pete.hpc

I wonder how many of this influx from Eastern Europe will tough it out over here now the going is getting super tough?

How are these companies getting away with that sort of nonsense? People must REALLY want the latest gadget

Superb

There's some very sophisticated and no doubt correct points being made here about the financial reasons for renting and investing in this that and the other at this point in time, but that is not a priority for some people who want a house to be their home. But as a former renter and now owner, there is something intangible about owning that is not there with renting. Convince yourself all you want, and for some renting is preferrable, but there is simply a gulf between how it feels to "own" a home and to rent one. It might not be for everyone, and despite the arguments to the contrary, our mere presence here and number of posts suggests it's for more than would care to admit it, but owning your own place is a basic human instinct that I personally wanted to fulfill, and I couldn't be happier that I've now done so. There are tough times ahead for us all, and who knows, I may lose the house at some point. But when I get home at night, there is something very primal about knowing : this is my little part of the world, and I can do what the hell I want with it. Contrary to how I thought I would feel about now being able to get the landlord to do all the repairs, I can assure you that spending a weekend doing DIY putting in a new electric point or some turfs or some garden lighting is a really rewarding way to spend your time, knowing you are the only beneficiary. It makes the beer taste sweeter. Plus, I no longer want to hand over a single penny more of my money to some **** of a landlord. For me, it has made me feel more complete as a person, and it's made me determined to work hard to make sure I never lose the place. I'll do any job to keep the mortgage paid and keep this roof over my head, because the safety blanket of housing benefit paying my rent has been taken away. I live in Greater London and my mortgage is under a 3rd of my take home pay.

Maybe they're one of the beneficiaries?

The video of this stabbing incident appearing on the news this morning is quite incredible. Literally hundreds of people standing around gawping at the kid laying on the floor while he's being given CPR, lots of them holding up camera phones to capture his final moments for their iPad video albums. Then on the other side of the road, dozens of black kids having to be held back from getting to the kid, possibly his friends, by the police who are trying to save his life. It's like another world, a London that I just don't recognise. Depressing.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-16334214

So was everyone sitting around Christmas day staring at their own little vanity screens? How sad

RoboNimby I hope he dies soon.

ah good point

So......5 years mortgage payments and they are in mega NegEq? Something doesn't add up.....overpaid, sure.......but this stinks of MEW

Spot on And what's interesting is, going back to my quote for renewal in the new year on the meerkat site, if you change from full comp to a standard 3rd party only policy, no-one will quote you Or at least, the one's that will, are niche companies and the cover is £1000+ disgusting

hilarious OP

I wish the public sector would stop this argument about "levelling down" and "race to the bottom" We don't want your pensions cut by an arbitrary amount to match ours, we want your pensions cut to a level that can be afforded by economic reality because we and future generations are are being made to pay for them Please stop with this ridiculous straw man in every damn interview you give with the press

None of that is any harder to deal with than any other administrative job It just involves a load of phone calls and adherence to Lever-Arch manuals Admittedly, it will involve training before people can take your place, but take your place they will, if required You're no more or less replaceable than a billion other pen pushers

I think we should have a form of bingo that is won whenever someone refers to or posts a pic of TEH NURSES in relation to protests or austerity cuts i.e. "I think the cuts are a good idea" "so you want Nurses sacked!?!??" "er....no"

"It started in America"

touche!

Happy days

Your response to her is far too wordy, keep it short and sweet. Thanks for your letter blah blah, but we are unwilling to pay this increased amount of rent. If she still wants to up it etc etc, then we'll start looking elsewhere. You need to be prepared to follow it through to conclusion and move out if need be, but on the flipside, if you get a bit too clever and start lecturing her on voids and the market rate (when you obviously want to stay), then she might play hard ball and kick you out for her own pride, despite it losing her money. There is a serious point here though about buying, despite the high prices we are facing, you could be making a real dent in a mortgage with 1400 a month, and if you were 5 years down the road at 1400 a month on a mortgage, would you care if you'd overpaid when you take into account the fact you won't be having to deal with cretins like this landlord?

Weird isn't it, it's almost as though all these machines are magically connected to some central systems by some worldwide inter-network or something! Oh dear lord.

Are you kidding me? the pensions talked about on LBC last night were 22k per year and 25k per year

There was an interesting phone-in on this on LBC last night, you should've heard the public sector employees calling up to wail about how unfair it all is. There must've been a dozen mentions of their favourite meme when presented with the cold hard FACTS of private sector pensions "it shouldn't be a race to the bottom!!" Private sector employees have to live within economic realities, and we are dealing with the cold hard facts of reality in our "pensions" Their sense of entitlement was staggering, two people I heard call up made the same point. A prison worker and a teacher bleating about how they shouldn't be expected to work until 66 or 67 as teachers and prison workers couldn't do their jobs well at 67. So what!?!? they chose the job! How many private sector club doorman will have to change careers in their fifties?? how many IT workers will be on the scrapheap in their 50's and faced with having to find a new career??? welcome to the real world you complete cretins! When asked if they had sympathy for private sector employees who are not only facing a diminishing pension, but also increased taxes to pay for the lavish public sector pensions, the answer was always "No. They should've organised themselves into Unions"