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.

Indeed, Haystack. The centre ground where the battle will be fought is shifting, and the two main parties need to re-align so they can continue to fight.

Sure, Cameron needs to UKIPise Tory policy to make them more appealing to Joe Public, but, like the muppet he is, Milibland took a left turn and is now heading in the wrong direction.

:o)

Hils,

You would make a good member in different ways for the Bullingdon boys.

Compared with the damage Rochester election is doing to the Tory party and the possible defections, or flee from Cameron after the results are knowm, it will be a flee bite to the Labour.

Compared with the exposure of the Con partys dissimulation, it would be a minor worthwhile gambit to urge UKIP on.

Why don't you and Haze pop over and canvass in Rochester, your very presences would aid UKIP tremendously!

David Cameron 'Begging' For Labour Votes To Avoid Ukip Defeat


The Huffington Post UK | By Ned Simons


Posted: 12/11/2014 10:37 GMT





Nigel Farage has gleefully branded David Cameron "desperate", after the prime minister took the unusual step of asking Labour and Lib Dem supporters to vote tactically for the Conservatives in the Rochester by-election to prevent Ukip from winning.

The latest polls indicate Mark Reckless is set to become Ukip's second ever elected MP on 20 November. The result would be a second damaging blow for the prime minister and likely lead to more discord on his backbenches.

On a campaign visit to the Kent constituency yesterday, Cameron made a direct appeal to supporters of other parties to lend their vote to Tory candidate Kelly Tolhurst in a bid to stop Ukip's "great caravan" rolling on.

One Labour MP who has campaigned in the seat told The Huffington Post there was evidence that "Labour voters are going to vote Tory to stop Ukip". By-elections, the MP said, become an "inevitable choice between the two front runners".

Farage said this morning: "Mr Cameron is now begging voters from other parties to vote Tory to keep out Ukip. Desperate stuff for a prime minister to be doing."


More: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/11/12/ukip-rochester-by-election-david-cameron-tactical-votes_n_6143936.html

Short post im on a posh new mobile phone(and very nice they are)hilary/hays, stop talking daft northerners will always vote for Labour come election day.

No matter what they say before hand.

Rochester will take the temperature of the con party!

I think Dave's time is up!

Oh, how goldfinger must be gringding his teeth and wringing his hands now that his imminent interest rare rise prediction has come to nought. If I could be bothered I would go back and find all his dire warning of massive hikes in mortgage payments followed by repossessions. It is clear that he has no ability to analyse economic or political situations. His discomfort due to his terrible interest rate prediction will be nothing compared to seeing Cameron outside number 10 next year as the PM.

http://news.sky.com/story/1371816/bank-signals-no-rate-rise-until-next-autumn

The Bank of England has signalled that the base rate of interest is unlikely to rise until next autumn because economic conditions are not right.

Further bad news for goldfinger!!! Another one of his predictions vapourises.

http://news.sky.com/story/1371766/cost-of-living-pay-rises-outpace-inflation

Wages are now rising at a stronger pace than inflation for the first time since 2009, easing the squeeze on household budgets.

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said he expected real terms wage growth to rise from zero to about 2% by the end of next year.

Haze,


Rate of "recovery slowing"!

Why after 4 years of tory misrule!

90.6% of GDP (2013)
United Kingdom, Government debt


George is just putting it on the TAB.

But it ain't washing.

The New Cons are gonors!

Talk about smoke and mirrors -);

What Hays doesnt tell you is the the BoE expect inflation to duck under 1% very soon therefore relatively meaning wage rises are rising.........................LOL LOL

Hay Hilary they are just as bad as their leaders..........ohhh dear.

Bank of England: Inflation likely to fall below 1%
Katrina Bishop | @KatrinaBishop
3 Hours Ago
CNBC.com

The Bank of England (BoE) warned that U.K. price growth is likely to fall below 1 percent over the next six months on Wednesday, amid "significant risks" to its inflation projections.

In its latest assessment on the country's economy, the central bank said: "Inflation is expected to remain below the target in the near term, and is more likely than not to fall temporarily below 1 percent at some point over the next six months."
Price growth is then expected to rise gradually, returning to "around 2 percent" in three years' time.

Read MoreUK economy 'flying' but euro zone a threat: CBI chief

It came after official data revealed that the U.K. unemployment rate remained stuck at 6 percent, although wage hikes beat forecasts in the three months to September.

New poll puts Tories three points ahead of Labour

IpsosMORI predicts the Conservatives will win election and reveals just 13 per cent of voters think Ed Miliband is ready to be Prime Minister.

Just 13 per cent of voters think Ed Miliband is doing a good job as Labour leader

By Ben Riley-Smith

12:30PM GMT 12 Nov 2014

A new poll has put the Conservatives three points ahead of Labour, handing the party its biggest lead from the pollster since 2010 and revealing plummeting confidence in Ed Miliband's leadership.


IpsosMORI predicted the Tories will get 32 per cent of the vote next May - three points ahead of Labour on 29 per cent.


Meanwhile belief that Ed Miliband is ready to become Prime Minister has almost halved in since June, dropping from 22 per cent to 13 per cent.


The poll will bring renewed pressure on Mr Miliband and threatens to overshadow a major speech on the economy due to be delivered on Thursday.


It comes after weeks of backroom briefing against the leadership by some disgruntled Labour MPs since Mr Miliband's underwhelming conference address in September.

