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.

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....

Oil rising again......Russians at it again.....shelling.....

Winston Churchill's specially trained resistance fighters were prepared for Nazi invasion

IN BRITAIN'S darkest hours during the Second World War it seemed only a matter of time before German forces swept across the Channel.

By ADRIAN LEE
PUBLISHED: 05:02, Sat, Oct 19, 2013 | UPDATED: 05:26, Sat, Oct 19, 2013


Our army was in disarray following the retreat from Dunkirk and Winston Churchill tried to rally the nation with stirring speeches.

But behind the bravado the Prime Minister was a worried man. Secretly he began planning for the day when the Nazis invaded and Britain suffered the same fate as other occupied European nations.

Churchill ordered the foundation of a guerrilla movement which would attack conquering German forces from behind their own lines. In the summer of 1940 the recruitment began of some 3,500 men to spearhead this resistance.

The volunteers, who used the cover of the Home Guard for their activities, were trained in the use of explosives, taught to become silent assassins and heavily armed. In the event of invasion they would melt away from their homes and try to cause havoc as Hitler's troops marched through Britain.


Officially the British Resistance did not exist and they were given the nondescript title of Auxiliary Units. It was not until the Sixties that details began to leak out but even now the Government does not acknowledge the bravery of these men. However, next month veterans from the 640 patrols that were scattered around the country will for the first time take part in the Remembrance Sunday parade past the Cenotaph.

The movement was founded in July 1940 when Germany was battling for the air superiority that would be the trigger for Operation Sea Lion, the invasion of Britain, to begin. Hitler's army chiefs were so confident they predicted Britain would be occupied within a month.

Churchill began to formulate his resistance plan and because of its isolation Coleshill House, a stately home near Swindon, was chosen as the headquarters for the guerrillas.

They were led by Colonel Colin McVean Gubbins, who had served with distinction in the First World War. He was also an explosives expert and had written a handbook They were led by Colonel Colin McVean Gubbins, who had served with distinction in the First World War. He was also an explosives expert and had written a hand-on guerrilla warfare.


"Churchill felt that Britain had been rendered almost defenceless after Dunkirk and wanted to be prepared for the worst," says Tom Sykes, founder of the Coleshill Auxiliary Research Team, which has traced the history of the resistance movement. "These men would not come out and fight the Germans face-to-face but as soon as the church bells rang to signal invasion they would go underground. They would then be involved in guerrilla warfare such as destroying rail and supply lines and setting booby traps."

Each patrol consisted of about six men with a single leader and the recruits all knew the local area like the back of their hand.

"They were the sons of the soil, such as farmers and poachers, who knew how to live off the land," adds Sykes. "The focus was mainly on coastal areas, which would have been the first points of invasion, and the network stretched from Scotland to Cornwall."

Although the men wore the uniform of the Home Guard during training to protect their true identity they would have operated in civilian clothes after invasion. Each patrol had a purpose-built bunker with an escape tunnel but the volunteers knew that they faced almost certain death if the Germans invaded. They were under strict orders not to be captured. Each patrol, or cell, was expected to operate independently with no contact with colleagues in adjoining areas.

"Life expectancy would have been about two weeks and these men were under no illusion that this would be a suicide mission if an invasion happened," says Sykes. "But they were allowed to tell no one, including their families, of the role ahead."

As a result some members of this clandestine unit suffered abuse from neighbours who felt they should be away fighting and it was not uncommon for the men to be handed white feathers. But on Thursday evenings they would slip away from their homes and day jobs and travel to Coleshill House for weekends of intense training.

Trevor Minors, now 89, was part of a resistance patrol based in Perranporth, Cornwall where the long sandy beaches were considered especially vulnerable.

He recalls: "I was only 16 and I took the place in the patrol of my brother Eric, who was sent away to fight. For a young man it was quite a thing. You couldn't even tell your parents. It was very exciting to have our own secret bunker.

"If the Germans did invade we would have been expected to stay there for three or four weeks, then come out and attack from the rear and do as much damage as we could."

He was issued with a Smith & Wesson revolver and a commando knife which were carried at all times. Other weapons included Sten guns and a sniper's rifle with telescopic sights. His kit included water purifying tablets and food rations for three weeks.

Trevor, who became a miner after the war, adds: "We were trained in the use of all types of explosives, including phosphorus bombs, Molotov cocktails and booby trap devices. We were shown how to use magnetic clamps fitted with gelignite and attach them to tanks or a railway line just to cause as much disruption as possible." In fact the men of the resistance were usually better armed and trained than most regular soldiers.

