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.

I see Cameron is putting his own political hopes and desires before moral values at Brussels.

He appears for me to be a moral coward once again!

=-=-=-===

David Cameron gets angry with teenagers in disastrous Radio 1 interview

He is falling apart like his campaign.

----=--=--=

David Cameron seemed tetchy and irritable during a disastrous interview on Radio 1 last night when he was quizzed by teenage listeners.

During the 30 minute Q&A, he admitted he didn't know how much the living wage was and got a kicking over VAT on female sanitary products.

He also refused to rule out a post-election deal with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) despite their position on gay rights.

The red-faced millionaire was quizzed on Radio 1’s Newsbeat programme over the rate experts calculate is needed to give a decent standard of living – £7.85 outside London and £9.15 in the capital.

-=-=-=-=-=

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/david-cameron-gets-angry-teenagers-5567516

Is that the current rates?
2517

Cameron wants to "smash" the smugglers, but can't stand up to Farage and a box of kippers at home.

What a standard bearer for the UK.

No wonder the Scots want leave the UK.

Mind if the tories succeed in May there is always the DUP to lead him by his nose and give him some back bone!

Here's a very different take on the Radio 1 'left wing ambush interview', Fred:

BBC accused of left-wing ambush on David Cameron over hostile Radio 1 interview
Radio 1's Live Lounge presenter Chris Smith bets David Cameron £1,000 he won't win a majority, as PM faces grilling from highly critical audience of young people

Emily Gosden By Emily Gosden, and Steven Swinford6:51PM BST 22 Apr 2015

The BBC has been accused of launching a left-wing ambush on David Cameron after a deeply hostile Radio 1 interview in which the presenter bet the Prime Minister £1,000 he could not win a majority.

Appearing on Radio 1’s Live Lounge, Mr Cameron was repeatedly interrupted by audience members and presenter Chris Smith, leading to widespread accusations of bias.

The Telegraph understands the Conservatives are considering lodging a formal complaint over the interview.

In one exchange Mr Cameron was asked by a female audience member from Northern Ireland to vow he would not go into coalition with the DUP because of its views on LGBT rights.

Mr Cameron said he did not "want a coalition with anybody", insisting: "I'm not open to coalitions, I don't want a coalition."

But Mr Smith interjected saying Mr Cameron would have to form one, as he would not win a majority.

A clearly irritated Mr Cameron responded: "You keep saying so, you seem to know the outcome of the election. How do you know who wins? Have you got some God-given right to declare what the election [result] is?"

Mr Smith said: "I bet you £1,000 you don't win a majority."

Listening to Radio1 and the girl asking the homeless question doesn't understand the issue. "Give everyone a house tomorrow" is impossible
— Ira (@TNT_Master19) April 22, 2015

This Radio1 Q&A with Cameron is nothing short of a lefty ambush. The BBC should be embarrassed at such a bias broadcast
— Ira (@TNT_Master19) April 22, 2015

While the Prime Minister responded calmly that he was "not going to start taking bets", users of social media criticised the presenter's tactic as "childish" and "arrogant".

"Who is this guy? Simply shouldn't be allowed to present," wrote one.

Just saying what I hate about election debates is people that like the sound of their own voice, no one gets answers Radio1 #ELECTION2015

— Charlotte O'C (@ladysharles) April 22, 2015
You lose your own argument when you just speak aggressively and don't let him answer the question Radio1 #ELECTION2015

— Charlotte O'C (@ladysharles) April 22, 2015
"This Radio1 Q&A with Cameron is nothing short of a lefty ambush. The BBC should be embarrassed at such a bias broadcast," said another user.

Mr Cameron was also grilled over topics including the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean, where an audience member accused the Prime Minister of having had a policy of "let them drown".

The host on this @BBCR1 David Cameron interview is so biased. It is an absolute disgrace.
— Fionnlagh Copland (@WeeFion) April 22, 2015

Mr Cameron conceded more search and rescue was needed but that action also needed to be taken to stabilise countries such as Libya. “You had a go at stabilising Libya, didn’t you, by bombing it?,” he was asked. Mr Cameron said it was a “pretty inflammatory remark”.

A Conservative source said: "The guy betting the PM £1,000 he couldn't win a majority was ridiculous, the audience wasn't balanced at all, the whole thing was ridiculous."

