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.

Neil Kinnock warns Labour cannot win without Trident

The former Labour leader issues his warning as Labour and SNP MSPs vote together at Holyrood in favour of scrapping the nuclear deterrent.





By Simon Johnson, Scottish Political Editor

6:20PM GMT 03 Nov 2015

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British voters will not back a party that supports unilateral nuclear disarmament, former Labour leader Neil Kinnock has warned Jeremy Corbyn as Scottish Labour and SNP MSPs voted together to scrap Trident.


Lord Kinnock said his party must confront the “reality” that it will not win a general election with a defence policy opposing the renewal of Britain’s nuclear deterrent.


UK Labour abandoned unilateral nuclear disarmament in the late 1980s as part of his campaign to purge the party of Left-wing extremists and make it more electable.


But only hours after he issued his warning Scottish Labour MSPs voted with Nicola Sturgeon’s Nationalists at Holyrood for a motion calling for Trident to be scrapped. The vote followed a poorly-attended debate at the start of which there were barely 30 MSPs present.


Neil Findlay MSP, Mr Corbyn's closest ally in Scotland, would only say that Labour remains committed to membership of Nato "at the moment" and "at this stage".


Kezia Dugdale, the Scottish Labour leader, did not break her silence on the issue but she voted with her party despite confirming as recently as September that she supports replacing Trident on a like-for-like basis.

Jackie Baillie, whose constituency includes the Faslane naval base where Trident is housed, was the only Labour MSP who rebelled against the party whip and supported its retention.

As Labour infighting over the nuclear deterrent intensified, Tom Harris, a former minister appeared to threaten to quit the party after it suggested it would consult the Stop the War coalition before taking a view on military intervention in Syria.

The former Glasgow South MP said Labour’s decision to consult “a mad cap coalition of trots, Islamists and anti-west fury chimps” meant the party’s policy on the issue had gone from “a bit bonkers to irredeemable … And I give up. That’s it from me. Goodbye.”



MSPs debated Trident at Holyrood two days after the Scottish Labour conference voted overwhelmingly to scrap the deterrent provided defence workers were found alternative employment.

The vote was seen as a major victory for Mr Corbyn in his battle with his Shadow Cabinet to abandon support for renewing Trident but Maria Eagle, his Shadow Defence Secretary, insisted it was only one “input” into her ongoing review of party policy.

Asked about the Scottish Labour vote, Lord Kinnock said: “The debate is wide open. What I do know is the British people will not vote for unilateral disarmament. And that reality has to be dealt with."

When he became Labour leader in 1983, he was passionately opposed to nuclear weapons and in the 1987 general election, his first as leader, the party was committed to unilateral disarmament.

But after Labour’s defeat, he reluctantly concluded that the party would have to change its policy and by the time of the 1992 election it was committed to only disarming on a multilateral basis with other countries, a stance that has survived until today.

In a purely symbolic vote, as defence is reserved to Westminster, the Scottish Parliament voted by a margin of 96 votes to 17 to scrap Trident and establish “defence diversification agencies” to find Faslane’s workers alternative employment.

Speaking in the debate, Ms Baillie, the Dumbarton MSP, said Faslane is the largest single employer in Scotland and cited warnings from union leaders at the base that the promise of alternative jobs is a mirage.

The Conservatives, who also voted against the Scottish Government motion, attacked it for portraying the decision to replace Trident as a straight choice between “warfare and welfare” and pointed to polling showing a majority of Scots want it to be renewed.

at least some sort of un-freeze from sharm starting tomorrow
details not apparent

just walked back to whitehall via traf sq ....... all very peaceful though heavy police presence ....... what a waste of police time time, money and resources, though i'm sure the scene would have been very diff had the police not been around

Russian plane crash: British spies uncovered Isil bomb plot

The Telegraph has learnt that an Isil bomb plot was uncovered by British spies, as Obama says a bomb "certainly possible" - yet Russia and Egypt insist it is too early to say

Anyone here own a Vauxhall Zafira B? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34743833

Not sure any one would admit to that !

