buctootim

I agree, the issue isn't so much reality as perception. Fewer people would be put off if there were 'grants' available and graduates simply had a different (higher) tax code instead of the whole loans and repayment presentation. The other issue is needing to do more to make vocational courses and skilled jobs more valued.

you really are a fu ckwit.

I see you're still not getting it. It seems to me you're the one not able to grasp a relatively simple concept, not them. Im not sure what you are arguing against - its widely accepted reality. Fewer bright children from working class backgrounds go to university than middle class ones. Its not by chance or poverty of ambition, its poverty of expectation. If all your life experience is of peers and family leaving education at 16 or 18 and struggling to pay the bills each month, not taking a wage now and borrowing £50,000 seems an irresponsible, selfish or at least highly speculative thing to do. If your life experience is of your family and peers going to university and having well paid careers, not going to university seems like an irresponsible thing to do.

Good to hear how open minded you are, able to see all sides of an argument....

Isnt she Clooney's wife? She's into tying up, dungeons, abuse, that kind of stuff. Human rights lawyer or sumfink.

VFTT is right, you don't have any idea. Coming from a background where parents own £400,000+ houses and buy £30,000 cars gives you a totally different mindset. For a working class kid from a background where a £1,000 payday loan is a lot of money, £50,000 debt is scary. A lot of them will have parents who think the sensible choice is to take a paying job now instead of gambling on a luxury of a degree. I didn't go to university till I was 24 for similar reasons, and that was when there were no fees and grants (and you still ended up in debt, albeit less)

Bit cramped inside

Baby wipes are your friend. Sometimes, when Im alone, they're my only friend. X Trail is v nice. The N tec is worth the extra money imo.

You don't have to get 10,000. You can get whatever you like, obviously, say, 8,000pa is cheaper (although not massively so).

So your point is that to buy secondhand out of warranty cars is cheaper than buying brand new cars with three year warranties? Ok.

If you're driving a very low mileage I'd just get a very good condition, low mileage 7 or eight year old car.

Disagree. For example the Qashqai Ive got was £23,600 new. Three year rental is £9,450 . If you buy it new you have to stump up the money for financing and there is no way you will be able to sell a three year Quashqai for only £9450 less than you paid for it.

For sure. Ive got a Qashqai from them on a three year deal. Really easy to deal with no hidden fees. I did all the calculations when I got mine and this was so much cheaper than even running the already depreciated 7 year old car I had before. I had a Skoda as a hire car before Christmas, like you I had a bit of residual feeling about the name but a couple of hours driving it did away with all that. There are other good deals here http://www.tilsungroup.com/vauxhall-insignia-2.0+cdti++140++ecoflex+design+5dr++start+stop+-car-35769#.VN41_ulya0E http://www.tilsungroup.com/volkswagen-passat-2.0+tdi+se+business+5dr-car-44581#.VN42kOlya0E http://www.tilsungroup.com/ford-mondeo-2.0+tdci+titanium+5dr-car-43313#.VN42q-lya0E

Exactly that. And its really cheap here http://www.tilsungroup.com/skoda-superb-2.0+tdi+cr+170+elegance+5dr-car-35589#.VN4z1elya0E

But you're not told that. You're told that on average, in a cohort of x hundred thousand in a good economy x% of graduates will earn x% more than non graduates. If you come from a middle class above average income family your expectations are "that higher group is me, and even if I eff up dad will bail me out". If you come from a lower wage family where no one has been to university and your friends are mostly manual workers, you'll think "**** there is no way Im gambling my future like that".

That's the nub of it imo. That said (as a working class kid who benefitted from no fees and a grant) I would have been deterred from going to university if it had involved incurring large debts. Debts of £50,000 are incredibly scary for people living in social housing and where the main breadwinner might be earning £15,000pa. I know its a largely a presentational issue, but doing away with the debt and imposing a simple graduate tax payable only on earnings over a given amount would encourage a wider cross section into higher education.

Killed on two separate occasions. I wouldn't let him out.

Out

Its going to be a horror show, hopefully.

Agree about the insulation but disagree about the lifespan necessarily being shorter, its just that there is a lot of cheap rubbish about. Decent boilers have stainless steel heat exchangers and if the system is flushed properly first and a magnaclean or similar is installed it will last 10-15 years. Both Vaillant and Bosch offer 5 year guarantees and you should get at least double that life.

My schoolboy dreams revolved around a 2000E, never a Porsche or Ferrari.

I installed a totally new heating and hot water system five years ago. I considered a combi but in the end went for an unvented mains pressure system with everything installed in the loft, so creating more space . It means you get fantastic showers and fast filling baths without the need for a pump - the hot water comes out with the same force as the cold. With a combi system you generally get a lower flow rate and pressure drops when someone turns on a tap elsewhere or the boiler starts heating the radiators. Imo if you've got a small house and theres just two of you go for a combi. If you've got a bigger place with more than one bathroom go for an unvented system. It is more expensive but worth it imo. Whatever you get don't be seduced into getting a cheap boiler, stick with Vaillant or Worcester Bosch and get someone good to install it. Poor installations cause all kinds of problems.

In few other jobs would you be earning £30,000pa in your 2nd year in post and £100,000 after c10 years. http://www.nhscareers.nhs.uk/explore-by-career/doctors/pay-for-doctors/

Im not sobbing, I go to games regardless because I enjoy it. Im actually pretty anti social anyway so I probably wouldn't go regularly to meet ups unless I happened to meet someone who got my jokes. I just don't get the thought train of people thinking its fine to spend hours chatting on here to some imaginary cyber personality but actually meeting someone for an hour over a beer is weird.

Its an empty jibe though. Guess what? fans who moved away from the Southampton area years ago have mates from the place they live and weirdly they don't support Saints. I usually go to games with family but on occasion I drive down for two hours to a match on my tod and then drive home again on my tod. Meeting a fellow fan for a beer beforehand would be good. The weird thing is how many warriors think meeting people in real life is deficient.