Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. Sign in or register to get started.

Options

politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Some pics from last night’s gathering

13»

Comments

  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,333
    edited March 2015
    Crickey the i front page headline is dodgy "cash for votes"....

    As well as having Osborne as chancellor, I big mistake Cameron made moving Sajid Javid to what is a bit of a non-job at Culture. He was an excellent media performer, isn't a posho, and knows his stuff when it comes to economics.Totally wasted trying to talk nicely to leftie luvvies about why they won't be getting anywhere as much money from the taxpayer, something which he doesn't know that much about anyway.

    When it comes to GE and it is Osborne vs Balls, I think they come across a bit like Alien vs Predator battling it out.
  • Options
    isamisam Posts: 41,082
    edited March 2015
    Trevor Phillips programme tmrw, touted as an apparent disaster in the making for Farage, looks as though it will premiering a different viewpoint to the normal holier than thou claptrap

    'Campaigners like me sincerely believed that if we could prevent people expressing prejudiced thoughts, they’d stop thinking them,” says Phillips. He now says they were “utterly wrong”

    'Like many people faced with inconvenient truths, I thought if I sat on them long enough they’d go away,” says Phillips with a self-knowledge that is rare in our governing classes. Far more typical are the touchy censors who, Phillips reveals, withdrew a timely 2008 film for schools showing a twentysomething South Asian groomer luring white teenage girls into a fancy car and a life of degradation. That was way too realistic, unfortunately, so a second film was made where the groomer was a white teenager. This bore no resemblance to any present danger to any girl ever, but at least it wasn’t offending someone’s culture, except possibly white people. Bad luck, we don’t count.'

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/11479761/We-must-listen-to-Trevor-Phillips-and-his-inconvenient-truths-about-race.html

  • Options
    FlightpathFlightpath Posts: 4,012
    PClipp said:

    currystar said:

    What I don't understand is how people think labour will be better for the country given the quite amazing record of the coalition on employment creation. In Hampshire I would think we are nearing zero unemployment. Wherever you look there are signs advertising job vacancies . In the construction industry industry anyone who has a skill is working if they want too . If this coalition is voted out by the British people in May they can leave office with their heads held high for a job well done . Who in 2010 with the disgusting mess left by labour would have predicted that the economic situation in 2015 would be as good as it is for the UK.

    Yes indeed, Lib Dem 2010 voters and Lib Dem ministers can take a lot of the credit for that, Mr Star.

    Conservative priorities were quite different from the eventual Coalition ones.
    What rubbish - I can only imagine you are a trainee satirist.
  • Options
    bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 21,916
    Ian Fraser ‏@Ian_Fraser 45m45 minutes ago
    Osborne has added >£517bn to gov't debt, more than every Labour gov't in history
  • Options
    PlatoPlato Posts: 15,724
    Buttering the end of the loaf before cutting off a slice...

    Mixing butter with veg oil IIRC is what makes it less difficult to spread. Margarine is another kettle of fish.

    I still think of Camp Coffee which is actually chichory. I've a very 1950s attitude to many things grocery.
    kle4 said:

    Plato said:

    Margarine? Really? Just taste the name - it's edible Nylon or Polyester.

    Urgh. It was revolting in the 1970s as Stork, what on Earth made you buy it?

    kle4 said:

    Is a fridge check the new thing when discussing politics? Fair enough *checks frridge/

    Milk
    Butter (well, margarine I guess)
    Cheese
    Turkey sandwich slices
    Mayonnaise (...what, I don't even like mayonnaise, what's that doing in there)
    Eggs

    Hmm, even though it's not usually quite that bare (and the fruit and veg is in the pantry), it might be time to go to the shop.

    I am informed by posher associates that what I consider and refer to as 'butter' is in fact merely fancy margarine that is aping butter, but it tastes great to me. The only memory I have of experiencing genuine butter was cutting freezing slices off a lump to futilely place on a crumpet once as a child. Truly, a terrible time indeed.

