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.

LOL This is good for laugh!


By Holly Watt, Whitehall Editor

10:00PM GMT 12 Nov 2014

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Ed Miliband will insist he wants to act as a "wealth creator" and is not planning a "big spending" spree if he becomes Prime Minister.


The embattled Labour leader, who has faced calls to step down, will say he is resilient and ready for the fight.


However, last night he admitted that the leadership crisis had worried the public, saying it was “fair to say” his party “haven’t had the best couple of weeks”.


In his speech, will acknowledge that his party made mistakes on immigration when in Government but will claim that pandering to the UK Independence Party would be a return to a more “unjust past”.


In a major change of emphasis, he will now say he is determined to rein in public spending and reduce the deficit if he wins the election.

The major speech - which is seen in Westminster as crucial in relaunching his flagging electoral chances - is likely to be attacked for being scant on detail.

The Labour leader will attempt to calm business leaders’ concerns by admitting that the financial crash left the country with a deficit that “has to be paid down”. However, having failed to set out any spending plans and blocked other cuts, he is likely to come under pressure to disclose detailed spending pledges after his speech.

The speech comes as a new poll showed the Conservatives pulling ahead for the first time since autumn 2010.

The survey by IpsosMORI showed that Mr Miliband is the most unpopular party leader running to be Prime Minister in 40 years.

The Conservatives have now pulled three points ahead of Labour, while the Labour leader's personal approval rating is lower than Michael Foot’s six months out from his disastrous 1983 election.

In an interview with BBC News, Mr Miliband admitted that “it is fair to say that we haven’t had the best couple of weeks.

“Disunited parties are parties that the public worry about and I understand that, that’s why we are going to go forward as a united party,” he added.

The Conservatives immediately attacked the Labour leader’s most recent relaunch, saying that this would be the tenth time that Mr Miliband had “relaunched” himself in four years.

In his speech, Mr Miliband will say that he will battle “for everyday people, and not just a privileged few”, as he seeks to turn around his party after a terrible week.

Mr Miliband will pledge his determination to fight the “zero-zero economy”, where “those at the top get away with zero tax”, while others struggle on “zero hours contracts”.

““You need resilience in this job. You need fight. But above all, you need belief in what you are doing,” he will say.

Mr Miliband will also attack the “deeply unequal, deeply unfair, deeply unjust country” created by the Coalition government, saying that people were asking why they were not feeling the benefits of the recovery.

“Big spending won’t solve the problems of an economy that doesn’t work for working people and we won’t have the money to do it,” he will say

He will insist that Labour can be “wealth creators, not just the wealth distributors.”

A raft of senior Labour figures – shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt, shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna, shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper– are expected to publicly support Mr Miliband’s battle over the next few days, after confusion over the Labour message.

The shadow Chancellor Ed Balls went on BBC to shrug off concerns about the poll.

"The only poll that matters is the general election," he said. “These polls have been bouncing about day to day, week to week, month to month.”

However, the Labour MP Tom Watson took to Twitter to call his party’s poll ratings “dire”, as the Conservative Party Chairman Grant Shapps said that voters would view Mr Miliband’s attempts to rebrand himself with the same enthusiasm as the Labour frontbench.

“Ed Miliband’s tenth relaunch does not cover up his failure to learn the lessons from Labour’s mistakes,” said Mr Shapps. “He has opposed everything we’ve done to turn our country around.”

Mr Miliband will also use the speech to attack the Ukip and Mr Farage, insisting that he will discuss immigration “on the basis of Labour values, not UKIP values.”

“We will be talking more about immigration as a party and we should,” he will say. “What we will never do is try to out-Ukip, Ukip.”

His comments came as Mr Farage said that his party could form a party with Labour if it would guarantee a referendum on Europe.

Asked by the New Statesman if he would go into coalition with Labour Mr Farage said he would “do a deal with the Devil if he got me what I wanted”.

cnbc just a top fund manager was asled was ed correct in what he said about the economy and is answer was 100% correct on the whole the middle to low paid have been very badly treated while the rich have been well looked after by Osborne

I would like to know who is whom, why and what for!

Tory lead didnt last long, was all the negative stuff about Milliband over last weekend. Whats more they have what they want 35% of the poll.....

Latest YouGov / The Sun results 12th November - Con 32%, Lab 35%, LD 7%, UKIP 15%; APP -25

UKIP STILL polling highly, bring on Rochester, lets see Davy thrashed.

As for the benefits scam, nothing has changed.



