensitive, 'good mothering attitudes', sensible Peaches Geldoff :-)
Horrid, nasty, arrogant, bitchy, Katie Hopkins :-(

And the world is now a slightly worse place for Peaches' passing.

Form your own opinion.

EU court of justice overturns law that would enable 'snoopers' charter'


Home Office says it is studying decision which could mean European governments will have to redraft laws over data collection from ISPs and phone companies



Charles Arthur and agencies


theguardian.com, Tuesday 8 April 2014 14.43 BST


The European court of justice has declared the data retention directive illegal, torpedoing UK government schemes for the so-called "snooper's charter" of wide-ranging collection of phone and internet data.

In a judgment delivered on Tuesday, the ECJ, Europe's highest court, declared that the directive is "invalid" because it "interferes in a particularly serious manner with the fundamental rights to respect for private life and to the protection of personal data."

The decision, following requests from the Irish and Austrian courts, is a blow to Theresa May's plans to push through a data retention scheme which would collect and store data from UK citizens' internet and phone use for up to 12 months for later examination.

Any criminal cases which rested on acquisition of data through the directive could also be called into question, because the court decided that "the declaration of invalidity takes effect from the date on which the directive entered into force" – that is, 2006.



More; http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/apr/08/eu-court-overturns-law-snoopers-charter-data-phones-isps