[Ralph] volunteered to be sent to Belgium to assist the resistance movement, and passed his medical in January 1942 but as a Polish national he was not allowed to join until the Polish authorities gave consent. He asked Laski for help in joining the services, and shortly afterwards A. V. Alexander, First Lord of the Admiralty, wrote advising him to "go and see a vice-admiral at the Admiralty, who would fix it up." Miliband joined the Royal Navy in June 1943.[5] He served for three years in the Belgian Section of the Royal Navy, achieving the rank of chief petty officer.[3] He served on several warships, tasked with intercepting German radio communications.[2][7] His initial exhilaration soon wore off as months passed without seeing action, then in June 1944 he took part in supporting the Normandy landings which he wrote was "the biggest operation in history" and he "would not miss it for anything". He saw further action at the Toulon landings.[5]
It looks like the Labour are losing their discipline and proving themselves to be the unruly rabble that has been hinted at so often:
At the Labour leader’s eighth ‘relaunch’ speech on Thursday at Senate House, every single question from journalists was greeted by boos, hisses and tuts.
Turning on the media in the run up to an election is a particularly dumb move
I find it quite sinister. A free press is fundamental to a functioning democracy. Maybe Ed thinks that is expendable, I don't.
Well we already know from the Leveson outrage that Miliband wants to silence the press and curtail free speech. I doubt he values democracy very much either. Labour has an awful track record when it comes to undermining our democracy and in any case how can any raving Europh iliac value democracy? The EU is the antithesis of a democratic institution.
What' breathtakingly stupid comment.
After reading some of the threads you have put up I'll take such a judgement with a pinch of salt.
What Mr Smithson meant to say I'm sure is, 'What an interesting insight into the mindset of your typical kipper'.
Here are two for starters: Why does he want others to pay IHT when he didn't bother himself Why did he say his grandfather was killed by the Nazis when he seemed to have died 5 months after that area of Poland was liberated?
It was liberated from the Nazis even if it was then delivered into the hands of an equally disgusting totalitarian government.
...which the Millipedes wholeheartedly supported...
By the 1960s, [Ralph] was a prominent member of the New Left movement in Britain, which was critical of established Socialist governments in the Soviet Union and Central Europe (the Eastern Bloc).
With Miliband obviously not going to debate Farage before the election campaign, UKIP need some big event to keep their momentum going after Rochester. Another defection is possible, but I wonder what else they could do to stay in the news..
How can Miliband not debate him? He's publicly called for a debate on UKIP. Is his line really going to be "We should have a public debate on UKIP, but I refuse to be involved in one with an actual representative of the party"?!
UKIP is a tiny pinprick of a party composed of 2 MPs !
[Ralph] volunteered to be sent to Belgium to assist the resistance movement, and passed his medical in January 1942 but as a Polish national he was not allowed to join until the Polish authorities gave consent. He asked Laski for help in joining the services, and shortly afterwards A. V. Alexander, First Lord of the Admiralty, wrote advising him to "go and see a vice-admiral at the Admiralty, who would fix it up." Miliband joined the Royal Navy in June 1943.[5] He served for three years in the Belgian Section of the Royal Navy, achieving the rank of chief petty officer.[3] He served on several warships, tasked with intercepting German radio communications.[2][7] His initial exhilaration soon wore off as months passed without seeing action, then in June 1944 he took part in supporting the Normandy landings which he wrote was "the biggest operation in history" and he "would not miss it for anything". He saw further action at the Toulon landings.[5]
Has anyone done more than Ken Livingstone to make Labour toxic across the southern half of England ?
What an absolute prick Livingstone is... East London has practically become a Muslim caliphate thanks to the kind of divisive politics that he encourages
Can you imagine being a Ukip candidate in tower hamlets or newham? I've imagined it! And swerved it!
He is a disgrace.
Aided and abetted by this piece of dirt... The biggest liar in London?
Sounds like bobajob, fett, and the last Boy Scout were at the meeting
"Rahman also “utterly rejected” any suggestion that he had been “implementing policies designed to benefit any section of the community above others.” The evidence for Rahman’s favouritism towards the Muslim community is set out in exhaustive detail here. Lutfur's base, along with a sprinkling of the stupidest middle-class white lefties in London, attended a public meeting last night to defend Rahman – as did Ken Livingstone and George Galloway (hold on: wasn’t Halloween last month?) The meeting turned into yet another PR disaster for Rahman after Livingstone told the audience to find out the home addresses of the Government commissioners sent in to run the council and "make their lives intolerable." As you will remember, intimidation is already one of the main charges against Rahman's supporters.'
It looks like the Labour are losing their discipline and proving themselves to be the unruly rabble that has been hinted at so often:
At the Labour leader’s eighth ‘relaunch’ speech on Thursday at Senate House, every single question from journalists was greeted by boos, hisses and tuts.
Turning on the media in the run up to an election is a particularly dumb move
I find it quite sinister. A free press is fundamental to a functioning democracy. Maybe Ed thinks that is expendable, I don't.
Well we already know from the Leveson outrage that Miliband wants to silence the press and curtail free speech. I doubt he values democracy very much either. Labour has an awful track record when it comes to undermining our democracy and in any case how can any raving Europh iliac value democracy? The EU is the antithesis of a democratic institution.
What' breathtakingly stupid comment.
After reading some of the threads you have put up I'll take such a judgement with a pinch of salt.
Trouble is this feels like the hardest of the hardcore talking among themselves, particularly given the declines in Labour membership. Ed doesn't need people to say in public that they back him, he just needs the kind of person who voted for Blair in 1997 or 2001 to think, in the privacy of the voting booth, that "I kinda like Ed more than the other guy". It's a very different mentality - but it seems that Labour are determined to talk among themselves in the hope of getting 35%, or 32%, or whatever the target is now whilst ignoring the other 68%.
The bromance is over... Nige drops the Red Ed-bomb
Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) 13/11/2014 18:18 Red Ed can sling all the mud he wants. Here are the facts about UKIP's NHS policies: independent.co.uk/voices/comment…
Farage wants to see insurance based healthcare which will suit the rich, like him He would be happy to abolish the NHS. The cat is out of the bag. Traditional kippers cheer to the rafters that they hate the NHS, just look at all the interweb comments Neo kippers though love the NHS. So I repeat he is lying to someone and giving the wink and nod to someone else.
It looks like the Labour are losing their discipline and proving themselves to be the unruly rabble that has been hinted at so often:
At the Labour leader’s eighth ‘relaunch’ speech on Thursday at Senate House, every single question from journalists was greeted by boos, hisses and tuts.
Turning on the media in the run up to an election is a particularly dumb move
I find it quite sinister. A free press is fundamental to a functioning democracy. Maybe Ed thinks that is expendable, I don't.
Unfortunately that free press self censors itself and sells out. Why were no Mohammed cartoons published? Why are they not leading the charge for a 1st Amendment style commitment to free speech in this country? Why were Tony Blair's expenses allowed to be shredded with barely a murmur. Why are they not questioning Ed on his IHT avoidance? Where is the outrage over Rotherham?
Instead it's all about Z-list celebs, trash TV and sport.
When a country's newspapers and televisions are full of good news, the prisons are full of good people.
Nice one,Henry. About time Labour came out fighting. We have been on the back foot too long. The Kippers and other various ne'er do wells on here have yet to put together a coherent response to your article. I agree, the membership is largely united behind Ed.Few in the Party doubt his sincerity. It is now up to Ed and the shadow cabinet to get that message out to the public.
