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.

Ps.

has he had a backhander?

I see the Guardian newspaper is in financial trouble, lots of redundancies ahead.
2517

ComRes/Indy on Sunday –

CON 40, LAB 29, LD 7, UKIP 16, GRN 3

Turns out Diane Abbott thought Mao was a good role model too

John McDonnell not the only Labour frontbencher to refer to the Little Red Book

John McDonnell caused uproar in the House of Commons when he produced Mao’s little Red Book but it turns out he’s not the first Labour frontbencher to refer back to the Chinese dictator.

Diane Abbott attempted to extol the positives of the brutal communist leader from the comfort of the This Week sofa.

The Shadow Secretary of State for International Development left Michael Portillo and Andrew Neil dumbstruck after saying “on balance Mao did more good than wrong”.

Neil asked, quite understandably: “Remind me what the good was…”

After attempting to reply an astonished Portillo interrupted her, adding: “Just tell me what was the good thing that he did that made up for the 60 million people he murdered?

Abbott, undeterred, said: “He led his country from feudalism, he helped to defeat the Japanese, and he left his country on the verge of the great economic success they are having now.”

No wonder Diane has picked up the nickname Madame Mao from her Labour colleague.

Daesh might have its own passport printing machine and ‘boxes of blank passports’, according to a new US intelligence report.

In the 17-page Homeland Security Investigations Intelligence Report, which was obtained by abc News, the terror group is said to have likely been able to print realistic-looking Syrian passports ever since it took over Deir ez-Zour last summer.

Deir ez-Zour is home to a passport office with ‘boxes of blank passports’, the report said, and a passport printing machine. Another passport office was also found in Raqqa, the proclaimed capital of the so-called Islamic State.

‘Since more than 17 months [have] passed since Raqqa and Deir ez-Zour fell to ISIS, it is possible that individuals from Syria with passports “issued” in these Isis-controlled cities or who had passport blanks, may have traveled to the U.S.,’ the report reads.

Notice Osborne kept the Little Red Book.

I can see where he gets his economic ideas from.

Also, seems to had learnt how to hold onto the property of others.

Good old fascist principles.

A sensible appraisal of Jeremy Corbyn;

Worth pausing for:

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/dec/12/attacks-on-stop-the-war-harden-jeremy-corbyns-resolve-to-stand-by-allies

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/dec/12/attacks-on-stop-the-war-harden-jeremy-corbyns-resolve-to-stand-by-allies

251.

Where did you see read that the Guardian was in financial pressuref?

They have been under pressure for years.

If it is I think it a pity!

251.

Where did you see read that the Guardian was in financial pressuref?

They have been under pressure for years.

If it is I think it a pity!

Ken Livingstone could be awarded a peerage in a reported attempt by Jeremy Corbyn to get his ally into the shadow cabinet.

The Labour leader is said to be "desperate" to get the former London mayor into his cabinet to help him deal with a mounting rebellion from moderates on the front benches.

But MPs have told the Sun on Sunday that such a move would be considered a "declaration of war" on the parliamentary party.

They have called for Mr Livingstone to be sacked as co-chairman of Labour's defence policy review after he told shadow minister Kevan Jones - who has had a well-documented battle with depression - to seek "psychiatric help".

One senior party figure told the newspaper: "This will simply pour petrol on the flames of rage consuming the Parliamentary Labour Party."

Here it is Fred http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/media/8583220/Riches-to-rags-as-Guardian-bleeds-33m-in-a-year.html

Thanks Stan, been out most of the day.
I remember The Observer had a financial guru years ago called John Davies he was one of the best share 'tipsters' of his time (imo). Any share he tipped he would count the profit from the sp at the close of play on the first trading day AFTER he tipped it, not from the previous close. Hope that makes sense.
2517

Haystack your post 66171 , if that's true then it's very disturbing (being able to print their own passports) we must act to stop them entering the UK .

Thanks, Stan and 251,

It would be a shame if the have to close down.

I regularly buy the Observer and think it one of the few newspapers worth reading.

Very very little chance of the Guardian ever closing Fred I would have thought.

The date on that article about the Guardian was 2011.

Quite right H/S, fancy me missing that.

This is from 2015

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/mar/09/guardian-observer-publisher-guardian-news-media

Ten years on: David Cameron the least disliked party leader of a generation

For 72% of his ten years as Conservative leader David Cameron has been more liked - or less disliked - than his Labour or Lib Dem opponents – and still has a higher average approval score than any other leader during that time

On December 6 David Cameron reached his tenth year as Conservative leader, having beaten David Davis with twice as many votes in 2005 on a promise to deliver a “modern, compassionate Conservative Party”. After suffering three electoral defeats under Major, Hague and Howard, with Iain Duncan Smith struggling to convince the party as leader between 2001-2003, Mr Cameron's image overhaul struck a chord with the membership. Since then he has been criticised for evading definition – 'Cameronism' is not something that has stuck – but only three other Conservative leaders in history have survived the ten year mark.

YouGov tracks public ratings of leaders of the three main political parties in England on a monthly basis, providing a rich dataset to analyse the ups and downs of Cameron's time as party leader. There have been fewer highs and lows than with Nick Clegg and Gordon Brown, underlying the reputation of a "steady as you go" politician (the range between his best and worst rating is 1.6, lower than Gordon Brown's 1.7 and Nick Clegg's 2.5, but higher than Ed Miliband's 1). But his average score (4.4) far exceeds any of the other leaders' between 2006 and 2010.

The data shows how much people like each party leader, but on a measure of how well or badly the public think each politician is doing in their job the current gap between David Cameron and his rivals is larger. The last time YouGov asked the question the prime minister's job approval rating was net 0 (47% well, 47% badly) while Jeremy Corbyn's was net -41 (24% well, 65% badly).

Although spending brief periods of time with lower ratings than Brown, Clegg and Miliband, Cameron has spent 72% of the ten year period as the most liked leader. Ed Miliband was most liked for 24% of his tenure, while Nick Clegg's and Gordon Brown's spell as most popular leaders was brief (13% and 11% respectively.