ChinaReader

Since the law already requires that as a foreigner you carry your passport with you everywhere, I don't think the extra British ID card would really make much difference in the hypothetical working-out-if-you're-British challenge. No, not predicting the future. Just pointing out that actually ID cards would never be needed to implement a find-all-the-British-in-China campaign. Since it has happened before, without ID cards, call it learning from history rather than guessing the future. By all means disagree with ID cards, but disagree on firm grounds (of which several are available) rather than on shaky ground - disagreeing on shaky ground opens the door to have your weak argument dismantled and ID cards bulldozed-in without a chance to use your strong arguments. Never leave the crack troops in the barracks.

Conveniently overlooking that expatowner already has a card and understands what it's like to have one. Yeah because if we didn't have a little bit of plastic in our pocket they'd never guess we were foreigners... they'd look at our Caucasian heads with blonde / brown hair sticking up above rows of black-haired Chinese people and think "nah, probably a local". 3, you're starting to wake up, 2, you feel your eyelids opening, 1, you're awake. And welcome back to the real world.

FH: Any relation of FG? Or just a prefixual coincidence. Anyway, I'm no expert on this, but to briefly answer your questions: - America print dollars at will, creating oversupply, which would normally devalue them. China sell them junk and earn the dollars and put them in a big box in Beijing labelled "dollars", taking them back out of supply. - no idea, except freeflow money supply and fractional reserve banking are both ways of creating money from nothing or next to nothing - They have $1trillion in foreign currency, about 90% of which is dollars. What can you buy with that much cash? If you had it, and could do anything, what would you do? - If China pull the rug out (e.g. release their FX reserves fast back into the market) and the dollar crashes, some predict global recession and others predict just US or Western recession. Recession would take the wind out of everyone's optimism, people battern-down-the-hatches, and save instead of spend, as your next paycheque might be your last. When people stop spending, prices stop going up. It's all a bit interrelated really. Paracetemol.

You must have a different translation to me... can't see the word "sausage" in mine...

I vaguely remember that the annual US cost per year for the war in Iraq is $200 billion - as it matches the trade deficit to China, purely co-incidentally. And I think that isn't included in the $533bn, but is approved as a separate item (!). So you can at least work out if there are 100,000 US troops in Iraq (with however-many tanks, planes, bases, etc.), the US has a budget of just over three and a half times that much. The split between people and guns vs R&D vs missiles vs etc. is probably harder to determine though, for obvious reasons. "Real spend on arms development" - ? Does buying more guns and tanks and plans count? Or R&D? I'm confused what "real spend" would be. Exclude salaries and instead say $xbn + 500,000 people? Or exclude salaries and building rents? ...?

Or did you mean figuratively? <gulp> The point has been made that while America stands on its box decrying China's % increase, the absolute values are: US: $533 billion China: $45 billion Good old America! Still, if they shout loud enough, maybe they'll manage to bulldoze their own budget increases through the Senate, which is really what they want I guess.

RENTS DROP 20% IN 3 DAYS! IF THIS PACE CONTINUES RENT WILL BE FREE BY MOTHERS' DAY! DON'T DELAY, STR TODAY! I know I said I'd bump it in a fortnight, but I got impatient. Maybe we can spend the next eleven days pondering the concept of "appropriate statistical sample size", and then see if the graph has changed at all!

Opinion is every bit as real as the debt. Because opinion really has kept up with house prices, or more accurately led house prices. The difference is that opinion can change dramatically when you aren't looking, and is not governed by any regulations or restrictions.

But isn't this an interesting way to shift people's mindsets - no longer "doing (very) well" on 40k a year, but instead "in need of affordable housing" because only on 40k per year. How to psychologically redefine a generation of those who would formerly have been high earners.

Which answers the question "what did your last union rep die of?"

This all makes it sound rather like a board game - roll a six, skip a square, go directly to Mayfair. Just ever so slightly surreal.

It's all about whether you watch it as it's broadcast. Both YouTube and the 3G services are not instant, so they don't count. Invite the inspector in, he's harmless. Offer him a cup of tea, he's a human. Be nice to him - what he does secures free radio for everyone who doesn't pay a TV licence, bizarrely! And if he resists the tea, do your best Mrs Doyle impression until he cracks.

