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.

Come on Fred, which turkey do you fancy to take over from Ed?

Conservatives and Labour tied

Latest YouGov / Sunday Times results 7th Nov -

Con 33%, Lab 33%, LD 7%, UKIP 16%;

All Ed needs now, is to turn up at the Cenotaph today in a donkey jacket like Michael Foot.

Miliband is nobody's "turkey, but I see him cooking Cameron's goose in May 2014.

Still a long way away.

Enough time for more gaffs, blustering and u-bends from the "dear leader" and exposure of they false policies and promises.

The chickens are coming home and they know it.


=====

We are still in the middle game and I would back Miliband's and the shadow cabinet's present strategy.

The media and papers are more interest in their own financial bottom lines, pushing what the are manufacturing, or then pushing it as far they can.

What they are doing at the moment suits them, but when the wind changes and ill-tempered Cameron exposes himself as a true leader of a nasty party, and unelectable some of the print may change. (Not the gutters of the Mail and Telegraph.)

At least, Miliband is not hand in hand with the same elements of the gutter press with whom Cameron and Farage seem to enjoy swimming with.

I think Miliband will be the next PM. of a coaltion slightly left of centre coalition government.

But a problem labour has, is if it broadcasts new policies the con party will adopt them and claim them for their own, as they haven't any got any other than austerity and screw down the poorest in society.

Apologies forgot they are grabbing and trying to run any which comes out of Farage's orifices.

The present con party leadership and followers seem to many to have the morality of alley cats.

========

Wait until the cracks in the Welfare System and NHS are expose this winter, especially if there is a cold winter or flu or similar epidemics.

That will be a front page spread.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/nov/08/embattled-ed-miliband-labour-plotters-circle-coup

Ed Miliband: Plotters circle in the shadows as embattled leader strikes back

The description given by one of Ed Miliband’s aides of last week’s events – in which a series of newspapers took turns to report on Bonfire night plots and conspiracies against the Labour leader – was as unappealing as it was graphic. “It was just a load of journalists shuffling around eating up each other’s vomit.”

The Times suggested that the shadow health secretary, Andy Burnham, was conspiring with the shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, over the future. The Daily Mail wrote of a Bonfire night plot to oust Miliband being hatched at a meeting of Labour MPs in the north-west, but suggested that Burnham and Cooper were deadly rivals. “It can’t be both, surely? They can’t be in cahoots, slicing up the future, while plotting to beat each other. It’s nonsense,” said a source close to Burnham.

Ed Miliband to come out fighting for Britain's EU membership as leadership crisis escalates



by Guy Bentley

new November 9, 2014, 9:43am




Ed Miliband
(Source: Getty)




Ed Miliband will launch a vigorous defence of Britain's EU membership warning Conservative plans for a referendum could put the UK's economy at risk.

In a speech to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) to be delivered on Monday Miliband will say:


I make you this promise: if I am prime minister I will never risk your businesses, British jobs, or British prosperity by playing political games with our membership of the European Union.


More: http://www.cityam.com/1415526027/ed-miliband-come-out-fighting-britains-eu-membership-leadership-crisis-escalates

Ed is desperate to find something to distract from his troubles

He at least has the courage of his convictions and not using membership a football to satisfy the Euroseptics of his own party and the political whims of Farage and oddities.

===

If don't like the rules of EU or the game, persuade others by ongoing discussion to modify them, not behave like stunted teenagers on drugs and storming off.

The rules are not written in stone and open to sensible modifications.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-funding-crisis-jewish-donors-drop-toxic-ed-miliband-9849299.html

Labour funding crisis: Jewish donors drop 'toxic' Ed Miliband

The Labour party is facing desertion by Jewish donors and supporters because of Ed Mili-band's "toxic" anti-Israeli stance over Gaza and Palestine. In a fresh headache for the Labour leader, it is understood that Mr Miliband has been warned that Jewish backers are deserting the party in droves over what community leaders perceive to be a new, aggressive pro-Palestine policy at the expense of Israeli interests.

One prominent Jewish financial backer, a lifelong Labour supporter, said he no longer wanted to "see Mr Miliband in Downing Street or Douglas Alexander as Foreign Secretary".