"What an awful live lounge," wrote one Twitter user. "What's the point of asking @David_Cameron questions if the people you have on refuse to listen to the answer?"

"Sounds like everyone in the radio one live lounge is against David Cameron. I feel sorry for the guy because nobody is listening to him," wrote another.

Not having listened to it, it's nice to get a more accurate version, instead of the repetitive one-sided crap from Fred.
2517

it really has been wonderful to avoid most of the nonsense here over the last week or so
admiring the itinerant pulchritude was assuredly much more interesting

anyhow, i noticed that grant shapps seemed to get himself into hot water yet again ..... BUT within 48 hours, that scandal had been exposed as put-up job by some moderator on wikipedia itself

You would believe that wouldn't you!

But if you haven't listen to it I am a little suspect of your judgement!

Again,perhaps, they didn't listen to Cameron because of the porkies he has previously told and they didn't think he would tell the truth on the occasion.

Again if he can't deal with a crowd of adolescents, what chance does he have with running a country with a cabinet made up of stunted adolescents.

He is a goner!

--=-=-

After the election he could make a poor shoe boy!


8-)

Alf believes Shapps admission... I think you need another holiday -):

it was the printed word, though i confess he does look a bit of a blister, to steal one of PGW's descriptive terms

For Stan

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/general-election-2015/politics-blog/11554098/Can-you-tell-Labour-and-the-Communists-2015-election-manifestos-apart.html

For H/S.

Your the one who's infatuated with Milliband, Labour Etc not me.

Ed Miliband vows to fight for working class Scots


ANDREW WHITAKER
00:08Tuesday 21 April 2015 17:48Monday 20 April 2015
31
HAVE YOUR SAY
ED Miliband said Labour was on course to win next month’s General Election and promised that his party would fight for the “working people” of Scotland in a speech to the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) yesterday.

Mr Miliband said a Labour victory in the General Election was “within grasp” as he issued a rallying call to the annual congress of the STUC in Ayr, where he failed to mention the SNP by name.

Let’s make it happen, let’s change our country
Ed Miliband
The STUC, the umbrella organisation of the trade union movement, is not directly affiliated to Labour, although some of the largest unions such as Unite, Unison and the GMB are in the party.

However, Mr Miliband’s speech will be widely seen as a pitch to union members tempted to vote for the Nationalists, with the SNP trade union group now growing in influence.

Mr Miliband instead chose to focus on his party’s message to “working people” and accused David Cameron of “double deceit” on the NHS, in his address to delegates yesterday.

He said: “Change hasn’t happened because leaders made it happen – it’s because you in this room and the people who went before you made it happen.

“So, today, I call on you, I call on you to put an end to this government; I call on you, on the people of Scotland and, yes, on behalf of the people of Wales and England and the whole of the United Kingdom, to fight as you have always done for working people.

“I call on you to work with me to end the old ways of running the country because it is within our grasp.


“Together we can write a new chapter, for Scotland and the United Kingdom. This is the chance we have in just 17 days. Today, I call on you and then in 17 days, for five years, you can call on me to fight for the working people of this country.

“Let’s make it happen, let’s change our country to work for working people of Scotland and the whole of the United Kingdom.”

With opinion polls showing the SNP poised to make sweeping gains, Mr Miliband said he would take inspiration from the trade union movement over the last days of the campaign, as he appealed to Scottish voters to help his party defeat the Conservatives.

He said: “The battle to build a country that works for working people is the story of our movement.


“And here in Scotland you have always answered the call.

“When people asked a hundred years ago who would fight for workers’ rights, it was Scottish trade unionists who said, call on me.

“What the history of our movement teaches us is that it is leaders who can be the catalyst for change, but it is only with movements that change can happen.”

Mr Milband highlighted Labour policies to raise the minimum wage to more than £8 and abolish zero-hours contracts, as he sought to appeal to STUC members to support his party.

He said: “There is still poverty pay despite the minimum wage. I will not tolerate that in the country I lead. We will write the next chapter in the fight against poverty pay in our country.


“Still today we have a country with Victorian working conditions in the 21st century.

“A text message at 6am to tell people on a zero-hours contract whether they have work. I will not tolerate that in the country I lead.”

