Re: Dis-United Kingdom General Election campaign officially kicks off

**Sabot** Fri Apr 10, 2015 1:26 pm

bb1 wrote:They are indeed, Lily. I've learned all sorts of fascinating things since reading financial blogs. Like, the UK is almost as bankrupt as the US is, and it is only a matter of time before the spinning plates start falling. All this 'prosperity' Cameron boasts of is little more than using payday loans to buy 60'' tellies on a giant scale.

The Tories have just launched this scheme by which people will get access to their private pensions early, not as monthly payouts, but as huge lump sums. The devil is, as ever, in the detail.

1. Any monies removed will be heavily taxed.

2. Those funds represent just about the only genuine, real money left, and they have some bizarre idea that if the over-50s blow their investments on hot tubs, sports cars and cruises, it will somehow kickstart the stagnant economy.

3. Anyone daft enough to do it is also daft enough to be ripped off by sharks. Again.

What is also in the small print is a warning that if people throw away these funds before they retire, they needn't bother complaining when they do retire and all they have to live on is the State pension. They will be regarded as having deliberately impoverished themselves.

But it's all being presented as a huge step for Free Choice and all that, while every spiv in the financial sector rubs their hands with glee.

Any fool can see what this is about. Beggar yourself to kickstart the economy. How daft do these people think we are?

**lily** Fri Apr 10, 2015 1:36 pm

When they allowed the business communities to leave their shores, by being unfriendly to them, they doomed their countries.

Tangible goods.

That is what mainly fuels economies.......

**Lamplighter** Fri Apr 10, 2015 1:44 pm

bb1 wrote:It's beyond me why people want to live in London, Sabot. I know there is a lot of money to be made, but the quality of life is abysmal for all but the rich.

I lived and had my practice in London for over 30 years - however, in Eaton Square, a 'nice' very upmarket area. Though I did enjoy living there, it never quite resonated with me as much as Vienna did and still does. What finally made me leave, besides assorted other reasons was the bad air quality; waking up most mornings with bunged-up lungs due to the pollution was not good. LL

**bb1** Fri Apr 10, 2015 2:06 pm

Today:

http://news.sky.com/story/1461992/air-pollution-alert-uk-set-for-hottest-day

The elderly and people with health problems have been warned to avoid strenuous activity because of harmful levels of air pollution expected to blanket parts of the UK.

The warning comes as forecasters say Britain could enjoy the hottest day of the year so far, with parts of eastern England predicted to reach highs of 22C (71.6F).

Eastern, central and southern England are forecast to be affected by "high" pollution today.

Parts of East Sussex and west Kent are expected to reach "very high" levels, according to the Government's UK-Air monitoring service.

**Sabot** Fri Apr 10, 2015 2:07 pm

The last time I was in London, thirty years ago, and only for one day, I left with a severe dose of carbon monoxide poisoning.

**Sabot** Fri Apr 10, 2015 2:09 pm

The last time I visited UK, which must be seven years ago, I could see the pollution over Plymouth from the deck of the ferry off shore.
And when you are no longer used to this you can smell it.

**Lamplighter** Fri Apr 10, 2015 2:11 pm

The problem with London is it has so many narrow streets and that helps the pollution to hang around. And there are far too many cars, buses and lorries all belching out toxic fumes 24/7. LL

**bb1** Fri Apr 10, 2015 4:17 pm

Hounder:

UKIP - an opportunity for a fresh approach to Madeleine's disappearance?
Post suzysu Yesterday at 11:24 pm

I've emailed Nigel Farage to ask what UKIP's stance is on the issue of Madeleine's disappearance. Dare we hope that he will embrace the thorny political hot potato?

When I asked Meg Munn - my MP - I received a response to the effect that she couldn't comment on an on-going police investigation. spin

I will let you know when I hear back from Nigel Farage. Please feel free to email your own questions or comments http://www.nigelfaragemep.co.uk/contact

Someone, surely, will eventually pick this up and run with it.

Why on earth would they do that? yernuts

**bb1** Fri Apr 10, 2015 4:20 pm

Conspiraloon:

Re: UKIP - an opportunity for a fresh approach to Madeleine's disappearance?
Post Richard D. Hall Today at 3:51 pm

You might as well ask Mickey Mouse. I would say the best strategy with regards MP's is to wait until immediately after the general election and approach all of the virgin (new) MP's who have never been to Parliament before. You might find that some of them have not been indoctrinated into the system yet. Especially MPs who achieve a surprise result. You might find that some of them are eager to make their name.

Richard D. Hall

What, by smearing the parents of a missing child? By hassling the police? Anyone touching that poisoned chalice would 'make their name' all right - and it would be MUD.

I get the impression that these loony haters don't grasp how notorious they really are.....

**Sabot** Fri Apr 10, 2015 4:24 pm

Wot? Not going to vote for Nigel if he doesn't agree with them?

**bb1** Fri Apr 10, 2015 4:30 pm

Dare we hope that he will embrace the thorny political hot potato?

They don't seem to grasp that the McCann case isn't a 'political hot potato'. Possibly because they've invented so many stupid conspiracy theories in their own addled 'minds'.

Oh, that must be why all of Bennett's socks voted for UKIP in their poll. Sadly for them, I think Nige is sharp enough to know that socks can't actually vote in real elections....

Apart from Obama supporters in certain areas with electronic voting, of course, but that's another story.....

**lily** Fri Apr 10, 2015 4:33 pm

Voting for a person as to their stance on the McCann matter? How much more stupid can you get?

