captainb
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Posts posted by captainb
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28 minutes ago, debtlessmanc said:
7000 a day arrive in Lampedusa
what is the response of their EU brothers and sisters?
well Germany refuses to take any, even though it signed an agreement to do so
https://amp.dw.com/en/germany-suspends-migrant-intake-from-italy/a-66802523
France increases border controls to keep them in Italy
Starmer needs to be careful dealing with these states who are fighting like ferrets in bag to avoid taking migrants .
I say agree to take in a share on an exchange for channel crossers - one at a time.
That's italy whose population is so pleased with the issue they elected a far right party to power?
Germany where the AfD polling is increasing monthly and might get in and France where it's seemingly the election system keeping the far right out (for how long?)
Will end in tears unless there is actual coordinated reform. I.e. stop stupid game of pretending the rules set up in the 50s are relevant to today.
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Bar FTSE is the more classic student version
Rush to bar when the price of VK Ices crashes
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33 minutes ago, clarkey said:
Agreed but when you have the collective might of the mainstream media pushing it, it’s scary how Brainwashed they become. Every time it comes up at home or in my family and friends people shout me down “think of the deaths” I try to explain the difference between died of covid and died with and how that metric was being abused to keep everything going
Don't forget the "hell on earth" in India story to explain why lockdowns are a necessity. Casually ignoring more children sadly die yearly from diseases caused by poor sanitation there.. still covid hell of earth no context can be given.
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21 minutes ago, clarkey said:
Totally agree , trouble is we have had the lockdowns now it’s time to pay the bill. It won’t be the super rich or the very poor paying the bill but the the collective middle with a constant drip drip of taxes. Labour won’t oppose hell they will even accelerate it.
Cheered on by a nation of clapping seals who went down the "if it saves one life" narrative at any mention of cost benefit analysis.
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Bit awks if your shower/bath curtain has a hole at a certain height for passers by
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3 hours ago, canbuywontbuy said:
I'm glad someone else is seeing what I'm seeing, and also what I'm hearing from other people. Outside of this thread, I've not heard anyone say London is buzzing, back to normal etc - anything but. Basically it's way more quiet.
What does this mean moving forward? For a start more and more shops and businesses will close in London if they're not getting enough business. This is a pattern being seen in a lot of towns in the UK, with Covid just speeding up the process. Then, with nothing much to see but boarded up shops, even fewer people will visit the centre. The suburbs rely on the city being this star attraction for business and tourism. Not sure how suburban London house prices will survive this, and we can add high interest rates, cost of living crisis, WFH, ULEZ into the mix too.
Nothing left to do with the shops aside from board them up.. when you are busier than you have ever been it's the only choice.
And the ghost town continues, with 90% of the journeys pre WFH being made.. all those ghosts riding around in circles
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-65821633
At least visit a place before believing YouTube etc.
Yes Monday and Friday in the City of London i.e. not covent garden, which is busier than ever, if you haven't been are very different. But then bank station which used to be dead on a sat/sun is now very different then as restaurant and bars open for the tourist gang. It's changed but far from dead. Ask the landlords charging more per sq ft then they ever done. Canary wharf needs to work out what it is now mind you.
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4 hours ago, Housepricecrash91 said:
Yeah London/Greater London is a con when it comes to housing/rents etc. It's just not worth paying £600k for a 2 bed terraced house that needs £100k of work, probably more than £100k... as if you live in London you pay a premium on everything.
London used to have good vibes between Monday-Friday thanks to commuters, but post covid it's now a depressing ghost town....
Do you believe this...
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On 9/8/2023 at 10:29 AM, PeanutButter said:
Not sure how they’ll gain market share when brokers all make the main body of their income from mortgage renewals.
If a 25 year fix pays 5x the commission of a 5 year fix im sure the brokers will be rushing their way....
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5 hours ago, hotblack42 said:
Oh c'mon you know most of central London is quiet if you go to the hot spots when everything is closed, at inconvenient times😄.
I've been in a deserted Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, Picadilly & Covent Garden many times & can still do so again at will.
Last Monday evening I ran 6 miles in Hyde Park with hardly anyone about. It was a bit tense not being able to see tree roots in the dark though.
Source: lived in Putney / Woodford / Wanstead 2014-20. Still go into City weekly.
Lol indeed.
