''How do you prove that by somebody electing a left-wing government that then tries and fails to spend money it doesn't have?''
I'd have thought you proved it by just looking at the stats.
30% shrinkage for the Greek economy in six years. 50% unemployment for young people. Goodness knows what effect on public services. Mass emigration to more prosperous countries.
So the question remains what do Camerons Conservatives stand for ?
That is the problem in a nutshell, I am a Tory and I dont believe Cameron will hold a meaningful referendum in 2017 (I suspect excuses will be found to put it off for a year or two, then it will be too close to the next election), so he hasn't the faintest chance of convincing any Kippers back to the fold with that sort of promise.
Yes, yes I know, its going to be 2017, no ifs, no buts.....
Like you I'm a Conservative who can't see the point in voting Cameron. I find the creeping desperation from the PB Conservative party stalwarts in relation to UKIP more than a little amusing.
Strange.
How can you equate bring a 'Conservative' with voting for a party that wants to reintroduce such Left wing policies as the Spare Room Subsidy?
Do tell me which party that is please.
Try UKIP's 'Policies for People'. It's in there, until Farage says it's all rubbish and comes up with something completely different.
I've never voted UKIP and am not planning to. So try again.
Apologies then for mistakenly taking you to be a Kipper.
If I were to be a kipper why should that automatically make me a bad person ?
As of the most recent MORI poll, David Cameron has the highest satisfaction ratings of any party leader. But don't let facts get in the way.
I am sure he will be sailing to victory then, nothing further needs to be said, Cameron majority nailed on.
No, he made the serious mistake of trying to appease the unappeasable right. Instead of seeking to pay Danegeld, he should have told them to stop fantasising about enemies that didn't exist and a world that had long since moved on, and concentrated on presenting the government as a government for sensible people. Instead, he has let the Conservatives drift way to the right, where it is more likely than not it will founder.
Only the manifest ineptness of the official opposition gives the Conservatives a chance.
Because insulting his core vote and belittling them has worked so well so far... for Farage.
UKIP are a silly and unpleasant party. There's no way to sugar that pill.
Then they can surely be safely ignored. Except, well, quite a lot of people voted for them in the Euros and they have won a couple of by-elections and given Labour a fright in a third. Perhaps we should restrict the franchise so that only nice sensible people have the vote then we will only get nice sensible MPs.
Silly and unpleasant people should have the vote. But most people when it comes down to it are not silly and unpleasant, though they can act in that way if they are fearful. All of the main parties have gone about dealing with UKIP in utterly the wrong way, as you suggest. A far better tactic would have been to lead the public by appealing to their better nature, not seek to pander to their worst fears. There's always someone else who can pander more shamelessly.
No one wins an election by appealing to peoples' better nature. Parties win by successfully demonising their opponents.
I didn't suggest that UKIP shouldn't be demonised. Actually, merciless mockery would be more appropriate.
There will always be a residue of the obsessed who believe that Jean-Claude Juncker is the antichrist and that all of Britain's social and economic problems would be solved the moment that Britain served notice to quit on the EU. But most of the rest are more likely to be won over by a government programme that addressed real-world problems rather than huffing and puffing about how they were held up in traffic by immigrants on the roads.
As of the most recent MORI poll, David Cameron has the highest satisfaction ratings of any party leader. But don't let facts get in the way.
I am sure he will be sailing to victory then, nothing further needs to be said, Cameron majority nailed on.
No, he made the serious mistake of trying to appease the unappeasable right. Instead of seeking to pay Danegeld, he should have told them to stop fantasising about enemies that didn't exist and a world that had long since moved on, and concentrated on presenting the government as a government for sensible people. Instead, he has let the Conservatives drift way to the right, where it is more likely than not it will founder.
Only the manifest ineptness of the official opposition gives the Conservatives a chance.
Because insulting his core vote and belittling them has worked so well so far... for Farage.
UKIP are a silly and unpleasant party. There's no way to sugar that pill.
Then they can surely be safely ignored. Except, well, quite a lot of people voted for them in the Euros and they have won a couple of by-elections and given Labour a fright in a third. Perhaps we should restrict the franchise so that only nice sensible people have the vote then we will only get nice sensible MPs.
Silly and unpleasant people should have the vote. But most people when it comes down to it are not silly and unpleasant, though they can act in that way if they are fearful. All of the main parties have gone about dealing with UKIP in utterly the wrong way, as you suggest. A far better tactic would have been to lead the public by appealing to their better nature, not seek to pander to their worst fears. There's always someone else who can pander more shamelessly.
No one wins an election by appealing to peoples' better nature. Parties win by successfully demonising their opponents.
I'm afarid you can't win if you don't say something positive too.
So the question remains what do Camerons Conservatives stand for ?
That is the problem in a nutshell, I am a Tory and I dont believe Cameron will hold a meaningful referendum in 2017 (I suspect excuses will be found to put it off for a year or two, then it will be too close to the next election), so he hasn't the faintest chance of convincing any Kippers back to the fold with that sort of promise.
Yes, yes I know, its going to be 2017, no ifs, no buts.....
Like you I'm a Conservative who can't see the point in voting Cameron. I find the creeping desperation from the PB Conservative party stalwarts in relation to UKIP more than a little amusing.
Strange.
How can you equate bring a 'Conservative' with voting for a party that wants to reintroduce such Left wing policies as the Spare Room Subsidy?
Do tell me which party that is please.
Try UKIP's 'Policies for People'. It's in there, until Farage says it's all rubbish and comes up with something completely different.
I've never voted UKIP and am not planning to. So try again.
Apologies then for mistakenly taking you to be a Kipper.
If I were to be a kipper why should that automatically make me a bad person ?
Would it? You were the one seemingly taking offence at being labelled a UKIP supporter.
I didn't suggest that UKIP shouldn't be demonised. Actually, merciless mockery would be more appropriate.
There will always be a residue of the obsessed who believe that Jean-Claude Juncker is the antichrist and that all of Britain's social and economic problems would be solved the moment that Britain served notice to quit on the EU. But most of the rest are more likely to be won over by a government programme that addressed real-world problems rather than huffing and puffing about how they were held up in traffic by immigrants on the roads.
But you did sidestep the point that immigration is the most important issue to the voters, and almost three quarters of them want immigration reduced, and more than half want it reduced by a lot, and we cant do either while we are in the EU. That would appear to be a real world issue.
Events dear boy, events. In a month's time, UKIP's analysis of Europe's problems could look correct to the point of genius.
So we can be clear if it happens, what analysis of Europe's problems are we talking about specifically?
Presumably SYRIZA winning on Jan 25th and calling a hard default on Greek Debt, followed by several banks going bust and another huge bill landing on the taxpayers lap for bailouts.
Nice pictures, but how much are the British on the hook for?
A large share of the big number that comes from the ECB, and a chunk of the big number that comes from the IMF, plus all of the big number that comes from guaranteeing consumer accounts for any British banks that fall as collateral damage if big fish with huge liabilities like SocGen go under. I dare say there are other liabilities that aren't obvious as well.
Firstly, very little Greek debt is owned by private sector institutions. Greece has government debt-to-GDP of - give or take - 170%. Of this, about 80% is owed to the ECB, the IMF and the EU. So, the amount of debt in private hands is relatively modest. Let's say equivalent to 30% of GDP - or c. €60bn. Of this €60bn, around a quarter is held by bond funds and hedge funds. While about 60% is owned by Greek banks. So, the total owned by all the other Eurozone banks is probably no more than €5 to €10bn, and this will have been written down 50% already. As a matter of quantum, let's not forget that BNP makes more than €10bn in annual profits, so any further Greek government bond write-offs will be trivial for the Eurozone bankign sector to absorb.
Secondly, and irrespective of the result of the Greek election, by far the most likely outcome in the upcoming troika-Greece negotiations will be an "extend and pretend". So, the debts owed to the ECB, the IMF and the EU will have their maturity shifted out to (say) 2064, and the interest rate will be slashed to around 1.5%. In this way, the effective burden on Greece will have been reduced massively, but everyone will be able to claim that "debts are being repaid", etc. etc. etc.
So the question remains what do Camerons Conservatives stand for ?
That is the problem in a nutshell, I am a Tory and I dont believe Cameron will hold a meaningful referendum in 2017 (I suspect excuses will be found to put it off for a year or two, then it will be too close to the next election), so he hasn't the faintest chance of convincing any Kippers back to the fold with that sort of promise.
Yes, yes I know, its going to be 2017, no ifs, no buts.....
Like you I'm a Conservative who can't see the point in voting Cameron. I find the creeping desperation from the PB Conservative party stalwarts in relation to UKIP more than a little amusing.
Strange.
How can you equate bring a 'Conservative' with voting for a party that wants to reintroduce such Left wing policies as the Spare Room Subsidy?
Do tell me which party that is please.
Try UKIP's 'Policies for People'. It's in there, until Farage says it's all rubbish and comes up with something completely different.
I've never voted UKIP and am not planning to. So try again.
Apologies then for mistakenly taking you to be a Kipper.
If I were to be a kipper why should that automatically make me a bad person ?
Because if you were a kipper they want to insult you and patronise your views until you give in and vote Conservative.... or something.
As of the most recent MORI poll, David Cameron has the highest satisfaction ratings of any party leader. But don't let facts get in the way.
I am sure he will be sailing to victory then, nothing further needs to be said, Cameron majority nailed on.
No, he made the serious mistake of trying to appease the unappeasable right. Instead of seeking to pay Danegeld, he should have told them to stop fantasising about enemies that didn't exist and a world that had long since moved on, and concentrated on presenting the government as a government for sensible people. Instead, he has let the Conservatives drift way to the right, where it is more likely than not it will founder.
Only the manifest ineptness of the official opposition gives the Conservatives a chance.
Because insulting his core vote and belittling them has worked so well so far... for Farage.
UKIP are a silly and unpleasant party. There's no way to sugar that pill.
Then they can surely be safely ignored. Except, well, quite a lot of people voted for them in the Euros and they have won a couple of by-elections and given Labour a fright in a third. Perhaps we should restrict the franchise so that only nice sensible people have the vote then we will only get nice sensible MPs.
ly.
No one wins an election by appealing to peoples' better nature. Parties win by successfully demonising their opponents.
I didn't suggest that UKIP shouldn't be demonised. Actually, merciless mockery would be more appropriate.