What a ridiculous shower of idiots.....

**Sabot** Fri Apr 10, 2015 5:14 pm

They're going to get someone done, Lily, come hell or high water. Probably themselves. Hopefully.

**lily** Fri Apr 10, 2015 6:42 pm

They are not responsible enough to be voting, Sabot. How sad is that?

**bb1** Fri Apr 10, 2015 7:19 pm

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/apr/10/david-cameron-and-ed-miliband-told-to-stay-away-by-constituencies

Labour and Tory top brass told to stay away by constituencies

rofl

**lily** Fri Apr 10, 2015 7:41 pm

Can you blame them? rofl

**bb1** Fri Apr 10, 2015 8:00 pm

The Tory mentioned at the end sounds unusual:

The tightest battle in the election is for the votes of the haves and have nots of Hampstead and Kilburn in north-west London. In a seat held by Labour by just 42 votes, the Tory candidate Simon Marcus is displaying profound independence from the leadership.

“He will look more to the constituency than the whips office,” the constituency deputy chairman, Oliver Cooper said. That means he has been campaigning against three major Tory policies – the replacement of the Trident nuclear deterrent, the bedroom tax and the high-speed rail link, HS2, from London to Birmingham.

“All politics is local,” said Cooper. “[The local campaign] cuts away the personality politics, all the gossip and rumours, and is just about how you can help people on the ground. We have been on the right side of issues, whether opposing the construction of skyscrapers, basements, council tax increases, the mansion tax – all these are local issues we have delivered on without it being a slanging match between David Cameron and Ed Miliband.”

The establishment parties all seem to have forgotten that....

HS2 has to be the most STUPID vanity project of all - Cameron seems to think that because France has one, he should have one, too. The fact that the two cities are only some 130 miles apart, and the new trainline is going to cause destruction along the way, doesn't seem to enter into it.

Oh, and it's also going to cost at least £50 billion. Austerity, anyone?

**lily** Fri Apr 10, 2015 8:21 pm

I feel your pain, Bonny. Governor Brown is wanting to do similar in California.......

Oliver Cooper sounds an okay kind of politician.

**bb1** Fri Apr 10, 2015 8:24 pm

Yes, they normally give the impression that they all come out of moulds these days, and act as if the sky will fall if they disagree with Central Office about anything.

**lily** Fri Apr 10, 2015 8:27 pm

Maybe they won't get their bonuses if they don't adhere to the script....

**bb1** Sat Apr 11, 2015 3:27 pm

http://linkis.com/www.theguardian.com/1D59c

The great unvetted public locked out as party leaders tour sanitised Britain
Marina Hyde
Marina Hyde
Fearful of a Mrs Duffy moment, party leaders are taking every precaution to avoid an unscripted encounter with members of the public

George Osborne shares a joke and admires his handy-work after putting together the face onto a ‘Henry’ vaccum in Chard, Somerset. Photograph: Ben Birchall/PA

This election is being run as a pseudo-event. Back in the 1960s, the writer Daniel Boorstin defined a pseudo-event as one that would not happen if the cameras were not there. It’s almost as if he could foresee the day when journalists would travel to Somerset to watch George Osborne smile at a vacuum cleaner.

So far, this has been an election staged in out-of-town business parks, cleared factory floors, deserted building sites, and town halls filled with pre-screened party supporters. The list of venues to which the party leaders are bussed or flown satirises itself: a heavily-guarded empty barn, a facility that makes virtual reality suites, a rural hedgehog farm. On Wednesday, the Lib Dems retreated to a woodland adventure centre, prompting a return to that old thought experiment: if Nick Clegg says something political in a forest, does he make a sound?

These are not anything that could be described as civic spaces. In fact, in civic terms they are non-spaces, the sort of places you might expect to end up if you took a wrong turn at a roundabout in a vast international airport, with its strange network of goods vehicle roads and utilitarian hangars. Taxi drivers who take me the long distances from town centre railway stations out to these remote venues have to plug the coordinates into their satnavs. They stare at the map, and ask what could possibly be bringing me here.

More at link.

God forgive any of them should have to speak to the Great Unwashed - the GU have an unfortunate habit of asking them embarrassing questions.

And in the untamed North, we do things like chasing them into sandwich shops, and up streets to the tune of the Imperial March from Star Wars......

**bb1** Sat Apr 11, 2015 3:29 pm

Incidentally, a reporter from England was horrified at the disrespect the Caledonian GU are prone to demonstrate at Holyrood.

The voters were in the coffee shop! With pushchairs and screaming weans! Buttonholing politicians and asking what was going to be done about potholes/their local bus service, etc!

Oh, the horror of it!

**bb1** Sat Apr 11, 2015 3:35 pm

Cameron's previous efforts to meet Scotch-type plebs haven't been an overwhelming success:

Dis-United Kingdom General Election campaign officially kicks off - Page 8 Prime%20Minister%20David%20Cameron%20tries%20some%20porridge%20during%20a%20visit%20to%20the%20Quaker%20Oats%20site%20at%20Cupar%20in%20Scotland

Dis-United Kingdom General Election campaign officially kicks off - Page 8 Prime%20Minister%20David%20Cameron%20tries%20some%20porridge%20during%20a%20visit%20to%20the%20Quaker%20Oats%20site%20at%20Cupar%20in%20Scotland

**lily** Sat Apr 11, 2015 3:37 pm

Oh I see the oats and shortbread out there...... rofl

**Sabot** Sat Apr 11, 2015 3:39 pm

I am developing an overpowering desire to smack one of them in the mouth.

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