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.

good heavens!
when you wrote the above, i was far better occupied as had already been asleep 4 hours

Ive been up all night. Politics is a hobby.

London going Labours way.

Tory MPs call for Ukip pact after local election losses
David Cameron under pressure as MPs fear being ousted in 2015 after strong showing for Nigel Farage's party

Three Conservative MPs have called for a pact with Nigel Farage as their party lost control of at least eight councils because of a surge in votes for Ukip.

Douglas Carswell, Peter Bone and Jacob Rees-Mogg, who are all on the right of the party, argued there should be a deal to avoid Tory MPs being ousted at the general election in 2015.

David Cameron will come under pressure to explain how he will woo back voters after the Conservatives lost control of councils in Basildon, Brentwood and Maidstone, among others, because of a strong Ukip vote. If the Conservatives come third behind Ukip and Labour in the European elections, he is likely to face further calls for some sort of deal with Farage's party.

By 6am on Friday, with 100 of the 172 councils up for election in England and Northern Ireland still to declare, the Tories had lost 93 seats, Labour had gained 74, the Lib Dems had lost 72, Ukip had gained 84, the Greens had gained one and other parties were up seven.

The results of the European parliament elections, which also took place on Thursday, will be announced on Sunday.

Farage has already said he would consider allowing Tory general election candidates to run on a joint Ukip ticket in certain local areas if they were of a similar anti-EU mindset.

Writing on his Telegraph blog, Carswell, the MP for Clacton-on-Sea, said: "If David Cameron is as serious about an in/out vote in 2017 as he says he is, and if Nigel Farage is as serious about 'Brexit' as he claims, the two of them need to do a deal.

"The law already allows joint candidates. We have a list of MPs on both sides of the House who in October 2011 showed that they are serious about securing an EU referendum.

"If the alternative is Ed Miliband as prime minister, and no chance of a referendum, surely a pact is worth considering?"

However, Grant Shapps, the Conservative party chairman, dismissed the idea, telling the BBC: "We're not going to have a pact or joint candidates, or whatever. It can't happen on a technical basis because we do not allow joint candidates to stand … It's not going to happen because we're the Conservative party. We are the best chance to offer an in/out referendum, the only chance."

By 6am on Friday, with 100 of the 172 councils up for election in England and Northern Ireland still to declare, the Tories had lost 93 seats, Labour had gained 74, the Lib Dems had lost 72, Ukip had gained 84, the Greens had gained one and other parties were up seven.

i've just watched michael gove on bbc1 .... he really is dreadfully dull; hardly the inspirational frontman one would want

overall, the results are certainly "muddly" thanks to ukip, but it is assuredly fair comment that labour have not inspired anyone greatly and have much more to ponder about than to start crowing

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by the way, and i guess you're now reading my posts once more, i would never ever have a pop at anyone about dyslexia or any other disability (though dyslexia hardly counts as such)
proudly non-pc i may be, but malicious never

What time do you actually start work Alf?

as soon as i wake up .... about 06:30 in the summer and later in the winter - circadian clock

once i'm awake, i immediately check my phone for incoming e-mails from far east, middle east, and usa

Well get to it.. and stop boring nuts off of us intelligentsia -):

already have been with coffee to hand :-)
with regard to intelligentsia, clearly you're just a stunned onlooker, but of whom, is hard to determine :-)

Cynic I take it you havent seen the software on SKY where it shows what would happen at the general election on these results?.

At 3am before the Labour london results had come through gave labour as the new government with a hung parliament needing another 17 seats.

The london results should see labour with around a 20 plus majority so on that basis i reckon they have done very well.

Gone are the days of big majoritys to either main partys as they are fighting for the same centre ground.

In fact Hays is wrong the software gave UKIP 1 seat at a GE.

no i haven't, but it's foolish to attempt to extrapolate these local election results to a GE
nevertheless, it certainly looks (very) likely that ukip can and indeed will play an important "spoiling" role, even if they don't get any seats

however, it is becoming clear that ukip will target specific seats, following the tactic of lib/dems in the past
i would also have thought it quite likely that ukip will forge some sort of covert links with the tories
labour and ukip don't look to have much in common in relation to ukip's key aims, policies if you like

With this huge Oil and Gas supposed to be under Southern England , do you think England will go for Independence soon.

Theirs a lot who voted tacticaly, myself for one voting UKIP in both elections, thinking that was best way to give Tories a kicking and its worked.........BUT

Ill be going back to labour at the GE.

Camoron must have one hell of a headache this morning given that his back benches are wanting to do deals with UKIP.

Cant see him doing that.

VICTIM no, but I think the south will be full of big pot holes very soon like Blackpool and the surounding area.

there would seem to be an awful lot of people who voted ukip by way of strong protest
how many stick there or revert to previous form is the great unknown, but assuredly the local elections will have done much more than create a ripple

glad "we" are back on board :-)

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fracking
from our experience elsewhere in the world, i think the disaster scenario painted by so many is pretty preposterous
even the effect on the local environment, actually and visually, looks badly exaggerated - qv wytch farm project in dorset

This is the seat UKIP will get at the GE........

Guido Fawkes ‏@GuidoFawkes 5m
COMMENTATORS NOTE: UKIP to take control of Castle Point council with independents.

This is what surprised me about Haystack's revelation . He doesn't like Europe but it isn't going to go away . It's all about waking these people up to the consequences of it.

i confess i am now ambivalent about membership of eu, though i assuredly voted for it at the outset
there are now so many issues within eu that i HATE, and i need some convincing to vote to stay in
the tories are the ONLY party that even wants to try to renegotiate and is then prepared to ask the country whether it wants to stay in

Hays hasnt even voted on the Euros so in my mind that forfeits him from making any comment.

And Ill remind him of this if he steps out of line.

All in the best possible taste of course.

ps, never even heard of Castle Point.....where is it???

What a crappy start for the market, one day up the next day down and on it goes.

Been like this for about a month or more......The Grand Old Duke Of York Syndrome.

Rather frustrating.

Going to have to get some Kip at some point having been up all night.