Rob W

Ask yourself who pays for the booming UK Finacial Sevices industry?? It's mugs who buy into whatever "product" they're currently peddling Do some research and manage your own cash

if they elect Corbyn the Labour Party can count their blessings that Dave can't call a sudden election like he used to be able to do.............

trouble is the remains of the working class and the poor often agree with the Tories and there aren't enough of them to win any election - you win from the middle same goes for the Tories - Hague, Duncan-Smith & Howard were all unelectable - same as Foot, Kinnock & Milliband

Once spent a very nasty day on Snowdon - thick cloud, snow and we went wrong - finished up clingingt oa very steep ice slope without the right gear - spent a couple of hours working backwards with the guy at the bottom placing the guy above him's feet in the holds..........

Parky - are you REALLY saying that Greece is in this mess due to the EU? if so why isn't everyone in the same boat?? -the Irish , the balts, the Spanish etc have done what was necessary - the Greeks seem to think the world owes them a living - and it doesn't

Parky - if Labour do what you wnat they'll be marginalised forever - you can only WIN an election in the UK from the middle.......... the last left-wing win was in 1945...............

think how much you save on bog paper!!!

well the Greek Govt really know how to make friends and influence people......................... You have to be Grade 1 T** to make the EU decide not to compromise TBH

When is a tax increase not a tax increase??? from the Economist:- EVEN in a place inured to budget trickery, the stratagem was absurd. Louisiana’s treasurer, John Kennedy, called it “nonsense on a stick”. He was referring to the “tax credit” that would apparently balance Louisiana’s budget for the coming fiscal year, closing a deficit gap of $1.6 billion. This was the plan. The state’s cigarette tax, the third-lowest in the country, would be raised substantially, with the proceeds going to higher education. But rather than declare it as a tax increase, the state would create a phantom fee of about $1,600 applied to each of its 220,000 university students. The students would not actually pay the fee, because it would come with a matching tax credit. This credit would then be handed over to the universities, which would in turn receive the actual money generated by the cigarette-tax increase and a few other things. In this section Two words explain such gimmickry: Grover Norquist, or, as some in Louisiana have begun calling him, “Governor Norquist”. Mr Norquist runs Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), a powerful Washington lobby group, whose bread and butter is a never-raise-taxes pledge signed by politicians around the country. Being on the list, and staying in ATR’s good graces, have become litmus tests of ideological purity in some Republican circles. Advertisement Louisiana’s governor, Bobby Jindal, who is expected soon to leap into the crowd of Republican presidential hopefuls, is desperate to be among the fiscally untainted. Since April he has been wrestling with the problem of how to close the budget gap without either raising taxes, which would inflame Mr Norquist, or inflicting further damage on programmes like higher education. Louisiana’s colleges, on his watch, have already sustained some of the deepest cuts in the country. A simple solution might have been to pare back some of the state’s lucrative and questionable tax breaks for business. But Mr Norquist would frown on that. According to his rules of engagement, any legislative change that results in extra revenue—even eliminating a poorly crafted giveaway—is a tax increase. In February (as furious legislators point out, before he had consulted them), Mr Jindal sought advice privately from the guru himself. As a result, in came the SAVE Act, an acronym for “Student Assessment for a Valuable Education”. (One legislator moved to amend its title to the DUMB Act, for “Don’t Understand Meaning of Bill”.) Mr Norquist has previously blessed tax increases, provided they are paired with offsetting cuts that make the whole package revenue-neutral. He therefore gave the nod to Louisiana’s contrivance. Even the legislators who backed the bill cringed at it, and admitted it served only to protect Mr Jindal’s anti-tax credentials. A group of ten Republican legislators, including four who had signed the ATR pledge, added their names to a letter to Mr Norquist written by Joel Robideaux, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee of the Louisiana House. The letter, released to the media, tartly noted that the SAVE Act was a “purely fictional, procedural, phantom, paper tax credit”, and asked Mr Norquist whether he really endorsed it. He replied, the next day, by saying that the SAVE Act was Louisiana’s creation, not his. If the conservatives didn’t want to use that workaround to balance the books, he suggested, they should make cuts elsewhere. In the end, lawmakers held their noses and voted for a budget that included SAVE, after Mr Jindal made it clear that he would veto the package otherwise. It was quite a spectacle. One of the bill’s chief backers, arguing for its adoption, sold it thus: “Our love for higher education is greater than the embarrassment over the instrument.” Although Messrs Jindal and Norquist won the battle, it is unclear whether they have won the war. The episode has soured many Louisianian lawmakers on ATR for good. Add in resentment at having to please a Washington power-broker, rather than local constituents, and it seems that Mr Norquist may well have pushed his anti-tax crusade too far.

never understod how they getthrough a month of it TBH shows real commitment

Do what the Scots have done - steal a thrid rate maudlin folk song..................... I propose "When the Boat comes in..."

well ths Saudis have 600 years of reserves.......................... Russia probably more and western companies don't bother looking for any oil that they can't bring on stream in more than 5-10 years just doesn't make sense to spend cash now on sommat you aren't going to need for decades

Risky game they're playing - and the way they are going abut it means Greece will be ignored in any future EU discussion for the next 20 years

well if it keeps a few kids off the same path ..........................

once in a lifetime experience IMHO - no wonder he'd get excited............

I really can't see why we're hiring him - he's just not that good... but then neither.................

Considering they only released 1 decent album I'm amazed at all the coverage ...............................

who would takeover financing Scotland if we go out???

NOT religious - hardly the same thing ...............................

Read it old kit, badly maintained, sloppy procedures brought about by overfamiliarity, anyone raising issues suffers from career degredation probably true - the yanks have found similar in their B52 force and the Minutman missiles - and we all know how brilliant the Russian armed forces are

Most people in the UK don't belong to a union - Unions are really part of the past for most people Labour will never win in England unless they move to the middle - when they run from the left they crash and burn

Classic Alex - it was Renton who brought up the religious aspect not me.............. Pay attention dear, pay attention

Funny place Scotland..................

Well God Save the Queen isn't all bad it's short, it has no weird notes (think of the STar Spangled Banner) and it reflects the English pysche - we're not religious, we're not happy with inspiration and we certainly don't want any of that Liberte, Fraterniite and Equalite rubbish

Unless they move to the centre they're doomed - thye need to get rid of the union connection - its looking increasingly out of date