sandman

I live in Brighton and agree with what your saying. I,ve been looking at prices and they do not seem to be going down much. In fact three houses that have been on the market for some time are displaying sold boards, this is just in the last week. What are these buyers brave or stupid. Having said that Brighton house prices are distorted by London sellers buying here at lower prices and being able to hang on to a lump of cash.

Try a fad from the 60s, it really works. The idea was that you made a pyramid shaped object and put your used razor blades underneath. Align them due north and for some reason they will re-sharpen. Actually it will work just as well without the pyramid, just leave them for a couple of weeks and they will be sharp again. Word of warning, only use best quality blades. I use Gillette, for some reason the two blade work better than the three. The science...well razor blades are made of crystaline steel and left for a period of time will re-form their edge. They will never be as good as the new blade but you will be suprised how good they are. I know someone who has not bought any blades for three years, he has a 20 pack x 5 blade stock which he rotates

The reality of this and the many other economic highs and lows that have happened during my lifetime (60+) is that in real terms there is little effect on our day to day lifes. You will not be joining a soup line or begging for food. The ordinary person in the 2008 recession will find that his or hers life has not changed to any great extent and if history repeats itself we should be looking at an upturn in a couple of years. The 1920/30s will never return, people are more educated, more questioning and will not tolerate the stupid mistakes of our predicesors. The British have always been an immensely resilient nation, particulaly when things are at there most difficult. I see no reason to suppose that we have changed in any way.

You will have no problem. Even if they go belly up, the compensation scheme has to be shown to work. The consequences for the scheme and the government would be catastrophic if it did,nt. Imagine, it,s first real test and they delayed or did not pay out, confidence in the system would cease overnight. Mind you, would,nt like to be further down the line with other banks, as there is only so much pain they can deal with.

I,ve always been a prawn. Or was it pawn.

Desperate times require desperate measures

If you were to pay in advance, it would just be viewed as a credit balance from which you would debited at the prevailing rate. Little point, as it is more beneficial to put it in one of the higher interest savings accounts and pay annually.

It seems to have been forgotten by some that Iraq, who according to it,s own estimate, is sitting on 115 billion barrels of oil. As in the past the British people paid a high price for there involvment in that war. Is it nieve to expect that we will ever be able to stabilise the country and return it to being a major contributor.

You don,t need to convince the British public it,s there, we know it,s not. That clever chappie Brown sold 400 tons of it at a 20 year low, costing us billions.

Cap in hand, as Chamberlain found out, rarely works.

Someone once said "Boats are a hole in the water, into which you throw money".

Just been this route with our local planners due to works carried out without building regs. From what they are saying you can apply for retrospective regs., but you would be required to bring it up to current standards. Which in our case will mean a huge amount of work and cost.

I think you should continue to advise your brother against this dangerous solution. Has he considered his position should his renter default. It can sometimes take 6 months to remove a non-payer. Could he sustain such a loss.