buctootim

Broadly neutral. Only had one 2% pay rise in four years and in that time inflation has pushed prices up by about 14%. On the other hand the enduring record low of mortgage rates (I'm paying 0.99% over base) has offset that.

Trousers you should watch this interview with Larry Summers, former adviser to three Presidents and Chief Economist at the World Bank. [video=youtube;6d7s49-jPl0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6d7s49-jPl0

Thats ok. Im partial to a bit of business class myself, when someone else is paying or its an upgrade using frequent flier miles. A manual gearbox Roller? you dont see many of those

When house hunting disregard the pictures of the houses and just look at the sizes of the rooms and its location. People are always drawn to pretty houses, those with kerbside appeal, and pay more money for them or they refuse to view houses which would otherwise be ideal. My neighbour did the same with the house she now loves, but had to be dragged along by her insistent husband for the first viewing. You dont live your life looking at the outside, how much space you have and where it is is far more important and you can afford a much nicer ugly house than you can a pretty one. Near me a there is a line of four ex council houses in a beautiful location in farmland overlooking the South Downs. One by one they have been bought up and transformed, one especially by cladding in oak weatherboard has been changed from 1950s flat fronted brick box into chocolate box desirability. I live in a 1960s house, pretty plain on the outside but big windows, good size rooms and really nice big garden. A friend lives in a beautiful flat in central Kensington in a pug ugly 1950s concrete monstrosity but which looks out over regency terraces and is fantastic to live in. His views are their beautiful houses, theirs are his flat.

Business class is for those flying on expenses and a few people who think image is more important than value imo. Anybody who is the position to pocket the difference does so. I fly long haul about ten times a year in economy and usually have no problem sleeping for most of the way - which is the best way to get through long haul whichever cabin you're in. Business class is typically about 4x times more expensive so I often save around £1,500 per flight - times that by 10 flights a year and it totals £15,000pa - the cost of a very nice holiday and a good lease car each year or supporting a much heftier mortgage for a better house - all for the sake of getting a hard bed to lay down on for a few hours, a slightly bigger tv screen and some farmed salmon. Whoopy do.

You've cropped it too tight. Would look better with the original text - 'IKEA Sven self assembly' imo.

I thought the whole tone of interview was odd. Almost like Mair was trying to do a hatchet job on him to order. More old rehashed old news to an agenda than Watergate expose.

The capacity of people to moan about things they havent understood is breathtaking. 1. fly from Dubai to work in Europe but taking a stopover for a few days in UK = 2 separate journeys flights = 2 x tax. 2. fly from Dubai to work in Europe via Frankfurt on a connecting flight = 1 journey and 1 tax. Now Im just waiting for the complaints about the unfair 'government tax' fuel surcharge that is actually charged by the airlines but designed to make it look like their prices are lower and the taxes are lower.

I got an infraction for posting up blue mink lyrics.....

You heard of evolution at all? Its this wacky idea where animals or people have a common orgin but evolve differently, crazy I know. We evolved out of bacteria and fish, but by your reasoning they aren't a separate species or even a race, just your regular cousins. Yes the genetic differences between races are small and yes some populations have input from more than one race and yes the human species is more of a continuum than totally orthoganal groups. But none of that means there is no genetic basis for races.

Wow, thanks. I must tell the medical profession. They think body chemistry varies between races and treat accordingly.

The fact is the government benefits system has alweays been pay as go. Your contributions funded the benefits paid to pensioners alive when you were working. Now you are retiring your pension will be funded by younger people at work now. The higher your benefits, the more a young person has to pay in tax. Its not necessarily iniquitable, but it is reality. And your claim about paying in 100 times more than you will recive back is just hyperbole and nonsense

The higher personal tax free threshold and the absence of a requirement to pay NI , those very substantial tax breaks.

Cant see why Poyet would go to Reading. Brighton have got a bigger ground, better attendance in the CC than Reading have in PL and a sane owner. Plus its a nicer place to live.

You're wrong again because you've failed to understand exactly what an overseas territory is and you're cynicism wont allow you to be objective. Post WW2 when the colonies were allowed or in some cases pushed to become independent it was recognised, with full UN agreement that whilst all territories should have the right to self determination some were simply too small to do it all. Kenya, India, Jamaica etc went fully independent. Specks of land like the Caymans, Bermuda and the Falklands became self governing but continuing to rely on the UK for foreign policy and defence. The Falklands have the same deal as all the overseas territories. Britains attitude to the Falklands is no different to anywhere else - as the airlift of troops to Belize when they were threatened by Guatamala shows - and you wont find a poorer less able to fend for itself country in the whole of the western hemisphere. The Falkland Islands feel British because um, they are overwhelmingly of British ancestry (although a few Chileans now live there), they speak English and they have never been part of anywhere else, have no desire to be part of anywhere else and couldnt realistically with 3,000 people maintain, for example, networks of embassies and international agreements and memberships which full independence would require.

The Falkland Islanders feel British and want to remain British. Britain has been happy for the Islands and Islanders to be that way since before 1833 - long before the whole issue of oil and mineral rights was important. Indeed the oil and minerals belong legally to the Falklands themselves, not to the UK so there is no major financial incentive for the UK to intervene Estimates of oil reserves range from 6.5 to 50 billion barrels. The Falklands government are going to tax at around $3 per barrel and create a sovereign wealth fund. So somewhere between $19.5bn and $150bn will accrue to 3,000 people - very nice, especially when they already have average incomes of around $50,000pa, one of the highest in the world. The Falkland Islanders dont need Britain and Britain doesnt need them but there is shared history and loyalty and Im glad Britain is doing the right thing - just as we did with Monserrat a few years ago - when there was no oil and no banking. Pap, Im so glad I don't share your view of the world, or even that of message boards.

Sounds like a Ken Loach film.

Places like McLean are commuter belt and not really comparable to downtown DC. My company's HQ is at Dupont Circle and I love that and Georgetown area for going out. Both are very walkable with lots of good bars and restaurants.

Player's agent in trying to start a bidding war between CC clubs by saying "PL clubs are interested" shocker.

Was in a bureau de change last weekend and they had a $50,000,000,000 ($50 billion) Zimbabawe dollar note on display. Worth bugger all apparently.

For me Pochettino has got all the hallmarks of Alan Ball, Roy Keane and Paul - great player, mediocre manager. Players initially respond because as a former international he's got more peer cred with them than a physio from S****horpe, but that soon wears off. Im as confident as you can be that NA would have kept us up. As others have said employing Pochettino with his background of an inexperienced one time manager who got sacked was a big gamble. To do it in the middle of season was just reckless.

Why is that bloke wearing a Ku Klux Klan outfit to the game? Totally disgusting imo.

Your missing the point. The club have broken their obligationsin the contract by removing him from the job he was employed to do but are refusing to release him to work elswhere unelss he agrees to give up his entitlement to get paid under the contract. Its sh itt y behaviour, no ifs and buts.

This really. If Nigel gets paid up in full, gets the job at Leeds and then beats us next season then that would be a healthy dose of natural justice served up to Cortese.

So the players brouught in have become our best players, including one from abroad? Doh. I see clown.