trousers

Ah....so, that's how LifeLongSaint got all his inside information during the SFC takeover....

Hmmm....that gives me an idea....

Are there any official plans in place for celebrating this thread reaching 25,000 posts today? I have some bunting and an open top bus for hire if that helps.

Sounds reasonable. Maybe the sum should be: "average regional wage + £20k" or such like?

Tom Cobbley

What colour will the shorts be if the red sash 'secret' is true?

Bobs

Yep, £50k sounds like a fair cut off (it's always going to be an arbitrary decision for the exact cut off) If I was cameron I'd make a potential smart move and for the first year, make the cut optional. So, say to those over £50k: "we're stopping paying this automatically to you but if you really feel you need the extra £50 a month (or whatever it is) then you can apply to get it reinstated. I would be surprised if many on over £50k would go to the trouble to claim it back. I would also limit child tax credits to a maximum of two children per famil (for all citizens, not just those over £50k)

Depends if they're still in existence 8th July this time around? :-)

Fair points. Cheers

Goodnight (children)

That's what I find amusing in some of the post "debate" interviews with 'the general public'. They nearly always moan about the leaders when they start being critical about each other's parties. Welcome to great Britain 2010 where even a good old slanging match is politically incorrect. (as is using those last two words in a sentence too)

Which, by default, makes it inaccurate of course....

A hung parliament will be the best outcome for the Tories in the long run. In other words, I agree with the head of the bank of England. If cameron gets in with a majority this time the fickle British public will vote him out in 5 years due to the impact of the necessary cuts. A hung parliament will show (IMHO) that consensus government won't work in the uk as a whole (it's more suited as a model to regional government) and as such I believe we'd see another election within 2 years at which point the public will have a much clearer view of the viable options. So i'd be surprised if cameron isn't secretly wishing for no overall decision next week (whilst not microphoned up, obviously)

Andy

DIY

Yeah, but Mandy and Campbell are saying the polls don't mean anything so we can all ignore them. Sigh.

No, it was the bigoted voters....

Cameron 41% Clegg 34% Brown 25%

Some of my close family work in the NHS. I won't divulge the information that gives me access to as it would burst the rosey bubble. It may (and often does) look good from theoutside but behind the scenes there is often dismay at how inefficiently and illogically the nhs is run. Some of what I hear genuinely astounds me, and that's from a hospital that gets high ratings

Miner

If we're to judge today's political parties by what they did years/decades ago then I'll see your yesteryear Tory party and raise you a yesteryear labour party. Good game, good game...

I use this: http://www.lmsoft.com/ Probably not the most sophisticated website design tool in the world (it's of the "what you see is what you get" variety) but it's simple to use (thus matching my intellect) and you can get good results out of it.

Swansea