Crazy88s

Private school 101 1. Foster arrogance in child, make them believe they are better than comp kids 2. Encourage received pronunciation 3. Lots of sport for the dim ones 4. Dim ones not entered to exams unless they can pass at at least C. At all costs private schools cannot let there A-C percentage slip

Agree on all that, my experience too. Your wife sounds like mine. I guess it is an unsavory party of my character but I dont keep quiet about the 24K I am 'saving'. I give plenty of stick to the 'I am doing the best for my kids brigade' my primary argument is that they are simply wasting money, either that or I tell them there little darlings need all the help they can get - it must be in the genes. When you get on a bit I have found that I am getting rather cranky and willing to speak my mind more. There of course is a dark side to comp schools, we had issues with the school bus loads of yobs upsetting daughter - solved by me marching into heads office and demanding that they exclude the yobs - (knew he wouldnt, but came down hard on the little 5hites). We will need to support our kids when they go to uni and that is when unavoidably we will have to dig deep. We dont want them to have terrible debts before they even start their careers so why waste money on a private education when it simple is not necessary. my 13 year old is ready for O levels now in some subjects and she is not alone there are plenty of bright kids from all backgrounds at the state schools (sadly there are lots of mac job fodder there too), also there are some real duffers in private school too. They just dont get entered in the exams if they are not likely to get a C or above whereas in most cases all comp kids are entered. This is one reason why private schools appear to do better than state schools.

Private schools are for a) people who want to get shot of their kids for as long as possible (lots of after school activities) or better still boarding school. people who are too thick to provide the necessary top up education. c) working class made good p.s. my wife is a secondary school teacher, we can afford private but choose to send our kids to the local comp. All are straight A's and two of the 3 are on the national gifted and talented. The secret is simple, just read from and earyl age to them and help them all the way and develop a good workl ethic. The only advanatge of a private education is the social networking side of things if you can stand smug middle class tossers.

The Aldi in question was in Loughborough sometime in the 80's. People from the forest end of town shopped at Sainbury's or Marks and Spencers. The scuzbuckets shopped at the newly opened Aldi. Went to see what all the fuss was about.

Expand to include sleep indoors, watch TV and eat beans on toast. What more to you need? What is a ned? The last time I went into an Aldi which I think is similar to a lidle I had to constantly dodge disgusting people because invariably it appeared that they had not washed and often smelled of a combination of wee, booze and fags. Social class Z- This was the time where the zero 'O' level bingo winged checkout assistant unceremoniously shoveled your purchases off the end of the checkout. Perhaps things have improved since the late 80's.

Agreed Whats wrong with sacking them all and laying pipes? Too bloody obvious

No more houses built on green field One child per female policy will bring us back to pre-industrial population levels in 50 to 100 years Carpet the coast 1 mile out with Windfarms and sell the electricty. we would be more than self sufficent Use technolgy to ensure we have a the quality of life with low population levels and not spend all our time 'tilling the land'

Yep that makes me SCUM. I say no new houses on any greenfield. Sensible redevlopment on brownsites yes but we can keep building. The real answer is population reduction. Perhaps too intellectual for you...

All they have to do is drop the prices by 15%-20% in order to get rid so they can reduce their inventories, pay off their debt and build up cash. When they come to terms with this then the share price will rally. The market hates in-action. At those discounts they, provided they have controlled labour and materials costs will still mean a profit for them.

Wages cannot go up because of Global Competition. Unless of course the GBP crashes . But then the masses would not be able to afford all the imported goods they have been buying.

I think I am mistaken, the link below 10 Oct 2007 suggests that the changes before the reversal applied to second homes, which is outrageous. But probably there way of attempting to keep the housing market alive. I dont know wether the change announced today applies to property or not to be honest. http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/mortgages/buy-to-let/article.html?in_article_id=425195&in_page_id=56

I have not read all nine million posts in this thread but I can tell you my RRS shares [Rand Gold Resources] have gone up 40%. Held in SIPP as a hedge. Worked out nicely.

I see your point, with a lower price commodity where there is a bigger market there will inevitibly be competition. I do remember last time this happened that there was so little confidence even the low end of the market was badly affected. Also developers for reasons of profit have been building flats as fast as they can and there is a massive oversupply so eventually I think even the lower end will fall in real terms.

Probably, I admit I know bugger all about Islam, its just a soundbite I picked up from somewhere. I still like the idea of eliminating borrowing. Sensible Business lending for tangible value added growth and improvement is one thing but there should be no real need for public to borrow. Think about it, this would drop house to their true value!

