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Flatdog

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Posts posted by Flatdog

  1. How was it that Gordon Brown was actually allowed to be PRIME Minister of the United Kingdom?

    Michael Martin (previous Speaker) - now Baron Martin of Springburn..er..why?

    Absolutely pathetic, all of it.

    Now we have Dave, Nick and innemurable sycophants none of whom appear to have any real interest in reality.

  2. If you don't own property leave the uk if you can

    Too right.

    I'm not sure exactly what shape this is going to take, but i don't think it's going to be that far removed from oliver twist (the version with no dancing or music)

    The only hope is the uk population ends up revolting, but my evaluation is that as long nearly most of them feel there is some hope they will be ok, jack', imo most wont move a muscle in real defiance.

    Acquiescence is the English way

  3. I lurked on here for a good while before I joined the forum, this after reading a post which referred to a group of teenagers that had taken the time to advise a young couple looking in an EA’s window that ‘This really is a bad time to buy’

    Subsequent post was:

    ‘Eric has let his kids out again’

    Your consistency and tenacity continues to impress, hats off to you Mr Pebble!

    Flatdog (AKA Greysquirrel)

  4. If you're not new to it, then you are a bit dim.

    "Third party only

    This cover is the legal requirement. This level of cover ensures that compensation is available in respect of injury to other people (including your passengers) or damage to other peoples' property resulting from an accident caused by you. It doesn't cover any costs incurred by you as the result of an accident."

    http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/OwningAVehicle/Motorinsurance/DG_067630

    I find the level of ignorance on this website shocking, it's no wonder most of you are renting a house.

    Well, that is nice of you.

  5. Errrr, are you new to driving by any chance? 3rd party liability?

    :rolleyes:

    No, I wish.

    3rd party liability provides the insured with cover for repairs to or replacement of a vehicle or vehicles belonging to others where the insured has been proven responsible for causing damage to same.

    The insured undertakes to either repair or replace his/her own vehicle at his/her cost.

    Not all that complicated really.

  6. Actually, yes it has. And no, it wasn't an attempt to troll. Injin did indeed say exactly what my OP stated in another thread. I don't think he's right. But I'm willing to be persuaded differently. So far, no one has convinced me that he's right. (Note: I do not have the answer.

    Why do you think it's an attempt to troll? Did I misquote injin's post? If so, how?

    At risk of sounding like Injin I have to ask where, precisely, did I make any mention of your OP being a trolling attempt?

  7. If there was any justice in this world then any post referring to Gordon Brown would be immediately zapped into 'Off Topic' or, preferably a new forum called 'recycle bin' where members could flush the contents at will.

    Weird country where such an abomination is allowed to reappear in the HOC.

    EDIT..spelling.

  8. You know all that stuff we write about tin foil hats, baked bean hordes in the cellar, buying shotguns when civilsation ends, etc, etc... well, in the States a lot of rich people have seriously been worried about this for some time. Lots have bought big ranches/estates in the middle of the no-where States, isolated from the masses for hundreds of miles... Go figure...

    Greenspan is getting a bit old to run but suspect he has the resources to hire expensive guards.. but what do you do when the money runs out.. when they demand more and more... can you ever trust them fully?

    Paranoia!

    Not so sure about paranoia TMT, many on here have STR with exactly the same sentiments.

    It hasn't yet quite worked out as anticipated but, hey, one has only one life to live.

  9. Yet another woefully transparent scam.

    Motor insurance should be just that, where the cost of repairs to or replacement of motor vehicles as a result of an accident is paid for.

    Personal injury insurance/liability is generally quoted as an additional premium.

    Problem is that the two are being deliberately intertwined to scam us all into paying more for the same.

  10. Marx did not have a very robust view of technology. He called machines "dead labour" and like all economists he had to fudge his "big idea" to make the observed phenomenon fit the theory. Marx studied capitalism in its infancy and understood that it is an unfair system that benefits the rich at the expense of the poor. He measured this and calculated "the rate of exploitation" or the amount of dosh the mill owners (like his drinking buddy Engels) made by the wholesale mistreatment of the working class that they employed. The machines - the "spinning jennies" did not fit this model quite so neatly. Its also important to remember that Marx lived at a time when the economy was by and large peasantic rather than industrial.

    I doubt poor old Karl ever envisaged a situation where the problem of capitalism was enough consumers to buy stuff, rather than enough downtrodden masses to make it. But that is (as you correctly observe) precisely where we are now. The yanks, rich arrogant, ignorant and full of themselves have been the only show in town since the war, driven by the Texas oil wealth. Japan and latterly China have become rich selling to the US and gradually replacing American workers. Such is the metamorphosis that the US economy now is 70% consumer spending. Sadly for the Brits they have followed the yank model. Both the UK and the US are bust.

