Wednesday 11th February 2015

[citizenJA]

I've helped people fill in postal votes ,they were for the same party and my fingerprints will be all over them.

Did you also put the X in the box for them though HindleA?

I was asked to help by relatives of visually impaired students at a college I am pretty sure I endeavoured to jointly make the required mark,but of course I was guiding the hand.How closely that would have resembled the result of my own independent mark forensically I have no idea.

Yep. I've been entrusted with helping elderly people I've cared for on a regular basis filling out voting materials.

[citizenJA]

Many of us here have expressed our hopes that should Labour be in government post May 7th they will turn out to have been well worth giving the benefit of the doubt re which direction and how far towards it they will actually take us in re welfare 'reform' / cuts and a host of other contentious issues such as rail renationalisation, how much private sector involvement in the NHS, etc etc.

The worry I have if the SNP turn out to play any part in Westminster government - ad hoc confidence & supply arrangement most likely - is that they will claim any progressive movement is solely down to their bargaining influence. I would like to think that Labour would be putting forward a lot of progressive and redistributive policies on their own - regardless of SNP, Greens, Plaid.

Does it matter if the people & country benefit from that cooperation?

[Tubby Isaacs]

Richard Caring breaks silence over £2.25m cash withdrawal from HSBC
Restaurant tycoon gives newspaper interview to explain reasons for transaction recorded in leaked Swiss files

http://www.theguardian.com/business/201 ... rawal-hsbc

I read this, understood not a word of it, and could only think:

Oh what tangled webs we weave

I don't get it either. Is he saying there's some problem with a Swiss bank knowing he has another account? Aren't they supposed to be very discrete?

[rebeccariots2]

Many of us here have expressed our hopes that should Labour be in government post May 7th they will turn out to have been well worth giving the benefit of the doubt re which direction and how far towards it they will actually take us in re welfare 'reform' / cuts and a host of other contentious issues such as rail renationalisation, how much private sector involvement in the NHS, etc etc.

The worry I have if the SNP turn out to play any part in Westminster government - ad hoc confidence & supply arrangement most likely - is that they will claim any progressive movement is solely down to their bargaining influence. I would like to think that Labour would be putting forward a lot of progressive and redistributive policies on their own - regardless of SNP, Greens, Plaid.

Does it matter if the people & country benefit from that cooperation?

I think it does if the rhetoric constantly undermines what Labour actually stand for and do for the people and country - it puts maintaining the good progressive things on a much less sure footing for the future. The 'red Tories' narrative will be used to try to achieve further separation of Scotland from England ... it won't go away.

[citizenJA]

If there's one colour I dislike on my person more than PINK, it's MAGENTA.

An SNP commentator below the line I respect wasn't nice about the Women's Labour party pink van. An unworthy, nasty, post rubbed me the wrong way. I've lived in different places & women are treated differently a bit differently from what I've experienced elsewhere. I'm three years new to this particular part of the UK (Midlands) & I've had better success getting to know people better prior to telling them, 'you're doing it wrong'. By the time I get to them better, nine & three-quarters times out of ten, it's just different, not wrong or right.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Everything the SNP do is about a wedge with "Westminster" (= English people).

See fracking, where they had the power to ban it all along, but didn't because they preferred to have English people forcing it on them. Scottish Labour going for a tighter policy then led to them banning it.

[Tubby Isaacs]

If there's one colour I dislike on my person more than PINK, it's MAGENTA.

An SNP commentator below the line I respect wasn't nice about the Women's Labour party pink van. An unworthy, nasty, post rubbed me the wrong way. I've lived in different places & women are treated differently a bit differently from what I've experienced elsewhere. I'm three years new to this particular part of the UK (Midlands) & I've had better success getting to know people better prior to telling them, 'you're doing it wrong'. By the time I get to them better, nine & three-quarters times out of ten, it's just different, not wrong or right.

Well, indeed.

There are, for women without class advantages, "women's issues". As someone said on Twitter, if you doubt that, next time you see kids coming out of school, have a look at who's picking them up.

A load of rich women in the media might sneer at this, but it's true.

[ohsocynical]

Richard Caring breaks silence over £2.25m cash withdrawal from HSBC
Restaurant tycoon gives newspaper interview to explain reasons for transaction recorded in leaked Swiss files

http://www.theguardian.com/business/201 ... rawal-hsbc

I read this, understood not a word of it, and could only think:

Oh what tangled webs we weave

I don't get it either. Is he saying there's some problem with a Swiss bank knowing he has another account? Aren't they supposed to be very discrete?

