What a horrible polling question, with all those attached statements.
Can only be a matter of time before we see Survation polls on other great Ed wheezes - Energy price caps !
"Would it be nice to see a government enforced price cap on electricity ?"
How about a poll on cutting fuel prices in Danny Alexander's constituency.
If you are looking for such conspiracy theories, how about Alistair Darling when he was transport secretary in 2005? He killed off all tram projects in Britain at whatever stage of planning, except for one. This included the Leeds Supertram and a scheme in Liverpool.
The one that was in the same city as his constituency.
3 of my office coworkers visit the Sun "Best one going but I won't pay for it."
"Switch to the Mirror/Mail" was another response.
3 'page viewers', 3 Non payers.
Note I'm not writing it off, it could also mean a small jump in their physical sales too. We shall see in the fullness of time. Interesting experiment as it is the first Red Top to go paywall. Also interesting to note it is one of my colleague's 'first' homepage.
Several Kippers on Twitter are saying how unfair/rip-off it is for the Sun to go paywall. I pointed out that £2pw was a lot cheaper than buying it everyday [£3.80] - but that didn't make any difference.
If you want news - you have to pay for it somehow. I pay for The Times, I don't for the DT but probably will.
The Mail runs a very slick operation - I can see quite a slab of Sun readers going there. Not so much the Mirror which is more like the Star.
Apparently Das Bild reckons Ferrari have made Raikkonen a more lucrative offer than the one Red Bull have. That would be very interesting, because it begs the question: who would he replace?
Massa seems obvious, but Ferrari doesn't do driver equality and Alonso clearly enjoys number one status.
Richard Frediani @FredianiITV Former ITV Boss Sir Charles Allen, Doreen Lawrence and Danny Finkelstein among new working peers via @Number10press ow.ly/nwKmb
Patrick Wintour @patrickwintour Rumi Verjee CBE - "entrepreneur and philanthropist" is a Lib Dem peer. He has been very philanthropic to the Lib Dems.
Guido Fawkes @GuidoFawkes Labour enoble former Goldman Sachs man Sir Charles Allen: bit.ly/18TAovX
You're wrong in detail: Cross-rail gave Edinborough - via Barnett - an uneconomic tram-link despite a better economic case for Manchester. Just like Edinborough Uni got the "UK" super-computing funding.
Your persistent anti-English bolleaux needs medical treatment. Surely your missus, an NHS doctor, knows a few shrinks that could help you, no...?
Former MPs John Horam and Matthew Carrington go to the Lords. Along with Annabelle, former Welsh Assembly Conservative Leader Bourne is also elevated to the Lords. Former leaders of Trafford and Birmingham Councils are also rewarded. A ex MEP who defected from Labour too
Former Labour Deputy General Secretary Alicia Kennedy becomes a Baroness
LibDems include former Somerset CC leader, a former MSP, a former Welsh Assembly Member, Paddick, directly from the 80s Ian Wrigglesworth
Brendan and his cat and pidgeons are on the prowl again
"My favourite fact about Twitter is this: in the run-up to the 2011 referendum on whether Britain should adopt the Alternative Vote system, 76.1 per cent of tweets about AV were in favour of it, while in the real world, in the physical, tangible ballot box, just 32.1 per cent of the electorate voted for AV. That is, an overwhelming majority of the Twitterati were pro-AV, while an overwhelming majority of what we might call everyday people were against it.
This tells a fascinating story about the chasm between the man who tweets and the man on the street. We all know what being pro-AV meant in 2011, don't we? It meant being right-on, Leftish, probably a Guardian reader, a fan of Clegg (hilariously, there were loads of Cleggmaniacs back then). And the Twitterati, the top tweeters, are made up of a disproportionate number of those sorts of people. Why? Because they tend to be time-rich; these folk have the time to dilly-dally on Twitter
Twitter is designed for the time-wealthy. It’s a playground for those who live their lives to luxurious timeframes. To be a proper, full-on, regular tweeter, an upstanding member of the 10-tweets-an-hour Twitterati, you need to have oodles of spare time. And you need to have a job that doesn’t involve working with your hands, in the physical-labour sense. For example, a bus driver, builder, factory worker, car manufacturer or painter and decorator could never be a serious tweeter, in the sense of checking in every five minutes and partaking of those Twitterstorms that are now a daily occurrence, because their minds and hands are occupied by other things...." http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/brendanoneill2/100229115/the-problem-with-twitter-is-that-it-brings-together-time-rich-liberals-with-unemployable-saddos-an-explosive-combination/
What a horrible polling question, with all those attached statements.