Tissues at the ready for the new John Lewis Christmas TV Advert, featuring a delightful little girl with a telescope and "The lonely old man on the moon".

Putin has offered Russian flights to be suspended to Egypt. They have 45,000 tourists stranded there now.

http://news.sky.com/story/1583071/jeremy-corbyns-head-of-policy-suspended

Jeremy Corbyn's Head Of Policy Suspended

Jeremy Corbyn's head of policy has been suspended from the Labour Party pending a report by its ruling NEC.

Andrew Fisher had faced calls for his expulsion after suggesting people should back a Class War candidate at the General Election.

Jeremy Corbyn faces backlash after political adviser Andrew Fisher describes Ed Miliband's cabinet as a 'collection of s****'

The former union activist, also referred to Tony Blair and Alastair Campbell as 'scumbags', called Jack Straw a 'vile git'.

Jeremy Corbyn is facing a backlash from Labour MPs after it emerged that the man he appointed as his political adviser described Ed Milband’s shadow cabinet as “the most abject collection of absolute shite”.

Andrew Fisher, a former union activist, also referred to Tony Blair and Alastair Campbell as “scumbags”, called Jack Straw a “vile git” and accused Yvette Cooper of pushing “racist” policies when she was shadow Home Secretary. Mr Fisher, a prominent figure on the left who was one of Mr Corbyn’s first appointments, is also facing accusations of party disloyalty for backing an anarchist candidate against Labour at the election and taking to Twitter to celebrate the downfall of the shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls.

LOL!!! What a shrewd chap Handy Andy is.

Sounds as if he has habited the same gutter as some tories have.

Where is hays you dossing nowadays?

Problem he's got of course is he's part of an even bigger 'bag of shite' :0)

Getting the boot for telling the truth.

And you cant fault his position re: Balls Up.

Hero of the week is undoubtedly the cleaner at the Museion Bozen-Bolzano in Italy. Faced with a horrible mess in the main gallery – fag ends, empty bottles, party streamers – she cleaned it all up, put it in black bags and chucked it out. Yes, of course – it was an ‘installation’ by the artists Sara Goldschmied and Eleonora Chiari. As the Italian art critic Vittorio Sgarbi put it, ‘If she thought it was rubbish, it means it was. Art should be understood by everyone — including cleaners.’

Quite – and you’d think that would be an end to it. But no, the Guardian’s art critic said instead that the cleaner’s peremptory actions were ‘proof of the enduring vitality’ of modern art. Proof of your enduring delusion, mate. There’s a fine exhibition in London right now by the artist Peter Goodfellow which debunks the narcissism and worthlessness of our own conceptual artists, the Emins and Hirsts etc. But I fear that while the public – especially the cleaners – may be right with him, the critics won’t be. They have a dog in the fight, after all.

Scottish trader charged over £1m US stock exchange fraud.

6 November 2015.

A 62-year-old Scottish trader has been charged in San Francisco with defrauding the US stock market.
James Craig, from Dunragit near Stranraer, is accused of tweeting false news designed to make share prices fall, so he could buy and resell shares for profit.
Fraudulent tweets were allegedly made about two firms by Mr Craig in 2013.
Police Scotland have confirmed they were asked by the FBI to assist with the investigation.
Prosecutors claim shareholders lost more than £1m as a result of his alleged tweets.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced it had filed securities fraud charges against Mr Craig in a federal court in California.
Mr Craig's whereabouts are unknown and it is unclear whether he has hired a lawyer.
Stranraer search
The tweets were about two companies, Audience and Sarepta Therapuetics.
Several tweets, suggesting Audience was under federal investigation, were said to cause the share price of the mobile audio company to fall 28% before the Nasdaq temporarily halted trading.
Further alleged tweets that claimed Sarepta Therapuetics was also subject to an investigation sent stock in the drug firm tumbling by 16%.
Prosecutors claimed shareholders had lost more than $1.6m (£1.05m).
Jina Choi, director of the SEC's San Francisco regional office, said the fraudulent tweets "disrupted the markets for two public companies and caused significant financial losses for their investors."
Financial writer Tom Petrino, a former business correspondent for the LA Times, told BBC Radio Scotland that Craig was a "lousy trader" who made less than $100 (£66) from the alleged fraud.
A spokeswoman for Police Scotland said: "We can confirm that Police Scotland was asked by the FBI to assist with an investigation into allegations of fraud concerning a 62-year-old man from Scotland."
She said officers searched an address near Stranraer on behalf of the FBI on 29 April 2014.

