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.

Mind the con party seems to me to be more incestuous than the lib/dems and labour parties.

God help them in their choices!

lol, you cant find any Fred, cos the cons haven't thought of it ...yet!


As for Emily Benn, she is being put through the wringer to make it look good, why else the puff piece?

No doubt a safe seat will be forthcoming.

A little starter.

Start with Winnie and move on since those days.

Have a look at ancestry of other tory playmates!

It is interesting to see the links.

Some have shorter trouser legs than others.

Max.

If one is born into a politically enthusiastic family it is more than likely that a proportion of off springs will share their parents interests and be "activists" in one way or another.

(Values are introjected into children at early ages and replicate in patterns of behavior in later life, unless challenged.)

Look at other professions and one will see the same patterns of family "traditions".

The difficulty is when it is becomes an expectancy or a right and is unchallenged.

===========

Then there is you Fred who just shags sheep!

........... And gf of course :0)

Everybody...........CHRISTINE SUPPORTS EVERTON........ LOL LOL LOL the big cissy boy.

Today’s UK polls

Opinium:
LAB 34%
CON 30
UKIP 17
LD 9

ComRes:
LAB 34%
CON 31
UKIP 17
LD 9
GRN 4

YouGov:
LAB 37%
CON 32
UKIP 13
LD 9
GRN 5

A walk in the park since the re-shuffle.

Meanwhile George is ducking and diving

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/you-wont-hear-the-chancellor-boasting-about-the-biggest-drop-in-living-standards-since-the-war-9617471.html





David Blanchflower
20/7/2014


You won’t hear the Chancellor boasting about the biggest drop in living standards since the war

The young have been hurt the most by the recession. They don’t vote Tory and can’t buy a house, so who cares?
Last week I appeared on Iain Dale’s LBC radio show to discuss an interview he had just conducted with the Chancellor George Osborne on a trip to the South-west. Iain managed to get Osborne to repeat the dumbest statement that I have ever heard from a Chancellor – that is ‘four years ago the country was close to bankruptcy’. Such a claim that the country was broke is unequivocally false. A big fat pork pie.
In the quarter the Coalition took office in 2010 the economy grew by 1 per cent, which As I have frequently predicted in these columns, real wages continue to plunge. The latest ONS data showed that. Average weekly earnings were £478 a week, down from £479 in December 2013 and exactly the same as observed in April. Pay was up 0.3 per cent over the last twelve months, which is the lowest ever, and exactly zero in the five months that we have data for since the start of 2014. We have now had monthly estimates of £478 in January, February, April and May and one of £476 in March so there isn’t much growth there. In contrast the Retail Price Index grew 2.6 per cent over the last year, so real wages are currently falling at more than 2 per cent per annum. The AWE is up by 6.5 per cent since May 2010 while the RPI is up 14.6 per cent. So real wages are now down 8 per cent and that drop has no chance of being restored by election time. I do recall the Bank of England’s ex-chief economist Spencer Dale explaining at the last inflation report press conference that the MPC was fully expecting real wage growth in the second half of 2014, a claim recently repeated by Governor Carney who is headed back to the drawing board.
Elsewhere the news is little better. There was new evidence from a recent study published by the Department for Work and Pensions* showing how Iain Duncan Smith’s much hated bedroom tax had further hurt living standards of the vulnerable. The study found there was widespread concern that those who were paying the tax were making cuts to other household essentials or incurring other debts in order to pay the rent. More than half reported cutting back on household essentials and a third on non-essentials in order to pay their shortfall. A quarter said they had borrowed money, mostly from family and friends.
The UK’s younger workforce is struggling as well. The unemployment rate of those age 16-24 was 18 per cent compared with 5 per cent for those ages 25-49 and 4 per cent for those 50 and over. A report by the Institute of Fiscal Studies** confirmed that the young have been hurt the most by the Great Recession. They don’t vote Tory and have little or no chance of buying a house. So who cares? Actually, I do. I went back to Cardiff University to accept a Fellowship at the Business School graduation last week; my MSc thesis there in 1981 was about the scourge of youth unemployment.
is the fastest quarter of growth since 2007. The economy grew by an average of 0.6 per cent a quarter from the final three months of 2009 to the third quarter of 2010 compared with an average of only half of that in the fourteen quarters since then. The UK – with its own central bank and currency – has been able to borrow at historically low rates throughout the recession under both Labour and coalition governments and was never anywhere close to being insolvent. Imagine if the chief executive of any of the biggest 500 companies in Britain declared that their company was close to bankruptcy when it wasn’t – or even if it was – they would be relieved of their duties.

Final paragraph for those with short attention.


