impatient_mug

I'm pretty sure fossil fuels have destroyed jobs - a machine is currently much cheaper than a human due to the price of energy. If we are forced to ditch them and swap to 'green' energy (reducing our current lifestyles to a level of poverty and misery not seen in the west for over a century, but that's another topic) then there will be a higher demand for manual labour. I'd still prefer to keep cheap energy, however.

Have to break self imposed ban from the manic depressives on this site to respond to this blatant lie. I've had the extreme misfortune of living in PO2 , PO5 and PO7 - All have been shit holes (including Waterlooville which isn't even really Portsmouth!) If a certain local employer stops paying reasonable money for very little I'll be out of here in a second. There are no nice places in Portsmouth.

So why not simplify it and give the allowance to everyone, or no-one? If it's just a tax break for certain earners, what have kids got to do with it? Far less administration.

Sorry if it's been posted before - can't see it on the first 2 pages. Aren't Unison one of the 'noisiest' unions when it comes to protecting final salary schemes - especially public ones? They themselves have now shown it's all completely unsustainable - do you think they'll keep the strikes going all the same? http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/pen...icle6824024.ece

Just got back in from a night out in that shit holw that is Pompey. Rammed as ever, still had to be careful to avoid looking like you're involved in any trouble whilst walking past the meat wagons to the taxi rank but it can still be a good laugh when out with mates. In earlier than is typical for such a night - zomg - must be teh evil depression!!11!1 I do find this site laughable at times. A paper recession isn't going to get in the way of people going our for a good time every now and then - same as people always have, and always will.

I'm a bit confused by the way the whole affair was handled as well. Libya sent us a fall-guy - I suspect it was known to the Libyans that he had a terminal illness before they picked this particular person to take the blame. The UK/Scottish government were happy - they were seen as being tough against terrorists. The relatives were happy - an individual had taken the blame and received punishment. Libya were then accepted by foreign governments for appearing to co-operate - everyone wins. This whole deal has made both Britain and Libya look bad - why would either side want to do anything?

Can you please point out where in my post I implied that? I don't think I gave an opinion either way, but since you've made up an opinion for me I may as well state my position. I think that people should pay for themselves throughout their entire lives wherever possible. Benefits should be reduced to become a temporary safety net with tough strings attached unless there is a very good reason you are unable to contribute. This extends to when you are old. Pay for your own damned care. The current system is wrong - many spend their entire lives paying for everyone else and themselves and yet receive little help later on.

Key phrase in that article is 'the best rates'. Have FTBs ever been entitled to those, or anyone with small deposits come to that? Even in the silly lending period of two years back the lowest rates were only available to those with at least 25%. Saying that FTBs will need a 60% deposit to get the best rate is very different to saying an FTB will need 60% to get a mortgage.

I would look at exactly how much of a discount you get from paying monthly. Chances are it's only 2 or 3% on top of the normal Direct Debit discount - an amount which is probably cancelled out by all the lost interest from over-charging. I pay mine quarterly in arrears by DD. I can then send in correct meter readings if they email me a bill with significantly incorrect guestimated readings ensuring any bill is either correct or in my favour. Still get the 5% DD discount but no risk of slipping ahead or behind.

I'm on the fence with this one - I'm unlikely to have enough when I retire to worry, but an observation... I've always found it odd that the people complaining about having to provide their own care when old are the very same people who complain that they have to provide housing to the unemployed, education for other peoples children etc. You can't have it both ways. How can you expect to live in a society where wherever possible people should be self sufficient (which I agree with, before people accuse me of reading the Guardian) yet then expect everyone else to pay for your care when elderly? I would hate to learn that my old age care was being paid for by young people struggling to get by themselves. I also hope that it will be legally possible to 'check out' before you become a dependant vegetable with no quality of life by the time I reach that age.

Different tax office to the one on my payslips then - I'll let you off They used to use the one around the corner, but then changed us to one hundreds of miles away in Manchester - didn't know there was more than one tax office in one city. As for working hours - what in my post triggered that little outburst? Enjoy your long weekend.

Given the amount you skim off my salary each month I'm surprised you can't afford £120k deposits. MOD EDIT : IDENTIFYING DETAILS REMOVED

So, India exports IT workers, and the UK buys them because it's cheaper than producing our own. It's a bit of luck we don't export much any more otherwise we could find other countries retaliate by blocking our exports.

