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.

Just a reminder, that the BBC have a web site with ALL the polls on it:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/poll-tracker

OddsChecker is a very good web site to see what the bookies are saying about the General Election and there are some extremely interesting bets in the British Politics section:

http://www.oddschecker.com/politics/british-politics/next-uk-general-election/most-seats

Suggestion: Place bookmarks to these pages in your browser's BookMarks Bar.

Here is a good suggestion.

Election 2015: Nick Clegg's tax rise vow on second homes
21 April 2015
From the section Election 2015
Liberal Democrat leader and deputy PM Nick Clegg
Prices are "beyond reach" of many young people, Nick Clegg says
Nick Clegg has said owners of second homes in rural beauty spots could face paying double the rate of council tax under Liberal Democrat plans.

-=-=

Launching the party's Countryside Charter, he said the plans would ensure local residents were not priced out of the property market.

They would allow local authorities to charge 200% council tax in some areas.
The Lib Dem leader also wants to create 300,000 jobs in rural areas if the party has power after the election.

Mr Clegg said the proposed second home levy was aimed at ensuring there was "fairness in the housing market".

it wouldn't achieve it's aim, but it's not a bad idea for all that
quite how it would be enforced is another matter, for surely it is quite easily circumvented

Will MP's be charged double for their second homes?

Do pig's fly??

rent one, own one .... or you own one and your other half the other ..... lots of variations possible

in any case, though it will help funding for local councils, it won't reduce the price of these "holiday homes" by much if at all

what's grabbed the market by the testicles?
it was up a fair bit earlier and i see it's now down 20+

Perhaps, you came home!

story wrong .... it must be pining for me as i'm by the pool in Dubai as i write :-)

Cleggy's just trying to pay to his audience.

It would be childishly simple to get around any second home law.

oops

Just checking!

Hope it is not on business expenses.

8-)

--


Just out of interest, how many Tory and UKIP MPs in Scotland are likely to be elected for the London based parliament?

Seems fewer than labour!

Why?

Seems to me the Camerons are being rejected by more and more of the UK.

=-=-=-=-===

Edited.........!!!!!

of course it's all on biz ...... have been catching up on biz(!!) e-mails and tying up the loose ends of a couple of deals :-)

========

ukip
unlikely to be more than 5, though their adherents could skew the votes for others
kent and the medway constituencies are certainly totally cheesed with the number of immigrants invading their neck of the woods ..... whether that is perception or reality is irrelevant

A day in the sun for 2 e-mails and a little bonding????

HMRC where are?

Border control where are you!

I see Major is offering a choice between Bribery with Corruption, and Blackmail.

Why not add a little whiff of drugs?


Interesting what coerces some to make their decisions or choices.

Hey, ho, for politics!

jealousy gets you nowhere, except perhaps to stand on a political soapbox :-)

Migrants: Who Are They And Where Do They Go?



Migrants risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean and get to Europe came from more than 40 countries in 2014, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency.

The agency recorded 165,000 people successfully making the perilous journey in 2014, a jump from 60,000 in 2013.

They come mainly from war-torn countries across Africa and the Middle East.

Here's how the numbers break down.

WHERE THEY COME FROM

Eritrea 28,557 (25%)
Syria 23,945 (21%)
Mali 7,971 (7%)
Nigeria 5,861 (5%)
Gambia 5,158 (5%)
Somalia 3,646 (3%)
Egypt 3,026 (3%)
Others 31,602 (31%)

WHERE THEY GO

The figures below show the number of refugees in European countries, as recorded by the UNHCR, in mid-2014.

Germany 200,805
France 237,985
UK 126,055
Sweden 114,175
Italy 76,263
Netherlands 74,707
Switzerland 57,783
Austria 55,598
Norway 46,106
Belgium 29,179

Tories gave me a 'hand up when my family had nothing', Sir John Major says

Former prime minister says David Cameron's party is the only one that 'cares' as he attacks 'every Labour government' since Macmillan for destroying the economy




By Steven Swinford, Deputy Political Editor

3:02PM BST 21 Apr 2015

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Sir John Major, the former Prime Minister, has said that he gave the Conservatives his "lifetime's work" because they are a party that that "cares" and offered him a "hand up when my family had nothing".




