Ron Forthehills

South Bucks here too, Amersham / Chesham. Prices for the boggo terraces are falling I think, say £220K down to £200K ( top to present) but the more desirable rural or semi-rural detached properties seem very 'sticky' and are not getting notable more affordable, unless deals are being done out of the public eye. Some of the local agents just WILL NOT concede that prices have softened in the last 18 months and value as per 2007. The market is distorted by the very high level of wealth in the area, where funding is available for many buyers without resorting to mortgages and lending criteria, and as cash buyers, they remain unaffected by market falls, jitters, turbulence, or whatever. They see, they want, they buy. Thus, nice houses DO sell, at prices not far from historic highs. This does not mean that the local house market is unaffected, as it seems to be as dysfuncional as most areas, with a shortage of FTB's top feed the market. The top end, though, seems to be self-propelling at the moment.

Working in this 'industry' and having some knowledge of the finances, I would urge you to think again. I have seen two high street studios fail recently, and that is just in my 'parish' the well heeled market towns of south Bucks. Photography is a decretionary purchase, and will be dropped as household incomes are squeezed. Most work I do, ie weddings, christenings, PR stuff is not studio based anyway. With rates, rent, loan servicing, set -up costs, advertising, I should think you might need to find £2,500 per month before you make a penny for yourself. It is my belief that such a volume of work is not sustainable at present unless you are well-known, an exceptional talent, or very lucky. If you are already a photographer, do not make the mistake that your business becomes more real or respectable because you have your name above the door. It is like a company doing well with sandwich rounds, working from a domestic kitchen, who then get a business unit which helps in no 'real' way, but eats up all the profits. If you are NOT already a photographer, but one of the thousands newly redundant casting around for a 'nice' , creative job, and was always a 'keen' photographer (who isn't) , then I would say you have more chance putting your money on a horse. If you must have a studio, go and find a converted barn or stables ( lots of farms have funny little busnesses tucked away) somewhere rural, picturesque not too far out of town, with much lower operating costs, a nice working environment, and if you have chosen well, you will find there is more demand for ourdoors 'natural' portraiture than the inevitable , predictable 'Venture Studio' type white background. If you want to make a small fortune in photography, start with a large one. Sorry, but it really is tough out there.

This is grave news indeed. I don't know when I will get over it. Hang on ! I am feeling better already !

I think what we saw was the 'Big Push' of the League of Vested Interests and Bullshooters, determined to launch a spring offencive. It is no surprise that they are floundering, cut down by the withering unemployment statistics, blasted in a financial maelstrom, and overcome by the poison gas of depression and anxiety. Things don't get better just because you state that they are. Who would not welcome a 'real' recovery, a return of optomism, and a sustainable, rational economy, which produces something of merit, and places a value on the people who do so ? Simply re-inflating already bloated property prices ( you can hardly say values) merely has us marching straight back into the quick-sand, and embraces again all the issues which most people can see are the core elements of our present condition.

I curse the day I signed up for my Philosophy degree I think, therefore I am .. unemployed

Popcorn is unbelievably profitable, a £3 bucket costs about 8p to make. In ' the olden days,' when films had an interval, they used to turn up the cinema heating for 20 mins beforehand, so that people would buy more Kia-Ora!

Pretty much no point in going for anything other than an ATPL, and yes, a jolly lot of them will be frozen now!

There are parallels with the professional flight training industry, which has been geared up to pump out many hundreds of 'baby' pilots per year, virtually all of whom are after the glamourous jet job. I can think of no vocation in which the training will cost as much as is the case with professional flying, where the student will be self-funded since all sponsorship disappeared years ago, and so you will be spending £70-90,000. If you want to stand out, you might choose to pay for a type rating, say on a Boeing 737, and rip through another £15,000. HSBC has withdrawn their flying loan deals, as so many graduates have been forced into bancruptsy, without even getting a sniff of a job. Ryanair have developed the concept of 'taster jobs' where you might be offered a season of flying, but at low pay, and when they don't need you, you are on your bike. The flight schools are still promoting their courses, with all the gloss and bull that you would expect, but failing mention that there just aren't the job out there, even for experienceed crew laid off by the recent failed operators like Zoom. There is too much vested interest within the training industry to be honest and realistic, because potential students will then not spend, thus causing bankrupcy within the industry, as is being seen already. It is essential for student in any discipline to know the viability of their prospective career, because UK industry is experiencing seismic changes right now, and things are not going back to how they were in the recent boom era. Caveat emptor.

Twenty days of rises still to come, then gradual sinking again. As the saying goes ''Sell in May, go away ! ''

Au contraire. The 'received' and probably correct view on here is that the BBC more usually takes an upbeat, pro-government stance Small difference but 'tis but a trifle. The main thing is We All Hate The BBC.

