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.

Hey Cynic bugalugs........... "The Guardian reports that John Lewis' boss Andy Street has warned other retailers that Black Friday promotions must be kept under control in 2015, as strong demand over the promotional weekend hit Christmas profitability.

thruppppppppppppp

I now have these on the mind.... They do a sausage cheese and bean slice which I like..

Fred

You miss the point. Are you fick or wot?

Way back then loans were for 'half a crown'. I guess the reason for this was that we are talking weekly wages back then of, say perhaps £3 - £7 or so. And so a short term loan of 'half a crown' for a couple of days wouldn't be too much to take on for either party.

Hence, (£20 to) £50 or so would be a comparable amount these days, dontchafink?

And the area? Well, this was a 'working class ' practice. So let's suppose, somewhere 'up North' (of Watford?).

i did better than read the guardian ... i listened to the guy on the box this morning :-) ..... i recollect that store/store was flat or perhaps marginally down, but on-line was +19% and overall, a more than satisfactory result

NXT has performed similarly well

==============

indeed, when i reflect, i bought nearly all my pressies on line, though i checked out quite a lot in the stores first ..... saved lugging stuff around, and/or was then ble to find the colour or size or whatever on line, where the store may not have had it in stock

Ed Miliband launched Labour's election campaign with a call to arms - which is to say, an invitation to class war. This was going to be an election about "who we are as a country" , and NOT about the economy or his party's historical embarrassment in the running of same. The speech was surprisingly (to me) short on policy and very long on ideology of the most frankly sentimental kind. There was scarcely any attempt to answer the charge that Labour's spending plans were utterly unrealistic - except for a flat, unsuppported denial that any of their pledges required additional borrowing.


Labour would be "fighting to be the kind of country we know we can be - more just, more equal and more prosperous." And this fight would be a "house to house" campaign, which made it sound like a bloodcurdling last-ditch battleground of the ugliest sort of street war. Except that this battle would consist entirely of "conversations" - four million of them to be precise - to be held on the nations' doorsteps. The enemy - demonically evil as it was - would be talked to death. Mr Miliband gave little indication of how the other side of this conversation might have its questions answered. For example, if greater spending is the answer to the problems of the NHS, why didn't the doubling of health spending under the last Labour government improve healthcare beyond recognition?


Neatly slipping in a change of direction, Mr Miliband made an emotional commitment to the value of immigration which has "helped to build this country" but then added that in the interests of fairness, people should have to contribute before they could receive benefits. This was a gesture to his white working class core vote but also a warning to his party that any change in policy on immigrant benefits must be carefully framed so as not to appear xenophobic or racist.


There was a clear message for his activists on how to fight this War of the Doorstep: don't get bogged down in detail about deficits and borrowing and economic logic. If Labour is to have a hope in hell of being credible, we must make this election about ideology - or what ordinarily people might call moral values. It is about "justice", "equality" and bashing the rich: food banks vs bankers' bonuses, the "scandal of zero hours contracts". Above all it must be about "putting working people first" - by which he appeared to mean the kind of working people Labour approves of, not the striving young professionals who suddenly finding themselves paying higher rate tax when they manage to acheive any degree of financial well-being.


This was a speech which brazenly put vacuous moral blackmail before economic or social reality. It ought to provide the Conservatives with an open goal.

The Telegraph

Onlines OK for non clothing gifts but clothing and tech surely you want to feel the quality never mind the width.!!!!!!!!!!!!!

daughter - found the gift, but not the colour ... colour was available on line
son - local shop did not have the size and could not order for delivery before christmas .... ordered direct on line
wife - daughter advised style etc and took pic in shop .... ordered on line

general grocery shopping - almost a one-off, but as we had a family invasion between christmas and new year, Beloved ordered nearly everything via OCDO - they were very efficient indeed

wine - i always buy on line or at least on the phone
books - i nearly always buy on line
non-fitted clothing (eg socks etc) - would be more than happy to buy on line, but only from a trusted and known supplier/shop

Exec.

Not more obtuse than average.

Firstly, I was gently taking the piss.

Secondly, I have not read or heard the expression before and was interested to know from whence it came.

===========

Ed Miliband is still unable to make eye contact with the public

The 2015 general election campaign started today. Britain is still waiting to hear from the Labour Party and its leader.



By Dan Hodges

11:41AM GMT 05 Jan 2015




This morning I woke up to the sound of the Today programme announcing the start of the Labour Party’s general election campaign. And by the time I’d rubbed the sleep from eyes I was again reminded why Labour is going to lose.


I obviously didn’t have my notebook in bed with me. But I was sure I heard the presenter telling me that Ed Miliband would today pledge to win the election via grassroots activism and a campaign of fighting from doorstep to doorstep. That, unless I missed something, was Labour’s top line.