The former Conservative leader said that every Labour government under leaders from Harold MacMillan to Gordon Brown had left Britain in a state of "economic ruin" and is a party that "divides to rule" by creating class-warfare.


In a deeply personal speech, Sir John said he grew up with Labour but found that the party "divides to rule" by turning the "rich against poor, North against South, workers against boss". "We need to bring people together, not create chasms to prise us apart," he said.


The former Prime Minister also warned that the SNP represents a "real and present danger" and under a Labour government will "demand the impossible" and create "merry hell" when its demands aren't met. He warned that the parties ultimate purpose is to create "drive a wedge between Scotland and England" and break up the Union.

Sir John, who grew up on a council estate in Brixton, said in the West Midlands: "We will never all be born equal. Life isn’t like that. But it is the Conservative mission to make opportunities in life equal.

That is what first drew me to the Party nearly six decades ago. While Labour was offering me a hand “out”, the Conservatives offered me a hand “up”."

On Labour he said that while he "admires their virtues" the party has consistently "wrecked the economy" when it is in government.




He said: "Every single Labour Government we have ever had – from Ramsay MacDonald to Gordon Brown – has ruined the economy. Every single time. There’s a pattern. Labour wrecks the economy. The Tories

repair it but become unpopular in doing so. Labour are re‑elected and wreck it again. It’s time to break that pattern.

"I know Labour. I grew up with them. I admire their virtues. But Labour is a class-based Party. It was born so and remains so. It’s in its DNA. Labour divides to rule. To win votes, they will turn rich against poor. North against South. Worker against boss. They have done this before. And they are doing it now. But it is emphatically not what this country needs. We need to bring people together, not create chasms to prise us apart."

General election 2015: Labour's 'apocalyptic' SNP deal - 28 weeks later

How will things look six months into a Labour/SNP government? Not good. Not good at all.






By Jeremy Warner

5:49PM BST 21 Apr 2015

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OK, so the headline - a reference to the post-apocalyptic horror movie - may be a little over the top, but with a Labour minority government, supported by the Scottish National Party, appearing more likely as election day approaches, it seems worth exploring what things might look like six months after initial infection, as it were, by this unholy alliance of “progressives”. As you might expect, it’s not a happy picture.


Much separates the SNP from its putative Labour bedfellow - dismissively characterised by the SNP’s Nicola Sturgeon as merely “Conservative-lite” - but there is also a lot they agree on, and certainly quite enough coalescent policy fodder to inflict lasting damage.





Spending



The SNP proposes a real terms increase in public spending of 0.5pc a year, which according to analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, broadly correlates with Labour’s own plans. The £12bn of additional welfare cuts pencilled in under current spending plans would be abandoned, and the lid would once again quickly be taken off health spending. On paper at least, the Lab/SNP fiscal compact would still amount to a slight squeeze, as spending is notionally meant to rise less quickly than output. In practice, it’s hard to see even this comparatively limited constraint holding for long given the plethora of election promises.


English university tuition fees would be reduced by a third, the “bedroom tax” would be reversed, and some of the Coalition’s welfare reforms would be unwound, very probably leading to higher overall welfare spending in the long run. The SNP has also indicated that it wants to reduce the age of entitlement to the state pension north of the border, this on the grounds that Scots tend not to live as long as the national average. Labour surely cannot concede pensions apartheid of this sort without a storm of English protest, but you never know.




Taxation


Soon after parliament reconvenes on May 18, there would be an “emergency Budget” to push through a series of tax increases on the better off, including a mansions tax, the restoration of the 50pc tax band and the removal of pension tax breaks.



A new tax on banker bonuses would be introduced, corporation tax would be increased to 21pc, and an additional levy would be imposed on tobacco companies, likely to be assessed on the basis of market shares. Historically, all new governments confronted by an ongoing deficit have tended to raise taxes more widely than indicated in pre-election manifestos. Labour/SNP is unlikely to differ.



