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.

That’s rich! Labour says it’s now the party of the family but Tories accuse them of hypocrisy after opposing marriage tax break
Tristram Hunt said Labour must talk about importance of 'relationships'
Labour would keep David Cameron’s Troubled Families Programme
Mr Hunt criticised Blair and Brown for not doing enough through tax and benefit system to help families stay together
By DANIEL MARTIN, DAILY MAIL WHITEHALL CORRESPONDENT
PUBLISHED: 01:04, 4 November 2014 | UPDATED: 10:43, 4 November 2014

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Tristram Hunt, Labour education spokesman
+3
Tristram Hunt, Labour education spokesman
Labour was accused of hypocrisy last night after attempting to redefine itself as the party of the family.
Tristram Hunt, the party’s education spokesman, said Labour needed to lose its ‘fear of the “F” word’ and talk more about the importance of ‘bonds and relationships’.
Rather than allowing the Tories to dominate the subject, he said Labour had to ‘shed its leftist qualms’ about appearing patronising when tackling dysfunctional families.
Mr Hunt criticised Tony Blair and Gordon Brown’s governments for not doing enough through the tax and benefit system to help families stay together.
Tory backbenchers said no one would believe Labour’s volte-face because many of its welfare policies while in power had made the position of married couples worse. They poured scorn on Mr Hunt’s intervention, pointing out that his party still opposes the Tories’ marriage tax break.
In an interview with The Independent, Mr Hunt said Labour needed to change its tune on the family if it wanted to tackle the problem of social immobility.
He confirmed that Labour would keep David Cameron’s Troubled Families Programme, which intervenes in families with problems such as anti-social behaviour, worklessness and truancy.
The former TV historian admitted that previous Labour administrations had relied too much on transferring money to disadvantaged households through tax credits, and suggested it had shied away from talking about the importance of stable relationships because of qualms about dictating family structures.
Mr Hunt said: ‘We’re talking to Labour colleagues about shedding any vestige of fear about talking about the importance and significance of the family, and how important stable relationships and stable parenting environments are for children’s attainment.
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‘We shouldn’t let the Right and the Conservatives have that. There has been a fear of the “F” word and I think the balance is to say that families do take different forms and it’s really, really important that we focus on quality of relationships and what breakdown means as barriers for children succeeding.
‘It is important from the position of shadow secretary of state to stress just how significant nurture, attachment, parenting and support for the family as a vital component of social mobility and educational attainment is going to be for the next Labour government and shedding any leftist qualms about how significant and valuable the family is.’
Mr Hunt criticised Tony Blair (right) and Gordon Brown (left)’sadministrations
+3
Mr Hunt criticised Tony Blair (right) and Gordon Brown (left)’s administrations for not doing enough through the tax and benefit system to help families stay together
Mr Hunt said Labour had to ‘reflect upon’ academic evidence which shows that supporting families is not just a matter of giving them benefits.
‘Too much of the Labour project was closely associated just with fiscal transfers rather than stressing the importance of bonds and attachments and relationships and the broader cultural importance and value,’ he said.
‘This wasn’t often stressed as much as it could have been.’ He added: ‘These families are troubled, and it’s multiple levels of trouble, and it would not be solved by more tax credits. We don’t have the money for that and we know the limitations of that project.’

+3
Peter Bone, Tory MP for Wellingborough, said: ‘Words are cheap, but it’s action that counts. If you look at their record during 13 years in power, you see that they did nothing to bring families together.
‘These words are just Labour propaganda with six months to go till the election.
‘People will think it’s ludicrous. No one is going to believe Labour on this. They’re opposed to the marriage tax allowance, and they did nothing but sign cheques for disadvantaged families when they were in charge.
‘Hypocrisy and Labour seem to go hand in hand.’
A source at the Department for Education said: ‘Families will not be lectured by Tristram Hunt. The last Labour government ruined the economy, adding pressure on families up and down the country. Families know that is what they will do again if they get a chance.’


