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.

Listen to Dodgy Dave and his mates in the city.

The rest of you plebs just go to your own FOOD BANK

They said Bennett of the greens had the most tweet's , didn't say what they said.

The polls only gave her about 3%. An even more nutty party than UKIP.

Green policies


Top-ups [will be] given for people with children or disabilities, or to pay rent and mortgages. No-one will see a reduction in benefits, and most will see a substantial increase. Parents will be entitled to two years’ paid leave from work.

•The policy will enable people to “choose their own types and patterns of work”, and will allow people to take up “personally satisfying and socially useful work”. It will cost somewhere between £240-280 billion a year – more than double the current health budget, and ten times the defence budget.

•Under Green plans, inheritance tax – “to prevent the accumulation of wealth and power by a privileged class” – will no longer just tax the dead.

•Under radical reforms, it will cover gifts made while the giver is still alive – raising the prospect of levies on cars, jewellery or furniture given by parents to their children.

•New resource taxes would apply to wood, metal and minerals, and steeper levies imposed on cars.

•Crucially, import taxes will be levied on goods brought to Britain reflecting the “ecological impact” of making them – with tariffs reintroduced for trade between Britain and the rest of Europe, ending the free trade bloc.

•All elements of the sex industry will be decriminalised, and prostitutes could no longer be discriminated against in child custody cases.

•The Greens also want to see “significantly reduced” levels of imprisonment, with jail only used when there is a “substantial risk of a further grave crime” or in cases where offences are so horrific that offenders would be at risk of vigilantes. Prisoners will be given the vote.

•SATS, early years tests and league tables will be abolished, and “creative” subjects given equal parity to the “academic”.

•Independent schools will lose their charitable status and pay corporation tax, while church schools will be stripped of taxpayer funding. Religious instruction will be banned in school hours.

•Tuition fees will be abolished – but state research funding for universities will increase to reduce a reliance on “biased” commercial research.

•The “overall volume” of advertising on TV and newspapers will be controlled and cut, as part of a war on the “materialist and consumption driven culture which is not sustainable”.

•The England football, rugby and cricket teams would no longer play against countries where “normal, friendly, respectful or diplomatic relations are not possible.” Football clubs would be owned by co-operatives and not traded on the stock markets.

•No more new airports or runways will be built, and existing ones nationalised. All new homes and businesses must by law provide bicycle parking. Helicopter travel would be regulated “more strictly”. The sale of alcohol on planes and airports will be tightly restricted to prevent air-rage, and the air on inbound flights tested for disease.

•Advertising of holiday flights will be controlled by law to halt the “promotion of a high-carbon lifestyle”. New taxes would be imposed on carriers to reduce passenger numbers.

•Assisted dying will be legalised, and the law on abortion liberalised to allow nurses to carry it out. “Alternative” medicine will be promoted. Private healthcare will be more heavily taxed, with special levies on private hospitals that employ staff who were trained on the NHS.

•It will be a criminal offence, with “significant fines”, to stop a woman from breastfeeding in a restaurant or shop, and formula milk will be more tightly regulated.

•In order to prevent “overpopulation” burdening the earth, the state will provide free condoms and fund research for new contraceptives.

•Merely being a member of al-Qaeda, the IRA and other currently proscribed terrorist groups will no longer be a criminal offence under Green plans, and instead a Green Government should seek to “address desperate motivations that lie behind many atrocities labelled ‘terrorist’,” the policy book states.

•Terrorism, it adds, “is an extremely loaded term. Sometimes governments justify their own terrorist acts by labelling any groups that resist their monopoly of violence ‘terrorist’.”

•Britain will leave NATO, end the special relationship with the US, and unilaterally abandon nuclear weapons. A standing army, navy and airforce is “unnecessary”. Bases will be turned into nature reserves and the arms industry “converted” to producing windturbines.

•“Richer regions do not have the right to use migration controls to protect their privileges from others in the long term,” the party’s policy book states.

•A Green Government will “progressively reduce” border controls, including an amnesty for illegal immigrants after five years.

•Access to benefits, the right to vote and tax obligations will apply to everyone living on British soil, regardless of passport. The policy book states: “We will work to create a world of global inter-responsibility in which the concept of a ‘British national’ is irrelevant and outdated.”

•Political parties will be funded by the state, and the electoral system changed. The monarchy will be abolished.

That Greeny manifesto is so good, I'm going to post it across the road.

Here and there this 'Green's Manifesto' is a bit crazy, IMHO.

You sure you haven't been mischievously editing it up a bit here and there or was it a bit of an 'April fool' type thing?

