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.

Maybe David Cameron declined to be part of The Andrew Marr Show this morning,who knows. Did that apply to all the victorious Conservative MP's who won? I don't think so!
Typical biased towards Labour BBC, discussing Labours downfall! Gobshites!

General election win and your money: what to expect in the next five years
Telegraph Money looks at what promises the Conservatives made for your finances
by Richard Dyson, Katie Morley, Nicole Blackmore And Kate Palmer
May 10, 2015

Savers heaved sighs of relief as Mr Cameron was returned to Number 10 – if only because the Conservatives’ surprise victory spells more stability than most dared hope for.

Nonetheless, based just on what the Conservatives have promised to date, vast change is on the cards for almost every aspect of our personal finances.

The good news is that the Conservatives have promised legislation which would prevent any increase in income tax, national insurance and VAT within this parliament.

Second, the tax-free personal allowance (currently £10,600) is to rise to £12,500 – but only by 2020.

• The chart below shows there are 12 rates of income tax:



Third is Mr Cameron’s pledge to raise the threshold at which the higher, 40pc rate of income tax applies from its current £42,385 to £50,000. There’s no deadline for this, however.

Other, previously announced changes – such as the “abolition” of tax returns and the introduction of a new £1,000 savings interest allowance – are expected to come into effect next year.

• Conservative manifesto 2015: summary of key policies

... INHERITANCE TAX
The big pledge was to push the total tax-free allowance from £650,000 per married couple (£325,000 each) to £1m, by granting an extra allowance applying only to people’s main homes.

The measure wasn’t detailed. One way it could work, would be for a couple to have an extra £350,000 (£175,000 each) allowance exclusively for their home.

So, for instance, a couple with £500,000 shares and a £500,000 home would pay no death duties. But a couple with £1m in shares would be taxed, as now, at 40pc on the value of the shares above £650,000.

• Comment: Tories' £1m IHT plan: the worst flagship tax policy ever

... PENSIONS
The “triple lock” which applies to state pensions so they rise by 2.5pc, inflation or earnings – whichever is highest – will remain. So will other pensioner benefits including the free bus pass, TV licences for the over-75s and winter fuel payments.

But the party has laid out some less attractive policies for higher earners and middle earners with generous pension arrangements. Those earning over £150,000 will be told they are “too rich for pensions”, with the introduction of a new policy which will reduce the amount they can put into pensions from £40,000 to just £10,000.

The maximum amount savers can put into their pension pots over their lifetime – known as the “lifetime allowance” – will, as announced, be cut from £1.25m to £1m in April 2016.

• The death of pensions: has it begun?

Finally, whether pensioners will be able to sell their annuities – as recently promised by the Coalition government – is now unclear. This is because it was a policy championed by former pensions minister Steve Webb, a Liberal Democrat MP, who lost his seat. The consultation on the second-hand annuity market has yet to take place.

... HOUSING
Pledges to improve the affordability of home ownership, particularly for first-time buyers, were key to the Tories’ election campaign.

The party promised to double the number of first-time buyers over the next parliament compared to the last five years, helping one million more people to own their own home.

To achieve this, the Tories said they would extend their Help to Buy mortgage scheme to cover another 120,000 homes, allowing over 200,000 people to buy. The scheme helps buyers with a 5pc deposit to secure a mortgage. It comes in two parts – the mortgage guarantee which will continue until the start of 2017 and the equity loan which will be available until “at least” 2020.

In this year’s Budget, George Osborne, the Chancellor, announced a new Help to Buy Isa to boost first-time buyers’ deposits. The Isa, due to launch in the autumn, will reward savers who put aside up to £12,000 with an additional £3,000 towards their first home.

To address the chronic shortage of properties in some areas, the party pledged to build 200,000 “starter homes” over the next five years, reserved for first-time buyers under 40 and sold at 20pc below the market price. It also promised to deliver an additional 275,000 affordable homes by 2020, as well as 10,000 new rental homes at “below market rates” to help people save for a deposit.

In addition, the party said it would “at least” double the number of custom and self-built homes by 2020, partly by requiring councils to allocate land to local people to build or commission their own home.

• READ: Average first-time buyer needs £41,000 salary

Mr Cameron also promised to help low-income earners to own a home by extending Right to Buy, which currently benefits tenants in local authority homes, to tenants of Housing Associations.

