FlyTheNest

I'm guessing neither that one, nor the Observer/Opinium poll, will form part of the Legendary Five Polls. Mind you, the Observer haven't mentioned the Opinium poll yet either, as far as I can see, not the narrative they want to push.

Re. the phone call question; I am a member, but haven't had a call as yet. Shall let you know it it happens.

@Rog



As I said at one point during the week, Westminster is also a city.

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COWER BRIEF MORTALS. HO. HO. HO.

Good morning.

(And a special good morning to TechnicalEphemera along with a good breakfast helping of some of Mom's apple pie!)

For those worrying about Giselle's whereabouts, there's a message from her last night in The Pub.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=4

She's asking 'Anyone heard of money laundering in the housing market and the actions the Bank of England take when they suspect it? My buyer's bank account has been frozen''

No phone call here either yahyah although we did have a call yesterday from a withheld number. We have a device on our phone which is set up to automatically block those calls so I never hear the phone ring - if they refuse to display their number, I refuse to speak with them & if it was from anyone important such as the hospital, they already have my mobile number.

If anybody is being plagued with nuisance calls, I can highly recommend the Call Saint Blocker. We got ours on eBay for £25 - a small price to pay to stop those bloody nuisance calls from scammers pretending to be from Windows !

Here it is:

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... ory-leader

If you only looked at today's politics reports, you wouldn't find it - I only found it by following a tweet by Toby Helm.

LD's at 7% - might this be the reason Helm's piece has been hidden away.....

Hadn't seen this from last year.

Churches eviscerate the Centre for Social Justice.

http://www.jointpublicissues.org.uk/wp- ... FINAL1.pdf

Bears shitting in forests.

I made the comparison between Clacton and Dick Taverne in Lincoln back in 1973, just after the byelection was announced. Survation backs that up.

It also shows having BoJo as Tory candidate would make naff-all difference. Amusing given all the media calls that Cameron should "beg" him to stand there

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/north-councils-left-funding-shortfall-7693027

A very bleak account of how the bedroom tax is shafting councils across the North East, and some gloomy projections about the effects of further cuts.
Lord Fraud gives a sympathetic quote, mind :

Bless, I love it when they are so embarrassed by their own polls that they have to hide them away.

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COWER BRIEF MORTALS. HO. HO. HO.

Oh look, the new BBC boss is a fucking Tory !



Really pissed off by the blatant cronyism.

Fair to say Call Me has had better weeks, usually supported by the shite that call themselves the press, no doubt he will be back on full throttle next week giving his best impression of a leader and statesman, at the NATO summit.

Francis Maude got advice? The woman must be a genius, so I can quite understand the appointment.

If you can stomach it Peter Hitchens has a good old rant today?! The usual bluster but as usual a fair few points about the so called "heir to Blair" and a compliant media at the expense of "dangerous Marxist" Ed Miliband, the latter point being ironic, I think?

Christ the guardian app is a crock of shit! Delete!

Can I get a bit of advise please?
A person on twitter keeps putting my id in tweets about the NHS. Yes, yes I do support the NHS but feel slightly discomforted when someone I don't know puts my name to something they have not asked me about. Am I (in twitter land) obliged to re tweet it? Can anyone more familiar with twitter protocol (if there is one) help? My email account regularly has 7 or 8 "so-an-so has retweeted a tweet you were mentioned in" messages, and I just don't understand why this stranger has decided to use my hash tag to promote her messages. Is this twitter normal?
Thanks and good afternoon

This is the type of thing I mean
mandy miller ‏@mandymiller123 · 13h
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014 ... th-insurer … The plot gets murkier.For KPMG read ATOS! @Rosiecat2 @WillBlackWriter @GMBSussexBranch @drbobgill @butNHS @bigdaveash

..and then that gets retweeted... ??

Looking at her TL, she tweeted that tweet to all those she follows so I reckon it was harmless. You should just have to ask for them to remove your moniker from the conversation & most will remove it without any problem.

You can also change your preferences within twitter & set it so that you don't get notifications I think.

No, you absolutely are not obliged to RT anything you don't want to !

Expect a series of BBC programmes, probably hosted by Dom Littlewood, about what to do with all those jerrycans you have in your garage.

