"Clegg would never have got a coalition with Davis through his party, the most he would have done is promise not to vote down a Davis minority Tory government in a vote of confidence"
In that case a great shame that the cards fell as they did. Had Clegg not joined this Tory government and with with Ed as Labour's new leader this could have been the opportunity the Lib Dems have been waiting for for their big breakthrough.
...I didn't use the housing allowance to help buy property in any way: I rented a small flat with it, and when I left Parliament I left the flat, without any profit in any form. Why is that taking the piss?
That seems like a perfectly reasonable use of the housing allowance to me... But on this point, is there any other job in the UK where you can claim mortgage payments on expenses? The fact that MPs could (still can?) buy a house, have it done up, and then sell it (after house prices have risen nicely, thankyouverymuch) all paid for by their employer - i.e. the taxpayer - just seems incredible. How did the issue stay out of the public eye for so long??
Osborne has done well in a very difficult position.
However he is viewed as a person is immaterial, he has managed to turn a catostrophic situation around without relating mass unemployment and deserves huge credit for that.
And I am not a Tory"
Osborne was never handed down a catastrophic situation though the coalition like to pretend that he was.The real catastrophe was in 2007/8 when queues were forming in front of Northern Rock but luckily we had a steady hand at the time to negotiate the situation.Not that Brown will get any credit on here.
Osborne has had some successes but he`s nowhere done as well as the right would like to think he has.He has continued to miss the targets he had set for himself and by some margin.
I remember back in 2007, someone on here said that Northern Rock would be forgotten by next weekend.
The fact that it`s nearly forgotten is a tribute to the way it was dealt with.
Unfortunately it is RBS that everyone remembers and the one we're still dealing with.
It is not just now we are dealing with RBS. The economics column in the ST today points out that business investment is still 27% down on what it was in 2007. Some of this is demand driven, who wants to invest in more output when our main markets were in recession, but a lot of it has been driven by the failure to address the RBS and its desperate need to reduce its balance sheet reducing the lending available to businesses as well as domestic mortgages.
Our largest domestic bank has been a major drag on credit in this country for 5 years now. What is plain with the benefit of hindsight is not the Osborne made a mistake in pushing Hester out of the RBS but that he took too long to do it. If that thorn is finally grasped prospects for future growth and rebalancing will be greatly improved.
Osborne has done well in a very difficult position.
However he is viewed as a person is immaterial, he has managed to turn a catostrophic situation around without relating mass unemployment and deserves huge credit for that.
And I am not a Tory"
Osbornes 2010 election campaign cost the Tories 5%, Osbornes Omnishambles 2012 cost them another 5% They are the two biggest poll movements of the last five years
And brought the Tories back to within hailing distance (5-6%) with 18 months to go. Not even I thought that was likely this far out from the election.
Poor you.
They were level when the Omnishambles hit. In any other industry Osborne would've been sacked for the remarkable incompetence of that, unless he was the boss's chum perhaps.
Someone who has turned a companies fortune round without laying off the workforce would not be sacked.
I'm sure it's an unpalatable truth for you Tim but Osborne has done a good job with the economy.
Sure. I'm saying that if people did follow the letter AND spirit (and I'd claim I did) then there isn't really anything to debate. If I'd rented skin-flicks or bought stuff to keep after I left Parliament it'd be different. But your original post suggested I was shown in a bad light and taking the piss without pointing to anything that you actually felt I'd done that wasn't in the spirit of the allowances. I think that's falling into the "they're all the same" generalisation. In particular, I didn't use the housing allowance to help buy property in any way: I rented a small flat with it, and when I left Parliament I left the flat, without any profit in any form. Why is that taking the piss?
My original comment was in response to TSE saying that you came out "in a good light". This is on too much on a relative scale for my liking - you were not required to pay anything back and weren't arrested. And let me make very clear at this point that I don't believe for one second that you did anything illegal. But I don't think a single politician came out of it with his reputation enhanced or in "a good light"; you included. Whether you think that's fair or not is up to you but you share part of the collective blame for not fixing the system and simply riding the train with everyone else.
The system was introduced so that unpopular headline pay increases for MPs could be shelved and their costs could be side-doored into "expenses". The scheme grew like Topsy and expanded as MPs pushed the envelope. Perhaps there never was a "spirit" to break because it never existed?
You mention my job? I'd have been sacked if I'd claimed for much of what MPs were able to get away with. There'd be no "letter/spirit" argument for me to fall back on. I think you are/were too close to the issue to objectively see that all of you were taking the piss. And many still are.
Does Peter Hain support a price freeze for electricity to reduce taxpayers contributing to his bills? Name: Neath MP: Peter Hain Party: Labour Claim (£): 4,571.74 Fuel type: Electricity Other fuel
TSE Davis would still have got a conference bounce and Brown was so cautious and such a ditherer he would not have called an election unless he were sure of a landslide
John O After the economic crash Brown was always doomed, even if more voters may have switched from Labour to LD than Labour to Tory in 2010. Also watching Downton and agree on Carson
Roger Maybe, but they would not have got a seat in government and Ed Miiband would have still united the left and Davis the right leaving only centrist voters for Clegg
At some point the Tories are going to have to confront the issue of Cameron and Osborne being unable to attract the voters they need. Cameron is likely to put Osborne before winning elections as he did last time, and I'm pleased about that, but the obvious move this time is to replace Osborne with Theresa May, as he should have replaced him with Phil Hammond last time.
It would be quite an achievement for Cameron to fail to get a majority against Brown, lose the boundary changes, split the right and oppose AV then fail to gain from an economic recovery because he and Osborne are seen as being too out of touch,but he could feasibly achieve it.
Which Tory do you think would would do best for the party at the next election as leader?
Theresa May would maximise the Tory vote as long as she could be got in place without too much blood on the walls. Is there anyone who would be put off by her that is attracted by Cameron? I doubt it, but there are plenty repelled by Cameron/Osborne
I think you're probably right, because the Tories' main problem is with female voters.
At some point the Tories are going to have to confront the issue of Cameron and Osborne being unable to attract the voters they need. Cameron is likely to put Osborne before winning elections as he did last time, and I'm pleased about that, but the obvious move this time is to replace Osborne with Theresa May, as he should have replaced him with Phil Hammond last time.
It would be quite an achievement for Cameron to fail to get a majority against Brown, lose the boundary changes, split the right and oppose AV then fail to gain from an economic recovery because he and Osborne are seen as being too out of touch,but he could feasibly achieve it.
Which Tory do you think would would do best for the party at the next election as leader?
Theresa May would maximise the Tory vote as long as she could be got in place without too much blood on the walls. Is there anyone who would be put off by her that is attracted by Cameron? I doubt it, but there are plenty repelled by Cameron/Osborne
I think you're probably right, because the Tories' main problem is with female voters.
I suspect that's probably more to do with the fact they've hammered families (Sure Start, CB, higher rate childcare vouchers) rather than Cameron's problems dealing with women, although I may be wrong.
...I didn't use the housing allowance to help buy property in any way: I rented a small flat with it, and when I left Parliament I left the flat, without any profit in any form. Why is that taking the piss?
That seems like a perfectly reasonable use of the housing allowance to me... But on this point, is there any other job in the UK where you can claim mortgage payments on expenses? The fact that MPs could (still can?) buy a house, have it done up, and then sell it (after house prices have risen nicely, thankyouverymuch) all paid for by their employer - i.e. the taxpayer - just seems incredible. How did the issue stay out of the public eye for so long??