    Actually, there was an amusing list on habits picked up growing up poor I recall (and have just refound) which began with developing a taste for bad food as a big one. Might well be true for some I guess.

    http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-5-stupidest-habits-you-develop-growing-up-poor/

    kle4 said:

    Is a fridge check the new thing when discussing politics? Fair enough *checks frridge/

    Milk
    Butter (well, margarine I guess)
    Cheese
    Turkey sandwich slices
    Mayonnaise (...what, I don't even like mayonnaise, what's that doing in there)
    Eggs

    Hmm, even though it's not usually quite that bare (and the fruit and veg is in the pantry), it might be time to go to the shop.

    Whats a fridge.

    I only have a pantry
    I recall an intense discussion on here once, which I may have sparked, on whether a pantry and a larder are the same thing, and if so, which is posher. What would be your take on this vital debate?
  • Options
    Scott_PScott_P Posts: 51,453
    @Spectator_CH: Osborne gets the post-Budget front pages he hoped for http://t.co/AHJYIdNWdZ by @isabelhardman
  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,333
    isam said:

    Trevor Phillips programme tmrw, touted as an apparent disaster in the making for Farage, looks as though it will premiering a different viewpoint to the normal holier than thou claptrap

    'Campaigners like me sincerely believed that if we could prevent people expressing prejudiced thoughts, they’d stop thinking them,” says Phillips. He now says they were “utterly wrong”

    'Like many people faced with inconvenient truths, I thought if I sat on them long enough they’d go away,” says Phillips with a self-knowledge that is rare in our governing classes. Far more typical are the touchy censors who, Phillips reveals, withdrew a timely 2008 film for schools showing a twentysomething South Asian groomer luring white teenage girls into a fancy car and a life of degradation. That was way too realistic, unfortunately, so a second film was made where the groomer was a white teenager. This bore no resemblance to any present danger to any girl ever, but at least it wasn’t offending someone’s culture, except possibly white people. Bad luck, we don’t count.'

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/11479761/We-must-listen-to-Trevor-Phillips-and-his-inconvenient-truths-about-race.html

    I notice that the "Britain's Favourite Black Newspaper" newspaper The Voice was attacking Philips.
  • Options
    FlightpathFlightpath Posts: 4,012
    RodCrosby said:

    Plato said:

    OT If you had to pick a silent slapstick star - who would you prefer Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin or another? I'm looking for movies from this era

    I'd probably rate them in the order you gave, although Chaplin did have a great ensemble of supporting players.
    The order does not matter - everything since has been derivative.
    Except Gordon Brown of course.
  • Options
    SmarmeronSmarmeron Posts: 5,099
    @Plato
    Plato, don't try the passive aggressive approach on me?
    You tried it four years ago and got mightily pissed off when I posted your hypocrisy on the matter for all to see.
    As for bizarre personal attacks?
    You are confusing me with someone who cares about your "witterings".
    You no doubt feel the same way about me, so we are even.
  • Options
    EPGEPG Posts: 6,080
    kle4 said:

    Anyone else oddly pleased by this?

    A DNA study of Britons has shown that genetically there is not a unique Celtic group of people in the UK.

    According to the data, those of Celtic ancestry in Scotland and Cornwall are more similar to the English than they are to other Celtic groups.


    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-31905764

    Seems sound... it's quite clear from the linguistic divergence that Cornish, Welsh and Scots are very different. But is anyone surprised by the statement that "there are two genetic groupings in Northern Ireland"!
  • Options
    kle4kle4 Posts: 92,104
    isam said:


    'Campaigners like me sincerely believed that if we could prevent people expressing prejudiced thoughts, they’d stop thinking them,” says Phillips. He now says they were “utterly wrong”

    Good to see he's seen the error of that particular strategy at least. It's the same odd thinking that means when someone says something purportedly offensive it's next to impossible to find details of what it is so we can make up our minds how offended we should be, because we are merely told we must be offended and treated as though we cannot be trusted to actually hear or see what was said. This seems to particularly apply when it comes to comments that might be racially charged, treating things that might be merely unacceptable on a par with the most egregious and vicious minded of hatreds. A bit of a pet peeve of mine.
  • Options
    PlatoPlato Posts: 15,724
    Ha!

