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Looks like the Americans are going to get another four years of what they deserve: more authoritarian leadership from a golf-playing demagogue while inflation, money printing and mountainous debt destroy the hopes and expectations of the US middle classes, their children and their grandchildren.
Obama: We've Got the Votes to Win
Assange is an unattractive narcissist on an ego trip. Galloway is no better and of course both will reach for any stick with which to beat the US. If Nigel Farage were facing the same accusations in Sweden as Assange, the soi-disant progressive classes would be calling for his head......which shows them to be the authoritarian hypocrites and peddlers of double standards they undoubtedly are.
However, I am far from convinced by these Swedish allegations. They amount to little more than the kind of he-said-she-said accusations which have routinely been rejected by juries in this country. Sweden also seems to have a definition of rape which criminalises any misunderstanidng in the bedroom. The Swedes would also put themselves in a much stronger position if they confirmed that they will not extradite Assange to the US on wikileaks-related matters. Why have they so far refused to do so?
Galloway on claims that Assange pinned a woman down with his body, and insisted on condomless sex
I have never understood why Lord Turner is treated with such reverence. Like David "Two Brains" Willetts, he seems to be yet another Vicar of Bray, tacking with the prevailing wind, uttering the most conventional platitudes, making lame excuses for the abject performance of the FSA when he headed it ....and of course being a cheerleader for UK membership of the Euro which would have been a total disaster. In comparison to Turner, I suspect Mervyn the Moneyprinter will look like a farsighted champion of economic rigour.
The Telegraph's Damian Reece explains why today's Libor report could scupper Lord Turner's Bank of England chances
Despite the predictably silly remarks of Giles, being right-wing need not mean opposition to gay marriage. I support gay marriage although its advocates ludicrously pretend that gay couples are seriously oppressed without it.
As for Johnson's credentials as a leader of the Tory Party, no one is fooled by his 24/7 self-publicity machine. Like another Eton-educated member of the Bullingdon Club, I would not trust him further than I can throw him. His badly-concealed ambition doesn't alter the fact that he is making lots of centre-right noises but would almost certainly throw in his lot with the left.....like the current PM who is in office but not in power.
Boris Johnson records video message in support of same-sex marriage
Boris Johnson has recorded a message in favour of gay marriage: "Hi folks, I'm Boris Johnson, I'm mayor of london. One of the amazing things about London is that it's not only got a declining crime rate, declining murder rate, more theatres than New York, less rainfall than Rome but it's also on...
The LibLabCon don't want social mobility. It would be a direct threat to their vested interests. It is very doubtful that Cameron, Clegg and Miliband would have enjoyed their effortless glide to the top of the tree when grammar schools were widespread. So Milburn is just talking out of both sides of his mouth. The children of the middle classes will be stigmatised and denied opportunities because they are too "bourgeois" (as in East Germany) while the nomenklatura will keep the best jobs for themselves.
Alan Milburn: "The glass ceiling might have been scratched, but it certainly hasn't been broken"
Is this the level of economic illiteracy that a PPE degree from Oxford gets you? People get a tax deduction for giving to charity. Even after that tax deduction has been taken into account, they have paid out substantially more than any tax saved. If that is "abuse", then so is deducting interest on a business loan.
By the way, we are most unlikely to get to the bottom of Cameron's real income. He lives tax-free at our expense at Chequers and in Number 10, and I suspect that much of his and Sam's millions are tied up in trusts which distribute little income.....so none of this will show up on his tax return, even if he publishes them.
David Cameron: "There is no doubt abuse is taking place" with the wealthy avoiding tax by giving to charities
At least Clegg is consistent in his willingness to mislead the voters. After all it isn't his first handbrake turn.
Nick Clegg defends Coalition plans for surveillance of the internet
Ed Miliband says it is unclear what the Government is proposing but the policy presentation had been "spectacularly mishandled":
Yes of course.....and there's also Santa Claus.
Michael Fallon MP insists donors get no policy favours in return for their money
"Send for Fallon" is the cry from the belly of 10 Downing Street whenever there's trouble to shoot. The interview with Mr Fallon, Deputy Tory Chairman, begins at just after four minutes.