Keeping the IT analogies going, it's a bit like the iPod vs Zen/Zune/Walkman augment. The Zen for example performs the same function as the iPod - in fact with it's radio tuner it does slightly more - and costs £80. The iPod is subjectively 'better' but costs £140. A lot may be willing to pay the £140 for the iPod. Swap iPod for UK contractor and Zen for Indian contractor. Change the price difference from less than double to more than 5 times, then work out what a company is likely to do. Before screaming 'it shouldn't be allowed!!!!!' question what you would buy if the Zen mp3 player was £50 and the iPod £400, and apply the same thinking to everything else you buy (cars, holidays, food, energy etc). I will be replaced with an Indian. Does that bother me? Yes. Do I understand why, and also understand that it's fair enough - yes. No-one owes me, or the UK a living.

IT is going the way of mining, call centres and manufacturing - elsewhere. Get used to it - and I say that as someone who works in IT. I'm not going to be hypocritical by buying import electronics made in factories that poison their workforce with the toxic chemicals, wear clothes probably made by kids in sweat shops and go on holiday to far flung lands taking advantage of local poverty yet then complain when they decide to under cut me. I don't look around for the most expensive way to buy an item - I can't see why employers should. I will have to find something else to do otherwise accept a significant drop in income. If enough people have to take this drop then the cost of living in the UK will fall. Just like we can't run an economy selling ridiculously priced houses to each other, we can't run an economy selling ridiculously priced IT and business systems to each other. If we want to maintain anything like todays standard of living we have to actually compete and do something useful in exchange for all that oil, gas and food. We have to start Doing the Needful ourselves or suffer an updation to our standard of life.

Right.. so not going nuts over a massively expensive for what it is product that for the vast majority of people is pointless with no practical use what so ever is now cynical?? I thought rampant consumerism and pointless bling was bad?

He's done a good job of making you all look like idiots I'm afraid. No one can have an attitude as fcuked up as the one absolutezero and Mick Dundee are showing here - they've created caricatures based on Daily Fail stereotypes, spotted that this board is full of people frothing at the mouth in anger at the smallest mention of the public sector, and sucked you all in with a well crafted troll. People here hate civil servants so much they didn't even need to put much effort in. It's been entertaining to read tho

<golf clap> It's disappointing that despite being so unbelievably obvious so many people bit. Many of the people who have been well and truly sucked in also call other people 'sheeple' Well done that man - the 'I pay £95 so it's funded' bit still didn't seem to stop the torrent of posts.

Can I ask them not to collect my bins and instead drive them down to the tip myself? It would cut the cost as the waste would already be in a central location. I am prepared to keep paying for the ambulance service and most of the Police. Others will probably disagree so it's not going to be easy, but as I said in my previous post we can no longer afford a public sector the size of the one we have now. Services will have to be cut - fault is irrelevant.

I try not to 'bash' the staff directly unless the job is so unbelievably pointless that the person doing it should know they're wasting time - for example there was a guy on here a few weeks back who was paid to 're-brand' a council I believe. As for the whole 'it's not fair, it's the private sectors fault' - that is totally irrelevant. The fact of the matter is I can no longer afford to pay enough in taxes to fund the services we currently receive. There are tens of millions like me. We can choose to cut the Sky bill and receive a lesser service. We can choose to drive smaller cars. We can choose to drop insurances, buy value range foods, go on less holidays etc. The one thing we can't choose to pay less for in order to receive a lesser service is public services. The fact is the country can't afford the level of service we receive today - when you can't afford something you cut it. Simple as that - fairness doesn't come into it. Private excess is required to fund public excess. When the private sector collapses, regardless of fault, there's no money to pay for the public sector. Why does the public sector seem to think it's immune to basic economics? They seem hell bent on punishing the very people they claim to be serving by forcing them to pay punitive taxes to fund services the 'customer' can no longer afford and would rather do without. Yes - this unfortunately means that some former public servants will end up on the dole. I can guarantee the dole bill is less than their former salary, and most will choose to get another job anyway.

Can't be arsed to read another 5 pages of front line public service bashing, so I hope this has already been said however... People working directly and closely to those who are sick seem to get sick themselves more than the general public. Who'd have thunk it?

If you have equity and an offset mortgage just ask a surveyor to value the place down to below the £16k threshold. Given they're currently being cautious with valuations it shouldn't be hard to find one willing to knock another 10% off the value. Will probably cost you £300 - £400 in survey fees but it means you can start claiming right away and there's still the same amount owed on the mortgage so nothing lost. The only problem may be finding another surveyor to value it back up again should you need the money.

Only the Guardian would complain that people are not claiming benefits despite being eligible! People who accept the world does not in fact owe them a living and treat benefits as the last resort safety net it should be rather than claiming it as soon as they can regardless of need should command respect, not derision.

Only when it supports the arguments of the doom-mongers. You've been here long enough to have learnt that by now.

I feel a Left4Dead map coming on.... :-) Would probably earn you a visit from the counter terrorist squad however.