Sometimes this forum with collapse, death of, breaking point etc etc makes chicken little seen well balanced
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1 hour ago, canbuywontbuy said:
I've been outside the UK for the last 7 years. I'm basing my opinion on reports of London being a lot quieter in the city centre, and just a lack of a buzz from all acounts. Probably also to do with people just being tethered to their devices all day long, Covid hangover/WFH plus shitty economy. Believe it or not, things DO change, not only us
London is too busy. Oxford Street is a dump but outside of that you can't move for tourists and shoppers.
Thurs night is new Friday night in city of london and Monday quieter than normal.
Weekends way busier in that part of town as places now have started to cater and diversify into weekend tourists as well.
Source - actually live and work there.
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If the seller is pricing at post covid peak then offering 20% below is realistic.
If the seller has already adjusted down then most will tell you to do one.
Just have to wait and hope prices come down enough to 20% less of today's value if that's your aim. Or find a forced seller
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2 hours ago, regprentice said:
Because the majority of mainstream economic models predict a venezuela style collapse for an economy with a decreasing population that can't continue to increase GDP
Not sure Japan = Venezuela and that's been the case there for decades.
Perhaps models need work...
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What's the point of exaggeration of reality? It's good enough for a decent fall on the cards.
I.e. Inflation won't remain double digits as it's not currently double digits....
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What's madness is the UK has no exit check.
If you fly into France on a student or tourist visa and fly out to India it's checked on the way out and an overstay is noted ... Then no tourist or student visa going forward.
If you come into the UK.. overstay the tourist visa to work or whatever, leave no check... Come back in 3m on another tourist visa no issue.
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1 hour ago, debtlessmanc said:
I suspect it will be a hung parliament, this will lead to all sorts of strange things like the last one which produced a vote on membership of the EU. One of the strangest events in modern U.K. history.
It's all very odd in the context of this thread.
Whatever people say about Hoover's and NHS and such; without the anti immigration vibe of the vote leave campaign I struggle to see how it would have even been close...
Imagine if the campaign is now, vote leave 300m for NHS and immigration to 1m a year.
Erm... Farage... Is that going to work?
Tories are whipping up the anti boat people retoric, without offering an actual solution..labour also don't have a solution to the fundamentals (paying people benefits to work only 16h a week during a labour shortage, long term sick rates, non contributory benefits, no exit border controls, lack of social housing, etc etc)
Will be interesting if a farage type emerges at an election after a hung vote. I just hate to think what solution they will offer.
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1 hour ago, winkie said:
Inflation has seen taxes are higher now that before......record collection for tax collection this year.....you are being taxed now more than you might realise.......how is that money being used, how are ulez taxes being spent, who is paying for negligence cases and compensation, who is paying for all the public enquires to find out what went wrong and why.... lessons will be learned again.
Someone has to pay for all fraudsters with bounce back loans
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10 hours ago, Trampa501 said:
Both have seen major increases under the current government's policies, which you all cheer on. You're being played and duped, but can't see it. In fact the opposite, you think it's all down to "lefties" promoting a pro-mass immigration mindset.
To be fair labours policy as far as I can make out is;
Safe legal routes? Completely undefined what this actually is.. and how many? And if assumingly that many is a tiny % of demand what then happens to those who don't get chosen/come from a place where nobody gets chosen and come anyway...
Increased processing, fine, but nothing defined on accepting rates or deportations, (how?)
Skilled visas, more of the same? State paying people benefits to work 16 hours a week only then saying there's a shortage of workers.. therefore we need to import hundreds of thousands yearly.. to erm.. work 16 hours a week!
Couldn't make it up as a solution.
Also hope Tories get a total wipeout next election
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4 hours ago, Will! said:
But that's not true.
Ireland Citizens' Information: Freedom of movement in the EU
You might be right about the queues. Any other specific benefits?
As someone who has worked in / and still gets odd work offers in Germany + France, the way I get them is via an Irish passport. When I lived in Berlin there were no issues whatsoever (and others have pointed out residency was not an issue).
As a brit I'd need to get the corporation to do a working visa to add me to payroll. Possible of course, but effort for the hiring manager against someone who doesn't need that, and a very different interview conversation than here's my passport it's not an issue.
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1 hour ago, Will! said:
I’m eligible for an Irish passport. In specific terms, what practical benefit does it have compared to a British passport?
