Off Topic The Politics Thread

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Should the UK remain a part of the EU or leave?

  • Stay in

    Votes: 56 47.9%
  • Get out

    Votes: 61 52.1%

  • Total voters
    117
  • Poll closed .
The problem with investing is you need to do your home-work. And yes, if you don't you are gambling, and there are some pretty rough practices, shorting, ramping, deramping etc - Thomas Cook's halving of share price a week or so ago after a Citi Bank Analyst claimed they were 'worthless'. Funnily CitiBank have been acting as an agent for Fosun, who have slowly been building a rather large stake in TCG.

However, if done properly and managed correctly you will make a lot more in the long run than stuffing the money under your matteress or leaving it in a bank (current account), where it is only going to ever become lose value. You can also manage your investments dependent upon your appetite for risk. It's up to you. Like a garden, you have to also spend time tending to it.

Woodford as a fund manager was the golden-boy but has been on the slide for several years. His fund has lost circa 70% of its funds under management in the last 2 years. KCC have obviously taken note of that and decided to pull there investments. Whilst they can't get to the liquidity of the fund at the moment, the fund still owns the under lying assets. Whilst £250m is a significant sum, it is worth bearing in mind that it does only represent 4% of their total holdings, and overall the fund has grown by nearly 50% over the last 5years. I hope that puts a little perspective
 
Nigel Farage has said that Ann Widdicombe’s hope for a ‘cure’ for homosexuality, and her views on abortion, are a matter of ‘conscience’ and that essentially that religious beliefs trump all others, and it’s not his place to comment on them.

So if you have, or claim to have, strong religious beliefs, you can use a public platform to opine about how other people live their lives, and be absolved of not only criticism, but comment, because it’s ‘religious’. Let’s hope her ‘religious’ views do not extend to race.....

You might want to think this through a bit Nige.
 
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George Galloway has been sacked by TalkRadio over an anti-semitic tweet regarding Spurs in the Champions League which he has refused to apologise for. In it he said it was good that no Israeli flags would be on the trophy. He also pissed off Liverpool fans with a tweet in which he mis-spelt Bill Shankly's name and was reminded of his previous tweets praising Man Utd. All-in-all a pretty miserable weekend for the glory-hunter...
 
Nigel Farage has said that Ann Widdicombe’s hope for a ‘cure’ for homosexuality, and her views on abortion, are a matter of ‘conscience’ and that essentially that religious beliefs trump all others, and it’s not his place to comment on them.

So if you have, or claim to have, strong religious beliefs, you can use a public platform to opine about how other people live their lives, and be absolved of not only criticism, but comment, because it’s ‘religious’. Let’s hope her ‘religious’ views do not extend to race.....

You might want to think this through a bit Nige.

Well, when you take someone with the mind of a 19th century spinster into the 21st century you're asking for trouble...
 
I haven't seen this yet so I'll comment from what I remember at the time. Thatcher in her first two years as PM drove us into a recession that really cut deep in the North and Midlands, the traditional industrial areas. Her popularity was at rock-bottom and she was trailing in the polls to a Michael Foot led Labour Party. She then had a stroke of luck when Galtieri invaded the Falklands.

From that she rode the popularity of winning that war and an upturn in the economy allied to hopeless leadership from Foot gave her a massive win in 83. She then took on Scargill and the miners and the brutality of that year long strike really divided the country. Add to that the poll tax and various other confrontations and she seemed to revel in her 'tough' attitude. I feel it was very much her having to show herself as being tougher than the male members of her cabinet, hence that famous Spitting Image scene of her ordering a meal and when asked 'what about the vegetables?' the reply was 'they'll have the same'

I think looking back she went too far too often to show her 'strength' and it was that which led to her downfall. It was different times and yes, the country was different then in that people did have more respect for law and order and with the PC brigade in it's infancy (mainly at the GLC) not every facet of every thing politicians uttered or did was subject to the forensic examination of social media and 24 hour news. Today everything is overkill...

Willing to wager the U.K. even set up the Falklands ... that what ****s in governance do
 
Nigel Farage has said that Ann Widdicombe’s hope for a ‘cure’ for homosexuality, and her views on abortion, are a matter of ‘conscience’ and that essentially that religious beliefs trump all others, and it’s not his place to comment on them.

So if you have, or claim to have, strong religious beliefs, you can use a public platform to opine about how other people live their lives, and be absolved of not only criticism, but comment, because it’s ‘religious’. Let’s hope her ‘religious’ views do not extend to race.....

You might want to think this through a bit Nige.

You should cut the bloke some slack; he's probably scared of her like the rest of us. :)
 
George Galloway has been sacked by TalkRadio over an anti-semitic tweet regarding Spurs in the Champions League which he has refused to apologise for. In it he said it was good that no Israeli flags would be on the trophy. He also pissed off Liverpool fans with a tweet in which he mis-spelt Bill Shankly's name and was reminded of his previous tweets praising Man Utd. All-in-all a pretty miserable weekend for the glory-hunter...

Like many of his ilk wot court publicity, he's become a parody of himself.
 
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It's an interesting feature of Corbyn's character that when confronted by anyone with whom he disagrees or who poses a potential problem, his reaction is NOT to engage. This applies to members of his own party, individuals who allege antisemitism in the Labour Party, Chukka, Theresa May on the EU, Trump and his latest visit. The list of those Corbyn runs from is endless
You got this the wrong way round-
Corbyn proposed to meet Trump, but Trump told the media he, Trump, had refused. He met May on the EU too.
 
Should i feel bad for people who invest money into firms? I'm not sure i do. At the end of the day you are gambling as you say.
I feel sorry for them, or small investors at least, because they have been conned into believing that it’s ‘investing’ not gambling. No matter what the small print says.

