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.

Camoron as certainly lost the plot.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jul/14/ukip-guardian-icm-poll-tories-labour-nigel-farage

Ukip support plummets to push Tories back into the lead

Poll shows Tories picking up majority of deserters as Farage's party drops back into single figures, with Labour on 33%

Ukip support has plunged back from its high point of the European elections, giving a boost to all the established Westminster parties and pushing the Tories into the lead, according to a new Guardian/ICM poll.

Nigel Farage's party drops back into single figures to stand on 9%, down seven points from last month's score of 16%. The Tories pick up the lion's share of these deserters, gaining three points to climb to 34%, enough to put them a single point ahead of Labour, even though the opposition also edges up one to 33%.

The Liberal Democrats also climb two, to 12%.

http://richardwillisuk.wordpress.com/2014/07/14/new-icm-poll-conservatives-move-1-ahead-as-ukip-plunges/

There is a new ICM poll in the Guardian tomorrow which the Conservatives taking a 1% lead over Labour following last month’s 1% Labour lead:

Conservative 34% (up 3%)

Labour 33% (up 1%)

Lib Dem 12% (up 2%)

UKIP 9% (down 7%)

This is a huge drop in UKIP support taking them down into single figures. However, the net effect of the changes this month is a small Conservative lead which will cheer David Cameron as he embarks on his reshuffle

http://www.newsnetscotland.com/index.php/scottish-news/9460-double-blow-for-miliband-as-colleague-predicts-cameron-win-and-tories-edge-ahead-in-poll

Double blow for Miliband as colleague predicts Cameron win and Tories edge ahead in poll

Labour leader Ed Miliband’s hopes of replacing David Cameron at Number Ten have been severely dented after the Tories edged ahead in the latest opinion poll.

According to the survey by ICM, Labour has lost its lead over David Cameron's party and now trails the Conservatives by 34% to 33%.

The result is an increase of 3pts for David Cameron against a 1 point rise for Miliband. The survey came on the same day that a senior Labour party figure said he believed David Cameron would win the 2015 general election. Former Labour Home Secretary Charles Clarke warned that a Tory majority is the most likely outcome of the 2015 election.

Speaking to the Huffington Post, Mr Clarke criticised the lack of direction under Ed Miliband and the lack of positive reasons to vote Labour – both of which he says make an outright Tory victory probable at the next Westminster election.

"I think the most likely outcome is a Tory overall majority," he said.

Ed Miliband, he added, had not "set out a clear statement of what Labour would actually do" and relied instead on an "assembly of odd policies ".

Mr Clarke’s searing criticism is the latest blow to Ed Miliband’s leadership - with recent polls showing that only 9 per cent of Scots think the Labour leader looks like a Prime Minister, and 50 per cent believing he has been a weak leader of his party.

Pressure has piled on Mr Miliband with a string of senior party colleagues expressing disquiet over his lacklustre leadership.

Another former minister, Labour MP David Blunkett, recently warned that losing next year’s election would see Labour "in the wilderness for as much as 15 years".

DailyMail
Monday, Jul 14th 2014 12PM 22°C 3PM 23°C 5-Day Forecast

£1billion 'film tax bill for stars': String of household names face paying huge sums over scheme that linked box office hits to tax breaks

Bob Geldof, Anne Robinson and Victoria Beckham said to be also among the 1,000 household names affected
They each paid a minimum £100,000 to invest in a movie venture that promised to combine box office hits with tempting tax breaks

By Sam Greenhill

Published: 23:39, 9 March 2014 | Updated: 12:03, 10 March 2014


A string of celebrities from David Beckham to Andrew Lloyd Webber face having to pay the taxman a total of £1 billion in a dispute over a suspected tax avoidance scheme.

They each paid a minimum £100,000 to invest in a movie venture that promised to combine box office hits with tempting tax breaks.

