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.

Was a shock but then again when I looked at the 4 left last night I did wonder if the rapper had a lot of fans out in the open World and it seems yes he as.

Very difficult decision to make how its panned out personaly if it was an open vote Id have gone for that bird from Alo Alo.

Russia intervenes as crumbling ruble echoes 1998 debt crisis
Collapse in Russian currency, which has been badly buffeted by a plunge of almost 40% in oil prices, prompts central bank action

Larry Elliott, economics editor
The Guardian, Monday 1 December 2014 19.17 GMT

Russia’s central bank was forced to step in to defend the ruble on the foreign exchanges on Monday after fears over the economy’s vulnerability to a weak oil price sent the currency to a record low against the dollar.

Moscow was forced to abandon its hands-off policy towards the ruble amid heavy selling, unmatched since the Russian debt default of 1998.

The Russian central bank intervened when the ruble was down 6.5% on the day against the US dollar, and by the close of trading the currency had recouped more than half its earlier losses.

A bounce in the oil price from a fresh five-year low and a sense that the sell-off since last week’s meeting of the Opec cartel has been overdone helped sentiment towards the Russian currency, which has been badly buffeted by a plunge of almost 40% in the cost of crude since the summer.

Data from the US suggesting that drilling activity in the shale oil sector is being affected by lower oil prices also helped the ruble by pushing down the value of the dollar.

Oil is denominated in dollars, so when the US currency falls oil becomes cheaper and more attractive for holders of other currencies.

With Moscow fearful that the drop in the value of the ruble makes Russia vulnerable to capital flight, Ksenia Yudaeva, the Russian central bank’s deputy chairwoman, told newswires that households should not panic. She said the rise in interest rates to 9.5% should encourage them not to convert savings into euros or dollars.

“It’s necessary to explain to people that the yield they get on their deposits at the moment will guarantee a high degree of safety for their savings with regards to inflation. They should think twice before rushing out, losing the yield on their deposits, taking on currency risks and losing money on their currency conversions.”

But Lee Hardman, currency strategist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, said falling oil prices were “reinforcing the loss of investor confidence in the ruble” at a time when it was affected by Western sanctions imposed over Ukraine.

At one stage on Monday, Brent crude was trading at $67.50 a barrel, a fresh five year low, before recovering to $71.90.

“There’s a sense that the market got a little bit ahead of itself, and we’re seeing some producer buying come in and it’s driving the market back up,” said Phil Flynn, analyst at the Price Futures Group in Chicago.

Oil is still down about 10% since producer group Opec’s decision last Thursday not to cut output despite fears of a supply glut.

Saudi Arabia, the most influential member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, blocked moves by some smaller producers to curb output. The Saudis argued that low prices would ultimately hurt US shale oil production, which analysts say is responsible for much of the oversupply now.

Capital Economics said a degree of calm had returned to markets after weekend talk of a commodity-led meltdown. It said the apparent freefall in crude prices had been exaggerated by thin trading due to the US holiday, adding that the impact of lower energy costs would be positive for global growth.

Pound Sterling - Russian Rouble - 12 Month Chart

As the Russian currency sinks into the abyss, here's a link to the article's very interesting Comments

Everything is positive...lower oil price = go go economy


A couple of pence off the pump price = not a lot to the average punter



Where is the gain? Taxes are still way too high, money pissed up the wall of a go go economy.


Look at the social security budget....up, up, up, who are they trying to kid?

Social Security Budget is up because more people in work = more Tax Credits.

CRAZY.

Skinny employers not paying a decent wage.

Plus IDS and his cock up on universal credit.

Of is interesting that none of Labour's predictions about economic policies under the coalition have come true. Where is the mass unemployment and the double dip recession?

And why have we lost out triple A ratings with 2 of the 3 Rating Agencies Hays??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????.

Plus prove to me the Unemployment figure shouldnt have at least 1.5 million added on to it.

And we missed the double dip by a cock hair.

#CameronMustGo

The third most retweeted post was from Twitter user @coolvibes77, a criminal barrister who tweeted a quote from Salma Yaqoob, the former leader of the Respect party who attacked Tory Iain Duncan Smith over his approach to austerity.

that footballer is just a rather nasty bully ...... characterful? .... well perhaps, but then so is alex salmond

Eton's a charity is it?... for tax purposes obviously.

By Georgia Graham, Political Correspondent
10:00PM GMT 01 Dec 2014
Duncan Selbie, the head of Public Health England, says that people do not know how much they are drinking and warns alcohol is a 'silent killer'

Enjoying a glass of wine after work does the same harm as drinking three shots of vodka, the head of Public Health England has warned as he said alcohol was becoming the "silent killer" of working age Britons.

