Max Clifford's posing and preening in front of the pack of photographers is a bit weird. The man has confidence, I'll grant him that.
Clifford is a fool for saying that he stands by everything he has said in the last eighteen months. The Court of Appeal (Lord Judge CJ, Rafferty LJ & Macur J) has recently held in Attorney General's Reference No.38 of 2013 (Hall) [2013] EWCA Crim 1450 (at [66]-[68]) that such statements can constitute a 'serious aggravating feature' for the purposes of sentencing. He would have been more sensible to make no comment...
I was going off her Wikipedia page so the usual caveats apply. It said that she portrayed herself as a traditional left-winger at the selection then immediately reincarnated as New Labour Blairite once she'd secured it. The inference was that she may not have won had she been openly Blairite at the selection, leading to a whole different (well, marginally different) career for your good self.
I was jolly pleased in retrospect that I didn't get it, because of the boundary change and the bitterness of the defeated third-placed candidate. Fiona was certainly aggressively Blairite as an MP but even in the selection my recollection is that I was the more left-wing candidate, just more polite than Fiona's take-no-prisoners style. I was nominated unanimously by the very left-wing (and extremely posh) Southwell branch: a mildly-spoken lefty is exactly what they wanted. But it's all a long time ago.
@Charles - As an aside, I thought Clarkson owned Top Gear - so I doubt the Beeb will sack him.
The production company ‘Bedder 6’ the makers of ‘Top-Gear’ was set up by Clarkson, in conjunction with TG producer Andy Wilman, Last year however, BBC Worldwide bought out their 50% controlling stake in the company – Clarkson made a reported £8.4m on the deal.
On that nursery rhyme , my daughter came home one day and recited it substituting the BAD WORD for some innocent one. Having not heard the evil version since schooldays I thought maybe the rhyme always was a pleasant one and I just went to an especially racist school (quite plausible in the area and time I did!) who corrupted it.
Glad ,in a way, to see from the Clarkson debacle that it was not the school but 1970's Britain in general that was very naughty
I spent a great portion of my childhood on building and demo sites, visiting them with my dad. I heard no end of derogatory comments - if you were not black, or Irish, or something else where there was an easy insult, then something would be thrown your way, sometimes invented. (*)
As such I was thoroughly familiar with such terms, and even to this day I occasionally find myself saying hem in my head, although thankfully never aloud. "----- in a woodpile" being one such phrase.
I can only hope that I am the last generation this is true for. Times change, but neither do I think that the castigation such terms can get is necessarily proportionate.
(*) One guy used to be called 'Frank'. It wasn't his name, but it would utterly enrage him.
"Scotsman uses negative stereotype of Africa to make cheap political point"
Institutional racism in the press?
the sooner the Scotsman folds the better.
Nationalist calling for Scots to lose their jobs shocker!
Do you prefer the horse's mouth?
An assessment of an independent Scotland on those issuers registered in Scotland covers three broad factors: (1) the impact of redenomination on outstanding debts in a new currency, given Moody's expectation that the UK authorities would likely persist in their refusal to tolerate a currency union with an independent Scotland; (2) the constraints on borrower creditworthiness coming from an independent Scotland's credit profile; and (3) any impact the economic and financial environment in an independent Scotland might have on borrower on creditworthiness.
I have read the original , it is just the usual guff that no normal human being gives a toss about. If you asked 1000 people on the street about Moody's opinion it would be universal opinion that it is just self interested bollocks and of no interest. I see you avoid the fact that the Scotsman tries to make it something it is not by trying to be smart and mocking an African country by trying to imply Botswana is a joke.As Charles points out it shows they have no journalists , some ignoramus just thought "let's compare them to Africa " that will make it look bad. This is the reason they are almost readerless and will be gone in the near future, they do not have a clue.
PS, given their output and ownership , I doubt many Scottish people will lose jobs when they fold. They are just an empty shell in Edinburgh nowadays.
I didn't comment actually, but am glad that you regard me as the fount of all wisdom ;-)
In any event I regard S&P more highly than Moody's
Charles, in answer to your comment that I may console myself that my investment in Serco is ideologically sound and consistent with my general 'get lost state' attitude to most things I prefer my principles to not give me news that I am over a bag of sand poorer the instant I switch a screen on in the morning!!!
@Charles - As an aside, I thought Clarkson owned Top Gear - so I doubt the Beeb will sack him.
The production company ‘Bedder 6’ the makers of ‘Top-Gear’ was set up by Clarkson, in conjunction with TG producer Andy Wilman, Last year however, BBC Worldwide bought out their 50% controlling stake in the company – Clarkson made a reported £8.4m on the deal.
[edit] irrespective of that, Clarkson is going no where.
Unfortunately , he is a useless boring tw*t
Good morning MrG - That's almost complimentary, by your usual standards – should Clarkson be worried? ; )
Silly Jezza. Getting caught out trying to be a clever dick. Angling for the "Oh Jeremy, you're so naughty doing that" reaction from his acolytes. And then he messed it up. Not racist, just a tedious twat.
Can't stand Clarkson or Top Gear myself, but I watched the video yesterday about 10 times, knowing what I was listening out for, and still didn't really hear it.
Surely there has to be some distinction between saying a racist word and intending to be hurtful by way of racism? This kind of thing being front page news is an insult to genuine victims of racial hatred, prejudice and abuse
I don't know whether Clarkson is racist or not, but even if he had said the "N" word whilst saying the rhyme, given the situation it wouldn't have meant he meant any racial offence in my book.
Either way, it was a typically unfunny Top Gear scene
I've had just one leaflet for the EU elections. It featured a picture of Nigel Farage prominently on its front page and lots of purple.
It was a leaflet from the Lib Dems.
Surprised it was not the 'an independence from Europe' upstarts!
Interesting that Pulpstar has received a leaflet from them - the fact that they are printing leaflets tends to make me think a little bit better of them as a party (as opposed to just hoping for ballot-paper confusion).
Still, Christ knows what the Electoral Commission, under the useless (and far too political) Jenny Watson, were thinking.
I've had just one leaflet for the EU elections. It featured a picture of Nigel Farage prominently on its front page and lots of purple.
It was a leaflet from the Lib Dems.
Surprised it was not the 'an independence from Europe' upstarts!
I'm doubtful whether either UKIP or their impersonators are going to poll very well in the Liverpool Street/Shoreditch area. They might find pockets of support in the Barbican.
Unthinkable a few months ago, but strong results today point towards just that. They also said their loan delinquency rate had fallen which is usually a good sign that the economy is strong. It will be interesting to see if the government will ever manage to make the £46bn back on RBS that it invested. So far I think around £8bn has been paid back via various special dividends and exiting asset protection schemes. It leaves around £38bn, the government's stake is valued at £31bn today. I expect the government will make a profit from the Lloyds stake, so any loss on RBS won't seem as bad.
