'POLICE are examining a series of claims of serious electoral fraud across London.
They are "assessing" 28 allegations, while an Evening Standard investigation has uncovered several examples of apparent irregularities in voting records in Tower Hamlets, where campaigners claim electoral fraud is taking place on an "alarming and widespread" scale.
Scotland Yard confirmed it is examining a number of complaints from residents and political groups in the borough. On a wider scale, police are looking at claims of electoral fraud in 12 boroughs but have yet to launch any criminal inquiries.
The Standard found some homes where up to 10 so-called "ghost voters" have been registered on the electoral roll without the knowledge or consent of the people who live there.
Politicians also claim activists working for local parties have been visiting homes and offering to post ballots on behalf of vulnerable residents. In other cases, it is alleged, candidates and activists have "assisted" residents in filling in their postal ballot papers.
Both practices - which can lead to vote tampering - are forbidden by the Electoral Commission code of conduct, signed up to by all the main parties.
The victims of the alleged fraud are usually Bangladeshi residents who speak little English. The Standard found two homes in Bethnal Green where, respectively, eight and 10 apparent ghost voters with Muslim names are registered for postal votes. In fact only five people live at the two properties and they know nothing of the 18 other people listed there.
At a house in Bow, 18 postal ballots were delivered yesterday but only 10 of the voters named live there. They say a Bengali-speaking man came to the door two weeks ago and told them they had to sign forms. Campaigners have raised suspicions about a further eight homes where 77 voters have been registered in recent months.
...
A spokesman for the Electoral Commission said anyone suspecting postal vote irregularities must inform police, or the political parties whose members they suspect. A Tower Hamlets spokesman said: "We have done everything within our power to ensure the safety and security of postal votes.
"If there is an allegation of electoral fraud it has to be investigated by the police - the Returning Officer has no powers to investigate until after the election."'
'A Bedtime Tale of Fluffy the Sheepdog
Once upon a time there was a sheepdog named Fluffy. When he was a puppy he was treated so well and played often with the children who loved him. He had a large kennel that was heated in the winter and as he learned to work for his masters he was a very happy dog.
Then one day his masters decided to adopt stray dogs who were not Sheepdogs. Fluffy did not mind having to move from his big kennel to a smaller one and to share his food since he was a happy dog and he was pleased to have lots of new friends to see back at home after his hard days work since the children were by then tired from playing with the stray dogs.
Over time, however his masters needed Fluffy to work harder and for longer hours because he was the only dog who knew how to herd sheep. Sometimes fluffy got so tired that he tried to lie down and sleep. When this happened his masters scolded and kicked him for being a lazy dog, which made fluffy feel hopelessly sad and lonely.
One Winter it was exceedingly cold and Fluffy felt so unhappy living in his unheated kennel with just one small meal a day that he longed to be in the larger and warmer kennel where the stray dogs were so warm, well fed and comfy.
Tell me Daddy. What was the name of that horrible person who was Fluffy’s master?
Well if you want to know children it was Gordon.
What was Fluffy the sheepdog’s real name Daddy?
No it wasn’t actually (how did you guess). It was a lady sheepdog and her real name was Gillian – Gillian Fluffy.
Why did Fluffy not run away and find a new Master Daddy?
That’s the strangest thing children. Fluffy could have changed his master any time!'
'Madeleine Kirk, standing for the party in the new seat of York Outer, was speaking at the York University event on Wednesday afternoon.Her apology seems bogus, why did she make such a claim if it was "unfounded and utterly reprehensible"? Is she in the habit of making "unfounded and utterly reprehensible" claims? Has she ever spoken out against Islamic jihadists or just people defending themselves against attack for decades? Maybe Madeleine Kirk would defend herself by pointing out her Jewish friends.
A question was asked about whether the candidates believed arms sales to Israel should be banned.
Ms Kirk, a long-standing local city councillor, replied that an embargo should be in place, but was not, "because of the Jewish lobby”.
She then went on to back disgraced Lib Dem peer Jenny Tonge’s call for an inquiry to disprove allegations that Israeli army medical teams in Haiti “harvested” organs of earthquake victims.
Baroness Tonge was stripped of her role as the party’s health spokeswoman in the Lords following her comments in February.
When contacted by the JC, Ms Kirk said: “I apologise unreservedly for any offence caused by my remarks.
“I recognise that the allegations against the IDF's humanitarian operation in Haiti are completely unfounded and utterly reprehensible. I was not aware of the allegations when asked about them at the hustings and responded without considering their full implications.”
