Jim Murphy piping up on Unite - any markets on whether he will be reshuffled out ?
I'll give you evens he won't be.
Any with a real bookie ?
Try the ones in Ilford East and Ilford West.
Any with a real farmer ?
I'd imagine anyone with a pulse would be happy to take your money off you if you think Jim Murphy is going to be reshuffled out over this. The same bravado that led you to claim you were laying Ed as next PM and a Lab Maj at the same odds at work here I suspect.
Indeed tim - you are the only poster who is really edgy enough to make real bets with real money.
You are dangerous guy - a hustler - a pimp daddy mack on the street keeping it real.
Jim Murphy piping up on Unite - any markets on whether he will be reshuffled out ?
I'll give you evens he won't be.
Any with a real bookie ?
Try the ones in Ilford East and Ilford West.
Any with a real farmer ?
I'd imagine anyone with a pulse would be happy to take your money off you if you think Jim Murphy is going to be reshuffled out over this. The same bravado that led you to claim you were laying Ed as next PM and a Lab Maj at the same odds at work here I suspect.
Indeed tim - you are the only poster who is really edgy enough to make real bets with real money.
You are dangerous guy - a hustler - a pimp daddy mack on the street keeping it real.
Nah, that's Lock and load one up the spout Dave.
I'm simply offering you the chance to lose money on your empty bravado.
Do you mean the Agency Workers regulations 2010? They are still in force. They do not address the question of zero hours contracts although they do give the agency worker the same rights as if he had been employed direct after a qualifying period of 12 weeks provided they stay in the same role. Of course if you have a contractual entitlement to zero hours this really doesn't help you if you are simply offered no work.
Thanks. Yes, I see the point. I'm not sure that we could or should actually outlaw zero-hours contracts (I have them myself with translation agencies, saves paperwork every time the produce a job) so the challenge is to distinguish between that sort of convenience arrangement and cases of obvious exploitation. It's an old issue - one of the big grievances that fired the docks disputes was the practice was expecting workers to turn up hopefully every morning and get jobs on the odd day.
Do you mean the Agency Workers regulations 2010? They are still in force. They do not address the question of zero hours contracts although they do give the agency worker the same rights as if he had been employed direct after a qualifying period of 12 weeks provided they stay in the same role. Of course if you have a contractual entitlement to zero hours this really doesn't help you if you are simply offered no work.
Thanks. Yes, I see the point. I'm not sure that we could or should actually outlaw zero-hours contracts (I have them myself with translation agencies, saves paperwork every time the produce a job) so the challenge is to distinguish between that sort of convenience arrangement and cases of obvious exploitation. It's an old issue - one of the big grievances that fired the docks disputes was the practice was expecting workers to turn up hopefully every morning and get jobs on the odd day.
I remember my Gran used to do the same when she was trying to get work for school dinners with Dundee Corporation believe it or not. And they were all fired every June so they didn't get paid over the summer...
I agree it is a difficult issue as I said in my original post. How do you keep the flexibility but prevent the abuse? It is not helped by a legal system that is far more focussed on what the contract actually says than what was done. This has been a major development over the last 20 years and it has not worked to the employees' advantage.
One problem is that very few of those affected are unionised so there is less pressure than there should be to address the issue. If their introduction into the public sector changes that and results in better regulation that would be a good thing.
This is the sort of things Unions should really focus on, things that affect working men and women. A leadership that likes to play national politics is not a good thing. It is harkening back to the bad old days. I remember watching some of the re-run of the 1979 election recently and they had as many trade union leaders on giving their views as politicians. Any attempt at returning to that by Unite or anyone else will do Labour no favours at all. Blair recognised that. Not so sure about Ed.
With regard to zero hours contracts, do they mean that the employee has to be available at certain times in case they're needed? Or if work phones can they say "no thank you, I'm busy elsewhere"?
If it's the former then stating that on call time is work (possibly with a separate, lower, minimum wage) would reduce the abuse. If it's the latter then as unemployment falls and the economy picks up then the problem will go away (unless we get millions of Romanians etc coming over here, which we've been assured won't happen)
Whether this is a good idea or not, time will tell - but like the Welsh decision on organ donation yesterday, its a "good thing" that the different bits of the UK are taking different approaches, so we may all learn from them.
Quite how the Scots have managed to sink a flagship Tory policy, while under Westmister's "Jack boot" however, awaits explanation...
LOL, they will take revenge for it no doubt, Hammond is going to veto us joining NATO, Vince says all our businesses will fail, our pensions will collapse and family will be foreigners. Only thing not promised so far is famine , pestilence and 40 days of rain.
Well, it was that or new rateable valuations - which also wouldn't have had many fans - and this time it's the Scots doing it to/for themselves...
Yes, the alternative of the rates revaluation would have gone down like a bucket of cold sick too. Every change in taxation no matter how small (see pasties etc) brings out the whining bleating moaning special interest brigades (a growth area the Scots have made their own)
I don't see where you're going with "doing it to/for themselves". Bitter experience has taught us that even after independence it'll still be "a big boy made me do it" or the "evil Westminister jackboot" for the next hundred years anyway.
Poor old whinging Geoff, try concentrating on the mess in your own backyard mate , we are amateurs at whinging compared to the likes of you. take up gurning.
While Markit has been busy producing indices on Manufacturing, Construction and Services which suggest the UK economy is approaching "escape velocity" in its exit from recession, the British Retail Consortium is reporting that shop prices are declining.
Recording the largest price falls since 2007, BRC claimed that shop prices fell overall by 0.2% on a year on year basis and remained flat in June when compared to May.
The BRC claim that discounting in the non-food sector to maintain volumes has been the main downward driver, with clothing, DIY and furniture accounting for the biggest falls.
