Pindar

Agreed.

Electronic tagging might be the way forward. Unfortunately it still costs the tax payer and the "prisoner" lolls about all day at home in his flat, payed for courtesy of the council tax payer. Prison should be productive. Perhaps chain gangs should be brought back. The M4 could do with resurfacing.

And so, on the basis of one media report, we are to accept the UK police as whiter than white, above suspicion for any wrongdoing. Case closed. The UK police now apparently carry out summary execution of people they suspect of being terrorists. They regularly harass motorists and arrive late to the scenes of countless crimes. Yes, the UK police are brilliant, just brilliant. The UK police are so good in fact, that I would willingly sell my house and all its contents and donate it to the UK Police slush fund. More police discos and days out for PC's and their families I say - hell, we should even build them free houses in the most sought after spots because they do such a good job at cutting crime. You're nuts.

Unfortunately, some people would prefer to carry on living in their Alice in Wonderland vision of reality where that nice Mr. Brown is just a friendly Ronald McDonald figure that has his (BF) and everybody else's best interests at heart.

No, that's not what I'm saying. Why don't you re-read what I wrote. I am saying that there are more cost effective means of achieving (the governments) stated aims of an ID card scheme. I am also backing this up by referring you to the article in the register (which is well worth reading). I am sticking by my assertion that there is more in this for the corporations that implement the scheme than there is for the taxpaying British public. Get your facts straight before you misconstrue what I wrote and accuse me of being a nut.

Exactly. That's my fear of the whole DNA fingerprinting scam - it's an invitation to a corrupt government and judicial system to indulge in random fit-ups which can be made to make the crime figures look good as well as "disappear" activists and various other irritants to the big brother government.

An ID card that is a sure fire way of making it easier to commit identity fraud as we become too reliant on biometrics. The article in the register picked up on this nicely. It goes without saying really. An ID card that is 100% accurate also has the nasty effect of putting a price on various body parts in order to gain access with fingerprints, retina scans etc. Again, the article picks up on this. I am inclined to agree that when commercial principles are applied to the whole ID card proposal, the ID card scheme in its current form just wouldn't float as there are no demonstrable cost savings to society which cannot be achieved by cheaper means. We need more intelligent data mining and linking of existing systems to track ID and benefits fraud, not some stupid piece of government plastic which placates the ministers in whitehall who want to award lucrative contracts to the american corporations that would no doubt benefit from the implementation of the ID card scheme with the accompanying kickbacks to the ministers involved. NuLabor is just piling the gravy into the troughs of various companies like EDS in its orgy of waste of tax payers money.

There are gluts of 2 bed flats everywhere. I am living in Bristol, in the process of selling but I am not buying where I'm moving to (Reading) as a) it's relocation so I want to see how things go and all the crap they have for sale there is way overpriced even if you are on a high salary. I refuse to pay 40 - 50% of my takehome on ****ing mortgage so I've decided to rent @ £650 pm for now. The developers can take their overpriced prison cells and stick them where the sun don't shine as far as I'm concerned. The previous poster was right, with all the new planning restrictions, apartment blocks now look more like prison blocks - I'm sure even the notorious 'H' block in northern Ireland had wider windows than some of these new builds.

Ah, bless. He probably thought he was overcharging you too. I think we need some fresh blood in the gene pool. If only all workers had the same attitude. My worry is not with migrants that want to work, it's with whole towns and neighbourhoods being turned into virtual sharia no-go zones. Bring on the Poles, Lithuanians, Estonians and any other similar groups.

Even if house prices were included in the inflation calculations, affordability would have changed very little if there were not other factors at play. High interest rates would have meant lower prices, yes, but only the same as higher prices and lower rates. The fact is, prices have crept up above what they might have been had interest rates been kept high and the real reason for this is demand. Demand has come from emerging trends like buy to let and investment from overseas. The Internet makes it easy for somebody in Hong Kong to browse UK property sites like Right Move and to buy with cheap asian credit. The fact that banks are now willing to lend higher multiples is an admission by them that they must adjust their lending criteria to a lower interest world in order to maintain turnover. The real reason, I believe, if you look at this governments objectives, is to align our economy with that of the eurozone - even if it means causing hardship in the process. Don't forget that this government has never ruled out entry into the euro - it is just waiting for conditions to ready themselves for it. The fact the eurozone interest rates are on their way up won't help, but I believe the gap has closed since they came to power in 1997. Right now, I see affordability has been stretched as far as it can go without causing a serious depletion of money in the greater economy. As people realise they cannot afford to move up the ladder, and as the lower end of the market starts to become shakier, and as foreign investors get wind of a possible devaluation of stirling, they aren't going to hang around and watch their stirling asset become worth less over night. All this will be partially offset by continued high demand. My prediction is that prices fail to increase with inflation, effectively eroding their value slowly over a couple of years, back down to realistic levels given people's incomes and overall indebtedness.

Any Polish plumbers on here that can come and sort out my immersion tank? Competitive rate$ payed.

For all the alleged Polish plumbers "flooding the country" according to the Daily Mail etc. I still can't seem to get a plumber when I need one. Perhaps it's time we had a bigger pool of plumbers...

I remember 'V' - I watched religiously during the summer of 1984 and loved every minute of it. The reptillians disguised as humans theme was quite ahead of its time, though I had heard it mentioned from a school mate a few times.

'fraid so. hehe I was lucky enough to be allowed to roam freely in the grounds of a huge mental asylum full of pervs and nut cases. Never did me any harm. (pulls shoulder hard up on the left and grimaces horribly)

I thought that if deflation occurs (as happened in Japan) that your debts would effectively become worth more as time went by. Is this good?

tomatoes with flavour greenshield stamps real coffee that tasted nice Gold spinner cheese triangles Funny shaped french cars motorways with no traffic (or lorries)

I'm considered a high earner, on the upper tax rate. I could buy a house now and in fact I am ready to complete on the sale of my flat. I am relocating closer to London. In my view, houses are too expensive when you must pay nearly 50% of your takehome on mortgage repayments. Where's the money going to be found for increasing energy bills, travel, and general expenditure on luxury items that are so important for our "economic performance"? With hindsight, I might turn out to be wrong about putting off buying for now - but in the short term, I would prefer to have more money in my pocket instead of in the hands of my bank or building society. I am willing to let the buy to letters take the risk for me for now. It's interesting that you say you could earn 100k a year. I wish I had that option, but not all are the same and I will stick to doing what I know best which is technology.

Where are you from?

What is it you do for a living if you don't mind me asking?

Another candidate for summary execution.

At least many high earners in industry have no choice but to pay tax. Scroungers like the aforementioned benefits cheat should be made to pay it back by hard labour in a work camp. To add insult to injury, the government is going to send him to jail and hit the tax payer with yet another bill. Make prison pay by turning it into cheap labour camp.

That piece of **** should really be shot against a wall. Save the tax payer another £200k for keeping him in prison and ****ing shoot the thieving ****ard

Yep, that ended here in the 80's when thatcher decided it was a good idea to allow all the council houses to be bought privately - another example of short term political opportunism leading to high social costs for future generations.

They can do that already.