Ms Kirk has been a regular critic of Israel. In January last year she spoke at a rally against the Gaza conflict organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
She told the crowd: “I wholeheartedly condemn the attack on Gaza by the Israeli forces.
“The vicious attack is completely out of all proportion to the threat posed by Hamas in the region and will only serve the militants in both the Gaza strip and Israel.”'
'Enjoyed the Leaders Debates in Britain? Found Nick Clegg cute and appealing? Think again!
Behind the Obama-clone charisma and charm there lurks a danger for Britain.
Nick Clegg, Liberal Democrat leader, who is coming into the upcoming British elections in an enhanced position is close, very close, to Nadhmi Auchi. If you care about shady characters behind those who rule I suggest you indulge yourself in a crash course on Mr. Auchi:
His personal fortune in excess of two billion Sterling makes him Britain's 32nd richest person. He has lived in Britain since 1980.
...
Auchi has funded the notorious George Galloway in his 'Viva Palestina' aids convoy with which he tried to break the blockage on Gaza.
Auchi recently said, "In the past the Arab community has not actively participated in British political life (!). I believe this is changing and we are now close to finding a party that is not only sympathetic to our views but whose policies actively seek to address our concerns".
Nadhmi Auchi made these remarks at a fund raising banquet in honour of Nick Clegg.
Auchi established the Anglo-Arab Organisation to promote understanding between Britain and the Arab world.
...
Auchi's Middle East Online website promotes material from well-known anti-Israelis, including Jeff Gates who runs the anti-Israel 'Criminal State' blog.
...
The banquet was organised under the Anglo-Arab Organisation banner. Alan Duncan, a Conservative Shadow Minister, is listed as a patron.
At the banquet, Clegg said that "the Arab community's values sit deep in the soul of the Liberal Democrats. I feel that there is a conjunction of aspirations, hopes, and values between members of the British Arab community and many of the things that the Liberal Democracts stand for today".
The Liberal Democrat leader has condemned Israel's action in Gaza saying "We will not stand aside when unimaginable human suffering is taking place".
Nahmi Auchi was convicted of fraud in the French Elf-Aquitaine oil company trial in 2003. He was given a suspended sentence.
Auchi is also involved in the case of a convicted Chicago fraudster, Tony Rezko, who was involved in a land deal with Barack Obama.
A US court revoked Rezko's bail when prosecutors discovered that Auchi had wired Rezko $3,500,000 from a Lebanese account.
Auchi is banned from into the US. Since 2003 Auchi has invested heavily in Iraq.
...
Clegg is not alone in his party for siding with Muslim and anti-Israel causes. The tongue of Jenny Tonge has exposed his party of openly anti-Israel sentiments.
More recently William Wallace, importantly the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, openly boasted that he had meetings with members of the Hamas terror organisation.
He also threatened to torpedo the renewal of the Israel-EU trade agreement, thereby hinting at support for a boycott of Israel.
...
My pre-Presidential predictions about Obama were spot on. They derived from a study of his close associates. As with Obama, you judge your politicians by those they associate with and are influenced by. These Clegg predictions will also, sadly, affect Israel and British Jewry.
As did Americans, I expect the Brits to go for the cheesecake smiles and ignore the subplot.
A closing warning to Israel. Beware of the country with whom you share classified intelligence information; the leaders may be closer to your enemies than you think.'
'Mr Auchi is fiercely protective of his reputation and has used libel lawyers Carter-Ruck to force several newspapers and blogs to remove references to his activities. Despite Lord Steel's approaches, Mr Lamb raised this issue in a Commons debate on libel in December 2008: "It is alleged that Mr Auchi and his lawyers, Carter Ruck, have been making strenuous efforts to close down public debate."'
'A Lib Dem spokesman insisted last night there was no ‘close association’ between Mr Clegg and Mr Auchi. ‘I don’t think it was an error of judgment for Nick Clegg to have attended that dinner. Nick attended because of his interest in Anglo-Arab issues.’'
'no-one yet comprehends just how tough the next five years will be. For obvious reasons: we have not experienced anything like it in our lifetimes. We have been insulated from the full pain of the financial/economic crisis so far by unprecedented low interest rates and by the bank bail-outs. At some point, the anaesthetic will wear off and we will face a period of austerity that may well make the ruling party so unpopular that it effectively becomes unelectable for decades. There will be strikes; there will be stagnation; there will probably be a double dip of some variety. But this time the pain will be unmistakeably imposed by the politicians.
