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.

Make Tony Blair a peace envoy, he'll get it sorted.

The leaders of Hamas live in Gaza apart from Meshal who was living in Damascus because of assassination attempts by Israel. He then moved to Qatar when the Syrian war started. The luxury nonsense is propaganda. Have you seen the pictures of Israeli soldiers using Palestinian children as shields? There are countless pictures all across the internet. There is even one of a child tied on the bonnet of an Israeli Jeep to stop other children attacking the soldiers.

Instead of Blair send Farrage.

They may shoot him.

Let Cameron carry the bags.

With luck they will shoot both.


Ps.

I will pack Haze's bags, if he goes with them!

This rotten way of running the country needs to change


By Douglas Carswell Politics Last updated: July 2nd, 2014


http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/douglascarswellmp/100277859/this-rotten-way-of-running-the-country-needs-to-change/



It’s no way to run a country. After reading the same sort of degrees at similar Oxbridge colleges, many MPs become MPs having worked in the offices of MPs. Selected for a safe seat, they then sit on the front bench – and prepare to govern us.

Many of those at the giddy heights of SW1 politics have got there without ever personally having had to depend on winning over swing voters in marginal seats. And it shows.

The ethos of Westminster today is that MPs answer to one another, not outwardly to the voters. Promotion comes by regurgitating the established line, not by challenging it.

Fundamental questions go unanswered because no one seems to even ask the question.

“At what point”, wrote Charles Moore, recently "does the freedom to borrow, so necessary for wealth-generation, go too far?” Six years on from a financial crisis created by unrestrained fractional reserve banking, no answer. No solution. No fresh thinking. The candy floss credit machine simply revs up again.

“How can public services”, he continues, “replicate the degree of choice and personal attention that a market-based culture has come to expect?” No one in SW1 is looking to give us playlists for our own personalised public services.

When I first arrived in the Commons, I assumed that somewhere across the road in Whitehall would be rooms full of wise, cool-headed experts. After considering important public policy issues from every angle, they would then present their recommendations.

Now I realise it’s more like the Wizard of Oz. Draw back the curtain and you find a rather befuddled, middle-aged man (it usually is a man) making it up as he goes along. On everything from energy policy to overseas aid, public policy is made on the basis of ingrained departmental assumptions that are often years out of date.

Our system of democracy isn’t working. On everything from EU policy to defence procurement, it has a Byzantine capacity to stifle essential reform and reinforce failure.

It wasn’t always like this.

In 2014 many more people – thankfully – have the right to vote than they did in, say, 1914. But that does not necessarily mean we have become more democratic. Many more have the right to vote, but the ability of those with votes to hold those with power to account has steadily diminished.

A hundred years ago, it was not simply MPs who decided which MPs got promoted. If your local MP was appointed to the government, they had to resign their seat, come back to the constituency and get your permission in a by election for them to join the government.

There were no A list party favorites and think tankers, to be parachuted into safe seats. Until remarkably recently, candidates were selected by genuinely autonomous, mass membership branches.

Until the 1930s, those we elected decided how much the government spent. MPs could table amendments to the budget. Since then, MPs are only allowed to rubber stamp what Treasury officials have decided – and government largesse with taxpayer money has increased dramatically.

If we are to be well governed again, we need profound, far-reaching change. Government needs to be made accountable to Parliament, and those who sit in Parliament must be made properly answerable to the people.

Tanks - it seems to me that at the moment in m/e, you have a choice between one side that supports hamas and the other that supports al qaeda or isis that looks to be a dangerous maverick for all and sundry

trust you've completed your long rehab :-)

No wonder Katie Perry left him , what a wind bag. Can't stand his voice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-0Rb0zweS8&feature=player_embedded

Cynic...have you seen Blinkx ?.....and how is Provence ?...by the way : you are right about the saucisson aux noisettes...lovely....talking of aperitif...try Frontignan...(yellow,striped bottle)...there are several kinds(not the green)....it's like a lemon martini (though it is quite sweet and fruity)...(best with crushed ice)...

Isn't it lovely to see the caring ITV and BBC apologising for referring to Harris and Savile ?....bless them....

RF - I thank my lucky stars that I was not even tempted to get back into BLNX ...... I confess I have been picking so badly of late that I have just stayed put with what I have ..... Provence lovely as usual, but seem to be sleeping an inordinate amount, and not alcohol driven either :-)

Manuel,

You are just getting old.

