Good article on recent occurrences in the Orient. Although it ignores US shale oil will soon go bankrupt at this oil price as evidended by the collapse in the bond prices of producers.
Fascinating read. Thanks for that.
Yes, he agrees there's trouble brewing in Ukraine. What I didn't know was that S Arabia had dropped its prices and some of the thought as to why that was. Obama being useless is not news.
Not sure US shale 'going bankrupt' means much, it's not a state play, they're private businesses and the US don't export oil and gas yet so as far as I know they are not affected as much by global prices, just their own overproduction. Congress just signed the KXL pipeline off.
Amazingly I thought it was illegal for the US to export oil and gas. Except to Canada.
"More than 2,000 shop floor staff at Sports Direct are set for a life-changing windfall after record profits at the fast-growing, cheap-and-cheerful chain triggered a bonus payout that will see workers who earn £20,000 a year banking payouts of £100,000 each."
Evil capitalist bastards, paying their large bonuses to the fat cats at er...the shop floor... (some mistake surely?)
It's a brilliant poster so long as people forget Mark Reckless was the Tory candidate for the last three elections.
What they should have put on the poster.
Kelly Tolhurst, lovely English rose and not a traitorous pig dog.
Mark Reckless, a slap headed, PPE posh boy traitorous pig dog.
Surely "The local choice" would have been better?
The "straight choice" is a very common format when you are trying to attract tacticals as this CON leaflet is doing.
We have first past the post and a lot of people don't want to waste their vote on a loser but have an impact on the outcome.
I suppose also it's implying straight in the sense of honest - i.e. Reckless is a devious and mendacious turncoat.
I'm almost surprised they haven't made rude comments about Reckless being a [apparently practicing] Roman Catholic and therefore not to be trusted.
He is also, if Archbishop Cramner is to be believed, Vice Chairman of All Party Parliamentary Pro-Life Group and "as a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee, he interrogated the DPP Keir Starmer QC, demanding to know why, despite all the manifest evidence of crime and illegality, no doctors have been prosecuted either for authorising abortions without medical examination or terminating pregnancies because the foetus happens to be female."
Good for him. Lets hope he increases his majority on Thursday. Rather puts to bed the idea in some quarters that he is unprincipled, and the idea that there are too few people of religion in the UK to make a difference politically.
The British Vishinsky so politicised the CPS that it only prosecuted politically convenient crimes. "Racist" tweets - tick. Protestors with behead those who oppose Islam - no tick. Pointing out sex crimes among the Pakistani community - tick. Prosecuting sex crimes committed by the Pakistani community - no tick. FGM - no tick.
Sturgeon suggests the SNP might prop up a Labour government but wouldn't prop up a Tory government. But my main incentive for voting SNP was to screw Labour. I'm really struggling to find someone to vote for this time....
With SNP MPs not voting on England only issues how could they prop Labour up anyway? It seems to me the SNP have much more to gain from a Tory government and EV4EL.
Sturgeon suggests the SNP might prop up a Labour government but wouldn't prop up a Tory government. But my main incentive for voting SNP was to screw Labour. I'm really struggling to find someone to vote for this time....
With SNP MPs not voting on England only issues how could they prop Labour up anyway? It seems to me the SNP have much more to gain from a Tory government and EV4EL.
The SNP are a socialist party. Voters have to decide what they want.
A casual voter may not have noticed how this Oxford PPE pointscorer was their Con MP so recently.
Talk about people in glasshouses throwing stones. I wonder if the Tories will be deploying similar posters in places like Witney at the coming GE lol.
Both sound pretty repellent to me. I would vote for neither.
But it's fun seeing the Tories trying for the class war vote, innit?
Nominations closed in our borough council by-election (Dec 11) on Friday. No LibDem candidate, even though they got 20% there last time. It's the safest Tory ward (Toton) but UKIP (who initiated the by-election) and Labour are having a go. Lots of local issues - HS2 was going to be sited here, but now probably isn't and 500 houses are being built on the Green Belt.