    RodCrosby said:

    Plato said:

    OT If you had to pick a silent slapstick star - who would you prefer Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin or another? I'm looking for movies from this era

    I'd probably rate them in the order you gave, although Chaplin did have a great ensemble of supporting players.
    The order does not matter - everything since has been derivative.
    Except Gordon Brown of course.
  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,333
    Somebodies mask is slipping this evening...
  • Options
    PongPong Posts: 4,693

    GIN1138 said:

    Anybody got any theories why Labour has clearly retaken the lead this week?

    Is it just a case of Dave Is Crap Is PM? Or something else?

    Still about level in fairness methinks

    That makes Lab most seats at GT 3.0 amazing IMO

    Best Value on EICIPM has been taken now LT 2.5 last time i looked
    2.7 on Betfair.

    Bonkers.

  • Options
    EPGEPG Posts: 6,080
    isam said:

    Trevor Phillips programme tmrw, touted as an apparent disaster in the making for Farage, looks as though it will premiering a different viewpoint to the normal holier than thou claptrap

    'Campaigners like me sincerely believed that if we could prevent people expressing prejudiced thoughts, they’d stop thinking them,” says Phillips. He now says they were “utterly wrong”

    'Like many people faced with inconvenient truths, I thought if I sat on them long enough they’d go away,” says Phillips with a self-knowledge that is rare in our governing classes. Far more typical are the touchy censors who, Phillips reveals, withdrew a timely 2008 film for schools showing a twentysomething South Asian groomer luring white teenage girls into a fancy car and a life of degradation. That was way too realistic, unfortunately, so a second film was made where the groomer was a white teenager. This bore no resemblance to any present danger to any girl ever, but at least it wasn’t offending someone’s culture, except possibly white people. Bad luck, we don’t count.'

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/11479761/We-must-listen-to-Trevor-Phillips-and-his-inconvenient-truths-about-race.html

    Wow... teenage boys have never been dangerous to any girl ever? A strong statement!
  • Options
    weejonnieweejonnie Posts: 3,820

    Ian Fraser ‏@Ian_Fraser 45m45 minutes ago
    Osborne has added >£517bn to gov't debt, more than every Labour gov't in history

    True - but utterly misleading. Given a choice he wouldn't have started from 2010. The bBC and Labour were screaming 'Tory Cutz' at any attempt to reduce Government expenditure - and now they have a cheek to complain that he didn;t! HYPOCRITICAL LOONY LEFTIES.
  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,333
    He [Chris Leslie] says that getting on top of the deficit is not just dependent on cuts but also fairer taxation.

    Oh goody...does that mean a flat tax of 20-30% for everybody...no? Oh by fairer taxation what he actually means is higher taxation.
  • Options
    FlightpathFlightpath Posts: 4,012

    From Osborne's 2010 budget comes this amusing snippet:

    "By 2014-15 borrowing reaches £37 billion, exactly half the amount forecast in the March Budget. In 2015-16, borrowing falls further to £20 billion."

    So not only has Osborne borrowed more money than he predicted he's also borrowed more money than Darling was planning to.

    Notice also that for the above two years borrowing will be over £100bn more than Osborne predicted.

    Puts the 'penny off a pint' into perspective doesn't it.

