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.

The the professional dancers for Strictly Come Dancing for 2014 are:

Females (8)
Aliona Vilani
Iveta Lukosiute
Janette Manrara
Joanne Clifton (new)
Karen Hauer
Kristina Rihanoff
Natalie Lowe
Ola Jordan

Males (7)
Aljaž Skorjanec
Anton du Beke
Brendan Cole
Kevin Clifton
Pasha Kovalev
Robin Windsor
Tristan MacManus (new)

Here's a picture of Joanne and another one of Tristan:



Bruce Forsythe has now retired and the show will now be hosted by Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman with Zoe Ball on her show in the week.

The judges are the same team as last year.

So that's really, really nice, isn't it?

More at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/strictlycomedancing/posts/Strictly-Come-Dancing-2014-Professional-Dancers-Confirmed

Tristan looks lovely.

Wages Fall For First Time In Five Years http://news.sky.com/story/1317852/wages-fall-for-first-time-in-five-years …

Oh how populous E.L.. you New Labour supporters are all the same -):

Stan

It's the gene which also gets me appreciating Mary Berry, that does it. I'm sure of it.

Well that and my love of briefly clad erotic women.

Wages have fallen for good reasons. Firstly, there has been a large increase in employment of younger people who start on lower wages. Secondly, the statistic also includes bonuses. The changes to bonus payment and their taxation last year causes a lower figur to be reported this year. Both of these cause the average to be lower. It should start to rise soon.

In your dreams Hays.

Under 21s 17% unemployed ..............shamefull.

In fact the figures today showed unemployment was INCREASING (not decreasing) when you look further into sanctions, and Ill prove the point when I come back from fishing.

Not only that but the big scam is that those who are on courses for 6 months are now included as having found work but only 10% of them get work.

This as changed under the cheat IDS regime, a man you cannot trust with anything.

GF.

Post 44957.

Absolutely correct.

Osborne and Cameron were either absolutely naive, or protecting their own "plots" and privileges themselves and those of their mates.

What has been the cost of born to-day policies U-turn to-morrow bonanza.

Their economic policies are those of the biscuit tin era.

Condemning others for laziness, while sunbathing in Portugal as if nothing is happening around them.

Captain Marvel then rides in to save the world, I think I felt safer when he was on a beach in Portugal.

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Lower, wages?

What is the average hourly rate?

What it the average wage take home of part time workers.

How many so called employed are self employed and without full time work.

How many are on minimal hours.

How many have given up claiming and nicking instead.

This government, PM and Chancellor are probably the worst we have seen since the 1920s and 30s.

========

Under 21s Unemployed.

I have one of them :(

Thank Wacky Dave and cohorts.

UK has been hollowed out of Productive Jobs over a 30 year period.
Masked for a long time until credit crunch laid everything bare.

I don't blame individuals for current plight. Its been a long time in the making.

Real question is how do we resolve it?

Stop voting for them would be a start.

A millionaire Tory donor gave more than £300,000 to the party just weeks before David Cameron handed him a peerage last week, it emerged today.

Financier and party co-treasurer Michael Farmer, who was among 12 new Conservative working peers announced last week by the Prime Minister, gave £333,500 between April and June.

His donation helped the Tories pull further ahead of Labour in raising funds to fight the 2015 general election.

Excellent! I know an Indian property millionaire that plans to give quite a large donation in a few months. And he certainly wouldn't accept a peerage. He has been giving money regularly since Cameron became leader. Labour are pretty broke. Quite a bit of their money is in the way of no interest loans, which have to be repaid.

Why do jobs need to be productive? The UK is a small island with a relatively strong currency. It's a no-brainer that there's going to be a limit to how much domestic produce can be consumed, and the strong currency is going to inhibit exports. The UK failed to let go of its heavy industry after WWII and, as a result, now lags Germany and Japan in the production of lighter niche products. Instead, 13% of GDP comes from the financial services sector, and there's certainly no shortage of jobs where the money is.

My son has just graduated. He's had no problem walking straight into a (fcuking excellent) job in the city. Ditto his friends.

And my daughter ,who's only 20, and didn't bother to go to uni, has been offered work following every interview she's attended and now gets approached by firms asking her to leave her current job and switch to them.

So, all the crap about youth unemployment is a load of baloney imo.

What is a working peer?

Germany is full of heavy industry, and I suspect Japan is too.

Yes, I worded that slightly wrong. I meant to include the words 'antiquated' and 'technology driven' somewhere, but neglected to do so. You are welcome to choose where to insert them.

Hilary- not all our offspring have been as fortunate as yours. Best of luck to them though.

Good fortune might help, but we're all masters of our own destiny, Claret Dragon.