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.

Life's too short for regrets, iturama. :o)

Fwiw, there are many in Europe who are unhappy with the EU. Our German neighbours fear that Germany has been wrecked by immigration. When we go down to Geneve, the locals complain about all of the mosques. And in our local town in the south of France last summer, there were hundreds of posters appearing on trees and lamposts questioning why immigration was such a taboo.

Equally, I don't think it's right that the UK, Germany and France contribute the vast majority of the EU's GDP, yet only get a 1/28 say each on what goes on.

So, whilst I don't necessarily agree that leaving the EU is the solution, and whilst I don't think Brexit will materially change anything in the way that Brexiters think it will, I do totally get why people voted to leave.

Morning, folks.

Today is 'Fat Cat Thursday'. That's the day in the year when the average FTSE 100 CEO has now earned as much one of his average workers will do in a full year.

It truly is a very ponderous fact and makes you think a little bit about it. 4 days isn't a tremendously long length of time, is it?

Have you always had this uncanny knack of cheering us up EL. lol

It's a bit obscene when you think they will get their mondiflous irrespective of whether they improve or trash the company

hils - i think there is also a strong move away from brussels in nl and quite a few other member states who contribute rather than take

I'm sure you're right, Cyners.

And whilst we're on the subject of ills within the EU, is it right that Luxembourg, Malta and Cyprus, with a combined population of just over 2 million, should each have a 1/28 say of what goes on in the EU?

no more than it is right that the great unwashed of both sexes should have a vote in anything :-)

but in more serious mode, there is just so much wrong with the way EU is currently structured, and with a massive increase in budget expenditure already telegraphed, i am now glad that i voted"out", albeit that it was with considerably misgivings at the time

Apparently, the UK has 0.88% of the World population.

How much respect should be given to their opinion in the United Nations?

Ummh?

How much does size. wealth, individual earning power, education and skill levels of population or country validate their "power" to be heard or vote in an organisation?

ummmmmmh.

a lot when they're contributing the funds to keep whichever organisation afloat ...... akin to being a serious shareholder

I see you respect Trump!

only when he makes a fine job of turnbury golf course

It was her. No doubt about it. Or her sister.

'Fake News' or not? Hmmm? However, it does seem plausible. Hmmm? Anyway....

Trump aides planning to flee as Wolff book throws White House deeper into turmoil: reports
Travis Gettys
05 JAN 2018 AT 07:45 ET

As bad as thing have been so far in the White House under President Donald Trump, they soon could get even worse.

Michael Wolff’s new book Fire and Fury depicts a chaotic and dysfunctional White House where staffers fear and loathe the president, whom they regard as a vain and moody “idiot,” and those conditions have exacerbated the stress that comes with the job, reported Axios.

“More than half a dozen of the more skilled White House staff are contemplating imminent departures,” according to Axios co-founders Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei. “Many leaving are quite fearful about the next chapter of the Trump presidency.”

The website collected more than a dozen anecdotes from Wolff’s book, which has infuriated Trump so much that aides are simply avoiding him.

Trump has threatened to sue Wolff over his book, but Axios reported that his lawyers laughed at the president’s bluster.

Those anecdotes show how unprepared Trump is for the presidency, and how he ignores or disregards advice and follows his instincts wherever they lead — even when he contradicts himself.

“He seemed almost phobic about having formal demands on his attention,” Wolff wrote.

Wolff described a “wackadoo” moments whenever the president rambled off topic, and staffers were forced into “intense method-acting” to pretend not to notice “what everyone could see.”

“In the Trump White House, policy making … flowed up.” Wolff wrote. “It was a process of suggesting, in throw-it-against-the-wall style, what the president might want, and hoping he might then think that he had thought of this himself.”

Those conditions have many staffers considering a hasty exit, although it’s not clear how attractive those jobs will be once they’re open.
.........................................................................

Michael Wolff: Trump’s White House says president is ‘like a child’
By Yaron Steinbuch
January 5, 2018 8:44am

Michael Wolff, the author of an explosive new book about the White House, insisted Friday that he had spoken to President Trump on the record – and said everyone he interviewed said the president “is like a child,” according to a report.

Wolff told NBC’s “Today” show that everyone he spoke to for the book offered the same description of the commander-in-chief.

They all said “he is like a child,” Wolff said.

Wolff also said he “absolutely” spoke to the president during his reporting for the book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.”

“It was certainly not off the record,” Wolff said, adding that he has recordings and notes of his interviews with the presdient’s aides.

The unflattering tell-all features shocking anecdotes, including claims from former top aide Steve Bannon that Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with Russians at Trump Tower in June 2016 was “treasonous” and “unpatriotic.”