Tonight in the final television debate, my bet is that the most-used phrase from each of the party leaders (and particularly Brown) will be “difficult decisions”. But I wonder how much any of them understand just how difficult those decisions will be.'
'All Gillian Duffy did was to press Mr Brown on his performance and the failings of politics. She was just passing and thought she would have her say. She deserved better than being dismissed as a ‘bigoted woman’ by the Prime Minister once she was out of earshot. Off-mike blunders are a routine hazard of politics (‘bastards’, ‘yo Blair’) but displaying contempt for the voters on that scale is catastrophic. As she has just said: “I’m very disappointed. It’s very upsetting. He’s an educated person. He wants to lead the country.” Ouch ouch ouch. He’s made it worse by apologising with qualification, with a weasely ‘if’.
What makes it worse is that Mr Brown had just finished a conversation with her which he was anxious to prolong after he discovered that she was not his enemy. She was in fact a fan of what Labour was doing on education, for example, in her area. She had just patted his hand and wished him well. He asked for the names of her grandchildren, praised the red of her jacket, and described her and hers as a ‘good family’. That should have been good retail politics, with what looked like a nicely deflected bit of danger: angry woman telling him ‘what are you going to do to get us out out of all this debt Gordon?’ mollified and turned into an ally by sheer persistence.
...
On the substance: is she bigoted? She pressed Mr Brown about immigration, but like millions of people who are anxious about the sea-change to society that results from the Government’s open-doors policy, concern is not the same as bigotry. For Mr Brown, in his frustration, to assume she is bigoted, speaks volumes about the contempt of the political classes for the fears of of the voters.'
'Gordon Brown, standing in the hallway next to Sue Nye and looking miserable: “Hullo. Hullo Gillian…”
Sue Nye (hissing quietly): “Mrs. Duffy. Gordon, it’s Mrs. Duffy to you.”
Brown: “Yes… uhhh… hullo Mrs. Gillian Duffy.”
Mrs. Duffy: “I suppose you’d better come through… (motions towards the lounge)… I haven’t even had any time to clean up, what with all the men from the newspapers and Mrs. Arbuckle coming round to try and tune in the freeview wotsit so that I could see it all again on Sky. Have you seen it?”
Brown : “I… I… yes, I have seen it.”
Mrs. Duffy: “What do you have to say for yourself?”
Brown: “It’s most unfortunate.”
Mrs. Duffy: “Unfortunate? You’re bloody right it’s unfortunate. Excuse my language, but you’ve got me angry.”
Mrs. Arbuckle: “I’ve never heard her swear. You’ve got her angry.”
Brown: “Look… please… can I, can I? Look… Mrs. Duffy. Can I call you Gillian?
Mrs. Duffy: (stony silence)
Brown: “Look I’m sorry for what happened. It’s been unfortunate. It’s not been very nice for anyone, least of all you, and then, look… me… I’m here… I’ve come all this way… I’m sorry for your distress, if I said anything that might have been heard on camera as being offensive… But please, this is not easy for me.”
Mrs. Duffy: “Not easy for you? It’s not exactly a cakewalk for me either. Have you seen it out there? There’s hundreds of them. All I did this morning was get up and go for a walk to the shops. Now look what’s happened. Are you sorry for what you said?”
Brown: “I’m sorry it was recorded and that you feel offended.”
Mrs. Duffy: “That’s not what I asked you.”
Brown, walking over to the mantelpiece and pointing at a photograph: “Are these your grand-children? Aren’t children great?”
Mrs. Duffy (sighing): “Yes, children are great. Now, answer my question. Are you sorry?”
Brown: “I…”
Mrs. Duffy (quietly and calmly): “Are you sorry?”
Brown: “I… (exhaling deeply and frowning)… I… I’ve never done this before… Yes… I… I am sorry.”
Mrs. Duffy (her mood softening markedly) : “There, that wasn’t so difficult now was it? That’s all I wanted to hear. Nothing wrong with me asking questions about immigrants, see? But you’re a busy man under pressure and though you shouldn’t have said what you said, what’s done is done. No use crying over spilt milk. You’ve said sorry and it’s in the past. Now, can I get you a cup of tea? I must say, love, you look so very tired…. are you feeling ok, love?”
Mr. Brown: “I’m just getting on with the job… we face so many challenges to build a future fair for all… jobs for the future… more apprenticeships every year, year on year. Fairer schools… fewer foreigners… older hospitals, or is it newer hospitals? Fairer pensioners… a future fair for freemasons…
...
Brown: “Would you, would you… possibly come outside when I leave and… and… and… maybe make a statement saying you’ve forgiven me and that you’re voting Labour?”
