@ 2009-11-10 – 23:34:20
| Indicator | Value | Change on week | Change on month | Change on year |
| FTSE 100 | 5247.43 | + 253.47 | + 93.33 | + 843.53 |
| £ against US | 1.67 | + 0.03 | + 0.09 | + 0.10 |
| £ against € | 1.11 | none | + 0.04 | - 0.11 |
| UK inflation | 1.1% | none | none | - 4.1% |
| UK interest rates | 0.5% | none | none | - 2.5% |
* Figures are as at midday on 10 November 2009
@ 2009-11-03 – 15:42:08
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan election officials declared Hamid Karzai president for another five-year term after scrapping a planned election run-off following the withdrawal of his only rival, Abdullah Abdullah.
Am I the only one wondering if Abdullah Abdullah was intimidated into withdrawing by the American and British Governments as Karzai is the one who will listen and do whatever they tell him to ?
The whole thing stinks of corruption and coercion.
I personally wouldnt trust Karzai with both hands tied behind his back as his body language betrays his obvious motives. I feel sorry for the average Afghani who wants peace and for the turmoil to disappear. IT wont happen.
@ 2009-10-23 – 00:35:10
Having just watched the much publicised 'Question Time' I have come away a little confused.
I was expecting a loud mouthed shouting utter racist in the form of Nick Griffin to find that on some points I actually agreed with him. I wonder how many others thought that too ? Here was a much more polished and careful with his answers Griffin that appeared to be a changed man. Like all politicians, he has also tailored his answers to what may bring him some votes from a wider threshhold, and he appeared to have sold out his former alarmist viewpoints and seemed to be towing a more agreeable one.
The BNP is still a loathsome party but to see someone holding his own , being attacked by all the other panellists, the presenter, and a mainly ethnic Minority audience ( Naughty BBC) will almost certainly bring him some more fans and crucially more votes.
Instead of following the usual format, Question Time devoted 90% of the programme to attacking Griffin which I found rather boring and tedious and when they eventually got onto another topic - about Stephen Gateleys death and the reporting thereafter, it got a little more interesting. However even that was hijacked by militant gays who tried to quash and shout down anything they didnt agree with.
I would have preferred the usual format of Question Time as it would have brought out what Griffin really thought about current events rather than the tailored racism rants that emanated.
Isnt it amazing how Politicians change after they have been elected ? The Programme just after Question Time had the revolting Dianne Abbot- a prime example of just how status and money corrupts. Before she was elected , she used to shout about private schools and that they should be abolished etc ...and what does she do once she was elected ? Her kids are in a very expensive private school.
I am certainly NOT a supporter of the BNP......but I fear that Nick Griffin has a lot more supporters after being featured in his own show in the form of 'Question Time'.
A boring and disappointing programme that reduced itself to base questions and sometime uncontrolled blatant hysterics to pander to what it thought its viewers wanted.....and got it drastically wrong.
@ 2009-10-06 – 12:50:01
Its all very good saying that to raise the pension age to 66 means extra billions saved...not a bad idea but he has a HUGE problem to overcome that decision.
If in an ageist society..... most people over 40 cant get a job...how is he going to get work for the 65 year olds for another year ( if they are lucky enough to be in a job anyway) ? Most companies try like mad to put them in positions where they are not needed to get rid of them.
So what accompaning legislation is going to be introduced to overcome this ? Will ALL companies be forced to employ at least one or two over 50 ? Same as the law with ethnic minorities ? Same as the percentages required by the Police ? The Army ?
And to pay them the same rate of pay as they have enjoyed all their lives...NOT the minimum wage ?
And if they are unemployed over 60...they will still get Pension credit of £130 per week so any savings made will soon dwindle.
There are more chances of riding a purple elephant through the Queens bedroom than this coming to a successful fruition.
There are millions of over 50's and 60's who would love to have a paying job that takes advantage of their superior knowledge and intellect, but the spotty faced juvenile managers do not want the competition.
However.....these people have paid their dues and worked hard all their lives.....what a wonderful reward for all those taxes and NHI payments paid throughout their whole lives!
There are more people in this age group than any other for the first time in history. valuable votes ! Drop this one before you smash all chances of returning to Government.
@ 2009-10-05 – 18:17:37
Subject: FW: History of UK Maths teaching
1. Teaching Maths In 1970
A forester sells a truckload of timber for £100.
His cost of production is 4/5 of the price.
What is his profit?
2. Teaching Maths In 1980
A forester sells a truckload of timber for £100.
His cost of production is 80% of the price.
What is his profit?
3. Teaching Maths In 1990
A forester sells a truckload of timber for £100.
