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.

TANKER......Dont you mean IMF.

MFI was that brankrupt furniture shop chain.

TANKER what do you think of this gimmick by Camoron cutting immigrants benefits to 3 months from 6 months??????.

He cant do it you know because of EEC regulations.

Its just a ploy to try and nick voters from UKIP.

Hays...Tory Boy.....the wheels now falling off on the economy.

1. Highest number of profit warnings in 3 years.

2. Insolvencies at highest rate for a year.

3. Interest rate rise just around the corner.

4. NHS in meltdown, in SERIOUS TROUBLE

5. Passport office still way way behind and workers going out on strike.

An Arthur Daley Economy a Del Boy Recovery and a Fred Carno Government of cowboys.

Its all falling in on the Tories.

gold immigration must be cut and yes I do agree with stopping the scum coming here to claim benefits lazy people and yes I do know the facts .

they should not be allowed to claim any benefits til they have paid 5 years tax in to the system go and try and get benefits in Germany you will not .or spain or Italy
they will not even speak to you .

gold it is the mass lazy immigrants that are killing the NHS do not treat them send them home that is what the eu countries do if they have no way of paying

if the conservative party had DAVID DAVIES AS LEADER THEY WOULD WIN THE NEXT ELECTION BY A MILE .

Not an Eton Cissy Boy.

Cameron and Hunt have been found out making dodgy claims about the NHS - Burnham

Andy Burnham MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, in response to the UK Statistic Authority’s suggestion that Tory A&E waiting times claims are incomplete and might require a Commons record correction, said:

“Not for the first time, David Cameron and Jeremy Hunt have been found out making dodgy claims about the NHS from the Despatch Box. It proves their statements on the NHS, even in the House of Commons, can no longer be trusted.

"Sir Andrew Dilnot confirms that waiting times in A&E have got worse on this Government’s watch. But his analysis concludes that things are even worse than we thought, with hospital A&Es missing the Government’s lowered target in every quarter for almost two years.

"This is a damning verdict on David Cameron’s and Jeremy Hunt’s mismanagement of the NHS and their desperate attempts to paper over the cracks. The gap between their spin and the reality for patients is becoming dangerous. Cameron and Hunt need to start putting patients before their own PR and produce a plan to halt the decline in A&E.”

Ends

Notes to editors

1) David Cameron told Parliament that the average waiting time in A&E is “down by more than half”. But Sir Andrew Dilnot says that the average (both mean and median) amount of time patients are spending in A&E has gone up, not down, since David Cameron took office, and that the data recorded for the “time to departure” measure of the length of time spent in A&E “is likely to be the most complete”.

“The average waiting time is down by more than half. That is better”

David Cameron, Hansard, 2 July 2014, column 883

"HSCIC has told us that it generally supplies the ‘duration to departure’ measure when asked to provide data to respond to Parliamentary Questions as this is closest to the NHS England standard. The mean duration to departure time in 2009-10 was 135 minutes and in 2012-13 it was 141 minutes. The median duration to departure in 2009-10 was 122 minutes, and 128 minutes in 2012-13."

Sir Andrew Dilnot, letter to Andy Burnham, 29 July 2014

“HSCIC advised that the time to departure estimate is likely to be the most complete.”

Sir Andrew Dilnot, letter to Andy Burnham, 29 July 2014

2) Sir Andrew Dilnot says that Jeremy Hunt was wrong to claim in Parliament that the median time to assessment in A&E had fallen by more than half – and that he should consider correcting the record.

”I note that the Secretary of State for Health referred to this figure being the median time to assessment; and that the published official statistics report this, instead, as 9 minutes in 2009-10, and 8 minutes in 2012-13. The Secretary of State may wish to take advice on whether it is necessary to correct the parliamentary record.”

Sir Andrew Dilnot, letter to Andy Burnham, 29 July 2014

3) Sir Andrew Dilnot says that Type 1 A&E Departments (major hospital A&Es) have missed their target of seeing 95 per cent of patients within four hours for the last seven quarters in a row - every quarter since October-December 2012.