There will always be a residue of the obsessed who believe that Jean-Claude Juncker is the antichrist and that all of Britain's social and economic problems would be solved the moment that Britain served notice to quit on the EU. But most of the rest are more likely to be won over by a government programme that addressed real-world problems rather than huffing and puffing about how they were held up in traffic by immigrants on the roads.
I do get the feeling that you think that on no account should politicians compromise with the electorate.
So the question remains what do Camerons Conservatives stand for ?
That is the problem in a nutshell, I am a Tory and I dont believe Cameron will hold a meaningful referendum in 2017 (I suspect excuses will be found to put it off for a year or two, then it will be too close to the next election), so he hasn't the faintest chance of convincing any Kippers back to the fold with that sort of promise.
Yes, yes I know, its going to be 2017, no ifs, no buts.....
Like you I'm a Conservative who can't see the point in voting Cameron. I find the creeping desperation from the PB Conservative party stalwarts in relation to UKIP more than a little amusing.
Strange.
How can you equate bring a 'Conservative' with voting for a party that wants to reintroduce such Left wing policies as the Spare Room Subsidy?
Do tell me which party that is please.
Try UKIP's 'Policies for People'. It's in there, until Farage says it's all rubbish and comes up with something completely different.
I've never voted UKIP and am not planning to. So try again.
Apologies then for mistakenly taking you to be a Kipper.
If I were to be a kipper why should that automatically make me a bad person ?
Would it? You were the one seemingly taking offence at being labelled a UKIP supporter.
I took no offence at all on the label only the attitude that came with it from yourself. It seems to be currently a la mode for tribal conservatives to have a go at the kippers for simply existing. Quite frankly if the conservatives are frustrated that kipper votes aren't coming back, then maybe they should sit down and ask themselves why instead of sulking like teenage girls.
As of the most recent MORI poll, David Cameron has the highest satisfaction ratings of any party leader. But don't let facts get in the way.
I am sure he will be sailing to victory then, nothing further needs to be said, Cameron majority nailed on.
No, he made the serious mistake of trying to appease the unappeasable right. Instead of seeking to pay Danegeld, he should have told them to stop fantasising about enemies that didn't exist and a world that had long since moved on, and concentrated on presenting the government as a government for sensible people. Instead, he has let the Conservatives drift way to the right, where it is more likely than not it will founder.
Only the manifest ineptness of the official opposition gives the Conservatives a chance.
Because insulting his core vote and belittling them has worked so well so far... for Farage.
UKIP are a silly and unpleasant party. There's no way to sugar that pill.
Then they can surely be safely ignored. Except, well, quite a lot of people voted for them in the Euros and they have won a couple of by-elections and given Labour a fright in a third. Perhaps we should restrict the franchise so that only nice sensible people have the vote then we will only get nice sensible MPs.
ly.
No one wins an election by appealing to peoples' better nature. Parties win by successfully demonising their opponents.
I didn't suggest that UKIP shouldn't be demonised. Actually, merciless mockery would be more appropriate.
There will always be a residue of the obsessed who believe that Jean-Claude Juncker is the antichrist and that all of Britain's social and economic problems would be solved the moment that Britain served notice to quit on the EU. But most of the rest are more likely to be won over by a government programme that addressed real-world problems rather than huffing and puffing about how they were held up in traffic by immigrants on the roads.
I do get the feeling that you think that on no account should politicians compromise with the electorate.
I absolutely believe that politicians should compromise with the electorate. They should also tell them when their first instincts are wrong. Leaders should occasionally lead. The clue is in the name.
I don't think any of the main party leaders can be accused of paying insufficient attention to what they're hearing from the public. Quite the reverse.
Events dear boy, events. In a month's time, UKIP's analysis of Europe's problems could look correct to the point of genius.
So we can be clear if it happens, what analysis of Europe's problems are we talking about specifically?
Presumably SYRIZA winning on Jan 25th and calling a hard default on Greek Debt, followed by several banks going bust and another huge bill landing on the taxpayers lap for bailouts.
Nice pictures, but how much are the British on the hook for?
A large share of the big number that comes from the ECB, and a chunk of the big number that comes from the IMF, plus all of the big number that comes from guaranteeing consumer accounts for any British banks that fall as collateral damage if big fish with huge liabilities like SocGen go under. I dare say there are other liabilities that aren't obvious as well.
Firstly, very little Greek debt is owned by private sector institutions. Greece has government debt-to-GDP of - give or take - 170%. Of this, about 80% is owed to the ECB, the IMF and the EU. So, the amount of debt in private hands is relatively modest. Let's say equivalent to 30% of GDP - or c. €60bn. Of this €60bn, around a quarter is held by bond funds and hedge funds. While about 60% is owned by Greek banks. So, the total owned by all the other Eurozone banks is probably no more than €5 to €10bn, and this will have been written down 50% already. As a matter of quantum, let's not forget that BNP makes more than €10bn in annual profits, so any further Greek government bond write-offs will be trivial for the Eurozone bankign sector to absorb.
Secondly, and irrespective of the result of the Greek election, by far the most likely outcome in the upcoming troika-Greece negotiations will be an "extend and pretend". So, the debts owed to the ECB, the IMF and the EU will have their maturity shifted out to (say) 2064, and the interest rate will be slashed to around 1.5%. In this way, the effective burden on Greece will have been reduced massively, but everyone will be able to claim that "debts are being repaid", etc. etc. etc.
you are wasting your time making a sensible , fact driven post re the EU on here . There are many who forecast the collapse of the Euro and the EU many times over the last 4 years and despite their forecasts having been proved wrong many times already still spout new forecasts of armageddon .
So the question remains what do Camerons Conservatives stand for ?
That is the problem in a nutshell, I am a Tory and I dont believe Cameron will hold a meaningful referendum in 2017 (I suspect excuses will be found to put it off for a year or two, then it will be too close to the next election), so he hasn't the faintest chance of convincing any Kippers back to the fold with that sort of promise.
Yes, yes I know, its going to be 2017, no ifs, no buts.....
Like you I'm a Conservative who can't see the point in voting Cameron. I find the creeping desperation from the PB Conservative party stalwarts in relation to UKIP more than a little amusing.
Strange.
How can you equate bring a 'Conservative' with voting for a party that wants to reintroduce such Left wing policies as the Spare Room Subsidy?
Do tell me which party that is please.
Try UKIP's 'Policies for People'. It's in there, until Farage says it's all rubbish and comes up with something completely different.
I've never voted UKIP and am not planning to. So try again.
Apologies then for mistakenly taking you to be a Kipper.
If I were to be a kipper why should that automatically make me a bad person ?
Would it? You were the one seemingly taking offence at being labelled a UKIP supporter.
I took no offence at all on the label only the attitude that came with it from yourself. It seems to be currently a la mode for tribal conservatives to have a go at the kippers for simply existing. Quite frankly if the conservatives are frustrated that kipper votes aren't coming back, then maybe they should sit down and ask themselves why instead of sulking like teenage girls.
It's 'a la mode' for everyone to find Kippers entertaining. Personally, I don't find them frustrating, merely amusing, and more so when Miliband likely takes office in 2015.
Secondly, and irrespective of the result of the Greek election, by far the most likely outcome in the upcoming troika-Greece negotiations will be an "extend and pretend". So, the debts owed to the ECB, the IMF and the EU will have their maturity shifted out to (say) 2064, and the interest rate will be slashed to around 1.5%. In this way, the effective burden on Greece will have been reduced massively, but everyone will be able to claim that "debts are being repaid", etc. etc. etc.
It will be interesting to see how that goes down at home since he told his voters only a couple of weeks he would on the first day cease the enforcement of all bailout demands.
Mr Tsipras is a polished performer on the EU circuit. He can no longer be caricatured as motorbike Maoist. But the fact remains that he told Greek voters as recently as last week that his government would cease to enforce the bail-out demands "from its first day in office".... The logical implication is that Greece will be forced out of the euro in short order, unless the EU institutions capitulate.
... He is gambling that EU leaders - meaning Germany's Angela Merkel and Wolfgang Schauble - will yield. His calculation is that they will not dare to blow up monetary union at this late stage, and over a relative pittance.
So the question remains what do Camerons Conservatives stand for ?
That is the problem in a nutshell, I am a Tory and I dont believe Cameron will hold a meaningful referendum in 2017 (I suspect excuses will be found to put it off for a year or two, then it will be too close to the next election), so he hasn't the faintest chance of convincing any Kippers back to the fold with that sort of promise.
Yes, yes I know, its going to be 2017, no ifs, no buts.....
Like you I'm a Conservative who can't see the point in voting Cameron. I find the creeping desperation from the PB Conservative party stalwarts in relation to UKIP more than a little amusing.
Strange.
How can you equate bring a 'Conservative' with voting for a party that wants to reintroduce such Left wing policies as the Spare Room Subsidy?
Do tell me which party that is please.
Try UKIP's 'Policies for People'. It's in there, until Farage says it's all rubbish and comes up with something completely different.
I've never voted UKIP and am not planning to. So try again.
Apologies then for mistakenly taking you to be a Kipper.
If I were to be a kipper why should that automatically make me a bad person ?
Would it? You were the one seemingly taking offence at being labelled a UKIP supporter.
I took no offence at all on the label only the attitude that came with it from yourself. It seems to be currently a la mode for tribal conservatives to have a go at the kippers for simply existing. Quite frankly if the conservatives are frustrated that kipper votes aren't coming back, then maybe they should sit down and ask themselves why instead of sulking like teenage girls.
It's 'a la mode' for everyone to find Kippers entertaining. Personally, I don't find them frustrating, merely amusing, and more so when when Miliband likely takes office in 2015.
If Miliband takes office in 2015 it has bugger all to do with the kippers and everything to do with the Conservatives not having enough appeal to win a majority.
As of the most recent MORI poll, David Cameron has the highest satisfaction ratings of any party leader. But don't let facts get in the way.
I am sure he will be sailing to victory then, nothing further needs to be said, Cameron majority nailed on.
No, he made the serious mistake of trying to appease the unappeasable right. Instead of seeking to pay Danegeld, he should have told them to stop fantasising about enemies that didn't exist and a world that had long since moved on, and concentrated on presenting the government as a government for sensible people. Instead, he has let the Conservatives drift way to the right, where it is more likely than not it will founder.
Only the manifest ineptness of the official opposition gives the Conservatives a chance.
UKIP are a silly and unpleasant party. There's no way to sugar that pill.
