13/10/16

[Maik]

Scotland’s basket case economy is WORSE than Greece – and rest of UK funds cash black hole

SCOTLAND has the highest public spending deficit in the European Union beating Greece to take top spot - and taxpayers in the rest of the UK are having to help plug the economic gaps.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/720541/SNP-Scotland-economy-debt-Sturgeon-Greece-EU-public-spending-deficit


Bear in mind it's from the Daily Excess

[Maik]

SNP's Nicola Sturgeon announces new independence referendum bill

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-37634338

[Maik]

Don't leave this Greek island without trying the world's best candied almonds
On the isle of Kefalonia, mandoles aren't just a local speciality - they're something to obsess about

http://www.saveur.com/best-greek-candied-almonds-kefalonian-mandoles

[Maik]

Home market among the worst-performing in EU

The Greek housing market had the second-worst performance among European Union member states in the April-June quarter, with cities showing a 2.9 percent annual decline in prices, according to Bank of Greece data presented by Eurostat on Wednesday.

The only two other countries to show a decline in the same period were Cyprus (-9 percent) and Italy (-1.4 percent).

Across the bloc, the average growth rate came to 4 percent.

http://www.ekathimerini.com/212801/article/ekathimerini/business/home-market-among-the-worst-performing-in-eu

[Maik]

Court bans German porn-star from moaning during sex!

http://en.protothema.gr/court-bans-german-porn-star-from-moaning-during-sex-photos/

 

[Maik]

Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo dies at 90
Won award in 1997 for “The Accidental Death of an Antichrist”

http://en.protothema.gr/nobel-prize-winner-dario-fo-dies-at-90/

or something like that

[Maik]

Four tons of garbage found in Thessaloniki apartment

The local police arrested the six residents of the apartment for the major pollution hazard

http://www.tovima.gr/en/article/?aid=836168

[Jolly Roger]

Scotland’s basket case economy is WORSE than Greece – and rest of UK funds cash black hole

SCOTLAND has the highest public spending deficit in the European Union beating Greece to take top spot - and taxpayers in the rest of the UK are having to help plug the economic gaps.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/720541/SNP-Scotland-economy-debt-Sturgeon-Greece-EU-public-spending-deficit


Bear in mind it's from the Daily Excess

The report comes from the Tax Payers Alliance, so is likely to be largely true. Can Nicola Sturgeon really be serious about independence, faced with massive tax increases. Maybe she thinks Europe will bail them out.

[HiFi]

Can't we just get shot of them once and for all.....

[Maik]

Blunder as BBC Breakfast shows escaped gorilla instead of Nicola Sturgeon

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/14/bbc-breakfast-blunder-shows-escaped-gorilla-instead-of-nicola-st/

[TonyKath]

Scotland’s basket case economy is WORSE than Greece – and rest of UK funds cash black hole

SCOTLAND has the highest public spending deficit in the European Union beating Greece to take top spot - and taxpayers in the rest of the UK are having to help plug the economic gaps.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/720541/SNP-Scotland-economy-debt-Sturgeon-Greece-EU-public-spending-deficit


Bear in mind it's from the Daily Excess

The report comes from the Tax Payers Alliance, so is likely to be largely true. Can Nicola Sturgeon really be serious about independence, faced with massive tax increases. Maybe she thinks Europe will bail them out.

Not sure if your comment is ironic Roger!!  Virtually nothing from the TPA is true.  I checked its website some months back expecting it to be an alliance of taxpayers as it is always on the telly/radio/in the papers.  It isn't.  It's a political lobbying organisation whose funding is very hidden, despite it's campaigning for transparency over public finances .  You can become a supporter and promote it but you can't join it in the sense of voting for its policies or or its leaders.  It claims to be  a "grassroots" organisation when it doesn't even have a membership structure.  The current Labour Party or even the UNITE trade union is more democratic.  It is however very talented in promoting its views and its previous chief exec Matthew Elliot ended up leading the Vote Leave campaign which indicates something about that organisation.

A better name for it would be the "Non-Tax Payers' Alliance".   

Tony

[Maik]

Didn't think I'd heard of the Taxpayers' Alliance before but, thinking back, maybe it's had a mention of GGi previously. Did a quick e-search:

The TaxPayers' Alliance was set up as a limited company in 2003 by Matthew Elliott, a 25-year-old political researcher for Conservative MEP Timothy Kirkhope.

The co-founders of the Taxpayers alliance were Elliot’s wife Florence Heath a who was a Conservative Party activist while at University... Her father Alexander Heath is also a director of the TPA, his appointment led to controversy when it emerged that he does not pay any UK Tax.

Responding to the controversy Matthew Elliott, argued that: "we have a French-taxpaying, British citizen as a non-executive director."

http://powerbase.info/index.php/Taxpayers'_Alliance

According to powerbase.info the Express churns out TPA 'news' as fact without examination. The TPA seems rather secretive, going by whofundsyou.org

[TonyKath]

Thanks for those links Maik which I had never heard of.  Powerbase is a bit out of date but does to some extent lift the veil, so to speak. 

 

Tony

[Jolly Roger]

Like many others I suppose, I accepted TPA as an independent organisation possibly funded by donations. The predictions in this report did seem somewhat extreme.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/720541/SNP-Scotland-economy-debt-Sturgeon-Greece-EU-public-spending-deficit
However, there is still a basis of truth that Scotland would be heavily in debt if it were not propped up by UK taxpayers. Jeremy Vine on BBC R2 did a report on this in the last couple of days. There is a feeling among taxpayers elsewhere in the UK, that they should not subsidize the benefits Scotland receives, such as free university places and free prescriptions.