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.

Section 2 of the Act also provides two ways in which a general election can be held before the end of this five-year period:

If the House of Commons resolves "That this House has no confidence in Her Majesty's Government", an early general election is held, unless the House of Commons subsequently resolves "That this House has confidence in Her Majesty's Government". This second resolution must be made within fourteen days of the first.

If the House of Commons, with the support of two-thirds of its total membership (including vacant seats), resolves "That there shall be an early parliamentary general election".

This means that a no confidence vote trumps the 2/3 majority and the 5 year rule. A no confidence vote would happen if the minority government failed in key legislation such as the budget.

Has anyone ever thought about blowing the Houses of Parliament up before .

Guy Fawkes - the only man to enter parliament with honest intentions!

Guy Fawkes?
Edit - snap Haystack! :-)

Looks like Hays is panic stricken today, I wonder why.

By Hannah Furness, arts correspondent10:06AM BST 09 Oct 2014
Would-be politicians should not be allowed to be MPs until they are 40, the broadcaster Andrew Marr said, as he laments the lack of "gritty, real-life experience" in the House of Commons.
Marr, the former BBC political editor and host of the Andrew Marr Show, said he would like to ban anyone being elected before the age of 40, to ensure they had to have "real life experience" first.
He added the political world he had entered as a young journalist had been full of politicians "who had done other things first", arguing it "really mattered" when representing the electorate.
Speaking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, he condemned the state of modern politics, saying those in government had "lost a radical amount of power", with the "real power" being left to finance, global factors and the "mysterious world of PR".
He told an audience he wishes he now had the job of BBC economics editor Robert Peston, saying he would choose to study economics rather than politics if he "had his time again".
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Appearing at an event to publicise his new novel, Head of State, he was asked about his opinion on modern politics.
"I'm turning into an old git, so I'll give you a passionate old git response to that," he said.
"When I started out I. Politics reporting, there were still Tories who had had a good war, built their own companies, had really good experience, knew the inside out of a balance sheet, had employed and sat and worried about profits.
"On the Labour side you had ex-miners, metal workers, ex-factory hands, ex-posties.
"So there were people all over the House of Commons who had done other things first and that really mattered.
"We've lost most of that gritty, real-world experience in the House of Commons.
"I would like to see nobody - this is ridiculous but I'm going to say it anyway - nobody in the House of Commons until they are 40. That way they always have to do something first."
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Speaking about the inspiration for his novel, set in the world of British politics, he said he believed MPs and government had lost a "radical amount of power", leaving many of them "despised" by the public.
"I think all democratic government is partly about deceiving," Marr said. "In the sense that it's about shaping and directing public opinion.
"They want you to look in one direction and not in the other direction. Make the public think about one thing rather than another.
"We are very easily deceived; ridiculously easily deceived. Most of the time we have colluded in our own deception.
"We want to believe there's somebody in charge. We want to believe that when politicians says I'm going to make sure the NHS will not be privatised, that's what they can deliver. We want to believe that if the Foreign Secretary says I can give you absolute guarantees that we're going to go to Europe and agree no immigration without controls, they can actually do that.
"But most of the time, the real powers around us are much more often financial and global than they are local and political. And the people who provide the connection between big financial power and local power are the myriad and mysterious, dark world of PR.
"So there is a serious message here.
"For example, a long time ago government could fix people's pay packets, they ran the industries and controlled things like mortgages. Now, they can't even tax the biggest companies in this country.
"They have lost a radical amount of power.
"And that I think is the reason many people despise politics; not because they're bad people but because they don't have any power any more."
When asked whether he would like to have pursued another career, such as that of Peston, he added: "Yes I would, that's where the action is.
"What we need more than anything else, even more than political journalists, is good economics journalists explaining to us is words of two syllables, not five, what's going on.
"If I had my time again I would spend more time over economics text books, really trying to understand economics jargon, to explain what they're doing in clear terms because that drives everything else."
His first novel, Head of State, is out now. This is Marr on:
Margaret Thatcher's Number 10
“The whole place was almost pin-drop silent in case the PM walked through. They adored her, but were completely terrified of her.”
John Major's Number 10
“All the way through, he felt besieged. He was sitting there feeling misunderstood and unloved.”
Tony Blair's Number 10
“His Number 10 was full of very, very beautiful girls, half in love with Tony, with Cherie following around with a scowl. And two or three huge other characters.”
Gordon Brown's Number 10: “He had a gang of big boys, rather overweight big boys with florid faces who glared at you a lot. I'm not saying it was Reservoir Dogs, but..."
David Cameron
“David Cameron is absolutely loved by the Civil Service. Absolutely loathed by the hard right of his party. More than I can really understand myself."
Ed Miliband
"Trailing way behind his party in the opinion polls. But the Labour Party is much more squeamish about changing leaders than the Tory Party so I think for the moment, Ed Miliband, like it or not, is there secure and safe.
Nick Clegg
"Probably the most despised politician in the country. But he has astonishing resilience. I was watching him last week in Glasgow and he was bouncing around on stage like everything was going enormously well. Like Jiminy Cricket. You have to stand there with your jaw lolling in admiration."
Boris Johnson
"I suspect all the promise he's made to Cameron is that he's not going to cause too much trouble before the election. He is one of the most intelligent, certainly the most glamorous and charismatic politicians in the country. He has limitless ambition.
"He's never going be happy until he's Prime Minister and then he'll set his sights on the White House. There's no loyalty between them at all. This idea of the Old Etonians sticking together? Go back to the history books: never."