    As is repeated regularly the structural deficit left by labour and hence the size of the economy was smaller than expected. Plus the eurozone went into recession. Fortunately Osborne was not as beset by dogma as you seem to be and set his targets back two years.
  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,333
    edited March 2015
    weejonnie said:

    Ian Fraser ‏@Ian_Fraser 45m45 minutes ago
    Osborne has added >£517bn to gov't debt, more than every Labour gov't in history

    True - but utterly misleading. Given a choice he wouldn't have started from 2010. The bBC and Labour were screaming 'Tory Cutz' at any attempt to reduce Government expenditure - and now they have a cheek to complain that he didn;t! HYPOCRITICAL LOONY LEFTIES.
    Imagine if the Tories had actually made serious cuts across the board. The BBC would have gone into meltdown...Back to Wigan Pier, more than trying to say we would end up like Democratic Republic of the Congo.

    Do you remember they ran that "documentary" series imagining if a street had no public services...wink wink..nudge nudge...
  • Options
    Scott_PScott_P Posts: 51,453

    He [Chris Leslie] says that getting on top of the deficit is not just dependent on cuts but also fairer taxation.

    Oh goody...does that mean a flat tax of 20-30% for everybody...no? Oh by fairer taxation what he actually means is higher taxation.

    Interesting that Leslie is terrified of stating the bleeding obvious; that Labour would borrow more.

    i wonder what Tory election materials will feature?
  • Options
    hunchmanhunchman Posts: 2,591

    Ian Fraser ‏@Ian_Fraser 45m45 minutes ago
    Osborne has added >£517bn to gov't debt, more than every Labour gov't in history

    Absolutely. And that's £517bn on the official figures, not to mention failing to account for all the additions in off balance sheet items in the period as well including public sector pensions, PFI liabilities and the like.

    And we had all the usual nonsense that has come as par for the course on budget day. Osborne said something along the lines of 'best trade performance for 15 years'. Well he didn't exactly mention a current account deficit of over 5% of GDP, some "trade performance" that.

    And the Robert Chote and all the other dim***s at the OBR seriously need their heads examining. Where is the government going to get double the austerity measures from to meet the PSBR targets for 2015/6 and 2016/7? Anyway its absolute tosh after the great turning point in the bond market and interest rates at the start of October this year. The OBR like so many other forecasters are stuck in their linear world nonsense thinking that interest rates are going to remain on the floor. On that they couldn't be more wrong, and as a result their deficit forecasts are going to be hopelessly out. They've obviously never heard of the 34 year interest rate cycle - even a cursory glance of economic history would show them that they are wrong - its just staggering the ineptitude on display at the highest levels of government including the Office for Budget Recklessness.
  • Options
    SimonStClareSimonStClare Posts: 7,976
    @SeanT – good answer, thanks .

    Was in Waterstones at the weekend, subtly browsing through a copy of the Ice Twins, I think I dropped enough hints to the good lady that I was due a birthday soon. Looking forward to treading it.
  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,333
    I seem McBride is being "rehabilitated" with increasing new of media appearances....why he should be given the time of day, let alone be on the likes of Newsnight as some sort of expert is beyond me.
  • Options
    PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 76,034
    Con seats at 1.48 completely crackers.
  • Options
    TGOHFTGOHF Posts: 21,633
    Pulpstar said:

    Con seats at 1.48 completely crackers.

    Won't seem crackers when it is 1.01
  • Options
    JEOJEO Posts: 3,656
    isam said:

    Trevor Phillips programme tmrw, touted as an apparent disaster in the making for Farage, looks as though it will premiering a different viewpoint to the normal holier than thou claptrap

    'Campaigners like me sincerely believed that if we could prevent people expressing prejudiced thoughts, they’d stop thinking them,” says Phillips. He now says they were “utterly wrong”

    'Like many people faced with inconvenient truths, I thought if I sat on them long enough they’d go away,” says Phillips with a self-knowledge that is rare in our governing classes. Far more typical are the touchy censors who, Phillips reveals, withdrew a timely 2008 film for schools showing a twentysomething South Asian groomer luring white teenage girls into a fancy car and a life of degradation. That was way too realistic, unfortunately, so a second film was made where the groomer was a white teenager. This bore no resemblance to any present danger to any girl ever, but at least it wasn’t offending someone’s culture, except possibly white people. Bad luck, we don’t count.'