It might be prudent to hold RBS in public hands for a few years to collect dividends and then set the sale for 2018 in legislation. Morally hazardous though, I wouldn't want to see any such move open the door to mass public ownership of private businesses.
After yesterday's upward move in the CIPS-Markit PMI for Manufacturing, today is Construction's turn.
Overall a solid survey with the Construction PMI for March at 60.8 well above the UK long term average of 54.3. All three sub-categories - residential, commercial and civil engineering - saw continued expansion.
Residential property construction led the way recording its fifteenth consecutive month of growth and a rate of expansion the fastest for ten years.
Commercial property construction increased its rate of growth too although that of civil engineering slowed, mainly due to flood relief work peaking in February.
The future looks good with new business increasing at its highest rate this year and employment again recording a steep rise.
Confidence remains high with 56% of construction companies forecasting a rise in output over the next twelve months compared with only 5% predicting a fall.
Input cost inflation eased to a three month low though supply chain pressure saw deliveryy interruptions and reduced sub-contractor availability.
By George, we seem to be seeing a real March of the Builders. Our Midlands Manufacturing Malcontents are just going to have to learn to quick march.
I've had just one leaflet for the EU elections. It featured a picture of Nigel Farage prominently on its front page and lots of purple.
It was a leaflet from the Lib Dems.
Surprised it was not the 'an independence from Europe' upstarts!
I'm doubtful whether either UKIP or their impersonators are going to poll very well in the Liverpool Street/Shoreditch area. They might find pockets of support in the Barbican.
UKIP will do well in the parts of London with a large share of people that are white and were born and raised in London IMO
I've had just one leaflet for the EU elections. It featured a picture of Nigel Farage prominently on its front page and lots of purple.
It was a leaflet from the Lib Dems.
Surprised it was not the 'an independence from Europe' upstarts!
I'm doubtful whether either UKIP or their impersonators are going to poll very well in the Liverpool Street/Shoreditch area. They might find pockets of support in the Barbican.
UKIP will do well in the parts of London with a large share of people that are white and were born and raised in London IMO
Not a wide catchment area!
Did you get on the 11-10 for the Red army in London offered by Hills ?
I've had just one leaflet for the EU elections. It featured a picture of Nigel Farage prominently on its front page and lots of purple.
It was a leaflet from the Lib Dems.
Surprised it was not the 'an independence from Europe' upstarts!
I'm doubtful whether either UKIP or their impersonators are going to poll very well in the Liverpool Street/Shoreditch area. They might find pockets of support in the Barbican.
UKIP will do well in the parts of London with a large share of people that are white and were born and raised in London IMO
Not a wide catchment area!
You'd like my Italian PT. He told me, unprompted, the other day: "these UKIP supporters who don't live in London, they should go back to where they came from and leave us Londoners in peace. They're foreigners!" All delivered in his strong Italian accent (he still counts "one-a, two-a, three-a").
Of course, he has a vote in the EU elections, which he firmly intends using. I'm not sure who he's voting for. He's generally left wing - certainly well to the left of me - but he told me that Ed Miliband speaks awfully and looks like an idiot ("Tony Blair, he spoke very well, but then, that's why he got elected").
By the way I've received 3 leaflets for the Euros so far:
An independence from Europe BNP UKIP
Nicely arranged in alphabetical order as it will be on the ballot paper . Those pesky 'an independence frrm Europe ' people!!
I note the BNP are pledging "British Jobs for British workers" - I'm sure I remember someone else saying that too.
Plenty of nationalist and socialist policies on the BNP blurb, though their immigration stance on penguins is not clarified still.
Whilst 'British jobs for British people' is not something I would say or even totally agree with in an ideological airy fairy way it is not something that is that outrageous either (whether it comes from Brown or the BNP) . It is both practical and efficient in a way (lowers the dole queues) if harsh on 'euro go getters'.
As I said its not something I agree with but its a valid point of view .Not sure why all the outrage over Brown saying it
After yesterday's upward move in the CIPS-Markit PMI for Manufacturing, today is Construction's turn.
Overall a solid survey with the Construction PMI for March at 60.8 well above the UK long term average of 54.3. All three sub-categories - residential, commercial and civil engineering - saw continued expansion.
Residential property construction led the way recording its fifteenth consecutive month of growth and a rate of expansion the fastest for ten years.
Commercial property construction increased its rate of growth too although that of civil engineering slowed, mainly due to flood relief work peaking in February.
The future looks good with new business increasing at its highest rate this year and employment again recording a steep rise.
Confidence remains high with 56% of construction companies forecasting a rise in output over the next twelve months compared with only 5% predicting a fall.
Input cost inflation eased to a three month low though supply chain pressure saw deliveryy interruptions and reduced sub-contractor availability.
By George, we seem to be seeing a real March of the Builders. Our Midlands Manufacturing Malcontents are just going to have to learn to quick march.
It is construction figures like these that make the 0.3% growth in construction in Q1 in the GDP figures look deeply anomolous and due for a fairly radical revision upwards, probably by enough to put the overall rate up to 0.9%.
I've had just one leaflet for the EU elections. It featured a picture of Nigel Farage prominently on its front page and lots of purple.
It was a leaflet from the Lib Dems.
Surprised it was not the 'an independence from Europe' upstarts!
I'm doubtful whether either UKIP or their impersonators are going to poll very well in the Liverpool Street/Shoreditch area. They might find pockets of support in the Barbican.
UKIP will do well in the parts of London with a large share of people that are white and were born and raised in London IMO
Not a wide catchment area!
You'd like my Italian PT. He told me, unprompted, the other day: "these UKIP supporters who don't live in London, they should go back to where they came from and leave us Londoners in peace. They're foreigners!" All delivered in his strong Italian accent (he still counts "one-a, two-a, three-a").
Of course, he has a vote in the EU elections, which he firmly intends using. I'm not sure who he's voting for. He's generally left wing - certainly well to the left of me - but he told me that Ed Miliband speaks awfully and looks like an idiot ("Tony Blair, he spoke very well, but then, that's why he got elected").
I've had just one leaflet for the EU elections. It featured a picture of Nigel Farage prominently on its front page and lots of purple.
It was a leaflet from the Lib Dems.
Surprised it was not the 'an independence from Europe' upstarts!
I'm doubtful whether either UKIP or their impersonators are going to poll very well in the Liverpool Street/Shoreditch area. They might find pockets of support in the Barbican.