So I got up, switched on my TV, and waited for Miliband’s campaign launch. And sure enough, there it was.


“Our campaign is setting the goal of holding four million conversations with people in just four months about how we change our country. That is almost twice the number we’ve ever done before..”


Did you get that Britain? As you set off this morning on your first chilly commute of the year, this is what Labour is offering you. Twice as many doorstep conversations as it achieved in the last election. Not just a few more conversations. Not even a lot more. Twice as more.


And that’s not all. The man who wants to be your next prime minister also plans to “set out clear principles for the way this campaign will be conducted so that it can address people’s cynicism and anger towards politics”.

So as you stood there on your windswept platform, waiting for the delayed 7.53, tortured by worry over how this year’s election campaign would be conducted, you did so needlessly. Ed Miliband has principles. Clear principles. And here they are.

He will “win this election, not by buying up thousands of poster sites, but by having millions of conversations”. So if, over the next few weeks, if you see a poster that looks like it’s been put there by the Labour Party, you can safely ignore it. Some other guy called Miliband must have put it there.


Ed Miliband will also “offer hope, not falsehood”. So remember that election poster Labour unveiled over the weekend, (even though Labour obviously doesn’t do posters), claiming the Tories would take Britain back to the 1930s where there was no NHS? It’s all true. On May 8, if you’ve voted David Cameron back in, your local hospital will put up a huge “For Sale” sign. And a few months after that it will be a giant block of luxury flats. And every time you get a twinge, you’ll have to go and visit a dodgy-looking bloke with a tall top hat and a sinister looking black bag in some back alley in Shoreditch. Unless you live outside of London. In which case, if the Tories win, you will just drop dead on the spot.



More: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/11325177/Ed-Miliband-is-still-unable-to-make-eye-contact-with-the-public.html

Ed Miliband is still unable to make eye contact with the public

perhaps he's still too green and has still not sufficiently practiced to perfect his sincere look

I worry about "said to be" politicians like this one!

'Train 'Em Up, Kick 'Em Out. It's A Bit Shortsighted, Isn't It?'




I am now looking for Cameron.

May knows where to grab Farage and Cameron.

By their curls.

When Miliband speaks it's as if he is trying to masticate his way through some raw squid in his mouth.His nashers are never going to last the pace until the GE in May.:-)

I cant stand looking at any politicians or be bothered to listen to their snail paced dribble.... I for one will be happy when the whole thing is over and couldn't really care less who the next PM is, same old shit just a different face on the end of it...

'Train 'Em Up, Kick 'Em Out. It's A Bit Shortsighted, Isn't It?'

for once i thoroughly agree
bloody stupid! .....
if they can get placement with uk firms (dyson is a classic example), then why on earth should we hinder them?
same applies for any graduate

on the other hand, i would be perfectly happy to see some for these 3rd rate so-called unis giving out worthless degrees just shut down

however, that would break the political holy grail of "all children should be able to go to uni"
that mantra is preposterous and it's no wonder we are so short of youngsters with usable and marketable skills, especially those that require one to get one's hands dirty

Whenever I see the above tory spokesman on the TV I see another 100 potential voters moving to Labour.

He really does represent his party.

Even the the dogs growl when the hear him.

Mind looking again, he appears to have been to a Bullingdon Club party at No 10..

Is he in charge of goverment fracking:

How much is that going to cost the UK in view of oil prices?


The plan, called the energy security and innovation observing system, will cost taxpayers £60m-£80m. It is awaiting final approval from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, where energy minister Matthew Hancock, a fracking enthusiast, holds another ministerial post.

However, the Green party MP Caroline Lucas accused the government of subsidising “dirty” energy firms. “There’s no justification for using public money to help the fracking industry pull the wool over people’s eyes. It’s another desperate attempt to quell legitimate public concern and may further undermine public trust,” said Lucas, who in April was found not guilty of public order offences after an anti-fracking protest in Sussex.

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I find it amusing when I hear Georgie Boy and Two Faced Dave criticise Labour’s figures and talk about not leaving a legacy for "their" children!

The UK national debt grows at a rate of £5,170 per second!
http://www.nationaldebtclock.co.uk/

£ 40.718 debt per taxpayer

UK National Debt Surpassed £1 Trillion


Mainstream media headlines today are focused on Britain's record national debt, which just surpassed £1 trillion, a figure that can only exponentially increase unless the entire mechanism of Government finance is overhauled. The truth however is much worse, factoring in all liabilities including state and public sector pensions, the real national debt is closer to £4.8 trillion, some £78,000 for every person in the UK.