He described the blacklisting of employees who engage in trade union activity by contractors and companies as “odious” and said a Labour government would launch a full inquiry into the practice.

Angus Robertson, the SNP’s election campaign director, hit back, saying: “Ed Miliband knows that Labour are not strong enough to win a majority at the General Election – the question is whether he is prepared to work with the SNP to lock David Cameron out of Downing Street, or if he would prefer to let the Tories back in.

“The only way to stop austerity and halt the waste of £100 billion being spent on Trident nuclear weapons – and instead invest in jobs, the NHS, a stronger Scotland and progressive change across the UK – is by voting SNP on 7 May.”

Mr Miliband’s address to the STUC came ahead of a speech by Scottish labour leader Jim Murphy at a Labour street rally in Glasgow today.

Mr Murphy will claim that Scotland has to “rebuild our NHS, not rerun the referendum”, as he will accuse the SNP of promoting independence at the expense of the National Health Service, which he says has been starved of cash during the Nationalists’ eight years in power.

Mr Murphy is expected to warn that “Scotland is facing a GP ticking timebomb”, with major shortages in the number of surgeries and medical centres.

comments
What a joke he made a vow to the people of Scotland not so long ago and look what happened what a bare faced Liar .


Not another one of your famous/infamous vows.

Don't you realise Ed that no one believes you any more.


I notice that when these 'hard-working Scots' become unemployed, the Labour Party abandons them.

An unfettered Labour Party in charge of the UK finances would show little difference to a Tory one. Especially as Labour are the Zero Hour Contract afficionados.


Where is murphy ,I feel like an addict ,I cant do without my pledge a day ,come on Mc spud give us two a day to make up for the ones we missed ,is Paw Broon going to be showing up in the near future or what about Darling ,remember them your soulmates in the bitter together mob.


Labour will only ever relate to those swing voters in the south of England who supported Thatcher 1 until Thatcher 2 (Blair) came along. They drifted back to their natural home in support of Cameron.
Until now Labour have been guaranteed the Scottish vote no matter how little they do for this country.
Independence for Scotland would save Ed and his pals from suffering those sleepless nights worrying about how to be a Tory for the south of England whilst being a champion of the workers in the north. Sadly there's still the those pesky poor people in north of England to worry about. Oops!


Yawn! Ed is still trying to empathise with 'hard working families' and 'get into their homes'. Keep your doors locked!

Oh, and has anyone else noticed the silence?... Where is Megamouth Murphy?


I think Ed is doing a grand job and will be a great leader of the SNP in Westminster. The Nats are going all out to make hime the next prime minister, they really love him. I heard a rumour Sturgeon is considering a move to Labour so she can contest Ed in a leadership contest.


Ed has no traction in Scotland. A member of the London metropolitan and intellectual elite who has never dirtied his hands with a real job is never going to appeal much in Scotland. Indeed I suspect any intervention by him in Scottish affairs makes things worse for Labour.


Sad to see Ed Miliband stirring up the cold ashes of class warfare. Nowhere has he been reported a champion of business owners or managers. He surely must realise and accept that our workers will only have secure jobs and better wages if investment in R & D and innovation proceed steadily and positively. The whole structure of our country depends on team efforts, not just the workers. Ed, boyo, get real and present your party for all of society, not just the workers, important as they are. VOTE SNP for Scotland and independence of thought and deed.

12 of the best #NotRuledOutByTheSNP tweets


12:10Tuesday 21 April 2015
2
HAVE YOUR SAY
AT yesterday’s SNP manifesto launch, Nicola Sturgeon ruled out having any current plans for a second referendum in the next few years - but said that if there was the democratic demand for a second vote, she would act on it.

This led to a Twitter game based round the hashtag #NotRuledOutByTheSNP. Here are 12 of the best suggestions...

