It would be laughable if we were sold an "associate member" status that is virtually identical from what we have now. You'd have to be top level spin man to sell that with a straight face!.
It's a way of implementing what needs to be implemented, namely allowing the Eurozone to integrate should they so wish (and the Greek crisis suggests they haven't got much choice), whilst allowing us to gently disengage and keeping up the face-saving pretence that the EU is not going backwards.
Of course this pure speculation at the moment - we don't have the faintest idea how the actual negotiations are going - but Farage's view is interesting, if the report is accurate.
The fact that this is all happening without a hint of political debate in this country only tells you how sick the current system is. A great liberal nation that now just pimps itself to the highest bidder.
This hedge fund manager who upped the price of AIDS drugs is a pretty disgusting story
I agree. It reminds me of the stories of US companies that tried to patent business methods to bankrupt their competitors. One lot even tried to patent putting milk on breakfast cereal so it could licence breakfast to eateries, hotels and restaurants.
Besides, how come a 70 year old drug is still in patent? My understanding is it was developed in the 1940s and, like many drugs, they found other uses for it.
The idea of patents lasting 70 years is quite ridiculous. The purpose of the patent system is that we grant a legal monopoly on something to encourage research. But who makes research decisions on profits earned 70 years hence? I think patent terms should be cut drastically.
Patents are not a monopoly right, they are a right to exclude; ie, the right to prevent unauthorised use of the patented invention. It's a very different thing. There are 27,000 US patents covering cures for the common cold currently in force.
It's a monopoly right to produce the patented invention. No one else is allowed to make it, and no one is allowed to buy it from anyone else but you. How is that not a monopoly right?
It's not a monopoly over a solution is what I mean. So when you get a patent for a drug designed to cure the common cold you do not get the monopoly on cures for the common cold.
What is being granted is the right to exclude. It is then up to you to decide how you use that right. You can use it to create a monopoly if you choose and if the invention is strong enough, or you can use it in other ways. A lot of patent owners produce very little. See ARM, for example.
I agree that it's not a monopoly over a solution. But that's like saying London's black cabs don't have a legal monopoly because there are other ways of getting from A to B. A patent grants a monopoly on a specific product.
London black cabs do not have a legal monopoly. They are one solution.
Monopolies are not about "solutions", they are about products and services. If I had the exclusive right to sell sugar, I would have a legal monopoly even though there are other solutions to sweeten food, such as honey or artificial sweeteners.
The grant of a patent does not give the exclusive right to sell a product though. It may lead to that or it may not. The patent gives the right to exclude. The rest is down to the patent owner.
Mr. G, it's the nature of bets to be hit and miss. Don't worry about it (I've offered more losing tips than I've followed this year ).
A insufficiently contrite apology, to my mind. May I refer you to my effort the other day?
There is something I need to address. I often give tips on this site, always with the best of intentions. But if anyone has lost money as a result - and clearly some have - then that is of course a cause for huge regret. I'm truly saddened by it. But if I hadn't given the tips, then perhaps the bookmakers would not have offered such markets in future. If just one more market were offered, then maybe my losing tips were worth it. But I will take your criticism on board and only tip winners in the future. Thank you.
Anyway, more important than a disgraced spin doctor's utterances is today's Scotland Vs Japan rugby match. Will the Brave Blossoms continue their superb form? Will Scotland potentially put themselves in position to top the group?
If Japan win, they could win the group themselves. It could be a cracker.
Also today is Australia Vs Fiji, and the less competitive France Vs Romania.
This is the Scottish rugby team you're talking about. Their last two great performances were in 2000 and 1990 when they upped their game to deny L'Angleterre the five nations.
We're talking about a side that regularly puts up the most embarrassingly inept performance against any Italian side since the Battle of Zama
Hey, we had a great performance in 2010 to smash Ireland in Dublin.
Ok. Three decent performances in twenty five years
And when we beat Australia Home and Away in 2009 & 2012 which is more than Wales have achieved in the last 7 years.
This is the only victory in Australia that has ever mattered.
The grant of a patent does not give the exclusive right to sell a product though. It may lead to that or it may not. The patent gives the right to exclude. The rest is down to the patent owner.
When you first said that, I questioned what the distinction was, and you started talking about solutions. When I demonstrated that it was not solutions that matter but products and services, you have just gone back to your original argument. The right to exclude others from selling a product is the exclusive right to sell a product. The word "exclusive" is the give away.
The fact that this is all happening without a hint of political debate in this country only tells you how sick the current system is. A great liberal nation that now just pimps itself to the highest bidder.
Rafael Bahr is always an excellent read, and that article is a good example. PBers shouldn't be put off it by your last paragraph.
(And the article's first paragraph on the LibDems is a humdinger!)
Once you respond to one accusation you then fall into responding to every one of them - and when they are clearly part of a character assassination plot then you will be bouncing up and down all week. Cameron did comment in a speech that l think - it's not as if he totally ignored it. The response was qute apposite as well - 'stabbed in the back' - as well as typically a bit more humorous than McBride is even on a good day.
