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Does anyone think the previous governments understood the 'special relationship' between the UK and America?

Worked with Matty friends in Iraq and Afghanistan.

200 of Matty friends in London....how much funds are available to rebuild the bars afterwards?

Romney's name now drawing boos from the Olympic crowds in London...

And Bush jnr had to become president and start wars before he could accomplish that... Excellent start to your tour of the 'most important allies', oh seeker of high office!

I'd just like to point out the Romney is the better man for maintaining the special relationship. I mean sure, Romney just questioned the project planning ability of the very special ally, but as Romney's aide pointed out the other day, Obama is black. Who could better maintain that relationship, the guy who thinks you're a bunch of incompetent idiots, or the guy who's black?


Anyhow, this is why I think Obama should be a lot more than the warm favourite to win the presidential race - Romney is not a great campaigner, and over the course of this election that's going to show more and more.

See thats getting me. Whywas not the advisor name though. Like the advisor that got named on Romney being a possible...committing a possible felony charge

RatBot wrote:

Waitaminit, he's holding a fundraiser in London? Does this mean wealthy Europeans and European corporations will be contributing to his election fund? LOLwut

No.

Or at least in theory.

Only US citizens can contribute.. at least directly anyway, I'm sure there's ways and means around this of course, impossible to stop entirely.

IIRC it's something like 4 out of every 10 $s he hopes/plans to get from overseas donors.

I don't really think the comments were all that rude -- could have been much (c)ruder of course.. and it's not really a surprise that, in an election year, a USA presidential candidate basically tries to talk up how much better the event in the USA -- which he helped run remember voters -- was is it ?

I think the way he did it didn't really help him out especially. He never really looks all that comfortable and relaxed, he always seems somewhat stiff, comes across a bit like Kerry did to be honest.

He hasn't gone down well with the UK press

The British media were quick to launch into Mitt Romney in the wake of his less-than-complimentary views on London's Olympics.
The Daily Telegraph's Lucy Jones branded him a 'wazzock' after the U.S. presidential hopeful questioned Britain's desire to host the Games. She said: 'Who does Mitt Romney think he is? I feel a glimmer of protectiveness and pride.... there's one thing Romney could learn while he's in Britain this week: some manners.'
Nicholas Watt, from The Guardian, tweeted of his U-turn: 'Mitt Romney rowing back like mad on Olympics: now says outside No 10 games to be a great success'. Meanwhile, Paul Harris said: 'Good old Mitt. His charm offensive in the UK failed to be charming, but he really pulled off the offensive bit #gop #romney.'
James Kirkup, also from The Daily Telegraph, drew attention to Prime Minister David Cameron's response to Romney's comments.
'Mr Romney made his name salvaging the Salt Lake City winter games in 2002 (above), an achievement he may think qualifies him to comment on preparations for London 2012,' he said.
'In the context of Mr Romney's glittering resumé, one of Mr Cameron's (faintly defensive) comments bears particular attention: "We are holding an Olympic Games in one of the busiest, most active, bustling cities anywhere in the world.
"Of course it’s easier if you hold an Olympic games in the middle of nowhere."
'Some cynics thought that the "middle of nowhere" comment could just be a swipe at Salt Lake City, which is quite near the middle of, er, Utah. Terrible people, cynics.'

and that's from the rightwing press who would generally be expected to be more supportive of him than Obama.

..course none of us get to vote anyway so it's not really a catastrophe as such.

There were some jokes that he forgot MIlliband's name it seems.... pffft... so what ? We struggle to remember which brother that is, struggle not to ask him where Gromit is, and he covered well enough.

Given jetlag, the sheer number of people he will have met/has to meet it's understandable IMO. And it's not like Milliband will ever be PM anyway so...

Plus names and memories don't appear to be a strong point of his anyway, he can’t remember the name of the governor who introduced the healthcare mandate to Massachusetts, said he was more pro gay rights than Kennedy or the CEO of Bain capital between 1999 and 2002 either.