Another task for the guerrillas would have been to assassinate collaborators and possibly key figures such as police chiefs whose knowledge would have been crucial to the Germans.

Quite how effective the fighters would have been against 200,000 invading Germans was mercifully never put to the test and the organisation was wound down later in the war when the threat of invasion receded. Some of the men went on to join the SAS, putting their expertise to good use.

It's estimated there are about 100 surviving veterans and some remain bitter that their role in the conflict has been overlooked. After the war the only recognition for Churchill's secret army was a small badge presented to each veteran bearing the numbers of their three battalions: 201, 202 and 203.

Tom Sykes says: "To see the veterans and family members march past the Cenotaph will be an emotional day for all of us. Although the members of the British Resistance have never themselves asked or pushed for recognition it is fantastic that the country finally gets the chance to appreciate the ultimate sacrifice they were willing to make to ensure our freedom."

THE NAZIS' HIT LIST THE names of 2,820 prominent Britons and exiles living here to be arrested if Germany won the war were contained in a Nazi "black book".

It ran to 104 pages and Hitler is thought to have ordered similar documents for every country he planned to invade.

In addition to politicians, broadcasters, academics and members of the Royal Family, the SS's Sonderfahndungsliste GB (Most Wanted List) included celebrities such as Noel Coward who was an outspoken anti-fascist.

On learning of the book after the war writer Rebecca West, another who was listed, is said to have sent a telegram to the actor saying: "My dear - the people we should have been seen dead with."

Another public figure to be included was the founder of the Scouting movement Robert Baden-Powell, because the Germans regarded the scouts as a spying organisation.

Beside each name was a record of the German security officer who would be in charge of the arrest. Others on the blacklist included writers Virginia Woolf, HG Wells and EM Forster.

About 20,000 copies of the book were printed but most were destroyed in a bombing raid on a German warehouse.

New candidate for Top Gear....Don the sheepdog has driven a tractor onto a motorway.....(take a pair of shoes off...add a d...)....or (add a pair subtract a d).....

lol

Sorry Ed, Nick Clegg is the attractive one

Ed Miliband's attractiveness rating among women has actually fallen since last year – and Nick Clegg is still the overall winner in attractiveness

A number of recent events have suggested an unexpected rise in female attraction to Ed Miliband. Starting with the first leaders debate, when the Labour leader’s down-the-barrel-of-a-gun speeches to the camera set Twitter alight, Times columnist Caitlin Moran then noted her friends were ‘perving’ over Ed Miliband. He was even mobbed by a hen do in Chester last weekend, and more recently a fanbase of besotted teenage girls united themselves around the phrase ‘Milifandom’.

YouGov finds no evidence that more women now think Ed Miliband is attractive – in fact overall perceptions of his looks have fallen from 3.7 out of 10 in July 2o14 to 3.3 today.l

That's hilarious .....

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/general-election-2015-ed-miliband-5571079

General Election 2015: Ed Miliband suffers blow as Labour approval rating slumps to previous election levels

The findings will be a blow to Labour’s morale just 13 days before polling amid hopes its campaign was starting to pick up momentum

Ed Miliband suffered a setback in his bid to reach No 10 with a poll showing Labour has slumped below 30 points for the first time this year.

The Survation survey for the Daily Mirror puts the Tories on 33%, Labour on 29%, UKIP on 18%, the Lib Dems on 10% and the Greens and SNP both on 4%.

The findings will be a blow to Labour’s morale just 13 days before polling for the General Election amid hopes its campaign was starting to pick up momentum.

Last week’s Mirror/Survation poll had the Tories on 34%, Labour on 33%, UKIP on 17%, Lib Dems 7%, the SNP on 4% and the Greens on 3%.

My word H/S's infatuation with Milliband is increasing... maybe if he were to contact EM he may be able to get an autograph.

Ever get the feeling the left is losing the argument?


Question time tonight was actually worth watching, the audience was fairly neutral, half decent non loaded questions, and panelists answering said questions (except harperson) who got pulled up by the mod) but she cant help herself.


I think the broadcasting folk frightened themselves the other night with the heavily loaded anti ukip audience.

They really need to get paxo to come back.

The current bloke is a joke.

Ever get the feeling the left is losing the argument?


Question time tonight was actually worth watching, the audience was fairly neutral, half decent non loaded questions, and panelists answering said questions (except harperson) who got pulled up by the mod) but she cant help herself.


I think the broadcasting folk frightened themselves the other night with the heavily loaded anti ukip audience.

They really need to get paxo to come back.

The current bloke is a joke.

Poor old Kippers...everyone's against us.

Stan,

It is what they are brought up on.