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 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

I seem to be agreeing with Putin more and more.

Russia has heavily criticised French magazine Charlie Hebdo for two cartoons depicting the Sinai air crash in which 224 people, mostly Russians, died.
One cartoon shows debris falling on a member of Islamic State (IS) with a caption reading: "Russia's air force intensifies its bombing."
In the other, a skull and body parts of victims are depicted.
Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Vladimir Putin, called the cartoons published by the satirical magazine "sacrilege".
"This has nothing to do with democracy or self-expression," he said.

Labour MPs report with glee that Diane Abbott has been “sidelined” by old flame Jeremy Corbyn.

“She has been cut out of the inner circle,” explains one backbencher, ever since she bizarrely laughed her way through a disastrous interview on Today.

A second colleague notes Diane has been uncharacteristically muted at recent PLP meetings of Labour MPs.

You know how it is – you hook up with a sexy, bearded, socialist firebrand, go on a romantic motorcycle trip round East Germany then all of a sudden he stops calling…

Tory progress under a leadership con.

Corbyn turned up at the Cenotaph in a sensible coat with a poppy and sang the National Anthem. All very commendable but it won't stop him being booted out.

Hays, watch merely the first minute of this and then do an edit to your post 64405.



Cross out "Corbyn turned up at the Cenotaph in a sensible coat with a poppy" and put instead:

'Corbyn turned up at the Cenotaph in a dark blue 'scruffy, unbuttoned, bulging pocket with semi-stuffed pocket flap jacket'. Neither does he seem able to turn down the RHS of his shirt collar, albeit that his tie did seem properly knotted and tightened into it.

I noticed how he did look extremely nervous and kept looking around and about checking everything, just as though he was running over in his mind what he had to do and how he had to go about doing it.

Jermey Corby as a leader? Never in a million years!

And here's another thing that pisses one off about Corbyn and his leadership potential or lack of it.......

Jeremy Corbyn accuses head of UK military of 'breaching' constitutional principle of neutrality on Trident
Labour leader says the Chief of Defence Staff has 'intervened directly in issues of political dispute'

The Independent, by Adam Withnall

Scottish National Party's Parliamentary Group Leader Angus Robertson, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn (centre) and British Prime Minister David Cameron attend the annual Remembrance Sunday Service at the Cenotaph Getty Images

Jeremy Corbyn has accused the head of the UK's armed forces of breaching "constitutional principle" of the military's non-involvement in political issues, after General Sir Nicholas Houghton's criticised the Labour leader over Trident.

Sir Nicholas appeared on the Andrew Marr Show on Sunday morning, where he said he would "worry" if Mr Corbyn became Prime Minister with a commitment never to use Britain's nuclear deterrent.

In a statement, the Labour leader said it was "a matter of serious concern that the Chief of the Defence Staff has intervened directly in issues of political dispute".

Mr Corbyn said he would be writing to the Defence Secretary, Michael Fallon, to demand action be taken "to ensure that the neutrality of the armed forces is upheld".


The Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir Nicholas Houghton, appearing earlier on today's 'The Andrew Marr Show' (BBC):

Earlier, Sir Nicholas implied in his interview with Andrew Marr that the Labour leader did not understand how a deterrent worked because he had said he would under no circumstances fire a nuclear weapon.

He told the BBC: "It would worry me if that thought was translated into power.

"The reason I say this - and it's not based on a personal thing at all - is purely based upon the credibility of deterrence. The whole thing of deterrence rests upon the credibility of its use. When people say they're never going to use the deterrent, I say you use the deterrent every second of every minute of every day - the purpose of the deterrent is you don't have to use it because you effectively deter.

"Most of the politicians I know understand that and I think, dare I say, the responsibility of power is probably quite a sobering thing and you come to a realisation 'I understand how this thing works'."

Labour was recently forced to condemn as "pretty outrageous" comments from a serving British general who said Mr Corbyn could face a "mutiny" if he tried to downsize the Army.

In highly contentious remarks to the Sunday Times, the unnamed army commander said any attempt by Mr Corbyn to take Britain out of Nato, scrap Trident or cut the size of Britain’s forces would be fought by means “fair or foul”.

