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.

But Cameron and Osborne have fixed the economy.

Sorry, I meant that they are a pair of fixers.

MaxK
There is no bargaining power in that situation as it is all after the election. They may have an effect in splitting the vote, letting in other parties. However that is not bargaining power.

You don't have to be an MP to be deputy leader. There are historic examples where we have had PMs who were from the House of Lords. The Marquess of Salisbury, who retired in 1902, was the last Prime Minister to lead a government from the Lords.

You don't even need to be an MP to be PM. Sir Alec Douglas Home was appointed to be PM by the Queen from the Lords in 1963. He renounced his title and later ran for election as an MP. You don't even need to be a British National, they could be an Australian, Indian, Canadian, Pakistani, Kenyan, South African etc.... This is due to something called the British Nationality Act of 1981 which basically gave commonwealth citizens eligible to live in Britain equal status with UK citizens, without actually having to become UK citizens. You could even be from the Republic of Ireland.

In fact the Queen can appoint anyone to be Prime Minister. We have no written constitution. We operate by custom and convention.

On CNBC this morning the prediction was for UKIP to get 16 seats if (a big IF) they poll 23% of the votes.
2517

CNBC must be crazy. Even 23% only gives them about 6 seats. The demographics are against them. They are too evenly spread for any breakthrough.

I think Hays has a dose of the demons.

In order for ukip to get any votes, they have to rob them from someone else.


Where will the votes come from?

I think Haystack is right - and that is not just wishful thinking. UKIP is going sideways at the moment, the bandwaggon has stalled.

A Labour/Snp coalition just doesn't bear thinking about, it would be an utter disaster for England to have Sturgeon and Salmond in a position of such power.

Amazing advances in technology!

Scientists manage to 'UNBOIL' an egg: Chemical process to untangle proteins could lead to cheaper cancer treatments

Chemists from the University of California Irvine and the University of Western Australia boiled egg whites for 20 minutes
They added urea to liquefy the material and break down its proteins
Used a 'vortex fluid device' to force proteins back into an untangled form
Discovery could one day reduce the cost of cancer treatment
By SARAH GRIFFITHS FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 10:57, 26 January 2015 | UPDATED: 12:13, 27 January 2015

Scientists have proved that it’s possible to unboil an egg, using urea to break down microscopic proteins. A stock picture of boiled eggs is shown

Scientists have proved that it’s possible to unboil an egg using chemicals.

They added urea to a hardboiled egg to break down proteins and return it to its liquid form, before using a machine to re-assemble the broken pieces.

The experts say their discovery could one day reduce the cost of cancer treatment, as well as making cheese, for example.

When an egg is boiled, proteins in the egg white tangle together to form a solid.

Now, chemists from the University of California Irvine and the University of Western Australia, have proved the process is reversible, if urea is added.

‘Yes, we have invented a way to unboil a hen egg,’ said Professor Gregory Weiss, a biochemist at UC Irvine.

‘In our paper, we describe a device for pulling apart tangled proteins and allowing them to refold.’

His team boiled egg whites for 20 minutes at 90°C (194°F).

They then added a urea substance that ‘chews away at the whites’ to liquefy the solid material and break down proteins.

Urea is a chemical compound found in urine, although it is also made artificially too.

However, the protein ‘bits’ are still tangled and unusable at this point, so the scientists poured the liquid solution into a ‘vortex fluid device’.

The machine applies stress to the tiny pieces, forcing them back to their untangled, original form.

It is not known whether the egg is edible after being 'unboiled'.

It is hoped that the research, which was published in the journal ChemBioChem, could ‘transform industrial and research production of proteins.’

Many scientists have struggled to produce or recycle molecular proteins, which have a wide range or applications, but frequently ‘misfold’ into incorrect shapes, making them useless.

Professor Weiss and his team boiled egg whites for 20 minutes at 90°C (194°F). They then added a urea substance that ‘chews away at the whites’ to liquefy the solid material and break down proteins. They poured the liquid solution into a ‘vortex fluid device’ that forces them back to their untangled, original form

Also....