The economy and financial markets


Easing back on fiscal “austerity” will probably cause the economy to grow a bit more strongly than otherwise, at least in the short run. Labour will meanwhile attempt to allay fears of a gilts market strike or sterling crisis by stressing its European credentials, which it claims makes it more business and investor-friendly than the Conservatives. Removal of uncertainty around a referendum on EU membership, Labour believes, will counteract any doubts markets might have on fiscal responsibility or an anti-wealth policy agenda.

Warnings of a bond market meltdown are, in any case, almost certainly exaggerated. Similar alerts were issued ahead of the election of Francois Hollande as president of France. In the event there was no discernable long-term impact. Economic stagnation makes investors ever more willing to finance notionally creditworthy governments. Yet the upshot is even less money for private sector investment, together with a tightening bias in monetary policy. Fiscal incontinence may well culminate in higher interest rates.




Banking and the City


A more overtly anti-finance agenda will quickly establish itself, with the new government a more likely push-over for the various banker bashing and anti-City initiatives coming out of Europe than the present Government.


Labour threats to break up the big banks are still very much alive, though the Competition and Markets Authority might already have defused the issue somewhat by announcing a formal investigation of the sector. This won’t report until next year. It’s unclear whether Labour determination to create two new “challenger banks” is satisfied by the current, enforced divestment by the major banks of TSB and Williams & Glyn's.



Employment


Both parties promise to increase the minimum wage to an approximation of the current “living wage” by the end of the parliament, and to abolish zero-hours contracts, even though most people on zero-hours say the contracts suit them




Energy


Woolly consumerist and environmental thinking instructs both parties on energy policy. Energy bills will be frozen for two years while the workings of the electricity market are investigated.


Labour also plans legally binding targets to decarbonise electricity production in its entirety by 2030, achieved in part through additional energy efficiency for 5m homes. And how’s that going to be paid for without raising bills? Don’t worry, the SNP has thought about that one – out of taxation, or another case of robbing Peter to pay Paul. In all this, the greatest priority of all – how to incentivise the degree of investment needed to keep the lights on – seems to have been largely forgotten.



Labour also plans legally binding targets to decarbonise electricity production in its entirety by 2030, achieved in part through additional energy efficiency for 5m homes. And how’s that going to be paid for without raising bills? Don’t worry, the SNP has thought about that one – out of taxation, or another case of robbing Peter to pay Paul. In all this, the greatest priority of all – how to incentivise the degree of investment needed to keep the lights on – seems to have been largely forgotten.

Labour also promises to re-regulate local bus services, by making them contract-based rather than commercially operated by private sector companies.



Scotland and the union


Even assuming outright independence is for the moment off the agenda, it is likely soon to put back on again. The SNP wants “full fiscal responsibility”, or control over all tax, spend and borrowing decisions north of the border. The IFS calculates that as things stand, the Scottish deficit is more than twice that of the UK as a whole at 8.6pc of GDP.

In the event of full fiscal responsibility, or even the halfway house proposed by The Smith Commission, the scale of this hitherto largely hidden subsidy from the rest of the UK to Scotland would become fully transparent and would almost certainly be regarded as too high a price to pay for continued union. QED; the SNP would have achieved its raison d’etre, and John Major's doom-laden predictions about where devolution would lead us, first aired nearly 20 years ago, would have been proved correct.

Nicola Sturgeon urges Ed Miliband to be bolder and less hidebound by the fiscal, national and free market conventions of the past. By the look of it, he’s unlikely to take much persuading.

Boris Johnson defends 'negative' Tory tactics - What's wrong with calling Ed Milliband a backstabber?

Mayor of London spends the day campaigning in Ramsgate, in the heart of Nigel Farage's target constituency of South Thanet, and asks “Have we become namby-pamby? Have we gone soft? What’s wrong with calling someone a backstabber?”




By Peter Dominiczak, Political Editor

6:00PM BST 21 Apr 2015

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Boris Johnson took the fight directly to Nigel Farage on Tuesday as he made his first campaigning appearance in the UK Independence Party’s leader’s target constituency.


The Mayor of London spent Tuesday morning campaigning in Ramsgate in the heart of South Thanet and said that people considering voting Ukip are now “focusing” on the “choice” at the election between David Cameron and Ed Miliband.


He also rejected claims about negative tactics used against Mr Miliband in recent weeks, saying the criticism of attacks on the Labour leader has been “namby-pamby”.




