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.

Exec.

Remember this.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/apr/28/garden-bridge-dead-38m-public-money-repaid-boris-johnson


The garden bridge is dead – now £37m of public money must be repaid


Oliver Wainwright

Despite its exclusivity and rickety economics, the garden bridge project went far further than it should have thanks to Boris Johnson’s disregard for planning rules


A cynical garnish for raising land values … the garden bridge, designed by Thomas Heatherwick. Photograph: Heatherwick Studio/PA


Friday 28 April 2017 15.22 BST Last modified on Thursday 15 June 2017 16.53 BST
Varnished with a Kevlar coating of celebrity sparkle, Bullingdon Club backing and architectural fairy dust, the garden bridge has always seemed capable of surviving every missile of common sense thrown at it. For three years it has been fiercely opposed by supporters of gardens and bridges alike, of which this vanity project was clearly never either. But now it seems its invincibility cloak has finally worn off, as London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, has refused to guarantee further funding for his predecessor’s misguided folly.


Thames garden bridge scrapped by Sadiq Khan

Read more

Launched as a privately sponsored gift to the city, Joanna Lumley’s “tiara for the Thames” had soon gobbled up £60m of public cash and the promise of an extra £3.5m a year for evermore. It was quickly revealed to be more a corporate events space than public crossing, a planted branding opportunity just 200 metres from an existing bridge, where groups would have to register and visitors would be tracked via their mobile phones. It was relentlessly exposed to be the product of the “chumocracy”, flouting all the usual rules of procurement. The miracle is that it ever got so far, and that so much public money has already been flushed into the Thames.

The blame lies firmly with former mayor Boris Johnson, the one actor in this sorry saga who refused to comply with Margaret Hodge’s recent inquiry into the project. Her investigation found multiple failings from the start, from the Garden Bridge Trust’s shaky business case (which put a lot of faith in the lucrative potential of selling T-shirts and pens), to a tendering process that was “not open, fair or competitive”, to confusion as to what the project was even for, concluding that the bridge should be scrapped before it burned through any more cash. And it all comes back to Boris.

Villain of the piece ... Boris Johnson.
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Villain of the piece ... Boris Johnson. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters
It was Johnson who took up his childhood chum Lumley’s idea for the sylvan crossing (which was initially conceived as a memorial to Princess Diana and pitched to Ken Livingstone, who had the good sense to say no) and had it bulldozed through the system with flagrant disregard for due process. Hodge’s report found that his deputy mayor for transport, Isabel Dedring, and Transport for London’s

Manuel.

"there is also no doubt that the queen does a very useful job behind the scenes in all sorts of ways .."

Evidence please.

Could the "financial rewards" for her and family be better used going elsewhere?

you should hang your sad face in shame you low life scum
the queen is a great woman ,

Stan goes on about the £1B bung for Ulster infrastructure but ignores bunga-bunga Corbyn with his uncosted £93B votes bribe. Bunga- bunga parties in No 10 in his dreams. He will have to make do with that dopey Abbott, but I suspect that is a mountain too high for him to to scale these days.

Could the "financial rewards" for her and family be better used going elsewhere? ........ imo, assuredly not; excellent value

for any human to put up with what she has put up with is truly amazing lady

she has served the uk and common wealthy for many years and held it together .

corbyn wants to destroy all the man is a self centred lunatic with is money trees for all

stan what a person posts shit and will not answer questions put to him that makes him a bag of wind and shit . you need to wipe your bottom stan

Manuel.

You seem to value the goods by the price paid not the worth of the goods obtained.

Manuel.

You seem to value the goods by the price paid not the worth of the goods obtained.

Labour behaviour much to be desire during election campaign
at the commons today................." Tory MP Sheryll Murray says she's had swastikas carved into posters & "burn the witch" social media messages ".....
------------
Tory Sheryll Murray starts with a question on the alleged abuse and intimidation she got during the election campaign, which ranged from social media abuse to attacks on her home.

Theresa May deplores what has happened and notes it was particularly focused at female candidates and has "no place in politics".

https://twitter.com/BBCNews/status/880020541431627776

fred - measure it any way you want, but i fully stand behind what i said about any money being paid to the queen from the royal list as being outstanding value

even if you are a republican as is seemingly the case, the tourist income generated from that quarter, either directly or indirectly, is truly massive

Manuel,

If they put up a monument of you in Picadilly, I am sure it would attract and audience!

I would just prefer the cost to go for some other construction.

abbot speaking now in commons what a dimwit she is a uneducated simpleton

she is a disgrace she can not speak properly she is all mixed up not got a clue a complete idiot , if she was my mother I would put her in a nursing home for her own good

if I voted labour I would be hiding my face , she is a sick joke , she does not no she is stupid

edited by MoneyAM

fred - that really is a very silly response from you, showing a surprising lack of thought or logic

just being contentious for the sake of it yet again i suppose

she is giving the uk a sick name anyone listening to her outside the uk must be laughing their heads off she is a nutter , she needs help

Agreed:

1. About the massive benefits of the UK having an exceedingly prestigious, travelling, sales aid. ie. Royal Yacht. If ever asked or given the opportunity, I would contribute £100 towards it and I know my wife would do the same.

2. Yes the DUP £1Bn is a 'bung'. But it does stabilise our governing of the Brexit deal. And the Corbyn 'promises to the many (mostly young people) costing £100Bn' is also a 'bung' - but costing 100 times more!

3. The Queen does a bloody good job and always has done ever since she took on the position. The top echelons of the RF also do a pretty good job (Prince Charles, Kate, William, Harry, Anne). However, I do think we then have to start asking a few questions (ie. Edward, Andrew, Eugenie, Beatrice, a couple more Dukes, etc, and their families and hanger-ons). Some of the 'colourfulness of State' and our 'colourful pageants and traditions' surely did now ought to be 'pared back a bit'. Their usefulness doesn't now justify their cost. With the House of Lords, Black Rod, State Opening of Parliament, etc, surely our self government systems and Parliament are so utterly archaic, they are not fit for purpose!

abbot must be ill to act and speak like that she must be stopped making sick speeches
she makes her self look like a freak which she is