threegee

Labour can do it (£8); Osborne can do it (£9); John McDonnell can do it (£10); so my new party (MNP) is setting an £n + £1 minimum wage target, currently idling at just £11. Note: Here n stands for nuts (= the last nutty advance in the Elect-me-on-my-empty-promise:-I'm-the-most-profligate Game). What's my new party called? Well, I'm working on that, but in true political fashion I must paint it as something it's obviously not. So... I guess the word prudence needs to feature. One thing is for sure, the MNP (My New Prudentialists ?) will never ever disappoint and disillusion like the rest. That's because they'll be the archetypal party of protest, and never aspire to get anywhere remotely near real power, or facilitate any real change. But... if you want to feel good about yourself it will be by far the best party to join, and especially appealing to all wet-behind-the-ears youngsters. Oh - so that's another cardinal policy: lower the voting age to ten, then one year less than any other proposal. I think that's the real meaning of "progressive", don't you? Yes, I think I've got this politics malarkey cracked now; a real tragedy that this damascene moment has come forty years too late for a "rewarding" political career.

I think fourgee is right: it has to be digital. The barely visible panel joins, moire patterning with the camera's pixels on the right, and the total precision, give it away. And, of course the original artwork would be created on a computer, so everyone is right. Paper posters are SO 20th Century!

What impresses me is the total precision of that sign. Can you ever imagine pasting every one of those sheets so precisely at 3am on a wet and windy Yorkshire night, and in a state of blind anger too? Lisa is either a woman of steely cold precision, or one who has no compunction seeking out professionals. Either way it's a complete idiot male that's messing with her!

15ftx10ft sign put alongside the busy Sheffield Parkway in Yorkshire

I have to agree with your first sentence, but when you criticise my posting the graph because "The graph is a stand alone set of figures" we part company. Trade with the EU is what it is all about; at least that's what we were told it was about by lying politicians (most notably the execrable Ted Heath). It's the only defence the EUphiles have for the tragic damage the EU has done to our traditional industries. It's what all the shrill warnings of the likes of Clegg focus on (those mythical three million jobs dependant on our seemingly booming exports to the EU). The "anti-EU brigade" - 51% of the electorate according to a recent poll, so perhaps the biggest brigade in history - have to go where this fallacious argument takes them. Of course there are many other issues like our sovereignty, right to self-determination, democracy, and basic freedoms, but the economic argument is the one that got us into this mess in the first place, and not to address the lie is to accept it. I do hope we can discuss the other matters at length, but the fundamental fact that over the last couple of decades the EU has represented an ever smaller part of our trade is undeniable! And, in answer to Maggie's point of who benefits, just ask any Greek!

You've missed the essential point: everything the politicians have told us has turned out to be the truth standing on its head, so why should we continue to believe them and vote as they say? You are also discounting all the doom and disaster scenarios that were run by us if we didn't adopt the Euro. Politicos just love people with short memories who don't recall really basic things like that (or the impressionable young who don't have any - yet!) Any economist looking objectively at that graph would say that the precise placing of the inflection points are too big a coincidence. Even if other factors did come into play it was a huge coincidence that they did exactly when they did - no? Nothing can ever be known with certainty, but ignoring the best available evidence and proceeding regardless will generally get you into deep water at some point. What you are actually doing is just what the politicians want you to do: opt for the status quo. But there's the really big lie - there is no status quo! It's either a united states of Europe under German domination, or a return to the same sort of trading relationship we had under the EEC. The EUphile politicos don't have the statistics you demand. If they did we'd be bombarded with them incessantly. All they have is the usual empty scare stories of what will happen if we don't do what they want. What statistics there are actually point in the other direction, which is precisely the purpose of my post. i.e the EUphiles have nothing to point to as evidence, and a great deal they want to conceal, but there IS NOW useful evidence to the contrary. So much evidence that many independent economists are coming down on the side of leave. The bright people in the EFA countries have already realised that they are better off with a non-political trading relationship and are praying that we'll join them, even take the leading position. Greenland is prospering since leaving. Regarding your "Does the country suddenly start producing oodles of goods that the rest of the world wants to buy? Or would the rest of Europe continue buying from cheaper markets, as they are now? I think we all know the answer." The UK does already produce oodles of goods (and services) the World wants to buy, We are pretty good at self-deprication but are actually the world's fifth largest economy and forecast to overtake Germany and become the fourth largest before too long. It's what that graph shows: world trade is racing ahead whilst the EU is already declining in importance to us (and in ITS position in the World). EU barriers would actually work in our favour if we left, because we already produce to meet the layers of EU regulation, whilst lower labour cost producers would struggle to replace us. But... here you are falling for the myth that our exports to the EU would be much affected - they won't! Nothing much tradewise will happen for the first two years after our giving notice. During this period there is a treaty obligation for rump EU to negotiate a trade agreement on favourable terms with us. Germany can not afford to drag its feet on this because they have far more to lose than us, and their current growth is anaemic by former measures. The reality is that we'll ultimately get a trade agreement which is pretty much indistinguishable from what we already have, but without all the political twaddle. This is something which the EUphles won't even discuss, because any sort of speculation as to likely outcomes kills their arguments stone dead. Others will ultimately want what we got - that's certain death of all their political pipe dreams!