1.@YoorWullie

Every statue throughout the UK must be adorned with a traffic cone. #NotRuledOutByTheSNP

2. @mariejarvie

Stiffer custodial sentences for people caught flingin’ pieces oot a 20 storey flats #NotRuledOutByTheSNP

3. @fr0gwise

Alex Salmond being involved romantically with every single person in Scotland #NotRuledOutByTheSNP


New Scottish border to be decided as far as the Proclaimers can walk. Early estimate = 1,000 miles. #NotRuledOutByTheSNP

5. @SallyVeraCoburn

Bawhair to become an official unit of measurement #NotRuledOutByTheSNP


Surnames will be banned and everyone will need to add either ‘Big’ or ‘Wee’ as their first name #NotRuledOutByTheSNP

7. @dharmabum

10p discount on Freddos with every SNP membership #NotRuledOutByTheSNP




Jim Murphy will be paraded through the streets in a tortoise costume and forced to beg for lettuce. #NotRuledOutByTheSNP

9. @ASheridanSNP

HP sauce labels in Scotland will have the photo of Westminster removed and replaced with a photo of Holyrood #NotRuledOutByTheSNP

10. @the45storm

Pumpkins will be banished at Halloween and all lanterns will be made with Neeps #NotRuledOutByTheSNP

11. @Horticouture87

Nessie to become a protected species #NotRuledOutByTheSNP

12. @penguinos99

Shoving yer granny aff a bus #NotRuledOutByTheSNP

Secret World War II bunker discovered in Selkirk


12:07Thursday 23 April 2015
5
HAVE YOUR SAY
A SECRET World War II bunker built for the British Resistance to fight a Nazi occupation has been discovered 70 years after the war ended.

The underground site would have been used by civilian spies and saboteurs trained in guerrilla warfare, and was found last month by a British Resistance Archive team in the Scottish Borders.


Its exact location is being kept secret, but it is known to be near Lindean Loch in an area that was once thick with woodland on “a high plateau with commanding views”.

Wartime records suggest it was built in 1941, but the bunker would not have been known to people living in nearby Selkirk during the war.

It consists of a central main chamber and a series of escape tunnels which would have been patrolled by resistance fighters.

Inside, bunk bed frames are still present alongside a water tank and debris from several former structures used by its former occupants.

Researchers said the bunker is in “a very good state” aside from some graffiti and evidence of a small fire near the entrance.

In wartime Britain it would have been part of a large network of up to 500 hidden underground operational bases.


Operators were expected to live self-sufficiently and autonomously in the event of a Nazi invasion, and many similar sites have yet to be unearthed.

The volunteers who manned the bunkers were often recruited from the most able-bodied of the Home Guard and chosen for their resourcefulness, local knowledge, and ability to live off the land.

They would have been stocked with supplies of silenced pistols, commando knives and plastic explosives, and enough food to last at least two weeks.

But their life expectancy behind enemy lines was estimated to be around 15 days, and if found by enemy forces, were expected to shoot themselves rather than being taken captive.


Most likely full of Natnutters on their laptops, no sign of some deranged American from Dallas was there.


I think Jim Murphy, Ruth Davidson and we wee chap from the Lib Dems knew about this, it was going to be their bolt hole to avoid the fall out of overseeing the extinction of their party's North of the border, now this is blown, it's back to plan 'B', the three tents on Rockall.

an interesting post/survey for all courtesy of a very good buddy of mine ..... confess i haven't done it yet

Give this a whirl. V good way of impartially and apolitically seeing who's policies you like which may help you decide who to vote for
https://voteforpolicies.org.uk/

I think a similar story would have happened in Gibraltar if it fell to the Nazis....

What do you mean RF?

Labour can be Scotland’s party again, says Brown



Mr Brown said the Tories are committed to billions of pounds of austerity
SNP’s plan for FFA would leave a £7.6 bn hole in Scotland’s economy
Labour committed to tackling youth unemployment
07:13Thursday 23 April 2015
45
HAVE YOUR SAY
LABOUR is ready to reclaim its “historic role as Scotland’s party of fairness and social justice”, according to former Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

In a letter to voters, Mr Brown said the Tories are committed to billions of pounds of austerity and the SNP’s plan for full fiscal autonomy would leave a £7.6 billion hole in Scotland’s economy.

But Scottish Deputy First Minister John Swinney said the SNP is the only party pledging investment in jobs and services, in contrast to the “Tory-Labour austerity alliance”.

Mr Brown said: “Labour is proving itself ready to reclaim its historic role as Scotland’s party of fairness and social justice - committed to tackling youth unemployment, widening educational opportunity and ending the need for food banks.”

He added: “If they win the election, the Tories are committed to billions of pounds more austerity - which means less money for Scotland and our NHS.

