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.

Nightmare at No 10 after a joint!

Mark Reckless ‏@MarkReckless 9 minutes ago

The reason David Cameron now claims EU Referendum possibly 2016, not end-2017, is surely that he has given up on any serious renegotiation

if that is so, then it makes it more likely that, rightly or wrongly, the british public (with or without the scots!) will vote for out .... except if labour is put in power, they won't have any say at all

however, is eu still at the forefront of the voting public's mind - that means those who actually get off their arses to vote?

probably not, though immigration and various aspects of the economy are and have a link

Somebody must be smoking the same substance as No 10 does.

now petrol prices are ~110 against ~135 in the very very recent past, i wonder how this will reflect in the recovery of the real economy as well as people's perception of how far their money goes

certainly christmas retail figures were much more perky than one might have expected, and i doubt the hangover will be any worse than usual

well back home for a while meeting at the club today . on ed back tracking on immigration the lads are not happy having given the candidate our backing he could now lose it and may switch back to ukip
Cameron as we all now know is no more than a LIAR

HAVING JUST COME BACK FROM SPAIN . the locals are not happy and are calling for action to leave the eu a long with Greece . the poverty in spain is terrible and I do no a lot of Spanish they have had enough of the stinking corruption and the german rules .

Italy giving free buses for thousands of migrants arriving in their ports to get to france . the boarder to france is awash with migrants French people are taking up arms to protect they selves and their properties

both spain and greece are arguably fortunate that they weren't thrown out a couple of years back whether they wanted it or not!

but yes, unemployment in spain, especially among the young is terrifying - around 55% if i recollect .... in greece i know not, but then they never paid their taxes there anyway

cynic happy new year .

spain is very bad for the young a lot have come to the uk well over 20 000
they are very close families do not like their sons and daughters having to move

Cyners....."certainly christmas retail figures were much more perky than one might have expected, and i doubt the hangover will be any worse than usual"....ends

ARE YOU SURE..........

Look at John Lewis..... store sales were FLAT.

Normaly these boys set the tone for the high street.

It appears as I suspected we had an early xmas adopting the Yanks black Friday or whatever its called.

Shopping could have just been brought forward.

Lewis reported xmas week rather quiet.!!!!!!!!!!

We shall see over the coming 2 weeks.

you're wrong .... JL figures were actually very good .... though their store/store figures were flat, their on-line biz boomed reflecting the changing ways of modern shopping

Another reason we need to leave the EU:

Homeless EU beggars in London costing £0.5m per year

Where are you and your family moving to then E/L?

Stan

Can you lend me £50 until I bake?

:-)

Thats what I meant to say Cyners, not all the retailers have Lewis online expertise.

The store figures were FLAT like I said. I said the tone FOR THE HIGH STREET.

Sorry E/L can't afford it, but assuredly Alf will... won't you -):

that actually wasn't what you wrote at all, but never mind

certainly the character of high streets continues to change - i don't suppose ours is very much different from others - with many more coffee and sandwich shops and similar, and fewer "normal" retailers whether indy or chain

however, indy shops that sell the right quality and variety for their area do fine, though landlords need to be a lot less greedy if they want to avoid high vacancy, and local authorities also need to get their brains working (should they have any) to encourage footfall - eg cheap or fee parking, pedestrianised zones, cafes encouraged to use their outdoor space (RBK&C is a disgrace in that respect), and arguably biz rates slanted to help indies

Never mind all that Alf, E/Line's still waiting.

'Baking Day' was usually the same day of the week as 'Pay Day' and so one housewife would ask for a short term loan from one of her housewife neighbours until baking day came. The inference was given, that this was obviously the same day as pay day but the inference was given without embarassingly having to refer to 'pay day' as such. (You know what women are like, I'm sure?).

The loan would be without any monetary interest but appreciation for it would be given, perhaps with the gift of, say a pie, tart, small cake, loaf of bread or similar as a token of thanks.

Hence, "Can you lend me 'half a crown' until I bake?"

Of course, with inflation, 'half a crown' these days is now roughly the same as £50.