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.

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?

YouGov London polling
29 JUL 2014

YouGov found London voting intentions of CON 35%(nc), LAB 45%(+3), LDEM 8%(nc), UKIP 8%(-2), GRN 4%(nc).

Nigel Farage: David Cameron’s EU benefits diatribe fools no one

It’s not welfare abuse by immigrants but the number of them that is a drag on the nation




The European Commission has already said it will investigate the new policy statement from the Prime Minister to see if it complies with European law Photo: REUTERS


By Nigel Farage

6:20AM BST 30 Jul 2014

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/nigel-farage/10998115/Nigel-Farage-David-Camerons-EU-benefits-diatribe-fools-no-one.html


The Prime Minister has scored a brilliant summer hit with the headline writers. “EU migrant benefit curbs fast-tracked”; “Government announces limits on EU migrants’ benefits access”; “New rules on migrant benefits to be announced as UK makes system more robust against abuse”; and “Further curbs to migrant access to benefits announced”.


Except, of course, these headlines are from December, January, February and April respectively. His latest announcements on Europe and welfare are just a matter of the Government still trying to play catch-up with public opinion.


And while moves towards making our benefit system less open to abuse are welcome, there are serious questions as to their legality. According to European legislation, it is quite clear that all EU citizens must be treated equally when it comes to benefits. Dotted through the European treaties are references to this: Articles 9 of the Treaty on European Union and Articles 18, 20, 45 and 48 of the Treaty on the Functioning of The European Union. The most explicit, Article 48, states very clearly that this equality includes the “payment of benefits to persons resident in the territories of Member States”.


Beyond the treaties themselves, there are EU laws that specify, “nationals of an EU country and persons residing in that country without being nationals of it are equal in terms of the rights and obligations provided for by the national legislation. The provisions of this Regulation apply to all the traditional branches of social security” including, but not exclusive to, unemployment and family benefits. In other words, anything Mr Cameron does to European immigrants, he has to do to British people, too.


This isn’t a matter of opinion. This is European law. It means that any legislation that a UK government brings in to change benefits entitlement must apply equally to UK citizens, or face the fiercest opposition in the European courts. Put simply, the European Union in its current form will not allow the British Government to do the things that the Prime Minister says he wants to do to European migrants’ claims, without also applying those changes to his own people.


If you want an illustration of where power lies in the EU, proof of how impotent our membership of the union renders our government, remember that the European Commission has already said that it is investigating this new policy statement from the Prime Minister to see if it complies with European law.

I cannot believe that Mr Cameron is seriously suggesting that these restrictions apply to UK citizens as well. So it looks like an enormous hostage to fortune.

That’s not the only problem with Mr Cameron’s promises. He casts the spotlight on EU immigrants who come to the UK and claim unemployment benefits. He does not address the far greater problem of in-work benefits such as tax credits.

It is the case that migrant workers are less likely to claim unemployment benefit than British people. However, they are more likely to claim the far more costly in-work benefits. This is due to the simple fact that they are, in the main, at the lower end of the wage scale.

And this brings me to the real issue, the one that Mr Cameron and the rest of the political class repeatedly skirt around, the one that makes his benefits promises just so much window-dressing.

The problem with mass migration is not so much the misuse of benefits by a minority – though that is wrong – but is the impact of mass, low-waged and unskilled labour upon the wages, employment opportunities and services in this country. I have been campaigning for years, not on the point of benefits, but the impact of the sheer numbers.

Even Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England, couldn’t help but allude to the subject last week as he talked about a “staggering” 25 per cent slump in demand from Europe for British exports, combined with what he described as the effects of “more labour supply than we had previously thought”. He went on to comment that we have “severe” structural problems due to a “chronic” shortfall in housing. Yes, these things are related.

Just look at the way that growth is disproportionately helping the rich, who benefit from cheap labour supply, while the low-waged see pay cuts and freezes. The Local Government Association tells us that there will be a shortfall of 130,000 primary school places in the next three years, caused almost entirely by migration and a soaring birth rate among first-generation migrants.