The next bright idea of Cameron and Fallon!

SYRIAN REFUGEES - Germany
worth reading the whole article from today's Guardian - http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/06/germany-imposes-surprise-curbs-on-syrian-refugees - but the following extract is the nub ........

Syrians would only be allowed to enter Germany for one year, are barred from having family members join them, and would only enjoy “subsidiary protection” which limits their rights as refugees, the interior ministry announced.

.................................

Until now Syrians – as well as Iraqis and Eritreans – entering Germany have been virtually guaranteed full refugee status, meaning the right to stay for at least three years, entitlement for family members to join them and generous welfare benefits.

Almost 40,000 Syrians were granted refugee status in Germany in August, according to the Berlin office responsible, with only 53 having to settle for “subsidiary” status. That appears to have ended abruptly.

=================================

for sure there will be much protest from certain quarters in Germany, but clearly the reality of the total lunacy of the original open-door policy has struck home suddenly or even a little belatedly

The Lonely Chancellor: Merkel Under Fire as Refugee Crisis Worsens



German Chancellor Angela Merkel is facing significant blowback over her refugee policies.


Until recently, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was considered to be the most powerful politician in Europe. But now, her approach to the refugee crisis has her under fire at home and in Brussels. Can she survive?


By SPIEGEL Staff

November 02, 2015 – 06:58 PM


For almost three quarters of an hour, it was as though there was no refugee crisis in Germany. Last Monday, Angela Merkel was in Nuremberg for a town hall discussion with a specially chosen group of conservative voters. A moderator in a light-colored, summer suit directed the proceedings as Merkel chatted about everything "that is important to us."

Initially, the focus was on those things that used to be important to Germans -- up until roughly eight weeks ago. Things like vocational education, the country's school system and the difficulty German companies have in competing with companies like Google and Apple.

It was like a trip back in time -- back to Germany's recent past, when the country was happier and untroubled. But then Christine Bruchmann, a local business leader, abruptly steered the discussion back to the issue that has dominated Germany in recent weeks. Bruchmann wanted to know if Merkel was concerned that the huge numbers of refugees currently arriving in the country could disrupt societal balance.

The German chancellor took a deep breath before launching into a sober analysis of the job she has done in the past two months. Unfortunately, her conclusion was not particularly rosy.

She knows, Merkel said, that there still isn't European agreement on how to share the refugee burden; that there is still no deal with Turkey on slowing the inflow of migrants into Europe; and that along the Balkan Route, used by hundreds of thousands of Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis in recent weeks in their quest to seek asylum in Germany and other northern European countries, there is a lack of "order" and "control." In particular, Merkel said, she is concerned about that "which makes Germany so strong," namely "the societal center." She is constantly asking herself, Merkel related, "if we are losing the center."

One of Merkel's great strengths is an unerring sense for political reality. As such, her comments at the town meeting early last week show that nobody knows better than Germany's chancellor just how precarious the situation in the country has become. The influx of refugees continues unabated and Merkel's public approval ratings continue to fall in lockstep with sinking support for her center-right Christian Democrats (CDU). Meanwhile, her quarrel with Horst Seehofer, head of the Christian Social Union (CSU), the CDU's Bavarian sister party, has reached a new and dangerous level. Seehofer has issued so many ultimatums to the chancellor that he will eventually be forced to make good on one of his threats -- which could throw Merkel's suddenly wobbly governing coalition completely off kilter.


'The End of the Merkel Era'

The government, in short, has lost control. And Germany is in a state of emergency.


The rest of the article is here:http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/merkel-under-fire-as-refugee-crisis-in-germany-worsens-a-1060720.html

Another shooting from gun nutter land http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-34754889