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Which could be the excuse Schauble needs to assume a default. There are several more payments due this month so it makes no sense for the Greeks to pay up this time (even assuming they have any cash left), and then default on a later unaffordable one.

All it would take to clean up world football is for UEFA to pull out of Blatter's web of corruption. But - like the EU itself - it's not prepared to do the obvious and clean up its own act. It's truly ridiculous the the USA has to step in and do what the EU authorities should have done years ago. The FA should pull out regardless, and shame the rest of Europe. Shut up and just do it Dyke, else you are no better than the rest! Set up a fully transparent world football body and let Blatter and his henchman do their worst to prevent other countries joining. The upside is we'd undoubtedly win the very first new world cup!

A pack of lies and half-truths, starting with #1! Notice that there they now say jobs "linked to" and not dependent on (the blatant Nick Clegg lie), and they also say "European Union's single market" and not simply the EU. Norway is already outside the EU but in the European Union's single market. Those jobs would not disappear, in fact there would be more UK jobs as we expanded our global trade. The EU is a contracting market mired in bureaucracy. We'd surely maintain our trading relationships though, because the EU can not afford not to trade with us. We buy far more from Germany than they buy from us, and without the UK economy the EU will sink even faster than it is already doing. Overriding all this are the EU treaties which state that the two year notice period for leaving is to negotiate a trading relationship "on favourable terms". If the worst were to happen, and the EU bit it's own nose off to spite it's face, we'd be faced with a piddling 1.8% tariff barrier against our goods, which we'd recoup several times over by retaliating against German goods - so, that simply ain't going to happen! The EU originated when worldwide trade barriers were far higher, and so this (and the EU) becomes increasingly irrelevant. This is how the bureaucratic EU is performing (dark blue line) against the "Anglo Saxon economics" which those Brussels mandarins so hate. These stats come from the EU and the European Central Bank no less; so if anything would downplay EU under-performance! Happy to tackle the rest of those lies, but just look where they come from. The Brussels Council of the British European Movement, Square de Meeûs 25, 1000, Brussels - EU propaganda bought and paid for by our own money!

John Redwood tells the truth too. Pity that he's simply too honest to be in Dodgy Dave's cabinet! Full article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/eureferendum/11629210/The-in-out-EU-voting-row-is-just-a-distraction.html

It has started to work well again with Firefox. I think this is a result of a fairly recent FF update fixing the bug.

From a senior source in Berlin, Thursday night: This is why things are painfully drawn out. When the finger pointing starts no one wants to be seen as responsible for what everyone now accepts is an inevitability. June then, as all sides are clearly resolved not to blink.

While you were sleeping? I think it's called continental drift!

No need to watch folks, the Guardian has it all sussed. Seems they haven't actually listened to any of the songs whilst compiling their spreadsheets, which rather says it all! And the winner will be: (and please don't retype this "in the clear" you spoiler people - you types have already totally ruined the Internet Movie Database for many! ) Anyway, I've just bought a new sound bar to replace the pathetic little rattly speakers on my FSTV. So my excuse for watching will be that they must be properly tested before the return to shop period ends.

Rory is one of the good guys (even though he hasn't defected, yet!)

The international crony-capitalist corporates are going to try to paint our leaving the EU as a negative act - the referendum question will undoubtedly be framed that way. But, actually, it's a series of very positive acts. So, don't be conned into accepting their proposition that anyone who supports OUT is "a little Englander". Adam Fitchett in Europe wrote these ten positive reasons to leave on May 19th 2015: This is one thing that clear thinkers on both right and left are united on. People as far apart in political thinking as the late Tony Benn and JCB boss Lord Bamford believe it's the rational way forward for our country. Huge amounts of tainted corporate money are going to be spent on scare campaigns to try to convince everyone otherwise. Last time around the Euro-liars outspent the NO campaigners ten to one, and they are going to try the same thing on again. I was young enough and silly enough to vote Yes, and I'm going to try my damnedest to ensure that today's youngsters are not similarly fooled.

No assumptions necessary! I'm at the sharp end, where they sleep in fields, in groups of hundreds under motorway bridges. Where the bodies wash up on the beach, and the numbers visibly increase by the year. The only thing that stops us being overrun is that they have a lemming-like desire to press on to Northern Europe, and the fact that (apart from highly seasonal back-breaking jobs in the countryside that no Europeans will even consider for the money - illegal away), there is absolutely no employment in the Southern reaches of the Fourth Reich! I had a couple of local guys on my drive the other week canvassing for political support. Their interesting proposition was that all Euro politicians should be shot in the head. A bit extreme, but there are times I could be persuaded to pull the trigger myself!

