Forum Replies Created
- Posts
Read an amusing article over the weekend and if you thought things couldn’t look any worse for the inept BBC, think again, Mastermind once had a reputation for intellectual rigour but it seems even that bastion has been breached by the constant dumbing down of it’s programmes.
Questions on the celebrity version included ……
“Woof woof and bow wow are representations of the sound made by what domestic pet?”
“The term veg as in fruit and veg, is an abbreviation for what type of food stuff?”
“Beef is a meat from what farm animals?”
“Which cardinal point on a compass is represented by the letter S?”
Questions even David Lammy couldn’t have got wrong?
good luck to allHope one and all had an enjoyable Christmas & Boxing Days.
Scanning through the cards more in hope than expectation found ZIGGY’S TRITON e/w who won very nicely at today’s course earlier this month.Three of his top four RPR’s have been here.Although this will be harder especially given the weight hike I do believe he’s capable of building on that run and worth an each way bet.
good luck to allAnyone familiar with the work of Charles Dickens will know the story of ‘Scrooge’ as a seasonal offering from the writer whether or not you have read the book.
But how many of us take in the message?
I suppose it can be different things to all of us. However please allow me to say what I believe the message is and should be expressed. For myself it’s realizing that we can and should be better people.
MERRY CHRISTMMAS to allI would like to take this opportunity to raise a glass to one and all and say Merry Christmas.
Although opinions may vary I wish ‘Seasons Greetings’ and an enjoyable Christmas to everyone.
good luck to allI find it hilarious that Labour boasts about bringing down interest rates ….
…by increasing unemployment
…and stifling the economy
… ask what happened to growth and the business friendly attitude they expressed before the GE?
over and over Starmer and Reeves promise to grow the economy only to find their deeds fail to match their words.
‘Reevescession’ …..is spoken of.
good luck to allBeen a while since I posted on this thread as I’ve given some thought as to how I wish to precede and with a clear strategy in mind believe it’s time to return to the fray.With the experimentation being put aside I now have two clear areas where I intend to concentrate.Using the numbers I’ve frequently alluded to in my scribbling here and the second will be sprints where a horse has shown a certain amount of authority or as Clive Holt would put it has shown progression or promise of better things to come.
We first go to Meydan for the Listed sprint where it’s although a shortish price the bin Suroor filly DUBAI TREASURE looks to hold strong claims getting weight from all her rivals.When last seen at Newmarket she fairly rattled home following a flying start registering numbers beyond anything achieved previously.Providing the filly’s fit enough she looks good for this and a successful season ahead.
good luck to allCame across a article about comrade Starmer’s early years when involved with a publication called ‘socialist alternative’ from which I gather was as popular as he is today.What caught my eye was the assessment of Starmer by one of his former colleagues.He says ….
During the election campaign, he claimed there is ‘no sign’ that Starmer’s radical youth left any trace on his current politics. ‘The guy is an empty suit….’ he said. ‘I think he’s just a puppet saying whatever he’s being told to say and it’s going to be the worst you’ve ever seen. Every day it seems he’s able to insult our intelligence and morals in a new way, which is beyond comprehension … I don’t think he’s his own person. I think other interests have their hands firmly up his backside.
‘He’s pretty wooden right? He’s not so inspiring. I don’t think there’s anything special about Keir.
Of the magazine in question.
For all it’s sound and fury, even it’s founder conceded: ‘No one read it’
good luck to allBest post budget comment?
from a Leeds bricklayer ‘Some days I want to give up, but here’s people on benefits depending on me’
then we have
A businessman who signed a letter praising Labour for it’s ‘fiscal disciple’ ahead of the election is closing his shops. … citing high costs and ‘economic uncertainty’, saying the business environment had ‘simply become unsustainable’
And within economic circles the ‘R’ word is being mentioned ….. yes recession.
good luck to allHDLG …. Liz Truss didn’t lie to the markets like Reeves did, they just didn’t like what they heard.
There’s a HUGE difference.
good luck to all*laughing at the defence of the Chancellor*
It’s a sad day when a Chancellor DELIBERATELY lies to her own party, Parliament and the bond markets that fund her spending. Don’t be surprised when they ask for, nay demand, a premium for lending the Government money for the very simple reason she lied during the run up and in the budget itself. They will ask themselves ‘how can we trust anything she says anymore?’
Why should we be surprised she’s been caught out again, after all her lies started even before Labour entered office. Will she be sacked is anybody’s guess as Starmer and herself stand together which means if one goes they both do.
good luck to allHDLG …. Perhaps you should read beyond a single years forecast …. you will not find a pretty picture.
A commentator on the budget reported to viewers that this was a budget for the backbenchers a survival strategy as told to her by a Labour MP.
Starmer, Reeves, Streeting etc are terrified of their own backbenchers.
What mugs all those business people must be feeling right now having fallen for Labour’s pre-election mantra ….pro business… pro growth they said.
May I refer my detractors to previous postings as to my attitude to Labour and why I take the stance I do.
good luck to allWhat did Rachel from accounts say following last years budget?
Along the lines of ‘… would not be coming back for more..” “public sector must learn to live within it’s means”Read a very interesting interview recently with Dan Neidle who exposed Zahawi’s tax affairs and said to be looking into Rayner.But that’s not the point I wish to bring to your attention, the article ended with this … ‘For Neidle, Britain’s ultimate failure is not that it taxes too much -the Nordic countries have higher rates- but it taxes badly.’They manage to raise more money in a stable rational way’ he says of Scandinavia. ‘We do the reverse; our system is irrational and anti growth’
The article was entitled .. Broken Tax System is killing the economy (do you realise our tax code runs to 23,000 pages?)