[Ralph] volunteered to be sent to Belgium to assist the resistance movement, and passed his medical in January 1942 but as a Polish national he was not allowed to join until the Polish authorities gave consent. He asked Laski for help in joining the services, and shortly afterwards A. V. Alexander, First Lord of the Admiralty, wrote advising him to "go and see a vice-admiral at the Admiralty, who would fix it up." Miliband joined the Royal Navy in June 1943.[5] He served for three years in the Belgian Section of the Royal Navy, achieving the rank of chief petty officer.[3] He served on several warships, tasked with intercepting German radio communications.[2][7] His initial exhilaration soon wore off as months passed without seeing action, then in June 1944 he took part in supporting the Normandy landings which he wrote was "the biggest operation in history" and he "would not miss it for anything". He saw further action at the Toulon landings.[5]
The bromance is over... Nige drops the Red Ed-bomb
Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) 13/11/2014 18:18 Red Ed can sling all the mud he wants. Here are the facts about UKIP's NHS policies: independent.co.uk/voices/comment…
Farage wants to see insurance based healthcare which will suit the rich, like him He would be happy to abolish the NHS. The cat is out of the bag. Traditional kippers cheer to the rafters that they hate the NHS, just look at all the interweb comments Neo kippers though love the NHS. So I repeat he is lying to someone and giving the wink and nod to someone else.
Abolition of the NHS would make this country more receptive to immigrants.
Getting equal access to something immigrants never contributed to causes resentment amongst the host population.
You can have open borders or free healthcare, but not both.
Here are two for starters: Why does he want others to pay IHT when he didn't bother himself Why did he say his grandfather was killed by the Nazis when he seemed to have died 5 months after that area of Poland was liberated?
It was liberated from the Nazis even if it was then delivered into the hands of an equally disgusting totalitarian government.
...which the Millipedes wholeheartedly supported...
By the 1960s, [Ralph] was a prominent member of the New Left movement in Britain, which was critical of established Socialist governments in the Soviet Union and Central Europe (the Eastern Bloc).
[Ralph] volunteered to be sent to Belgium to assist the resistance movement, and passed his medical in January 1942 but as a Polish national he was not allowed to join until the Polish authorities gave consent. He asked Laski for help in joining the services, and shortly afterwards A. V. Alexander, First Lord of the Admiralty, wrote advising him to "go and see a vice-admiral at the Admiralty, who would fix it up." Miliband joined the Royal Navy in June 1943.[5] He served for three years in the Belgian Section of the Royal Navy, achieving the rank of chief petty officer.[3] He served on several warships, tasked with intercepting German radio communications.[2][7] His initial exhilaration soon wore off as months passed without seeing action, then in June 1944 he took part in supporting the Normandy landings which he wrote was "the biggest operation in history" and he "would not miss it for anything". He saw further action at the Toulon landings.[5]
[Ralph] volunteered to be sent to Belgium to assist the resistance movement, and passed his medical in January 1942 but as a Polish national he was not allowed to join until the Polish authorities gave consent. He asked Laski for help in joining the services, and shortly afterwards A. V. Alexander, First Lord of the Admiralty, wrote advising him to "go and see a vice-admiral at the Admiralty, who would fix it up." Miliband joined the Royal Navy in June 1943.[5] He served for three years in the Belgian Section of the Royal Navy, achieving the rank of chief petty officer.[3] He served on several warships, tasked with intercepting German radio communications.[2][7] His initial exhilaration soon wore off as months passed without seeing action, then in June 1944 he took part in supporting the Normandy landings which he wrote was "the biggest operation in history" and he "would not miss it for anything". He saw further action at the Toulon landings.[5]
So there's a whole post demonstrating that Miliband Snr served as an O/R in a difficult but non-immediately-front-line job, from which he moved to a much closer to the front-line job. Difficult, dangerous, and used his skills. And all Itajai can find to say is that Laski, who helped his friend do his duty by his adopted country, was a Stalinist fellow-traveller. IIRC inaccurately. Sympathies for the efforts of the Soviet Union in WWII was not confined to fellow travellers.
"As for East Germany: I had been terrified by the sight of military police parading through the streets and training their guns under the bridges so they could shoot anybody who tried to escape to the West by swimming along the river. I could not see how all this authoritarianism benefited people either mentally or physically. Some people seemed to be near starvation, and the streets of East Berlin seemed to have more horses and carts than cars.
When I got to describing my cynicism at seeing a newspaper poster saying ‘Walter Ulbricht 99 per cent certain of being elected’, I realised just how agitated Ralph had become. He sprang to Ulbricht’s defence, and appeared to be blind to the East German dictator’s failings — he even refused to condemn the building of the Berlin Wall. I realised that Ralph was an enthusiast for the very regimes I had come to hate. In my three years at LSE as an undergraduate, I had sat through many a lecture and coffee bar discussion in which Marxists looked forward to the contradictions in capitalism leading to its collapse and to the advent of the dictatorship of the proletariat. But I was appalled by how hardline Ralph Miliband was. He must have known of the hardship suffered by people in Communist countries, but for him, I suppose, the end justified the means. The Communist countries were heading towards a Marxist heaven. There might be teething problems on the way; but things were better in East Germany than in Britain.
Ralph did not hate Britain. He just wanted to make it better by transforming it into a Communist state, and that meant destroying a lot of Britain’s social institutions because they promoted and buttressed social in-equality. The dictatorship of the proletariat would be preferable to Harold Wilson’s Labour government." http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/9057391/you-will-pay/
The bromance is over... Nige drops the Red Ed-bomb
Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) 13/11/2014 18:18 Red Ed can sling all the mud he wants. Here are the facts about UKIP's NHS policies: independent.co.uk/voices/comment…
Farage wants to see insurance based healthcare which will suit the rich, like him He would be happy to abolish the NHS. The cat is out of the bag. Traditional kippers cheer to the rafters that they hate the NHS, just look at all the interweb comments Neo kippers though love the NHS. So I repeat he is lying to someone and giving the wink and nod to someone else.
Abolition of the NHS would make this country more receptive to immigrants.
Getting equal access to something immigrants never contributed to causes resentment amongst the host population.
You can have open borders or free healthcare, but not both.
Here are two for starters: Why does he want others to pay IHT when he didn't bother himself Why did he say his grandfather was killed by the Nazis when he seemed to have died 5 months after that area of Poland was liberated?
It was liberated from the Nazis even if it was then delivered into the hands of an equally disgusting totalitarian government.
...which the Millipedes wholeheartedly supported...
By the 1960s, [Ralph] was a prominent member of the New Left movement in Britain, which was critical of established Socialist governments in the Soviet Union and Central Europe (the Eastern Bloc).
Shame he did not denounce Stalinism during the Show Trials. Would have given him more credibility.
TBF he'd have been 12-14 years old.
He was a member of a hard left organisation in 1939. So he became a Marxist after the Show Trials. Although these were going on in different forms through to 1953. I presume he had nothing of any use to say over the Leningrad Affair. Or, to be fair, the gulags.
[Ralph] volunteered to be sent to Belgium to assist the resistance movement, and passed his medical in January 1942 but as a Polish national he was not allowed to join until the Polish authorities gave consent. He asked Laski for help in joining the services, and shortly afterwards A. V. Alexander, First Lord of the Admiralty, wrote advising him to "go and see a vice-admiral at the Admiralty, who would fix it up." Miliband joined the Royal Navy in June 1943.[5] He served for three years in the Belgian Section of the Royal Navy, achieving the rank of chief petty officer.[3] He served on several warships, tasked with intercepting German radio communications.[2][7] His initial exhilaration soon wore off as months passed without seeing action, then in June 1944 he took part in supporting the Normandy landings which he wrote was "the biggest operation in history" and he "would not miss it for anything". He saw further action at the Toulon landings.[5]
So there's a whole post demonstrating that Miliband Snr served as an O/R in a difficult but non-immediately-front-line job, from which he moved to a much closer to the front-line job. Difficult, dangerous, and used his skills. And all Itajai can find to say is that Laski, who helped his friend do his duty by his adopted country, was a Stalinist fellow-traveller. IIRC inaccurately. Sympathies for the efforts of the Soviet Union in WWII was not confined to fellow travellers.
