CynicAl

Is it going to shortfall? What is the current surrender value from specialist firms?

I wrote to a number of SNP MSPs to make them aware that this is folly. Maybe we all should.

From personal experience, I recommend these guys: A LOT cheaper than a solicitor! http://www.s-c-s.biz/

Thanks. Somehow I wasn't expecting a ring to weigh that much. I suppose that the increase in price would make a bigger difference to jewellry costs than I supposed.

I was just reading a story about the price of gold wiping out the jewellry trade at $2000. I must admit it seemed a bit excessive to me. What is the actual price of materials in a £500 wedding band versus the value added by the jeweller? I am not married or I would weigh my wedding ring.

Australia has a lot of natural resources, but apart from having stuff to dig out of the ground, I don't see their economy as being up to much. They will, however, have a lot of stuff to dig out of the ground for a long time.

Oh, sorry, I thought you were talking about silver, as the previous guy referred to it. THAT would be a revelation. I am well hedged in gold, but getting a bit scared that a couple of bits of good news made so many rush for the exits.....and the news wasn't THAT good.....

Over what timescale do you think? And is that based upon the applications in industry and it's scarcity, or something else?

Of course, the bank might just pay them anyway. Afterall, they would only really be giving back some of the money that we lent them cheaply....

Looks like the BBC have retrospectively factored in the latest rights issue.

Bolt Out of Blue. It was on page 1. “the BOB event, a bolt out of the blue,”

It's a fair point. Transactions are twice what they were last year, are they not? However, in my area, many of the properties available have been on for almost 2 years (with little drop in asking price), which shows that the market is currently not entertaining late 2007 prices. Properties that come on more 'aggressively/realistically' priced usually do sell. These are commonly at 2005 prices or so, 20% down from peak.

If it is all roses in the property market, why are the share prices of the major builders not responding? Is it beacuse their figures do not correspond to the Halifax and Nationwide figures?

Yeah, totally agree, Clive Anderson is playing it for laughs and is entirely flippant. Kirsty shouldn't have been considered as suitable in ANY way to be on, and the politicians on tonight aren't exacty great orators. Off to bed....

Oh dear, Mummy and Daddy would have to pay tax on their multi-million pound house. Or, it would be taken from her inheritence. Boo-fekkin'-hoo!

I heard 'fanny'.

After no pay rise last year ("we expect a terrible 2009" - they said) and then making record profits, we are getting a 2% rise and an ex-gratia payment in January. I think they realised that we all thought that they just jumped on the doom & gloom bandwagon, using that as an excuse to turn us over. I was expecting to be completely turned over again this year as they are predicting 2010 to be bad (wonder if they will be accurate this time), so the small rise was surprising. Edit: Spelling

If the pay is not that high, then why have we not heard anything to the contrary. I know that there are loads of people working in banks, not making a lot of money. There are also some (notably some with greater responsibility for the failures) that are making a huge amount of money and are now complaining about the lack of bonuses. I work for one of the biggest engineering employers in the world. We have VERY smart people in parts of our organisation. However, if we make MASSIVE losses, they don't get bonuses. Now, I don't doubt that there are some senior people who will feather their own nests regardless, and that is reprehensible. Why is it not reprehensible for people to be paid bonuses when in slightly different circumstances they would not even have a job.

We just don't think that they are worth >100 times more than VERY talented research scientists, or 50 times more than technical directors of medium sized enterprises, or more than board members on some FTSE 250 companies. Do you?

If YOU want to spend YOUR money buying food where YOUR friend works, then fine. If, however, YOU want to do business with MY money just because YOUR friend works for a particular institution, then yes, I have a problem with YOU. As another poster said, corrupt.

Maybe we don't have these all important connections? This sort of argument undermines their worth. Facts is, when you think of the smartest people in society, no-one thinks of bankers. We think of scientists and such-like. The remuneration offered on the this industry is based on a tradition of high pay, and it attracts, for the most part, the greedy and vain. And what exactly does a banker produce?

Get a diesel Fiat Panda and drive like a refined old gent and you'll get over 60mpg. Once you are trained into it, you also get a smug sense of self-satisfaction. Let's face it, at c.£5 a gallon it makes sense.

Worse than that, the £1,700 goes on the deposit instead, and therefore (assuming a 75% mortgage) will put the purchase price up by £6,800, that they can then pay off over 25 years. Now, if we had 10% stamp duty, then maybe houses would become affordable.....

Trouble at the top of the market up here too...... This one was marketed last December at £1,500,000 and has dropped £525,000 since then. http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-20371966.html?locationIdentifier=REGION^61347&pageNumber=1&backToListURL=%2Fproperty-for-sale%2Ffind.html%3FsearchType%3DSALE%26locationIdentifier%3DREGION%255E61347%26radius%3D0.0%26displayPropertyType%3D%26minBedrooms%3D%26maxBedrooms%3D%26minPrice%3D%26maxPrice%3D%26maxDaysSinceAdded%3D%26retirement%3D%26partBuyPartRent%3D%26_includeSSTC%3Don%26x%3D86%26y%3D22%26sortByPriceDescending%3D%26primaryDisplayPropertyType%3D%26secondaryDisplayPropertyType%3D%26oldDisplayPropertyType%3D%26oldPrimaryDisplayPropertyType%3D%26oldSecondaryDisplayPropertyType%3D%26newHome%3D%26auction%3Dfalse

Anyone seen this? I found it linked from mortgages.co.uk http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/stop-melt-down/