UKIP will do well in the parts of London with a large share of people that are white and were born and raised in London IMO
Not a wide catchment area!
Did you get on the 11-10 for the Red army in London offered by Hills ?
Missed the boat!
Was having a cup of tea round my Mums when all that action was happening.. Cant get on w Hills except in shops, and by the time I got to one it was 2/5 so swerved it
Will be interesting to see the prices to come 2nd in Newark.. 2/1 to 9/2 seems too big a UKIP drift solely because of no Farage to me, but I guess it depends on the candidate
I've had just one leaflet for the EU elections. It featured a picture of Nigel Farage prominently on its front page and lots of purple.
It was a leaflet from the Lib Dems.
Surprised it was not the 'an independence from Europe' upstarts!
I'm doubtful whether either UKIP or their impersonators are going to poll very well in the Liverpool Street/Shoreditch area. They might find pockets of support in the Barbican.
UKIP will do well in the parts of London with a large share of people that are white and were born and raised in London IMO
Not a wide catchment area!
You'd like my Italian PT. He told me, unprompted, the other day: "these UKIP supporters who don't live in London, they should go back to where they came from and leave us Londoners in peace. They're foreigners!" All delivered in his strong Italian accent (he still counts "one-a, two-a, three-a").
Of course, he has a vote in the EU elections, which he firmly intends using. I'm not sure who he's voting for. He's generally left wing - certainly well to the left of me - but he told me that Ed Miliband speaks awfully and looks like an idiot ("Tony Blair, he spoke very well, but then, that's why he got elected").
So that's Andrea's second job then, moonlighting (as ever) from academia.
I've had just one leaflet for the EU elections. It featured a picture of Nigel Farage prominently on its front page and lots of purple.
It was a leaflet from the Lib Dems.
Surprised it was not the 'an independence from Europe' upstarts!
I'm doubtful whether either UKIP or their impersonators are going to poll very well in the Liverpool Street/Shoreditch area. They might find pockets of support in the Barbican.
UKIP will do well in the parts of London with a large share of people that are white and were born and raised in London IMO
Not a wide catchment area!
Did you get on the 11-10 for the Red army in London offered by Hills ?
Missed the boat!
Was having a cup of tea round my Mums when all that action was happening.. Cant get on w Hills except in shops, and by the time I got to one it was 2/5 so swerved it
Will be interesting to see the prices to come 2nd in Newark.. 2/1 to 9/2 seems too big a UKIP drift solely because of no Farage to me, but I guess it depends on the candidate
Hmm I think it is no bet at 9-2 personally, I offered to lay at 11-4 (When they were 5-2), I might be a buyer at 11-2 or so.
@Charles - As an aside, I thought Clarkson owned Top Gear - so I doubt the Beeb will sack him.
The production company ‘Bedder 6’ the makers of ‘Top-Gear’ was set up by Clarkson, in conjunction with TG producer Andy Wilman, Last year however, BBC Worldwide bought out their 50% controlling stake in the company – Clarkson made a reported £8.4m on the deal.
On that nursery rhyme , my daughter came home one day and recited it substituting the BAD WORD for some innocent one. Having not heard the evil version since schooldays I thought maybe the rhyme always was a pleasant one and I just went to an especially racist school (quite plausible in the area and time I did!) who corrupted it.
Glad ,in a way, to see from the Clarkson debacle that it was not the school but 1970's Britain in general that was very naughty
I spent a great portion of my childhood on building and demo sites, visiting them with my dad. I heard no end of derogatory comments - if you were not black, or Irish, or something else where there was an easy insult, then something would be thrown your way, sometimes invented. (*)
As such I was thoroughly familiar with such terms, and even to this day I occasionally find myself saying hem in my head, although thankfully never aloud. "----- in a woodpile" being one such phrase.
I can only hope that I am the last generation this is true for. Times change, but neither do I think that the castigation such terms can get is necessarily proportionate.
(*) One guy used to be called 'Frank'. It wasn't his name, but it would utterly enrage him.
Following up on my own post, my conclusion was *meant* to be that such words and terms, once learnt, can be hard to forget. Especially when they are learnt at an early age and are in common usage at that age.
An apology for usage and causing offence should be enough, unless it is used repeatedly.
All IMHO, and it's easy for me to say as I'm not in any of the groups.
By the way I've received 3 leaflets for the Euros so far:
An independence from Europe BNP UKIP
Nicely arranged in alphabetical order as it will be on the ballot paper . Those pesky 'an independence frrm Europe ' people!!
I note the BNP are pledging "British Jobs for British workers" - I'm sure I remember someone else saying that too.
Plenty of nationalist and socialist policies on the BNP blurb, though their immigration stance on penguins is not clarified still.
Whilst 'British jobs for British people' is not something I would say or even totally agree with in an ideological airy fairy way it is not something that is that outrageous either (whether it comes from Brown or the BNP) . It is both practical and efficient in a way (lowers the dole queues) if harsh on 'euro go getters'.
As I said its not something I agree with but its a valid point of view .Not sure why all the outrage over Brown saying it
Just amusing such a memorable Brown statement is on that disgrace of a party's leaflet. I note they are planning to abolish the 'bedroom tax' too - will no party state that they which to reintroduce the spare room subsidy on their literature ?!
@Charles - As an aside, I thought Clarkson owned Top Gear - so I doubt the Beeb will sack him.
The production company ‘Bedder 6’ the makers of ‘Top-Gear’ was set up by Clarkson, in conjunction with TG producer Andy Wilman, Last year however, BBC Worldwide bought out their 50% controlling stake in the company – Clarkson made a reported £8.4m on the deal.
On that nursery rhyme , my daughter came home one day and recited it substituting the BAD WORD for some innocent one. Having not heard the evil version since schooldays I thought maybe the rhyme always was a pleasant one and I just went to an especially racist school (quite plausible in the area and time I did!) who corrupted it.
Glad ,in a way, to see from the Clarkson debacle that it was not the school but 1970's Britain in general that was very naughty
I spent a great portion of my childhood on building and demo sites, visiting them with my dad. I heard no end of derogatory comments - if you were not black, or Irish, or something else where there was an easy insult, then something would be thrown your way, sometimes invented. (*)
As such I was thoroughly familiar with such terms, and even to this day I occasionally find myself saying hem in my head, although thankfully never aloud. "----- in a woodpile" being one such phrase.
I can only hope that I am the last generation this is true for. Times change, but neither do I think that the castigation such terms can get is necessarily proportionate.
(*) One guy used to be called 'Frank'. It wasn't his name, but it would utterly enrage him.
Following up on my own post, my conclusion was *meant* to be that such words and terms, once learnt, can be hard to forget. Especially when they are learnt at an early age and are in common usage at that age.