I agree with flats, if I wanted one of those it would have to be an 80% drop - thinking back to 88 when I bought my first house [at a peak] decent flats were no more expensive than grotty terraces that required doing up. Flats are awful (they need not be if decentr codes were established but this is another subject), I think I would rather live in a prison, at least the walls are thicker and sound proof. I do think however the falls will affect all part of the UK

Dont vote the system is not democratic anymore [if it ever was]. If they want my vote I need to know how it is not dressed up for the people who seem to have a complete mental block when it comes to thinking. If you have to vote dont vote for anyone but a fringe radical party such as the Green Party or BNP. [Not a Veghead or a Nazi BTW]

Unless I am mistaken this only applyies to the sale of business assets such as Ltd companies. And if an owner of a company sells up he is usually doing it to retire or provide seed capital for another company. BTW I am a company director with a 300K shareholding in a Ltd company so if I was to sell now I would only have to pay 30K in tax as opposed to 56K. It is quite tempting but I am not ready to retire at 39.

Unless we have massive population reducation [Which I would welcome with a passion], a nuclear attack or a global pandemic I dont think prices will be lower in 10 years than they are now. It does take a long time to recover but there is a lot of cash sitting on the sidelines. I am talking of buying with 80% deposit. Maybe 100% when I get around to it.

Has it occurred to anyone that this raising and lowering rates thing and the whole credit crucnh blah blah blah is just another way of sucking sheep into the vortext of debt only to screw then later. The credit crunch is simply the screws tightening. Do you think the controllers of these financial institutions will be worse off, I dont think so. They will own the land youy lived on when you cant pay your mortagage and in the meantime they will suck you dry in interest. I agree with Islam wrt to money lending it should be banned. People should save up if you cant afford it dont buy it.

This is exactly what I am waiting for - that is property prices to fall 40% or more, trouble is so are many of you. You have to be ahead of the game, a few more months is required of doom doom and more doom then you need to agressively take advanatge of a mug that has got themselves in the shite. Sorry but thats the way it is. Dont miss the boat when it comes around again!

Thats a fair point. I had to stand on my own two feet, never had a penny of anyone. It has been very hard, and to a certain extent I have been very lucky in my life chances. I dont want them to struggle like I did. A fine balance required. BTW, they wont know about this so wont be living with the expecation that their lives are sorted.

I have a home already, I was fortunate enough to have bought at the trough in the last crash circa 94. I am looking to buy a second property now for my children. This is a strategic plan in order to transfer wealth, my wife and I will inherit enough money to put is well into the inheritance band so now is the time to start giving it away and give my kids a decent start. I have been saving hard and done well in the stock market. sold most of my holdings last November The question is when do you think the otimal time to buy is? This is not necessarily when the market finally bottoms out as I dont want to wait for the asymtopic finale. I think the best time to buy is when doom is at its maximum and defaults are at a high. I have seen 4 bed detached properties (non estate older buildings) that have been on for 400K that have been reduced to 375. I tihnk they are worth no more than 200-230 maybe 250K for a really decent property of 'my' money. Anyone else looking now? What discount on todays peak prices are you prepared to say yep thats acceptable for you?

In a massively reduced population there would be no room for chavs or other serfs, those remaining would be highly educated people and would be slowly but purposely looking at new ways to be more efficient, a new paraidimn, not based on the constant need to grow a false economy but one based on quality of life and sustainability. In my 'Brave new world' there would be a greater empasis on science and engineering. However the arts, history and literature would be equally important to ensure we dont make the same mistakes as the present and past generations are. Your other point, you dont eat money, you eat food. (I know you dont mean this literally) With a much reduced population the ammount of food available per person can increase without intensive methods. Truly sustainable and fully organic. Meat products would be more game like and less intensively farmed. (Which would also help put an end to BSE, F&M, etc etc)

I accept your 'estimations'. The Americans do need to improve on energy efficieny, my annecdotal evidence is that they are trying without all instantly becoming hemp wearing vegans. I read somewhere that Dr David Bellamy advocated a world population of 1 Billion. Nice aim. I am firmly in the camp of dramatically embarking on a system that reduces population substantially. Massive populations come about because of the abuses of Capitalism, poor education, the catholic church, mad mullahs etc etc. Driving towards the utopian ideal a better life could be realisable for all if 1. More automation, agriculture, manurfacturing etc 2. More efficiency (energy and time). You are here for 70 years or so, most of us are spendign time doing things we DONT want to do. 3. Better educated populace 4. Reduce Religon to a minor branch of Philosophy (probably automatic if you do 3)

Yes, people tend to think of all land the same. I know many of the posters here just want a house, but quality of life is more important. I reckon about half or maybe one 3rd of the current 60M would be about right. Especially now that the world is more auomated. We dont need so many people competing for dwindling resources. Each time I come back to the UK it gets busier and busier. We, on this Island are living like Rats in a cage!