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.

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.

Call Me Dave is in big trouble gf.

No one believes his "cast iron promises" anymore.

Just a protest vote.

Rubbish post hays watch SKY news and it predicts a labour government based on the results so far and a outright majority when all london counts have been done.

You take too much notice of biased right wing tosh newspapers.

Big Big trouble Max. The Tory press are trying to deflect from it to labour.

So you see what I mean from my neutral annology above.

Conservatives have a year to win and Miliband has a year to do even worse.

The conservatives don't have a year, they need to ditch Cameroon now before it's too late....he cant win, you must know that.

Ahhhhhhhhh but your forgeting a interest rate rise(maybe two) and Inflation rising and wages not catching up. Think of those poor devils 2million with mortgages they cant afford.

bad logic sticky as you singularly naively assume that a ukip gains are solely at the expense of the tories when this is patently rubbish

also, apart from a few diehards like you :-) , why would anyone revert to labour from ukip, when the main plank for ukip is "get out of europe; no further discussion", whereas labour don't even want to renegotiate anything, let alone give the country a chance to vote on the issue?

Britain seeks to change land access rules to speed up shale drive

LONDON, May 23 (Reuters) - Britain is seeking to change the rules regarding land access to make it easier and quicker for shale oil and gas companies to drill underground deposits, as the government steps up efforts to exploit the country's shale resources. The government on Friday also published a report which suggested as much as 4.4 billion barrels of shale oil could lie beneath the Southern England countryside, adding to last year's estimates that there were enormous shale gas deposits in northern England. Shale oil and gas could help alleviate Britain's growing dependency on energy imports but the method used to extract the resources from rocks - fracking - has prompted environmental protests amid fears it could cause earthquakes and contaminate drinking water. The government said it was launching a consultation to simplify the existing procedures for companies who want to drill underground.

LONDON/AMSTERDAM, May 23 (Reuters) - Britain's Eurosceptic UK Independence Party made strong gains but their Dutch counterparts stumbled as more countries voted on Friday in European Parliament elections expected to produce a widespread anti-EU protest vote on a very low turnout. Nigel Farage's UKIP, which wants to pull Britain out of the European Union and severely restrict immigration, grabbed seats from both the governing Conservatives and the opposition Labour Party in local elections held at the same time as the EU vote on Thursday, partial results showed. If those scores are confirmed or amplified in the European ballot, from which results will only be released late on Sunday, it could increase pressure on Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, a year before a general election, to take a harder line on reducing the EU's powers. "Looking at the average vote shares across the country, and without wishing to count any chickens before they're hatched, it looks pretty good," an ebullient Farage said as evidence of his anti-establishment party's surge trickled in. By contrast, far right Dutch populist Geert Wilders, whose anti-EU, anti-Islam Freedom Party had been forecast to top the poll in the Netherlands, was beaten into fourth place by pro-European parties in a surprise reverse, according to exit polls. His PVV was projected to get just 12.2 percent, behind the centrist Democrats 66, the centre-right Christian Democrats and Prime Minister Mark Rutte's right-wing liberals. Wilders blamed the disappointing score on a low turnout of around 35 percent, saying that "by staying home (voters) showed their loathing for and disinterest in the European Union. The Netherlands has not become more pro-European." Voters in Ireland and the Czech Republic began casting their ballots on Friday but most of the EU's 28 nations hold the election on Sunday. Some 388 million Europeans are eligible to vote for 751 members of the parliament, which is an equal co-legislator with member governments on most EU laws.

By contrast, far right Dutch populist Geert Wilders, whose anti-EU, anti-Islam Freedom Party had been forecast to top the poll in the Netherlands, was beaten into fourth place by pro-European parties in a surprise reverse, according to exit polls


phew and thank goodness! ..... clearly the dutch perceived the hidden danger and voted accordingly, even if the turnout was low (35%)

Cynic well your wrong because I watched it life most of the night and UKIP gains by and large were Tory losses.

Ok they have taken a few off labour but by no way on the scale as tory to UKIP.

conservatives had most seats to lose and any incumbent party rightly expects the opposition to make significant gains .... however, even labour are forced to admit that their success has fallen well short of what they could reasonably have hoped

hung parliament remains strongest bet

I'd hang them all...

lol

Conservatives have won Kingston upon Thames from Libs.

It is now yes I agree but dont forget the bet is still on for the apology 'I got interest rates wrong'.

Its gong to happen cynic sooner than you think.

Underlying inflation RPI is roaring away.

Carney cant keep ignoring it and wages will fall once again below prices.

Those who had a good feeling about recovery will change overnight.

Ive been very consistent on this, and you know that.

absolutely old chap :-))
i have no problem apologising when i'm in the wrong - i've had plenty of practice!

Gawd this is going to be an exhausting next twelve months , my fingers needing some physio.