Duncan Selbie said that deaths from working age people have increased by 500 per cent since the 1970s because many people "pour a glass and have no idea how much they are drinking".

MPs say that people are safer enjoying an alcoholic drink in their local pub as measures are controlled rather than buying large quantities of wine at "rock bottom prices" in supermarkets and drinking in "non-sociable atmosphere away from people's communities".

They also warn that drinking at home is problematic among the middle classes who pour themselves a glass of wine at the end of the day.

Writing in his weekly briefing to staff Mr Selbie said liver disease is now the third biggest killer of working age adults: "And it is a silent killer, with 75 per cent of people with cirrhosis only being diagnosed once they are admitted to hospital."


He added that the illness is "largely preventable" but that one of the biggest risk factors, alcohol, was difficult to control. He wrote: "For example, a large glass of wine is like three shots of vodka, so it is very easy for people to pour a glass and have no idea how much they are drinking."

Last week the Lancet commission recommended that Liver scans should be offered by GPs as it said middle-class drinking is turning Britain into the capital of Europe for alcohol-related disease.

Senior doctors have said too many people were treating alcohol dependence as “a lifestyle choice, like Armani jeans” and that Britain is now the only country apart from Finland in western Europe in which prevalence of liver disease is increasing.

Greg Mulholland, the Liberal Democrat MP and chair of the all Parliamentary Save the Pub Group, said that if people enjoyed a drink in the "social atmosphere" of the pub rather than behind closed doors it was easier to keep track of their drinking.

He said: "The evidence clearly shows that where measures are controlled and where there is a landlord who has a legal responsibility not to serve people who have had too much to drink, that clearly is a much better place for people to enjoy a alcohol in that context.

"What the Government need to do now is stop so many pubs being turned into supermarkets where ironically alcohol so then sold at rock bottom prices in a unsupervised way and is then drunk in a non-sociable atmosphere away from people's communities.""

Tracey Crouch, the former chair of the alcohol misuse group, and Conservative MP: "The middle class professional is coming home of an evening and pouring themselves a glass of wine with dinner and then possibly another after that without realising that over the course of a week it can tot what is medically advised.

"I'm really please that Public Health England has raised this, because raising awareness of this is not about telling people they cannot drink it is about getting people to understand the drinking habits they have, and it does become a habit, it become a habitual part of your evening rather than some sort of special occasion when people enjoy a glass of wine.

"People will see it is a very different thing pouring a glass of wine to pouring a three measure vodka but this is why it important to have calorific content on the labels - you wouldn't pour three shots of vodka but you also wouldn't sit down and eat six doughnuts - but you tend to pour yourself a large measure of wine not a small glass.

"If you look at liver disease maps there is a perception that it is all going to be deprived areas but actually you see a significant increase in the number of people who are more affluent who are getting liver disease."

Baroness Hayter, the Labour peer, said: "Wine is stronger, and the ordinary wines you buy, we just don't look at how strong it is - we assume all wine is the same per cent and it isn't it can vary enormously... glasses are getting bigger is actually quite serious, it sounds silly but it means you can suddenly be drinking two units instead of one."

Fiona Bruce, the Labour MP, said: "This is an issue we need to take much more seriously, and revise our view of the binge drinker as a teenager out late at night.

"Increasingly too high levels of alcohol consumption are occurring in the home by older age groups and we all have a responsibility to challenge and help address this."

The Telegraph

The horror, the horror

bbc 1 fake Britain 60 discount stores selling fake goods and making people ill
if its cheap its fake .

if you use a discount store you can not be sure the goods are safe .
do not use discount stores goods on your body .it is all most impossible to
tell if it safe or fake by the general public.
always buy from a main dealer

b@m home bargains two of the sops and 99p shops they did not no they were fake

what a good programme to watch fake Britain . all fact .internet is full of fake goods dangerous to your children .be aware it could kill your child

Enforce compulsory drug tests for all Members of parliament, and where necessary prosecute under the misuse of substances act.

Demand for Members of parliament to be drug tested. Starting with George Osborne.

To: Home Secretary (currently Theresa May)

Why is this important?
"Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne's appearance and bizarre behaviour during Prime Minister's Questions on the 26th of November 2014 begs the question of whether or not he was or had recently been under the influence of drugs. The government's exponentially failing drug policy puts public health at risk and defies the advice of their own researchers, whilst lining the pockets of dubious pharmaceutical companies and criminal gangs dealing on the black market. It is also in the public interest to know whether MPs are dabbling in legal highs, in a bid to escape failing a conventional drug test."