Don’t be duped by this Brussels 'crackdown’ on benefit tourists:

An EU court ruling stopping a migrant claiming welfare has been hailed as a breakthrough. If only that were true... writes DAVID GREEN

By David Green For The Daily Mail

Published: 01:15, 13 November 2014 | Updated: 08:42, 13 November 2014



A decision by the European Court has been hailed as a landmark moment which will curb the number of benefit tourists coming to Britain.

The judges appear to have ruled that jobless EU migrants cannot move around the Continent living off state handouts, and have no right to arrive in another country if they are unable to support themselves.

The specific ruling banned a 25-year-old Romanian woman in Germany, who had never had a job, from claiming welfare benefits in the country. And it was immediately seized on by both sides in the highly charged debate on EU migrants.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2832420/Don-t-duped-Brussels-crackdown-benefit-tourists-EU-court-ruling-stopping-migrant-claiming-welfare-hailed-breakthrough-true-writes-DAVID-GREEN.html

DAVID BUIK as just posted this on Twitter.........

YESTERDAY WAS THE SADDEST DAY OF MY PROFESSIONAL LIFE

TODAY’S FAYRE – Thursday, 13th November 2014



“Sunset and evening star, And one clear call for me! And may there be no moaning of the bar, When I put out to sea,

But such a tide as moving seems asleep, Too full for sound and foam, When that which drew from out the boundless deep Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell, And after that the dark! And may there be no sadness of farewell, When I embark;

For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and Place The flood may bear me far, I hope to see my Pilot face to face When I have crossed the bar.”



Alfred, Lord Tennyson – poet – 1809-1892



After 52 years and two months’ gainful employment in the City of London, yesterday, without any qualification or ambiguity, was the saddest day of my professional life. I hang my head in shame! Any thought of a quick return of respect and trust towards the financial sector has been blown out of the water by a small collection of mindless, greedy, selfish and arrogant congenital idiots.



Going back five years I saw it as my duty to stand up for the principles of the City. Though there was a combination of reckless behaviour, incompetence, greed, poor and soft regulation, non-existent credit analysis and government/political incompetence, which eventually brought the banking sector and the world’s economy to its knees. What wasn’t 100% clear then was criminal intent. The market was under a wet sale and it was hard to pin the rosette on any individual. It was too easy to single out Fred Goodwin, but he was endemic of a combination of incompetence and hubris. He and his colleagues stood to make too much money from their success to actually want to throw the ‘Baby out with the bathwater’ with criminal intent. People were not having any of my balanced presentation. There was no appetite for conversation or reason. Too many people had been poleaxed by the crisis with many walking out in to the sunset with bags of undeserved swag!



The years rolled quietly by; the recovery started. Then the damage caused by not only PPI but also LIBOR rigging manifested themselves. Stronger and better qualified regulators brought their influence to bear. PPI fines and repayments have cost £20 billion. This behaviour was over-zealous miss-selling caused by greed and individual bonus calculations. Still criminal intent was not that obvious. LIBOR, as a system, was always flawed. Fancy allowing a trade association to decide the pricing of $500 billion of loans? When so many banks are involved in these calculations, again proving criminal intent takes time. It looks as though perpetrators will eventually be brought to book and jail looms! The threat of civil actions from wronged customers looms. Peyton Place as a saga may have nothing on the FX rigging fiasco!



Last year I flagged up the fact FX rate fixing could make the other malpractices look like a vicarage tea party. The behaviour by a few has been reprehensible. It was particularly galling that this alleged criminal collusion was going on at the same time as the LIBOR investigation. The angst and contempt for the City has never been higher! – Deservedly so! Some of the evidence makes my stomach turn. Barclays has chosen to be tried on its own. It is difficult to understand their rationale. One can only assume that Barclays felt that in the past it had been discriminated against and under Jenkins’s policy – ‘transparency’ is the name of their game.



In closing all I can say is that in the case of Andrew Bailey, Martin Wheatley and Tracy McDermott, the market has every confidence. I know I speak for 99.999% of City workers – WE ARE ANGRY, DISPIRITED AND DISMAYED. Trust me the City is NOT rotten to the core! These FX fiddlers are just mindless and selfish. May they be brought to book! To the guilty – I hope the keys are thrown away for a long time. Fines have proved to be useless. They are not a deterrent.

Deluded or hallucinations?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-30025957

Ed Miliband "absolutely" sees a prime minister when he looks in the mirror in the morning, he has told the BBC.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nigel-farage-caught-on-video-suggesting-the-nhs-should-be-run-privately-9857389.html

Nigel Farage caught on video suggesting NHS should be run privately

Ukip leader Nigel Farage has been caught on film telling party supporters that the NHS should move away from the state-funded model, and towards a US-style insurance-based system.

The footage shows the Ukip leader say he would feel more “comfortable” if the UK’s healthcare was opened up to the “marketplace”.