Yes, I agree up to a point. To be clear - MPs who bought houses weren't allowed to use any taxpayer money to pay off the cost: the deal was (and is) that they could pay interest on the mortgage, thereby keeping the position stationary. If house prices rise faster than the cost of living, they benefit (since the real ratio of value to mortgage rises). If not, they lose. The argument for the system is that our distorted housing market probably makes it cheaper to buy than rent, so a system requiring renting will cost more in the long run.
But personally I think it'd be a lot simpler and give rise to much less suspicion if the allowance was rental-only. It's not as though rentals in London were rare. And of course people who fitted out their places with luxury stuff were indeed taking the piss and the system was supposed to prevent it but often didn't. It was very random, depending on the mood of the fees office official - e.g. I had an application for a weekly sub to a Danish newspaper refused (I'd argued it would be useful on the European Scrutiny Committee to maintain my knowledge of another country: they said it wasn't allowable since I might be reading it for pleasure), yet people who wanted giant TVs sometimes got them waved through.
Sure. I'm saying that if people did follow the letter AND spirit (and I'd claim I did) then there isn't really anything to debate. If I'd rented skin-flicks or bought stuff to keep after I left Parliament it'd be different. But your original post suggested I was shown in a bad light and taking the piss without pointing to anything that you actually felt I'd done that wasn't in the spirit of the allowances. I think that's falling into the "they're all the same" generalisation. In particular, I didn't use the housing allowance to help buy property in any way: I rented a small flat with it, and when I left Parliament I left the flat, without any profit in any form. Why is that taking the piss?
My original comment was in response to TSE saying that you came out "in a good light". This is on too much on a relative scale for my liking - you were not required to pay anything back and weren't arrested. And let me make very clear at this point that I don't believe for one second that you did anything illegal. But I don't think a single politician came out of it with his reputation enhanced or in "a good light"; you included. Whether you think that's fair or not is up to you but you share part of the collective blame for not fixing the system and simply riding the train with everyone else.
The system was introduced so that unpopular headline pay increases for MPs could be shelved and their costs could be side-doored into "expenses". The scheme grew like Topsy and expanded as MPs pushed the envelope. Perhaps there never was a "spirit" to break because it never existed?
You mention my job? I'd have been sacked if I'd claimed for much of what MPs were able to get away with. There'd be no "letter/spirit" argument for me to fall back on. I think you are/were too close to the issue to objectively see that all of you were taking the piss. And many still are.
I know I am not going to be popular here but, on expenses, I have always been relatively indifferent. If we don't like the rules, we should change them. But unless the MP has behaved outside the rules/illegally why bang on about it? I'm the same with big pensions. If someone gets a big payoff/pension in line with what's in their contract then so be it. Just change the rules so it doesn't happen again.
...I didn't use the housing allowance to help buy property in any way: I rented a small flat with it, and when I left Parliament I left the flat, without any profit in any form. Why is that taking the piss?
That seems like a perfectly reasonable use of the housing allowance to me... But on this point, is there any other job in the UK where you can claim mortgage payments on expenses? The fact that MPs could (still can?) buy a house, have it done up, and then sell it (after house prices have risen nicely, thankyouverymuch) all paid for by their employer - i.e. the taxpayer - just seems incredible. How did the issue stay out of the public eye for so long??
Yes, I agree up to a point. To be clear - MPs who bought houses weren't allowed to use any taxpayer money to pay off the cost: the deal was (and is) that they could pay interest on the mortgage, thereby keeping the position stationary. If house prices rise faster than the cost of living, they benefit (since the real ratio of value to mortgage rises). If not, they lose. The argument for the system is that our distorted housing market probably makes it cheaper to buy than rent, so a system requiring renting will cost more in the long run.
But personally I think it'd be a lot simpler and give rise to much less suspicion if the allowance was rental-only. It's not as though rentals in London were rare. And of course people who fitted out their places with luxury stuff were indeed taking the piss and the system was supposed to prevent it but often didn't. It was very random, depending on the mood of the fees office official - e.g. I had an application for a weekly sub to a Danish newspaper refused (I'd argued it would be useful on the European Scrutiny Committee to maintain my knowledge of another country: they said it wasn't allowable since I might be reading it for pleasure), yet people who wanted giant TVs sometimes got them waved through.
How odd - the only expense I can recall getting knocked back at work was also for a newspaper (in this case a single copy). I can only wonder whether there is something particularly irksome about them.
The most depressing thing about the expenses scandal was the sheer pettiness of it. If you're going to fiddle, make sure you claim for plutonium-powered helicopters or major shareholdings in dotcom stocks. Not Remembrance Sunday wreaths and soft porn.
It's a symbol of the decline of this country that our politicians are so accustomed to thinking on such a small scale.
My best expenses claim (that was approved) was the time I claimed for the meal and heavenly money at Stringfellows when entertaining a potential new client.
For the uninitiated, heavenly money is the money you buy to give the ladies to take off their clothes.
The most depressing thing about the expenses scandal was the sheer pettiness of it. If you're going to fiddle, make sure you claim for plutonium-powered helicopters or major shareholdings in dotcom stocks. Not Remembrance Sunday wreaths and soft porn.
It's a symbol of the decline of this country that our politicians are so accustomed to thinking on such a small scale.
But, but, but the day the story broke about Jacqui Smith's husband claiming for porn on expenses was one of the funniest threads ever on PB.
I said at the time, he and his wife would beat off of those problems.
Twitter Nick Sutton @suttonnick 1m Monday's Daily Telegraph Business section - "UK growth looks set to be fastest in the West" #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/mmXRgn1wsy
The most depressing thing about the expenses scandal was the sheer pettiness of it. If you're going to fiddle, make sure you claim for plutonium-powered helicopters or major shareholdings in dotcom stocks. Not Remembrance Sunday wreaths and soft porn.
It's a symbol of the decline of this country that our politicians are so accustomed to thinking on such a small scale.
My MP Cheryl Gillan claimed for a tin of dog food.
HS2 runs right through the constituency, she has opposed it but sold her cottage in Old Amersham a year is ago. So much for we're all in it together!
She has a huge majority but I will be curious to see how UKIP eat into it.
My best expenses claim (that was approved) was the time I claimed for the meal and heavenly money at Stringfellows when entertaining a potential new client.
For the uninitiated, heavenly money is the money you buy to give the ladies to take off their clothes.
Is that a system they set up just so guests get a receipt ?
The most depressing thing about the expenses scandal was the sheer pettiness of it. If you're going to fiddle, make sure you claim for plutonium-powered helicopters or major shareholdings in dotcom stocks. Not Remembrance Sunday wreaths and soft porn.
It's a symbol of the decline of this country that our politicians are so accustomed to thinking on such a small scale.
It was remarkable, yet dismal, that someone's claim for a Twix made a story.
My best expenses claim (that was approved) was the time I claimed for the meal and heavenly money at Stringfellows when entertaining a potential new client.
For the uninitiated, heavenly money is the money you buy to give the ladies to take off their clothes.
Is that a system they set up just so guests get a receipt ?
Mostly to avoid any unfortunate misinterpretations, some people think handing over your money to a woman to take her clothes off entitles you to more.
Telegraph View - Miliband is posturing on the economy "Another weekend; another Labour gimmick. Ed Miliband’s idea of subsidising employers to offer their workers pay rises for 12 months comes from the same stable as his proposed short-term cap on energy bills. The Labour leader has alighted on the blindingly obvious – namely, that living standards have been falling – and is endeavouring to make as much political capital as possible from this fact."
JohnO I never sad he was a nice man and even Davis would not resign as leader. TSE Brown would still have bottled a 2007 election
I'm not sure.
