chrisp65

there you go folks, we've taken enough off the disabled to give to the high earners Robert PestonVerified account‏@Peston Cutting benefits to disabled raises £1.2bn, which is same as cost of cutting capital gains tax & raising 40% tax threshold. #Budget2016

All steady as she goes, inherited a national debt of 900 million in 2010, cut public services, cut taxes for the rich, UK national debt now 1.5 trillion and forecast to rise another 100 or 200 million this year. The time was ripe for a tax cut for people earning 45k a year.

Jam, Precious absolutely storming 12" single, currently on the third play and it is very loud which I guess means it's in the wrong thread...

I kind of based my admittedly arbitrary thinking on that 1860's thing, the Civil War, Lincoln, abolition of slavery, emancipation proclamation, the 13th amendment, the 14th amendment. All that malarkey. Surely it was a profoundly different country after the 1860's? In law, if not in day to day life. I do appreciate there was an 'america' before the civil war, but I really don't know enough to get in too deep.

Hmmm, not too sure. But then I'm new to the whole American history thing. I think if you take the 1860's as the starting point of the United States, from that point onward the rights of blacks, indigenous and Mexicans were written in to the law. They may not have been enforced well, they may have been ignored locally over great swathes of land and doubtless there have been 150 years of terrible abuses. But I don't think the U.S. was founded as a white supremacist state. What it was, was a classic example like every state, of those in power writing the rules to protect themselves and preserve their advantage. As always, happy to be educated on this one....

I was amazed the Sun went so early with that Queen cover. I'd have thought that would be ripe for use the day before the referendum. But yes, we'll see some corking good stuff in the Mail and Sun these next few months. Be sure, if a brown person or a Frenchy, or a brown Frenchy rapes a goat, gets a council flat, bumps his car or drops litter anywhere in Hampshire, Berkshire or Surrey in the next 3 months, you are going to get a pull out special all about it. I believe The Express has already suggested the paint on Diana's forehead was from a stolen camel.

solved, next problem....

I don't think Americans are special in this regard. It's too easy to just think they are retarded. They are differently informed and have a different experience of life to you. Why would anyone vote for UKIP? They had a candidate that blamed the floods after storm Desmond on refugees. It was another UKIP candidate that blamed the previous floods on gay marriage. Farage wants to repeal post Dunblane gun legislation. One of its MEP's wants UK muslims to be forced to sign a contract saying they won't commit jihad. Their manifesto included a call for all taxi drivers to wear a uniform. What are we to make of the 3.8 million people that voted UKIP in 2015?

if only the Westminster parliament and civil servants weren't so shit at negotiating sensible deals this could have been prevented it's not the fault of the SNP that the system set up by others doesn't stop them dicking about in the affairs of others they are not the cause of the problem, they are the effect I'm sure the vote leave negotiators and legal bods will be far better at that sort of thing.

A eulogy isn't usually played for laughs, so the pringle joke should be fine.

I think that what you also have to consider is that Trump is the alternative to the system and the establishment. OK, he's not Spartacus, but he's not a career politician either. He employs people. He has things built. They've voted for the Bush family and they didn't get a better deal, they voted for the Clinton family and they didn't get a better deal. What we are currently seeing is 40% of half the electorate deciding to vote for something else, anything else. As our equivalent, when you get a choice of voting for Stephen Kinnock (Labour) political dynasty, MP for Aberavon but house in Switzerland but tax audited in Denmark, Cambridge graduate OR, for instance, Alun Cairns (Conservative), who claimed £194,000 in expenses 2014 / 15 but voted to reduce disability allowances by £30 and has stated he believes foodbanks encourage laziness and drug abuse. When you have those two sides to vote for election after election after election, some people think '**** it', I'm going to vote for UKIP. No matter how dumb everyone can see UKIP/Trump is, at least they aren't the others.