Can only be a matter of time before we see Survation polls on other great Ed wheezes - Energy price caps !
"Would it be nice to see a government enforced price cap on electricity ?"
How about a poll on cutting fuel prices in Danny Alexander's constituency.
If you are looking for such conspiracy theories, how about Alistair Darling when he was transport secretary in 2005? He killed off all tram projects in Britain at whatever stage of planning, except for one. This included the Leeds Supertram and a scheme in Liverpool.
The one that was in the same city as his constituency.
...funded after he had already tried to cancel it. Besides, it was an extension (phase 3a) of an existing network.
on 20 July 2004, Alistair Darling (the Secretary of State for Transport) announced the Government had withdrawn its share of funding Metrolink due to excessive costs.[63][70][74]
Still have to see a reasonable defence of why Edinburgh's scheme went ahead when so many did not. Especially now they're only getting a line to the airport and not the (IMHO very useful) one to Leith. I actually feel slightly sorry for the SNP government having to pick up the mess.
Darling screwed the taxpayer with the Edinburgh tram in the same way Brown did with the two carriers. If they were Tories you'd be spitting blood ...
RT @robindbrant: BBC a&r also says since 2011 james palumbo has 'donated more than £650k' to the lib dems < !!!!!!!!!!!!
Robin Brant @robindbrant BBC a&r also says Rumi Verjee is responsible for Lib Dems’ three largest donations since last elex; £250k given in 2010, 2011, 2012
Mark Senile trolls posters when Wee-Timmy receives what he gives out. Trust the out-of-touch fool not to understand concepts of equality, equity and recompense. If only the Sussex fool could be half the man that the funny-farmer is....
Tim Shipman (Mail) @ShippersUnbound 1m This is one of those days when I find British politics repulsive. Giving donors honours is corruption, pure and simple.
Difficult to argue against that whatever party you support
Tim Shipman (Mail) @ShippersUnbound 1m This is one of those days when I find British politics repulsive. Giving donors honours is corruption, pure and simple.
Difficult to argue against that whatever party you support
It's what MPs voted for when they voted down the proposals for Lords reform.
Tim Shipman (Mail) @ShippersUnbound 1m This is one of those days when I find British politics repulsive. Giving donors honours is corruption, pure and simple.
Difficult to argue against that whatever party you support
It's what MPs voted for when they voted down the proposals for Lords reform.
They voted down those proposals...but lords still needs reform.
Brendan and his cat and pidgeons are on the prowl again
"My favourite fact about Twitter is this: in the run-up to the 2011 referendum on whether Britain should adopt the Alternative Vote system, 76.1 per cent of tweets about AV were in favour of it, while in the real world, in the physical, tangible ballot box, just 32.1 per cent of the electorate voted for AV. That is, an overwhelming majority of the Twitterati were pro-AV, while an overwhelming majority of what we might call everyday people were against it.
This tells a fascinating story about the chasm between the man who tweets and the man on the street. We all know what being pro-AV meant in 2011, don't we? It meant being right-on, Leftish, probably a Guardian reader, a fan of Clegg (hilariously, there were loads of Cleggmaniacs back then). And the Twitterati, the top tweeters, are made up of a disproportionate number of those sorts of people. Why? Because they tend to be time-rich; these folk have the time to dilly-dally on Twitter
Twitter is designed for the time-wealthy. It’s a playground for those who live their lives to luxurious timeframes. To be a proper, full-on, regular tweeter, an upstanding member of the 10-tweets-an-hour Twitterati, you need to have oodles of spare time. And you need to have a job that doesn’t involve working with your hands, in the physical-labour sense. For example, a bus driver, builder, factory worker, car manufacturer or painter and decorator could never be a serious tweeter, in the sense of checking in every five minutes and partaking of those Twitterstorms that are now a daily occurrence, because their minds and hands are occupied by other things...." http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/brendanoneill2/100229115/the-problem-with-twitter-is-that-it-brings-together-time-rich-liberals-with-unemployable-saddos-an-explosive-combination/
F1: Brawn says Mercedes has more updates to come: www.espn.co.uk/mercedes/motorsport/story/119363.html
There will probably be fewer this year than most due to massive regulation changes in 2014, but Mercedes' improvement has been the most dramatic during the course of this year. They're already top dog in qualifying. If they can show good tyre wear/race pace in Spa (different kind of circuit to Hungary due to many high speed corners) they could be in a good place for a title tilt.
