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.

sorry cynic :0)

I seem to remember that some elderly woman got fined a few years ago for growing cannabis in her bedroom wardrobe. She was putting it in her chocolate brownies and sharing it with her friends at her afternoon tea parties. :-)

What a nice man!



Looks like he gave her 2p

Photo op gone wrong!

Does he look shifty or what?

Chris if your wife's problem is her knee joints perhaps due to the wear on the cartilage try Liquid form of Glucosamine, Chondroitin and MSM. Holland and Barratt sell it and it's a reasonable price, I appreciate it may not suit everyone but my wife used to suffer with her knee joints and has taken this for years and has no pain whatsoever. She did try to go without it on a couple of occasions for a 3 or 4 week period but the pain returned. It will take about 3 weeks or so to get working, so if your wife does decide to try it, persevere. Good luck
2517

Haze,

I think you would probably be taking money out of the cup.

Max, I can visualise you acting as his bodyguard.

Roll on the G/e.


It will interesting to see how low both of you can stoop.

NOW GET BACK TO ROMANIA

Thanks George, she's been there done that and got the T-shirt, sadly didn't work for her. Cheers for the thought though much appreciated.

Funny how he can't even bring himself to look at her. He looks more concerned to make sure he is being photographed.

Talk about shifty

Cynic,

Here is a challenge for you.

If you haven't listen to tonight'd Any Questions/

It was (for me) one of the most interesting program for quiet a while.

The two ladies Ratna Lachman, Allison Pearson, were extremely well spoken, thoughtful and their contributions challenging, although from slightly differerent stances.

David Blunkett seems to have matured better than expected. a bit like old port.

The other is panel member Nadhim Zahawi MP, was I think out of touch and should return to his heated stable.


Max, give it a miss, you are unlikely to understand the arguments.

I must admit Fred, I do struggle with your brand of logic.


But keep it coming, you never know.

Ukip extends lead over Tories in Rochester, new poll finds

A new poll finds that Nigel Farage's party has a 15-point lead over the Conservatives ahead of the Rochester by-election on November 20





By Steven Swinford, Senior Political Correspondent

6:30PM GMT 31 Oct 2014

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/nigel-farage/11202499/Ukip-has-extended-its-lead-over-the-Tories-in-Rochester-new-poll-finds.html


Ukip has extended its lead over the Conservatives in Rochester ahead of a critical by-election, a new poll has found.


The Survation/ Unite poll found that Ukip has increased its lead by eight points to 48 per cent while the Conservatives hold just 33 per cent of the vote.


Conservative backbenchers are increasingly pessimistic of retaining the seat after Mark Reckless, the former Tory MP, triggered the by-election by defecting to Ukip.


Nigel Farage's party will gain its second MP if Mr Reckless wins the seat after Douglas Carswell won in Clacton.


UKIP Leader Nigel Farage MEP said: "This poll is further evidence that the voters of Rochester and Strood simply do not buy David Cameron's lines, nor trust his record on their most immediate concerns: local health, immigration, and job creation.


"While the Conservative Party were spending the first part of the by-election campaign on a PR-exercise for their candidate, and spending most of their election allowances on the derisory 'primary' – UKIP's candidate and our activists were out meeting voters, discussing their priorities, and proving that only we can bring about the change that Rochester, and indeed Britain, needs.

"I'd hate to be David Cameron this Halloween: there'll be no treats, and his tricks aren't working".

fred - AQ must assuredly have been past my bedtime though when i do listen to it, it's on my way back from golf on a sunday .... generally speaking, it is a very good programme

Conservative backbenchers are increasingly pessimistic
the tories have never had a hope in hell of retaining this seat ..... my fine hat will most certainly not need to be eaten!

Feel sorry for Richard Branson and the space project and the families of the Pilots....highly risky business going into space.....this will delay the first commercial flight by several years I reckon....

The Cons dine out on the above and are still plundering the country under the philosophy of austerity for all, other than for themselves.

By Ben Riley-Smith, Political Correspondent
12:01AM GMT 31 Oct 2014
Money invested by the UK Government abroad found to be actively encouraging corrupt practices by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact

British taxpayers' money is funding corruption in foreign countries, an official investigation has found for the first time.

Money invested by the UK Government abroad was found to be actively encouraging corrupt practices by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact.

One development project in Nepal encouraged people to forge documents to gain grants while police stations in Nigeria linked to British aid were increasingly demanding bribes, the report discovered.

The damning findings will fuel criticism from Conservative MPs of David Cameron's decision to commit 0.7 per cent of the UK's gross national income to foreign aid spending – more than £12 billion pounds a year.

It is understood to be the first time an independent body has found evidence that the Department for International Development (Dfid) may have broken its "do no harm" policy – a central pledge in the Government's aid programme.

Dfid's anti-corruption effort was given an amber-red rating, meaning it is classed as performing relatively poorly and significant improvements must be made, and warned political sensitivities were constraining the department's willingness to directly tackle the problem.

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One Nepalese local development project was encouraging citizens to "to pay bribes to government officials or to forge documentation in order to receive funding" for projects, the report found.

A group of Nigerian police stations linked to British aid were found to be "as bad as – if not worse than – other police stations" and citizens perceived requests for bribes were increasing.

A DfiD source refuted criticisms of the Nepalese project, saying the department did not directly fund the body in question and added it had a positive impact on the community. The source made similar points about the police stations in Nigeria.

"We witnessed negative impacts of programming, where government systems that lead the poor to have to pay bribes and become the victims of corruption were perpetuated and not tackled by programmes," the report found.

"Did and other donors knew – or should have known, given the media coverage – of these negative consequences for the poor."

Graham Ward, ICAI chief commissioner, said: "We saw very little evidence that the work DfId is doing to combat corruption is successfully addressing the impact of corruption as experienced by the poor.

"Indeed, there is little indication that DfId has sought to address the forms of corruption that most directly affect the poor: so called 'petty' corruption. This is a gap in DfId's programming that needs to be filled."

DfId spokeswoman said: "ICAI's report rightly highlights some of DfId's work which reflects our zero tolerance approach to fraud and corruption. We have anti-corruption and counter fraud plans for each country that we give bilateral aid to.

"While these plans are tailored to the individual needs of each country, they are based on a common principle that tackles the root causes of corruption by building strong institutions and requiring good governance.

Figures earlier this year disclosed that Britain hiked its aid spending by more than any other country in Europe last year.

Foreign aid soared by 28 per cent last year, meaning the UK hit its target of spending 0.7 per cent of GDP on overseas development.

It left Britain with the second most generous aid budget in the world, outstripped only by the United States.

The report followed claims from campaigners that the British Government had given more than £1billion in aid to Ethiopia while its security forces tortured, killed and raped.

Thousands of brutal abuses against citizens suspected of political opposition were revealed in documents by Amnesty International, according to the Daily Mail.

The human rights group warned that citizens have faced torture and unlawful state killings in a nation-wide crackdown by authorities.

The Telegraph

Haze

Was the government, led by Cameron and Home Office Secretary Theresa May, trying to hide something away, or suppress anything before the Minister 2015 General Election.

The government seems to have to be urged to get an inquiry into historical child sex abuse moving quickly after Fiona Woolf stood down as its chairwoman.
As you will well remember another establishment figure Baroness Butler-Sloss was pressurised into stepping down.

It strikes me, at the very least , further incompetence and ineptitude by the cabinet clique.,

I just wonder what the messages are from party central office.

Personally, I think the message from the country is for the government to stand down.