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.

That's what we were left with in 1979 ....

bit like 2010 then though the pic would then be metaphorical

It is amazing what "George can do"!

If he doesn't watch out he will be known as U-bend George!

Consis


UK think tank sees 'remarkable' change of tack by Osborne


BY WILLIAM SCHOMBERG AND ANDY BRUCE
LONDON Thu Mar 19, 2015 2:45pm GMT

Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne (L) leads his Treasury team as they prepare to leave number 11 Downing Street to pose for photographers before going to the House of Commons to present the Budget, in central London March 18, 2015.

CREDIT: REUTERS/STEFAN ROUSSEAU/POOL

(Reuters) - British Chancellor George Osborne has shown a "remarkable" change of approach on public finances, a leading think tank said on Thursday, a day after Osborne scaled back his austerity plans for the end of the decade.
Paul Johnson, head of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said the eye-catching fiscal number in a pre-election budget announced by Osborne on Wednesday was a big cut to the size of a budget surplus in the 2019/20 financial year.

"Of course surplus or deficit numbers this far in the future are of little interest in themselves – average forecast errors this far out run into the tens of billions of pounds," Johnson said at an IFS presentation.

"But the apparent change in economic philosophy in the three months since the Autumn Statement is pretty remarkable."

Osborne has made deficit reduction the central plank of his economic policy since he became Chancellor in 2010 and he is urging voters in May's national elections to stick with his plan to restore Britain to financial health.

In December, he said he was aiming for a budget surplus equivalent to 1 percent of gross domestic product in 2019/20.
To achieve that, public spending as a share of GDP would have to fall to its lowest level since the 1930s, Britain's independent budget forecaster said at the time, giving the opposition Labour Party ammunition to attack Osborne for the scale of his spending squeeze if he keeps his job after May.
Osborne announced on Wednesday that the planned 2019/20 surplus had been scaled back to 0.3 percent of GDP, a lower target which did not draw such awkward historical comparisons.
The IFS comments may add to the discomfort for Osborne after his latest tax and spending plans were described as having a "rollercoaster profile" on Wednesday by Britain's budget watchdog.
The Office for Budget Responsibility said the squeeze on real spending between 2016 and 2018 would be tougher than anything seen over the past five years. But that would be followed in 2019/20 by the biggest increase in real spending for a decade.
Osborne challenged the OBR's description of his plan.
"That is not actually the approach that we, as Conservatives, will take," he told BBC radio. "We want to take a more balanced approach and we would not put all the cuts in the government departments as the OBR forecast shows."
Osborne said spending cuts would be in line with those of recent years and he would make further savings in welfare spending and raise more tax receipts with a crackdown on tax evasion and avoidance.
Those plans were not factored into the OBR's calculations because they are not yet official policy.
The IFS' Johnson pressed Osborne to come up with details of his planned 12 billion-pound cuts from welfare spending which were first announced two years ago. "It is time we knew more about what they might actually involve," he said.
(Editing by Mike Peacock)

Jimmy b, a few posters here adopt the selective memory approach, Fred is a classic example.
2517

Manuel,

Which bin were you in?

8--)

Be careful what you wish for ........

Is the chicken going to debate with either?

What a moral coward Dodgy Dave is.

THE BUDGET
the following is an eminently sensible and balanced view from today's FT .....

For all the rhetoric over the easing of austerity, what is clear is that there remains a hole in the public finances and the next government will still have to impose bitter medicine on the public, whether it is deep spending cuts, higher taxes or the risks of more borrowing .........
........
For the public, the election offers a serious choice between Labour's willingness to borrow more to fund public services and the Tories' belief that departments can easily withstand more cuts. The gap is large, amounting to at least £32bn a year by the end of the decade. That is an important choice

============

however, if you aren't going to the polling booth, you don't have to make any choice, but merely have to put up with what is ladled out

THE BUDGET - off-shore tax evasion
i've read it but still not hugely the wiser (page 13 FT)
however, the various measures are calculated to raise £3.1bn by 2020, which i think is a bit disappointing, though it appeals greatly to one's "sense of fairness"

a bit that really sticks in the throat, and i'm sure the legislation is a lot older than 2010 is as follows re voluntary disclosure of hidden off-shore accounts ......

A new "last chance" disclosure facility will be introduced next year to encourage holders of undecalred accounts to come forward before the government begins to receive off-shore bank data in 2017. It will offer less generous terms that the existing Liechtenstein and Crown Dependencies disclosure facilities, which will close early - at the end of 2015, instead of April 2016.
By announcing the early closure of the Liechtenstein disclosure facility, the Treasury will receive revenue more quickly while addressing concerns about the generosity of the initiative, which offers low penalties and immunity from prosecution

===============

no further comment required!!

It is how the public perceive it.

I can see why Chicken Dave is ducking Ed, Clegg, and Farage in any debate.

Max and tinker,


Here is an interesting site for you!

"UKIP suspends MEP Janice Atkinson over expenses claim"


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-31976343

"It is not known whether Ms Atkinson knew or authorised her staff member's apparent actions. "

But lets not let facts get in the way of a good scandal.

Oh no not yet another dodgy right winger surely!

fred for you BLAIR THE MURDERER AND EX LABOUR LEADER WAS NO MORE THAN A BLOODY LIAR AND AS NO REMORSE FOR HAVING THOUSANDS MURDER ON IS LIES WITH BUSH AT LEAST BUSH KEEPS OUT OF THE LIMELIGHT UNLIKE BLAIR
YOUR ONCE LEADER WHO YOU GAVE YOUR SOUL TO