Kingfisher

Farage is facing questions over a rent free office he seems to have claimed over £200,000 tax payers money for.

Mr I'm not like the others - my arse!

That's not quite true is it. He has declared it in Brussels every year. And it hasn't cost the taxpayer a penny. He hasn't claimed any money for it.

I wouldn't trust tax dodger Farage on anything, his accounts are as vague as his policies.

Atos pay £30m fine for failures to asses disabled people. Are the government going to use it to compensate the people they've failed?

If they did (they wont), I wouldn't trust their competence to arrange it. £29m of it would be privatised.

Farage is facing questions over a rent free office he seems to have claimed over £200,000 tax payers money for.

Mr I'm not like the others - my arse!

Sums him up perfectly really doesn't it, holding a sun newspaper. Part of the 'establishment'.

Just like the Sun he has nothing interesting or enlightening to say, he'll happily be xenophobic if it suits his agenda and his cabinet, just like the paper, is full of tits.

Caroline Lucas wore a ban page 3 t-shirt and got told to 'cover up'...

Threaten to shut down or censor charities who dare to say anything that might make the government look bad.

This must be one of Michael Gove's 'British values'? TBH censorship of this kind is more akin to Putin's Russia.

http://www.civilsociety.co.uk/governance/news/content/17632/trussell_trust_chair_told_the_government_might_try_to_shut_you_down

The chair of the Trussell Trust has said that the charity made a decision to tone down its criticisms of the benefit system after someone in power warned them that they could get shut down.

Chris Mould, chair of the Trussell Trust, was giving evidence to the Panel on the Independence of the Voluntary Sector yesterday when he said that the charity, which aims to tackle poverty, had been criticised by the government for raising awareness of the need for food banks.

He said that he had seen several examples of how “people in power do pretty inappropriate things at times to try and curb and curtail independence of a voluntary organisation when it proves to be inconvenient to them”.

Mould, who made it clear that the charity was not a campaigning organisation, told the panel that most of these examples had arisen in private conversations with those in power.

'Government might try to shut you down'

He said that in a face-to-face conversation in March 2013 with "someone in power", he was told that he must think more carefully otherwise “the government might try to shut you down”.

Mould said: “This was spoken in anger, but is the kind of dialogue that can occur. It exposes the way people think in the political world about their relationship with the voluntary sector when things are getting difficult. What can we do?”

The charity then took the decision to tone down its criticisms so that the government would maintain its contact. Mould said that this decision was a response of a “positive nature”.

He also spoke of another example of when the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions' office contacted him in 2011 in response to publication of the Trussell Trust’s concerns about the benefits system.

Mould said he received a phone call on his day off “from someone in the Secretary of State’s office which was basically to tell me that the boss was very angry with us because we were publicising the concerns we have over the rising number of people who were struggling as a consequence of delays and inefficiencies in the benefits system”.

However Mould, who spoke of “ongoing efforts to belittle the organisation” by the government, said that a decision made by the charity’s trustees in 2005 that they would avoid seeking government funding meant that they were in a better position to resist government pressure.

Mould also spoke of how the charity's commitment to professionalism, including its expanding trustee board which attempts to cover all areas of expertise, and the quality of the statistics it produces, gave the charity more capacity to resist pressure.

Earlier this year, a criticial article by the Daily Mail about the Trussell Trust led to the charity's appeal raising more than £50,000 in two days.

Blanche Jones, campaigns director at 38 degrees, also spoke to the panel yesterday about the reception the organisation receives from politicians.

The campaigning organisation received criticism last year from Conservative MP Peter Bottomley who said that 38 Degrees was one of several organisations whose members were spamming the inboxes of MPs causing them “chaos”.

Jones said that she wished government would see this engagement as a more positive thing, as such comments from MPs contribute to a “growing feeling of disengagement and disempowerment”.

Oxfam reported to Charity Commission

A new political attack on charities was seen yesterday when a Tory MP revealed that he is reporting Oxfam to the Charity Commission for its “perfect storm” promotional campaign on austerity. Conor Burns, Conservative MP for Bournemouth West, said the campaign was "overtly political and aimed at the policies of the current government".

This war will be a disaster, it won't bring peace, democracy or stability to the region. I doubt Sadam has any weapons of mass destruction or the means to create any. The country will end up a fractured failed state, and a breeding ground for terrorism and we will have succeeded only in fanning the flames of hatred.

Those were my views back in 2003, and the views of millions of anti-war protesters which were completely ignored by a war hungry Blair government, a complicit conservative opposition and a blood thirsty media.

