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.

Not sure whether it is your opinion or my opinion should should count!

probably neither, as given that we both live in safe seats, that would seem to be the case
that said, it does not change the validity of my opinion on whether or not one has an obligation to vote

Have you talked about Evans cycles before cynic?

The private equity owner of Cotswold Outdoor is considering a bid for Evans Cycles, the Sunday Telegraph said. PAI Partners is in the final round of bidders for the bike retailer, which also includes three other UK private equity firms. Trade buyers including Sports Direct and Halfords have dropped out. Halfords has decided to focus on its own high street cycling arm Cycle Republic

With duplicitous tory practices as below, labour or Lib/dem won't need my vote:

Lords accuse Tories of ‘burying’ review that cleared EU of interference
Cross-party group says European Union doesn’t intervene unduly in British life, a view that clashes with David Cameron’s claims of Brussels’ excessive powers
david cameron - 28 Mar 2015
David Cameron claims the EU is ‘becoming a state’ and has accrued excessive powers. Photograph: Ray Tang/REX


Ministers have been accused by a cross-party group of peers of trying to “bury” the results of the biggest ever Whitehall examination of European Union powers, after it found no evidence that the EU was interfering excessively in any aspect of British life.
In a hugely damaging move for the government, the European Union Committee of the House of Lords, chaired by former Tory minister Lord Boswell, comes close to saying that ministers tried to cover up the findings, which do not support David Cameron’s claims that the EU is “becoming a state” and has already accrued excessive powers.


etc
Commenting on his committee’s highly critical report into the way the government has handled the review, Boswell also tore into it for spending up to £5m on the project, only to make no effort to pull its findings together and make them accessible to a public that wants to know the truth about the UK’s relationship with the EU.

“There is no point spending up to £5m of public money on an excellent review and then burying it. People need to know the facts about the UK-EU relationship,” Boswell said.

He told the Observer that of the 32 reports into different areas of the EU’s operation in the review, there was “no report in which it was demonstrated that too much power resided in Brussels”.

He added: “This was trumpeted as the biggest survey of its kind into the balance of power between the UK and Brussels but, for whatever reason, [ministers] decided not to present a coherent overall view of the work.”

The committee said the entire project was “diminished by the government’s failure to deliver it


http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/28/lords-accuse-tories-burying-eu-powers-review

Cameron will do anything to become a . in history!

.

Labour ‘unlikely’ to win back voters from SNP

13:04Sunday 29 March 2015
32
HAVE YOUR SAY
SCOTTISH Labour is very unlikely to win back the voters it lost to the SNP during the independence referendum in time for the general election, two new surveys suggest.

People who voted for independence have coalesced around the SNP and their vote is hardening, while Labour has become a party for No voters and its standing amongst nationalists has plummeted, analysis by the British Election Study (BES) has found.

Labour election co-ordinator Douglas Alexander said today that winning a majority will be “difficult but do-able”, following a new YouGov poll for The Sunday Times which found that Labour has surged into a four-point lead across the UK.


But 1,300 Scottish voters polled by BES between March 6-13 puts Labour 17 points behind the SNP in Scotland, with the SNP on 44 per cent and Labour on 27 per cent.

Its findings are supported by a Scottish snapshot in the Sunday Times poll conducted on March 27-28, which puts the SNP on 46 per cent and Labour on 33 per cent amongst the 159 Scottish voters polled.

The BES report, by Jane Green and Chris Prosser, said: “It is Labour’s hope that the losses it has seen to the SNP are temporary, and that those voters will come back to Labour in six weeks’ time.

“Our data suggests that while not impossible, that prospect is very unlikely.

“Almost 90 per cent of Scottish Labour voters are No voters and an equivalent 91 per cent of SNP voters are Yes voters.

“This polarisation happened because of the movement of Yes voters away from Labour to the SNP and occurred between June and September 2014.”

BES sees no way back for former Labour voters and also found the haemorrhage to the SNP is continuing apace.

“The proportion of Yes voters intending to vote SNP in September 2014 was 70 per cent. That figure now stands at 79 per cent.

“This trend is a worrying one for Labour in Scotland. Less than two months from the general election Yes voters are still moving to the SNP.”



Labour defectors have also become more entrenched in their positions as SNP loyalists, BES found.

“This again is a worrying sign for Labour,” it said.

“It suggests that Labour-SNP vote switchers are no more moveable than SNP loyalists. Among all UK parties, the SNP’s vote base going into 2015 is the most certain on average of all.

“BES data cannot tell us what will happen in the coming six weeks. Vote switching happens beneath the surface of average percentages and the campaign could easily throw up unexpected results.

“But what we can say is that while Labour may convince its previous voters to come back to the fold, we do know that the odds are certainly stacked against them.”

chris - this is true, but of course it is not unlikely that we will very much have the tail wagging the dog, whoever is in number 10

Cross-party group says European Union doesn’t intervene unduly in British life, a view that clashes with David Cameron’s claims of Brussels’ excessive powers

total bullshit!
EU interferes in some major areas, ranging from some of the rulings that emanate from the european courts that we are obligated to obey, to being told whom we should allow into the country, to all sorts of other petty rulings on any number of smaller issues



in any case, the tories would like to stay within EU provided that there are renegotiations and amendments on certain issues .... and on which a referendum will be held

on the other hand, labour are more than happy to roll over and do absolutely nothing other than accept whatever edicts come from brussels

this has been a major plank in ukip's surge in popularity across the country
and of course it is assuredly not just ukip supporters who think that the eu's self-appointed powers need a major overhaul and pruning

cynic - Win win for Scotland whoever is in number 10 :0)

that as may be, but i'm not a scot in case you hadn't noticed :-)

Neither am I, I live here. I'm just enjoying the demise of the Labour Party in Scotland :0)

It ne'er staps rainin' in scootlund.

Ah bit ye hae tae paint th' ootwith ay th' hoose an' dae th' garden oan 'at a body sunny efternuin durin' th' year. :-))

LOL dc a gallon of what your drinking please :0)

Orf for ah lashing and sundeay luncheohn. Jolly good show old bean!

The something special is spiffing. Absolutely top hole - I have to say.

I say, could you do a bun?


Bun be buggered, I could do a bloody Bakehouse!

Tallyho dreamers old boy!

Lol. Fantasic evening , poldaaark ohn. plus ah few drinks :-)) Goodness me!

What, adrian chiles ohn come dancing 2015. the chap cannot dance, can he? one fluttah he has twoh left feet. bring it ohn, neaaarly as spiffing as one is ah celebrity mustah myself out of here. what an evening that will be. Don't you know?

I'll have some as well dc.

One must be pulling one's leg, to giz awah this raaare something special. Jolly good show old bean! :-)), Orf to bed knoh. Heavens above! How smashing! Soohhn be eastah, simply four days wok next week. Goodness me!


For the Irish - One must be neckin' one's leg, ter giz awah this raaare firkin special. jolly sound as a pound show owd bean! :-)), orf ter flock knoh. cer above! 'ow smash'n! sewhhn be eastah, simply fo days wok next week. gewdness me!

Cockney -

Wahn must be pullin' one's 'ard boiled Borra And Beg, ter giz awah this raaare summit special. jolly Robin Hood sha old bean! :-)), orf ter uncle ned knoh. 'eavens above! 'a smashin'! soohhn be eastah, simply knock at the Dorothy Lamour days wok next Bubble And Squeak. goodness me