bridge too far

And the other sad thing about selling off council houses is that the Councils weren't allowed to invest the proceeds in building replacements. This, of course, led to a dire shortage of housing to rent and drove up prices of houses for sale. TDD, there's nothing wrong at all with people buying houses they've lived in for donkey's years. But the proceeds should have been re-invested in local authority housing.

The stair lift would have been paid for by Social Services, not the NHS FYI. They can't be used again as the tracks are purpose-built for the house in question. I know this for a FACT as we had one fitted in our house for when my mother visited (paid for by us, not Social Services). We were informed at the time that it would not be possible to sell back to the company (Acorn). They did, however, say that our local Social Services might be interested in taking the chair and its mechanism and organise a new track for whichever house they wanted to fit it into. It wouldn't occur to me to ask for money for it. The companies do not buy them back. PS sorry about your cousin's death BTW HTH

It may not be fair to blame past governments for some of the ills that this country experiences these days. But there is one undeniable fact. Thatcher changed the MORAL tone of this country by encouraging the greedy, me first attitude of so many. She was responsible for the culture of judging people by what they had rather than what they were. She devalued the honest working man and woman. That change in the MORAL tone is still with us today and it underpins the problems society in this country now has. Foster the belief that possessions are more important than moral standards, whilst at the same time offering little or no hope to a marginalised section of society, and that marginalised section responds in the only way open to it. So, to my mind, a lot of blame can be laid fairly at her door.

Perhaps we should all PM him, offering him season's greetings?

I wonder if Sparky will join him this weekend?

Watford have 'lost' their chairman and manager in the past month.

I'm going to Adams Park on Boxing Day. I'll report back on our likely level of opposition next season

Gary Mcallister's just been sacked :smt102

A lot of the passengers have left the ship already.

How easy is it to 'unproxy' shares? (or should that be 'de-proxy'?) I remember reading on here, not too long ago, a post quoting Mary Corbett's views on Wilde / Lowe and how she felt betrayed. Had she proxied her shares?

So would I, but you can bet your bottom dollar that Mandaric would wring the last ounce of blood / money in compensation for him. That is assuming that Lowe were ever to swallow his enormous ego and admit he made a mistake

So they'll buy us out of administration for a pittance, having had all the debts wiped out? So we'll end up with the same lot in charge, but at the expense of all their creditors? That is thoroughly immoral.

Since the major housebuilders (Persimmon, Taylor Woodrow, Bovis) have written down the value of land they already hold, I think they are unlikely to buy any more at this time.

"Slightly the better of two poor teams" according to Sky

2 down already - after 3 minutes

Did I hear right - that a Russian woman is taking part?

Sorry the story snot what you expected.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7792102.stm

Your dream will sort of come true, child, although I don't do Christmas so I can't really have the worst of something I don't do. However, my cat's being put down tomorrow and my mother is on her last legs. That do ya - ya fecker?

Has it got pictures of clowns on it?

I'm quite partial to the Jamsunda sideboard.

It would seem from this http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7790161.stm that the public sector is in a fairly good state to meet increased demand and falling revenues. It remains to be seen if this is the case. Tonight on BBC1 10 o'clock news (I think) Robert Peston is going to talk about 'new' capitalism. Should be interesting, I think.

Tonight - shift widow Tomorrow - cat being put down Sunday - feck all, probably. Maybe a bit of housework IF I MUST All in all - 0/10

Good thing you'll never be about to give birth and be stuck outside on a cold winter's day with a 2 year old, unable to call for help because your money's indoors and there's no-one around to offer assistance then, isn't it? You cold, harsh individual - where's your compassion

Or try one of the ones mentioned in this article: http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/3989059.Conmen_use_website_to_dupe_lonely_heart_women/ Then you can con some poor unsuspecting female out of some money.