Despite steady falls in the unemployment rate, living standards for the vast majority continue to drop like a stone. Indeed, the Coalition has another record, it is responsible for the sharpest deterioration in living standards of any post-war government. But you won’t hear the Chancellor boasting about that.

.

why do all cowards cover their faces why do all cowards hide behind children and old women . the answer is their they are COWARDS .

Labour’s love of inherited privilege shows a lack of class



By Toby Young Politics Last updated: July 20th, 2014

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyyoung/100280755/labours-love-of-inherited-privilege-shows-a-lack-of-class/



Emily Benn, speaking at Westminster Academy school in London back in 2010 (Photo: EPA)


No wonder there was rejoicing on Labour’s front benches when Michael Gove was shuffled off to the Whips’ Office. The socialist firebrands were clearly worried that if Britain’s schools become any more meritocratic, they might not be able to pass on their own inherited privileges.

You see, it is one of the ironies of contemporary politics that the hereditary principle holds most sway within the Labour Party. How else to explain the news that Emily Benn, granddaughter of Tony, has been selected as its candidate in Croydon South? If she wins, she will be the fifth generation of her family to serve in the House of Commons.

The Wedgwood Benns may be the most long-standing (and aristocratic) of Labour dynasties, but they are far from the only one. Stephen Kinnock, son of former leader Neil and husband of the Danish prime minister, will fight the safe seat of Aberavon in South Wales in 2015. Will Straw, son of Jack, is the candidate in Rossendale and Darwen. Other scions of Labour grandees waiting in the wings are Euan Blair, rumoured to be circling Coventry North West, and Joe Dromey, son of MPs Jack Dromey and Harriet Harman, who is said to be interested in Lewisham Deptford.

In truth, family ties are probably just as important in the Conservative Party – but at least the Tories have the good grace to be embarrassed about it. Hence last week’s reshuffle, in which various middle-aged white men were sacked or demoted. Yet it has always baffled me that the Labour Party, which is supposed to stand up for the little guy, makes such feeble attempts to conceal the power of its own ruling class.

The present leader is a case in point. The son of a famous Marxist professor, he went to the Eton of north London comprehensives and lives in a £2.5 million house in the area. Yet that doesn’t stop him playing the class card at every opportunity, referring to David Cameron’s “Cabinet of millionaires” and advocating a “mansion” tax.

Why isn’t Ed Miliband more troubled by these internal contradictions? The only explanation I can think of is that, historically, Labour hasn’t been punished for not practising what it preaches. The party’s working-class supporters remained loyal, in spite of the fact that its Oxford-educated leaders always sent their children to private schools, dined on oysters and champagne and holidayed in the south of France.

That, presumably, is why Labour’s panjandrums have no qualms about seeing Emily Benn selected to fight Croydon South. If the Hon Tristram Hunt’s title didn’t prevent him from accusing Gove – adopted at the age of four months by an Aberdeen fishmonger – of being an “elitist”, why should Emily Benn’s aristocratic lineage keep her from representing the poor and downtrodden?

Having a title among the Tories, by contrast, is the kiss of death – as the Hon Douglas Hurd discovered when he stood for the leadership in 1990. “This is inverted snobbery,” he declared. “I thought I was running for the leader of the Conservative Party, not some demented Marxist sect.”

As a politically ambitious Hon myself, I often think I would have fared better in the Labour Party, particularly since my father was ennobled by James Callaghan. Like Euan Blair, Stephen Kinnock and Will Straw, I could have been a “red prince”.

Still, thanks to the rise of Ukip, the days when Labour could take its working-class support for granted, regardless of how privileged its leaders were, may be coming to an end. If I were Chris Philp, the state-educated Tory candidate in Croydon South, I’d be quite pleased that my Labour opponent is the Hon Emily Wedgwood Benn, daughter of the third Viscount Stansgate. Perhaps he could even play the class card himself.

What a dollop of diversionary twaddle.

The major problem with Gove and others in this motley government is that the changes come on top of changes and do not give a chance for previous policies to bed down.

Lansley and Gov have created disillusionment in their various "departments" and produce lack of direction.

Ask parents of children in many of the schools and those exposed to changes in the NHS system.

Both failed, because the refused to listen to opinions of others who had practical experience.

------

I think Toby Young is a con party zealot with policy suitable for a con or ukip party.


(Are the latter the same any-way with a few undisclosed BNP.)

======

Ps.

My father would have been proud for his sons and daughters to follow him is his profession, but was also happy with our choice of other professions. So be it for Kinnock, whose father was a coal miner.

Kinnock did not appeal to me, but I congratulate him on his own and his family's success.

