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Berk-hater

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Posts posted by Berk-hater

  1. dunno, but for that sort of money he could be employed doing something far more high powered - like driving a train.

    Funny! I guess train driving is a middle class profession now as well.

    My broad definitions:

    Working class: factory workers, untrained, unskilled, bin men postmen, manual workers. (Actually the majority in this country).

    Middle class: Senior Managers, professions such as legal, medical

    Upper class: Landowners, aristocracy. The Fulfords!

  2. I am asking that if you were in a position to buy a house and were going to do it in any case (for non-financial reasons), what is the best way to hedge against subsequent house price falls (because you are savvy)?

    Best,

    L

    So what you're saying is you can afford to buy a house and want to do so, and you want ideas about how to not lose money on it, even though you know you will over the next few years, through some sort of gambling?

    Isn't this the same thinking that landed us with CDOs, MBSs and all the other financial alchemy that has served us so well?

    I'm with Bruce. Sell the house (or rather not buy it in the first place). Alternatively invest in a magic set.

  3. The NHS needs a good kick up the ****. I see outrageous waste on a regular basis and no-one is ever held responsible. It's a plaything for medical professionals in the UK who rule the roost and no-one ever challenges them. It's no more efficient than your local council or any other part of the public sector. I've seen plenty of private hospitals which are cleaner, more modern and more efficient. You get treated like a customer, with respect, and much faster than in NHS hospitals. And you get seen by the same consultant as you would under the NHS so the argument of substandard care is ********.

    The NHS should be there for energency treatments and assessments only. The routine stuff should be done by the private sector.

  4. One thing that's odd is that somehow the data on Zoopla has been manipulated -I'd like to know how that happened. I kept an eye on it and one day it changed. The house was valued at £250.000 or there abouts (what I sold it for) then one day it changed to £350,000 including a change in the historical records - strange eh? I'm uncomfortable with this fact.

    Uncomfortable with that....you and me both mate! That smells distinctly fishy.

  5. Today I have witnessed the closure of a DIY bits and pieces local shop in the village. It's been there since I was a kid and I've loved buying stuff from them. Some items are pricey, but others cheap. It balances out. But people locally have to blame themselves for simply not using it.

    I think this is typical of the UK. We shop around for bargains, buy from supermarkets and pat ourselves on the back for saving a few pence. What we forget is that it took us ages and we had to drive there. Both of which have a real cost, but we ignore that.

    The Brits have been brainwashed into believing that hunting around to save a few quid is really worth it. Well now the shops gone and all that's left are the B&Qs of the world and you tell me if they really give a stuff about me as the local shop always did?

    I agree to an extent but the problem with the old local DIY shop became its location. In the old days you could pull up outside and pop in without breaking parking laws or health and safety rules. You'd also pop to the butcher and the greengrocer at the same time. Now it's easier to park for free out of town. The smart town retailers should have got together and moved the entire High Street out of town and recreated it somewhere that was appealling to the modern customer's lifestyle.

    If your old local DIY shop was located next door to your nearest B&Q/Homesbase etc and was just as easy to use, which one would you go into? I'd go in the small shop for good service and not having to walk through miles of aisles full of tat just to find a washer.

  6. We're talking dinosaurs here.

    I've spent half my working life in the cane furniture trade and the writing was on the wall for Angrave's 20 years ago.

    Nigel Angrave is the most arrogant motherfooker you'll ever meet and thought that his firm was immune to the commercial pressures that sent manufacturing abroad a generation ago. Angrave's heyday was in the 1920's when they furnished cruise ships and grand hotels the world over. Their business has been in decline ever since except they couldn't see it. They thought they were too good to fail.

    I'm laughing my tits off!

    :lol:

    Brilliant. I love it when someone posts a contrary view based on knowledge!

  7. Thanks, I knew someone would know of or find something I couldnt find.

    So it may be a genuine post. However, I am a little shorter on the sympathy for people in this position. Whilst we are at it we could blame her ex for leaving her, or merv for dropping rates, the hmrc for not dropping their recognised rate ot her employer for mis-selling.

    Hands up time, I didnt buy a house 10 years ago - instead I used the money i had earmarked for a deposit to buy a very expensive yet unreliable alfa romeo - its a decision I have learned to regret, but I am not blaming anyone else. Its not the car dealers fault, and I dont blame alfa romeo for producing pretty but rubbish cars.

    It took some finding believe me.

    I have no more sympathy than you, just thought I'd give an argued view.

  8. I've just re-read the person's post:

    She used to have a mortgage at 0.18% above base rate, on which presumably she wouldn't have paid benefit in kind taxes, but was persuaded by the banking advisers at the bank she works for that she should change to the staff mortgage at base rate, on which she'd be taxed as a benefit in kind. Does she not have a case against her employer for mis-selling if they didn't point this out to her at the time?!

  9. I was angling at whether or not HMRC have 4.75 as their base rate figure and whether they have hooked up thousands of people with debts to the taxman by not reducing it in line with vigilant Merv.

    Fine, but then they should tax all those people on tracker mortgages for the same reason! If HMRC can claim real base rates are 4.75% then the BoE is offically subsidising tracker mortgages all over the country. Why don't HMRC go after them as well?

  10. The debate is (or was before it got deficit hijacked) was Grove's competency in following proper due legal course when deciding government policy. He didn't.