Not all the news is perfect though. Food prices (food accounts for just over 40% of all retail purchases) notched upward again in June to a 2.7% annual increase from 2.4% in May.
But the food price rises were a lone disappointment. BRC's respondents reported new shop openings and increased employment - particularly in the youth demographic over the month.
Cameron and Clegg have been seen wandering the corridors of the Commons, UNITEd in purpose and humming "Things can only get better" as members of HM's loyal opposition avert their gaze and quickly take cover.
@BBCNormanS: Govt confirms it is considering fines for landlords who fail to carry out immigration checks on tenants
Another sop to UKIP that will unravel.
Why is it any different to the absolutely draconian fines on employers who fail to carry out immigration checks, a policy Labour in general and Ed M in particular are hugely keen on? Is that a sop to UKIP as well? Oh, and that one doesn't unravel, does it?
@BBCNormanS: Govt confirms it is considering fines for landlords who fail to carry out immigration checks on tenants
Another sop to UKIP that will unravel.
Why is it any different to the absolutely draconian fines on employers who fail to carry out immigration checks, a policy Labour in general and Ed M in particular are hugely keen on? Is that a sop to UKIP as well? Oh, and that one doesn't unravel, does it?
Lets hope Baroness Scotland doesn't own any BTL properties...
Whether this is a good idea or not, time will tell - but like the Welsh decision on organ donation yesterday, its a "good thing" that the different bits of the UK are taking different approaches, so we may all learn from them.
Quite how the Scots have managed to sink a flagship Tory policy, while under Westmister's "Jack boot" however, awaits explanation...
LOL, they will take revenge for it no doubt, Hammond is going to veto us joining NATO, Vince says all our businesses will fail, our pensions will collapse and family will be foreigners. Only thing not promised so far is famine , pestilence and 40 days of rain.
And yet none of those claims are quite as crazy as the SNP's proposed naval blockade of the North Sea!
While Markit has been busy producing indices on Manufacturing, Construction and Services which suggest the UK economy is approaching "escape velocity" in its exit from recession, the British Retail Consortium is reporting that shop prices are declining.
Recording the largest price falls since 2007, BRC claimed that shop prices fell overall by 0.2% on a year on year basis and remained flat in June when compared to May.
The BRC claim that discounting in the non-food sector to maintain volumes has been the main downward driver, with clothing, DIY and furniture accounting for the biggest falls.
Not all the news is perfect though. Food prices (food accounts for just over 40% of all retail purchases) notched upward again in June to a 2.7% annual increase from 2.4% in May.
But the food price rises were a lone disappointment. BRC's respondents reported new shop openings and increased employment - particularly in the youth demographic over the month.
Cameron and Clegg have been seen wandering the corridors of the Commons, UNITEd in purpose and humming "Things can only get better" as members of HM's loyal opposition avert their gaze and quickly take cover.
While Markit has been busy producing indices on Manufacturing, Construction and Services which suggest the UK economy is approaching "escape velocity" in its exit from recession, the British Retail Consortium is reporting that shop prices are declining.
Recording the largest price falls since 2007, BRC claimed that shop prices fell overall by 0.2% on a year on year basis and remained flat in June when compared to May.
The BRC claim that discounting in the non-food sector to maintain volumes has been the main downward driver, with clothing, DIY and furniture accounting for the biggest falls.
Not all the news is perfect though. Food prices (food accounts for just over 40% of all retail purchases) notched upward again in June to a 2.7% annual increase from 2.4% in May.
But the food price rises were a lone disappointment. BRC's respondents reported new shop openings and increased employment - particularly in the youth demographic over the month.
Cameron and Clegg have been seen wandering the corridors of the Commons, UNITEd in purpose and humming "Things can only get better" as members of HM's loyal opposition avert their gaze and quickly take cover.
Time for interest rates to go up!
I wouldn't go that far. We have yet to pay for the Canuck banker.
While Markit has been busy producing indices on Manufacturing, Construction and Services which suggest the UK economy is approaching "escape velocity" in its exit from recession, the British Retail Consortium is reporting that shop prices are declining.
Recording the largest price falls since 2007, BRC claimed that shop prices fell overall by 0.2% on a year on year basis and remained flat in June when compared to May.
The BRC claim that discounting in the non-food sector to maintain volumes has been the main downward driver, with clothing, DIY and furniture accounting for the biggest falls.
Not all the news is perfect though. Food prices (food accounts for just over 40% of all retail purchases) notched upward again in June to a 2.7% annual increase from 2.4% in May.
But the food price rises were a lone disappointment. BRC's respondents reported new shop openings and increased employment - particularly in the youth demographic over the month.
Cameron and Clegg have been seen wandering the corridors of the Commons, UNITEd in purpose and humming "Things can only get better" as members of HM's loyal opposition avert their gaze and quickly take cover.
Time for interest rates to go up!
I wouldn't go that far. We have yet to pay for the Canuck banker.
I predicted January about 3 months ago and am still happy with that. Curiously our new governor is one of very few central bankers in the world who has increased interest rates since 2008.
We have probably entered a new era of methods of employment. If we look back to the Middle Ages, most people were self-employed or owed service (often military) to the landowners whose land they farmed or were retainers.
The coming of the Guilds (and apprenticeships with contracts) created a newish middle class and then the industrial revolution required permanent staff with specific skills who became employed.
Nowadays, with the advance of globalisation and fast-moving technology, the number of non-skilled employment opportunities has diminished, whilst people with the right skill-sets and experience have become increasingly valuable.
At the same time countries with employment flexibility are advancing whilst others (like France) with restrictive and costly employment laws and practices are diminishing in the global context.