The key point is that in the last six years social media has exploded. McBride never had to deal with Twitter and the rest. In the same way, previous regimes did not have to deal with the Internet or the 24 hour news cycle.
Indeed, the old 'control' and rapid buttal simply doesn't work.
The fact that this is all happening without a hint of political debate in this country only tells you how sick the current system is. A great liberal nation that now just pimps itself to the highest bidder.
I read that piece sympathetic to the concern about Chinese involvement but he did not seem to make any practical arguments about why this deal was a mistake, beyond "China bad".
Thanks for that Mr Navabi - but l am not sure l can be fussed reading the Spectator these days. However the premise as l understand it might well be plausible. The EEA is basically 'associate membership' but with no votes (however with the added advantage of not having to elect pointless MEPs). Given the emergence of the Euro group and the inevitable ever closer union of Euro members then there has to be some change from our point of view. There would be one presumes some demarcation rules and different voting rights but unlike the EEA there would at least be some voting rights. But this wider orbit around the central EU/Eurozone would not in truth be much different than being in the EEA and whatever happens the EU/Euro is not going to go away. There seems little point however speculating about anything at the moment when we see the chaos over the migrant situation.
The Liberal Democrat conference in Bournemouth this week felt like the political equivalent of a convention for model railway enthusiasts. The policy debates were a fine technical replica of the issues facing a full-scale government, but none of it seemed relevant to the people elsewhere, heading to work on real trains.
The fact that this is all happening without a hint of political debate in this country only tells you how sick the current system is. A great liberal nation that now just pimps itself to the highest bidder.
Rafael Bahr is always an excellent read, and that article is a good example. PBers shouldn't be put off it by your last paragraph.
(And the article's first paragraph on the LibDems is a humdinger!)
FWIW I think the half-denial was a mistake - "Mr Cameron says he does not recognise the description" or words to that effect. Ignoring it totally except to say we don't bother with comments on anonymous allegations in books would have been better. But the story is essentially froth and has now pretty much died.
I agree with those that think that Damian McBride is out of date in the age of twitter. Once this story was out there, nothing was going to stop the photo mock-ups, the puns and the pithy one-liners. An official denial, however, would have opened up a detailed investigation of David Cameron's university years which I'm quite sure he would not relish.
I have read through the latest extracts in the Mail. Lord Ashcroft needs to learn that you knife someone most effectively if you conceal the stiletto. The biography seems very one-note. That uncharismatic not-all-that-bright lazy man seems to have done remarkably well. An exploration of his virtues would have been helpful. Or an acknowledgement that that caricature is just that - a caricature.
Mr. G, it's the nature of bets to be hit and miss. Don't worry about it (I've offered more losing tips than I've followed this year ).
A insufficiently contrite apology, to my mind. May I refer you to my effort the other day?
There is something I need to address. I often give tips on this site, always with the best of intentions. But if anyone has lost money as a result - and clearly some have - then that is of course a cause for huge regret. I'm truly saddened by it. But if I hadn't given the tips, then perhaps the bookmakers would not have offered such markets in future. If just one more market were offered, then maybe my losing tips were worth it. But I will take your criticism on board and only tip winners in the future. Thank you.
Which tip is this
Have to say Zac is doing better than Chelsea at the moment
European leaders bent on dissuading Syrian refugees from fleeing to their countries have found an unlikely ally in Islamic State. The militant group has released a flurry of propaganda videos urging those thinking of heading to Europe to reconsider and join them instead. At least ten videos appeared on ISIS social media accounts within 24 hours, depicting the self-declared caliphate as an earthly paradise and Europe as a den of sin and brutality.
ISIL are not wrong. I intend to take my Yorkipoo on a hike and brutally trample grass all along the Wye. Afterwards I may very well drink tea and eat a biscuit - it depends how decadent I'm feeling.
At which point will you pull the pin from the grenade strapped to your chest? The BBC have a photo of a crying teenage suicide bomber embarking on his ... er ... first mission. lt is of course no joke the pictures are painful and tragic.
"McBride, of course, worked for Gordon Brown and had a lot of experience of situations like this. "
This would be the Damian McBride who was behind the smears against Cameron's wife and child and Osborne's wife. That Damian McBride, yes?
Perhaps the thread header should have mentioned McBride's shaming and resignation. It helps to give a measure of the man, his moral code, and thought processes.
And also McBride's lack of competence as a spin doctor. He is just implying that no denial means that it is true in one of his characteristic lowlife smears.
I think Dave has managed it well. It has added to the gaity of the nation, and cast Lord Ashcroft into the darkness, not too much to frighten the horses.
FWIW I think the half-denial was a mistake - "Mr Cameron says he does not recognise the description" or words to that effect. Ignoring it totally except to say we don't bother with comments on anonymous allegations in books would have been better. But the story is essentially froth and has now pretty much died.
Labour seem to be in hiding this week - conference preparation ?
