Johnny Bognor

..... in conjunction with 1576 and St Jason...... (I'm the good looking one BTW)

If you want a pro to fly a banner......see me

Looks like my American Indian rain dance paid off

TBF, that is a little unfair on Nick, if you ask me.

Not all tories are I'm alright and **** everybody else. My politics are driven out of creating wealth for all and the private sector is the only way to do it. In doing so, you need to support and encourage this sector to create the wealth for re-distribution later. The problem with the socialist way, is it is often about taxing the **** out of everyone without thinking of the bigger picture. One way in which we can reduce the impact of the forthcoming cuts is to get private sector businesses going. This will create new jobs and the all important tax revenues - the greater the impact of this, the lesser the impact of the cuts as there will be more revenue (thus reducing the cuts that are required) and more employment, thus taking on those who have lost their jobs from the public sector. For me, it is a total no brainer as to what we need to do. The state cannot grow anymore (we can't afford it) whereas the private sector can, so where are the policies to achieve this? Labour certainly don't "get it", as HE thinks reducing NI is taking 6 billions out of the economy. HE is either stupid or lying.

Deffo gets my vote...has entertained me all season long. The Pappa song can be used for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, along the lines of: He's got a long name He's got a long n-a-m-e His dad was a skate **** He's got a long name

I would have thought you would have gone for: Share of the vote The UK Communist Party - 100% Others - 0% (well there are no others) Seats The UK Communist Party - all of them

A little boy goes to his dad and asks, 'What is politics?' Dad says, 'Well son, let me try to explain it this way: 1. I am the head of the family, so call me The Prime Minister. 2. Your mother is the administrator of the money, so we call her the Government. 3. We are here to take care of your needs, so we will call you the People. 4. The nanny, we will consider her the Working Class. 5. And your baby brother, we will call him the Future. Now think about that and see if it makes sense.' So the little boy goes off to bed thinking about what Dad has said. Later that night, he hears his baby brother crying, so he gets up to check on him. He finds that the baby has severely soiled his nappy. So the little boy goes to his parent's room and finds his mother asleep. Not wanting to wake her, he goes to the nanny's room. Finding the door locked, he peeks in the keyhole and see's his father in bed with the nanny. He gives up and goes back to bed. The next morning, the little boy say's to his father, 'Dad, I think I understand the concept of politics now' The father says, 'Good, son, tell me in your own words what you think politics is all about.' The little boy replies, 'The prime Minister is screwing the Working Class while the Government is sound asleep. The People are being ignored and the Future is in deep ****.'

Do you honesty think that if the lib dems or labour made the cuts, the poorest will not bear the brunt? I think they will be ****ed over regardless

Under the tory summary, you forgot reversing the NI increase which is due to come in next year. This is a key peice of their manifesto which is aimed at reducing the "tax on jobs". There is also the plan for no employers NI on the first 10 employees for new business start ups. This is a great help to new businesses which will be the wealth creators of the future. China have been doing this for years and they are a bunch of commies.

It is a warning for all those wanting a hung parliament. We will have a period of concession politics unless someone gets an overall majority.

I think a lot of job "losses" will be brought about through natural wastage, rather than making people redundant. Therefore, not as many people will 'lose' their jobs as is being reported. It will, however, mean that the people working in areas where people are not replaced will have to pull their fingers out and work a bit harder, as many in the private sector have been doing over the last 18-24 months.

So if you don't think they will deliver the cuts, can you explain the leftie hysteria regarding "good luck if you need healthcare / lose your job". Either the tories won't make the cuts as some on the left suggest, in which case there is no need to worry about such issues, or they will make the cuts which goes against what the left are saying. It seems those on the left are scaremoungering that the cuts are going to be devastating, while at the same time saying that they don't trust the tories to make them. The left can't have it both ways.

To be fair, that applies to whoever gets in power. The cuts coming from any of the parties will be in the region of 25%....that is going to hurt no matter who makes them.

I thought you would take Nick with you. Fortunately I am spoken for ......and she now thinks that I have a foot fetish :)

Sorry, posting on 2 forums at the same time...should never fight battles on two fronts. I went to Table A and added up completions by quarter, but missed the "12 month rolling total" in the heading. So you got your figures wrong (22m houses for sale FFS) and I missed the table heading. Having said that, we are agreed that 175,000 were completed in the 12 months to 2007 which represents more than 11% of the market. This is still more significant than you were first letting on. Have you thought about a holiday this year? http://www.sandals.com/

OK, I missed the quarter, but the 118,000 built were in 2009-2010, and your are comparing this to 2007, the height of the housing boom. If I accept that your 1.6m homes were sold in 2007, then these guys reckon 675,000 were built in 2007 (http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/696795) ... which still equates to 40% of the market. i.e. the effect on the market is more than you are letting on. I can only assume that you have been distracted by sandal store and are looking for a nice new pair for polling day. These guys are doing free delivery on sandals if you buy more than £30 worth. They may be able to deliver by thursday morning. http://www.johnlewis.com/Women/Women%27s+Shoes/Women%27s+Shoes/Women%27s+Shoes/Sandals/-/Type+Women%27s+Footwear/7887/ProductCategory.aspx?s_kwcid=TC|16177|sandals%20online||S|p|4350078545

I think this is slightly misleading because as far as I was aware, all 22m dwellings were not for sale last year. According to this site, 188,400 houses were sold last year: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/in_depth/uk_house_prices/html/houses.stm I also think that 50,000 is on the low side, as these guys reckon 122,000 were built last year http://www.politics.co.uk/opinion-formers/press-releases/housing-and-planning/nhf-house-building-to-hit-lowest-levels-since-1923-as-housing-waiting-lists-hit-record-high-$1358759$364344.htm of which 45,000 were housing association, so the net new builds are 77,000. Taking this into account, VAT on these homes would affect more than 40% of the market, so much more significant than you are letting on. Even on your 50k estimate, 25%+ of the market would be affected. While searching for the stats, I stumbled across this: http://www.sandalstore.co.uk/, I hope it is of interest.

/\ I am not sure I agree. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8511473.stm The suspension of stamp duty at 1% did have an effect, albeit mild. Add 5% or 7% to the price of a house and it will definately have an impact. First time buyers are struggling as it is and they are often the buyers of new build starter homes. As for the other forum, was that SWF (Sandal Wearers Forum)?

I thought it was "We are all in this together"

NC posted this a while back.....

Was that the speech where the girl asked why her mother and grandmother who work in a whitehall department (which used to be run by gordon) don't even earn a living wage after 13 years of Labour government?

That is an important point. It is one thing being asked who you would vote for and another actually going to vote. It is possible that the weather on election day could determine the outcome. Torrential rain would result in a lower turnout and bright sunshine would have result in a higher turnout.

Thats OK Mr Top. It is worth noting that Lloyds predicament wasn't helped by Brown 'persuading' them to take over the car crash that was HBOS.

We didn't bail out Barclays. HTH