A senior Labour MP warned that Mr Miliband now had a "huge if not insurmountable challenge" to maintain support from parts of the Jewish community that had both backed and helped fund Tony Blair and Gordon Brown's election campaigns.

At the same time, a former cabinet minister privately admitted that Labour's fundraising efforts were in disarray. The former minister said the party would struggle to raise anywhere near the £19m a party is entitled to spend under electoral law in the run-up to next May's poll. "We will have to pass the begging bowl round to the unions," they said. "That would send a bad signal. In return, they [the unions] would demand to call the shots on policy."

Donations from the Jewish community have been worth hundreds of thousands of pounds a year to the Labour Party. Several previous donors told The Independent on Sunday that they and others are now very unlikely to support the party. They spoke on condition of anonymity.

"There aren't that many donors to the Labour Party these days, and certainly not the same number of Jewish donors. There is a lot of worry," said one. "I have been a Labour supporter all my life and I would like to see a Labour government, but, on the other hand, I'm not entirely sure I want to see Ed Miliband in Downing Street or Douglas Alexander in the Foreign Office."

A Labour source insisted that Ed Miliband had taken a "principled stance" on both Gaza and Palestine and had always been clear that Israel had a right to defend itself. They added that it showed that Mr Miliband was prepared to take decisions he believed to be right and would never allow political donations to influence party policy.

But Jewish supporters say that the previous Labour policy on Israel was principled – and that it is Mr Miliband's changes which are affecting Jewish support.

Another previous donor said they had been asked by the party to arrange a fundraising dinner for Jewish Labour supporters but had found no takers. "Miliband won't get that [money], I can tell you that now," he said. "I was going to do a couple of dinners and invite prominent members of the community, who are quite wealthy, to raise funds. They just wouldn't touch it. It was too toxic for them to even consider. There is a lot of reluctance to support Miliband financially, unfortunately."

Last week, the actress Maureen Lipman (below) announced that she was ending five decades of support for the Labour Party over its new foreign policy.

Several other Jewish supporters, who have given substantial sums to Labour, are understood to be reconsidering their relationship. "When I supported them, this hadn't happened," said one. "I'm deeply concerned. I'm not at all sure what I'll do."

Another said: "I speak to people. I know what's going on in the party. And they are finding it tough going. Look at their reports on what's raised and look at what they're getting from the unions. They are finding it very difficult raising money."

Prominent Jewish supporters say problems started in the summer with Mr Miliband's aggressive condemnation of Israel's ground incursion into Gaza last August, which he described as "wrong and unjustifiable". He accused David Cameron of being wrong not to have condemned the land operation and claimed that Israel was "losing friends in the international community day by day". This was followed by a decision to whip a vote calling on the Government to unilaterally recognise Palestine – against long-standing British and Labour policy that recognition should only be part of a negotiated two-state settlement. That decision was opposed by a number of senior Labour MPs – including at least two shadow cabinet ministers – who warned it would haemorrhage Jewish support.

One said yesterday: "There were no phone calls, no meetings, no discussions, nothing. Ed Miliband and Douglas Alexander simply decided to abandon the even-handed, bi-partisan approach we followed for 13 years in government. Electorally, that will be significant in a few seats but, much more importantly, it sends a signal that Miliband is prepared to play politics with an issue where he should be even-handed and fair."

A number of Jewish former Labour supporters also compared Mr Miliband's stance on Gaza unfavourably with David Cameron's, which, they suggested, had been calibrated to ensure that prominent Tory Jewish supporters stayed on board.

...."We will have to pass the begging bowl round to the unions," they said. "That would send a bad signal. In return, they [the unions] would demand to call the shots on policy."...

The lesser spotted millibandus must be sick as a parrot, even sitting in his posh new York apartment pales against what might have been.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/11218334/Conservatives-snatch-first-poll-lead-for-six-months-as-Ed-Milibands-woes-worsen.html

Conservatives snatch first poll lead for six months as Ed Miliband’s woes worsen

Labour leader's future as leader could be discussed at a meeting of the party's ruling National Executive Committee this week

The Tories have seized their first lead in the ICM Wisdom Index poll for six months, reversing Labour’s lead in just a month and deepening the crisis of confidence over Ed Miliband’s leadership.