Mrs. Duffy: “No, love. I couldn’t possibly do that. My agent told me not to say a word to a soul until the interviewer and photographer gets here from London. Apparently I’ve to say nothing publicly until later on this afternoon. It’s in the contract. I’ll say one thing for you Mr. Brown though - you’ve ensured I got something important today.”
Brown: “What’s that?”
Mrs. Duffy: “I would never have got the money for that new conservatory without all this.”
(*) All of the words in this transcript are imaginary. '
'Since launching the "Boobquake" Facebook page two days ago, she has enlisted more than 20,000 women promising to show as much cleavage as possible on Monday, April 26.
If the world doesn't then disappear into an apocalyptic fiery chasm, then Sedighi will have no option but to admit he was wrong.
"On Monday, April 26th, I will wear the most cleavage-showing shirt I own," Ms McCreight wrote.
"Yes, the one usually reserved for a night on the town.
"I encourage other female skeptics to join me and embrace the supposed supernatural power of their breasts. Or short shorts, if that's your preferred form of immodesty.
"With the power of our scandalous bodies combined, we should surely produce an earthquake.
"If not, I'm sure Sedighi can come up with a rational explanation for why the ground didn't rumble."
And you can now make that number 21,000 - and rising fast.'
'Ok, we've all been there. We've had a difficult conversation with someone, and then we've said something about them and been overheard when we thought we were out of earshot. And that's what basically happened to Brown today. He was caught out.
...
He's allowed to disagree with the woman, and he's allowed to think that she is bigoted. But offering a few platitudes before he runs back to his car and disappears is frankly pathetic. If he disagreed with her, he should have challenged her. He should have explained why he thought she was wrong, and debated with her. He is a leader in a democracy fighting an election, for fuck's sake. Now more than ever, he should be willing to engage with the people explain his own views, and discuss why he doesn't agree with others.
Don't forget that this is Gordon Brown - the self-styled conviction politician. Some fucking conviction politician, Gordo, if you are afraid to engage with an old woman who used to be a member of your party when she expresses her own opinions, and asks you questions.
As such, it is difficult to know how this could be much worse for Brown. Arguably, things would have been better had he insulted this woman to her face, or argued with her and lost. At least that way, he might have retained something approaching dignity from this sorry situation. But as it stands, Brown could not appear more pathetic - the bullying little man who runs away from old ladies, only to insult them behind their backs when he thinks they, and the rest of the nation, aren't listening.'
'The most surprising thing about the encounter as far as I can tell is the change in tone from 10 seconds earlier when he was very smiley and jolly... and then as soon as he thinks he is out of mic range his demeanour completely changes. The encounter itself seemed pretty good natured and although the woman concerned, Gillian Duffy did press the PM on immigration and debt he had actually managed to turn the situation around and ended up asking about her grandchildren. Also, she is (was) a Labour voter and said so which appeared to please him.
...
The rapid switch in tone so starkly reveals the disparity between how he tries to portray himself in public and his actual persona. This underlines all those stories about thrown Nokias and him supposedly shouting and bullying people. It will make people more likely to believe them as we have seen a little window into his private world.
It also seems totally out of proportion. It's not like he had just come away from someone questioning him very harshly or belligerently. It was just an elderly lady who was perfectly polite. His response seems inexplicable frankly.'
'Cocky, fake, slimy, inelegant, ineloquent, charmless, witless, weird, sinister, glacially cold and luminescently remote, he may be the most chillingly repulsive politician of even this golden generation. If Pixar set out to create a CGI character to embody everything the public has learned to despise about its political class, they'd be thrilled to come up with this lizardy schemer, who may have slipped through a tear in the fabric of space-time himself. Certainly he seems best suited to skulking beneath stone archways, in a purple robe, sibilantly sidling poison into the bloodstream of the medieval Vatican.Matthew Norman in The Independent; I don't think he's one of Ed Balls's biggest fans! Mind you the post-election scenario that Matthew Norman paints will not happen if the repulsive Ed Balls is defeated by Anthony Calvert in his 'castration' strategy. Now that would be worth staying up late for next Thursday night...
For a decade and more, this greyest of eminences has stirred, fixed, briefed and bullied, first to remove Mr Tony Blair; and latterly in the cause – keeping his master in power – that has pushed his party to the edge of the abyss. If he has a political philosophy, it is the domineering, top-down, we-know-best, infantilising statism of Gordon himself, but it's not really about that. For Mr Balls, it is football thug tribalism – a with-us-or-against-us Manichean sensibility next to which Mrs Thatcher seems a proto-Cleggian champion of consensus. '
'Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been caught on microphone describing a voter he had just spoken to in Rochdale as a "bigoted woman".