I know a Davis led Tory party would never been able to perform the way Dave and George did in 2007, which altered the narrative and the polls, and made Brown and Darling look like amateurs.
Nope I think that is utterly wrong. With hindsight I don't think there was ever a chance that Brown would win the election whenever it came.
I still hold to the idea that Oppositions don't win elections, Governments lose them. It doesn't matter how good the opposition is, if the Government isn't bad then they will stay in power.
What was interesting in 2010 was that Brown lost the election but Cameron failed to win it. I don't think Davis would have made the same mistakes Cameron made which led to that result.
JohnO I never sad he was a nice man and even Davis would not resign as leader. TSE Brown would still have bottled a 2007 election
I'm not sure.
I know a Davis led Tory party would never been able to perform the way Dave and George did in 2007, which altered the narrative and the polls, and made Brown and Darling look like amateurs.
I'm curious as to how you think Cameron and Osborne performed in 2007 was so impressive ?
Cameron gave a good conference speech but during the summer had made numerous mistakes which made himself look like a lightweight and Brown statesmanlike in comparison.
What did Osborne do ? I presume you mean the IHT idea. An idea that I came up with beforehand so perhaps you should include me as having a political effect in 2007. But again Osborne had looked like a lightweight beforehand and did so afterwards.
The big political effect of 2007 was Brown marching his men to the top of the hill and then shitting his pants. But that had nothing to do with Cameron and Osborne and everything to do with Brown being a lifelong coward.
The big political effect was to come in the 2008 budget with the abolition of 10% tax - that was the point when Labour's disdain for the low paid became visible to all.
JohnO I never sad he was a nice man and even Davis would not resign as leader. TSE Brown would still have bottled a 2007 election
I'm not sure.
I know a Davis led Tory party would never been able to perform the way Dave and George did in 2007, which altered the narrative and the polls, and made Brown and Darling look like amateurs.
Nope I think that is utterly wrong. With hindsight I don't think there was ever a chance that Brown would win the election whenever it came.
I still hold to the idea that Oppositions don't win elections, Governments lose them. It doesn't matter how good the opposition is, if the Government isn't bad then they will stay in power.
What was interesting in 2010 was that Brown lost the election but Cameron failed to win it. I don't think Davis would have made the same mistakes Cameron made which led to that result.
I don't think David Davis would have been in the position Dave found himself at the end of Blair's resignation.
Such as leading the polls, as Cameron was.
So the Brown bounce would have seen a larger Labour lead if Davis was leader, which would have given Brown the confidence to call an election in the Autumn of 2007.
Another Richard, Cameron made mistakes, and yes it was Cameron's speech, you had Kinnock predicting the end of the Tory party, we even had a Labour MP writing in the new statesman there would be an election, with an increased Labour majority.
Osborne came up with the policy that gladdened Tory hearts, and swung the marginals.
Remember that ICM marginals poll after the the Tory conference.
Labour had spent a million quid in preparation for the election.
We shouldn't forget John Major's contribution during that period as well.
I am writing this from the Royal Livingstone Hotel, on the very riverbanks of the Zambesi. With a massive gin and tonic to hand.
Zambia!!
A friend of mine was due to go there for Xmas with his family, but BA have just shut the route down and have cancelled his flights. Apoplectic is the word, I think.
Yup. You now have to go via Nairobi, Schiphol, Joburg, etc - with KLM, Air France, SAA &c - and I can't help thinking this is perhaps a sign of our Total F*ck Up in regard to London airports. Is it really not profitable for BA to fly to Lusaka direct 3 times a week (Lusaka being the capital of an ex British colony) but it IS profitable for KLM?
Or is this just because there are so few free slots at Heathrow BA will sacrifice feebler African links in favour of Chinese links, thus detaching London from important parts of the world economy?
BUILD THE THIRD RUNWAY, OR BUILD BORIS AIRPORT. Just Get On With It.
Can anyone explain why there's supposedly so much demand to fly from London to provincial Chinese cities but apparantly no demand to fly from the main Chinese cities to British airports within 200 miles of London ?
Almost all British airports have spare capacity so if the demand is there to fly to Chengdu, Lusaka or wherever it would be met.
Not surprising that all the metropolitan high-flyers on here despise David Davis.
JohnO will be greatly amused at that description, and so am I.
David Davis is crap.
Ooor, ahhhh, we countreee bummmkins mus stick t'gether.
We must, or we'll end up on the train to Bournemouth
Not with those unspeakably VULGAR shoes we won't. I'll have you turfed out at Woking.
Those shoes are no more alas.
I do have a new pair of footwear which would go down a hit at the next PB meet, alas I won't be able to make Dirty Dicks in November, but I'll make sure I'm at the one after that one.
JohnO I never sad he was a nice man and even Davis would not resign as leader. TSE Brown would still have bottled a 2007 election
I'm not sure.
I know a Davis led Tory party would never been able to perform the way Dave and George did in 2007, which altered the narrative and the polls, and made Brown and Darling look like amateurs.
Nope I think that is utterly wrong. With hindsight I don't think there was ever a chance that Brown would win the election whenever it came.
I still hold to the idea that Oppositions don't win elections, Governments lose them. It doesn't matter how good the opposition is, if the Government isn't bad then they will stay in power.
What was interesting in 2010 was that Brown lost the election but Cameron failed to win it. I don't think Davis would have made the same mistakes Cameron made which led to that result.
Davis easily beat Cameron in the Conservative leadership debate.
Its unlikely he would have been beaten by Clegg in the election debates as Cameron was.
Not surprising that all the metropolitan high-flyers on here despise David Davis.
JohnO will be greatly amused at that description, and so am I.
David Davis is crap.
Ooor, ahhhh, we countreee bummmkins mus stick t'gether.
We must, or we'll end up on the train to Bournemouth
Not with those unspeakably VULGAR shoes we won't. I'll have you turfed out at Woking.
Those shoes are no more alas.
I do have a new pair of footwear which would go down a hit at the next PB meet, alas I won't be able to make Dirty Dicks in November, but I'll make sure I'm at the one after that one.
"A double child killer has been sent to jail for the second time after murdering a 13-year-old British schoolgirl in New Zealand. Cumbrian-born Jade Bayliss was strangled with an electrical cord by her mother’s former lover before he set her home alight to cover his crime. Labourer Jeremy McLaughlin, 35, killed the ex-pat girl in 2011 after being freed early from jail for killing a 14-year-old boy in Australia."
I am writing this from the Royal Livingstone Hotel, on the very riverbanks of the Zambesi. With a massive gin and tonic to hand.
Zambia!!
A friend of mine was due to go there for Xmas with his family, but BA have just shut the route down and have cancelled his flights. Apoplectic is the word, I think.
Yup. You now have to go via Nairobi, Schiphol, Joburg, etc - with KLM, Air France, SAA &c - and I can't help thinking this is perhaps a sign of our Total F*ck Up in regard to London airports. Is it really not profitable for BA to fly to Lusaka direct 3 times a week (Lusaka being the capital of an ex British colony) but it IS profitable for KLM?
Or is this just because there are so few free slots at Heathrow BA will sacrifice feebler African links in favour of Chinese links, thus detaching London from important parts of the world economy?
BUILD THE THIRD RUNWAY, OR BUILD BORIS AIRPORT. Just Get On With It.
Can anyone explain why there's supposedly so much demand to fly from London to provincial Chinese cities but apparantly no demand to fly from the main Chinese cities to British airports within 200 miles of London ?
Almost all British airports have spare capacity so if the demand is there to fly to Chengdu, Lusaka or wherever it would be met.
Simple, the world wants to come to London. It hasn't much interest in anywhere else in Britain.
