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.

GF.

The Great Tory Lie!

The Great Debt Lie and the Myth of the Structural Deficit


A fair interpretation of the present tory governments economic policies.

Yep Fred you have to give credit to the Tories for convincing the gullible public that it was ALL Labours fault etc etc, they dont mention it was a world wide phenomenon and that it was the Tories themselves who set up the seed with the BIG BANG that led to the whole wide World Recession, even one of their own admits this below...........

In the UK, Big Bang became one of the cornerstones of the Thatcher government's reform programme. Prior to these reforms, the once-dominant financial institutions of the City of London were failing to compete with foreign banking. While London was still a global centre of finance, it had been surpassed by New York, and was in danger of falling still further behind.
Thatcher's government claimed that the two problems behind the decline of London banking were overregulation and the dominance of elitist old boy networks and that the solution lay in the free market doctrines of unfettered competition and meritocracy.

The effects of Big Bang were dramatic, with London's place as a financial capital decisively strengthened, to the point where it is arguably the world's most important financial centre. The boom resulted in the relocation of institutions into new developments in the nearby Isle of Dogs area, particularly that of Canary Wharf.

Although the "Big Bang" eased stock market transactions there is a debate in the UK about how far it affected the 2007–2012 global financial crisis. In 2010, Nigel Lawson, Thatcher's Chancellor at the time, appeared on the Analysis program to discuss banking reform, explaining that the 2007–2012 global financial crisis was an unintended consequence of the "Big Bang". He said that UK investment banks, previously very cautious with what was their own money, had merged with high street banks putting depositors' savings at risk and ...according to the program leading US banks to follow suit

REPEAT........

there is a debate in the UK about how far it affected the 2007–2012 global financial crisis. In 2010, Nigel Lawson, Thatcher's Chancellor at the time, appeared on the Analysis program to discuss banking reform, explaining that the 2007–2012 global financial crisis was an unintended consequence of the "Big Bang". He said that UK investment banks, previously very cautious with what was their own money, had merged with high street banks putting depositors' savings at risk and ...according to the program leading US banks to follow suit..............ends

A significant point here made by the programme and Lawson........

and ...according to the program leading US banks to follow suit

Hence the reason for Lagarde's pressing for banking changes and the need for a united EU.

------==-----

Christine Lagarde is quoting both Winston Churchill and President John F. Kennedy as she urges business leaders and politicians to inject more integrity into capitalism, in her speech in London right now (highlights start here)

The IMF chief has stern words for the financial sector, saying that banks have pushed back against efforts to reform them to avoid a repeat of the 2008 crisis:




-----------------

Thankfully, the crisis has prompted a major course correction—with the understanding that the true role of the financial sector is to serve, not to rule, the economy. Its real job is to benefit people, especially by financing investment and thus helping with the creation of jobs and growth.

As Winston Churchill once remarked, “I would rather see finance less proud and industry more content”.

The good news is that the international community has made progress on the reform agenda. This is especially true for banking regulation under the auspices of the Basel Committee, where we are moving forward with stronger capital and liquidity requirements. This should make the system safer, sounder, and more service oriented.

The bad news is that progress is still too slow, and the finish line is still too far off. Some of this arises from the sheer complexity of the task at hand. Yet, we must acknowledge that it also stems from fierce industry pushback, and from the fatigue that is bound to set in at this point in a long race.

The problem of banks who are "too big to fail" has not gone away, Lagarde warns. More must be done to reduce the potential for contagion.

She says the world economy needs an agreement on cross-border resolution of megabanks—providing a framework to unwind them in an orderly way in case of failure:


----------------

From http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/may/27/markets-unruffled-by-eu-elections-as-lloyds-announces-tsb-float-business-live?view=desktop#block-53844b91e4b0ca621b5b2879

Fred remind me which Bank was it in the US that went Tits Up and the World followed.

Note Hays doesnt comment he stays well away when he knows hes beaten.

Right off out fishing.

Lovely evening setting in here.

You may mean this one:

"Bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers"

I am off to the kitchen for a glass of red.

Didn't have a drop of alcohol in France for 3 weeks.

I am not sure what I was punishing myself for?

perhaps the gentlest of tasters for the luxury gulag?

anyway, young sticky, while you go fishing for hays and tin cans, i'll enjoy the first of this season's wild salmon with some freshly picked asparagus :-)

A good fish, a bloody awful oversold tasteless vegetable.

The only thing which makes it any better than an overpriced stalk of grass, is the amount of dressing it can hold.

That applies to the large variety which is be flogged by the bucketful.

I must admit the thought of Hays on a hook and being dragged through the water does have some attraction.

shows what crap you eat!
these came from our local farm this morning and needed nothing but cooking for a few minutes in lightly salted water and then eating with nothing else to be added

asparagus, wouldnt want to be in your tail wind.

