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.

rticle rank 23 Jul 2014Daily MailBy James Chapman, Jason Groves and Ian Drury

HAND BACK THE ROUBLES, DAVE
Clamour grows for Tory Party to return the huge donations it’s been given by oligarchs and Putin cronies

‘Sending out mixed messages’

DAVID Cameron was under pressure last night to return a £160,000 donation from the wife of a former member of Vladimir Putin’s government.

Lubov Chernukhin, who is married to billionaire businessman Vladimir Chernukhin, won a bid at a fundraising auction to play tennis with the Prime Minister.
Calling for the donation to be reversed, Labour said the Tories should ‘come clean’ over an estimated £1million in payments from Russian individuals and businesses.
Conservative Party sources indicated last night however that the party will keep the Chernukhins’ money.

In a further embarrassment for the Government, a report released by MPs today shows Britain was selling weapons to Russia only a few months ago.

And Paris last night accused Mr Cameron of hypocrisy for questioning a £1billion arms contract with Moscow. French president Francois Hollande has vowed not to ditch the deal and an aide yesterday said the Prime Minister should start by confronting London-based oligarchs linked to Mr Putin.
Last year the Russian leader mocked Mr Cameron over the influx of rich Russians. Britain was reported to have been dismissed as ‘a small island’ by his spokesman, who claimed nobody paid attention to it – except the ‘oligarchs who have bought Chelsea’.
In an angry statement to MPs on Monday,
this is a the Prime Minister said Mr Putin’s ‘cronies’ should be isolated because of their country’s involvement in the Flight MH17 atrocity. but Labour questioned the Prime Minister’s intention to go ahead with a doubles tennis match, auctioned off at a lavish Tory fundraising dinner at London’s Hurlingham Club earlier this month.
London Mayor boris Johnson also agreed to play, with the Tories’ election strategist Lynton Crosby acting as a ballboy.

The successful bidder was the wife of Vladimir Chernukhin, who is a former director of Russia’s national airline Aeroflot and a former chairman of the country’s state development bank.
He received Russia’s Order of Honour from Mr Putin a decade ago.
Labour’s Chris bryant, vice-chairman of Parliament’s all-party group on Russia, said: ‘The Prime Minister said quite categorically this week that we should be tackling Putin’s cronies.
‘What could be more of a crony than Putin’s former deputy finance minister?
‘Yet it appears that the Prime Minister is not only prepared to take his family’s money, but also play tennis with him – it is two-faced. david Cameron does not seem to realise that you cannot send these kind of mixed messages to Russia – they see it as a sign of weakness. He has to realise that he cannot have his caviar and eat it.’
Fellow Labour MP sheila gilmore said: ‘People will be surprised at the extent of Russian wealth bankrolling david Cameron’s re-election fund.

‘The Tories need to come clean about all their Russian links. There can be no impression of conflicts of interest or hypocrisy at such an important time.’
Former Tory treasurer Lord Ashcroft also questioned whether the Conservatives should still be accepting Russian money. in a message on Twitter he said: ‘should the Tory Party suspend taking donations from companies owned by Russians?’
Party sources indicated the tennis match is still scheduled to go ahead, though the Chernukhins could nominate someone else to play. One insider suggested that Mr Chernukhin had not been close to the Russian president for a decade, having been removed from his post. Mr Johnson’s office declined to comment.
A Conservative Party spokesman said: ‘All donations to the Conservative Party are fully and transparently declared to the Electoral Commission and published on their website.’
The Conservatives, in common with Labour, refuse to release details of those who attend their fundraising events. but a leaked list from last year’s Tory summer ball revealed it was attended by a number of wealthy Russians.
Electoral Commission records suggest the Conservatives have received donations totalling more than £900,000 from individuals with links to Russia.
Mrs Chernukhin and her husband live in a £7.2million apartment overlooking Regent’s Park in central London, according to electoral roll records. The arms report from MPs found that ministers approved exports including components for anti-aircraft guns, sniper rifles, rocket launchers and military helicopters shortly before a proRussian uprising in Ukraine.
The critical report from Parliament’s committee on arms export controls highlighted 285 arms contracts with Russia worth £131.5million.
in March, the then foreign secretary William Hague pledged to stop selling arms to Russia after it annexed Crimea.
but MPs on the committee on arms export controls said they were concerned that only a ‘small number’ of export licences had been suspended or revoked – just 34.
sir John stanley, the Tory chairman of the Commons committee, warned ministers to ‘apply significantly more cautious judgments’ when approving export licences to oppressive regimes including Russia.
The committee said the government had been ‘irresponsible’ to approve two export licences to syria for chemicals which could be used to make weapons in January 2012 – a year into the country’s civil war. syrian dictator bashar al-Assad was condemned last year for using poisons to attack opponents.
A government spokesman said: ‘in March the former foreign secretary announced the suspension of all export licences to the Russian armed forces for any equipment that could be used against Ukraine.
‘This report covers exports in 2013 before the suspension was in place. The majority of export licences that remain in place for Russia are for commercial use but we are keeping all licences under review.’

Conservative Party sources indicated last night however that the party will keep the Chernukhins’ money.

