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.

You couldn't make this up. Oh yes you could, another left wing cock up in waiting. Or how to lose votes! LOL! LOL!


Strip companies of government contracts, Labour policy chief says

Jon Cruddas, who is writing Labour's general election manifesto, says there should be “no more outsourcing” of public services to firms that seek to make money rather than achieving a “social purpose”



By Ben Riley-Smith, Political Correspondent

5:34PM GMT 15 Feb 2015

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Private companies motivated by profit should be stripped of billions of pounds worth of government contracts, Ed Miliband’s top policy chief has said.


Jon Cruddas, who is helping to write Labour's general election manifesto, said there should be “no more outsourcing” of public services to firms that seek to make money rather than achieving a “social purpose”.


The Labour frontbencher also said it was “staggering” that 20 companies receive £10 billion of government money to help deliver services in the public sector.


The comments undermine the Labour leadership’s attempts to prove it is not anti-business after weeks of public criticism from executives and top donors.


It raises the prospect of those companies with the biggest government contracts – among them Vodafone, BT, Hewlett-Packard and DHL – losing deals if Labour takes office, potentially affecting tens of thousands of j



Mr Cruddas made the remarks in a new book entitled ‘Blue Labour: Forging a new politics’, due out next month.

In a chapter seen by The Telegraph entitled ‘The Common Good in an Age of Austerity’, Mr Cruddas outlines how he wants the Labour Party to change in the wake of the 2008 financial crash.

“In this circumstance Labour’s politics of the common good requires three big changes,” Mr Cruddas writes. “First, no more top-down re-organisation. Instead, locally run and organised schools, hospitals, house-building programmes and habitats.

“Second, no more outsourcing of relational services to those parts of the private sector that are driven purely by corporate profit rather than a social purpose. It is quite staggering that some £10 billion of public contracts – of taxpayers’ money – are allocated to some 20 private companies.

“Rather, we need to forge cooperative ties with ethical enterprise – such as cooperatives, mutuals, and social businesses.” The third change proposed is to give councils more spending powers.

He calls on Labour to pursue "big reforms without big money" and "to contest the very foundations of economic liberalism" - the principle of individualism that underpins free trade and open markets.

The 20 private companies with the biggest government contracts are: Airwave, Amey, Atkins, Atos, Babcock, BT, Capita, CapGemini, CGI, DHL, G4S, HP, Interserve, Lockheed Martin, Mitie, Serco, Sodexo, Steria, Teleral Trillium, Vodafone.

Between them they employ hundreds of thousands of British workers and generate billions of pounds for the country’s economy.

Peter Bone, the Conservative MP for Wellingborough, said: "This Labour Party is one of the most Left-wing Labour parties we have ever seen. They put up a veneer of sensibility but what they really believe is in pure socialism.”

A Labour spokesman said: “Labour’s plan for creating wealth does not rely on just a few at the very top - unlike the Conservatives - but on boosting productivity in every business and sector of the British economy.”

Mr Miliband has been forced to defend himself in recent days following claims that his party is not on the side of big business following a public row with a series of company chiefs.

A number of the country’s most senior business leaders have accused Mr Miliband of attempting to shut down debate after the Labour leader rounded on Stefano Pessina, the chief executive of Boots, who said a Labour Government would be a “catastrophe” for Britain.

Labour will today [MONDAY] announce plans to support small businesses by putting them “first in line for tax cuts” and cutting and then freezing business rates.

Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, will also announce plans to tack late payments to small firms by big businesses.

It came as Mr Balls said that he may close a tax loophole used by Mr Miliband, after insisting he would crack down on "aggressive tax avoidance".

The Shadow Chancellor failed to back the Labour leader’s over his family’s use of a “deed of variation”, which changed his father’s will posthumously to minimise the amount paid in inheritance tax.

Blame Red Fred for knackering the font the prick!

Scottish Labour MPs threaten to bar Ed Miliband from campaigning in their seats

Despairing Labour MPs north of the border tell The Telegraph they want a coalition to be ruled out and Miliband off their leaflets as dire polls show no sign of turning



By Ben Riley-Smith, Political Correspondent

6:01AM GMT 15 Feb 2015

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Scottish Labour MPs are threatening to bar Ed Miliband from campaigning in their constituencies before the election amid fears he puts off voters.


Politicians fighting to keep their seats amid surging support for the SNP have also told the Sunday Telegraph the Labour leader will not feature on local campaign leaflets.


It comes with senior Scottish Nationalists privately pledging to highlight Mr Miliband’s low personal approval ratings and lack of obvious links to the country ahead of the election.


They will attempt to portray Mr Miliband as the Labour leader with the “least affinity” with Scotland for a generation and claim he is an electoral asset for the SNP.


The revelations come with Labour facing an electoral apocalypse in Scotland in less than three months with polling showing the party could lose as many as 35 of its 41 Scottish MPs.


To test the mood within the party this newspaper talked to numerous Scottish Labour MPs about their hopes of mounting a comeback after the alarming slump in support since the Scottish independence referendum last September.

Speaking under the condition of anonymity, the MPs painted a dire picture of the party’s hopes north of the border ranging from disbelief at the scale of the collapse to utter despondency.

One Scottish Labour MP compared the impact of the sudden drop in support to a “cardiac arrest”, adding that colleagues were still reeling with shock while others on small majorities had all but given up hope of re-election.

Another said the abandonment of voters from Labour since the independence vote was comparable to the “backlash” the Conservatives suffered over the poll tax, adding: “There has been an emotional breakage between Scottish voters and Labour. God knows if it can be reformed.”