Sentiment on here changes like the tide! Just two days ago, the bears seemed to be in full flight, crushed by a 'feel-good' tidal wave from the media telling us that everything was on the mend. Suddenly, an apocolyptic Budget thuds to earth out of the blue skies, and everybody is spooked again, and with good cause. The problem seems to be a surfeit of information, good and bad, relevant or not, which actually blurs the reality. Just because you take a patient's temperature once a minute does not give you a better understanding of his condition. For a trend to be identified, at least a degree of distance seems essential.

The UK economy could be seen as a company, a business, which at some stage has to generate some income and produce something that can be sold. The NHS, important as it is, does not fulfill this role, and as such this hypothetical injection of funds is not the answer. If you wanted to be brutally Darwinian, it would be better for UK PLC not to expend resourses on people who are, and will remain, economically inactive. This option might prove to be controversial.

This thread isn't about minicabs then?

You refer numerous times to your lack of education, but this is not really a factor in your appraisal of your circumstances. Not much about the Housing Economy is taught, and much of that will lag behind the contemporary situation. To a large degree, it is a matter of opinion which way the wind is blowing, and anyone who has taken the trouble to study the trends, the numerous surveys, company results, the editorials, and the anecdotal evidence is perfectly entitled to express an opinion. Those who are rash enough to state that they DO know what exactly is going on are highly suspect. Follow your instincts. Use 'The Force !'

Yeah, well, that's the recession for you. It's like the tide, there for a while, then it recedes, leaving a big expanse of nothing.

I have to pay my annual dues in the next week, £7 for a half plot, to the Duke of Bedford Trust.- Bloody aristocracy, squeezing the life out of the little guy The adjacent allotments were owned for years by London Underground, and were a hive of activity. LU then sold the land to a property investment company who raised the rents 10 fold, and drove everyone off. Their planning application was turned down, then they went bust and the land just reverted to nature for nearly a decade. Last year a score of people ventured back in, slashed through the jungle and just took as much as they could cultivate. Sheds sprung up, more people were encouraged in, but even now there are still acres of land untouched, rich black soil that just crumbles in your hand. It has turned into a real social hub, and is known as 'the asquattment'.

''Nobody could have forseen the magnitude of the financial issues which we now confront''

I haven't forgotten that either. I think the poster should make a formal apology, and then dissappear for a few weeks, and think things over. I don't care how many obnoxious personality traits he/she choses to itemise to illicit sympathy. If they wish to state that they are a pathetic individual, then I am not going to jump up and contradict them.

Not over yet. We are still on the Prawn crackers.

The decision will be made public at midday. This morning, Brown's Broadcasting Corporation is STATING, on the website, that 'Interest Rates To Fall Further'' This is pretty compelling evidence that the BBC is the public organ and mouthpiece of our beloved administration :angry:

An outstanding piece of reporting there, scoring very high in the 'aviation journalism bingo stakes' We have, of course, the old favourite 'plummeting' , as well as the much loved 'plunged'. Needless to say, the crew 'wrestled with the controls' as the aeroplane performed the good old 'nose-dive', as opposed to the never-seen 'tail-dive'. Regretably, the report is too brief to actually mention 'mid-air explosion' or ' inferno' but we can assume that they too featured highly What a relief that the doomed plane managed to avoid the puppy-farm, 40 miles away. Re the 90 degree roll, it is quite likely that as the aeroplane departed level flight, there was some uncommanded roll/yaw input from the trim tabs, which would have instigated a spiral dive ( in this case to starboard). Thus, part of the recovery would be to halt and reverse the rate of descent, and return to a wings-level attitude, requiring seemingly as much as 90 degrees input to port.

You say Terry, I say Tony Let's call the whole thing off

It's only Grant Bovey in a rubber mask. And he would have gotten away with it too, if it hadn't been for those interfering kids from HPC !

I have had a number of online accounts with ING, and have operated them with no difficulty over three years. Today, motivated by low returns ( letter in post today) I decided to move some funds around, and attempted to log in. Three times it rejected my login details, and then locked up the account, saying phone the call-centre. After much waiting and holding (0845-more money for them) I finally spoke to an operative, who has allegedly arranged for a new PIN to be mailed to me. She also gave a promotional pitch for other slightly better offers, to try to keep me on board. Suspicious, maybe paranoid, I have to wonder if they are putting obstacles in the way to prevent a further exodus of funds ''The uSwitch survey shows that 4.3 million savers are planning on withdrawing money from their accounts, losing the advantage of the tax-free status. The research suggests that, with the average cash ISA saver having a balance of £2,200, savers are set to withdraw £9.5 billion over the next year'' Telegraph.co.uk Depending on circumstances, many savers might need/want to get funds in a hurry, and it might be worth checking that all systems are working as they should.