It seems to me the SNP have much more to gain from a Tory government and EV4EL.
Agreed. The end game that dare not speak it's name.
It doesn't involve propping up a Tory government; it involves Scotland being freer of England than before. No one who supports them will punish them for doing that deal, surely?
The EU authorities are not the ones that have imposed the sanctions in the UK, they have been imposed by HMG. Therefore, if someone has a case that those sanctions were imposed illegally then that case has to be against HMG and must be heard in the UK courts. The problem seems to arise from the fact that said EU authorities are refusing to provide the evidence on which the decision to impose the sanctions was made and that leaves HMG out on a limb.
A court can only decide on the evidence placed before it. If HMG is unable to provide sufficient evidence to justify its actions then it must expect to lose and the taxpayer to be on the hook for damages. HMG's recourse from there must be an action against the EU authorities and good luck with that.
If the cases are lost and the UK does get hit for substantial damages on the scale suggested by the Speccie then it is likely to become a political matter and I am not sure that the Conservatives or Labour will benefit.
Bank Mellat can only claim damages to the extent that is has lost money. And the court can only award damages that were the direct result of British actions. Now, while the court may find in its favour, there is absolutely no chance of a multi-billion pound settlement, simply because the bank does not have UK operations of a large enough size. If it wins (which it probably won't for the reasons stated by LIAMT), I very much doubt it'd get more than £20m or so.
Did you read the article?
Yes.
And it still seems like a ridiculous sum. Bank Mellat is not that big a bank.
It's total assets are only $62bn. Let's assume it makes a 0.5% return on assets, that would mean it's annual profits are $300m. (As a comparison, Royal Bank of Scotland has almost $2 trillion of assets).
And how much of that profit would be associated with the UK? 5%? 10%?
They might win the case, but they are simply not a big enough bank that the UK's actions can have caused them that degree of loss.
I want a more libertarian approach. It seems no one is offering it at present. At one point UKIP did to some extent, but now they've gone for the key freedom which arises from EU membership (to pander to former Labour voters) I'm disinclined to support them as anything other than a Euro election protest vote.
And I want a coherent answer to the WLQ. A party which won't vote on English matters seems a prime candidate for my vote, but not if it helps Labour at Westminster.
Not that it really matters: my vote will swing nothing in our daft system. Maybe the nutter from the Scottish Jacobite Party will run again and I can vote for him with my conscience intact!
If the oil price is $60, large parts of the US cease to be economic and lots of small (over-indebted) operators will go bust. ...
The shale is not going to go away is it?
No. If prices are high, it will be produced, and if prices are low it will be left in the ground. Tight oil in the US (and Canada, and other places) is going to act as a very effective floor and ceiling on the oil price.
A casual voter may not have noticed how this Oxford PPE pointscorer was their Con MP so recently.
Talk about people in glasshouses throwing stones. I wonder if the Tories will be deploying similar posters in places like Witney at the coming GE lol.
Both sound pretty repellent to me. I would vote for neither.
But it's fun seeing the Tories trying for the class war vote, innit?
Nominations closed in our borough council by-election (Dec 11) on Friday. No LibDem candidate, even though they got 20% there last time. It's the safest Tory ward (Toton) but UKIP (who initiated the by-election) and Labour are having a go. Lots of local issues - HS2 was going to be sited here, but now probably isn't and 500 houses are being built on the Green Belt.
Which party's fault is it we need so much new housing?
Let me guess, is it the party that let tens of millions of immigrants into the country?
Falsflag -- ''Actually sanctions were imposed at the behest of the US not the EU. Still we are a nation of laws so encouraging news.''
Yes It looks the usual excuse for an anti EU rant from someone most of us will never have heard of. You are correct they are world wide sanctions many UN as well as USA inspired. If this bank is innocent then it should not have had sanctions applied. Seems that this is the point. It was us that did it not the EU. But is it innocent?
A casual voter may not have noticed how this Oxford PPE pointscorer was their Con MP so recently.
