I have just joined this website and so it's only fair and proper that I introduce myself ! I usually post at the Guardian where I repeatedly , almost on a daily bases , predicted a TORY MAJORITY for 6 months before the election ; I had enough confidence to bet a large amount of money on it and naturally won big time ...I was never more than 65-70% confident on a Tory majority , but was 100% confident of Cameron winning the most seats ; this I used as a foundation bet back in December @ 5/4 from Ladbrokes and used that as a guarantor of the more risky bet @ 5-1 at other bookies ...I placed over 40 bets at various bookies over the next few months and won them all !
Here is my final prediction before the election ......and so it came to pass !
1 May 2015 07:19
3
Recommend
A WEEK IS A LONG TIME IN POLITICS
Cameron is going to win a majority ...it's bloody obvious ! Labour are a sinking ship fatally holed below the waterline by the infamous SNPee ; poor Miliband has already received the ''kiss of death '' from Lady Macbeth in the last debate when she insisted that ''we together can lock the Tories out '' ...no wonder Miliband is trying his best to deny it as he knows intuitively that it would signal the end for both him and the Labour party The witless sturgeon is too narrow minded to grasp just how the SNP are feared and loathed in middle England and is not even slightly aware that she is providing Cameron with his majority The polls are neck and neck as the voters make up their minds but soon we shall she the mother of all late swings as it suddenly dawns upon the voters in England the dangers they are in ; indeed , a weak Labour party propped up by a nationalist separatist party from Scotland will be enough to frighten the dead ...it is not over yet but it soon will be as those renegade Tories flirting with UKIP will be spooked back to save the day for Cameron
There's a chapter about him at the end of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
You'll be delighted to know, I've written some threads for the next week, one features Nick Clegg as King Leonidas, and another one talks about Helen of Troy/Sparta (though I call her a Greek)
I have just joined this website and so it's only fair and proper that I introduce myself ! I usually post at the Guardian where I repeatedly , almost on a daily bases , predicted a TORY MAJORITY for 6 months before the election ; I had enough confidence to bet a large amount of money on it and naturally won big time ...I was never more than 65-70% confident on a Tory majority , but was 100% confident of Cameron winning the most seats ; this I used as a foundation bet back in December @ 5/4 from Ladbrokes and used that as a guarantor of the more risky bet @ 5-1 at other bookies ...I placed over 40 bets at various bookies over the next few months and won them all !
Here is my final prediction before the election ......and so it came to pass !
1 May 2015 07:19
3
Recommend
A WEEK IS A LONG TIME IN POLITICS
Cameron is going to win a majority ...it's bloody obvious ! Labour are a sinking ship fatally holed below the waterline by the infamous SNPee ; poor Miliband has already received the ''kiss of death '' from Lady Macbeth in the last debate when she insisted that ''we together can lock the Tories out '' ...no wonder Miliband is trying his best to deny it as he knows intuitively that it would signal the end for both him and the Labour party The witless sturgeon is too narrow minded to grasp just how the SNP are feared and loathed in middle England and is not even slightly aware that she is providing Cameron with his majority The polls are neck and neck as the voters make up their minds but soon we shall she the mother of all late swings as it suddenly dawns upon the voters in England the dangers they are in ; indeed , a weak Labour party propped up by a nationalist separatist party from Scotland will be enough to frighten the dead ...it is not over yet but it soon will be as those renegade Tories flirting with UKIP will be spooked back to save the day for Cameron
Welcome. Shame you weren't around at the time to give JackW a bit of company in his crusade for EMWNBPM - "Ed Miliband Will Never Be Prime Minister"!
On another website I frequent, someone wrote this yesterday:
"One of the things that has been very noticeable since Election Day is how the more leftwing Labour supporters are starting to rewrite the result not as a shocking defeat, but almost as a narrow, nip and tuck affair where outside influences such as Murdoch and so on, conspired to ensure they were robbed.
The Tories 36.9% share is slowly being manipulated down, as Labour supporters spend their days consulting their maths books to concoct ever more elaborate methods of massaging the scale of the defeat downwards. I confidently expect that by Christmas some clever CiFer or HuffPoster will have proved Labour won. In the meantime the Tories will get on will have to fall back on just running the country. "
Is this letter a joke? It certainly can be read like one. Although those living in fear of the 8th July budget aren't laughing.
This letter is not a joke. There are so many people who feel that HMG is entitled to keep them housed, clothed and fed according to their personal circumstances and without any personal responsibility, that they are squealing like mad at the prospect at having to work for their living and provide for themselves.
The same thinking applies to those who believe that economic immigrants should be entitled to the UK level of benefits and not just to the level (if any) that they would have received in their own country.
It is very nice to save people from drowning in the Med, but nobody seems to have thought of what should be done with them then. If immigrants are going to be rescued by the Navy, clothed and fed and landed in Eirope, then will that not just encourage more to make the trip?
"There are so many people who feel that HMG is entitled to keep them housed, clothed and fed according to their personal circumstances and without any personal responsibility, that they are squealing like mad at the prospect at having to work for their living and provide for themselves."
"A CELEBRITY TV and radio presenter was paid £1320 to chair a poverty conference.
Journalist Lesley Riddoch hosted the South Lanarkshire Council event that discussed ways to address inequality.
A freedom of information request from our sister paper the Hamilton Advertiser revealed that her fee was the highest paid by the council for a celebrity appearance at any event in the past five years.
Scottish Tory MSP Alex Johnstone said yesterday: “It’s so typical of people on that side of the political debate that they would hand-wring for a few hours about poverty – only to take home a king’s ransom in return.
“Many of those looking on thinking the people involved cared would be horrified to see the sums of money exchanged.”"
On another website I frequent, someone wrote this yesterday:
"One of the things that has been very noticeable since Election Day is how the more leftwing Labour supporters are starting to rewrite the result not as a shocking defeat, but almost as a narrow, nip and tuck affair where outside influences such as Murdoch and so on, conspired to ensure they were robbed.
The Tories 36.9% share is slowly being manipulated down, as Labour supporters spend their days consulting their maths books to concoct ever more elaborate methods of massaging the scale of the defeat downwards. I confidently expect that by Christmas some clever CiFer or HuffPoster will have proved Labour won. In the meantime the Tories will get on will have to fall back on just running the country. "
Is this letter a joke? It certainly can be read like one. Although those living in fear of the 8th July budget aren't laughing.
This letter is not a joke. There are so many people who feel that HMG is entitled to keep them housed, clothed and fed according to their personal circumstances and without any personal responsibility, that they are squealing like mad at the prospect at having to work for their living and provide for themselves.
The same thinking applies to those who believe that economic immigrants should be entitled to the UK level of benefits and not just to the level (if any) that they would have received in their own country.
It is very nice to save people from drowning in the Med, but nobody seems to have thought of what should be done with them then. If immigrants are going to be rescued by the Navy, clothed and fed and landed in Eirope, then will that not just encourage more to make the trip?
"There are so many people who feel that HMG is entitled to keep them housed, clothed and fed according to their personal circumstances and without any personal responsibility, that they are squealing like mad at the prospect at having to work for their living and provide for themselves."
Many of them have jobs in banks and quangos.
Don't forget the House of Lords, there's a second wave of needy ex-Scottish MPs hoping for a place at the trough. I could think of many better ways to spend £200 million a year.
