deflation

It isn't clear under the new buy scheme if you have to have a mortgage. Being devil's advocate, if I have enough to buy the whole house, why not take advantage of a 5 year interest free loan? I think the problem here is that developers won't take a haircut if they're struggling to sell because punters can get 20% loaned to them by the govt. So you have to pay the full, over-valued price for a new build to get one.

I agree, and so did a spokeswoman on Today on R4 this morning. After listening to a rant from a stay at home mum, it was mentioned that mothers who stop work when they have children are on mumsnet a lot and treat their decision as some kind of badge of honour. I did smile.

You don't seriously think that if you earn over the threshold, you pay the higher rate on all of it? Some people used to be glad of squeezing over the limit to get higher rate relief on contributions. I could never understand refusing the chance of earning more just because you pay 40% instead of 20%. You still end up with more. Of course, turning down more hours because you lose benefits, that's different... :angry:

Eh? Leaving the Euro and leaving the EU have completely different procedures. Cyprus only introduced the Euro in 2008 and they probably let people convert them for some time afterwards. I doubt they destroyed them all yet. Cyprus's Euro notes are printed in France and the Netherlands apparently: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_banknotes Probably not important but perhaps they could 'sneak' extra in behind Germany's back?

Rumours of a cut in the tax on beer. Maybe for pubs only? Can't have the proles getting too much supermarket cheap stuff.

We had 68 pages of opinion and speculation before the Cypriot govt voted NO and now, only 5 since. This thread is going off topic. This really is it! Politicians on TV stating seriously that within 4 days, they could be out of the euro. I'm hacked off i never made a bet now.

But if that loaned out money from bank A is deposited at bank B and they do the same, etc, etc. Wiki has a long explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional-reserve_banking

I think that's the 3rd thread I've seen quoting it.

What, you think VAT is going to go up?! The VAT on fuel is on the whole lot after duty is applied (tax on tax as so many quote), so a 1p cut in duty is actually a 1.2p reduction. Admittedly, a 1p cut is a token effort but people think it's important. A 10p cut would be more like it. Fuel duty has been unchanged for 2 years now. Imagine if we still has the escalator.

Since Brown's use of the Autumn statement (essentially the pre-budget) was adopted by the coalition, Budget day is a wet flannel. There'll be 'surprise' good bits, and they've already leaked more cuts to departments. Last years pasty tax shambles and any other off-the-cuff measures will make it a non-event. Usual rises in tobacco, tax threshold already set out. But I predict a 1p cut in fuel duty.

Date of article, 2nd Dec 2012. Any updates?

Seeing as it's a garrison, there are whole families there who will need access to cash, if nothing else to pay the locals for stuff. As far back as the Peninsualr Wars, Wellington had a reputation for paying for stuff rather than just taking it as the French trops did. Hearts and minds... On Ch 4 news, they show G4S vans delivering cash for ATMs, so they have reserves somewhere. I wonder if they kept a room full of Cypriot pounds just in case, after all they've only been in the Euro since Jan 2008.

I thought the post-apocalyptic world of the Book of Eli was probably more likely. Or, in the UK, Survivors.

Guardian running a live update blog today: 11:08 "CyBC, the state TV station in Cyprus, is now reporting that today's vote has been postponed until 4pm local time, or 2pm GMT. And an EU official has told Reuters' in Brussels that the vote was been put off until Tuesday to allow 'more time for negotiation'." They could be shut a bit longer yet. Didn't Argentina shut the banks for several days when they defaulted?

Early 1985? http://www.miketodd.net/encyc/dollhist-graph2.htm It was $2 to the £ as recently as 2008. I don't expect the £ to go up at all in the near future, it just seems convenient for many to ignore that currencies go up and down, not just down.

I've lost count of the number of people mentioning this. If you live in the UK, get paid in £, it's not visible to you. Taking a slice of your money is. And anyway, I don't remember any posts about the increase in our wealth because the value of the pound went from €1.03 in Dec 2008 to €1.28 in July 2012. It's all about timing. http://www.ecb.int/stats/exchange/eurofxref/html/eurofxref-graph-gbp.en.html

Osborne has been on TV saying that any serving military personnel or civil servants working in Cyprus for the UK who are affected will get reimbursed. (He also said that branches of Cyprus banks in the UK would be unaffected. Sighs of relief from a few people I reckon.) I doubt he thinks it'll be that much money in the big scheme of things but just wait til the local girlfriends and dependencies (rich greek 'uncles' etc) hold their hands out. the ex-pats? Well that's just unlucky. There's an estimated 27k of them. They may bottle it in the end: "Cyprus's parliament has postponed an emergency session on a controversial bailout deal for the country's banks. The debate and a presidential address were to happen on Sunday but will now take place on Monday, state media said..." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21819990

Many bank and building societies are open on Sat mornings in the UK these days. If people noticed this news early enough today, there would have been time to get to one and get money out today. I expect that any indications of a run would have been felt already, but they wouldn't likely report it.... yet.

There's a chance this will start a crisis in cash withdrawals that isn't necessary here. But, as all the people in big queues for fuel often say, I'm not panic buying, everyone else is. I'm not sure whether to buy popcorn or start worrying.

It happens that way for me. I've transferred funds online between accounts on a Saturday several times in the last 2 years, and although the transfer takes place, the date put on the screen, and hence any printed statement is 2 days in the future, i.e. the next 'working' day.

The fact the depositors are getting 'shares' to an equivalent amount in the bank is probably getting a good ignoring. I didn't notice in the first reports. After all, can you immediately sell them? And what will they be worth anyway once they get dumped on the market?

The vast majority of people with money in a bank in Cyprus, or here for that matter, won't give 2 hoots, or even understand the economic arguments about long term devaluation of their spending power. But when a govt helps themselves to their deposits because of bank debts, I think it's understandable that they will go ape-shit. Personally, I really hope the yellow stuff doesn't go to the moon, I've already missed out once.

It's being touted as a 'one-time' tax. Really. This is a bad precedent for an EU country. It could easily become a two-time and more tax if a country is bust. Monday morning's market reaction could be interesting, which is why I suppose it was decided on a Friday to give TPTB time to spin it, or at least put some controls in place.

It may be an agreement to get hold of some of the wealth of tax avoiders in Greece. I believe a lot of them moved their money to Cyprus to hide it. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21797888 "The Cypriot economy accounts for barely 0.2% of the eurozone's overall output. But there is concern within the euro bloc that a default by Cyprus risks undermining the progress being made in Greece." Also: "There are a lot of Russian deposits in the Cypriot banking system, according to economists." I expect a flight of money is about to ensue, although perhaps they think a levy of 9.9% is pitched low enough for the big / dirty / hidden money holders to assume it's small potatoes to it being seized in entirety at home.

Tom and Barbara, and the neighbours, Jerry and Margo, had no kids. In fact, I don't recall any reasons or desires for them being mentioned. They were both, in their own way, trying to lead a good life. Reality fail? It's a scripted situation comedy. Richard Briers, bless him, frequently said in interviews what a horrible character he thought Tom was. He denied his wife (who was obviously several years younger than him, Barbara's age wasn't mentioned but Felicity Kendall was 28 when the series started) any children or luxuries.