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If you’ve always been a lurker, and have The Reflex not to post, Nighthawks gives you an opportunity to delurk, don’t worry, you won’t become Wild Boys or Wild Girls after posting.
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Tony Gallagher @gallaghereditor 4m
Mercer was paid £4,000 as part of a contract he believed would earn £24,000. This cash has not yet been declared.
Tony Gallagher @gallaghereditor 51s
Mercer boasted he had persuaded 20 MPs to back his Fiji group #mercer
Tony Gallagher @gallaghereditor 1m
Mercer offered lobbyists a security pass for the House of Commons in an apparent breach of the rules.
In 2013 the UK is forecast (almost universally) to grow faster than any other large country in Europe, with the UK rate of growth estimated at 0.8% by the OECD (latest forecast) at the same time as the Eurozone countries are forecast to contract by -0.6%. So, the UK is forecast to grow this year at an annual rate which is 1.4% higher than its main competitors.
Not bad in the circumstances. Especially when the deficit is being reduced at current levels of growth at a rate of £2.5 bn per month. Get fracking and we may be able to grow as fast as the US and still reduce borrowing.
Tony Gallagher @gallaghereditor 2m
Mercer description of young Israeli woman soldier: 'You don't look like a soldier to me. You look like a bloody Jew.'
What do we want ? Three By-Elections
When do we want it ? As soon as the writ(s) can be passed.
If Mercer had declared his interest on behalf of this lobbying firm or their putative client would that have been ok? Is it failing to disclose his financial interest in the questions that he has apparently asked that is the problem?
'In Brighton, Conservatives could find the answer to their Ukip worries
The city by the sea that attracts alternative viewpoints is just the sort of place for a Tory revival'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/10091644/In-Brighton-Conservatives-could-find-the-answer-to-their-Ukip-worries.html
And it's got Nick Clegg as one of it's MP's!
I fear you are in for an infestation of Greens as that Brighton by-election seems to be set for 11 July.
The failure to sort out our banking industry and free at least a part to be able to lend is costing us dear in terms of growth.
Was never a big fan anyway, I remember criticising him on here before and getting my face ate off on the basis that since Mercer was a company commander at one time, his opinion should somehow be respected.
He can sink.
"The Lib Dems are not just empty. They are a void within a vacuum surrounded by a vast inanition."
I've seen it trailed on here a few times in the last couple of days, but I can't see it anywhere on the internet.
I'm assuming it hasn't been published?
Retail Sales in both April and May have (or appear to be about to) disappoint. This can be argued away by pointing out holiday and weather mismatches in the comparator months but strong growth always makes such tinkering unnecessary. France, Germany and the US are also reporting flat consumer demand against growth expectations for this quarter so the UK seems to be following a global trend.
On credit supply, only mortgage lending is up, with a £3 billion drop in lending to businesses last month, in spite of the Funding For Lending Schemes. This is offset by clear evidence of both household and corporate deleveraging but does indicate low confidence in future growth.
Even the SWIFT growth forecasts for Q2 2013 (3 Forecast and 1 Nowcast) read in sequence 0.3, (0.1), 0.0 , 0.1, indicating declining expectations.
OK, so all the above can be countered with more optimistic news (CBI consumer service stats, Oil and Gas output, improvements in manufacturing and construction growth rates etc.) but the overall picture is still distinctly choppy and uncertain.
Still, on balance, the UK is outperforming competition in Europe and the worst expectation is a flatline Q2 rather than further retrenchment as is forecast on the continent.
https://twitter.com/Telegraph/status/340570331196559361/photo/1
http://survation.com/2013/05/survation-for-the-mail-on-sunday-reaction-to-the-woolwich-incident/
How often do they do them?
They are perilously close to having a Tory/UKIP crossover.
God Bless you Ma'am http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2333812/Queen-visits-Lee-Rigbys-barracks-coroner-hears-soldier-identified-dental-records.html
Lambasting UKIP as "extreme" is moronic. We should be grateful that in a typically British way, our "extreme" party is quite moderate. Extreme = Jobbik, or Golden Dawn
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/10092607/Exposed-deal-that-sank-cash-for-questions-MP-Mercer.html
More than 100 councils have nearly half a billion pounds on deposit at the group, which was downgraded six notches by Moody’s this month over concerns that the bank’s capital was coming under pressure.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a10beec0-ca13-11e2-af47-00144feab7de.html#axzz2UuJEz5a9
https://twitter.com/UKIP/status/340564147244769280
EDIT
On April 11th it was 25,000
https://twitter.com/UKIP/status/322327897673191425
Re you Legoland experiences.
According to this BBC article the Essex tourism industry doesn't appear to be doing so well:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22702004
I do suspect there's a difference between working and middle class perceptions as to how well Britain is doing.