Mr. G, it's the nature of bets to be hit and miss. Don't worry about it (I've offered more losing tips than I've followed this year ).
A insufficiently contrite apology, to my mind. May I refer you to my effort the other day?
There is something I need to address. I often give tips on this site, always with the best of intentions. But if anyone has lost money as a result - and clearly some have - then that is of course a cause for huge regret. I'm truly saddened by it. But if I hadn't given the tips, then perhaps the bookmakers would not have offered such markets in future. If just one more market were offered, then maybe my losing tips were worth it. But I will take your criticism on board and only tip winners in the future. Thank you.
Which tip is this
Have to say Zac is doing better than Chelsea at the moment
Yeah Chelsea not so good, though Saturday helped a bit. But the Andy Murray SPOTY advice is looking solid.
558k migrants to this country last year shows that Cameron is full of shit.
A quote from the OECD report is apropos to the discussion we had the other day:
"Apart from the United States, Britain was the most popular destination for foreign-born medics.
“The United Kingdom is the second country of destination for doctors, receiving 14 per cent of all foreign-born doctors who practise in OECD countries, followed by Germany (9 per cent).
“This ranking is reversed for nurses, with Germany in second place (12 per cent) followed by the United Kingdom (10 per cent).”
Britain also saw the “greatest swing” in the number of foreign-born doctors working here, from 2000-01 to 2010-11, the OECD report said."
Meanwhile, our doctors are emigrating to Australia. Well played Tories, well played.
Lately, McBride's twitter feed seems to have been a desperate plea for Corbyn to hire him. He's got lots of political wisdom and insight but is rightly unemployable. And he's wrong about PigGate, as others have noted.
I agree with those that think that Damian McBride is out of date in the age of twitter. Once this story was out there, nothing was going to stop the photo mock-ups, the puns and the pithy one-liners. An official denial, however, would have opened up a detailed investigation of David Cameron's university years which I'm quite sure he would not relish.
I have read through the latest extracts in the Mail. Lord Ashcroft needs to learn that you knife someone most effectively if you conceal the stiletto. The biography seems very one-note. That uncharismatic not-all-that-bright lazy man seems to have done remarkably well. An exploration of his virtues would have been helpful. Or an acknowledgement that that caricature is just that - a caricature.
Yes how not very bright of Cameron to have ignored the mega brilliant political and campaigning skills of Ashcroft and gone instead for that jumped up Aussie Crosby. (Did Ashcroft's polling achieve anything? And just what was the real point of it anyway??)
I have read through the latest extracts in the Mail. Lord Ashcroft needs to learn that you knife someone most effectively if you conceal the stiletto. The biography seems very one-note. That uncharismatic not-all-that-bright lazy man seems to have done remarkably well. An exploration of his virtues would have been helpful. Or an acknowledgement that that caricature is just that - a caricature.
Lately, McBride's twitter feed seems to have been a desperate plea for Corbyn to hire him. He's got lots of political wisdom and insight but is rightly unemployable. And he's wrong about PigGate, as others have noted.
Indeed. Why would Labour want to reemploy a washed up smear merchant.
Looks like McBride's stuck with merely Tweeting from pub quizzes for the foreseeable future.
I suppose the only thing that really matters is whether or not Mr Cameron had his top button fastened whilst greeting the porker.
Anyway, I am looking forward to Tim Farron's speech...
...ending.
Any chance he will yell "Victory to the Farronite 451!"?
The best advice Farron could give would be "go back to your constituencies and prepare for boundary changes."
The Lib Dem national polling 6%? was it!? seems a bit at odds with their modest success/swings in recent local by-elections. If their fortunes modestly dip, Farron could be joining the Greens and UKIP with 3 seats amongst the lot of them.
Lately, McBride's twitter feed seems to have been a desperate plea for Corbyn to hire him. He's got lots of political wisdom and insight but is rightly unemployable. And he's wrong about PigGate, as others have noted.
What is McBride up to these days, apart from hawking his opinions for free on CIF?
Nice to see as I've been worried the Graun might be slipping lately.
Amusing to see the Guardian in full-on Little Englander mode, wanting to shut those nasty little foreigners and their tawdry investment out of the country.
The fact that this is all happening without a hint of political debate in this country only tells you how sick the current system is. A great liberal nation that now just pimps itself to the highest bidder.
Rafael Bahr is always an excellent read, and that article is a good example. PBers shouldn't be put off it by your last paragraph. (And the article's first paragraph on the LibDems is a humdinger!)
But in the real world - ?? China has a seat on the UN Security Council. Who is the pimp?? Where would some trade boycott of China get us? And just look at the real world where we are better and possibly being more moral doing business with China than Russia.
Lately, McBride's twitter feed seems to have been a desperate plea for Corbyn to hire him. He's got lots of political wisdom and insight but is rightly unemployable. And he's wrong about PigGate, as others have noted.
What is McBride up to these days, apart from hawking his opinions for free on CIF?