How many times did Manchester and Birmingham bid unsuccessfully for the Olympics? London got them at its first attempt.
I don't think David Davis would have been in the position Dave found himself at the end of Blair's resignation.
Such as leading the polls, as Cameron was.
So the Brown bounce would have seen a larger Labour lead if Davis was leader, which would have given Brown the confidence to call an election in the Autumn of 2007.
Another Richard, Cameron made mistakes, and yes it was Cameron's speech, you had Kinnock predicting the end of the Tory party, we even had a Labour MP writing in the new statesman there would be an election, with an increased Labour majority.
Osborne came up with the policy that gladdened Tory hearts, and swung the marginals.
Remember that ICM marginals poll after the the Tory conference.
Labour had spent a million quid in preparation for the election.
We shouldn't forget John Major's contribution during that period as well.
Between October 2009 and May 2010 Cameron managed to throw away a 19% poll lead and ensure he failed to gain a majority.
As I said Brown lost the 2010 election but Cameron, who had every chance to win it, failed to do so.
I don't think David Davis would have been in the position Dave found himself at the end of Blair's resignation.
Such as leading the polls, as Cameron was.
Why not ? The Conservatives weren't leading in the polls because of anything Cameron had done. They were leading in the polls because people were tired of Blair, the incompetance his government was oozing and the Labour feuding.
Another Richard, Cameron made mistakes, and yes it was Cameron's speech, you had Kinnock predicting the end of the Tory party, we even had a Labour MP writing in the new statesman there would be an election, with an increased Labour majority.
Osborne came up with the policy that gladdened Tory hearts, and swung the marginals.
Remember that ICM marginals poll after the the Tory conference.
Labour had spent a million quid in preparation for the election.
We shouldn't forget John Major's contribution during that period as well.
BIG MISTAKE
Brown didn't bottle the election because of Cameron's speech or Osborne's IHT proposal or Major's intervention.
BROWN HAD ALREADY BOTTLED BEFORE ANY OF THOSE
Brown's loss of nerve came at the Labour conference.
He then spent a week (or was it two?) blundering around like a castrated sheep before he was forced into admitting publicly that there wasn't to be an election.
But the decision had effectively been made before the Conservative conference and long before Andrew Marr interviewed Brown.
In some ways the Davis Cameron split is similar in Australia to the Abbott Turnbull split, while Turnbull had more appeal in most polls than Abbott just as Cameron had in relation to Abbott in the end it was the Labor government of Rudd-Gillard who lost the election just as it was Blair-Brown here who lost in 2010. (The Liberals in Australia also do not need to worry about a strong centrist party after the demise of the Australian Democrats).
Not surprising that all the metropolitan high-flyers on here despise David Davis.
JohnO will be greatly amused at that description, and so am I.
David Davis is crap.
Ooor, ahhhh, we countreee bummmkins mus stick t'gether.
We must, or we'll end up on the train to Bournemouth
Not with those unspeakably VULGAR shoes we won't. I'll have you turfed out at Woking.
Those shoes are no more alas.
I do have a new pair of footwear which would go down a hit at the next PB meet, alas I won't be able to make Dirty Dicks in November, but I'll make sure I'm at the one after that one.
I'm still sulking (sort of) that I won't be able to join the festivities.
Tell you what, can't you win a bet with tim, and hence be inducted as a 'pbTory' and party the night away at his expense on gorgeously decadent cocktails.....and marvel at Dr Nabavi's gold lurex onesie.
Nigel4England Davis would probably have not got as many swing voters who voted for Blair switching to the Tories as Cameron got, they would instead have gone to Clegg, so the Tory share would likely have been a little lower and the LD vote slightly higher. A Davis led Tory party would probably have got about 33/34%, not much different from what Michael Howard got, Labour would probably have been unchanged on 29%, but the LDs would likely have been higher on about 25/26%. As Clegg would never have formed a coalition with Davis, who he has much less in common with ideologically than Cameron, the likely result would either have been a Tory minority government or a Labour-LD coalition, with either Alan Johnson or David Miliband succeeding Brown as PM as the price for Clegg's support. However, Davis would not have lost the votes Cameron now has to UKIP
If the numbers had been right Clegg would have formed a coalition with David Davis
Why is a man who lied to the police, lied to the public and lied to his wife fit to hold high office?
@NickPalmer - thanks for the correction on MPs claiming mortgage payments on expenses. I was a bit hazy on the details! Having said that, is it shockingly cynical of me to think that the opportunities for MPs to benefit from rampant house price inflation encouraged policy-making to that end during Labour's time in power? (And, I know some would argue, under the current government's watch.)
I don't think David Davis would have been in the position Dave found himself at the end of Blair's resignation.
Such as leading the polls, as Cameron was.
So the Brown bounce would have seen a larger Labour lead if Davis was leader, which would have given Brown the confidence to call an election in the Autumn of 2007.
Another Richard, Cameron made mistakes, and yes it was Cameron's speech, you had Kinnock predicting the end of the Tory party, we even had a Labour MP writing in the new statesman there would be an election, with an increased Labour majority.
Osborne came up with the policy that gladdened Tory hearts, and swung the marginals.
Remember that ICM marginals poll after the the Tory conference.
Labour had spent a million quid in preparation for the election.
We shouldn't forget John Major's contribution during that period as well.
Between October 2009 and May 2010 Cameron managed to throw away a 19% poll lead and ensure he failed to gain a majority.
As I said Brown lost the 2010 election but Cameron, who had every chance to win it, failed to do so.
Indeed.
The public perception during the election campaign went:
1) We have to get rid of Brown 2) Errr I'm not too sure about this Cameron 3) Oohh this Clegg looks interesting 4) On second thoughts I'm not too sure about this Clegg either 5) Brown, Cameron, Clegg - is this really the best we can do? Now who don't I want to win ...
Cameron failed to seal the deal but it was his luck that Brown had already sealed it enough for him. Even then it took Brown's trip to Rochdale to get the Conservatives over 300 MPs.
and the second and third times, also. I believe the Olympics have been in London 3 times.
The first two occasions it didn't bid, but was awarded them at short notice to take over from cities that had won but then proved unable to host them that year.
David David was comprehensively beaten in the Conservative Leadership contest after a lengthy campaign in which he failed to shine among his own party, never the mind the country during this period.
JohnO I never sad he was a nice man and even Davis would not resign as leader. TSE Brown would still have bottled a 2007 election
I'm not sure.
I know a Davis led Tory party would never been able to perform the way Dave and George did in 2007, which altered the narrative and the polls, and made Brown and Darling look like amateurs.
Nope I think that is utterly wrong. With hindsight I don't think there was ever a chance that Brown would win the election whenever it came.
I still hold to the idea that Oppositions don't win elections, Governments lose them. It doesn't matter how good the opposition is, if the Government isn't bad then they will stay in power.
What was interesting in 2010 was that Brown lost the election but Cameron failed to win it. I don't think Davis would have made the same mistakes Cameron made which led to that result.
Davis easily beat Cameron in the Conservative leadership debate.
Its unlikely he would have been beaten by Clegg in the election debates as Cameron was.
I am writing this from the Royal Livingstone Hotel, on the very riverbanks of the Zambesi. With a massive gin and tonic to hand.
Zambia!!
A friend of mine was due to go there for Xmas with his family, but BA have just shut the route down and have cancelled his flights. Apoplectic is the word, I think.
Yup. You now have to go via Nairobi, Schiphol, Joburg, etc - with KLM, Air France, SAA &c - and I can't help thinking this is perhaps a sign of our Total F*ck Up in regard to London airports. Is it really not profitable for BA to fly to Lusaka direct 3 times a week (Lusaka being the capital of an ex British colony) but it IS profitable for KLM?