"Ofsted has judged that 75% of the first Free Schools to have opened around the country are either Good or Outstanding. The results compare favourably with the achievements of state schools generally, with Free Schools more than twice as likely to be awarded an Outstanding judgement under the new tougher Ofsted inspection framework."
Brendan and his cat and pidgeons are on the prowl again
"My favourite fact about Twitter is this: in the run-up to the 2011 referendum on whether Britain should adopt the Alternative Vote system, 76.1 per cent of tweets about AV were in favour of it, while in the real world, in the physical, tangible ballot box, just 32.1 per cent of the electorate voted for AV. That is, an overwhelming majority of the Twitterati were pro-AV, while an overwhelming majority of what we might call everyday people were against it.
This tells a fascinating story about the chasm between the man who tweets and the man on the street. We all know what being pro-AV meant in 2011, don't we? It meant being right-on, Leftish, probably a Guardian reader, a fan of Clegg (hilariously, there were loads of Cleggmaniacs back then). And the Twitterati, the top tweeters, are made up of a disproportionate number of those sorts of people. Why? Because they tend to be time-rich; these folk have the time to dilly-dally on Twitter
Twitter is designed for the time-wealthy. It’s a playground for those who live their lives to luxurious timeframes. To be a proper, full-on, regular tweeter, an upstanding member of the 10-tweets-an-hour Twitterati, you need to have oodles of spare time. And you need to have a job that doesn’t involve working with your hands, in the physical-labour sense. For example, a bus driver, builder, factory worker, car manufacturer or painter and decorator could never be a serious tweeter, in the sense of checking in every five minutes and partaking of those Twitterstorms that are now a daily occurrence, because their minds and hands are occupied by other things...." http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/brendanoneill2/100229115/the-problem-with-twitter-is-that-it-brings-together-time-rich-liberals-with-unemployable-saddos-an-explosive-combination/
"Ofsted has judged that 75% of the first Free Schools to have opened around the country are either Good or Outstanding. The results compare favourably with the achievements of state schools generally, with Free Schools more than twice as likely to be awarded an Outstanding judgement under the new tougher Ofsted inspection framework."
"The East Coast Main Line should remain in public ownership, as it is now better run than it was when privatised and is returning profits to the Treasury"
F1: not a tip, but I've laid Alonso to be top 3 at 1.44, in the title race.
Vettel's near certain to be top 3, leaving 2 places available.
Raikkonen is immensely consistent, very fast and his car is very reliable. Which leaves Alonso and Hamilton. Hamilton's driving well, Alonso has dipped somewhat after last year's epic effort. In addition, the Mercedes is getting fast and, in relative terms, the Ferrari is going backwards. Hamilton has some difficulty in his personal life but is handling it well on-track and is very happy with his team. Alonso seems displeased with Ferrari, and the reverse also appears to be true.
Robin Brant @robindbrant 46s BBC a&r says new lab peer wiliam haughey is a long term donor, 'Since 2003 he has donated £1,321,626.00 as an individual'.
Tom McTague @MirrorMcTague 10m Lord Anthony Bamford, family and firm have donated £4,837,066.85 to the Tories.
Robin Brant @robindbrant 15m BBC a&r also says Rumi Verjee is responsible for Lib Dems’ three largest donations since last elex; £250k given in 2010, 2011, 2012
Makes you proud to be British
It wouldn't be solved with elected lords on a party list though. The top donors would just be the first on the lists...
