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Thank you John. That is what I thought I heard.

Added to tonight’s Newsnight, one wonders where all the opposition is coming from.

I think Santorum needs to beat Romney in Ohio by a significant margin to get some momentum out of that particular primary. 5% or less woudn’t be very impressive given the leads he’s had in the polls from there.

If the media were reporting this in a straight way, I’d agree with you. It seems to me however, that virtually every single contest now becomes ‘the key’ to Romney winning.  More and more hurdles are being erected by the media, on the left because they realise he’s Obama’s most formidable challenger and on the right because they don’t trust him.

Republicans can either vote Ron Paul, who would see America withdraw from the world, and the safety net be removed from the poorest Americans.

Newt Gingrich, whose negatives are high, and whose entire campaign now revolves around winning just one out of the eleven contests in Super Tuesday week.  A man who appears castrated as he took the $10 Million cheque, from the Las Vegas casino owner, but it appears has to abide by the new terms & conditions of staying in the race.

Rick Santorum who for the last week has been been running to be Pope.  In a country that isn’t Catholic.

Or Mitt Romney.  For all his flaws, he’s the only credible challenger and thankfully, the voters in Florida, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada & New Hampshire seem to agree.

http://elections.firedoglake.com/2012/02/13/santorum-captures-big-lead-in-michigan/

Santorum led by 15% in Michigan.

Yes, listening to Red and other assorted rentagobs, I thought my local GP was the only one supporting the reforms.

It would be interesting to see the actual ballot results / turnout figures for the unions that claim they have a mandate to oppose the reforms.

“this is going the distance!!”

Certainly looks like it.

Those who thought this was all over a few weeks ago are looking incredibly stupid now.

It’s quite clearly a battle and it’s going to get very messy before it’s all over. All of which doesn’t preclude Romney from still being favourite or winning it of course but the longer it goes on the more chance there is of the candidates having ever more campaign brainfarts of a damaging nature.

None of these guys are a safe pair of hands if the plentiful blunders leading up to the Michegan and Az vote are anything to go by. They will however certainly try to run away from the media from now on to limit their gaffe opportunities and exposure. Trouble is that is hardly a very sustainable strategy when your running in a race battling for every delegate. If you don’t feed the media machine your opponent will and take the headlines.

 A further point – the official answer to questions about this (Jan 2012) was ….
‘Peter Luff:
The Department’s planning assumption is that the Co-operative
Engagement Capability (CEC) is fitted on to Type 45 Destroyers and Type
26 Global Combat Ships. However, the decision on the ship fit plan will
not be taken until the project achieves Main Gate approval. This is
currently planned for mid-2012. If approved, it is anticipated that CEC
will be installed on to Type 45s from 2018.’

Terrible news that the police officer blinded by Raoul Moat has died.

 Only 27 million?  It was 500 million last week.  I believe you are correct.  We contribute to the IMF and they distribute to who knows who.

The FA do not operate a franchise system.  Buying players with money you do not have wins points on the field.  Thats crooked.

Many years ago I was touring the USA and enjoying reading about the baseball.  then at the end of the tour the Football season started and the baseball virtually disappeared from the radar.

A quick Google regarding the BMA ballot,not even a ballot of its members,just a vote by the BMA council which very narrowly voted in favor of opposing the NHS bill.

So in plain English the BMA represent diddly squat.

Even less democratic than a rail union London Underground Strike ballot.

BMA opts for outright opposition to health bill after
knife-edge vote …

http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/…/bma-opts-for-outright-opposition-to-health…Cached
You +1′d this publicly. Undo25 Nov 2011 –
… launch a public campaign to oppose the
Government’s NHS reforms … Following the vote
of confidence, the BMA Council ‘expressed its full

We spend a huge sum on defence.  The problems of the Navy are of the navy’s making compounded by Labour.  The same things apply to the army and airforce.

The navy does not need these carriers or their planes.  The navy needs to be composed differently, but labour have locked us into the carriers and their exotic planes. All with money we do not have.  Last time I looked we were part of a massive military alliance called NATO, which managed to remove Gadaffi.
The present govts proposals re army reserves is very sensible and deserves to be invested in further.

Your comparison with 1930′s is specious.

It really is.

The poor man.

“We spend a huge sum on defence.” 2.5% of GDP. Those who want to wave their willies in international affairs by spending lots of borrowed money to fund that, will consider the addition to the deficit quite acceptable.

For actual defence, and having sufficient forces to participate in NATO/UN actions, around 1.5% of GDP is perfectly adequate.

John,

Thanks for the link to Pulse. However, the site says..

“Oops, sorry, we cant find the page you asked for”

Very convenient. Of course, the site states it is “for health professionals only” and I am not entitled to see it. I am, of course, entitled to pay the salaries and running costs of the NHS.

Anyway, off to bed now.

Good night all.

LOL

Scotsman -  Scotland’s economy: Future fears
“The same method was used by Ipsos MORI for job security, with
“optimism” dropping from -1 per cent for the next five years to -7 per
cent if Scotland were independent. The score for overall Scottish
economic conditions dropped from -5 per cent to -11 per cent.Mark
Diffley, research director at Ipsos MORI Scotland, said: “Our latest
data shows that levels of economic optimism fall when the public
consider the prospect of independence. This pessimism is particularly
evident among those with mortgages living in affluent areas.””

The pic is just so good!

Although we are still waiting for Labour to release their numerous meetings with Murdoch, coming in the back door rather than openly through the front.