Then they can surely be safely ignored. Except, well, quite a lot of people voted for them in the Euros and they have won a couple of by-elections and given Labour a fright in a third. Perhaps we should restrict the franchise so that only nice sensible people have the vote then we will only get nice sensible MPs.
.
No one wins an election by appealing to peoples' better nature. Parties win by successfully demonising their opponents.
I didn't suggest that UKIP shouldn't be demonised. Actually, merciless mockery would be more appropriate.
There will always be a residue of the obsessed who believe that Jean-Claude Juncker is the antichrist and that all of Britain's social and economic problems would be solved the moment that Britain served notice to quit on the EU. But most of the rest are more likely to be won over by a government programme that addressed real-world problems rather than huffing and puffing about how they were held up in traffic by immigrants on the roads.
You should try a little self awareness. How do you think you come over to people who don't hold the same views as you? Impartial, empathetic and objective?
... He is gambling that EU leaders - meaning Germany's Angela Merkel and Wolfgang Schauble - will yield. His calculation is that they will not dare to blow up monetary union at this late stage, and over a relative pittance.
A lack of a deal doesn't blow up monetary union unless: 1) Greece leaves the Euro (ie Tsipras turns out to be lying about staying in the Euro, but not to be bluffing about the debt). 2) This works out so well for Greece that everybody else wants to do it, too
(1) seems within the realm of possibility, but (2)???
It's 'a la mode' for everyone to find Kippers entertaining. Personally, I don't find them frustrating, merely amusing, and more so when when Miliband likely takes office in 2015.
If Miliband takes office in 2015 it has bugger all to do with the kippers and everything to do with the Conservatives not having enough appeal to win a majority.
Its a bit rich anyway, considering that UKIP is in effect the creation of the Conservative Party when it signed the Maastricht Treaty, and greatly swelled in numbers by the Conservatives patronising and insulting their rightwing and assuming they had no where else to go. If UKIP exists, and gets stronger, they have no one to blame but themselves.
So the question remains what do Camerons Conservatives stand for ?
That is the problem in a nutshell, I am a Tory and I dont believe Cameron will hold a meaningful referendum in 2017 (I suspect excuses will be found to put it off for a year or two, then it will be too close to the next election), so he hasn't the faintest chance of convincing any Kippers back to the fold with that sort of promise.
Yes, yes I know, its going to be 2017, no ifs, no buts.....
Like you I'm a Conservative who can't see the point in voting Cameron. I find the creeping desperation from the PB Conservative party stalwarts in relation to UKIP more than a little amusing.
Strange.
How can you equate bring a 'Conservative' with voting for a party that wants to reintroduce such Left wing policies as the Spare Room Subsidy?
Do tell me which party that is please.
Try UKIP's 'Policies for People'. It's in there, until Farage says it's all rubbish and comes up with something completely different.
I've never voted UKIP and am not planning to. So try again.
Apologies then for mistakenly taking you to be a Kipper.
If I were to be a kipper why should that automatically make me a bad person ?
Would it? You were the one seemingly taking offence at being labelled a UKIP supporter.
I took no offence at all on the label only the attitude that came with it from yourself. It seems to be currently a la mode for tribal conservatives to have a go at the kippers for simply existing. Quite frankly if the conservatives are frustrated that kipper votes aren't coming back, then maybe they should sit down and ask themselves why instead of sulking like teenage girls.
It's 'a la mode' for everyone to find Kippers entertaining. Personally, I don't find them frustrating, merely amusing, and more so when when Miliband likely takes office in 2015.
If Miliband takes office in 2015 it has bugger all to do with the kippers and everything to do with the Conservatives not having enough appeal to win a majority.
Quite so. If the Conservatives lose, the fault will be theirs. Not UKIP's. Not the voters'. Theirs'.
I'd be surprised if a syriza government/greek debt restructuring surprises anyone - yet the usual suspects are convinced the end of the world is nigh and spend their days finding evidence to fit the narrative. It's classic zerohedge/paranoid right wing psychology.
If I could be arsed, I'd do a zerohedge +5 years site, taking every article and prediction they made on this day, 5 years ago and compare it with the actual outcome.
As of the most recent MORI poll, David Cameron has the highest satisfaction ratings of any party leader. But don't let facts get in the way.
I am sure he will be sailing to victory then, nothing further needs to be said, Cameron majority nailed on.
No, he made the serious mistake of trying to appease the unappeasable right. Instead of seeking to pay Danegeld, he should have told them to stop fantasising about enemies that didn't exist and a world that had long since moved on, and concentrated on presenting the government as a government for sensible people. Instead, he has let the Conservatives drift way to the right, where it is more likely than not it will founder.
Only the manifest ineptness of the official opposition gives the Conservatives a chance.
UKIP are a silly and unpleasant party. There's no way to sugar that pill.
Then they can surely be safely ignored. Except, well, quite a lot of people voted for them in the Euros and they have won a couple of by-elections and given Labour a fright in a third. Perhaps we should restrict the franchise so that only nice sensible people have the vote then we will only get nice sensible MPs.
.
No one wins an election by appealing to peoples' better nature. Parties win by successfully demonising their opponents.
I didn't suggest that UKIP shouldn't be demonised. Actually, merciless mockery would be more appropriate.
There will always be a residue of the obsessed who believe that Jean-Claude Juncker is the antichrist and that all of Britain's social and economic problems would be solved the moment that Britain served notice to quit on the EU. But most of the rest are more likely to be won over by a government programme that addressed real-world problems rather than huffing and puffing about how they were held up in traffic by immigrants on the roads.
You should try a little self awareness. How do you think you come over to people who don't hold the same views as you? Impartial, empathetic and objective?
Of course I'm not impartial or objective. I've never pretended to be.
I'd be surprised if a syriza government/greek debt restructuring surprises anyone - yet the usual suspects are convinced the end of the world is nigh and spend their days finding evidence to fit the narrative. It's classic zerohedge/paranoid right wing psychology.
If I could be arsed, I'd do a zerohedge +5 years site, taking every article and prediction they made on this day, 5 years ago and compare it with the actual outcome.
'twould be interesting.
Quite. Though the European Commission has shown its usual tin ear in a press release this morning:
If Miliband takes office in 2015 it has bugger all to do with the kippers and everything to do with the Conservatives not having enough appeal to win a majority.
Indeed. It sounds as if a lot of Conservatives are shouting at their ex-customers that are now eating at the restaurant across the road:
"Come back here this instant, I know you think the food is better over there, but it isn't, its silly and nasty, and in any case you're OUR customers, so you need to eat our food and like it (even if our food is crap and the chef lies every time his lips move)."
It's 'a la mode' for everyone to find Kippers entertaining. Personally, I don't find them frustrating, merely amusing, and more so when Miliband likely takes office in 2015.
As a someone who has always voted Tory in every general election between 1987 and 2010s (except 1997 when I voted for the Referendum Party because appalled as I was at the state of the Tories I couldn't quote bring myself to vote labour..)
Miliband winning dosen't really bother me. I don't pay higher rate income tax, have several kids and pay council tax band C. The thing about Labour that would most have put me off voting for them (the loony left social agenda) have been fully embraced by Cameron) so I'm voting UKIP and if it puts Labour in power, so be it....
.....and I will sit with my popcorn and watch the wealthy Tories squealing under Miliband as he wrecks the economy under a weak minority government and taxes them until the pips squeak in a vain attempt to sort the mess out.
I hope that next time someone mentions rail renationalisation on here, someone will mention that the nationalised Network Rail did not exactly perform very well over this Christmas. This is on top of the £50 million fine for poor performance earlier in the year.
I hope that next time someone mentions rail renationalisation on here, someone will mention that the nationalised Network Rail did not exactly perform very well over this Christmas. This is on top of the £50 million fine for poor performance earlier in the year.
Network Rail have really mucked up.
No, the train operators mucked up. Bears S*** in the woods, the pope is Catholic and railway engineering posessions overrun from time to time.
With six sets of Engineering works in place between Kings X and Finsbury Park it was a forseeable risk that one of them would have overrun and contingency plans for this happening should have been made in advance.
BBC – “Greek MPs have rejected the presidential candidate nominated by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, triggering a snap general election. […] - The Athens stock market fell 7% as news of the vote sank in, with bank shares among the worst affected. Greek bond yields leapt above 9%, and bond yields also rose in Spain and Italy, two other countries hit hard by the eurozone debt crisis.”
If Miliband takes office in 2015 it has bugger all to do with the kippers and everything to do with the Conservatives not having enough appeal to win a majority.
Indeed. It sounds as if a lot of Conservatives are shouting at their ex-customers that are now eating at the restaurant across the road:
"Come back here this instant, I know you think the food is better over there, but it isn't, its silly and nasty, and in any case you're OUR customers, so you need to eat our food and like it (even if our food is crap and the chef lies every time his lips move)."
Yes funny how the tories are in favour of the free market and having lots of competition so that poor performers get replaced by upstarts who outwit them.....except when it comes to centre right political parties.
So you conveniently ignore the only record that is not affected by local heat effects and is not created through a system of subjective adjustments to take those local conditions into account.
Says much about your belief in 'the science'.
Oh and third warmest in 35 years is certainly not the same as warmest ever recorded, no matter how much you might want it to be.
And as an aside the WMO do not have their own independent data set so your inclusion of them is moot.
I'm very close to the action with ukip, in our target seats the tories are in a blind panic, they've tried abusing us which failed and now don't know which way to turn. Labour are like rabbits in the headlights, their approach is to ignore us and hope we disappear. Fascinating times.
I hope that next time someone mentions rail renationalisation on here, someone will mention that the nationalised Network Rail did not exactly perform very well over this Christmas. This is on top of the £50 million fine for poor performance earlier in the year.
Network Rail have really mucked up.
No, the train operators mucked up. Bears S*** in the woods, the pope is Catholic and railway engineering posessions overrun from time to time.
With six sets of Engineering works in place between Kings X and Finsbury Park it was a forseeable risk that one of them would have overrun and contingency plans for this happening should have been made in advance.
What rubbish. Firstly, you admit the engineering works overran, and therefore it is NR's fault. They'll be the people who get the humongous seven-figure fine (e.g. they had to pay out £14 million for a similar situation at Christmas 2007).
Secondly, the operating companies cannot plan for every eventuality. For instance Paddington was due to open at a certain time on Saturday, and then it was delayed for a few hours, leaving trains and crews in the wrong positions. Services have to be replanned on the fly, and this information sent down to the signalmen, drivers and on-train staff.
