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.

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.

essex it would seem ...... no labour representation there at all .... ukip won 5 seats from the conservatives so now
tories = 21 seats
indies = 16 seats
ukip = 5 seats

an interesting example of what a spoiling vote can do

Yes all night on TV they have been saying Essex Man is now UKIP Man.

LOL this made me laugh. Beautifull animals cats.

Labour need to rethink it's policy on Europe after the UKIP showing.

Staying in with no referendum is not an option now imo and ditching Milliband should be an immediate priority.

The people have spoken and Labour need to listen.

Conservatives won't do a deal with UKIP and will suffer for it , Lib Dems are getting what they deserve after selling there souls for a share of power.

Interesting times.

The UN Security Council has approved sanctions against the Nigerian militant group Boko Haram, five weeks after it kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls.

It will now be added to a list of al-Qaeda-linked organisations subject to an arms embargo and asset freeze.

US envoy Samantha Power said it was an "important step" in support of efforts to "defeat Boko Haram and hold its murderous leadership accountable".

Analysts say it is hard to say what practical effect the move will have.
It will now be added to a list of al-Qaeda-linked organisations subject to an arms embargo and asset freeze.

Now , only now. So we have allowed arm's and money to go to them even when we knew of the kidnapping of those school girls

"we"???? ...... not necessarily uk, but quite possibly some of the arab states + china and russia for their assorted reasons

I like Europe, don't like the system of MEPs

Nice headline in The Times today about Miliband

‘He looks weird, sounds weird, is weird - the truth’

I think most would go along with that Haystack :-)

even the guardian's headline doesn't have anything polite to say about labour's performance either

=============

hay's makes a strange promoter of democracy, for he doesn't like MEPs but presumably likes the concept of an elected parliament, and doesn't like trial by jury, though that is one of the cornerstones of a democracy

No they wouldnt.

Camoron looks like a Fat Budgie.

Anyway the Times knows Tories have taken a battering.

Take a look at the seats Tories have lost, now take a look how many UKIP have gained, notice how close the 2 figures are.

little wonder Tory Back benches want a deal with UKIP........but it wont happen.

Labours fault is over estimating how well they would do. Thing is tho like myself a lot of labour voters this time went and voted tacticaly and voted UKIP in both elections yesterday.

Theyl go back to labour at the GE.

You could say the same about the tory malcontents gf.

I like juries, but would want 'expert juries' made up of people who understand evidence. I would prefer that MEPs were not elected. I would prefer that each party get the same proportion of representatives as their share of MPs and be appointed by their parties. Electing MEPs seems pointless. Who knows their local MEP - almost no one.

The Conservatives have done very well so far. Even Labour say they need 400 to 500 extra council seats. Michael Foot got 1,000 gain in council seats and then had the biggest defeat for Labour ever. Miliband is becoming as unpopular as Foot and Kinnock.

Ukip 'earthquake' rocks Labour and Tories in Elections 2014

Nigel Farage’s party has taken dozens of council seats from the Tories and Labour, dominating the south and making serious inroads in Labour’s northern heartlands



By Peter Dominiczak, Assistant Political Editor

9:45AM BST 23 May 2014



Ukip’s “political earthquake” has rocked the Conservatives and Labour, with Nigel Farage’s party taking dozens of seats from Britain’s main parties.


Mr Farage’s party has taken dozens of council seats from the Tories and Labour, dominating the south and making serious inroads in Labour’s northern heartlands.




With over a third of councils having declared, Ukip had gained nearly a hundred seats - already exceeding expectations of around 80 wins.


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 gained 74, the Lib Dems lost 72, Ukip gained 84, the Greens gained one and other parties were up seven.



More: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/local-elections/10851024/Ukip-earthquake-rocks-Labour-and-Tories-in-Elections-2014.html

OK Max(forget Hays clap trap from right wing press) lets say we have a theoretical neutral position here and no knowledge of whats gone on before politicaly before these elections.

So a chap say from Canada just a average Joe and you give him a sheet of paper with the results on so far......what does he do and see!!!!!

Straight away he would say "well this UKIP party have gained a vast amount of seats and i notice this Conservative party have lost more or less the same the UKIP party have gained. Its obvious people have gone from one to the other.

I also notice this Labour party have made some gains and the Lib/Dems have done nothing.

I think this Conservative party will have to do a bit of thinking on how they are going to regain their seats back.".....................ENDS

Finito thats the facts rather than what is percieved to be the facts as we have been doctrined with by the newspapers and the partys themselves.

http://news.sky.com/story/1267308/symbolic-failure-spells-gloom-for-ed-miliband

Symbolic Failure Spells Gloom For Ed Miliband

The failure to take Walsall from a Tory-Lib Dem coalition is among results showing Labour short of where it needs to be next year.

Winning Walsall would have been symbolic.

Labour candidates winning enough seats to dislodge a Tory-Lib Dem coalition. A Labour majority on a local level, replicating what Ed Miliband is desperate to achieve next May.

"We're hopeful," said one source yesterday afternoon.

That hope began to visibly fade on the faces of the party faithful as the results started to ring in through the night.

Not only did Labour fail to secure the three seats it needed (winning two), it arguably fell short because UKIP gained three seats.