The only thing I [sort of] caught on to was he had money in an account under the name Tina Green, wife of Phillip of Topshop fame.

At least it helps me understand how much these people love their money and holding on to it. To me it just looks like hard work.

[Tubby Isaacs]

It does to me too. I assume he's not rich enough to be allowed in Monaco or something. If that were me, they could get lost.

[pk1]

Some typos are just so funny

[ohsocynical]

If there's one colour I dislike on my person more than PINK, it's MAGENTA.

An SNP commentator below the line I respect wasn't nice about the Women's Labour party pink van. An unworthy, nasty, post rubbed me the wrong way. I've lived in different places & women are treated differently a bit differently from what I've experienced elsewhere. I'm three years new to this particular part of the UK (Midlands) & I've had better success getting to know people better prior to telling them, 'you're doing it wrong'. By the time I get to them better, nine & three-quarters times out of ten, it's just different, not wrong or right.

Well, indeed.

There are, for women without class advantages, "women's issues". As someone said on Twitter, if you doubt that, next time you see kids coming out of school, have a look at who's picking them up.

A load of rich women in the media might sneer at this, but it's true.

It's a colour I'm not keen on, but if you were faced with six vans all painted a different colour say, yellow, green, blue, white, orange and magneta, which colour do you reckon most likely to get a message for women noticed?

And to be pedantic, it isn't actually pink. In my youth it was called cerise and today it's called magneta.

And they had a woman driver. Knocks everything the Tories try into a cocked hat

[RogerOThornhill]

Two things educational - one which may prove interesting and the other amazing. Mainly because it shouldn't even exist.

Sam Freedman @Samfr · 1h 1 hour ago
I'm led to believe Miliband is giving a speech tomorrow on Labour's education policies plus spending pledge for schools.

and

Asked by Lord Storey Asked on: 04 February 2015
Department for Education New Schools NetworkHL4685
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much money they have paid to the New Schools Network in each of the last four years.

A Answered by: Lord Nash Answered on: 11 February 2015

The New Schools Network’s annual accounts are published by the Charity Commission. They show that the New Schools Network has received grant funding as set out in the table below.
Year (1 September to 31 August)
Grant paid
2010-11....£478,865
2011-12....£656,577
2012-13....£743,696

Between 1 September 2013 and 31 August 2014, the department paid the New Schools Network grant funding of £1,272,897. The accounts for 2013-14 will be published in due course.

No more grants to them please Tristram - they're simply a "Job for the Tory chaps and gels" racket whose job should be done by LAs or the civil service.

[pk1]

Wiki page of Con MPs being edited by anonymous Westminster computer:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?dif ... =646676817" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yet the wiki List of Con MPs still has Louise Mensch on it !

[citizenJA]

Many of us here have expressed our hopes that should Labour be in government post May 7th they will turn out to have been well worth giving the benefit of the doubt re which direction and how far towards it they will actually take us in re welfare 'reform' / cuts and a host of other contentious issues such as rail renationalisation, how much private sector involvement in the NHS, etc etc.

The worry I have if the SNP turn out to play any part in Westminster government - ad hoc confidence & supply arrangement most likely - is that they will claim any progressive movement is solely down to their bargaining influence. I would like to think that Labour would be putting forward a lot of progressive and redistributive policies on their own - regardless of SNP, Greens, Plaid.

Does it matter if the people & country benefit from that cooperation?

I think it does if the rhetoric constantly undermines what Labour actually stand for and do for the people and country - it puts maintaining the good progressive things on a much less sure footing for the future. The 'red Tories' narrative will be used to try to achieve further separation of Scotland from England ... it won't go away.

You're right, of course. I think I understand your feelings. I think they're something like mine. I don't like being unjustly snarled at by some SNP friends just because I'm a Labour supporter. My SNP friends can't be insensible of the repercussions of their vote.

I can't represent the whole Labour party; I'm a member along with 200,000+ others. I joined to be part of change I'd like to live into with my family & friends here. The Labour party isn't too bad just now - I'm generally happy with the current leadership, policies, members & supporters.

I can't ask someone to vote against their conscience. I'm not concern trolling or taking some obnoxious high ground. Anyone with a functioning brain knows the magnitude of this election. It's too tragic to get into a tangle with an SNP supporter, who made a cheap jab at Labour's pink van.

The 'Red Tories' label isn't fair regarding Labour's work during the Scottish Independence vote. Ed Miliband had expressed Labour's position about the Scottish Independence vote. He asked the Scottish people to stay united with the rest of the country. He maintained the exact same position from the time he knew how Cameron had decided upon how the Scottish Independence ballot was written.