It's Network Rail's fault; blaming the operators is just hilarious. And it's NR who'll get the fines.
It's 'a la mode' for everyone to find Kippers entertaining. Personally, I don't find them frustrating, merely amusing, and more so when Miliband likely takes office in 2015.
As a someone who has always voted Tory in every general election between 1987 and 2010s (except 1997 when I voted for the Referendum Party because appalled as I was at the state of the Tories I couldn't quote bring myself to vote labour..)
Miliband winning dosen't really bother me. I don't pay higher rate income tax, have several kids and pay council tax band C. The thing about Labour that would most have put me off voting for them (the loony left social agenda) have been fully embraced by Cameron) so I'm voting UKIP and if it puts Labour in power, so be it....
.....and I will sit with my popcorn and watch the wealthy Tories squealing under Miliband as he wrecks the economy under a weak minority government and taxes them until the pips squeak in a vain attempt to sort the mess out.
Except it will be the Middle Class paying the massive tax hikes, and the poor suffering the savage cuts. The wealthy will remain untouched and insulated. Money buys clever accountants and tax avoidance.
It's Network Rail's fault; blaming the operators is just hilarious. And it's NR who'll get the fines.
Isn't Network Rail really just the government, so its the government fining itself ?
Yep; that's the way it works with many fines handed out by government. If done right it still hurts the organisation being fined, though.
How does that work? In a private company a big chunk of the profit gets spent on fines, profits drops, sharevalue and/or dividends drop, shareholders get angry, directors get fired. In the case of a QUANGO like NR presumably there are no shares and no shareholders ? If usual civil service procedures are followed no directors will lose their jobs, of if they do it will be a sideways promotion into another similar organisation.
The daily telegraph political commentators seem to have finally lost the plot, they have moved on from demonising the SNP to the Scots as a whole. Here are a couple of recent examples from Bruce Anderson and Christopher Booker:
I think these guys seem to be suffering from some form of Indyref PTSD. I don't know how the poor little darlings are going to cope come the EU Referendum. Anyway they're doing an excellent job for the SNP !!!!
Of course national voting polls still have their use, every winner of the national popular vote has been the largest party at a general election since February 1974 and that is likely to be the case again this year (in fact paradoxically Labour's loss of seats in Scotland to the SNP means the Tories are more likely to be ahead on seats if they win the popular vote).
There is no reason we cannot do what the US does so well and have polls of key marginals, like the Ashcroft poll, alongside national polls. The US regularly has swing state polls and national polls coming out. Australia also has begun to have more marginal seats polls too
It's Network Rail's fault; blaming the operators is just hilarious. And it's NR who'll get the fines.
Isn't Network Rail really just the government, so its the government fining itself ?
Yep; that's the way it works with many fines handed out by government. If done right it still hurts the organisation being fined, though.
How does that work? In a private company a big chunk of the profit gets spent on fines, profits drops, sharevalue and/or dividends drop, shareholders get angry, directors get fired. In the case of a QUANGO like NR presumably there are no shares and no shareholders ? If usual civil service procedures are followed no directors will lose their jobs, of if they do it will be a sideways promotion into another similar organisation.
Which neatly sums up why nationalised companies are such a bad idea.
It's 'a la mode' for everyone to find Kippers entertaining. Personally, I don't find them frustrating, merely amusing, and more so when Miliband likely takes office in 2015.
As a someone who has always voted Tory in every general election between 1987 and 2010s (except 1997 when I voted for the Referendum Party because appalled as I was at the state of the Tories I couldn't quote bring myself to vote labour..)
Miliband winning dosen't really bother me. I don't pay higher rate income tax, have several kids and pay council tax band C. The thing about Labour that would most have put me off voting for them (the loony left social agenda) have been fully embraced by Cameron) so I'm voting UKIP and if it puts Labour in power, so be it....
.....and I will sit with my popcorn and watch the wealthy Tories squealing under Miliband as he wrecks the economy under a weak minority government and taxes them until the pips squeak in a vain attempt to sort the mess out.
Seems a pretty standard spiteful kipper attitude to me. No real hopes for the future, just want to bring down the whole edifice no matter who gets hurt.
So you conveniently ignore the only record that is not affected by local heat effects and is not created through a system of subjective adjustments to take those local conditions into account.
Says much about your belief in 'the science'.
Oh and third warmest in 35 years is certainly not the same as warmest ever recorded, no matter how much you might want it to be.
And as an aside the WMO do not have their own independent data set so your inclusion of them is moot.
The adjustments are objective, not subjective.
Calibration of satellite instruments is hard - for instruments on the ground it is much easier. But all of this quibbling over details falls by the wayside when you look at the long-term trend.
It's 'a la mode' for everyone to find Kippers entertaining. Personally, I don't find them frustrating, merely amusing, and more so when Miliband likely takes office in 2015.
''''''''''' .....and I will sit with my popcorn and watch the wealthy Tories squealing under Miliband as he wrecks the economy under a weak minority government and taxes them until the pips squeak in a vain attempt to sort the mess out.
Except it will be the Middle Class paying the massive tax hikes, and the poor suffering the savage cuts. The wealthy will remain untouched and insulated. Money buys clever accountants and tax avoidance.
Well the Mansion Tax WILL affect the wealthy = not much I know .. but it will end up with a few people paying more..
And If I were Miliband struggling to raise tax revenues, I would target hedge funds and their ability to use interest expenses as tax allowable.. and I would raise a surtax on Capital Gains...raise VAT on goods over say £30,000 to 40%.. etc. , disallow Trust Funds being used to save capital taxes on death..
LOTS and LOTS of ways to hit the wealthy.. Many not in their manifesto I am sure.. but easily done.. and it only took me 5 minutes to think them up.
I can't see the middle classes rushing to protest about hedge fund managers, or people spending £60k on a new car, or a gold plated bathroom.. etc..
OT @TwistedFireStopper re TThe Shield IMDb 8.8/10 score. - I'd forgotten how blinking brilliant this is - I think I missed the first 5 seasons as they were all new to me and then I remembered Walton Goggins' compelling portrayal of Shane. I adore him in Justified too, yet didn't remember seeing him before which is really weird. My recall of actors is normally very good. I don't like The Wire but will try it out again given Amazon keeps telling that peeps like me, liked that. For anyone interested The Wire scored 9.4. Anything over an 8.5 is normally fabulous viewing.
For anyone who hasn't watched this show - you really are missing something totally believable. I was totally convinced these guys and girls were real over 7 seasons. I even cried twice - a very very rare thing for me to do unless Lassie is involved.
So you conveniently ignore the only record that is not affected by local heat effects and is not created through a system of subjective adjustments to take those local conditions into account.
Says much about your belief in 'the science'.
Oh and third warmest in 35 years is certainly not the same as warmest ever recorded, no matter how much you might want it to be.
And as an aside the WMO do not have their own independent data set so your inclusion of them is moot.
The adjustments are objective, not subjective.
Calibration of satellite instruments is hard - for instruments on the ground it is much easier. But all of this quibbling over details falls by the wayside when you look at the long-term trend.
"But all of this quibbling over details falls by the wayside when you look at the long-term trend."
You mean that it is cooler now than it was in Roman times?
I hope that next time someone mentions rail renationalisation on here, someone will mention that the nationalised Network Rail did not exactly perform very well over this Christmas. This is on top of the £50 million fine for poor performance earlier in the year.
Network Rail have really mucked up.
No, the train operators mucked up. Bears S*** in the woods, the pope is Catholic and railway engineering posessions overrun from time to time.
With six sets of Engineering works in place between Kings X and Finsbury Park it was a forseeable risk that one of them would have overrun and contingency plans for this happening should have been made in advance.
What rubbish. Firstly, you admit the engineering works overran, and therefore it is NR's fault. They'll be the people who get the humongous seven-figure fine (e.g. they had to pay out £14 million for a similar situation at Christmas 2007).
Secondly, the operating companies cannot plan for every eventuality. For instance Paddington was due to open at a certain time on Saturday, and then it was delayed for a few hours, leaving trains and crews in the wrong positions. Services have to be replanned on the fly, and this information sent down to the signalmen, drivers and on-train staff.
It's Network Rail's fault; blaming the operators is just hilarious. And it's NR who'll get the fines.
I don’t know what all the fuss at Kings X is about. On the Liverpool St to Norwich line engineering works regularly overrun, some NR bod comes on local TV and apologise and the matter ends there.It’s always a differtent NR bod, too.
Calum Though Bruce Anderson has an interesting, if very controversial point that in any future referendum if a Yes vote No voting areas should remain in the UK, much as Putin has tried to annexe pro Russian areas of the Ukraine
I'm very close to the action with ukip, in our target seats the tories are in a blind panic, they've tried abusing us which failed and now don't know which way to turn. Labour are like rabbits in the headlights, their approach is to ignore us and hope we disappear. Fascinating times.
Excellent - it's great to have actual UKIP'ers on the site, rather than the sit-on-the-sofa types. Do you mind me asking where the kipper resources are being focussed? I've bet on a few constituencies, such as North Warwickshire where on the face of it, UKIP appear to have a half-decent shot at winning - but if the candidate doesn't get the resources and local support, then it's a wasted bet.
Do you have an idea of which constituencies ukip are actually going to fight?
"The daily telegraph political commentators seem to have finally lost the plot, they have moved on from demonising the SNP to the Scots as a whole. Here are a couple of recent examples from Bruce Anderson..."
People should have ceased being shocked/offended by anything Anderson utters years ago. He's an advocate of torture, for crying out loud!
''And If I were Miliband struggling to raise tax revenues, I would target hedge funds and their ability to use interest expenses as tax allowable.. and I would raise a surtax on Capital Gains...raise VAT on goods over say £30,000 to 40%.. etc. , disallow Trust Funds being used to save capital taxes on death..''
It's worked so well in France they are now abandoning the whole project.
SNP or LDs is basically being offered by Shadsy. He's got a UKIP/LD/SNP match bet (MPs, not votes). Agreed on the others, but I suspect there would be practically no takers. Even amongst us keen bees most people steer clear of the nations they don't know about.
So you conveniently ignore the only record that is not affected by local heat effects and is not created through a system of subjective adjustments to take those local conditions into account.
Says much about your belief in 'the science'.