You can work and live in any EU country with full benefits as if you were born there.
You can work and live in the UK with full benefits as if you were born there.
You have a way shorter qué if flying to Europe.
On a UK passport only the working and living in UK point is true
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9 hours ago, MARTINX9 said:
There are on some estimates more Irish nationals in the UK - including NI - than in the Irish republic due to the legacy of large scale migration from Ireland in the 50s and 60s. Nearly half the Irish footie team which did well in the World Cup under Jack Charlton were there by means of having one Irish grandparent!
And pretty much all of these people were Irish and British - via ancestry and birth before the 1990s - from the day they were born!
You can also get a dinky little Irish passport card too as well as a book which allows entry into EEA nations and the UK. So you would have three valid passport documents - a UK and Irish book and an Irish passport card.
So you never need to worry about losing one or expiry dates.
Given Schengen of course Irish and Brits arrivals often end up queuing together anyway at European airports on arrival - the Irish don’t get the stamp so cheer up the poor border staff who must get RSI from all the stamping of UK, US and other passports all day!
As a dual passport holder never found this to be the case.
Flying into Schengen, go Irish EU passport que way less.
Schengen to Schengen theres no control so mute point
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12 hours ago, Walki said:
Why in areas where there is no shortage of housing supply, is there a boom in prices? It is an excess of demand due to too much credit, not a lack of housing supply. If the Credit taps were turned off it would be interesting to see if there is still a "shortage of housing". I suspect prices would adjust to the new reality and people would still be able to buy houses.
What's no shortage of hosting supply? If the price was less than rent would everyone not just buy?
There's always demand (at £1 I'll buy every house in the country) it just depends on the price point
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9 hours ago, Walki said:
I came across this video where there are some interesting counterarguments to the housing shortage is the problem consensus. Country comparisons show no correlation between excess housing and house prices and also UK regional prices do not seem to correlate with excess or shortage of supply. Areas with no shortage and low wages also seem to have had a house price boom.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGTpi-Tdoog&t=2754s
What does that mean?
There's a distinct lack of supply/excess of demand in Mayfair at the sub £1m level as evidenced by everything being above £1m.
In Middlesbrough there's less of an issue there in the sub £1m range....
Both may have the same % empty or for sale, but it's the relative price point that reflects that demand dynamic not random lack of correlation.
Or in other words, If Mayfair property was priced on a sq ft basis the same as Middlesbrough there wouldn't be any "excess for sale", if Middlesbrough was priced the same as Mayfair everything would be for sale.
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10 minutes ago, regprentice said:
Usually worth checking comparison sites and using cashback.....but i've noticed recently that cashback sites are becoming less reliable for paying out, and often visiting the insurer directly without cookies from the cashback site means the quote is lower buying directly by the exact amount of the cashback.
i once was looking to buy a shirt. At TM lewin and Charles Tyrwhitt the same thing happened...the exact same same shirt was 3 different prices dependant on whether you arrived at its page from
- an email the company sent you telling you about a discount offer that day
- a google search for the same shirt
- from a cashback site - landing on the main page for the retailer then using the sites own search bar to search for the shirt. After cashback the shirt was the same price as it was if i had just searched for it on google.
all options ended up with roughly the same price. i've largely stopped using cashback sites as its rare they offer the true cheapest price if your willing to do a little work to compare prices and look for discount codes
i recently waited over 2 years for Topcashback to pay me £4 for visiting a Lego Discovery Centre. i've just had TCB decline an insurance cashback 2 days short of 2 years after i bought the insurance. No explanation, no comeback, no way to challenge the decline. You simply cant rely on cashback 100%.
Also given up on them.
Still use the avios e store though, get 4 points or so per £ spent on hotels.com. plus the hotels.com free night after 10 thing.
Adds up with biz travel
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Front office finance never really went to WFH, back office and support now being mandated back 3 to 5 days a week depending on the bank.
Developers though got a carve out at several exchanges I know and broking houses for 1 team day in office and 4 WFH.
Tbh I think that model is sensible it's here to stay and should be role dependent.
"Possibly the Worst Tax Avoidance Scheme Ever" - report on Property118's buy-to-let tax scheme
in House prices and the economy
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This is the HMRC who are so great they haven't fined a single person using this scheme and it's being highlighted by an investigative journalist....