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If you’ve always been a lurker, nighthawks gives you an opportunity to delurk, if you’re thinking, It’s a sin, to post, it isn’t
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"Needs a name. How about the Kingdom of Hanover?"
All the "vons" would love it they could be aristocracy again ;-)
The football league would be the best in the world.
brits could be on the winning side of a world cup.
Best music - german classical and brit pop.
More Nobel prizes than anyone else
Brits get professionalism, germans get a sense of humour
power up the Quattro Hermann ...... :-)
Queen and Empress Viktoria is buried in Potsdam outside Berlin.
You will appreciate/suffer like me at this news.
I'm extremely unhappy! A friend of mine got to see a screening of 'Man of Steel' tonight.
Comment was: 'It's like the Avengers movie but even better'.
That cannot be possible......can it?
And I thought Into Darkness couldn't be beat this year!
I've never enjoyed Superman that much, I did like Smallville though
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22813893
They were terrible in power, of course, but every party is allowed to reinvent themselves in opposition.
No doubt this all started under the Labour government in which Cooper , her husband , Edward Miliband , and his brother were prominent and well-informed ministers.
Anyone who was even close to government and claims not to have known this is, well stretching a point.
That's what happens when you're a vile Republican.
God Save The Queen.
Edward VII came to the throne after Queen Victoria, but he was the second child. The first child was princess Victoria who married Crown Prince Friedrich of Prussia. Friedrich was very much a reformer who admired the British system and wanted to push through a liberalisation of the German consitiution.
His father Wilhelm I lived until well into his nineties so Friedrich didn't come unto the throne until 1888 when unfortunately he was suffering from terminal throat cancer. Empress Viktoria ( as QV's daughter was then ) didn't get much of a run. Friedrich was succeeded by his and Viktoria's son Wilhelm II ( Kaiser Bill ). One of the great what ifs of German history is if Friedrich had had a full reign would war have been avoided ?
As an aside the UK and Prussia have the same tune for their national anthem - God save the King\Queen and Heil Dir im Siegerkranz. So everyone was happy.
"In May 2007 in a discussion on the tenth anniversary of the Labour Party gaining power in the United Kingdom Garvey unwittingly revealed an apparent pro-Labour bias at the BBC. Garvey reminisced how in the morning after the general election "the corridors of Broadcasting House were strewn with empty champagne bottles - I will always remember that",
Give 'em a year back in power and ID cards will be back on the table and CCTV cameras in every home, just to make sure nobody is fiddling their benefits of course. Or would it be to ensure everyone is claiming as much as possible?
And don't forget, EVERYONE is a potential terrorist threat.
Vodaphone has apparently paid no corporation tax for 2 years. I mean come on, this is ridiculous. It is one thing to have competitive CT rates, it is another when our largest companies are able to make tax optional and choose not to. I am disgusted to have a Vodaphone contract.
@PickardJE: Mills, Labour's "tax-efficient" donor, was sacked as deputy chairman of the London Docklands Development Corporation
Ministers, especially the Home Sec become house trained by their civil servants very quickly.
"Adjusted operating profit £12.0bn - exceeded guidance; FCF £5.6bn - at high end of guidance
•Final dividend per share 6.92 pence (total 10.19 pence, +7.0%)"
See http://www.vodafone.com/content/index/investors/investor_information/financial_results.html
£12bn operating profit (admittedly by no means all earned in the UK) zero tax. It really won't do.
I don't know the details of how it all works but apparently it doesn't matter if he makes a shedload of profit or a loss.
I'm amazed a system like that even exists within the EU, why aren't we doing it?
Oi Vodafone, give us 250 million and get on with it?
12 Reasons Why Benedict Cumberbatch Should Be The 12th Doctor
http://www.buzzfeed.com/jolin/12-reasons-why-benedict-cumberbatch-should-be-the-12th-docto
Osborne in fairness has done more than anyone since Lawson to close tax loopholes in this country and tax shelters abroad and is at least trying to coordinate an international response to this but Governments are 20 years behind the curve and there is so much catching up to do. Apples' tax situation in the US has been equally outrageous.
I do not think I am alone in finding the BBC's insistence that there is a fundamental difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion increasingly irritating and wildly inaccurate. One blends into the other with a huge section of grey in the middle which is being exploited by multinationals above all.
Tony Hadley (he of Spandau Ballet fame) was on BBC Breakfast this morning! He should be touring/releasing a new album in October.