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2819689/That-s-rich-Labour-says-s-party-family-Tories-accuse-Party-hypocrisy-oppose-marriage-tax-break.html#ixzz3I75Ciwvh
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It is the twist from a twister for internal party politics, as has been said, by European commentators.

Big Eric takes over...



Eric Pickles takes over ‘rotten’ Tower Hamlets

Crackdown on London borough’s ‘partisan approach to politics’ represents one of his biggest interventions in local government



Patrick Wintour, political editor


The Guardian, Tuesday 4 November 2014 14.27 GMT





The communities secretary, Eric Pickles, has taken over the administration of Tower Hamlets council in east London for two years after an inquiry commissioned by his department found wholesale mismanagement, questionable grant-giving and a failure to secure best value for local taxpayers.

Pickles plans to dispatch three commissioners to administrate grant-giving, property transactions and the administration of future elections in the borough.

The commissioners, who will be answerable to Pickles, will be in place until March 2017 and are tasked with drawing up an action plan to improve governance in the council, including the permanent appointment of three senior council officers including a chief executive.

Pickles said his direct intervention was against everything he believed in, but he said the report, conducted by the accountancy firm PwC, showed the directly elected mayor, Lutfur Rahman, had sown division and should bow his head in shame at the report’s findings. Executive power had been left unchecked and misused, he added.

Pickles’ actions represent his biggest intervention in local government since he took over Doncaster council in 2010, but he insisted “there can be no place for rotten boroughs in the 21st century”. His actions were largely supported by Labour.

Pickles said the report painted “a deeply concerning picture of obfuscation, denial, secrecy the breakdown of democratic scrutiny and a culture of cronyism risking the corrupt spending of public funds”.

He proposed that all Tower Hamlets grant-making, property disposals and publicity functions be sanctioned by the commissioners. In an attempt to reduce the threat of electoral fraud in the 2015 general elections, Pickles also announced that the appointment of electoral registration officer and returning officer are to be exercised by the commissioners.


More: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/nov/04/eric-pickles-tower-hamlets-london-borough

Scottish Labour leadership contest: unions refuse to back Jim Murphy
Bookies’ favourite faces uphill struggle after Scotland’s biggest union Unison pledges support for leftwing rival Neil Findlay
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Toby Helm, political editor
The Observer, Saturday 1 November 2014 21.09 GMT
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Jim Murphy
Unison and Unite refused to back the candidacy of Jim Murphy, above, as the leader of Labour in Scotland. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
Jim Murphy is facing an uphill struggle to win potentially crucial leftwing support for his campaign to become Labour’s leader in Scotland after the country’s two biggest unions refused to back his candidacy.

The former secretary of state for Scotland, who is on the right of the party, apologised to the people of Scotland for Labour’s repeated failure to listen to their concerns, and for its lack of vision for Scotland, as he launched his campaign in Edinburgh yesterday.

“I want to apologise, because twice Scots have said they didn’t think we were good enough to govern in Scotland – in 2007 and 2011. We didn’t listen to them. That has to change,” said the MP for East Renfrewshire, adding that the party’s problem was not its lack of ideals but a failure to convey any real sense of its relevance to people’s lives. “Let’s be honest, it’s our vision for Scotland. Or more truthfully our lack of vision. We have been rejected and now we need to change.”

Murphy cited the fight to reduce poverty and increase prosperity as twin aims if he became leader. MSPs Sarah Boyack and Neil Findlay are also standing in the contest to replace Johann Lamont, who quit saying that the Westminster party treated Scottish Labour like a “branch office”.

While he is the firm favourite of the bookies, Murphy suffered a setback within minutes of delivering his speech yesterday when Scotland’s biggest union, Unison, came out in favour of the leftwing Findlay, and the second biggest, Unite, said Murphy had to do far more to win its endorsement.

Unison’s chair in Scotland, Gordon McKay, said Findlay offered a “radical new policy approach” that would be welcomed by its members.

“Members have been hugely impressed with Neil Findlay since he became an MSP and in particular as shadow cabinet secretary for health and wellbeing.

“Neil understands that politics as usual isn’t good enough and we believe he offers a fresh approach with a real experience and understanding of the concerns of working people,” he said.

