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Wednesday 3rd December 2008 Make us your HOME PAGE  What is RSS?
 
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ARTICLE SUMMARY

Should Gordon Brown step down now?

BELEAGUERED Gordon Brown was humiliated yesterday as a key Labour figure described him as “a liar” and said Tony Blair believed the PM would lose the election.

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I WILL MICKLE

02.05.08, 12:36pm

Might see you there !

• Posted by: marigold • Report Comment

MARIGOLD

02.05.08, 12:13pm

My sentiments entirely lass.

I see from your profile you are a Wakefield lady, there is a lady from Wakefield with a smashing restaurant up in Dufftown , taste of Speyside I think its called, the missus and myself were in there quite recently.If you ever are in the region try it out they are lovely people as are most of Yorkies

• Posted by: Mickle • Report Comment

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MICKLE IM IMPRESSED

02.05.08, 11:19am

I will never cut a sandwhich the same again !
As for statistics, well I supposed it depends on who has compiled them and what their interests are in doing so.

• Posted by: marigold • Report Comment

CFB/NFSH

02.05.08, 10:44am

Here you go lad, something to cheer you up and improve your education after your side was shafted.

How to cut a sandwich (or how to manipulate statistics)

The most important issue in cutting a sandwich is the resulting crust ratio of the bread. I have found a way to reduce the crust ratio on a sandwich without cutting off and disposal of the crust. Cutting off the crust would be wasteful. Now the assumption I made is that the bread slice is approximately a square. If the bread is not a square then the following argument and calculations still hold, it would just be more difficult to prove.

if you cut the bread into four pieces by bisecting each side of the whole sandwich orthogonally then the resulting pieces each have four sides. Two of the sides have crust. Therefore each smaller sandwich piece is 50% crust.

But, if you cut the sandwich into four pieces by cutting the whole sandwich along the two diagonals then each resulting piece has only three sides. Only one of the sides has crust. But that diagonal side is longer than each of the two remaining sides.

Assuming that the length of the two shorter non-crust sides are 1 unit each, then Pythagoras Theorem tells us that the crust side is 1.414 units long. The total circumference would be 3.414 units long. Thus this smaller sandwich piece is 41% crust.

Therefore the sandwich cut along the diagonal has 9% less crusty sandwich pieces! That is an improvement. The conclusion is we must all cut along the diagonal and our society will enjoy less crust in our lives and hopefully more meat.

Happy sandwich making

• Posted by: Mickle • Report Comment

CFB

01.05.08, 8:36pm

you can manipulate statistics to fit what you want to say. But only if you are deliberately trying to change the figures to suit yourself.
For example,
if you are trying to sell a product, you will pick the statistics that show your product to be the best thing since sliced bread! You won't print the statistics that said half the people who had bought it thought it was rubbish.

We all know how you adore your statistics most of your arguments are full of them,
But don't tell me you are naive enough to believe that this government publishes all + and - statistical findings by whichever body of researchers

Tell me what do your statistics tell you about the forthcoming council election results?

• Posted by: Mickle • Report Comment

MIKLE

01.05.08, 6:12pm

yes, very good.

when you have no evidence to support your claims... when your spurious opinions and conjuctures are proven false by actual objective research, hackneyed cliche's must be the only answer!

if that is the best you can come up with, i'm pretty dissapointed.

another right wing fairytale bites the dust....

• Posted by: crayfishbanker • Report Comment

CFB

01.05.08, 6:00pm

Lies, damn lies and statistics.
Mark Twain

NUFF SAID

• Posted by: Mickle • Report Comment

MICKLE

01.05.08, 4:14pm

you obviously do not know how national statistics are done. they are not collected by 'the government' but by the civil service bureaucracy.

they can be twisted in reports by anyone, yes, but the 'raw data' which can be found on the link i provide, is valid. it is what businesses, governments, academics ect use to plan and do research.

there is a difference between 'government' and civil service bureaucracy'.

in addition, you made no mention of the actual amount of people employed, which was my main point. yes, unemplouyment figures can be warped, but the participation rate of economically actuve is a good co-indicator to look at.

• Posted by: crayfishbanker • Report Comment

A THIEF AND A LIAR

01.05.08, 2:41pm

Gordon Brown is the man responsible for wrecking the pension hopes of millions of people when he was chancellor of the exchequer - that is his legacy.

But his biggest contribution to British politics is telling the biggest lie for over a hundred years when we were promised a referendum on Europe.