Why on Earth is a celebrity booked for such an event? I'm gobsmacked. Even if the fee is pretty small beer on PR terms - it's a total mistake to associate paying anyone to chair a meeting about poverty.
"A CELEBRITY TV and radio presenter was paid £1320 to chair a poverty conference.
Journalist Lesley Riddoch hosted the South Lanarkshire Council event that discussed ways to address inequality.
A freedom of information request from our sister paper the Hamilton Advertiser revealed that her fee was the highest paid by the council for a celebrity appearance at any event in the past five years.
Scottish Tory MSP Alex Johnstone said yesterday: “It’s so typical of people on that side of the political debate that they would hand-wring for a few hours about poverty – only to take home a king’s ransom in return.
“Many of those looking on thinking the people involved cared would be horrified to see the sums of money exchanged.”"
Even by your standards the jibe at Lesley Riddoch is unfair as is the Record article. She is well known for her work for many causes and charities across Scotland and beyond and her fee from a Council is neither excessive or disproportionate.
Perhaps you would like to list all your own pro bono work for charities?
I have just joined this website and so it's only fair and proper that I introduce myself ! I usually post at the Guardian where I repeatedly , almost on a daily bases , predicted a TORY MAJORITY for 6 months before the election ; I had enough confidence to bet a large amount of money on it and naturally won big time ...I was never more than 65-70% confident on a Tory majority , but was 100% confident of Cameron winning the most seats ; this I used as a foundation bet back in December @ 5/4 from Ladbrokes and used that as a guarantor of the more risky bet @ 5-1 at other bookies ...I placed over 40 bets at various bookies over the next few months and won them all !
Here is my final prediction before the election ......and so it came to pass !
1 May 2015 07:19
3
Recommend
A WEEK IS A LONG TIME IN POLITICS
Cameron is going to win a majority ...it's bloody obvious ! Labour are a sinking ship fatally holed below the waterline by the infamous SNPee ; poor Miliband has already received the ''kiss of death '' from Lady Macbeth in the last debate when she insisted that ''we together can lock the Tories out '' ...no wonder Miliband is trying his best to deny it as he knows intuitively that it would signal the end for both him and the Labour party The witless sturgeon is too narrow minded to grasp just how the SNP are feared and loathed in middle England and is not even slightly aware that she is providing Cameron with his majority The polls are neck and neck as the voters make up their minds but soon we shall she the mother of all late swings as it suddenly dawns upon the voters in England the dangers they are in ; indeed , a weak Labour party propped up by a nationalist separatist party from Scotland will be enough to frighten the dead ...it is not over yet but it soon will be as those renegade Tories flirting with UKIP will be spooked back to save the day for Cameron
What an utterly filthy piece of aftertiming for your first post
Welcome ! And very well done on your election betting success, hope your wheelbarrow is chock full
Even by your standards the jibe at Lesley Riddoch is unfair as is the Record article. She is well known for her work for many causes and charities across Scotland and beyond and her fee from a Council is neither excessive or disproportionate.
Perhaps you would like to list all your own pro bono work for charities?
£1320 for a days work to whine about poverty and greedy bankers ?
She's cashing in on the Nat wave - filling her pockets by wringing her hands at the awfulness of it all whilst submitting a fat invoice.
Absolutely correct about Salmond although his demolition of Labour in 2011 was pretty comprehensive and thought extraordinary at the time. His highest election rating was 45 per cent some 8 per cent higher than Camerons and his highest opinion poll rating for the SNP at Westminster was 52 per cent. He inherited a Party which had scored 23 per cent in a Scottish election and 21 per cent in a UK one.
The fact that Sturgeon has achieved 50 per cent in an election and 60 per cent - yes that is correct 60 per cent - in this week's polling is more a measure of how extraodinary she is rather than how ordinary was Salmond's leadership.
Miss Plato, font matters a lot. It can help indicate what sort of book you've written (especially on the cover) or make you look like a moron (if you engrave a political tombstone with Arial, for example).
Mr Dancer, I look forward to the list of fonts suitable for political tombstones that would have spared Ed the charge of being moronic. To think, Labour were so close to power, then made a schoolboy error in font selection....
And a list of your own chartiable giving so that we can all compare and contrast?
Ooh a dead cat ?
I don't pontificate in the National about the awfulness of Tories, English and their greed week in week out - then charge a poverty conference to turn up.
This is a very sad confession of mine - I used to play Guess The Font with colleagues. I had a Monotype catelogue as a kid and used to copy them out. I wanted to be a graphic designer when I grew up...
My favourites are Helvetica and Verdana... I'm fond of Century Gothic too... I'll stop there
Miss Plato, font matters a lot. It can help indicate what sort of book you've written (especially on the cover) or make you look like a moron (if you engrave a political tombstone with Arial, for example).
Mr Dancer, I look forward to the list of fonts suitable for political tombstones that would have spared Ed the charge of being moronic. To think, Labour were so close to power, then made a schoolboy error in font selection....
I yield to nobody in my dislike of Blair, but from some of the comments you would think that nothing done by governments led by him was in any way "Labour".
Miss Plato, font matters a lot. It can help indicate what sort of book you've written (especially on the cover) or make you look like a moron (if you engrave a political tombstone with Arial, for example).
Mr Dancer, I look forward to the list of fonts suitable for political tombstones that would have spared Ed the charge of being moronic. To think, Labour were so close to power, then made a schoolboy error in font selection....
Miss Plato, I think Garamond's a nice one [from memory]. Fiddled with them a bit when choosing a few for a reasonably large scale map I made for my WIP.
Mr. Mark, don't be a tinker, I'm just saying that's one more black mark against Miliband, not that it was the silver bullet that thwarted an otherwise glorious campaign.
Absolutely correct about Salmond although his demolition of Labour in 2011 was pretty comprehensive and thought extraordinary at the time. His highest election rating was 45 per cent some 8 per cent higher than Camerons and his highest opinion poll rating for the SNP at Westminster was 52 per cent. He inherited a Party which had scored 23 per cent in a Scottish election and 21 per cent in a UK one.
The fact that Sturgeon has achieved 50 per cent in an election and 60 per cent - yes that is correct 60 per cent - in this week's polling is more a measure of how extraodinary she is rather than how ordinary was Salmond's leadership.
Arguably though, Salmond screwed up when he "joked" about writing Labour's Budget. Much as they might bluster about it not mattering, the SNP would have been in a hugely better position if the Tories had not achieved an overall majority - a majority for which the SNP's buddy-hugging of Ed Miliband was in no small part responsible.
Absolutely correct about Salmond although his demolition of Labour in 2011 was pretty comprehensive and thought extraordinary at the time. His highest election rating was 45 per cent some 8 per cent higher than Camerons and his highest opinion poll rating for the SNP at Westminster was 52 per cent. He inherited a Party which had scored 23 per cent in a Scottish election and 21 per cent in a UK one.
The fact that Sturgeon has achieved 50 per cent in an election and 60 per cent - yes that is correct 60 per cent - in this week's polling is more a measure of how extraodinary she is rather than how ordinary was Salmond's leadership.
Arguably though, Salmond screwed up when he "joked" about writing Labour's Budget. Much as they might bluster about it not mattering, the SNP would have been in a hugely better position if the Tories had not achieved an overall majority - a majority for which the SNP's buddy-hugging of Ed Miliband was in no small part responsible.