YAWN.

"When Rosetta was first conceived hardly anyone had mobile phones, Margaret Thatcher was in power and the Channel tunnel was eight years away from completion."

Hmmm? Well done, I suppose. Let's hope we do get some very valuable information from it.

One day, one of these things might be on target for the earth. One of them did hit the earth millions of years ago and wiped out the dinosaurs. It would be nice to be able to stop something like that if it looked like happening in the future. Practice makes perfect too.

Rosetta mission cost: Close to 1.4 billion euros (£1.1 billion), including Philae's cost of 220 million euros (£173 million)

Number of countries behind the comet landing: 14

Philae distance from home: 316 million miles

Mission length so far: 10 years

Time taken for news to reach Earth: 28 minutes, 20 seconds (it will vary)

Philae weight: 100 kilograms

Comet 67P weight: 10 billion tonnes

Number of names suggested for landing site: 8,000 (the name chosen was Agilkia)

Length of lander's stay on comet: No one knows yet

Announcement retweets: 28,000 in first hour

A market based NHS?

Isn't that what the tories are doing now?

Labour still don't get the immigration problem!


http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/11/10/david-lammy-interview-labour-party-immigration_n_6132044.html

David Lammy Interview: Labour Should Be A Pro-Immigration Party

"I think that the next general election is going to be phenomenally close."

David Lammy is sitting in the corner of his parliamentary office on the ground floor of the Norman Shaw North building in Westminster. Dressed in a light blue suit, starched white shirt and a black-and-white DKNY tie, his long arms are stretched out on either side of him, as he leans back in his chair.

Lammy, who served as a health minister under Tony Blair and a higher education minister under Gordon Brown, now wants to be mayor of London. He turned down a shadow ministerial job offer from Ed Miliband to stick it out on the backbenches until 2015 and plan his assault on City Hall.

Yawn.

Haystack - 13 Nov 2014 09:53 - 50135 of 50140

Ed Miliband "absolutely" sees a prime minister when he looks in the mirror in the morning, he has told the BBC.

He should've gone to Specsavers.

Yawn...double Yawn.

GF,

Post 50134

Cameron and Osborne have been in "power" for four and half years.

They have been aware of the problems in the financial services, banking and FOREX since 2008.

They have done nothing or next to nothing to address the problems.

From the outside it would seem that this government is hand in hand with the perpetrators of the "crimes" which appear committed.

Cameron and Osborne have been exposed for what they are and trying to lie their ways out of self their own inappropriate economic and political planning when it can be seen they have failed.

I am waiting to see if the records have gone missing again and the next inquiry they have to be stuffed with their mates, with a hope that "no conclusions" can be drawn and the problem kicked into the long grass once again.

Under which government was and attempt to cover up at Hillsborough, probable cover up of paedophile ring, attempted cover up of Blunt and cohorts.

Of course the elitist government of those who think they have a right to govern.

Similar to the present bunch of incompetents.

FRED wait till you see my next post, youl enjoy it.

The UK’s EU surcharge (another blow for Osborne) – Second Reading 13/11/2014

At first glance, this article from the House of Commons Library blog didn’t look as though it was going to contribute anything new.

We know why the UK had to pay a surcharge to the EU based on its economy performance from 2002 until 2013 (according to this article; 2009 according to some others). We know that it relates to the EU budget because member states pay a proportion of their gross national income into the EU’s coffers in return for membership. We know that the revision goes back to 2002 because the EU disagreed with the way some member states had worked out their figures. We know that the question of whether the rebate would always apply to this payment is hotly debated.

But then the article states:

“Concessions have been reached on the timing and staging of payments. Member States will be able to pay in stages with payment completed by 1 September 2015. The original amending budget required a single payment to be made by 1 December 2014.

“Member States paying later will not incur interest charges for doing so. Regulations would have allowed for interest payments of 2 percentage points above the base rate, increasing by a 0.25 percentage point for each month of delay.” [Boldings mine.]

Didn’t Osborne come back from Europe saying he had negotiated concessions for the UK? What’s all this “member states” business?

For example, on Radio 4’s Today programme on Saturday (November 9), he said: “This is a real win for British taxpayers… It’s another sign this government can get a good deal for Britain in Europe.” [Bolding, again, mine.]

There’s no mention of the other member states in his renegotiation story at all! Osborne makes it look as though he negotiated a deal for the UK that the other states agreed…

… In fact, it seems all member states agreed on a deal that would affect all member states.

For all we know, Osborne could have sat at the back of the room and twiddled his thumbs. The more we learn about this deal, the less significant his role seems to be.

bbc last year over 4 million people got food poisoning from take aways or eating in restaurants . over 4 million