Dan Neidle is the founder of Tax Policy Associates
good luck to allBeen saving this for budget time when Reeves will undoubtedly get her ‘excuses’ out before …. well I guess you know the rest.
Published Oct 25 written by Alex Brummer
At the City of London Regulators’ dinner at the Mansion House on Wednesday evening, a deputy governor of the Bank of England was positively lyrical about how the UK was faring almost six years after cutting ties with Brussels…
(later in the article)
But there was no sign of the Chancellor Rachel Reeves celebrating these achievements at the International Monetary Fund meeting in Washington last week. Quite the opposite. In both her private and pubic conversations, Reeves was spitting tacks about Brexit. Her frustrations stemmed from revisions that the OBR is making to forecasts about productivity and growth.
‘The productivity challenge’ she told fellow finance ministers from across the globe, ‘has been compounded by the way in which the UK left the EU’
The truth is that the Chancellor is engaged in a desperate search for scapegoats to explain away the Government’s dismal handling of the economy in the 16 months since Labour took office. And the blame game is intensifying as the clock ticks away the minutes until her second tax-and-spend budget on November 26.
She is determined to spin the message that it is Brexit, not her own incompetence, that has brought the country to it’s knees, with sclerotic growth and the highest inflation in G7 group of advanced western economies. Not to mention a £30-£40 billion black hole in the public accounts that she will have to find a way of plugging.
(later)
Reeves and Kier Starmer will need to engage in some impressively athletic intellectual somersaults if they are to reconcile their claims that, on the one hand, UK trade deals are reason for the OBR to be kinder in it’s economic forecasting, while claiming on the other hand Brexit was harmful.
In debating Brexit, many political commentators still rely heavily upon an inaccurately reported OBR assertion from April 2023 that Brexit is responsible for a 4% loss of productivity. This, however, is a distortion of the budget watchdog’s actual prediction. The 4% loss of productivity, if it happens, would take place over 15 years. When it comes to economic forecasting, the accuracy of such long term predictions can be largely dismissed out of hand.
(it finishes)
Obscure arguments about Brexit and productivity form part of the defensive wall which Starmer and Reeves are seeking to erect ahead of what can only be regarded as a humiliating second tax hiking budget,
The notion that we would be so much better off in Europe is a fiction.
Escaping a stagnating, sclerotic EU was a huge tribute to the common sense of the British people. The Chancellor plainly thinks that in Brexit she has finally discovered a way of diverting attention away from her own shortcomings.
She could not be more wrong.
good luck to allWant something interesting to read?
Try … The Abolition of Britain …by journalist Peter Hitchens or perhaps
try ….The Abolition of Liberty:The Decline of Order and Justice in England or maybe even
try … Unconventional Wisdom
You may not agree with the author but will make you question many things.
good luck to allHeadline of Dan Hodges column published 16/11/25
Reeves’ Budget U-turn excuses? They’re less believable than if I claimed to have a date with Margot Robbie.
This is obviously preposterous rubbish.But in ten days time it’s literally the excuse the PM and Chancellor are going to peddle as they try and explain to the British people why every single statement they have issued about the budget has been a lie.
A week ago Rachel Reeves began using the Margot Robbie defence. In her ‘scene setting’ speech at the Treasury she claimed the world had thrown a series of unpredictable challenges in her way. Trump and tariffs. Putin’s Ukraine aggression. Global supply chain volatility. As a result,taxes would have to rise. Including -her aides briefed later- the basic rate of income tax.
But Reeves is incapable of sticking with a plan for longer than seven days, never mind a fiscal cycle. So on Friday – following a backlash – it was announced those overt income tax hikes had been junked.
The public rationale for this week’s U-turn on last week’s U-turn was that the OBR had suddenly found an additional £10billion down the back of the sofa. …..
It’s worth charting the full extent of Labour’s duplicity over the last 16 months. Throughout the election they promised tough spending rules to ensure taxes, inflation and mortgages could stay as low as possible. Then as soon as they entered office it was ditched.
Reeves had uncovered a £20billion ‘black hole’ left by the spendthrift Tories, she claimed. Taxes would have to rise after all. By a staggering £40billion.
But -and Reeves was explicit about this- it would be a one off.
“Public services now need to live within their means because I’m really clear, I’m not coming back with more borrowing or more taxes” she vowed…..
Until two days ago, when suddenly the picture darkened again. Somehow the foundations of the economy had fractured once more……
In the hours after the news over her latest volte-face broke, Reeves tried to spin it as a product of an improved economic forecast. At which point the markets promptly laughed in her face, and drove gilt returns to new highs. She and Keir Starmer are now piling delusion upon deceit upon denial……
It was a fantasy. They knew at the time it was a fantasy. And they seem genuinely shell-shocked no one else is buying into their fantasy. This is the point our Government has now reached. Reduced to making statements and taking actions that no longer have any basic grounding in economic or political reality.
They are simply pursuing a fantastical wish-list, then reacting with misplaced indignation and anger when anyone has the temerity to expose their delusional utterances.
(I also think that last sentence could apply to Labour supporters here)
good luck to allProbably been the worst season I’ve had in years and yet started off well,but my want of experimentation has done me no favours.However hoping to go out on the turf season on a successful note with REALIGN **.Following a couple of promising juvenile efforts the selection being put forward for your consideration easily won a ordinary Salisbury maiden on seasonal debut.Thought to be ‘chucked in’ by some on his handicap debut in the Palace of Holyroodhouse Stakes at Royal Ascot he never got involved but the drop to the minimum trip maybe not in his favour.After a disappointing run at Headquarters in a valuable heritage handicap he was gelded the same month.Reappearing in Sept he put up a career best performance traveling well on the heels of the leaders quickly putting the race to bed once a gap presented itself registering his best numbers to date.
good luck to all