The Conservatives have turned Labour’s two point lead in the same poll last month into a one point lead in just four weeks.

The news came as it emerged that Mr Miliband's future as leader could be discussed at a meeting of the party's ruling National Executive Committee this week and a Labour MP said that the party should disguise Mr Miliband's weaknesses by relying more on the shadow Cabinet to present policies.

Asked, in ICM’s latest Wisdom Index poll for The Sunday Telegraph, what percentage share each party would win if there were a general election tomorrow, respondents put the Tories on 31 per cent, against Labour’s 30 per cent. The UK Independence Party was third on 16 per cent, and the Liberal Democrats fourth on 13 per cent.

Mr Miliband’s future as party leader could be raised at a meeting of the officers on the party’s ruling National Executive Committee this week. A key meeting of the NEC last week to plan for the year ahead was poorly attended.

One NEC member said: “The place was in meltdown and a totally febrile atmosphere. There is a man is stuck in his job but no one wants it and everyone thinks he is useless. There is no resolution.”
........
The news came as a former Blairite minister warned that if Labour wins May’s general election Mr Miliband will be forced to financially cripple pensioners because of spending commitments he has made elsewhere.

Alan Milburn, a Health Secretary under Tony Blair, told an audience of Labour supporters at the party’s conference in September that it would not be “feasible for the Labour Party to continue to protect pensioners from the effect of cuts which is what Ian Duncan Smith has done”.
...
According to the Mail On Sunday ,one of his key allies shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt claimed in a private conversation that Mr Miliband's attempts to revive his popularity by "getting closer" to voters was a "total failure".

"I never believed the answer to Labour's problems was to show people more of Ed Miliband. It has been a complete failure, making things worse not better," he reportedly said.

I make you this promise: if I am prime minister I will never risk your businesses, British jobs, or British prosperity by playing political games with our membership of the European Union.

but i won't try to fight against any legislation and edicts from brussels and shall embrace them all and even add bells and whistles, nor do anything at all about controlling immigration, and i'm awfully sorry if this has negative effects on this country and no, i didn't hear any outcry at all about wanting a referendum so you, the public, could determine our future within or without eu ...... and yes, i know that's an awfully long sentence without any proper breaks, but i didn't want anyone to have a chance to get a word in edgeways and thus spoil my pitch


what a pillock! ..... he's as credible as the moronic lot opposite

Hazyone,

Well that is good.

I agree with Miliband's stance over recognition of Palestine.

If the Zionists don't like it so be it.

I don't have any wish for a party with any decency to be in hock to any lobbying group
such as the Con party continues to indulges with and seems to enjoy or at least feels at home with.

Tell me Haze. who picks the "dinner bill" when Dave and George have the parties for Conned donors at No 10.

Is it true Murdoch or Rebecca or messengers still slip in through the back gate and give Dave his policies?

=========

Actually, to me, the Mail playing the "Jewish" card once again. Remnants of the 30s and the far right (Facsists). Bring back the dirty politics of that period and which the communist used against opposing views,

(Kill the messenger and ignore the messages. Hoping the blood will distract the public from the real issues.)

Do you feel at home in swimming in that pool?


====

Edited.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/ed-miliband-tried-persuade-gordon-4597019

ED Miliband tried to persuade Gordon Brown to stand for the Scottish Labour leadership, according to a senior party source.

Miliband sent a member of the Shadow Cabinet to ask the former prime minister to stand before nominations closed last week, the Independent on Sunday reports.

The source added: "Gordon showed good sense in turning it down."

Hazyone, is becoming the Lord Haw-Haw of Moneyam.

He seems a throwback to 30s and 40s.

Even his party has moved on since then!

Although it stumbled under Thatcher and is under this one!

Just like Dave H/S is doing a sterling job and long may it continue -):

Haystack posts some very interesting points and information on this thread, but unfortunately some of his posts tend to get swamped by monotonous twaddle.