I have seen two basic arguments used in David Cameron's defence: (1) He didn't do it. (2) Who cares? We all did things in our youth we wouldn't want to own now, but it doesn't stop us being responsible adults.
The second defence is superfluous if the first one applies. It looks like the second is the telling argument, however. None of us know if David Cameron had oral sex with a dead pig, but it may not matter whether he actually did. I agree with Damien Bride that the denials don't seem very emphatic and David Cameron's anecdote about the "little prick" and "stab in the back" seems more like a complaint about telling tales out of school than moral outrage at a dirty lie.
To my surprise the British public appear to be supremely unfazed by the _Idea_ of our prime minister indulging in activities that are so outlandish that they could be made for the Jerry Springer Show. Regardless of whether the event actually happened, they believe it could have done in David Cameron's case. This may be the Bullingdon toff factor for once acting in Cameron's favour. The public think this is the sort of thing they would do, even if it never crossed their own minds in their own much less misspent youth.
An Iranian immigrant has been arrested after walking into a police station in Manchester and demanding to be put on a flight home because he's fed up with the city.
The man turned up at the station on Monday night asking to be deported having lived in the city for the past 10 years.
Lately, McBride's twitter feed seems to have been a desperate plea for Corbyn to hire him. He's got lots of political wisdom and insight but is rightly unemployable. And he's wrong about PigGate, as others have noted.
Actually, I recall him saying on some interview or other at the weekend that if he was advising Corbyn he'd tell him not to employ Damian McBride.
That's probably because you don't seem to have understood the silly story which, even in the extremely unlikely event that it is true, is not what you seem to think it is.
An Iranian immigrant has been arrested after walking into a police station in Manchester and demanding to be put on a flight home because he's fed up with the city.
The man turned up at the station on Monday night asking to be deported having lived in the city for the past 10 years.
'An Iranian immigrant has been arrested after walking into a police station in Manchester and demanding to be put on a flight home because he's fed up with the city.'
Lately, McBride's twitter feed seems to have been a desperate plea for Corbyn to hire him. He's got lots of political wisdom and insight but is rightly unemployable. And he's wrong about PigGate, as others have noted.
What is McBride up to these days, apart from hawking his opinions for free on CIF?
Head of media for CAFOD.
He'll be typecast if not careful - as a spin doctor for dark sinister undemocratic organisations led by demagogues with a thin veneer of "doing good" but ultimately about spreading their discredited ideology and enriching the top brass.
'An Iranian immigrant has been arrested after walking into a police station in Manchester and demanding to be put on a flight home because he's fed up with the city.'
558k migrants to this country last year shows that Cameron is full of shit.
A quote from the OECD report is apropos to the discussion we had the other day:
"Apart from the United States, Britain was the most popular destination for foreign-born medics.
“The United Kingdom is the second country of destination for doctors, receiving 14 per cent of all foreign-born doctors who practise in OECD countries, followed by Germany (9 per cent).
“This ranking is reversed for nurses, with Germany in second place (12 per cent) followed by the United Kingdom (10 per cent).”
Britain also saw the “greatest swing” in the number of foreign-born doctors working here, from 2000-01 to 2010-11, the OECD report said."
Meanwhile, our doctors are emigrating to Australia. Well played Tories, well played.
If British doctors are going to Australia in search of lucre and we get replacements happy with existing pay here that shows the market works. Win, win. and btw they won't be the first expats to discover that the grass isn't always greener, etc
The grant of a patent does not give the exclusive right to sell a product though. It may lead to that or it may not. The patent gives the right to exclude. The rest is down to the patent owner.
When you first said that, I questioned what the distinction was, and you started talking about solutions. When I demonstrated that it was not solutions that matter but products and services, you have just gone back to your original argument. The right to exclude others from selling a product is the exclusive right to sell a product. The word "exclusive" is the give away.
Patents are often granted many years before products emerge. A pharma company receiving a patent covering, say, a cure for the common cold has no right to sell anything until it receives FDA clearance. That will be an extensive process involving many separate processes. But it does have the right to exclude others from using its patent.
I have seen two basic arguments used in David Cameron's defence: (1) He didn't do it. (2) Who cares? We all did things in our youth we wouldn't want to own now, but it doesn't stop us being responsible adults.
The second defence is superfluous if the first one applies. It looks like the second is the telling argument, however. None of us know if David Cameron had oral sex with a dead pig, but it may not matter whether he actually did. I agree with Damien Bride that the denials don't seem very emphatic and David Cameron's anecdote about the "little prick" and "stab in the back" seems more like a complaint about telling tales out of school than moral outrage at a dirty lie.
To my surprise the British public appear to be supremely unfazed by the _Idea_ of our prime minister indulging in activities that are so outlandish that they could be made for the Jerry Springer Show. Regardless of whether the event actually happened, they believe it could have done in David Cameron's case. This may be the Bullingdon toff factor for once acting in Cameron's favour. The public think this is the sort of thing they would do, even if it never crossed their own minds in their own much less misspent youth.