They over-egged the pudding.....
Clearly a mistake of hubris, but to be fair understandable. It must have been so exciting in SNP HQ to see canvas returns that indicated a possible clean sweep.
This is a very sad confession of mine - I used to play Guess The Font with colleagues. I had a Monotype catelogue as a kid and used to copy them out. I wanted to be a graphic designer when I grew up...
My favourites are Helvetica and Verdana... I'm fond of Century Gothic too... I'll stop there
Miss Plato, font matters a lot. It can help indicate what sort of book you've written (especially on the cover) or make you look like a moron (if you engrave a political tombstone with Arial, for example).
Mr Dancer, I look forward to the list of fonts suitable for political tombstones that would have spared Ed the charge of being moronic. To think, Labour were so close to power, then made a schoolboy error in font selection....
Quite a fan of Elephant myself. It has an unfailing sturdiness to it - kinda like the Ian Botham or Mike Gatting of fonts....
This is a very sad confession of mine - I used to play Guess The Font with colleagues. I had a Monotype catelogue as a kid and used to copy them out. I wanted to be a graphic designer when I grew up...
My favourites are Helvetica and Verdana... I'm fond of Century Gothic too... I'll stop there
Miss Plato, font matters a lot. It can help indicate what sort of book you've written (especially on the cover) or make you look like a moron (if you engrave a political tombstone with Arial, for example).
Mr Dancer, I look forward to the list of fonts suitable for political tombstones that would have spared Ed the charge of being moronic. To think, Labour were so close to power, then made a schoolboy error in font selection....
Quite a fan of Elephant myself. It has an unfailing sturdiness to it - kinda like the Ian Botham or Mike Gatting of fonts....
I yield to nobody in my dislike of Blair, but from some of the comments you would think that nothing done by governments led by him was in any way "Labour".
Blair looks very relaxed in the photo with that article. Maybe he thinks he is about to get his party back? Blair is definitely one of the Lizard People!
This is a very sad confession of mine - I used to play Guess The Font with colleagues. I had a Monotype catelogue as a kid and used to copy them out. I wanted to be a graphic designer when I grew up...
My favourites are Helvetica and Verdana... I'm fond of Century Gothic too... I'll stop there
Miss Plato, font matters a lot. It can help indicate what sort of book you've written (especially on the cover) or make you look like a moron (if you engrave a political tombstone with Arial, for example).
Mr Dancer, I look forward to the list of fonts suitable for political tombstones that would have spared Ed the charge of being moronic. To think, Labour were so close to power, then made a schoolboy error in font selection....
Quite a fan of Elephant myself. It has an unfailing sturdiness to it - kinda like the Ian Botham or Mike Gatting of fonts....
I yield to nobody in my dislike of Blair, but from some of the comments you would think that nothing done by governments led by him was in any way "Labour".
Blair looks very relaxed in the photo with that article. Maybe he thinks he is about to get his party back? Blair is definitely one of the Lizard People!
Blair has been proven right on the last two Lab leaders being duffers, no wonder he looks smug there.
Absolutely correct about Salmond although his demolition of Labour in 2011 was pretty comprehensive and thought extraordinary at the time. His highest election rating was 45 per cent some 8 per cent higher than Camerons and his highest opinion poll rating for the SNP at Westminster was 52 per cent. He inherited a Party which had scored 23 per cent in a Scottish election and 21 per cent in a UK one.
The fact that Sturgeon has achieved 50 per cent in an election and 60 per cent - yes that is correct 60 per cent - in this week's polling is more a measure of how extraodinary she is rather than how ordinary was Salmond's leadership.
Arguably though, Salmond screwed up when he "joked" about writing Labour's Budget. Much as they might bluster about it not mattering, the SNP would have been in a hugely better position if the Tories had not achieved an overall majority - a majority for which the SNP's buddy-hugging of Ed Miliband was in no small part responsible.
They over-egged the pudding.....
Clearly a mistake of hubris, but to be fair understandable. It must have been so exciting in SNP HQ to see canvas returns that indicated a possible clean sweep.
"Ed Miliband could be given unconditional support by the Scottish Nationalists to lead the next government, Alex Salmond has said.
In his latest intervention, the former Scottish first minister said that his party would do whatever it took to lock David Cameron out of Downing Street.
He claims that the SNP will wield huge power after the election, enabling it to keep out the Conservatives even if it has no electoral deal with Labour."
Funnily enough, just done a YouGov and had a load of questions about a new type of tea. The packaging was revolting and looked like someone had font sick all over it - I counted 6 on the front of the box.
This is a very sad confession of mine - I used to play Guess The Font with colleagues. I had a Monotype catelogue as a kid and used to copy them out. I wanted to be a graphic designer when I grew up...
My favourites are Helvetica and Verdana... I'm fond of Century Gothic too... I'll stop there
Miss Plato, font matters a lot. It can help indicate what sort of book you've written (especially on the cover) or make you look like a moron (if you engrave a political tombstone with Arial, for example).
Mr Dancer, I look forward to the list of fonts suitable for political tombstones that would have spared Ed the charge of being moronic. To think, Labour were so close to power, then made a schoolboy error in font selection....
Quite a fan of Elephant myself. It has an unfailing sturdiness to it - kinda like the Ian Botham or Mike Gatting of fonts....
Absolutely correct about Salmond although his demolition of Labour in 2011 was pretty comprehensive and thought extraordinary at the time. His highest election rating was 45 per cent some 8 per cent higher than Camerons and his highest opinion poll rating for the SNP at Westminster was 52 per cent. He inherited a Party which had scored 23 per cent in a Scottish election and 21 per cent in a UK one.
The fact that Sturgeon has achieved 50 per cent in an election and 60 per cent - yes that is correct 60 per cent - in this week's polling is more a measure of how extraodinary she is rather than how ordinary was Salmond's leadership.
Arguably though, Salmond screwed up when he "joked" about writing Labour's Budget. Much as they might bluster about it not mattering, the SNP would have been in a hugely better position if the Tories had not achieved an overall majority - a majority for which the SNP's buddy-hugging of Ed Miliband was in no small part responsible.
They over-egged the pudding.....
Clearly a mistake of hubris, but to be fair understandable. It must have been so exciting in SNP HQ to see canvas returns that indicated a possible clean sweep.
"Ed Miliband could be given unconditional support by the Scottish Nationalists to lead the next government, Alex Salmond has said.
In his latest intervention, the former Scottish first minister said that his party would do whatever it took to lock David Cameron out of Downing Street.
He claims that the SNP will wield huge power after the election, enabling it to keep out the Conservatives even if it has no electoral deal with Labour."
I'm depressingly unimpressed by the SNPers at Westminster. They're acting like cocky teenagers who think they know everything - and the grown-ups just look on and roll their eyes.
Hopefully they'll realise shortly that being TNKOTB doesn't make you anything special.
Academic freedom is a load of balls, some of his critics should look at themselves and ask is this really the most significant error that a scientist can commit? The charlatans at UEA who were playing around with climate change stats don't seem to have bothered to step down.
If only Tim Hunt's critics have matched his expertise.
Erm, weren't the UAE team cleared by a Royal Society enquiry, and wasn't the whole furore based on politicians misunderstanding (perhaps deliberately) what was meant by terms like "mathematical trick"?