Union members have a third of the vote in the “electoral college” to decide who becomes the new leader and deputy leader. A third also goes to Scottish MPs, MSPs and MEPs together, and a third to party members in Scotland.

Pat Rafferty, the Scottish secretary of Unite, issued a blunt statement making clear Murphy had a long political road to travel before he would win the endorsement of the union. “On the basis of this speech, it is extremely difficult for them to find much to find hope that Jim Murphy is offering the genuine, positive change in Scottish Labour they seek,” Rafferty said. “We urge him to use the coming days and weeks to give Labour voters much more substance to go on.”

Last week, by contrast, Unite welcomed Findlay into the contest. While the voting system is “one member one vote”, and each member is free to choose whichever candidate they want, the recommendations of the unions’ leaderships will be influential, as they were in the election of Ed Miliband as Labour leader in 2010.

Murphy supporters insisted on Saturday night that they were confident that their man would win the support of a majority of Westminster, Holyrood and EU parliamentarians to win the race. He was seen a crucial figure in delivering a no vote in the Scottish referendum, having toured more than 100 towns, cities and villages to make the case for the union.

Meanwhile, the North Ayrshire and Arran MP, Katy Clark, has became the first person to enter the contest for the deputy leadership, which became vacant when Anas Sarwar followed Lamont in stepping down.

On Thursday, opinion polls by Ipsos/Mori and YouGov suggested Labour faced the prospect of losing most of its 41 Scottish seats to the SNP in next May’s general election – enough, potentially, to deprive it of a majority in Westminster.

The choice of the next Labour leader in Scotland is therefore seen as critical to the party’s chances of forming the next government, as well as its chances of reviving itself north of the border.

Voting in the electoral college starts on 17 November and the new leader will be declared on 13 December.

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Alex Salmond is accompanied by Nicola Sturgeon who will shortly succeed him as Scottish first minister.
Labour faces losing up to 20 seats in Scotland as SNP support surges
Analysis of voting in independence referendum and latest polls suggest Westminster seats at risk from 'yes alliance'
Jim Murphy hopes to become first minister of Scotland
Jon Cruddas: Ed Miliband faces a dilemma as the political ground shifts
Anas Sarwar quits as deputy leader of Scottish Labour
Ed Miliband: Labour faces a fight to save its Scottish MPs
Scottish Labour faces being wiped out by SNP at general election, poll shows
Sarah Boyack confirms candidacy for Scottish Labour leadership
Gordon Brown rules himself out of Scottish Labour leadership contest
Anas Sarwar rules out Scottish Labour leadership bid
The grim reaper is knocking for Scottish Labour
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Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar tries to heal rift with Westminster
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Pickles said the report painted “a deeply concerning picture of obfuscation, denial, secrecy the breakdown of democratic scrutiny and a culture of cronyism risking the corrupt spending of public funds”.


I thought for a moment he was talking about a cabinet meeting.

====

He looks more and more like Benny Hill.

I suppose he is a bit player in a comedy group!

8-)

Unison pledges support for leftwing rival Neil Findlay ......
and no doubt they were also the ones who had EM elected as their puppet rather than DM who would not have played ball

Nothing changes on the union influence story. The dead hand of socialism rears its head again.

If he doesn't behave that is not the only things she will squeeze.

HAYS said.........

Haystack - 04 Nov 2014 14:16 - 49157 of 49171

There is not necessarily anything wrong with the demand sent by the EU. There are balancing amounts paid and received all the time. This one just stood out as it was larger than normal. We may well pay it or a smaller amount. The figure is not that much in the scheme of things. For instance, it is less than the rebate that Blair gave away........ends

Well Hays is right if he thinks we should pay up on the dot, LETS NOT FORGET ITS A PENALTY FOR OUR GOVERNMENT FIDDLING FIGURES WHAT ELSE WOULD YOU EXPECT???????????????????

The figures WE SUBMITTED HAVE BEEN USED.

Now come on Tory boys get yourself out of that one.

