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 Star Wars was about the Labour Party

As The Force Awakens debuts in cinemas, we take a look at some of the classic trilogy's pivotal scenes – as interpreted in the era of Jeremy Corbyn.


By Tom Harris

2:13PM GMT 15 Dec 2015



A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...



On a remote desert planet, young Tristram Skywalker meets a mysterious old man who has heard of, yet never met (even though they’ve been working in the same building for five years).


Tristram: You knew my father?


Cor-Byn Kenobi: He was the best orator in the galaxy. And a good friend. You must train as he did if you’re to come with me to Alderaan. But we have to go via Mos Eisley.

Tristram: Oh, I know it – a wretched hive of scum and villainy!

Cor-Byn: Well, that’s a little judgmental. Let’s just say all the residents are the product of a very challenging environment.


Aboard the Millennium Falcon


En route to Alderaan, Cor-Byn Kenobi suddenly winces, as if in pain.

Tristram: Are you feeling OK?

Cor-Byn: I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of people just got their planet vaporised from under them by the Empire’s gigantic planet-destroying secret weapon.

Tristram: That’s terrible! The fascists!

Cor-Bin Kenobi: Well, let’s not be too hasty. Perhaps the Emprire had a legitimate grievance. After all, the Rebel Alliance have been rather provocative. They’ve reaped the whirlwind, you might say.

Tristram: Remind me why you’re here?


The battle of the Death Star begins


Tristram leads the Red Squadron of Rebel Alliance X-Wing fighters to the space station’s weakest point. Suddenly he hears the disembodied voice of Cor-Byn!

Cor-Byn: Tristram!

Tristram: Cor-Byn? Is that you?

Cor-Byn: Use the force, Tristram.

Tristram: You mean trust in a supernatural God-like force rather than my computer navigational systems?

Cor-Byn: No, I mean use the force of popular civil engagement to mount a non-violent protest!

Tristram: You want me to organise a march and demonstration against the Empire?

Cor-Byn: Of course not!

Tristram: Good.

Cor-Byn: I want you to organise a protest march against the Rebel Alliance to stop it bombing the Empire.

Tristram: Oh, for f--…


In Cloud City


Tristram is confronted by the evil Dark Lord of Hayes and Harlington, Darth McDonnell, and a hideous and unexpected truth.

McDonnell: Cor-Byn never told you what became of your father, did he?

Tristram: I’ll be honest – I think he was losing it a bit. I started tuning out in the end.

McDonnell: I hear ya. But Tristram – I am your father!

Tristram: Really? A bit contrived, don’t you think? Almost as if somebody’s just making this up as they go along.

McDonnell: Yeah, the Labour Party, eh? Tch!

Tristram: Noooo! You’re lying!

Tristram jumps.


Aboard the second Death Star


Darth McDonnell escorts young Skywalker to an audience with the Emperor.

Tristram: I still believe there’s some good in you. Why else would Mum have married you?

McDonnell: I still can’t believe she named you “Tristram”.

Tristram: What’s wrong with it, Dad?

McDonnell: Well, it’s not the kind of name you’d give to a leader of a socialist party, is it?

Tristram: So what would be better?

McDonnell: Well, I don’t know … John? Or even … Ken? Anyway, at least she didn’t send you sent to a private school.

Tristram: Actually, I –

McDonnell: Ah, we’ve arrived outside the Emperor Livingstone’s chambers.

Tristram: Who are the Imperial guards wearing the red masks and uniforms? Pretty intimidating.

McDonnell: I think that one's Seumas Milne.

Tristram: And that one? The one firing at his own troops?

McDonnell: Oh, that'll be Andrew Fisher.


In Emperor Livingstone’s chamber



The Emperor watches as Darth McDonnell and Tristram duel to the death.

McDonnell: Tristram – join me and together, as father and son, we can rule the galaxy!

Emperor Livingstone: I knew I shouldn't have trusted him.

McDonnell: Embrace your destiny, Tristram. Embrace the Left Side!

Tristram: Never! I'll never go over to the Left Side!

McDonnell: But why? It's really not that bad.

Tristram: Because it'll never have a broad enough demographic appeal to secure a majority!

Emperor: Well, no, but ... hello? Imperial dictatorship?

Tristram: Fair point.

Emperor: Young Skywalker – deselect your own father and take his place at my side.

Tristram: As Shadow Chancellor? I’m listening.

Emperor: Well, I was thinking more of Business Innovation and Skills. A really important portfolio, actually.

Tristram: Never! I'll never settle for that!

Emperor: Very well, then – I will deselect you myself!

McDonnell: NOOO!

McDonnell leaps forward and gives the Emperor a really nasty Chinese burn.

Emperor: Ow! What was that for? Look, you've left a mark and everything!

McDonnell: Sorry, Ken, but he's my son!

Emperor: You have a son called Tristram?

McDonnell: I know, I know …


As Darth McDonnell lies dying


Mortally wounded by some inexplicable but cool-looking special effects, Darth McDonnell is cradled by his son.

McDonnell: I'm glad I got to see you with my own eyes before I die. So, er ... what are you going to do with me now?