I was more interested in the body language in the various photos released :



"Please listen ! Look I'm with an 'merican person. I do matter ! "



... which one here is the actual leader of a world superpower /



" We own you all".

or " Finally, a British MP the people back home will actually recognise"

Is Ed Milliband basically like the pre-election Lib Dems now?

Look if Boris Johnson is putting the Boot in, getting laughs and scoring points off you, it's time to hang up yours spurs and call it a day.

I always find it amusing that Britain Hedges it's bets with Presidential Nominee's just in case, last time was more fun because it was definitely going to be a new president. This time, well many have said this is going to be a close one, but I don't really want to see "Mitt the Twit" in charge of the nuclear codes, he might say something and then try to retract it. That's not really possible with an ICBM is it?

Albatross wrote:It is absolutely disgusting that union gangsters would choose an occasion when the eyes of the world are on our nation, and our services likely to be stretched, to agitate for better pay and conditions.

And how is that disgusting? I think that's the IDEAL time to ask, myself, but then again, I don't consider unionists to be gangsters. Half the time, in the US anyway, they can't even do anything anyway leaving the corrupt corporate executives to cut pay and jobs so that they can get more massive bonuses.

Unionists are blood suckers, in the UK today we have good employment law. My Grandfather worked down a Coal mine, in terrible conditions and I lost several great-uncles, his strikes were to get rid of unscrupulous working practices and bad safety by mine owners. The gradual introduction of Legislation, minimum wage, industrial tribunals & Arbitration and the "Health & Safety Executive" means that Unions are almost redundant.

Many of the top union officials are poorly educated buffoon's, they get to cream off the top of workers and have hyper inflated pay, conditions and expense accounts they constantly try to politicize disputes and try to win public opinion by lying or using dubious case studies. At least a CEO works for his money. The Unionists have to justify their existence by doing something, so often their strikes are completely unscrupulous to keep themselves in existence and show they are still relevant.

A good example was this years Tanker Strikes because Tanker Drivers don't get paid enough (average tanker driver gets £45k PA), but they tried to change it to a row about Health and Safety Concerns, but this is nonsense because the HSE are responsible for safety issues, so if the Tankers have a safety concern you don't highlight it by striking you report it to the HSE. Like a Crime, you don't strike about it, you report it to the Police.

In the UK many Labour Unions have been destroyed by the lack/ draw-down of Heavy Industry (like Mining or Steel working) so now most of Unions are Public Servant bodies (like Teachers, Civil Servants and Nurses and Doctors). This is annoying because Civil Servants are wrapped in cotton wool and are paid on 15% more than their private equivalent and get better work and conditions.

In business, profitability is everything, they aren't in business to provide jobs, that's a benefit but not the driver. CEO's have to make Hard decisions because we (the general public) want a product at a certain price and so have to have it manufactured abroad as labour is cheaper. It's not ideal, but don't delude yourself that Socialistic models are better, if they were Corporations would already be using them.

Anyway we are way off track.... back OT.

Short-term profitability at the expense of long-term viability is not a good sacrifice to make.

Melissia wrote:

Albatross wrote:It is absolutely disgusting that union gangsters would choose an occasion when the eyes of the world are on our nation, and our services likely to be stretched, to agitate for better pay and conditions.

And how is that disgusting? I think that's the IDEAL time to ask, myself, but then again, I don't consider unionists to be gangsters.

Really? An organisation that threatens to disrupt vital services unless you pay them is a protection racket, effectively. That's exactly what tube drivers have done - they demanded a bonus to work during the olympics. London tube drivers are ridiculously well-paid, considering what their job actually entails. They earn around 50k. That's more than the average university lecturer, who typically has both a degree and post-grad qualification. They are gangsters.

Albatross wrote:Really? An organisation that threatens to disrupt vital services unless you pay them is a protection racket

By that definition, unless the "vital services" are given free of charge, everyone providing them is a gangster.