Talk about people in glasshouses throwing stones. I wonder if the Tories will be deploying similar posters in places like Witney at the coming GE lol.
Both sound pretty repellent to me. I would vote for neither.
But it's fun seeing the Tories trying for the class war vote, innit?
Nominations closed in our borough council by-election (Dec 11) on Friday. No LibDem candidate, even though they got 20% there last time. It's the safest Tory ward (Toton) but UKIP (who initiated the by-election) and Labour are having a go. Lots of local issues - HS2 was going to be sited here, but now probably isn't and 500 houses are being built on the Green Belt.
Which party's fault is it we need so much new housing?
Let me guess, is it the party that let tens of millions of immigrants into the country?
Tens Of Millions ? - Now come on . Exaggeration to such a degree just makes you look an idiot .
Been actually out and about on estates in R area today. Suprising number of undeciding moving towatds Blue and even more UKIP saying will revert to Con at GE
Sports Direct's contemptuous dismissal of Ed's comments really is telling. Clearly they don't think it's even worth responding to the substance of his comments. Has the leader of one of our major parties even been held in such low esteem?
"More than 2,000 shop floor staff at Sports Direct are set for a life-changing windfall after record profits at the fast-growing, cheap-and-cheerful chain triggered a bonus payout that will see workers who earn £20,000 a year banking payouts of £100,000 each."
So, we need x000000 new houses to house Labour's imported voters. Not building new housing means continued pressure on current housing. Building new houses means pressure on the green belt. Where does our hopeful next MP for Broxtowe stand?
Yes - we need new housing for the millions of new immigrants Labour imported for electoral reasons No - no new housing, and so refreshingly at odds with his leader. Protect the green belt, etc
We already know he is happy for foreigners to access any new social housing ahead of locals if their "needs" are higher. The only question is if he will favour fast tracking these foreigners to access existing or new housing.
A casual voter may not have noticed how this Oxford PPE pointscorer was their Con MP so recently.
Talk about people in glasshouses throwing stones. I wonder if the Tories will be deploying similar posters in places like Witney at the coming GE lol.
Both sound pretty repellent to me. I would vote for neither.
But it's fun seeing the Tories trying for the class war vote, innit?
Nominations closed in our borough council by-election (Dec 11) on Friday. No LibDem candidate, even though they got 20% there last time. It's the safest Tory ward (Toton) but UKIP (who initiated the by-election) and Labour are having a go. Lots of local issues - HS2 was going to be sited here, but now probably isn't and 500 houses are being built on the Green Belt.
Which party's fault is it we need so much new housing?
Let me guess, is it the party that let tens of millions of immigrants into the country?
Tens Of Millions ? - Now come on . Exaggeration to such a degree just makes you look an idiot .
Shall we do some basic maths.
You tell me what you think the current UK population is bearing in mind there's no census anymore and people were not required to complete the last one and didn't in large numbers.
A casual voter may not have noticed how this Oxford PPE pointscorer was their Con MP so recently.
Talk about people in glasshouses throwing stones. I wonder if the Tories will be deploying similar posters in places like Witney at the coming GE lol.
Both sound pretty repellent to me. I would vote for neither.
But it's fun seeing the Tories trying for the class war vote, innit?
Nominations closed in our borough council by-election (Dec 11) on Friday. No LibDem candidate, even though they got 20% there last time. It's the safest Tory ward (Toton) but UKIP (who initiated the by-election) and Labour are having a go. Lots of local issues - HS2 was going to be sited here, but now probably isn't and 500 houses are being built on the Green Belt.
Which party's fault is it we need so much new housing?
Let me guess, is it the party that let tens of millions of immigrants into the country?
Tens Of Millions ? - Now come on . Exaggeration to such a degree just makes you look an idiot .
Shall we do some basic maths.
You tell me what you think the current UK population is bearing in mind there's no census anymore and people were not required to complete the last one and didn't in large numbers.
Tens of millions 'large numbers'? That's not credible.
