iamdamosuzuki

My experience is that banks now report absolutely everything at transactional level, pleb level employees are monitored to within an inch of their jobs. But it's trebles all round and (fraudulent) business as usual for the con men higher up. HUZZAH!

A hard working kitchen making a real contribution to GDP. It's what makes this country great. Typical of the moaning minnies on here to have a dig.

Seems to be targeting what the BBC regards as dodgy ll's. Probably worth watching but the real scandal of our taxes being pissed away on a benefit for the wealthy will no doubt be skirted over. Housing benefit is a national disgrace.

WTF does it all mean though? So zero inflation (of this 'type' according to Carney) is GOOD at the moment. But the arbitary 2% is the target from either side now? I thought the aim was to get below 2%. Apparently someone made 2% up a while back, drunk in Switzerland or something. At a big meeting. It's like 1984. As far as I can make out 1.we are in a period of stagnation or decline brought about by paying back all the debt we accumulated during the golden years of Brown and Blair. 2.No one has any money because of global wage arbitrage, exorbitant rents / house prices and Zero hours contracts. 3.House prices keep rising to support GDP. 4.Productivity is continually falling just because we pump money into zombie banks etc. The papers run laughable articles every so often trying to persuade us it's because workers don't get up early enough, don't do yoga, Brits are lazy etc etc etc. 5. Immigration ponzi is the last hope!! 6. The serious money doesn't have to pay tax anymore a la Google. 7. Housing benefit lol. Which makes Osborne's tweet all the more pathetic, and Carney's a tosser. Thanks.

IMO the arrogant rich(sorry 'wealth creators') trying to frighten us into voting Tory belongs in the pre - internet, know your place age. Probably feudal times, actually. Seriously, Stuart Rose? Bannatyne?? I'll be voting SNP you shower of C****s

Tjhat's the feeling I get. How completely absurd this country has become, where two bright twenty somethings resort to this kind of thing (full of risk as mentioned above) Just to buy a house. And all the nonsnse they are going through is only necessary to keep boomers onside. And they are right, renting is a dirty word and is being kept that way by the PTB. I might vote for a party that builds social housing, strictly regulates the rental market, reforms planning and removes all market manipulation of the htb, HISA, type. .

This is a good point. I've made a few quid on other speculative investments over the last 8 years, but missed a massive free giveaway by missing the HPI boat. And yet, I'm still in equities and wouldn't risk London house prices. You might indeed make a fortune, but the potential haircut of this kind of highly levereged speculation is horrendous. Fk them is my honest opinion. Pay your money and take your chance. Having said that, the governments role in this carry on is despicable.

3K lol. etc etc

Nail on head. Barclays,RBS, JPMorgan etc also all operate using the AVP/VP director, etc etc structure. What this in effect means is that there is a cabal of staff - I'd say about a fifth/quarter (pure guess) who are 'the company'. They are the prime beneficieries of the enterprise at the cost of Shareholders, other staff and, ultimately, productivity. IE they destroy value for all other stakeholders. This large minority imposes omerta and discipline across it's ranks and extracts cash from the business. Loyalty is demanded and rewarded (renamed 'talent'). Clearly the main aim is to enrich those at the top, but this is an efficient structure to facilitate it. I've seen first hand how this sucks the life out of the organization, rewarding dubious practices over and over again and stifling truth. Try speaking truth to power at RBS. This is the cultural failing at the banks, and it is not one inch closer to being resolved than it was in 2008.

the pain if prices go down

Exactly. Unless there is an extreme change of attitude, what's even the point? I'm being careful as they look the litigous types, but what on earth did Katrina expect from life. A 3 bed mansion, beaches, barbecues, foreign holidays and no work for thirty years? Jesus H Christ. Ad they are still spunking 300 pounds a month on storage. Many families in my are could be well fed and clothed for that amount. Unfortunately rampant HPI and low wages mean 300 pounds spare is a pipe dream for them.

I'll say it again. She is able bodied with no dependents and hasn't worked since her mid forties. Nice work if you can get it. Since she was 45 and he was in his mid 50's they have stayed in a succession of LUXURY homes and apartments. Neither working to any great extent. And Blowing 210k in the process. He is in his seventies. Lucky for him he gets the state pension What exactly is the plan? I wouldn't trust either of them with a tenner. They'd probably buy a tin of caviar and realise they didn't have an opener.

What a load of Rubbish. From Dennis Waterman being a 'mover and shaker' onwards, so many things don't add up. 1. She appears to have decided to retire at 45/46 (!) to a 3 bed seaside mansion after a high flying nanny career? 2. At the point of her 'retiral' they tookout a massive mortgage. On the basis that he - now 56 - would get lots of money somehow and they'd be rich. 3. Panicked when they don't get lots of money and become rich. In 2005 they 'downsized to a 295k flat. WTF. I can't find a one bedroom flat in Poole for anything more than 195k at the mo. What kind of downsizing was this? 4. In 2006 they release 190k equity. Downsize to a small 900pcm flat. She's still 'retired' He's now well into his sixties. Again, 900 is a huge amount of rent in Poole. Where on earth were they staying? http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-48133639.html 5. 2011. He's 66. They have blown 190k in five years. They downsize (!) to a flat at 850pcm. She's still retired. 6. They get a 20k loan to pay household bills. They are renters. ARE THEY GROWING CANNABIS OR SOMETHING??? 7. By 2013, Alan is nearly 70. Katrina (who retired at 45) is in her sixties. They have spent 10 years barely working and living in a series of luxury houses and apartments. Their boomer friends go on holidays and live on massive defined benefit boomer pensions. Alan doesn't really have a pension, for some reason. 8. BINGO! 70 year old Alan gets a job and decides to emigrate to Canada. It's the future. 9. 6 months later Alan is made redundant. At this point a crisis sends them both FULL RETARD. 10. 71 year old Alan, who used to work as a high flyer, and his long retired wife decide to spend 740 pcm storing stuff and staying in a B and B. They could save 100pcm just by renting this http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-36896912.html 11. In a last desperate attempt to get someone to send them a cheque, they sell their incoherent story to the mail. THE END.

Surely that's the real message of this thread. The insanity of the planning system. It'll take a war for any serious reform though.

hahahahaha. Leahy's aggresive expansion and contempt for UK customers came home to roost. He blames hapless succesor. Terry, the internet doesn't believe you.