"As for East Germany: I had been terrified by the sight of military police parading through the streets and training their guns under the bridges so they could shoot anybody who tried to escape to the West by swimming along the river. I could not see how all this authoritarianism benefited people either mentally or physically. Some people seemed to be near starvation, and the streets of East Berlin seemed to have more horses and carts than cars.
When I got to describing my cynicism at seeing a newspaper poster saying ‘Walter Ulbricht 99 per cent certain of being elected’, I realised just how agitated Ralph had become. He sprang to Ulbricht’s defence, and appeared to be blind to the East German dictator’s failings — he even refused to condemn the building of the Berlin Wall. I realised that Ralph was an enthusiast for the very regimes I had come to hate. In my three years at LSE as an undergraduate, I had sat through many a lecture and coffee bar discussion in which Marxists looked forward to the contradictions in capitalism leading to its collapse and to the advent of the dictatorship of the proletariat. But I was appalled by how hardline Ralph Miliband was. He must have known of the hardship suffered by people in Communist countries, but for him, I suppose, the end justified the means. The Communist countries were heading towards a Marxist heaven. There might be teething problems on the way; but things were better in East Germany than in Britain.
Ralph did not hate Britain. He just wanted to make it better by transforming it into a Communist state, and that meant destroying a lot of Britain’s social institutions because they promoted and buttressed social in-equality. The dictatorship of the proletariat would be preferable to Harold Wilson’s Labour government." http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/9057391/you-will-pay/
Many of us in the 50's & 60's could see the direction Britain was taking, and it was a direction which we expected would end up where we are now, albeit less divided.
There's a film about E Germany, made about 10 years ago by a British student, called "My DDR T-Shirt", which makes it clear that for many people East Germany was stumbling in the right direction. Obviously no-one would defend the Stasi, but I repeat ... stumbling in the right direction!
It's going to be interesting to see how long it takes for the 2010 LD to Labour switchers to go home.
Depends on how long it takes before the state of finances forces the Labour government to do unLabour like things, like cut anything. I know Labour are saying they will not spend wildly and will commit to eliminating the deficit, which obviously will require some cutbacks, but I don't think a significant number believe it.
The bromance is over... Nige drops the Red Ed-bomb
Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) 13/11/2014 18:18 Red Ed can sling all the mud he wants. Here are the facts about UKIP's NHS policies: independent.co.uk/voices/comment…
Farage wants to see insurance based healthcare which will suit the rich, like him He would be happy to abolish the NHS. The cat is out of the bag. Traditional kippers cheer to the rafters that they hate the NHS, just look at all the interweb comments Neo kippers though love the NHS. So I repeat he is lying to someone and giving the wink and nod to someone else.
Abolition of the NHS would make this country more receptive to immigrants.
Getting equal access to something immigrants never contributed to causes resentment amongst the host population.
You can have open borders or free healthcare, but not both.
Why?
This should be good.
Because people cross borders for the free healthcare not available in their own countries.
See English students in Scottish universities as an example of this effect. Catholic schools in England as an example of host resentment of immigrants.
Today’s speech was a re-run of his conference speech, remembering to mention the deficit and immigration. If that was an exam he had to pass to become prime minister, this was the re-sit. He may have managed to raise his grade by one. He’s quite good at reading from autocue, and sounding passionate about changing the country, even if no one has any idea how the changes might be brought about.
But if that is the best he can do, all it means is that he might lose with a bit of dignity.
Here are two for starters: Why does he want others to pay IHT when he didn't bother himself Why did he say his grandfather was killed by the Nazis when he seemed to have died 5 months after that area of Poland was liberated?
It was liberated from the Nazis even if it was then delivered into the hands of an equally disgusting totalitarian government.
...which the Millipedes wholeheartedly supported...
By the 1960s, [Ralph] was a prominent member of the New Left movement in Britain, which was critical of established Socialist governments in the Soviet Union and Central Europe (the Eastern Bloc).
Shame he did not denounce Stalinism during the Show Trials. Would have given him more credibility.
TBF he'd have been 12-14 years old.
He was a member of a hard left organisation in 1939. So he became a Marxist after the Show Trials. Although these were going on in different forms through to 1953. I presume he had nothing of any use to say over the Leningrad Affair. Or, to be fair, the gulags.
Is there a man/with soul so dead,/who was not/ in the thirties, Red?
I found this an interesting read but can't help feeling that the concluding line should have been, this party political broadcast was brought to you by The Labour Party
Here are two for starters: Why does he want others to pay IHT when he didn't bother himself Why did he say his grandfather was killed by the Nazis when he seemed to have died 5 months after that area of Poland was liberated?
It was liberated from the Nazis even if it was then delivered into the hands of an equally disgusting totalitarian government.
...which the Millipedes wholeheartedly supported...
By the 1960s, [Ralph] was a prominent member of the New Left movement in Britain, which was critical of established Socialist governments in the Soviet Union and Central Europe (the Eastern Bloc).
Shame he did not denounce Stalinism during the Show Trials. Would have given him more credibility.
TBF he'd have been 12-14 years old.
He was a member of a hard left organisation in 1939. So he became a Marxist after the Show Trials. Although these were going on in different forms through to 1953. I presume he had nothing of any use to say over the Leningrad Affair. Or, to be fair, the gulags.
Is there a man/with soul so dead,/who was not/ in the thirties, Red?
Don't think Churchill was a Red. Maybe he did not have a soul. Apparently. Pretty sure there were many others.
Cycle free, I'm sure you are as bored with this as I am ''But I do wish people would stop pretending that tax avoidance is something wicked only done by big bad companies when in fact lots and lots of us are busy doing the same. ''
Repeat: ISA and other business tax allowances like capital allowances are government sponsored schemes- schemes to help the economy and thus all the rest of us. Front, 'brass plate', companies are specifically designed to defraude us all. These people cheat. We are entitled to be angry with them. I support a govt that rightly offers low and reasonable taxes to all companies. As such I know when I am being exploited and whose fault it is.
Nice one,Henry. About time Labour came out fighting. We have been on the back foot too long. The Kippers and other various ne'er do wells on here have yet to put together a coherent response to your article. I agree, the membership is largely united behind Ed.Few in the Party doubt his sincerity. It is now up to Ed and the shadow cabinet to get that message out to the public.
Sorry but this, and the original article, are classic examples of wishful thinking. You need to find a positive and so do you.
What is the substance of the Miliband speech? Where are the specific, costed and timed proposals to demonstrate the change that he claims he wants to bring about? Where are the details?
As ever with a Miliband relaunch - completely missing.
His flagship policy of an energy price freeze has unravelled. He and his team keep promising to spend the same pot of money over and over and over again.
He has lost the right to be listened to and is doing nothing to regain that.
The perception of Miliband is appallingly poor. Not even Labour party members see him as a credible PM in waiting.
It is too late to change that. It is too late to change the leader. The only course of action is to mitigate the size of the defeat and work out who is best to lead going forward.
Hiding your heads in the sand and thinking that 60,000 tweets prove anything only makes you part of the problem.
Today’s speech was a re-run of his conference speech, remembering to mention the deficit and immigration. If that was an exam he had to pass to become prime minister, this was the re-sit. He may have managed to raise his grade by one. He’s quite good at reading from autocue, and sounding passionate about changing the country, even if no one has any idea how the changes might be brought about.
