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.

1962 all over again ,can you imagine Dave telling Putin to turn his boats back :)

Very good news for the Tories ahead of elections ........

U.K. Posts Biggest Budget Surplus Since 2008

British chancellor George Osborne has received a boost in the last set of public finance figures before the country’s budget as bumper income tax receipts and a £3.6bn revision helped him near his deficit target.

Public sector net finances - excluding the effect of bank bail-outs - were in surplus by £8.8bn in January, up £2.3bn from the surplus in the same month last year.

The Treasury is normally in the black in the first month of the year but the latest figures were boosted by record self-assessment income tax receipts of £12.3bn.

It helped boost the Government's surplus for the month to its highest figure since January 2008.

Borrowing for the fiscal year starting in April 2014 is now £74bn, 7.5% lower than the same period last year.

This is better than the annual fall in the deficit forecast by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility after several months when it has been lagging behind.

This was also helped by a £3.6bn revision for the public finances for April to December.

It included a £1.2bn European Commission rebate to the UK after its contributions to the EC were increased - a rise accounted for in the previous month's public finance figures.

Government departments also spent £1.5bn less than had been expected while VAT and income tax receipts were higher than previously thought.

In January's figures, income tax and capital gains tax saw a record month, up 6.1% to £26.7bn.

Meanwhile stamp duty on land and property fell year-on-year for the first time since April 2012.

Receipts from this tax were 15% lower than in the same month last year at £700m, but were still at a record high for the fiscal year-to-date at £9.5bn.

And some believe in Fairy tales!

How do you call borrowing money "a surplus" ?

max - those of labour persuasion should be able to enlighten you :-)

fred - it is of course very convenient, but then "jolly numbers" nearly always emerge just before an election .... in this instance, there may be some truth, but no doubt it will depend on how the numbers are collected, collated and interpreted

cynic

Have you seen the Wolf mining share price this morning ?

Yea, Getting at the real figures is the problem.

Yea, Getting at the real figures is the problem.

fred - like yesterday, truth is as one perceives it :-)

Is that the Labour donor figures from PWC etc? Fred
2517

Sky News tells how Greek bank shares are doing pretty well this morning.

National Bank of Greece is up about 1.9% (it's down over 70% on the year!) as I type.

However, there has been quite 'a run on the bank' of late:

UPDATE 1-Greek bank deposit outflows jump amid long weekend jitters-sources
Fri Feb 20, 2015 7:27am EST

By George Georgiopoulos - Who else? ;)

Feb 20 (Reuters) - Greek bank deposit outflows accelerated to a total of over 1 billion euros over the past two days, three senior banking sources told Reuters on Friday, little more than a week before the country's EU/IMF bailout deal is due to expire.

Withdrawals returned to levels before elections last month that brought a radical left-wing government to power, topping 500 million euros on Wednesday and again on Thursday due to fears about Greece's future in the euro zone.

With Athens struggling to secure a new funding deal with the euro zone before the bailout expires on Feb. 28, Greeks are increasingly nervous before a three-day weekend. This is due to memories that Cyprus imposed capital controls over a long weekend during a crisis in 2013, one senior banker said.

"Depositors have connected the three-day weekend with the capital controls that happened in Cyprus," the banker said, while noting that the Cypriot crisis was different since it was caused by the collapse of a bank.

Monday is a public holiday marking the start of the Greek Orthodox Lent season. The government, which was elected on promises to end austerity and scrap the bailout programme, has denied it has any plans for capital controls.

But euro zone countries led by Germany are demanding that Athens honour all its promises under the bailout to impose austerity policies and economic reforms, raising fears of an impasse that could lead to Greece running out of money and even leaving the euro zone.

"We have gone back to levels in the weeks before the Jan. 25 election. Deposit outflows topped 500 million in each of the last two days," the banker said.

The bleeding from banks put outflow levels close to the worst seen in January - when an estimated 12 billion euros left the system over the whole month - before slowing somewhat in February, bankers said.

Some Greeks are withdrawing cash to put in safe deposit boxes or hide at home, while others are switching their deposits into money market and bond mutual funds abroad. They fear the government might prevent them from withdrawing funds as a possible first step to preparing for a Greek exit from the euro, should the talks with the euro zone fail.

In 2013 Cyprus closed its banks for almost a fortnight due to a banking crisis. It remains in the euro zone but still has some capital controls, although they now cover only large transfers of cash abroad.

Greek banks have been receiving emergency funding controlled by the European Central Bank. On Wednesday, the ECB agreed to raise Emergency Liquidity Assistance to 68.3 billion euros but the increase was a modest 3.3 billion.

A Greek banker estimated this would cover the lenders' needs for a week, although at that point deposits were flowing out at a lower rate. (Writing by Deepa Babington; editing by David Stamp)

Looks like all the UK's burglars will have gone on holiday to Greece then, so we should be alright.

UKIP:.. The only party thinking ahead by billions of years -)

Ed Miliband confronted by disgruntled factory worker:

'They're all leaning towards Ukip'





Peter Baldwin said that the working class man was concerned about immigration and Europe



Kiran Moodley


Friday 20 February 2015

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/generalelection/ed-miliband-confronted-by-disgruntled-factory-worker-theyre-all-leaning-towards-ukip-10058512.html


A leisurely election tour around a factory turned sour for Ed Miliband on Thursday, when a disgruntled voter confronted the Labour leader and said that many working class people were "leaning towards Ukip".

Peter Baldwin, an electrician at BAE systems, approached Miliband during a visit by the leader to the jet fighter factory in Lancashire.

Baldwin said to Miliband: "At this moment in time I don't feel like voting Labour.

"This morning we sat in the brew room over there...and they are all leaning now towards Ukip. The question on everybody's mind is the referendum. I know what you're going to say. The working class man in here…"

Miliband, who was nodding along as he listened to Baldwin, interrupted the worker to say: "Immigration is the big issue for lots of people. On immigration, what we say is, when people come here they shouldn't get benefits for the first two years and then we should ensure that don’t allow wages to be under cut."

Baldwin responded: "There's too many people here that's why we got all these people out of work".


Miliband then replied: "I think we can actually get low-skilled immigration down if we clamp down on the benefits and stop the employers exploiting people. Part of the problem we've got – not companies like BAE – (but with) other companies, what you end up with is: workers paid less than the minimum wage, 15 people put in their house, and people say, 'Hang on a minute, that can't be right, we've got to do something about that."

Baldwin later spoke to The Telegraph about his meeting with Miliband, describing the Labour leader as sounding like a "public schoolboy", adding that "the Labour Party lost a lot of its values. They have always been the working man's party, they're drifting away from that."

Speaking to the BBC, he added: "Basically they are just not happy with Labour at the moment. The big thing with the working class man is immigration and Europe."

Mr Miliband said he did not believe Ukip was the part of working people.

"Stan - 13 Feb 2015 18:22 - 56576 of 56838

Don't watch QT usually now but did last night.

Who's that useless Susanne Evans when she's at home?'

Hey Max I think you missed that, who is it?

They say this and that about what to do about Immigration , but why does it take them an eternity to do anything for #@*&s sake.

Come on Max... answer the questions -):

I did miss it Stan.

Tell us the good bits.


btw, any comment on your fearless leaders factory tour?

Hard to remember any Max, who's my fearless leader then?

#56843

the tool on the right