Sixty five-year-old Gillian Duffy had challenged Mr Brown on a number of issues including immigration and crime.
As he got into his car, he was still wearing a broadcast microphone and was heard to say "that was a disaster".
Mr Brown later apologised after the tape was played to him as he was interviewed on BBC Radio 2.
After listening to the recording, with his head in his hands, he said: "I do apologise if I've said anything that has been hurtful."
The comments were made after the conversation with Mrs Duffy, with Mr Brown not realising that he had a Sky News microphone pinned to his shirt.
He told an aide: "That was a disaster - they should never have put me with that woman. Whose idea was that? It's just ridiculous..."
Asked what she had said, he is heard to reply: "Ugh everything! She's just a sort of bigoted woman that said she used to be Labour. I mean it's just ridiculous. I don't know why Sue brought her up towards me."
'1.02pm: Here, from the Press Association, is some more reaction from Gillian Duffy.
Duffy said she was "very disappointed" with Mr Brown's remarks.
After hearing what the prime minister had said about her, she said it was "very upsetting".
"He's an educated person, why has he come out with words like that?" she said.
"He's supposed to lead this country and he's calling an ordinary woman who's just come up and asked questions what most people would ask him – he's not doing anything about the national debt and it's going to be tax, tax, tax for another 20 years to get out of this mess – and he's calling me a bigot."
She said she would not now be voting in the general election.
Pressed on whether she still wanted Mr Brown in No 10, she said: "I'm not bothered whether he does or not now. I don't think he will."
She urged the PM to go out among the public and "find out what's going on in our lives".
She said she had not planned to speak to Mr Brown, but saw him "walking up the street" and thought she would ask him what he would do about the national debt.
"I thought he was understanding – but he wasn't, was he, the way he's come out with the comments ..."
Duffy, who has a daughter and two grandchildren, told reporters she used to work with handicapped children for Rochdale council before she retired.
Her husband, who was a painter and decorator, died of cancer four years ago.'
'Video has emerged which appears to show the alleged Christmas Day Detroit plane bomber attending a desert training camp run by al-Qaeda in Yemen.No doubt an innocent explanation will be presented by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's lawyers and the BBC and others will accept that at face value.
The video released by ABC News shows a man resembling Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab firing a rifle and making a "martyrdom" statement to camera.
Gunmen are shown firing at British, UN and Israeli flags or symbols.
Mr Abdulmutallab has been in US custody since being overpowered by passengers as he allegedly tried to blow up a jet. '
'A police officer is likely to have "struck the fatal blow" which killed a protester in west London 31 years ago, a Scotland Yard report reveals.'
'People who regularly eat chocolate are more depressive, experts have found.My theory is that chocolate does lift the mood but eating chocolate makes you fat and so depressed. At a certain point the depression caused by being fat exceeds the mood lift from eating chocolate, in my case this happens half way into the second bar!
Research in Archives of Internal Medicine shows those who eat at least a bar every week are more glum than those who only eat chocolate now and again.
Many believe chocolate has the power to lift mood, and the US team say this may be true, although scientific proof for this is lacking.
But they say they cannot rule out that chocolate may be a cause rather than the cure for being depressed.
In the study, which included nearly 1,000 adults, the more chocolate the men and women consumed the lower their mood.
Those who ate the most - more than six regular 28g size bars a month - scored the highest on depression, using a recognised scale.'
'A mystery poster put up in Carlisle which showed Labour’s business secretary Peter Mandelson being hanged has been branded “offensive and cowardly”.Despicable, tasteless and vile; but enough of Peter Mandelson, what about the poster?
The owner of the 20ft wide hoarding in Warwick Road removed the poster after Labour Party officials complained, pointing out that the advert probably breached election law because it did not say who commissioned it.
The poster bore the simple slogan: “We don’t want a hung parliament.”
Cumbria police have confirmed that they intervened after receiving an official complaint.
The Carlisle businessman who owns the billboard refused to say who asked for the poster to be put up.'
'Respect have set out their conditions for supporting a Labour government in a hung Parliament.I wonder if the BBC would report the BNP's demands as equably? Somehow I think not.
As they launched their manifesto the party said they would not back a Tory government "under any circumstances".
But they would support Labour if troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan, more council houses were built, there was electoral reform and an end to cuts.