One unnamed Labour MP told the Evening Standard, which published the poll, that Mr Miliband would be gone by the end of the year if polling figures remained so dire.

"If the numbers carry on like this he will have to go by Christmas, irrespective of whether there is someone waiting in the wings to take over. We cannot go into a General Election knowing we are going to lose," the MP said.

However Ed Balls, the shadow Chancellor, brushed off concerns over the poll during an appearance on Sky News, saying Labour was "not complacent" about the challenge facing the party in the next six months.

“These polls have been bouncing around up and down for the last few months. The only poll which is going to matter is the one on general election day," Mr Balls said.

He added: "I think as we get closer to the election we can win the argument that for most people in our country a Labour government will do much better for you than an out-of-touch Tory Government that has failed in this Parliament.”

The Telegraph

MORI POLL shows Tories in front BUT.......

As usual it’s the unusual poll that gets the attention, when it should be the trend. The fieldwork for the poll was conducted between Saturday and Monday when the media was full of stories about Labour having a leadership crisis, so naturally enough people have concluded that Labour’s leadership row has damaged them in the polls.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,ends

Bring on Rochester.

d4
Thanks for that. I hadn't seen it. That's a nice lead. Hopefully the trend will continue. I will be happy when the Conservatives are 10%+ ahead of Lab. A clear majority in the GE would be good for the country. I hope that the Libs do well also as we will need an opposition after Lab loses Scotland and implodes.

Lies, damn lies and David Cameron's EU policy

The fate of both the European Arrest Warrant 'debate' and the EU bill underscore how Cameron is playing a Ukip game that he can't win.






By Tim Stanley

10:15AM GMT 12 Nov 2014

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/11224868/Lies-damn-lies-and-David-Camerons-EU-policy.html


There are lies, damn lies and then there’s David Cameron’s position on the EU. That became obvious this week in the parliamentary debate over the European Arrest Warrant. I watched those angry scenes hours later through the fog of jet lag, didn’t understand what Cameron was up to, called a friend, still couldn’t figure it out, tried to piece it together by reading everything available online and, finally, gave up and watched a Doctor Who marathon instead. Better to presume that the PM was caught trying to deceive us yet again. Which, upon sober reflection, he was.


Here’s what I can piece together. The PM said that there would definitely be a vote on the European Arrest Warrant. But someone realised that Britain doesn’t actually have the power to say “yay” or “nay” to the Warrant, so the Government whips decided to hold a debate on everything but that instead. Speaker John Bercow noticed the deception and called it out; Labour jumped on the Government’s mistake and took the opportunity to humiliate it; and Cameron was forced to rush back to Parliament to try to crush a rebellion against a motion that was designed to prevent a rebellion.


Yet again the Tory leadership is guilty of saying one thing on Europe and then doing something quite different. Evidence for the prosecution #2: the payment of the EU bill. When we were handed that tab for £1.7 billion, Cameron made a big (but carefully worded) objection to its size and timing. After a few days, George Osborne claimed to have successfully cut it in half in what appeared to be a victory for our proud nation again the profligate Eurocrats. Who knew it was that easy to reduce a tax bill by 50 per cent? Doubtless, the HMRC’s phone-lines glowed red with people calling to see if they could do the same.


But, of course, life isn’t that sweet. In reality, the EU has allowed the UK to deduct a separate rebate that it is owed from the £1.7 billion, with the effect that we are reducing our bill with our own money. Oh, some concessions have been won: we’ll have longer to pay and will do so without interest. But the victory looks pathetic when you consider the following analogy. Say A owes B £10, while B owes A £5 – which means that An overall is set to lose £5. B says to A “If you say that I don’t owe you £5, then I’ll deduct it from your £10 so that you will only pay me £5.” I’m not super hot at maths, but that still means that A loses £5 overall – as he was going to in the first place. Nothing has changed: A and the UK remain out of pocket.


David Cameron is in a tricky situation. He doesn’t want to talk about Europe and would have happily skipped gaily through his time in office avoiding the subject – but Ukip has forced him to pretend to want reform. However, the EU reforms that Ukip has put on the agenda are the kind of reforms that only really make sense to Ukippers – changes that demand such a fundamental alternation in our relationship with the EU that Brexit is their only natural consequence. Under our present relationship with the EU, Cameron cannot reject the European Arrest Warrant out of hand or refuse a bill that the EU’s accountants regard as entirely reflective of our ability to pay. Only a government on the brink of Brexit could threaten such things and mean it; only the government of a UK finally separated from the EU could guarantee them. In short, Cameron is talking a talk that he cannot walk.

And one might feel sympathy for him if he wasn’t so transparently deceptive. His Government could be accused of trying to mislead both Parliament and the taxpayer in the space of a fortnight – and for what? For fear of losing a paltry by-election to Nigel Farage? To paraphrase Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons, “It profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world ... but for Rochester and Strood?”

When is Rochester next Thursday?

yep

Thanks G/F.

I am dodging Europe, but I am telling Russia what to do and sending the Ukraine some poppies.

Pity about Rochester and having to pay up to the EU and discrediting HP and my own party.

And just for starters

StockMarketWire.com

FTSE indices turned lower on retailers, banks and utility stocks after Bank of England warned UK inflation could fall below 1% in the next six months, and would not hit the target of 2% for three years. It also cut its forecast for UK economic growth to 2.9% in 2015.

And maybe stagnation.

But we will be OK.