Sir Andrew Dilnot, letter to Andy Burnham, 29 July 2014, Table 2

Hospitals are wasting money hand over fist if recent incompetence at my local is replicated countrywide.
a) Patients are being discharged with their medication not ready, so when the hospital pharmacy has readied the now gone patients medication they forward it on via a taxi, I know of 3 such incidents in one day involving hundreds of miles.
b) Private ambulance services transporting mental health patients are not able to transport said patients due to lack of doctors present to authorise their transportation, this very often involves several ambulance crews and the local constabulary, all have to be paid for.
2517

Yep what a mess, how have the Tories and Hunt in paticular let it get this way.

I get qouted 10 days to 15 days to see my GP so last time said it was an emergency and saw a young kid doctor who hadnt a clue.

Its pathetic Camoron has lied through his teeth defending the crap state it is in and this as all happened on the Tory Watch.

Before they got to power I had to wait 2 days at most, and blood tests were done in the surgery, not anymore though unless you are a pensioner.

Its pathetic, and the Tories on this thread should vote with their feet and vote for UKIP or Labour.

gf--------You cannot have a huge increase in the population, such as we have had over the years under both Tory and Labour, with no change in the infrastucture. Labour were guilty of throwing huge sums of money at the NHS only for it to be swallowed up in ridiculous salaries for those (mostly non medical staff) already on ridiculous salaries.
2517

Yep but we got a decent service, now we dont its as simple as that.

Id rather take that than the s-it state is in now and Im sure you would aswel.

I hate to think what service pensioners like my mother are going to receive now and in future years. I shudder at the thought.

By decent service do you mean such as my brother-in-law received about 11 years ago when he had a rare doctor's appointment, as soon as he entered the room he was told 'right, you've got 3 minutes'. This to a guy who worked all his life, paid his taxes and as stated rarely attended the surgery, result, he won't go to the surgery again, no matter how ill he feels.
2517

Theirs a complaints proceedure with all GPs he should have used that sending a letter to the Practice Manager an independant person who would then take the issue on.

Of course your brother in law shouldnt have received that shabby treatment, a letter to the local MP always helps aswel, as would a letter to Readers Letters to the local newspaper.

The Tories attack Miliband because they’ve got no decent policies



As the 2015 general election approaches, it is becoming more obvious by the day what the Tory strategy is: there are no new ideas, policies will continue much as they are now, with the emphasis on denigrating Labour proposals and the Labour leader. If Labour announces details to increase income or corporation tax, Tories are ready to pounce.

The Tory propaganda machine has successfully convinced the more gullible that somehow the Labour government’s spending on schools and hospitals caused the 2008 economic crash, and that as a result, they cannot be trusted to manage the economy. It’s upon this, rather than their own proposals, that the Tory election programme is based.

Tories do not shout from the rooftops what their aims are: shrinking the state back to 1948 levels, a further reduction in social mobility and, of course, immigration, and more cuts in government spending. They will claim their “long-term economic plan” is successful, but will worry their assertion that more people than ever in Britain are working, with most new jobs part-time, on zero-hours contracts and very low pay, will be found out. On their “achievements” like the Bedroom tax, the continued tax gap of at least £50bn, the unregulated banks complete with bonuses and scams, the austerity policies that failed to kick start the economy or reduce borrowing, and the infamous tax reduction for the very rich, there will be silence!

Education, Tories will tell us, has improved exponentially. But they will ignore the fact that academisation has taken place because most schools are fearful of financial problems, and has not always brought examination success, despite heads having more freedom to expel problem students. Even more worrying, perhaps, is the fact that academies and free schools do not come under the auspices of the local authority, sometimes with worrying consequences. Similarly absent from the Tory manifesto will be the recent figures from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, which indicate the largest cut in public spending on education over a four year period since the 1950s has taken place since 2011.

With so many other no-go areas, like the NHS and Royal Mail, for the Tories to dwell on, the main focus of their strategy has, and will continue to be, the fabrication of the idea that Miliband is not prime-ministerial material, because of his “weirdness”. Has the Labour leader changed since becoming leader of the Opposition? No, of course not, but a sudden awareness of his “strangeness” has recently emerged, just months before the election; according to Tory propaganda, which is supported to the letter by Tories` allies in the media, Miliband’s looks, eating methods, speech, teeth, and geekiness make him out to be more like a cartoon character than a prime minister-in-waiting. They are so bereft of policies which can attract new votes, they will attack Miliband with anything they can dig, or make, up.

