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.

Me too, I think they should bring back Z Cars.

MaxK - post- 48148


He must have seen you, or the hazy1, when you were taking the photographs.

Clarkson as a brilliant humorous personality imo.

Lets face it any country that allows Clarkson and the Top Gear team into the country to film should expect recklessness and piss-taking... The shows been going long enough for people to know what there getting... Sounds like Argentina trying to grab some air time to moan as per usual..

Clarkson reminds me of :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON-7v4qnHP8

My grandson watches it and think them funny.

With luck he will grow up!

UmmH, or Uggh!

Does anyone really believe Len Goodman shops at Farmfoods?.

Shortie, although the story does have it's amusing side the Argentinians are constantly looking for reasons to pick another fight with this country and for the BBC not to realise beforehand that they were surely handing the ammunition on a plate to Argentina was rather silly.

Shortie, we could do with a lot more like Clarkson.

I dont know what it is but this country seems to be losing its identity of having pis- takers like Clarkson at the top.

Its all numpty x factor and brain dead strictly etc etc.

Dont worry if hes given the boot there will be a job waiting for him and a big salary increase.

DB, ok Clarksons taken the piss and the Argentinians have complained.... That's it, end of storey, I don't think its ammunition for anything... After all the complaint was voiced to the BBC and not the government... I'm sure Argentina has its own piss-takers that will no doubt come here and wind up the English from time to time for their own TV entertainment... Personally I don't see anything wrong with it..

I think he should have stayed in Argentina and let the locals show their appreciation of him.

Government borrowing is up by 10 per cent; Treasury says deficit reduction plan “is working” 21/10/2014



If you’re boggling at the headline, rest assured it is correct!

Let’s run down the figures. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), government borrowing (excluding the public sector banks) was £11.8 billion last month, an increase of £1.6 billion, or around 10 per cent, compared with September 2013.

Public sector net debt (again excluding those banks) was £1.4513 trillion – 79.9 per cent of GDP. This was an increase of £100.7 billion compared with September 2013, meaning the national deficit for the year to September 2014 was the same amount.

George Osborne’s target for the financial year 2014-15 is to reduce borrowing to £95.5 billion. With tax receipts going down – by £1bn in the six months since the start of the financial year, against Treasury predictions that they would rise (because we’ve all got jobs, right?) – this seems less and less likely.

According to The Guardian, a Treasury spokesman responded to the figures by saying the “government’s long-term economic plan is working”.

Really?

The trouble is, the Coalition Agreement states that “We [Conservatives and Liberal Democrats] recognise that deficit reduction, and continuing to ensure economic recovery, is the most urgent issue facing Britain”.

The deficit is increasing, not reducing, yet George Osborne says his plan is working.

Perhaps he has been lying to us all along.

Perhaps he has a different plan.

Should be a very good PMqs tomorrow Fred.

I cant wait to see Balls taunting Giddeon.

Good point Fred, I agree and it does give me ammunition to complain about how my licence fee is spent! It just seems to follow on from various other unsavoury sagas which the BBC have been involved in - particularly when they broadcast a sketch by a 'comedian' about the fact that Lord Mountbatten was blown up by the IRA. I must be losing my sense of humour .

He should take a cross with him raise it and show it to Theresa and George and see if they "disintegrate" into a pile of dust!

Wonder why Hays is hiding and his new band of merry men

Why is the PM and Chancellor obsessed with economic growth and recovery? Surely nothing can grow all the time, there has to be times of stagnant growth and recession to keep the economy in check and healthy...

On a separate note you could argue that the reason why the government has over spent is all done to its obsession to drive growth.... Now if it'd hit its deficit target and not overspent in its failed attempt to stimulate growth (which may I add is really a job for the BofE) I wonder what the economic growth picture would really look like.

Just take football for example where are all the entertainers/characters we once had in the game. Marsh, Best, Stan Bowles, Franny Lee, Mike Summerbee Frank Worthington etc etc.

Faceless wonders these days, its the same in all modern life, whats happened to the sit com?.

Its all about money now adays and we dont have people with a character, a sense of humour and this board mirrors that at times.

Yep but Shortie its the fact that Dave and Giddeon keep lying to the public time and time again.

If they just showed a little humble side to themselves Im sure they would pick up more votes.

Len Goodman shopping at Farm Foods again, buying some cheap sausages. He says "Farmfoods gets a 10 from Len".

Yep I bet it does Len, I bet you havent stepped one foot in there shops.

Oct 19, 2014 11:20 By Mail Opinion
MAIL OPINION on ex-First Minister Jack McConnell's warning that Scottish Labour must rediscover its purpose.

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Warning: Jack McConnell
JACK McConnell has been at pains to stay out of it.

The former First Minister resolutely kept his mouth shut as he watched Scottish Labour stagger onwards and downwards in recent years.

He would not have wanted to pile more pressure on those who followed him at the top of the party.

And he must also have hoped that Scottish Labour would eventually find their way
home, that the People’s Party would start showing their people a glimmer of hope.

It is just as well that Jack McConnell, like Labour voters up and down the country, has not been holding his breath.

His comments yesterday were measured but his assessment that Scottish Labour have abjectly failed to learn from their defeats to the SNP was no more than a simple restatement of an obvious truth.

After being dismantled by the SNP in the Holyrood election of 2011, there was a clear
opportunity to tear down Scottish Labour’s engine and rebuild it.

The party were demoralised, in disarray, and there was a window for a strong leader to come in, take charge and clear the decks; take an axe to the dead wood; encourage fresh talent at the grassroots; enforce new selection procedures at all levels; find good people and promote them; find good policies and promote them too.

And, just for a little while, stop acting as if Scottish Labour were still the natural party of
government in Scotland and that the SNP were charlatans conning voters by pretending to be lefties.

It didn’t happen, of course. Nothing did.

New policies? Polices that have a real resonance in the real lives of real voters. Perhaps, a fleeting glimmer of an idea, here and there, but nah, not really.

New talent? Nope. To be honest, there is not much old talent either.

Of course, the SNP have flattered to deceive with two of Britain’s best politicians leading their charge.

There are just as many deadbeat MSPs in the rows behind Alex Salmond and Nicola
Sturgeon as there are on the other side but Labour have become well-drilled in making their opponents look better than they are.

They are lucky it is a Westminster election and not a Holyrood poll coming next because the Nationalists – despite the fire in their belly and hope in their heart – will need big swings to win more than a clutch of new seats.

But Scottish Labour would be fools if they read that as a licence to keep calm and carry on. This is the time to take action, with purpose and urgency or risk seeing their party slide further into the hole.

The SNP clearly believe those swings are challenging but not impossible and, with Sturgeon in charge, they have a leader who has always walked to the left of her old boss.

And a Holyrood vote will be along before long, a vote that could inflict devastating damage on a party clinging to the ropes.

Of course, it is not too late. The bells are sounding an alarm for Scottish Labour, not the death knell.

But these clanging bells will not ring forever.

Politics writer Owen Jones warns Scottish Labour face 'existential crisis'