Or is this just because there are so few free slots at Heathrow BA will sacrifice feebler African links in favour of Chinese links, thus detaching London from important parts of the world economy?
BUILD THE THIRD RUNWAY, OR BUILD BORIS AIRPORT. Just Get On With It.
Can anyone explain why there's supposedly so much demand to fly from London to provincial Chinese cities but apparantly no demand to fly from the main Chinese cities to British airports within 200 miles of London ?
Almost all British airports have spare capacity so if the demand is there to fly to Chengdu, Lusaka or wherever it would be met.
Simple, the world wants to come to London. It hasn't much interest in anywhere else in Britain.
How many times did Manchester and Birmingham bid unsuccessfully for the Olympics? London got them at its first attempt.
Just rename the airports then - London Birmingham, London Manchester, London East Midlands etc. Though as London seems jampacked every time I visit you'll struggle to attract many more tourists.
On the other hand who wants to fly to Chengdu or Lusaka. Or are provincial cities around the world different to provincial cities in Britain.
Can anyone explain why there's supposedly so much demand to fly from London to provincial Chinese cities but apparantly no demand to fly from the main Chinese cities to British airports within 200 miles of London ?
Almost all British airports have spare capacity so if the demand is there to fly to Chengdu, Lusaka or wherever it would be met.
and the second and third times, also. I believe the Olympics have been in London 3 times.
The first two occasions it didn't bid, but was awarded them at short notice to take over from cities that had won but then proved unable to host them that year.
I think that was true in 1908 but London bid for the 1944 games and won,don't think the 1948 games were awarded to any other city were they?
David David was comprehensively beaten in the Conservative Leadership contest after a lengthy campaign in which he failed to shine among his own party, never the mind the country during this period.
JohnO I never sad he was a nice man and even Davis would not resign as leader. TSE Brown would still have bottled a 2007 election
I'm not sure.
I know a Davis led Tory party would never been able to perform the way Dave and George did in 2007, which altered the narrative and the polls, and made Brown and Darling look like amateurs.
Nope I think that is utterly wrong. With hindsight I don't think there was ever a chance that Brown would win the election whenever it came.
I still hold to the idea that Oppositions don't win elections, Governments lose them. It doesn't matter how good the opposition is, if the Government isn't bad then they will stay in power.
What was interesting in 2010 was that Brown lost the election but Cameron failed to win it. I don't think Davis would have made the same mistakes Cameron made which led to that result.
Davis easily beat Cameron in the Conservative leadership debate.
Its unlikely he would have been beaten by Clegg in the election debates as Cameron was.
Davis easily beat Cameron in the leadership debate.
I know you don't want to admit it but that's still the fact.
However that proved irrelevant as Cameron had already been effectively crowned by the media at leader-in-waiting at the party conference.
But Cameron's failure in the Conservative leadership debate was a precursor to his failures in the general election debates.
Twitter Eric Joyce MP @ericjoyce 2m 2moro's news re: witness statements in Falkirk will, I hope, convince Labour it can't sweep things under the carpet.
Can anyone explain why there's supposedly so much demand to fly from London to provincial Chinese cities but apparantly no demand to fly from the main Chinese cities to British airports within 200 miles of London ?
Almost all British airports have spare capacity so if the demand is there to fly to Chengdu, Lusaka or wherever it would be met.
But that doesn't explain why there's this great number of British people who want to fly to provincial Chinese cities from Heathrow as we're constantly told.
Speaking for myself, flying to Manchester is a great option for me - there is a rail station in the terminal, and the road connections are excellent and rarely clogged (or used not to be).
Also I have little or no reason to go near London.
What does stop me though is the 'air passenger duty'. In adition to all the other taxes, duties, security levy, airport charge, fuel charge etc, that alone will cost me 166 gb pounds.
Nigel4England Davis would probably have not got as many swing voters who voted for Blair switching to the Tories as Cameron got, they would instead have gone to Clegg, so the Tory share would likely have been a little lower and the LD vote slightly higher. A Davis led Tory party would probably have got about 33/34%, not much different from what Michael Howard got, Labour would probably have been unchanged on 29%, but the LDs would likely have been higher on about 25/26%. As Clegg would never have formed a coalition with Davis, who he has much less in common with ideologically than Cameron, the likely result would either have been a Tory minority government or a Labour-LD coalition, with either Alan Johnson or David Miliband succeeding Brown as PM as the price for Clegg's support. However, Davis would not have lost the votes Cameron now has to UKIP
If the numbers had been right Clegg would have formed a coalition with David Davis
Why is a man who lied to the police, lied to the public and lied to his wife fit to hold high office?
(Try again.) There's no good answer to that. But nonetheless, it's a first class article by Huhne.
And once everyone has the 'living wage', which isn't an actual living wage, how long before the demands start for everyone to paid some other made up rate and name. A 'fair wage' or 'decent wage' perhaps.
On the other hand who wants to fly to Chengdu or Lusaka. Or are provincial cities around the world different to provincial cities in Britain.
Curiously, I had 20 visitors from Chengdu this week, come to hear me (inter alia) on corporate finance options. Next week, I've got two similar talks, and they're among dozens of similar seminars by others. There's a surprising demand from provisional China to find out how the West works. I suspect the traffic is mainly coming this way (and going back, of course) rather than UK->China toutrism. Even In Beijing I didn't see that many Western tourists.
On the other hand who wants to fly to Chengdu or Lusaka. Or are provincial cities around the world different to provincial cities in Britain.
Curiously, I had 20 visitors from Chengdu this week, come to hear me (inter alia) on corporate finance options. Next week, I've got two similar talks, and they're among dozens of similar seminars by others. There's a surprising demand from provisional China to find out how the West works. I suspect the traffic is mainly coming this way (and going back, of course) rather than UK->China toutrism. Even In Beijing I didn't see that many Western tourists.
An ex-Labour MP lecturing the Chinese on corporate finance options?
Marvellous stuff, cheered me up for the rest of the week.
And once everyone has the 'living wage', which isn't an actual living wage, how long before the demands start for everyone to paid some other made up rate and name. A 'fair wage' or 'decent wage' perhaps.
Or perhaps we could rename the minimum wage the living wage and hey presto everyone will be getting a living wage.
It will certainly sound good but will have as little connection to reality as ever-increasing exam results had to improving education standards.
Alternatively we could stop the silly bugger semantics and accept that millions of British workers are not skilled or productive enough to ever earn sufficient to live in a high cost country.
Which means either:
Consumers will have to voluntarily pay more than what their economic output is worth
or
the government will have to support them through the benefits system
On the other hand who wants to fly to Chengdu or Lusaka. Or are provincial cities around the world different to provincial cities in Britain.
Curiously, I had 20 visitors from Chengdu this week, come to hear me (inter alia) on corporate finance options. Next week, I've got two similar talks, and they're among dozens of similar seminars by others. There's a surprising demand from provisional China to find out how the West works. I suspect the traffic is mainly coming this way (and going back, of course) rather than UK->China toutrism. Even In Beijing I didn't see that many Western tourists.
That sounds very believable Nick.
So to attract these Chinese visitors all we need to do is rename our airports for foreign usage. Give them the names of football teams and whoever the current pop idol is and they'll be desperate to fly there.
If you're Chinese and looking at a map of Britain then Manchester or Birmingham must look practically next door to London in any case.
How long does a flight here from China take ? 10-12 hours at a guess, so what's an extra hour or two after they get off the place. Assuming they have to go to London that is.