His cost of production is £80.
How much was his profit?
4. Teaching Maths In 2000
A forester sells a truckload of timber for £100.
His cost of production is £80 and his profit is £20.
Your assignment: Underline the number 20.
5. Teaching Maths In 2005
A forester cuts down a beautiful forest because he is selfish and
inconsiderate and cares nothing for the habit of animals or the preservation
of our woodlands. Your assignment: Discuss how the birds and squirrels might
feel as the forester cut down their homes just for a measly profit of £20.
6. Teaching Maths In 2009
A forester is arrested for trying to cut down a tree in case it may be
offensive to Muslims or other religious groups not consulted in the felling
licence. He is also fined a £100 as his chainsaw is in breach of Health and
Safety legislation as it deemed too dangerous and could cut something He has
used the chainsaw for over 20 years without incident however he does not
have the correct certificate of competence and is therefore considered to be
a recidivist and habitual criminal. His DNA is sampled and his details
circulated throughout all government agencies. He protests and is taken to
court and fined another £100 because he is such an easy target. When he is
released he returns to find Gypsies have cut down half his wood to build a
camp on his land. He tries to throw them off but is arrested, prosecuted for
harassing an ethnic minority, imprisoned and fined a further £100.
While he is in jail the Gypsies cut down the rest of his wood and sell it on
the black market for £100 cash. They also have a leaving BBQ of squirrel and
pheasant and depart leaving behind several tonnes of rubbish and asbestos
sheeting. The forester on release is warned that failure to clear the fly
tipped rubbish immediately at his own cost is an offence. He complains and
is arrested for environmental pollution, breach of the peace and invoiced
£12,000 plus VAT for safe disposal costs by a regulated government
contractor.
Your assignment: How many times is the forester going to have to be arrested
and fined before he realises that he is never going to make £20 profit by
hard work and may as well give up, sign onto the dole and live off the state
for the rest of his life?
7. Teaching Maths In 2010
A forester doesn’t sell a lorry load of timber because he can’t get a loan
to buy a new lorry because his bank has spent all his and their money on a
derivative of securitised debt related to sub- prime mortgages in Alabama
and lost the lot with only some government money left to pay a few million
pound bonuses to their senior directors and the traders who made the biggest
losses.
The forester struggles to pay the £1,200 road tax on his old lorry however,
as it was built in the 1970s it no longer meets the emissions regulations
and he is forced to scrap it. Some Bulgarian loggers buy the lorry from the
scrap merchant and put it back on the road. They undercut everyone on price
for haulage and send their cash back home, while claiming unemployment for
themselves and their relatives. If questioned they speak no English and it
is easier to deport them at the governments expense. Following their holiday
back home they return to the UK with different names and fresh girls and
start again. The forester protests, is accused of being a bigoted racist and
as his name is on the side of his old lorry, he is forced to pay £1,500
registration fees as a gang master.
The Government borrows more money to pay more to the bankers as bonuses are
not cheap. The parliamentarians feel they are missing out and claim the
difference on expenses and allowances.
You do the maths.
8. Teaching Maths 2017
à ÇáãÓÌá ÊÈíÚ Íãæáå ÔÇÍäÉ ãä ÇáÎÔÈ ãä ÇÌá 100 ÏæáÇÑ. ÕÇÍÈ ÊßáÝÉ ÇáÇäÊÇÌ ãä
ÇáËãä. ãÇ åæ ÇáÑÈÍ áå¿
@ 2009-08-23 – 01:18:29
Ali al-Megrahi , the alleged Lockerbie Bomber was released back to Libya yesterday, much to the disgust of The British Government and its master, the American Government.
Ali al-Megrahi has always pleaded his innocence on commiting this crime and after 8 years in prison has not changed his plea. The evidence has not been substantive to his conviction and I have grave doubts about his involvement. And even if he was involved, which is very debatable,we have to look deeper into who gave the order to do the bombing.
Step forward Colonel Gadaffi, probably the real villain in this scenario. However as Libya has substancial oil reserves. the West is now lining up to kiss his arse and all is forgotten. Rumour has it that even the Libyans were not involved and that the CIA did it as they wanted to eliminate some of the passengers on that flight. We will never really know the truth.
The Scottish were right to release this man as he has, allegedly, only a few months to live. They have shown a brave face in giving this man some compassion and shown that the West is not barbaric nor cruel. 270 people died when the plane came down in Lockerbie in 1988 - but we dont know for sure whether Ali al-Megrahi was responsible for this disaster.