I admit I misread this one.
It just diminishes an already diminishing leader. Having ruled himself out of the next election, he is fast becoming an insignificance, and this prediliction for the pigsty is simply making the water around the plughole circle a little faster.
Felix..wait until those fleeing medics find out what portion of their salary is hived off for persona indemnity insurance..and the hours they have to work which.. will include.. ahem..weekends..I have friends who did the run some years ago.. they are back now.
558k migrants to this country last year shows that Cameron is full of shit.
A quote from the OECD report is apropos to the discussion we had the other day:
"Apart from the United States, Britain was the most popular destination for foreign-born medics.
“The United Kingdom is the second country of destination for doctors, receiving 14 per cent of all foreign-born doctors who practise in OECD countries, followed by Germany (9 per cent).
“This ranking is reversed for nurses, with Germany in second place (12 per cent) followed by the United Kingdom (10 per cent).”
Britain also saw the “greatest swing” in the number of foreign-born doctors working here, from 2000-01 to 2010-11, the OECD report said."
Meanwhile, our doctors are emigrating to Australia. Well played Tories, well played.
I don't have an issue with doctors coming here, and I don't really have much of an issue with nurses. My problem is that the majority of those half million coming here do not have a tertiary education at all. The latest immigration bill seems to have run out of ideas in limiting legal immigration. I don't see why we don't bring back the primary purpose rule.
I have seen two basic arguments used in David Cameron's defence: (1) He didn't do it. (2) Who cares? We all did things in our youth we wouldn't want to own now, but it doesn't stop us being responsible adults.
The second defence is superfluous if the first one applies. It looks like the second is the telling argument, however. None of us know if David Cameron had oral sex with a dead pig, but it may not matter whether he actually did. I agree with Damien Bride that the denials don't seem very emphatic and David Cameron's anecdote about the "little prick" and "stab in the back" seems more like a complaint about telling tales out of school than moral outrage at a dirty lie.
To my surprise the British public appear to be supremely unfazed by the _Idea_ of our prime minister indulging in activities that are so outlandish that they could be made for the Jerry Springer Show. Regardless of whether the event actually happened, they believe it could have done in David Cameron's case. This may be the Bullingdon toff factor for once acting in Cameron's favour. The public think this is the sort of thing they would do, even if it never crossed their own minds in their own much less misspent youth.
I admit I misread this one.
It just diminishes an already diminishing leader. Having ruled himself out of the next election, he is fast becoming an insignificance, and this prediliction for the pigsty is simply making the water around the plughole circle a little faster.
Absolute rubbish - He has won two elections and is generally popular - Most everyone did silly things at University and his 'posh ness' is long established by the public. Of course those that dislike him will play this to their own advantage as they see it but it will be forgotten in no time. In a recent poll it was significant that more women than men thought any of it was signifcant
This hedge fund manager who upped the price of AIDS drugs is a pretty disgusting story. His response to the legitimate criticism just makes it worse. There is a very ugly me-me-me attitude in finance, with no respect for the common good, which is what you get when you throw vast amounts of money at young immature men. As with the interview of that Dutch financial journalist from the other day, it shows that we have just put a sticking plaster over the problems in the banking sector. We need root and branch cultural reform of finance, and to do that we need to change the incentive system.
Among some in finance. This guy has "form" shall we say. Unhappy investors in his hedge fund; sacked as CEO of his last company.
The fallout from yesterday's EU vote on the movement of refugees will be worth following. This was a huge moment and there are a lot of fences to be mended. Right now it doesn't look like anyone has any intention of doing any mending of fences.
This has been portrayed as good for David Cameron's renegotiation, the idea being that the recalcitrant countries may now be more sympathetic to British concerns. More likely, the disintegration of consensus will mean that British demands get caught up in crossfire.
This hedge fund manager who upped the price of AIDS drugs is a pretty disgusting story
I agree. It reminds me of the stories of US companies that tried to patent business methods to bankrupt their competitors. One lot even tried to patent putting milk on breakfast cereal so it could licence breakfast to eateries, hotels and restaurants.
Besides, how come a 70 year old drug is still in patent? My understanding is it was developed in the 1940s and, like many drugs, they found other uses for it.
Is it still in patent? I thought it was just that no one else bothered to make it because the sales were too low and the margins were too small
This hedge fund manager who upped the price of AIDS drugs is a pretty disgusting story
I agree. It reminds me of the stories of US companies that tried to patent business methods to bankrupt their competitors. One lot even tried to patent putting milk on breakfast cereal so it could licence breakfast to eateries, hotels and restaurants.
Besides, how come a 70 year old drug is still in patent? My understanding is it was developed in the 1940s and, like many drugs, they found other uses for it.
Is it still in patent? I thought it was just that no one else bothered to make it because the sales were too low and the margins were too small
That is the reason. Although pharma companies seeking to evergreen their patents, or paying off generics to delay entering the post-patent market, is not unknown ;-)
O/T A surprise "hush hush" guest speaker is promised at the UKIP conference. Another defection? Danzcuk would seem the most likely. Any market on this?
