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.

Do I hear echoes of John Reid,

Tory and UKIP ideas of cut backs!

Why shouldn't we have an Asian PM?

The polls now are showing leads of -1, 0, 1 and 2 day after day. These figures are within the margins of error. This means that Labour and Conservatives are neck and neck. UKIP is stuck at the zero MPs won and the Libs should do better than expected by the polls.

The trend has been towards the Conservatives for months now. Hopefully that will continue. It won't need much of an increase to give them the highest number of MPs.

Nothing to do with an Asian pm, more to do with shameless vote cadging.


Not that it will do him any good.

from today's guardian .......

Luxembourg tax files: how tiny state rubber-stamped tax avoidance on an industrial scale
Leaked documents show that one of the EU’s smallest states helped multinationals save millions in tax, to the detriment of its neighbours and allies

lots more of course

HMRC vs Ingenious
the investment firm is due to challenge the demand in a tax tribunal starting on November 3. ....... He said Ingenious had pressed for its case to be heard as soon as possible in the face of attempts to delay by HMRC

That's what MPs do. They try and appeal to identifiable subgroups of the population and curry favour with them. I would be annoyed if he wasn't doing that. Miliband does the same thing as do the others. It is the same with any public issues. MPs are always looking for issues to take a stand on especially if they can support the popular view.

I am always surprised that MPs vote against capital punishment when there is a clear majority of people in favour of it.

All legal tho c.


http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/nov/05/-sp-luxembourg-tax-files-tax-avoidance-industrial-scale

Amazon used Luxembourg to avoid charging vat. It is all legal. If countries want to change the rules then I am sure they will.

It charged vat at the going rate, but paid it over at the Lux rate.

All legal supposedly.

Ingenious
well Max, let's see what the court finds
there were any number on here who were shouting the odds about what a bunch of crooks the Ingenious investors were blah blah blah blah ......

personally, i hope HMRC gets given a very bloody nose once again, for as i mentioned yesterday, they (VAT) has owed me £30k for well over a year but refuses even to acknowledge corres from my accountant let alone live by its own rules in the first place

back to the eu and the EHIC a few facts go to any hotel on hol and get the desk or your rep to phone the first question they ask have you got cash or insurance doc

fact I go to spain 9 times ayear Majorca 5 times Portugal 3 times
france many weekends the only country that honour the ehic is malta

I go to Poland twice a year for my daughters company no free anything you pay or get no doctor

MPs: Failure of IDS’s Work Programme is a scandal







Public Accounts Committee issues damning verdict




Nigel Morris Author Biography
Deputy Political Editor


Thursday 06 November 2014


The companies running the Government’s flagship scheme to cut joblessness have backtracked on promises to focus on hard-to-help claimants, a MPs’ report published today says.

The Public Accounts Committee denounced the failure to target more help on the most difficult cases as a “scandal”.

Firms operating the Work Programme are spending less than half the amount they had originally pledged on claimants with disabilities such as mental health problems. Such groups are being “parked” as the firms focus on finding jobs for people considered easier to help into employment, the PAC said.


In a damning verdict on the programme, which was launched three years ago, the MPs accused Iain Duncan Smith’s Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) of failing to give incentives to providers to support harder-to-help claimants to find a job.

Almost 90 per cent of claimants of Employment and Support Allowance, which is paid to the sick and disabled, who are on the Work Programme have not been found jobs.



the rest of the shambles report is here:http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/mps-failure-of-idss-work-programme-is-a-scandal-9842188.html

and have spoken to 4 conservative and one labour mp about the issue they said and do have a letter from clegg him self saying all countries have their own system you need to buy insurance when going out of the uk

YouGov have done some drilling down into the public’s expectations and perceptions for The Sun; the numbers are terrible for Ed Miliband. With six months to election day a mere 19% think he is up to the job of being Prime Minister. This compares with 28% saying that of Gordon Brown six months before the last election, before the former Prime Mentalist went on to deliver Labour’s worst poll result in generations. The Tory press have never liked Ed, what will dismay Team Miliband is that his few media allies have lost faith. The Guardian is persistently sceptical of Ed’s merits, Owen Jones is scathing, the only national newspaper to back Ed for leader – the Sunday People – is despairing, the once fervent New Statesman now damns him.

So many Labour MPs openly admit that Ed is just not up to it that CCHQ has gleefully set up a dedicated website to highlight Labour MPs’ complaints. At PMQs Ed’s weakness is broadcast weekly to the nation. So what does Ed do?

out of curiosity, does poland (for instance) actually have an equivalent to NHS?
if not, then of course she'ld have to pay, just as you do here if you go privately

anyway, i was under the impression that costs had to be reclaimed on return to uk, but i could easily be wrong

"I am always surprised that MPs vote against capital punishment when there is a clear majority of people in favour of it."

Surprised H\S why? as people like you and your cronies would be among the first in the queue I'm sure.

The comments about the work programming come just from Labour MP Margaret Hodge who is chairman of the committee. The other complaints are not directed towards IDS. It is the DWP that is being criticised together with some of the companies involved. The report is not that critical. It accepts that thing are improving and gives some recommendations. But that doesn't make a good story.

stan - i would have agreed with your comment a few years back, but in the light of recent events in usa (botched executions) let alone in m/e, i wonder if the public is still of that mind - that is to say, overall as opposed to a knee-jerk reaction to a specific crime