Haystack

I know you don't like the Express but you might like to take note of the following:

http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/520382/Ukip-on-brink-of-winning-Clacton-by-election

Politics expert Professor Patrick Dunleavy, from the London School of Economics, last night said a ­victory in Clacton would lay the foundation for UKIP to secure a huge number of votes next May.

He said that although UKIP is likely to win only a “handful of seats” in 2015 it would mean the party could hold the balance of power in a hung parliament.

Do we know which countries are set/trying to join the EU . Africa Indonesia Vietnam Pakistan , I would think these sort of countries must be in with a shout.

Andrew Marr's first novel, Head of State, is out now

i've got it, but it really is very silly .... don't waste your money

Clacton:




Heywood and Middleton:





More graphs here: http://order-order.com/

Ok cynic, I'll take your word for it re Andrew Marr's book. I do enjoy his Sunday morning TV programme though.

By Tim Walker
7:30AM BST 09 Oct 2014
Melvyn Bragg, the Labour peer, says Ed Miliband's mansion tax could cost the party the marginal Hampstead & Kilburn seat

On the Labour benches in the House of Lords, members wanting to take a swipe at Ed Miliband may soon have to form an orderly queue. After Lord Prescott rebuked his party’s beleaguered leader for being “too timid,” Melvyn Bragg now says that his mansion tax policy may well have “wiped out” Hampstead and Kilburn as a Labour seat.

“It’s a very crude weapon,” says the broadcaster and long-time Hampstead resident of Miliband’s proposal for an annual levy on all homes worth in excess of £2 million. “I think if they put more effort into clawing back massive tax avoidance from pop groups, comedians, actors and sports people, they’d make more money back in a month than they would in a year from the mansion tax. It’s the biggest scandal — they let sports personalities and pop celebrities get away with murder and they should do something about it before they start swinging the axe about the place. It is going to be grotesquely unfair. Most of the people in London probably couldn’t afford to buy the houses they live in today.”

Bragg fears that the policy could make the difference between Labour winning or losing Hampstead and Kilburn, which is the tightest marginal in Britain: Glenda Jackson beat her Tory opponent by a meagre 42 votes in the 2010 election.

Bragg, 75, has been a life-long Labour voter and remains a friend of Tony Blair. In 1998, he was named as one of the largest private financial donors to the Labour Party.

Vict

The new republic of London and S/E!

What I dislike it the double standards of the Osborne's confidence trickster's party.

Blaming all economic problems on Labour's economic incompetence and "suggesting" that none of it was due to problems outside UK borders1

Suggesting that Britain should have been able to walk on water and obviously he and Cameron can do.

However, from an interview with Preston earlier:


"The chancellor is no mug when it comes to seeing potential holes in the road ahead.

That said, the holes have been pretty loudly flagged up - the IMF warned earlier this week that there is a 40% risk of the eurozone slumping back into recession and of a danger that China's housing bubble will have an unhappy ending.

So today, George Osborne has said, in an interview with me, that the UK cannot and will not be immune to a slowdown in global economic growth that looks unavoidable.

Or to put it another way, the oomph will fade from the UK's strong recovery - we are probably past the peak of this phase of the UK's growth in GDP or national income."


=========


Making excuses and blaming everybody other than himself!

He learnt a lot at Eton.

.

Eric Clacton.

The MANSION TAX is proving very popular with residents in West Yorkshire.

We want a better NHS they say.

Tories drive NHS staff away as 64% of student nurses planning to work abroad
Oct 07, 2014 22:54 By Andrew Gregory

Tory wage cuts mean students nurses think they would be better off working in places such as Dubai

Nearly two thirds of the UK’s 60,000 trainee nurses may go abroad to work due to the Tory-led Coalition forcing down wages, a poll reveals today.

Experts warned an exodus of talented, trained staff would put patient safety “at risk” and cripple the National Health Service.

Brit nurses are highly sought after in countries such as Australia, Canada, Dubai and the US, where they can earn upwards of £10,000 a year more. The Royal College of Nursing survey shows that 64% of undergraduates are considering pursuing a nursing career abroad.

Earlier this year the Coalition ignored the recommendation of an independent pay review body to give nurses a paltry1% rise.

Dr Peter Carter, chief executive of the RCN, Britain’s biggest nursing union, said: “The Government is putting patient safety at risk by making it harder for hospitals to attract and retain the number of nurses they need.

“With thousands of vacant nursing posts and surging patient demand, the NHS simply cannot afford to keep under-valuing its nursing staff, forcing thousands to go abroad.

“The Government is making a rod for its own back by refusing a cost of living increase.”