Oh and third warmest in 35 years is certainly not the same as warmest ever recorded, no matter how much you might want it to be.
And as an aside the WMO do not have their own independent data set so your inclusion of them is moot.
The adjustments are objective, not subjective.
Calibration of satellite instruments is hard - for instruments on the ground it is much easier. But all of this quibbling over details falls by the wayside when you look at the long-term trend.
In 2012, US shale gas reduced emissions three times more than all the solar and wind in Europe. At the same time, Europe paid about $40 billion in annual subsidies for solar, while the Americans made more than $200 billion every year from the shale gas revolution. Gas is obviously still a fossil fuel and not the final solution, but it can reduce emissions over the next 10-20 years, especially if the shale revolution is expanded to China and the rest of the developing world.
While global warming will be a problem, much of the rhetoric is wildly exaggerated – like when UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon calls it “an existential challenge for the whole human race.” The IPCC finds that the total cost of climate change by 2070 is between 0.2pc and 2pc of GDP. While this is definitely a problem, it is equivalent to less than one year of recession over the next 60 years.
Global warming pales when compared to many other global problems. While the WHO estimates 250,000 annual deaths from global warming in 30 years, 4.3 million die right now each year from indoor air pollution, 800 million are starving, and 2.5 billion live in poverty and lack clean water and sanitation.
When the UN asked 5 million people for their top priorities the answers were better education and health care, less corruption, more jobs and affordable food. They placed global warming at the very last spot, as priority number 17.
Calum Though Bruce Anderson has an interesting, if very controversial point that in any future referendum if a Yes vote No voting areas should remain in the UK, much as Putin has tried to annexe pro Russian areas of the Ukraine
So you conveniently ignore the only record that is not affected by local heat effects and is not created through a system of subjective adjustments to take those local conditions into account.
Says much about your belief in 'the science'.
Oh and third warmest in 35 years is certainly not the same as warmest ever recorded, no matter how much you might want it to be.
And as an aside the WMO do not have their own independent data set so your inclusion of them is moot.
The adjustments are objective, not subjective.
Calibration of satellite instruments is hard - for instruments on the ground it is much easier. But all of this quibbling over details falls by the wayside when you look at the long-term trend.
The adjustments are not objective at all. There are two types of adjustment made. The first is to adjust historic records which is based on no objective or measurable system which can be repeated scientifically. It is simply tinkering to get a desired result.
The second and more important adjustment is the homogenization of the current individual measurements to produce a single world wide temperature. This has been shown to be flawed on numerous occasions on an individual station basis by comparison with other adjacent stations and is at best a black art. It could, if maintained over an extended period give a basic trend but it certainly cannot produce a single defined figure accurate to several hundredths of a degree which can then be used to justify any claims of 'hottest', coldest' or any other record.
Like so many other areas on the fringes of science climate studies suffer from the illusion that a single number can be generated from a huge set of individual diverse data points and that this has any scientific validity. It does not.
I can't see the middle classes rushing to protest about hedge fund managers, or people spending £60k on a new car, or a gold plated bathroom.. etc..
No, but they are going to be seriously pissed off when those highly mobile companies and employees move to another country, as happened in France, and the middle classes have their taxes raised because they are less mobile and still here to be taxed.
A sikh former mayor of Gloucester has defected from Labour to Ukip, with Nigel Farage saying he would “shatter perceptions” of racism in the anti-EU party.
Harjit Gill said neither Labour nor the Conservatives were addressing the problems of uncontrolled immigration or the economy. He added that he is particularly disillusioned with Labour leader Ed Miliband, despite 20 years as a member of the party.
Mr Gill, 59, moved to the UK in 1978, going on to serve as a Labour city councillor, mayor and sheriff.
After having been suspended for several days over the holiday period, Sporting today have the Tories down just one notch at 279 - 285 in their GE Seats spread market.
... He is gambling that EU leaders - meaning Germany's Angela Merkel and Wolfgang Schauble - will yield. His calculation is that they will not dare to blow up monetary union at this late stage, and over a relative pittance.
A lack of a deal doesn't blow up monetary union unless: 1) Greece leaves the Euro (ie Tsipras turns out to be lying about staying in the Euro, but not to be bluffing about the debt). 2) This works out so well for Greece that everybody else wants to do it, too
(1) seems within the realm of possibility, but (2)???
But, eurozone policymakers have consistently ruled out that possibility because they are wary of opening Pandora's box. Their concern is if one weak country leaves the eurozone, then markets will pick off the next weakest one and so on. Borrowing costs for those economies will rise, making it impossible for governments to finance themselves, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts.
I can't see the middle classes rushing to protest about hedge fund managers, or people spending £60k on a new car, or a gold plated bathroom.. etc..
No, but they are going to be seriously pissed off when those highly mobile companies and employees move to another country, as happened in France, and the middle classes have their taxes raised because they are less mobile and still here to be taxed.
True if it happens.. But the consequences of their actions rarely worry politicians much (see what talk of an Energy Price Freeze has done - kept prices higher)
A sikh former mayor of Gloucester has defected from Labour to Ukip, with Nigel Farage saying he would “shatter perceptions” of racism in the anti-EU party.
Harjit Gill said neither Labour nor the Conservatives were addressing the problems of uncontrolled immigration or the economy. He added that he is particularly disillusioned with Labour leader Ed Miliband, despite 20 years as a member of the party.
Mr Gill, 59, moved to the UK in 1978, going on to serve as a Labour city councillor, mayor and sheriff.
Another prediction. The left have dined out for decades by smearing any party from the right that threatens their route to power as fascists or racists. It's worked well for them, indeed its a lot easier than having to construct a coherent rebuttal of their policies and large chunks of the media being receptive to propagating their smears has made the monstering easy.
May 2015 will demonstrate that they will have to stop smearing and try and win the argument through reason and intellectual justification if they ever want power again.
They think they are clever smearing UKIP as racists and fascists, but few are taken in and they just come across as bullies.
As we saw in a recent topic, UKIP supporters are less likely to care if they use language that can cause offense to certain groups. To point out that UKIP is intolerant is not a matter of smearing or bullying, but a matter of pointing out a fact, as supported by scientifically conducted opinion polls.
Actually, what the Yougov poll showed was that right wing voters in general were much less likely than left wing voters to find certain terms offensive. in other news, the Pope's a Catholic.
People were not asked whether they cared about giving offence to others.
The Telegraph says after looking at the data that it, ''shows that just one in 10 of those who consider themselves Ukip supporters agreed that the words were offensive, compared to four out of 10 Conservatives, and 62 per cent of Labour backers.'' 72% of LDs considered it offensive.
UKIP go out of their way attract and spread intolerance and indeed they are merely helping the left justify all they have ever said. Despite Carswell's words Farage has always been more than happy to whip up and spread it as an easy way to get cheap popularity.
Deliberately turning your back on kids getting raped because it conflicts with your political view of the world isn't spreading intolerance?
Personally in those cases I would go for DUP, SNP and Plaid.
UKIP will be very lucky to get 5 seats I reckon. The Lib Dems will struggle to get even 20 seats and I don't think the Greens will get a single seat.
Ladbrokes have a triangular match-up between UKIP, the Lib Dems and the SNP, priced respectively at 6/1, 4/5 and 6/4. I'm on the Lib Dems - I expect the Lib Dems to get 30+ seats and if the SNP get anywhere near this, I've got a lot of constituency bets that will salve the pain of this being a losing bet.
William Hill's 2015 Specials are pretty generous. 6/4 on Clegg going in 2015? Really? Surely that should be odds on...
Do love the 2/1 on any MP appearing on Strictly, Celeb Big Brother, or I'm a Celebrity...
I agree on the 6/4 for clegg going. As a semi-hedge, you could also take the 8/1 on the LD's going back into coalition with the tories and the 9/1 on a Lib/Lab coalition - those seem like the only two scenarios that would save cleggs bacon.
The combined odds on those three bets is ~4/6
Chance of clegg not being in government and still being LD leader at the end of next year? Way less than 4/6 IMO.
But yeah, the best value is to be had by just taking Shadsy's 6/4. I'd have it at below evens, personally.
It's 'a la mode' for everyone to find Kippers entertaining. Personally, I don't find them frustrating, merely amusing, and more so when Miliband likely takes office in 2015.
As a someone who has always voted Tory in every general election between 1987 and 2010s (except 1997 when I voted for the Referendum Party because appalled as I was at the state of the Tories I couldn't quote bring myself to vote labour..)
Miliband winning dosen't really bother me. I don't pay higher rate income tax, have several kids and pay council tax band C. The thing about Labour that would most have put me off voting for them (the loony left social agenda) have been fully embraced by Cameron) so I'm voting UKIP and if it puts Labour in power, so be it....
.....and I will sit with my popcorn and watch the wealthy Tories squealing under Miliband as he wrecks the economy under a weak minority government and taxes them until the pips squeak in a vain attempt to sort the mess out.
Seems a pretty standard spiteful kipper attitude to me. No real hopes for the future, just want to bring down the whole edifice no matter who gets hurt.
Pretty standard spiteful response that Kippers generally receive. Why don't you read it again and try to understand why he will not vote Tory, you might learn something.
No-one has higher hopes for the future than Kippers, leaving the EU will provide a much better future for us and bringing back grammar schools will give a much better future to bright working class kids.
It's 'a la mode' for everyone to find Kippers entertaining. Personally, I don't find them frustrating, merely amusing, and more so when Miliband likely takes office in 2015.
As a someone who has always voted Tory in every general election between 1987 and 2010s (except 1997 when I voted for the Referendum Party because appalled as I was at the state of the Tories I couldn't quote bring myself to vote labour..)
Miliband winning dosen't really bother me. I don't pay higher rate income tax, have several kids and pay council tax band C. The thing about Labour that would most have put me off voting for them (the loony left social agenda) have been fully embraced by Cameron) so I'm voting UKIP and if it puts Labour in power, so be it....
.....and I will sit with my popcorn and watch the wealthy Tories squealing under Miliband as he wrecks the economy under a weak minority government and taxes them until the pips squeak in a vain attempt to sort the mess out.
Seems a pretty standard spiteful kipper attitude to me. No real hopes for the future, just want to bring down the whole edifice no matter who gets hurt.
Pretty standard spiteful response that Kippers generally receive. Why don't you read it again and try to understand why he will not vote Tory, you might learn something.