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/11479761/We-must-listen-to-Trevor-Phillips-and-his-inconvenient-truths-about-race.html

    It sounds like a very interesting program, and it's a shame such thoughtful observations from Philips got lost in the media after Farage's foolish statements on getting rid of laws preventing discrimination on the basis of colour or race.
  • Options
    Tim_BTim_B Posts: 7,669

    @SeanT – good answer, thanks .

    Was in Waterstones at the weekend, subtly browsing through a copy of the Ice Twins, I think I dropped enough hints to the good lady that I was due a birthday soon. Looking forward to treading it.

    Into what? :-)
  • Options
    QuincelQuincel Posts: 3,959
    TGOHF said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Con seats at 1.48 completely crackers.

    Won't seem crackers when it is 1.01
    Maybe, but for now the odds are simply crackers. What evidence is there the Tories are big favourites to win most seats? The polls are even, maybe slightly in their favour at best. The forecasts, which assume swingback, have them winning by 5-20 seats. The latest marginal polling is bad for them.

    Even if you reckon the marginal polling is wrong, swingback is likely, AND they currently have the edge in the polls, there is simply no way to see this election as anything but tight. And if it is tight no-one should be 2/1 to win it.

    What's worse is the 2.7 on EdM PM. Even the models showing Tory leads have easier coalitions for EdM. He should be odds-on!
  • Options
    AlastairMeeksAlastairMeeks Posts: 30,340
    Plato said:

    Shame on you, it'd be Vivienne Westwood. And plaid. Or was it tartan?

    PClipp said:

    Why is Antifrank wearing a flashers coat?

    Are you suggesting it is not his own?
    Alexander McQueen, darlings.
  • Options
    TGOHFTGOHF Posts: 21,633
    Quincel said:

    TGOHF said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Con seats at 1.48 completely crackers.

    Won't seem crackers when it is 1.01
    Maybe, but for now the odds are simply crackers. What evidence is there the Tories are big favourites to win most seats? The polls are even, maybe slightly in their favour at best. The forecasts, which assume swingback, have them winning by 5-20 seats. The latest marginal polling is bad for them.

    Even if you reckon the marginal polling is wrong, swingback is likely, AND they currently have the edge in the polls, there is simply no way to see this election as anything but tight. And if it is tight no-one should be 2/1 to win it.

    What's worse is the 2.7 on EdM PM. Even the models showing Tory leads have easier coalitions for EdM. He should be odds-on!
    Look at a picture of Ed. Then look at 1.48. He cannot win.
  • Options
    PongPong Posts: 4,693
    TGOHF said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Con seats at 1.48 completely crackers.

    Won't seem crackers when it is 1.01
    The Tories may well get the most seats - it's perfectly plausible that the odds end up at 1.01 in the early hours of May 8th. But right now, we're looking at probabilities.

    1/1.48 = 0.675

    Is there really a 67.5% chance that the tories will end up with most seats? I'd say those odds are overstating the likelihood by between 10-15 percentage points.

    Cons most seats is probably a marginal favourite right now, but only just.

  • Options
    TGOHFTGOHF Posts: 21,633
    Tomorrows Mail and Express very GO positive.
  • Options
    kle4kle4 Posts: 92,104
    Quincel said:

    TGOHF said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Con seats at 1.48 completely crackers.

    Won't seem crackers when it is 1.01
    Maybe, but for now the odds are simply crackers. What evidence is there the Tories are big favourites to win most seats? The polls are even, maybe slightly in their favour at best. The forecasts, which assume swingback, have them winning by 5-20 seats. The latest marginal polling is bad for them.