Ed Miliband was incandescent with Cameron the day after over 55% of the Scottish people voted to remain united. Ed Miliband can't make Dave Cameron honourable. That is key for me. Ed Miliband & other Labour party leadership, members, act with honesty & do what they said they'd do. The Tory party & Dave Cameron have shamed themselves. It's not anyone elses' fault.

[ohsocynical]

LabourList.

By Caroline Flint.

The Government have tried to quietly remove Labour’s safeguards from the fracking bill

Sadly, however, having accepted these protections in the House of Commons, the Government quietly tried to water them down in the House of Lords, no doubt hoping that nobody would notice. Well, I did notice. Today, the Infrastructure Bill is back in the Commons, and I am clear that Labour will vote to prevent shale gas developments in the UK unless these protections are re-introduced.

http://labourlist.org/2015/02/the-gover ... king-bill/

[citizenJA]

If there's one colour I dislike on my person more than PINK, it's MAGENTA.

An SNP commentator below the line I respect wasn't nice about the Women's Labour party pink van. An unworthy, nasty, post rubbed me the wrong way. I've lived in different places & women are treated differently a bit differently from what I've experienced elsewhere. I'm three years new to this particular part of the UK (Midlands) & I've had better success getting to know people better prior to telling them, 'you're doing it wrong'. By the time I get to them better, nine & three-quarters times out of ten, it's just different, not wrong or right.

Well, indeed.

There are, for women without class advantages, "women's issues". As someone said on Twitter, if you doubt that, next time you see kids coming out of school, have a look at who's picking them up.

A load of rich women in the media might sneer at this, but it's true.

It's a colour I'm not keen on, but if you were faced with six vans all painted a different colour say, yellow, green, blue, white, orange and magneta, which colour do you reckon most likely to get a message for women noticed?

And to be pedantic, it isn't actually pink. In my youth it was called cerise and today it's called magneta.

And they had a woman driver. Knocks everything the Tories try into a cocked hat

I love you a lot, Ohso.

[citizenJA]

If there's one colour I dislike on my person more than PINK, it's MAGENTA.

An SNP commentator below the line I respect wasn't nice about the Women's Labour party pink van. An unworthy, nasty, post rubbed me the wrong way. I've lived in different places & women are treated differently a bit differently from what I've experienced elsewhere. I'm three years new to this particular part of the UK (Midlands) & I've had better success getting to know people better prior to telling them, 'you're doing it wrong'. By the time I get to them better, nine & three-quarters times out of ten, it's just different, not wrong or right.

Well, indeed.

There are, for women without class advantages, "women's issues". As someone said on Twitter, if you doubt that, next time you see kids coming out of school, have a look at who's picking them up.

A load of rich women in the media might sneer at this, but it's true.

I love you too, Tubby. Thank you.

[diGriz]

I think the MSM deserves a pat on the back today for speaking up for female voters and keeping the issue alive.

People do see through this guff you know.

[ohsocynical]

Well, indeed.

There are, for women without class advantages, "women's issues". As someone said on Twitter, if you doubt that, next time you see kids coming out of school, have a look at who's picking them up.

A load of rich women in the media might sneer at this, but it's true.

It's a colour I'm not keen on, but if you were faced with six vans all painted a different colour say, yellow, green, blue, white, orange and magneta, which colour do you reckon most likely to get a message for women noticed?

And to be pedantic, it isn't actually pink. In my youth it was called cerise and today it's called magneta.

And they had a woman driver. Knocks everything the Tories try into a cocked hat

I love you a lot, Ohso.

Thank you J/A

Logic dictates that if you're considering an idea like that you'd try it out on a bunch of women first. We tend to fuss about colour. It can be irritating, but is useful at times.

[RogerOThornhill]

Jeez...the utter shite that comes out of the DfE with its NSN lackey acting as cheerleaders carries on...

https://academyschools.blog.gov.uk/2015 ... t-academy/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Broadclyst Community Primary School used freedoms under its academy status to set up and run a nursery from 9am to 3:30pm daily, and there are plans to extend this to a full-day provision.

Oh, so how come we, as a LA maintained school managed to set up and run a nursery about 10 years ago without those "academy freedoms"?

[ohsocynical]

And just in case:

Night PF

[ephemerid]

In the past week, we have had Select Committee hearings and PMQs and various debates in the Mother of Parliaments.

I have witnessed politicians lying, obfuscating, farting about like recalcitrant children with the gravitas of a soggy flannel.