In the UK, I have seen a large rise in the use of specialist contractors by many industries and the consultancy with which I am associated now has very few employees. As we serve many 'industries', it is not economic to employ all the specialists we require only at certain times. So (like using solicitors and accountants) we contract in specialists as required. In return they earn a higher hourly rate than when they were employed and our employment costs are reduced (little employer's NI)- at present it is a win-win situation. The major part of our employees are now our R&D people.
How many specialist cleaners and porters do you have
Mr. G, if Scotland becomes independent you won't be able to have players in the Lions team anym-
Oh. Sorry. As you were.
[NB I'm aware Scotland would probably still form part of the Lions, I'm just baffled why they don't have a single player in the starting lineup. Hogg was one of the best players in the Six Nations].
£ soaaars against the Euro whilst the FTSE plummets 1.3% - funny old game.
PMQs today ? What health topic will rEd go with today ?
Good morning. Yes Markets are suddenly on the downslope. Worries about Egypt and the rise of oil at over $100 per barrel has sounding the alarms today.
Question of the day: Is President Obamas brain about to go into a senile stage? His antics of late are more than a little irrational.
Oil at over $100 dollars, unionists will be explaining soon how that would bankrupt an independent Scotland.
Mehdi Hasan@mehdirhasan19s Gotta love the planted questions from sycophantic backbenchers #pmqs, allowing Dave to keep bringing up John Mills and the Labour donation.
F1: Brawn indicates he wants to stay next year. Why the hell is there all this undercurrent about replacing him? He's been involved, I believe, with 8 title wins (not even counting Constructors'): http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/23158125
Mr. G, if Scotland becomes independent you won't be able to have players in the Lions team anym-
Oh. Sorry. As you were.
[NB I'm aware Scotland would probably still form part of the Lions, I'm just baffled why they don't have a single player in the starting lineup. Hogg was one of the best players in the Six Nations].
Hogg has the misfortune to be behind Halfpenny who was probably the first name on the teamsheet.
Gray losing out to Parling is probably the Scots closest disappountment, or Grant to Vunipola in the second test.
Mr. G, if Scotland becomes independent you won't be able to have players in the Lions team anym-
Oh. Sorry. As you were.
[NB I'm aware Scotland would probably still form part of the Lions, I'm just baffled why they don't have a single player in the starting lineup. Hogg was one of the best players in the Six Nations].
Because he's insufficiently Welsh. And the Welsh, unlike the Scots, know how to beat the convicts. Oh.
Whether this is a good idea or not, time will tell - but like the Welsh decision on organ donation yesterday, its a "good thing" that the different bits of the UK are taking different approaches, so we may all learn from them.
Quite how the Scots have managed to sink a flagship Tory policy, while under Westmister's "Jack boot" however, awaits explanation...
LOL, they will take revenge for it no doubt, Hammond is going to veto us joining NATO, Vince says all our businesses will fail, our pensions will collapse and family will be foreigners. Only thing not promised so far is famine , pestilence and 40 days of rain.
And yet none of those claims are quite as crazy as the SNP's proposed naval blockade of the North Sea!
Go on Max show me the evidence where the SNP proposed blockading the North Sea, give me a laugh.
No. 10 Press Office @Number10press PM: British families pay £5k a year to use #NHS. It's right to make sure those who don’t have a right to use it get properly charged. #PMQs
Mr. G, if Scotland becomes independent you won't be able to have players in the Lions team anym-
Oh. Sorry. As you were.
[NB I'm aware Scotland would probably still form part of the Lions, I'm just baffled why they don't have a single player in the starting lineup. Hogg was one of the best players in the Six Nations].
Not been impressed by selection so far, been a few good players who should have been in, think too much reliance on Welsh guys.
Tony McNulty @Tony_McNulty 2m Absolutely no sense of Labour acting as a team - no theme to questions, no-one going on the attack, getting stuck in at all. Not good enough
Indeed, Mr. G. I'm only paying minimal attention, what with Wimbledon and F1, but the Welsh team isn't good enough to warrant 10/15 starting players, and the Scots have some good players that aren't being utilised.
With regard to zero hours contracts, do they mean that the employee has to be available at certain times in case they're needed? Or if work phones can they say "no thank you, I'm busy elsewhere"?
If it's the former then stating that on call time is work (possibly with a separate, lower, minimum wage) would reduce the abuse. If it's the latter then as unemployment falls and the economy picks up then the problem will go away (unless we get millions of Romanians etc coming over here, which we've been assured won't happen)
It varies, some cases there's a set time of if we need you we'll call you for that day. Other cases we'll call you whenever we like to tell you to work whenever we like, and if you say you're busy then we won't call you for work again.
I've never worked on a zero hour contract, but I have friend who have, and I've done a lot of work for temporary recruitment companies which are a bit different, but not a million miles away.
Ah, I was wondering what had happened to the Bedroom Tax meme. They were keeping it to the end.
Sounds like Dave accepting it may cost money
Rob Merrick @Rob_Merrick 'Bedroom tax' "disaster" in North East, says @PatGlassMP - Cam insists "fair", but does not dispute figs on arrears/empty homes #PMQs
Anyone who judges it on figures from the first few weeks is a complete numpty. It will take several years to sort out the long-standing mess Labour left behind them on this.
Indeed, Mr. G. I'm only paying minimal attention, what with Wimbledon and F1, but the Welsh team isn't good enough to warrant 10/15 starting players, and the Scots have some good players that aren't being utilised.
