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.

Never been to the ME as it seems a very manufactured place and to hot.

dubai is certainly a rather strange place, but there are worse places to go on biz
may through october can be pretty hot, but it's the humidity in the evening that gets at you if you're by the sea

Maybe you could take Fred there to live Stan he loves it , set him up with a bedsit in Syria and jump back on the plane .

The only time I'm ever going there James is if it's a freebee somehow.. just like Alf -):

It,

Ps to P66901.

just look to the irrational movements in the market a little more closely and you will see "herd" responses working at a glance.

Crowd responses for the best or worst of people?

unununuh!

you're right stan ..... i certainly wouldn't go to dubai for a family holiday

you can do it fairly cheaply but you'ld need to have a done a lot of homework, stay in a rented apartment and know where to shop or eat out etc etc

though alcohol is permitted, you cannot just go to the supermarket to buy, so you'ld need to take it with (buy at the airport duty free on arrival is best bet) or spend £7/8 on a bottle of beer in one of the hotel bars or licenced cafes

if you like shit holes to go to go to POLAND A REAL SHITHOLE LOW LIFE ON EVER CORNER SLAPPERS IN GREAT NUMBERS A COUNTRY OF PARASITES
AND YES I HAVE SPENT A LOT OF TIME THEIR NOW WILL NEVER HAVE TO GO AGAIN
FAR WORSE THAN BANGLEDESH

OFF TO TENERIFFE TOMORROW

don't let us delay you any longer

LOL cynic ...

TANK i spent a lot of time in Warsaw in the mid 90's it was nice then and the people were tops ..

You are spending a lot of time in Spanish speaking territories Tanker. Your Spanish must be as good as your English by now....

LOL!!

he obviously isn't fluent enough to ask why the country and it's systems are so corrupt
perhaps he's just polishing up so he can escape to argentina with all his tax-free loot

Stan

Info' of any use?

Yes thank you E/L, my dilemma is that I very much like my square all be it old style cathode monitor, also delivery by road can be problematic with carries. You are about 200 miles from me so driving and collecting would solve that worry but a long way.

Can I suggest that if you can get an offer for them then please go ahead and sell, in the meantime I will continue thinking it through.

Does that sound fair?

Ed: Off out for a few hours.

Post 66910.

£7/8 a bottle of beer never mind a pint (and not real Ale) how unacceptable -):

CYNIC WILL NEVER BE A SAD OLD MAN LIKE YOU .AND YOU ARE NOT HONEST LOW LIFE

HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL OFF TO AIRPORT HOTEL AT 6 PM

Is Unite going to nuke Jeremy Corbyn's Trident-free utopia?
Emily Thornberry is going to have to charm Len McCluskey into making his members redundant. Let's see how that goes...


By John McTernan12:32PM GMT 08 Jan 2016Comments38 Comments
In the end, Jeremy Corbyn's reshuffle was all about Trident. In traditional political terms he humiliated himself by backing away from the threat to sack Hilary Benn. He compounded his weakness by briefing that Benn has agreed to be "muzzled" – an assertion that was immediately denied by Benn. But nothing about the way Corbyn does politics respects the traditional political frame and its metrics. He was asserting his power to achieve what he wants – a change in Labour Party policy to unilateral nuclear disarmament. The prize was to move Maria Eagle – a known supporter of renewing Trident – and replace her with Emily Thornberry an opponent of Trident. The effect is to stack Labour's defence review – both co-chairs, Ken Livingstone and Thornberry will produce the policy conclusion Corbyn wants.


This reshuffle was shambolic, chaotic, badly executed – but it was also an absolute assertion of the reality of power within the Labour Party. Corbyn's election gave him a mandate and he is using it. For the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) this is the moment they realised that the cavalry aren't coming. In fact, there are no cavalry. The brutal truth of politics is being demonstrated – when you are strong you are strong and you can act, when you are weak you are weak and you do what you are told. Not nice, but not new – the balance of power shifted in September, this is just an after-shock.
So that's it then? The next step on Labour's long march to political irrelevance is now unstoppable? Not so fast. No one leads without constraints. The Labour Party, like any political organisation, is a coalition of factions – each driven by their own incentives. Which is where Len McCluskey comes in. The Unite General Secretary is a major power in the party – a kingmaker. Without his intervention in the 2010 Labour leadership election David Miliband would probably now be both Labour leader and prime minister. Corbyn's election was not a similar triumph for Len – he wanted Andy Burnham, but he got Jeremy instead. Thus far his power has been wielded in support of the new leadership.


But Trident will be a major flashpoint. McCluskey's power comes from his union and Unite are an engineering union – they organise the skilled engineers in the defence industry. And, as a consequence of amalgamations, a lot of the white collar technicians too. Unsurprisingly, it is Unite policy to renew Trident – it is what the members want because they work in Barrow building the submarines and in Faslane maintaining them. Unless Unite policy is changed then Labour Party policy won't change. That was shown at conference last year when – just after Corbyn's leadership – support for Trident was left unchanged.
It is highly unlikely that Unite will decide that it should support a policy change that would put its members out of work. It is even less likely that Len McCluskey will risk his own internal authority in the union – from which he derives his power in the Labour Party – on making his own members redundant. But the least likely thing in UK politics today is that Emily Thornberry could finesse such a deal. There are very many fine boozers in Islington, but there is not a single one in which I could imagine Thornberry and McCluskey settling down for a pint and a chat and agreeing a deal over Trident.


Most able politicians can turn their hands to any portfolio but there are some dissonances or incompatibilities which make effective work nearly impossible. I, for one, would not make John Spellar the Shadow Culture Secretary. This may be a calumny. Perhaps he whiles away his spare time reading Wallace Stevens. But even if he does, he just doesn't look like the part. Nor does Emily Thornberry look or sound like a Shadow Defence Secretary. It is not just the cosy beer with Len that's hard to imagine. There's the first visit to a base to meet our forces. Our people – whether army, navy or Air Force – are respectful of politicians but they are also blunt and direct. Some of them may even adorn their living quarters with the St George's Cross.
Just because Jeremy has got what he wants on defence for the moment, it doesn't mean that he has moved closer to his aim of making Labour unilateralist again. Power comes in all manner of forms.

Quite scary really cc .