kingsgate

They were always very expensive for lessons compared with everyone else, even when I learned to drive 20 years ago.

Tell him you will do a small claim against him, and then if he won't pay up, go through with it - its really easy on www.moneyclaim.gov.uk. He will then have to pay you (plus the court fee) unless he can successfully defend his actions in throwing away your stuff, which he probably can't

Kids who have gone to private schools seem to do better at most exams, get into better universities etc etc. You state that teachers at private schools "do not need teacher training". Others on this thread have stated similar things, including that the teachers (being unqualified) work for less pay than at state schools. How do people square these allusions to the teachers being so inferior at private schools with the higher results that they apparently achieve? Don't private schools pay more to their teachers? And in fact demand that they definitely know their subjects, in order to teach them well and result in far more of their pupils getting better results?

Why not just let people spend their own money on their kids if they so choose, eh?

People see fascists and commies as great opposites, but they aren't really that far apart. Hitler's lot were not called "National [socialists/i]" for nothing.

Well, then they deserve to go bust then, if three days of bad weather would tip them over the edge.

+1. A definition of "poverty" as being a percentage of the median or average income cannot by definition be a definition of "absolute" poverty, because the definition itself is "relative. That is, someone could be above this "poverty line" one day, and then a few months later, be below it, even though their own circumstances have not changed at all, just because some other people got a pay rise.

I would probably agree with most of what he said.

We could always get back to being more homogenous, if we really wanted. No-one every properly asked the existing homogenous population if they wanted to have the population of Britain massively changed by an influx of people from countries whose own populations had turned them into crap places to live.

Maybe we should be doing some of this here in the UK?

If there is a really serious economic collapse, are these people likely to: (1) have steady jobs (2) be able to borrow money (3) even want to buy a house in those circumstances ? I think that prices will slowly fall, and inflation will gradually unwind people's debts. Unless things to really go titts-up!

I don't think that "they" actually want or are trying to create much further "HPI" (House Price Inflation). They are just trying to stave off a sudden and serious collapse of the housing market. This is not as simple as "thats because they are VIs", although this is a big part of it. Unfortunately, a sudden big crash in house prices would inevitably result in a general "nightmare scenario" for the rest of the economy. Suddenly loads of banks would be revealed as being insolvent with the security for their loans being insufficient, you'd get bank runs, total drying up of any lending (not just mortgages) which would mean loads more businesses running out of cash and going broke, more unemployed, even those who still had jobs would batten down the hatches and stop spending on ANYTHING not essential, which in turn would cause more job losses etc etc. People on here (some of them) wish for a neatly contained and yet major collapse in house prices that conveniently leaves everything else, like their jobs, and the economy generally, pretty much untouched. I think that this is like asking the US Air Force to carry out a "surgical strike" with no "collateral damage". Can't be done.

I also think that things were a lot worse in the 1980s. Things are bad now, and will get worse, but they have been worse before, and for quite a long time, and society did not collapse.

I do understand this. Although this in itself does not justify New Liebour increasing the public payroll by over a million people during their years in power. Lets have another quango! Regional development assembly outreach co-ordinator, yeah why not, its not real money, we borrowed it. What could possibly go wrong? What's that? Oh, now we have to pay it back? Oh, sh1t!

Many of these people are just unproductive, tax-sucking parasites. If people could choose whether to pay for their "services" and were not forced to do so, then I would bet that many more of them would be out of work.

Probably the kind of people who make good accountants.

Why don't they just stop the handouts to wasters? Simples.....

I remember the bouncers there being somewhat intrusive in searching you on the way in. Fortunately I had invested £2 at a stallin Camden marker in one of those "stash lighters" inside which you could conceal that which you did not want to be found....

The snobbishness in this is beyond belief. Why do you care if your neighbour has a better car than you do? Or how they paid for it? And if having a flash car IS important to you, why don't YOU get one on HP if that's the only way you can afford it? Does it bother you to see "chavs" getting above their station in life by having nice cars?

Was it? I thought it was the last one?

All of our places made sense in terms of making well more than the loan interest each month back when rates were circa 6 - 7%. In the last year or so, some of them have got stupidly low. but we know this won't last. It's fairly obvious to state that if the university provided enough accommodation for all their students, we wouldn't have a business. However, it seems to me that when they do build a luxurious new block of en-suite rooms with all the trimmings - 24 hour reception, bills included, internet, maybe a gym in the basement, etc, they seem to end up charging a LOT for this. Enough that people look at it and think, for example, £140 a week in this new student block, or around £70 a week to rent a shared house? A house where you also don't get treated still halfway like a kid - i.e. there's some bloke on the front desk who's going to tell you that you can't invite a boy/girlfriend back to your room, and don't turn your stereo up, etc.

What about shopkeepers, then? Are they all "parasites" too? I mean, they don't grow crops or make stuff, do they? All they do is use their money to buy large amounts of stuff cheap at warehouses, divide it up into smaller quantities, and sell it for double the price. To people who maybe have to buy at a local shop, don't have enough money or transport to buy in bulk and save in the long run. Or, on the other hand, are they providing a useful service? Many people don't want a crate of cans of baked beans (unless they spend too much time on here and expect the end of civilisation next year!) they want one can, from a shop open late, down their street, when they want. A lot of people don't want the commitment of buying their own house - they want to rent a flat, or even a bedsit, or a room, for a short while, and then be free to move on. Most of our tenants are students - they are not frustrated home-buyers, they want to rent a nice big house with their friends, done up to HMO standard with all the H & S stuff, fully furnished, for a year, or maybe two years max. Near to their Uni and/or the centre of town, so all they have to do is turn up with their clothes and stuff, and spend a year drinking, sorry, studying.

The landlord should have mentioned that he wanted to store some stuff in some part of the house. We rented when we were students, and the TA specified the smallest bedroom was to contain the owner's stuff and we were not to have access to it. I would be very careful throwing things out, because it is effectively theft. The items are not yours to throw out. We have had the same problem where a tenant has moved out and left a load of stuff behind. If it was obvious that the stuff was not rubbish, we tried to find somewhere to keep it, like a cellar or something, until they came back for it, rather than put it out for the bin men. You should also consider the implications of p1ssing off your new landlord if you chuck out stuff he wants. You will make an enemy of him, which is probably not a good idea.

I've had my place for 11 years, and I cannot see myself selling it for .... ever, really. I work for myself, as well as doing some BTLs, so I am not subject to the whims of an employer, so I won't have to move. Unless the economy totally collapses and society breaks down, of course. Which is a possibility.

The thing to remember is that Labour increased the public payroll by around a million people. It's not like when they got in back in 1997, there were no schools, no hospitals, no bin men, no ....... whatever. They added a MILLION new jobs that we all have to pay for. What did they do, that mattered, that wasn't already being done in 1997? There is a lot of pointless nonsense that wouldn't be missed.