    Even if you reckon the marginal polling is wrong, swingback is likely, AND they currently have the edge in the polls, there is simply no way to see this election as anything but tight. And if it is tight no-one should be 2/1 to win it.

    What's worse is the 2.7 on EdM PM. Even the models showing Tory leads have easier coalitions for EdM. He should be odds-on!
    It's that weird lack of confidence from many in Labour causing it, has to be. As you say, the odds on him being PM should be a lot better, the actual polling and the easier coalition possibilities for him make that hard to dispute even if one thinks the Tories will get first go by virtue of being the largest party, but apparently his poor leadership ratings alone are enough to make even Labour people doubtful, and send Tories into overconfidence, and the markets react accordingly. It's weird.

    Night all. And for the record, since I raised the issue again, I maintain that a pantry and a larder are the same thing, and that a larder is posher. I wonder what Cameron and Ed M call theirs.
  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    SeanT said:

    SeanT said:

    Strange, wistful trailer for creepy, mysterious Dutch thriller "Ijstweeling".
    .

    Congratulations on the success of your twin sister's book btw - why do you think it has become so popular with the Dutch?

    Probable answer: I simply lucked out with my recommendation on a primetime, main channel Dutch TV show "DWDD" - they endorse four books a month and mine was one. Every book suggested by this show is practically guaranteed mainstream success (though mine has arguably done better than most).

    PREFERRED answer: I have written a universal story. Everyone is mildly creeped out by twins. Everyone is fascinated by spooky islands. Everyone is happily intrigued yet compellingly saddened by family tragedy. Add them all together, with a hint of ghostliness: OOF.

    But who knows. We have yet to see if the US and German editions do anything like the same business as the UK and Dutch versions. They come out in May and June.
    Sean: Sorry I lurk here so don't know what your book is called, but that sounds like one my wife would enjoy. If its OK for you to do a shameless plug, what's it called so I can pick it up?
  • Options
    compouter2compouter2 Posts: 2,371
    TGOHF said:

    Tomorrows Mail and Express very GO positive.

    LOL.

  • Options
    NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,380
    GIN1138 said:

    Anybody got any theories why Labour has clearly retaken the lead this week?

    Is it just a case of Dave Is Crap Is PM? Or something else?

    I think it's pretty much all square, actually - the lead wanders up and down by a couple of points. We'll see tomorrow what the Budget does - maybe Con +2, dropping back to all square next week?

    Fridge debate:

    Blood orange juice
    Milk
    Sardines
    Grapes
    Coke
    Tikka masala ready meal
    Margerine
    Rice dessert

    Pretty standard for me really - top it up with something similar from Sainsbury or Tesco every few days. The blood orange juice is the luxury item - totally addicted to the tang.

  • Options
    another_richardanother_richard Posts: 25,154

    From Osborne's 2010 budget comes this amusing snippet:

    "By 2014-15 borrowing reaches £37 billion, exactly half the amount forecast in the March Budget. In 2015-16, borrowing falls further to £20 billion."

    So not only has Osborne borrowed more money than he predicted he's also borrowed more money than Darling was planning to.

    Notice also that for the above two years borrowing will be over £100bn more than Osborne predicted.

    Puts the 'penny off a pint' into perspective doesn't it.

    As is repeated regularly the structural deficit left by labour and hence the size of the economy was smaller than expected. Plus the eurozone went into recession. Fortunately Osborne was not as beset by dogma as you seem to be and set his targets back two years.
    I'm glad you acknowledge that Osborne has failed in his deficit reduction.

    As the Eurozone was already in crisis when Osborne became Chancellor failure to take that into account then was incompetency
  • Options
    kle4kle4 Posts: 92,104

    GIN1138 said:

    Anybody got any theories why Labour has clearly retaken the lead this week?

    Is it just a case of Dave Is Crap Is PM? Or something else?