This much is True
I think the concept of telling companies to pay more tax than they are legally obliged to, 'because it's morally correct', is nonsense. It suggests a government is impotent in regards to it's tax collecting and basically is begging for it's money. Paying taxes shouldn't be voluntary, rules should be clear and comprehensive so there are no loopholes to exploit.
Big business has used influence on consecutive UK governments to allow them to take the p**s. All 3 major political parties should sit down and agree a system that works so it's set in stone. If the corporation tax rate ends up being lower, fine as long as everyone pays it.
We have similar arrangements in the UK with a great many non UK citizens. Basically, if you are rich and non British, you can enter into direct negotiations with the Inland Revenue about the exact amount of tax you want to pay.
Cameron said in a speech recently that he is a low tax Conservative but not a no tax Conservative. He really should speak out about Vodaphone. I hope he does.
It's ridiculous to spend 3 years opposing every single government policy and cut, to then just say didn't mean it really. We are still no wiser as to how Labour will control spending though. 'We will, honest', just doesn't wash.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMOGaugKpzs&
What on earth do people think GCHQ has been doing for the last half-century?
'Please give us more money that you are not legally obliged to', kind of sucks as a way of running things.
Or leaving the EU of course
Press reports focussing on just one kind of tax are usually designed to mislead, like when people say the rich are paying more than their fair share of income tax.
Now, if you want some decent music to listen to, try the album I've used as my new user picture.
Ghost - Infestissumam.
Number 1 in Sweden for a couple of weeks in May. Probably one of the greatest Satanic metal albums ever. Like a cross between Sabbath and Blue Oyster Cult. Magnificent!
And on that bombshell, time for bed. All Hail the dark Lord and his realms of the underworld.
Actually, 65% of Vodafone's earnings come from Verizon Wireless in the US. Tax evasion - as the US companies Apple and Google have proven - is all about ensuring your profits end up in a low tax country, whether it is the EU or not.
I didn't say I liked that particular song. Although I do actually.
Lets say there is a company in the UK. We'll call it Robert's Fried Chicken Ltd. I'd quite like to sell Kentucky Fried Chicken in the UK, so I call Yum Brands in the US and ask if I can license the concept. They say 'yes, but the price is that you pay 10% of your sales back to us in the US as a royalty". Fine, you say. And in your first year, you make 1 million pounds of sales, and 150,000 of pre-royalty income. You then pay 100,000 of royalties to Yum Brands in the US and have 50,000 of pre-tax profits. (And will pay, say, 12,000 or so of corporation tax.)
All fine, right?
Now, imagine that instead of Robert's Fried Chicken Ltd having the franchise for KFC in the UK, that another company called New Fried Chicken Ltd has the franchise. Everything is the same, except that the sole shareholder of New Fried Chicken Ltd is Yum Brands Inc. Now, the commercial arrangement is *exactly* as when I owed it - the difference is that two-thirds of the 150,000 profit is being transferred to the US without tax being paid.
This is just the simplest example: but this is the most common method of tax avoidance used by large corporations. And, while Ireland has been particularly keen on using itself as a haven for brand licensing scams, there is nothing to stop the South Koreans, or the Jordanians, or the Icelandics from doing it. It is also quite difficult to get around: because the first example, of Robert's Friend Chicken Ltd., is so transparently a normal commercial arrangement.
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/federal-election/kevin-rudd-is-a-8216lunatic8217-says-former-labor-leader-mark-latham/story-fnho52jl-1226659114039
And, what makes it hard to stop is that all these companies always make sure there is at least one country with one operation which genuinely is a franchise (usually in the Middle East), so they can point to the tax man and say "look, this is a standard commercial arrangement with have with all the brand licensees, irrespective of whether they are owned by the parent or not."
Your idea has much merit. Unfortunately, it would effectively prohibit all cross border licensing transactions of any nature - which would put the UK government in breach of many treaty obligations.
That said, I think a little bit of sabre rattling, and threatening that brands and ip may only be licensed from UK companies might be possible in some way. It would, fair to say, be a bonanza for lawyers, as it would invalidate many existing contacts. But still, it should be investigated.
It's amazing how many conservatives on here seem not to give a damn about the conservation of English legal tradition.
Independence 35%
Devo Max 32%
Status Quo 24%
35% for independence is pretty damn impressive in a multi-option poll that includes Devo Max as an alternative. It also seems that less than a quarter of the Scottish population want the outcome that the No side are actually campaigning for.
"They're only one percentage point below the threshold. The chances are enough CDU/CSU voters will vote tactically to push them above 5%. We saw that in Lower Saxony at the start of the year, where the FDP polled 10% compared to 5% in most polls."
