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 "experts" always say that. I guess the only answer is to die before it comes into effect. The increase is to "reduce the cost of running courts and tribunals and, cough, raise 250M for the Exchequer". No doubt it will be spent on worthy causes, such as aid to Kenya and Zimbabwe....

This was posted up by MT across the road..no link, but good message imo



Mount Teide
25 Feb '17 - 12:02 - 65614 of 65620 2 1



The hugely condescending and nauseatingly disingenuous US Democrats and Blairite PLP are now widely seen and mocked as boutique parties of metropolitan elite career politicians expressing fake outrage, social engineering, synthetic indignation, and political correctness 24/7 - incapable of understanding the problems of the wider working class which they casually dismiss as not being real or of importance - if your life sucks your problems are real alright !

Politics and the economy is rigged against most traditional labour supporters and working class voters - Trump and Farage continually pointed this out and were mercilessly abused and ridiculed by the Left, their mainstream media and corporate masters for daring to suggest what most working class people have long suspected and increasingly come to believe. As evidenced, by the fact that UKIP polled 4 million votes in the last GE, more than the SNP and Lib Dems combined - which seems to have gone straight over the heads of the left!

The liberal left needs to seriously examine the reasons why they keep losing elections - which basically is because they have gone from the party that protects the interests of working people first to protecting corporate interests and the wealthy first - under the present Tory Government, the wealthy pay 10% more tax than they did at any time under 13 years of the last Labour Government - a totally unacceptable state of affairs for a party supposedly elected to look after the many not the few.

What particularly irks the working class is when the Liberal left gets offended for people who themselves do not consider they have been offended. They especially dislike the liberal luvvies who race to twitter besides themselves with self loathing for their unconscionable thoughtless action and appalling ignorance, should they make the most minor of political correctness gaffes. ( Like many of the UK police force, they should pay to attend a Roy Chubby Brown Concert and see what the real world thinks of the lefts inane pseudo-scientific claptrap and politically correct nonsense.)

Leftie luvvie Justin Timberlake tweeted that Jesse Williams, an African American 'inspired' him. But then had to apologise unreservedly for the sin of giving someone a compliment, " i apologise to anyone that thought i was speaking out of turn. I have nothing but love for all of you and all of us!', when it was pointed out to him he had committed the cardinal sin of 'cultural appropriation'! (What the f*ck is cultural appropriation cried 99% of the population outside of the Leftie luvvie world of political correctness gone mad!).

The leftie luvvie men have been reduced to men who only speak when their wives or girlfriends consider it appropriate and only then in the most reverential tones to the political correctness and diversity alter that they all worship above all else, including the economy and the welfare of those far less fortunate than themselves.

Trump and Brexit is a rebellion against this totally inane nonsense, which is still in its infancy, accelerating and likely to run for decades.

Some free advice for the left - while the leftie politicians were actively policing the speeches at the children's school awards evening for political correctness and monitoring their communities to ensure the full richness of the diversity they had unleashed on them without consultation was being fully embraced, a man called Donald Trump talked himself into the White House by continually making himself out to be a sexist, racist, homophobic, misogynist who routinely insulted gays, veterans and their families, women and children, and Mexicans to name a few .

There is nothing like a little bit of hate to get some going.

It helps to feed their greed.

'A Month of Islam and Multiculturalism in Britain: February 2017'

gatestoneinstitute.org/10042/britain-islam-february 2017

re- COW

Another one has been playing with the bulls and no one knew it apart from her brother

Bank of England deputy Charlotte Hogg resigns her post

Charlotte Hogg, who was about to become the Bank of England's deputy governor for markets and banking, has resigned from the Bank after failing to disclose her family connections.
While being questioned over her appointment by MPs, she told them her brother had a senior role at Barclays.
She had worked for the Bank for several years without mentioning this.
The Bank's code of conduct, which she helped to draw up, states employees must declare such connections.

name and shame the cow



In her resignation letter, dated Monday, Hogg apologised for her "honest mistake" and said she has not "shared confidential information or misused it in any way".

Honest mistake , blimey sure it was , at that level it's amazing how many are so thick really . I won't worry though there's another job lined up probably .

how on earth could she be so stupid as to imagine this would not easily leak out?
some people really are mindbogglingly hubristic

She's another of the ruling class who think they can get away with anything,
just because they have done in the past, she's been receiving hundreds of
thousands of pounds a year for several years, and then gets into a position
where she is endowed with the ability to influence any policy that could be of
assistance to her brother....OUTRAGEOUS!!

Another of the Hogg dynasty. She was lauded as one breaking the glass ceiling at the BOE. Why does trough come to mind?

And about time too!

Victory for Marine, Sgt Alexander Blackman, as Appeal Court judges CLEAR him of murdering Taliban fighter in Afghanistan and he has his conviction reduced to manslaughter.