An apology for usage and causing offence should be enough, unless it is used repeatedly.
All IMHO, and it's easy for me to say as I'm not in any of the groups.
Spoke to one of my non white friends years ago about racism, and his view was it was all about whether the intent was to cause offence.
I truly believe that the faux outrage whenever a "bad" word is spoken, regardless of context, only hardens some peoples resolve to say what they want and creates a "them and us" mentality.
Populus has been massively down weighting Labour and Ukip since it changed its methodology. I make no partisan point - and I haven't yet crunched today's numbers - but just an FYI.
I've had just one leaflet for the EU elections. It featured a picture of Nigel Farage prominently on its front page and lots of purple.
It was a leaflet from the Lib Dems.
Surprised it was not the 'an independence from Europe' upstarts!
I'm doubtful whether either UKIP or their impersonators are going to poll very well in the Liverpool Street/Shoreditch area. They might find pockets of support in the Barbican.
UKIP will do well in the parts of London with a large share of people that are white and were born and raised in London IMO
Not a wide catchment area!
You'd like my Italian PT. He told me, unprompted, the other day: "these UKIP supporters who don't live in London, they should go back to where they came from and leave us Londoners in peace. They're foreigners!" All delivered in his strong Italian accent (he still counts "one-a, two-a, three-a").
Of course, he has a vote in the EU elections, which he firmly intends using. I'm not sure who he's voting for. He's generally left wing - certainly well to the left of me - but he told me that Ed Miliband speaks awfully and looks like an idiot ("Tony Blair, he spoke very well, but then, that's why he got elected").
The dramatic change in the constitution of London over the last 20 years means he kind of has a point
Whether that's a good or bad thing depends on your politics I guess
Asked my PT if he could teach me to do the splits the other day
The Chris Huhne speeding case (3 people caged) and the Andrew Mitchell 'pleb' episode (1 person caged, 4? sacked and two libel cases) show that mountains really do grow out of molehills!
@Charles - As an aside, I thought Clarkson owned Top Gear - so I doubt the Beeb will sack him.
The production company ‘Bedder 6’ the makers of ‘Top-Gear’ was set up by Clarkson, in conjunction with TG producer Andy Wilman, Last year however, BBC Worldwide bought out their 50% controlling stake in the company – Clarkson made a reported £8.4m on the deal.
[edit] irrespective of that, Clarkson is going no where.
Unfortunately , he is a useless boring tw*t
Good morning MrG - That's almost complimentary, by your usual standards – should Clarkson be worried? ; )
Asked the doing well/badly question about Farage for the first time, and whether he would make better or worse PM than Cameron or Miliband. Also some stuff on rent controls and TV watershed.
Populus has been massively down weighting Labour and Ukip since it changed its methodology. I make no partisan point - and I haven't yet crunched today's numbers - but just an FYI.
I'm aware of that. Pollsters should be treated as internally consistent, not necessarily directly comparable with each other, and discontinuities caused by changes in polling methods should be attended to.
From 13 February to 9 March, Populus's recorded tally for Labour was 38, 38, 38, 37, 38, 37, 37, 38. Labour have dropped two or three points since then with Populus. This seems to me to be significant.
If only Chris Huhne had been able "to keep the snake inside the pet store", three people wouldn't have ended up in prison, and he'd probably be Lib Dem leader now.
Mr. Away, to be fair, a member of the Cabinet was forced to resign due to what is alleged to have been a smear campaign orchestrated by some police officers. That's more mountain than molehill.
4 months is about right (Our prisons are overfull), but it really should be called 4 months, not 16. A pet peeve of the justice system !
Yes if one thing makes me more angry than injustice its factually incorrect officialdom!! I don't care whether they jail her for 2 weeks or 4 months but please say that is the sentence , then it can be seem in its true light for people to really judge things
Clarkson deserves all he gets.After nearly 40 years of public service,he did not endear himself to me and many others by claiming "public sector workers should be shot". The difference between those who have a public service ethos and Clarkson,is that even if he was involved in,say,a serious car crash,emergency services personnel would do everything possible to save his life,even though he wants to have them shot.If it was the other way round I have no doubt Clarkson would simply leave them to die. Cameron should know a man is judged by the friends he keeps.
The Chris Huhne speeding case (3 people caged) and the Andrew Mitchell 'pleb' episode (1 person caged, 4? sacked and two libel cases) show that mountains really do grow out of molehills!
Not sure about ‘molehills’ - the point is that they were all Law makers, Law enforcers, or of the legal profession. The courts take a dim view of such people breaking the law.
Chris Huhne, Denis MacShane, Constance Briscoe: To see one of those close to you jailed might be seen as unfortunate, two careless, three worrying, but four, including Vicky Pryce herself, is really quite a spectacular score.
I've had just one leaflet for the EU elections. It featured a picture of Nigel Farage prominently on its front page and lots of purple.
It was a leaflet from the Lib Dems.
Surprised it was not the 'an independence from Europe' upstarts!
I'm doubtful whether either UKIP or their impersonators are going to poll very well in the Liverpool Street/Shoreditch area. They might find pockets of support in the Barbican.
UKIP will do well in the parts of London with a large share of people that are white and were born and raised in London IMO
Not a wide catchment area!
You'd like my Italian PT. He told me, unprompted, the other day: "these UKIP supporters who don't live in London, they should go back to where they came from and leave us Londoners in peace. They're foreigners!" All delivered in his strong Italian accent (he still counts "one-a, two-a, three-a").
Of course, he has a vote in the EU elections, which he firmly intends using. I'm not sure who he's voting for. He's generally left wing - certainly well to the left of me - but he told me that Ed Miliband speaks awfully and looks like an idiot ("Tony Blair, he spoke very well, but then, that's why he got elected").
The dramatic change in the constitution of London over the last 20 years means he kind of has a point
Whether that's a good or bad thing depends on your politics I guess
Asked my PT if he could teach me to do the splits the other day
He asked how flexible I was
I said I can't make Tuesdays
And you complain about my old jokes!
Watching Szczęsny warm up at the Emirates by doing the splits always makes my eyes water.
4 months is about right (Our prisons are overfull), but it really should be called 4 months, not 16. A pet peeve of the justice system !
Well technically she will be released in 8 months, however, if she is a good prisoner and the probation service think she has a low level of re-offending, then she will be eligible for the tag (or Home Detention Curfew to give its proper name)
There is no aromaticity for HDC.
And if she is released early, she is still on licence until September 2015, she can be recalled to serve out the remainder of the 16 months.
Question - do the opinion pollsters take into account the non-UK voters who can vote here in the Euros? In London, these votes could make up a decent chunk of the total.