No-one has higher hopes for the future than Kippers, leaving the EU will provide a much better future for us and bringing back grammar schools will give a much better future to bright working class kids.
RichardTyndall Caroline Lucas is likely to be comfortably returned at least based on the latest Ashcroft poll of Brighton Pavilion
The one change from 2010 is that there has since been a Green-led Council in Brighton & Hove, and some (who voted Green) have been less than impressed with their decisions. This may impact the votes for Lucas at the G.E.
It's Network Rail's fault; blaming the operators is just hilarious. And it's NR who'll get the fines.
Isn't Network Rail really just the government, so its the government fining itself ?
Yep; that's the way it works with many fines handed out by government. If done right it still hurts the organisation being fined, though.
How does that work? In a private company a big chunk of the profit gets spent on fines, profits drops, sharevalue and/or dividends drop, shareholders get angry, directors get fired. In the case of a QUANGO like NR presumably there are no shares and no shareholders ? If usual civil service procedures are followed no directors will lose their jobs, of if they do it will be a sideways promotion into another similar organisation.
On one level, it means that it will be hard to justify management bonuses to be paid out. ISTR there were some now-abandoned schemes that paid directors 100% of salary, which (if my memory is correct) is quite shocking.
In fact, this mess has already 'saved' the taxpayer £371,000:
The Network Rail boss who masterminded this year’s Christmas engineering programme that caused travel chaos for thousands will not be getting a bonus worth as much as £371,000, it has been announced.
Unfortunately it is the operating companies that will get it in the neck from most passengers, rather than Network Rail.
(As an aside, isn't it about time that the concept of six-figure golden handshakes and bonuses for public-sector workers was abandoned? How about limiting all civil service and governmental organisations to a maximum pay band equivalent to that of the PM?)
It's 'a la mode' for everyone to find Kippers entertaining. Personally, I don't find them frustrating, merely amusing, and more so when Miliband likely takes office in 2015.
As a someone who has always voted Tory in every general election between 1987 and 2010s (except 1997 when I voted for the Referendum Party because appalled as I was at the state of the Tories I couldn't quote bring myself to vote labour..)
Miliband winning dosen't really bother me. I don't pay higher rate income tax, have several kids and pay council tax band C. The thing about Labour that would most have put me off voting for them (the loony left social agenda) have been fully embraced by Cameron) so I'm voting UKIP and if it puts Labour in power, so be it....
.....and I will sit with my popcorn and watch the wealthy Tories squealing under Miliband as he wrecks the economy under a weak minority government and taxes them until the pips squeak in a vain attempt to sort the mess out.
Seems a pretty standard spiteful kipper attitude to me. No real hopes for the future, just want to bring down the whole edifice no matter who gets hurt.
Pretty standard spiteful response that Kippers generally receive. Why don't you read it again and try to understand why he will not vote Tory, you might learn something.
No-one has higher hopes for the future than Kippers, leaving the EU will provide a much better future for us and bringing back grammar schools will give a much better future to bright working class kids.
William Hill's 2015 Specials are pretty generous. 6/4 on Clegg going in 2015? Really? Surely that should be odds on...
Do love the 2/1 on any MP appearing on Strictly, Celeb Big Brother, or I'm a Celebrity...
I agree on the 6/4 for clegg going. As a semi-hedge, you could also take the 8/1 on the LD's going back into coalition with the tories and the 9/1 on a Lib/Lab coalition - those seem like the only two scenarios that would save cleggs bacon.
The combined odds on those three bets is ~4/6
Chance of clegg not being in government and still being LD leader at the end of next year? Way less than 4/6 IMO.
But yeah, the best value is to be had by just taking Shadsy's 6/4. I'd have it at below evens, personally.
It should be noted that there's a non-trivial possibility of a Lib/Lab coalition and Nick Clegg going anyway, given past Labour statements about not wanting to work with him.
Unfortunately, I can't get on William Hill where I am at present, sigh.
It's 'a la mode' for everyone to find Kippers entertaining. Personally, I don't find them frustrating, merely amusing, and more so when Miliband likely takes office in 2015.
As a someone who has always voted Tory in every general election between 1987 and 2010s (except 1997 when I voted for the Referendum Party because appalled as I was at the state of the Tories I couldn't quote bring myself to vote labour..)
Miliband winning dosen't really bother me. I don't pay higher rate income tax, have several kids and pay council tax band C. The thing about Labour that would most have put me off voting for them (the loony left social agenda) have been fully embraced by Cameron) so I'm voting UKIP and if it puts Labour in power, so be it....
.....and I will sit with my popcorn and watch the wealthy Tories squealing under Miliband as he wrecks the economy under a weak minority government and taxes them until the pips squeak in a vain attempt to sort the mess out.
Seems a pretty standard spiteful kipper attitude to me. No real hopes for the future, just want to bring down the whole edifice no matter who gets hurt.
Pretty standard spiteful response that Kippers generally receive. Why don't you read it again and try to understand why he will not vote Tory, you might learn something.
No-one has higher hopes for the future than Kippers, leaving the EU will provide a much better future for us and bringing back grammar schools will give a much better future to bright working class kids.
I take it this the 1st April?
Nope. That date is reserved for the Labour party manifesto.
I hope that next time someone mentions rail renationalisation on here, someone will mention that the nationalised Network Rail did not exactly perform very well over this Christmas. This is on top of the £50 million fine for poor performance earlier in the year.
Network Rail have really mucked up.
No, the train operators mucked up. Bears S*** in the woods, the pope is Catholic and railway engineering posessions overrun from time to time.
With six sets of Engineering works in place between Kings X and Finsbury Park it was a forseeable risk that one of them would have overrun and contingency plans for this happening should have been made in advance.
What rubbish. Firstly, you admit the engineering works overran, and therefore it is NR's fault. They'll be the people who get the humongous seven-figure fine (e.g. they had to pay out £14 million for a similar situation at Christmas 2007).
Secondly, the operating companies cannot plan for every eventuality. For instance Paddington was due to open at a certain time on Saturday, and then it was delayed for a few hours, leaving trains and crews in the wrong positions. Services have to be replanned on the fly, and this information sent down to the signalmen, drivers and on-train staff.
It's Network Rail's fault; blaming the operators is just hilarious. And it's NR who'll get the fines.
I don’t know what all the fuss at Kings X is about. On the Liverpool St to Norwich line engineering works regularly overrun, some NR bod comes on local TV and apologise and the matter ends there.It’s always a differtent NR bod, too.
I'm guessing that the LS->Norwich line is not as much used as the ECML and WCML, and that services can be directed to other termini. However, that line is probably the least-regarded of the English main lines and suffers accordingly. Perhaps the passengers should start making more of a fuss ...
It's 'a la mode' for everyone to find Kippers entertaining. Personally, I don't find them frustrating, merely amusing, and more so when Miliband likely takes office in 2015.
As a someone who has always voted Tory in every general election between 1987 and 2010s (except 1997 when I voted for the Referendum Party because appalled as I was at the state of the Tories I couldn't quote bring myself to vote labour..)
Miliband winning dosen't really bother me. I don't pay higher rate income tax, have several kids and pay council tax band C. The thing about Labour that would most have put me off voting for them (the loony left social agenda) have been fully embraced by Cameron) so I'm voting UKIP and if it puts Labour in power, so be it....
.....and I will sit with my popcorn and watch the wealthy Tories squealing under Miliband as he wrecks the economy under a weak minority government and taxes them until the pips squeak in a vain attempt to sort the mess out.
Seems a pretty standard spiteful kipper attitude to me. No real hopes for the future, just want to bring down the whole edifice no matter who gets hurt.
Pretty standard spiteful response that Kippers generally receive. Why don't you read it again and try to understand why he will not vote Tory, you might learn something.
No-one has higher hopes for the future than Kippers, leaving the EU will provide a much better future for us and bringing back grammar schools will give a much better future to bright working class kids.
The future is bright under Anthony Eden!
Very funny but the facts are that both the EU experiment and the changes to the education system have failed spectacularly, perhaps you could explain why we should continue with them?
Calum Though Bruce Anderson has an interesting, if very controversial point that in any future referendum if a Yes vote No voting areas should remain in the UK, much as Putin has tried to annexe pro Russian areas of the Ukraine
I'm sure that Bruce would therefore be fine with London and Scotland remaining in the EU should both regions vote to stay. Build a wall around the M25 and rebuild Hadrian's Wall - problem solved !!
It's 'a la mode' for everyone to find Kippers entertaining. Personally, I don't find them frustrating, merely amusing, and more so when Miliband likely takes office in 2015.
As a someone who has always voted Tory in every general election between 1987 and 2010s (except 1997 when I voted for the Referendum Party because appalled as I was at the state of the Tories I couldn't quote bring myself to vote labour..)
Miliband winning dosen't really bother me. I don't pay higher rate income tax, have several kids and pay council tax band C. The thing about Labour that would most have put me off voting for them (the loony left social agenda) have been fully embraced by Cameron) so I'm voting UKIP and if it puts Labour in power, so be it....
.....and I will sit with my popcorn and watch the wealthy Tories squealing under Miliband as he wrecks the economy under a weak minority government and taxes them until the pips squeak in a vain attempt to sort the mess out.
Seems a pretty standard spiteful kipper attitude to me. No real hopes for the future, just want to bring down the whole edifice no matter who gets hurt.
Pretty standard spiteful response that Kippers generally receive. Why don't you read it again and try to understand why he will not vote Tory, you might learn something.
No-one has higher hopes for the future than Kippers, leaving the EU will provide a much better future for us and bringing back grammar schools will give a much better future to bright working class kids.
I take it this the 1st April?
I take it you don't care about bright working class kids?
William Hill's 2015 Specials are pretty generous. 6/4 on Clegg going in 2015? Really? Surely that should be odds on...
Do love the 2/1 on any MP appearing on Strictly, Celeb Big Brother, or I'm a Celebrity...
I agree on the 6/4 for clegg going. As a semi-hedge, you could also take the 8/1 on the LD's going back into coalition with the tories and the 9/1 on a Lib/Lab coalition - those seem like the only two scenarios that would save cleggs bacon.
The combined odds on those three bets is ~4/6
Chance of clegg not being in government and still being LD leader at the end of next year? Way less than 4/6 IMO.
But yeah, the best value is to be had by just taking Shadsy's 6/4. I'd have it at below evens, personally.