But if that is the best he can do, all it means is that he might lose with a bit of dignity.
"As for East Germany: I had been terrified by the sight of military police parading through the streets and training their guns under the bridges so they could shoot anybody who tried to escape to the West by swimming along the river. I could not see how all this authoritarianism benefited people either mentally or physically. Some people seemed to be near starvation, and the streets of East Berlin seemed to have more horses and carts than cars.
When I got to describing my cynicism at seeing a newspaper poster saying ‘Walter Ulbricht 99 per cent certain of being elected’, I realised just how agitated Ralph had become. He sprang to Ulbricht’s defence, and appeared to be blind to the East German dictator’s failings — he even refused to condemn the building of the Berlin Wall. I realised that Ralph was an enthusiast for the very regimes I had come to hate. In my three years at LSE as an undergraduate, I had sat through many a lecture and coffee bar discussion in which Marxists looked forward to the contradictions in capitalism leading to its collapse and to the advent of the dictatorship of the proletariat. But I was appalled by how hardline Ralph Miliband was. He must have known of the hardship suffered by people in Communist countries, but for him, I suppose, the end justified the means. The Communist countries were heading towards a Marxist heaven. There might be teething problems on the way; but things were better in East Germany than in Britain.
Ralph did not hate Britain. He just wanted to make it better by transforming it into a Communist state, and that meant destroying a lot of Britain’s social institutions because they promoted and buttressed social in-equality. The dictatorship of the proletariat would be preferable to Harold Wilson’s Labour government." http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/9057391/you-will-pay/
Many of us in the 50's & 60's could see the direction Britain was taking, and it was a direction which we expected would end up where we are now, albeit less divided.
There's a film about E Germany, made about 10 years ago by a British student, called "My DDR T-Shirt", which makes it clear that for many people East Germany was stumbling in the right direction. Obviously no-one would defend the Stasi, but I repeat ... stumbling in the right direction!
It was a prison camp for 16.5 million people!! Stumbling in the right direction! You were shot at for trying to stumble out in any other direction than that dictated by Ulbricht or Honecker, and imprisoned if you survived that. It only survived by incarcerating its citizens and using the latent threat of the Red Army to keep them in line. As soon as that threat was removed de facto by Gorbachev the place lasted about a month.
I'm not as old (or as venerable) as you, but I remember going to University in 1967 and joining the Socialist Society. A bit of a culture shock. All these posh middle-class kids getting into a lather over their hate figures. The biggest surprise was one hate-filled rant about John Lennon. Had they possessed the erudition of Mr Eagles, they would no doubt have described him as a traitorous pig-dog.
The lyrics to 'Revolution' included the following treacherous lines ...
"But when you want money for people with minds that hate, All I can tell you is brother you have to wait."
Hmm, I thought, he's a pop singer so what's the fuss. It was basically that he was trying to lead the working class away from the true faith. It troubled me as their minds were clearly focused on enemies rather than friends.
I grew out of it, as many do and I look back on it with amusement. But Ralph probably didn't.
I'd forgive for being naive as a kid, but in old age, it seems a bit odd. Still, there's still time for his lad - he's only a boy.
Cycle free, I'm sure you are as bored with this as I am ''But I do wish people would stop pretending that tax avoidance is something wicked only done by big bad companies when in fact lots and lots of us are busy doing the same. ''
Repeat: ISA and other business tax allowances like capital allowances are government sponsored schemes- schemes to help the economy and thus all the rest of us. Front, 'brass plate', companies are specifically designed to defraude us all. These people cheat. We are entitled to be angry with them. I support a govt that rightly offers low and reasonable taxes to all companies. As such I know when I am being exploited and whose fault it is.
It has been an interesting debate thank you.
I can assure you that, as someone who pays my taxes and a lot of them, I'm pretty peeved when I see others - considerably richer than me, getting away with scams!
Don't think Churchill was a Red. Maybe he did not have a soul. Apparently. Pretty sure there were many others.
Still, Churchill was able to say this about Stalin. In 1942. After the show trials.
'It was an experience of great interest to me to meet Premier Stalin … It is very fortunate for Russia in her agony to have this great rugged war chief at her head. He is a man of massive outstanding personality, suited to the sombre and stormy times in which his life has been cast; a man of inexhaustible courage and will-power and a man direct and even blunt in speech, which, having been brought up in the House of Commons, I do not mind at all, especially when I have something to say of my own. Above all, he is a man with that saving sense of humour which is of high importance to all men and all nations, but particularly to great men and great nations. Stalin also left upon me the impression of a deep, cool wisdom and a complete absence of illusions of any kind. I believe I made him feel that we were good and faithful comrades in this war – but that, after all, is a matter which deeds not words will prove.,
MD Link, source to what..? The face to face..I thought Labour Uncut had said there would be a debate.. On them being fools?.. dyor.. on lotsa popcorn..no real evidence it will be consumed except by my self.
Don't think Churchill was a Red. Maybe he did not have a soul. Apparently. Pretty sure there were many others.
Still, Churchill was able to say this about Stalin. In 1942. After the show trials.
'It was an experience of great interest to me to meet Premier Stalin … It is very fortunate for Russia in her agony to have this great rugged war chief at her head. He is a man of massive outstanding personality, suited to the sombre and stormy times in which his life has been cast; a man of inexhaustible courage and will-power and a man direct and even blunt in speech, which, having been brought up in the House of Commons, I do not mind at all, especially when I have something to say of my own. Above all, he is a man with that saving sense of humour which is of high importance to all men and all nations, but particularly to great men and great nations. Stalin also left upon me the impression of a deep, cool wisdom and a complete absence of illusions of any kind. I believe I made him feel that we were good and faithful comrades in this war – but that, after all, is a matter which deeds not words will prove.,
Anyone know why war hero Churchill was so heavily defeated in 1945 election.
My A Level history stopped at 1939 so never really understood why.
Jessica Ennis-Hill wants name removed from stand if Ched Evans given contract Sheffield United fan and Olympic gold medallist makes request after released convicted rapist is accepted back for training.
You can tell how dire it is for Ed that Henry feels the need to write this puff piece rather than make a serious contribution.
The final paragraph is the most important. Miliband has sprung surprises on Cameron before with the energy price freeze, Syria and the banks. Whether you agree with them or not (I don't) they caught No.10 off guard, and gave Miliband the initiative. Cameron was forced to respond, which made him look like he wasn't leading the agenda.
We know Cameron can take his eye off the ball when it looks ok, so the greatest danger for the Tories now is complacency. They must fight Miliband like a terrier down to the wire, or risk being ambushed during the election campaign unexpectedly and their messaging derailed.
Jessica Ennis-Hill wants name removed from stand if Ched Evans given contract Sheffield United fan and Olympic gold medallist makes request after released convicted rapist is accepted back for training.
Mr. Taffys, maybe he'll try and persuade London to trial ethnic minority quotas.
Mr. Owls, saw that a short time ago. I would guess the team will have to send him on his way. Sponsors may well leave next.
On Churchill: this is horrendously recent, but my understanding is that he basically did sod all campaigning, expecting to cruise to victory. I saw some footage of him (in 1945) actually being booed by the electorate, which was bloody weird.
Also worth considering there'd been the stress of the war and I'd guess people then were very receptive to the idea of a new peacetime PM.
Earlier today when bigjohnwls was having a go at Starbucks I asked about how much tax they'd paid as a percentage of their profits under the Lab government compared to since under the coalition. He seamlessly switched to going at Vodafone.
Haven't read the intervening posts so don't know if it's been asked, but does he think that the pretty huge costs of 3G & 4G licenses should count against their uk profits?