I have witnessed nasty, vicious, mendacious people laughing at the hardships of the people who pay their salaries; I have heard and seen evidence from placemen and highly-paid civil servants who do not know their jobs and are where they are due to nepotism and preferment; I have seen footage of the antics of rich influential people who are buying our politicians so they can enrich themselves further.

We know that our government knew about financial irregularities which they did nothing about for 4 years; we know that a report on whistle blowing shows no progress on the issue for the two years since the last report from the same man said the same thing; we know that this government will go to any lengths to avoid doing any fucking work and will blame their failure on people who have had no power for 5 years.

The one thing that has exercised our Prime Minister, the man who holds the highest political office in the land and who should be leading this country with dignity and integrity, is the existence of a "pink" van.

A quite small van which, if all the female MPs from the lesser partner in coalition were seated in it, would have space for 9 more. This what occupies the very small brain of a very small excuse for a human being.

I really really HATE these people.

[rebeccariots2]

Backing Labour because it’s the lesser evil – right or wrong?
http://www.leftfutures.org/2015/02/back ... -or-wrong/

Good piece.

[PorFavor]

Goodnight, everyone.

@ohsocynical
Night night!

[rebeccariots2]

Night PF.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Life's always a compromise, surely?

[HindleA]

For those interested:


The Department for Social Development in NI have announced the following:

THE WELFARE MEASURES IN FULL

● Universal Credit: direct payment to landlords as standard, with an opt out option available
● Bedroom tax: fully mitigated through DHP for five years, with a review of this mitigation
● Universal Credit: split the payment of universal credit between adults in cases where child welfare is an issue
● Sanctions: to not introduce a £50 penalty for sanctions as in Great Britain
● Sanctions: to reduce the maximum sanction time from 3 years to 18 months
● Social Fund: to set up a Discretionary Support Scheme which will replace the Social Fund when it is abolished under welfare reform. The DSS will provide emergency support through crisis loans and community grants
● Universal credit: transitional protection until there is a change in circumstances
● Universal credit: payments twice monthly instead of monthly, in contrast to England system

[HindleA]

PM
"Of course, with the replacement of the Disability Living Allowance with the Personal Independence Payments actually most disabled people will be getting more money and more assistance rather than less"

How do they get away with it.

[TheGrimSqueaker]

Backing Labour because it’s the lesser evil – right or wrong?
http://www.leftfutures.org/2015/02/back ... -or-wrong/

Good piece.

Damn good piece!

Night PF.

[rebeccariots2]

Backing Labour because it’s the lesser evil – right or wrong?
http://www.leftfutures.org/2015/02/back ... -or-wrong/

Good piece.

Actually that's right on the money for me. For all the areas where we'd like Labour to be better than the Tories, there are all those areas where they are markedly better than the Tories. This isn't 'letting fear win over hope', it's choosing the distinctly better (not the least-worst) of the available options.

Yes I agree. I found it very well argued and nicely reinforcing - if you know what I mean. When I'm feeling a bit low or lacking in commitment after what can feel like relentless swiping and sniping ... I remember the disabled woman whose door we knocked on when canvassing in the village whose first words were 'I've lost 14 friends since this bloody government got in'. I'm never going to forget that - and the power with which she said it.

[ohsocynical]

Anyone wanting to read all about the HSBC scandal will have a field day here.

Am posting this link because of this.

Editor's note
The sensational Carroll Foundation Trust and parallel Carroll Maryland Trust billion dollars offshore tax evasion fraud scandal which is now encircling 10 Downing Street and the Conservative Party has revealed that the new explosive FBI Washington DC and Scotland Yard prosecution files have named the high value suspects in this case of intertnational importance.

http://paper.li/PublicInterests/1316707 ... c47a0d1609

First I'd heard of them.

[ohsocynical]

Shapps on Twitter boasting about how they'd halved the deficit, so I asked him if they were going to put some money to one side to cover all the extra paupers funerals they'd be causing.

[PaulfromYorkshire]

Credit where it's due to Winter & Watt

[PaulfromYorkshire]

[ohsocynical]

I often wondered where Martin Rowson got the idea of Dave as Little Lord Fauntleroy. Now I know.

[55DegreesNorth]

Has this been linked, as usual, apologies if it has. Not bad timing for Labour HSBC blowing up, last week it was Anti-Business Ed, this, shysters, spivs and friends of Tories avoiding tax by any means possible.

This, another HSBC stink, emanating from the Channel Isles.

http://www.channel4.com/news/hsbc-whist ... c-accounts" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Is there any reason for having an offshore account other than tax avoidance/evasion?
(Genuine question, not aimed specifically at Letsskip).

