thefunkygibbons

Overall, looks like he had a very successful visit and UK Plc came out of it in a positive light

Watching the communal TV in the university halls

Doing donuts on tireless rims mad

I do hope he wins He will then take Labour to the left and keep them out of power for another election

And yet if it was some other older man over 80, would we find it funny

It is rude We invited the Pope to visit We cannot now complain about the cost of crowd control and the cost of keeping him safe It is simply good manners

I guess one more loss will leave us at the very bottom of the table

exactly It comes back to two questions 1. What is the purpose of a tax rate - if it is to maximise the tax take, then the Laffer curve applies and there is no merit in very high rates as the take declines. I would suggest that the 50% rate, especially when combined with the restrictions in personal allowances and National insurance is certainly close to, if not beyond the inflection point for the UK 2. Are headline rates just for political show. In the case of the 50% rate, I am sure that it was introduced for exactly that reason. The amount of tax earned by such a rate is relatively small. If you want to raise revenue you need to hit the bulk of the population, which means either the main rate of income tax, or another tax with a wide base such as VAT

A headline rate comparison is never straight forward For example, the highest rate of income tax is 61% which is the impact of the clawback of personal allowances have at those who earn just over £100k In addition, to make a comparison you need to know what reliefs and offsets are available

Just a thought, rather than picking numbers out of thin air, do some research on the Laffer Curve and then come back I don't think that anyone not even the most extreme socialist would now support tax rates at that level

It is a shame that the financial crisis hit when it did because it has left many people (including people in this thread) believing that it is all the fault of the bankers The reality is that the UK fiances were heading for the buffers, and all the financial crisis did was bring forward the event Quite simply, underneath the UK finances was a significant structural deficit, because the amount being spent was more than was being collected in taxes. Despite economic growth, there was a gap being covered by debt. It was all very well whilst the music was playing However as Warren Buffett states "Something that cannot carry on forever, one day will end" To use a personal example, I worked with someone who lived beyond his means, always striving to keep up with the Jones, indulging in a golf habit that probably was costing him £7-8000 a year, but all funded by nil rate balance transfer credit cards. Great whilst it lasted, but you can imagine the pain that hit when he ran out of cards to transfer the balance and got moved onto standard rates of near 20%. Suddenly, he was not in charge of his life. His creditors were. The Government under Gordon Brown was in the same situation.

Really? Have you heard who much of a haircut most Irish public servants have taken?

Agree with that about the Irish, it is a much smaller ecomony and had a bigger property bubble But if they had their credit rating cut after the cost cutting measures, imagine how much worse it would have been without the cuts

Good to read that we are focusing on fitness Hope it can be recovered in time to get us into the top 6 by Christmas

Watch number 5 Billy no mates

So we had to bail out the banks - fine that may yet cost us money although in the end, we may end making a profit on that deal. No, the fault lies with the politicians, mostly Labour, who do not treat taxpayers' money as if it was there own The pain we are about to feel is because we are spending more on public services than we can afford. The clearest indication of this has been the huge growth in employment in payroll numbers in the public sector over the last ten years. To put it in context, the last labour government was spending £500 million more than it was getting in Not a year Not a month Not a week But every single day And all of that was being borrowed How was it going to be paid back? Either through the whole country going bankrupt (similar to Greece) and having the IMF run the country Or massive tax rises for generations Or the route we are now on, 20% tax increase (which will hurt) and 80% cost cuts in order to get the public sector back to a size we can afford And at the end of the day, this governemt is not cutting the National Debt, it is cutting the deficit, that is, it is slowing down the rate of increase in the National Debt At some point we are going to have making in roads into the debt. It is going to take 15 years to sort this mess out. I dislike Unions - they do not run the country. If they want to have a say in the public finances, perhaps they should form a political party and campaign in a vote of some sort (perhaps a General Election) and see whether they win. Opps, I think they tried that and see where it got us. They should talk to their Irish comrades and see what real cost cutting measures look like - muppets!

Lets move on COYR WIFM

I know I should be moree positive, but right now I can see us slipping into the bottom three and taking several weks to get back out again

Manager recruitment is like sausage making Everyone knows how it is done, you just don't want to see it done in public

Me, always behind the team

Still man The administrator only has an official role He cannnot have an unofficial role to do anything

I have no real sympathy for the wives in such cases It is all money and lifestyle to them

The day before Christmas 5.30pm

Expectations strangely subdued Bizarrely, I would not be surprised by any result, lose, draw or win

I don't think he is, but you can see why he felt the need to make the statement when he sees how persistent such rumours are