Gary Lineker, Bob Geldof, Anne Robinson and Victoria Beckham are also among the 1,000 household names affected.
A string of celebrities from David and Victoria Beckham to Andrew Lloyd Webber face having to pay the taxman a total of £1 billion in a dispute over a suspected tax avoidance scheme


A string of celebrities from David and Victoria Beckham to Andrew Lloyd Webber face having to pay the taxman a total of £1 billion in a dispute over a suspected tax avoidance scheme

The Ingenious Film Partners 2 LLP scheme qualified for tax breaks under rules designed to stimulate the British film industry. Hit movies such as Life of Pi, Avatar and Girl With a Pearl Earring all benefited from tax relief.

But HMRC now argues such schemes were not legitimate investment opportunities but a means of avoiding tax.

Now a confidential letter, seen by the Sunday Times, has been sent by Ingenious Media Investments to its celebrity investors warning them of ‘draconian’ plans by HM Revenue and Customs to make them pay up to £1billion they had received in tax relief.

The newspaper claimed the tough new approach reflected HMRC’s frustration at dealing with a backlog of some 65,000 individuals and businesses it suspects of using tax avoidance schemes.

The Ingenious film scheme is soon to be tested at a tax tribunal, but HMRC is asking investors to repay money even before their case comes to court.
Gary Lineker is also among those who paid a minimum £100,000 to invest in a movie venture that promised to combine box office hits with tempting tax breaks

Bob Geldof, Anne Robinson and Victoria Beckham are also among the 1,000 household names affected


Gary Lineker, Bob Geldof, Anne Robinson and Victoria Beckham are also among the 1,000 household names affected

The letter from John Boyton at Ingenious Media Investments tells clients: ‘This proposal would accelerate the payment of the tax repaid to you by HMRC, in advance of the outcome of the current legislation.’

Other household names who invested in the firm’s ventures include the singers Geri Halliwell and Annie Lennox, television presenters Ant and Dec and Davina McCall, and England football manager Roy Hodgson, along with football stars Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard.

Ingenious denies HMRC’s claims and intends to fight for its scheme in the tax tribunal scheduled for November.

Lord Lloyd-Webber told the Sunday Times he was advised that he was being ‘almost philanthropic by investing in the British film industry, and that this was a scheme to promote British films’, adding: ‘At no time did I consider it solely a tax scheme.’

A spokesman for the Beckhams said: ‘They have always paid the taxes they have owed in full.’

Last night Ingenious said the HMRC’s demands were ‘indiscriminate and unfair’. A company spokesman said: ‘Ingenious has been trying to obtain a definitive ruling on the tax status of its film and games partnerships for many years. The company requested a hearing before the tax tribunal in 2011 to resolve this matter as expeditiously as possible, but HMRC has repeatedly used stalling tactics to delay a hearing.

‘Ingenious is proud of its record in financing hit films, including Avatar, Life of Pi and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which have generated more than £1 billion of taxable revenue for the UK Treasury, with a further £1 billion of taxable revenue expected over the life of the films.’
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The Prime Minister is expected to use a reshuffle to promote Liz Truss and Esther McVey to his Cabinet ahead of the general election campaign


she s a evil bitch and now the party is finished a liar and a very dishonest person
conservative party Cameron you have fcuked up big time .
as a life long tory family we could never vote for the party now its finished

It's all going to plan T, Cameroon was sent in to destroy the tory party and he's making a good job of it.

tory party I will give you 4.1 lab 1.7

Do you mean he is a self interested con man with a mission to destroy the Con Party?

===========

Now, I wonder what will be revealed about the party's fathers!

Will the enquiry be in public?

Well, well, well

Cabinet reshuffles should be decided by the voters, not a clique on the sofa at No 10


By Douglas Carswell Politics Last updated: July 14th, 2014

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/douglascarswellmp/100279612/cabinet-reshuffles-should-be-decided-by-the-voters-not-a-clique-on-the-sofa-at-no-10/




Who's in and who's out? And who gets to decide? (Photo: PA)



Today is not a good day to phone up an MP pretending to be the Downing Street switch board. “Hello, it's Downing Street here. The PM would like a word. Can I put you on hold?”

As rumours of an impending reshuffle swirl around SW1, it only takes the buzz of a mobile phone to set many an MP's heart – and hopes – racing.