INSTANT SCRAMBLED EGGS
A Chicago-based entrepreneur has invented a gadget that scrambles an egg inside its own shell.

The £10 ($17) contraption named Goose gently spins the egg, blending the yolk and the white without cracking the shell itself.

The already-scrambled egg can then be soft or hard boiled - and its creator, Geraint Krumpe, claims the ingenious method makes them taste far better than regular eggs.

‘It’s not so much that we’re interested in processing the eggs - that’s just demonstrating how powerful this process is,’ Professor Weiss said.

‘The real problem is there are lots of cases of gummy proteins that you spend way too much time scraping off your test tubes, and you want some means of recovering that material.’

He explained the old methods of untangling proteins are expensive and time consuming, taking about four days.

‘The new process takes minutes. It speeds things up by a factor of thousands.’

The researchers believe that the ability to quickly and cheaply re-form common proteins from yeast of E.coli bacteria could streamline protein manufacturing and make cancer treatments more affordable.

Industrial cheese makers and farmers, who use proteins, could also see cost savings, they added.

I am interested in the coming UK general elections in Scotland.

I realise that the SNP rebounded from the result on what they have suggested is impending treachery by the London based government attempts to renegade on what they thought "honest Promises” made by Cameron. (and Brown in Scotland)

55% of the Scotland voted against “devolution”, which was the preference choice of the “London Elite”.

Why would they move in a numbers to from being previous Labour voters to become SNP voters.

But, what is being suggested by some Political Gurus, is that the a large percentage of the “NO” voters will move to support the SNP at a GE, a party that they recently voted against and there will be little of no movement from the back to the Labour and to a minor degree to the Libs and Tories.

I can see why the Libs will be under pressure, but “Students Fees”, which was a thorn in the backside of many of its supporters, probably won’t be such an issue in Scotland.

My guess is that SNP will get less votes in the GE than expected after the furore and fury of the “referendum” has died down.

Interesting to watch.

Trident poll: Scots more keen on axe than rUK



ONLY a quarter of people in Britain think the UK should scrap its nuclear weapons compared with nearly half in Scotland, a poll has suggested.

The divide in opinion on nuclear weapons on either side of the border is evidenced in a YouGov poll for the Times, where 56 per cent of UK respondents want to replace Trident compared with 42 per cent in Scotland.

Just 25 per cent of UK respondents want it scrapped compared with 48 per cent in Scotland, the poll of 1,656 adults on January 25 and 26 found.

When Scotland’s 144 respondents are removed, support for Trident south of the border rises to around three-fifths while support for scrapping it falls further.

Scottish opinion on nuclear weapons could have a material impact on UK politics following the general election, with a resurgent SNP offering to prop up a UK Labour government in exchange for concessions on issues like Trident.

Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy has steadfastly opposed unilateral UK disarmament but a U-turn could be a vote winner, with 33 per cent of Scots saying they would be more favourable towards Labour if it agreed to scrap Trident compared with 18 per cent who said they would be less favourable.




Opinion across the UK is more split, with 20 per cent saying they would be less favourable towards Labour if the party agreed to scrap Trident compared with 18 per cent who said they would be more favourable.

Moving Trident out of Scotland and basing it in England could be a vote winner for Ed Miliband, with 18 per cent saying it would make them more favourable to Labour compared with 12 per cent who said they would be less favourable.

However, about a third of respondents said they they are unfavourable towards Labour anyway and a shift on Trident would make no difference, compared with just a tenth who said they are currently favourable towards Labour.

The future of Trident was a key battleground in the independence referendum, with the UK Government warning of a massive relocation bill if an independent SNP Government ordered Trident out of Scotland.

If Scotland becomes independent in the future, 41 per cent of UK respondents said the UK Government should build a new base south of the border compared with 23 per cent who said they should scrap it and 18 per cent who said they should negotiate a deal to keep it in Scotland.