Albatross wrote:

Melissia wrote:

Albatross wrote:It is absolutely disgusting that union gangsters would choose an occasion when the eyes of the world are on our nation, and our services likely to be stretched, to agitate for better pay and conditions.

And how is that disgusting? I think that's the IDEAL time to ask, myself, but then again, I don't consider unionists to be gangsters.

Really? An organisation that threatens to disrupt vital services unless you pay them is a protection racket, effectively. That's exactly what tube drivers have done - they demanded a bonus to work during the olympics. London tube drivers are ridiculously well-paid, considering what their job actually entails. They earn around 50k. That's more than the average university lecturer, who typically has both a degree and post-grad qualification. They are gangsters.

Yeah, I've always been fairly ambivalent about unions. Coming back from the war to work at the steel mill and them wanting to pay you ten percent of what you made before is a legit reason to unionize and strike. Them not giving you Bastille day off or at least double pay is a bit much. This seems more like the latter.

Melissia wrote:

Albatross wrote:Really? An organisation that threatens to disrupt vital services unless you pay them is a protection racket

By that definition, unless the "vital services" are given free of charge, everyone providing them is a gangster.

That's just argumentative nonsense, Melissia. If you genuinely can't see the difference between an organisation providing a vital service in return for a fee, and an entity threatening to disrupt that service in return for what is essentially a bribe, then I guess I'm stumped.

Of course, you can tell the difference, you're just being your usual misanthropic self. It's an attractive trait.

Oblahblah is the current Failure in Office. Everything he's touched has turned to mud. We cant wait to run him out of office. Unfortunately, the liberal/progressive/socialist (the stupid people) left that is the Democratic party will vote in droves. They will also call upon the dead and the illegals to vote (it's de rigueur for them), thus ensuring four more years of failure, mediocrity, and out of control spending. Ah well, the OWS crowd has to suck up money from somewhere, wish they stuck with sucking it off mom n' dad instead of through my taxes!

I just wish Obummers supporters were smart enough to realise that The One has no good will for this country. Guess checking your cranial matter at the door is a requirement to ride the donkey.

Spacemanvic wrote:I just wish Obummers supporters were smart enough to realise that The One has no good will for this country.

Of course not, Neo is beyond any national boundries.

Melissia wrote:Short-term profitability at the expense of long-term viability is not a good sacrifice to make.

Have you done an MBA at the Fisher-Price School of Economics or was it HASBRO Business school? Because that statement is a child-like Marxist epithet, long on sentiment and idealism but short on realism and ground truth.

Lack of short term profitability, means a significantly reduced chance that the Company will exist in the long term. So lets talk Viability of the businesses, you can have a viable business like say APPLE inc, who has a popular product like an iPAD, but they cannot afford to have it made in the USA because the costs would hike the cost upto $800 per unit. If they did this, the market uptake of their product would reduce, the economy of scale would reverse, due to the now limited production run which would drive your TCO right up. The cost of product would go up, they cannot impose a price hike on $800 as they will exacerbate the problem of poor sails, so they lose money on their product despite the fact it sells (much like the SONY PLAYSTATION 3 including a BLUE RAY PLAYER).

If however the CEO 18months before moved production or outsourced it to say (Taiwan, Korea or China) the unit cost is reduced, oh to $400 a unit, and the item takes the world by storm. The company makes a nice profit and achieves market dominance through a significant market share. Then throw in some closed architecture to lock your customer base in and then build up your brand to be the dominant brand.

The West want's products at a Price we can afford. That's why we bitch about GW, because if it was all done in China it would be much cheaper (although the price would probably remain the same and they would pocket the increased profit margin). It's easy to criticism Corporations as manifestly evil, but actually stop and think what it must be like to have a work force in the 100,000's, that every decision you make could potentially doom or save them all. That's a lot of stress.

mwnciboo wrote:Because that statement is a child-like Marxist epithet

And then I stopped reading your post, because it was evident that you had nothing of value to say-- instead you were accusing me of being a communist because I advocated looking at the long view instead of blindly looking only at the next quarter.

