mattyboy1973

You can't still be amazed by Bojo's incompetence, surely?

Oh well, he's just resigned as an MP and left the "cruel world of politics". Nevermind.

You really think that you need to be "inclined to socialism" to want to hold an MP to the law? Paterson committed a series (not just once) of the most blatantly corrupt acts than an MP can perform: taking money from a company in order to advance their interests in parliament. This case is as clear cut as they get, and his days as an MP should be over.

I'll clean your house for £150 ph plus travelling expenses. Or, more realistically, somewhere between that and what you're offering now, you will find one.

Maybe, but you can certainly get these mortgages if you qualify. We've just fixed for 5 years at sub 1% without any trouble at all - seemed like a good time to do it. I almost thought about going for 10 years and may well regret it in time, although I am hoping there won't be too much left of the mortgage in 5 years.

Falling house prices are perhaps the one thing that would get the Tory base to turn, so expect them to do anything they can to stop it. Don't kid yourself - there's plenty of bullets left (see e.g. Australia and accessing a pension for a deposit, outright government grants for deposits etc etc).

OK, yes - more accurate perhaps to say that this money isn't ringfenced in any particular way.

That might have been the original idea, but NI has long gone straight into the general taxation coffers - nothing is "put aside" from NI for any special purpose. Far better IMO to get rid of NI completely, have a payroll tax for employers and adjust income tax to compensate, which would be far more progressive. Of course, that would end the lie that we are a low tax economy, since the lower rate of tax is really 32% once you factor in NI. We should really expect a much higher standard of public services and pensions for the money we already pay.

Yep. The most politically cowardly (they hope people won't notice the Employer NI increase, in particular), and the least fair solution possible. If taxes have to rise, and I can accept that, then up the higher rates and put a penny on the lower rate - at least this way the wealthier pensioners (and they are a very wealthy demographic) will make a contribution. The simple truth, which never seems to be stated, is that the current crop of pensioners didn't pay enough for their pensions and care during their working lives because no one expected them to live this long, or for medical care in final years to be so expensive. Confront that truth, and ask the wealthier for more along with everyone else.

I'm not convinced it's a ripoff, it's more that housing someone, feeding them and providing 24 hour care costs a lot of money. No doubt some care home owners/managers do OK, but most of the staff certainly don't - it's a fairly crappy job with incredibly low wages.

US already taxes citizens globally, so you'll pay the difference in (federal) tax and whatever you are paying locally, if lower.

Yeah, I was really referring to the effort/toll on the lifestyle side of things, rather than cost. You are right about our trains tho, and the ticketing system. We really a cheaper way to travel flexibly but I wouldn't hold your breath - the new "flexible" tickets they announced a month or so ago are anything but flexible (8 days a month, use it or lose it), and cost nearly as much as a normal season..

The police getting involved is a completely different proposition to someone giving you a ticket. My Mum got blocked in by someone on her drive once, and the owner couldn't be located. After quite a few hours, the police were called and actually attended. They smashed the window and rolled the car forwards by a few feet so that my Mum could get out..

I'm talking about the US, the "Greenspan Put" and the deliberate fomenting of the US housing bubble that gave rise to the GFC. Brown is often blamed for the latter by people here, but what was happening was mostly happening beyond his control.

Bang on - I've always maintained exactly this. As much as people like to hate on Brown, the changes we saw during the early 2000s were as much about global trends as anything within the UK (think low interest rates post dotcom crash, the "NICE" decade and the rise of China etc), and not only would the Tories have ridden that wave, they'd have done it with even more gusto IMO. At least Labour spent some money on the NHS and education whilst they were in power, without which we'd be even more screwed now. As for John Major, he now seems like a fundamendally decent guy, a titan compared with the shower we have in power now. That goes for many of that era, both Tory and Labour. I guess we end up with the government we deserve, but I have no idea what we have done to deserve this.