Soemthing is seriously wrong if Cameron and Osborne are not well within the 50% tax bracket: they have huge personal investments. In any case, their real income is well in excess of what they are paid bearing in mind their rights under the MPs' pension scheme, their access as MPs to tax-free expenses and the fact that they each enjoy tax-free use of two expensive residences. If they were company directors, these generous perks would undoubtedly be taxed at the top rate. So in real terms their incomes are within the 50% range even ignoring their investment income.
Channel 4 investigates whether George Osborne is a 50p taxpayer
Agree with the previous post, When are the Lib Dems going to repay the proceeds of crime which they received from Michael Brown at the expense of his fraud victims? When is Laws going to repay with interest the expenses he claimed under false pretences?
Lib Dems release video making the case for taxes on the wealthy to fund tax cuts for the low paid
Would Coalition survive if Conservative HQ released videos urging LibDems to do X on immigration, Y on crime and Z on Europe?
Prof Spart supports the university recruitment procedures of the former East Germany where students were forbidden to go to university if they were "too bourgeois". Apparently one of his complaints is that too many doctors are "middle class". What would he prefer: competent doctors or non-middle classe ones?
David Willetts: "Les Ebdon has the experience and knowledge of the sector to do his job"
Yet another reminder if one were needed that with the Lib Dems in Government, the UK is closed for business. Also remember that the spotty sixth former who leads the Lib Dems is not paying full UK tax: his real earnings will be in excess of £150,000 yet his expenses are generous and untaxed; his unfunded Europension is taxed at a very favourable rate and his wife is a non-dom.
Lib Dems release video making the case for taxes on the wealthy to fund tax cuts for the low paid
Would Coalition survive if Conservative HQ released videos urging LibDems to do X on immigration, Y on crime and Z on Europe?
Can't we just have one functioning brain rather than two?
David Willetts: "Les Ebdon has the experience and knowledge of the sector to do his job"
I would settle for one working brain rather than two brains whose only function is to enable David Willetts to talk out of both sides of his mouth at once. I wonder what foreign students paying full freight to study at Russell Group universities are going to make of being forced to stay in the slow lane so as to accomodate poorly qualified students whom "Professor" Dave Spart of Winnie Mandela University, Luton, has decreed must be admitted as part of his war against the hated middle classes.
David Willetts: "Les Ebdon has the experience and knowledge of the sector to do his job"
But if you want to know the policies of Cameron's Conservatives, look at the Lib Dem website.
Is Farage's UKIP a one-man band?
I suspect Goodwin's greatest crime in Osborne's eyes is that his title was not hereditary and he didn't have a trust fund. In Gideon's gilded little world, oiks clean shoes and wait at table.
George Osborne: "I think it's appropriate that [Fred Goodwin] loses his knighthood"
Like Labour the Lib Dems aren't interested in significantly reducing public spending. They want, and have got, runaway public spending so that they can use it as a pretext for raising taxes, of which a small percentage will be handed back to the "squeezed middle". This is Clegg's version of "fairness". It mainly involves shafting the under 35's but this age group have already worked out that Clegg is a chancer who is not to be trusted.
Nick Clegg: Squeezed middle should be given "more tax cuts, more money back in their pockets"
"The reforms that would deal with these problems are so radical that they would perhaps cause a revolution." I don't think so: all it requires is some leadership rather than constant appeasement of the left and its client constituencies. Even if you were right, these problems are not going away: in fact they are getting steadily worse so the crash when it comes will simply be that much worse than it would be if we got a grip now.
Treasury minister David Gauke MP talks to BBC News after UK debt hits £1 trillion for first time ever
As the whole rotting hulk settles lower in the water, the usual rats are trying to persuade us how nice it is on the sinking ship. Step forward Roland Rudd, representative on earth of Peter Mandelson, not to mention Michael Heseltine, in his new role of the Young Mr Grace of the Tory Party. Nick Clegg, Chris Huhne and other Lib Dem Euromoonies utter ever shriller denunciations of those latter-day Luthers who question the Eurofaith. Not surprising really: Clegg and Huhne need ordinary taxpayers to fork out for their europensions.