I wonder how many people are asking that question right now.

Invest a pound in some brown paper. Wrap letter with a slab of stone inside. Post back to company with a 20p stamp on and a note saying you have plenty of stone and if they keep writing you will continue to cost them the difference in postage. They pay more attention. And you get to get rid of some stones from the allotment.

This is why we have the House of Lords - they read stuff like this and throw it back to the Commons with a note on it saying "must try harder". In spite of all the complaints people have about them , they are on occasion a useful constitutional counterbalance.

There's a "healthy" market in Bailiff's auctions around the country. I used to go to one near Redditch a few years ago, and the stock varied from lots of four chairs and a dining table, from restaurant repossessions, to "box of assorted soft toys", from private dwellings. Generally a set of golf clubs is cheap for example, but some things, particularly electronics, go for more than on ebay because people get into bidding wars, so you need to know the value of tat before going. I think bailiffs rely on the original owners coming with borrowed money and buying some of the stuff that no-one else wants but is precious to them.

Gone apparently are the days when teenage mags were filled with articles on defeating spots (you won't), how to know if he really loves you (he doesn't), and which pop star is totally uncool since being totally cool last week (all of them). House prices resonating with teenagers... that's just weird.

A: Because they've a pound coin and they're not letting go of it. It's a brave or foolish man you taxes the Scots too far. This article: Bank appeals for easing of stamp duty burden Got this comment in response: Can you see Broon actually lowering, or abolishing stamp duty? Remember the New Labour motto: Tax them till they bleed. Perhaps the Labour voter safe-haven of Scotland won't get them through the next election after all!

And therein lies a real problem. It's one thing to have them breaking down doors after repeated exchanges through the letterbox. It's completely different if they use it on properties they've no real proof of the occupant. I think half the houses I moved to in the UK I got a visit from a debt-collector. Past: Bailiff: "Excuse me Mr Taylor / Smith / Robinson / etc., here's a court order because you haven't paid your bills." ST: "Sorry, that's not me" Bailiff: "Nice try son." ST: "No really, it's not me - I moved in last week. Look, cardboards boxes full of stuff in the hallway - that's your first clue!" Bailiff: "I'll need to see some ID and your contract." ST: "Here you go." Bailiff: "Nuts (or similar expression of frustration). Bye." Future: <Arrive home, no door, no stuff, sign on door "Dear Mr X - we took your stuff. Signed GrabItAndGo Bailiffs Ltd."> ST: "Nuts (or similar expression of frustration)." Edit to add: Any of the MSE watchers on here seen this crop up on the MSE boards? It sounds like the kind of thing that they'd go a bit flippy about. :-)

1) I''ll try and remember to bump this in a fortnight with a better data sample 2) So this is rentals requested not achieved. Even less useful. 3) Month-on-month changes of that order of magnitude bear no relation to any reality, so viewing them as "a sign of things to come" is a little far fetched. 4) Please post a graph of house prices in your area so we can compare rental price Apr-06 to Feb-07, rather than nationwide stats for that period, if that's what you want to talk about. Data can be found on the nationwide website in various bitesize breakdowns, or land registry, rightmove, etc. etc.

Thank you for the informed post. Am I right in thinking that while the oil price will hurt the A340, the A380 had a design-brief to be 10% better than the rivals on long-haul fuel economy, so the new plane should be more appealing to customers on this front?

1) The data point for March is a joke margamboy - it's the 4th for pity's sake! 2) I reran the data on that website for as long as they had it, back to April 2006 - graph enclosed: It would seem this fountain of wisdom has shown average rents consistently decreasing even as house prices have continued to climb over the last twelve months... so as prices go up, rents go down... Give it a fortnight and revisit the site. Maybe 18 days data won't be quite so unrepresentative. Or maybe I've lost touch with the UK and everyone got a 60% rent increase last week... yeah, maybe. PS: Average Rental Prices for 3-bedroom houses countrywide: BUY BUY BUY!

Noted with thanks.

3 months mortgage payments? Or just enough to cover the fees for selling up / getting all the legal stuff done on the next (smaller) place? Or just enough to pay for a Home Information Pack, once the costs of that go the same way as the Olympic bill...

Will she spend it all on canine crunchies?