The anti-war party is hoping to gain up to three MPs on 6 May, which could leave it holding the balance of power.'
'Strippers versus zombies! Strippers versus sushi! AV star Sola Aoi (Sora Aoi, 蒼井そら) wielding a chainsaw! It's everything a growing boy needs and it's all coming at you in 3D!
It's Takao Nakano's gleefully trashy Big Tits Zombie - the film adaptation of Rei Mikamoto's cult manga Kyonyo Dragon - and Twitch is proud to present the exclusive world premiere of the brand new trailer! Get out your rain slickers and make sure mom's not looking over your shoulder because it's about to get bloody!'
"Watching Germany rise from its knees after the war and become a vastly more prosperous nation has not been easy on the febrile British psyche. All nations have a cross to bear, and none more so than Germany with its memories of Nazism. But the British cross is more insidious still. A misplaced sense of superiority, sustained by delusions of grandeur and a tenacious obsession with the last war, is much harder to shake off. We need to be put back in our place."
'The International Monetary Fund has cut its 2011 UK growth forecast, delivering a pre-election blow to the Government.
The Washington-based fund said it expected the UK economy to grow by 2.5pc next year, compared with an earlier forecast of 2.7pc. It maintained its 2010 prediction at 1.3pc growth in its latest World Economic Outlook report.
The IMF’s view of the British economy in 2011 is significantly more downbeat compared with the Government’s, after the Chancellor predicted a 3.25pc increase in gross domestic product in the Budget in March.
The gulf between the forecasts will add fuel to the political debate just two weeks before the general election on May 6. '
'Spiralling sovereign debt in Europe, the US, and Japan has emerged as the top threat to the world economy and risks setting off a fresh financial storm, the International Monetary Fund has warned.
...
Countries with "outsized deficits and an unsustainable debt trajectory" that rely on foreigners to buy their bonds can run out of time quickly. The danger comes at "trigger dates" when clusters of debt maturites fall due, a problem that has hit Greece this year.
The Fund said there was a risk of "standoffs" as investors hold out for higher rates from defiant states. This could lead to "an unresolved solvency crisis", a veiled warning that some rich states may ultimately default.'
'George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, and Ken Clarke, the shadow business secretary, predicted that the bond markets would collapse while the parties “haggled” over possible coalitions, leading to the intervention of the IMF.
Mr Clarke warned that the public had failed to appreciate the seriousness of the election given the troubled state of the economy, and the full consequences of an indecisive result and a hung parliament.
He said: "Not every single member of the electorate seems to realise how serious this election is.
"Bond markets won't wait. Sterling will wobble. We have seen even minor flickers in the opinion polls causing problems with interest rates in the recent past.
"If the British don't decide to put in a government with a working majority, and the markets think that we can't tackle our debt and deficit problems, then the IMF will have to do it for us."
Having been elected as an MP for the first time in 1970, Mr Clarke said that he could remember the “disaster” of the Lib-Lab pact of 1977, and how the government had been forced to turn to the IMF to sort out the nation’s finances for the only time in British history.
“It was a farce, it was a fiasco, it didn't save us from disaster,” he said.
"And I would be very, very alarmed if any prospect of that occurred on this occasion.
"This [the state of the economy] is worse than the Conservatives took over in 1970, worse than Labour took over in 1974, worse than we took over in 1979, and it really is going to require strong, purposeful government confident of its majority to put things into place."
Mr Osborne added: "It is a statement of fact that the last time - indeed the only time - the IMF came in was when the governing party did not have a workable majority in Parliament, which was in the late 1970s.
"And I don't think people should underestimate the economic consequences of political instability in this country at a time when we are running one of the largest budget deficits in the developed world, when people have questioned our credit rating, and when we can see that there is a very, very serious problem with unemployment and business confidence.
"So that is a very, very serious challenge, and political instability, a hung parliament - people need to be aware of the consequences of that." '
'The Civil Aviation Authority has told Channel 4 News the grounding of aircraft caused by the ash cloud may not have been necessary if rigorous engine testing had been done previously.So thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people inconvenienced, some seriously, and there might have been no need.
...
he CAA's Richard Taylor told Channel 4 News: "We didn't know then (last Thursday) what we do know now. The kind of testing that has been done over the past four or five days has never been done before.
"The data was never analysed to the extent that we know what we know now.
"So if you ask me if aircraft would have been grounded last week, probably not."
Mr Taylor said that flights had been resumed over the UK because "engine manufacturers are now happy with the current concentrations (…) It wasn't until late yesterday afternoon that the engine manufactuers told us they were content with the testing data."