With Paddick and Jones elevated to the Lords, we only just need Ken and the House of Lords will be filled by the whole line up of defeated candidates in the last 2 Mayoral elections.
"The East Coast Main Line should remain in public ownership, as it is now better run than it was when privatised and is returning profits to the Treasury"
Why not reduce food prices in high food price areas while you're at it?
Suppose it fits in nicely with Osbornes taxpayer subsidies for people remortgaging £600k flats.
Keep fighting for the free market on the East Coast rail line though, even though there won't be one
The biggest price fixing for rural and remote areas is the absurd notion that the price of a stamp should be the same wherever you are sending your letter to - whether across London or from Lands End to South Uist.
Hopefully Royal mail privatisation will end this and lead to cheaper post for the majority of us who don't live in the middle of nowhere.
The most potty thing about the Lords is of course the elections that are held from time to time to fill vacancies in the caucus of 92 hereditary peers.
The most potty thing about the Lords is of course the elections that are held from time to time to fill vacancies in the caucus of 92 hereditary peers.
Indeed! What I love about the peerages list is that every Party shows their true colours re their friends.
The problem is none of the main parties will fully commit to an elected Lords because they see it as an insurance policy against their party losing an election.
How much would the Gov't get for the East Coast, how much does it cost to run - I'd need to see a full cost-benefit analysis for it all before answering the question.
Mark Senile trolls posters when Wee-Timmy receives what he gives out. Trust the out-of-touch fool not to understand concepts of equality, equity and recompense. If only the Sussex fool could be half the man that the funny-farmer is....
Your post contained nothing constructive merely personal abuse of another poster . If it had been made against any other poster it would have been moderated .
Does anyone else not find it disturbing that 24 out of 30 of the new members of the Lords are on the government side. I don't know what it was like under previous governments and this one was unusual in that the coalition parties got 60% of the GE vote between them, however I can only wonder what those outside the UK make of it.
@tim - We already subsidise food production. SO it should be no surprise that we're subsidising fuel and will continue to do so.
But only fuel for those who live in very specific areas. You can make a case for cutting rural fuel duty, but when Alexander is MP for one of the very few areas to benefit, what's the real motive?
Does anyone else not find it disturbing that 24 out of 30 of the new members of the Lords are on the government side.
No. Did you find it disturbing when Tony was packing the Lords with Labour peers? Or when the Commission rejected some of the people Tony tried to get into the Lords?
Personally I think the current privately run trains on public tracks is probably the best solution for the railways. Virgin trains are pretty good by and large, and we don't have to look too far back to see the disaster that was Railtrack Plc - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railtrack wasn't the finest example of privatisation ever.
The thing is if you sell it off you don't then give out subsidies when the company comes crawling back for them, but Gov'ts inevitably do with infrastructure such as this particularly when there can be large safety angles due to underinvestment. Because of the inevitable potential for this I'd be against it.
Your post contained nothing constructive merely personal abuse of another poster . If it had been made against any other poster it would have been moderated .
Your answer justifies my judgement of yourself. I have no problem with criticism; I deal it with an even-hand myself. You, cur, you; you're a parody of liberalism and a metaphor for hubris....
Does anyone else not find it disturbing that 24 out of 30 of the new members of the Lords are on the government side.
No. Did you find it disturbing when Tony was packing the Lords with Labour peers? Or when the Commission rejected some of the people Tony tried to get into the Lords?
I was no fan of Blair's approach to the HoL. However I'm just asking a general question about how this compares to previous governments. My assumption is that it's probably not very different but it's a disease our political system needs to rid itself of.
Personally I think the current privately run trains on public tracks is probably the best solution for the railways. Virgin trains are pretty good by and large, and we don't have to look too far back to see the disaster that was Railtrack Plc - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railtrack wasn't the finest example of privatisation ever.
The thing is if you sell it off you don't then give out subsidies when the company comes crawling back for them, but Gov'ts inevitably do with infrastructure such as this particularly when there can be large safety angles due to underinvestment. Because of the inevitable potential for this I'd be against it.
If the infrastructure does remain in public hands, then the debt has to go on the books.
Network Rail is borrowing massively at the moment, and we - the taxpayers - are guaranteeing those loans. Does anyone think this will end well?
