Whitey Grandad

Please respect this address and use it responsibly: dluker@saintsfc.co.uk

Because the postal service in this country is 'not very good' so people whose tickets were posted today or tomorrow will not know that they haven't received them until about Wednesday and there will not be enough time to receive replacements in the post.

Sent them out a week earlier?

I'd settle for that but I'd prefer 40, which should see me out. Alternatively, how about fining them a really big amount, say 2 seasons' worth of parachute payments?

My tickets were £34 and I collected those this morning. If I'd thought about it, I could have asked about everybody else's tickets.

What the PL possibly threaten them with now? Fines and points dedustions won't make any difference. All that's left is not releasing future parachute money.

LOL. You seem to like up to your user name.

I collected mine this morning from the ticket office. I don't trust the post.

I the early 80s I did a some work in Canada and the States and they explained to me one difference between them In Canada, once the paramedics were called out to an emergency you had to go to hospital but in the States they wouldn't take you unless they were satisfied that you could pay. One New Yorker told me that getting old in America was fraught with healthcare problems and that he would be coming to England when he retired. I'm not sure that he was joking.

We are ranging away from the original topic now, but why is it that the NHS employs so many people compared with other countries, and why has no other country followed this model? How do we compare with France, for example?

We owe it now, we pay it in the future. It's all part of the big picture. Taxes have to go up, and petrol is an obvious target. I'm not personally against high fuel taxes provided that vehicle taxes are reduced to offset them. I think it is right that those who use the roads more should pay more and that vehicles which are less fuel-efficient should also pay more.

We are comparing two different amounts here. One is the tax actually taken, as you have pointed out, the other is the amount actually spent. The government has been spending more than it has been taking, effectively they've spent the money but they haven't presented us with the bill yet, so we have tax as a proportion of GDP and spending as a proportion of GDP. Current overspend is future taxes and the liability is increasing all the time when you consider public sector pensions and PFI commitments.

Ta for those. So if we are taxed at 37.4% of GDP, why does tax freedom day fall on 25th June? It's because these figures are only the tax raised and do not include government borrowing. http://www.adamsmith.org/tax-freedom-day/

If he give's up after a couple of groans then he has no place in our team. (he's not very good either)

Of course (but youknew that). It's compulsory health insurance. The problem is that the public think that the NHS is doing us all a favour when in reality we are paying customers who deserve better.

That's absolutely true. Here we have employers' NI which is always overlooked but is as much a part of the employees' salary as the take-home pay. Once you factor that in the marginal rate look horrendous. In France the pay slip includes a long list of taxes, all itemised. In Denmark the employer pays all the money to the employee who then pays a high marginal rate. When I was there a lot in the 80s VAT was 25% (even on food) and car purchase tax was 180%, i.e. you paid 280% of the ex-works cost of a new car, whereas Germany next door had VAT at 10%. Comparing salaries alone is very misleading.

I was wondering that. Did I see that Crystal Palace spent 2 years in administration before Simon Jordan stepped in? What is the trigger point for giving up? Is it entirely up to the administrator to decide?

They would get either parachute money or new TV money. I would guess that the CCC clubs would still get their money which would be deducted from the TV money.

I want to cry :smt022

The PA wasn't too bad when the stadium first opened but it has been bad for a couple of years now.

East and south I suppose. We went to Sorrento in early April and it was like spring here, 20 degrees daytime and very pleasant but not really sitting-out weather in the evenings. A month later and the temperature was up in the twenties.

In summer I agree with you. In January or February there isn't a lot of choice.

If I remember correctly, other teams have been deducted extra points for 'having been in administration before'.

...or visiting Avram Grant?

I agree.