blondeguy123

Well the article said he bought back his platinum wedding ring (original cost over £30k) after the bankruptcy. And I highly doubt he's living on the breadline. Surely, his royalties from Westlife music will continue and now his debt is wiped clean? Or does future income for a certain period have to cover the old debts? There's also the fact he conveniently made himself bankrupt in the UK rather than Ireland, where the period you can "return to normal" is many years less (isn't it only about a year here?). No sympathy from me.

No! They were worse of course and I'd never vote for them either. Osborne's new scheme however is the sort of thing Labour would have done, I suppose I shouldnt be surprised in the two-party state. UKIP seems the only alternative, despite the fact I don't know much about their policies. Perhaps they'd be just as bad.

Someone should start a petition at the No.10 site. Highlighting that flooding the market with cheap credit will only do one thing - push up prices and not help affordability at all. Hopefully if it became widely spread could draw attention to Tory HQ the massive mistake they have made. I will never ever vote Conservative again.

Agreed. Doctors have a high level of responsibility to maintain the huge trust that society places in them. How could this doctor not have noticed known they were wrong?? Even for a doctor 4k a month would be a large part of their income! I hope the medical supervisory body investigates this and considers if disciplinary action appropriate...OH, AND GETS THE MONEY BACK PLUS INTEREST.

Wrong. The proceeds of crime in legal terms (under POCA 2002) is only the "criminal benefit" - in this case the evaded tax. Of course, tax evasion carries penalties of up to 100% of the evaded tax (plus interest etc), and they will have to pay legal costs etc, so will likely be left with nothing in this case, but you are wrong if you think that all money is classed as proceeds of crime if tax isn't paid on it.

http://http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-17259821 When will the authorities realise and accept the best way to help first time buyers is allow prices to fall to reasonable levels and not continue to prop up the high inflated prices of the bubble that were fuelled entirely by irresponsible lending.

Geed - "I have seen prettier prisons. After a hard days work, do you really want to be coming home to a low security young offenders institution?" - what an ignorant comment, it's no uglier and no nicer than many, many other flats in other areas I've seen. We don't all have the budget to buy a luxury penthouse apartment or detached five-bedroom gated house in our first buy. The building itself looks fine to me for my budget and needs, it's the area Im concerned about. Jie Bie - thanks for all that detailed advice. Re walking through at 3am, it had crossed my mind that there's prob a lot of people passing through during the weekend nights since it's a "main street"..obviously a lot of drunk behaviour, shouting etc as well I guess. Re safety of a girlfriend, I actually have a boyfriend but as I plan to live alone it's still the issue of if it's a good idea/safe to be coming and going in the late evening. Re recent arrivals I had noticed a lot of Asian people in the surrounding area, which didn't bother me if they had been here for many years or even born here but if the area is flooded with recent arrivals from abroad (whether Asia or eastern europe) I've seen firsthand through friends in Govanhill what it can be like living in an area like that. As for the big LHA block that had been off-putting already. I guess I should have thought there must be a reason a flat so close to city centre was £80k. Anyway thanks to all for the advice, i plan to just carry on saving up over the next 2-4yrs and hopefully house prices will continue to stagnate and hopefully crash further down, too many are still ridiculously overpriced and I wouldn't dream of paying what people are asking (close to mid-2007 prices still in some places it seems but not selling). I have £10,000 so far and was thinking a 20% deposit of say £90,000 would be £18,000. Plus ~£4k for all furniture (still live with parents) and £1.5k for fees, giving total of ~£23k meaning I have a long way to go, do these figures sound reasonable?

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-16084593.html?premiumA=true It's been there for a while I think, obviously not selling. I'm a FTB hoping to buy in 2 years or so and this was one of several that caught my eye - good location (close to both city centre and motorway), 2 bedrooms, but "only" offers over £80k. I'd seen one in same building for offers over £85k a couple of months ago and another for £90k. Seems lower than similar flats surrounding glasgow. Why? Then again perhaps the seller is holding out for £90-odd k or so. One bad point I see from google streetview is that just round the corner there is a giant ugly council housing block. There's others in the surrounding area. And while it says "Charing Cross", I think technically it's Anderston. I also don't know when it was built - wonder if it's "built to last" ie will it still be there in 30 years. Have heard horror stories of some of the newer builds being poorly built and not going to last. Anyway I'm very inexperienced but just wondered if anyone with more knowledge of prices/property or even the area could give their opinions/comments thanks