It's worthwhile being contrarian for a moment. Political parties need to give people some incentive to support them. If (like me) you start from the position that everyone is fundamentally corrupt given half the chance, and recognise wearily that by definition political parties are going to hold the reins of power, you are forced to acknowledge that in practice they're going to use that power to benefit their benefactors, one way or another.
It's probably more harmless to have benefactors in a revising chamber with a fancy title and dressed in clothes that would horrify animal activists than to have them awarded public contracts on favourable terms or receiving some other form of financial incentive. By following this method of rewarding followers, the chances are maximised that the benefactors will be interested in politics rather than in using politicians for financial advantage.
In other words, this may be bad, but the alternatives are mainly worse.
Nick Sutton @suttonnick On #wato today one Labour MP tells us he's deeply worried party is "slightly confused" and not clear on key policies. bbc.in/17ldJ4V
I think Virgin as a brand is vastly over-rated. It's way up its own behind. I used to be a regular user of its Rugby to Euston service but decided that paying well over the odds to stand up each way for an hour plus was not good value for money - especially when about half the train was taken up by sparsely populated 1st class carriages. All too often the Virgin product fails to deliver on the brand promise. There's nothing "cool" about being herded like cattle to stand up in an over-priced train. Give me low-cost, low-pretension Chiltern every day of the week; and BA over Virgin Atlantic too.
The Regency seafood restaurant has been a feature on the Brighton seafront since the 1960s but some changes have been afoot there in the past couple of years.
A steady stream of Chinese visitors suddenly started arriving around two years ago.
A confused - and grateful - owner of the restaurant, Robert Savvides, set about trying to find out the reason for this upsurge of interest.
His investigations revealed the power of the internet, and the global nature of modern society - and business."
Nick Sutton @suttonnick On #wato today one Labour MP tells us he's deeply worried party is "slightly confused" and not clear on key policies. bbc.in/17ldJ4V
Harry Cole @MrHarryCole Haughey got a 11 million quid contract from Lab Glasgow council despite charging 120% more than rival bidders. And now he's got Lab peerage
There are some good noises about exports too. Just maybe we will get the rebalancing that we require after all.
Certainly Q3 is off to a bit of a flyer. IIRC the original OBR worm had a bit of a slow down this quarter. That is looking a little pessimistic at the moment. Long way to go of course.
Comments
As ever being in Oppo is very frustrating - the HMG pinch your good ideas and do the stuff you'd like/make you look crap.
It's karma in action for all the time they were rude to you when the shoe is on the other foot.
The one that was in the same city as his constituency.
And we all know how well that's turned out ...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-15249907
'Two further questions would have been helpful:
1) Do you use this service?
2) Do you care very much about this question?
A further question would also have been helpful.
Did you use British Rail when the railways were nationalized?
Shocking !
If you want news - you have to pay for it somehow. I pay for The Times, I don't for the DT but probably will.
The Mail runs a very slick operation - I can see quite a slab of Sun readers going there. Not so much the Mirror which is more like the Star.
I believe TSE is PB's correspondent at the ground for the next five days...
Could rise very quickly - 2.4 if no wicket after 4 overs..
Congrats to Mr. M
Apparently Das Bild reckons Ferrari have made Raikkonen a more lucrative offer than the one Red Bull have. That would be very interesting, because it begs the question: who would he replace?
Massa seems obvious, but Ferrari doesn't do driver equality and Alonso clearly enjoys number one status.
Richard Frediani @FredianiITV
Former ITV Boss Sir Charles Allen, Doreen Lawrence and Danny Finkelstein among new working peers via @Number10press ow.ly/nwKmb
Patrick Wintour @patrickwintour
Rumi Verjee CBE - "entrepreneur and philanthropist" is a Lib Dem peer. He has been very philanthropic to the Lib Dems.
Guido Fawkes @GuidoFawkes
Labour enoble former Goldman Sachs man Sir Charles Allen: bit.ly/18TAovX
You're wrong in detail: Cross-rail gave Edinborough - via Barnett - an uneconomic tram-link despite a better economic case for Manchester. Just like Edinborough Uni got the "UK" super-computing funding.