A similar explanation emerged from the National Air Traffic Service (Nats), the body with responsibility for implementing the shutdown.
A Nats source told Channel 4 News: "The science has been complex to try and find a way to do the analysis between the engine manufacturers and airframe makers."
They explained that last night they had "looked at the coordinates on where the cloud was, using the new densities."
The source continued:"This has been an unprecedented situation, with a lot of pressure on a lot of people."
Today's comments by the CAA and by Nats confirm the view of Bill Voss, chief executive of the independent Flight Safety Foundation, who said yesterday: "It is an incredibly serious oversight that research has never been carried out into what levels of volcanic ash pose a risk to planes."
In the last few days around 40 European airlines carried out test flights, including British Airways on Sunday. Their results suggested that the risks to aviation are not as high as computer models predict.
A test by German operator Lufthansa "did not find the slightest scratch on the cockpit windscreens, on the outer skin, nor in the engines," according to company spokesman Klaus Walther.'
'Two thugs who left a father-of-two permanently brain damaged after subjecting him to a 'brutal and unprovoked' attack because they wrongly branded him a paedophile have been jailed.Five years for beating a man insensible with a plank of wood, five years for ruining a man's life, five bloody years! Oh sorry, he could be eligible for parole in 2½ year; bloody marvellous - who thinks that is an adequate sentence?
The sickening assault on Filipe Nunes David by the youths, who had been drinking and taking drugs, saw him beaten around the head with a wooden plank and left covered in blood on the pavement.
Mr David needed life-saving emergency surgery which resulted in him having part of his brain removed. He now needs help washing, dressing and eating and no longer recognises members of his family.
Kingston Crown Court heard how Brett Carslake, aged 20, was joined by 17-year-olds Jamie Bailey and Frank Miller as they ambushed their innocent victim.
Eyewitnesses told how the young men surrounded Mr David 40, a Portuguese national, and were heard to shout: 'Come on - let's get him.'
After beating him with a plank of wood they were then heard to scream: 'We've done it. We've beaten the paedophile!'
The Daily Mail today learned from a senior Surrey police source that the deluded youngsters had convinced themselves Mr David had a paedophile past which was simply not true.
'This was a completely innocent man who was targeted by these men. He did not have a single stain on his character but these three thought he had,' explained a police source.
Carslake, from Epsom, Surrey, was given an indeterminate sentence with a minimum of five years after pleading guilty to grievous bodily harm. He was also told he will remain on licence for life.
Bailey, from Ewell, Surrey, was given a five-year term for beating Mr David with a plank of wood but could be eligible for parole in two and a half years.
Miller, from Epsom, Surrey, did not hit the victim but forced him from his bike and must complete a two-year supervision programme after pleading guilty to grievous bodily harm.'
'A new type of speed cameras which can use satellites to measure average speed over long distances are being tested in Britain.Big Brother is always watching you...
The cameras, which combine number plate reading technology with a global positioning satellite receiver, are similar to those used in roadworks.
The AA said it believed the new system could cover a network of streets as opposed to a straight line, and was “probably geared up to zones in residential areas.”
The Home Office is testing the cameras at two sites, one in Southwark, London, and the other A374 between Antony and Torpoint in Cornwall.
The `SpeedSpike’ system, which calculates average speed between any two points in the network, has been developed by PIPS Technology Ltd, an American-owned company with a base in Hampshire.
Details of the trials are contained in a House of Commons report. The company said in its evidence that the cameras enabled "number plate capture in all weather conditions, 24 hours a day". It also referred to the system's "low cost" and ease of installation.
The system could be used for "main road enforcement for congestion reduction and speed enforcement", and could help to "eliminate rat-runs" and cut speeds outside schools, it added.'
"The UK economy has some very deep, fundamental problems that won’t be solved simply by installing a new government, and this sharp increase in UK inflation to 3.4 per cent is possibly just the start of an inevitable and unstoppable slide towards double-digit inflation and interest rates within the next few years."
'Whoever gets into power will need to raise taxes. I am not in favour, but it is a likely necessity.
So if it happens, let us give credit where it is due and call it he Brown Overspend Tax or something like that.'
'The Met Office unnecessarily triggered the six-day closure of British airspace which has cost passengers, airlines and the economy more than £1.5billion, according to senior officials.A computer model, hmm that could be as relibale as those that predict Climate Change...
A scientific model based on ‘probability’ rather than fact was used by the government agency to forecast the spread of the volcanic ash cloud, according to critics.