If you own a property abroad, you'll need a local bank account to pay direct debits to utilities etc. Loads of people have offshore Spanish accounts (in the sort of way that loads of people have property in Spain).

[LadyCentauria]

Thank you for all your entries in my "What do you call a boomerang that doesn't come back?" competition. They were all very good but the correct answer is:

A stick.

@Roger O'Thornhill: did you include a video in your reply? They don't show up for me so I just got blank space

[HindleA]

Memory seems to failing I am sure the phrase "a complete waste of space" was used recently.

[Spacedone]

It's the "Tories question whatever happened to ending Punch and Judy politics" that gets me. Staggering hypocrisy considering the weekly abuse Cameron has flung about, most often at Miliband, for almost five years.

[Tubby Isaacs]

"Muppets".

[RogerOThornhill]

Thank you for all your entries in my "What do you call a boomerang that doesn't come back?" competition. They were all very good but the correct answer is:

A stick.

@Roger O'Thornhill: did you include a video in your reply? They don't show up for me so I just got blank space

Yes it was this.

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[PaulfromYorkshire]

Thank you for all your entries in my "What do you call a boomerang that doesn't come back?" competition. They were all very good but the correct answer is:

A stick.

@Roger O'Thornhill: did you include a video in your reply? They don't show up for me so I just got blank space

Yes it was this.

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks that episode is absolutely one of my favourites.

Potato?

No thanks I don't

[ohsocynical]

Ivan White ‏@ivanwhite48 28 mins28 minutes ago

Antony Worrall Thompson’s tip for Pancake Day (17 February):

take eggs, milk, flour and butter – and then run like hell.

[PaulfromYorkshire]

Opinion is divided on the subject.

Everybody else says you do. I says you don't.

[rebeccariots2]

Memory seems to failing I am sure the phrase "a complete waste of space" was used recently.

Yes - indeed it was. In December 2014 to be precise. Dave wasn't being so touchy feely sensitive then.

[PaulfromYorkshire]

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehous ... in-public/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

miliband-to-repeat-allegations-against-lord-fink-in-public

[HindleA]

Stupid joke that didn't come up to my usual low standard.

[PaulfromYorkshire]

Dear Mr. Miliband,

Today at Prime Minister’s Questions, you alleged that I had undertaken ‘tax avoidance activities’ in Switzerland:

‘Let’s take Stanley Fink who gave £3 million to the Conservative Party. He actually appointed him as Treasurer of the Tory Party and gave him a peerage for good measure. So now can he explain what steps he is going to take to find out about the tax avoidance activities of Lord Fink?’

This allegation is untrue and defamatory.

These are the facts:

I was posted by the Man Group to run their office in Switzerland for four years from 1996 until 2000.

During this time I had need of a local bank account to do simple things like receive my Swiss Franc salary and pay grocery bills.

As I already banked with HSBC in London, I set up an account with HSBC. I subsequently set up an account with Credit Suisse as they had a branch much closer to my home and office.

I submitted tax returns in both Switzerland and Britain showing my revised tax status, which was accepted by the Inland Revenue.

I find it extraordinary that you have made claims against me that are without foundation or without contacting me.

I challenge you to repeat your allegation outside the House of Commons – or to withdraw it publically.

Yours sincerely,

Lord Fink of Northwood

[letsskiptotheleft]

Our glorious free media making this a Westminster Village story about the language used by the opposition leader rather than a revelation of governent corruption and complacency.

The Telegraph was outraged earlier, as they usually are, Morrissey in his latest outburst said amongst a lot of things that the media are out to make the British a nation of idiots, which we are not and that flogging off the Royal Family would be one privatization he would welcome..

I can kinda see his point.

[rebeccariots2]

Ivan White ‏@ivanwhite48 28 mins28 minutes ago

Antony Worrall Thompson’s tip for Pancake Day (17 February):

take eggs, milk, flour and butter – and then run like hell.

I hesitate to reproduce the conversation Mr Riots and I have just had .... but here goes. I'm pondering away about some different meals we could cook (that's we as in I could cook) as I chop cabbage. I idly say to Mr Riots - is toad in the hole basically yorkshire pudding with sausages? He says yes, I think so. And then I say ... so do you have gravy with it or what? (Thinking - gravy nice, gravy good - starting to like the sound of this meal.) Mr Riots then says - Oh yes, you have to have gravy - otherwise it would be a dry hole - you need to have a toad in a wet hole.

It just doesn't sound quite so enticing now.