Haze,

Have you been down to Tory party central headquarters to get the spiel on the recent economic figures?

What I don't understand is why the UK economy should have been insulated against the World's economy "recession" but the Tories are warning that any slow down in the UK's economy is due to it!


Swings and roundabouts I suppose.

Leader: History lesson for Jim Murphy



SCOTTISH Labour leader has been gaining momentum, but his party’s disheartening backstory is dragging him down

IN A typically perspicacious column for this newspaper recently, former SNP front-bencher Andrew Wilson assessed the start Jim Murphy had made in his tenure as the new leader of the Scottish Labour Party. Wilson cautioned Nationalist colleagues not to underestimate their new adversary, praising Murphy’s tenacity and political intelligence.

But Wilson said there was one serious doubt about Murphy’s leadership, one question mark over whether he would be successful in convincing Scots to lend Labour their support. Wilson quoted Polonius’ words to Laertes in Hamlet: “This above all: to thine own self be true,/ And it must follow, as the night the day,/ Thou canst not then be false to any man.”

The insinuation was clear: Murphy was being inauthentic, backing policies and positions he would previously have dismissed on ideological grounds. Wilson’s conclusion was that the voters would recognise this and – seeing authenticity as one of the most desirable qualities in a politician – reject him and his party at the ballot box.

• More pressure on Jim Murphy to choose – MP or MSP?




Murphy’s energy has indeed been impressive, with a new initiative daily. This weekend those initiatives include backing for a not-for-profit bid for the Scottish rail franchise; a requirement on fracking operators to first win a referendum within the local community; and protection for Scottish international football matches in the selling of future TV rights. His stated aim is to secure the support of 190,000 Labour voters who backed the Yes campaign during the referendum and who – according to numerous opinion polls – are now thinking of voting SNP. The most recent of these polls puts SNP support at a remarkable 52 per cent – more than twice the Labour tally. With just over three months until the General Election, Scottish Labour faces an uphill task.

Will it be hampered by what Wilson sees as Murphy’s inauthenticity?

SNP strategists say Murphy’s current and ­previous positions can be easily presented to the electorate, with an invitation for them to draw their own conclusions. They say his lack of ­political consistency will tell its own story, and voters will prefer a party and a leader with more consistency in their message.

But perhaps that would be to overestimate the amount of time or interest most voters have for politics in their otherwise busy lives, with the competing demands of family, work and social life. Do people really have a sense of Murphy’s political backstory as a Blairite fixer and eager participant in Labour’s “TBGBs” civil war? Those within the political bubble may have a fully formed view of Murphy, seeing him as a particular breed of political animal, and ­therefore see his volte face on certain Blairite nostrums as remarkable. Those outwith, who have a life, do not.

Most people take politicians at face value, here and now. They judge them on what they say in a campaign and what they promise in a manifesto. They judge politicians on their ability to shape the future, not on whether they have reshaped their past.

Murphy does not have his troubles to seek as he struggles to hold on to his party’s traditional supporters. But his political antecedents are not in the forefront of his problems


Instead, his biggest difficulty is something over which he has no control. It is the average Scot’s disillusionment with a Labour Party that has been grudging about Scottish home rule, dourly negative about Scotland’s potential, and lacking in both style and substance.

He can try to ameliorate this with a narrative that speaks of a different kind of politics, of a patriotic Scottish Labour party with a sense of its own history.

But there is no escaping the fact that Jim ­Murphy’s biggest political headache is his own party’s recent past.

Exec.

Sounds a bit like Differential precipitation.

I think I would prefer to crack my own eggs (chickens') for an omelette.

By Iain Martin

2:13PM GMT 27 Jan 2015


There are only ten days to go until there are 90 days to go until the general election. Then it will be only ten days to go until there are 80 days to go until the general election, and so on until it is finally polling day (although millions of Britons will have begun voting begun weeks before by postal ballot). You simply can't wait, can you?