A casual voter may not have noticed how this Oxford PPE pointscorer was their Con MP so recently.
Talk about people in glasshouses throwing stones. I wonder if the Tories will be deploying similar posters in places like Witney at the coming GE lol.
Both sound pretty repellent to me. I would vote for neither.
But it's fun seeing the Tories trying for the class war vote, innit?
Nominations closed in our borough council by-election (Dec 11) on Friday. No LibDem candidate, even though they got 20% there last time. It's the safest Tory ward (Toton) but UKIP (who initiated the by-election) and Labour are having a go. Lots of local issues - HS2 was going to be sited here, but now probably isn't and 500 houses are being built on the Green Belt.
There are some Tories that I would vote for, but these two both make my heart sink.
Though I see no one so far has staked for Labour on the seat.
With a cold wet November and the Tories better organised at postal votes, I have gone for a 1.26% Tory win.
A casual voter may not have noticed how this Oxford PPE pointscorer was their Con MP so recently.
Talk about people in glasshouses throwing stones. I wonder if the Tories will be deploying similar posters in places like Witney at the coming GE lol.
Both sound pretty repellent to me. I would vote for neither.
But it's fun seeing the Tories trying for the class war vote, innit?
Nominations closed in our borough council by-election (Dec 11) on Friday. No LibDem candidate, even though they got 20% there last time. It's the safest Tory ward (Toton) but UKIP (who initiated the by-election) and Labour are having a go. Lots of local issues - HS2 was going to be sited here, but now probably isn't and 500 houses are being built on the Green Belt.
Which party's fault is it we need so much new housing?
Let me guess, is it the party that let tens of millions of immigrants into the country?
Tens Of Millions ? - Now come on . Exaggeration to such a degree just makes you look an idiot .
Shall we do some basic maths.
You tell me what you think the current UK population is bearing in mind there's no census anymore and people were not required to complete the last one and didn't in large numbers.
Tens of millions 'large numbers'? That's not credible.
Feel free to answer the question I asked Mr Senior, then the maths lesson can begin.
A casual voter may not have noticed how this Oxford PPE pointscorer was their Con MP so recently.
Talk about people in glasshouses throwing stones. I wonder if the Tories will be deploying similar posters in places like Witney at the coming GE lol.
Both sound pretty repellent to me. I would vote for neither.
But it's fun seeing the Tories trying for the class war vote, innit?
Nominations closed in our borough council by-election (Dec 11) on Friday. No LibDem candidate, even though they got 20% there last time. It's the safest Tory ward (Toton) but UKIP (who initiated the by-election) and Labour are having a go. Lots of local issues - HS2 was going to be sited here, but now probably isn't and 500 houses are being built on the Green Belt.
Which party's fault is it we need so much new housing?
Let me guess, is it the party that let tens of millions of immigrants into the country?
Tens Of Millions ? - Now come on . Exaggeration to such a degree just makes you look an idiot .
Shall we do some basic maths.
You tell me what you think the current UK population is bearing in mind there's no census anymore and people were not required to complete the last one and didn't in large numbers.
Simple Maths
UK Population 1997 year Labour took office 58.2 million , UK Population 2010 year Labour left office 62.3 million . Increase ( not all down to immigration ) around 4 million . So clearly not tens of millions . You yourself destroyed any case you had or point to make by gross exaggeration .
A casual voter may not have noticed how this Oxford PPE pointscorer was their Con MP so recently.
Talk about people in glasshouses throwing stones. I wonder if the Tories will be deploying similar posters in places like Witney at the coming GE lol.
Both sound pretty repellent to me. I would vote for neither.
But it's fun seeing the Tories trying for the class war vote, innit?
Nominations closed in our borough council by-election (Dec 11) on Friday. No LibDem candidate, even though they got 20% there last time. It's the safest Tory ward (Toton) but UKIP (who initiated the by-election) and Labour are having a go. Lots of local issues - HS2 was going to be sited here, but now probably isn't and 500 houses are being built on the Green Belt.