Yes. "Eight committees investigated the allegations and published reports, finding no evidence of fraud or scientific misconduct.[15] However, the reports called on the scientists to avoid any such allegations in the future by taking steps to regain public confidence in their work, for example by opening up access to their supporting data, processing methods and software, and by promptly honouring freedom of information requests.[16] The scientific consensus that global warming is occurring as a result of human activity remained unchanged throughout the investigations" But some people don't like to be confused by the facts.
Me, for one. I am still really confused by your revelation that "Oslo is the closest railway station to Shetland". Could you explain the one again please?
The destruction of Al Qaeda by ISIS reminds me of a certain TV series that's on at the moment. The Taliban are looking like a vicar's tea party right now too
Academic freedom is a load of balls, some of his critics should look at themselves and ask is this really the most significant error that a scientist can commit? The charlatans at UEA who were playing around with climate change stats don't seem to have bothered to step down.
If only Tim Hunt's critics have matched his expertise.
There's an article to be written about UCL's rather inconsistent, indeed, hypocritical approach to gender equality. UCL is the college where gender segregation was permitted at certain events to soothe the egos of Islamist speakers and where all too many Islamists with far worse views about women than Dr Hunt are regularly and freely allowed to speak and disseminate their evil views. A few of its students have been so radicalised by such speakers that they have gone on to commit terrorist crimes.
Mention has been made about competitiveness and I would like to throw my three ha'pence into the ring.
France has a high unemployment rate, but exceeds our competiveness. With high wages and high taxes, French industry and services must be exceedingly efficient to make a profit.
Germany is notoriously efficient in manufacturing.
The US has managed to con it's population in to working long hours, few holidays, low pay and conditions with the exception of a very small minority (personally, iI think this is storing up problems for the future)
The UK has a low wage economy where wages are topped up by allowances paid in effect, by PAYE taxpayers, which in turn boosts the profits of the companies, quite a few of which pay very little if any tax in the UK. There is no reason for the companies to become efficient let alone competitive if the profit allows high wages to be paid to the executives, and the work force are prepared to to accept the terms and conditions of boring, repetitive work.
The United States has higher wages and income than the United Kingdom, which in turn has higher wages and income than France.
Academic freedom is a load of balls, some of his critics should look at themselves and ask is this really the most significant error that a scientist can commit? The charlatans at UEA who were playing around with climate change stats don't seem to have bothered to step down.
If only Tim Hunt's critics have matched his expertise.
There's an article to be written about UCL's rather inconsistent, indeed, hypocritical approach to gender equality. UCL is the college where gender segregation was permitted at certain events to soothe the egos of Islamist speakers and where all too many Islamists with far worse views about women than Dr Hunt are regularly and freely allowed to speak and disseminate their evil views. A few of its students have been so radicalised by such speakers that they have gone on to commit terrorist crimes.
Although I don't know the facts, reading between the lines, it looks very much to me like UCL put a lot of pressure on him to resign.
I have my doubts about whether they'd have done so had he been a strict Muslim professor.
Mr. L, but unemployment isn't a thing of the moment, the issue will continue to exist when labour markets worsen.
Sorry, work getting in the way of more important things like PB again.
I agree that the relationship between the NMW and the state of the economy is something that needs care and review on a regular basis. One of my reservations about the so called living wage is that it seems to completely ignore that link.
At the moment we have 2 major problems. Firstly, thanks to Brown we still have an enormous structural deficit. I honestly believe it to be very close to £100bn. By this stage, 7 years into the cycle, we should be running reasonable surpluses of at least 1% of GDP and arguably more given our higher debt level.
A part of the reasons for that is that we are excessively subsidising employment through WTC, CTC and HB. We just can't afford to do that at the current rate.
The second problem as @Financier points out is that we have very low productivity.
In my view these problems are linked. If you make labour excessively cheap then low productivity becomes tolerable from an employer's point of view because he can still make money from them. If the labour becomes more expensive the employer is incentivised to improve productivity.
If we find that an increased NMW is driving up unemployment either because the demand for labour has fallen or because of the poor productivity issue we can let it drift downwards again in real terms. But at the moment we have a chance to (a) reduce the cost of marginal employment to the state; (b) encourage productivity growth and (c) offset some of the pain of welfare cuts by giving the lowest paid in our society a wage increase.
I will be very disappointed if Osborne does not seize that chance.
There are plenty of male scientists in the academic world who are passionate about their research and their science, but who struggle in social situations and can find it hard to read emotions.
On the other hand, when two people work of opposite genders work on an intense project together, by themselves, that intensity can often easily transfer to their personal relationship, which may or may not work, and can certainly complicate things.
I absolutely disagree that labs should be gender segregated and we need more women in science, but I do wish people were less judgemental of this professor and a bit more understanding of som of his personal struggles.
Why is another Tory government terrible and what would they do differently to improve the UK in the longer term i.e more than five years.
Plenty of people dislike what they believe to be the basic Conservative mindset (help the rich, screw the poor and and maybe it'll filter down to the middle classes) and are dismayed to see them in Government, so they join an opposition party - mostly Labour, though LDs and Greens are up too - in order to oppose it. They don't really need to have a fully-fledged alternative manifesto to make that decision, and no doubt they have varied ideas, some of them more fledged than others. But I'd expect them to be more inclined to ask "How can we defeat the Tories next time?" rather than "How can the party perfectly match my ideological wishes?"
Quite a few of our most durable current people joined in 1992 in a similar frame of mind - it's a useful long-term asset for any party. In an ideal world we'd all have perfectly-formed yet adaptable ideas, but hey.
Academic freedom is a load of balls, some of his critics should look at themselves and ask is this really the most significant error that a scientist can commit? The charlatans at UEA who were playing around with climate change stats don't seem to have bothered to step down.
If only Tim Hunt's critics have matched his expertise.
There's an article to be written about UCL's rather inconsistent, indeed, hypocritical approach to gender equality. UCL is the college where gender segregation was permitted at certain events to soothe the egos of Islamist speakers and where all too many Islamists with far worse views about women than Dr Hunt are regularly and freely allowed to speak and disseminate their evil views. A few of its students have been so radicalised by such speakers that they have gone on to commit terrorist crimes.
Although I don't know the facts, reading between the lines, it looks very much to me like UCL put a lot of pressure on him to resign.
I have my doubts about whether they'd have done so had he been a strict Muslim professor.
Prof Malcolm Grant has, to my mind, adopted a very "Hear no evil. See no evil" approach to Islamist speakers in his university, to his discredit, frankly, given UCL's own origins and the harm done by them to what UCL ought to be standing for. Dr Hunt may well have been bad mannered, crass and silly but the reaction - by comparison to far more serious "offences" against gender equality - is disproportionate.
Armed police hunt for boy, 14, after a teacher is stabbed in the 'chest' before lessons begin at school in Bradford
Male teacher, 50, stabbed shortly before 9am at Dixons Kings Academy Was taken to hospital and condition is currently described as 'stable' Police are searching for Asian boy who was wearing a blue blazer Academy was taken over in January amid fraud claims Incident happened less than 20 miles from where teacher Ann Maguire was stabbed to death by pupil last April
I'm depressingly unimpressed by the SNPers at Westminster. They're acting like cocky teenagers who think they know everything - and the grown-ups just look on and roll their eyes.