Can anyone explain why there's supposedly so much demand to fly from London to provincial Chinese cities but apparantly no demand to fly from the main Chinese cities to British airports within 200 miles of London ?
Almost all British airports have spare capacity so if the demand is there to fly to Chengdu, Lusaka or wherever it would be met.
But that doesn't explain why there's this great number of British people who want to fly to provincial Chinese cities from Heathrow as we're constantly told.
Because the cities are at the heart of regions that are competing with each other and all are expected to hit multiple targets set by the central government. It creates lots of opportunities to export expertise and services, on top of the goods that all Chinese people want. Then there are the incentives to locate manufacturing and R&D etc, the special economic zones, Shanghai's new free trade area and so on. In addition to which China is very big - you can't just fly into Beijing and be somewhere else interesting a couple of hours later. You'd have to fly, so why not fly direct if you can?
And once everyone has the 'living wage', which isn't an actual living wage, how long before the demands start for everyone to paid some other made up rate and name. A 'fair wage' or 'decent wage' perhaps.
Tell Boris, it's him on the front page
Does Boris think that under £18k before deductions is a living wage in London ?
Plenty of London based people here, perhaps they could tell us what sort of a house that will get you in London. Didn't Nick Palmer mention £1200pm for a small flat above a shop in Shoreditch ?
As I explained yesturday this is just another gimmick of the type politicans are using to cover their essential helplessness in economic matters.
Does anyone have details of the percentage capacity usage of British airports ?
Heathrow is 98% or something ridiculous. I use Brum every now and again, and clearly has plenty of open slots. The problem seems to be no-one wants them. BA no longer flies from there, but you can connect to the KLM/Air France global network. I flew to Shanghai from Brum via Paris out and Schipol back. But because of the stopovers it's about five or six hours longer than going direct.
Another stat I recall is that London based flyers fly 2.5 times per year on average, compared with 1.5 times for the rest of the country. I think it's from the UK Airports Commission.
Can anyone explain why there's supposedly so much demand to fly from London to provincial Chinese cities but apparantly no demand to fly from the main Chinese cities to British airports within 200 miles of London ?
Almost all British airports have spare capacity so if the demand is there to fly to Chengdu, Lusaka or wherever it would be met.
But that doesn't explain why there's this great number of British people who want to fly to provincial Chinese cities from Heathrow as we're constantly told.
Because the cities are at the heart of regions that are competing with each other and all are expected to hit multiple targets set by the central government. It creates lots of opportunities to export expertise and services, on top of the goods that all Chinese people want. Then there are the incentives to locate manufacturing and R&D etc, the special economic zones, Shanghai's new free trade area and so on. In addition to which China is very big - you can't just fly into Beijing and be somewhere else interesting a couple of hours later. You'd have to fly, so why not fly direct if you can?
So why not fly from Birmingham to Chengdu or Shanghai if the demand is there.
It would certainly be easier for you to get there than Heathrow.
And once everyone has the 'living wage', which isn't an actual living wage, how long before the demands start for everyone to paid some other made up rate and name. A 'fair wage' or 'decent wage' perhaps.
Tell Boris, it's him on the front page
Does Boris think that under £18k before deductions is a living wage in London ?
Plenty of London based people here, perhaps they could tell us what sort of a house that will get you in London. Didn't Nick Palmer mention £1200pm for a small flat above a shop in Shoreditch ?
As I explained yesturday this is just another gimmick of the type politicans are using to cover their essential helplessness in economic matters.
My granddaughter and three of her friends pay £2,000 a month between them for an ex-council flat on a sink estate in Hackney, though I concede it is close to trendy Hoxton
Can anyone explain why there's supposedly so much demand to fly from London to provincial Chinese cities but apparantly no demand to fly from the main Chinese cities to British airports within 200 miles of London ?
Almost all British airports have spare capacity so if the demand is there to fly to Chengdu, Lusaka or wherever it would be met.
But that doesn't explain why there's this great number of British people who want to fly to provincial Chinese cities from Heathrow as we're constantly told.
Because the cities are at the heart of regions that are competing with each other and all are expected to hit multiple targets set by the central government. It creates lots of opportunities to export expertise and services, on top of the goods that all Chinese people want. Then there are the incentives to locate manufacturing and R&D etc, the special economic zones, Shanghai's new free trade area and so on. In addition to which China is very big - you can't just fly into Beijing and be somewhere else interesting a couple of hours later. You'd have to fly, so why not fly direct if you can?
So why not fly from Birmingham to Chengdu or Shanghai if the demand is there.
It would certainly be easier for you to get there than Heathrow.
I've got an idea! Why not spend £50/80 billion on a railway that will get you to London twenty minutes faster from Birmingham? Or why not just knock Birmingham down and rebuild it twenty minutes closer to London, would be considerably less than £20 billion? Or why not add a third runway to Heathrow for £1 billion or so that would solve the problem?
"There was an unmistakable smell of a cover-up when Ed Miliband mysteriously dropped his inquiry into Labour’s Falkirk scandal, claiming that all vote-rigging allegations against his biggest union paymasters had been ‘withdrawn’.
Today, as the woman who sparked the investigation denies ever having changed her evidence, the whiff of sleaze has become an overpowering stench.
‘I did not change my testimony,’ says the 61-year-old great-grandmother who claims Unite enlisted her as a Labour Party member without her knowledge.
‘I did not change anything. I did not withdraw anything.’"
Here is a simple, incontrovertible test of anyone's political sanity, one so powerful that it might be the only question you ever need to ask to ascertain whether the person you are talking to understands anything about politics.
The question is: Did the Tories make a mistake when they chose Cameron rather than DD as leader?
Score as follows:
Yes: Never take this person's views seriously again Don't Know: Never take this person's views seriously again No: OK, at least they passed politics elementary grade, first-day quick test
Here is a simple, incontrovertible test of anyone's political sanity, one so powerful that it might be the only question you ever need to ask to ascertain whether the person you are talking to understands anything about politics.
The question is: Did the Tories make a mistake when they chose Cameron rather than DD as leader?
Score as follows:
Yes: Never take this person's views seriously again Don't Know: Never take this person's views seriously again No: OK, at least they passed politics elementary grade, first-day quick test
Isn't that the Notting Hill dinner party test of political sanity ?
I believe that there's a similar one but which gives the opposite result. Its called the Grimsby chip shop test of political sanity.
I'll ask Avery about it when he returns from visiting Cousin Seth.
When my local airport wanted to add a 5th runway, the discussion was all about how it will increase capacity, help the economy, (there are many surveys showing that), increase revenue to the airport, and be generally A Good Thing, of which people should be encouraged to avail themselves.
It seems that in the UK the revese is true - increasing capacity is a Bad Thing, and that everything possible should be done to make air travel difficult and expensive - and God help you if you want to drive to the airport with ease of access and find ample parking at a reasonable price.
Isn't that the Notting Hill dinner party test of political sanity ?
I believe that there's a similar one but which gives the opposite result. Its called the Grimsby chip shop test of political sanity.
I'll ask Avery about it when he returns from visiting Cousin Seth.
I mean, DD? The guy is, how do I put this politely, not exactly the sharpest operator or quickest thinker on the planet. Brown (let alone Mandelson) would have absolute mincemeat of him, it would have been so painful to watch, we'd have had to call in the RSPCA.
And that was obvious even before his character flaws came to light. What in the name of heaven was that ludicrous flounce about? Resigning because you disagree with your party's line makes sense, resigning because you disagree with the other side's position, is, shall we say, creative.
