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.

Ps.

Hays,

Be a good boy and nip down to Tory Party Central Office and see what the new policy or mantra is!

By Simon Johnson, Scottish Political Editor
12:15PM GMT 25 Jan 2015
The First Minister says halting the renewal of Britain's nuclear deterrent would be her "absolute priority" if the SNP holds the balance of power

Nicola Sturgeon has made the scrapping of Trident the “absolute” red line for the SNP propping up a minority Labour government after the general election despite there being a clear Commons majority to keep Britain’s nuclear deterrent.

The First Minister said that her top priority in a hung parliament would be halting the renewal of Trident and argued the £2.9 billion annual savings would mean the UK Government could abandon public spending cuts without increasing taxes.

Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, she claimed she could persuade Ed Miliband to bow to her wishes despite there being no prospect of the SNP holding the balance of power in a vote on Trident.

Jim Murphy, the Scottish Labour leader, accused her of “horse-trading” Britain’s national security so she could play “footsie about possible coalitions” with his party.

Even if a Miliband premiership could not rely on a Labour majority in the Commons, Conservative MPs would vote with him to pass the renewal plans.


Ms Sturgeon denied claims on a new Conservative election poster that a deal between her party and the Labour leader would create “chaos” in Britain, saying Nationalist MPs would play a “constructive” role in the Commons.

But she said sending a large number of SNP MPs to Westminster to be a strong voice for Scotland is would merely be an "interim" measure until the next independence referendum.

She argued that Scots want a Labour government informally propped up by the SNP, with opinion polls showing her party is on course to win all but a handful of seats north of the Border.

Despite economists warning the move would punch a £7 billion hole in Scotland’s public spending, thanks to the oil price, she also repeated her demand for “full fiscal autonomy” in return for supporting a Labour government.

Speaking after her appearance on the programme, Ms Sturgeon said: “If we deliver a strong team of SNP MPs at the general election, an absolute priority will be getting Trident renewal halted.

“And the more MPs we get elected, the greater the chances of holding the balance of power and achieving the end of Trident, which will free up enormous resources.”

She said the cost of renewing Trident, which is based at Faslane on the Clyde, is around £3 billion per year rising to £4 billion in the 2020s and argued the savings from scrapping it should be spent on the NHS and childcare.

The SNP would work with “progressive political forces” to “halt Trident renewal in its tracks”, she added, name-checking the Greens and Plaid Cymru.

"If you look at polls in Scotland, as well as showing a substantial SNP lead they show that the most popular outcome in Scotland in the general election is a Labour government dependent on SNP support," she said.

Mr Marr pointed out that a minority Labour government would not have to rely on SNP votes to secure the future of the nuclear deterrent, but she argued that many Scottish Labour party members also oppose it.

Speaking later on the BBC’s Sunday Politics programme, Mr Murphy said a decision about Trident should not be about “playing footsie about possible coalitions with other parties”.

“It’s about negotiations with other nuclear states to ensure the world is nuclear free. The nuclear deterrent is too important to get involved in that sort of horse-trading on the nation’s safety,” he said.

“I want a world free of nuclear weapons. You should negotiate that with other nuclear powers, not negotiate away for party, partisan gain.” He refused to be drawn on Labour’s negotiating stance after the general election, saying it was planning for a Commons majority.

Ms Sturgeon confirmed SNP MPs would start voting on English health and education matters in the Commons where there was a knock-on effect on Scotland’s funding thanks to the Barnett formula.

But she admitted there was a “very strong case” for English votes for English laws where there is no impact on Scotland.

Ms Sturgeon said another condition for her propping up Labour would be to get rid of 12 supposed Westminster “vetoes” included in draft laws unveiled by David Cameron last week transferring a swathe of new powers to Holyrood. The Prime Minister made clear there were no vetoes.

The Unionist parties have argued the package of powers will provide Scottish home rule but she said her definition of this was all tax and spending, or full fiscal autonomy.

She was forced to deny she was secretly relieved at having lost the referendum following the collapse of the oil price to less than $50 per barrel, arguing it would recover.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has estimated independence or fiscal autonomy would create a £7 billion black hole in Scotland’s budget compared to the status quo.

Ms Sturgeon also repeated her argument that the UK as a whole voting to leave the EU in a referendum, with a majority of Scots voting to stay in, could trigger a second referendum.

After Lansley, Cameron, Osborne and Hunt, feel safe in the NHS,

"NHS Safe in Tory Hands."



Crowding ‘raised hospital death toll’


Up to 500 patients died last year as a direct result of harm they suffered when hospitals became dangerously overcrowded, Britain’s A&E doctors have warned.

About 350 of the deaths were among patients who had not been diagnosed or given medical treatment quickly enough. Another 150 were not admitted because of bed shortages, even though their condition meant they would usually have been found a place on a ward. The College of Emergency Medicine’s figures have raised concern that growing turmoil in A&E units, and hospitals generally, is doing real harm.

