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.

Thousands of soldiers could lose their jobs to pay for Trident renewal, former minister warns






Kate Devlin

UK Political Correspondent
.
Wednesday 21 January 2015



Another 20,000 soldiers could face the sack to help pay for the multi-billion pound Trident renewal, a former defence minister has warned.


















Lib Dem MP Nick Harvey said officials were already drawing up proposals to slash the Army from 80,000 to 60,000 personnel.

Speaking in a debate in the Commons, Tory Defence Secretary Michael Fallon also accused Labour of preparing to trade the UK's security for power by entering government with the SNP.


The SNP has said scrapping Trident would be one of its key demands if there is a hung parliament in May.

The debate against renewing the ageing nuclear weapons system on the Clyde was organised by the SNP, Plaid, and the Greens.

Mr Harvey said the Ministry of Defence faced a "financial crunch" and "already paper exercises (are)... looking at what an army of just 60,000 would look like".

He questioned why, under such severe pressures, Trident "gets an automatic bye".

That sentiment was echoed by former Labour shadow minister Diane Abbott who warned her constituents would "not understand" spending billions on a new generation of nuclear weapons at a time of austerity.

But Defence Secretary Michael Fallon defended Trident and accused Labour of being "prepared to trade our security if that was the price of power" and a coalition with the SNP.

In response Labour's shadow defence secretary Vernon Coaker told MPs his party remained committed to a continuous at sea nuclear deterrent.

However, most Labour MPs abstained on the vote, pointing to their party's policy to consider Trident as part of a defence review if it wins the election.

A new poll, timed to coincide with the debate, suggests that most Labour voters oppose Trident renewal.

Prof John Curtice, the polling expert, warned Trident and independence have become so intertwined it could make it more difficult for Labour to win back many Scots voters.

"(Labour) have to think if they are to get back ex-Labour voters who votes Yes, what they say about Trident could actually matter," he said.

But one Labour MP said that the party would be wrong to concentrate too heavily on the issue because polling also suggested that many voters who saw Trident as a top priority "are already voting SNP ".

The survey, carried out by pollsters Survation and commissioned by the SNP, also showed that most of those who expressed a view opposed Trident renewal.

Opening the debate the SNP's Angus Robertson said the case was "stronger than ever" to scrap Trident.

Getting rid of the nuclear deterrent on the Clyde would offer "serious strategic and economic benefits", he said.

And he warned that militarily replacing Trident was the "wrong priority", when money could be invested in other parts of the Armed Forces.

The UK, he argued, would be lauded internationally if it scrapped its nuclear weapons system.

Mr Fallon accused the SNP of wanting to "gamble" with the UK's security by proposing unilateral disarmament.

The Tory MP also compared Trident's Scottish home to Greenham Common, saying its deterrent effect mean Faslane was "truly... Britain's peace camp".

But he admitted that he could not say how much renewing Trident would cost until the so-called "maingate" decision next year, although he rejected the SNP's £100bn estimate.

Mr Fallon also announced that a ,target to cut the number of available nuclear warheads to 120 had been met.

And he hit out at Mr Harvey's Lib Demos, who support a scaled-back nuclear deterrent, accusing the party of wanting a "part-time" weapons system that involved the "pointless" unarmed patrols.

Two thirds of Ukip supporters think party will form part of government after May elections

TWO thirds of UK Independence Party supporters think it will form part of the government after May's general election, a poll found today.

TWO thirds of UK Independence Party supporters think it will form part of the government after May's general election, a poll found today.

Overall, a majority of voters - 54 per cent - expect the Conservatives to be in charge, said ICM research in a report by the British Future thinktank.

But it also found each party's supporters were even more confident about their own movement's chances.

Nearly a quarter, 24 per cent, of Ukip supporters, and 35 per cent of those who say they will definitely back the party, expect leader Nigel Farage to become Prime Minister on May 7.

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg yesterday SUNDAY ruled out serving in a Cabinet alongside Mr Farage and said it was hard to imagine being in government with Scottish National Party (SNP) MPs.

The Deputy Prime Minister told BBC1's Andrew Marr show he believed the most likely election outcome was a Lib Dem coalition with either Labour or the Conservatives.

He dismissed "silly" predictions that his party would lose more than half its 57 MPs in May, insisting people continued to support the Lib Dems when they heard their policies.

A ComRes poll found yesterday SUNDAY that while Labour retained a one-point lead, by 34 to 33 over the Tories, with Ukip third on 18 and the Lib Dems languishing on seven, voters regarded the Conservatives "more favourably" than Labour.

Separate polling by Panelbase suggested Labour could lose half its 40 Scottish MPs in May while the SNP may increase its Westminster presence from six to 35 seats.

The SNP is arguing that its popularity and the prospect that it could form part of the next UK government qualifies it for a place in televised election leaders' debates.

Haze,

If you huff and puff you enough you will blow your own house down.

Get use to being a loser!