A third, when asked how things were looking in Scotland, simply formed his hand into a gun, raised it to his mouth and pulled the trigger.

Mr Miliband has come under fire from some Scottish Labour MPs who are taking steps to negate the leader’s apparent lack of appeal to Scottish voters in the run up to the election.

“Does Ed Miliband bring me votes? Absolutely f****** not,” said one Scottish Labour MP. “If Ed wanted to campaign in my seat would I agree? I'm not sure … You wouldn't want him out campaigning in a shopping mall." Another said they would want Labour HQ to send the leader to their seat before the election.

Others who carried pictures of Gordon Brown on local campaign leaflets before the 2010 election – when the Scot actually grew Labour’s vote share in Scotland despite collapsing support elsewhere – have said they will not do the same this year.

While the sentiments are not shared by all Scottish Labour MPs – some of whom said a visit from Mr Miliband could bring useful local media attention – it shows the extent to which he is seen as less of an electoral asset than previous Labour leaders.

The SNP hope to exploit Scottish voters’ apparent apathy to the Labour leader, pointing to Ipsos Mori polling last month that gave Mr Miliband a lower leadership approval rating than David Cameron.

“The more visits from Ed Miliband to Scotland the merrier. We would be prepared to pay his bus fares,” an SNP source said. “He is perceived as being part and parcel of a Westminster establishment that has become very, very unpopular.”

Mr Miliband’s lack of obvious Scottish links are largely unavoidable: he was not born in the country unlike the last three Labour leaders; Mr Brown, Tony Blair and John Smith. Yet the SNP will still seek to paint him as “the Labour leader who has got the least affinity with Scotland”.



The Labour leader and his Scottish counterpart, Jim Murphy, are also coming under pressure from MPs to publicly rule out doing a post-election deal with SNP.

Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP leader, upped the anti this week by suggesting she is willing to help get Mr Miliband into Number 10 even if Labour gets less votes that the Tories – providing he agrees to radically scale back austerity cuts.

Some Scottish Labour MPs fear such talk increases the likelihood of supporters abandoning the party for the SNP, with one saying the current position gives voters “open license not to vote for a Labour candidate if they're a waverer”. Ruling out a deal would make “absolutely clear” the party’s key message that a vote for the SNP is a vote for the Tories, says another.

A senior Scottish Labour source rebuffed the idea, saying the SNP has already effectively rejected a coalition and suggesting there was little to gain from Labour talking about post-election negotiations.

The source said Scottish Labour will focus on making clear every new seat the SNP take north of the border increases the likelihood of David Cameron remaining in Number 10.

A Labour Party spokesperson said: “This story is nonsense. Ed is, and will be, at the forefront of our general election campaign across Britain.”

this election campaign has degenerated in what is surely the most puerile ever

any one who now votes conservative thinks being a liar and a thief and no honour
is good. cameron is a very dishonest piece of scum will not answer questions about
is donors tax avoidance that about says it all . look after those that give you free cash

I must have got up on the wrong side of the bed, I agree with Manuel!

Except it does expose the corrupt leadership and its methods.

Cameron agrees with fink if you can fiddle your tax good luck ever one fiddles their taxes if they do not pay paye. hmrc we only hit the ones who pay via paye to go after the rich is not our game

they're all as bad as each other .... it's truly pathetic

Yes, the whole edifice is rotten from top to bottom.

Time to tear it down, and voting for the mainstream simply guarantee's that wont happen.


Just look north of the border, now you have gorgeous, pouting, Nicola threatening to put millibandus into no10 (for a small fee)... no doubt you can see where that will lead.

Unfortunately, if you chop the chicken's head off, it runs around in a circle before eventually dying!

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mark antony's speech comes to mind

It does?

Do tell.

its time to kick out the 3 main parties and vote ukip
weather you like the truth or not the uk is a cesspit of corruption
Cameron walking a way and will not answer questions on the rich donors
avoiding paying their taxes stinks .
to me it says Cameron is only interested in the crooks filling is pockets

"The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;"

the world is at war and going to spread even more by muslim militants
who want to wipe out other religions and doing it and the west a sleep
the barmy Obama as destroyed the states he is all talk no action he is on their side
its time to take action on any person threating terrorism . paris Denmark who next
have not seen any good muslim coming forward to report these people yet they keep saying our close their families are compared to the English its all lies they are not close if they are then they believe in what their children are dong

Good quote c!

just goes to show the value of private education :-)

Denmark
paris
uk
all the killers were asylum families seeking safety then they turn the gun on those that gave them safety .
time to say no to asylum seekers they will turn on the helpers

Egypt retaliates with air strikes after ISIS marches 21 Coptic Christians along a lonely Libyan beach and beheads them en masse for their faith
Egyptian warplanes struck Islamic State targets in eastern Libya today
There were at least seven airstrikes in the Islamist-held city of Derna
Strikes come after ISIS-affiliated militants murdered 21 Egyptians in Libya
Militants last night released video showing the Coptic Christians' murder
Men were paraded on a beach by masked killed before savage beheadings
Egyptian government last night vowed 'to avenge the bloodshed and to seek retribution from the killers'


in the name of ISLAM

IDS, is shooting his mouth off again.

If you are a small business and pay for a service, or equivalent which you claim for as an expense for "taxation purposes" you are a fool if don't ask for receipt.

If it it a repeated expense claim and HMRC decides to have a "close" look at you books and receipts.

A house owner would be sensible if he makes repeated use of a tradesman, unless he has evidence of " the tradesman's credentials.

In practice the latter is unlikely to be investigated.

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I suggest IDS like his policy implementations are not fit for purpose! (A nasty little man.)