Matthias Ruete, the European Commission’s director general of transport, said air traffic authorities should not have imposed a widespread ban.
He suggested the ban should have been restricted to a 20 to 30 mile limit around the volcano in Iceland.
He said: 'The science behind the model we are running at the moment is based on certain assumptions where we do not have scientific evidence. It is a black box in certain areas.'
Results of 40 or so European test flights over the weekend, including a British Airways flight on Sunday, suggested the risks were not as high as computer models predicted.
None found evidence of any ash in engines, windows or lubrication systems.
'We don’t even know what density the cloud should be in order to affect jet engines. We have a model that runs on mathematical predictions.
'It is probability rather than actual things happening,' Mr Ruete said.'
'The statistics watchdog has criticised the decision to allow Gordon Brown to get key economic figures before the party leaders’ television debate this Thursday.Fairness & equality not words that Gordon Brown has ever run his life by. The man is a fraud and all his protestations about having a 'moral compass' and the like should be dismissed as lies.
The Prime Minister will be the only party leader to know if Britain has fallen back into recession before the debate. The figures will be released on Friday morning. Last night, Sir Michael Scholar, chairman of the UK Statistics Authority, said the situation was unacceptable.
The figures will show whether the recovery has been sustained during the first three months of the year. They are expected to have a significant bearing on the election campaign.
...
A spokesman for Sir Michael said the authority believed access to the statistics should be three hours or less before their release. Conservative sources said they might lodge a complaint.
Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrats’ economics spokesman, said all parties should have the same information at the same time. '
'Giving up your seat to a woman is frowned upon in these days of sexual equality, so if you really want to be polite to a woman why not give up your job instead?'
"We've been crying now for much too long
And now we're gonna dance to a different song
I'm gonna scream and shout til my dying breath
I'm gonna smash it up til theres nothing left
Oooh ooh smash it up, smash it up, smash it up
Oooh ooh smash it up, smash it up, smash it up
People call me villain oh its such a shame
Maybe its my clothes must be to blame
I don't even care if I look a mess
Don't wanna be a sucker like all the rest
Oooh ooh smash it up, smash it up, smash it up
Oooh ooh smash it up, smash it up, smash it up
Smash it up
Smash it up
Smash it up
Smash it up
Smash it up
Smash it up, you can keep your krishna burgers
Smash it up, and your Glastonbury hippies
Smash it up, you can stick your frothy lager
Smash it up, and your blow wave hairstyles
And everybody's smashing things down
I said everybody's smashing things down yeah"
'Louis Theroux, the documentary-maker, has claimed he used to wake Nick Clegg up in the morning when they were at boarding school together.So what!
The television presenter’s claim that he was the Liberal Democrat leader’s “fag” at Westminster School has led to renewed focus on the latter’s privileged upbringing.
Until recently, much had been made in the election campaign of David Cameron’s well-off family and his elite education at Eton and Oxford.
But Mr Clegg enjoyed an equally comfortable start in life, as the son of a successful banker, Nicholas Clegg, who is now chairman of United Trust Bank.
The MP’s maternal grandfather had been president of ABN, the Dutch bank. Despite this, Mr Clegg regularly criticises the “greedy” bankers who triggered the worldwide financial crisis and wants a 10 per cent tax on profits in the financial sector.
His paternal grandmother was Baroness Kira von Engelhardt, a descendant of an Attorney General in the Imperial Russian senate.
Mr Clegg grew up in the picturesque commuter town of Chalfont St Giles, Bucks, but his family also owns a large chalet in the Alps and a chateau in France.
He was sent to school at Westminster School in London where fees for boarders are now £28,344 a year.
One of his peers was Mr Theroux - best known for his BBC2 documentary series, Weird Weekends – who claims that he used to wait upon the politician every morning and bring him a newspaper.
Mr Theroux said that he had been Mr Clegg’s “fag”, in the old-fashioned system formerly widespread in public schools whereby younger pupils had to act as servants for older ones, waking him up in the morning during term time and presenting him with a newspaper.'
'The intriguing prospect (of Elizabeth Filkin returning to a compliance role) is raised by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority’s disclosure that chief executive, Andrew McDonald, has been lunching with Mrs Filkin.... the authority will appoint a “compliance officer” after the election, responsible for probing errant MPs and dishing out punishments.Justice would be done, now we just need the EU to find an investigatory role for Marta Andreasen!
Drafting in Mrs Filkin - the nemesis of the pre-expenses scandal Commons - could be seen as a strong statement of intent.'
