Ethel

I think you may have misunderstood the sentiment of the post.

I have no idea. The haliwide house price indices are now based on such small data samples they could be anything! It will be interesting, that's for sure.

Yep I wondered that too. I just googled it. You were right, it's from 1984.

I've viewed over a dozen houses recently and none of the EA's have annoyed me in this way actually. Some of them just show you round and leave you to it, and don't seem all that on the ball about much at all really. I think they are just a gofer. Others have entered in to a discussion if invited but I haven't felt like I'm being beaten round the head by it, at all. Maybe it's because whatever they say I already have a smart answer ready anyway. I don't know.

True, personally I think that the "first sell off" bear trap was the 1995 wobble before prices continued rising. You'd need to look at the current bubble at closer range. I'm sure somebody will have an image they can post to indicate this, cos I haven't, sorry.

But some of them are so funny. More interesting than the posts themselves in many cases. It doesn't take a second to flick past the long/boring ones if you have a scroll wheel.

But the government insist that the minimum John is allowed to pay you for an afternoon's work is £23.32.

Sorry, your arguments come accross to me as illogical and muddled. I suspect by the way you talk that you either live on benefits or work in the public sector. Your views don't come across as those of somebody who is familiar with gainful employment within a productive occupation. In the commercial sector people are expected to put in a significant amount of effort in return for their monthly salary. Sickness absence is frowned upon rather than encouraged. Remuneration is generally in line with talent, competence and accomplishment. These are concepts you may not have come across before. For this reason, people who work in the private sector tend to come from the standpoint that you don't get something for nothing in life. Although those who genuinely cannot help themselves are worthy of society's charity, that is where it should end. There are a large number of people who claim benefits in the UK today who ARE capable of contributing something to society, and they should be encouraged to do so. There's a lot of talk by bleeding-heart liberals about "poverty" in the UK. I see no poverty. Where are all the starving children? Where are the children with no clothes or shelter? Where are the sick people with no access to medical care? I can't say I've seen any around my way recently. This is what I would define as real poverty. People in our society should be given the tools with which to help themselves, such as education, employment opportunities, mentoring etc., and then they should be expected to put those tools to good use. If they choose not to do so, then that's where the help should end.

I don't. Perhaps you'd like to reveal that to the forum? Or is it a case of you can dish it out but you can't take it?

I'm always reasonable. Maybe you just only read posts where I'm discussing the state of our country after 12 years of Spew-Labour. Nobody can be reasonable when contemplating that.

Do you really want us to get on to the subject of the speaking style and demeanour of the politicians you support?

You do know that article's been posted on here about 10 times already, right?

I'll have to because there'll be no money left to cover the healthcare I've paid contributions for all my life. It will all be used up by the people who don't pay. The children, pensioners, single mums, disabled, students, unemployed, asylum seekers, prison inmates... is there anyone I've forgotten?

Laurejon your irony guage is set to "extra low" today, almost imperceptibly so. I almost thought you were serious for a moment.

Oh and how about this one: "i`ve posted this before and i`ll keep on posting it. Grind us Doon Broons will be handsomely rewarded for destroying this country. Welcome to browns new vision for YOUR future, Welcome to “Project Destroy Britain” Grind us Doon broon is not incompetent, he is a very clever, devious corrupt megalomaniac determined to destroy this country from within, Have you noticed that nothing works? The Health Service, The Police, The Judiciary, Rubbish collection, local authorities, education, the welfare system, you name it, it isn’t working properly. You may think I’m crazy, but we are entering the final stages of a long and very well orchestrated plan by the mega rich, the banks, Multi nationals, the eu and our parasitic traitorous politicians. a plan to create a single empire, the EU super state, a Soviet style dictatorship, and to do that they have to destroy our country and society. They, our traitorous politicians, aim to destroy this country from within, and let me tell you, you aint seen nothing yet. The leaders of our main political parties Con/Lab/Lib Dem have been taken over by pro-Europeans. They implement EU policy, and ignore us, the voters the people who pay their wages. That's why if you vote for any of the main parties, your vote will be a wasted vote. The European Union has the Constitution of a dictatorship, and the laws of a police state. Dictatorships lead to oppression and poverty. The EU Constitution is similar to the old Soviet Union's. Look around you. For this is blair/ browns legacy. This country is like a cesspit. The economy is in freefall, some say by 2010 the true unemployed figure could be as high as 10million. Mass immigration is changing the very nature of our society, look up ethnocide, because the ethno-British people, the indigenous inhabitants of the British Isles, are experiencing the preliminary stages of organised ethnocide. Crime is rampant, drugs are out of control, the country is financially and morally bankrupt, there is hatred and mistrust everywhere you look. The police are a joke, the church is just about dead, all our main political parties are parasitic traitors hell bent on selling us into EU slavery, our financial institutions are devious corrupt money grabbing parasites, our local services are a joke, litter strewn streets, pot holes everywhere, fortnightly bin collections, rat infestations, vermin everywhere, [ not just in Westminster ] , bin police, thought police, no real police, they are more like social workers, unless they are shooting innocent people, children snatched from their parents by social workers, to meet targets. Utility bills are through the roof, people are dying because of the price of gas and electricity, and we will be facing major blackouts in the next few years, because of this parasitic bunch of traitors that pass for a government, children are gunning down children in our cities, children are beating adults to death in our streets, house repossessions are at an all-time high, same with bankruptcies , major household names are disappearing from our high streets, our industries are being sold off to the highest bidder, we will end up like a third world country, making cheap tat for the rest of the eu, living in squalor and poverty. Welcome to Project Destroy Britain. Welcome to the great eu dream. AND THEY SAY THE DEVIL DOESN`T EXIST! Looks like freedom. But it feels like death" Jeez, don't hold back sonny Jim.

One comment from an Express reader : "Watching this hideous, mentally disturbed, anti-British Communist, artificial Prime Minister squirm at every syllable of the Tory MEP's magnificent and fabulously delivered assault was better than sex! Now, everybody...wreck this Communist anti-British reptile's life in every possible way. Destroy his life and sanity the way he has deliberately done with your lives and your sanity. Vote against this mentally ill PM! Demonstrate against this mentally ill PM! Strike against his sickening Communist! I, a People's Juror, find this artificial Prime Minister guilty of gross Treason and believe that he should spend every remaining minute of his life in a prison!"

What in the same way as if you are self employed you still need to pay income tax you mean?

Only 3? I've watched it about 15 times and it gets a round of applause from me every time. Oh for the day Gordon Brown crosses my path.... EDIT: 15 not 1

And we'll finally have the Q1 2009 figure to add to the front page graph. Yippee! Happy days. What time do the figs get released? I'm going for -1.1%. EDIT spelling

I was just thinking that. I've viewed about 15 houses this year and I've never been offered a HIP by the agent. I realise that the onus is probably on me to ask, but really, when should one be asking? Prior to viewing? Before deciding on an offer? Once an offer is accepted? I don't really understand how it was intended to work.

You make a fair point. That's a first.

So Hannan was wrong about Iceland being utopia. Does this tell us anything else about him?