Your persistent anti-English bolleaux needs medical treatment. Surely your missus, an NHS doctor, knows a few shrinks that could help you, no...?
Robert Hutton @RobDotHutton
And a Labour peerage for fridge magnate William Haughey. #hereallweek
Baroness Annabel Goldie. Lord Brian Paddick
Full List
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/working-peerages-announced
exGoldman Sachs employee - Sir Charles Allen.James Palumbo - co-founder and chairman of Ministry of Sound Group, the international music and entertainment business
BBC analysis & research figs say lords composition now: CON (+14) = 222 LAB (+5) = 221 LD (+10) = 99. cons one more than lab.
Former leaders of Trafford and Birmingham Councils are also rewarded. A ex MEP who defected from Labour too
Former Labour Deputy General Secretary Alicia Kennedy becomes a Baroness
LibDems include former Somerset CC leader, a former MSP, a former Welsh Assembly Member, Paddick, directly from the 80s Ian Wrigglesworth
"My favourite fact about Twitter is this: in the run-up to the 2011 referendum on whether Britain should adopt the Alternative Vote system, 76.1 per cent of tweets about AV were in favour of it, while in the real world, in the physical, tangible ballot box, just 32.1 per cent of the electorate voted for AV. That is, an overwhelming majority of the Twitterati were pro-AV, while an overwhelming majority of what we might call everyday people were against it.
This tells a fascinating story about the chasm between the man who tweets and the man on the street. We all know what being pro-AV meant in 2011, don't we? It meant being right-on, Leftish, probably a Guardian reader, a fan of Clegg (hilariously, there were loads of Cleggmaniacs back then). And the Twitterati, the top tweeters, are made up of a disproportionate number of those sorts of people. Why? Because they tend to be time-rich; these folk have the time to dilly-dally on Twitter
Twitter is designed for the time-wealthy. It’s a playground for those who live their lives to luxurious timeframes. To be a proper, full-on, regular tweeter, an upstanding member of the 10-tweets-an-hour Twitterati, you need to have oodles of spare time. And you need to have a job that doesn’t involve working with your hands, in the physical-labour sense. For example, a bus driver, builder, factory worker, car manufacturer or painter and decorator could never be a serious tweeter, in the sense of checking in every five minutes and partaking of those Twitterstorms that are now a daily occurrence, because their minds and hands are occupied by other things...." http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/brendanoneill2/100229115/the-problem-with-twitter-is-that-it-brings-together-time-rich-liberals-with-unemployable-saddos-an-explosive-combination/
Darling screwed the taxpayer with the Edinburgh tram in the same way Brown did with the two carriers. If they were Tories you'd be spitting blood ...
RT @robindbrant: BBC a&r also says since 2011 james palumbo has 'donated more than £650k' to the lib dems < !!!!!!!!!!!!
Robin Brant @robindbrant
BBC a&r also says Rumi Verjee is responsible for Lib Dems’ three largest donations since last elex; £250k given in 2010, 2011, 2012
Mark Senile trolls posters when Wee-Timmy receives what he gives out. Trust the out-of-touch fool not to understand concepts of equality, equity and recompense. If only the Sussex fool could be half the man that the funny-farmer is....
What on earth for? –Since when did achieving 'Deputy Assistant’ status or coming fourth, fifth, or even sixth in a race, warrant a gong…?
But still preferable to insane one-off 15 year terms.
www.espn.co.uk/mercedes/motorsport/story/119363.html
There will probably be fewer this year than most due to massive regulation changes in 2014, but Mercedes' improvement has been the most dramatic during the course of this year. They're already top dog in qualifying. If they can show good tyre wear/race pace in Spa (different kind of circuit to Hungary due to many high speed corners) they could be in a good place for a title tilt.
The results compare favourably with the achievements of state schools generally, with Free Schools more than twice as likely to be awarded an Outstanding judgement under the new tougher Ofsted inspection framework."
http://www.newschoolsnetwork.org/news/2013/08/75-first-free-schools-judged-be-good-or-outstanding
Is this the most leading question ever?
Vettel's near certain to be top 3, leaving 2 places available.