Bit hacked off I cannot get Tour de France , daughter and family are at the latest stage but cannot find it live anywhere so far. It is just going past them now
Hmm - still not sure on who won today. Maguire clearly thinks it was ed, the Fabians are saying cammo lost because he beat up Labour too far and too much with Unite jabs..
or
Sun Politics: PMQs BLOG: Whatever Len McCluskey is paying Ed Miliband and his party, it's not enough. All the money in the world won't compensate the Labour boss for the comprehensive battering he suffered at PMQs. And it was a victory giftwrapped for David Cameron's by the left-wing Unite boss, who wants to hand-pick Labour's election candidates. Ed raised a pretty good point about free schools leading to rising class sizes, but that simply allowed Dave to accuse him of letting Red Len write his questions. Ed kept plugging away, but every question brought another Unite-related response. "I am speaking for parents up and down this country," claimed the Labour boss. "He goes up and down the country speaking for Len McCluskey," replied the PM. And so it went on, culminating with Dave saying Ed is "too weak to run Labour and certainly too weak to run the country". And while the McCluskey references were often shoe-horned in, the basic point is clear: unless Ed tells Len where to get off, this is going to haunt Labour right up until the next election. Mr Miliband can bank on that. FINAL SCORE: Ed Miliband 1 v 5 David Cameron
JackW why do you go on about this. You might be right, you might be wrong. Who knows?
This endless repetition is either some bizarre terrace-chant style campaign, playing up to the PB blue choir.
Or maybe you're just trying to convince yourself.
Odd.
Have I mentioned it before .... perhaps so.
But do you really doubt the projections of my venerable ARSE - an august organ of such repute as to be almost inviolate among the denizens of the good ship PB ?
Rubgy is a team game where you have to know your teammates play well .Makes sense to pack the line up with the a dominant sub team (ie Wales) even if the odd individual make not make in totally on his own merit. Anyway cannot fault the performance and results so far and you always are goign to get grumbles about selection in a lions tour
Pish. There's no competition for the story of the day:
"Doing my research, I came across a dinner — a real dinner — at which the six diners were Wilde and Conan Doyle (they met in 1889 at the Langham Hotel), Willie Hornung, Bram Stoker, Robert Louis Stevenson and the young J.M. Barrie. Since discovering the existence of a dinner at which the men who created Peter Pan, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Dracula, Raffles and Sherlock Holmes broke bread together, I have found every social gathering I go to a terrible disappointment. I’m there thinking, ‘I know you’re the prime minister and that’s marvellous, of course, but you haven’t created one of the great mythic characters of world literature, have you?’ Everyone is a letdown. What am I to do? Gyles Brandreth"
Indeed, Mr. G. I'm only paying minimal attention, what with Wimbledon and F1, but the Welsh team isn't good enough to warrant 10/15 starting players, and the Scots have some good players that aren't being utilised.
Mr. G, if Scotland becomes independent you won't be able to have players in the Lions team anym-
Oh. Sorry. As you were.
[NB I'm aware Scotland would probably still form part of the Lions, I'm just baffled why they don't have a single player in the starting lineup. Hogg was one of the best players in the Six Nations].
Not been impressed by selection so far, been a few good players who should have been in, think too much reliance on Welsh guys.
Hmm - still not sure on who won today. Maguire clearly thinks it was ed, the Fabians are saying cammo lost because he beat up Labour too far and too much with Unite jabs..
or
Sun Politics: PMQs BLOG: Whatever Len McCluskey is paying Ed Miliband and his party, it's not enough. All the money in the world won't compensate the Labour boss for the comprehensive battering he suffered at PMQs. And it was a victory giftwrapped for David Cameron's by the left-wing Unite boss, who wants to hand-pick Labour's election candidates. Ed raised a pretty good point about free schools leading to rising class sizes, but that simply allowed Dave to accuse him of letting Red Len write his questions. Ed kept plugging away, but every question brought another Unite-related response. "I am speaking for parents up and down this country," claimed the Labour boss. "He goes up and down the country speaking for Len McCluskey," replied the PM. And so it went on, culminating with Dave saying Ed is "too weak to run Labour and certainly too weak to run the country". And while the McCluskey references were often shoe-horned in, the basic point is clear: unless Ed tells Len where to get off, this is going to haunt Labour right up until the next election. Mr Miliband can bank on that. FINAL SCORE: Ed Miliband 1 v 5 David Cameron
The Tories had it over Ashcroft regardless of how stupid and erroneous it was - now Labour are getting it back in spades and with the poisonous and true facts re UNITE MPs and the % of funding they provide.
Boo-hoo - Labour started this and continued it with the most insulting stupid Class War - let them lie in the bed they created. I despise them for it.
Worst prediction of the day? The Nick Robinson lead in before PMQs was all about Leveson.........
I heard a bit of this and wondered what he was chirruping about - another fail from the man who is supposedly a guru - Laura Manning and Sophie at ITV and Sky are much better informed given the scoops they've had or as Nick would say later 'the BBC has learned that..."
Indeed, Mr. G. I'm only paying minimal attention, what with Wimbledon and F1, but the Welsh team isn't good enough to warrant 10/15 starting players, and the Scots have some good players that aren't being utilised.
Mr. G, if Scotland becomes independent you won't be able to have players in the Lions team anym-
Oh. Sorry. As you were.
[NB I'm aware Scotland would probably still form part of the Lions, I'm just baffled why they don't have a single player in the starting lineup. Hogg was one of the best players in the Six Nations].
Not been impressed by selection so far, been a few good players who should have been in, think too much reliance on Welsh guys.
Care to name them?
1/2p has kicked goals but hit kicking out of hand has been, to put it kindly, hit and miss and as an attacking force he's just not at the races. Appreciate that this is Gatlandball but what was the point of bringing Hogg?
"But here’s the thing. When I apathetically complained about this to a wizened BBC TV bigwig, he said “Oh yeah, that’s the BBC, that’s what they do. They go out there and grab ideas from freelancers, then make the programmes themselves.” But why, I bleated, doesn’t anyone complain? The old stager laughed into his license-fee-funded 90 year old cognac, and said: “Because this is the BBC. The BBC is the ONLY company in Britain that makes many types of TV programmes. And if you complain, you get blacklisted. And if the BBC won’t make your programme, then you’re stuffed. Career over.”