Meanwhile, UKIP have come up with another way to repel voters:
"Former UKIP election candidates have said allowing high profile figures from outside Wales to apply to stand in the assembly election will put off voters.
Ex-MPs Mark Reckless and Neil Hamilton, and Nigel Farage's head of media Alexandra Phillips are all applying to stand as regional list candidates.
Ken Beswick, UKIP's general election candidate in Torfaen, said Welsh members should run the party in Wales."
I agree with those that think that Damian McBride is out of date in the age of twitter. Once this story was out there, nothing was going to stop the photo mock-ups, the puns and the pithy one-liners. An official denial, however, would have opened up a detailed investigation of David Cameron's university years which I'm quite sure he would not relish.
I have read through the latest extracts in the Mail. Lord Ashcroft needs to learn that you knife someone most effectively if you conceal the stiletto. The biography seems very one-note. That uncharismatic not-all-that-bright lazy man seems to have done remarkably well. An exploration of his virtues would have been helpful. Or an acknowledgement that that caricature is just that - a caricature.
I wish I were as stupid as Cameron and got a First Class Degree from Oxford..
O/T A surprise "hush hush" guest speaker is promised at the UKIP conference. Another defection? Danzcuk would seem the most likely. Any market on this?
O/T A surprise "hush hush" guest speaker is promised at the UKIP conference. Another defection? Danzcuk would seem the most likely. Any market on this?
I agree with those that think that Damian McBride is out of date in the age of twitter. Once this story was out there, nothing was going to stop the photo mock-ups, the puns and the pithy one-liners. An official denial, however, would have opened up a detailed investigation of David Cameron's university years which I'm quite sure he would not relish.
I have read through the latest extracts in the Mail. Lord Ashcroft needs to learn that you knife someone most effectively if you conceal the stiletto. The biography seems very one-note. That uncharismatic not-all-that-bright lazy man seems to have done remarkably well. An exploration of his virtues would have been helpful. Or an acknowledgement that that caricature is just that - a caricature.
I wish I were as stupid as Cameron and got a First Class Degree from Oxford..
Vernon Bogdanor's assessment of David Cameron's abilities was very different from the image of his abilities portrayed in the extracts in the Mail:
O/T A surprise "hush hush" guest speaker is promised at the UKIP conference. Another defection? Danzcuk would seem the most likely. Any market on this?
There's another obvious possibility.
*glances at the Daily Mail*
Yes that also occurred.he has been making one or two pro UKIP comments recently eg regarding non-allocation of peers.
O/T A surprise "hush hush" guest speaker is promised at the UKIP conference. Another defection? Danzcuk would seem the most likely. Any market on this?
I'd be a layer: has Simon Danczuk ever proposed leaving Europe?
O/T A surprise "hush hush" guest speaker is promised at the UKIP conference. Another defection? Danzcuk would seem the most likely. Any market on this?
There's another obvious possibility.
*glances at the Daily Mail*
Yes that also occurred.he has been making one or two pro UKIP comments recently eg regarding non-allocation of peers.
@LukwesaBurak: "We will go in 2 directions, 1st, we'll file charge at court in Luxembourg, 2nd, we won't implement decision of interior ministers," - Fico
@LukwesaBurak: "We will go in 2 directions, 1st, we'll file charge at court in Luxembourg, 2nd, we won't implement decision of interior ministers," - Fico
Bloody silly to force a country to take people it doesn't want. What the hell will that do for social harmony?
Rather than fence-mending there will be fence-building. The new Europe, eh?!
O/T A surprise "hush hush" guest speaker is promised at the UKIP conference. Another defection? Danzcuk would seem the most likely. Any market on this?
There's another obvious possibility.
*glances at the Daily Mail*
McBride or Cashcroft? Either would fit in at UKIP.
O/T A surprise "hush hush" guest speaker is promised at the UKIP conference. Another defection? Danzcuk would seem the most likely. Any market on this?
This hedge fund manager who upped the price of AIDS drugs is a pretty disgusting story
I agree. It reminds me of the stories of US companies that tried to patent business methods to bankrupt their competitors. One lot even tried to patent putting milk on breakfast cereal so it could licence breakfast to eateries, hotels and restaurants.
Besides, how come a 70 year old drug is still in patent? My understanding is it was developed in the 1940s and, like many drugs, they found other uses for it.
Is it still in patent? I thought it was just that no one else bothered to make it because the sales were too low and the margins were too small
That is the reason. Although pharma companies seeking to evergreen their patents, or paying off generics to delay entering the post-patent market, is not unknown ;-)
If you extend the licence you get a new patent. The drug was origionally a TB drug, but if they ran trials and found it had an effect on AIDS then they can get a new patent.
