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.

so probably is Oxfam's management, he said sourly

haha zebedee
more seriously and as a very simple example, the chinese have little or no regard for intellectual copyright

The future face of the tories!

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jan/20/lord-mandelson-mansion-tax-labour-miliband

Lord Mandelson attacks Ed Miliband’s ‘crude’ mansion tax plans

Peter Mandelson has denounced the mansion tax, which will form a key part of Labour’s general election manifesto, as a “crude short term” measure that will clobber homeowners.

In a blow to Ed Miliband and Ed Balls, who aim to use £1.2bn raised from the mansion tax to help pay for a new £2.5bn “Time to Care” NHS fund, the former business secretary said his party should instead adopt the Liberal Democrat proposal for higher council tax bands.

Speaking on Newsnight on BBC2, Mandelson said he favoured finding new ways of taxing property in Britain. But he added: “I don’t happen to think that the mansion tax is the right policy response to that. I think it’s sort of crude, it’s sort of short-termist.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ed-miliband/11354717/Ed-Miliband-is-like-Francois-Hollande-business-leaders-warn.html

Ed Miliband is like Francois Hollande, business leaders warn

Business leaders warn that Ed Miliband will prove to be 'anti-business' if he wins the General Election

Ed Miliband will be like Francois Hollande and damage the economy with a series of "punitive" tax rises if he wins the next election, business leaders have warned.
Writing in the Financial Times, they warned that a future Labour government will prove to be "anti-business" and deter investors.

Guy Hands, the chief executive of private equity firm Terra Firma, said he was concerned that Mr Miliband will usher in a series of "punitive taxes on the City".
He said: "We could see the sort of tax rises that would have other international financial centres rubbing their hands with glee."

Manny Roman, chief executive of investment manager Man Group, said: "The UK election is a real risk. The Labour party is seen as very anti-business and investors fear a repeat of Hollande."

Such a lot of fuss about a character in Coronation Street soap. I never could watch it, due to the strange 'foreign' accents. I did once go up there and couldn't understand the locals. Anywhere that far up north is as different to London as Germany or anywhere abroad.

"Haystack Send an email to Haystack View Haystack's profile - 20 Jan 2015 10:33 - 55345 of 55350

http://order-order.com/2015/01/19/were-healthier-wealthier-and-longer-living/

Oxfam was complaining today that some people were too rich. Truth is globally,

thanks to capitalism, we’re all getting richer."

1) Which group does "We" refer to. (Ukraine ? Nigeria? Palestine? Iraq?.)

2) Which groups in society are getting richer more quickly?

3) How are you measuring "richer", do you mean Cash, Assets, Health, "Quality" of life?

4) Is the endless drive to make a quick buck and drive GDP up beginning to become a false "measure" for measuring a modern society, although still useful for "underdeveloped" societies.?

5) Are "possessions" such as a Ferrari the measurement of success or simply another form of trinket?

========

Umm.

Manuel,

Don't expect many answers

i'm just off to the gym anyway

Reading Haze's and DB3's 1/2,'s postings you can see why the tory party will be rejected in March!

Fred2old to understand anything - the brain has obviously completely gone.

Ho, Ho.

.

Manuel wrote "i'm just off".

A bit like torys' press releases!

LOL.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ed-miliband/11355642/Ed-Miliband-the-zoo-animal-no-one-wants-to-see.html

Ed Miliband 'the zoo animal no-one wants to see'

Voters are indifferent to Labour leader after four years, focus group respondents say Miliband 'the zoo animal no-one wants to see'

Voters are indifferent to Labour leader after four years, focus group respondents say.

If Ed Miliband were a zoo animal, visitors would “not be bothered whether you see it or not”.
That is the scathing verdict of members of a focus group that suggests that, after four years in the job, voters are at best indifferent about the Labour leader.

Voters are “puzzled” by Mr Miliband who they regard as “faffing” and “an interim leader”, according to focus groups conducted by Lord Ashcroft, the former Tory donor.

By contrast, the public have a far clearer idea of what the other main party leaders stand for.

Voters have concluded that Mr Cameron is “smart and sleek”, and liken him to a fox or a giraffe that “looks down on everybody,” Lord Ashcroft said in his most recent bulletin of polling.

They liken Mr Farage, the Ukip leader, to a “peacock or a weasel”, while Nick Clegg is regarded as a “Chihuahua in David Cameron’s handbag.”

Asked to liken him to an animal, one focus group member replied: “Certainly not a predator… one of those animals that, when you go to the zoo, you’re not bothered whether you see it or not.”

By contrast, Mr Cameron was said to show “authority” and an ability to stand on the global stage.

Lord Ashcroft said: “Perhaps the most notable feature of these groups of undecided voters was the absence of any enthusiasm for Labour – even among those who had voted for the party in 2010 – or any urgent desire for change. Nobody could recall any Labour promises, and the most positive thing anyone said about Ed Miliband was that ‘he talks sense on things like not privatising the NHS, but he’s not really on the ball, not in David Cameron’s league’.

“People could not say where he wanted to take Britain: ‘he hasn’t really made up his mind where he’s going… it’s as though he just wants to be a politician, and he’s faffing around to find some principles’ – and, ominously, ‘it feels like he’s the interim Labour leader until the next one’.”

Voters regarded Mr Miliband’s on the Conservatives with scepticism, Lord Ashcroft said. Labour have warned that Conservative plans would take public spending back to the levels of the 1930s, an era before the NHS.

Focus group members deemed the claim to be “very unlikely,” a “lie” and “completely misleading”, Lord Ashcroft said. By contrast, the Tories’ central message – “Stay on the road to a stronger economy” – was deemed to be “largely believable”, even if some voters were confused as to whether the statistics included were pledges or achievements.

The Ashcroft national poll put the Tories one point ahead of Labour, on 29 to 28. It is the first time in decades that both major parties are on below 30 per cent.

The Greens are up three points to 11 per cent, two points ahead of the Liberal Democrats. It suggests that the Conservatives’ demand that the Greens have a role in the TV debates ahead of the election may be boosting the party’s popularity.

WHOS GOT THE FITTEST BIRDS IN PARLIAMENT.

Got to be Labour


Labour MP Rushanara Ali sponsored the discussion.


Rachel Reeves


Lucianna Berger.


For the Tories


Anna Soubry


Conclusion

Labour win hands down, or is that Tits up.

Lucianna Berger is the top of them all.

Public school educated!

ooooooooops her indoors just given me right back hander. Hates me looking at other birds.