What is disgusting is the feigned affrontery displayed by the various political parties, who are distancing themselves from the Scottish decision as they think that the general public actually give a shit about what happened twenty years ago, and adopting a 'we are with you' attitude. Yes we are all sorry for the relatives of the people who died on that aeroplane and indeed the unfortunates who perished- but this was caused by clandestine political agendas that we will never be privy to. Its not the fault of just one man.
President Obama has also voiced his wrath at the Scottish parliament as he was comfortable that as long as Ali al-Megrahi was incarcerated, the file was closed. A can of worms has been opened and there will be more investigation and unwanted theories that may involve the CIA as well as the Libyans. Someone is pulling Obamas strings as he is gradually towing the line and some of his fine promises that he made when he came to power are gradually being canned. It was in the American interest to keep this man under lock and key.
Scotland is going to receive a heavy barrage of criticism over its decision and must stand firm and not deviate one bit from pressure that will be applied.
They must live up to the old William Wallace battle cry....Scotland the Brave! For indeed they have been.
@ 2009-08-07 – 16:50:30
Women have always strived to work harder than men as they want to equal or even better them.
I always preferred employing women to men in my retail outlets (when I had them) as they were more fastidious and took more pride in completing tasks, and all tasks were finished properly.
They were also ruthless in their decision making and were willing to walk over fellow workers to justify their outcomes to make it successful.
No one escaped their wrath if opposed on the path they wanted to take.
Fantastic! However it is this very trait that makes them unsuitable to occupy a major position in decision making that involves the whole country.
Binocular vision, blind to any argument as displayed by some of the Women cabinet members proves this.
Harriet Harman,Tessa Jowell and Yvette Cooper and especially Caroline Flint have all displayed the stubborness of femininity when criticised or opposed. All willing to knife the Boss if necessary.
None of them have the qualities of Margaret Thatcher when she first emerged and none of them have the strength to get the country wholeheartedly on their side as she did. OK Mrs Thatcher did mess up a little in the end and selling off the utilities was her downfall.
But she was the better one........Just think what would happen if any of the current batch of female assassins took control of the country ? Absolute Chaos.
Until Women lose this ridiculous thinking that they HAVE to be better than men rather than equal them, they wont get anywhere as all judgements by them will be heavily influenced.
So.....NO to the thought that the next Cabinet must have an equal amount of women as men.
Ok.....shoot me down now! lol
@ 2009-07-26 – 13:26:07
Having watched the funeral cortege of 8 coffins of those killed in Afghanistan, I of course felt sorry for the soldiers killed.
When the Government at the time decided to make the age of adulthood 18 instead of 21, it took away 3 years of mature childhood.It was done to raise the taxation needed at the time,to be milked from these immature and inexperienced lot. Adulthood in our masters country, the USA, is STILL 21. You still need to be 21 to get into any club that serves alcohol. They are lucky.
Why are we sending 18 to 21 year olds to fight in a war when clearly they are not experienced in life or mature enough to think or fend for themselves ?
Men and women who join the Army are in there for a reason....to protect and fight the politicians foibles and mistakes that all of them make. All the Generals and Commanders of these forces are rarely found in the frontline but dictate from comfy armchairs while eating and drinking rich food unavailable to the ones doing all the fighting.
Completely inexperienced politicians, who have probably never ever seen or been in a war are the ones who dictate to the Generals what they want to happen in order to achieve some clandestine reason that is kept under secret wraps that we , the public, are never privy too.
The Generals in turn blindly do what they are told, sacrificing lives that mean nothing to them while they wash down gourmet food with an expensive glass of wine. These are the trendy new murderers of our day.
Decisions always of course,cleverly disguised as making your life more safe and for democracy.
With the availability of modern weapons, there is no real need to have an army on the ground, fighting old fashioned hand to hand fighting. Pressing A single button could obliterate and destroy any threats within seconds...... and from miles away.
In any case, the Taliban only need to switch on the news on their TV's to get an upto date situation of what we are doing and what weaknesses we have at any time, shortage of helicopters etc .....how very helpful for them.
We as a nation do not have the mentality to win any war in Afghanistan, it will turn out to be another Vietnam, as it was for the yanks. Have we forgotten what happened to the Russians ? And they had a formidable force. The enemy is fighting for Allah and not afraid to die as they will go to heaven and have countless virgins for their trouble. What have we to offer our troops ? The answer here lies within the Muslims themselves.
They must learn to handle their own problems and stand up to despots and charlatans who use Allah as an excuse to kill and intimidate their own people.
We and the coalition forces have killed thousands, a lot of them innocents caught up in crossfire. I am very surprised at how few casualties that we have had in this senseless war.