Socialism strikes again

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/france-on-collision-course-with-brussels-over-budget-1.1963441

For at least the next two weeks, President François Hollande will be caught in a vice between the French left, who claim the budget is “unjust”, and his European partners, who are losing patience with France’s refusal to make deeper spending cuts or undertake genuine structural reforms, particularly of the labour market.

http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-france-faces-eu-budget-showdown-2014-10?IR=T

France Is The New 'Sick Man Of Europe'

Brussels (AFP) - France headed for a showdown with the EU over its 2015 budget Wednesday with deficit-ridden Paris under threat of becoming the first country to have its spending plans rejected by Brussels.

Eurozone countries have until midnight to submit their draft budgets to the European Commission and all eyes are on France, considered the new "sick man" of an increasingly unhealthy Europe.

Paris announced last month that next year's budget deficit -- the shortfall between revenue and spending -- will hit 4.3 percent of annual economic output, far above the 3.0-percent ceiling set by the European Union for member states.

In a stark warning, the government of French President Francois Hollande said the deficit would not drop to this level until 2017.

HAYS you are looking around corners again.

Address the question I put up to you, at least you are 80% right and I was giving you browny points for that.

sticks - what is interesting, is that eu (not the treasury i think) decided to estimate for gdp the amount earned from drugs and prostitution .... i'm sure it was all declared to hmrc!

it's not much different from when hmrc arbitrarily decides how much a waiter or cab driver has earned from tips and taxed accordingly .... the victim then has to somehow prove a negative

about as fair as morton's fork of medieval times

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN0IA0JU20141021?irpc=932

Weary French bosses square up as Hollande takes on '50th worker' reform

PARIS (Reuters) - Of all the decisions that Dominique Goubault says have helped to keep his 117-year-old family business alive, one in particular raises eyebrows: limiting his staff numbers to 49 or fewer.

The CEO is among many bosses in France who won't hire a 50th worker, in order to avoid the subsequent obligation to run and pay for an in-house works council - something Goubault says is costly, time-consuming, and "entirely useless".

Goubault's frustration is shared by bosses of small and mid-sized businesses right across France, who say their growth is stifled by endless bureaucratic demands regulating everything from worker representatives to office space to healthcare.

It's a cry that President Francois Hollande - watching the country's economy stagnate and its unemployment levels stick above 10 percent - is finally heeding. While all of Europe is grappling with poor growth and the threat of deflation, France is one of its weakest members - and under pressure from its euro zone partners to take action to halt the drag.

Though Hollande is now pushing through market reforms such as limited deregulation of protected jobs and more Sunday opening times in order to get more people into work and jumpstart the economy, Goubault says it may be too late.

Bosses have been for so long cowed by high taxes, punitive workforce rules and worries about the wider European economy that, even unshackled, they may still balk at hiring.

"It's great that they are finally doing something about these idiotic rules," said Goubault, 49, the fourth generation of printers to run Goubault Imprimeur in western France.

"But in the current context, with all the other issues we have, I don't think we should expect companies to start recruiting aggressively overnight."

DEAL BY YEAR-END

Hollande has asked managers and unions to strike a deal by year-end to work around rules mandating escalating bureaucratic obligations that kick in at 10, 50 and 300 employees.

France's Ifrap think tank wrote in a recent study that removing threshold effects could create 140,000 jobs, with more than 22,500 firms likely to grow if thresholds were removed.

In 2012, France counted 1,600 companies with 49 employees, which fell abruptly to 600 firms with 50 employees, according to CGPME, the main lobby for small- and medium-sized businesses.

"Companies just don't try to expand, which means they don't have enough critical mass to export their products," said Genevieve Roy, vice president of social affairs at the CGPME.

It's this lack of export capacity that has hurt the French economy and set its firms at a disadvantage to competitors in Germany - a raft of mid-sized, export-oriented firms that have steadily gained market share from France in the past few years and helped keep Germany's economy afloat.

Germany's firms are helped by more flexible worker representation thresholds. A works council can be elected in any unit with staff of five or more, but is not obligatory, while firms with more than 20 employees need only choose one 'safety advisor' - rather than the committee of several that is required in French firms with 50 workers or more.