Now it's Osborne's turn to say "no" to Europe
By Tim Montgomerie Follow Tim on Twitter George Osborne yesterday told Eurozone leaders that Britain would not contribute to a special bailout facility that they are establishing at the IMF, specifically to bolster the single currency. The Eurozone nations had been hoping to build a €200bn warc...
What a bunch of boring hypocrites. Most of you really do need to lighten up. Tasteless and childish maybe....much like the average stag party, but that is all there is to it. The usual tutting puritans posting on this thread would have had no difficulty if they had dressed up as Stalin or Mao or Trotsky or Che Guevera or Gerry Adams or any of the genocidal maniacs, mass murderers and torturers feted in "progressive" circles. Yet one mention of the word "Nazi", and you all start shrieking like Edwardian maiden aunts.
As for Cameron's reaction, given that dissembling to the voters seems to be his only real skill, he should not be surprised when he is repaid in his own coin.
Cameron sacks Aidan Burley MP after it is revealed he paid for hire of SS uniform at stag party
By Tim Montgomerie Follow Tim on Twitter Aidan Burley MP has been sacked as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Transport Secretary, Justine Greening, after Downing Street learnt that he had personally hired the SS uniform that had been worn at a stag party that he attended. The additional r...
No such realism and humanity from the Moonie sect of sado-climatologists in our Coalition Government. Step forward Greg Barker, Andrew Mitchell and above all Christopher "Buff" Huhne. All millionaires from dealings in the City yet happy to saddle the poor with the costs of their hubristric dementia.
In historic rejection of Climate Change Plan A, Canada's Conservative government pulls out of Kyoto
By Tim Montgomerie Follow Tim on Twitter Cameron may have said "no" to Europe. Canada's Conservative Government has said "no" to the world. The Canadian Environment Minister Peter Kent yesterday pulled his country out of the Kyoto Treaty. In this short statement he said that he wasn't willing ...
"History does not pay the bills or provide jobs." Whereas the TRG/LibDem policy of joining a dysfunctional currency union riddled with unpayable debt, chronic imbalances and tuned indefinitely to recession does pay/provide them? Is it April 1st?
After Europe says no to Britain's modest demands, Cameron says no to Europe
By Tim Montgomerie Follow Tim on Twitter This morning seems like a very big moment. David Cameron went to Europe with only modest demands. The Prime Minister was ready to agree to a fiscal union of the seventeen - within existing EU structures - if Britain's financial sector received some safegu...
Very astute analysis. The Europhiliacs will be back.....led by Clarke, Clegg and Heseltine.
After Europe says no to Britain's modest demands, Cameron says no to Europe
By Tim Montgomerie Follow Tim on Twitter This morning seems like a very big moment. David Cameron went to Europe with only modest demands. The Prime Minister was ready to agree to a fiscal union of the seventeen - within existing EU structures - if Britain's financial sector received some safegu...
I think it says a lot about you that you think the country is blessed by the Tories forming a Coalition with the Lib Dems. Said Coalition seems to involve 52 MPs on the loony left compelling a party with 302 MPs to continue the policies of Gordon Brown while pretending to the electortae that they are bringing public spending under control.
David Davis MP: Britain may never get a better opportunity to create a new relationship with the EU
By David Davis MP. There are moments that change history. When previously unquestioned assumptions are challenged. When the unthinkable has to be thought through. The Eurozone is now experiencing such a period. The exact outcome of all this nobody knows for sure. But one thing is clear; the Eu...
David Davis if anything understates the scale of the problem. Far from creating effective controls over the debt-crippled members of the Eurozone, Merkozy has simply rehashed the growth and stability pact which existed when the Euro was set up and which everyone ignored. The so-called sanctions are pure posturing. They cannot be enforced, especially when it comes to France which will play its time-honoured role in Europe of living far beyond its means; ripping off others to pay for it; and denouncing them as "bad Europeans" when they protest at being mugged. Net result: the so-called "strong solution" is simply sowing the seeds of the next crisis in the Vortex of Debt known as the Eurozone.
David Davis MP: Britain may never get a better opportunity to create a new relationship with the EU
By David Davis MP. There are moments that change history. When previously unquestioned assumptions are challenged. When the unthinkable has to be thought through. The Eurozone is now experiencing such a period. The exact outcome of all this nobody knows for sure. But one thing is clear; the Eu...
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