It was a rhetorical question. Quite obvious we need radical changes in voting, debating, accountability, transparency, methods...So many areas of our democracy are out of date and not fit for purpose anymore. It's really quite embarrassing.

But we have a load of greedy businessmen within (MP's) and around (Lobbyists) the political system who know it works for them and they're milking it. With help from the Rothemere, Murdoch machine they'll do their damnedest to make sure it stays that way.

Tory, Labour, Lib Dem ..now UKIP too, all cut from the same cloth. There's no choice there.

David Cameron asked about his support of TTIP deal being done behind closed doors by corporate lobbyists at PMQ's. No answer. (Does anything ever come out of this form of debating at PMQ's?)

The cost of living crisis deepens as wages rose just 0.4% in year to April (single month figs). Apparently the lowest annual rate on record. ONS. Well below inflation whichever way you cut it.

Recovery, what recovery?

Conor Burns, the Conservative MP for Bournemouth West is said to be 'shocked' by an Oxfam campaign poster which highlights rising poverty and its causes in the UK.

...of course not shocked by the content, but rather their audacity to highlight it.

It's your party's doing mate, stop trying to censor the truth and start dealing with the problems. Idiot.

A free, experience and a creative midfielder. If he can stay fit, and if he still wants it, he could be an excellent signing for us.

Tories talking about cultural plurality, what next a Gary Glitter sex education video.

I don't think we should grant export licences to sell arms to countries like Saudi Arabia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen and Zimbabwe. I value human life over money, the government don't. So Gove has very little room to talk about values whilst he's an active member in that horrible little gang of arms dealers.

Michael Gove wants British schools to teach British values. My mind boggles as to what values Michael Gove could possibly have in mind seeing as he's a member of a political party that have hammered the poorest, lied, stolen, sold public assets to friends on the cheap whilst simultaneously eroding our democracy.

Shocking. RIP.

Defensively suspect, no cutting edge, bad passes galore, plenty of athleticism though....

A symptom of England's obsession with creating players who can go 100% over 90 mins to the detriment of being able to actually play football?

Against the top teams, in the heat, you're going to need to be fit if you can't keep the ball. Good luck with that one England.

Doesn't the UK's average energy price compare favourably with the rest of Europe?

It's complex, but I think the problem in the UK is with the difference between wholesale price and the price we pay. We have relatively low taxes on energy, but our prices are still quite high. The winners seem to be the private pockets of the energy firms.

That's the 'perceived' problem - it doesn't have a great deal to do with the actual problem. There isn't much correlation beteween the 'wholesale' price for gas on any particular day and what is charged to the retail customer, nor should there be.

What is the actual problem, and in your opinion, what would be the best course of action to ensure energy needs are met, in the short and medium term?

Doesn't the UK's average energy price compare favourably with the rest of Europe?

It's complex, but I think the problem in the UK is with the difference between wholesale price and the price we pay. We have relatively low taxes on energy, but our prices are still quite high. The winners seem to be the private pockets of the energy firms.

In Germany prices are high because of the tax, so the government get a much bigger slice, which is then reinvested into renewable schemes. I can't help but get this nagging feeling that they're doing it the right way.

But the energy markets, the future of energy, and the complexity of supply seems mind boggling. I think a federal EU needs to work closely on this, I don't think the right wing free market, law of economics will solve this problem.

Our energy bills remain fixed even though the wholesale prices have tumbled doubling energy companies profits according to ofgen, the times is reporting this morning.

The way these private energy companies behave is a disgrace. Another Tory failure, who do they work for, us? or big business?

Michael Gove's free schools are three times more likely to fail than normal schools. Funds are being diverted from normal schools to fill an £800m funding black hole.

His pet project is failing.

Err OK, fine. Isn't that just a wee bit old news, or is this the VT off topic shown on Dave?

Can only cover recent **** ups then? Do we pretend three of the last for years didn't happen?

'They didn't do it, it's not their fault, stop talking about it'

George Galloway, Labour, who else can we blame who hasn't been running the country for the last four years of ineptitude?

I'm not sure what your point is here? Are you blaming the government for the horse meat in burgers or George Galloway?

How the hell are you confused as to my point??

I'm blaming the government, for the reasons stated by Galloway in the clip.

George Galloway, Labour, who else can we blame who hasn't been running the country for the last four years of ineptitude?

Ah it was George Galloway's fault then. I see...

Remember the horse meat scandal. Don't blame the government, not their fault.

http://youtu.be/xit10AtNiAE

Whatever happened to Maria Miller? Oh yeah she was caught stealing £48,000. Not her fault, it was an accident.