I thought about this, yesterday, as I watched the BBC’s James Purnell, explaining on BBC TV news exactly why so many obscure BBC people were getting BBC payoffs of £300,000 and up – without, until now, any serious scrutiny from other journalists. A stupidly cynical part of me even wondered how ex-Labour minister James Purnell landed his BBC job, unadvertised, by appointment, as chief-explainer-of-BBC “mistakes”, on a BBC salary of (no joke) £295,000 a year. And yet no one asked questions?
Ah, I was wondering what had happened to the Bedroom Tax meme. They were keeping it to the end.
Sounds like Dave accepting it may cost money
Rob Merrick @Rob_Merrick 'Bedroom tax' "disaster" in North East, says @PatGlassMP - Cam insists "fair", but does not dispute figs on arrears/empty homes #PMQs
Why do you reckon empty housing temporarily is a tremendous flaw?
Housing Associations who are whining about not being able to let out all their houses without the spare room subsidy have a very vested interest. If they can't extort the government out of so much money without the extra subsidy then there's a very simple solution: Cut the rent. They'd be able to let the rooms without the subsidy if the rents were lower so if they can't they're charging too much.
We must keep paying a spare room subsidy and in turn keep rents too high seems a very bizzare line of attack.
Hmm - still not sure on who won today. Maguire clearly thinks it was ed, the Fabians are saying cammo lost because he beat up Labour too far and too much with Unite jabs..
or
Sun Politics: PMQs BLOG: Whatever Len McCluskey is paying Ed Miliband and his party, it's not enough. All the money in the world won't compensate the Labour boss for the comprehensive battering he suffered at PMQs. And it was a victory giftwrapped for David Cameron's by the left-wing Unite boss, who wants to hand-pick Labour's election candidates. Ed raised a pretty good point about free schools leading to rising class sizes, but that simply allowed Dave to accuse him of letting Red Len write his questions. Ed kept plugging away, but every question brought another Unite-related response. "I am speaking for parents up and down this country," claimed the Labour boss. "He goes up and down the country speaking for Len McCluskey," replied the PM. And so it went on, culminating with Dave saying Ed is "too weak to run Labour and certainly too weak to run the country". And while the McCluskey references were often shoe-horned in, the basic point is clear: unless Ed tells Len where to get off, this is going to haunt Labour right up until the next election. Mr Miliband can bank on that. FINAL SCORE: Ed Miliband 1 v 5 David Cameron
I don't understand the British housing benefit system very well, but here's the one thing I'm wondering about this bedroom tax business: Do councils who administer housing benefit have an incentive to spend less on rent?
If yes, why does the central government need to micro-manage it? If no, what cretin came up with this system, and why aren't the parties competing over ways to fix that?
Lord Ashcroft @LordAshcroft European Parliament approves 2014-20 budget (474 votes for, 193 against, 42 abstained). At €960bn, budget cuts real spending for first time
Indeed, Mr. G. I'm only paying minimal attention, what with Wimbledon and F1, but the Welsh team isn't good enough to warrant 10/15 starting players, and the Scots have some good players that aren't being utilised.
Mr. G, if Scotland becomes independent you won't be able to have players in the Lions team anym-
Oh. Sorry. As you were.
[NB I'm aware Scotland would probably still form part of the Lions, I'm just baffled why they don't have a single player in the starting lineup. Hogg was one of the best players in the Six Nations].
Not been impressed by selection so far, been a few good players who should have been in, think too much reliance on Welsh guys.
Care to name them?
1/2p has kicked goals but hit kicking out of hand has been, to put it kindly, hit and miss and as an attacking force he's just not at the races. Appreciate that this is Gatlandball but what was the point of bringing Hogg?
As a back-up, Hogg had a better chance of edging out Bowe on the wing.
1/2p's one of the first names on the teamsheet. (In short, his defense has been very good as always, and he's been better than you suggest in those areas).
"There is fierce anger among Labour officials at the arrogant – and cack-handed – way Unite have been conducting themselves. “What did they think they were doing?” asked one. “They weren’t even trying to be subtle. They were openly bragging abut what they were up to.” Another points out that in a constituency like Falkirk, many of the trade union activists Unite were trying to hoover up were in fact nationalists. “Unite were basically letting the SNP fix a Labour Party selection,” he said.
...Nor is that anger confined to Labour officials. There is a growing resentment within other trade unions about what is viewed as a brazen attempt by Len McCluskey and Unite to effectively take control of the entire Labour movement. “We don’t have a union problem. We have a Unite problem,” said one senior Labour insider.
There is a sense within the party’s Brewer Street HQ that with Falkirk a Rubicon has been crossed. “There’s a lot of stuff that should have been sorted a long time ago that’s going to get sorted now,” said one long-serving official. But there is also a sense of unease. That’s because the abuses in Falkirk could not have been carried out by the union on its own.
One officer pointed to the fact that over 200 hundred new members were signed up, and registered by the party, in the space of two weeks. “Your normal Labour CLP will process two or three new members a month. Then one day two hundred turned up in one constituency in the space of a fortnight. How did they get processed and put on the system? That’s done centrally. Someone within the party, not the union, will have noticed and flagged it. And yet those members were waved through. Who gave the OK for that to happen?” http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danhodges/100224611/ed-miliband-and-len-mccluskey-are-squaring-up-for-a-battle-over-the-soul-of-the-labour-party/
PMQ's - Cameron totally wiped the floor, not just with Ed Miliband but with the Labour Party as well.
Not much else to say other than Ed and Labour are in big trouble. The media narrative is changing and it's mainly being driven by Labour's deflating opinion poll position, IMO.