“The SNP’s own spending plans for the UK confirm that next year they would not spend a single penny more than the Tories.

“And the nationalists would scrap the Barnett formula, meaning that our NHS and other public services could only be funded by taxes raised in Scotland. That would mean additional cuts of £7.6 billion to the services we all rely on.

“The Labour Party created the NHS. We built the NHS. And we have always ensured that it has been fully funded.”


Mr Swinney said: “Westminster’s cuts have been holding back our economy and hurting people in our communities for too long - pushing 100,000 more children in Scotland into poverty and seeing the numbers of people forced to rely on food banks shooting through the roof.

“Ending austerity is without doubt the key issue of this General Election campaign - and both Labour and the Tories are on the wrong side of people in Scotland and many people across the UK. Austerity has failed on every measure - and it’s time for a new, more progressive approach

“The contrast between the Tory-Labour austerity alliance and the SNP’s plans for investment could not be clearer - and is one of the reasons that more and more people in Scotland are putting their faith in the SNP as we approach the General Election.”



comments

The man is a pompous off and not worthy of a mention, but there again someone has to say it.


I agree with Gordon, Labour could be Scotland's party again. It's not impossible, but the only way I could see it happening is if they break ties with the UK party and pursue and independence, or at least federal solution. The lie that Gordon is telling though is in trying to pretend that Labour were Scotland's party in his time, but Labour haven't truly represented Scotland for decades. Arguably their first mistake was to follow Keir Hardie into the British Labour Party in 1895, and it mostly went downhill from there. :)


The trouble in Scotland is socialism.
Socialism needs poverty.So socialists will say how we are all equal then remove opportunities for economic and educational progression to prevent people from being as equal as they are. Further they will tax in extreme(40% tax rate starts now at 31 K a year) to prevent those with a progressive spirit from being motivated to succeed.
Socialism is the breeding ground of poverty and shackles people in that poverty by taxation and legislation.
The socialist hates people fending for themselves, they make you reliant on benefits and while playing lip service to excess charges do nothing to discourage high fuel prices and food prices. We know this to be true because the great socialist experiment of the EU puts charges on our food (Common argiculture Policy, CFP) and our energy use(VAT on Fuel) and recently even knowledge is taxed.(Books now draw VAT)
What changed days and what changed attitudes in the last 40 years. When hard work was recognised it is now despised, where reward for effort was accepted it is now demonised, where learning was praised we now sponsor failure, (sorry children are not allowed to fail..when people just need many more chances to get the right answer in the exam..including teachers assistance) (67% of school leavers lack employability skills but have higher average marks than their parents) and provide a lifestyle often better than those who have worked at school, (The Rowntree foundation reports says that you are more likely to be in poverty working than unemployed, retired than pregnant single mother)
Socialism requires ignorance and uses intimation to maintain its momentum Lets wipe out party x / party Y should be banned)
Continued socialism will continue poverty, if we want different we need to wipe out socialism as currently practised and start again.


The Labour Party created the NHS. We built the NHS and it was the Labour government lead by Gordon Brown which started the NHS's privatisation

The last Labour Government laid the groundwork for everything that the Tory-led coalition is now doing to the NHS. Market structures, foundation trusts, GP consortia and the introduction of private corporations into commissioning were all products of an ill-conceived Labour vision of "public service reforms".23 April 2014

Use of the private sector by the NHS doubled in the last four years of Labour.

The Department of Health and the Treasury has announced that Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Huntingdon will be offered for sale both to NHS organisations and to the private sector.24-Jul-2009

In a recent interview (31 Jul 2014) , former Labour Health Secretary Frank Dobson was asked if NHS privatisation started under New Labour, answering
"Oh certainly, yes!


Hilarious posts from the seps considering that the only policies that the SNP have have been stolen from Labour. The suggestions that Brown bankrupted the country when in power are rich given that Sturgeon what's to spend and borrow more than the Labour
Party after the GE!


I sincerely hope that the Scottish people keep their nerve and prove the dinosaur that is Gordon Brown wrong!

A little story that if Gibraltar had fallen .....some people would have been left behind in a sealed bunker.....(not sure if it's a true story/it is a comic story with Blake and Mortimer)......but I think it has a ring of truth about it....