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.

The English country gentleman galloping after a fox—the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable.


Oscar Wilde

23.08

is there something wrong with this board?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3083887/Portrait-man-taken-cleaners-voters-Ed-Balls-pictured-carrying-dirty-suits-laundrette.html

Portrait of a man taken to the cleaners by the voters: Ed Balls is pictured carrying dirty suits to the laundrette

We are back on air again!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3084058/Labour-power-forever-leadership-candidate-warns-Liz-Kendall-says-risk-party-never-form-majority-government-again.html

Labour could be out of power forever, leadership candidate warns: Liz Kendall says there is a risk party may never form a majority government again

The MP for Leicester West added that Labour should support a referendum on EU membership
The party should also stop advocating high taxation 'just to make a point'
Justifying her uncompromising language, she said 'I will tell it like it is'

Blairite leadership candidate Liz Kendall has warned that Labour must acknowledge the scale of last week's catastrophe or face never forming a majority government again.

'One more parliament like the last means we might be unable to form a majority government ever again,' she told the Guardian.

She went on to insist that Labour should support an in/out referendum on EU membership.

The MP for Leicester West added that the party must embrace business and stop advocating high taxation ‘just to make a point’.

And she said Labour must concentrate on running a surplus, saying: ‘The party should have reined in spending before the crash - even though the crash itself was not caused by overspending by the Labour government.’

The leadership contender told the paper that Labour must also not support a top income tax rate of 50p‎ on a permanent basis.

And she supported the government’s welfare cap, saying: ‘Voters in my constituency do not feel people who are not working should get more than those in work.’

Although she said she was a passionate European, Miss Kendall said: ‘We should have that referendum, make the case and take on the argument, early, strongly and passionately.’

The moderniser said the election was a catastrophic result, saying: ‘We should have won a majority‎. We had fewer seats to win back than any opposition in a generation yet we ended up with the worst result since 1987.’

Justifying her uncompromising language, she said: ‘I will tell it like it is.’

She said businessmen had been turned off the party because it gave the impression that ‘profit is wrong’.

Test

For Max Exec.

Should impress the tory backbenchers and Shires.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/11611042/Len-McCluskey-threatens-split-from-Labour.html

Len McCluskey threatens split from Labour


Labour must chose the "correct leader", Len McCluskey says, as he warns of withdrawing funding

Len McCluskey has warned Unite could disaffiliate from the Labour Party if it does not elect the "correct leader".

The union's general secretary said its multi-million pound funding could be severed unless the party proves it is the "voice of organised labour".

He hit back at Jim Murphy, the former leader of Scottish Labour who resigned with a furious attack on Mr McCluskey as the "kiss of death". "He's hurting at the moment. I wasn't the one that lost Scotland to the SNP," Mr McCluskey said.

It came as Jon Cruddas, who helped write Labour's unsuccessful manifesto, warned the party faced the greatest crisis in its history and suggested it creates an English-only party to win back lost voters.

Mr McCluskey insisted he has not endorsed any candidate, saying there would be a union-organised hustings. He distanced himself from a previous warm endorsement of Andy Burnham, the front runner, who he said is the person who "impresses me the most".

Is this is why Chuka left? I think it is.

Chuka wasn't right 'left' enough for the trade unions, particularly Unite. He didn't fit the profile required for the funding investment which is controlled by union leaders and left-wing activists, who refuse to acknowledge the mistakes of the Labour Party past.

I think Chuka fits more with the modernisers. Those with their eyes on a more moderate, slightly right of centre, 'encourage business and profit making' future.

IMHO, Chuka Umunna will be back - but the Labour Party will have to wait for a leadership challenge from him after Labour have repeated their current failure by also losing the next election.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3084750/100-000-year-rail-strikers-s-staggering-sum-paid-150-workers-ll-cause-Bank-Holiday-misery.html

Unions beginning to sound like the Con party donors.

They bought "lot" with their £55 million.

I hope their purchase lives up to the declared tory manifesto.

=-=-=

Rail men living up to Con party values.

Almost as bad as the bankers, hedge funds and IDS causing misery.

