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.

teachers are not unless something has changed dramatically in the last few years

W and S.

check!

Manuel,

Are you suggesting that Straw and Rifkind have done nothing wrong or illegal?

Do you think that many of those using overseas accounts with HBSC or Cayman Isles and attempting Tax Avoidance fall into the same category?

They are or were just using the system?

Morality doesn't come into it?

Glad to hear that Rifkind was under no pressure to resign.

Why did he then?

He was doing a superb job as Chairman.

Perhaps, Dodgy Dave told him that he had his full support.

if you had looked at is back you would of seen the knife sticking out and the blood

this thread is dead bring back gf moneyam he must return

FTSE tipped to go lower today

says MAM, better get a long SB on then

lol

In bad taste for Manuel:

Strange how relatively quiet criticism of Qatar the UK is:

i'm sorry to say that all the countries in that region treat their navvies and similar grade staff like shit

Manuel,

Have a look at P56968?

If I were an England player, I would refuse to play in Qatar.

But I would only do this if I'd previously chatted with my mates and we had all agreed to do the same.

I'm pretty sure, that the whole UK would be EXTREMELY supportive.

depends which question you're asking me fred


straw and rifkind
confess i have not heard the allegations in detail, but given that both of them are stepping down, it must be pretty borderline at best


overseas accounts
there are certainly many legitimate reasons for having an o'seas a/c
there is certainly nothing remotely illegal or even "aggressive" in setting up trusts and similar overseas
in the latter case, i think they would need to have been done a good few years ago, as the rules on trusts are regularly changed every few years - keeps the accountants in business

you know my views on morality and tax, so i won't bother to repeat them

Straw and Rifkind,

There was a subtle difference between the 2 "cases".

Straw had already decided to leave Parliament and in the interview with him he pointed out he would no longer be a MP, although he may or may not consider he would be a "lord".


======

Rifkind,

Different, he was trading on his MP position and expected continuation and boasted that due to previous appointments and present was able to "grease" the slippery road to ambassador's and ministers due to those positions and being paid a little extra.

I suppose he could admit to/in Parliament his "interest" and "fee" for being so.

---

"you know my views on morality and tax, so i won't bother to repeat them"

Does the same rationale extend to your other areas of life?

Will Cameroon be Pm after the next election?



The Coming Chaos in the U.K. Election


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-25/the-coming-chaos-in-the-u-k-election

Yes Fred... he is assuredly a git -):

and old and bald too!

Of dear, what a shambles -):

Rifkind,

I disliked Rifkind's for his certainty for others, but thought him politically "smart".

But the another thing which irritated me about him is the use of index finger to point out and "TELL" me that what he thought for himself was "correct" and "right" for others and his was the "opinion" which counted.

(I disliked being lectured by poor quality fraudsters!)

-------
Dodgy Dave uses his hands in a different way, generally in his “dodgy” moments and indicates "there, there dear it will be alright”, used frequently when he is lying through his teeth.

Interesting figures and one can see the reasons for poor "production figures" against "falsified or distorted" employment figures used by Osborne.

==========

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-31619639
UK firms use 1.8m zero-hours contracts, says ONS
Protest over zero-hours contracts
Some workers are unhappy about zero-hours contracts but others say it suits them
Firms in the UK used 1.8 million zero-hours contracts at the height of last summer, official statistics show.

The total, in the first two weeks of August, was higher than the 1.4 million contracts revealed when figures were first collected in January last year.

This is likely to be the result of a number of seasonal industries using more of these contracts, making a direct comparison difficult.

Zero-hours contracts do not guarantee a minimum number of hours of employment.

Some workers and unions are unhappy that staff can simply be sent home if there is no work to be done. But supporters of the contracts like the flexibility that they can offer.

Awareness
Additional data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that 697,000 workers said they were on a "zero-hours contract" in their main job between October to December last year.

This represents 2.3% of all people in employment.

This figure, collected in a survey, is reliant on these workers being fully aware that they are on a zero-hours contract.

The ONS said that a rise on the 586,000 workers who said they were on zero-hours contracts during the same period in 2013 could be the result of greater awareness and publicity for these kind of contracts.

line
Zero-hours contracts explained
One in five employers has at least one employee on a zero-hours contract
Staff have no guaranteed hours
The contracts are often used in retail and in the hospitality sector