    Or to put it another way these six local authorities used a legal loophole to get him to "re-consider". They might as well have taken it to court because he didn't announce it on the right colour of paper. People complain that celebs get away with things in court because of procedural loopholes like this because they can afford the legal fees, then councils do the same thing with our money.

  11. I was browsing MSE boards and saw a tough luck story. I am not asking you to judge her, but I am asking if this is genuine?

    The suggestion is that HMRC are effectively over-valuing the benefit of her staff mortgage because they have 4.75% as the benchmark, anything below that is a benefit and as interest rates have fallen, the hmrc rate hasnt changed their benchmark rate and sucked her into a situation where she owes the taxman money.

    Does this sound genuine.If so, what impact do we think this may have?

    http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=3045332

    Well, if her employer had given a higher salary instead of a subsidised mortgage she would have paid tax on that. What's the difference, other than she presumably hasn't been saving any of the benefit?

  12. Yet another waste of time law.

    If it's that important it should have been included in the new Building Regs that came out 3 months ago.

    How many rented properties in the UK? Millions. If every one had to have additional electrical wiring done, how many of those would be done badly on the cheap? What's one of the more common reasons for property fires? Yup, badly done wiring.

  13. Was this private sector comapnies by any chance?

    As opposed to public sector companies?!

    The money went on consultants, but I doubt that'll show up in any summary of govt spending on "consultants" as it will have been hidden under the BSF banner.

    The bidders and winning bidders wanted to get the schemes built, that was ultimately why they were bidding, so it was massively frustrating for them to see such a long drawn out process where decisions didn't get made. It wasn't the private companies wasting your money, it was the public sector.

  14. ..what was the criteria to win the project ...quality, price or 'geography'.....and was there a pattern of the same companies winning many....?..... :rolleyes:

    Design, cost, capability....the usual system that the public sector use. It was so expensive to be part of the process that there were only a few very large companies or consortia that could afford to take the gamble of spending sometimes millions of pounds just to bid for one local authority scheme, and even then they had to be selective about which ones they bid for.

    Every authority had their own specialists and designers, on top of that they had advisors selected from a govt appointed framework of "technical advisors". Then each bidder had their own team of designers and specialist consultants. Ultimately all of this expenditure had to be paid for and the only ones paying the bills were you and me.

    Because there were so many people involved no-one could make a decision, so even though some of these schemes had been given the go ahead back in 2005 they still hadn't made any progress. In the meantime the existing school buildings continued to deteriorate because they all expected BSF to magically fix everything. Now that the scheme has been culled the local authorities are in an even worse position than when they started, having not done any work on existing buildings and having spent millions achieving nothing.

    Furthermore, the directive for these schools was that they were all lovely and "green" and would run on their own poo and save the envirnoment. There were so many guidelines for the design from so many different directions that it was nearly impossible to satisfy the requirrements, ultimately leading to massively expensive schools. Add to that the fact every architect in the country seems to want to design every school as a landmark building which they can advertise on their websites to boost their own egos, is it any wonder it's cost us a fortune to achieve nothing.

  15. Let's get this in perspective: This was reported by the BBC, who like to spin hings to make the current govt look like the bad guys. The reality is that the court has upheld the protests from these 6 local authorities that Gove didn't follow due process and caryy out a fuller consultation. The court is NOT directing the govt on where to spend money etc. I'm more annoyed that these local authorities have decided to spend large amounts of taxpayers money on a legal challenge. Gove will now do the "consulation" and come up with the same decision. What would have been better is for those local authorities to direct their efforts and taxpayers money towards working out a cost effective solution for their schools given that the original scheme had been withdrawn. Instead they've just delayed doing something positive and spent yet more money.

    The whole BSF scheme was hugely complicated in the tendering process. It was costing millions of pounds to bid for these contracts, all at risk to the bidders. Monumental amounts of money were spent on consultants, designers, QSs and IT specialists. Every man and his dog was allowed to have their say in the process. They are schools, they are simple buildings, but what the BSF sceme did was to re-invent every school as though it was a one-off project. If you can't see where I'm coming from here's an analogy: You want a new car, do you a) go and choose one from an excellent selection of ones that have been designed with multiple options from companies that sepcialise in building cars or B) get together your own engineer, aerodynamicist, safety consultant, electronics expert, brake specialist, environmental consutant etc. and design your own which you then ask car makers to bid for? Which do you think will give a better result and value for money?

    It was an absolute disgrace and I'm glad they scrapped most of it.

  16. No, all those terms are perfectly fair when directed at someone who doesn't think any power-abusing trust-distroying intrusve money-costing measure is worth it if it could just possibly reduce a very small risk by a very small amount. All the negative consequences are fine if it just stops one child being abused, after all. And when one is, and you opposed the measures (irrespective of whether or not it's even possible to argue that they would've prevented the abuse)... Better hope the lynch mob doesn't get your address, because you deserve them. Behave yourself and let Big Brother make sure you're not up to no good. Every restriction, every inconvenience, every intrusion is worth it if it could just possibly reduce any miniscule risk that you could just possibly imagine.

    Will someone please think of the children?

    Best we close all schools then and eliminate the risk, and ban cars whilst we're at it. Don't go outside. Don't go to the park or the seaside in case something happens.

  17. My understanding was that this was only a "judicial review" and the order from the courts to the Govt is that they have to consider each scheme on its individual merits before scrapping them. It doesn't mean they have to go ahead.

    And for the record, the £55bn quoted is for the entire BSF project covering 3,500 schools, not the budget for these 6 or so schemes.

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