Populus has been massively down weighting Labour and Ukip since it changed its methodology. I make no partisan point - and I haven't yet crunched today's numbers - but just an FYI.
I'm aware of that. Pollsters should be treated as internally consistent, not necessarily directly comparable with each other, and discontinuities caused by changes in polling methods should be attended to.
From 13 February to 9 March, Populus's recorded tally for Labour was 38, 38, 38, 37, 38, 37, 37, 38. Labour have dropped two or three points since then with Populus. This seems to me to be significant.
Its a reason I'm backing the Conservatives in Newark. Also if you look at Corby Labour win local elections there whereas the local eletion seats that make up Newark remain staunchly Tory.
If Labour can win Newark whilst having a 1 - 6 pt lead in the polls then surely a Labour majority next year is nailed on ?
Clarkson deserves all he gets.After nearly 40 years of public service,he did not endear himself to me and many others by claiming "public sector workers should be shot". The difference between those who have a public service ethos and Clarkson,is that even if he was involved in,say,a serious car crash,emergency services personnel would do everything possible to save his life,even though he wants to have them shot.If it was the other way round I have no doubt Clarkson would simply leave them to die. Cameron should know a man is judged by the friends he keeps.
That's a bit unfair, Saving people is not Clarkson's job is it?. People get paid for doing their job at the end of the day . I am sure Clarkson would help (as best his skills could) if he saw somebody in real trouble (he does help out army causes) just as sure as a paramedic would help out on Top Gear if he could (as far as his skills in that area allow)
Clarkson deserves all he gets.After nearly 40 years of public service,he did not endear himself to me and many others by claiming "public sector workers should be shot".
He didn't. Don't be silly. (And yes, I do know he said those words.)
Chris Huhne, Denis MacShane, Constance Briscoe: To see one of those close to you jailed might be seen as unfortunate, two careless, three worrying, but four, including Vicky Pryce herself, is really quite a spectacular score.
I've had just one leaflet for the EU elections. It featured a picture of Nigel Farage prominently on its front page and lots of purple.
It was a leaflet from the Lib Dems.
Surprised it was not the 'an independence from Europe' upstarts!
I'm doubtful whether either UKIP or their impersonators are going to poll very well in the Liverpool Street/Shoreditch area. They might find pockets of support in the Barbican.
UKIP will do well in the parts of London with a large share of people that are white and were born and raised in London IMO
Not a wide catchment area!
You'd like my Italian PT. He told me, unprompted, the other day: "these UKIP supporters who don't live in London, they should go back to where they came from and leave us Londoners in peace. They're foreigners!" All delivered in his strong Italian accent (he still counts "one-a, two-a, three-a").
Of course, he has a vote in the EU elections, which he firmly intends using. I'm not sure who he's voting for. He's generally left wing - certainly well to the left of me - but he told me that Ed Miliband speaks awfully and looks like an idiot ("Tony Blair, he spoke very well, but then, that's why he got elected").
Mr Farage gave a talk at the LSE recently. After the talk there were questions from the audience. A (very positive) italian professor wanted to know if UKIP were intending to group with 5-star (italian party) in the EU Parliament, as they were both expected to do well.
Mr. Pete, prior to that well-reported (but oft taken out of context) remark Clarkson said the strike had been wonderful, and made the comment 'for balance'.
Just re the latest UKIP posters. In a bit of spat with someone over whether they are a blatant dog-whistle to racism. I seem to remember previous use by the BNP or NF in the 90s in a directly racist manner. Just need to see if my memory is faulty.
The Clarkson non-story is what get's "PC" a bad name. He's being judged on his politics, not on his slip of the tongue. He'll be OK when he's twenty years older, he can call a MP3 reader a gramophone and no one will care.
Newark was a Tory hold in 1945 but they then lost it in 1950 against the national trend.
Anyone know why that might have happened?
Could be a number of things. Boundary changes, turnout was up a lot in 1950, demographic changes etc. difficult to say.
Would have been boundary changes. The Labour majority in 1950 was a whopping 7,400 and the MP (G Deer) was already an MP for a different constituency (presumably the one which merged into Newark)
Spoke to one of my non white friends years ago about racism, and his view was it was all about whether the intent was to cause offence.
I truly believe that the faux outrage whenever a "bad" word is spoken, regardless of context, only hardens some peoples resolve to say what they want and creates a "them and us" mentality.
I agree to that to a certain extent, but:
*) If you are in a crowd where a term may be offensive, it's stupid to use it if there is a more acceptable term. You don't mean to cause offence, but there is a chance offence may be caused. For instance, in the past I've used the 'N' word when discussing its usage with Mrs J, but I don't write it in full on here.
*) If you've caused offence once (edit: and apologised), it's important to learn the lessons. Repeated usage in this situation is stupid.
*) Related to the above, I don't think it's right for one group to be able to use the word, but not others. Therefore songs using the N-word should be treated in the same way if I sang it, as if a rapper used it.
I was lucky that these terms were not acceptable in any of the schools I went to, and the private schools were very multiracial, so use of such terms was not taken lightly by fellow pupils or prefects.
Then again, as I said, I'm not really in any of the target groups. Although my Aussie ex called me a pommie bastard once or twice. ;-)
As an aside, I was once involved in getting a massive amount of fairly old source code ready to go external to a company. We wrote a filter to look for any number of terms, and found hundreds in the comments, some fairly offensive. All of these would have got through a code review ...
Clarkson deserves all he gets.After nearly 40 years of public service,he did not endear himself to me and many others by claiming "public sector workers should be shot". ...
The classic example was when Harry Reid described Barack Obama as a "negro". It was in the context of praising the guy.
I think there's a real danger of throwing the racist accusation so much. When people saying non-racist things are called racist, everyone else that has had a similar thought feels victim to the accusation. That means it's much harder to isolate and discredit the genuine racists. One of the UKIP candidates accused of being racist by the Evening Standard's hit piece yesterday had only said he felt it was wrong that the murder of two white girls got a lot less attention than Stephen Lawrence's death. Whether you think he was wrong or not, it clearly wasn't racist.
I've had just one leaflet for the EU elections. It featured a picture of Nigel Farage prominently on its front page and lots of purple.
It was a leaflet from the Lib Dems.
Surprised it was not the 'an independence from Europe' upstarts!
I'm doubtful whether either UKIP or their impersonators are going to poll very well in the Liverpool Street/Shoreditch area. They might find pockets of support in the Barbican.
UKIP will do well in the parts of London with a large share of people that are white and were born and raised in London IMO
Not a wide catchment area!
