Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Zipping Over to Britain

And what is the main thing to see?

"No. 3 British party gains after debate" by Associated Press | April 20, 2010

LONDON — An unpredictable British national election has become more uncertain, with an unexpectedly stellar debate performance from the leader of the Liberal Democrats sending the perennially third-ranked party to first place in some polls.

See:
British Blather

Nick Clegg’s party has leapfrogged the main opposition Conservatives — who most had expected to oust Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s governing Labour party after 13 years in office.

Clegg’s relaxed style and sharp attacks on Britain’s two major parties won him, by virtually every assessment, the country’s first ever TV debate last week.

Clegg attacked Brown and Conservative leader David Cameron as being part of an old consensus in British politics that allowed a lawmakers’ expense scandal and failed to anticipate the financial meltdown. He also charmed viewers by referring to audience members who asked questions by name, in a style reminiscent of President Bill Clinton’s....

Really, I was told he was the “Barack Obama of British politics’’

I was told this guy this guy was the Bill Clinton of British politics!

An opinion poll by BPIX, published Sunday, put the Liberal Democrats up 12 points to 32 percent. Cameron’s Conservatives fell seven points to 31 percent and Brown’s Labour sat third with 28 percent. In a poll yesterday by ICM for The Guardian newspaper, the Liberal Democrats were up 10 points to 30 percent, behind the Conservatives but ahead of Labour.

Wherever you go, PEOPLE are in an ANTI-INCUMBENT MOOD!!!

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I doubt the debates help. They never do here.

"Signs of a hung Parliament in UK; Cameron comes up short in polls" by Robert Hutton and Kitty Donaldson, Bloomberg News | April 24, 2010

LONDON — Conservative David Cameron wasn’t able to derail Nick Clegg in the British campaign’s second debate, four instant polls showed, pointing to a hung Parliament with Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Labour Party as the largest bloc.

I smell a rigging coming.

In the 90-minute televised debate Thursday, Brown, 59, compared his 43-year-old opponents to children “squabbling at bathtime.’’ Cameron, who led polls until Clegg’s surge after last week’s debate, said a government without a majority would prevent “decisive action’’ to narrow a record budget deficit. Clegg dismissed the warnings as “ludicrous scare stories.’’

Same old s*** no matter where you go if it is politics.

Of four surveys released immediately after the event, two showed Clegg won and a pair favored Cameron. That suggests the debate will produce little change in polls on the overall race in coming days. Most since last week show Labour winning a plurality of seats in the May 6 election.

Labor wins the most seats when they are last in the polls?

Yeah, that's politics.

“It would have been a game-changer if Clegg had crashed and burned,’’ said Justin Fisher, professor of politics at Brunel University in London. “Clegg held up better than I thought he would. He won’t fall back to his pre-debate levels’’ — about 10 points below where he is now.

I'm SICK of the GAME of POLITICS!

A YouGov daily poll before Thursday night’s debate put the Conservatives at 34 percent and Labour at 29 percent, with the Liberal Democrats at 28 percent. That would leave Labour with 278 seats to 251 for the Conservatives and 88 for the Liberal Democrats, according to the standard calculations used by academics and pollsters....

I'm not getting the math, but it's not my election, so....

Such a result may roil markets because a divided government would be too weak to fix Britain’s finances, some economists say. The pound slumped 1 percent in the two days after the debate last week.

You see what is important, right, readers?

Not you, British voters.

The British economy grew half as much as economists forecast in the first quarter, the Office of National Statistics reported yesterday....

So once again the economy isn't doing as great as advertised, huh?

In Thursday night’s debate, Brown, whose party has controlled the government since 1997, addressed his unpopularity. “Like me or not, I can deliver,’’ he said. He later told his opponents: “David, you’re a risk to the economy, Nick is a risk to our security.’’

Brown told Clegg to “get real’’ and stop opposing nuclear weapons. He criticized Cameron over his European policy and economic policies.

“Iran, you’re saying, might be able to have a nuclear weapon and you wouldn’t take action against them, but you’re also saying give up our Trident submarines,’’ Brown told Clegg on the stage of an arts center in Bristol. “Get real about the danger we face if we have North Korea, Iran, and other countries with nuclear weapons and we give up our own.’’

I thought Obama was trying to rid the world of the things. Now you find that the Brits intend to hold on to theirs!?!

And I didn't highlight anything above because I'm really sick of fart-misting war slaves in service to Israel.

Clegg opposes updating Britain’s submarine-based Trident missile system.

Yes, IRAN is NOT EVEN MAKING a BOMB and BRITAIN is UPGRADING HERS -- but IRAN is the THREAT!

Brown said Cameron’s “anti-Europeanism becomes more and more obvious as this debate goes on.’’

Cameron said he wanted to be “in Europe but not run by Europe.’’

If you oppose the globalist order that is ruining the continent you can't be all bad.