@LukwesaBurak: "We will go in 2 directions, 1st, we'll file charge at court in Luxembourg, 2nd, we won't implement decision of interior ministers," - Fico
Bloody silly to force a country to take people it doesn't want. What the hell will that do for social harmony?
Rather than fence-mending there will be fence-building. The new Europe, eh?!
O/T A surprise "hush hush" guest speaker is promised at the UKIP conference. Another defection? Danzcuk would seem the most likely. Any market on this?
There's another obvious possibility.
*glances at the Daily Mail*
Yes that also occurred.he has been making one or two pro UKIP comments recently eg regarding non-allocation of peers.
It would have had more impact the other way around, if that's what he planned. And he's retired from the House of Lords which would be odd if he were going to defect to UKIP, which is underrepresented in the Lords.
The fallout from yesterday's EU vote on the movement of refugees will be worth following. This was a huge moment and there are a lot of fences to be mended. Right now it doesn't look like anyone has any intention of doing any mending of fences.
This has been portrayed as good for David Cameron's renegotiation, the idea being that the recalcitrant countries may now be more sympathetic to British concerns. More likely, the disintegration of consensus will mean that British demands get caught up in crossfire.
I'd agree with that. It would be more than a little ironic if the consequence of the migrants row (and various other problems, notably the Eurozone) prompted a serious reform but because it was a serious reform it couldn't be voted on in the referendum as it'd take more than the time available.
At the risk of sounding like Owen Jones on a 38 degrees rally, we should be careful that TTIP doesn't put extra pressures and risks on the NHS with nonsense like this.
O/T A surprise "hush hush" guest speaker is promised at the UKIP conference. Another defection? Danzcuk would seem the most likely. Any market on this?
There's another obvious possibility.
*glances at the Daily Mail*
Yes that also occurred.he has been making one or two pro UKIP comments recently eg regarding non-allocation of peers.
It would have had more impact the other way around, if that's what he planned. And he's retired from the House of Lords which would be odd if he were going to defect to UKIP, which is underrepresented in the Lords.
O/T A surprise "hush hush" guest speaker is promised at the UKIP conference. Another defection? Danzcuk would seem the most likely. Any market on this?
There's another obvious possibility.
*glances at the Daily Mail*
McBride or Cashcroft?
Peppa
'I was simply helping Madame Gazelle back to her hotel room, as she had a sore leg...'
If the MP who told this story was a Tory MP in 2014 and was an Oxford contemporary of Cameron, then these are, as far as I can make out, the suspects..
Jane Ellison Mark Field Damian Hinds Nick Boles Phillip Hollobone Jacob Rees-Mogg Jeremy Hunt Michael Gove Ed Vaizey Jonathan Lord
If the MP who told this story was a Tory MP in 2014 and was an Oxford contemporary of Cameron, then these are, as far as I can make out, the suspects..
Why would the MP have to have been an Oxford contemporary?
If the MP who told this story was a Tory MP in 2014 and was an Oxford contemporary of Cameron, then these are, as far as I can make out, the suspects..
Why would the MP have to have been an Oxford contemporary?
If the male,pale and stale LibDems want to move on,Kirsty Williams at 16-1 looks a more attractive option,not tainted by coalition and would mark an end to sexual harassment,gender bias etc which has been the cloud hanging over the LibDems.
If the MP who told this story was a Tory MP in 2014 and was an Oxford contemporary of Cameron, then these are, as far as I can make out, the suspects..
Why would the MP have to have been an Oxford contemporary?
Didn't they claim to have seen it happen?
No. Surely we've been through all this. The claim was that someone else had a photo. It's hearsay.
Comments
Of course this pure speculation at the moment - we don't have the faintest idea how the actual negotiations are going - but Farage's view is interesting, if the report is accurate.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/22/george-osborne-china-chancellor-britain-economy
The fact that this is all happening without a hint of political debate in this country only tells you how sick the current system is. A great liberal nation that now just pimps itself to the highest bidder.
There is something I need to address. I often give tips on this site, always with the best of intentions. But if anyone has lost money as a result - and clearly some have - then that is of course a cause for huge regret. I'm truly saddened by it. But if I hadn't given the tips, then perhaps the bookmakers would not have offered such markets in future. If just one more market were offered, then maybe my losing tips were worth it. But I will take your criticism on board and only tip winners in the future. Thank you.
http://youtu.be/weSB8ZmNNi8
'The other aspect to this story.
Neither Mike or I have done a single thread on the Lib Dem conference.'
Is it the Cameron story or the Lib Dems new minor party status that has resulted in them being blanked out by the media this week ?
Refugee crisis shows folly of open borders, says Cameron http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/politics/article4565184.ece
(And the article's first paragraph on the LibDems is a humdinger!)
Given the emergence of the Euro group and the inevitable ever closer union of Euro members then there has to be some change from our point of view.
There would be one presumes some demarcation rules and different voting rights but unlike the EEA there would at least be some voting rights. But this wider orbit around the central EU/Eurozone would not in truth be much different than being in the EEA and whatever happens the EU/Euro is not going to go away.