Why don't you provide a link to show the origin of the information you have posted. Then the reader can authenticate the post and/or it also gets credence too.

Here it is, put down in a different way:

From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/green-party/11356354/Drugs-brothels-al-Qaeda-and-the-Beyonce-tax-the-Green-Party-plan-for-Britain.html?mobile=basic

Drugs, brothels, al-Qaeda and the Beyonce tax: the Green Party plan for Britain
Last Updated: 8:08PM GMT 05/03/2015
They are on the cusp of an electoral breakthrough - and an examination of Green Party policy reveals a extraordinary list of demands

Six months ago, they were on the very edges of British politics. Now, they are within touching distance of dictating terms to the future government.

A surge in support has seen the Green Party overtake the Liberal Democrats in the polls, with support at 11 per cent. Membership is now greater than Ukip's.

And, with hopes of winning three seats in the general election, Natalie Bennett believes her party will take part in a “confidence and supply” arrangement, propping up a fragile minority administration in exchange for key policies.

What might they demand?

The party is often dubbed the “Ukip of the left”. But an examination of the party's core priorities - in a document called Policies for a Sustainable Society, set at the party's annual conference - reveals they are far more radical in their aims than Nigel Farage's outfit.

In the short term, a Green administration would impose a string of new taxes, ramp up public spending to unprecedented levels and decriminalise drugs, brothels and membership of terrorist groups.

In the long term, they want to fundamentally change life as we know it.

ZERO GROWTH ECONOMY

Critics call the party’s adherents “watermelons” – green on the outside, deepest red on the inside.

It’s not quite right.

Karl Marx and his pupils championed economic growth and personal consumption: five year plans, tractor factories and fridges for all. The row, for them, was whether the planned economy was a stronger engine than the free market.

The Greens want something very different.

Caroline Lucas and colleagues regard economic growth as incompatible with protecting the planet and a fulfilling personal life.

While their rivals recognise more trade, more innovation, more competition and more globalisation as an engine for prosperity for everyone on the planet, the Greens argue it is nothing more than a race to the bottom that has made the poor poorer, the rich richer, and pillaged the environment.

The party’s manifesto argues for zero, or even negative growth and falling levels of personal consumption. Britain would be in permanent recession; families would become materially poorer each year. After centuries of growing global connectivity, the Greens want to see greater national self-reliance.

Cottage industries, allotments and co-operatives are good. Banks, supermarkets, multi-national companies and resource extraction are very, very bad.

And while Labour and the Tories compete on job creation, the Greens argue that government policy should make paid work “less necessary”, with people making their living from the home-based “informal economy”.

THE CITIZENS’ INCOME

The flagship policy is an unconditional, non-withdrawable income of £71 a week for everyone living in Britain “as a right of citizenship”, regardless of wealth or whether they are seeking work.

Benefits and the tax-free personal allowance will be abolished, and top-ups given for people with children or disabilities, or to pay rent and mortgages. No-one will see a reduction in benefits, and most will see a substantial increase. Parents will be entitled to two years’ paid leave from work.

The policy will enable people to “choose their own types and patterns of work”, and will allow people to take up “personally satisfying and socially useful work”.

It will cost somewhere between £240-280 billion a year – more than double the current health budget, and ten times the defence budget. Those costs will be off-set by some reduction to the welfare bill, through the replacement of jobseekers’ allowance.

TAX ON PRESENTS

Under Green plans, inheritance tax – “to prevent the accumulation of wealth and power by a privileged class” – will no longer just tax the dead.

Under radical reforms, it will cover gifts made while the giver is still alive – raising the prospect of levies on cars, jewellery or furniture given by parents to their children. There will be exemptions for some large gifts, “such as those received on marriage”.

There will be a threshold for the tax, with receipts calculated over five years – but the party does not set out at what point the levy kicks in. New, higher rates of income tax will be imposed.

GREEN TAXES

VAT will be abolished – and replaced with new levies based on how much environmental damage a product causes. New resource taxes would apply to wood, metal and minerals, and steeper levies imposed on cars.

Crucially, import taxes will be levied on goods brought to Britain reflecting the “ecological impact” of making them – with tariffs reintroduced for trade between Britain and the rest of Europe, ending the free trade bloc.

DRUGS AND BROTHELS

The trade and cultivation of cannabis will be decriminalised under Green policy, along with possession of Class A and B drugs for personal use. Anti-rave laws would be scrapped.

Higher taxes will be brought in on alcohol and tobacco, and a complete alcohol advertising ban imposed.