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COWER BRIEF MORTALS. HO. HO. HO.

Ahhh - so its just a generic everyone on her "follow" list. Thanks I thought I was being singled out and could not understand why - that's ok then. Thanks so much PK (I don't mind, just so long as I know why)

I always do that is asked ...oh, apart from the occasion where a few of us were winding up the pompous ex-Mail on Sinday hack, that was fun!!

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COWER BRIEF MORTALS. HO. HO. HO.

Labour to abolish Police and Crime Commissioner posts by May 2016

Well, maybe, looks like LL are being a bit premature on this, there is no official announcement (yet)

http://labourlist.org/2014/08/labour-to ... -may-2016/

More from LL...


http://labourlist.org/2014/08/austin-mi ... join-ukip/

Quite a few Labour people have said they want PPC's scrapped now. I don't think there is much doubt it will happen if Labour are elected next year.

I'm expecting a series of programmes about the dark creeping enemy within, the Unions.

Incidentally I've just received my ballot from Unison for NHS strike action and/or lesser action other than striking (work to rule, no work beyond contracted hours etc). I'm torn as to whether to vote for strike action. I absolutely agree with the reasons for calling for it, because of Jeremy Hunt's unilateral decision to collectively punish NHS workers because we won't agree to his demands to degrade our employment contracts yet again, but I also know that this government will ignore us (as they have every other strike) and use a strike to launch another attack on the public sector, the unions and most especially the Labour Party in the run up to the General Election. Striking now might play right into Lynton Crosby's hands.

Above all I just have the ingrained reluctance as an NHS worker to go on strike. Putting the patient first is the core of what we are, it's why many of us work well over our paid hours to the detriment of our own personal lives. And yet I also realise that that ethos is being exploited by Westminster, who cut and cut and expect us to continue to provide the same level of service.

Anyway... just felt the need to vent a bit.

Whatever I decide I'll be filling in my ballot and posting it. I won't be contributing to any "low turnout" diatribe.

I think the inability of anyone in the country to sack Shaun Wright probably dealt the death blow to PCCs. That and the ever decreasing voter turnout from scandalously embarrassing joke to mockery of democracy levels.

That's pretty much exactly what I was thinking too. The awful irony of Teresa May inflicting PCCs on us because supposedly they would be more accountable .... well how wrong that has been proven. The biggest story is Shaun Wright's unsackability but we have also had the appointment of cronies and escalating amounts of money spent on such appointments, and the dafter policies brought in on a whim. If May had the guts she should say that they - the coalition - will get rid of these failed PPCs. That might actually give her a bit more respect and credibility.

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Working on the wild side.

Afternoon all. We are just back from a short trip away to the University of South Wales in Trefforest for the Badger Trust conference. Before we set off on Saturday I was again unable to access this site - simply being repeatedly told the website was unavailable. Has anyone else had similar issues - or is it just me now?

The Trefforest campus is swarming with police from every quarter of the country re the NATO summit. Quite unnerving - especially when we might well be meeting some of them again in the Gloucestershire and Somerset fields in the not too distant future. The Badger Trust conference had already had to be moved from their first university venue as the police accommodation took priority .... but it seems that one campus wasn't enough to cope with the numbers (9,500).

I am still wondering what the mystifying and rather threatening sign on one of the windows in the campus building where lots of police were going in and out of means. It said 'Welfare Cell'. What kind of welfare gets administered in a cell?

Editing to add:
And the name of the union bar at Trefforest? The Randy Badger. Design or coincidence?

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Working on the wild side.

How Iceland's met office does weather warnings.

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Release the Guardvarks.

Reading an Inspector Wexford story and found this quote:

Psalm 55:

The words of his mouth were softer than butter, having war in his heart: his words were smoother than oil, and yet be they very swords.

I thought immediately of George Smith.

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We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. – Aesop

Goodnight, everyone.

Poverty inquiry finds growing inequality in schools
Gulf between children from low- and high-income families is starker than ever, leading to social isolation and bullying

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/aug/31/inequality-schools-children-poverty-commission

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I found this very interesting. Some things haven't changed. I had financial struggles over the same things when my two children were at school.