With the power to make or break the career of MPs in the hands of a handful of people in Number 10, that phone call could be the defining moment of an MPs career. “Minister for Widgets!? I’d be absolutely delighted, Prime Minister.”

It wasn't always this way.

Until 1918, if the PM wanted to promote a backbench MP, it wasn't what Downing Street thought, but what constituents made of it that mattered. From 1701 until the First World War, any MP invited to join the government had to resign from Parliament, return to their constituency and seek re-election in a by-election. They faced, if you like, a very public confirmation hearing in which local voters were the interview panel.

This meant that the electorate, not some cliquey "sofa gang" in Downing Street, had the final say on who became a minister.

MPs were seen as tribunes of the people, not party apparatchiks. If a backbencher was to become part of the government, they were regarded as changing sides. They needed to seek the permission of those who elected them first.

Britain had, long before the drafting of any American constitution, a separation of powers, which we have only quite recently abandoned.

Once we did, of course, MPs began to answer to those in Westminster with the power to promote them. Parliament has become a poodle ever since. Until we have open primary candidate selection and a right of recall, which would force MPs to answer outward to the voters once again, it will remain that way.

One or two jokers might decide to tease MPs by impersonating the Number 10 switch board today. Perhaps it is the executive branch of government doing the impersonation when it presumes to hold powers that once belonged to the people.

He has a clean pair of hands.

Not sure who would be a bigger disaster Cameron or Farage!

(Or Hazy one with Manuel as Minister for ??)

Mind it is suggested that the old etonian club at No 10, is going to be changed into a club for tory harpies.

I wonder if Hairy one will be invited to join them.

ugggh!

The con party's response to the country's needs.

-----------

Actually, I feel a bit sorry for Cameron.

He has such a bunch of lightweights to choose his next cock up from.


(Sorry, I meant cabinet. Didn't notice typing error.)

See inflation is up

Inflation rises to 1.9% in June.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-28308837

Perhaps, that is the damper on the housing market?

I think all ministers should actually declare what qualifications they have before there're given a department... Its obvious Teresa May hasn't a clue about how to be Home Secretary, just as George Osborne is about as financially literate as a Chimpanzee..

Politics is the only job in the world where you can really F$%Kup and not get sacked. Instead they put all the jobs under question into a pass-the-parcel and play the old reshuffle game for the day at the tax payers expense...

Whose really the mug, the politicians or the tax payers that allow this behaviour. Isn't it ironic that the group of people charged with running the country and setting laws are also allowed to act like children and receive the largest financial rewards for doing so... Now that just really sets the example!!

Lets summarise politics as a whole... Politics is the ability to find a fool that knows nothing about the department that he/she will run and more importantly won't ask questions. It is then the ability to miss-guide that minister by ensuring he has advisers with alternative agendas to complete a set goal.

I love the way we debate in parliament, really if that's supposed to be a debate then what we're taught in school how to do it goes right out the window. I have always wondered why in this day and age politicians feel the need to waste so much time in parliament anyway, surely a one person podcast would suffice and wouldn't require the time of so many others that usually end up asleep.

Parliament really serves one useful purpose, that is to give us tax payers the perception that politicians work for their money doing something!!

It really doesn't matter how noble a blood line is every so often a fool is created that just won't cut it in the real world. These types of people still go through the privileged schooling process to end up in politics, the front men for their cleverer class mates... After all, the nobles couldn't have any member of the family hold a unworthy position that wasn't deemed one of power... Hence forth the modern politician was born, the runts of the litter with their quirky features...

Just as children miss lead other not so intelligent children and get them into trouble, so do the rich and powerful with politicians. It's a trait we all either learn of fall foul too.

Government ministers do not run their ministries in the conventional sense. They guide policy and civil servants do the actual work. A minister does not need technical expertise of a particular ministry to run it. If they did then it would not be possible to shuffle people around. Osborne has economists in the Treasury and OBR to do the number crunching. Most of the best Chancellors were not economists.

TOSH.