‘The Tories need to come clean about all their Russian links. There can be no impression of conflicts of interest or hypocrisy at such an important time.’
Former Tory treasurer Lord Ashcroft also questioned whether the Conservatives should still be accepting Russian money. in a message on Twitter he said: ‘should the Tory Party suspend taking donations from companies owned by Russians?’
Party sources indicated the tennis match is still scheduled to go ahead

BOB GELDORF DESTROYED IS FAMILY , ALL DOWN TO DRUGS WHAT A FAMILY I WOULD BE ASHAMED HE IS NOT

TANKER what about the Tories taking RUSKY donations.

gold the plane crash was a terrible thing to happen but blaming Russia is not correct answer . we must look at the big problem a round the world no wee is safe from terrorists or what you call these people .the USA sucks up to any one who will buy their goods fact .knowing their was a war going on what the hell were they doing flying over the country that is the question to be answered .putin is only loking after is country that is is job . pity THIS SCUM RUNNING THE UK ARE NOT LOOKING AFTER THE PEOPLE WHO MADE BRITTAIN WHAT I WAS ,NOW A CESSPIT OF A GOVERNMENT TO BUSY FILLING THEIR OWN POCKETS

More more more more.

gold till the powers of the world deal with QATAR who suppy weapons to terrorists
nothing will change flatten QATAR AND THE WORLD WOULD BE A BETER PLACE

THATS IT, ive come up with an idea for the ENGLAND CRICKET CAPTAINCY.........

BRING BACK PIETERSON AS THE TEST CAPTAIN AND INSIST HE ONLY PLAYS TEST MATCHES not 1 dayers or 20/20.

What a genious idea.

IN MY LIFE OF 67 YEARSTHIS IS THE WORST GOVERNMENT THIS COUNTRY AS SEEN
LIARS CROOKS .THEY ARE ONLY INTERESTED IN THEIR OWN LIVES . AND DO NOT GIVE A TOSS ABOUT THE UK . VOTE UKIP

NO BEG to bring back kp and let him decide what he wants to do.

TANKER yep and we might get the World Cup they paid for.

KP it is then and were not nuts TANKER.

Bullying occurrences in independent day and boarding schools is now so well publicised, and the kids so well up on what to do if it happens, that it has now virtually been completely stamped out.

Just Google 'bullying' and see what you get.

Kd Power (Anti) Bullying Skills

You will also find out, that most bullying these days is to do with the workplace rather than school.

Upper Class Public School Kids, Dressed Down At the Weekends Ready For Trouble At A Millwall Football Match.............A source commented these rich kids are so well up on the dirty tactis of bullying.

That looks like Ed Balls-up on the far right (he can't even get that correct), and that little chap at the back looking insignificant, is that Milli-pede, (no change there then)
Of course the person in the window has got their measure, it looks like Bo-Jo.
2517

Ex-UKIP MEP charged

"Westworld" to be re-created for a TV series.

Should be good, eh?

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/jul/23/westworld-hbo-anthony-hopkins-evan-rachel-wood-remake

Westworld, set in the near future, imagines a theme park that recreates the Wild West, complete with artificially intelligent cowboys that visitors can shoot and kill, as well as pliant robots who agree to sexual encounters. A malfunction spreads through the robots, causing them to turn violently against the park's human visitors – with a robot gunslinger played by Yul Brynner most lethal of all. Released in 1973, it was directed by Michael Crichton, and was an early adopter of CGI.

Now HBO is expanding the action into a long-form TV series, a "dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the future of sin", according to the Hollywood Reporter. Hopkins will play the "brilliant, taciturn and complicated creative director" of the park, while Wood will play an android farmer girl "who is about to discover that her entire idyllic existence is an elaborately constructed lie."

Softening the Electorate up imo.

Interest rates will rise but to a lower level than before, Mark Carney says
Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England, says interest rates will rise but not to past levels


By Steven Swinford, Senior Political Correspondent1:40PM BST 23 Jul 2014

Interest rates will rise but at a more "gradual and limited" rate than in the past, the Governor of the Bank of England has said.
The increase to more “normal” levels will be welcomed by many savers who have faced record low rates for more than six years, but is likely to plunge many borrowers into financial difficulty.
Mr Carney said that the rise in interest rates is likely to be lower than in the past because of the "headwinds" still facing the economy.


Asked if the interest rate will be around 2.5 per cent, Mr Carney said it will be "less than normal".
He said that historically low interest rates pose a threat to the housing market, which has the potential to 'tip the economy' into recession as people reduce spending to meet their mortgage payments.
Speaking at the Commonwealth Games Business Conference in Glasgow, Mr Carney said: "As the economy normalises, the Bank Rate will need to rise in order to achieve the inflation target.
"The Monetary Policy Committee is supporting investment through clear guidance that it expects increases in the Bank Rate, once they begin, to be gradual and limited.
"This is in part because the headwinds facing the economy are likiely to take some time to die down. These headwinds include public balance sheet repair, a highly indebted private sector as well as the drag from a 12 per cent appreciation of sterling over the past year."
He said that the housing market poses a threat to "everyone from Land's End to John O'Groats, including those that do not own their homes.
He said: "History shows that British people do everything they can to pay their mortgages. That means cutting back deeply on expenditures when the unexpected happens. If a lot of people are highly indebted, that could tip the economy back into recession."
Mr Carney said that after the longest and deepest downturn since the Second World War, the UK was finally returning to full growth.

0.25% The next move in rates

So, the horses mouth has spoken!


The whole economy depends on house prices, oh, and dirt cheap labour doesent hurt either.