Dr Clifford Mann, the college’s president, said its estimates were based on international studies which show that patients who arrived when hospitals are overcrowded were at greater risk of dying. “It’s sobering that up to 500 patients a year die because too many of our emergency departments are too often overcrowded,” he said.

A&Es in England were busy about 25% of the time, he added, which meant that 3.5 million patients who turned up at an A&E department each year were at slightly increased risk of death.

Applying the results of studies from Australia and Canada showed that up to 350 A&E patients with a range of serious illnesses who ended up waiting longer for admission than the supposed NHS maximum of 12 hours would die, Mann said. Although the exact reason is not clear, delays in diagnosis and vital treatment, such as surgery or antibiotics, are thought to explain most of the deaths.

NHS England said: “Unprecedented numbers of patients are accessing services, and staff are dealing with the highest-ever number of 111 and ambulance calls, A&E attendances and emergency admissions.

Meanwhile, ministers are being warned that the NHS is facing a “disaster” of ever-increasing bed blocking because social care is “chronically underfunded”. An alliance of local councils, NHS organisations and charities says more beds will be occupied by patients trapped there because the services they need after discharge are falling victim to cuts.

“The … system is chronically underfunded. While this remains the case, care and support for elderly and disabled people will only deteriorate,” they say in a letter in today’s Observer.


The Observer/

There is no chance of the UK giving up Trident, no matter who is in power or coalition. There is no chance of it being moved from Faslane either. Sturgeon can huff and puff, but she will be ignored. Scotland is still part of the UK and will do what it is told.

I would prefer a decent NHS to Trident.

Commit UK to the EU and NATO, and Finance Defence as a European concern.


Population of EU =500 Million, Population of UK = 63 million.

Reduction of cost and increased efficacy.

Now Sturgeon claims it would be better for the WHOLE of Britain if her Scottish Nationalists are sitting in Miliband's Cabinet
SNP leader boasts how most Scots want SNP to share power with Labour
Claims that SNP holding balance of power is better for all of the UK
35% of Scottish voters want to see a Labour-SNP coalition after election 
Collapse in support for Labour scuppers chance of an overall majority 
By MATT CHORLEY, POLITICAL EDITOR FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 13:47, 25 January 2015 | UPDATED: 14:50, 25 January 2015

By JANE MERRICK
Sunday 25 January 2015
Liz Kendall has emerged as the favourite candidate among Blairite MPs to succeed Ed Miliband if he loses the general election.
The shadow Health minister gave an interview to The House magazine last week in which she said there was a role for the private sector in the NHS and that “what matters is what works”. While the MP for Leicester West would say she is working hard to get Mr Miliband into Downing Street, MPs from all wings of the Labour party saw her remarks as a clear “signal of intent” that she is considering standing in a future leadership contest on a Blairite ticket.
While Tony Blair himself is understood to admire Chuka Umunna, his allies in Parliament and beyond are settling on Ms Kendall, a former special adviser to Patricia Hewitt. They regard her as a true “keeper of the flame” of Mr Blair’s reformist agenda and see her as an impressive TV performer. The development will be disappointing to Mr Umunna, the shadow business secretary, and Tristram Hunt, the shadow education secretary, who are both seen as natural heirs to Blair.

Mr Miliband’s faltering position in the polls has triggered a near-panic in some putative leadership campaign camps in the past month, and now the election is just over 100 days away positions are hardening, says one Labour source. One suggestion being floated among MPs is a Tristram Hunt/Rachel Reeves joint ticket, with Ms Reeves, tipped as a future Chancellor of the Exchequer, agreeing to put aside any leadership ambitions to run alongside the shadow Education Secretary.
At the same time, allies of Andy Burnham, who came fourth in the 2010 contest, were suggesting their man could run with Ms Reeves instead. Yet a party source said Mr Burnham should “take the message” from his previous performance. This would leave Yvette Cooper, the shadow Home Secretary, as the only “establishment” candidate not from the 2010 intake.
A key Blairite said: “Liz is incredibly impressive on TV, has years of experience in government and really believes in the reforming agenda that Tony started.”
Ms Kendall raised eyebrows in Labour circles last week when her interview with The House was published. While Mr Miliband has planned to make the NHS the core of his election fight with the Tories, Ms Kendall’s comments were seen as a challenge to her leader. Ms Kendall said: “There will remain a role for the private and voluntary sectors where they can add extra capacity to the NHS or challenges to the system. I believe what matters is what works. That’s what I’ve always believed in and I continue to believe in.”

DB 3.5,

You get dafter and dafter, or just left the Bullingdon club night.

The most likely scenario after the next election is for the Tory Party to split into two.

One half of the party MPS led by Berlusconi Boris and the other half of camp followers joining UKIP under Nigel.


A few of the party members might even defect to Lib/dems, which will attempt move more to the right of central in an attempt to survive.

LOL !! "The most likely scenario after the next election is for the Tory Party to split into two."

Haze,

The present tory party have turned the British Armed Forces small force which is becoming more and more a bunch part timers.