You really couldn't make any of this up! He's closely associated with one of the most two-faced b&*&(*s on the face of the Earth, and it looks like she's now making Labour policy! It's truly Christmas every day from now on for duplicitous Dave!

I think he'd rather call them comrades Tony. First climb-down already: party says he HAS to sing the national anthem! But, did they specify which country's national anthem? Anyway - small mercies - it can no longer be those filthy-capitalist, homophobic, sexist, xenophobic, warmongering, Russian's anthem. Elton John might compose him a new one (one that only alludes to The Queen) if he talks sweetly, but he'll likely have to sack his brutish driver first!

...has achieved precisely nothing for the UK Economy: Notice that our exports to Europe were steadily increasing in the 20 years before The Common Market (EEC) was formed, and continued increasing at the same sort of rate for 20 years after. And, this was despite all the crises and industrial unrest that we were told were disrupting and disadvantaging British industry over that period. BUT... with The Single European Market (EU), with all its bureaucracy, and regulation, and other nonsense, they then stagnated. Since just before the millennium they've been falling. Who has benefited in that 20 years? Well, certain not the British people! This is exactly the opposite of what politicos of the three major parties told us The Single European Market would bring. They also told us that we must join the Euro or we were sunk, and it was only a miracle of fortune that saved us from that stupidity. And, the next 20 years if we don't stand on our own feet again? My best guess is a mirror image of what started around 1958 - the signs of a failing EU are there already. Better Off Out - certainly!

Well... nothing like as further into the future as I thought possible! Merkel 'expects Cameron to back EU army' in exchange for renegotiation Un-bloomin-believable! Above all this illustrates what the EU is actually about, and what is really important to Berlin: military power - something that our ancestors wouldn't need any convincing about!

...and no, I'm not talking about comrade Corbyn! http://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/604619/Long-range-weather-forecast-Britain-cold-winter-2015-arctic-snow-freeze Doubtless this will all be taken as further proof of umm.. anthropomorphic climate change (and not the usual kind), but even the "scientists" are now hedging their bets by pointing out that undeniable low solar activity is at very least a contributing factor. Time to attend to those door and window seals that you've been putting off replacing!

So... your Mafia boss' shill didn't even come close Tony! Labour shadow cabinet ministers can't get their resignations in soon enough. Cameron now thinks he has no effective opposition, though seemingly paradoxically he'll likely embrace a few more Blairite moves to sweep up all the millions of metropolitan votes that Labour has just turned its back on.

The video is a bit of a torture test but the narrative is not desperately far from the absolute truth. Other tellings would give emphasis to Israel/Jewish banking; Bilderberg; etc. However you want to spin it the world financial system lost its last anchors to reality some considerable while ago and is now historically unsustainable. Nobody knows when meltdown will occur - only that it must and will, and the longer this is delayed the bigger the catastrophe. Beware though people who seek to make political capital out of this. Especially, beware of the people who advocate that the solution to national delusion is simply to build bigger power blocks, and create a power block delusion. Bigger power blocks are created to hide bigger lies! None of us "little people" can do anything about these global machination except to say "no" at every increasingly rare opportunity. When our "no" is ignored, and things proceed regardless of public will, then at least we can be wholly certain of the conspiracy. Here's a further facet to these videos that's probably escaped Anonymous: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuel_Goldstein Spooky, eh?!

The voice over at the end of ads 2, 3 & 4 is almost certainly James Bolam, so the first ad looks like it's the odd one out. The central motorway wasn't renumbered from A1(M) to A6127 until 1977, so that sort of sets a backstop date on those last three. I notice the guy who uploaded them isn't at all sure as to the dates.

