View From The Top

You notice I said ALL are scared of doing it. It's a poison chalice but 10/10 for your attempt to twist my words.

I genuinely believe that they are so scared of changing it in case too many people's bills skyrocket. It would be electoral suicide.

There is no such thing as car tax had hasn't been for nearly 80 years.

I think they are all scared of doing so.

It is. VAT on listing fees, local taxes when goods purchased and profits are subject to income tax when you are registered as a business seller. HTH.

You don't half chat sh it when you're sobber. No one, not one, has said anything about not getting the finances back in order, it's where the burden falls that is the issue to some if us.

The majority of the burden shouldn't fall on the neediest and no matter how the figures are looked at the poorest 20% have shouldered a far bigger portion of the cuts. After all, we are all in it together.

Difference is that us on those who'd vote for the devil before the tories trust Labour to make fairer cuts. Time will tell if that trust is misplaced. No doubt the usual tory apologists will ramble on but as with most of their arguments, it'll be all "me, me, me".

I'm named after him. True story.

Freehub bearings perhaps.

Perhaps because we understand that they're not going to be in government.

So HS2 is deeply loved by the right? Better tell my local Tory MP that as he's campaigning against it, not to mention UKIP who have pledged to stop it. You'll also notice I say governments. plural. I'm equally scathing of the left when changes/cuts are incoherent. It's to do with being at the coalface and seeing the impact.

Thank you The Daily Mail.

I've advocated it on many an occasion and I've been present when it's be said the Secretary for State for Education.

If governments were bothered about paying down debt they wouldn't be wasting billions and billions on Trident, HS2 etc. As per usual there is no coherent thought given to cuts. For example young people need to stay in education until they're 18 unless they are working but the FE budget has been slashed again and again to the point where it's almost the perfect storm. Guidelines tell us that they must all be doing English and maths regardless of previous results but there is such a chronic shortage of maths teachers that FE institutions are having to use unqualified staff. Next year all students without a GCSE C grade in maths and English have to re-do them so that's 100s of extra kids doing them but our budget is cut by 28% by London meaning we cannot actually do it, we simply don't have enough staff to teach the subjects. This means class sizes go up and up, behaviour deteriorates as kids are forced to do something they really don't want to do and results suffer and so do the kids. Turning E & F grades into C grades in one year when you have 100s of extra bodies but less people to do it isn't the result of a thought out strategy, it's slash and burn.

The fact that Labour have ruled out a coalition with the SNP seems to have passed you by.

Thing is, the scare tactics aren't working.

I know, we had a weak one blow through when we were in Antigua a few years ago.

Boxed off already.

I'm open to suggestions of alternatives to Cuba. It's simply a week away with no kids for some sunshine & downtime at October 1/2 term.

One of its appeals is no septics. If they are then allowed to travel we'll be elsewhere.

Country had the opportunity to take the first step towards PR and the powers to be ensured it wasn't allowed to happen. We've only ourselves to blame.

Wife and I are thinking of a kids free October 1/2 term break to Cuba. Neither of us have been before but I would imagine some folk on here have been. Any suggestions of where to stay are very welcome. It'll be simply a weeks downtime.

I thought they were roughly done on population?

I have no real beef with that viewpoint. I don't care if people are wealthy, I enjoy a comfortable life myself, but it shouldn't be at the expense of the of the weakest and most vulnerable.