The Prime Minister is certainly excited about the campaign. Today, after giving The Daily Telegraph a serious interview, he has had his advisers book him onto every single media outlet in the country, from Orkney FM to Absolute 80s. For those of you having a duvet day, look out, because you can catch the Prime Minister on Cash in the Attic later.


(This is not true. The Prime Minister will not be on Cash in the Attic later. However, he will be on Homes Under the Hammer.)


Host: "We're in the loft of a Georgian terraced house in central London and David has been looking in the attic. Ooh… what have you found?"


David Cameron: "What? This old thing? Oh, it's just my pledge from 2010 to reduce immigration to the tens of thousands by the time of the 2015 election. My, my, was that really five years ago?"

Host: "It's a bit battered around the edges. It's falling apart."

David: "What do you think it might fetch at auction then?"

Host: "Hmmm… I'm sorry. It's probably worthless."

But in his Telegraph interview today the Prime Minister did make several important interventions, not least of which were his comments about Scotland and the threat of a Labour/SNP pact in the event of a hung parliament. He said that the prospect is terrifying.
This follows the release by the Tories of a poster (which is the name political parties now give to mock-ups sent out on the internet) on which they warned that voters' alleged worst nightmare (an Ed Miliband premiership) had just got worse. Former SNP leader Alex Salmond and Miliband were photoshopped to make it look as though the pair were embracing on the steps of Number 10.

This poster provoked some criticism in Scotland, not least from my friend Alex Massie, who described it as a "stupid" poster. I get the point, that for short term gain the Tories risk helping the SNP, because many Scottish voters would actually rather like the idea of the Nats holding the balance of power and checking the increasingly hated Scottish Labour party.

But such complaints can be filed, as they so often are with Cameron, in the "worry about that later" folder. First, the Conservative leader has to get from neck and neck with Labour to four or five points ahead by polling day. That battle will be fought overwhelmingly in England, where there are ten times the number of voters as there are in Scotland.

And one of the most powerful weapons available to the Tories could be, if it is given enough attention, the risks that flow from a minority Labour government being propped up by the SNP making further demands. Miliband has declined to rule out a pact on the duff advice of Labour in Scotland, based on the theory that voters north of the border are well used to pacts at Holyrood and would have little problem with a Labour/Nat deal in London. So that's okay, then?

No. It overlooks how unpopular the notion of Scots dictating to England is likely to be in much of England, particularly in the heavily populated south.

The Labour strategy also leaves the party looking utterly ridiculous on both sides of the border, with Miliband contemplating a deal with the Nats, while Jim Murphy fights to avoid the death (yes, the death) of the Scottish Labour party at the hands of the SNP.

If the Tories can capitalise on this chaos, it really could make the difference in May. It supplements their story of the economic recovery being at risk from Miliband (and potential Euro chaos) with a gut instinct appeal to the English electorate's sense of justice. It will have particular appeal to Tories thinking of defecting to Ukip but unsure what it could lead to. You can imagine in being said in pubs, and by families several days from the election watching the TV news (in the manner of Gogglebox). "Miliband could do a squalid deal with the Scot Nats to stitch up England? What a bloody cheek. We won't be doing that."

The Tories, I suspect, will hammer this theme. They would be crazy not to.

Telegraph

Hundreds of live and dead cockroaches found in kitchen, microwave and crawling up walls of pizza takeaway… but inspectors close it for just three days
Cockroaches and eggs found 'huddled together' in pizza base cupboard
Pizza Pan takeaway in Birmingham also sells fried chicken and chips
Infestation of insects found in cool drinks chiller and under work surfaces
Also discovered on work surfaces where pizza boxes were being stored
Owner Shaid Salim, 38, is fined £900 and ordered to pay £2,000 costs

Should be put in prison for 2 years.

Bloody election, they will be knocking on doors before long pestering people... As per previous years I always tell whoever knocks they have my vote and refuse to put one of there posters up in my window. I may just stick this up instead!!

electric gates work too :-)