I think the problem there is one of perception. i.e. the person who you believe is being negative thinks they are being positive, and that your alternative is the negative input. How do you convince them otherwise? You could point out to them that their way hasn't been a whole lot of good in the past, but they'll have a myriad of reasons why we should keep on doing the same thing, and expecting different results. You could point out examples of people and places that do things your way, and the obvious benefits they enjoy. However they will hunt for the (easily addressed) exception, and therefore the "basic unfairness" of your way of doing things. They will ignore the fact that everyone would be better served, because unachievable "equality" matters far more to them than any real-world considerations. Such people go through life wishing for the world to be the way they believe it should be. They never achieve anything, or benefit anyone (except themselves, if they are crafty enough to land a cushy number as head of some totally pointless, though worshipable, organisation or other). At root they are con artists, but ones who are chiefly conning themselves! Fill in the names/places and you've completed the story.

Ummm.. not quite the full story there. The product (multiplication) of two minus values is always positive. The sum (addition) of two minus values is a larger minus value! Does this have any philosophical equivalence? (Hey, amazing myself there! ) Well... probably, and it might go something like... If you permit things to influence each other (free interaction) you not only get a mutually bigger outcome, but pulling in the same direction ALWAYS produces a positive outcome. But... if you simply lump things together you end up with no more than you put in/take out. Might we have analogues of both "capitalism" and "socialism" there?

In true politico fashion they need to change the name of the party to include "Democrat" - just to confirm to everyone that they don't really believe in it! On second thoughts that would confuse the dinosaurs who'd vote for a "raving alcoholic sex paedophile" with a Labour rosette. Be taken for granted; shaft your own Country; impoverish your own Town - all part of the great 21st century Labour experience. But it's OK: we're doing this all in the name of those great Labour leaders of the early 20th century - the ones who strongly opposed EEC membership, because they knew where it was intended to lead; and the ones now turning in their graves!

The Eye a Tory paper?!! Wonderful! Ronnie: The Tories are praying for Corbyn; but then you never did know what day of the week it was, did you?

There's a rule that says that no one who owns ANY part of a 43 year-old aeroplane can EVER have any excess income Maggie!

...or, it's a market mechanism to absorb the excess income of retired and semi-retired people, whist providing much needed employment to ambitious young female entrepreneurs. [Thanks God for auto-spelling checker on the last one! ]

Whilst our politicos and laws still reflect values from the last century it's a whole new world out there. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/26/world/europe/a-21st-century-migrants-checklist-water-shelter-smartphone.html?_r=0 There are discussions going on in some places as to Angela Merkel's sanity. I think the explanation is far simpler: she's still living in the cold war era! How long before the German people wake up to this? Well... I believe many Germans already have, and that her political career is rapidly coming to an end.

Crowds snub Ted Heath exhibition Some interesting comments on the article. Precisely what the Sir Edward Heath Charitable Foundation aims are seems obscure; if it's to rehabilitate his memory then a more futile pursuit presently escapes me. Best to revert to three-day-week opening for now, then maybe transfer all the exhibits to Brussels!

A vote of no-confidence in the Prime Minster David Cameron - Calais crisis. https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/105402 Is there anyone here who does have confidence in Cameron's handling of the crisis? Plenty of time for this to run, but please don't delay and do it right now! Please pass the link on to friends. ----------------------------------------- Date/Time ---> Signatures 15/08/2015 15:24 --> 13,108

Yes, this time it's for real! But.. there's no flunch (free-lunch); after the first year or so M$ is going to want annual access to your purse for ongoing "maintenance". The upside to this is that they now promise to be good, and stop selling us the same code over and over again in different wrappers. It's claimed that W10 will be the very last version of Windows, and that (as long as you subscribe of course) they'll update it for ever and a day. This might have been innovative if Google hadn't already being doing this with Chrome OS for quite some time. What it really means is that M$ have seen the writing on the wall, and decided that the only way to avoid more customers defecting to free operating systems is inertia and incremental selling. In recent years fewer and fewer people have been buying retail versions of Windows, preferring to stick with what they've got until they buy a new machine.

Now that Windows 10 is making its way onto people's machines you might want to see what Windows 1.01 looked like, and (by the wonders of virtualisation) actually use it! http://www.pcjs.org/devices/pc/machine/5160/cga/256kb/win101/ So... can you figure out how to use it? Remember this was billed as easy-peasy WYSIWYG computing! For maximum impact hit the Full Screen Display button at the top right of the display window. Clue: don't try to overlap the panes, we haven't got around to that yet. Also, don't come away with the idea that that this virtualisation is any slower than a real 8086 or 8088 machine of the day. From what I can recall this emulation has got the response times on an original IBM PC just about right!