Cameron made some direct attacks on Clegg, at one point taking on the Liberal Democrat leader’s assertion that his party had escaped censure after disclosures that scores of lawmakers were reimbursed with taxpayer money for personal expenses.

“Frankly, Nick, we all had problems with this,’’ the Conservative said. “Don’t let’s anyone put themselves on a pedestal.’’

See: London Loot is Falling Down

Yeah, they are all shits, how about that?

Clegg criticized Cameron over his decision to end the Conservatives’ alliance in the European Parliament with the parties of Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France. The Conservatives joined with Eastern European parties that include Latvia’s For Fatherland and Freedom, which has come under fire from academics for its links to Latvians who fought with the Nazi SS in World War II.

Can we please bury the Nazis for good?

Clegg described the Conservatives’ allies as “a bunch of nutters, anti-Semites, people who deny climate change exists, homophobes.’’

He's no alternative!

All three changed their debating tactics, switching away from last week’s emphasis on anecdotes about voters they had met in the campaign. Brown and Cameron both copied Clegg’s technique from the previous debate of addressing the camera directly, rather than the studio audience.

Can you tell how much I care about the political show?

“David Cameron made a really concerted attempt to highlight the differences between the three parties, and how hard it would be to reach agreement in a hung Parliament,’’ said Jane Green, a lecturer in politics at Manchester University.

“But I was surprised he didn’t make more of the message that a vote for Clegg is a vote for Brown.’’

And a vote for Nader is.... a vote for Nader!

Zipcar Inc., the Cambridge car-sharing service, said it has acquired Streetcar, a British company with a similar business model, for around $50 million in Zipcar stock as the firm eyes new markets in Germany and France....

A private company, Zipcar has been the subject of speculation over whether it will soon sell stock shares to the public....

See: Boston Has Office Space

Zipcar has a different business model than traditional rental car companies, which typically rent by the day. Car rental companies target business travelers and vacationers and cluster much of their operations at airports. Zipcars rent by the hour, generally for between $7 and $12. The company’s 360,000 members pay an annual membership fee of about $50 and reserve vehicles either over the Internet or by mobile device. Zipcars are found on college campuses and in dense urban areas with good public transportation. Many members don’t need a car every day and like the convenience of renting a car for a few hours a week without the expense of car ownership.

I thought I smelled something.

Zipcar chairman and chief executive Scott Griffith thinks Europeans will embrace Zipcar, partly because they are more open to sharing than many Americans who get attached to their cars.

Yeah, you are a selfish lot, Americans. Never mind the MSM propaganda all these years about your own car.

The Streetcar acquisition, he said, is “an important step’’ in Zipcar’s plan to create a global car-sharing network.

Anytime I see the word GLOBAL to describe anything I say NOPE, no thanks!!

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Want to stop and get a snack?

"Britain-Kraft, Biz"UK lawmakers hit Kraft on merger" by Associated Press | April 7, 2010

LONDON — A cross-party committee of British lawmakers has accused Kraft Foods Inc. of acting “irresponsibly and unwisely’’ during its $17.5 billion takeover of Cadbury.

In a highly critical report yesterday, the Business Select Committee said that the controversy surrounding the deal would have long-term implications for Britain’s takeover laws. The monthslong hostile battle by Kraft, based in Northfield, Ill., to win the 195-year-old British chocolate maker dominated headlines in Britain, where Cadbury is a much-loved brand, amid criticisms about the US company’s tactics.

The committee said Kraft’s promise to keep open a British factoryonly to announce its closure after the takeover was completed earlier this year — had left the company open to charges of either “incompetence’’ or a “cynical ploy’’ to win support for its bid....

And that surprises you over there?

How quaint and naive!

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Time to go to the bank.


"UK banks face fines over poor service; Handling of complaints cited" by Caroline Binham, Bloomberg News | April 28, 2010

LONDON — Two of Britain’s banks face a possible fine after the UK financial regulator said it was formally investigating them for mishandling customer complaints.

The Financial Services Authority did not name the banks it is investigating....

Peter Vicary-Smith, chief executive of Which Ltd., a consumer lobby group. “This is another damning indictment of the banking industry, many of whose members consistently put sales before customer service.’’

The FSA statement comes a week before an election that hinges in part on which party would best manage the economy after Britain’s deepest recession since World War II.

Lawmakers are trying to appease taxpayers angry over the size of the bailout for UK banks. RBS is majority-owned by Britain’s taxpayers after a $69.5 billion bailout....

And you can't even get good service?

And I RESENT the MSM DESCRIPTION, folks!

Taxpayers that are "angry" must be "appeased?"

As if the PEOPLE BAILING EVERYONE OUT and being RIPPED OFF are the THREAT?

And they have EVERY RIGHT to be ANGRY!

You ARROGANT PUKES are LUCKY YOU are still walking around with the pos you call a head still attached.


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