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 government is managing quite well the difficult job of balancing social priorities when the high levels of public debt and overall taxation as a % of GDP are considered. Overall taxation in the UK is around 35% compared to circa 25% in the USA and 20% in that former bastion of socialism, Russia. Some countries with a similar tax burden to the UK, like Germany, spend more on public services at the expense of defence.
Nobody will be fully satisfied but that's the reality in which we find ourselves post the financial crisis. The only way to improve matters is through growth and paying down the public debt to reasonable levels. Osborne was a good chancellor in that respect and saw the risk to growth with Brexit. That risk is real but most people are willing to suffer a little in order to free themselves from the EU. The exceptions are the left who always want more but don't have a clue how to generate the wealth necessary to support their demands. Like schooling, their idea is to level everyone down. That hasn't worked and never will.

How refreshing. Pity she doesn't have the power to remove the honours from those that didn't deserve them in the first place.

Theresa May has signalled an end to cronyism in the honours system by becoming the first prime minister not to publish a dissolution honours list in more than 60 years.
MPs who have chosen not to stand for re-election in June have been told not to expect an award.
Mrs May wants a clean break from the tradition of prime ministers using honours lists to reward close aides and advisers.
Her predecessor, David Cameron, was accused of degrading the honours system last year when he showered awards on party donors and Downing Street staff including his wife Samantha’s stylist and two of his former drivers.
Cameron created 13 Tory life peers in his resignation honours, including No 10 political aides Gabrielle Bertin and Camilla Cavendish.

thoroughly agree ...... an honour bestowed should be an honour truly earned
granting these to your hairdresser while ignoring those who contribute hugely in all sorts of areas degrades the whole

CAMERON TURNED OUT TO BE NO MORE THAN A COWARD , MAY WILL NOT BE A COWARD SHE HAS GUTS AND MORE BALLS THAN CAMERON

VINCE CABLE WHAT A DELUDED PERSON .

Yes and these honours that go to so called celebrities because they put their name to a charity but probably get paid for it .It should be done free .

bob Geldof has made millions on peoples poverty it was all a scam . but made him very rich

Just hearing Geldof's name makes me feel sick .What a phoney.

Local elections 2017

Conservatives make gains..........

Summary

Counting is under way in local and mayoral elections in Wales, Scotland and parts of England

A total of 4,851 council seats are up for grabs in 88 councils - all of those in Scotland and Wales and 34 in England

So far the Conservatives have gained control of five councils while Labour have lost control of two in Wales

The Liberal Democrats have lost seats

UKIP has lost all the seats it has been defending so far

Conservative Tim Bowles has defeated Labour's Lesley Mansell in run-off vote for West of England metro mayor

mentor - far too early to draw any truly meaningful conclusions
for sure labour have had a poor showing, though not sufficient to cause widespread suicide among its members
the results in scotland are potentially much more interesting, but we won't know those for a good many hours yet

ukip has been wiped out

UKIP confined to the skip, have to say if it wasn't for Nigel Farage and DC's total lack of confidence in his own party then we would never have had a referendum, so thanks Nige

WE VOTED TORY JUST TO KEEP OUT THE TRASH

Abbott: "The net losses are about 50."
ITN: "They're 125."
Abbott: "Well the last time I looked they were about 100."

george - in that respect you are absolutely correct ..... whether voting to leave is the correct choice, no one will ever know, and certainly a reasonable guess will not be possible for a decade or more

==============

hays - did that stupid woman open her uninformed mouth yet again and so soon?
surely not!

CORBYN to be kicked out next week the leading contenders ABBOT and a man from Pakistan who will move to the uk if he wins

I disagree cynic I believe the majority now know we made the right decision thanks to the EU threats etc. Who in their right mind would want to belong to a 'club' that threatens them when they want to leave.

Our use to the EU is clear as day, we are a cash cow.

well said George

breaking news from a leaked doc from brussels , without the uk cash we are going to hav to print more money to keep the eu running

most here think it's the right call but no one will actually KNOW for a decade or more
even then, it will be skewed as this is going to have far reaching effects, some good and i'm sure some bad and i don't just mean for uk

I'm not one who thinks that everything will be ok once we've left, I've said before that there will be problems ahead. Economically there will be uncertainties, nobody knows how many financial jobs will go from London, GS is threatening that at the moment, but so did JPM who have now changed their stance.

Trade is a major concern, I feel we should be actively going for trade deals with the rest of the world now.

So in that respect I totally agree with you cynic, but not the fact that we voted to leave.

edited