The investigations into what really happened in Falkirk will probably continue for months. But the immediate significance is that Ed Miliband is now locked into a direct confrontation with the most powerful trade unionist in the Labour movement. It’s a confrontation he cannot afford to lose. Says Dan Hodges.
But when Ed wins, as he will, Dan will still say he lost.
Cameron ignoring smarter Tories and writing off six million trades unionists will play well among some PB Tories, but just makes him look more elitist and removed.
You are making the rather stupid assumption that the only issue of concern for trade union members is trade unions.
We could easily put it the other way: the unions are writing off the 25+ million other working people in this country who want Labour to represent them, not just the six million.
The investigations into what really happened in Falkirk will probably continue for months. But the immediate significance is that Ed Miliband is now locked into a direct confrontation with the most powerful trade unionist in the Labour movement. It’s a confrontation he cannot afford to lose. Says Dan Hodges.
But when Ed wins, as he will, Dan will still say he lost.
What is your definition of *winning* here - just so we are all clear?
PMQ's - Cameron totally wiped the floor, not just with Ed Miliband but with the Labour Party as well.
Not much else to say other than Ed and Labour are in big trouble. The media narrative is changing and it's mainly being driven by Labour's deflating opinion poll position, IMO.
Dave certainly made clear just how seriously he takes Gove's failure to do anything about the looming crisis over primary school places.
Ed, swiftly and decisively decides to let the boil fester a bit longer...
@paulwaugh Lab says it has 'no intention' of publishing its internal Falkirk inquiry. Also Rejects McCluskey call for NEC to look at the issue.
So the cunning plan is to deny this story the oxygen of further publicity. I fear I see a flaw in that approach. There are a number of people, not all friendly, who will talk about this until the end of time.
It is fairly amazing that in a week of good economic news Cameron did not even need to refer to that to win the day. So that is saved for the official Q2 figures. When is the recess? Not soon enough for Ed.
The investigations into what really happened in Falkirk will probably continue for months. But the immediate significance is that Ed Miliband is now locked into a direct confrontation with the most powerful trade unionist in the Labour movement. It’s a confrontation he cannot afford to lose. Says Dan Hodges.
But when Ed wins, as he will, Dan will still say he lost.
What is your definition of *winning* here - just so we are all clear?
McCluskey continuing to moan very loudly about Labour not doing what he wants.
Cameron ignoring smarter Tories and writing off six million trades unionists will play well among some PB Tories, but just makes him look more elitist and removed.
You are making the rather stupid assumption that the only issue of concern for trade union members is trade unions.
We could easily put it the other way: the unions are writing off the 25+ million other working people in this country who want Labour to represent them, not just the six million.
Some unions may well be doing that. Labour clearly isn't. Which is why people such as McCluskey are so cross.
I would have thought that Ed Miliband could very easily show who's boss, by declining the £2.5m annual bung from Unite. Anyone see any snags with this idea?
" BBC Political Editor Nick Robinson says Tory strategists think they can portray Ed Miliband as weak using the unions issue - also the Tory "family" is coming together over Europe, with morale high, he thinks."
Not a good sign.
And stories of disputes between Tone and Gordon were completely over exaggerated.
Cameron ignoring smarter Tories and writing off six million trades unionists will play well among some PB Tories, but just makes him look more elitist and removed.
You are making the rather stupid assumption that the only issue of concern for trade union members is trade unions.
We could easily put it the other way: the unions are writing off the 25+ million other working people in this country who want Labour to represent them, not just the six million.
Some unions may well be doing that. Labour clearly isn't. Which is why people such as McCluskey are so cross.
McCluskey has made a career out of being very angry. But his anger is irrelevant to the fact that a trade union has been caught with its pants down, rogering an oddly quiescent Labour Party. And part of the Labour Party secretly appears to have liked the debasement, especially due to the dough it brings in.
@TimRossDT Labour's post-PMQs press huddle in the Commons is usually sparsely attended and over quickly. Today it's packed. Shows how bad Unite row is.
PMQ's - Cameron totally wiped the floor, not just with Ed Miliband but with the Labour Party as well.
Not much else to say other than Ed and Labour are in big trouble. The media narrative is changing and it's mainly being driven by Labour's deflating opinion poll position, IMO.
Dave certainly made clear just how seriously he takes Gove's failure to do anything about the looming crisis over primary school places.
The PB Tory demographic won't get why that's important, they believe the population is too busy despising trade unions the NHS and the BBC to care about a shortage of school places or increasing class sizes.
Indeed. Given the opportunity to explain what the government is doing to ameliorate an issue that is of huge concern to many ordinary voters the length and breadth of the country, Dave chose instead to make quips about an internal Labour party issue. If he spent more time thinking about how best to run the country and less obsessing about the opposition we may not be facing this crisis in the first place. But you could say the same about Gove, I suppose. A little less time writing clever letters to Stephen Twigg and civil servants, and a bit more doing the job he is paid to do and this may all have been dealt with a little earlier.
PMQ's - Cameron totally wiped the floor, not just with Ed Miliband but with the Labour Party as well.
Not much else to say other than Ed and Labour are in big trouble. The media narrative is changing and it's mainly being driven by Labour's deflating opinion poll position, IMO.
Dave certainly made clear just how seriously he takes Gove's failure to do anything about the looming crisis over primary school places.
The PB Tory demographic won't get why that's important, they believe the population is too busy despising trade unions the NHS and the BBC to care about a shortage of school places or increasing class sizes.
I suspect very few PB Tories do think that in reality. I'm sure that much of the public is far more concerned about issues like the economy. A subject you and your party appear to want to totally ignore.
Still if it helps you think that today was a good day for Ed Milliband fair enough.
Comments
You are dangerous guy - a hustler - a pimp daddy mack on the street keeping it real.