Hopefully they'll realise shortly that being TNKOTB doesn't make you anything special.
OT Entertaining spat in the Specie with Niall Fergusson taking former Chief Economist in Gordon Brown's Cabinet Office "Independent/neutral" economist Jonathan Portes to task:
Quite a few of our most durable current people joined in 1992 in a similar frame of mind - it's a useful long-term asset for any party. In an ideal world we'd all have perfectly-formed yet adaptable ideas, but hey.
As Ed Milliband might have said when signing off the 2015.Labour manifesto Luckily the electorate would like you to have some coherent and effective ideas on how to run the country.
I'm depressingly unimpressed by the SNPers at Westminster. They're acting like cocky teenagers who think they know everything - and the grown-ups just look on and roll their eyes.
Hopefully they'll realise shortly that being TNKOTB doesn't make you anything special.
Scotch Nits proving themselves to be a complete joke.
Presumably this is how they behaved in Toytown Parliament north of the border, whilst debating whether to raise parking fines in Balamory.
I hope their constituents are used to it - the last thing we want is for them all to get turfed out in 2020 & let SLAB back in.
Most Scots in the central belt have very little experience of being represented by anything other than muppets and placemen. Indeed the bar is so low that at least some of the SNP members are likely to be an improvement. Some even speak in sentences.
Plenty of people dislike what they believe to be the basic Conservative mindset (help the rich, screw the poor and and maybe it'll filter down to the middle classes)
Nick, is that your view of the Conservative Party? I'm thick-skinned enough to take that utterly wrong assessment in my stride. But there's 11.3m Conservatives voters that might just be a bit pissed off....
OT Entertaining spat in the Specie with Niall Fergusson taking former Chief Economist in Gordon Brown's Cabinet Office "Independent/neutral" economist Jonathan Portes to task:
Academic freedom is a load of balls, some of his critics should look at themselves and ask is this really the most significant error that a scientist can commit? The charlatans at UEA who were playing around with climate change stats don't seem to have bothered to step down.
If only Tim Hunt's critics have matched his expertise.
Erm, weren't the UAE team cleared by a Royal Society enquiry, and wasn't the whole furore based on politicians misunderstanding (perhaps deliberately) what was meant by terms like "mathematical trick"?
Yes. "Eight committees investigated the allegations and published reports, finding no evidence of fraud or scientific misconduct.[15] However, the reports called on the scientists to avoid any such allegations in the future by taking steps to regain public confidence in their work, for example by opening up access to their supporting data, processing methods and software, and by promptly honouring freedom of information requests.[16] The scientific consensus that global warming is occurring as a result of human activity remained unchanged throughout the investigations" But some people don't like to be confused by the facts.
Me, for one. I am still really confused by your revelation that "Oslo is the closest railway station to Shetland". Could you explain the one again please?
Apparently I got that wrong, it's much nearer to Scarborough, you suggested I admit that I got it a bit wrong, but you got it very wrong.
I have just joined this website and so it's only fair and proper that I introduce myself ! I usually post at the Guardian where I repeatedly , almost on a daily bases , predicted a TORY MAJORITY for 6 months before the election ; I had enough confidence to bet a large amount of money on it and naturally won big time ...
Welcome Cromwell! I of course won a colossal amount of money backing you as next Monarch at 250/1 in the mid-seventeenth century, though I did have to take a certain Wm. Hill, Esq. to IBAS before being paid out.
The reason they stayed united and loyal was that despite everything the polls were showing that they were on for a decent majority. If instead they had been five points behind...
Labour's own polls showed them behind.
Which Labour polls showed them behind, when did they show it, and do you have a link please? Genuine question.
@viewcode. Apparently it was in the times. Lower down this thread it is stated: "Meantime, The Times' autopsy on Labour's election defeat points out that Labour's own polling showed them 6 points behind the Tories. Labour can hardly complain if they chose not to publish their own polls."
I don't have access to the Times since it is behind a paywall and I don't subscribe, so I can't confirm this. However you may be able to access the relevant article(s).
Is anyone interested in betting on the Danish elections ?..I would be interested in hearing your views
It is my intuitive hunch that the incumbent will squeeze a narrow victory for a number of reasons ....
A/ The incumbent red/green alliance seem to have the momentum after being well behind in the polls since 2011
B/ SCHMIDT has an advantage in personal popularity over Rasmussen ...reading her body language , she seems to have a spring in her step and be optimistic
C/ When an election is this close the electorate tend to stay with the status quo and remain with the known over the unknown
D/ It seems that Rasmussen has been hurt by his low level corruption scandals
Academic freedom is a load of balls, some of his critics should look at themselves and ask is this really the most significant error that a scientist can commit? The charlatans at UEA who were playing around with climate change stats don't seem to have bothered to step down.
If only Tim Hunt's critics have matched his expertise.
Erm, weren't the UAE team cleared by a Royal Society enquiry, and wasn't the whole furore based on politicians misunderstanding (perhaps deliberately) what was meant by terms like "mathematical trick"?
Yes. "Eight committees investigated the allegations and published reports, finding no evidence of fraud or scientific misconduct.[15] However, the reports called on the scientists to avoid any such allegations in the future by taking steps to regain public confidence in their work, for example by opening up access to their supporting data, processing methods and software, and by promptly honouring freedom of information requests.[16] The scientific consensus that global warming is occurring as a result of human activity remained unchanged throughout the investigations" But some people don't like to be confused by the facts.
Me, for one. I am still really confused by your revelation that "Oslo is the closest railway station to Shetland". Could you explain the one again please?
Apparently I got that wrong, it's much nearer to Scarborough, you suggested I admit that I got it a bit wrong, but you got it very wrong.
No, you twit. I used Scarborough as an illustration to show how wrong you were about Oslo. Scarborough is in fact closer to Lerwick than Oslo. Look it up on a map. You didn't understand that, you don't have the first idea about basics like what shape Norway is, but you can't stop yourself patronising the rest of the world with your superior understanding of Ther Science.
The political fog is lifting and as it does a pathway to victory for Cameron is becoming clearer ....the real wildcard is the rise of the SNP and it's SURE to cause a reaction here in England ..English voters fear and loathe the SNP and they will be the kiss of death for any political party they attempt to go into coalition with ; naturally , it will be suicide for Labour as it would mean a minority English government being hung with a Scottish rope and as such Miliband needs to nip this in the bud and renounce any possibility of it before it seeps in public consciousness like a deadly poison ; but he won't ; he'll dilly , dally and procastrinate and Labour will be contaminated by guilt by association resulting in lethal and terminal consequences
======================== 14 Dec 2014 08:06
There is another possibility ; we Brits don't like coalitions and the last one came about by default and I suspect the voters will not make the same mistake twice ...we much prefer the clarity and decisiveness of a majority party instead of a moribund , impotent , frustrating coalition I suspect that the coming election will be somewhat like the 92 election when Labour was expected to win outright or by coalition , but the polls broke late and decisively for the Tories ..the spectre of the SNP will spook enough centrist voters into the arms of the Tories and finally give Cameron his slim majority
===================== 11 Dec 2014 08:20
The two EDs are the original Mrs Brown's Boys ; they are a laughing stock and the electorate will never trust them with the levers of power ...Cameron has already won this election by default ...indeed , all that is really in doubt is will the Tories scrape a slim majority ?...we could very well be about to witness a Labour collapse
==================== 10 Dec 2014 11:00
In response to Dubdemon Too true , you folks really do loathe the Tories and that's why the English voters are going to cook you up a Tory government to choke on ..it was the militant and thuggish unions that created a backlash that helped create Thatcher ...Salmond and the SNP are creating a similar backlash that is likely to provide Cameron with his long awaited majority ...mark my words ! ========================
I made these comments at the Guardian website before Xmas !