Tristram: I'll probably burn you on a pyre.

McDonnell: Really?

Tristram: Yeah, but I'll fish your helmet out before it melts. I think we'll need it as a prop again in about 30-odd years...

Jeremy Corbyn has become the Left's Enoch Powell

There is no point pretending that Corbyn's views are no longer the views of the broader Labour Party




By Dan Hodges

12:08PM GMT 15 Dec 2015



I’m done. Yesterday I cancelled my direct debit to the Labour Party. “Why don’t you just sod off and join the Tories“, Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters regularly ask anyone who dares to challenge their rancid world view.


I won’t be joining the Tories. But I am sodding off.




Like many Labour Party members, I’d been weighing up what to do about my membership for a couple of months now. I’d resolved in my own mind to “stay and fight”. Indeed, when I filled in the online form to rejoin the party back in June and was asked for my “Reasons for rejoining”, I typed “to fight Jeremy Corbyn”.


But then two things changed my mind. The first was the report that Labour MPs were again deferring a direct challenge to their leader, this time to 2017. And I realised that actually there is no real internal “resistance” to Corbynism. All the bullying. All the threats. They have worked.

The second thing – and for me this was the real tipping point – was a report in that Isil was now ordering the murder of children with Down’s syndrome.

According to the Mirror’s report, Isil has issued a fatwa “to its members authorising them to 'kill newborn babies with Down's syndrome and congenital deformities and disabled children'". It went on to claim: “activists recorded more than 38 confirmed cases of killing babies with congenital deformities and Down's syndrome, aged between one week to three months. They were killed by either lethal injection or suffocation.”


Two weeks ago the Labour Party – my party – was asked if it would support taking military action against the group of savages who are implementing this barbaric policy. The request was bolstered by a United Nations’ resolution, and a specific plea for assistance from Francoise Hollande, the socialist prime minister of France, following the massacre of hundreds of innocent people on the streets of his capital.

A majority of Labour Party members of parliament – members of my party – rejected that plea. Those that did not have been subjected to a sustained campaign of abuse and intimidation. The abuse originated in many instances from members of the Labour Party – my party.

Prior to the debate, Jeremy Corbyn had told his MPs they were free to follow their consciences in that vote. He lied to them. The campaign of intimidation against them that followed was prosecuted with his knowledge, and on his behalf. Some of it was directed from within his own office. The office of the leader of the Labour Party – my party.

The intimidation reached such a level that some MPs began to fear for their physical safety. One former minister, Jamie Reed, made a formal complaint to Rosie Winterton, Labour’s chief whip, warning that the Labour leader’s actions would eventually result in “personal violence against Labour MPs, their staff or even family members”. That’s families and staff of members of the Labour Party – my party.


On Friday Jeremy Corbyn went to a Christmas party. It was a party held in his honour by the Stop The War coalition. Stop The War had been responsible for much of the harassment of those Labour MPs who had voted for military action. Indeed, Stop The War had specifically asked its supporters to prioritise the targeting of Labour MPs, over the targeting of their Conservative opponents. In the days running up to Jeremy Corbyn’s attendance at their party, Stop The War published several articles. One claimed it was wrong to compare Isil with the Nazis, whilst a second compared Isil to the International Brigades who had fought Hitler and Franco’s fascists in Spain.

Jeremy Corbyn knew all of this. And despite that, he arrived at the party and told the assembled gathering: “I’ve been proud to be the chair of the Stop the War coalition, proud to be associated with the Stop The War coalition. We are very strong, there are very many more of us than there are of those people that want to take us in the other direction.” That was the leader of the Labour party who said that. My leader.

There are lots of sound political reasons for people staying in the Labour Party to fight Corbynism. But for me, the decision is no longer a political one, but a moral one.

Jeremy Corbyn is the Left’s Enoch Powell. His views and stances are equally repugnant. It’s just that because he is leader the of “my party” that I have refused to acknowledge it.

Powell was always at pains to paint himself as someone who did not personally entertain prejudice. He was merely an interlocutor between the body politic and those that did. He did not endorse racism. But he thought it important to engage with those who held such views, to understand them, and provide an outlet for their opinions.

Jeremy Corbyn is the same. Terrorists. Anti-semites. Isil apologists. He doesn’t share their views. But he offers himself as a conduit for them. So we can better understand them. Or so he says. And then off he goes, partying with those who chide us not to compare Isil with the Nazis, just as Isil are slipping lethal injections into the arms of disabled children.

If Jeremy Corbyn held these views in isolation, that would be one thing. Those who argue – as I have tried to argue – that Corbynism is an aberration, rather than a reflection of the Labour Party as whole, would have a legitimate point.

But Jeremy Corbyn does not stand alone. When he articulates his views he has the majority of Labour Party activists standing behind him. He has the majority of ordinary Labour Party members standing behind him. He has the majority of trade union activists standing behind him. He has the majority of their general secretaries standing behind him. He has the majority of the Labour party’s ruling NEC standing behind him. And – via their mute acquiescence – he has the bulk of his parliamentary party standing behind him.


