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.

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

Not mine, a case of mistaken identity.

nah, that's not fred
fred's seriously old

Ed Balls backtracks over 'receipts for odd jobs' claims
The shadow chancellor says he never meant that everyone in Britain should get a receipt from someone who 'cuts your hedge for a tenner'
By Peter Dominiczak, Political Editor3:36PM GMT 20 Feb 2015
Ed Balls has been forced to backtrack on his claim that everyone in the country should get receipts for cash-in-hand odd jobs.
Mr Balls has faced ridicule after he said that even someone who “cuts your hedge for a tenner” should provide an invoice to discourage tax avoidance, and claimed that he had the “name and address and a receipt” for every cash transaction because it was “the right thing to do”.
Senior Labour figures including Ed Miliband distanced themselves from Mr Balls’s comments.
The Telegraph subsequently disclosed that Mr Balls and 11 other members of the shadow cabinet claimed expenses for cleaning, gardening or odd jobs without submitting receipts.
Mr Balls has denied that he had failed to get receipts for particular cash jobs, stating that his cleaner was paid by direct debit and window-cleaner by cheque.

Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, said that it was "absurd" to suggest that this was a requirement for anyone paying cash, while David Cameron joked that he hoped that after the election Mr Balls would have "more time to clean his own windows and cut his own hedge".
However, speaking to BBC Radio Leeds, Mr Balls said it would be “silly” to suggest that everyone in the country should get receipts from tradesmen.
In what appeared to be an embarrassing U-turn, Mr Balls said: "I'm not saying to people listening to this programme, or anywhere in the country, you've always got to get a receipt if you pay cash to somebody who is doing an odd job. I'm not saying that.
"I'm not saying that they've got to. I'm saying that for somebody like me in a sensitive position, dealing with the finances, I do need to get a receipt and I do.
"I think there's a serious point here which is we've all got a job to make sure ... small businesses who are paying their taxes aren't undercut by people who are not paying their taxes and are not doing things in a proper way. I never said everybody has got to get a receipt. That would be a silly thing to say."
Speaking to the BBC about what constituted tax avoidance last weekend, Mr Balls said: "The right thing to do if you are having somebody cut your hedge for a tenner is to make sure they give you their name and address and a receipt and a record for the fact that you have paid them."
Asked whether he himself followed that rule he said: "Absolutely. That's because I am the shadow chancellor and I'm extremely careful about these things."
He later added: "It's not your job to pay their taxes for them and I think most people you give a tenner to are not going to be VAT-registered.
"They've got the legal obligation to make sure they pay their taxes if it's that kind of transaction - but I think the sensible thing for anybody is that you've got a record of it and you've done it properly."

For his fellow sleep walkers or sheep DC.

LOL Max, brilliant. That isn't nasty just very funny. :0)

Interesting article for some:

https://www.henderson.com/ukpi/post/9822/divergent-paths-qe-around-the-world?o_cc=c3905

an extract from sky news on the net

Greece Agreement 'Old Deal In New Clothing'
........... It was said that behind-the-scenes, the Germans were refusing to talk to Mr Varoufakis - that some Greek finance officials had been urged to get rid of their boss.
That would be a terrific mistake: their new finance minister is one of the biggest assets Greece has, particularly when it comes to explaining to an international audience why austerity has not worked, and why future deals might have to be different.
And there will almost certainly need to be another deal once these four months have elapsed.
In the meantime, Mr Varoufakis and his colleagues have a tough job on their hands explaining why what was agreed in Brussels was a triumph rather than a defeat.
Their previous feat - overturning decades of two-party domination in Greece - may end up looking easy in comparison.

fred - i read the article, and unless i missed something as is so often the case, it really didn't have much to say at all, other than that we'ld all like to have our household debt written off

No some would like sufficient cash to repair the van in order to make the deliveries and earn some money, postpone repayment for a short period and then make repayments at a reasonable rate of interest over a period of time.

A bit like a farmer looking at his crop and insufficient cash to pay for the fuel to take it to market. Lend him the money and both of you might prosper.

When you started your restaurant did you buy some of the equipment on "tick" I know the bank manager took a risk with me when I opened my store, but he got his money back with interest.

I would think the majority of businesses are built on "borrowed" money.

Austerity is not the way out of the mess like we had in 2007-8, as Osborne took years to realise but not admit.

I am not sure directionless QE is entirely the right path either. There are other ways of doing similar.

Restricting waste, being more economical with expenditure is. Stimulating the "base" economy is.

Enough!

Am I allowed a glass of 50 plus old port or not!

ah fred, back in the mid 70s things were very different :-)

you may not have noticed, but despite some gaping holes, banks for better or worse now work under very different and tighter rules
long gone are the days when if the bank manager liked the colour of your tie and knew your parents etc, he could and would lend you at least a reasonable amount of splosh

actually, those same rules applied certainly until the very end of the 90s

anyway, i see you are hoping that some magic wand could be waved and all would suddenly be right with the world .... all a total delusion of course

Not delusional.

With a will, thought, application, effort and time, the majority of problems can be resolved, if the wish is there.

People were written off with cancer 30 years, but are still alive to-day. Treatment success rates are continually improving where many thought there would never be acceptable solutions.

Economics is simpler, it is the will which is missing and is often impeded by greed personal self advantage. The pack leader needs the pack more than the pack need the leader.

Greece will still be in the EU in 10 years time, as will the UK be.

What will be the shape of Ukraine and Eastern Europe will be in 10 years time, I don't know, but if Russia gets a united response from Europe, USA and others then the area may simmer down and Putin may have been "eventually" removed.

It is a crazy situation.

Actually thinking back once again.

What seems a driving force for Germany and its use or expectancy of austerity route out of recession is based on their experiences in the 20s and 30s with massive devaluation etc..

I think they and some in Europe should review that period again and the post WW1 settlements which provokes the "recession" and "economic crisis".

Many would say that Hitler grew out of the "victors'" abuse by France, and Britain, (Russia who has its own problems), USA, Italy, British Empire, Belgium etc. taking more than their pound of flesh.

Perhaps, Germany and some of Europe are attempting the same!

Don't know.


Some saw the settlements as "just", but the effects were crippling.