Haystack

I'm sure you will agree with me, that the rail striker article at your link is deservant of being made more easy to read:

£100,000 a year rail strikers: That's the staggering sum paid to 150 workers who'll cause Bank Holiday misery

* Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin steps up campaign to stop strike
* Walk-out will start at 5pm on May 25 following holiday weekend
* RMT general secretary Mick Cash enjoys £138,000 pay package
* Network Rail chief exec accuses strikers of 'holding the country to ransom'

By SIMON WALTERS, POLITICAL EDITOR FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY
PUBLISHED: 23:11, 16 May 2015 | UPDATED: 12:14, 17 May 2015

Nearly 150 of the striking railwaymen who will cause chaos on Bank Holiday Monday earn between £80,000 and £111,000 a year, it was revealed last night.

They include nine who earn more than £100,000 a year with overtime, giving them a bumper combined annual wage of £1 million.

The figures were disclosed as Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin stepped up his campaign to stop the ‘deplorable’ 24-hour walkout.

Rail workers walk along rail lines at Victoria Station, in London.
Pay packets of striking railwaymen revealed as Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin stepped up his campaign to stop 'deplorable' strike (file photo)

Millions of passengers face being stranded as a result of the Network Rail strike by 25,000 members of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) and the Transport Salaried Staff Association (TSSA).

They rejected the offer of a £500 bonus, inflation-linked pay and a promise of no compulsory redundancies until the end of 2016.

The walkout, the first rail strike for more than two decades, will start at 5pm on May 25 as families head home after the holiday weekend.

BUMPER PAY PACK REVEALED
Paid £80,000 to £100,000:

60 signallers

35 controllers

51 electrical control operators

Paid over £100,000:

6 electrical control operators (top salary £108,980)

1 signaller (salary £111,066)

1 controller (salary £103,286)

1 operations worker (salary £108,213)

It means the impact of the strike is spread over two days as commuters return to work on Tuesday.

Figures obtained by The Mail on Sunday show that at least nine striking railwaymen earn more than £100,000 a year, with one signalman paid a staggering £111,066.

The average annual pay of Network Rail’s (non-electrical) controllers is nearly £60,000, with the top earner on £103,000.

The average pay of the 14,000 maintenance workers is £42,000, with a top earner on £80,000. RMT general secretary Mick Cash enjoys a £138,000 pay package.

Since the railways were privatised by John Major in 1994, the salaries of signalmen have risen by nearly 150 per cent – nearly 90 per cent faster than inflation.

In the past ten years, the salaries of Network Rail workers have risen by 40 per cent. In the past four years, they have soared eight times faster than the public sector and twice as fast as the private sector.

The walkout will force people to drive, raising the additional prospect of nationwide traffic jams on the roads.

Mr McLoughlin told The Mail on Sunday: ‘I deplore the threat of industrial action from the RMT and TSSA, which will hit millions of passengers travelling home from seeing loved ones on the Bank Holiday weekend or to work on the Tuesday.

‘Not only will it ruin people’s travel plans, we are looking at delays to vital engineering work aimed at improving the network. There’s a fair deal on the table, so we need talks, not strike threats, because passengers deserve better.’

Plus "Comments" (894 of them as I type!!! - also at H's link above)

Seems a promising practice of capitalism!

Market value for their "skills" and "responsibilities".

Must be hard graft pushing a few buttons. So boring drove one driver to drink.

They are taking the piss! Is it any wonder the Labour Party are no longer credible.

..

there are so many major problems across the nhs, that i have sympathy for whoever has been given this poisoned chalice

throwing barrowloads of money at the system will not really solve the inherent problems

as an easy example .....
if you talk to GPs, they will point out that (at least) 25% of GPs will retire within the next 3/5 years (it may be as high as 40%, but that sounds exaggerated)
part of the reason for this mass exit relates to the ever-increasing and increasingly unrealistic targets that are loaded on them year on year
it also seems that a high % of newly qualified doctors are emigrating, many to australia, where it must be assumed that conditions and pay are much better

and the above is just a very small part

My sisters a nurse . never really moans about things or people , but my God she tells me she can't wait to retire from it . Extra work less people to do it .

Extra work for the medics, and more tick box merchants to check it.