Valley Pub

The way Kennedy was treated by his own party was a disgrace, so what if he enjoyed a few drinks, Winston Churchill spent most of his life in a drunken stupor but was still one of the greatest leaders Britain had ever had. While I do not agree with much of what Kennedy says he has always come across as a decent guy and his treatment was absolutely despicable. Kennedy in charge would not work now though, centre left is now being occupied by Miliband so people voting for a Kennedy led Lib Dem party would be taking votes away from Labour and give the tories a working majority at the next election. I would be perfectly comfortable with that but left leaning people wouldn't.

True lol but yeah I don't think there will even be a Lib Dem party in 5 years time, Clegg and his wing will join the tory party and the left leaning Lib Dem's will join Labour. The Lib Dems are dead in the water, poor election performance followed by the stabbing in the back of their younger fanbase over fees, I am in favour of fees but Lib Dems got a lot of student votes on the basis of their promise and I can't see the student population voting Lib Dem again.

He wouldn't work in this day and age, Ming is a very intelligent chap but it is all about image and looks and how someone comes across on tv these days and Cameron and Clegg are considered very good looking by women, Red Ed less so but he is their generation so Ming would come across as too old in televised election debates bit like John McCain did in debates against Obama.

My understanding was that it is up to 10 employees but I stand corrected.

Clegg used to be a tory in his uni days so he is just showing his true colours now, he is just an opportunist who saw climbing the ranks of the Lib Dems as a much better career and photo opportunity than being an insignificant tory mp.

I don't detect great public support for the Libyan conflict tbh, even Kelvin MacKenzie usually the most rabid of right wingers has been heavily critical of UK involvement in Libya.

If they mess up then the electorate will be free to vote them out at the next election

It is inconvenient for small businesses to have people taking too much time off, a medium or large business can withstand absenteeism whereas a small business can't so it is right for small businesses to be exempt from a lot of business regulation, can LG or Microsoft afford to do without key employees while they are 'training' ? they can but can a business that employs 2 or 3 people ? no

The important thing is to get people off the dole queue and paying tax and doing their bit for society and that won't come from the public sector it is already bloated with far too many tiers of management it will come from the private sector and infrastructure projects. Docklands was transformed thanks to becoming an enterprise zone, it went from a load of disused banana warehouses into a thriving metropolis and the business hub of this country so imagine 21 equivalents of Docklands out there and think how many jobs that will bring to this country, the public sector job losses will long since be forgotten as they find jobs in the private sector, enterprise zones are going to transform Britain as a trading nation, rejuvenate run down areas of this country and get people into work.

The absolute bulk of jobs lost will be through natural wastage like not replacing staff when they retire/switch jobs/die or whatever and recruitment freezes.

They are supporting small businesses aswell, exempting small firms from huge swathes of regulation, the creation of enterprise zones and other measures that will help small businesses. Big business will undoubtedly benefit too particularly through cuts in corporation tax but business both big and small is what creates jobs so while you may sneer at businesses it is them that are going to create jobs not the public sector. The only way to get people off the dole is by setting business free

They need time to work These 21 enterprise zones if they are half as successful as the revitalisation of London's Docklands will transform business in this country, the reforms of corporation tax will bring businesses to this country (already today WPP the advertising giant has said they are returning to Britain due to the corporation tax cuts), enterprise zones become successful and businesses come to this country unemployment will fall rapidly. These measures were only announced yesterday so everyone should wait and see what the government does by the time of the next election before writing them off.

And replace them with ? Red Ed instead of bleating about the coalition should set out some economic policies of his own and tell us how he would create growth, how he would get millions off benefits, how he would cut the debt, all we hear from him is hot air about how nasty the coalition is. I don't think he has a clue about how he would handle things, if he is serious about leading the UK it is time he set out his stall as no one knows what he stands for or how he would deal with things.

Politics is a valuable course, this country needs politicians both at local and national level it certainly can't be compared with something like history of art. But how likely is someone with a degree in sociology to be to pay back the loan over their lifetime ? in the current climate which could carry on for years do you see a sociology degree as a one way ticket to a job paying over £21k ? I don't

And how much at the same time was lost through tax avoidance ? 50% tax while not as bad as the late 70's in the UK encourages tax avoidance among the top earners.

I see no problem with doing away with the 50% tax rate. It was just Labour throwing a bone to the left wing of the party without the 50% rate having any real revenue raising benefit. Lowering upper end tax rates gives less incentive for tax avoidance and encourages enterprise.

Yeah can't stand the bloke, he comes across as less of a turd now but the stupid comments he made particularly in 2007 and 2008 put me right off him, how dare he call drivers who were less fortunate than him to get a drive "monkeys at the back of the grid" -_- were it not for Ron Dennis bankrolling his entire career buying him the best rides he would be one of those monkeys at the back of the grid himself (pardon the unfortunate racial slur). Dreadful bloke hope he screws up again this season. Renault car looks pretty damn tasty both in design and performance can see them fighting for podiums this season

I wasn't referring to people who care about the environment as loonies :) I was referring to these 'expert' scientists and I am very very cynical about them, I throw away cans and bottles for recycling so do my bit ;) Yeah last year was some La Nina I think it was called that f***ed up the weather in the southern hemisphere causing all the floods and blizzards etc

Sounds like he will be back in 2012 all going well :) great chance for Heidfeld to step up, sounds like they might well have a good season too. Don't care who wins really as long as it is not Hamilton so would take any one of Alonso, Massa, Vettel, Webber, Button or Heidfeld as champion.

Just a few hours to go till the first practice of the 2011 season. Can't wait

Yeah lol you can't go wrong there B) Recommend a visit, sand dune racing :heart:

I am as straight talking as you can get and have survived each time I have been there :P Unless you have something against Indians, Germans, English or Australians you would be fine lol as despite it being an arab country you don't see many arabs there.

Any flights between Sydney-Bangkok-Dubai-London which are the 4 places I only ever travel to I always use Emirates which to be fair were also the cheapest airline which surprised me, I never travel to America but next time you go down under would seriously recommend Emirates

Oh dear :( 777's are ghastly just 747's without the upper deck and 2 less engines but the legroom on the A380 economy class and seat comfort is amazing, if you fly long haul you should make Emirates your first choice you won't regret it

Once you have been on an A380 you won't want to travel on anything else, even in cattle class the seats are wide and the legroom is such that you can completely stretch your legs out not to mention even with cheap airline headphones the ICE sound system sounds better playing albums than my iPod does. Every flight I take now is with Emirates.