Under the torrids, less and less wish to join the forces.

The Euro could drop like a stone depending on the greek elections !.....Greek people are very nice people !, but you have to say that the way their finances have been handled by the Greek government over decades is crazy !....hardly anybody paid any taxes at all !....and now getting out of this total mess is not easy : leaving the Euro is a possibility, in fact they should never have been allowed to join in the first place....It's a complete F----p this eurozone thing....trading between european parners is one thing but it's gone way too far with a single currency....the bigger and more level-minded countries are now being penalized by the excesses of irresponsible political driven badly managed kingdoms whose political burocrats have to along with the wants of a population that are jealous of the wealth created by the likes of Germany, France, Holland and a few others.

Margaret Thatcher was indomitably outspoken against submerging all the European nationalities into a single superstate some 21 years ago when I interviewed her for a Forbes magazine article entitled “It just won’t do. It’s not big enough minded.” The Iron Lady had a grander scheme in mind; a free trade area between and among North America and the European Community. What did we just elect our own Parliament for, she insisted sardonically; “ Just to be a talking show?”

On this score she was indomitable, ferociously scathing at the willingness of independent European nations giving up their autonomy to a bunch of bureaucrats in Brussels. She did not exactly predict the descent of the Euro, the financial crisis in Cyprus or the meltdown in most European sovereign securities or the need to bailout the banks of Italy, Spain and France.


But, in a scathing tone, Lady Thatcher insisted to me that a single currency was impossible. It would never work. “Every single fixed exchange rate has cracked in the end. We’re all at different levels of development of our economies. Some countries simply couldn’t live up to a single currency… We should each of us be proud to be separate countries cooperating together.”

The turmoil in European currency markets that fall of 1992 was proof for Thatcher that a united Europe was meant to crumble. And indeed her prophecy 21 years ago has been borne out lately. The grand experiment of a single monetary system, a single economic policy, working towards a common defense policy, even a common foreign policy meant to her that “80% of Britain’s economic decisions will be made in Brussels.” Actually, it has been more the need of the European Central Bank and Germany to prop up the staggering debt-laden economies of Greece, Spain, Italy, France and try to devise stability for Cyprus. Imagine having banks in Cyprus become an Achilles heel for Europe. Thatcher would have been furious.


And she doesn’t exactly look wrong in her worry over the prospect of German domination of Europe– though “domination” today means the helping hand of the giant strong economy of Europe. Thatcher was going to be damned if she made Britain subservient to Germany.

Forbes magazine

What does your car say about your politics?



Audi drivers are more likely to vote Labour in the upcoming General Election, says new research - while Suzuki owners more often lean towards UKIP.

The study, which asked 1,000 drivers who they would vote for in this year's election, revealed that Jaguar drivers are most likely to vote for the Conservatives while those behind the wheels of Fiats prefer the Green Party.

Almost half (46%) of Audi drivers say they will vote Labour, the survey concludes, as well as 40.8% of Citroen drivers and 36.7% of those in Nissans.

An impressive 44.6% of Jaguar owners will choose the Tories at the election, while 40.1% of Hyundai drivers and 37.3% of Renault owners will also vote blue.

However, a Suzuki is more likely to contain a UKIP voter, says the data. As many as 31.4% pledged their support for the separatist anti-EU membership party.

'Unexpected results'

The Lib Dems can rely on more support from Peugeot drivers than from owners of any other marque, as 17.2% prepare to back Nick Clegg with their vote.

NFDA Trusted Dealers, which carried out the research, highlights the unexpected results. Neil Addley, director of the franchised dealer-owned used car website, said: "Whilst in some areas of this survey we can see party support reflected along traditional lines, there are some real surprises.

"One surprising find is the popularity of Audi amongst Labour supporters, demonstrating the wide appeal and growth of the brand in the UK over the last few years.

"The survey also shows how close political allegiance runs and this should be a real message to politicians to remember the importance of drivers as voters and take note of what motorists want from the next government."

Sorry Fred yours was not covered. :-))

The UNITED STATES'S DOLLAR has been around over 200 years.

The USA has a population of about 300millions..


Maggie Thatcher lived too long.

The EU was born out of the "ECU" and will probably be around in 50 years time, similarly to the Euro.

To many countries outside the EU use it as a substitute for their own currency or the USA dollar.

So H/S you have tried to deflect from the news below, what have you to say about it?

UKIP suspect infects the "Con" party: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-30967633

I have no idea whether this guy is a good guy or not at the moment. I am sure UKIP are trying to smear him for daring to leave. He may turn out to be as bad as UKIP say. I dare say that time will tell.

I have never thought that people moving party tells you much about the parties in question. It is generally a personal thing.

He is a perfect choice for Cameron.

Sorry in place of Cameron.

Shit hits fan in €l Grecoland


http://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2015/jan/25/greek-election-syriza-confident-of-victory-live-updates

Question - Would much have been said on here if he indeed joined the Labour party?

:-))