All elements of the sex industry will be decriminalised, and prostitutes could no longer be discriminated against in child custody cases.

The Greens also want to see “significantly reduced” levels of imprisonment, with jail only used when there is a “substantial risk of a further grave crime” or in cases where offences are so horrific that offenders would be at risk of vigilantes. Prisoners will be given the vote.

ETON MESS

Large schools will be broken up, to have no more than 700 pupils. SATS, early years tests and league tables will be abolished, and “creative” subjects given equal parity to the “academic”.

Independent schools will lose their charitable status and pay corporation tax, while church schools will be stripped of taxpayer funding. Religious instruction will be banned in school hours.

Tuition fees will be abolished - but state research funding for universities will increase to reduce a reliance on “biased” commercial research.

THE BEYONCE TAX

Under cultural reforms, the Greens will explore a “a tax on superstar performances” to support “local cultural enterprises”.

The BBC will be forced to show educational programming during prime time, giving it “equal precedence” to entertainment shows and not “ghettoised at inconvenient times”.

Foreign companies will be stripped of newspapers and television shows if they control too much of the market. The “overall volume” of advertising on TV and newspapers will be controlled and cut, as part of a war on the “materialist and consumption driven culture which is not sustainable”.

The England football, rugby and cricket teams would no longer play against countries where “normal, friendly, respectful or diplomatic relations are not possible.” Football clubs would be owned by co-operatives and not traded on the stock markets.

DEATH OF DUTY FREE

The Greens will aim for all energy to be supplied from renewables, with wind the main source of power by 2030.

Under a new hierarchy for transport, pedestrians and bikes come first – and aeroplanes last.

Buses and trains will be electric by 2030, while taxes and regulations will be imposed to force people to buy smaller, lighter and less-powerful cars.

No more new airports or runways will be built, and existing ones nationalised. All new homes and businesses must by law provide bicycle parking. Helicopter travel would be regulated “more strictly”. The sale of alcohol on planes and airports will be tightly restricted to prevent air-rage, and the air on inbound flights tested for disease.

Advertising of holiday flights will be controlled by law to halt the “promotion of a high-carbon lifestyle”. New taxes would be imposed on carriers to reduce passenger numbers.

THE NHS TAX

Foundation hospitals and internal markets will be abolished, PFI abandoned and prescription charges abolished. A new NHS Tax will be introduced specifically to fund the health service.

Assisted dying will be legalised, and the law on abortion liberalised to allow nurses to carry it out. “Alternative” medicine will be promoted. Private healthcare will be more heavily taxed, with special levies on private hospitals that employ staff who were trained on the NHS.

It will be a criminal offence, with “significant fines”, to stop a woman from breastfeeding in a restaurant or shop, and formula milk will be more tightly regulated.

In order to prevent “overpopulation” burdening the earth, the state will provide free condoms and fund research for new contraceptives.

VEGETARIANISM FOR ALL

A Green party would impose “research, education and economic measures” to drive a “transition from diets dominated by meat”. Factory farming would be abolished, and the sale of fur criminalised and shooting banned. Whips and jumps would be banned from horse racing.

SIGN UP TO AL-QAEDA

International aid should be increased by nearly 50 per cent to one per cent of GDP under Green Policy.

Merely being a member of al-Qaeda, the IRA and other currently proscribed terrorist groups will no longer be a criminal offence under Green plans, and instead a Green Government should seek to “address desperate motivations that lie behind many atrocities labelled ‘terrorist’,” the policy book states.

Terrorism, it adds, “is an extremely loaded term. Sometimes governments justify their own terrorist acts by labelling any groups that resist their monopoly of violence 'terrorist’.”

Britain will leave NATO, end the special relationship with the US, and unilaterally abandon nuclear weapons. A standing army, navy and airforce is “unnecessary”. Bases will be turned into nature reserves and the arms industry “converted” to producing windturbines.

OPEN DOORS

“Richer regions do not have the right to use migration controls to protect their privileges from others in the long term,” the party’s policy book states.

A Green Government will “progressively reduce” border controls, including an amnesty for illegal immigrants after five years.

Access to benefits, the right to vote and tax obligations will apply to everyone living on British soil, regardless of passport. The policy book states: “We will work to create a world of global inter-responsibility in which the concept of a 'British national' is irrelevant and outdated.”

Political parties will be funded by the state, and the electoral system changed. The monarchy will be abolished.

