Whitey Grandad

Now I'm confused. I thought that was the situation under the Labour government.

All a very fair summary of the situation, in my opinion. It seems obvious to me that Clarkson had enemies within the BBC, there was also the leaked video of the eeny-meeny incident which didn't happen by accident. All very unsatisfactory and nobody comes out of this with any credit. Unfortunately all my contacts at the beeb have retired long ago so I can't find out much more, even if I wanted to.

But somebody has to die in order for this money to be passed on.

And as I indicated above, it takes a big lump of money out of the housing market.

Indeed it was, 1945 musical, 1956 film, we went to see it as a family. I can't see that Diana Ross has ever covered it although many others have. G+Pm was only 7 years later in 1963 and is my wife's least favouirite song. Ever. Man of La Mancha was 1965 and seems to have even more covers although Diana Ross isn't amongst these either.

Quite so. The result is the same, that he most likely won't work for the BBC again, it's only a matter of how it looks on his CV. I expect he cares even less than I do.

£325,000 per person at the moment, which sounds a lot but the moneygrabbing graverobbers at HMRC will do everything in their powers to discount large chunks of it.

Booger. No chance of a points deduction I suppose?

That's what your children are for. If they want your money then thay'll have to look after you, if it would have gone in IHT then they're not so bothered.

All very true, but those who have worked hard would like their children to benefit after they've gone . (Not always the case. I'll grant you)

Before my last trip to the Caribbean I took out a Halifax Clarity credit card because it is supposed to have no fees or commission for foreign purchases and I have to say that I was pleasantly impressed with it. We spent a lot of money and all the deals seemed to be smack on the official exchange rates. I also have a bank account in Paris and for Euros I tend to use that and top the account up with transfers when the rate looks good. Whenever I use that card in the Eurozone there are no fees whatsoever but I would not recommend going this far just to save a few quid. Might be worth looking at this: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-travel-money And Mehball is right, where you change the money will probably make more difference than the rate you get.

You're quite right. I think that adding and extra £350,000 (?) to cover the family home is one way of addressing this.

It was 12 months for a period, in practice 11 months because of the notice period. In cases of redundancy it must be remembered that it is the job that is deemed redundant and not the employee. Yes indeed, the whole process must be followed precisely and if it isn't then the dismissal is 'automatically unfair'. The problem is especially difficult for small employers who don't have the resources to make sure of this.

The problem is that many employers will reach a settlement in order to reduce the potential costs.

I'm genuinely surprised at that Please, please, pretty please...

Is this good news? Will the next manager be as Awful?

An interesting question. I think they decided not to make the remaining programs and just let his contract run out.

All good points, but you forgot to mention that we are also above both Liverpool and Tottenham and if it finishes like that then you know you've had a good season.

My apologies.

They have plans (see above) for an extension this summer but from reading the Premiere League rules it seems to be more about media comfort and ground safety.

It's the threat of the tax that people hate. The reason that so few properties fall under it is that the occupants haven't died. Yet.

You're confusing me with someone who gives a toss. That I don't is one of the very few advantages of getting old. My detailed questioning of you as to the details of the incident are to demonstrate how little any of us actually know, and you in particular. The questions I ask are very often rhetorical, asking people to examine and test their views. My wider concern is with the rush to judgment, sometimes based on individual prejudices. All I am urging is that it is better to stand back and take a wider view and wait for the dust to settle before throwing the stones. Just think of me as the voice of conscience whispering in the background.

Indeed they should. One indirect consequence of exempting the family home will be a freeing up of the housing market. Anything else that discourages moving house, such as stamp duty, should also be removed. One of the reasons for transport congestion is the reluctance to move house because of the high cost of changing. 50 years ago people used to move if they got a job much more than 12 miles from their home, now they can drive up to 40 miles or more. One other interesting proposal I read was to make it more attractive for older people living in big houses to sell up and move to somewhere smaller. They argued that we needed to build more retirement homes rather than starter houses and that anyone downsizing should be exempt from stamp duty.

It's a result of following Saints for a couple of decades. These are uncharted waters for most of us, we are more used to expecting the worst.

If he joined in the summer I'd be very happy.