Sergeant Blackman, who has already served three years in prison, will face a new sentencing hearing in the next week but his legal team will now argue for him to be released.

Thats great news for Sgt Blackman and for his family, and justice.

Here is the full text of Chancellor Philip Hammond's letter to Conservative MPs explaining his decision to drop National Insurance increases announced in last week's Budget.

Dear Colleague

I am writing to clarify the Government's position with regard to the changes to National Insurance contributions (NICs) for the self-employed, announced in last week's Budget.

As I set out last Wednesday, the gap between benefits available to the self-employed and those in employment has closed significantly over the last few years - most notably by the introduction of the new State Pension in April 2016, worth an additional £1,800 to a self-employed person for each year of retirement.

It remains our judgment that the current differences in benefit entitlement no longer justify the scale of difference in the level of total NICs paid in respect of employees and the self-employed.

Colleagues will be aware that there has been a sharp increase in self-employment over the last few years. Most commentators believe that at least part of the increase is driven by differences in tax treatment.

HMRC estimates that the cost to the public finances of this trend is around £5bn this year alone and the parallel increase in incorporation will cost more than £6bn a year by the end of the Parliament. This represents a significant risk to the tax base and thus to the funding of our public services.

The measures I announced in the Budget sought to reflect more fairly the differences in entitlement in the contributions made by the self-employed and addresses the challenge of sustainability of the tax base.

The Government continues to believe that this is the right approach.

Since the Budget, however, there has been much comment on the question of commitments made in our 2015 manifesto. Ahead of Autumn Statement last year, the
Prime Minister and I decided that, however difficult the fiscal challenges we face, the tax-lock and spending ring-fence commitments we have made for this Parliament should be honoured in full. I made this clear in the Autumn Statement speech.

As far as National Insurance contributions are concerned, the locks were legislated for in the National Insurance contributions (Rate Ceilings) Act 2015.

When that Bill was introduced, it was made clear that the lock would apply only to Class 1 contributions (employer and employee). The measures proposed in the Budget fall within the constraints set out by the tax-lock legislation and the spending ring-fences.

However, in light-of the debate over the last few days it is clear that compliance with the "legislative" test of the Manifesto commitment is not adequate.

It is very important both to me and to the Prime Minister that we are compliant not just with the letter, but also the spirit, of the commitments that were made.

In light of what has emerged as a clear view among colleagues and a significant section of the public, I have decided not to proceed with the Class 4 NIC measures set out in the Budget.

There will be no increases in NICs rates in this Parliament. We will continue with the abolition of Class 2 NICs from April 2018. The cost of the changes I am announcing today will be funded by measures to be announced in the Autumn Budget.

I undertook in the Budget speech to consult over the summer on options to address the principal outstanding difference in benefit entitlement between employed and self-employed: parental benefits. We now intend to widen this exercise to look at the other areas of difference in treatment, alongside the Government's consideration of the forthcoming report by Matthew Taylor, CEO of the RSA, on the implication of different ways of working for employment rights.

Once we have completed these pieces of work, the Government will set out how it intends to take forward, and fund, reforms in this area.

I plan to make a statement in the House later today.

Philip Hammond

..

Good Headlines.

FINANCIAL TIMES

European Parliament signals tough line on Brexit

Brexit means the end of single market access for London

Theresa May's clampdown on international students is a mystery

What Nicola Sturgeon conjured from constitutional thin air

Davis admits UK has not assessed impact of Brexit without Brussels deal

The conundrum of Theresa May's Great Repeal Bill


-=-=

Almost forgot.

Tories caught fiddling the books again.


Hey ho, another day in the market!

Anyone watch the Lords Speaker's committee meeting yesterday on reform of the Lords? Interesting perspective of how the Lords (and Baronesses) view themselves. When asked what would be the ideal maximum size, the crossbencher mentioned 600 since there are rarely more than that in chamber even for very important votes. He also made the obsequious remark that some of them are not up to scratch anyhow. My my, look in the mirror.
The Labour Baroness, who was in my view the most lucid, thought that was too high, while the Libdem agreed that 600 was about right, although perhaps more would be required since most were part time politicians. Trust the Libdems to hit the thumb rather than the nail.
When a SNP committee member suggested that perhaps it would be better to scrap the Lords as is and go for an elected chamber which represented all of the country, rather than a preponderance from the Home Counties, there was a spontaneous reach for the water.
There was discussion on term limits and the crossbencher offered 15 years. 15 years. What is wrong with 4 or 5 years like normal MPs, then up for re-election again? Clearly these people think that they are above mere mortals. Scrap the lot and their pantomime clothes and we wouldn't notice the difference.

i have no problem at all with an unelected 2nd house, and indeed there are many good aspects for it being so
however, the £300 pd for nominal and unproductive attendance certainly sticks in the throat and that needs stamping on
if you're going to claim the allowance, then meaningful input should be part of the deal