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.

https://yougov.co.uk/news/2014/11/09/public-attitudes-tax-distribution/

Perceptions of how tax is spent differ widely from reality

British people perceive their tax contributions to be more evenly distributed than they really are

Haystack.

That's an interesting graphic, but it's too big, can you alter the pixel thingy?

"Boris was very popular on the tube. People were clapping him and cheering when he got on"

Yeah just about everyone is in the early hours, but thats no recommendation.. you really are scraping the bottom of the barrel now H/S

Burnley, Burnley, Burnley.

Well done lads.

Latest poll,

just goes to show Giddeon lying through his teeth aint going to help the tories.

Survation also had a new poll with topline figures of CON 29%(+2), LAB 34%(+3), LDEM 6%(-3), UKIP 23%(-1),

5 point lead for Labour.

And this polling company are pro conservative.

UK to pay £1.7bn EU bill in full despite Osborne’s claim to have halved it – Guardian 8/11/2014


Peace (in his own mind): Osborne has returned from Europe in similar manner to Neville Chamberlain in the 1930s – with a message that is utterly meaningless and will be ignored by everybody.

It takes the mainstream media a while to catch up, maybe, but they get there in the end. Here’s The Guardian:

The government has accepted a £1.7bn top-up bill to the EU budget despite repeatedly denouncing its size as unacceptable.

The chancellor asserted that a bill for £1.7bn was now one for £850m – to be paid by 1 September next year in two instalments, one by the deadline, the other in July.

While insisting that the invoice had been reduced, Treasury aides conceded that Britain will pay the £850m while also returning the rebate cheque to Brussels, meaning that the full £1.7bn will still be paid.

British officials argued that it had not been clear whether the UK would qualify for a rebate since Brussels dropped the bombshell bill. But that would have been unique since Britain’s gross contributions to the EU budget have automatically benefitted from the rebate since the 1980s.

Osborne’s claims that the bill had been halved were refuted by other participants in the meeting.

“The sum cannot be challenged. We said this and so did many others,” said the Austrian finance minister, Hans Jörg Schelling. Luis De Guindos, the Spanish finance minister, said the same.

A further Guardian article had more criticism from EU ministers:

Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister who chairs the group of eurozone finance ministers, said: “Britain has had a rebate system for a very long time.” He added: “No discount was awarded.”

Kristalina Georgieva, commission vice-president in charge of budgetary affairs with whom Osborne negotiated, said: “As we all know the UK receives a rebate on their contribution.”

Daniel Hannan, a Tory MEP who wants Britain to leave the EU told PM on BBC Radio 4 that it was “incredible” for the Treasury to claim it had to fight to allow the rebate to apply to the £1.7bn demand.

“I just don’t believe that no one in the Treasury knew that the rebate would apply here. That is, in the literal narrow sense of the word, incredible.”

ACCEPT IT HAYS YOUVE BEEN CAUGHT OUT BIG TIME.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/nov/09/lord-kinnock-critics-ed-miliband-cowardly-politically-suicidal

Labour critics of Ed Miliband are warning his supporters that they are in danger of exacerbating internal unease about his leadership by attacking party loyalists who say they are reflecting concerns they hear on the doorstep.

As the former Labour leader Neil Kinnock accused the critics of cowardice and a “tendency towards political suicide”, one MP warned of a horrible atmosphere over the “cack-handed” response of Miliband’s team.

Lucy Powell, who was promoted to the shadow cabinet last week to take a key role in Labour’s general election team, highlighted concerns at senior levels of the party when she warned that five days of hostile briefing against Miliband was undermining his authority.

The shadow Cabinet Office minister told Pienaar’s Politics on BBC Radio 5 Live: “These things often feed themselves. When you have continuing anonymous stories being floated around that somehow Ed has lost the confidence of his MPs, that feeds a wider concern in the public whether he has the leadership qualities to lead his own party, let alone the country. So that doesn’t help.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/tony-blair/11219815/Tony-Blair-signed-secret-contract-with-Saudi-oil-company-worth-41000-a-month.html

Tony Blair 'signed secret contract with Saudi oil company worth £41,000 a month'

Former prime minister reportedly agreed to help PetroSaudi through his company Tony Blair Associates (TBA) in November 2010

Tony Blair signed a secret contract with a Saudi oil company worth £41,000 a month and two per cent commission on any lucrative deals he helped secure, it has been claimed.

The former prime minister reportedly agreed to help PetroSaudi through his company Tony Blair Associates (TBA) in November 2010, according to documents obtained by the Sunday Times.

It is believed to be the first time a contract negotiated by Mr Blair since leaving office has been revealed. The work only lasted a few months.

Mr Blair, who holds the diplomatic role of Middle East Peace Envoy, has faced repeated criticism in the past over his high earnings since leaving Downing Street.

His decision to send British troops into Iraq alongside America in 2003 proved highly controversial, triggering ministerial resignations at the time and becoming a defining moment in his premiership.

A PetroSaudi source told the paper: "[Blair] has got deep ties to the Middle East and that is how we got to know him. We know a lot of people in common and they put us in touch. It was a confidential engagement to help us develop business in China."

A spokesperson for Mr Blair said: 'Tony Blair Associates worked for PetroSaudi for a period of months over four years ago.

'This was in connection with an issue in the Far East and nothing whatsoever to do with the Middle East or the unpaid ex-officio role of Tony Blair for the Quartet in Palestine. TBA has had no involvement in Malaysia and has no knowledge of the matter."

grant snapps conservative chairman is a liar and a very dishonest person
lower than a snake .
we talked about the man at the club yesterday
all 31 of us and w are all life long conservatives
they will not be getting our votes
the party is now unelectable a party of liars and crooks

do we make sure they do not get in by voting the unthinkable and vote labour we will
decide in march meeting

MrT - thought you'd departed for ultima thule already or at least berneray

only for a day
looking to get away next month for the xmas sun

where do you go?
i guess tenerife is about the furthest north for any guarantee of sun

will you be taking a trunkload of £50 notes with you? :-)

los gallante is very nice so may go their
the wife wants to go to costa sol.
we have friends and family their
in los their are no Africans bothering you at the table .

my brother as just been on a cruise for 3 months said it was wonderful
but he said I would hate it .so will not go on a cruise as I like hills love walking up mountains

buy buy buy sbry for a great rise in the sp and 4.6% div on the way