Mr Johnson also renewed his own attack on Mr Miliband, warning that the Labour leader “thinks the only problem with Socialism is that it hasn’t been properly tried and that he just needs one more go”.

His appearance in South Thanet triggered a furious response from Ukip, who flooded Ramsgate with activists and Ukip billboards mounted on vans.

Conservative strategists are confident that they can prevent Mr Farage winning the seat on May 7.




The Ukip leader has pledged to resign if he loses the election.

Mr Johnson campaigned in Ramsgate alongside Craig Mackinlay, the Conservative candidate, who previously served a senior member of Ukip.

The Mayor has been largely absent from the Conservative Party's national campaign until now.

Strategists hope that his high profile will help to shift the polls in the weeks before the election.

Mr Cameron has urged traditional Tory supporters who have defected to Ukip in recent years to "come home" to the Conservative Party.

Asked if there is evidence Ukip supporters are now “coming home”, Mr Johnson told The Telegraph: “I think they are a bit, yes. I do notice people really are focusing.



“For many Ukip supporters there is no real antipathy towards the Conservatives. They just want the Conservatives to do a few things – on the referendum, on the reforms to welfare. They are thinking better [The Conservatives] than go for Miliband.

“In the end you’ve just got to keep persuading. It’s a straight choice.”

• Election live: "Ukip manifesto has one 'half black' and a 'fully black' person"

Mr Johnson said that he believes that the polls will begin to shift decisively towards the Conservatives in the final ten days of the general election campaign.

“A lot of people are undecided,” Mr Johnson added. “But a lot of people, and not just people supporting Ukip, will veer to the Tories in the last few days.”

The Conservatives were earlier this month criticised for warning that Mr Miliband is prepared to “stab the country in the back” over Trident, the nuclear deterrent, in the same way as he “stabbed his brother in the back” over the leadership of the Labour Party.



Mr Johnson rejected any claims that the Tories have been overly negative in their attacks on Mr Miliband.

He said: “Have we become namby-pamby? Have we gone soft? What’s wrong with calling someone a backstabber?”


Mr Johnson made a series of warnings about the consequences of a Labour government propped up by the SNP.

He said: “I think it would mean higher interest rates, it would mean a colossal increase in government borrowing - £148billion. It would mean the return of 1970s style worker participation in company decisions. It would mean the return of the unions, there would be a huge increase in tribunals, anybody running a company would face an increase in corporation tax.

“It would be like putting a ball and chain around a British economy that is turning into one of the best potential athletic performers in the world.

“There we are, lined up at the start of the 100 metres final in the Olympics and Labour comes and clamps a ball and chain around it.

For the first time in this campaign the Tories have Labour on the back foot

Dan Hodges look at who won day 23 of the election campaign




By Dan Hodges

5:47PM BST 21 Apr 2015

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Day 23 has again been dominated by one issue – the threat of an SNP/Labour pact.


As I said yesterday, this is now a “strategic issue”. It is dominating media cycles and being brought up spontaneously on the doorsteps to campaigners of all parties.


For the second day in a row Labour have tried to switch the focus back on to their “NHS week”, but without success. The Conservatives deployed John Major to deliver a speech reinforcing the Miliband/Sturgeon threat message, and it pushed Ed Miliband’s health speech of the airwaves, (when the pooled broadcast feed wasn’t freezing).




If Labour are the clear losers from this concerted attack, there are also two other winners. One is obviously the SNP, with Nicola Sturgeon now being described in reverential tones as the “Scottish Boris” by some journalists.


But the other less obvious beneficiaries are the Lib Dems. Forcing the voters to decide who they would prefer holding the balance of power in the event of a hung-parliament is the central plank of their own campaign strategy, and the events of the past few days are helping frame that choice. What they want to do now is nudge the focus back towards the threat posed by a right-wing coalition, comprised of Ukip, Tory hardliners and Northern Irish unionists. That’s why Paddy Ashdown was sent out across the broadcast studios to boisterously remind people of the days when John Major was in hock to the “b–––––––” on his own back benches.

But for the first time in this campaign the Tories have Labour on the back foot in a serious way. Today was a big win for them.