In 2013, Germany had 55,510 medium-sized firms with more than 250 workers versus 21,418 in France, according to European Commission data. Medium-sized firms accounted for 2.6 percent of all firms in Germany versus 0.9 percent in France.

Among French law's most irksome features for managers - aside from electing worker representatives at set levels - are rules requiring them to set aside designated office space, create permanent health and wellness committees, set up profit-sharing schemes and, in the case of downsizing, strike collective severance deals - all of which drains resources.

Hiring a 50th staffer also increases the amount of paperwork the companies must file to the state. That extra head means companies then have to apply a further 30 legal norms, including obligations to maintain detailed records of their hiring activity to ensure gender equality.

SATELLITES

The rules are so off-putting that many small business-owners simply prefer to start new, satellite firms rather than hire a 50th worker - creating yet more tiny corporate structures.

"I've been tempted at various points to hire a 50th worker," said Goubault, 49. "But when you look at the costs - 3.5 percent of my total salary costs - and all the obligations, you think, what's the point? It bothers me and doesn't help my workers."

cynic - 04 Nov 2014 16:41 - 49175 of 49176

sticks - what is interesting, is that eu (not the treasury i think) decided to estimate for gdp the amount earned from drugs and prostitution .... i'm sure it was all declared to hmrc!...........................................ends

according to big wigs on SKY it was our OBR that submitted the figures and dont forget Osbourne as still to tick them off, make no wonder him and his department kept it quiet from Dave.

HAYS stop deflecting from your creeps actions.

Most bent government ever.

Use 1 figure for the homeland and say its in our best interests and then use the same figure against the EEC, make no wonder Merkel and Co want to pi-s on us.

Look at the 3 month figures for unemployed.

AT LEAST 1.5 MILLION LEFT OFF THE LIST.

Have they become MOLE PEOPLE???????????????

FRED........ IM in top form.

Her indoors looked at this earlier and she said KICK THE SHIT OUT OF THEM. That hays.

She said she liked how Max posted??????????????????????????????

Hey watch it Max.

ah well, rumour has it that she likes flogging dead horses too :-)

according to big wigs on SKY it was our OBR that submitted the figures

why would they do that?
nothing to gain

Hey watch it you. Thats private. You never know whos looking in eg, the chuckle brothers.

Ed Balls said Labour should be proud of its achievements in office, but should also be 'grown up' about where mistakes were made and learn from them



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. First published Monday 22 September 2014 in National News .
© by Press Association 2014


Shadow chancellor Ed Balls has apologised for "mistakes" made by the previous Labour government, saying it is important to explain how the party will do things differently in future.

He told Labour's annual conference in Manchester that delegates should be proud of many of Labour's achievements in office, including the minimum wage, nursery places, civil partnerships, children's centres and "saving" the NHS.




But he said where mistakes were made, governments should be "grown up" about them, adding: "We should put our hands up, learn from the past and explain how we will do things differently in the future.

"So conference, we should have had tougher rules on immigration from Eastern Europe - it was a mistake not to have transitional controls in 2004, and we must change the rules in the future.

"Longer transitional controls for new countries, a longer time people have to work before they can get unemployment benefit, stopping people claiming child benefit and tax credits for families abroad, cracking down on employers who exploit migrant workers and undercut wages by avoiding the minimum wage and proper rights at work.

"Tough controls, fair rules, that is what we mean by fair movement not free movement.

"And conference, while it was the banks which caused the global recession, and it was the global recession which caused deficits to rise here in Britain and around the world, the truth is we should have regulated those banks in a tougher way.

"It was a mistake. We should apologise for it. And I do.

"As we get the deficit down, we must reform our banks for the future so that can never happen again.

"We didn't do enough to tackle the underlying causes of rising spending on housing benefit and in-work poverty.

. .

"So the next Labour government will raise the minimum wage, build more homes to get the housing benefit bill down and cap overall spending on social security."

Mr Balls added that Labour should not have scrapped the 10p starting rate of income tax.