For people already on the property ladder, Mr Cameron promised to keep mortgage rates low by “continuing to work through our economic plan”.

... HOUSEHOLD BILLS
Rail fares and fuel duty will be frozen – but there will be no cap on energy bills over the next five years.

In a concession to commuters, the Conservatives will cap “regulated fares” in line with the retail prices index.

Currently rail fares – half of which are regulated – rise each January at 1pc above RPI, using inflation figures from the previous July, with the most recent rise at 3.5pc.

But a “flex” rule means train companies can increase individual fares by as much as 5.5pc, as long as the overall average increase stays at RPI plus 1pc. This freedom will be scrapped, the Conservatives have said.

There is no planned rise for fuel duty, which has been frozen since March 2011. In the March Budget, the Chancellor scrapped a rise in line with RPI planned for this September.

The Government will now pressure energy firms to deliver “smart meters” to all homes by 2020

Thursday’s outcome has also ended speculation about an energy bills price freeze, championed by Labour.

Instead the Conservatives will introduce a one-day switch between energy firms, as recommended in a recent Competition and Markets Authority investigation into the market.

This, the Tories say, will improve competition in the market and drive bills down.

The Coalition has previously pressured energy companies to lower prices, in light of falling wholesale costs, and simplify tariffs.

A Treasury investigation into the “big six” firms and their energy prices, launched in January, prompted the major suppliers to reduce bills by 2.2pc (or £28 a year) on the average dual fuel tariff.

• Green Deal: How to claim £5,600 on home improvements

The Government will now pressure energy firms to deliver “smart meters” to all homes by 2020, the in-home devices that measure energy use. This will end reliance on estimated and inaccurate bills, the Conservatives said.

They are free for customers to install but the cost to the taxpayer is set to top £11bn, or £200 per home.

Meanwhile, the future of the Green Deal energy-efficiency policy is uncertain.

In its current form, the Green Deal “Home Improvement Fund” pays people up to £5,600 towards energy-efficiency measures such as insulation or a new boiler. It works alongside the “Energy Companies Obligation”, a scheme financed by energy firms that provides extra funding for disadvantaged households.

The Tories have promised to insulate at least one million hard-to-treat homes over the next five years. It’s unclear whether there will be any new Green Deal cash, as current funds are exhausted.

But uncertainty remains over...
The FTSE surged on Friday, with the biggest winners being those shares which had been thought of as likely losers under a Labour regime.

So energy stocks such as Centrica (up 8pc) and banks, including Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland (both up 6pc), were among the top risers. And in another sign that Tory governments are generally good for savers shares in wealth manager St James’s Place and fund broker Hargreaves Lansdown were also among the best performers on the day.

Housebuilders, especially those with developments in and around London, rose in relief at having escaped Labour’s proposed “mansion tax”.

Longer term, though, markets are likely to be troubled by the landslide success of the Scottish National Party and the prospects of a second Scottish referendum. The promised EU referendum in 2017 is another uncertainty.

“We believe some of the positive sentiment may be short lived,” warned stock broker Killik after Friday’s rapid rally.

Many respected fund managers worry the market is in any case over-priced, thanks to the effects of “quantitative easing” or money-printing. Bruce Stout, manager of the £1.5bn Murray International investment trust, told Telegraph Money recently that “when the realisation comes that central banks have not saved the world, and British shares cannot grow into their valuations, the stock market will correct and it will not be pretty.”

The possibility of future referenda casts a similar, longer-term question mark over the value of the pound, which also shot up on Friday.

David Cameron has explicitly committed to keeping interest rates low – to the benefit of mortgage borrowers but the continued pain of depositors.

But the Conservatives’ pro-business policies should see rates rise as the economy and wages grow. “It is abundantly clear interest rates will rise for the right reason – namely because the recovery is continuing to gain strength,” said fund manager GLG.

New Labour architect Lord Mandelson has said Ed Miliband's selection as Labour leader was the result of "trade union abuse" and his election campaign had badly damaged the party.

The former Business Secretary said Mr Miliband had been a "giant political experiment" that had ended up with the voters "ripping stripes off" the shoulders of the party.

He told the Andrew Marr Show that the "awful shocking thing about this election is Labour could have won it."