Why is another Tory government terrible and what would they do differently to improve the UK in the longer term i.e more than five years.
Plenty of people dislike what they believe to be the basic Conservative mindset (help the rich, screw the poor and and maybe it'll filter down to the middle classes) and are dismayed to see them in Government, so they join an opposition party - mostly Labour, though LDs and Greens are up too - in order to oppose it. They don't really need to have a fully-fledged alternative manifesto to make that decision, and no doubt they have varied ideas, some of them more fledged than others. But I'd expect them to be more inclined to ask "How can we defeat the Tories next time?" rather than "How can the party perfectly match my ideological wishes?" Quite a few of our most durable current people joined in 1992 in a similar frame of mind - it's a useful long-term asset for any party. In an ideal world we'd all have perfectly-formed yet adaptable ideas, but hey.
If you ever wondered why your party keeps losing elections, just re-read this.
I think beneficiary of John Healey pulling out of the deputy contest will probably be Angela Eagle. They won't move as one, but I think she'll pick up a good share of their support. A lot of them are soft-left and down to Earth so will point that way. We'll see.
Academic freedom is a load of balls, some of his critics should look at themselves and ask is this really the most significant error that a scientist can commit? The charlatans at UEA who were playing around with climate change stats don't seem to have bothered to step down.
If only Tim Hunt's critics have matched his expertise.
Erm, weren't the UAE team cleared by a Royal Society enquiry, and wasn't the whole furore based on politicians misunderstanding (perhaps deliberately) what was meant by terms like "mathematical trick"?
Yes. "Eight committees investigated the allegations and published reports, finding no evidence of fraud or scientific misconduct.[15] However, the reports called on the scientists to avoid any such allegations in the future by taking steps to regain public confidence in their work, for example by opening up access to their supporting data, processing methods and software, and by promptly honouring freedom of information requests.[16] The scientific consensus that global warming is occurring as a result of human activity remained unchanged throughout the investigations" But some people don't like to be confused by the facts.
Me, for one. I am still really confused by your revelation that "Oslo is the closest railway station to Shetland". Could you explain the one again please?
Apparently I got that wrong, it's much nearer to Scarborough, you suggested I admit that I got it a bit wrong, but you got it very wrong.
No, you twit. I used Scarborough as an illustration to show how wrong you were about Oslo. Scarborough is in fact closer to Lerwick than Oslo. Look it up on a map. You didn't understand that, you don't have the first idea about basics like what shape Norway is, but you can't stop yourself patronising the rest of the world with your superior understanding of Ther Science.
You yourself pointed out that I meant Bergen rather than Oslo in our original posting and that is what I was talking about.
Lerwick, UK -1.1500 60.1500 Bergen, NO 5.3247 60.3911 Miles: 222.23 Kilometers: 357.63 Bearing: NE
------------------
Lerwick, UK -1.1500 60.1500 Scarborough, UK -0.4142 54.2872 Miles: 405.72 Kilometers: 652.93 Bearing: SE
-------------------
Try not to be so rude, it's bad for your blood pressure.
No, you're thinking of Abominable Dr Phibes. For Lee, it would be sunlight, sunlight, stake thru heart, sunlight, two candlesticks in shape of a cross,....(christ that guy had a long career)....golden bullet...(yep, there's more)...stake thru heart...(deep breath)...two lightsabers. And he freed Pakistan as well. Which was nice.
BoxOfficeMojo insists otherwise, but I still hold that with several Draculas, one Bond, two Star Wars films and six Sarumans under his belt, he was the greatest film star ever. Samuel L Jackson (two Windus, several Furys) has a good counterclaim but goddammit, Samuel L Jackson never got impersonated by Coogan and Brydon, now did he?
No, you're thinking of Abominable Dr Phibes. For Lee, it would be sunlight, sunlight, stake thru heart, sunlight, two candlesticks in shape of a cross,....(christ that guy had a long career)....golden bullet...(yep, there's more)...stake thru heart...(deep breath)...two lightsabers. And he freed Pakistan as well. Which was nice.
BoxOfficeMojo insists otherwise, but I still hold that with several Draculas, one Bond, two Star Wars films and six Sarumans under his belt, he was the greatest film star ever. Samuel L Jackson (two Windus, several Furys) has a good counterclaim but goddammit, Samuel L Jackson never got impersonated by Coogan and Brydon, now did he?
Anyhoo, while I'm here, can anybody point me in the direction of a decent betting establishment on a Brexit? The best I can see is about two-to-one on a Brexit but I'd prefer something nearer five-to-one
No, you're thinking of Abominable Dr Phibes. For Lee, it would be sunlight, sunlight, stake thru heart, sunlight, two candlesticks in shape of a cross,....(christ that guy had a long career)....golden bullet...(yep, there's more)...stake thru heart...(deep breath)...two lightsabers. And he freed Pakistan as well. Which was nice.
BoxOfficeMojo insists otherwise, but I still hold that with several Draculas, one Bond, two Star Wars films and six Sarumans under his belt, he was the greatest film star ever. Samuel L Jackson (two Windus, several Furys) has a good counterclaim but goddammit, Samuel L Jackson never got impersonated by Coogan and Brydon, now did he?
Yeah but Sam L Jackson did this, which I think is one of the funniest things ever.
The political fog is lifting and as it does a pathway to victory for Cameron is becoming clearer ....the real wildcard is the rise of the SNP and it's SURE to cause a reaction here in England ..English voters fear and loathe the SNP and they will be the kiss of death for any political party they attempt to go into coalition with ; naturally , it will be suicide for Labour as it would mean a minority English government being hung with a Scottish rope and as such Miliband needs to nip this in the bud and renounce any possibility of it before it seeps in public consciousness like a deadly poison ; but he won't ; he'll dilly , dally and procastrinate and Labour will be contaminated by guilt by association resulting in lethal and terminal consequences
======================== 14 Dec 2014 08:06
There is another possibility ; we Brits don't like coalitions and the last one came about by default and I suspect the voters will not make the same mistake twice ...we much prefer the clarity and decisiveness of a majority party instead of a moribund , impotent , frustrating coalition I suspect that the coming election will be somewhat like the 92 election when Labour was expected to win outright or by coalition , but the polls broke late and decisively for the Tories ..the spectre of the SNP will spook enough centrist voters into the arms of the Tories and finally give Cameron his slim majority
===================== 11 Dec 2014 08:20
The two EDs are the original Mrs Brown's Boys ; they are a laughing stock and the electorate will never trust them with the levers of power ...Cameron has already won this election by default ...indeed , all that is really in doubt is will the Tories scrape a slim majority ?...we could very well be about to witness a Labour collapse
==================== 10 Dec 2014 11:00
In response to Dubdemon Too true , you folks really do loathe the Tories and that's why the English voters are going to cook you up a Tory government to choke on ..it was the militant and thuggish unions that created a backlash that helped create Thatcher ...Salmond and the SNP are creating a similar backlash that is likely to provide Cameron with his long awaited majority ...mark my words ! ========================
I made these comments at the Guardian website before Xmas !