Mr. Eagles, sounds like a by-election is rather possible.
You should go to his surgery (?) and ask him to write a piece for PB.
In the 1980s he lived on benefits for a week in Newcastle for the World In Action TV show. He apparantly survived quite well but said he hadn't because he didn't want to appear arrogant.
He'd rather that many of his countrymen were f*ck off elsewhere and be replaced by people he found more amenable.
Unfortunately these new people are often even more 'extreme and unpleasant' but as they would be immigrants Parris would regard it as impolite to mention this.
http://www.legoland.co.uk/Plan/Directions/
LEGOLAND Windsor is located at
Winkfield Road,
Windsor,
Berkshire,
SL4 4AY
Legoland, Surrey = middle class
Southend funfare, Essex = working class
The economic effects of gloablisation, immigration etc are hitting the working class far more than the middle class.
He 'struck a deal' over the £26 million debt. (Daily Telegraph) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2140465/Sheffield-Wednesday-having-hoot-MICHAEL-WALKER.html
Mr Mandaric’s investment vehicle, UK Football Investments, will also pay £9m to reach agreement with creditors, allowing the League One club to clear its debts. (Financial Times) http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b4ef55c4-fbf0-11df-b7e9-00144feab49a.html#axzz2UuNHqXAY
By my maths that left Coop stuck £17 million on that one. If they arranged the rest of their finances on this basis well they are heading for one place. Bust city.
It appears to be:
Backbencher being willing to take a few thousand from a fictional lobbying firm is unacceptable
Prime Minister setting himself up to take a few million from JP Morgan is acceptable
Hmmm ...
Tuesday should see a Nick is crap thread from me
Edit: I did do a few Clegg is crap threads last year.
Legoland did this successfully. Its location was less important. It did after all replace the Windsor Safari Park which had had its day. Windsor Safari Park in turn replaced Billy Smart's Circus on the same site.
Keeping ahead of your customers is the main route to success rather than location.
If you'll forgive me for being nosy.
But if you had never moved to Luton but had stayed in North London do you think your views would have remained more establishment Conservative instead of your, it seems, increasing UKIP tendancy.
If it is personal experience that shifts the views of Conservative supporters rightwards and more anti-establishment then we could see mainstream/establishment Conservatism increasingly restricted to the most affluent parts of south eastern England in effect stockbroker Conservatism.
As I've said before there's been no reduction in wealth CONSUMPTION - there's £120bn of government borrowing to support it.
It was wealth PRODUCTION which suffered the recession.
FPT.
'Nigel Evans MP accused of sexual assault by fourth alleged victim' "Nigel Evans should be promoted not vilified."
I agree that having the deputy speaker fondle this 22 year old intern's bottom while being shown round parliament by his parents should not be a matter for the police. It's character building.
No wonder the Tories are now only recruiting from Eton
It is not that easy to get to so isn't perfectly located. A combined trip including Windsor Castle was the main proposition to foreign tourists staying in London but there is not a large local tourist base in the immediate location. The Thames Valley is of course a well populated and prosperous area but people don't tend to make regular trips to such attractions.
I'm not sure he is quite right in his main arguments, but that is a slightly different point; if we're going to discuss whether he's right we need to start by not misrepresenting what he says. For a start, he does NOT dismiss the concerns which seem to motivate UKIP supporters: None of the problems [UKIP] identifies (with immigration, with EU bureaucracy, with the cost of the EU, with the ambitions of some Europeanists, with political correctness, with health-and-safety, with human rights legislation etc) are anything less than real.
Taking the discussion on to criticising what he actually says, I'd start with his point about UKIP supporters distorting and simplifying the world, 'perceiving a range of different ills and difficulties as all proceeding from two sources'. He's right in the sense that this is often true of UKIP supporters, but where I think his argument collapses is that this fault is by no means unique to UKIP supporters. Labour supporters distort and simplify the world by blaming everything on Tories and bankers. Does that make them 'extremists'? (Read the comments in the Guardian and New Statesmen and you'll find they are seriously bonkers, at least as bonkers as the über-UKIPers who infest the Telegraph or ConHome). I dare say you could even find some Conservative supporters who simplify and distort. It's in the nature of party politics to do so, often starting with a kernel of truth which then gets elevated into a religion. I'm not convinced that this charge sticks particularly more to UKIP than to other parties, or at least to other parties who are miles away from power and who can therefore afford to simplify and distort.
i) They're over the worst of it
and/or
ii) The Lib Dems realise Clegg is the best man to lead at the General Election.
Just imagine what would happen if the inquisition started to turn its attention to mid-late twentieth century public schools!
