Oh Dear

Probably get slated for this, but when i went to school (a while back now) there were some teachers, couple of admin people, deputy, bursar and a head teacher. Now there seems to be legions of managers, support workers, careers advisors, intervention managers, assistant heads, librarians, photocopying people, display managers, safeguarding leaders etc. (i have just made the titles up but you should get the point). All these extra people are employed to make sure everone gets a prize on GCSE day (whether they deserve it or not). This is all to get 50% of our population to the utopian goal of studying media at uni, keeping them in debt and off the unemployment figures. Most of these 'new' staff have to create additional work for teachers. If they are high up the chain it will be through creating some new procedures without removing existing ones (they have to be seen doing something) or by asking the teachers for help and information if below them in the food chain. The solution is for society not to expext teachers to cure our culture of every one of it's problems, get rid of huge swathes of school staff, pay more to good teachers, allow people to fail exams if they are not able enough or are not interested in doing it (this gives the achievement of passing some worth), stop treating education as a political football for a new set of reforms every few years. Reform once, dramatically and remove from government interferrance. Perhaps not by selling it though. The deprofessionalisation of teachers was started in the media to set the working classes against each other. We need unionisation and collective bargaining to give a better deal to all those who have only their time and labour to trade as opposed to those who control all the assets.

I posted this video on a different thread a while ago. It is worth watching before comming to an opinion on the merits of paying our financial services a bonus or not.

Roll forward another 20 years and they will be compulsory purchasing the 'new' flats to replace them with the £2,500,000 reinvigoration tubes for between shift breaks. Personally I would not want to live in London (did in my 20's for a while) as I need space to feel like I live a meaningful existence not wall to wall lattes, restaurants, startups and transport networks.

Perhaps because there is little choice. Most properties for sale are, in reality, terrible. If councils were to lay roads and basic services to an area, then auction off reasonable sized plots with outline planning permission for build your own (with some kind of rule that it would be one only per family or suchlike), then people would build interesting, decent functional homes.

Don't think many made 'astute investments', it is mostly a case of when you were born/stage of life. For example, my seven year elder brother, purchased a house when he met a girl and settled down. I planned to do the same, however, went to university, had a bit of a life and before I knew it, house prices had become un-affordable to me once I had met my future wife. The massive HPI between 1999-2004 was the undoing of most people now under 40. Ten years later and time is running out for those at the higher end of this due to mortgage length and sheer size of potential debt, even worse if you rely on the South East for your employment.

This is well worth watching when considering bonuses Motivation

They sound odious. I am surprised that any one would rent a house from them, if I were local I would boycott their rentals. Perhaps the bank should look to put their BTL mortgages up to 5% and then we will see how they get on.

I remember at the beginning of this parliament, this forum was very pro conservative. They will let the housing bubble burst, blame it on Labour, let the free market sort it out. I even voted for this self interested shower. Never again. No better than the last lot.

So, they have been promised a 1% pay rise and now their employers are wanting to backtrack on this deal. Is the 1% already part of contract or settlement?

The truth is, as tax payers, we were probably on the hook for the 15 % anyway. This scheme just formalises it on our behalf. Is the 4.99 mortgage rate low enough to have much of an impact?

My link Most 'school dinners' are now provided by a contracted private company at great expense. If anything, the quality is worse.

Nothing stopping them buying them and charging for it. However, don't we 'already own it' if it is a council car park, so the charges are mostly just money grabbing at the communities expense IMO.

Nice to hear that below average performance can be so well rewarded. I think he should be paid more to help with the motivation.

Depends on what sized homes. I live in a 'village' with roughly 2000 residents, enough to barely run a village shop, football team, cricket team, a primary school (though some students come from other villages near by as most of these residents are elderly), a small allotment area and a few social events each year. In reality, it could do with being a little bigger to make these more viable. Any smaller conurbations that don't have these facilities could probably benefit from more dwellings.

This number should be in balance with those in positive equity, and by that I mean those that say " I couldn't afford this place ( that I live in now) if I were to buy now.".