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.

Thanks, Hils.

Enjoy these drawings (can't think what they remind me of)..... ;-)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30474521

Labour MPs told not to focus on immigration when campaigning

A leaked Labour document - which has been sent to some of the party's MPs and activists - says they should "move the conversation" away from immigration when they are talking to the public.

It says campaigners should listen to and understand public concerns but focus on "stronger" issues for Labour.

Not surprising that Labour want to avoid conversations about immigration as they caused the problem.

Hays................. i agree 100% well said.

Just been watching Con and Lib Mps on Daily Politics,

Jesus they could be Doppelgängers for Haze and Napoleon.

Partially in denial and repetitions of mantras and hand downs from party central office.

They are not listening to the public.

Out of contact with reality!

.

And millipeed is in touch??


LOL !

NHS litigation claims double under coalition

Scale of clinical negligence claims is now unprecedented prompting claims that reorganisation has harmed patient care



Daniel Boffey, policy editor


The Observer, Saturday 13 December 2014 14.34 GMT


The number of litigation claims made against the NHS in a year has almost doubled under the coalition, prompting claims that the service is failing to deal with growing demands on its limited resources.

The scale of the clinical negligence claims is unprecedented, with 11,945 cases reported by NHS trusts over the last financial year compared with 6,562 in 2009-10.

Such are the costs of dealing with the legal actions that the NHS has increased the amount of money it retains to deal with claims, up from £8.7bn in the first year of the coalition government to £15.6bn in 2013-14 – adding to the financial stresses within the service.

The analysis, based on figures published annually by the NHS Litigation Authority, comes as NHS England revealed that 35,373 patients waited more than four hours for treatment in the first week of December. That number was 66% higher than the same period last year. Meanwhile 7,760 people were kept on a trolley for between four and 12 hours before a ward bed was found – up from 3,666.

Amid a barrage of criticism on Friday, Dame Barbara Hakin, the national director of commissioning operations for NHS England, was forced to admit in interviews that the NHS was “under a huge amount of pressure”. “We are seeing far more patients than we ever have before,” she said. The Department of Health has insisted that the NHS was well prepared for winter and that an injection of £700m would pay for extra nurses, doctors and beds this winter.

Labour said, however, that the figures on litigation should act as a warning.

The health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, had previously admitted that a high number of litigation claims was a good indicator of poor care in the system. In a speech given at Birmingham Children’s Hospital in October, Hunt said standards in safety and quality of care must improve to reduce avoidable costs.



More:http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/dec/13/nhs-litigation-claims-double-under-coalition

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-14/u-a-e-says-opec-won-t-change-output-even-if-price-drops-to-40.html

U.A.E. Sees OPEC Output Unchanged Even If Oil Drops to $40

OPEC will stand by its decision not to cut output even if oil prices fall as low as $40 a barrel and will wait at least three months before considering an emergency meeting, the United Arab Emirates’ energy minister said.

OPEC isn’t planning to change its Nov. 27 decision to keep the group’s collective output target unchanged at 30 million barrels a day, Suhail Al-Mazrouei said. Venezuela supports an OPEC meeting given the price slide, though the country hasn’t officially requested one, an official at Venezuela’s foreign ministry said Dec. 12. The group is due to meet again on June 5.

“We are not going to change our minds because the prices went to $60 or to $40,” Mazrouei told Bloomberg yesterday at a conference in Dubai. “We’re not targeting a price; the market will stabilize itself.” He said current conditions don’t justify an extraordinary OPEC meeting. “We need to wait for at least a quarter” to consider an urgent session, he said.

But never mind the detail!

Exactly, you don't get detail with any party though...

Got to agree with Hays re previous post on Oil.

Spot on Hays.

from a biz point of view, i'm delighted if saudi keep pumping, but it won't do much for the world economies for a while ...... indeed, it is likely to make them even more fragile especially with china cooling considerably

By James Corrigan
12:30PM GMT 15 Dec 2014
The British public totally failed to understand the magnitude of McIlroy's incredible year - they clearly just prefer men in fast cars, says James Corrigan

At least we now can be clear that it is too dangerous to allow the public to decide upon two things - the death penalty and Sports Personality of the Year.

Golf is less annoyed and more befuddled by the Rory Mcllroy snub in the BBC “show” on Sunday. The pros who took to social media to express their bafflement at the world No 1 being outvoted by Lewis Hamilton told their own story.

Could the UK public not understand the magnitude of what McIlroy achieved in the summer? Could they not see that in that remarkable run from the Open through to the USPGA, McIlroy produced a stretch of form that was perhaps of a higher quality than any produced by any UK sports person in any era? What exactly does he have to do to win it? Invent penicillin?

Luke Donald hit the balata on the head when saying that as long as SPOTY is a public vote such farces will be replayed. Let’s face it, the public are fools when it comes to weighing up excellence. They do not judge dispassionately. If they did Hamilton would not have a sniff of beating McIlroy in a poll. And that is whether the award is based on performance or personality.


If I was McIlroy I would not bother turning up again. He does not need it, certainly not for his ego. Hamilton turned up at the Glasgow Hydro with his dog. McIlroy turned up with the responsibility of being No 1 in his sport. Golf is struggling with its participation levels and McIlroy saw an opportunity to spread the gospel to a wider audience.

But no, it seems that this wider audience prefers fast cars to a sport in which integrity is at its core. It seems that this wider audience do not grasp the fact that Hamilton essentially had one serious rival to beat on his way to the world title, while McIlroy had at least 70 serious rivals, as well as so many more invariables, to conquer on his way to becoming the first European golfer to win three different majors.

When McIlroy tees off at the Masters in April in his bid to become just the sixth player in history to complete the career Grand Slam he will not have superior equipment than the other golfers, he will simply have a far superior talent. No doubt, Hamilton is more talented than the rest as well. But that would mean nought if his car was not up to scratch.


So, yes, it is a disgrace that McIlroy did not win SPOTY. It is easy to see why. Golfers did not vote for him, because, well, golfers are not the type to switch on to a “show” which long ago traded in its dignity to appeal to the common denominator addicted to all that reality guff.

If you want to know how far SPOTY has descended since the days when it was an understated appreciation of the UK sporting year then look no further than Simple Minds opening the “show”. By the time the credits rolled - it has to be said, with no credit whatsoever - the booking of that band appeared so appallingly appropriate.

DB - thoroughly agree ..... hamilton's ok i suppose, but frankly, f1 this year was only ever a two horse race, and in any case, so much is dependent on pit stops and other non-driving skills

Ditto db, national disgrace.

But Rory was playing crap till he split up with his bird!

He's awesome to watch on television, but to see him in " real life" on a practice ground is even more awesome. A golf swing to die for!

Shortie - his mind was scrambled!!