Raikkonen is immensely consistent, very fast and his car is very reliable. Which leaves Alonso and Hamilton. Hamilton's driving well, Alonso has dipped somewhat after last year's epic effort. In addition, the Mercedes is getting fast and, in relative terms, the Ferrari is going backwards. Hamilton has some difficulty in his personal life but is handling it well on-track and is very happy with his team. Alonso seems displeased with Ferrari, and the reverse also appears to be true.
Presently Alonso is 9 points ahead of Hamilton.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/10212099/Margaret-Thatcher-vetoed-William-Hagues-appointment-as-a-special-adviser-when-he-was-21-branding-it-a-gimmick.html
Hopefully Royal mail privatisation will end this and lead to cheaper post for the majority of us who don't live in the middle of nowhere.
'Mrs Alistair Campbell will be very irked by that.'
Wait for the conspiracy theorists to start whining.
Do you know what Labour's policy is apart from getting rid of Stephen Twitt?
This is bumper crop of fun.
It's not a surprise .. we actually had an election for this eventuality (after an unfortunate previous experience that we dont want to talk about).
http://spitalfieldslife.com/2013/07/19/bob-mazzer-on-the-tube/
If Cameron was a smarter politician he'd be you, surely. As it is he has to settle for being PM.
you have to bow to her now. Practice it
"UKIP have three Peers in the House of Lords; Lord Pearson of Rannoch, Baron Stevens of Ludgate and Lord Willoughby de Broke."
http://ukipian.com/2013/03/11/where-are-the-new-ukip-peers/
Of course I have never been anything but very complimentary about her so obviously this is joyous news that everyone should celebrate.
*Orders new keyboard*
As it is the question is leading.
http://mg.co.za/article/2013-07-26-00-diaspora-watches-poll-from-afar
Ruth Dudley Edwards @RuthDE
Brian Paddick? First peer from 'I'm a Celebrity, get me out of here'? The full list of new peers
http://blogs.channel4.com/michael-crick-on-politics/cameron-promises-to-cram-yet-more-peers-into-the-lords/2138
Somehow found myself looking at the page for the Holiday Inn, Bulawayo on Trip Advisor. It's getting pretty good reviews:
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g298091-d299253-Reviews-Holiday_Inn_Bulawayo-Bulawayo_Bulawayo_Province.html#REVIEWS
The thing is if you sell it off you don't then give out subsidies when the company comes crawling back for them, but Gov'ts inevitably do with infrastructure such as this particularly when there can be large safety angles due to underinvestment.
Because of the inevitable potential for this I'd be against it.
I don't think we are allowed to say anything about that.
Everything was dependent on last week's Weybridge S by-election.
Network Rail is borrowing massively at the moment, and we - the taxpayers - are guaranteeing those loans. Does anyone think this will end well?
It's probably more harmless to have benefactors in a revising chamber with a fancy title and dressed in clothes that would horrify animal activists than to have them awarded public contracts on favourable terms or receiving some other form of financial incentive. By following this method of rewarding followers, the chances are maximised that the benefactors will be interested in politics rather than in using politicians for financial advantage.
In other words, this may be bad, but the alternatives are mainly worse.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10214882/Eileen-Brennan.html
On #wato today one Labour MP tells us he's deeply worried party is "slightly confused" and not clear on key policies. bbc.in/17ldJ4V
"Why Chinese flock to a Brighton chippy
The Regency seafood restaurant has been a feature on the Brighton seafront since the 1960s but some changes have been afoot there in the past couple of years.
A steady stream of Chinese visitors suddenly started arriving around two years ago.
A confused - and grateful - owner of the restaurant, Robert Savvides, set about trying to find out the reason for this upsurge of interest.
His investigations revealed the power of the internet, and the global nature of modern society - and business."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23313896
Harry Cole @MrHarryCole
Haughey got a 11 million quid contract from Lab Glasgow council despite charging 120% more than rival bidders. And now he's got Lab peerage
Retweeted by Michael Crick":
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There are some good noises about exports too. Just maybe we will get the rebalancing that we require after all.
Certainly Q3 is off to a bit of a flyer. IIRC the original OBR worm had a bit of a slow down this quarter. That is looking a little pessimistic at the moment. Long way to go of course.