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.

If you were born in 1947, how come your dad died fighting for the Poles Tanker? Just asking..

grand father .

IT - he could have done ..... i was born in 1946 and my father served in the merchant navy during the war (he was born in 1914) ....... both grandfathers were born around 1900 so were both too old to serve in WW2

What happened ,did he pop back on leave cynic !!

my mother says he was at home on leave - but i'm not sure about whom she was talking :-)

Lets hope it wasn't an American you could be president !

worse still; i could be liable for US taxes as well as those in UK!

So Alf could be a Yank eh.. send em back I say -):

MrT reckons i should be sent back to poland :-)

Stan,

To Poland or the Promised Land?

ah, but promised to whom and by whom?

The question is not where .. but when, I think you will agree -):

TAX CREDIT CUTS
that the bill has been delayed - i wonder for how long - while it is "reconsidered" may turn out to be one of the best things that ever happened to this gov't ..... had the bill passed through without amendment, then it could have been disastrous for both the gov't and of course those on the sharp end

Why?

The taxpayer cant keep paying these subsidies, why prolong the agony?

i thoroughly agree that the benefit system needs to be overhauled and reduced ..... however, when the application of these particular cuts is deeply questioned by members of all parties, then it behoves the gov't to take a further look

The cuts will take place exactly as intended, but there will be transitional relief. There will also be moves to curb the powers of the Lords.

Gambler Gideon Osborne vowed last night to rein in the power of the Lords after he suffered a "humiliating defeat" over his plan to cut tax credits by £4 billion. The chancellor said that the unprecedented vote, which left his "budget policy in limbo", raised constitutional issues about unelected peers that would be "dealt with" by himself and the prime minister.

The cuts will take place exactly as intended, but there will be transitional relief.
that's fine and is exactly what was intended by last night's vote in HoL
a little less hubris and the gov't might have woken up b4 trying to strongarm this piece of legislation through both houses - and getting a deserved bloody nose


There will also be moves to curb the powers of the Lords.
notwithstanding the HoL is an unelected body - rather like the unaccountability of eu legislature - in this instance, they have acted very responsibly insofar as there was much x-party support
it looks a moot point as to whether or not the borderline of "accepted convention" was overstepped

Osborne was likely going to add transitional relief anyway due to opposition in the Cabinet.

The Lords behaviour is serious and they need to be brought to heel. It does not matter if what they did was right or wrong. It is not their place to behave as they did. They are an unelected body and blocked the will of a democratically elected body. That can't be allowed to continue. Their purpose is to amend and revise. They have no constitutional right to block or delay legislation. I would like to see the whole set of tax credit regulations resubmitted as primary legislation and not as a financial instrument. Then the HoL could not do what they did last night as the Parliament Act could be used. They need slapping down to stop them interfering with the process of government.

well he should have spoken up shouldn't he!
he had plenty of opportunity to do so or at least to intimate that some moderation was already under consideration
a very very bad error of judgment by the gov't, and osborne specifically

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some humility from osborne would not have gone amiss, rather than throwing a tantrum like a thwarted bully