Bad. And just what you'd expect from this lot. George Eaton @georgeeaton · 33m 33 minutes ago New tax statements showing welfare as largest chunk of spending (but not showing break-down) a clear attempt to soften voters up for cuts. Tim Montgomerie @montie · 1h 1 hour ago Photo gallery of the perso...

The state is still GDP. Or am I missing your point, Willow? No, I'm just being thick. I forgot Blair "grew" the sector. Higher education is big business these days, not a public service. I still think of uni as being an extension of schools and colleges and those aren't part of GDP, surel...

how do universities contribute to GDP if they are funded by the state The state is still GDP. Or am I missing your point, Willow? No, I'm just being thick. I forgot Blair "grew" the sector. Higher education is big business these days, not a public service. I still think of uni as being an...

Full Fact has an article about EU payments: https://fullfact.org/europe/uk_pay_eu_budget_gni_economy-35944" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Thanks for this link, although it just poses more questions really, like how do universities contribute to GDP if they are funded by th...

The more I look at this EU bill, the more complicated it gets! I've discovered our contribution went up by 1bn in 2010 and the rebate went down by 1.6bn. The complicated bit is I keep finding snippets of information that suggests that the size of the rebate is dependent upon (among other things) VAT...

Each country's payment is divided into three parts: a fixed percentage of gross national income (GNI), customs duties collected on behalf of the EU (known as "traditional own resources") and a percentage of VAT income. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8036097.stm VAT went down to 1...

Oh dear... http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/oct/31/conservatives-eu-bill-pressure-contributions ..oh dear, oh dear :rofl: ...and I'm still in the dark as to why Britains' contribution has risen so much since 2010 - ukont.PNG Does anyone know? I don't actually know but the only change that h...

Morning all. Radical enough for everybody? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-29857849" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Yes, it's certainly that. But not sure it's the area I see as most immediately in need of some radical change ... or that will resonate with public. We ...

Christ. Mike Smithson ‏@MSmithsonPB 1m1 minute ago SNP at 52% in Scotland according to new Ipsos-MORI poll SNP 52% LAB 23% CON 10% GRN 6% LD 6% Is nationalism catching or something? First Ukip, now this. How do people think isolationism and lower taxes is going to make their lives better (unless th...

Morning all. Off topic,but sort of a general warning for people who,like me,are not very technically minded; Had a call this morning from somebody saying that my computers are all infected with some virus and that he was calling from windows support. Sounded quite genuine,in a difficult to understa...

Morning :) You can't make these things up..... Ed Miliband's £8 an hour minimum wage will make people worse off, says former Labour Cabinet minister However, a report by Alan Milburn, a Cabinet minister in Tony Blair’s Government, found that the pledge makes people worse off. http://www.telegraph.c...

Because I'm both ignorant and lazy, can anyone explain the hatred the SW (farmers) have for Europe (given the CAP)? Ta. Something to do with EU directives supposedly made the dumping of dredged material more complex and expensive which may or may not have influenced EA decision to dredge less/ stop...

Hello all. Thanks for the link to the Libdem conference. The Guardian isn't covering it for some reason. Hello. Nice to see you. I daresay we'll get some vomit inducing article about them when the journalists have had time to make something up. It'll be interesting to see which way the Guardian goe...

Hello all.

Thanks for the link to the Libdem conference. The Guardian isn't covering it for some reason.

Hi all. Lots of comments on cif suggest an awful lot of people are falling for Cameron's stitch up to backtrack on devo max and frame Labour as the self-interested ones. I'm finding it hard to accept how easily everyone are being played. The hatred for labour is as palpable as it is inexplicable. Ed...

I've got faith in Carwyn, Gordon Brown, Alastair Darling & Ed Miliband working together and coming up with something. Carwyn has been calling for a national convention on the whole issue of the constitution. I'm hoping they've already worked together on something and will be revealing it in dra...

Graun live blog on Ed Milibands speech (which I didn't hear so can only go by the report): He is not taking questions and, on the question of whether Labour supports change along the lines of the “English voters for English laws” plan proposed by David Cameron, he was completely silent. Ed Miliband...

Hello to ohsocynical, RobertSnozers, pk1, rebeccariots2 and TheGrimSqueaker. Thanks for the warm welcome. I am loving the edit button, btw!

@ Willow904 Hello. I don't go to the Guardian (comments btl) much these days but, when I do and see your posts, I always read them because I know they'll be intelligent and thoughtful. I usually agree with them, too. It's a bit of a bear garden over there, isn't it? I caught sight, earlier, of a co...

Hello all. Mind if I join you. BTL on the Guardian seems to have turned into a bash Ed fest. Not sure why a steady and competent campaign by Alastair Darling and a timely, and passionate, last minute intervention by Gordon Brown, all to save David Cameron's ass and win this referendum for the sake o...