You'd like my Italian PT. He told me, unprompted, the other day: "these UKIP supporters who don't live in London, they should go back to where they came from and leave us Londoners in peace. They're foreigners!" All delivered in his strong Italian accent (he still counts "one-a, two-a, three-a").
Of course, he has a vote in the EU elections, which he firmly intends using. I'm not sure who he's voting for. He's generally left wing - certainly well to the left of me - but he told me that Ed Miliband speaks awfully and looks like an idiot ("Tony Blair, he spoke very well, but then, that's why he got elected").
Do EU citizens resident here get to vote in UK constituencies in the European elections?
The London results in a few weeks time will be absolutely crucial for Labour IMO. The capital is the one place where Ed Miliband is expected to do better than average, to make up for possibly slightly poor performances elsewhere. But if Labour don't do as well as forecast it would represent a major blow for Ed I think. For example, winning councils like Croydon and Redbridge:
If only Chris Huhne had been able "to keep the snake inside the pet store", three people wouldn't have ended up in prison, and he'd probably be Lib Dem leader now.
The London results in a few weeks time will be absolutely crucial for Labour IMO. The capital is the one place where Ed Miliband is expected to do better than average, to make up for possibly slightly poor performances elsewhere. But if Labour don't do as well as forecast it would represent a major blow for Ed I think. For example, winning councils like Croydon and Redbridge:
Would be a pity if Newark went red. Its such a large part of Nottinghamshire that it would spoil the mainly blue colour scheme. Labour have no right to largish seats and should confine their ambitions to inner cities and compact towns like Mansfield in order to keep the red to a minimum imho
On topic 3 or 4 to 1 is a goos value bet for Labour. They won't win, but the price may well slide in in the run up. If you just want a straight win vote, it's Con Hold by 3000.
Not so on topic, poster, placard news. Trip into Norwich this morning, coming out through the heavily student area of Norwich South, 10 Labour boards up and 16 Green. No others on display. caveat - GE 2010 the same area was almost exclusively Green, so looks like Labour are well placed to regain Norwich South at a canter, based on this mighty sub sample.
My own neck of the woods straddles Norwich North and Broadland, only poster up in the whole area to date I've seen is one green, in the Norwich North part of the area. Nothing for UKIP, Lib Dems or Tory seen yet, although there were some Tory boards in the farmers fields out towards Norfolk North.
Never used them, but Ian Cowie did give an overview of peer-to-peer lenders.
"While Funding Circle advertises mouth-watering returns to investors or 9.1pc gross and Zopa offers a more realistic 5.4pc “after charges and annualized average defaults” peer-to-peer lending is not protected by the statutory safety net that safeguards depositors with conventional banks and building societies."
On topic 3 or 4 to 1 is a goos value bet for Labour. They won't win, but the price may well slide in in the run up. If you just want a straight win vote, it's Con Hold by 3000.
Not so on topic, poster, placard news. Trip into Norwich this morning, coming out through the heavily student area of Norwich South, 10 Labour boards up and 16 Green. No others on display. caveat - GE 2010 the same area was almost exclusively Green, so looks like Labour are well placed to regain Norwich South at a canter, based on this mighty sub sample.
My own neck of the woods straddles Norwich North and Broadland, only poster up in the whole area to date I've seen is one green, in the Norwich North part of the area. Nothing for UKIP, Lib Dems or Tory seen yet, although there were some Tory boards in the farmers fields out towards Norfolk North.
Poll thoughts. The key here is holding score until conference season and the starting gun for 2015. The Tories will want to be polling at 33/34 going into conference and average 35 afterwards with a view to UKIP returners and the budget delivering them 37/38 in the GE. Labour, on the other hand, will be looking to maintain 37 plus into conference and ensure there is no drift back to the Lib Dems which may help in the Tory/Lib marginals, but depending on the overall effect on their % might make their own marginal quest harder. It looks likely to me that the big two will score 34-38 each in the GE, with the result being anything from workable but small Lab Maj to Tory largest party, coalition with rump Lib Dems, with Lab short by 20 the centre point. Crossover during conference season.
On topic 3 or 4 to 1 is a goos value bet for Labour. They won't win, but the price may well slide in in the run up. If you just want a straight win vote, it's Con Hold by 3000.
Not so on topic, poster, placard news. Trip into Norwich this morning, coming out through the heavily student area of Norwich South, 10 Labour boards up and 16 Green. No others on display. caveat - GE 2010 the same area was almost exclusively Green, so looks like Labour are well placed to regain Norwich South at a canter, based on this mighty sub sample.
My own neck of the woods straddles Norwich North and Broadland, only poster up in the whole area to date I've seen is one green, in the Norwich North part of the area. Nothing for UKIP, Lib Dems or Tory seen yet, although there were some Tory boards in the farmers fields out towards Norfolk North.
Wow you are well travelled for a Norfolk man!!
Once I went over the Waveney into a strange land. I still shudder at the memory.
I've had just one leaflet for the EU elections. It featured a picture of Nigel Farage prominently on its front page and lots of purple.
It was a leaflet from the Lib Dems.
Surprised it was not the 'an independence from Europe' upstarts!
I'm doubtful whether either UKIP or their impersonators are going to poll very well in the Liverpool Street/Shoreditch area. They might find pockets of support in the Barbican.
UKIP will do well in the parts of London with a large share of people that are white and were born and raised in London IMO
Not a wide catchment area!
You'd like my Italian PT. He told me, unprompted, the other day: "these UKIP supporters who don't live in London, they should go back to where they came from and leave us Londoners in peace. They're foreigners!" All delivered in his strong Italian accent (he still counts "one-a, two-a, three-a").
Of course, he has a vote in the EU elections, which he firmly intends using. I'm not sure who he's voting for. He's generally left wing - certainly well to the left of me - but he told me that Ed Miliband speaks awfully and looks like an idiot ("Tony Blair, he spoke very well, but then, that's why he got elected").
Do EU citizens resident here get to vote in UK constituencies in the European elections?
I've had just one leaflet for the EU elections. It featured a picture of Nigel Farage prominently on its front page and lots of purple.
It was a leaflet from the Lib Dems.
Surprised it was not the 'an independence from Europe' upstarts!
I'm doubtful whether either UKIP or their impersonators are going to poll very well in the Liverpool Street/Shoreditch area. They might find pockets of support in the Barbican.
UKIP will do well in the parts of London with a large share of people that are white and were born and raised in London IMO
Not a wide catchment area!
You'd like my Italian PT. He told me, unprompted, the other day: "these UKIP supporters who don't live in London, they should go back to where they came from and leave us Londoners in peace. They're foreigners!" All delivered in his strong Italian accent (he still counts "one-a, two-a, three-a").
