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.

I tell you it's coming.....

After 40639 I can even more clearly see UKIP doing a deal with the Tories in the next GE to make 'a differently aligned more to the right' coalition government.

I wish we'd had cardboard to keep out the wet from our shoes. We were so poor we had to trudge around barefoot in filth.

Indeed EL.

There have been reports of tory and ukip candidates doing deals regardless of what the bosses say.

Cynic your a little man and think everyone else lives life like you and your snobby out of touch inner circle up at the golf club (toffs game)

When i started my business I had no contacts NOT ONE.

I had customers thats all.

Dont judge everyone else like yourself , ie, out of touch with reality, lacking in self confidence, and plainy THICK and STUPID.

Now im going out gardening and Ill think about you as I lop the top off the pansies.

sticky - like i said, you're totally purblind ...... perhaps you can tell us how you got your customers .... surely they didn't just stick a pin in yellow pages and find your company

by the way, perhaps you can tell us all, if the tory party is so sniffy and snooty and any other derogatory term you'ld care to come up with, why were you a strong and indeed active member of same for so many years .... or at least that is what you kept telling us for ages and ages


and needless to say, you actually know absolutely nothing of importance about me at all .... but then i don't make asinine allegations about you, which i am afraid is one of your less attractive traits

Update - Labour and Conservative Tied
by YouGov in Politics
Wed May 14, 2014 6 a.m. BST

Latest YouGov / The Sun results 13th May - Con 34%, Lab 34%, LD 8%, UKIP 15%;

Look at UKIP in the GE. These is no sign of them getting even one MP. How would Farage be involved in a coalition without MPs.

gf
Your web site that shows the predicted Labour majority has shown a fall again. It was 72, 58, 42 and now has sunk to 14 today. It is only even 14 today because it takes the average of polls over the last few weeks. The figure of 14 is based on a one point lead by Labour in the polls. That will soon be a Conservative majority showing.

http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/

What's the point in all these polls every seeming hour, can't you just wait for the proper outcome . Such a waste of time.

The benefit of the polls is to depress Milibland.

i'm sure he spends sleepless nights over them :-)

Well I had CNA doing very nicely too until he interfered so I SOLD . He's no chance of my vote.

http://news.sky.com/story/1261293/carney-bank-in-no-rush-to-raise-rates

The Bank of England says it is in no rush to raise the base rate of interest, easing speculation of an increase late this year.

During its latest Inflation Report briefing, bank governor Mark Carney moved to reassure borrowers that bank rate - which is used by lenders to help set mortgage costs - would be likely to remain at its record low of 0.5% for "some time".

More follows...

Quarterly Jobs Growth Hits 43-Year High

The unemployment rate has hit its lowest level since February 2009, helped by a record number of people finding work over the quarter.

The figures - released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) - showed a record 283,000 secured a job in the three months to March, with self-employment driving the performance.

It meant, the ONS said, that more than 30.4 million people are now in work - the highest since records began in 1971.

It helped total unemployment fall by 133,000 to 2.21 million during the period, giving the UK an unemployment rate of 6.8%.

The total number of self-employed rose to a record 4.5 million.

But there was disappointing news on pay in the figures.

Average earnings increased by 1.7% in the year to March, slightly ahead of the latest CPI inflation rate of 1.6% but below the expectations of economists.

The figure is closely-watched by the Bank of England for evidence people will be able to absorb rising mortgage costs when it begins to raise bank rate - currently expected in Spring 2015.

The ONS also confirmed the 18th consecutive monthly reduction in Jobseeker's Allowance claimants - by 25,100 in April to 1.12m.

there's a long and interesting article on the economy and interest rates etc in the Fascist Gazette (Telegraph) which i picked up on the net this morning

if i can be bothered, i'll paraphrase here later

Some people on here, such as Goldfinger, curse Ian Duncan Smith, who has tackled a very difficult job and dealt with ridiculous situations and benefits payouts that were/are utterly amazing and really need slashing/changing.

Madness of Britain's handout culture: Scroungers rake in £85,000 a year from benefits

May 14, 2014
Giles Sheldrick (Daily Express)

Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said that the benefit cap has addressed the situation[NC]

The worst scroungers were paid three times the average working wage by taxpayers.

Figures revealed in an answer to MPs laid bare the true extent of the handouts chaos during Labour’s time in power.

The scale of the payments was described as ludicrous ­yesterday by Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith and caused outrage among hard-working families.

The figures showed some claimants received £1,107 a week, or £57,564-a-year. A working person would need a salary of £85,000 to take that amount home – more than three times the average salary of £26,000.

As the data only relates to average payments, it is likely that some of the jobless got even more. Britain’s massive benefits bill caused Mr Duncan Smith to push through radical welfare reforms, including an annual cap of £26,000 or £500 a week to restore “fairness”.

The figures are a blow to Ed Miliband while former Tory MP Ann Widdecombe branded it 'unbelievable' [PA]

"Taxpayers will be rightly angered they were supporting such large benefit cheques as an alternative to work." (John O’Connell, director TaxPayers’ Alliance)

Figures show that since the cap was introduced in April last year it has stopped 42,000 households relying on the system.

Each week more than 100 people leave the dole queue and start work.

New data was released after Tory MP Charlie Elphicke demanded to know the highest amount a single household had been capped by.

Employment minister Esther McVey told the Commons: “Of the top 10 highest capped households at the end of March (this year), the average capped amount was £607 per week.”

John O’Connell, director of campaign group the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Taxpayers will be rightly angered they were supporting such large benefit cheques as an alternative to work.”

Daily Express columnist and former Tory MP Ann Widdecombe said: “These figures are almost unbelievable.

"It shows how complacent the last government had become.”

A total of 300 households received in benefits the equivalent of a £70,000 a year salary.

A further 900 had up to £800 a week while 1,374 households were claiming at least £700 a week, according to the figures.

Last night Mr Duncan Smith said: “The benefits cap has addressed the ludicrous situation where people were receiving far more in benefits than the ordinary hard-working family earns.

“Some families could rake in more than double the amount the average taxpayer takes home.

“Our reforms ensure claiming benefits is no longer a more attractive option than being in work.”

The figures are a blow to Labour leader Ed Miliband after polls showed his party had slumped to the worst pre-election approval ratings for an opposition party in 30 years.

A dentist’s pre-tax pay is £972 a week, a chartered accountant gets £716.90 while a secondary school teacher receives £644.10.

This year the benefits bill will hit £167.7billion.

It's sickening that someone can sit at a desk, know that the person opposite them is getting such a vast sum of money per week for doing nothing for so long. How was this allowed to go on by any Government.

It is the long term result of the Labour party indulging in 'Tax and Spend' closely followed by 'Borrow and Spend'.

it's actually a very complex problem, far more difficult to resolve and apply "fairly" than might first appear

for example, should one only receive housing and other benefits for up to 2 children?
if so, that means a single-parent family with 5 children will be shoehorned into a house only suitable for 1 adult and 2 children
is that fair and reasonable?

BoE Carney

He would not comment on current market expectations for the bank to act in the second quarter of 2015, but said there was sufficient slack in the economy to erase the prospect of a rise in the short term.

gf may have to wait until after the election for an interest rate rise!