We can't afford any of the policies. Luckily they will never get any power.

better still fred, read the very interesting comment on zero-hours contracts in david smith's column on page 4 of ST

it concludes ....
Some people have been exploited on these contracts and the colaition has taken action on that. There may be a case for more action. But Labour is throwing the bay out with bathwater, choosing inflexibility and higher unemployment over mutually beneficial flexibility

==========

btw, the "right to buy legislation" introduced by MrsT was subsequently endorsed by labour .... there was also a claw-back if the (ex)tenant then sold within a given time
period

of course, if you'd paid proper attention when reading The Postman, you would have registered that .... though perhaps you just have selective memory

Manuel,

I have always attempted to be selective in what I remember. However unlike you I don‘t at the moment have much impairment of understanding of what is written and posted.

I suggest you re-read my posts.

I am not against what are described as or maybe understood by zero hour contracts, as long as the basic rates of pay are adhered to and that the contracts are not abusive to either parties.

But I can see the advantages to both parties as long as they are honest contracts and honestly entered into.

Generally my complaints against said “Zero rate hours or contracts” are that they are used confuse total unemployment figures.

(The state subsidising “profit” making companies, which have disproportionate earnings between management and employees. A little more clarity and honesty would be beneficial.)

==-=-==-=e

Again reread my post on purchase of council houses by tenants. When the “scheme” was introduced I can recall advising a friend to purchase his house.

You may be happy to swallow anything Cameron and “the party” you choose to represents propagates to you and like a zealot vote for your Mammon.

There are other reasons that I have, but at the moment I am physically compromised, but hopefully will address them later.

Nigel Farage faced claims of a ‘cover-up’ last night for censoring a poll that suggests he is on course for a humiliating personal defeat in the General Election.

The secret Ukip-commissioned poll, leaked to The Mail on Sunday, shows that Farage has fallen behind his Tory opponent in the Kent seat he is contesting. And he is in danger of finishing third, with Labour catching up fast.

If the poll is accurate, it could end Farage’s political career as he has vowed to resign as Ukip leader if he fails to win South Thanet. The ComRes poll was commissioned last month by multimillionaire businessman and former Tory Arron Banks, who defected to Ukip last year and gave the party £1million.

Ukip hoped the Thanet poll would echo an earlier one showing Farage heading for a famous victory, and they planned to use it to whip up more support.

But when the result came through, Farage had a shock.

It showed Conservative candidate Craig Mackinlay, a former Ukip activist, on 30 points, one ahead of Farage, with Labour only one behind.

Farage was so alarmed he gave orders for the findings to be hushed up to avoid causing panic in Ukip ranks – and encouraging his rivals.

Ukip officials spent last week trying to deny a cover-up. But yesterday, a spokesman finally admitted it had buried the survey, claiming the results were ‘unreliable’ and that it was a ‘rogue poll’.

The censored poll is not the only sign that the wheels may be coming off Farage’s bandwagon, nationally and locally.

However, the decline in support for Ukip has led to most pundits predicting they will end up with a maximum of five MPs in May.

If the censored poll is accurate, Farage may not be one of them, and that will leave Ukip in search of a new leader. Farage raised the Thanet stakes dramatically when he said in his recent autobiography that he would stand down as leader if he loses. ‘The consequences of me failing to secure a seat for myself in the Commons would be significant for me and the party,’ he wrote.

The censored poll is not the only sign that the wheels may be coming off Farage’s bandwagon, nationally and locally.



How many seats will the cons party win in Scotland, NE and Wales.

The wheel of the tory bus are already off and the rest will be at the junk heap soon!

Well, it would be a great pity if Farage were not to get elected. I do love to hear him speak.

It's funny, how if a politician is a very good orator, it doesn't really matter which party he belongs to.

Another current one I like listening to, is George Galloway and I do find 'Boris' a fascinating chap to watch and listen to as well.

Parties clash over prospect of Labour-SNP alliance


Andrew Whitaker
11:20Sunday 05 April 2015
7
HAVE YOUR SAY
GEORGE Osborne has described the prospect of a Labour-SNP alliance to keep the Tories out of power as a “deeply disturbing” one, as he suggested Nicola Sturgeon would dominate the decision making of a government led by Ed Miliband.

The chancellor said Ms Sturgeon would be the “strong” leader to Mr Miliband’s “weak” leader in an “unholy alliance”, as the main parties clashed about the likelihood of an anti-Tory pact in the event of a hung parliament.

Mr Osborne’s remarks came as Ms Sturgeon offered a new deal to Mr Miliband to be part of an anti-austerity alliance of Labour and the SNP to “lock David Cameron out of Downing Street” after 7 May.