There seems little point however speculating about anything at the moment when we see the chaos over the migrant situation.
Wouldn't an outright denial have given the story legs by dignifying it with a response?
I have read through the latest extracts in the Mail. Lord Ashcroft needs to learn that you knife someone most effectively if you conceal the stiletto. The biography seems very one-note. That uncharismatic not-all-that-bright lazy man seems to have done remarkably well. An exploration of his virtues would have been helpful. Or an acknowledgement that that caricature is just that - a caricature.
Have to say Zac is doing better than Chelsea at the moment
lt is of course no joke the pictures are painful and tragic.
I think Dave has managed it well. It has added to the gaity of the nation, and cast Lord Ashcroft into the darkness, not too much to frighten the horses.
Anyway, I am looking forward to Tim Farron's speech...
...ending.
Any chance he will yell "Victory to the Farronite 451!"?
A quote from the OECD report is apropos to the discussion we had the other day:
"Apart from the United States, Britain was the most popular destination for foreign-born medics.
“The United Kingdom is the second country of destination for doctors, receiving 14 per cent of all foreign-born doctors who practise in OECD countries, followed by Germany (9 per cent).
“This ranking is reversed for nurses, with Germany in second place (12 per cent) followed by the United Kingdom (10 per cent).”
Britain also saw the “greatest swing” in the number of foreign-born doctors working here, from 2000-01 to 2010-11, the OECD report said."
Meanwhile, our doctors are emigrating to Australia. Well played Tories, well played.
Looks like McBride's stuck with merely Tweeting from pub quizzes for the foreseeable future.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/22/guardian-view-on-george-osborne-economic-strategy-china
Nice to see as I've been worried the Graun might be slipping lately.
China has a seat on the UN Security Council. Who is the pimp?? Where would some trade boycott of China get us?
And just look at the real world where we are better and possibly being more moral doing business with China than Russia.
Surely I'm not the only PBer who watches Sputnik?
The second defence is superfluous if the first one applies. It looks like the second is the telling argument, however. None of us know if David Cameron had oral sex with a dead pig, but it may not matter whether he actually did. I agree with Damien Bride that the denials don't seem very emphatic and David Cameron's anecdote about the "little prick" and "stab in the back" seems more like a complaint about telling tales out of school than moral outrage at a dirty lie.
To my surprise the British public appear to be supremely unfazed by the _Idea_ of our prime minister indulging in activities that are so outlandish that they could be made for the Jerry Springer Show. Regardless of whether the event actually happened, they believe it could have done in David Cameron's case. This may be the Bullingdon toff factor for once acting in Cameron's favour. The public think this is the sort of thing they would do, even if it never crossed their own minds in their own much less misspent youth.
I admit I misread this one.
Corbyn is still in post, bedding in nicely
Its worked perfectly (tho not as any of those immediately involved might have eanticipated...).....
An Iranian immigrant has been arrested after walking into a police station in Manchester and demanding to be put on a flight home because he's fed up with the city.
The man turned up at the station on Monday night asking to be deported having lived in the city for the past 10 years.
http://ind.pn/1iLGsgO
Could I put in a request for extra time and some red cards as we host the Gunners on Saturday?
BradfordYorkshire - that'll learn him.Who can blame him ?
This has been portrayed as good for David Cameron's renegotiation, the idea being that the recalcitrant countries may now be more sympathetic to British concerns. More likely, the disintegration of consensus will mean that British demands get caught up in crossfire.
I'd be greatly surprised if the EU falls over the migrant business. Could be the pebble that starts the landslide, though.
Another defection? Danzcuk would seem the most likely. Any market on this?
Is our Jezza a secret Ozymandias?
McBride said the same on R4 some 3 weeks ago so Sputnik appears - as its name implies - rather behind the times :-)
"Former UKIP election candidates have said allowing high profile figures from outside Wales to apply to stand in the assembly election will put off voters.
Ex-MPs Mark Reckless and Neil Hamilton, and Nigel Farage's head of media Alexandra Phillips are all applying to stand as regional list candidates.
Ken Beswick, UKIP's general election candidate in Torfaen, said Welsh members should run the party in Wales."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-34329069
*glances at the Daily Mail*
https://www.gov.uk/domestic-workers-in-a-private-household-visa/overview
That seems like something that should be immediately closed off.
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2009/feb/17/vernon-bogdanor
" "David was one of the nicest and ablest students I ever taught," Bogdanor says."
Maybe it's in the book somewhere.
Launch a revenge fueled tirade, then jump ship.
Rather than fence-mending there will be fence-building. The new Europe, eh?!
This is a bureaucratic allocation by numbers which cannot possibly work. Having said that, I'm not sure that anyone has come up with any better ideas.
Jane Ellison
Mark Field
Damian Hinds
Nick Boles
Phillip Hollobone
Jacob Rees-Mogg
Jeremy Hunt
Michael Gove
Ed Vaizey
Jonathan Lord