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/alex-massie/2013/07/alex-salmond-drives-into-a-muirfield-bunker/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23160037
I agree it is a difficult issue as I said in my original post. How do you keep the flexibility but prevent the abuse? It is not helped by a legal system that is far more focussed on what the contract actually says than what was done. This has been a major development over the last 20 years and it has not worked to the employees' advantage.
One problem is that very few of those affected are unionised so there is less pressure than there should be to address the issue. If their introduction into the public sector changes that and results in better regulation that would be a good thing.
This is the sort of things Unions should really focus on, things that affect working men and women. A leadership that likes to play national politics is not a good thing. It is harkening back to the bad old days. I remember watching some of the re-run of the 1979 election recently and they had as many trade union leaders on giving their views as politicians. Any attempt at returning to that by Unite or anyone else will do Labour no favours at all. Blair recognised that. Not so sure about Ed.
If it's the former then stating that on call time is work (possibly with a separate, lower, minimum wage) would reduce the abuse. If it's the latter then as unemployment falls and the economy picks up then the problem will go away (unless we get millions of Romanians etc coming over here, which we've been assured won't happen)
While Markit has been busy producing indices on Manufacturing, Construction and Services which suggest the UK economy is approaching "escape velocity" in its exit from recession, the British Retail Consortium is reporting that shop prices are declining.
Recording the largest price falls since 2007, BRC claimed that shop prices fell overall by 0.2% on a year on year basis and remained flat in June when compared to May.
The BRC claim that discounting in the non-food sector to maintain volumes has been the main downward driver, with clothing, DIY and furniture accounting for the biggest falls.
Not all the news is perfect though. Food prices (food accounts for just over 40% of all retail purchases) notched upward again in June to a 2.7% annual increase from 2.4% in May.
But the food price rises were a lone disappointment. BRC's respondents reported new shop openings and increased employment - particularly in the youth demographic over the month.
Cameron and Clegg have been seen wandering the corridors of the Commons, UNITEd in purpose and humming "Things can only get better" as members of HM's loyal opposition avert their gaze and quickly take cover.
Time for it to retire?
Lets hope Baroness Scotland doesn't own any BTL properties...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8260088.stm
Weak, weak, weak.
David Cameron
Lock, load and one up the spout.
Cameron on good form today .... just hit Robinson for six !!
Patrick O'Flynn@oflynnexpress11m
Cam's best ever win v Mili in my view. "Too weak" is a narrative that fits Ed's persona. #pmqs
Oh. Sorry. As you were.
[NB I'm aware Scotland would probably still form part of the Lions, I'm just baffled why they don't have a single player in the starting lineup. Hogg was one of the best players in the Six Nations].
Mehdi Hasan@mehdirhasan19s
Gotta love the planted questions from sycophantic backbenchers #pmqs, allowing Dave to keep bringing up John Mills and the Labour donation.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/23158125
"Ed Miliband will never be Prime Minister"
Gray losing out to Parling is probably the Scots closest disappountment, or Grant to Vunipola in the second test.
No. 10 Press Office @Number10press
PM: British families pay £5k a year to use #NHS. It's right to make sure those who don’t have a right to use it get properly charged. #PMQs
Absolutely no sense of Labour acting as a team - no theme to questions, no-one going on the attack, getting stuck in at all. Not good enough
Arf..
This endless repetition is either some bizarre terrace-chant style campaign, playing up to the PB blue choir.
Or maybe you're just trying to convince yourself.
Odd.
It varies, some cases there's a set time of if we need you we'll call you for that day. Other cases we'll call you whenever we like to tell you to work whenever we like, and if you say you're busy then we won't call you for work again.
I've never worked on a zero hour contract, but I have friend who have, and I've done a lot of work for temporary recruitment companies which are a bit different, but not a million miles away.
or
Sun Politics:
PMQs BLOG: Whatever Len McCluskey is paying Ed Miliband and his party, it's not enough. All the money in the world won't compensate the Labour boss for the comprehensive battering he suffered at PMQs. And it was a victory giftwrapped for David Cameron's by the left-wing Unite boss, who wants to hand-pick Labour's election candidates. Ed raised a pretty good point about free schools leading to rising class sizes, but that simply allowed Dave to accuse him of letting Red Len write his questions. Ed kept plugging away, but every question brought another Unite-related response. "I am speaking for parents up and down this country," claimed the Labour boss. "He goes up and down the country speaking for Len McCluskey," replied the PM. And so it went on, culminating with Dave saying Ed is "too weak to run Labour and certainly too weak to run the country". And while the McCluskey references were often shoe-horned in, the basic point is clear: unless Ed tells Len where to get off, this is going to haunt Labour right up until the next election. Mr Miliband can bank on that. FINAL SCORE: Ed Miliband 1 v 5 David Cameron
But do you really doubt the projections of my venerable ARSE - an august organ of such repute as to be almost inviolate among the denizens of the good ship PB ?
The Nick Robinson lead in before PMQs was all about Leveson.........
"Doing my research, I came across a dinner — a real dinner — at which the six diners were Wilde and Conan Doyle (they met in 1889 at the Langham Hotel), Willie Hornung, Bram Stoker, Robert Louis Stevenson and the young J.M. Barrie. Since discovering the existence of a dinner at which the men who created Peter Pan, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Dracula, Raffles and Sherlock Holmes broke bread together, I have found every social gathering I go to a terrible disappointment. I’m there thinking, ‘I know you’re the prime minister and that’s marvellous, of course, but you haven’t created one of the great mythic characters of world literature, have you?’ Everyone is a letdown. What am I to do?
Gyles Brandreth"
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2013/07/dear-mary-on-mobile-phone-etiquette-playing-bridge-and-the-weather/
Boo-hoo - Labour started this and continued it with the most insulting stupid Class War - let them lie in the bed they created. I despise them for it.