Open-door immigration from ex-communist countries with GDPs wildly different from our own has resulted in a situation where the lives of millions of our citizens are affected by an issue over which, due to our membership of the European Union, we have no control. But the Prime Minister is promising to bring in measures that will affect a few thousand people, rather than deal with an issue that impacts on the lives of millions.

What Mr Cameron’s article in The Telegraph yesterday really shows is the fear in this Government of the public’s anger, and its impotence in the face of its obligations to European law.

No amount of warm words or glib promises will provide any confidence that the Government has either the will or the desire to act effectively on migration. Nor will they change the fact that such action is impossible while Britain remains a member of the European Union.

Hmmmmm makes a good case for getting out of Europe.

Camorons been exposed yet again though as a cheat on the National News yesterday when he said his measures yesterday ie, cutting benefit period from 6 months to 3 months would save £500 million pounds over 5 years. (unlikely to get the law through though anyway)

Policy would only affect around 7,000 immigrants..... a lot of them single.

The benefit bill would come to nowhere near £500 million, little wonder Conservative Central had to quickly jump in and correct Camorons figure with the BBC.

Update - Labour lead at 1
by YouGov in Political Trackers and Politics
Wed July 30, 2014 6 a.m. BST

Latest YouGov / The Sun results 29th July - Con 34%, Lab 35%, LD 8%, UKIP 12%;

It's not only Cameroon gf, we know where he stands (for his rich mates and cheap labour)

Cleggy is all for more of the same.


But the real question is.

Where is Millibum and even newer labour?

Labour is supposed to stand up for the working class, yet cant shaft them quick enough. The unions are very quiet too. They're own supporters discarded and ignored.


Any ideas?

Very silly trivial political stereotyping. Looking after workers in terms of pay totally dependent on the economy. The size and efficiency of the economy affects all areas of life. The NHS, defence, infrastructure, benefits an all the things that people want come from money the government has. The ONLY source of money for the government is taxes of various types such as VAT, income tax, corporation tax, national insurance (it is a tax) etc.

The ONLY source of these taxes is businesses. Successful businesses produce more tax. Only the Conservatives have ever created an environment for business. Vote for others at your peril.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/nov/24/israel?CMP=twt_gu

An Israeli army officer who repeatedly shot a 13-year-old Palestinian girl in Gaza dismissed a warning from another soldier that she was a child by saying he would have killed her even if she was three years old.

The officer, identified by the army only as Captain R, was charged this week with illegal use of his weapon, conduct unbecoming an officer and other relatively minor infractions after emptying all 10 bullets from his gun's magazine into Iman al-Hams when she walked into a "security area" on the edge of Rafah refugee camp last month.

A 'clean kill' then? So that's nice isn't it? NO IT IS NOT!!!!!!!

These guys are surely sick in the head! As an Israeli army officer, one wonders if he is a typical example?

Apparently according to the Gazan Health Ministry, the Palestinian death toll stands at 1280 in 22 days of conflict.

Israel, too has lost 53 of its soldiers since conflict with Hamas began on 8 July.

Also, two civilians and a Thai national have died.

Don't these idiots realise, that the only way to ever end this conflict is by talking to each other and through negotiation? And negotiation means 'give and take' and surely must mean conceding points.

The whole area must be a hot bed of utter hate. With each side utterly despising the other it has to mean there is absolutely no chance of any peace deal happening any time yet.

lets face the real facts on gaza the PALESTIAN PEOPLE VOTED IN HAMAS .
a terrorists org who do not give a toss about the people in gaza .
hamas firing rockets from hospitals schools . they are cowards hiding behind children and women facts not fiction it is hamas that is killing the gaza people .
hamas are terrorist scum cowards covering their faces ,as for the leader he is fleecing has much money to retire in luxury like the ;leader before him .

tell me this is not fact .