Which party's fault is it we need so much new housing?
Let me guess, is it the party that let tens of millions of immigrants into the country?
Tens Of Millions ? - Now come on . Exaggeration to such a degree just makes you look an idiot .
Shall we do some basic maths.
You tell me what you think the current UK population is bearing in mind there's no census anymore and people were not required to complete the last one and didn't in large numbers.
Simple Maths
UK Population 1997 year Labour took office 58.2 million , UK Population 2010 year Labour left office 62.3 million . Increase ( not all down to immigration ) around 4 million . So clearly not tens of millions . You yourself destroyed any case you had or point to make by gross exaggeration .
Lets round the numbers. I'll take your 58 million.
Do you accept the figure of 300,000 a year for emigration from the UK?
A casual voter may not have noticed how this Oxford PPE pointscorer was their Con MP so recently.
Talk about people in glasshouses throwing stones. I wonder if the Tories will be deploying similar posters in places like Witney at the coming GE lol.
Both sound pretty repellent to me. I would vote for neither.
But it's fun seeing the Tories trying for the class war vote, innit?
Nominations closed in our borough council by-election (Dec 11) on Friday. No LibDem candidate, even though they got 20% there last time. It's the safest Tory ward (Toton) but UKIP (who initiated the by-election) and Labour are having a go. Lots of local issues - HS2 was going to be sited here, but now probably isn't and 500 houses are being built on the Green Belt.
Which party's fault is it we need so much new housing?
Let me guess, is it the party that let tens of millions of immigrants into the country?
Tens Of Millions ? - Now come on . Exaggeration to such a degree just makes you look an idiot .
Shall we do some basic maths.
You tell me what you think the current UK population is bearing in mind there's no census anymore and people were not required to complete the last one and didn't in large numbers.
Tens of millions 'large numbers'? That's not credible.
Feel free to answer the question I asked Mr Senior, then the maths lesson can begin.
Come on , be a man , own up to gross exaggeration or give us some detailed data to back up your ludicrous assertion .
A casual voter may not have noticed how this Oxford PPE pointscorer was their Con MP so recently.
Talk about people in glasshouses throwing stones. I wonder if the Tories will be deploying similar posters in places like Witney at the coming GE lol.
Both sound pretty repellent to me. I would vote for neither.
But it's fun seeing the Tories trying for the class war vote, innit?
Nominations closed in our borough council by-election (Dec 11) on Friday. No LibDem candidate, even though they got 20% there last time. It's the safest Tory ward (Toton) but UKIP (who initiated the by-election) and Labour are having a go. Lots of local issues - HS2 was going to be sited here, but now probably isn't and 500 houses are being built on the Green Belt.
Which party's fault is it we need so much new housing?
Let me guess, is it the party that let tens of millions of immigrants into the country?
Tens Of Millions ? - Now come on . Exaggeration to such a degree just makes you look an idiot .
Shall we do some basic maths.
You tell me what you think the current UK population is bearing in mind there's no census anymore and people were not required to complete the last one and didn't in large numbers.
Simple Maths
UK Population 1997 year Labour took office 58.2 million , UK Population 2010 year Labour left office 62.3 million . Increase ( not all down to immigration ) around 4 million . So clearly not tens of millions . You yourself destroyed any case you had or point to make by gross exaggeration .
Lets round the numbers. I'll take your 58 million.
Do you accept the figure of 300,000 a year for emigration from the UK?
Yes and how many of those are foreign nationals who migrated here in recent years ?
I want a more libertarian approach. It seems no one is offering it at present. At one point UKIP did to some extent, but now they've gone for the key freedom which arises from EU membership (to pander to former Labour voters) I'm disinclined to support them as anything other than a Euro election protest vote.
And I want a coherent answer to the WLQ. A party which won't vote on English matters seems a prime candidate for my vote, but not if it helps Labour at Westminster.
Not that it really matters: my vote will swing nothing in our daft system. Maybe the nutter from the Scottish Jacobite Party will run again and I can vote for him with my conscience intact!