CCHQ Press Office @RicHolden
.@DavidPrescott @unitetheunion anything to get you a nice Labour seat eh David?
@paulwaugh 49s
Huge hack pack around Lab spin doctors post PMQs. In contrast, Qs to PM's spinners lasted less than a minute. #huddletime #unionlink
Someone with Google Fu will be able to find it.
"But here’s the thing. When I apathetically complained about this to a wizened BBC TV bigwig, he said “Oh yeah, that’s the BBC, that’s what they do. They go out there and grab ideas from freelancers, then make the programmes themselves.” But why, I bleated, doesn’t anyone complain? The old stager laughed into his license-fee-funded 90 year old cognac, and said: “Because this is the BBC. The BBC is the ONLY company in Britain that makes many types of TV programmes. And if you complain, you get blacklisted. And if the BBC won’t make your programme, then you’re stuffed. Career over.”
I thought about this, yesterday, as I watched the BBC’s James Purnell, explaining on BBC TV news exactly why so many obscure BBC people were getting BBC payoffs of £300,000 and up – without, until now, any serious scrutiny from other journalists. A stupidly cynical part of me even wondered how ex-Labour minister James Purnell landed his BBC job, unadvertised, by appointment, as chief-explainer-of-BBC “mistakes”, on a BBC salary of (no joke) £295,000 a year. And yet no one asked questions?
Housing Associations who are whining about not being able to let out all their houses without the spare room subsidy have a very vested interest. If they can't extort the government out of so much money without the extra subsidy then there's a very simple solution: Cut the rent. They'd be able to let the rooms without the subsidy if the rents were lower so if they can't they're charging too much.
We must keep paying a spare room subsidy and in turn keep rents too high seems a very bizzare line of attack.
Interested in #migration statistics? Our dedicated page launched today http://ons.gov.uk/ons/taxonomy/index.html?nscl=Migration
@tnewtondunn
Unite have signed up close to 500 new Labour party members in a possible to bid influence MP selection votes, Ed spokesman admits.
If yes, why does the central government need to micro-manage it?
If no, what cretin came up with this system, and why aren't the parties competing over ways to fix that?
European Parliament approves 2014-20 budget (474 votes for, 193 against, 42 abstained). At €960bn, budget cuts real spending for first time
Dan Hodges is currently on #bbcdp claiming that Ed Miliband's office has been courting me for several months. Literally made up. A lie.
Dan Hodges@DPJHodges2m
@OwenJones84 Owen, we did this yesterday. How many times did you admit you'd met Stewart in the end.
Owen Jones@OwenJones8453s
@DPJHodges So either you're misinformed, or you're a liar.
Problem for Miliband is that the more critical he is of Unite re Falkirk, the more the Tories will demand that he refuses Unite’s donations
weak, weak, weak.
Which was the other constituency?
1/2p's one of the first names on the teamsheet. (In short, his defense has been very good as always, and he's been better than you suggest in those areas).
@paulwaugh
Lab says it has 'no intention' of publishing its internal Falkirk inquiry. Also Rejects McCluskey call for NEC to look at the issue.
"There is fierce anger among Labour officials at the arrogant – and cack-handed – way Unite have been conducting themselves. “What did they think they were doing?” asked one. “They weren’t even trying to be subtle. They were openly bragging abut what they were up to.” Another points out that in a constituency like Falkirk, many of the trade union activists Unite were trying to hoover up were in fact nationalists. “Unite were basically letting the SNP fix a Labour Party selection,” he said.
...Nor is that anger confined to Labour officials. There is a growing resentment within other trade unions about what is viewed as a brazen attempt by Len McCluskey and Unite to effectively take control of the entire Labour movement. “We don’t have a union problem. We have a Unite problem,” said one senior Labour insider.
There is a sense within the party’s Brewer Street HQ that with Falkirk a Rubicon has been crossed. “There’s a lot of stuff that should have been sorted a long time ago that’s going to get sorted now,” said one long-serving official. But there is also a sense of unease. That’s because the abuses in Falkirk could not have been carried out by the union on its own.
One officer pointed to the fact that over 200 hundred new members were signed up, and registered by the party, in the space of two weeks. “Your normal Labour CLP will process two or three new members a month. Then one day two hundred turned up in one constituency in the space of a fortnight. How did they get processed and put on the system? That’s done centrally. Someone within the party, not the union, will have noticed and flagged it. And yet those members were waved through. Who gave the OK for that to happen?” http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danhodges/100224611/ed-miliband-and-len-mccluskey-are-squaring-up-for-a-battle-over-the-soul-of-the-labour-party/
Not much else to say other than Ed and Labour are in big trouble. The media narrative is changing and it's mainly being driven by Labour's deflating opinion poll position, IMO.
Newssense™
But when Ed wins, as he will, Dan will still say he lost.
We could easily put it the other way: the unions are writing off the 25+ million other working people in this country who want Labour to represent them, not just the six million.
Out of interest, having missed PMQs, how many attacks did Labour launch on the all important issue of the economy?
It is fairly amazing that in a week of good economic news Cameron did not even need to refer to that to win the day. So that is saved for the official Q2 figures. When is the recess? Not soon enough for Ed.
" BBC Political Editor Nick Robinson says Tory strategists think they can portray Ed Miliband as weak using the unions issue - also the Tory "family" is coming together over Europe, with morale high, he thinks."
Not a good sign.
And stories of disputes between Tone and Gordon were completely over exaggerated.
@TimRossDT
Labour's post-PMQs press huddle in the Commons is usually sparsely attended and over quickly. Today it's packed. Shows how bad Unite row is.
Still if it helps you think that today was a good day for Ed Milliband fair enough.