There's no reason to assume that will happen, and certainly not on anything like the same scale that it did in Lower Saxony. The key difference is that the CDU are not in much danger of losing power - what's really at stake is whether they will lead a coalition with the FDP or with the SPD. Many CDU voters will actually prefer a coalition with the SPD, or not care much one way or the other.
It was refreshing to have a pair MP's discussing an 'in the news issue' without any sign of an on line party message, or the usual partisan tit for tat sound bites. In fact, it was great that Goldsmith could openly criticise both Clegg and Cameron on the measures that his own Government were taking as not enough without an instant side tracking of the whole issue under discussion to then focus on this as if that was the bigger issue. It reminded me of a BBC Question Time years ago when Tony Benn appeared and made a joke about his pager going nuts because he was being so honest in expressing his views........and oh so off the New Labour spin message.
Take BBC Question Time these days, they often invite guests onto the show because of particular or confrontational views they might have on the issues of the day. But the minute an elected politician gives an honest or open opinion to a question that might vary or go completely off piste from the party line they are jumped on, interrupted, and then asked to explain themselves for not being on message. How many great discussions or interesting opinions are now lost this way with this confrontation style of interview or debate?
No wonder the public are now being turned off politics and politicians. The media, and specifically the Westminster Lobby often at times act more like Liam Gallagher when he turned up at an Oasis concert to heckle his own band for having the audacity for carrying on without his appearance front and centre on the main stage.
And the frustrating thing is that it has allowed a rather misguided view to take hold on PB that the Scots are simple too scared to let go of a now increasingly austere and reformed Welfare pinny. I am just wondering how many of those that would like to see Scots become free to improve their lot by breaking away from the UK would themselves vote for this on the back of the dodgy sales pitch we have just been offered by the SNP?
trouble at t'mill?
Well, that's highly unusual for you, Fitalass. I hope you've noticed that most of your fellow travellers have claimed that your suggestion of a unilateral Devo Max referendum would have been illegitimate.
It's here -
http://www.natcen.ac.uk/media/1111766/the option not on the table final.pdf
As for Jill Knight, I didn't recognise her because I thought she was dead. I must have got her confused in my mind with the homophobic Baroness Young. Anyway, Wikipedia says she is actually 88 rather than the 85 which she claims.
He seemed to be stumbling slightly in his verbal construction of his sentence, and I think that he was probably thinking in terms of the Duchess of Cambridge being the Duke of Edinburgh's "daughter-in-law"... but the word "daughter" accidentally transposed itself into the wrong part of the sentence.
Conspiracy theorists would probably say that Witchell somehow knows the gender of the baby, and accidentally let it slip. The reality of course is that he doesn't know any more than we do, and he only reports to us the information which is fed to him.
I don't dislike Nicholas Witchell in the way that some people seem to, but I was amused by some of the things which came up when i searched for his name on Twitter:
------------
"Pretend you're Nicholas Witchell by standing outside a hospital for the next fortnight speculating wildly on the health of old men
Queen gatecrashing BBC news reminded me of the moment when protestors against Section 28 invaded, and Nicholas Witchell sat on a lesbian.
On BBC news channel at 7pm, Nicholas Witchell referred to the impending birth of Duchess of Cambridge's "daughter"; Obviously it was a slip.
"Live from outside the hospital" ... I think Nicholas Witchell is dead inside.
I can't look at Nicholas Witchell without hearing Prince Charles saying 'that dreadful man' in my ear.
Absolutely essential to have Nicholas Witchell standing outside DofE's hospital so that we know what a hospital looks like.
The Queen seems to be coping with Prince Philip's illness much better than Nicholas Witchell is.
They've just gone live to Nicholas Witchell in the street to confirm that there is no news.
Nicholas Witchell admitted to same hospital as Prince Philip with 'severe sunburn'
Long live the Duke of Ed. But can Nicholas Witchell be put out of his misery, please?
Nicholas Witchell looks older than Prince Phillip."
There are actually enough tax breaks in the UK for someone to earn a very comfortable income (circa £100k) and pay negligible tax...
Just stay away from PAYE and NI, maximize the tax breaks, and count the loopholes ...
Here's Nicholas Witchell interviewing Owen Carron after winning the Fermanagh and South Tyrone by-election on Friday 21st August 1981 (at 3 mins 15 secs):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16jpMtaQcAg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_(surveillance_program)
And curiously enough you neglected to mention that independence is still seven points higher (and the status quo three points lower) than it was two years ago - fixed it for you!