Frank Hovis

One of the comments from the above link: And general complaint about stupid regulation including a focus upon diversity, seems everybody's getting hit by that particular PC stick.

There is a housing shortage, however building is expanding at a pace to the point where waiting times are getting longer and longer for things like bricks and tiles. I am hearing this directly and there are also stories about labour shortfalls although that must be elsewhere in the country as I'm not seeing it. http://www.jewson.co.uk/about-us/industry-news/labour-shortages-as-construction-continues-to-grow/

Okay, I agree with that. I think we're back to a Citizens' income being the obvious route. Then you have no "scroungers" (as in a way everybody is) and then if you want more spending money you go out and work for it, if you want to live frugally and have all your time your own then that is also a perfectly acceptable choice. I was thinking you were taking the mid C19th Chartist line (my O level history ) where they wanted every man to be given his own plot of "paradise" that he could work with a spade and live in plenty, comfort and freedom. They set up settlements which totally failed.

Great, let's all become peasant farmers like those lucky Chinese

Unless people live six to a room in slums as we did for most of our urban history and immigrants are doing today. Maybe that's the plan.

David Cameron. Tony Blair reborn. He's have been bombing Syria if Dubya was in the White House to support him rather than Mr Michelle Obama who spends most of his time being shouted at.

The baying mob ruined what was not a very good programme in the first place. It could have been so much better but cam across like a spoof. There was a sketch in the last Mitchell and Webb radio series aimed (not unpleasantly) at her. Along the lines of if you're not really good looking then the only way you can make a career in the media as a woman is to be horrendously and knowingly controversial. I've watched a couple of her This Morning youtube vids, she so clearly has to stop herself sometimes when she's on an outrageous wind-up. The chav names one is probably the best, and as ever with great wind-ups there is the element of truth in it.

Those were the main places people wanted to go, either that or over (or under) Dartmoor. http://www.bbc.co.uk/coast/series3/02_bournemouth_plymouth.shtml

My understanding is that US QE stopping meant that people can see that the global cheap money tap is being turned off which means that investors are now looking for safer rather than speculative returns and are pulling their money out of fringe markets. This is making the Turkish Lira fall at a rate of knots so the interest rate has gone up to strengthen it and provide a better return for bond investors.

Some have said on here that a good idea, having first bought a house (ok, big hurdle but a necessary one), then start apparently living well beyond your means whilst in actuality finding some invisible store of wealth (sovereigns as good as any) so that you steadily run down your apparent wealth and start becoming eligible for all the means-tested benefits to pick up once you stop working whilst still having (and being able to spend) untraceable money. I can't see the flaw if done in a discreet manner.

Maybe she has a huge hoard of sovereigns buried under a metal water pipe in her back lawn and all this frittering it away and looking daft is just an act? Maybe not though.

I won't sleep now! Funny, you'd have thought Kerry Katona facing bankruptcy was a fairly safe standby story, like Obama marriage in trouble.

They're not trolls, they're great! I liked it best when they were both posting.

The one thing I find baffling is that banks keep lending her money that she doesn't pay back. Why would they do this? Same question for those lending to multiple-defaulting football clubs like Portsmouth. I wouldn't lend any of my money them, but somebody keeps doing it.

Celebs are different, in a way it's an investment in her future reality career as she "opens her heart" about yet another personal disaster. The other two members of the band are still pretty hot, Kerry seems to be fulfilling the fat mate role.

Put them in your sig like the Bannerman does to warn people off being drawn into deabte with them.

Well I didn't know that, I thought it was just the embassy.

The ultra high risk in my portfolio comes from buying lottery tickets on roll-over jackpot draws. I'm usually down £40 a year but it balances out the low risk of the rest of it. Not being sarcastic btw.

Mansion tax. It won't affect the Saudis but it will raise more money, possibly this might even be ring-fenced for affordable housing?

It needs widescale reform. Can Gerry Robinson fix the NHS was a good and intelligent approach to it.

Ricky Gervais is a naturally funny guy. I've seen it at others' houses but don't watch telly at home that early during the week. It was like 30 minutes of running down the clock, I couldn't understand why anybody would choose to watch it.

Yes, certainly the first one I've heard of going. Managed by a HA but not owned by one, that's.a new one on me for shared ownership. Though as they've just gone bust it's not surprising that it's uncommon!

Here's hoping that two year plan works out Harry. Mine in theory is five years but I can't see myself sticking to that, I always think if I work just another couple of years after that I will be so comfortable. Carry on like this and I will end up an incredibly wealthy 70 year old with all the time in the world but with the years I could run a marathon all in the past.

This has come up as a theoretical cheap way of life and here's a real life example. I make this about £30 a month to live there, excluding the cost the caravan and hard standing. As he's been running a business as well he's been pretty blatant and would have been doing it a while before 2009. So he's been living there at least five years, I'm guessing paid no council tax, and been given a £2k fine. So if you do it more discreetly this looks like a great plan, just make sure you're not visible from the road and not annoying your neighbours. http://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/10961666.St_Earth_man_fined_after__flouting_planning_law_/

Fascinating posts Freetrader. I wonder if you get a free pair of waders with the house for £2.6m?