How the hell you didn't get your posting rights revoked for such heresy is the great mystery here!
Anyhoo, while I'm here, can anybody point me in the direction of a decent betting establishment on a Brexit? The best I can see is about two-to-one on a Brexit but I'd prefer something nearer five-to-one
If anyone can get me evens on Tim Farron and 3/1 on Andy Burnham at the same time I'd be glad to hear it.
Anyhoo, while I'm here, can anybody point me in the direction of a decent betting establishment on a Brexit? The best I can see is about two-to-one on a Brexit but I'd prefer something nearer five-to-one
If anyone can get me evens on Tim Farron and 3/1 on Andy Burnham at the same time I'd be glad to hear it.
Ron Pollard died yesterday too. Has he been mentioned? He pretty much invented political betting in this country. I'd imagine Shadsy's blog will cover it but I can't find it. Have there been economies?
Anyhoo, while I'm here, can anybody point me in the direction of a decent betting establishment on a Brexit? The best I can see is about two-to-one on a Brexit but I'd prefer something nearer five-to-one
If anyone can get me evens on Tim Farron and 3/1 on Andy Burnham at the same time I'd be glad to hear it.
I'll offer you evens on Tim Farron as next Labour Leader and 3/1 on Andy Burnham as next Lib Dem leader.
LADBROKES' renowned former odds compiler and PR director Ron Pollard has died following a short illness. He was 89.
Pollard was credited with being the man who brought political betting to Britain when he offered odds on the Conservative Party leadership following the Profumo affair in the early 1960s.
His son-in-law Errol Blyth said: "Ron was a true showman who lived a full life - in fact in 1991 he had a triple heart by-pass and was told he might expect ten years, so he beat those odds.
"He fitted in so well with Ladbrokes at such a peak time for the company and the industry - he was a real ideas man, and understood the media."
In a statement Ladbrokes expressed its sadness at Pollard's death.
"Ron was synonymous with Ladbrokes and its establishment as one of the leading betting brands," the statement said.
"Widely credited with establishing political betting by offering election odds after the Christine Keeler affair, he was a lifelong Labour supporter and attended party events in Harrow West constituency where he lived and where Ladbrokes head office is situated.
"He was regularly seen in press and on TV promoting novelty betting on anything from aliens landing to Miss World.
Ron Pollard died yesterday too. Has he been mentioned? He pretty much invented political betting in this country. I'd imagine Shadsy's blog will cover it but I can't find it. Have there been economies?
Anyhoo, while I'm here, can anybody point me in the direction of a decent betting establishment on a Brexit (from the EU)? The best I can see is about two-to-one on a Brexit but I'd prefer something nearer five-to-one
Additionally, can anybody point me in the direction of odds on a Grexit (from the Euro)? I understand the argument that emergency liquidity will be withdrawn at June end (following more perpetual Greek fucking around) and the collapse of Greek banks soon after. But reestablishment of the Drachma is not automatic even after that and I reckon there'll be some delay before Syriza becomes unstupid. So I reckon a bet on Greece still being in the Euro at year end is good value.
The proviso is of course that "in the Euro" is tightly defined: a lot of punters lost money in 2012 when the debt was restructured: technically it was a default, but officially it wasn't, and the bookies took the official view.
Academic freedom is a load of balls, some of his critics should look at themselves and ask is this really the most significant error that a scientist can commit? The charlatans at UEA who were playing around with climate change stats don't seem to have bothered to step down.
If only Tim Hunt's critics have matched his expertise.
Erm, weren't the UAE team cleared by a Royal Society enquiry, and wasn't the whole furore based on politicians misunderstanding (perhaps deliberately) what was meant by terms like "mathematical trick"?
Yes. "Eight committees investigated the allegations and published reports, finding no evidence of fraud or scientific misconduct.[15] However, the reports called on the scientists to avoid any such allegations in the future by taking steps to regain public confidence in their work, for example by opening up access to their supporting data, processing methods and software, and by promptly honouring freedom of information requests.[16] The scientific consensus that global warming is occurring as a result of human activity remained unchanged throughout the investigations" But some people don't like to be confused by the facts.
Me, for one. I am still really confused by your revelation that "Oslo is the closest railway station to Shetland". Could you explain the one again please?
Apparently I got that wrong, it's much nearer to Scarborough, you suggested I admit that I got it a bit wrong, but you got it very wrong.
Nearest railway stations to Lerwick are Wick (173 mls) and Thurso (164 mls).
Comments
He's not entirely forgotten. At least he has a fizzy soft beverage named after him. ;-)
Is Brian Barder EdM's mum?
Mr. Eagles, not sure about the Leonidas comparison, given he knew he was going to die and was cool with that.
Miss Plato, I hope ColinW's Mum makes a return. She's one of the best contributors.
Many of them have jobs in banks and quangos.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/celebrity-tv-radio-presenter-lesley-5861097#ICID=sharebar_twitter
"A CELEBRITY TV and radio presenter was paid £1320 to chair a poverty conference.
Journalist Lesley Riddoch hosted the South Lanarkshire Council event that discussed ways to address inequality.
A freedom of information request from our sister paper the Hamilton Advertiser revealed that her fee was the highest paid by the council for a celebrity appearance at any event in the past
five years.
Scottish Tory MSP Alex Johnstone said yesterday: “It’s so typical of people on that side of the political debate that they would hand-wring for a few hours about poverty – only to take home a king’s ransom in return.
“Many of those looking on thinking the people involved cared would be horrified to see the sums of money exchanged.”"
WTF were they thinking of?
Even by your standards the jibe at Lesley Riddoch is unfair as is the Record article. She is well known for her work for many causes and charities across Scotland and beyond and her fee from a Council is neither excessive or disproportionate.
Perhaps you would like to list all your own pro bono work for charities?
"Hmm. Scientist resigns after saying girls in the lab cry, "
Where is Sheldon Cooper when you need him?
Welcome ! And very well done on your election betting success, hope your wheelbarrow is chock full
She's cashing in on the Nat wave - filling her pockets by wringing her hands at the awfulness of it all whilst submitting a fat invoice.
Absolutely correct about Salmond although his demolition of Labour in 2011 was pretty comprehensive and thought extraordinary at the time. His highest election rating was 45 per cent some 8 per cent higher than Camerons and his highest opinion poll rating for the SNP at Westminster was 52 per cent. He inherited a Party which had scored 23 per cent in a Scottish election and 21 per cent in a UK one.
The fact that Sturgeon has achieved 50 per cent in an election and 60 per cent - yes that is correct 60 per cent - in this week's polling is more a measure of how extraodinary she is rather than how ordinary was Salmond's leadership.
And a list of your own chartiable giving so that we can all compare and contrast?
I don't pontificate in the National about the awfulness of Tories, English and their greed week in week out - then charge a poverty conference to turn up.
My favourites are Helvetica and Verdana... I'm fond of Century Gothic too... I'll stop there
As ever, many comments in CiF are priceless.
I yield to nobody in my dislike of Blair, but from some of the comments you would think that nothing done by governments led by him was in any way "Labour".