Jessica Ennis-Hill wants name removed from stand if Ched Evans given contract Sheffield United fan and Olympic gold medallist makes request after released convicted rapist is accepted back for training.
My office is enjoying Sheffield United suffering.
Cant understand what they are thinking of.
I reckon Adidas will threaten to pull the kit soon and that may be the penny dropping moment.
You definitely staying over in London next Friday BTW? You are welcome to a lift if not.
Jessica Ennis-Hill wants name removed from stand if Ched Evans given contract Sheffield United fan and Olympic gold medallist makes request after released convicted rapist is accepted back for training.
My office is enjoying Sheffield United suffering.
Shouldn't that have been, ideally, posted on a Wednesday?
Jessica Ennis-Hill wants name removed from stand if Ched Evans given contract Sheffield United fan and Olympic gold medallist makes request after released convicted rapist is accepted back for training.
My office is enjoying Sheffield United suffering.
Cant understand what they are thinking of.
I reckon Adidas will threaten to pull the kit soon and that may be the penny dropping moment.
You definitely staying over in London next Friday BTW? You are welcome to a lift if not.
Yep have a bed booked , if I've made the effort to get down to the smoke might as well make a proper job of it.
On the corporation tax issue: the entire media circus is hugely and deliberately overblown, as shown by the fact that most of the articles highlight the companies turnover and then complain on them not paying much profit tax.
Amazon, for example, famously makes very little profit (which I've often seen as a subject for discussion: are they sacrificing profit in the race for monopoly? How does Bezos keep shareholders content? Snide comments by a Microsoft executive over the lack of Amazon profits over decades compared with Microsoft). Vodafone has genuinely reinvested their smaller than usual profits in infrastructure. A low or zero liability of profit tax on legitimately low or zero net profits is no more immoral than a low or zero payment of income tax when you've got a low or zero income.
There are genuinely dodgy cases out there, but these are lost in the click-bait media circus.
Sarah Palin on 2016 [H]e asked again, “Would you be open to a Presidential run yourself?” Governor Palin answered, “Of course. Anybody who loves this country as much as I and you do, anyone who has the willingness and ability to do so, would be crazy to say no, at least to the possibility of thinking about it.”
I'm no fan of the Blades but there is an element of hypocrisy here.
You may remember Lee Hughes. "In August 2004, he was sentenced to six years imprisonment for causing death by dangerous driving following a fatal crash on 23 November 2003. He returned to the professional game after being released half-way through his sentence in August 2007."
TBH, no, but again I refer you to that film. It was quite surprising to me how many of those interviewed looked back on the DDR with affection.
Know exactly what you mean by the incessant spying, but even then it appeared that, once the situation changed, how many looked back positively. I think that what they saw as different was the the "new Germany" was much more motivated by greed.
I'm no fan of the Blades but there is an element of hypocrisy here.
You may remember Lee Hughes. "In August 2004, he was sentenced to six years imprisonment for causing death by dangerous driving following a fatal crash on 23 November 2003. He returned to the professional game after being released half-way through his sentence in August 2007."
I don't remember a similar outcry.
That is because Trial by Social Media and the rise of the Social Justice Warrior hadn't happened then.
I am in no way defending rapists - but I will defend the right of any prisoner to try to rebuild their lives to the best of their ability after they have been judged by the criminal justice system to have served their time and are released back into the community.
Earlier today when bigjohnwls was having a go at Starbucks I asked about how much tax they'd paid as a percentage of their profits under the Lab government compared to since under the coalition. He seamlessly switched to going at Vodafone.
Haven't read the intervening posts so don't know if it's been asked, but does he think that the pretty huge costs of 3G & 4G licenses should count against their uk profits?
In answer to your first question its too little and too little ie Zero until customer boycotts started to bite in 2013.
Re Vodaphone as with other companies uk arm is loss making due to extortionate charges for services from overseas divisions.
@andrejpwalker: I think #UKIP might be regretting not advertising tonight's Farage public meeting in #RochesterandStrood more widely. http://t.co/7enAEz6bhQ
Jessica Ennis-Hill wants name removed from stand if Ched Evans given contract Sheffield United fan and Olympic gold medallist makes request after released convicted rapist is accepted back for training.
Has anyone done more than Ken Livingstone to make Labour toxic across the southern half of England ?
He knows what he's doing. He thinks racial identity politics will benefit the Left in the long run.
True. It does chill my blood to look back and think that he actually ran London for 8 years with that mindset.
Labour seems very keen on quotas for ethnic minorities for the judiciary and civil service.
Combined with supporting mass unskilled immigration from the third world, it makes sense as a political strategy. They're slowly increasing the share of the population that is poor and will depend on Labour to give them preferential treatment. It will also increase the share of the population with an attachment to British tradition, which is another plus for them.
Of course, it'll screw the country in the meantime, but they don't really seem to care about that.
Don't think Churchill was a Red. Maybe he did not have a soul. Apparently. Pretty sure there were many others.
Still, Churchill was able to say this about Stalin. In 1942. After the show trials.
'It was an experience of great interest to me to meet Premier Stalin … It is very fortunate for Russia in her agony to have this great rugged war chief at her head. He is a man of massive outstanding personality, suited to the sombre and stormy times in which his life has been cast; a man of inexhaustible courage and will-power and a man direct and even blunt in speech, which, having been brought up in the House of Commons, I do not mind at all, especially when I have something to say of my own. Above all, he is a man with that saving sense of humour which is of high importance to all men and all nations, but particularly to great men and great nations. Stalin also left upon me the impression of a deep, cool wisdom and a complete absence of illusions of any kind. I believe I made him feel that we were good and faithful comrades in this war – but that, after all, is a matter which deeds not words will prove.,
Churchill also said "If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons."
Earlier today when bigjohnwls was having a go at Starbucks I asked about how much tax they'd paid as a percentage of their profits under the Lab government compared to since under the coalition. He seamlessly switched to going at Vodafone.
Haven't read the intervening posts so don't know if it's been asked, but does he think that the pretty huge costs of 3G & 4G licenses should count against their uk profits?
In answer to your first question its too little and too little ie Zero until customer boycotts started to bite in 2013.
Re Vodaphone as with other companies uk arm is loss making due to extortionate charges for services from overseas divisions.
Do you really think its ok?
I think that they should pay the tax that they're legally obliged to pay. Do you disagree with that?
Have the laws that allow them to pay tax elsewhere at a lower rate been formulated by this government? Did the labour government address it?
And you haven't answered the simple question I asked you.
Earlier today when bigjohnwls was having a go at Starbucks I asked about how much tax they'd paid as a percentage of their profits under the Lab government compared to since under the coalition. He seamlessly switched to going at Vodafone.
Haven't read the intervening posts so don't know if it's been asked, but does he think that the pretty huge costs of 3G & 4G licenses should count against their uk profits?
In answer to your first question its too little and too little ie Zero until customer boycotts started to bite in 2013.
Re Vodaphone as with other companies uk arm is loss making due to extortionate charges for services from overseas divisions.
Do you really think its ok?
Vodafone made £294m operating profit in the UK. According to the Guardian article lamenting its zero bill, it's due to Vodafone setting infrastructure costs against it (completely in accordance with the spirit and intent of the law), debt charges and repayment of debt incurred in the UK (also completely in accordance with the spirit and intent of the law).
Has anyone done more than Ken Livingstone to make Labour toxic across the southern half of England ?
He knows what he's doing. He thinks racial identity politics will benefit the Left in the long run.
True. It does chill my blood to look back and think that he actually ran London for 8 years with that mindset.