Of course, he has a vote in the EU elections, which he firmly intends using. I'm not sure who he's voting for. He's generally left wing - certainly well to the left of me - but he told me that Ed Miliband speaks awfully and looks like an idiot ("Tony Blair, he spoke very well, but then, that's why he got elected").
Do EU citizens resident here get to vote in UK constituencies in the European elections?
"UKIP today reveals it's new billboard design depicting an escalator running up the White Cliffs of Dover showing how we have lost control of our borders."
Never used them, but Ian Cowie did give an overview of peer-to-peer lenders.
"While Funding Circle advertises mouth-watering returns to investors or 9.1pc gross and Zopa offers a more realistic 5.4pc “after charges and annualized average defaults” peer-to-peer lending is not protected by the statutory safety net that safeguards depositors with conventional banks and building societies."
I lend money to Zopa which incorporates (now) bad debt insurance within its rates. I looked at funding circle and although the rates look good you are basically lending to start ups or early life companies a lot of the time. I was put off personally when I saw the accounts of a firm that took out funding circle loans and they were not that impressive to say the least . Its only my little anecdote but it put me off
I've had just one leaflet for the EU elections. It featured a picture of Nigel Farage prominently on its front page and lots of purple.
It was a leaflet from the Lib Dems.
Surprised it was not the 'an independence from Europe' upstarts!
I'm doubtful whether either UKIP or their impersonators are going to poll very well in the Liverpool Street/Shoreditch area. They might find pockets of support in the Barbican.
UKIP will do well in the parts of London with a large share of people that are white and were born and raised in London IMO
Not a wide catchment area!
You'd like my Italian PT. He told me, unprompted, the other day: "these UKIP supporters who don't live in London, they should go back to where they came from and leave us Londoners in peace. They're foreigners!" All delivered in his strong Italian accent (he still counts "one-a, two-a, three-a").
Of course, he has a vote in the EU elections, which he firmly intends using. I'm not sure who he's voting for. He's generally left wing - certainly well to the left of me - but he told me that Ed Miliband speaks awfully and looks like an idiot ("Tony Blair, he spoke very well, but then, that's why he got elected").
Do EU citizens resident here get to vote in UK constituencies in the European elections?
"If you are an EU national living in another EU country, you have the right to vote and stand as a candidate in European Parliament elections in that country."
"UKIP today reveals it's new billboard design depicting an escalator running up the White Cliffs of Dover showing how we have lost control of our borders."
Poll thoughts. The key here is holding score until conference season and the starting gun for 2015. The Tories will want to be polling at 33/34 going into conference and average 35 afterwards with a view to UKIP returners and the budget delivering them 37/38 in the GE. Labour, on the other hand, will be looking to maintain 37 plus into conference and ensure there is no drift back to the Lib Dems which may help in the Tory/Lib marginals, but depending on the overall effect on their % might make their own marginal quest harder. It looks likely to me that the big two will score 34-38 each in the GE, with the result being anything from workable but small Lab Maj to Tory largest party, coalition with rump Lib Dems, with Lab short by 20 the centre point. Crossover during conference season.
I'm hoping that UKIP do exceptionally well in the locals, and Con/Lab/LD spend the next 12 months railing at UKIP, the voters, their own leaders, and losing faith in pollsters.
"UKIP today reveals it's new billboard design depicting an escalator running up the White Cliffs of Dover showing how we have lost control of our borders."
Comments
http://imgur.com/JUPNoaZ
EDIT
It links to their website's 'europe page'.
http://www.conservatives.com/europe
As such I was thoroughly familiar with such terms, and even to this day I occasionally find myself saying hem in my head, although thankfully never aloud. "----- in a woodpile" being one such phrase.
I can only hope that I am the last generation this is true for. Times change, but neither do I think that the castigation such terms can get is necessarily proportionate.
(*) One guy used to be called 'Frank'. It wasn't his name, but it would utterly enrage him.
It was a leaflet from the Lib Dems.
Topgear relies on rather blokish banter, but Clarksons recent programme on the arctic convoys was an eye opener. He went right up in my estimation.
Still, Christ knows what the Electoral Commission, under the useless (and far too political) Jenny Watson, were thinking.
Unthinkable a few months ago, but strong results today point towards just that. They also said their loan delinquency rate had fallen which is usually a good sign that the economy is strong. It will be interesting to see if the government will ever manage to make the £46bn back on RBS that it invested. So far I think around £8bn has been paid back via various special dividends and exiting asset protection schemes. It leaves around £38bn, the government's stake is valued at £31bn today. I expect the government will make a profit from the Lloyds stake, so any loss on RBS won't seem as bad.
It might be prudent to hold RBS in public hands for a few years to collect dividends and then set the sale for 2018 in legislation. Morally hazardous though, I wouldn't want to see any such move open the door to mass public ownership of private businesses.
After yesterday's upward move in the CIPS-Markit PMI for Manufacturing, today is Construction's turn.
Overall a solid survey with the Construction PMI for March at 60.8 well above the UK long term average of 54.3. All three sub-categories - residential, commercial and civil engineering - saw continued expansion.
Residential property construction led the way recording its fifteenth consecutive month of growth and a rate of expansion the fastest for ten years.
Commercial property construction increased its rate of growth too although that of civil engineering slowed, mainly due to flood relief work peaking in February.
The future looks good with new business increasing at its highest rate this year and employment again recording a steep rise.
Confidence remains high with 56% of construction companies forecasting a rise in output over the next twelve months compared with only 5% predicting a fall.
Input cost inflation eased to a three month low though supply chain pressure saw deliveryy interruptions and reduced sub-contractor availability.
By George, we seem to be seeing a real March of the Builders. Our Midlands Manufacturing Malcontents are just going to have to learn to quick march.
Plenty of nationalist and socialist policies on the BNP blurb, though their immigration stance on penguins is not clarified still.
Not a wide catchment area!
http://imgur.com/QZ0Ogoo
Of course, he has a vote in the EU elections, which he firmly intends using. I'm not sure who he's voting for. He's generally left wing - certainly well to the left of me - but he told me that Ed Miliband speaks awfully and looks like an idiot ("Tony Blair, he spoke very well, but then, that's why he got elected").
As I said its not something I agree with but its a valid point of view .Not sure why all the outrage over Brown saying it
Was having a cup of tea round my Mums when all that action was happening.. Cant get on w Hills except in shops, and by the time I got to one it was 2/5 so swerved it
Will be interesting to see the prices to come 2nd in Newark.. 2/1 to 9/2 seems too big a UKIP drift solely because of no Farage to me, but I guess it depends on the candidate
An apology for usage and causing offence should be enough, unless it is used repeatedly.