With humour and self-deprecation, Miliband defended himself well last week, but that should be it. He is no weirder or more geeky than other politicians. For goodness sakes, until a few months ago Gove was touted as a future PM. Yes, Gove!

Miliband’s “weirdness” is a Tory myth, created to divert voters’ attention from the fairness and validity of Labour policies, and the unfairness of theirs. Sadly, the few left-wing elements of our media have fallen for this Tory con-trick – articles by Toynbee, Rawnsley and Richards, and such like, have only added unnecessary gravitas to the issue. It’s time for all Labour supporters to rally around their leader, and when asked about his “geekiness” or whatever, to reply with the same response, learned off by heart, word for word: “The only difference between Ed Miliband and any other politician is that he is the leader of the party with the policies to transform this country, and create the just and fair society we all want”!

Repeat it, if asked again, robot-like if necessary, and the penny will soon drop!

GF,

I agree with postings.

I think Miliband has sensible policies and thinks.

Somethings the tories are incapable of.

My guess is that we will soon see the back of the Eton Mess.

Camoron The Con Man At It Again, He Says On National News £500 million Will Be Saved Over 5 Years, ............Lies Lies and More Lies.

29 July 2014 Last updated at 20:32

EU immigration policy: How many will be affected?

By Anthony Reuben
Head of statistics, BBC News

Prime Minister David Cameron has announced a change to which EU migrants in the UK are entitled to claim Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA).

The amount of time that migrants who have not made national insurance contributions will be able to claim JSA (after waiting an initial three months) is being reduced from six months to three months.

How many people will be affected by this change of policy?

To get an idea of this figure, let's start with the maximum possible number, which is 60,100. That's the latest figure (February 2013) from the Department for Work and Pensions for the number of people claiming JSA who were EU nationals from outside the UK at the time when they applied for their National Insurance card.

To get some context, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates that in June there were 1.04 million people claiming JSA in the UK, so it's 5.8% of claimants.

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Iain Duncan Smith has been using the figure of 121,000, which comes from the same report but is the number of people claiming any type of working-age benefit. As today's policy is about jobseekers that is not as useful a figure.

The prime minister said the policy would also affect claims for child benefit, but that is only child benefit being claimed by jobseekers, so it does not expand the figures.

We are interested only in those who have been claiming JSA for between three and six months because EU migrants are already unable to claim for more than six months and they will still be able to claim for three.

Extra incentives
The latest ONS figures tell us that of those 1.04 million total claimants, 179,500 of them, about 17%, had been claiming for between three and six months.

That's for the whole population, but it would be reasonable to assume that EU migrants do not claim for longer than the population as a whole because they have extra incentives to get a job as a result of the threat to stop their benefits.

So the number of people affected is unlikely to be above 10,000.

Next, you have to subtract the people who have made national insurance contributions. It would be legally tricky to prevent them from claiming JSA and indeed Mr Cameron was very clear that what he wanted to say was: "you can't expect to come to Britain and get something for nothing".

The people we're interested in are the ones who have never worked. Unfortunately we don't have figures to help with what proportion of those 10,000 will have made contributions, but it is likely that many of them will have done so.

We also need to subtract those who, in the prime minister's words, "had very clear job prospects". Finally, we need to deduct those who have taken on UK nationality since getting their National Insurance card.

So, it is unlikely that more than 10,000 people, or 1% of JSA claimants, will be affected and it could be considerably fewer.

We have no idea how much this policy will save. The figure of £500m has been trumpeted around as being the Office for Budget Responsibility's estimate of the saving over five years. (Camorons TV LIE)

But the OBR has now said that figure was a valuation for various measures in Budget 2014, and nothing to do with today's announcements.

We have no idea how much this policy will save. The figure of £500m has been trumpeted around as being the Office for Budget Responsibility's estimate of the saving over five years. (Camorons TV LIE)

But the OBR has now said that figure was a valuation for various measures in Budget 2014, and nothing to do with today's announcements.

Lets hope so Fred hes been caught telling lies once again.

Are you on holiday??????

Cameroon is a clown.

He parrots the same old bulshit, and wonders why people don't believe him.


Ed's the same, so is Nick.


whats the alternive?