The general told the newspaper: "The Army just wouldn’t stand for it. The general staff would not allow a prime minister to jeopardise the security of this country and I think people would use whatever means possible, fair or foul to prevent that.

"You can’t put a maverick in charge of a country’s security. There would be mass resignations at all levels and you would face the very real prospect of an event which would effectively be a mutiny."

Has 'Clem' (*) got a part-time job advising Facebook?

From: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/online/facebook-deletes-and-blocks-all-links-to-small-social-media-site-tsuco-a6725161.html

Facebook deletes and blocks all links to small social media site Tsu.co
The social media giant has deleted more than one million posts which mention small social media platform Tsu.co

by Jess Staufenberg
Saturday 7 November 2015

Some Tsu.co users have said Facebook has unfairly targeted the small media platform Getty

Facebook users wanting to post links to another social media site will find their comment blocked, it has emerged.

When people try to add a link to Tsu.co, which is a small invite-only social network, Facebook blocks the post and does not let it appear.

Even mentioning it in private on Facebook Messenger will not work, and earlier posts including links to Tsu have been deleted, CNN has reported.

Yet this is apparently not an aggressive competitive strategy but an effort by Facebook to prevent "spammy behaviour", according to Mashable.
Facebook-tsu.jpeg

The message users get when trying to post links to Tsu

Tsu.co is a social media site whose users get financial rewards for sharing content, with the site keeping 10 per cent of the ad revenue and the rest distributed among contributors.

As a result, said Facebook, Tsu users were creating fake accounts to boost their pages and Facebook users were reporting Tsu.co links as spam.

Facebook said that sites like Tsu violate its rules on spamming, which is defined by the social media firm as "sending bulk messages, excessively posting links ...and sending friend requests to people you don't know personally."

A Facebook spokesperson told Mashable: "We require all websites and apps that integrate with Facebook to follow our Platform Policy.

"We do not allow developers to incentivise content sharing on our platform because it encourages spammy sharing and creates a bad experience for people on Facebook.”

Yet Tsu users say the site has been unfairly targeted, with at least one million previous Facebook posts mentioning Tsu.co having also been removed.

Carolina Franco from Colombia told CNN: "Very few people even know about Tsu. I don't believe that Facebook and Instagram want Tsu to go viral. It would cost them a lot of money."

Income from ad revenues, which Facebook keeps 100 per cent of, rose by 11 per cent this for the company this year, the BBC recently reported.

(*) After Bullshare left ADVFN to kick off the MoneyM web site, Clem Chambers used robotics to famously block all mention and links of and to 'MoneyAM' and 'MAM' and had the words 'a competitor' (or similar) inserted instead.

Labour is due to vote on Trident and look likely to keep it. There will be a vote on renewing Trident in the next couple of months and the government will probably win it. That means Trident will become government policy and official Labour policy. How can Corbyn then stay leader when he has said he would not use Trident?

Exec,

I see you go for packaging over content or perhaps:

.

A pity Cameron doesn't put the following up behind him when giving his "speech" to the CBI.





Also in rehearsed speech with "interesting" rehearse "body" language.


His sincerity oozes out like ?

Ps, I am glad to see he is still wearing his poppy!

Here is another Scam addressed to the recipient:


Dear Lloyds Bank Customer,

There is a pending E-Payment into your account from our account department. This could not be completed.
The main reason for this could be as a result of the following

Recent changes in Billing Address


Recent changes in memorable word or Access Code


Unauthorized use of credit card payments


Abuse & Term of Use
You are strongly advice to rectify this by reviewing your online profile with us using the secure reference below to avoid service suspension.

Confirm Pending Incoming Payment

Yours sincerely,

Ashley Machin
Digital Banking Director 2015

there's a mass of that sort of crap floating around, and indeed there has been for at least the last 20 years

Didn't notice that!

As it's gone quiet on here, here's a Rooney 'WWE theatrical slap' to look at:

Helmut Schmidt 96 snuffs it, not bad for a heavy smoker http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34778565

Something for Stan and Fred to ignore:


http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6838/germany-migration-health-crisis