The poll found 90% of student nurses believe their ­profession is undervalued and 98% fear future pay will carry on falling behind ­inflation.

NHS staff, including nurses, will go on strike for four hours next Monday over pay.

Student nurse Helen Dalgleish (pictured) is “seriously considering” beginning her nursing life in Qatar.

Helen, of Milton Keynes, Bucks, said: “There are lots of children’s hospitals being built – which is the area I want to specialise in.

“They also offer nurses a great wage, with some starting salaries between £36,000 and £40,000.”

The second-year student, 21, added: “A 1% rise, even though it’s below inflation, would still have been a positive gesture.

“Instead, you are being made to feel like you’re not contributing to society, like you’re not worth paying a decent wage.”



http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/tories-drive-nhs-staff-away-4398630#ixzz3Fez11ayd
Follow us: @DailyMirror on Twitter | DailyMirror on Facebook

Live counter: Watch how much NHS money is going into private hands
Oct 07, 2014 13:44 By Federica Cocco

And how much is being pocketed by Conservative supporters.

http://i3.mirror.co.uk/news/ampp3d/article4394363.ece/alternates/s615/deal.jpg

For every £1 of NHS contracts sold, 15p has been contracted to Tory supporters.

This is how much Conservative donors have received in public NHS money since you opened this page.

£61.90

Last year private companies received £6.3bn of public money
Department of Health accounts show that non-NHS bodies were paid £6.3bn by the National Health Service last year on contracts ranging from general supplies to clinical services.

This is how much public money these private firms have received since you opened this page.

£535.60

How it started
Since the Health and Social Care Act was passed in 2012, NHS services have been gradually outsourced.

As part of the NHS reform, the Coalition government instructed local NHS bodies to license commercial companies - known as AQPs or "any qualified provider" - to provide care to patients across thirty-nine treatment areas.

GPs, dentists and pharmacists were already run by private businesses on behalf of the health service. But the new services range from abortion services to child and adult mental health services.

Over £13bn worth of contracts advertised
Overall £13.5bn worth of deals to run and manage NHS service have been advertised since the Coalition Government removed restrictions on who can bid for NHS contracts.

The NHS Support Federation, a campaigning group. analysed the contract and award notices advertised on the two main official contract websites: TED and Supply2Health. Thy identified 492 adverts concerning contracts to supply clinically related services. These are contracts that have appeared since the government regulations (section 75) covering the procurement of health care came into effect.

£13.5bn

The total value of the contracts in this sample was £13,533,761,213.

This may seem small in comparison to the NHS' £109bn yearly budget.

But NHS privatisation has been so rampant that 68% of contracts for NHS services in England between April 2013 and April 2014 were won by private firms, according to data from the European public procurement website.

Tory donors have pocketed at least £1.5bn in the last two years

According to research from Unite the Union health firms with links to Conservative party donors have been awarded around £1.5billion in NHS contracts.

Care UK was awarded £660m in NHS contracts. Its former chairman Lord Nash and wife Caroline have gifted £247,250 to Conservative MPs like Andrew Lansley, Nick Herbert, David Ruffley, and Chris Skidmore.
Circle Health has won £121m of work from the NHS. People involved with the firms that own its parent company Circle Holdings PLC have donated a total of £1.7million to the Tories, including Mark Simmonds, Baron Higgins of Worthing, Nicholas Soames, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Kwasi Kwarteng, and Boris Johnson's brother Jo Johnson.
Private firm Serco has won £432 million in NHS contracts. One of its shareholders is FIL ­Investments International, which has donated £1.1million to Tory party coffers, specifically Lord Glendonbrook and Baroness James of Holland Park.


http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/ampp3d/live-counter-watch-how-much-4389075#ixzz3Ff1juVFl
Follow us: @DailyMirror on Twitter | DailyMirror on Facebook

Another thing which interest me, is how many doctors are leaving the Country annually to escape paying tuition fees and how many are preparing to so in the future:


From what I would suppose to be Manuel and Hays favourite paper.

The doctors' exodus: They cost us £610,000 to train - but 3,000 a year are leaving us for a life in the sun in Australia and New Zealand
Nearly 3,000 doctors a year apply for a certificate to work overseas
Australia and New Zealand preferred destinations as work is easier there
Number of GPs arriving from Greece, Italy and Romania has also increased
By SOPHIE BORLAND FOR THE DAILY MAIL
PUBLISHED: 23:43, 7 October 2014 | UPDATED: 07:59, 8 October 2014

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Increasing numbers of doctors are deserting the NHS for a better life in Australia and New Zealand, figures reveal.
The exodus of doctors – who cost the taxpayer up to £610,000 to train – is forcing the NHS to import staff from southern and eastern Europe.
According to a major report from the General Medical Council, the number applying for certificates to work abroad has risen by a fifth since 2008, to nearly 3,000 a year.
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Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2784318/The-doctors-exodus-They-cost-610-000-train-3-000-year-leaving-life-sun-Australia-New-Zealand.html#ixzz3Ff8kwQ14
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