There is no point maintaining the pretence Jeremy Corbyn is a voice in the wilderness. Jeremy Corbyn speaks for the Labour Party now. He stands for the Labour Party’s values now. He is the Labour Party now.

It will not always be the case. One day Corbynism will end. The idea being floated by his apparatchiks that we are on the brink of a decade of Corbyn rule is a fantasy. Sooner or later electoral gravity will reassert itself. Eventually Labour MPs will feel the hot breath of the electorate on their necks, rather than the hot breath of the Momentum activists. At that point self-interest and self-preservation will force them to act.

But it will be too late. By then that same electoral gravity will have ground their party to dust.

Their party, but not mine. By remaining a Labour Party member, and by continuing to fund Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party, I am complicit. Both morally, and practically. I am paying for his propaganda. I am funding his henchman. I am financing his own campaign of terror.

And there comes a moment where you have to say “enough. Not in my name”. For me, that moment has finally arrived.

So Dan has jumped ship eh?

What beach is he going to wash up on?

For H/S and his other "Con" party ranters on here to send them to bed happy.

The terrorist lover who invited IRA members into the House of Commons days after the Brighton hotel bombing.

Are you sure about that statement Hays ??

Hazy is getting dafter and dafter.

Hazy,

Is this on the walls of party HQ?



How many Egyptians are on "death row" in Egypt for "opposing" the political leaders.

Is the present government proposing flogging arms to either side.

Perhaps some neos may understand the below.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-35110433





EU referendum: Major warns against 'flirting' with EU exit
14 minutes ago
From the section EU Referendum
Sir John MajorImage copyrightEPA
Sir John Major has warned David Cameron against "flirting" with leaving the EU "at a moment when the whole world is coming together".
The former prime minister said Thursday's EU reform talks should not be regarded as "high noon".
And they "should not decide whether or not we remain inside the European Union." he told Today.
Mr Cameron has refused to rule out campaigning for an EU exit if the EU does not agree to his reform demands.
Follow the latest updates with BBC Politics Live
Sir John, whose seven years in Number 10 were dominated by internal Conservative Party rows over Britain's future in Europe, said he was not a "starry-eyed European" and he could understand "frustrations" with the EU, which were "entirely justified".
He also said he could not "get inside" David Cameron's mind - and was anxious not to become a "backseat driver" to the prime minister.
But he said "flirting with leaving at a time when the whole world is coming together is very dangerous and against our national interests".
He said that if the UK were to "break off" and head into "splendid isolation", at a time when the world was coming together, it would not be in the UK's long-term interests.
He said he could understand why Mr Cameron had decided to hold a referendum on remaining in the EU to end the "long-running and tiresome" row about the issue - but he predicted that the British people vote to stay in.

The modern neo-fascist tory party has more splits in it than labour.

Don't know which way they are facing or who is going to give them the next backhander.

U-turn, they turn, any turn, u-bend.

Good to have a firm leadership!

The modern neo-fascist tory party has more splits in it than labour.

Don't know which way they are facing or who is going to give them the next backhander.

U-turn, they turn, any turn, u-bend.

Good to have a firm leadership!

-=-==-=-=

Hazy,

Is it true that Cameron is trying to do a deal with Marine Le Pen and Farage over Europe?

Jimmy
There are lots of references to Corbyn taking IRA members into the House of Commons after the Brihton bombing all over the internet.

He also observed a minute’s silence in 1987 for eight IRA members killed by the SAS in an ambush.

Then he is a moron .

Did someone just blink, or is it just more of the usual old guff?



Europe must confront taboos over freedom of movement, Donald Tusk warns

Donald Tusk says 'the stakes are so high' as new poll finds that Britain will vote to leave the European Union if David Cameron fails to secure his reforms




By Steven Swinford, Deputy Political Editor

12:01AM GMT 16 Dec 2015



Europe must be prepared to confront "taboos" over freedom of movement to keep Britain in the EU because the "stakes are so high", the President of the European Council has said ahead of a key EU summit.


As David Cameron prepares to travel to Brussels on Thursday to discuss his renegotiation demands, Donald Tusk said that European leaders are "far from in agreement" with him.


The Prime Minister is facing significant opposition to his plans to strip EU migrants of in work benefits for four years, with suggestions that 25 of the 27 EU member states want to block the move.



More:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/eureferendum/12052515/Europe-must-confront-taboos-over-freedom-of-movement-Donald-Tusk-warns.html

i wonder what donald trump has to say on the matter :-)

Strange but true .......
...... employment UP by 177,000, but unemployment also up by 3,900

Employment jumped 177,000 to 31.2 million.

Additionally, the number of people claiming unemployment related benefits increased by 3,900 in November from the prior month.

That's due to immigration ..

jimmy b here is the article, it's from Capital & Conflict a Moneyweek research publication.

What if the British people vote to ‘leave’ the European Union and the European Union (or the government) ignores them? A referendum, as far as I can tell, has no binding legal authority. It’s merely the will of the people. But in a parliamentary democracy, your MP’s vote counts more than yours (at least on this issue.)
2517

They are the ones working!

George that's very disturbing .