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.

By Christopher Hope, Steven Swinford, and Ben Riley-Smith
6:00AM BST 09 Oct 2014
Members of Labour's ruling body expected to challenge Ed Miliband over leadership drift at key meeting on November 4

Labour MPs are calling for Ed Miliband to resign if the party loses a key northern seat to Ukip in Thursday's by-election as he faces a new revolt from his party's policy makers.

Mr Miliband is facing mounting pressure over his leadership amid concerns that Ukip is making significant inroads into labour's Heywood and Middleton seat in Greater Manchester.

At the last election Ukip finished a distant fourth, but polls on Wednesday suggested that the Nigel Farage's party has now taken 35 per cent of the Labour vote.

It came as members of labour's ruling National Executive Committee told The Telegraph that Ed Miliband is afflicted with the "curse of Gordon Brown" while his shadow cabinet are obsessed with their own leadership prospects.

One of the members, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “He is being seen as being afflicted with the curse of Gordon which is that when people met Gordon they liked him. But Ed Miliband can’t meet eight million people between now and May.”

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Labour is expected to win back the seat of Heywood and Middleton on Thursday, where a by-election is being held after the death of Labour MP Jim Dobbin.

The party is expected to hold onto the seat, but is likely to see its majority slashed after a major challenge by Ukip.

One Labour MP said: "If we lose the seat it would be a resigning issue, it would show that everything Ed hass been doing for the last three years is wrong.

"Even if we hold the seat, it should set alarm bells ringing. The party needs to address the real concerns of voters about immigration and welfare reform."

Members of the party’s ruling National Executive Committee will meet in four weeks' time when they are expected to confront Mr Miliband about the growing frustration in the party’s grass roots about his leadership.

The overnight meeting of the 33-strong NEC on Nov 4 is the most important for years because it sets the party’s strategy for the next year.

The NEC is the governing body of the Labour Party which oversees the overall direction of the party and its policy-making process.

The last comparable meeting of the NEC was in 2009 which discussed and laid out Labour’s plans to fight the 2010 general election.

Members of the NEC, speaking on condition have anonymity, said there was increasing concern about Mr Miliband’s leadership.

One said: “People will want to know what the strategy is for the general election.

“Party headquarters is totally dysfunctional – nobody knows who is running what. There seems to be four or five different people in charge of different things.”

Mr Miliband was also not being ably assisted by members of his shadow Cabinet who seemed to be jockeying for the leadership after he quits.

The source said: “The truth about is that we are in the trenches, and I look to my left and to my right and I don’t see anybody there."

Shadow cabinet ministers like Andy Burnham (health), and Chuka Umunna (business), appeared to have "disappeared" and were more concerned about how their positions if Mr Miliband lost the election and had to resign.

The source said: “They are looking beyond the general election because they don’t think we are going to be in a position to win and they are jockeying for where they can land afterwards.”

Mr Miliband’s grip on the party was “undermined” when he forgot to mention the economy or immigration – two major issues for candidates on the doorstep - in his headline conference speech.

Mr Miliband's stock rose when he discussed the National Health Service, but the source said, "no one will talk to us about the NHS if we don’t give a ---- about immigration and the economy".

Another member of the NEC said that party members were “still smarting” about Mr Miliband’s speech last month.

The source said: “There are all still smarting about the conference speech – they think it was awful. There is criticism of his office - his office seems to be totally dysfunctional. He really ought to use the opportunity for a big reshuffle.”

It has emerged that the first signs of discontent on the NEC emerged shortly after Mr Miliband’s conference speech when they gathered for their annual post-address meeting with the Labour leader.

Members expressed their anger at Mr Miliband for a decision by Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, to announce a two-year freeze on child benefit, complaining they were not consulted and had been caught by surprise.

A further member said Mr Miliband made a "mistake" in giving his conference speech without notes and expressed frustration that he forgot to mention immigration and the economy - a lapse in memory which dominated subsequent media coverage.

Ann Black, a member of the NEC, also complained that Ed Balls' plan to cap child benefit at one per cent for two years "came out of the blue".

She wrote on a blog: "This was never discussed in the national policy forum, and the NEC, like everyone else, heard it first on the morning news. Most think that it is a bad idea: we should be putting children first."

Telegraph

Cynic thats all you getting your rationed. You colluded with the two thugs at the weekend to trash the chart thread.

Anyway you can now run it.

Im done with it.

