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.

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%;

The two who voted for increase are just 2 out of 9 members. They are also external members as are 2 others. It is usual for some members to vote the other way. It has been very unusual for the committee to vote the same way for so long since 2011. In the usual meetings in normal times there are different views. It doesn't look that important although the press are always trying to find a story. It would be different if 4 had voted for increase.

even so, no rate rise during 2014 looks a racing certainty

Before the GE.

One as to note aswel House prices are still rising.

The 2 who voted for rate rise could easily be doubled up or more next vote.

If you look at RPI a truer figure for housing costs it was only down 1 point.

CPI is there to be manipulated by Politicians.

quite probably :-)
however, i still maintain that our bet expired 31/12/14 and not 31/5/15 - not that it's important LOL

Id forgottern about that.

Must admit it does get a bit boring all this party political stuff, plus the summer as distracted me.

glad it bores you too ...... now you know why i rarely contribute here

by the way, do you not find it strange or even cross-making that only us and ourselves seem to be anything at all to counter isis or even to send humanitarian aid to the yazidis?
what about the french and the rest of the major eu countries?
what about something meaningful, or indeed anything from the arab league, apart from surreptitiously helping isis?

Yep its not very good is it especialy when these thugs could be attacking the streets of Germany, France , spain and Italy in a few years time even earlier.

As Ive said Im all for British air strikes, these people are far worse than Bin ladens lot.

You would at least expect some EEC initiative on food aid, but I havent seen any, or if thier is it must be very small.

and now a chuckler for you .....


TO WHOM DOES THE LAND OF ISRAEL BELONG??

An Israeli sense of humour at United Nations set the record straight.
An ingenious example of speech and politics occurred recently in the
United Nations Assembly and made the world community smile.

A representative from Israel began:
'Before beginning my talk I want to tell you something about Moses.
When he struck the rock and it brought forth water, he thought,
"What a good opportunity to have a bath
Moses removed his clothes, put them aside on the rock and entered the water.
When he got out and wanted to dress, his clothes had vanished.
A Palestinian had stolen them!

The Palestinian representative at the UN jumped up and furiously shouted,
"What are you talking about?……. The Palestinians weren't there then."
The Israeli representative smiled and said:
"And now that we have made that clear, I will begin my speech

Right OK better not laugh or Il get picked up on it by someone.

Pandora's box




Domestic abuse offence could cover emotional as well as physical harm

Government launches consultation on strengthening law by explicitly stating that domestic abuse covers coercive behaviour



Haroon Siddique


theguardian.com, Wednesday 20 August 2014 09.52 BST



A new criminal offence of domestic abuse could be introduced to include emotional and psychological harm inflicted by a partner within a relationship.

The government launched a consultation on Wednesday to look at strengthening the law by explicitly stating that domestic abuse covers coercive and controlling behaviour as well as physical harm.

The move comes after the way that police respond to domestic abuse in England and Wales was condemned as "alarming and unacceptable" in a report by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) in March.

The consultation document says that police fail to see abuse, particularly in its nonviolent form, as a serious crime, adding: "Creating a specific offence of domestic abuse may send a clear, consistent message to frontline agencies that nonviolent control in an intimate relationship is criminal.

"Explicitly capturing this in legislation may also help victims identify the behaviour they are suffering as wrong and encourage them to report it, and cause perpetrators to rethink their controlling behaviour."

The latest statistics reported in the Crime Survey for England and Wales suggest that 30% of women and 16% of men will experience domestic abuse during their lifetime.



More: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/aug/20/new-domestic-violence-offence-consultation

"I was in full control until I hit the fence," he said.

"Not so," said the magistrates. "We find you guilty of dangerous driving and you will return to the court for sentencing next week."

The bike rider had a camera on his helmet and loaded the film of the incident onto the Internet.

I'm on the side of the magistrates. What do you think? Here's the news article and a video of the film from the rider's camera:

More HERE

I think he meant to say, "I was in full control until I wasn't."

Re the talk of the MPC raising interest rates anytime soon, they haven't exited QE yet.

They're in uncharted territory here, but conventional economic wisdom says they need to exit QE before raising rates. And a QE exit will take a bit of time to flush through the system, so....

..so we are stuck with low rates for some time yet?

Hmmm? Obviously.

No were saying the BoE com are divided on wether rates should go up or not.

The timing will obviously be sorted out by the 9 members, but if house prices carry on rising it will be sooner rather than later, Carney is frightened to death of a bubble burst for obvious reasons.

house prices have risen year/year for ages, with just the occasional blip
thus, it's not the rise itself, but the rate thereof and whether or not it is considered to be getting our of hand
there are of course other ways of limiting house price rises than via interest rates

House prices are not included within the CPI basket. Property rental costs are included, as are furniture costs, and household insurance costs, etc, but house price inflation in itself does not dictate in any way, shape or form what the MPC do about raising or lowering rates. The MPC's mandate from the Chancellor requires them to use only CPI which, by its very nature, will always serve to make the economy look better than it might actually be through a effect called Pollyanna Creep. Basically, when a particular item starts to become expensive, fewer people buy it, so its weighting within the CPI basket is reduced which has the effect of keeping CPI at a favourable level.

MPC is not exactly divided over interest rates. Just 2 out of 9 wanted a rate rise. It may have something to do with their politics. The key point is that the 2 are external members as are 2 others. The majority of 5 are BoE employees and will probably toe the line of no rise.

The other interesting point is that the 2 who wanted the rise gave reasons that were marginally true at the time and now are not true. That means that a new vote may be 9-0 for no rate rise next time.

A commentary on the Camerons' holiday snap

As the Prime Minister and his wife's annual summer holiday photograph is released, why this is the worst one yet

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/11046361/A-commentary-on-the-Camerons-holiday-snap.html



comment section disabled....I wonder why?