Mr. Mark, don't be a tinker, I'm just saying that's one more black mark against Miliband, not that it was the silver bullet that thwarted an otherwise glorious campaign.
They over-egged the pudding.....
https://twitter.com/BuzzFeedUKPol/status/608942606719021056
In his latest intervention, the former Scottish first minister said that his party would do whatever it took to lock David Cameron out of Downing Street.
He claims that the SNP will wield huge power after the election, enabling it to keep out the Conservatives even if it has no electoral deal with Labour."
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/politics/article4393128.ece
How Isis crippled al-Qaida The inside story of the coup that has brought the world’s most feared terrorist network to the brink of collapse
http://bit.ly/1JGmX47
Presumably this is how they behave in Toytown Parliament north of the border, whilst debating whether to raise parking fines in Balamory.
Hopefully they'll realise shortly that being TNKOTB doesn't make you anything special.
Most Germans want Britain to remain a member of the European Union, though one in five would rather it didn’t
http://bit.ly/1QOmg7J
http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2015/jun/10/is-jurassic-world-sexist-assessing-the-films-key-females-of-the-species
http://labli.st/1IwGEZ2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_average_wage
I have my doubts about whether they'd have done so had he been a strict Muslim professor.
I agree that the relationship between the NMW and the state of the economy is something that needs care and review on a regular basis. One of my reservations about the so called living wage is that it seems to completely ignore that link.
At the moment we have 2 major problems. Firstly, thanks to Brown we still have an enormous structural deficit. I honestly believe it to be very close to £100bn. By this stage, 7 years into the cycle, we should be running reasonable surpluses of at least 1% of GDP and arguably more given our higher debt level.
A part of the reasons for that is that we are excessively subsidising employment through WTC, CTC and HB. We just can't afford to do that at the current rate.
The second problem as @Financier points out is that we have very low productivity.
In my view these problems are linked. If you make labour excessively cheap then low productivity becomes tolerable from an employer's point of view because he can still make money from them. If the labour becomes more expensive the employer is incentivised to improve productivity.
If we find that an increased NMW is driving up unemployment either because the demand for labour has fallen or because of the poor productivity issue we can let it drift downwards again in real terms. But at the moment we have a chance to (a) reduce the cost of marginal employment to the state; (b) encourage productivity growth and (c) offset some of the pain of welfare cuts by giving the lowest paid in our society a wage increase.
I will be very disappointed if Osborne does not seize that chance.
I'd vote for her.
She's done Stellar work (see what did I there) on the modern day usury that is payday loans.
On the other hand, when two people work of opposite genders work on an intense project together, by themselves, that intensity can often easily transfer to their personal relationship, which may or may not work, and can certainly complicate things.
I absolutely disagree that labs should be gender segregated and we need more women in science, but I do wish people were less judgemental of this professor and a bit more understanding of som of his personal struggles.
Quite a few of our most durable current people joined in 1992 in a similar frame of mind - it's a useful long-term asset for any party. In an ideal world we'd all have perfectly-formed yet adaptable ideas, but hey.
Gutted.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/9555142/jonathan-portes-master-of-correct-politicalness/
Builds on the wider point explored earlier of how the Left 'wins' - without actually 'winning'....
Luckily the electorate would like you to have some coherent and effective ideas on how to run the country.
Exsanguinated surely? - RIP le Count.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TnFIDKyX50
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoemQ3uz890
I admit that I got it a bit wrong, but you got it very wrong.
It is my intuitive hunch that the incumbent will squeeze a narrow victory for a number of reasons ....
A/ The incumbent red/green alliance seem to have the momentum after being well behind in the polls since 2011
B/ SCHMIDT has an advantage in personal popularity over Rasmussen ...reading her body language , she seems to have a spring in her step and be optimistic
C/ When an election is this close the electorate tend to stay with the status quo and remain with the known over the unknown
D/ It seems that Rasmussen has been hurt by his low level corruption scandals
On the other hand, we might finally find out what he got up to in WW2.
14 Dec 2014 08:46
The political fog is lifting and as it does a pathway to victory for Cameron is becoming clearer ....the real wildcard is the rise of the SNP and it's SURE to cause a reaction here in England ..English voters fear and loathe the SNP and they will be the kiss of death for any political party they attempt to go into coalition with ; naturally , it will be suicide for Labour as it would mean a minority English government being hung with a Scottish rope and as such Miliband needs to nip this in the bud and renounce any possibility of it before it seeps in public consciousness like a deadly poison ; but he won't ; he'll dilly , dally and procastrinate and Labour will be contaminated by guilt by association resulting in lethal and terminal consequences
========================
14 Dec 2014 08:06
There is another possibility ; we Brits don't like coalitions and the last one came about by default and I suspect the voters will not make the same mistake twice ...we much prefer the clarity and decisiveness of a majority party instead of a moribund , impotent , frustrating coalition
I suspect that the coming election will be somewhat like the 92 election when Labour was expected to win outright or by coalition , but the polls broke late and decisively for the Tories ..the spectre of the SNP will spook enough centrist voters into the arms of the Tories and finally give Cameron his slim majority
=====================
11 Dec 2014 08:20
The two EDs are the original Mrs Brown's Boys ; they are a laughing stock and the electorate will never trust them with the levers of power ...Cameron has already won this election by default ...indeed , all that is really in doubt is will the Tories scrape a slim majority ?...we could very well be about to witness a Labour collapse
====================
10 Dec 2014 11:00
In response to Dubdemon
Too true , you folks really do loathe the Tories and that's why the English voters are going to cook you up a Tory government to choke on ..it was the militant and thuggish unions that created a backlash that helped create Thatcher ...Salmond and the SNP are creating a similar backlash that is likely to provide Cameron with his long awaited majority ...mark my words !
========================
I made these comments at the Guardian website before Xmas !
Lerwick, UK -1.1500
60.1500
Bergen, NO 5.3247
60.3911
Miles: 222.23
Kilometers: 357.63
Bearing: NE
------------------
Lerwick, UK -1.1500
60.1500
Scarborough, UK -0.4142
54.2872
Miles: 405.72
Kilometers: 652.93
Bearing: SE
-------------------
Try not to be so rude, it's bad for your blood pressure.
BoxOfficeMojo insists otherwise, but I still hold that with several Draculas, one Bond, two Star Wars films and six Sarumans under his belt, he was the greatest film star ever. Samuel L Jackson (two Windus, several Furys) has a good counterclaim but goddammit, Samuel L Jackson never got impersonated by Coogan and Brydon, now did he?
http://youtu.be/GsDQ93iguP8
Unlimited stakes.
http://decanter.media.ipcdigital.co.uk/11150/000001256/d07e/balls-bros.jpg
Additionally, can anybody point me in the direction of odds on a Grexit (from the Euro)? I understand the argument that emergency liquidity will be withdrawn at June end (following more perpetual Greek fucking around) and the collapse of Greek banks soon after. But reestablishment of the Drachma is not automatic even after that and I reckon there'll be some delay before Syriza becomes unstupid. So I reckon a bet on Greece still being in the Euro at year end is good value.
The proviso is of course that "in the Euro" is tightly defined: a lot of punters lost money in 2012 when the debt was restructured: technically it was a default, but officially it wasn't, and the bookies took the official view.