No point in putting in 3 hours per night 6 days per week 51 weeks per year, over 13 years to have it trashed by 2 intoxicated idiots.

If we had board moderators that wouldnt have happened and they wouldnt be posting now.

All we get is Ian saying its a free board so anyone can move about where they want, ohh but if its a premium board you cant wreck a thread I see, yes I can see the logic in that, of course I do.

GF.

Manuel location is Thames Valley.

He drinks Thames Embankment!

I think hand outs promised by Cameron during the floods have not materialised.

I think Cameron really is a secondhand spiv!

Yet another promise from Manuel's idol not fulfilled !

Yep 'MONEY IS NO OBJECT'.........shame he doesnt see it that way for those poor sods who live further north kicked out of there homes because of the Bedroom Tax.

sticky old bean, i think your recollection and perception is all wrong
anyway, shame if you have taken umbrage especially for no real good reason
certainly a great pity if you abandon your "chart" thread as a great many find it very interesting and useful - and even myself quite often

don't be such a miserable old fart and stop sulking :-))

Lord Ashcroft ✔ @LordAshcroft
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It is not difficult to understand why the good people of Clacton intend to vote @DouglasCarswell as their MP.


4:24 PM - 9 Oct 2014

Gf is only sulking because he didn't get the "two thugs" thrown off this bulletin board. Since I starting posting on this board about two years ago gf has referred to me as a "pleb", " scum" and now a "thug" - forgive if thinking it is gf and not me who should be thrown off this bulletin board.

Goldfinger

Just a word of appreciation about your posts on the chart thread and acknowledge the work you obviously put in to provide them.

There are loads of guys on here would greatly appreciate you changing your mind and continuing to post on it.

Manuel,

I am sure he could find a few good reasons to do so.

I will help him to.

More seriously I thought the charts thread very helpful and informative and I would like him to continue and ignore the "S Bs" (silly boys).

DB4.

Although, I would not choose the proscribe words about you, I am sympathetic with him using the descriptive words in post addressed to you on many occasions.

thank you fred for your conciliatory words ...... sometimes we all get wound up and grumpy, and usually for rather silly reasons

I don't mind harmless banter, but I object to nasty insults. Gf can't seem to understand the difference and I'm not prepared to keep massaging his inflated ego by continually asking him to continue posting on the chart thread. I agree with Chris Carson's view about that, although I might choose different language to express my sentiments.

I didn't post any comments on the chart thread at the weekend.

Fred I can't believe that you are so gullible to think that a "Mansion Tax" would be used to fund the NHS.!

Exec
The Clacton result won't have any great significance. The one that will really matter is the Reckless seat of Rochester and Strood. In that seat Reckless got a poor reception from the public the day after his announcement. Clacton was always going to go to the incumbent MP as he was so popular locally. The other by election today for Heywood and Middleton is probably more important for UKIP and more interesting. It could be a straight choice between Labour and UKIP. The result has the chance of terrifying Labour.

So, you've written off Clacton?


The other one is so inbred labour, nothing will get them out (short of a miracle)

Altho the bint that was selected must make ordinary working class people shudder, and so, you never know...but I cant see it.

It is not that UKIP will take the seat. It is to what extent they take votes from Labour. Labour have started to worry that UKIP may also infect them as well.

They damn well ought to Haystack!


It's time the pols started to take notice.

ohh stop trying to DEFLECT Hays the turnout at Heywood was only 36% come the GE its a Labour cake walk no matter what % UKIP nab tonight. Re count going on so what.

Its seats that count and labour will be Evens tonight, Tories will be -1 and further defections are on the way from Tory to UKIP.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/editorials/parliament-should-recognise-palestinian-statehood-9786056.html

Next Monday the House of Commons will hold an unprecedented vote on a motion to recognise a Palestinian state. The vote is non-binding on the Government, and thus will have scant impact on the effectively defunct Middle East peace process, or on Britain’s stance at the United Nations.

As a permanent member of the Security Council, Britain has long kept its head below the parapet on the issue, abstaining the last time the question arose at the UN, in November 2012 when the General Assembly voted by a resounding 138 to 9 to elevate the Palestinians to non-member observer status. This time though Parliament should go further and back recognition of statehood. What hopes remain of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, rightly seen as the only long-term answer, demand no less – as does simple justice.

Have you all got hangovers celebrating UKIP win . I new you were all secret supporters.

Sorry, knew.