john_coller

14 days sounds like a bad idea; a neighbour could wait until you're going on holiday, apply for something daft, then it would be too late to object by the time you got back.

Get a hot water tank big enough to last the week and a couple of immersion heater elements.

I would disagree that it is true; for example, say a public sector manager in Greece [or any other country] has been promised a £500,000 pension pot by the state. Manager is the creditor, state is the debtor and the £500,000 clearly didn't exist, never existed and never will exist. States can promise $£trillions without actually having the money and they do, usually promising the money in a few decades time. Because $£trillions have been promised that were supposed to be funded by some unknown future perpetual growth this isn't going to come about.

$1 trillion isn't enough. Producing the coin will cause borrowing costs to increase and $1 trillion won't dent the US debt - the loss of confidence would make future borrowing much more difficult. A $16 trillion coin to remove the official US debt in one go, which would be more sensible, US government bond holders like China and the banks would get hit pretty hard. It might still not be enough though. A $90 trillion coin would wipe out the official debt, plus medicare liailities and pensions. They wouldn't have a short-term need to borrow. Or, for a mere $311 trillion coin; a mere 350% more, they could go Zimbabwe style and make everyone millionaires.

I agree that UK unemployment figures are misleading, but what leads you to believe that Spanish employment figures have superior integrity? Do Spain include the incapacitated and low-hour workers in their unemployment figures or are you speculating?

My point is that it is not just the minority group of gold medallist winning Olympians that are benefiting from the 5p of your lottery ticket that is spent on sports, it is also: all Olympians that don't win medals; all professional athletes; normal people that occasionally use a funded club; disabled and injured people who are rehabilitated through funded sport sessions (my girlfriend volunteers an evening a week for a disabled swimming group that was started with lottery funding whilst she is building up experience to become a full time teacher); parents with children that use the clubs; increased sport uptake leading to reduced cost of nhs; an increased sense of national pride. If your costs are too high then you could always cut out the lottery ticket. Maybe some money could have been saved on the Olympics, but the 5p of a lottery ticket that goes to all sports is a red herring. Based on: 20% of the 28% of the lottery money ticket goes to sport in general.

Under the system you describe where everyone pays for exactly what they use how would public parks work? Would you eliminate all green spaces; sell them off to the highest bidder? Or put security guards and ticket booths on all the entrances?

I totally disagree with this article. The entire article is based on the entirely false assumption that the only benefit from the lottery funding is gold medals and I think it is really bad journalism. Anecdotally, I live in Nottingham, where the local kayak club has received lottery funding. It has led to British athletes winning medals, but it has also enabled heavily subsidised weekly beginners sessions that anyone can turn up to, with the opportunity to have a go with a huge range of equipment that would normally not be available.

Meat from Kiwi fed cattle tastes so much better than meat from the corn fed cattle.

The main problem with the tariff is that price of panels has halved every 2 years, the price of household inverters has dropped with mass production and solar panel installers have got very efficient at fitting them. Solar PV can only ever provide a very small percentage of UK power because it is a bit unreliable and can't easily be stored, so the uptake has to be controlled. The renewable heat incentive scheduled for the end of 2012 is a much better idea, which will save on gas (which doesn't have the storage problems of electricity), so it will scale better.

No money has been lost, it has just been lent to people that will never pay it back, who have spent it on stuff. The money is still in the system, so introducing new money will be inflationary.

Tax based on fat content is ill thought out; what about avocardo pears and olive oils? Nobody is bothered about free fruit. I recently went and picked over 1kg of blackberries in woodland that was only a mile from a block of council flats. No one else had picked any. There is plenty of free fruit; blackberries, cherries, raspberries, apples, damsons and bilberries all grow in abundance here.

Keep putting in low offers and try not to get emotionally attached to a place. Don't worry about "missing the boat", I don't think houses will go up in price in the foreseeable future. I eventually got a 15 year old semi with garage, front and back gardens, 3 bedrooms and ensuite for less than £100K in Nottingham, but it took over a year of getting knocked back.

This labour leader is wrong, at a time when the deficit is still going on. Our parents and the public have been let down by Brown when the previous government acted in a reckless manor. After today's interview I urge the labour party to get round the negotiating table and abandon this leader to stop it happening again. I think he said that, my computer might be broken, it kept repeating like it was stuck on a loop.

Cancer survival rate would be a better comparison. Life expectancy depends more on a healthy eating and lifestyle than exceptional health care. UK spending on health care is more than 172 'countries' (e.g. Japan) and less than 18 'countries' on the work bank website. Cancer survival rates in the UK have been "amongst the worst in the developed world".

Santander has a 3.35% 2 year fix mortgage. They are also offering 3.55% fixed on 2 year bonds. There is a setup fee on the mortgage, but I still can't see how they manage to make a profit.

£170.8 billion current deficit: 25% VAT would raise an extra £26bn a year (Based on 17.5% to 20% rasing an extra £13bn) Average £3k council tax per home would raise an extra £50 bn a year. (Based on 30mn homes paying average £1.2k) £2 a litre petrol may cause people to drive less, so might not raise tax income. 33% basic income tax would raise at most £75bn a year. Your ideas would probably reduce the deficit a bit, but it would be no where near enough to stop the UK debt continuing to rise.

I thought that the deficit was getting bigger because the tax revenue is dropping faster than they can make cuts. I found this on statistics that states the deficit as a percentage of GDP is increasing rapidly: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=277

Do you have any pet cats, per chance?

Has anyone checked the links recently in the resources section? Credit Action Org link is coming up with a 404 error. cracker com au comes up with a message stating it is closed down. home-repo org comes up with a Server not founder error. Isn't 0870 local rate these days? What is the point of: saynoto0870? Some of the other screenshots are outdated.

What have Mcdonalds got to do with public finances?

It's probably just fancy accounting: http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2010/08/26/uk-bank-accounting-rules-fatally-flawed/ http://www.financialdirector.co.uk/financial-director/analysis/2229178/sec-puts-fair-value-clear-4295821 It looks like if a bank has mortgages worth 10p in the pound on the open market they can get their own 'expert' to value them at, say, 110p in the pound and make a 'profit', and then keep doing this until they need bailing out again.

I think it counts as a disability, so DLA.

$100 million looks expensive guess of cost, especially when they say it will be much cheaper due to economies of scale. Example http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2007/10/third-planet-windpower-to-use-ge-energys-1-5-mw-wind-turbines-for-2009-projects-50349 $350 million to supply 167 of its 1.5-megawatt wind turbines. Which is 251 megawatts for $350 million. Looks like they would need to be built for less than $14 million to be competitive with other turbines. Also after 25 years wouldn't it be possible to refurbish these turbines; e.g. new shell / new bearings?

Most of the immigration that have been cut back on have been young, full-time professionals whose work visas have not been renewed. I have no problem with hard work immigrants, whether legal or not and don't think current policies are working. The conservative cuts to benefits should stop the daily mail storeys about mass immigrants coming over here to claim a free and better life.