It should be noted that there's a non-trivial possibility of a Lib/Lab coalition and Nick Clegg going anyway, given past Labour statements about not wanting to work with him.
Unfortunately, I can't get on William Hill where I am at present, sigh.
Also, there's the possibility of a Lab/LD/SNP coalition, with Clegg taking a ministerial position (something not covered by the above bets).
It's 'a la mode' for everyone to find Kippers entertaining. Personally, I don't find them frustrating, merely amusing, and more so when Miliband likely takes office in 2015.
As a someone who has always voted Tory in every general election between 1987 and 2010s (except 1997 when I voted for the Referendum Party because appalled as I was at the state of the Tories I couldn't quote bring myself to vote labour..)
Miliband winning dosen't really bother me. I don't pay higher rate income tax, have several kids and pay council tax band C. The thing about Labour that would most have put me off voting for them (the loony left social agenda) have been fully embraced by Cameron) so I'm voting UKIP and if it puts Labour in power, so be it....
.....and I will sit with my popcorn and watch the wealthy Tories squealing under Miliband as he wrecks the economy under a weak minority government and taxes them until the pips squeak in a vain attempt to sort the mess out.
Seems a pretty standard spiteful kipper attitude to me. No real hopes for the future, just want to bring down the whole edifice no matter who gets hurt.
Pretty standard spiteful response that Kippers generally receive. Why don't you read it again and try to understand why he will not vote Tory, you might learn something.
No-one has higher hopes for the future than Kippers, leaving the EU will provide a much better future for us and bringing back grammar schools will give a much better future to bright working class kids.
The future is bright under Anthony Eden!
Very funny but the facts are that both the EU experiment and the changes to the education system have failed spectacularly, perhaps you could explain why we should continue with them?
Britain entered the EU because imperial preference failed, as had Secondary Moderns.
I hope that next time someone mentions rail renationalisation on here, someone will mention that the nationalised Network Rail did not exactly perform very well over this Christmas. This is on top of the £50 million fine for poor performance earlier in the year.
Network Rail have really mucked up.
No, the train operators mucked up. Bears S*** in the woods, the pope is Catholic and railway engineering posessions overrun from time to time.
With six sets of Engineering works in place between Kings X and Finsbury Park it was a forseeable risk that one of them would have overrun and contingency plans for this happening should have been made in advance.
What rubbish. Firstly, you admit the engineering works overran, and therefore it is NR's fault. They'll be the people who get the humongous seven-figure fine (e.g. they had to pay out £14 million for a similar situation at Christmas 2007).
Secondly, the operating companies cannot plan for every eventuality. For instance Paddington was due to open at a certain time on Saturday, and then it was delayed for a few hours, leaving trains and crews in the wrong positions. Services have to be replanned on the fly, and this information sent down to the signalmen, drivers and on-train staff.
It's Network Rail's fault; blaming the operators is just hilarious. And it's NR who'll get the fines.
I don’t know what all the fuss at Kings X is about. On the Liverpool St to Norwich line engineering works regularly overrun, some NR bod comes on local TV and apologise and the matter ends there.It’s always a differtent NR bod, too.
I'm guessing that the LS->Norwich line is not as much used as the ECML and WCML, and that services can be directed to other termini. However, that line is probably the least-regarded of the English main lines and suffers accordingly. Perhaps the passengers should start making more of a fuss ...
1. Very busy commuter traffic from as far out as Ipswich. Some hardy souls commute from Clacton. and Norwich as well 2. No, it's Liverpool St or bust! 3. Agree. 4. All the seats on that line, are Tory with three exceptions, Norwich S and Colchester, which are LD and Clacton. Mind it wasn't a lot better when Labour held several seats along the way!
It's 'a la mode' for everyone to find Kippers entertaining. Personally, I don't find them frustrating, merely amusing, and more so when Miliband likely takes office in 2015.
As a someone who has always voted Tory in every general election between 1987 and 2010s (except 1997 when I voted for the Referendum Party because appalled as I was at the state of the Tories I couldn't quote bring myself to vote labour..)
Miliband winning dosen't really bother me. I don't pay higher rate income tax, have several kids and pay council tax band C. The thing about Labour that would most have put me off voting for them (the loony left social agenda) have been fully embraced by Cameron) so I'm voting UKIP and if it puts Labour in power, so be it....
.....and I will sit with my popcorn and watch the wealthy Tories squealing under Miliband as he wrecks the economy under a weak minority government and taxes them until the pips squeak in a vain attempt to sort the mess out.
Seems a pretty standard spiteful kipper attitude to me. No real hopes for the future, just want to bring down the whole edifice no matter who gets hurt.
Pretty standard spiteful response that Kippers generally receive. Why don't you read it again and try to understand why he will not vote Tory, you might learn something.
No-one has higher hopes for the future than Kippers, leaving the EU will provide a much better future for us and bringing back grammar schools will give a much better future to bright working class kids.
The future is bright under Anthony Eden!
Very funny but the facts are that both the EU experiment and the changes to the education system have failed spectacularly, perhaps you could explain why we should continue with them?
Britain entered the EU because imperial preference failed, as had Secondary Moderns.
The future does not look like the past.
How has our education system performed the last fifty years? How dysfunctional and undemocratic is the EU?
I am not saying the future should look like the past, but should we not learn from our mistakes?
It's 'a la mode' for everyone to find Kippers entertaining. Personally, I don't find them frustrating, merely amusing, and more so when Miliband likely takes office in 2015.
As a someone who has always voted Tory in every general election between 1987 and 2010s (except 1997 when I voted for the Referendum Party because appalled as I was at the state of the Tories I couldn't quote bring myself to vote labour..)
Miliband winning dosen't really bother me. I don't pay higher rate income tax, have several kids and pay council tax band C. The thing about Labour that would most have put me off voting for them (the loony left social agenda) have been fully embraced by Cameron) so I'm voting UKIP and if it puts Labour in power, so be it....
.....and I will sit with my popcorn and watch the wealthy Tories squealing under Miliband as he wrecks the economy under a weak minority government and taxes them until the pips squeak in a vain attempt to sort the mess out.
Seems a pretty standard spiteful kipper attitude to me. No real hopes for the future, just want to bring down the whole edifice no matter who gets hurt.
Pretty standard spiteful response that Kippers generally receive. Why don't you read it again and try to understand why he will not vote Tory, you might learn something.
No-one has higher hopes for the future than Kippers, leaving the EU will provide a much better future for us and bringing back grammar schools will give a much better future to bright working class kids.
The future is bright under Anthony Eden!
Very funny but the facts are that both the EU experiment and the changes to the education system have failed spectacularly, perhaps you could explain why we should continue with them?
Britain entered the EU because imperial preference failed, as had Secondary Moderns.
It's 'a la mode' for everyone to find Kippers entertaining. Personally, I don't find them frustrating, merely amusing, and more so when Miliband likely takes office in 2015.
As a someone who has always voted Tory in every general election between 1987 and 2010s (except 1997 when I voted for the Referendum Party because appalled as I was at the state of the Tories I couldn't quote bring myself to vote labour..)
Miliband winning dosen't really bother me. I don't pay higher rate income tax, have several kids and pay council tax band C. The thing about Labour that would most have put me off voting for them (the loony left social agenda) have been fully embraced by Cameron) so I'm voting UKIP and if it puts Labour in power, so be it....
.....and I will sit with my popcorn and watch the wealthy Tories squealing under Miliband as he wrecks the economy under a weak minority government and taxes them until the pips squeak in a vain attempt to sort the mess out.
Seems a pretty standard spiteful kipper attitude to me. No real hopes for the future, just want to bring down the whole edifice no matter who gets hurt.
Pretty standard spiteful response that Kippers generally receive. Why don't you read it again and try to understand why he will not vote Tory, you might learn something.
No-one has higher hopes for the future than Kippers, leaving the EU will provide a much better future for us and bringing back grammar schools will give a much better future to bright working class kids.
I take it this the 1st April?
I take it you don't care about bright working class kids?
I think people who venerate the past as perfect when it was anything but perfect are hardly likely to make a success of the future..
It's 'a la mode' for everyone to find Kippers entertaining. Personally, I don't find them frustrating, merely amusing, and more so when Miliband likely takes office in 2015.
As a someone who has always voted Tory in every general election between 1987 and 2010s (except 1997 when I voted for the Referendum Party because appalled as I was at the state of the Tories I couldn't quote bring myself to vote labour..)
Miliband winning dosen't really bother me. I don't pay higher rate income tax, have several kids and pay council tax band C. The thing about Labour that would most have put me off voting for them (the loony left social agenda) have been fully embraced by Cameron) so I'm voting UKIP and if it puts Labour in power, so be it....
.....and I will sit with my popcorn and watch the wealthy Tories squealing under Miliband as he wrecks the economy under a weak minority government and taxes them until the pips squeak in a vain attempt to sort the mess out.
Seems a pretty standard spiteful kipper attitude to me. No real hopes for the future, just want to bring down the whole edifice no matter who gets hurt.
Pretty standard spiteful response that Kippers generally receive. Why don't you read it again and try to understand why he will not vote Tory, you might learn something.
No-one has higher hopes for the future than Kippers, leaving the EU will provide a much better future for us and bringing back grammar schools will give a much better future to bright working class kids.
I take it this the 1st April?
I take it you don't care about bright working class kids?
I think people who venerate the past as perfect when it was anything but perfect are hardly likely to make a success of the future..
And people who disregard the successes of the past and write it all off as a failure simply have no future.
It's 'a la mode' for everyone to find Kippers entertaining. Personally, I don't find them frustrating, merely amusing, and more so when Miliband likely takes office in 2015.
As a someone who has always voted Tory in every general election between 1987 and 2010s (except 1997 when I voted for the Referendum Party because appalled as I was at the state of the Tories I couldn't quote bring myself to vote labour..)
Miliband winning dosen't really bother me. I don't pay higher rate income tax, have several kids and pay council tax band C. The thing about Labour that would most have put me off voting for them (the loony left social agenda) have been fully embraced by Cameron) so I'm voting UKIP and if it puts Labour in power, so be it....
.....and I will sit with my popcorn and watch the wealthy Tories squealing under Miliband as he wrecks the economy under a weak minority government and taxes them until the pips squeak in a vain attempt to sort the mess out.
Seems a pretty standard spiteful kipper attitude to me. No real hopes for the future, just want to bring down the whole edifice no matter who gets hurt.