Apparently, advocating capitalism is the same as advocating communism.

Melissia wrote:

mwnciboo wrote:Because that statement is a child-like Marxist epithet

And then I stopped reading your post, because it was evident that you had nothing of value to say-- instead you were accusing me of being a communist because I advocated looking at the long view instead of blindly looking only at the next quarter.

Apparently, advocating capitalism is the same as advocating communism.

Obozo's only looking at the next quarter, if ONLY he looked at the long view (if he cared) and saw the path of destruction his administration is leaving behind.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Melissia wrote:

Spacemanvic wrote:I just wish Obummers supporters were smart enough to realise that The One has no good will for this country.

Of course not, Neo is beyond any national boundries.

I just wished he stayed outside our national borders. And NOT traffic illegal arms to our neighbors in the south.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Love political trash talk, but Ive got work to do.

Have fun all!!

I see you completely skipped over the joke. How sad....

Spacemanvic wrote:Oblahblah is the current Failure in Office. Everything he's touched has turned to mud. We cant wait to run him out of office. Unfortunately, the liberal/progressive/socialist (the stupid people) left that is the Democratic party will vote in droves. They will also call upon the dead and the illegals to vote (it's de rigueur for them), thus ensuring four more years of failure, mediocrity, and out of control spending. Ah well, the OWS crowd has to suck up money from somewhere, wish they stuck with sucking it off mom n' dad instead of through my taxes!

I just wish Obummers supporters were smart enough to realise that The One has no good will for this country. Guess checking your cranial matter at the door is a requirement to ride the donkey.

What exactly were you trying to accomplish with that post, who were you trying to convince, If you talk like that then you just confirm everything the left says about republicans, and you make your fellow conservatives look bad. It's really annoying when you want to support a conservative viewpoint and you constituents talk like this.

Spacemanvic wrote:Oblahblah is the current Failure in Office. Everything he's touched has turned to mud. We cant wait to run him out of office. Unfortunately, the liberal/progressive/socialist (the stupid people) left that is the Democratic party will vote in droves. They will also call upon the dead and the illegals to vote (it's de rigueur for them), thus ensuring four more years of failure, mediocrity, and out of control spending. Ah well, the OWS crowd has to suck up money from somewhere, wish they stuck with sucking it off mom n' dad instead of through my taxes!

I just wish Obummers supporters were smart enough to realise that The One has no good will for this country. Guess checking your cranial matter at the door is a requirement to ride the donkey.

This is so much a parody of right wing thinking I have to admit, I don't even know if you're serious or not. So, well done.

I think.

No-one is that stupid, Ouze. Or are they?

Ouze wrote:


Pictured: Mitt Romney

Personally, I think Romney comes off as a smart man who's also a bit of a dim bulb, if that makes any sense. As reds8n said, there's a certain awkwardness about him.

Everyone talks about the Kerry similarities, and I have too. But now that I think about it, there's some Al Gore in Romney too.

Edited by Manchu.

I always find it amusing that Britain Hedges it's bets with Presidential Nominee's just in case, last time was more fun because it was definitely going to be a new president. This time, well many have said this is going to be a close one, but I don't really want to see "Mitt the Twit" in charge of the nuclear codes, he might say something and then try to retract it. That's not really possible with an ICBM is it?

Reagan Quote

"My fellow Americans. I'm pleased to announce that I've signed legislation outlawing the Soviet Union. We begin bombing in five minutes." -joking during a mike check before his Saturday radio broadcast

was good. Reagan called Gorbachev afterwards explaining it was a joke.

Quick break.

Im hoping 4 years was enough to prove Oblahblahs ineptitude. Id hate for him to get 4 more years to cement the fact.

'Ohblahblah'? How old are you?

Albatross wrote:'Ohblahblah'? How old are you?

42. Not a fan of mediocrity, nor it's candidate Obumbo.

Oblahblah is one of the many names for Failure.