Labour seems very keen on quotas for ethnic minorities for the judiciary and civil service.
Combined with supporting mass unskilled immigration from the third world, it makes sense as a political strategy. They're slowly increasing the share of the population that is poor and will depend on Labour to give them preferential treatment. It will also increase the share of the population with an attachment to British tradition, which is another plus for them.
Of course, it'll screw the country in the meantime, but they don't really seem to care about that.
It would be a very good strategy for Labour, if UKIP didn't exist.
TBH, no, but again I refer you to that film. It was quite surprising to me how many of those interviewed looked back on the DDR with affection.
Know exactly what you mean by the incessant spying, but even then it appeared that, once the situation changed, how many looked back positively. I think that what they saw as different was the the "new Germany" was much more motivated by greed.
Granted die Linke poll a registersble number ( 10%ish?) in the old GDR which is probably the remnants of the actual SED support and a few hangers on but but but, the place was held together at the point of a gun. Sure there's always the odd thing to be nostalgic about ( kindergarten care? No unemployment? Or even the Ampelmaennchen road crossing man!) but I fail utterly to see how these isolated things possibly justified the utter oppression of anyone who didn't agree with the regime.
I will never forget the procession of Trabants pouring west on the Helmstedt to Dortmund autobahn in Mid November 89. One about every 400 yds in the slow lane, loaded with their earthly possessions leaving the workers' paradise while they could ( they didn't trust it was permanent at that point ). None of them saw it as stumbling in the right direction. It was an evil place run by evil people.
By the way - tylluan - da iawn. There's a pub in Cardiff called the Gwdihw which is "twit to woo" in Welsh I believe.
PB - the only place on the web where Cold War politics is combined with bird noises in Celtic languages
So EdM throws out a challenge..or was it just hot air again..to debate UKIP, and what it really is.The baton is picked up by the leader of UKIP and EdM immediately scurries off..Terrific.. This Miliband lad should go far in the International Political Community.. or cry a lot. The boy lacks courage..
Don't think Churchill was a Red. Maybe he did not have a soul. Apparently. Pretty sure there were many others.
Still, Churchill was able to say this about Stalin. In 1942. After the show trials.
'It was an experience of great interest to me to meet Premier Stalin … It is very fortunate for Russia in her agony to have this great rugged war chief at her head. He is a man of massive outstanding personality, suited to the sombre and stormy times in which his life has been cast; a man of inexhaustible courage and will-power and a man direct and even blunt in speech, which, having been brought up in the House of Commons, I do not mind at all, especially when I have something to say of my own. Above all, he is a man with that saving sense of humour which is of high importance to all men and all nations, but particularly to great men and great nations. Stalin also left upon me the impression of a deep, cool wisdom and a complete absence of illusions of any kind. I believe I made him feel that we were good and faithful comrades in this war – but that, after all, is a matter which deeds not words will prove.,
Churchill also said "If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons."
But would he have indulged in the levels of ass kissing he managed with Uncle Joe? Though I believe that is in fact literally Satan's preferred form of homage.
Has anyone done more than Ken Livingstone to make Labour toxic across the southern half of England ?
He knows what he's doing. He thinks racial identity politics will benefit the Left in the long run.
True. It does chill my blood to look back and think that he actually ran London for 8 years with that mindset.
Labour seems very keen on quotas for ethnic minorities for the judiciary and civil service.
Combined with supporting mass unskilled immigration from the third world, it makes sense as a political strategy. They're slowly increasing the share of the population that is poor and will depend on Labour to give them preferential treatment. It will also increase the share of the population with an attachment to British tradition, which is another plus for them.
Of course, it'll screw the country in the meantime, but they don't really seem to care about that.
It would be a very good strategy for Labour, if UKIP didn't exist.
How many years did it take to only frame immigration in EU terms to third world immigration. Even Mrs Duffy didn't dare in case the hounds of hell were let loose on her.
So EdM throws out a challenge..or was it just hot air again..to debate UKIP, and what it really is.The baton is picked up by the leader of UKIP and EdM immediately scurries off..Terrific.. This Miliband lad should go far in the International Political Community.. or cry a lot. The boy lacks courage..
He technically called for a debate about UKIP not with....
Have Lab supporters really been convinced by that half-arsed speech today?
If any have, can they please summarise the main points from that speech that have enthused them thus?
I heard it and I've reread it and all he seems to say is "I'm not crap, Labour aren't crap, but Con & UKIP are, and this country is unjust and unequal and unfair"
Earlier today when bigjohnwls was having a go at Starbucks I asked about how much tax they'd paid as a percentage of their profits under the Lab government compared to since under the coalition. He seamlessly switched to going at Vodafone.
Haven't read the intervening posts so don't know if it's been asked, but does he think that the pretty huge costs of 3G & 4G licenses should count against their uk profits?
In answer to your first question its too little and too little ie Zero until customer boycotts started to bite in 2013.
Re Vodaphone as with other companies uk arm is loss making due to extortionate charges for services from overseas divisions.
Do you really think its ok?
I think that they should pay the tax that they're legally obliged to pay. Do you disagree with that?
Have the laws that allow them to pay tax elsewhere at a lower rate been formulated by this government? Did the labour government address it?
And you haven't answered the simple question I asked you.
Yes i have
I said Ed would have more balls to sort out the zero/zero economy.
Previous and current Govts haven't done and i also think companies have an obligation to pay taxes rather than doing everything they can get away with to avoid them.
I'm no fan of the Blades but there is an element of hypocrisy here.
You may remember Lee Hughes. "In August 2004, he was sentenced to six years imprisonment for causing death by dangerous driving following a fatal crash on 23 November 2003. He returned to the professional game after being released half-way through his sentence in August 2007."
I don't remember a similar outcry.
That is because Trial by Social Media and the rise of the Social Justice Warrior hadn't happened then.
I am in no way defending rapists - but I will defend the right of any prisoner to try to rebuild their lives to the best of their ability after they have been judged by the criminal justice system to have served their time and are released back into the community.
I doubt he will ever be able to work again in his chosen field. The PC brigade will see to that.
Earlier today when bigjohnwls was having a go at Starbucks I asked about how much tax they'd paid as a percentage of their profits under the Lab government compared to since under the coalition. He seamlessly switched to going at Vodafone.
Haven't read the intervening posts so don't know if it's been asked, but does he think that the pretty huge costs of 3G & 4G licenses should count against their uk profits?
In answer to your first question its too little and too little ie Zero until customer boycotts started to bite in 2013.
Re Vodaphone as with other companies uk arm is loss making due to extortionate charges for services from overseas divisions.
Do you really think its ok?
I think that they should pay the tax that they're legally obliged to pay. Do you disagree with that?
Have the laws that allow them to pay tax elsewhere at a lower rate been formulated by this government? Did the labour government address it?
And you haven't answered the simple question I asked you.
Yes i have
I said Ed would have more balls to sort out the zero/zero economy.
Previous and current Govts haven't done and i also think companies have an obligation to pay taxes rather than doing everything they can get away with to avoid them.
Have Lab supporters really been convinced by that half-arsed speech today?
If any have, can they please summarise the main points from that speech that have enthused them thus?
I heard it and I've reread it and all he seems to say is "I'm not crap, Labour aren't crap, but Con & UKIP are, and this country is unjust and unequal and unfair"
What did I miss?
I liked this part of his speech
An £8 minimum wage.
An end to the exploitation of zero hours contracts.
Freezing energy bills until 2017.
Putting our young people back to work.
Paying down the deficit and doing it fairly.
Reforming our banks so that they work for small businesses.
Cutting business rates.
Apprenticeships alongside every government contract.
Building 200,000 homes a year.