There is a tiny chance of the SNP winning a referendum on independence anytime soon. They did really really well last time, negotiating and cajoling all manner of concessions out of Westminster - even as the losers of the referendum. If it seriously comes up as a subject again, they'll win yet more control and cash over from Westminster. The little SNP, stupid Salmond, irritating little Sturgeon, funny little Scotland. They will get all manner of even more enhanced trinkets for Scotland if there is a serious whisper of another referendum. Luckily, we have these top negotiators apparently, that we are due to unleash on the EU when we separate. These guys are going to get us a really good, really favourable deal, really quickly. Shame these ace negotiators weren't around for the Scottish referendum..... My point is, look how poorly the government did when sat across a table from the Scottish vote yes campaign. Do we imagine EU negotiation will be more or less tricky than that?

I'll be honest, didn't know the name. I've listened to that piece of music and it's beautiful.

On the presumption we'll have the same owner with the same faults making the same catastrophic decisions and still trying to manage a tight budget but not actually understanding anything about anything but thinking you can fix everything with another appointment to the board....what Manager would be thick enough to take us on? Are we really going to go out and get a quality Manager and hand him the money for 15 players that can get promotion? Of course we're not. Therefore, you have to already be dubious about any head case that would take the job on. That's where we are. We're an engine, body, brakes, fuel, pit team, running gear and a driver away from being a decent racing car.

To be fair, March has always been a tricky month for us, right back to the MON days.

Could you flip that, and wonder how 'the establishment' in England is so against Scotland gaining independence from Westminster, yet wants 'independence' from europe? I fear this is not the place and is a bit of a diversion, picking over the bones of this one.

I convinced my missus that the Fire Brigade had done away with 'call signs' and given their engines names. That they'd found it confusing to say they were in Charlie Tango Oner Niner Oscar Seven, or whatever, so now they all had big friendly names on them. Sure enough, as we approached the station minutes later, there was one outside with DENNIS written across the front. She confessed she hadn't been sure whether to believe me....

not final we can have a referendum every year if we fancy it right up to the point we vote to leave, then that's fairly final .

worth a punt, and being so close to the City Arms it can't go too far wrong

Yep, I can see your point, and that's why it's not 'easy', but I've got no problem with Salmond and I haven't heard of Will Straw. Stuart Rose and the CBI well I can't say I have a strong opinion there either. It is two poor teams, and I'd actually say, in 'fairness' to Blair, he was asked on the radio yesterday morning why he wouldn't step up to the plate for the remain campaign and he said that he brought too much baggage and would probably be counter productive. Which I thought was quite self aware.

Many many years of real life experience in work, as a family man and observing the lives of the people in the community around me tell me that if certain people are 'for' something, it can't be good for the real people that I know. Nigel Lawson Murdoch John Redwood Rees Mogg Farage George Galloway Michael Gove Chris Grayling All these people want us to leave the EU. This tells me, after a great many years of experience of these people, that it must be bad for me to leave the EU. I'm trying to be balanced and I'm trying to find some facts. If I don't get any, that's all I've got to go on. That's not basing it on pure personality, that's looking at track records and CV's.

so, is it a pringle or a chair? very poor effort, I understand the story arc, as shit as it is, I can ignore the poor scripting where it might be a chair or a pringle, but the lack of any basic traces of humour suggest it shouldn't be in the funny pics thread perhaps there's a missing frame where the funny happens? I'll find a wider screen and report back..... .....nope, it's as shit as we thought.

It won't be Corbyn doing the negotiation on behalf of the UK, he has a pre booked speech of solidarity to give at a pro lesbian chickens freedom rally that same day. He can't just cancel that. Boris probably can make it, but you just know he'll go by ferry and get his knickers snagged on the anchor and arrive at Calais wedgied, dangling off the bow, waving a little flag and with 900 photographers in tow purely by chance.

Picked up a whole bunch of donor parts yesterday evening as part of my plan to build a frankenstein's monster of a turntable. But it was the guy I picked the parts up from that cheered me up. A retired BBC engineer type, his entire house was full of reel to reel tape machines and mixing desk consoles and valve amps and just generally looked like a set from a 1960's episode of Doctor Who. He was missing a Theremin and one of those electric balls that electricity goes up, but other than that he pretty much had it covered. Plus, his missus had made cakes which arrived on a tray with two cups of tea whilst we sat in his workshop discussing life, the universe and cataloguing systems.