Similar for the Ben family, at least they had belief in the future and improvement if society as a whole, rather than a place to plunder out of self interest.

(You may disagree with the future or goals they were working to.)

Kinnock was a liar and a false person filling is pockets no more a labour man than IDS
the man is evil .

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-28393377

UK to post strongest growth in G7, says Item Club

The UK economy will grow faster in 2014 than any other G7 economy, while low wage rises will ensure interest rates do not rise until next year, an influential report has forecast.

Self explanatory YouTube clip.....

Oh dear! As tax payers, what are we to make of this situation? The following is a warning of what can happen if you go a bit too hard with tax avoidance and let the tax tail wag your dog.....

July 11, 2014 6:49 pm
Bankruptcy looms for tax scheme investors
By Adam Palin

Investors in tax arrangements that are the focus of a government crackdown face potential financial ruin, advisers warned, as their clients are landed with tax demands well in excess of their initial investments.

While a growing number of investors seek redress against promoters of tax-saving schemes, bills from the tax authority for their involvement threaten personal wealth beyond the amount of tax saved.

Investors in an array of schemes that involved heavy borrowing to leverage tax-saving arrangements face demands to pay tax on their partnerships’ “sub-licensing” payments, which HM Revenue & Customs treats as income and therefore liable for tax.

One investor in a film partnership currently under scrutiny told the Financial Times that the tax bill outlined in a recent letter from the tax authority leaves him facing the prospect of bankruptcy.

The Eclipse partnership which he entered involved a highly leveraged investment to buy the distribution rights to films including Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest, with intentional operational losses qualifying for income tax relief.

In what he describes as “an incredibly aggressive stance”, the investor says HMRC has requested tax on partnership income that was never received by individual investors. The tax bill that he and fellow investors face is many times greater than the amount put in.

“From a total investment of around £300,000, I anticipate a final liability of seven or eight times what I put in,” he says. “It’s absolutely life-changing.”

Tina Riches, national tax partner at Smith & Williamson, said that many scheme investors, particularly those who have retired or are on modest incomes today, are vulnerable.

“For every celebrity that hits the headlines, there are another 50 members of the public facing potential hardship [as a result of the clampdown],” said Martin Taylor, head of client relations at Rebus, a claims management firm. “There are a lot of worried people out there.”

For every celebrity that hits the headlines, there are another 50 members of the public facing potential hardship. There are a lot of worried people out there
- Martin Taylor, Rebus

In a statement, the tax authority said that where loans have been used “to artificially inflate the losses claimed” by a scheme investor . . . “this may give rise to unexpected tax consequences for the users if HMRC don’t agree the scheme works as intended, beyond the amount expected to be avoided”.

A tribunal found in HMRC’s favour against Eclipse 35, a scheme from the same promoter, Future Capital Partners. The group is confident of overturning this verdict at the court of appeal next year.

In correspondence last month, the tax authority said that it views other Eclipse schemes as “nearly identical in structure” to Eclipse 35.

In an earlier letter to the investor, also seen by the FT, HMRC requested that he pay a sum of almost £900,000 within 28 days of receipt. The notice – which was appealed – recommended payment via cheque, debit or credit card payment.

The investor said an offer to pay the total personal tax relief enjoyed, plus interest, was rejected outright by the tax authority. “If I had stashed my money away in Switzerland, there’s a hotline that I could have called to settle [the disputed tax] . . . Where’s my deal?”

Michael Avient, personal tax partner at UHY Hacker Young, said: “It is quite clear that the Revenue have been told that they need to collect more tax [from scheme investors]. The Revenue will quite happily bankrupt someone.”

HMRC dismisses these claims. Although it does not discuss individual cases, the authority said that “instalment arrangements will be available for those who genuinely need them. HMRC has an outstanding record in supporting those with payment problems.”

The Revenue’s increasingly hard line against taxpayers deemed to have avoided tax is, however, reflected by comments made this week by one of its senior officers.

Jim Harra, director-general of business tax at HMRC, said that the people taking up such schemes are not the “hardworking” majority. “They are the 43,000 affluent people who knowingly signed up to an avoidance scheme in full awareness they were using artificial arrangements to reduce their tax bill. I have no sympathy for these people.”

The taxman believes more than 33,000 individuals and 10,000 companies are members of known and recognised avoidance schemes.

Between them they owe an estimated £4.9billion – equal to an average of about £114,000 each, although some are thought to owe millions of pounds in tax.

Thousands of celebrities, sports stars and wealthy professionals have been warned that they face massive bills following a clampdown on tax avoidance schemes.

HM Revenue and Customs is publishing a list of 1,200 avoidance schemes, each scheme identified by a 'number' and whose members will be told to pay up within 90 days.