    I think it's pretty much all square, actually - the lead wanders up and down by a couple of points. We'll see tomorrow what the Budget does - maybe Con +2, dropping back to all square next week?

    Fridge debate:

    Blood orange juice
    Milk
    Sardines
    Grapes
    Coke
    Tikka masala ready meal
    Margerine
    Rice dessert

    Pretty standard for me really - top it up with something similar from Sainsbury or Tesco every few days. The blood orange juice is the luxury item - totally addicted to the tang.

    Acceptable - I could vote for someone with that sort of fridge. One other luxury item though and it'd be questionable though.
  • Options
    isamisam Posts: 41,082
    JEO said:

    isam said:

    Trevor Phillips programme tmrw, touted as an apparent disaster in the making for Farage, looks as though it will premiering a different viewpoint to the normal holier than thou claptrap

    'Campaigners like me sincerely believed that if we could prevent people expressing prejudiced thoughts, they’d stop thinking them,” says Phillips. He now says they were “utterly wrong”

    'Like many people faced with inconvenient truths, I thought if I sat on them long enough they’d go away,” says Phillips with a self-knowledge that is rare in our governing classes. Far more typical are the touchy censors who, Phillips reveals, withdrew a timely 2008 film for schools showing a twentysomething South Asian groomer luring white teenage girls into a fancy car and a life of degradation. That was way too realistic, unfortunately, so a second film was made where the groomer was a white teenager. This bore no resemblance to any present danger to any girl ever, but at least it wasn’t offending someone’s culture, except possibly white people. Bad luck, we don’t count.'

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/11479761/We-must-listen-to-Trevor-Phillips-and-his-inconvenient-truths-about-race.html

    It sounds like a very interesting program, and it's a shame such thoughtful observations from Philips got lost in the media after Farage's foolish statements on getting rid of laws preventing discrimination on the basis of colour or race.
    If the quotes from Farage had been attributed to Phillips and vice versa you'd probably still say the same thing
  • Options
    Oliver_PBOliver_PB Posts: 397
    edited March 2015


    I'm glad you acknowledge that Osborne has failed in his deficit reduction.

    The problem with the word "failed" is that it implies he tried.
  • Options
    Tim_BTim_B Posts: 7,669
    Don't tell me you didn't expect this one - The Donald is forming an exploratory committee to see if he should run for POTUS in 2016. He announced it today.
  • Options
    NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,380
    kle4 said:

    GIN1138 said:

    Anybody got any theories why Labour has clearly retaken the lead this week?

    Is it just a case of Dave Is Crap Is PM? Or something else?

    I think it's pretty much all square, actually - the lead wanders up and down by a couple of points. We'll see tomorrow what the Budget does - maybe Con +2, dropping back to all square next week?

    Fridge debate:

    Blood orange juice
    Milk
    Sardines
    Grapes
    Coke
    Tikka masala ready meal
    Margerine
    Rice dessert

    Pretty standard for me really - top it up with something similar from Sainsbury or Tesco every few days. The blood orange juice is the luxury item - totally addicted to the tang.

    Acceptable - I could vote for someone with that sort of fridge. One other luxury item though and it'd be questionable though.
    Gulp!
  • Options
    PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 76,034
    Whats happened with the Express btw - had it nailed on for UKIP last year but looks like it might endorse the Conservatives at GE ?
  • Options
    fitalassfitalass Posts: 4,279
    Twitter
    David Jack ‏@DJack_Journo 28m28 minutes ago
    Reckon Tories will be happy with tomorrow's front pages #Budget2015
  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,333
    edited March 2015
    Pulpstar said:

    Whats happened with the Express btw - had it nailed on for UKIP last year but looks like it might endorse the Conservatives at GE ?

    Wait until the Mirror buy it, then it will be mega confused....Front pages along the lines of "Tories caused heat wave and covered up Diana killing"...
  • Options
    CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 59,856
    The appalling exaggeration over North Sea tax revenues perpetrated by Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon in their desperate attempt to get us to back their plan to break up Britain has been laid bare for all to see.......