I know exactly what you mean; perhaps best exemplified by the 1968 Spanish winning entry.

It is! Clearly the profundity of thought transcended even the more intelligent reader. So, I apologise for my solo tripette into the realm of human perceptions. Note to self: Do not start topics concerning any example of "modern art". By way of redress I offer this home-spun philosophical alternative, ya all: (With apologies to Mrs Gump Snr.) Lidl is like a shared box of chocolates: by the time you decide what you really want - it's all gone!

No, because they want to tell us how we should live, and how we should think, what we can and can not say, and even impose their own barbaric legal system. Otherwise the only problem we have is with the sheer volumes being imposed on us by people who want to use immigration to make a political point - like... Nature calls this cuckoo in the nest syndrome, and only thick lefties are dumb enough to trash their own culture in the vague hope that if we allow ourselves to be completely overrun the world will magically become "a better place". This is on par with their wish to make rich people poor because that (supposedly) will make us more equal. Rather than aiming to make everyone better off, "equality" becomes a goal in itself and everyone ends up worse off as the wealth creators are disincentivised, or simply give up in the face of cultural stupidity! I have massive sympathy for economic migrants (and i get to see a lot more of them than you do). They are only trying to do what we all do, and that's build a better life for ourselves and our children. But, many of them have the sense to see what the Guardian-reading dolts can't see, and that's that too many and they kill the very thing they seek. On a less serious note Padders clearly passes the Kipper's immigration test with flying colours - he's a massive earner for the UK!

As we are back to politics here I have A Song for Europe. Actually not Europe but the EU; strange how our politicos use the names almost interchangeably when they are utterly different concepts. I see the respected Digby Jones is now telling the truth now that he's no longer gagged as CBI boss.

All great stuff, but I was searching for something more profound. Anyway, after several days deep thought I now have the answer to the meaning Lidl, the Universe and everything. The answer is:.

Maybe they just get to see more malingerers and hypochondriacs than most, and the more they see the surer they become? I can handle this kind of "political indoctrination", but at my age I'm certainly not going to take any more BS from commie nurses. Ones who think that because I'm paying (twice!) for an examination I deserve sub-human treatment and to be punished. The old Ashington Hospital had some good people on staff, but it certainly employed some scum nurses - ones who put their politics well before patients, basic human decency, and compassion. Only the addled brains of the hard left would go there! On the "free speech" thing I will reserve judgement until the detailed measures are announced. But with Miliband proposing to outlaw even mild criticism of Islam (but not any other religion), it's a bit choice to be damning selective controls on promoting Islamic hate this early. Of course if we hadn't had to endure all this multiculturalism insanity we wouldn't have had a problem, and there'd be absolutely no excuse for limiting freedoms. Where are all the promoters of multiculturalism now? Answer: long dead, retired on fat politico's pensions, and/or keeping their heads well down whilst the country pays a huge price for their little social experiment. The old adage "When in Rome..." should be nailed up at the UK Border. It suited, and even benefited past immigrants as they fully integrated.

I will post updates here, but it could take over a year to actually receive and review the gismos.

Kickstarter Page here. Scroll well down the above page. First deliveries estimating at December. The "Pocket" housing looks cool.

Caught on the radio tonight.. The Tories are now locked into a radical agenda they never actually intended. Why? Because they were utterly convinced there'd be another coalition. So... the bright boys in the back room threw a whole load of radical measures into the Conservative manifesto which the LDs couldn't possibly agree to, with the sole intention of trading them away to get back to what they actually wanted to do. In regarding Cleggie as a dimwit they would seem to have outsmarted themselves. With the fishy twins geared up to condemn every single Tory measure, in order to play to the home crowd, it seems we are in for interesting times.

Now we're only waiting for the announcements that Labour and the LDs have rejected their leaders' resignation letters. Real soon I'd imagine!