Abolishing the bedroom tax.
Tackling tax avoidance.
Hiring more doctors, nurses, midwives and careworkers, and putting the right values back at the heart of the NHS and repealing the Health and Social Care Act.
That’s a plan to build a country that works for everyday people, and not just a privileged few.
A recovery that works for you and your family.
The next generation doing better than the last.
The NHS there when you need it.
We’re less than six months from the general election.
We’re in a fight but it is our fight to win.
Millions of people in this country are resting their hopes on us.
The Electoral Commission has released figured from the last quarter which show that the Tories got £1.34 million in donations from hedge funds. This makes the total coming from hedge funds to the Tories a staggering £51.1 million.
It’s also worth noting (and surely not entirely unconnected…) that in 2013 Osborne also gave hedge funds a tax cut totally £145 million.
TBH, no, but again I refer you to that film. It was quite surprising to me how many of those interviewed looked back on the DDR with affection.
Know exactly what you mean by the incessant spying, but even then it appeared that, once the situation changed, how many looked back positively. I think that what they saw as different was the the "new Germany" was much more motivated by greed.
Granted die Linke poll a registersble number ( 10%ish?) in the old GDR which is probably the remnants of the actual SED support and a few hangers on but but but, the place was held together at the point of a gun. Sure there's always the odd thing to be nostalgic about ( kindergarten care? No unemployment? Or even the Ampelmaennchen road crossing man!) but I fail utterly to see how these isolated things possibly justified the utter oppression of anyone who didn't agree with the regime.
I will never forget the procession of Trabants pouring west on the Helmstedt to Dortmund autobahn in Mid November 89. One about every 400 yds in the slow lane, loaded with their earthly possessions leaving the workers' paradise while they could ( they didn't trust it was permanent at that point ). None of them saw it as stumbling in the right direction. It was an evil place run by evil people.
By the way - tylluan - da iawn. There's a pub in Cardiff called the Gwdihw which is "twit to woo" in Welsh I believe.
PB - the only place on the web where Cold War politics is combined with bird noises in Celtic languages
I don't know; last night I went to lecture on Wallace, Darwin's co-worker on evolution and learned something about 19th C Welsh Land Law!
The Trabant was a disgrace to German engineering. On holiday in Hungary in the early 90's my wife and I walked up an (admittedly fairly steep) hill. En route we passed a Trabant going in the same direction.
Comments
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Miliband
Shame he did not denounce Stalinism during the Show Trials. Would have given him more credibility.
Clue: Rochester is next week.
Sounds like bobajob, fett, and the last Boy Scout were at the meeting
"Rahman also “utterly rejected” any suggestion that he had been “implementing policies designed to benefit any section of the community above others.” The evidence for Rahman’s favouritism towards the Muslim community is set out in exhaustive detail here.
Lutfur's base, along with a sprinkling of the stupidest middle-class white lefties in London, attended a public meeting last night to defend Rahman – as did Ken Livingstone and George Galloway (hold on: wasn’t Halloween last month?) The meeting turned into yet another PR disaster for Rahman after Livingstone told the audience to find out the home addresses of the Government commissioners sent in to run the council and "make their lives intolerable." As you will remember, intimidation is already one of the main charges against Rahman's supporters.'
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewgilligan/100289986/lutfur-rahman-is-he-the-biggest-liar-in-london/
Oh dear too late never mind
Neo kippers though love the NHS. So I repeat he is lying to someone and giving the wink and nod to someone else.
I agree, the membership is largely united behind Ed.Few in the Party doubt his sincerity. It is now up to Ed and the shadow cabinet to get that message out to the public.
Getting equal access to something immigrants never contributed to causes resentment amongst the host population.
You can have open borders or free healthcare, but not both.
Like him, no doubt.
TBF he'd have been 12-14 years old.
And all Itajai can find to say is that Laski, who helped his friend do his duty by his adopted country, was a Stalinist fellow-traveller. IIRC inaccurately.
Sympathies for the efforts of the Soviet Union in WWII was not confined to fellow travellers.
When I got to describing my cynicism at seeing a newspaper poster saying ‘Walter Ulbricht 99 per cent certain of being elected’, I realised just how agitated Ralph had become. He sprang to Ulbricht’s defence, and appeared to be blind to the East German dictator’s failings — he even refused to condemn the building of the Berlin Wall. I realised that Ralph was an enthusiast for the very regimes I had come to hate. In my three years at LSE as an undergraduate, I had sat through many a lecture and coffee bar discussion in which Marxists looked forward to the contradictions in capitalism leading to its collapse and to the advent of the dictatorship of the proletariat. But I was appalled by how hardline Ralph Miliband was. He must have known of the hardship suffered by people in Communist countries, but for him, I suppose, the end justified the means. The Communist countries were heading towards a Marxist heaven. There might be teething problems on the way; but things were better in East Germany than in Britain.
Ralph did not hate Britain. He just wanted to make it better by transforming it into a Communist state, and that meant destroying a lot of Britain’s social institutions because they promoted and buttressed social in-equality. The dictatorship of the proletariat would be preferable to Harold Wilson’s Labour government."
http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/9057391/you-will-pay/
This should be good.
So he became a Marxist after the Show Trials. Although these were going on in different forms through to 1953. I presume he had nothing of any use to say over the Leningrad Affair. Or, to be fair, the gulags.
But in this case they were fellow travellers.
It may be that these LD to LAB switchers were "going home" to Labour having previously left over the Iraq war.
There's a film about E Germany, made about 10 years ago by a British student, called "My DDR T-Shirt", which makes it clear that for many people East Germany was stumbling in the right direction. Obviously no-one would defend the Stasi, but I repeat ... stumbling in the right direction!
See English students in Scottish universities as an example of this effect.
Catholic schools in England as an example of host resentment of immigrants.
But if that is the best he can do, all it means is that he might lose with a bit of dignity.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/ed-miliband-speech-7-quotes-that-show-how-hell-go-down-fighting-9858701.html
I would say he could do another resit, but Gove got rid of those. So time for Miliband to appeal his grade as every kid seems to do these days.
Pretty sure there were many others.
''But I do wish people would stop pretending that tax avoidance is something wicked only done by big bad companies when in fact lots and lots of us are busy doing the same. ''
Repeat: ISA and other business tax allowances like capital allowances are government sponsored schemes- schemes to help the economy and thus all the rest of us.
Front, 'brass plate', companies are specifically designed to defraude us all. These people cheat.
We are entitled to be angry with them. I support a govt that rightly offers low and reasonable taxes to all companies. As such I know when I am being exploited and whose fault it is.
What is the substance of the Miliband speech? Where are the specific, costed and timed proposals to demonstrate the change that he claims he wants to bring about? Where are the details?
As ever with a Miliband relaunch - completely missing.
His flagship policy of an energy price freeze has unravelled. He and his team keep promising to spend the same pot of money over and over and over again.
He has lost the right to be listened to and is doing nothing to regain that.
The perception of Miliband is appallingly poor. Not even Labour party members see him as a credible PM in waiting.
It is too late to change that. It is too late to change the leader. The only course of action is to mitigate the size of the defeat and work out who is best to lead going forward.
Hiding your heads in the sand and thinking that 60,000 tweets prove anything only makes you part of the problem.
Courtesy of Gove/May
Ever go there??
I'm not as old (or as venerable) as you, but I remember going to University in 1967 and joining the Socialist Society. A bit of a culture shock. All these posh middle-class kids getting into a lather over their hate figures. The biggest surprise was one hate-filled rant about John Lennon. Had they possessed the erudition of Mr Eagles, they would no doubt have described him as a traitorous pig-dog.
The lyrics to 'Revolution' included the following treacherous lines ...