The Government there in Afghanistan that WE have installed are just as corrupt as our own politicians. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Not all muslims are aggressive and bloodthirsty but we have opened our borders to those that are not welcome in their OWN countries. We have allowed them to build Mosques on practically every high street in Britain and encouraged them to infiltrate every community. As one Mullah just recently said....'I am not worried about England as there are so many of us here now, it will soon be a Muslim country'
England is a ticking timebomb just waiting to explode, and explode it will when we ignore a serious underlying threat that becomes more apparent each day.
Most Muslims living here are decent and hardworking individuals, but the aggressive and threatening variety are growing at an alarming pace.
As in Afghanistan, the ones here need to sort out their own communities, as we cant.
If we are going to send 18 year olds to the frontline to fight, we should take some of the crap that wanders our streets assaulting old people and knifing and fighting and send them directly there instead of useless Courts who acquit them or treat then leniently which encourages them to go out and do it again.
And before the do-gooders come out from under their protected rocks to criticise what I have written. I have a lot of Muslim friends who agree with me. I have just returned from a Muslim country where I had fantastic hospitality. I have lived in Muslim countries, speak some of their languages and taught their children the English language.
It is for them that I fear the most.
@ 2009-07-18 – 10:45:49
This test only
has one question, but it's a very important one. By
giving an honest answer,
you will discover where you stand morally.
The test features an unlikely, completely fictional
situation in which you
will have to make a decision.
Remember that your answer needs to be honest, yet
spontaneous.
Please scroll down slowly and give due consideration to
each line.
THE SITUATION:
You are in England ; York , to be
specific.
There is chaos all around you caused by a hurricane with
severe flooding.
This is a flood of biblical proportions.
You are a photo-journalist working for a major newspaper,
and you're caught
in the middle of this epic disaster. The situation is
nearly hopeless.
You're trying to shoot career-making photos.
There are houses and people swirling around you, some
disappearing into the
water.
Nature is unleashing all of its destructive fury.
THE TEST:
Suddenly, you see a man in the water.
He is fighting for his life, trying not to be taken down
with the debris.
You move closer... Somehow, the man looks familiar...
You suddenly realise who it is... It's Gordon Brown!
You notice that the raging waters are about to take him
under forever. You
have two options:
You can save the life of Gordon Brown or you can shoot a
dramatic Pulitzer
Prize winning photo, documenting the death of one of the
country's most
powerful men!
THE QUESTION:
Here's the question, and please give an honest
answer...
Would you select high contrast colour film, or would you
go with the classic
simplicity of black and white?
@ 2009-05-20 – 14:27:52
The Speaker has resigned !! ( as from June)
Hooray!!......That's the end of corruption then isn't it ?
This chap has been doing a job in the tradition that has always been accepted for centuries. No different to any other speaker to date. As long as he was accepting all claims for expenses, he was a good chap! Even his own expenses were OK! What a nice Chap!
Oops! The MPS greed and obvious grabbing of tax payers money for themselves has been exposed! And of course...The Speaker is to blame! Its so obvious isn't it?
Don't these MP's have enough morals and self esteem and common sense to realise what they were doing were the same as bank robbers and muggers ? Of course they did but centuries of pomp and circumstance of these 'ruling' classes meant they were NOT included and exempt from 'public' scrutiny.
I exposed corruption within these ranks over 2 years ago and was very aware that one law was for us, the public, and another for 'them' the right 'honourable' members of Parliament!
The future elected Speaker must be independent of all Political parties and have no loyalties except to the job he is meant to do. All claims in future should be transparent and published for public view. ALL funds removed should be returned and a prison sentence for those most at fault.
If we were working for an employer and made false claims on our expenses to the extents these chaps have done, we would have been sacked and had the Police called in!
I don't advocate the intervention of the Police in this matter as they already have too much power in their hands and will cement the idea of a Police State.
The corruption runs through all parties that we have, but its interesting to note that David Cameron is the first to apologise ( I know its expected anyway)- but he is the first to BAN his MP's from claiming for personal expenditure, A step in the right direction.
I wouldn't feel too sorry for Mr Martin as he will be well looked after by a corrupt system that looks after its servants well. He will get a fantastic Pension and a rosy future as a director on a few companies no doubt. Part of his resignation package must have included agreements and conditions to make sure his lips were sealed.
I have never in my lifetime witnessed such a corrupt and incompetent Government. I cant think of a single Cabinet Minister that I would trust with feeding the dog his Bonio without filling his pockets up first! A single female Cabinet Minister who can be trusted to give the cat her milk without crouching down and licking the cream off the top first!
The punishment must come from the public voting system. DO NOT VOTE in the worst culprits into office again at the next local elections!
Perhaps its time for the Ethics Party to emerge into public endorsement!
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