In the "old man at the cenotaph with a duffel coat" you'd be talking about another Oxford PPE graduate and champaign socialist, Michael Foot. In your haste to excuse his blunder you're missing the prime fact: the "duffel coat" (or donkey jacket) spoke clearly to most people that he'd lost touch with reality, and lived in his own world. No one could see him as a leader on the world stage, or someone that could get to grips with our own problems. This was a view which transcended party allegiances, and in dismissing the general view your emotions are overruling your experience. Of course I'm not saying that our leaders shouldn't go to university (did you read any of those critiques of the Oxford PPE?)! It's the lack of depth of their experience (life, career, and educational), and the conformity of their thought, that's the reason for people's frustration with the present political classes. It's amusing to read of your intention to join Labour (though are you clear which Labour Party you are about to join?). A political analyst of the radio last night explained that the phenomena of people rushing to join political parties that have just been roundly defeated is a well documented one. He explained that the transitory boost in membership never translates into actual votes, and used the recent example of the surge in Green Party membership (following Natalie Bennett's complete b-up on radio) not resulting in any improvement in their GE showing. Your analysis of "power mongers (the international corporations)" isn't too far off the mark. But, I fear you are about to join a party that is just about to renew its vows to crony capitalism. Kippers are genuinely against crony capitalism, but they very sharply differentiate between home grown enterprise and global corporatism. The total failure of Miliband to go here resulted in his Labour Party being seen as anti-business. It's one of the principal reasons Labour insiders are putting forward to explain their failure. In this respect they are spot on, and Alan Sugar's announcement only confirms this. After the inquest the Labour Party won't want to go anywhere near anyone holding that particular song sheet, so save your subscription. Here's a useful check-list for you to explore: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_the_United_Kingdom#Minor_UK_left.2Ffar-left_parties

Why do you believe that voting for professional politicians who came straight out of university into a party machine, and have never had a productive job in their life, would result in a "fairer and more just society"? Their proposition is very simple: you allow us to continue to live in the style to which we've been accustomed, and we will tell you just what you want to hear. Privately, these people will admit they dole out platitudes and hyperbole. They can be amazingly frank when it's strictly off the record. It's almost as if they have an inner need to prove to themselves that at core they are honest. Suggest to them that they explain the hard reality to their electorate and come clean on what can really be delivered, and they'll tell you that if they did that no one would vote for them. Look at Ed's "carved in stone" promises. Looks great, doesn't it? But look again and tell me how you or I will ever be able to tell if any of those promises have been kept. They can be made to mean whatever Ed wants them to mean. What the ^%%& does "A STRONG ECONOMIC FOUNDATION" mean? It could be used to justify billions of pounds spent on useless infrastructure; just like when he blew huge sums, and put up everyone's energy bills, chasing "climate change" nonsense when he was the energy minister. What he actually achieved was "a strong foundation" of private and national debt! Little of the drivel that LibLabCon puts out is genuine policy. It's generally pseudo-aspirational junk, only there to persuade uncritical people to feel good about voting for them. It has little foundation in either fact or reality. The thing about the bacon sarnie is that it's a familiar process we can relate to and immediately assess competency. It illustrates that he's a dork who probably couldn't hold down a job as a supermarket shelf stacker, yet we are supposed to believe that he is capable of dealing with all the nation's thorny problems, ones that even specialists have no clear answers to. The extent of his detachment from reality is nowhere more evident than the his disastrous tenure as energy minister: http://www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/frederick-forsyth/437556/This-energy-policy-of-Ed-Miliband-s-will-go-up-in-smoke http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2009/apr/24/energy-coal-carbon-capture-environment The guy has already cost this country billions, and is probably single-handedly responsible for killing off what we had left of a coal industry. He's also hit the very people he pretends to care about the hardest, both in bumping their energy bills, and then locking in the increase. Tedious and often impossible to explain to the average voter, so the bacon sarnie metaphor has its uses. The Country is well rid of both him and Balls!

Simples: The Greed & Fear Party trumps the Jealousy & Envy Party, ably assisted by both idiot trade unionists (who though they could bring back the 1970's), and an alien nationalist party who obligingly provided a double helping of fear. However, there's a proper democratic party on the scene polling millions of votes, and the tired old Europe-at-any-price & Pretend-to-be-Democrats Party is now a very poor fourth and no longer in the running. And, in the coming weeks... Welcome to New-Old-New Labour. Yes, Teflon Tony is back in all but name. "Things... can only get better... can only get better..." (for crony capitalism).