dccarm

Why do you stay here then? Why not go back to Germany?

Aye, but he knows an awful lot about Scotch.

Just listened again. "Tongue in cheek" probably wasn't the correct phrase, but I still don't think there's much to it. The words moutnains and molehills pring to mind. He giggled like a little girl after he said it, then took it back and apologised when challenged. He apologised again, and his apology was accepted. It was a silly comment that (I think) was obviously meant as banter but not taken as such.

Erm. I thought it was pretty obviously a joke. Admittedly not very funny, but neither of them came off particularly well from it. Campbell for making a pretty poor joke, and then having to apologise, and then Fawkes for overreacting to what was obviously a tongue in cheek comment. I can't say I saw it as further evidence of the BBC "losing the plot" and disintegrating with fear at the thought of Labour losing the next election.

It's already here. As I understand it (and I could be wrong) the father is entitled to take 6 months of the mother's 12 months maternity leave. So in theory you could take 6 months each. And fathers are entitled to 2 weeks unpaid paternal leave every year for the first x years of the child's life (can't remember the number - it may be 5).

McEwans Export up to £4.48 from £3.93 for 4 cans in Sainsburys. All the essentials are going up.

There's a great (apocryphal?) story about a Scottish crofter getting into a heated debate with the snooty landowner who owns the piece of land his croft is on. He tells the landowner the land should be his by rights, because he has lived on it all his life, tended it, worked it and made it the productive piece of land it now is. And the landowner tells him no, it is his by rights because his father, and his father's father etc owned it before him. "So how did they get the land?" the crofter asks him. "They fought for it" his landlord replies. "Okay then" the crofter replies. "I'll fight you for it."

I've stopped buying food now as I expect to be able to buy it for much less in 6 months time. At a shopping bill of about £80 a week for the family, I reckon the savings could be enormous.

But there's a quite simple (but ingenious) logic behind this solution. As it is such a bad time to sell a property, what with the credit crunch, and falling prices and all, the smart thing to do is to take out another mortgage and buy a second property. Then when it all blows over they'll come out the other end quids in.

We don't believe that - it's you idiots. We just collect your money at the side of the loch.

It's unlikely that taking out a mortgage now to buy is as good as renting, but ten years ago it was different, and in a couple of years time it'll be different again. I've lived in a few places in the last 10 years, and until maybe three or four years ago, anywhere I've been, buying was always cheaper than renting. The risk that I see with your plan is that you could be busy saving through the trough and then you'll be ready to buy when the market is back at the peak again.

And the referendum wasn't for independence? And the majority actually did vote for devolution - the 40% rule scuppered it. The fact is, the country is fairly evenly divided on the independence issue. hence the ongoing debate. I suspect Salmond has an ulterior motive in asking for one beellion dollars. (Doesn't he always have an ulterior motive - he's slimy, but he's not stupid). With Broon saying "eff off you're getting nothing," Salmond can now go back to the Scottish people and say; 1. It's all Broon's fault, 2. An independent Scotland wouldn't have to go begging. The idea that an independent Scotland couldn't survive economically is a joke, and simply a successful exercise in spreading fear by the unionists. It might be better off, it might be worse off but it would survive.

I suspected this as soon as the new bailout package was announced and Lloyd's was revealed as one of the banks requiring funding. If they need government money, how can they afford to take on the HBOS shortfall too?

I thought he'd have been funnier if he'd said - "If that's a bank looking for another bailout, tell them I'm not here." But then I'm great at thinking of funny things to say after it's too late to say them.

Good article in the Sunday Herald here Edit - because the article has already been posted (it's worth posting twice though). Note to self - read the whole thread before posting

Particularly annoying as I changed next year's holiday money two weeks ago fearing the pound was about to collapse.

It was when Dexy's Midnight Runners sang "Jackie Wilson Said". And definitely not allegedly. Although probably not a mistake - more likely someone in the production team taking teh piss.

There's absolutley nothing to stop you placing an offer below the offers over price. It just might not be accepted. Similarly, you can make an offer subject to survey. If it's accepted and you're not happy with the survey, or the survey price you can still pull out. I think people get confused between the "offers over" side of things, and the fact that an accepted written offer is legally binding.

I did too. It was open this morning after sitting at "pending" for two days.

The biggest downside to the Suzuki Swift is that you get no end of *****ers desperately trying to overtake you as it is obviously too much of a dent in their pride to be stuck behind one, even driving at the limit.

Just tried to transfer cash from my HBOS account to my N S and I ISA account with my debit card and the card was refused. Should I panic now or is it already too late?

Suzuki Swift. My wife gets about 70mpg on the open road. Between Dalkeith, Edinburgh and Livingston you'd maybe get 45 - 50 mpg.

But that's no different to England and nothing to do with "offers over." Who would buy a house without a survey?

That's why you should make an offer subject to survey. No one with any sense would take advice on what they should pay from the estate agent trying to sell them a property, but then sense has pretty much gone out the window the past few years.

It's not seen as scandalous by all of the Scottish buying public. Some people like it, some people don't. I personally don't mind it. When we were selling our flat, I basically took it to mean that the offers over price was the minimum I was willing to accept, and set the price accordingly. At the end of the day when you are buying you are left with the same dilemma of how much to offer, it's just that you are wondering how much over to bid rather than how much under. You pay what you think is a fair price, regardless of the asking / offers over price.