However, Labour’s shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Chris Leslie said the SNP was “playing political games” and really wanted the Tories to win so that it could force a second referendum and jeopardise the union.

Mr Leslie, speaking on Sky News’s Murnaghan programme, said the SNP “believes in totally different things” to Labour as he appeared to pour cold water on Ms Sturgeon’s later offer to Mr Miliband’s party.

Scotland may get second indyref - Nicola Sturgeon


SCOTT MACNAB
22:18Tuesday 31 March 2015 00:00Wednesday 01 April 2015
296
HAVE YOUR SAY
NICOLA Sturgeon has refused to rule out the prospect of another Scottish independence referendum before 2020.

The First Minister said yesterday she has still to decide whether to include a commitment to another vote on the constitution in the party’s manifesto for next year’s Holyrood elections.

“I can’t impose a referendum on the Scottish people”
Nicola Sturgeon
But she insisted that independence will not be part of the forthcoming General Election campaign.

“I think we will have another referendum and I think Scotland will become independent,” Ms Sturgeon said.

“But that’s only going to happen when we have a party, presumably the SNP, which puts another referendum in their manifesto for a Scottish Parliament election and the people vote for that.

“I can’t impose a referendum on the Scottish people against their will.

“Will it be in our 2016 manifesto? I will take that decision when we come to write our 2016 manifesto. At the moment I’m concentrating on the 2015 one.”

Recent polls have suggested that the Yes side would win a second vote as support for the SNP and Yes parties surged after the referendum.

But Nationalist leaders, including Ms Sturgeon and Alex Salmond, had suggested that a referendum would be a “once in a generation” event.

Ms Sturgeon also said yesterday that the SNP government could still prop up a Labour minority government on a vote-by- vote basis – even if the Trident nuclear weapons system is renewed by Ed Miliband’s administration.

But she described Trident as a “red line” issue for the SNP, which would rule out a more formal deal like a coalition or “confidence and supply” arrangement with a Labour government.

However, Ms Sturgeon indicated this may not mean voting down a Labour budget, because Westminster “budgets don’t deal with spending, they deal with tax increases”.

Asked if the SNP would bring down a Labour administration over Trident, she added: “You can defeat governments in a minority context; it doesn’t necessarily mean that government falls.”

The First Minister added: “If we were voting on a vote-by- vote basis, we would vote for things we agree with and we wouldn’t vote for things we don’t agree with.

“But under no circumstances would we ever vote for the renewal of Trident or the spending of money on the renewal of Trident.

“The £100 billion that’s going to cost over the next 35 years is better spent on health education and keeping people out of poverty.”

But the First Minister said a working relationship with Labour would be possible.

“I’m sure there are many issues we could work together on,” Ms Sturgeon said.

“We know from past experience that Labour oppositions promise big and then they get into government and they don’t deliver.

“If we want to make sure that Labour firstly delivers on the things that it’s promising to do and we agree with, we need to make sure there are SNP MPs in there holding them to account and making sure that they deliver.”

But it came as David Cameron warned that Labour will not recover in Scotland unless the party rules out any deal with the SNP.

The Prime Minister said that the Tories are the only party recovering north of the Border because they have said they will not deal with the Nationalists.

However, he said he worries that Labour leader Ed Miliband is “not strong enough” to stand up to former SNP leader Mr Salmond and his successor Ms Sturgeon, and their “transitional demands”.

Earlier this month, Mr Miliband ruled out a formal coalition with the SNP following a Tory campaign warning that he was planning to form a government after the election with the help of the party, but he failed to rule out an informal agreement.

Mr Cameron said: “Labour ought to rule out not just coalition but any form of deal with the SNP. They can’t recover in Scotland unless they actually say, ‘We’re not going to deal with these people’.

“While they are saying effectively they’re going to deal with them, that’s giving people in Scotland a green light to vote SNP. They’ve got to have the courage of their convictions.

“The only party that’s actually recovering a little in Scotland is the Conservatives, because we’ve said, ‘We’re not dealing with these people, they want to break up our country, we’re not having anything to do with them. Vote for what you believe in’.

“What is Labour’s message? ‘We don’t like the SNP but we might do a deal with them – they might help us over the threshold’. That’s useless.”

He said the SNP was “just trying to take the Labour Party hostage”.

Polls continue to suggest the SNP is poised to win dozens of Scotland’s 59 seats and could even hold the balance of power at Westminster in the event of a hung parliament.

Yes The Three Stooges!

I suppose the HP is a variety hall of a kind!