Wes Tender

Red Ed on the Non-Dom tax situation:- What a bloody hypocrite the man is. Bleating on about what is fair and what is not and that everybody should pay tax in the same way on the one hand, and then trying to screw the wealthier taxpayers left right and centre with punitive higher rates. If everybody paid tax in the same way, that would mean that all tax payers paid the same percentage rate. What he seems incapable of understanding is that there comes a point when the tax revenue declines because the wealthy leave these shores and take their wealth invested here elsewhere. There have been plenty enough instances of this happening historically with successive Labour governments, but lessons are never learned

Well, she says that she has no recollection of writing it, so the journo who faked it realised that by deleting her signature there would be less chance of her disputing that it was she who had signed it.

A bye-election is hardly a good barometer of how the General Election might pan out. A few more days of campaigning would probably have seen UKIP take the seat. The turnout was down by 12,000, the Lib-Dem vote fell by 11,624 votes and their share went down from nearly a half of the votes to just under a third. The Conservative vote went down 10,543 and of course the UKIP vote increased massively. Labour just weren't a viable alternative as a mid-term protest vote, the electorate's memory of the mess that they created being still too fresh in their minds. How the voting will change because it is a General Election will be interesting with a much higher turnout. Labour will again be seen as having no chance of winning the seat, so how the protest votes pan out remains to be seen in the light of the pact between the Conservatives and Lib Dems following the last election.

Just because you don't agree with his politics doesn't mean that rather bizarrely you have to criticise the Country's education system or our tolerance, by which presumably you mean our right to free speech. Do you insinuate that he is poorly educated? Who is to set the agenda of where in the spectrum politically the pupils of your ideal education system will be? And where are the Country's boundaries on tolerance to be set in your ideal World when the leader of a political party should be denied a voice in a democracy, according to you? You're usually quite sensible in your posts, but your opinion here is as I say quite bizarre.

You don't seem to have grasped all of the story. The author of the letter states in her first sentence that she is not acquainted with the young Farage and raises her objections to him being made a prefect on the basis of hearsay, (much as you are doing). And being proposed to be made a prefect hardly suggests that that he was totally without merit. And why do you suggest that this missive written by this teacher was suggestive of a bad character reference for somebody charged with a crime? You wouldn't make a good magistrate making no allowance for youthful exuberence. To top it all, the teacher in question apparently doesn't even recall writing it.

It does seem to be that Channel 4 has an agenda against Farage, judging by the spite and bile that they have levelled against him, making up fictitious dramas about what the repercussions would be if there were to be a UKIP government. Now we have this stuff dredged up about him as a 17 year old boy at school. Perhaps if they were an organisation that would like to be seen to be more impartial and serious in their reporting, they would have done a little research and found this from a contemporary of the young Farage:- http://endofcivilisation.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/farage-dulwich-and-hitler-youth-songs.html But then again, having an anti-Farage agenda has nothing to do with fairness or impartiality, but everything to do with flinging mud in the hope that some sections of the electorate who can't think for themselves will accept it all as gospel. It just goes to prove how afraid the established parties must be if they have to resort to this outdated scaremongering. And then the editors/producers/programme commissioners at Channel Four ought to think back to when they were 17, when they were probably out in the High Street at weekends peddling the Socialist Worker or Marxism Today.

I'm awaiting their usual election pamphlet to drop on my doormat. The one that they just reprint every election, that says that Labour cannot win in Eastleigh, it is a two-horse race between the Lib Dumbs and the Tories.

You forgot David Lloyd George. It's not like you to be so slapdash. I didn't know him, a bit before my time, although my grandfather knew him.

Please don't patronise me about how the voting system works. And thanks for your blessing that I can vote for whom ever I wish to, for whatever reasons I consider appropriate.

You get a few nutters in every party. Which party do you support? You have heard of tactical or protest votes perchance? Maybe not. I did say that one reason was to rid Eastleigh of the Lib Dems. Perhaps it didn't occur to you that that constituted tactical voting.

You missed that he wanted a smaller state, which I take to mean either less bureaucratic interference in our everyday lives, or the reduction of the Civil Service, which amounts to much the same thing. People either vote along traditional lines for the party which is best aligned to their preferences on a basket of policies, or they vote for a party that represents their feelings on a narrower few policies that are of much greater importance to them. As there is less to choose between the main parties in recent times since the advent of New Labour, more people are likely to pick these few policy issues that resonate with them in influencing their voting intentions. I have some sympathy for LD's position as I am thinking along similar lines. I am considering not voting Conservative for the first time in a General Election and voting UKIP as I did in the European Elections. I am fed up with the Conservatives' failure to allow a referendum on Europe despite their manifesto promises over the past couple of elections. Even now, despite UKIP's resounding success in the European Elections, their manifesto promises a referendum in another 2 years. It simply is not good enough when our loss of sovereignty has been so badly eroded by successive treaties that we have not been able to vote on. The second reason for voting for them is the distinct possibility that it might help to oust the Lib Dem in Eastleigh.

Typical of you to open your mouth and put your foot in it.

Of course they are currently more moderate than Labour in the 70's, with the likes of Benn and Foot around. I made the comparison against Blair, didn't I? Whether Milliband actually proves to be capable of maintaining the sort of more moderate policies that Blair did remains to be seen if he becomes PM propped up by the SNP, who are hardly models of centrist policy moderation themselves.