A politician who seriously wanted to do something about civil liberties in the UK might perhaps have planned ahead a few months, realised that he was 100% certain to be Home Secretary in the very likely result of a Cameron government, and therefore was soon going to be in the strongest position of anyone on this earth to do something about civil liberties in the UK, and, you know, just stayed in his Shadow Cabinet position and voted, along with his colleagues and the PM, against the government proposal which he rightly thought was abhorrent.
A very, very lucky escape for all of us, both in the leadership contest and in the timing of his flounce, which at least showed him up before he was in government, not after.
[BTW I've never been to a dinner party in Notting Hill!]
Another Richard - Of course politicians could also put the top rate of income tax back up to 90%, renationalise most of the privatised industries and buy back most of the sold off council housing
An ex-Labour MP lecturing the Chinese on corporate finance options?
Marvellous stuff, cheered me up for the rest of the week.
We aim to please here on nighttime pb :-) But it's really the combination of management in a multinational with Parliamentary experience that they find interesting - there aren't that many people who've seen both sides of the legislation/management fence in more than one country. That's my Chinese USP, for what it's worth.
Richard Navabi - Exactly, the same comments were made about Tony Abbott at genteel dinner parties amongst the Sydney intelligentsia and look what happened to him!
Isn't that the Notting Hill dinner party test of political sanity ?
I believe that there's a similar one but which gives the opposite result. Its called the Grimsby chip shop test of political sanity.
I'll ask Avery about it when he returns from visiting Cousin Seth.
I mean, DD? The guy is, how do I put this politely, not exactly the sharpest operator or quickest thinker on the planet. Brown (let alone Mandelson) would have absolute mincemeat of him, it would have been so painful to watch, we'd have had to call in the RSPCA.
And that was obvious even before his character flaws came to light. What in the name of heaven was that ludicrous flounce about? Resigning because you disagree with your party's line makes sense, resigning because you disagree with the other side's position, is, shall we say, creative.
A politician who seriously wanted to do something about civil liberties in the UK might perhaps have planned ahead a few months, realised that he was 100% certain to be Home Secretary in the very likely result of a Cameron government, and therefore was soon going to be in the strongest position of anyone on this earth to do something about civil liberties in the UK, and, you know, just stayed in his Shadow Cabinet position and voted, along with his colleagues and the PM, against the government proposal which he rightly thought was abhorrent.
A very, very lucky escape for all of us, both in the leadership contest and in the timing of his flounce, which at least showed him up before he was in government, not after.
[BTW I've never been to a dinner party in Notting Hill!]
Richard Navabi - Exactly, the same comments were made about Tony Abbott at genteel dinner parties amongst the Sydney intelligentsia and look what happened to him!
Tony Abbott didn't , as far as I know, flounce out of his post in a bizarre, counter-productive and utterly incomprehensible piece of vanity grandstanding.
Comments
Must say Carson would make an excellent Tory candidate.
"Clegg would never have got a coalition with Davis through his party, the most he would have done is promise not to vote down a Davis minority Tory government in a vote of confidence"
In that case a great shame that the cards fell as they did. Had Clegg not joined this Tory government and with with Ed as Labour's new leader this could have been the opportunity the Lib Dems have been waiting for for their big breakthrough.
When the wizard of oz charade of that is Cameron disappears the Tories will finally see just how much long term damage he has done to the Tories.
Our largest domestic bank has been a major drag on credit in this country for 5 years now. What is plain with the benefit of hindsight is not the Osborne made a mistake in pushing Hester out of the RBS but that he took too long to do it. If that thorn is finally grasped prospects for future growth and rebalancing will be greatly improved.
I'm sure it's an unpalatable truth for you Tim but Osborne has done a good job with the economy.
The system was introduced so that unpopular headline pay increases for MPs could be shelved and their costs could be side-doored into "expenses". The scheme grew like Topsy and expanded as MPs pushed the envelope. Perhaps there never was a "spirit" to break because it never existed?
You mention my job? I'd have been sacked if I'd claimed for much of what MPs were able to get away with. There'd be no "letter/spirit" argument for me to fall back on. I think you are/were too close to the issue to objectively see that all of you were taking the piss. And many still are.
Name: Neath MP: Peter Hain Party: Labour Claim (£): 4,571.74 Fuel type: Electricity Other fuel
John O After the economic crash Brown was always doomed, even if more voters may have switched from Labour to LD than Labour to Tory in 2010. Also watching Downton and agree on Carson
Roger Maybe, but they would not have got a seat in government and Ed Miiband would have still united the left and Davis the right leaving only centrist voters for Clegg
But personally I think it'd be a lot simpler and give rise to much less suspicion if the allowance was rental-only. It's not as though rentals in London were rare. And of course people who fitted out their places with luxury stuff were indeed taking the piss and the system was supposed to prevent it but often didn't. It was very random, depending on the mood of the fees office official - e.g. I had an application for a weekly sub to a Danish newspaper refused (I'd argued it would be useful on the European Scrutiny Committee to maintain my knowledge of another country: they said it wasn't allowable since I might be reading it for pleasure), yet people who wanted giant TVs sometimes got them waved through.
If we don't like the rules, we should change them. But unless the MP has behaved outside the rules/illegally why bang on about it?
I'm the same with big pensions. If someone gets a big payoff/pension in line with what's in their contract then so be it. Just change the rules so it doesn't happen again.
It's a symbol of the decline of this country that our politicians are so accustomed to thinking on such a small scale.
For the uninitiated, heavenly money is the money you buy to give the ladies to take off their clothes.
I said at the time, he and his wife would beat off of those problems.
Nick Sutton @suttonnick 1m
Monday's Daily Telegraph Business section - "UK growth looks set to be fastest in the West" #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/mmXRgn1wsy
HS2 runs right through the constituency, she has opposed it but sold her cottage in Old Amersham a year is ago. So much for we're all in it together!
She has a huge majority but I will be curious to see how UKIP eat into it.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/10423400/Shoppers-faces-to-be-scanned-in-advertising-push-at-Tesco-petrol-stations-across-the-UK.html
The alcohol is a bit pricey, even for London.
Cough up, Huyfd.
And none of that bitcoin nonsense, if you please....
"Another weekend; another Labour gimmick. Ed Miliband’s idea of subsidising employers to offer their workers pay rises for 12 months comes from the same stable as his proposed short-term cap on energy bills. The Labour leader has alighted on the blindingly obvious – namely, that living standards have been falling – and is endeavouring to make as much political capital as possible from this fact."
David Davis is crap.
I still hold to the idea that Oppositions don't win elections, Governments lose them. It doesn't matter how good the opposition is, if the Government isn't bad then they will stay in power.
What was interesting in 2010 was that Brown lost the election but Cameron failed to win it. I don't think Davis would have made the same mistakes Cameron made which led to that result.
Cameron gave a good conference speech but during the summer had made numerous mistakes which made himself look like a lightweight and Brown statesmanlike in comparison.
What did Osborne do ? I presume you mean the IHT idea. An idea that I came up with beforehand so perhaps you should include me as having a political effect in 2007. But again Osborne had looked like a lightweight beforehand and did so afterwards.
The big political effect of 2007 was Brown marching his men to the top of the hill and then shitting his pants. But that had nothing to do with Cameron and Osborne and everything to do with Brown being a lifelong coward.
The big political effect was to come in the 2008 budget with the abolition of 10% tax - that was the point when Labour's disdain for the low paid became visible to all.
I don't think David Davis would have been in the position Dave found himself at the end of Blair's resignation.
Such as leading the polls, as Cameron was.
So the Brown bounce would have seen a larger Labour lead if Davis was leader, which would have given Brown the confidence to call an election in the Autumn of 2007.