Now it's happening with my granddaughter. Two years ago her school started giving Mandolin lessons. It was near Christmas, so she got a mandolin from her other grandmother and her parents paid the fees. Within six months the teacher stopped giving the lessons.

Next it was guitar lessons. Luckily Mr Ohso won £40 on a scratch card and knows a guy that owns a music shop. Within six months that teacher had left and there was no-one to replace her.

Then there was the after school sewing club and sheer luck that I had a stock of cross stitch materials because that club also folded after no more than a few months.

Every year the headmaster holds a 'Dress Up As Your Favourite Book Character Day. Fine, but some parents have made it a competition to see who can send their kids in the best outfit.

Every year they have a 'Victorian' school day, and send the kids home with a list of what they should wear, what food they should take and what the food should be in. For a lot of mothers that means another trek to the fancy dress hire shop. Luckily I got busy with some old bed sheets which didn't cost more than a couple of pounds, but some families would even struggle to find that.

Every year at Christmas they put on plays and the kids come home with a list of what they need to wear.

I've told my granddaughter to remind her teachers that not all poorer children have grandmothers with a bit of cash, or the ability to use a sewing machine. They have nowhere to turn when the school gives them yet another list of what they need and at short notice.

One teacher replied that there's a Primart [cheap clothing store]in Camberley.

Reality checks needed in some schools I think.

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We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. – Aesop

Night PF

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We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. – Aesop

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... n-campaign

ed-miliband-labour-put-nhs-centre-general-election-campaign

Half decent interview with Gordon in the Guardian tonight, usual shit below the line though, expect nothing less.

Oh dear, this sounds ominous...

odysseanproject
‏@odysseanproject
Don't blame NM for STel story, she's just following No10 orders. There's a worse one coming shortly...

https://twitter.com/odysseanproject/status/506083418716012544

This is the "schools must enter pupils for EBacc subjects on pain of death" - NM = Nicky Morgan.

What could be worse than telling schools that are supposed to now have freedom, what to do?

Edit - actually that "only following orders" makes me think I was right that Nick Gibb was brought back to make sure that Morgan toes the line. remember, the first draft of the national curriculum was done while Gibb was in the DfE - it vastly improved after he was sacked the first time. Who on earth in No 10 thinks that Gibb is any use?

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If I'm not here, then I'll be in the library. Or the other library.

Interesting...can Douglas Carswell use the data he has on his constituents for his new party when said data was given to him on the understanding he was a Tory MP?

http://informationrightsandwrongs.com/2014/08/31/data-protection-implications-of-mps-crossing-the-floor/

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If I'm not here, then I'll be in the library. Or the other library.

No he cannot, that data is the property of his former "employer".

Under data protection it could also be argued the information was provided solely for the use of The Conservative party, and handing it to somebody else would breach the rules.

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Release the Guardvarks.

Wouldn't it be amusing if UKIP were fined for using said data?

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If I'm not here, then I'll be in the library. Or the other library.

re: there's a worse one on the way...

All council run (sic) schools will be forced to become academies before May 2015.

This will be using the excuse of "we have a dysfunctional education system with academies and non-academies so this will simplify matters"

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If I'm not here, then I'll be in the library. Or the other library.

Seems to me this generation of politicians trample all over the rules. And get away with it.

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We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. – Aesop

http://www.expressandstar.com/news/2014 ... -election/

Oops - there goes another one....

He's issues with Ed Miliband's leadership.

I've just put some links up in Features and Analysis - not sure if right place - mods please feel free to move 'um

Kelly was viewed by some as a possible defector to UKIP.

This looks messy.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/exclusive-tory-eurosceptics-to-defy-cameron-with-manifesto-pledges-in-next-years-general-election-9702683.html

The consequences of a Tory Majority in 2015 will be calamitous - for the Tory party. They will split down the middle the day after the election.

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Release the Guardvarks.

OmniPolitical
‏@OmniPolitics Tomorrow's i newspaper front page: 100 Tory MPs to challenge Cameron on Europe...

https://twitter.com/OmniPolitics/status ... 3549708288

I've made "Policy Matters" again and moved them there. Thanks for the links.

Thank You -

Found Banksy's twitter account, not sure if it is really him but lots of good piccy's to browse

https://twitter.com/ESBanksy