All IMHO, and it's easy for me to say as I'm not in any of the groups.
Out by the start of September.
I truly believe that the faux outrage whenever a "bad" word is spoken, regardless of context, only hardens some peoples resolve to say what they want and creates a "them and us" mentality.
Populus has been massively down weighting Labour and Ukip since it changed its methodology. I make no partisan point - and I haven't yet crunched today's numbers - but just an FYI.
Whether that's a good or bad thing depends on your politics I guess
Asked my PT if he could teach me to do the splits the other day
He asked how flexible I was
I said I can't make Tuesdays
Asked the doing well/badly question about Farage for the first time, and whether he would make better or worse PM than Cameron or Miliband. Also some stuff on rent controls and TV watershed.
Anyone know why that might have happened?
From 13 February to 9 March, Populus's recorded tally for Labour was 38, 38, 38, 37, 38, 37, 37, 38. Labour have dropped two or three points since then with Populus. This seems to me to be significant.
I might do a thread on that soon.
The difference between those who have a public service ethos and Clarkson,is that even if he was involved in,say,a serious car crash,emergency services personnel would do everything possible to save his life,even though he wants to have them shot.If it was the other way round I have no doubt Clarkson would simply leave them to die.
Cameron should know a man is judged by the friends he keeps.
Watching Szczęsny warm up at the Emirates by doing the splits always makes my eyes water.
There is no aromaticity for HDC.
And if she is released early, she is still on licence until September 2015, she can be recalled to serve out the remainder of the 16 months.
Also if you look at Corby Labour win local elections there whereas the local eletion seats that make up Newark remain staunchly Tory.
If Labour can win Newark whilst having a 1 - 6 pt lead in the polls then surely a Labour majority next year is nailed on ?
Never piss off a woman who is your wife!
27m25s into the video linked to below.
http://youtu.be/uRVo3e-rXGI
*) If you are in a crowd where a term may be offensive, it's stupid to use it if there is a more acceptable term. You don't mean to cause offence, but there is a chance offence may be caused. For instance, in the past I've used the 'N' word when discussing its usage with Mrs J, but I don't write it in full on here.
*) If you've caused offence once (edit: and apologised), it's important to learn the lessons. Repeated usage in this situation is stupid.
*) Related to the above, I don't think it's right for one group to be able to use the word, but not others. Therefore songs using the N-word should be treated in the same way if I sang it, as if a rapper used it.
I was lucky that these terms were not acceptable in any of the schools I went to, and the private schools were very multiracial, so use of such terms was not taken lightly by fellow pupils or prefects.
Then again, as I said, I'm not really in any of the target groups. Although my Aussie ex called me a pommie bastard once or twice. ;-)
As an aside, I was once involved in getting a massive amount of fairly old source code ready to go external to a company. We wrote a filter to look for any number of terms, and found hundreds in the comments, some fairly offensive. All of these would have got through a code review ...
The classic example was when Harry Reid described Barack Obama as a "negro". It was in the context of praising the guy.
I think there's a real danger of throwing the racist accusation so much. When people saying non-racist things are called racist, everyone else that has had a similar thought feels victim to the accusation. That means it's much harder to isolate and discredit the genuine racists. One of the UKIP candidates accused of being racist by the Evening Standard's hit piece yesterday had only said he felt it was wrong that the murder of two white girls got a lot less attention than Stephen Lawrence's death. Whether you think he was wrong or not, it clearly wasn't racist.
http://www.conservativehome.com/localgovernment/2014/02/labours-london-targets-in-the-council-elections.html
He is an LD after all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXDK3x5lAYI
What a way to wreck her career.
http://survation.com/new-survation-london-residents-poll-voting-intention-for-local-and-european-elections-and-boris-johnson/
I hope you all have a wonderful time at Dirty Dicks.
And can someone please keep an eye on JohnO because Neil is a terrible influence.
I don't want to find out tomorrow JohnO ended up in St Pancras and got on a train to Bruxelles.
Can't see that problem going away as quietly as they hope.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/constance-briscoe-guilty-highflying-barrister-found-guilty-of-lying-in-chris-huhne-speeding-case-9313584.html
3 or 4 to 1 is a goos value bet for Labour. They won't win, but the price may well slide in in the run up. If you just want a straight win vote, it's Con Hold by 3000.
Not so on topic, poster, placard news.
Trip into Norwich this morning, coming out through the heavily student area of Norwich South, 10 Labour boards up and 16 Green. No others on display. caveat - GE 2010 the same area was almost exclusively Green, so looks like Labour are well placed to regain Norwich South at a canter, based on this mighty sub sample.
My own neck of the woods straddles Norwich North and Broadland, only poster up in the whole area to date I've seen is one green, in the Norwich North part of the area. Nothing for UKIP, Lib Dems or Tory seen yet, although there were some Tory boards in the farmers fields out towards Norfolk North.
(Anything to avoid canvassing tomorrow morning!).
"While Funding Circle advertises mouth-watering returns to investors or 9.1pc gross and Zopa offers a more realistic 5.4pc “after charges and annualized average defaults” peer-to-peer lending is not protected by the statutory safety net that safeguards depositors with conventional banks and building societies."
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ianmcowie/100021861/bank-chief-claims-peer-to-peer-lenders-could-replace-banks/
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ianmcowie/100024350/how-5pc-returns-for-savers-just-became-slightly-less-risky/
The key here is holding score until conference season and the starting gun for 2015. The Tories will want to be polling at 33/34 going into conference and average 35 afterwards with a view to UKIP returners and the budget delivering them 37/38 in the GE.
Labour, on the other hand, will be looking to maintain 37 plus into conference and ensure there is no drift back to the Lib Dems which may help in the Tory/Lib marginals, but depending on the overall effect on their % might make their own marginal quest harder.
It looks likely to me that the big two will score 34-38 each in the GE, with the result being anything from workable but small Lab Maj to Tory largest party, coalition with rump Lib Dems, with Lab short by 20 the centre point.
Crossover during conference season.
http://www.ukip.org/ukip_reveals_new_billboard_design
I was put off personally when I saw the accounts of a firm that took out funding circle loans and they were not that impressive to say the least . Its only my little anecdote but it put me off
"If you are an EU national living in another EU country, you have the right to vote and stand as a candidate in European Parliament elections in that country."
I realise boundary changes have made Newark more Tory, but even so I wouldn't rule out Labour here....
In other news, are expecting an imminent resignation from that horrible loud-mouth bigot Jeremy Clarkson?
How exciting will it be if Clarkson resigns/is sacked on the same day that another nasty piece of work, Max Clifford, gets sent to jail?