Let’s be proud of wealth creation, not ashamed

Telegraph View: Britain can do better than Labour's crude politics of envy




Peter Mandelson once declared himself “intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich”. As one of the architects of New Labour, he understood that without wealth creation all promises of better health care, improved education and higher benefits were worthless. This is especially true in a society where an ever higher proportion of state income is drawn from a dwindling band of taxpayers. New Labour broke with the party’s traditionalist “bash the rich” rhetoric and ushered in a new relationship with the City, whose top earners supplied much of the cash for Gordon Brown’s spending splurge as Chancellor.


Under Ed Miliband, the pendulum has started to swing back to the days when Denis Healey wanted to squeeze the rich until the pips squeaked. The mansion tax, to be levied on a small group of people living in London and the South East, is a classic old Labour device ostensibly designed to raise money for the NHS but in reality intended to encourage envy and sow division. As Lord Mandelson observed on BBC’s Newsnight on Monday, the policy is “crude and short-termist”.


But Mr Miliband does not fuss about that. To him, its crudeness is its strength in that it appeals to base political instincts and is deliberately aimed at Tory voting areas. Indeed, a new analysis shows that were this tax applied proportionately across the country then properties valued at £340,000 would be hit in the North East and at £415,000 in Yorkshire, where Mr Miliband is an MP. These are hardly the homes of the plutocracy.


It seems to be open season once again on the rich as they gather for their annual bash in the Swiss resort of Davos. Oxfam has turned its guns on the 1 per cent of the world’s population that the charity alleges will soon own 50 per cent of its wealth. Notwithstanding the flaws in the research, it fails to acknowledge that global poverty has fallen. In other words, ending inequality rather than relieving poverty now seems to be Oxfam’s principal task. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has also released a report on inequality, as did the Church of England last week.


Yet none celebrate the fact that more wealth is being generated than at any time in world history, drawing hundreds of millions out of poverty and hunger. The lazy and tendentious thinking of Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens needs to be robustly challenged by the Conservatives and business leaders. The value of wealth creation should be extolled, not treated like some guilty unmentionable with an election in the offing. We should not have to rely on Lord Mandelson to remind us of its importance, welcome though his interventions always are.

James Blunt was trying to make a similar point to the shadow culture secretary earlier this week I think!

Hey DB have you ever thought of moving back home and helping the one and only "Con" Party MP retain his seat for the next GE? -):

Yes, everything is going gang busters!

More people in work than ever before!

More soup kitchens than ever before!

National debt bigger than ever before!



Where are the negatives?

Here......... If 1.6 million people are being denied benefits, that doesn’t stop them being unemployed.

Therefore the true unemployment figure should be almost twice as high as stated, at a massive 3.51 million.

That’s before other elements, such as the Work Programme, have been taken into account!


so thats 4.5 million unemployed.

Fat Dave as lied to us again.

Not being denied benefits. Maybe not following benefits rules!

Oh fuck off Haystack, you know the figs are bollox!

Yes I think he probably does Max -):

... Night all.

The figures are reported by the ONS, which is independent of the government.

It is also particularly interesting that Miliband and his gang did not query the figures. It there was anything wrong with the figures they would have on the attack. In reality they just sat there and accepted all the good news looking miserable. No one from Labour ever queries the data.

cynic we will be very close to a gold field site that's all I know . its for research

cynic we will be very close to a gold field site that's all I know . its for research

Haze,

I suggest you look at the ONS figures more closely and ask your tutor to help you!

the further delay on releasing the chilcot report is an absolute disgrace, though i have no idea who is to blame
even the guardian writes, "Chilcot: we know Blair was to blame for Iraq"

blair makes "the teflon don" look like fly paper

Yes, but why are the tories going along with it?

don't know .... maybe publishing it so close to the election would be considered unsporting, though why it was not issued a year or more ago is another q
story is that the cia and other ami interests do not want it published

SNP lead in latest poll as Scottish Labour's Jim Murphy struggles to win voters over




In 2010, Labour received 42 per cent of the Scottish vote, compared to the SNP’s 19.9 per cent


Roisin O'Connor Author Biography

Wednesday 21 January 2015



New Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy appears to be failing to make an impact on voters, as the Scottish National Party lead by 28 points on 52 per cent compared to Labour’s 24 per cent.



An Ipsos MORI poll, commissioned by STV, shows Labour would be humiliated in Scotland by the SNP if the general election were held today. Around 34 per cent of voters said they were satisfied with Murphy's performance.





This would leave Labour with just four seats in Scotland compared to its current 40. The Lib Dems are polling at four per cent, which would mean that they would lose all of their MPs in Scotland: including chief secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander.



Endangered species


The figures, which exclude those unsure of how they will vote in May 2015, were taken from 1001 participants – who were asked how they would vote if there was a general election tomorrow - surveyed between 12-19 January.

They were asked how they would vote "if there was a general election tomorrow".





In 2010, Labour received 42 per cent of the Scottish vote, compared to the SNP’s 19.9 per cent.



Read the comments: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/snp-lead-in-latest-poll-as-scottish-labours-jim-murphy-struggles-to-win-over-voters-9993100.html