Pretty standard spiteful response that Kippers generally receive. Why don't you read it again and try to understand why he will not vote Tory, you might learn something.
No-one has higher hopes for the future than Kippers, leaving the EU will provide a much better future for us and bringing back grammar schools will give a much better future to bright working class kids.
I take it this the 1st April?
I take it you don't care about bright working class kids?
I think people who venerate the past as perfect when it was anything but perfect are hardly likely to make a success of the future..
And people who disregard the successes of the past and write it all off as a failure simply have no future.
As I was educated in Scotland, the Grammar School system looks like a failure to me.
William Hill has a nice arb - 13-8 against Cameron being PM into 2016 ("Coalition specials") and Evens on Miliband being PM ("General Election special") in August 2015. Put a tenner on each and you only lose if Cameron is elected PM but gets bored or dies before December, or if some third person becomes PM next year. Oh, and you lose if Cameron resigns by Thursday this week, a possibility which they only offer at niggardly 25-1 odds.
Thank you for pointing me to the piece from Bruce Anderson in the Telegraph. It makes anything I have read on this blog look balanced and reasonable. I note it ends with the words "Janet Daley is away" and perhaps should have added "and so is Bruce Anderson"!
Comments
I'd have thought you proved it by just looking at the stats.
30% shrinkage for the Greek economy in six years. 50% unemployment for young people. Goodness knows what effect on public services. Mass emigration to more prosperous countries.
Events like these tend to have consequences.
There will always be a residue of the obsessed who believe that Jean-Claude Juncker is the antichrist and that all of Britain's social and economic problems would be solved the moment that Britain served notice to quit on the EU. But most of the rest are more likely to be won over by a government programme that addressed real-world problems rather than huffing and puffing about how they were held up in traffic by immigrants on the roads.
If I lived in Heywood and Middleton, Great Grimsby, Rotherham or Dudley North I would certainly be a kipper voter.
Anything to stop labour.
Secondly, and irrespective of the result of the Greek election, by far the most likely outcome in the upcoming troika-Greece negotiations will be an "extend and pretend". So, the debts owed to the ECB, the IMF and the EU will have their maturity shifted out to (say) 2064, and the interest rate will be slashed to around 1.5%. In this way, the effective burden on Greece will have been reduced massively, but everyone will be able to claim that "debts are being repaid", etc. etc. etc.
http://www.drroyspencer.com/latest-global-temperatures/
I'd rather go with WMO, Hadleigh and NOAA.
NOAA dataset on course for the warmest global ever recorded.
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/2014/11
I do get the feeling that you think that on no account should politicians compromise with the electorate.
I don't think any of the main party leaders can be accused of paying insufficient attention to what they're hearing from the public. Quite the reverse.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/11286477/Greek-candidate-willing-to-call-European-leaders-bluff.html
1) Greece leaves the Euro (ie Tsipras turns out to be lying about staying in the Euro, but not to be bluffing about the debt).
2) This works out so well for Greece that everybody else wants to do it, too
(1) seems within the realm of possibility, but (2)???
If I could be arsed, I'd do a zerohedge +5 years site, taking every article and prediction they made on this day, 5 years ago and compare it with the actual outcome.
'twould be interesting.
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_STATEMENT-14-2900_en.htm
"Come back here this instant, I know you think the food is better over there, but it isn't, its silly and nasty, and in any case you're OUR customers, so you need to eat our food and like it (even if our food is crap and the chef lies every time his lips move)."
Miliband winning dosen't really bother me. I don't pay higher rate income tax, have several kids and pay council tax band C. The thing about Labour that would most have put me off voting for them (the loony left social agenda) have been fully embraced by Cameron) so I'm voting UKIP and if it puts Labour in power, so be it....
.....and I will sit with my popcorn and watch the wealthy Tories squealing under Miliband as he wrecks the economy under a weak minority government and taxes them until the pips squeak in a vain attempt to sort the mess out.
I hope that next time someone mentions rail renationalisation on here, someone will mention that the nationalised Network Rail did not exactly perform very well over this Christmas. This is on top of the £50 million fine for poor performance earlier in the year.
Network Rail have really mucked up.
With six sets of Engineering works in place between Kings X and Finsbury Park it was a forseeable risk that one of them would have overrun and contingency plans for this happening should have been made in advance.
BBC – “Greek MPs have rejected the presidential candidate nominated by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, triggering a snap general election. […] - The Athens stock market fell 7% as news of the vote sank in, with bank shares among the worst affected. Greek bond yields leapt above 9%, and bond yields also rose in Spain and Italy, two other countries hit hard by the eurozone debt crisis.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30623421
Says much about your belief in 'the science'.
Oh and third warmest in 35 years is certainly not the same as warmest ever recorded, no matter how much you might want it to be.
And as an aside the WMO do not have their own independent data set so your inclusion of them is moot.
Secondly, the operating companies cannot plan for every eventuality. For instance Paddington was due to open at a certain time on Saturday, and then it was delayed for a few hours, leaving trains and crews in the wrong positions. Services have to be replanned on the fly, and this information sent down to the signalmen, drivers and on-train staff.
It's Network Rail's fault; blaming the operators is just hilarious. And it's NR who'll get the fines.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scotland/11314336/England-must-be-resolute-and-save-the-Scots-from-self-destruction.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/11314342/The-insecure-Scots-have-turned-in-on-themselves-and-against-us.html
I think these guys seem to be suffering from some form of Indyref PTSD. I don't know how the poor little darlings are going to cope come the EU Referendum. Anyway they're doing an excellent job for the SNP !!!!
There is no reason we cannot do what the US does so well and have polls of key marginals, like the Ashcroft poll, alongside national polls. The US regularly has swing state polls and national polls coming out. Australia also has begun to have more marginal seats polls too
Who will win more seats...
UKIP or DUP?
SNP or LibDems?
Greens or Plaid?
Calibration of satellite instruments is hard - for instruments on the ground it is much easier. But all of this quibbling over details falls by the wayside when you look at the long-term trend.
And If I were Miliband struggling to raise tax revenues, I would target hedge funds and their ability to use interest expenses as tax allowable.. and I would raise a surtax on Capital Gains...raise VAT on goods over say £30,000 to 40%.. etc. , disallow Trust Funds being used to save capital taxes on death..
LOTS and LOTS of ways to hit the wealthy.. Many not in their manifesto I am sure.. but easily done.. and it only took me 5 minutes to think them up.
I can't see the middle classes rushing to protest about hedge fund managers, or people spending £60k on a new car, or a gold plated bathroom.. etc..
For anyone who hasn't watched this show - you really are missing something totally believable. I was totally convinced these guys and girls were real over 7 seasons. I even cried twice - a very very rare thing for me to do unless Lassie is involved.
"But all of this quibbling over details falls by the wayside when you look at the long-term trend."
You mean that it is cooler now than it was in Roman times?
Do you have an idea of which constituencies ukip are actually going to fight?
People should have ceased being shocked/offended by anything Anderson utters years ago. He's an advocate of torture, for crying out loud!
It's worked so well in France they are now abandoning the whole project.
I wonder how long it will take people to work out the dysfunctional part of the railway system is the part that is still owned by the government...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/environment/climatechange/11205420/Climate-change-is-a-problem.-But-our-attempts-to-fix-it-could-be-worse-than-useless.html
The second and more important adjustment is the homogenization of the current individual measurements to produce a single world wide temperature. This has been shown to be flawed on numerous occasions on an individual station basis by comparison with other adjacent stations and is at best a black art. It could, if maintained over an extended period give a basic trend but it certainly cannot produce a single defined figure accurate to several hundredths of a degree which can then be used to justify any claims of 'hottest', coldest' or any other record.
Like so many other areas on the fringes of science climate studies suffer from the illusion that a single number can be generated from a huge set of individual diverse data points and that this has any scientific validity. It does not.
Tsk.. UKIP, hideously white.
True if it happens.. But the consequences of their actions rarely worry politicians much (see what talk of an Energy Price Freeze has done - kept prices higher)
UKIP will be very lucky to get 5 seats I reckon. The Lib Dems will struggle to get even 20 seats and I don't think the Greens will get a single seat.
Tsk.. UKIP, hideously white.
See how long he lasts. Could be another Boulter.
Do love the 2/1 on any MP appearing on Strictly, Celeb Big Brother, or I'm a Celebrity...
The combined odds on those three bets is ~4/6
Chance of clegg not being in government and still being LD leader at the end of next year? Way less than 4/6 IMO.
But yeah, the best value is to be had by just taking Shadsy's 6/4. I'd have it at below evens, personally.
No-one has higher hopes for the future than Kippers, leaving the EU will provide a much better future for us and bringing back grammar schools will give a much better future to bright working class kids.
The one change from 2010 is that there has since been a Green-led Council in Brighton & Hove, and some (who voted Green) have been less than impressed with their decisions. This may impact the votes for Lucas at the G.E.
In fact, this mess has already 'saved' the taxpayer £371,000: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/rail-boss-loses-out-on-371000-bonus-after-planning-engineering-work-that-caused-christmas-delays-9948208.html
Unfortunately it is the operating companies that will get it in the neck from most passengers, rather than Network Rail.
(As an aside, isn't it about time that the concept of six-figure golden handshakes and bonuses for public-sector workers was abandoned? How about limiting all civil service and governmental organisations to a maximum pay band equivalent to that of the PM?)
I take it this the 1st April?
Unfortunately, I can't get on William Hill where I am at present, sigh.
http://lordashcroftpolls.com/2014/12/moderate-tory-cheer-fright-labour-final-marginals-poll-2014/
It's an imperfect hedge with lots of holes in it
Probably best to just take Shadsy's 6/4.
Britain entered the EU because imperial preference failed, as had Secondary Moderns.
The future does not look like the past.
2. No, it's Liverpool St or bust!
3. Agree.
4. All the seats on that line, are Tory with three exceptions, Norwich S and Colchester, which are LD and Clacton. Mind it wasn't a lot better when Labour held several seats along the way!
I am not saying the future should look like the past, but should we not learn from our mistakes?
Calum Yes, theoretically possible, London and Scotland could remain in the EU and parts of Scotland in the UK
Thank you for pointing me to the piece from Bruce Anderson in the Telegraph. It makes anything I have read on this blog look balanced and reasonable. I note it ends with the words
"Janet Daley is away" and perhaps should have added "and so is Bruce Anderson"!
Damn.. UKIP need to stop recruiting all these white faces.