Manuel.

You seem to have appalling taste.

No wonder the catering trade gave you up.

Your customers must have been grateful.

It seems to me you valuation is base on price and taste is based on the price not value of the ingredients.

========

Seem you are a chancer at heart!

===========

Back to my tomato soup from hand picked tomatoes and fennel.

GF.

If you haven't already tried them and you are in France try a form of artichoke which they call in the markets "topinambours".

Small cone shaped artichokes, purple and white skinned under an inch in length and then you don't have to peel them.

Steam or small amount of water and boilt and strained, then pepper, salt and knobs of butter and glass of WHITE wine to drink with them.

Beautiful, but you will fart for days!!!!!!

======

I never realised the pleasure of fresh spring vegetables served as a course with a suitable dressing, until I had a French mistress.

Ah, now we know why French mistresses fart a lot.

And what's to make of this lady and her comments?



'Struth! Unreal!

Lets have less of the farting and more of the burping.

In some countries Im told its a mark of respect for some food.

Ukip vote in European elections no flash in pan according to new poll
Poll suggests vast majority of people who voted for Ukip in European elections will vote for the party in general election.


By James Kirkup, Political Editor10:00PM BST 30 May 2014

The vast majority of the four million people who voted for the UK Independence Party in the European elections will make the same choice at the general election, a new poll predicts today.
The poll, by ComRes suggests that 86 per cent of people who voted for Nigel Farage’s party will do so again next year.

More than 4.3 million people voted for Ukip in the European elections, giving the party its first national victory. The Conservatives came third, suggesting many of their previous supporters had defected to Ukip. Several Cabinet ministers have publicly said that many Ukip voters are merely “lending” their votes to Ukip this year and will return to the Tory fold ahead of the general election. But the poll, conducted in the days after the European election, casts doubt on those predictions.

The survey found that 37 per cent of Ukip voters said that they were “certain” to support the party at the general election. Another 49 per cent said that they were “likely” to do so, while 14 per cent said that they would probably back another party.
The poll was commissioned by Paul Sykes, Ukip’s biggest financial backer. In a further boost for Mr Farage, Mr Sykes today pledges to help the party score a second major victory over the Tories in next week’s Newark by-election. The Tories have poured resources into the by-election, which was prompted by the resignation of Patrick Mercer over a cash for questions scandal. On Thursday the party sent five ministers including George Osborne, the Chancellor, Theresa May, the Home Secretary, and Sajid Javid, the Culture Secretary, in a sign of how seriously they take the Ukip threat.

A poll taken in Newark yesterday showed that the Tories lead Ukip by 36 per cent to 28 per cent. But support for the Tories has fallen 18 percentage points since the general election while Ukip has gained 24 percentage points.
Last week’s Ukip victory was achieved despite repeated attacks on the party from senior Conservatives; an approach that is criticised today by David Davis, a senior Tory backbencher. In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, he described Mr Farage as “rather admirable” and “clever” and said Mr Cameron had taken the wrong approach to Ukip. “It’s unwise to be rude about your potential voters,” he said.
According to the poll, Ukip attracted voters due to its policy on immigration and Mr Farage’s complaint that Britain had ceded control of its borders to Europe.

A Tory Cabinet minister today concedes that immigration is a “legitimate complaint” and admits that Britain has “virtually no control” over immigration from Europe.
In an interview, Mr Javid says that the Tories are “committed” to reforming EU migration rules.
“We do recognise that we as a country today have much more control over non-EU immigration – and we have virtually no control over EU immigration,” he told Total Politics magazine. “That’s something that we’d like to change, but that is much easier said than done at this point and requires renegotiating with our European partners, and that’s something that Conservatives are committed to.”
The interventions will come as a further boost to Mr Farage at the end of a week that saw Ukip become the first party other than the Conservatives or Labour to win a national election for 100 years. Writing for telegraph.co.uk, Mr Sykes said that the ComRes poll findings should shake the Conservatives out of their complacent belief that Ukip will not threaten them at the general election.
“Conservative MPs, with a few honourable exceptions, appear to be in denial about the scale of the popular uprising against our current rulers. This is despite their party finishing third in the elections,” he said. “They appear to think that the Ukip threat will go away (it won’t) or that the economic recovery will float them off the political rocks. They should recall what happened in 1997. Then the economy had been growing strongly for four years. That did not stop John Major going down to the worst Tory defeat since 1832.”
According to ComRes, 46 per cent of this year’s Ukip voters had supported the Tories at the 2010 general election. Fifteen per cent had been Labour voters, and 16 per cent defected from the Liberal Democrats.