Nigel Farage warns: Let Ukip into studio for TV election debates or I'll take you to court
Tories threaten to pull the plug on live broadcast if Ukip leader is included...
....Party strategists showed short clips of Mr Miliband taken from news programmes and asked voters to rate the Labour leader. The groups were then shown longer videos of his speeches and question-and-answer sessions and asked whether it had changed their views.
Sources said that voters in the focus groups had an overwhelmingly more positive view of Mr Miliband when shown the longer films.
Also Farage has supposedly been approached by Sky news to appear in a leaders' debate for the Euro elections.
Having been replaying Dragon Age 2 myself the last couple of days (talking about it several times made me need to go through it again!), I imagine UKIPers would see their position as closer to that of Establisment = Templars and UKIP = apostate mages. Mostly good people fighting against a well intentioned by thoroughly broken system designed by the Templars/Establishment, which disenfranchises a significant section of the population out of misplaced fear, even as there is some basis for being wary of them given their chaotic natures .
I wonder who the Qunari would be in this situation. Uncompromising zealots imposing strictly defined order on the world, but fair, honest and providing certainty of purpose and ideals of sweeping away the shallow corruption and decadence of modern society, in service to a higher cause of justice and society. There is no escape from duty to the Qun.
I think the retconning of their appearance for DA2 is a rare example of something being made better. I hope we end up with a Qunari/Tal-Vashoth companion in Inquisition.
Miliband is indeed more impressive outside of 30 second soundbites. A difficulty for him that is all most people will ever see.
That Gove's claims were the most we'd seen in some while about Clegg's position was pretty telling though, he does seem pretty secure - I guess i) is right as they seem quite steady in the polls, although if a recovery cannot be had in Scotland that stability elsewhere is not as helpful as it could be.
To have a high GDP per capita you need a large amount of earnings divided by a small number of people, so defining who is in each matters. The figures are even more distorted if earnings of non-Londoners are added but the people are not.
Are they frit?
Heh, that would explain their rigidity of thinking and absolute certainty regardless of what the world demonstrates I suppose.
I think the retconning of their appearance for DA2 is a rare example of something being made better. I hope we end up with a Qunari/Tal-Vashoth companion in Inquisition.
Fingers crossed. I think the Qunari are on the most interesting 'new' fantasy race idea I've seen executed in quite some while.
I know DA2 was a bit rushed, and I was uncertain on the changing protagonists, but despite the very different styles, I quite like the idea now of the DA series being a bit like the Elder Scrolls, each game moving on to a different part of its established world, with a new character and story as part of the world and a single epic saga (in fairness, I have only played Skyrim though).
The best possible Tory party-political broadcast would be a long Ed Miliband speech which voters were compelled to watch.
What they most need to do is to prevent him seeming 'new'.
"All this retrospective investigation of exuberant sexual behaviour should be stopped in its tracks, Roger"
As someone who went to school with James Hewitt it would mean shutting the farmyard gate after the horse has bolted. But I agree. I haven't any time for these witch hunts and if this 22 year old didn't want the attentions of the deputy speaker I can think of more immediate remedies than calling the police!
That would feel like it denigrates UKIP more than they deserve, but as much as I feel the left-right spectrum is pretty much bunkum anyway - mere labels, with ideology as mere set dressing, to justify tribalistic behaviours - it seems very strange that, apparently, UKIP are the only ones to truly be able to cut across the spectrum, gaining not from just the left of the Tories and right of Labour as with traditional 'floaters' moving back and forth, but instead drawing from hard right and centre and left.
Even though I don't support UKIP, the idea that they have managed to shatter that mould seems too good to be true.
If it was repeated when the contact was clearly not wanted it starts to be more serious and sordid.
DA2 was rushed, but DA3 definitely isn't, and from what I've heard it sounds promising. The Qunari are nice because they're more original than the staples of elves and dwarves. Plus, they're interesting because of their religious fundamentalism.
Incidentally, DA3 is apparently pencilled in for the XBox One, so presumably it'll be on the PS4 as well. No word on the 360/PS3 yet, but I'd be slightly surprised (and considerably annoyed) if it weren't released for the PS3 as well.
Anyway, I'm off for the night.
If so, who?
And as I keep saying there's been no reduction in that.
So a centre for retail and leisure is going to do well when the government is borrowing £120bn per year and spending this on consumption.
Certainly inner London is a major tourist centre but it always has been. Is there any evidence that tourism has dramatically increased recently ?
So what does that leave - central government, no reduction there - rich foreigners looking for somewhere safe to put themselves and their money, how long will that continue ?
BTW I believe the most productive place per capita in Britain is Derby.
Anyway, sadly must be off. Night all.
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