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.

nothing beats the nostalgic crackle from a vinyl 78, or even from the speaker of one of those new-fangled echo valve wirelesses

Who's James Blunt, Fred,.... I was thinking who the fook is Chris Bryant!!

surely chris bryant is one of the rising young turks of the labour party .... that's prob why no one has ever heard of him

He was born in Cardiff.

Then he is not a blunt instrument!

No just another Welsh Tool!

Gordon Bennett this is better than the Archers this , wouldn't be surprised if it's been going the same length of time.

Cyners, quick SGP Super Group breaking out.

And boy when this one goes, it goes like split shit.

Labour cracking under the pressure already - temper tantrum from the shadow business secretary on Sky news:

Chuka Umunna, Labour’sshadow business secretary, has stormed out of a live television interview after being challenged over his failure to read a letter sent by the Government to Muslim leaders in Britain.


Mr Umunna clashed with Dermot Murnaghan, a Sky News presenter, after claiming he was being subjected to “ridiculous” questions about Eric Pickles’ letter to 1,100 imams and Islamic leaders saying they must to more to root out "men of hate" who preach extremism.


The shadow business secretary admitted he had not read the letter and said he would not go “off-piste” and discuss its content when asked if he believed the Government was “patronising” Muslims.


Mr Umunna, who was not in the same studio as his interviewer, said it was not “terribly fair” to ask him about the letter because he had been asked to come on the programme to discuss David Cameron’s latest speech on the economy.


After Mr Murnaghan accused him of refusing to speak “until you get the party line right”, Mr Umunna stood up and walked out of the studio.


After Mr Umunna was unable to answer a question about the letter, disclosed in The Daily Telegraph, Mr Murnaghan said: "Well what are you doing in politics? Come on, everyone's talking about it. It's the middle of the afternoon and you still haven't read this?"

Asked by Mr Murnaghan whether he thought the letter to Muslim leaders was “patronising”, Mr Umunna said: “I’m not sure I would use the word patronising for the simple reason that I haven’t actually read the letter.

“You and I can have this debate if you want but the wider and more bigger issue for us is how do we ensure that young Muslim people…”

Mr Murnaghan then interrupted the shadow business secretary and said: “Do you want to come back on in half-an-hour’s time? It doesn’t take long to read the letter and then we’ll have this discussion.”

Mr Umunna replied: “I think you’re being a bit ridiculous right now and your viewers can form their own views. I was asked to come and speak about David Cameron’s speech on the economy and what was happening around the labour market.

“Nobody told me that I was going to be coming on this programme and asked to agree whether I though the Government was patronising Muslim people and Muslim leaders.

“I’m not just going to speak off-piste without actually having read a letter. I don’t think you’re being terribly fair. Your viewers can make their own decision.”

Mr Murnaghan then said: “So you’re not going to speak until you get the party line right – ok, well we’ll have to end it there. Shadow business secretary, thank you very much indeed.”

DB4,

If P would put Murnaghan P55308 is correct I would place him and you at the same level.

If I was given such a "letter" rather than shoot my mouth off like Cameron and his ilk tend to do, I would suggest it needed time to read and consider.

If the person asking me did not find the response to his liking and continued in the same vein I would like Umunna have terminated the interview.

Considering the number of U-Turns this pack of tory hounds have performed in 4+years I think they would have been wiser to keep their "wishes" to themselves and mouths shut more often.

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

I think Cameron's utterings earlier to-day were ill considered and stupid.

Is doodlebug still around. I can see his name. (still filtered)

Sources said he was bankrupted after FLYBE went tits up.

Ohhh what a lovely feeling it was that morning and the £168 grand I banked made it even better.

edit....... ohhhhhh sorry just checked records, it was £268 grand I banked.

21% fall.

Yes. Of course you did!

cut the total b'shit sticky .... it impresses no one
you may have made £268, but forget the zeros :-)

anyway, FLYB "tits up"????
it hasn't performed particularly well, but i can think of many worse

Fred, I thought you were the person who said it was a good idea to have live television debates so that politicians would be forced to answer questions off the cuff?! Terrible PR for the Labour party from Umunna.

the chap was clearly ambushed, but of course that's what happens with live interviews and similar

from the little i'd seen of umunna, i envisaged him as a future labour leader, always assuming the unions and the like could get their heads around a black guy leading them
however, he clearly has an awful lot to learn and is far too street-naive even to sit on the front benches
bit of a shame

He couldn't answer the question because Labour had not come up with the official spin on the subject.

Cynic dont come that, you made at least £20 grand on FLYB short, you said he was green behind the ears.

I would enter into this discussion about who made what on FLYB, but I don't think other posters on this thread are remotely interested - just for that reason I will resist. Suffice to say I bought in at 52p for a recovery play, so you can stick that where the sun don't shine!

would that i had!

Haystack, in other words Umunna didn't have the nous to answer the question with a modicum of grace! Hardly worth throwing the teddies out of the pram and making himself look silly.