Another Richard, Cameron made mistakes, and yes it was Cameron's speech, you had Kinnock predicting the end of the Tory party, we even had a Labour MP writing in the new statesman there would be an election, with an increased Labour majority.
Osborne came up with the policy that gladdened Tory hearts, and swung the marginals.
Remember that ICM marginals poll after the the Tory conference.
Labour had spent a million quid in preparation for the election.
We shouldn't forget John Major's contribution during that period as well.
Almost all British airports have spare capacity so if the demand is there to fly to Chengdu, Lusaka or wherever it would be met.
I do have a new pair of footwear which would go down a hit at the next PB meet, alas I won't be able to make Dirty Dicks in November, but I'll make sure I'm at the one after that one.
Though I'm tempted to buy these shoes
http://www.footlocker.eu/gb/en/Shoes/Nike-Air-Max-2013-42.aspx/4207536104
'Did Unite tamper with GRANDMOTHER'S statement?'
Its unlikely he would have been beaten by Clegg in the election debates as Cameron was.
Cumbrian-born Jade Bayliss was strangled with an electrical cord by her mother’s former lover before he set her home alight to cover his crime.
Labourer Jeremy McLaughlin, 35, killed the ex-pat girl in 2011 after being freed early from jail for killing a 14-year-old boy in Australia."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2486711/Jeremy-McLaughlin-jailed-AGAIN-strangling-schoolgirl-Jade-Bayliss-electrical-cord.html#ixzz2jckvbSRK
How many times did Manchester and Birmingham bid unsuccessfully for the Olympics? London got them at its first attempt.
As I said Brown lost the 2010 election but Cameron, who had every chance to win it, failed to do so.
and the second and third times, also. I believe the Olympics have been in London 3 times.
Brown didn't bottle the election because of Cameron's speech or Osborne's IHT proposal or Major's intervention.
BROWN HAD ALREADY BOTTLED BEFORE ANY OF THOSE
Brown's loss of nerve came at the Labour conference.
He then spent a week (or was it two?) blundering around like a castrated sheep before he was forced into admitting publicly that there wasn't to be an election.
But the decision had effectively been made before the Conservative conference and long before Andrew Marr interviewed Brown.
Tell you what, can't you win a bet with tim, and hence be inducted as a 'pbTory' and party the night away at his expense on gorgeously decadent cocktails.....and marvel at Dr Nabavi's gold lurex onesie.
The public perception during the election campaign went:
1) We have to get rid of Brown
2) Errr I'm not too sure about this Cameron
3) Oohh this Clegg looks interesting
4) On second thoughts I'm not too sure about this Clegg either
5) Brown, Cameron, Clegg - is this really the best we can do? Now who don't I want to win ...
Cameron failed to seal the deal but it was his luck that Brown had already sealed it enough for him. Even then it took Brown's trip to Rochdale to get the Conservatives over 300 MPs.
On the other hand who wants to fly to Chengdu or Lusaka. Or are provincial cities around the world different to provincial cities in Britain.
I know you don't want to admit it but that's still the fact.
However that proved irrelevant as Cameron had already been effectively crowned by the media at leader-in-waiting at the party conference.
But Cameron's failure in the Conservative leadership debate was a precursor to his failures in the general election debates.
Eric Joyce MP @ericjoyce 2m
2moro's news re: witness statements in Falkirk will, I hope, convince Labour it can't sweep things under the carpet.
But that doesn't explain why there's this great number of British people who want to fly to provincial Chinese cities from Heathrow as we're constantly told.
Also I have little or no reason to go near London.
What does stop me though is the 'air passenger duty'. In adition to all the other taxes, duties, security levy, airport charge, fuel charge etc, that alone will cost me 166 gb pounds.
That's theft and I won't pay it.
Marvellous stuff, cheered me up for the rest of the week.
It will certainly sound good but will have as little connection to reality as ever-increasing exam results had to improving education standards.
Alternatively we could stop the silly bugger semantics and accept that millions of British workers are not skilled or productive enough to ever earn sufficient to live in a high cost country.
Which means either:
Consumers will have to voluntarily pay more than what their economic output is worth
or
the government will have to support them through the benefits system
So to attract these Chinese visitors all we need to do is rename our airports for foreign usage. Give them the names of football teams and whoever the current pop idol is and they'll be desperate to fly there.
If you're Chinese and looking at a map of Britain then Manchester or Birmingham must look practically next door to London in any case.
How long does a flight here from China take ? 10-12 hours at a guess, so what's an extra hour or two after they get off the place. Assuming they have to go to London that is.
Plenty of London based people here, perhaps they could tell us what sort of a house that will get you in London. Didn't Nick Palmer mention £1200pm for a small flat above a shop in Shoreditch ?
As I explained yesturday this is just another gimmick of the type politicans are using to cover their essential helplessness in economic matters.
this shows the problem - Heathrow's traffic is more than numbers 2-4 combined (Gatwick, Manchester and Stansted).
http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/80/airport_data/201308/Table_01_Size_of_UK_Airports.pdf
Another stat I recall is that London based flyers fly 2.5 times per year on average, compared with 1.5 times for the rest of the country. I think it's from the UK Airports Commission.
It would certainly be easier for you to get there than Heathrow.
"There was an unmistakable smell of a cover-up when Ed Miliband mysteriously dropped his inquiry into Labour’s Falkirk scandal, claiming that all vote-rigging allegations against his biggest union paymasters had been ‘withdrawn’.
Today, as the woman who sparked the investigation denies ever having changed her evidence, the whiff of sleaze has become an overpowering stench.
‘I did not change my testimony,’ says the 61-year-old great-grandmother who claims Unite enlisted her as a Labour Party member without her knowledge.
‘I did not change anything. I did not withdraw anything.’"
The question is: Did the Tories make a mistake when they chose Cameron rather than DD as leader?
Score as follows:
Yes: Never take this person's views seriously again
Don't Know: Never take this person's views seriously again
No: OK, at least they passed politics elementary grade, first-day quick test
I believe that there's a similar one but which gives the opposite result. Its called the Grimsby chip shop test of political sanity.
I'll ask Avery about it when he returns from visiting Cousin Seth.
Herald Scotland - Union official at heart of Grangemouth dispute to quit as Labour chairman in Falkirk
It seems that in the UK the revese is true - increasing capacity is a Bad Thing, and that everything possible should be done to make air travel difficult and expensive - and God help you if you want to drive to the airport with ease of access and find ample parking at a reasonable price.
And that was obvious even before his character flaws came to light. What in the name of heaven was that ludicrous flounce about? Resigning because you disagree with your party's line makes sense, resigning because you disagree with the other side's position, is, shall we say, creative.
A politician who seriously wanted to do something about civil liberties in the UK might perhaps have planned ahead a few months, realised that he was 100% certain to be Home Secretary in the very likely result of a Cameron government, and therefore was soon going to be in the strongest position of anyone on this earth to do something about civil liberties in the UK, and, you know, just stayed in his Shadow Cabinet position and voted, along with his colleagues and the PM, against the government proposal which he rightly thought was abhorrent.
A very, very lucky escape for all of us, both in the leadership contest and in the timing of his flounce, which at least showed him up before he was in government, not after.
[BTW I've never been to a dinner party in Notting Hill!]
Theresa May in particular is proving to be a star, which was not something most people predicted.
May 17 - Labour suspends selection process in Falkirk. Deans and Murphy suspended from the party.
September 2 - Unite threaten to boycott Labour conference if Murphy and Deans are not reinstated.
September 6 - Ed Miliband suddenly drops investigation.
Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and it's not being used in this case.