The only parties that have a fully coherent answer to the WLQ are the SNP (by removing Scotland from the union) and UKIP (by granting an English parliament).
The only parties that have a fully coherent answer to the WLQ are the SNP (by removing Scotland from the union) and UKIP (by granting an English parliament).
Agreed. I'm also disinclined to vote for ukip since their attitude to scottish indepdence is curiously incongruent with their attitude towards uk independence (not an issue in council or euro elections).
Comments
(^_-)
The British Vishinsky so politicised the CPS that it only prosecuted politically convenient crimes. "Racist" tweets - tick. Protestors with behead those who oppose Islam - no tick. Pointing out sex crimes among the Pakistani community - tick. Prosecuting sex crimes committed by the Pakistani community - no tick. FGM - no tick.
No wonder he will become a Labourite MP next May.
With SNP MPs not voting on England only issues how could they prop Labour up anyway? It seems to me the SNP have much more to gain from a Tory government and EV4EL.
Nominations closed in our borough council by-election (Dec 11) on Friday. No LibDem candidate, even though they got 20% there last time. It's the safest Tory ward (Toton) but UKIP (who initiated the by-election) and Labour are having a go. Lots of local issues - HS2 was going to be sited here, but now probably isn't and 500 houses are being built on the Green Belt.
It doesn't involve propping up a Tory government; it involves Scotland being freer of England than before. No one who supports them will punish them for doing that deal, surely?
And it still seems like a ridiculous sum. Bank Mellat is not that big a bank.
It's total assets are only $62bn. Let's assume it makes a 0.5% return on assets, that would mean it's annual profits are $300m. (As a comparison, Royal Bank of Scotland has almost $2 trillion of assets).
And how much of that profit would be associated with the UK? 5%? 10%?
They might win the case, but they are simply not a big enough bank that the UK's actions can have caused them that degree of loss.
And I want a coherent answer to the WLQ. A party which won't vote on English matters seems a prime candidate for my vote, but not if it helps Labour at Westminster.
Not that it really matters: my vote will swing nothing in our daft system. Maybe the nutter from the Scottish Jacobite Party will run again and I can vote for him with my conscience intact!
Let me guess, is it the party that let tens of millions of immigrants into the country?
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2014/11/how-brussels-sanctions-could-bleed-britain-dry/
Falsflag -- ''Actually sanctions were imposed at the behest of the US not the EU. Still we are a nation of laws so encouraging news.''
Yes
It looks the usual excuse for an anti EU rant from someone most of us will never have heard of. You are correct they are world wide sanctions many UN as well as USA inspired. If this bank is innocent then it should not have had sanctions applied. Seems that this is the point. It was us that did it not the EU. But is it innocent?
Suprising number of undeciding moving towatds Blue and even more UKIP saying will revert to Con at GE
So, we need x000000 new houses to house Labour's imported voters. Not building new housing means continued pressure on current housing. Building new houses means pressure on the green belt. Where does our hopeful next MP for Broxtowe stand?
Yes - we need new housing for the millions of new immigrants Labour imported for electoral reasons
No - no new housing, and so refreshingly at odds with his leader. Protect the green belt, etc
We already know he is happy for foreigners to access any new social housing ahead of locals if their "needs" are higher. The only question is if he will favour fast tracking these foreigners to access existing or new housing.
You tell me what you think the current UK population is bearing in mind there's no census anymore and people were not required to complete the last one and didn't in large numbers.
Though I see no one so far has staked for Labour on the seat.
With a cold wet November and the Tories better organised at postal votes, I have gone for a 1.26% Tory win.
UK Population 1997 year Labour took office 58.2 million , UK Population 2010 year Labour left office 62.3 million . Increase ( not all down to immigration ) around 4 million .
So clearly not tens of millions .
You yourself destroyed any case you had or point to make by gross exaggeration .
Do you accept the figure of 300,000 a year for emigration from the UK?