Trump has lashed back at his former chief strategist and tweeted Thursday night that he “authorized Zero access to White House” for the author and “never spoke to him for book.”

The president also used the term “Sloppy Steve,” apparently referring to Bannon.

On Friday, Wolff said on “Today” that Trump isn’t one to talk when it comes to credibility.

“My credibility is being questioned by a man who has less credibility than, perhaps, anyone who has ever walked on Earth at this point,” Wolff said.

Wolff’s book was released early Friday by Henry Holt & Co., which announced a day earlier it was pushing up the publication date due to high demand.

Earlier Thursday, Trump personal attorney Charles Harder demanded in a letter sent to Wolff and his publisher, that the book not be published or disseminated.

The book reached No. 1 on the Amazon best-seller list on Wednesday.

Fred1 - your friend Tony Blair stated that the story that mentioned him in the book, was just false. So do you trust the man that mislead Parliament over weapons of mass destruction?

Clockwork,

Get back in your box.

Read posts on my opinion of Blair before he was elected PM. and also prior to the Iraq war.

Nevertheless, in comparisons with the present bunch of con artists led by the incompetent Theresa May, he and his government were more competent.

Iraq was murderous folly supported by the conservatives and their nincompoop of a leader Ian Duncan Smith who was shown prancing down Downing Street after consulting with Blair.

-=-=-=-


As far as quotes by Wolff are concerned I would prefer to believe Blair.


But you read into the book what suits you.

I hope you have bought it on Amazon, personally I will read it when it starts appearing on the bookshelves of Oxfam.

Clockwork,

Ps.

I believe one of your icons was overjoyed at Trump's success and invited him for a state visit, while another, who I would think is one of your glamour boys, Farage, was delighted to work for the possibly psychotic Trump.

More bad news...


https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jan/05/uk-productivity-jumps-at-fastest-rate-for-six-years

Another appraisal:


https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economy-productivity/uk-productivity-growth-hits-six-year-high-after-weakest-decade-since-1820s-idUKKBN1EU0UO?feedType=nl&feedName=ukdailyinvestor&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=UK%20Lunch%20Break%202018-01-05&utm_term=UK%20Lunch%20Break

UK productivity growth hits six-year high after weakest decade since 1820s
David Milliken
5 MIN READ

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s economic productivity perked up in the three months to the end of September, growing at its fastest rate in more than six years, in contrast to its historically weak performance over the previous decade.

FILE PHOTO - City workers are seen at their offices in the financial district of the City of London, Britain, January 7, 2016. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo
Productivity in Britain has stagnated since the global financial crisis even more than in most other advanced economies, and has played a key role in squeezing Britons’ living standards.

Over the past 10 years productivity growth was the weakest since modern records began and appears to be the slowest since the early 1820s, when Britain was emerging from the Napoleonic wars, the Office for National Statistics said on Friday.

During the third quarter of 2017, output per hour worked grew by 0.9 percent compared with the three months before, its first rise since late 2016 and the biggest increase since the second quarter of 2011, the ONS said.

However, the upturn reflected a fall in the number of people in work over the period rather than strong economic growth, which was a lacklustre 0.4 percent.

Britain’s economy slowed last year, despite strong global growth, as the plunge in the pound that followed its 2016 vote to leave the European Union triggered higher inflation that hurt consumer spending.

The uncertainty generated by Brexit has also weighed on businesses’ willingness to invest.

UNCERTAIN OUTLOOK
Productivity dropped in the first half of 2017 as businesses hired staff faster than they increased output. Compared with a year before, third-quarter productivity was just 0.8 percent higher, less than half its pre-crisis growth rate.

Late last year Britain’s government forecasters revised down their long-run productivity forecasts to around 1 percent a year, after previous expectations for it to pick up to nearer 2 percent were repeatedly disappointed.

A weaker productivity outlook also drove the BoE’s decision in November to raise interest rates for the first time in more than a decade, as it judged the economy would struggle to grow much faster than 1.5 percent a year without creating excessive inflation.

That said, Friday’s data showed unit labour costs - a measure of how much it costs to produce a given amount of output, and a key driver of inflation - rose by the least since the second quarter of 2015, increasing 1.3 percent.

Howard Archer, an economist at forecasters EY ITEM Club, said productivity was likely to have recovered further in the final three months of 2017. Early indications suggest growth remained solid while the number of people in work fell.

But he was less positive about the longer term.

“A major risk is that prolonged uncertainty and concerns over the UK’s economic outlook ends up weighing down markedly on business investment and damages productivity,” he said.

It's over: I'm A Celebrity star Kiosk Keith has been fired after he allegedly 'behaved inappropriately' towards a young female crew member

The show will never be the same. :-))

Isnt the whole point of the "show", shagging?