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niall_g

Listed below are comments made by niall_g between Wednesday, 3rd December 2008 and Wednesday, 2nd December 2009.

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Appetite for fat cat taxes? 4:21pm on 02 Dec 2009 The yields promised by the Lib Dems policies are but a drop in the ocean when compared to the debt that Brown and his compadres have saddled us with. And yes it is their fault as they weakened the regulation on the banks when they moved it to the FSA from the Bank of England.

But really how stupid and petty the Lib Dems look with their spiteful pursuit of people who live in what they deem large houses.

What is much more worrying is their proposed attack on the pension savings of "high" earners. The reason that I use inverted commas is that they define that as anyone earning more than £43k. What planet are they on? They want to encourage people to save for their own retirement and reduce the burden on the state so what do they do? They compound Brown's rape of the pension funds by introducing one of their own. I so hope they canvass me in the election campaign.

I fall into their high earning bracket but not by much. The one thing that keeps me stashing cash in my pension is that it is tax deductible. I will still have to work longer than I would have liked so if they remove tax relief from pensions I shall be spending all my money and letting the state pick up the tab for my retirement.

Thankfully we have more chance of seeing Lord Lucan serving Elvis a pint than the Lib Dems getting into power.
Who wants to compete for a millionaire? 2:02pm on 27 Nov 2009 Top bloke. Also good that he/cycling realised that cycling was already well organised and funded so his money would do more good elsewhere. Come on Messrs Sugar, Branson etc. why not match this idea and give more young people the chance to shine whatever disadvantages they may or may not have in their background.
Sugar and Hornby: why they're hired 11:42am on 09 Jun 2009 Interesting see mention of John Profumo - that man made a much less serious mistake than Hornby and Fred the Shred and what did he do? he retired from public life and spent the rest of his life working at Toynbee Hall helping to provide food and help to homeless people. No fuss, no golden handshakes, no big pension pot.

And why did one of Britain's biggest banks have a grocer running it? Some skillsets are transferrable some have to be learned on the job. Banking is one of the latter and you cannot learn it at the level he was at.
Starting gun fired on leadership contest 8:29pm on 03 Jun 2009 Whilst in no way being a fan of Gordie I would just comment that no-one voted for Churchill to become PM.
Starting gun fired on leadership contest 7:17pm on 03 Jun 2009 Mandelson has proved that he is living in cloudcuckooland with his pronouncements today. No one likes you and your party Peter. Can't you see that?
Are Scotland's churches out of touch? 12:13pm on 05 May 2009 Yet again the followers of one of the sky fairies show that their interface with the 21st century is not even tangential. Time to disestablish, remove charitable status and move on.
F1 editor, the best job in the world 7:19pm on 14 Mar 2009 Excellent, the second best sports theme of all time is coming back . Now BBC get your act together get some cricket rights and you can bring back the best of them all - Booker T and the MGs' Soul Limbo.

Ever better no ad breaks.
Connections and patronage 12:58pm on 10 Dec 2008 Alanskillcole, the court to which you were referring is the European Court of Human Rights which is nothing to do with the EU. The EU court is the European Court of Justice.

All deomcratic models are flawed - they just have different flaws.

Others have commented in the UK's lack of a written constitution. This in many ways is a good thing. Our unwritten constitution tells us what we can't do, all written constitiutions tell you what you can do and that is very different. We have far more "rights" than any country which has a written constitution since we have the right to do whatever we wish unless and until it is ruled on by a court or legislated on by Parliament.

In the US there is a huge and unresolved conflict between state and Federal law - look at the rows over gun carrying within close proximity of schools. The members of the US Supreme Court are split into two camps of how the Constitution should be read - the literalists and the progessives. The Scalia and Thomas camps want it read at it was in 1776! That ain't progress.
Serious questions to answer 9:50pm on 03 Dec 2008 "Even the most naive would have thought to ask to see the warrant but not the Sergeant at Arms, how the great roles of state have been dumbed down."

Could not agree more. It is a classic example of "we must make all posts open to everyone" as imposed by the current Speaker. These roles were filled by people from certain backgrounds as the people selected by this method had been proved to be ca[able of the job. The Serjeant-at-Arms was traditionally an ex senior officer in one of the armed services. Generally a staff officer who had half a clue about how to run things. This role is much snaller than it used to be and yet the incumbent has not even shown the nouse of anyone who has ever seen an episode of the Sweeney/Z cars/Softly Softly/The Bill or even Heartbeat.

You want in, you get the right paperwork and speak to the rigfht people otherwise no way jose.
Serious questions to answer 9:41pm on 03 Dec 2008 I would doubt that PACE applies in the Palace of Westminster since it is a royal palace and thus exempt from many laws - like the need for Employers' Liability Insurance. I am not sure that a warrant would have been enough for plod to force an entry. I would have thought that the Speaker as the representative of the Crown in Parliament (hence the mace) is the only person who can give permission.

Gorbals Mick has to go. He should not have been there in the first place but as some chippy zanuNL MPs busked the usual trend of alternating the Speaker between the two major parties they have only got themselves to blame.

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