Did I claim that being older made me wiser, Verbal D? No, I thought not. But what the experience of living through the various historical political landscapes does give, is some perspective gained from having seen it all before. My own perspective is that it has left me cynical of the promises that have been made by both of the main parties over the years and then subsequently broken. You can jump to any conclusions you like as to the impression I leave with you, especially if it helps you to feel superior. There were accusations on Question Time that Cameron went easy on the SNP because it was claimed that it would benefit the Tories to make the prospect of them governing with Labour scary enough to the electorate to frighten them against voting for them. Personally, I almost welcome the prospect of that scenario, as it would bring into sharp focus the hypocrisy of the West Lothian question if the SNP voted with Labour on English matters which would otherwise be voted down by the other parties.

The Tories are more right-wing than under Thatcher? You're having a laugh. Regrettably the political landscape currently is pretty grey and dull with no big beasts in the political jungle. Labour got moderate under Blair, or else they would have been unelectable, but having chosen the wrong Milliband means that they have lurched leftwards, especially if they are forced to govern propped up by the SNP.

Of course I realise the timescale, I lived through it. But equally the voters that are referred to by VFTT as disliking the Tories are comprised of many whose memories reach back that far too. Labour might have tried to distance themselves from that old Labour party by attempting to rebrand themselves as New improved washes whiter Labour and in many ways Blair was accused by traditional Labour voters of taking them too close to the centre as a result. An alliance between Labour under Red Ed and the SNP will see a leftwards lurch back in time. At least the benefit of having lived through that many Governments is that one has the benefit of historical experience that gives a broader perspective that anybody under 30 does not possess in the same way. Politics might have evolved much in recent times, but the basic doctrinal instincts of the main parties is still largely the same

Oh lookie lookie. Lefty Labour insignificant has-been politician Michael Meacher responds to a communication from somebody who read an article he wrote. He says "that proposed cuts to Universal Credit when self-employed claimants miss their monthly targets will likely be part of the hidden benefit cuts not yet announced. I am therefore setting out what she, and I, believe is likely to happen", For the simple-minded, I suggest that his agenda might just feasibly be a little biased and have also highlighted the bits that are suggestive that the basis of his article is largely fictitious speculation.

What are you going on about? It was me who just said it as my opinion. As you say, there are people who rely on evidence-based facts, you know, the ones who remember the Winter of Discontent, Labour having to go cap in hand to the IMF to beg them to bail us out as the sick man of Europe, Healey saying that he would squeeze the rich until the pips squeaked, the Unions dictating over beer and sandwiches in Number 10 how their lapdog government should act on their behalf, Red Robbo ruining our car industry, the inefficiency of the nationalised industries, the three day week, Brown's stealth taxes, etc.

And it seems to have gone totally over your head that there is probably an equal number of voters who loathe Labour and the damage they have done to the country historically. Ed isn't just a muppet, a description that infers a sort of goofy likeability. He is a political lightweight, leaning far enough over to the left that if he got to be PM with the support of the SNP, the repercussions for this country would be seismic.

Whereas of course, the Labour Party appeals to either feckless scroungers or those whose whole being is motivated by hatred caused by the envy of others better off than themselves. There, that has managed to sum up the Labour party and its followers in a sentence as short and pithy as the one used against the Tories.

I really can't get much enthusiasm towards the England team, with their usual bias towards the big clubs, regardless of whether their English players are crap. I wanted Pelle to score and it would have been a bonus had Clyne chipped in with a goal too. Did I miss Townsend giving Henderson Man of the Match? He usually does. I detest that prat with his inane commentary and his stating of the bleeding obvious.

It isn't unrealistic. Unlikely, maybe.

There is a clear distinction here, DH and I'm surprised that you can't see it. The donors from Hedge Funds to the Conservatives do it as a bribe to the party that will best protect their interests and offer reduced tax rates to the wealthiest people (them) in return. The Labour supporting Hedge Fund manager donor to the Labour Party does so purely out of his unselfish concern for people less well off than himself, so it is solely an altruistic action with no personal motive. Mind you, he should have made the donation anonymously to avoid these unfounded accusations of hypocrisy that have been levelled at Ed Balls. Charges of hypocrisy levelled against top Labour politicians are nothing new. Over the past decades they have damned private education and health care while availing themselves and their families of it.

Just as a matter of interest, CB, what is your knife of choice? What do you consider the ideal blade length and width for a general purpose knife? A stiletto is good for the precision work, and a flick knife is practical for concealment purposes. Or do you fall into the camp of this assailant and go for something big and crude like a machete or a combat knife? Which is the best all-round hunting knife in your opinion, the best for dispatching the prey and then skinning it? If you were to arm yourself properly with say three knives for all potential situations that you might encounter in the urban jungle, what would they be?

The female TSA officer needs to spend time on the firing range before she returns to duty. That is not good shooting, one in the arm, one in the leg and one in the "facial area". And a colleague was also shot in the arm somehow. As the assailant was not described as being armed with a gun, we must assume that the injured officer was the victim of what has euphimistically become known from battle zones around the World involving Americans as "friendly fire".