Which restaurant or cafe are you waiting at in Provence?

Anyway have a good time.

I am getting use to the fact my grandson is going to take me canoeing down the Dordogne.

I hope he brings me back.

cynic

thought you would be back in Scotland for the Tour de France

ps AFREN is now 150 plus

cynic. tony blair should be in jail and then hanged for war crimes with bush

Lets hear it for man of the people Balls...




Labour would be 'silly' to offer EU referendum, says Ed Balls


Shadow chancellor rejects suggestion by Unite leader that party risks losing votes by not giving people a say on Europe


Press Association


theguardian.com, Thursday 3 July 2014 02.32 BST



Shadow chancellor Ed Balls. 'If Len McCluskey is supporting the David Cameron position, I disagree with Len McCluskey.' Photograph: Ken Jack/Demotix/Corbis



It would be "silly" for Labour to offer voters an in/out referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union, Ed Balls said, accusing the head of the country's biggest trade union of supporting a Tory policy that would be bad for jobs.

The shadow chancellor dismissed a warning from Unite general secretary Len McCluskey that the party risked being "boxed in" at the 2015 general election unless it dropped its opposition to matching David Cameron's promise to allow voters a say.

Delegates at the conference of Labour's biggest union affiliate approved a statement from Unite's executive urging Labour to "urgently reconsider" its approach to a referendum, and making it clear that the union would argue for a vote for Britain to stay in the EU.

Asked if Labour would consider going into the election promising a vote, Mr Balls told BBC2's Newsnight: "That would be a silly thing for us to say.

"We made a very clear commitment: if there is any proposal in the next parliament for a transfer of powers to Brussels we will have an in/out referendum.

"We are not proposing a referendum now because we think to spend two or three years blighting investment and undermining our economy on the prospect of a referendum which David Cameron says he is going to have after he gets an unknown package of reforms would be bad for jobs and investment.



More Balls Ups here: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jul/03/labour-silly-offer-eu-referendum-balls

MaxK
You will be pleased to know that the EU referendum bill is being reintroduced. They will force a vote in the Commons and make Labour and the Libs vote it down if they dare. It won't need to go to the Lords, as if it passes the vote, the government will use the Parliament Act to make it law immediately. They have a deadline of about three weeks before the current session ends.

we want out of the EU its corrupt and bad for the UK the only thing it as done for the uk is fill it with scum eu countries have let out prisoners providing they leave the country fact not fiction we want these migrants out and do not say we need these migrants to run the NHS LOAD OF CRAP . 74% WANT OUT OF THE EU AND WE WILL LEAVE IF WE GET THE VOTE .

You can't hang Blair, you'd never get the noose over them ears!!

I'd love to know what a war crime with bush is exactly. Did he tickle him to death with a hydrangea, or summat?

Yesterday's business in Commons

Presentation of Bills: no debate (Standing Order No. 57)

European Union (Referendum) Robert Neill Bill to make provision for the holding of a referendum in the United Kingdom and Gibraltar on the United Kingdom’s membership of the European Union.

re: #43119

That's very good news Haystack, if it comes off.

It will certainly put Cleggy on the spot, cos he said only a few days ago that he welcomed a referendum.

I have no idea where millibum stands, he appears to be in favour of shafting his own supporters...ie, the working man/woman.

No. Clegg said a couple of days ago that he doesn't want a referendum except in any further loss of sovereignty. Some of the senior members of the Libs wants one but Clegg got his way.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jul/01/clegg-lib-dems-no-in-out-referendum-eu

Nicholas Watt, chief political correspondent

Tuesday 1 July 2014 22.34 BST

Nick Clegg has defeated an attempt by senior Liberal Democrats to match the Tories by guaranteeing to hold a "seductive" referendum on Britain's EU membership in the next parliament. The deputy prime minister, who has faced direct calls from ministers for a change of stance on the EU, won the agreement of the Lib Dem parliamentary party to stand by the current policy. This is to hold a referendum only if UK sovereignty is passed to the EU. The Tories would go further by guaranteeing an in/out referendum on Britain's EU membership in 2017 regardless of the result of negotiations on the future of the EU.