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.

but the greek populace all voted for the previous bunch?
no more i'm sure than uk voters did for GB, MT or AB

Cyners,

GB was unelected. He got in by default, and he fcuked it up in no time.

But MT and AB were probably the best two prime ministers the UK has had in living memory.

so you're happy to accept responsibility for the bad that they both did?

What bad?

AB?

Yes, Haystack, I never voted for him personally, but he certainly knew that Labour had to move to the centre ground because they wouldn't win anything being positioned on the left as they had been.

He allowed people to aspire to something, and everybody I know became either millionaires or multi-millionaires while he was in charge. I see no wrong in that.

Woman's Hour Power List 2015: Nicola Sturgeon beats Angelina Jolie to the top spot

Nicola Sturgeon has beaten Anna Wintour, Angelina Jolie and Caitlyn Jenner to be named the most influential woman of the year in a "power list" compiled by BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour





Emma Barnett, Woman's Hour presenter and Telegraph women's editor, chaired the judging panel.

She said: "Of course Nicola Sturgeon has huge power in a traditional sense, as the leader of the SNP. But she also wields a huge amount of influence right now because of the state of both the UK union and the European one.

"Ahead of the in-out referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union, how she chooses to wield that influence over the public and her fellow political leaders could have potentially huge ramifications for this country. She is the woman of the moment in terms of influence and hard power.”

Anna Wintour, the US Vogue editor-in-chief, is second. "Anna Wintour influences the world in what to wear, how to look, and who to celebrate," the panel said, praising her as a "quiet, dignified presence" and fashion influencer "whose word is almost law".


Third is Angelina Jolie, the actress who has used her celebrity to influence government policy and whose openness about her cancer treatment has had a powerful effect on women's health.

Caitlyn Jenner "trumped all others in the celebrity stakes" when she appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair and showed great courage in coming out so publicly, the judges said.








More undiluted shit here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11709944/Nicola-Sturgeon-beats-Angelina-Jolie-to-top-spot-in-Womans-Hour-list.html

hilary - AB and the iraq war will do for starters ...... MT and the brutal destruction of much UK industrial base albeit, and depending on which side of the political fence you sit, that it was the inevitable and very necessary result of cutting the militant unions' power and deemed the lesser of two evils

Cyners,

AB and the Iraq war - I'd have done the same, and modern-day game theory dictates it was the right thing to do at the time.

MT and the destruction of the UK industrial base - what industrial base and what destruction? It was already dead and buried, and had been so for a couple of decades before Maggie took office; The unions needed to have their stranglehold cut and I'd have done the same as Maggie. The only pity is that the UK were too short-sighted to head in the same direction as Germany and Japan following WW2.

the whole basis of the iraq war was one HUGE LIE

anyway, you can rest smugly in your lovely chalet or three while preaching to the average greek joe that he has got exactly what he deserves ..... pity you are not one who has to live there and suffer accordingly; that might change your tune somewhat

Greece is not our problem. They have elected a stupid government, that would not have stood a chance if things were going swimmingly. We have enough problems when we occasionally elect a stupid government. It is the same when any other country behaves that way. It might as well be Somalia, Zimbabwe or anywhere. As Hillary said, they borrowed money and promised they would make changes as a condition. They didn't make hardly any and now they want more and probably won't make any again. It has to be a tough response otherwise cut them loose. They will rapidly return to where they were before the Euro, which was a borderline 3rd world country and a good holiday destination.

Are you turning socialista c?


btw, I agree.

Dear God Haystack, have you lost sight of what actually went on?


The nu boys only took over a few months ago, from the guys who really fucked it up, and you want solutions?



Are you quite bonkers Haystack?

The austerity was working before the change of government. The new government immediately reversed many of the measures. They reemployed public employees, reversed pension cuts and other things that Greece cannot afford. They refuse to raise the pension age to even what we have.the current government has been a disaster.

There is a political dimension to this. There are elections in the autumn in Spain and Portugal. They have very left wing anti austerity parties similar to Greece's and want to reneg on loans. Being tough on Greece is sending a message to these countries not to elect a government like Greece's.

the uk should cut all pensions to pensioners who have only lived in the uk for less than 25 years by half

You could always the Greeks IDS, he knows like Hairy One and Hazy One what to do!

Or the icon of Tory mis-leadership!

Fred the election is over ??? lots more other problems in the world for you to debate now .

Which election?

Why not try the in out of the EU ,you'll have 18 months of debate ahead of you.