"The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that's the way to bet." Damon Runyon.
![Smile :smile:](./images/smilies/smile.gif)
A quick read of "Charley Wilson's War" should answer this question. I'm amazed that the Americans tried it for a second time. NATO and Blair got us involved in a totally pointless conflict.Stanley wrote: will Afghanistan in five years be in any better condition than when we went in? Have we wasted blood and treasure for nothing?
So we've got the super rich foreigners outbidding our filthy rich bankers and so on down the pecking order. No mention of the poor sods who live in Tower Hamlets. if this was a strategic utility or National asset we would be hearing "we have got to show that we are open for business". This is what you get in a rampant unregulated capitalist system.Stanley wrote: Ernst and Young Item Club calling for action on the property price bubble developing in London
Quite right. Revolving doors with each successive government. The whole system looks corrupt. The next years red line drops to meet the blue line. Its about time we got a grip on the whole quango setup.Tardis wrote:This little graph shows memberships of quango's by party from the BBC, funny how it wasn't an issue until now:
The troughing never ceases to amaze me, and those 13 years were certainly beneficial to certain apparatchiks within the Labour party Organisationplaques wrote:Quite right. Revolving doors with each successive government. The whole system looks corrupt. The next years red line drops to meet the blue line. Its about time we got a grip on the whole quango setup.Tardis wrote:This little graph shows memberships of quango's by party from the BBC, funny how it wasn't an issue until now:
Only a Local Authority?In a boost to direct democracy, any local authority that chooses to raise Council Tax by 2% or above must put it to a public vote said Mr Pickles. This threshold is lower than last year striking an appropriate balance between direct democracy and representative democracy ensuring local people have a democratic check over tax hikes through a binding local referendum. Local referendums could be held on the same day as the European elections on 22 May at minimal extra cost or inconvenience
At least they are putting forward their arguments to the public and allowing them to decide rather than an automatic increase up to the allowed limitBruff wrote:Brighton I think, is putting a proposed Council Tax rise somewhat above 2% to a referendum. They have explained why they want to do this and where the extra will be spent. Should this be carried it will be interesting to see Mr Pickles' reaction - in theory, he should be delighted yet in reality, I suspect not and wouldn't be surprised if there were more 'tinkering' with the rules.
Richard Broughton