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.

All these royal weddings/new babies...and such (congratulations to the newly weds by the way)...is not doing me any favours as to my position in the queue as heir to the throne.....as to my coronation : it's almost over the horizon now.....it's like a game of reverse musical chairs where you keep on adding extra seats along the way......damn.....much worse than dropping in Fifa rankings.....(:(………….(:)))

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/16/harry-and-meghan-australia-celebrates-arbitrary-hereditary-privilege

Tory New Morality Party,

He earned less than Starbucks and Amazon made in profits last year but Ed Sheeran paid more in tax than either company.

Figures released this weekend showed that the pop star paid £5.29 million to the tax man compared to £4.5m that the international online retailer coughed up, and £3.3 million that the global coffee chain paid from its main UK entity, Starbucks Coffee Company (UK) Limited – though more tax was paid through other Starbucks subsidiaries.

Critics have complained that the complex structure of the company makes it hard to assess how its tax practices operate.

The company said: “Starbucks paid £13.7m in tax in the UK in 2017 at an effective rate of 25.3%,” And while he’s not short of a bob or two, Sheeran made over £27m in profit while Starbucks made £162m and Amazon brought in nearly £2bn in revenue.

According to The Sun, the 27-year-old’s company Ed Sheeran Ltd released its accounts over the weekend and showed that the business had a turnover of £36,293,611 and a gross profit of £27,376,900. The Shape of You star paid exactly £5,293,424 in UK tax and has over £16m in the bank. But the award-winning singer is not bothered about money and in an interview with OK! magazine last year, he said he isn’t motivated by cash.

He said: “It’s like, earn a penny, spend a penny with me. As soon as it comes in, it goes out. I don’t have that much value on it. I have more value on my friends and family being OK. Money’s not an issue “A lot of my money goes to charity or to children’s hospitals near where I live. I have enough to be comfortable and the rest goes to help people.”

Both Starbucks and Amazon came under fire this year after it was revealed how much UK tax both companies had paid despite their huge turnovers.

And they’re not alone – Facebook only paid £15.8m in tax in the UK last year despite collecting a record £1.3bn in UK sales. However, the social media giant managed to reduce its tax bill further by claiming £8.4m in tax credits from granting its employees shares in the company, so the net tax they paid was £7.4m – less than 1% of its total sales.

Taken from: https://inews.co.uk/news/ed-sheeran-paid-more-tax-starbucks-amazon/

if the law allows, it is difficult to be too judgmental
never forget that hmrc has no morals at all

Following an earlier M40 motorway closure, here's a bit of 'dash-cam footage' for you:

https://twitter.com/AlexVarga_/status/1051898094428844033/video/1

The biggest story at the moment must be the murder of Khashoggi. It is time for the Saudis to give up his body for burial and then explain how a fight ended up with a man being cut up into pieces. This will hopefully not go away anytime soon. Trump is not doing himself any favours with his tweets on the matter. What is it about twitter that attracts some prominent people to show that really they are quite thick. Trump and Musk come to mind although Trump occasionally hits home runs with his followers.

The clue is in the name ... twitter.

time to wake up to realpolitik

People still use twitter?

Some never started.

I have a friend who has just been to see his doctor and he made me think of Manuel, 241 and what’s his name.

-=-=--==

As always, he was quite busy but he took a second to ask him:

"How do you determine whether or not an older person should be put in an old age home?"

"Well," he answered, "we fill up a bathtub, then we offer a teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the person to empty the bathtub."

"Oh, I understand," my friend replied. "I suppose a normal person would use the bucket because it is bigger than the spoon or the teacup."

"No.", he said. "A normal person would pull out the bathtub's plug. If you like, I will arrange for you to have a bed near the window. Will that be OK?"
-=-=-=

Watch out your time may be up.

Seems Amber Rudd thinks domestic abuse is a competition.

Michael O’Leary, Chief Executive of Ryanair after arriving in a hotel in Manchester went to the bar and asked for a pint of Guinness.

The barman said, "That will be £1 please, Mr. O’Leary."

Taken aback, O'Leary replied, "That's very cheap," and handed over his money.

"We do try to stay ahead of the competition", said the barman. "We have the cheapest beer in England".

"That is remarkable value", Michael comments.

"I see you don't have a glass, you'll need one of ours. That will be £3 please."

O'Leary scowled, but paid up. He took his drink and walked towards a seat.

"Ah, you want to sit down?" said the barman. "That'll be an extra £2. If you'd pre-booked it would have cost £1."

O'Leary swore to himself, but paid up.

Newsnight: Khashoggi’s murder known to monarchy says friend

Galip Dalay, a visiting scholar at the University of Oxford, was appearing on the BBC’s Newsnight programme when he spoke about the murder of his friend Mr Khashoggi.

Mr Dalay claimed the attack on Mr Khashoggi could not have happened without the Saudi monarchy’s authorisation.

He said: “By now it is clear what has happened.

“It is a gruesome murder. It is a horrendous killing of a very gentle personality, an intellectual and a journalist.

Mr Dalay urged viewers of the programme to “think about the nature of this murder” and the fact “close and personal aides” of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS) were involved.

The academic explained it was “now well established” 15 people had arrived in Istanbul with the sole purpose of killing Mr Khashoggi and Saudi diplomats had been fully aware of the heinous crime.

He said: “It is well-established that the murder was conducted inside the consulate in Istanbul with the full knowledge of the Consul General himself.”

(Emily Maitlis was presenting the programme on Tuesday night)

The non-resident fellow at the Brookings Doha Centre went on to assert the very airline that had flown the men involved in the murder into Turkey had ties to Mohammad bin Salman - therefore directly implicating the Saudi ruler in the killing.

He said: “Now it is established that the jet company that flew these people into Turkey has very close connections to MBS himself.

“It could not have happened without the knowledge of the Crown Prince.”

Mr Khashoggi was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, leaving his fiancée behind as he went in to collect documents confirming his divorce.

Gruesome murder it was but you can be assured that the drip feed of information by Erdogan is purely political. Given the number of journalists he has locked up, Khashoggi is a convenient pawn in his game. The consulate was evidently bugged so you can bet every other consulate in Turkey is busy sweeping their premises for devices. You also have to wonder why such evident hatred of Khashoggi.

because he had the temerity to be a constant and vocal critic of the house of saud

in the end, and like it or not, the juicy carrot for the americans (and brits?) of an arms deal worth $110bn will not be jeopardised
as i wrote yesterday, welcome to the world of realpolitik

Manuel.

You seem to support "realpolitiks".

Do you?
"
What is your definition of "realpolitik"?

Tread carefully when you are abroad.
-=-=-=
Ps

When somebody repeats the same "statement or phrase" too frequently when trying to sell me something I generally begin to question why. Also, I begin to think of them as limited.

Theresa May's repeating of "A country that works for everyone’" strikes me as fraudulent and she resembles a charlatan flogging dodgy goods.

Mind she is a suitable leader of her party.

=-=-=-=-=-=-

Referring to some of your previous postings, do you ever consider yourself overpaid or you just contented to overvalue yourself?

Hi,
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