• Posted by: tobyjug • Report Comment

CFB

01.05.08, 2:10pm

There has been a small fall in the people claiming jobseeker allowance?

It would be very interesting if within these Government statistics they were to show how many 60+ are registered as unemployed.

At the age of sixty a man has the next 5 years of employment stamps paid for by the government should he become unemployed, he is also actively persuaded not to bother registering.
No doubt the same applies to the fairer sex.

What happens to the long term unemployed that at one time of day used to be transferred to Social Security and I assume off the records of unemployed jobseeker

100s of thousands of migrants are, I am assuming in these statistics.

We need CORRECT statistics of the % of Indigenous British and 3rd generation immigrants that are currently employed.

The Gov statistics are being tweaked and everyone and his blind dog knows it, if you believe otherwise then you are definitely part of the problem.

• Posted by: Mickle • Report Comment

MICKLE

01.05.08, 12:35pm

you don't have to cast suspicion on the unemployment figures. all one has to do is look at the labour participation rate (i.e. the amonut of 'economically active' people in the country). This too has risen in recent years, and this is despite there being far more students in higher education (economically inactive).

"The trend in the employment rate is increasing and the trends in the unemployment and inactivity rates are falling. There has been a small fall in the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance benefit. The number of job vacancies has increased. Growth in average earnings, excluding bonuses, has increased, but earnings growth including bonuses has fallen.

The employment rate for people of working age was 74.9 per cent for the three months to February 2008, up 0.2 from the previous quarter and up 0.6 over the year. The number of people in employment for the three months to February 2008 was 29.51 million. This is the highest figure since comparable records began in 1971 and is up 152,000 over the quarter and up 456,000 over the year. Total hours worked has increased by 0.1 million to reach 939.6 million.

The unemployment rate was 5.2 per cent for the three months to February 2008, down 0.1 over the previous quarter and down 0.4 over the year. The number of unemployed people decreased by 39,000 over the quarter and by 90,000 over the year, to reach 1.61 million. The quarterly fall in unemployment mainly occurred among people under 25 years old.

The claimant count was 794,300 in March 2008, down 1,200 over the previous month and down 110,600 over the year. This is the lowest figure since June 1975.

The inactivity rate for people of working age was 20.9 per cent for the three months to February 2008, down 0.1 over the previous quarter and down 0.3 over the year. The number of economically inactive people of working age decreased by 36,000 over the quarter and by 71,000 over the year to reach 7.87 million. "
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=12

--the highest amount of people in work since records began in 1971? interesting....

• Posted by: crayfishbanker • Report Comment

CFB/NFSH

01.05.08, 8:00am

As for the statement :-?
facts are facts. and the fact is that this country has a labour shortage

That is also a myth generated by this left wing government to assist in its agenda, which incidentally has sod all to do with looking after the INDIGENOUS peoples of this country, or the country for that matter.

Food processing Factory workers and SEASONAL agricultural work has been taken over by Migrants mainly because Large Supermarket chains set a price that farmers/food processors either take or leave,
And shareholders/Farmers must have their profits so the producer cuts costs by bringing in cheaper labour and putting the locals on the unemployment register to be paid for by the taxpayer.
Further altering of the unemployment criteria/register makes these unemployed disappear of the radar.

Result Labour shortage created by the government and paid for by the taxpayer.

Being a total cynic its my bet Brown was trying to target these Migrant workers with the 10% tax bit,

• Posted by: Mickle • Report Comment

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CFB WHO SAID I WAS JOBLESS ?

01.05.08, 6:58am

You really are one for making assumptions.
I admit to working part time now but all my life I have worked hard.
And it looks like Mickle has sprung you !

• Posted by: marigold • Report Comment

WHO TO VOTE FOR

01.05.08, 1:02am

I think people should take a look at the green party.

They oppose animal experiments, hunting, and factory farming.
They have a good climate change plan, and are against the use of nuclear energy which is just an added danger anyway.
They want to encourage small business, taxing the corporations. Nationalise the railways etc.
They are eurosceptic, oppose the euro and the new treaty.
Wants to end the monarchy, and replace the HoL.
Oppose the Iraq war, and have aa more sensible approah to the Israel-Palestine saga.

I think they have quite a good case. I think it is time we tried something new, not the BNP.

• Posted by: ryan_h • Report Comment

NOT YET

30.04.08, 7:27pm

'Peter Thompson' is probably Gordon Brown,in disguise.

• Posted by: cinders • Report Comment

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