    .......Salmond and Sturgeon said that Scotland would be wallowing in up to some £8billion’s worth of North Sea revenues next year. That’s £8,000,000,000.

    However, that’s now been shown to be an outrageous overstatement of the truth because as the independent Office of Budget Responsibility now tells us the estimated tax take from the North Sea for that same year is likely to be a much more modest £600 million....

    But, sadly, in that parallel universe currently inhabited by the Nats and their fact-blind supporters it seems that nothing dents either their poll-ratings or the fervour of their belief that only theirs is the true path.

    They’re assuming the manifestations, not of a political party, but of a cult..


    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/11481010/SNPs-whopping-exaggeration-on-oil-revenues-laid-bare.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

  • Options
    fitalassfitalass Posts: 4,279
    @CarlottaVance, enjoy. :)
    Daisley Mail: Anger as chancellor snubs revenue from secret oil fields

    The appalling exaggeration over North Sea tax revenues perpetrated by Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon in their desperate attempt to get us to back their plan to break up Britain has been laid bare for all to see.......

    .......Salmond and Sturgeon said that Scotland would be wallowing in up to some £8billion’s worth of North Sea revenues next year. That’s £8,000,000,000.

    However, that’s now been shown to be an outrageous overstatement of the truth because as the independent Office of Budget Responsibility now tells us the estimated tax take from the North Sea for that same year is likely to be a much more modest £600 million....

    But, sadly, in that parallel universe currently inhabited by the Nats and their fact-blind supporters it seems that nothing dents either their poll-ratings or the fervour of their belief that only theirs is the true path.

    They’re assuming the manifestations, not of a political party, but of a cult..


    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/11481010/SNPs-whopping-exaggeration-on-oil-revenues-laid-bare.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

  • Options
    RobDRobD Posts: 59,027
  • Options
    RobDRobD Posts: 59,027
    Tim_B said:

    Don't tell me you didn't expect this one - The Donald is forming an exploratory committee to see if he should run for POTUS in 2016. He announced it today.

    The Duck?, or some other Donald? ;)
  • Options
    RobDRobD Posts: 59,027
    Also, some nice photos from the gathering! Hope everyone had a great time!

    (realises he is talking to himself, but oh well!)
  • Options
    DecrepitJohnLDecrepitJohnL Posts: 13,300
    edited March 2015

    I seem McBride is being "rehabilitated" with increasing new of media appearances....why he should be given the time of day, let alone be on the likes of Newsnight as some sort of expert is beyond me.

    The obvious answer is that McBride really is "some sort of expert" and is willing to appear, which may not be true of some others.

    On the same tack, the last few years have seen the decline of that related phenomenon: the rentaquote MP.
  • Options
    DecrepitJohnLDecrepitJohnL Posts: 13,300
    Pulpstar said:

    Whats happened with the Express btw - had it nailed on for UKIP last year but looks like it might endorse the Conservatives at GE ?

    As some said here at the time, it was never likely the Express would endorse UKIP. Maybe the lower-circulation Star, if Desmond really wanted to fire a shot across Cameron's bows. Like Murdoch's papers, they'd want to be on the winning side.
  • Options
    john_zimsjohn_zims Posts: 3,399
    Rachel Reeves going down like the proverbial lead balloon on LabourList.

    'That’s why I was disappointed to see some of the responses to my colleague, Rachel Reeves’ interview in the Guardian earlier this week.'
  • Options
    wumperwumper Posts: 35
    what a rum looking bunch
  • Options
    Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 49,620
    Sorry didn't see this thread last night due to WiFi issues, but was good to meet Mike and the gang again! Thanks to Steve for arranging the venue!
  • Options
    TykejohnnoTykejohnno Posts: 7,362
    :p
This discussion has been closed.