Whitey Grandad

And fat ones.

Providing they can fill them. I met one regular who told Cortese where to go when he put the prices up.

Now who's being stupid? This is not true if the cost of borrowing - it's called interest by the way - makes the total cost of purchase higher than the increase in value of the item bought. Or even if the increased borrowing leads to inflation that reduces the value of that object. What do you suggest we invest in? If you are talking about machinery to improve manufacturing productivity, better transport infrastructure, more oil or gas wells? Because I don't hear Labour suggesting that we do any if this and nor did they when they were in power. Perhaps we should have bought gold and sold that when it shot up in value? Oops, we did exactly the opposite. You should realise that many of the posters on here have a long experience of running successful businesses and enterprises and might just know something about what hey are writing.

Didn't he start at Colden Common?

You can't cut borrowing by borrowing more. Labour always used the term 'investment' when they were talking about increasing spending on public services when they should have said 'subsidy'.

In vino veritas.

What, for handball outside the area? That's just a yellow in this situation.

The pension credits arguments applies to private and public sectors. Remember that these public pensions are in addition to the basic state pension and apart from some notable exceptions have been non-contributory. Whatever the individual amounts, the total financial liability is frightening.

The higher allowance is being phased out and is actually reduced to zero if your income is £29,000 which is a considerable amount, I'll grant you, but implies a pension pot of over £450,000. The employer still has to pay NI but someone over 65 would have already paid a working lifetime of contributions.

Can she count on your support?

Tax breaks? What tax breaks are these? Please let me know so that I might take advantage of them if ever I am fortunate enough to retire.

So, Thursday night is Pap's night?

Quite true. This money is leaving Britain instead of rattling around in the local economy.

Her nose looks rather flat, are you sure she hasn't been punched already?

It was a different world. I had a full grant for university of £400 a year. My first house cost £6395 and we had a 25% deposit because my wife had saved every penny that she earnt. My first job was just over £1000 a year. These are meaningless figures because that was different money from now. Far fewer went to university and in my opinion the expansion in places has been a big mistake. Most youngsters would be far better starting work earlier and earning money in the process. There is plenty of work available but it might not be to everyone's taste, if not, wy are so many flockinh to Britain?

I've seen two close colleagues die at 64 and 63 and my wife's sister died at 56. My mother's 93 and she pays income tax on her modest pension that my father paid extra on his weekly contributions so that she could be a little more comfortable in her old age. Unlike all her friends who didn't save anything and had the state pay for everything.

Free for everyone over 60. It's cheaper to make it universal than it is to means-test it.

No, we're all paying for the profligacy of the preceding Labour government. And pensions are taxed, in cas you've forgotten.

That's rubbish. Younger people are reaping the benefits of a society built upon the hard work of the preceding generations, many of whom did not live long enough to enjoy an old age.

Why?

Full of fat juicy sultanas.

Yes, they have been subsidised for years by the southerners and we have had to endure decades of wasteful misrule under Labour governments that only got elected because of their Scottish MPs. That's why they have continued to pump English money into their economy. Then there is the Shetland Islanders' attitude to independence to consider. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scotland/9794316/Alex-Salmond-warning-over-Shetland-oil-after-independence.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/scotland-blog/2012/mar/19/islanders-threaten-salmond-independence-plans

Ah yes, I recognise the nose.

Yes, I saw that too. Alison Rudd wasn't it? Our bit was tucked away at the bottom of the page.

The linesmen (I can never get to grips with calling them assistant referees) can certainly have an input regarding serious foul play and violent conduct, but if the referee doesn't see it they will have to fill out the incident report. The fourth official cannot rule on technical decisions but can have a say on matters of indiscipline.