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.

UK’s top bosses paid 143 times more than staff
Arjun Kharpal | @ArjunKharpal
6 Hours Ago
CNBC.com

Britain's top bosses are earning 143 times their average employee's wage, a report has revealed, amid growing anger over inequality and CEO pay.

The figure marks a rise from 1998, when the average CEO was paid 47 times as much as his or her workers, according to the High Pay Centre, a U.K. think tank.

Mining firm Randgold Resources was shown to have the widest pay gap, with CEO Mark Bristow earning £4.4 million ($7.36 million), or 1,498 the salary of the average worker at the company.

Read MoreBarclays bosses confident of shareholder support

This was followed by Martin Sorrell's WPP who is paid a staggering £29.8 million, or 780 times his average employee.

British American Tobacco, SAB Miller and Unilever are among the top 10 FTSE 100 companies with the largest pay gaps.

"While Government figures confirm that wages for ordinary workers keep falling, it's clear that not everyone is feeling the pain," High Pay Centre Director Deborah Hargreaves, said in a press release.

"When bosses make hundreds of times as much money as the rest of the workforce, it creates a deep sense of unfairness."

Read MoreUK to hit bad bankers with bonus clawbacks

The report comes amid a fierce debate over inequality and CEO pay. The U.K government has brought in measures in an attempt to curb executive pay such as forcing companies to report a single figure on how much the CEO earns in an attempt to be transparent. Shareholders have also been given a binding vote on directors' remuneration packages.

The High Pay Centre found the CEO pay figures from the companies' financial reports, while average worker earnings at the FTSE 100 firms were provided by Pensions and Investment Research Consultants (PIRC).

The pay gap ratios are calculated by taking account of the salary of CEOs and employees at FTSE 100 companies only. If the chief executives' pay packet was compared with the whole of the country it would be 174 times the average U.K. worker.

Read MoreBet on women with Barclays' new index

"Britain's executives haven't got so much better over the past two decades. The only reason why their pay has increased so rapidly compared to their employees is that they are able to get away with it," Hargreaves added.

- By CNBC's Arjun Kharpal

hilary - there may well have been but that doesn't de facto mean that they wanted a woman pm, otherwise there would have been one much sooner or even subsequently

Sure, there are other per-requisites (such as wanting to stand as party leader in the first place), but do you think that, if less than 1 in 6 of the UK population had been female in the late 70's, Cyners, it would have helped or encumbered Maggie's chances of becoming PM?

Exec
I use http://www.7dayshop.com/

and for electronics etc. They have fantastically cheap USB sticks, batteries, chargers and all sorts. They are in Guernsey and have low tax and often free postage.

doodlebug

Many thanks for your 'google: best price printer ink' suggestion.

Unfortunately, I don't want 'the cheapest compatible ink' but compatible ink which is worthy of recommendation.

Thanks for the ink supplier link, Haystack.

How to drill a square hole. Well, "squarish" sorta kinda:



Amazing or what?

No.

Easier (and cheaper) to do a straight forward round hole and square off the corners.


This thing is so off the rails as to be laughable...where do you find em?

oalexander

19 August 2014 5:34am


From vox.com:


The absurdity runs deep: America is using American military equipment to bomb other pieces of American military equipment halfway around the world. The reason the American military equipment got there in the first place was because, in 2003, the US had to use its military to rebuild the Iraqi army, which it just finished destroying with the American military. The American weapons the US gave the Iraqi army totally failed at making Iraq secure and have become tools of terror used by an offshoot of al-Qaeda to terrorize the Iraqis that the US supposedly liberated a decade ago. And so now the US has to use American weaponry to destroy the American weaponry it gave Iraqis to make Iraqis safer, in order to make Iraqis safer.

Now we are arming the Kurds.




http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cartoon/2014/aug/18/ben-jennings-uk-involvement-iraq

FTSE up as a UK rates hike in 2014 looks less likely
2517

Exec, I get my ink stuff from these people. Never had any probs. Freephone 0800 number
and open on Sundays as well. Have a look here.

Have corrected url in my last post here about ink supplies.

Thanks, MK.

Removing kosher food from shelves is giving in to hatred

Sainsbury’s action may have been banal, but it is part of a normalisation of anti-Semitism



The kosher produce removed from shelves was apparently made in the UK and Poland, and had never been near Israel Photo: Rex Features




By Stephen Pollard

6:03AM BST 19 Aug 2014



Terrorism takes many forms. But whether it is Islamist extremists on the streets of London or IS beheadings in Syria and Iraq, it has one common thread – it is designed to instil such fear that a society or community changes its very way of life.


On Saturday, a branch of Sainsbury’s removed all kosher food from its shelves over fears that anti-Israel protesters picketing outside would attack the shop. Compared with the impact of the 7/7 murders, Sainsbury’s behaviour was certainly banal. But it was more than that, because in its way it was both giving in to, and colluding with, a form of terrorism.


In response to those protesters outside Sainsbury’s Holborn branch calling for a boycott of its Israeli goods, the manager ordered his staff to clear the shop of all its kosher goods. Clearly the manager is not the brightest spark in the firmament, since kosher produce – which is the only food observant Jews are allowed to eat – is not the same as Israeli produce – which is simply food produced in Israel. The kosher produce in the shop was apparently made in the UK and Poland, and had never been near Israel.


It’s easy to imagine what went through the manager’s mind: “Israelis, Jews – heh, they’re all the same. Let’s just get rid of this stuff pronto and keep the protesters happy.” According to the witness whose Facebook posting of the empty shelves revealed the story, a staff member then defended the move, saying: “We support Free Gaza.”


I can think of no other description for Sainsbury’s behaviour than that it is a “hate crime”. How else should one describe the targeting of Jews – by removing kosher food from a shop – simply because of the actions of a foreign government with which they have no connection other than religion, and with which they may or may not agree?


More: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11041391/Removing-kosher-food-from-shelves-is-giving-in-to-hatred.html

Update - Labour lead at 5
by YouGov in Politics
Tue August 19, 2014 6 a.m. BST

Latest YouGov / The Sun results 18th August - Con 33%, Lab 38%, LD 8%, UKIP 12%

Removing Kosher food is pointless. It is NOT about anti Semitism. It is about being anti Israel. It would be like banning Halal food because of the bad behaviour of say Pakistan. Israel is a terrorist apartheid state but it should not affect Jews per se. The people in Europe and other places chanting "kill the Jews" is just as bad as the crowds in Tel Aviv that have been chanting "kill all Arabs".

INTERESTING.........

George Hay ‏@gfhay

BoE; Martin Weale and Ian McCafferty voted for a 25bps rate rise at last meeting of monetary policy committee

Update - Labour lead at 1
by YouGov in Politics
Wed August 20, 2014 6 a.m. BST

Latest YouGov / The Sun results 19th August - Con 36%, Lab 37%, LD 9%, UKIP 12%;