Thing is, when I turned 55 I had to take responsibility for my pension, if I wanted to take some of it (which I did).
Once the remaining pension was "crystalised" I had to then decide what funds to put it into.
Now, after some research and advice I worked out that my pensions had been in middle risk funds, managed by Aviva till I took control myself.
Therefore it was reasonably straight forward to select a fund (that they would continue to manage on my behalf) that was a similar fund, in that it was low to medium risk.
It was still very scary pressing enter and committing those funds to something that I essentially didn't understand.
 
F*ck knows how much the police bill will be for all the protests this week. Police all over the place particularly the motorcycle cops, four went past me in Battersea and two of the bikes had 'Heddlu' on the front, so they've been sent from Wales. No doubt the usual ragtag bunch of anarchists will join in the fun at some stage. So many roads closed around the centre of London I've decided to pack up early before the traffic gets really silly...
Sir Stephen House, Met Deputy Commissioner says that the last #TrumpUKVisit protests cost @MetPoliceUK £2.9M.
For comparison, Extinction Rebellion protests cost £7.5M.
 
You got this the wrong way round-
Corbyn proposed to meet Trump, but Trump told the media he, Trump, had refused. He met May on the EU too.

Yeah, that came out after my post. Corbyn's supporters call Trump a Nazi **** while taking time off from their daily antisemitic activities and Corbyn's ministers attend the anti Trump march. Then Corbyn asks for a meeting with Trump. Great way of conducting international diplomacy
 
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alone with
he dosent even want to see her

DONALD SNUB
Labour’s Emily Thornberry scraps trip to US after ‘Trump’s officials refuse to meet her because of constant insults’
The shadow foreign secretary had been planning to hold talks with American officials
  • By Matt Dathan
  • 25th January 2018, 5:17 pm
  • Updated: 26th January 2018, 5:23 pm
LABOUR’S Emily Thornberry was left red-faced after after she was forced to cancel a planned trip to the US - because the White House snubbed her request for a meeting.
The Shadow Foreign Secretary was due to cross the Atlantic next month and was hoping to arrange a string of high level meetings with Donald Trump’s aides.
She wanted to use the visit - scheduled during Parliament’s February break - to help paint Labour as the “Government in waiting” and her as a international statesman.:headbang::headbang::headbang::headbang::headbang:
But Whitehall sources revealed that the White House didn’t want to meet Ms Thornberry’s team because of her repeated criticism of President Trump.
Only last week Ms Thornberry branded him a “racist” and described his presidency as “an asteroid of awfulness that has that has fallen on this world”.
A source told The Times: “It became clear pretty quickly that the White House wasn’t especially keen to meet them. Can’t think why.”
Mr Trump’s administration is the second presidency in a row to snub Labour, who - apart from Tony Blair’s friendship with George Bush - have had a troubled relationship with the White House.
Gordon Brown was humiliated by Barack Obama, who rebuffed five requests from his team to set up a meeting in 2009 - despite the pair attending two global summits that year.
And after finally meeting him later that year the pair exchanged gifts - but Mr Obama gave Mr Brown 25 DVDs that only work in the US.:emoticon-0140-rofl::emoticon-0140-rofl::emoticon-0140-rofl::emoticon-0140-rofl::emoticon-0140-rofl:
In 1987 the then Labour leader Neil Kinnock flew to Washington to build his international reputation ahead of the General Election - but was given just half an hour before Ronald Reagan finished the meeting.
And last year Mr Obama dismissed Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour leadership as not “grounded in fact and reality”.:emoticon-0172-mooni:emoticon-0172-mooni:emoticon-0172-mooni:emoticon-0172-mooni:emoticon-0172-mooni
A spokesman for Ms Thornberry said: “Emily Thornberry's planned visits to New York and Washington have been postponed due to the current US government shutdown. She will be re-arranging them in due course.”
The American government was shut down for three days earlier this week, but has now reopened.
 
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You got this the wrong way round-
Corbyn proposed to meet Trump, but Trump told the media he, Trump, had refused. He met May on the EU too.
Laura Kuenssberg‏Verified account@bbclaurak 4h4 hours ago
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Interestingly, despite taking part in the protest, Trump reveals Corbyn asked for a meeting, which has been now confirmed by Corbyn’s office

Classic constructive ambiguity from corbyn: “I’m not going to go to the state banquet and I’m going to speak at an anti trump really because I am opposed to trumps presidency and don’t want him to be here but I’d also like to meet him!”

His Brexit strategy again: Yes, but no but.
 
Thing is, when I turned 55 I had to take responsibility for my pension, if I wanted to take some of it (which I did).
Once the remaining pension was "crystalised" I had to then decide what funds to put it into.
Now, after some research and advice I worked out that my pensions had been in middle risk funds, managed by Aviva till I took control myself.
Therefore it was reasonably straight forward to select a fund (that they would continue to manage on my behalf) that was a similar fund, in that it was low to medium risk.
It was still very scary pressing enter and committing those funds to something that I essentially didn't understand.
It’s a bastard Col. Of course all my pension is in similar funds, which I have no say about. But I would have no idea what to do with the funds if I did have control. I did notice that a pot in Standard Life from a job decades ago had actually gone down in value a couple of grand last year. You can spend a chunk of your life trying to manage this stuff yourself, which some people enjoy (like my Dad used to), but I suspect most (like me) just want a reasonable secure income in retirement, which reflects the amount they and their employers have contributed over the years. Problem is no matter how safe your money seems there are multiple things that can **** it all up. The only small consolation is, if something like Aviva gets ****ed, probably everything else will be too, so we’ll all be in it together.
 
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