bridge too far

Well, there you go. Two different opinions on a hypothetical suggestion. Punditry - love it!

I know He was one of two and was quite old - my daughters named them Trevor and Simon after the TV characters because she liked them in her teens. Simon disappeared years ago (the cat, that is).

I said it yesterday and this sort of compounds my conspiracy theory. Given that support for the LibDems is falling amongst their own supporters, is this, in fact, a desperate way of saying 'look peeps, we're standing up to these nasties' in the hope their support will rise again? Is it a threat to DC - 'water down your proposals or we'll leave you in a minority government'? Given the number of u-turns this government has already done, are they trying to pressurise them into yet more? Or might they go, cap in hand, to Labour saying 'we'll bring this lot down and join you instead'?

http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/blog/

We've always had cats but, after our lovely Trevor died this time last year we thought we wouldn't have any more. But then an elderly relative and his wife died within a couple of weeks of each other and their cat was orphaned. So we took her in and I'm so glad we did - she's a delight!

I'm sure I first heard about it over a year ago.

How about having one of these? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/also_in_the_news/7919495.stm

I doubt it. Mainly because emergency medicine is too expensive and there really isn't the medical expertise to deal with emergency medicine in the private sector.

Private health cover won't buy him A & E treatment. It only pays for routine stuff and eventually runs out anyway so that the NHS has to pick up the tab.

The conspiracy theorist part of me wondered if he knew those 'constituents' were reporters and that this would be 'leaked'

More than I'd give Vince Cable TBH

This!

I do like 9 and also 3. Sometimes, if I'm bored or can't get to sleep, I like to count in multiples of 3 or 9 to see how far I can go before I finally sleep.

I have the toilet roll one. Amusingly, so does Mr TF although we disagree on which way the toilet roll should hang on the hook. So it's constant swapping in our house. I also have to put my make-up on in a specific order. If I change that order by mistake, I have to take it all off and start again. One of my daughters has an obsession about the number 9 (she's a mathematician) - I'm not sure if that is classified as OCD.

June in 'not understanding how the Labour Party elects its leader' shocker

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11989773 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11998992

It's costing you and me as we have to pay more tax for the services 'we' need. If they paid what they should, then we could theoretically pay less or the standards of service could improve.

My man is the same - he gets an enhanced shift allowance to cover all that you've said. However, he's been asked to do o/time between Xmas and NY to cover for absences (only on-call, not at the lab) and they've offered him 4 x normal rate.

Nick - PFI (I'm assuming that is what you're talking about at the end of your comment) was introduced by the Tories. I know, because I was working on one of the first PFI hospital schemes in 1997 BEFORE the election). They are carrying on with the tradition as they are proposing to hand over the Search & Rescue service as part of a PFI scheme. http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/2050204/?UserKey=

To add to this: I don't know of any socialists who advocate EQUALITY. What they do advocate is equality of opportunity. That's quite different and it's an ideal that I would be happy to subscribe to.

I think you'll find it's 'clerk', not 'clark' but pedantry aside, the mortgage advisor I heard on the radio a couple of days definitely referred to accrued debt as well as outgoings.

See - you're off again! Where did I say I 'worried'? I was pointing out a potential issue that has been raised by other people outside this forum and then asking a question.

One thing worth thinking about is how a student's aquired debt will affect his / her hope of getting on the property ladder in years to come. I heard the other day that mortgage providers have ditched the old 3 x salary when calculating how much someone can borrow and they now look at outgoings and debts. So if someone graduates owing at least £30K, even if they earn just about enough to start to pay it off, that debt will be set against any mortgage they might seek to achieve. I wonder how that will affect the housing market?

See - there's another misconception. Some people seem to think that socialists should stop being socialists once they become better off. That some people are 'too rich' to be socialists any more. By that token, poor people shouldn't be tories. Daft. Some wealthy people DO have a social conscience and still want to do what they can - through politics and / or charity or volunteer work - to help other people. Socialists would actually like it if everyone had a nice disposable income - that's what they're aiming for. Whereas, it could be argued, true tories would rather see poorer people kept in their place and oppressed via low wages, poor housing, poor health and poor education. I don't think Real Tories would care a stuff about any single one of us on here - we're not wealthy enough or influential enough.

I don't presume to know you - I have absolutely no interest in knowing you. You, however, somewhat hypocritically, choose to presume to know me. You don't.