    The welfare state has always paid for people to do nothing - this is nothing new nor attributable to former PM Brown. Furthermore the biggest beneficiary of the welfare spending has always been the middle earners, the better off working class, or as they are now (wrongly) called the "middle classes" (if we are to stick with Marx's definitions) Since capitalism needs consumers not workers there is nothing intrinsically wrong with this. The welfare state serves capitalism, as it always has.

    The premise of the OP is that we are now entering the third phase of capitalism where technology has displaced workers altogether. Even the made-up industries that neither make nor do anything - banking, insurance, marketing, advertising, IT, research and development - all the things that now form the bulk of employment can now be automated or relocated to a cheaper economy. A very tiny percentage of "super workers" are left - the IT gurus who understand the crappy software that doesn't seem to work for the rest of us, the engineers who service and make Marx's "dead labour" and the people who perform services that cannot be avoided - healthcare and food production. Their labour costs are too small a percentage of total costs to be important.

    If you accept this premise (which I do more or less) the future is dependent on consumption which is unsustainable and for which there is no funding source. Thatcher funded consumerism from the north sea oil revenues and from the massive privatisations of the era. It was short sighted and foolish. Blair funded it from the house price boom and the credit boom that began and then bust it. It was short sighted and foolish. Neither Camoron nor Obama have a clue how to continue to fund the ponzi scheme that they inherited. Increasing the money supply and creating inflation may help but it is limited in its scope and is frowned upon by the people that control capitalism. Quantitative Easing is put forward as increasing the money supply but in fact debt is being written off far faster than QE is creating it. QE is simply the ongoing process of transferring taxpayer money to the rich.

    Furthermore buying foreign tat needs foreign money. Britain's balance of payments deficit will cripple it for the foreseeable future. Devaluing the pound to make exports cheaper is a foolish policy if one exports nothing. Devaluing one's currency when a country is an importer increases consumer costs - a process now happening in the UK, mistaken for the effects of QE by the religious zealots of monetarism and devotees of Thatcher's smoke and mirrors economic "miracle". (Yes AEP and the Torygraph - that's you) The result is less spending and so a contraction in GDP (70% consumer spending remember) More recession.

    I think we are poised for the third phase of capitalism, the industrial revolution if you prefer. I think it will be grim. Soon more people will be retired, unemployed or underemployed than are working. Of those that work few will pay tax (if one takes the view that the public sector do not effectively "pay" tax) or at least tax in any volume. Businesses will continue the relocation to low tax zones and blackmail governments (HSBC are doing it now) into ever smaller tax take. Without the tax how will we pay for the rest? More borrowing is impossible. The system is at breaking point. It will break. Then what? I really cannot imagine.

    What an utterly superb post, hats off to you 'non frog'.

  11. A contrarian view for you:

    http://www.bsr-russia.com/en/economy/item/1097-britain-poised-for-third-phase-of-industrial-revolution.html

    Plenty of holes in the argument, but this article made me think.

    Cameron and Sarkozy recently reached agreement on a number of defence related issues including the development of 'pilotless' aircraft to save costs.

    What, precisely, are people going to do then?

    Sit at home and watch stuff happen..or just fade away?

  12. This is what is known as a "non-sequitur".

    I believe that we share an age group Mr Monk, I can draw a parallel having been recently replaced by a youngster prepared to work for considerably less pay.

    Thing is that he lives with his parents, has no responsibilities, but given youthful charm and willingness to communicate 'online' he is a way better deal.

    Strange old world hey.

  13. Bang on

    It's 30 years since the working week was cut by an hour , so 30 years of outsourcing, technology destroying jobs and 30 years of many households needing two jobs to keep afloat, yet no more cut's in the working week.

    We have to wake up to the fact that there is not enough work for every adult to work full time , and find a solution untill then we will see more unemployment and sound bites form people like Ian Duncan Smith, but nothing constructive to deal with the unemployment situation.

    Every now and then something of real value pops up on this forum.

    IMPO, grammar and spelling aside..this is one such occasion.

  14. It isn’t what they say, it is what they do.

    I have just returned home to Devon after a road trip to Southern Spain. The scale of construction of new roads/bridges/tunnels there is staggering, it makes the UK look, frankly, third world.

    This work is funded by the EU, Spain certainly can’t afford it, and as Germany is the only member of the EU to be making any real (?) progress I guess that they must be content to continue doing so.

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