"But when you want money for people with minds that hate,
All I can tell you is brother you have to wait."
Hmm, I thought, he's a pop singer so what's the fuss. It was basically that he was trying to lead the working class away from the true faith. It troubled me as their minds were clearly focused on enemies rather than friends.
I grew out of it, as many do and I look back on it with amusement. But Ralph probably didn't.
I'd forgive for being naive as a kid, but in old age, it seems a bit odd. Still, there's still time for his lad - he's only a boy.
I can assure you that, as someone who pays my taxes and a lot of them, I'm pretty peeved when I see others - considerably richer than me, getting away with scams!
'It was an experience of great interest to me to meet Premier Stalin … It is very fortunate for Russia in her agony to have this great rugged war chief at her head. He is a man of massive outstanding personality, suited to the sombre and stormy times in which his life has been cast; a man of inexhaustible courage and will-power and a man direct and even blunt in speech, which, having been brought up in the House of Commons, I do not mind at all, especially when I have something to say of my own. Above all, he is a man with that saving sense of humour which is of high importance to all men and all nations, but particularly to great men and great nations. Stalin also left upon me the impression of a deep, cool wisdom and a complete absence of illusions of any kind. I believe I made him feel that we were good and faithful comrades in this war – but that, after all, is a matter which deeds not words will prove.,
He's not the only one.
Why else did Labour import 3m+ voters?
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/david-camerons-hopes-of-feelgood-election-boost-are-dashed-as-80-per-cent-say-recovery-is-not-helping-9858273.html
My A Level history stopped at 1939 so never really understood why.
Sheffield United fan and Olympic gold medallist makes request after released convicted rapist is accepted back for training.
Sadiq Khan's offering will be along the same lines, I would have thought.
We know Cameron can take his eye off the ball when it looks ok, so the greatest danger for the Tories now is complacency. They must fight Miliband like a terrier down to the wire, or risk being ambushed during the election campaign unexpectedly and their messaging derailed.
Mr. Owls, saw that a short time ago. I would guess the team will have to send him on his way. Sponsors may well leave next.
On Churchill: this is horrendously recent, but my understanding is that he basically did sod all campaigning, expecting to cruise to victory. I saw some footage of him (in 1945) actually being booed by the electorate, which was bloody weird.
Also worth considering there'd been the stress of the war and I'd guess people then were very receptive to the idea of a new peacetime PM.
Haven't read the intervening posts so don't know if it's been asked, but does he think that the pretty huge costs of 3G & 4G licenses should count against their uk profits?
I reckon Adidas will threaten to pull the kit soon and that may be the penny dropping moment.
You definitely staying over in London next Friday BTW? You are welcome to a lift if not.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/11228886/Sir-John-Major-tells-Germans-Britain-has-a-50-50-chance-of-quitting-EU.html
http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2014/11/andrew-lilico-the-32-per-cent-strategy.html
Amazon, for example, famously makes very little profit (which I've often seen as a subject for discussion: are they sacrificing profit in the race for monopoly? How does Bezos keep shareholders content? Snide comments by a Microsoft executive over the lack of Amazon profits over decades compared with Microsoft). Vodafone has genuinely reinvested their smaller than usual profits in infrastructure. A low or zero liability of profit tax on legitimately low or zero net profits is no more immoral than a low or zero payment of income tax when you've got a low or zero income.
There are genuinely dodgy cases out there, but these are lost in the click-bait media circus.
[H]e asked again, “Would you be open to a Presidential run yourself?” Governor Palin answered, “Of course. Anybody who loves this country as much as I and you do, anyone who has the willingness and ability to do so, would be crazy to say no, at least to the possibility of thinking about it.”
http://sarahpalininformation.wordpress.com/2014/11/05/gov-palin-as-to-whether-she-would-be-open-to-a-2016-presidential-run-of-course/
Deluded!
I'm no fan of the Blades but there is an element of hypocrisy here.
You may remember Lee Hughes. "In August 2004, he was sentenced to six years imprisonment for causing death by dangerous driving following a fatal crash on 23 November 2003. He returned to the professional game after being released half-way through his sentence in August 2007."
I don't remember a similar outcry.
TBH, no, but again I refer you to that film. It was quite surprising to me how many of those interviewed looked back on the DDR with affection.
Know exactly what you mean by the incessant spying, but even then it appeared that, once the situation changed, how many looked back positively. I think that what they saw as different was the the "new Germany" was much more motivated by greed.
Brent crude drops through $77.50 level
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election#Graphical_summary
I am in no way defending rapists - but I will defend the right of any prisoner to try to rebuild their lives to the best of their ability after they have been judged by the criminal justice system to have served their time and are released back into the community.
Re Vodaphone as with other companies uk arm is loss making due to extortionate charges for services from overseas divisions.
Do you really think its ok?
Of course, it'll screw the country in the meantime, but they don't really seem to care about that.
Have the laws that allow them to pay tax elsewhere at a lower rate been formulated by this government? Did the labour government address it?
And you haven't answered the simple question I asked you.
I will never forget the procession of Trabants pouring west on the Helmstedt to Dortmund autobahn in Mid November 89. One about every 400 yds in the slow lane, loaded with their earthly possessions leaving the workers' paradise while they could ( they didn't trust it was permanent at that point ). None of them saw it as stumbling in the right direction. It was an evil place run by evil people.
By the way - tylluan - da iawn. There's a pub in Cardiff called the Gwdihw which is "twit to woo" in Welsh I believe.
PB - the only place on the web where Cold War politics is combined with bird noises in Celtic languages
This Miliband lad should go far in the International Political Community.. or cry a lot.
The boy lacks courage..
But would he have indulged in the levels of ass kissing he managed with Uncle Joe? Though I believe that is in fact literally Satan's preferred form of homage.
If any have, can they please summarise the main points from that speech that have enthused them thus?
I heard it and I've reread it and all he seems to say is "I'm not crap, Labour aren't crap, but Con & UKIP are, and this country is unjust and unequal and unfair"
What did I miss?
I said Ed would have more balls to sort out the zero/zero economy.
Previous and current Govts haven't done and i also think companies have an obligation to pay taxes rather than doing everything they can get away with to avoid them.
You really think the attached is OK?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/vodafones-84bn-tax-avoidance-bonanza-nothing-for-taxpayers-in-verizon-deal-while-bankers-share-500m-in-fees-8794169.html
No you haven't.
Have you got an ISA?
http://insidecroydon.com/2012/11/05/on-the-campaign-trail-how-not-to-be-pictured/
An £8 minimum wage.
An end to the exploitation of zero hours contracts.
Freezing energy bills until 2017.
Putting our young people back to work.
Paying down the deficit and doing it fairly.
Reforming our banks so that they work for small businesses.
Cutting business rates.
Apprenticeships alongside every government contract.
Building 200,000 homes a year.
Abolishing the bedroom tax.
Tackling tax avoidance.
Hiring more doctors, nurses, midwives and careworkers, and putting the right values back at the heart of the NHS and repealing the Health and Social Care Act.
That’s a plan to build a country that works for everyday people, and not just a privileged few.
A recovery that works for you and your family.
The next generation doing better than the last.
The NHS there when you need it.
We’re less than six months from the general election.
We’re in a fight but it is our fight to win.
Millions of people in this country are resting their hopes on us.
We can’t let them down.
It’s also worth noting (and surely not entirely unconnected…) that in 2013 Osborne also gave hedge funds a tax cut totally £145 million.
The Trabant was a disgrace to German engineering. On holiday in Hungary in the early 90's my wife and I walked up an (admittedly fairly steep) hill. En route we passed a Trabant going in the same direction.