microbe

I think the answer to that is very simple. University lecturers are on a higher pay scale than lecturers in other HE colleges. There was a report a few years ago which said that (I think) 50% of new jobs would need degree level skills. So we had this mad rush to send everyone to university - where they have been doing degrees which provide degree level education, which is not at all the same thing as degree level skills. E.g. a degree in history is great but it doesn't equip you with the skills you need to run a shoe shine stand let alone a factory, a bank (or to be Chancellor of the Exchequer or Prime Minister). This has been going on for decades, I went to Aston University while the refectory still had cutlery stamped Birmingham College Of Advanced Technology. So we end up with places like the College Of Food and the College Of Furniture being swallowed by universities, all the students are given degrees instead of the diplomas which were universally known and respected in their industries. Once all the colleges have converted and the lecturers are in receipt of their new enhanced pay cheques for doing exactly what they were doing before, the accountants notice that some courses cost more than others so courses which don't require expensive equipment and laboratories and workshops get promoted at the expense of those that do.

Another nugget: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=10

Seconded.

I suspect that ONS is being kneecapped - they churn out huge amounts of stats, but when you want an accurate answer on some specific, you find that the data is kind of blurry round the edges. IYSWIM.

No idea. Probably up to 99.9%. :-)

I love "up to". You keep seeing it churned out to make news reports seem more alarming than they really are. "up to" = "less than" So if only one schizophrenic or disabled person has ever committed suicide, that would still be "up to" 10%. Don't get me wrong, I don't believe that is the case.

Oh, I don't expect that twit to act on it, even if every single voter in the UK signed it. He will cling on in Number 10 until he is dragged out. I hope he doesn't resign, because I think that the next Government is going to need a massive majority to fix even some of the things NuLab has broken and GB is the best man to totally destroy NuLab support between now and next May. But I think lots of people voting on his web site for him to go will really piss him off, and I think that is a good enough reason for voting.

I have signed. However, I really hope that arsehole clings on to the last minute because I think the longer he waits the worse the election will go for him.

I think I might get that framed.

Only real question is why he isn't being bailed out like all the rest?

Citywire And of course, the VAT man won't feel any urge whatever to give them six months to find the back tax.

Wikipedia says otherwise. However, "In the late 1940s, the Zionist group Lehi used car and truck bombs against Palestinian and British targets as an attempt to end peace discussions; ... " At which time they were of course not Israelis, but Zionist Jewish Palestinian terrorists. I think.

However bad your view of the Conservatives is, NuLabor are worse. On credit cards, I don't see the problem. Barclaycard will do you a nice Platinum Card at 8.8% APR which doesn't seem that unreasonable to me, and you can always pay it off every month anyway. If you need to have a card that charges more, because you are a bad credit risk, then 1) you can't afford to have one 2) if you really feel you must have one you should expect to pay a whopping risk premium.

I think that this time is different to the last crash. The 1988 crash was regional. The main regions effected were London, the South East and East Anglia. It took ten years for London prices to recover to the 1998 peak. Peak to trough last time took about five years and for the worst hit region represented a drop of 35%. I think: This time, all regions are going to be hurt - if you talk to a lot of Northerners, they don't get it, they don't believe that prices can fall, unless they are old enough to have first hand experience of the '70s crash. The biggest drop, which will be in Northern Ireland is going to be massively more than the worst region of the last crash, and 35% could well be average for the UK as a whole. Inflation is low, if that continues, then the time span could be a lot longer. I also think that there is a high probability that as we start to emerge from this cycle we will hit a wall as oil depletion cuts in with consequent large rises in fuel and food costs. I think that unless you are planning to buy hundreds of properties, it makes sense to focus on your local market - the UK market is not homogenous. It probably makes sense to look for and only buy a house you are happy to be in for a long time and buy it when prices have not fallen for at least two consecutive quarters. Charts are based on Halifax regional data.

It is at least as likely that it is the seller who is lying to you. Why not ask the agent what is going on.

Something which has crossed my mind, as the FTSE has jerked up and down, I have kept hearing news reports saying things like "lowest since 200x". We are not much above 3567.3999 - the low point of January 2003. If the FTSE goes below that, the news reports will be saying "lowest since 1995" or worse. I wonder what kind of psychological impact that might have.

Yes, absolutely. But that would imply that the primary criterion for the selection of estate agency staff is intelligence.

Reality? If an estate agent suggests to a seller a price they don't like, they will go elsewhere and find someone stupid enough to tell them what they want to hear.

Shape of things to come? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6721709.stm

This man is a genius. http://snptacticalvoting.blogspot.com/2008...ing-shares.html

This means doing for the builders what has been done for the banks. Seems only fair and reasonable to me. Next, he will be round at Starbucks, buying up the unsold ******ing coffee.

Actually, he didn't explain himself, CATFLAP did that, at length. FWIW, I agree with you, it is as you say "a pretty good theory". You might find this review interesting. As far as I can see you take trouble to inform yourself. But you say things like "...and even shows how to stop it. - problem is to stop it the rich would suffer, so it doesn't happen!!", can't you see that so long as people believe whatever they are told ... without processing, nothing will change. It is irrelevant whether what they happen to believe agrees with what you think or not, unless people think for themselves, the next thing you know they will be flocking off believing the next thing they hear from someone else.

Look it up.

And you don't see anything wrong with that? The guy has just heard a load of stuff, accepted it without question, and then churned out an uninformed mash which refers to data which doesn't exist. AND YOU SEE NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT?

One thing has bugged me for a long time. As far as I can see we were invaded over a thousand years ago and have tolerated an occupation all that time, even collaborated wholesale. Even now, a huge percentage of our national wealth and resources is in the hands of people who trace there wealth and status back to the Norman Conquest.