He said: "The reason we lost it and lost it so badly is in 2010 we discarded New Labour, rather than revitalising it and re-energising it and making it relevant for the new times, the new policy challenges that we faced. That was a terrible mistake."

He added: "Literally, we were sent out and told to say things and to make an argument – if you can call it an argument – which basically said, we’re for the poor, we hate the rich, ignoring completely the vast swathe of the population who exist in between.

And he lashed out at the undue influence of the trade unions on the party saying they had been guilty of "abuse and inappropriate influence" which led to Mr Miliband's selection as leader.

He added that the party's reliance on trade union funding was "unhealthy".

Lord Mandelson said: "I am not happy with a Labour Party so clearly dependent on people who pay the piper and then in many cases can call the tune.

"That's not a good look, that's not right for a Labour Party appealing for votes in the 21st century."and said the "people who pay the piper and in many cases call the tune. That's not a good look."

He also came close to endorsing shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna as the next leader saying: "He's got a bit of a way to go but he'll get there."

Have we got to put up with Fred's silly cartoon's takeing up space again, Labour loss now f**k off

David Lammy want's to run for Labour leader and so he should , start running, have you seen how fat he is now

He as very annoying voice as well has his arm's flailing all over the place, but near the end of the video a cat steal's the show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRUQ6aPvs58

The cats saying "Shut the fxxx up and give me my dinner you Knxb" :o)

Saw this comment whilst reading Guardian online today. (As you do when you need a laugh)

56 SNP MP's just how keen will they be to rush into another referendum?

With prospect of giving up £60K per annum plus expenses and limited room for them to be re-elected to Holyrood. Just asking LOL!!!

Labour is facing at least a decade in the wilderness, party grandees warn

Tony Blair, John Prescott and Lord Mandelson lead criticism of Ed Miliband's failed strategy, as concern grows for the future of the Labour party

Labour has been plunged deeper into crisis as some of the party’s most senior figures warned that they would be out of power until at least 2025.

As the search began for a new leader, former Cabinet ministers joined members of Ed Miliband’s front-bench team to call on the party to “skip a generation” and pick a candidate who is untainted by the failures of the past.

On Sunday Tony Blair, John Prescott and Lord Mandelson entered the debate with withering assessments of the current state of the party.

The former Prime Minister called for Labour to reclaim the political centre ground. He said the party had to show it stood for for "ambition and aspiration" as well as compassion and care", making clear a change of direction was needed if the party was to regain power.

Mr Blair defended Mr Miliband's "courage under savage attack", but Lord Mandelson gave a brutal assessment of his leadership, describing his attack on "predatory" capitalists as "completely useless" as he said the decision to abandon New Labour was a "terrible mistake".

The Labour peer said the party is facing its worst challenge since the 1980s, when it spent 18 years out of power: "We were sent out and told to say we're for the poor and hate the rich, ignoring the vast swathe of the population who exist in between."

Speaking on the Andrew Marr show on BBC One, he described Mr Miliband's campaign as a "giant political experiment" which had ended in the public "ripping stripes off our shoulders".

Mr Prescott also unleashed a blistering attack on the Labour campaign, pouring scorn on Mr Miliband's "Hell yes, I'm tough" claim and accusing him of failing to defend the previous Labour government's record on the economy.

In its worst election night for 30 years, Labour finished with just 232 MPs – 99 behind the Conservatives and 26 fewer seats than Gordon Brown won in 2010.

Blame quickly fell on a series of strategic blunders, including “gimmicks” such as Mr Miliband’s courtship of Russell Brand, the comedian, and his decision to engrave his manifesto pledges into an 8ft slab of limestone.

Murray getting better and better.......now able to really punish opponents....just beaten Nadal easily....

Partly Murray playing better, but mainly Nadal not up to scratch. If Nadal had been playing at his best it would have been a walk over for Nadal.

Murray hasn't beaten a top 8 player on clay before so looking good for the French Open ,however he would still have Djokovic to deal with ,not easy for anyone .

It's safe to come out now Fred.

Just as I thought, EU quotas for refugees . There we are now a conveyor belt all lined up for them to just dump themselves on the EU .

Be careful for what you wish for and what you may get!

Anti-austerity group plans protest outside Bank of England

What austerity ? The last true austerity was during the war and the decade after

Why did SamCam need to wear a hi-vis vest to see the queen?



Just curious.