CB Saint

If there is one thing that annoys me more than anything else, its public sector waste ala the example of the taps. Now I pay my taxes and accept that I have to pay my bit and that the better I do the more I should put in, however it makes me mad when it gets frittered away. I worked damned hard to make that money in the first place so I expect people to spend it responsibly. Rant over. As someone who works in the business, Hammy, whats your view about this personal budget scheme generally?

This made me laugh a lot

Love them or hate the the halifax Go compare et al have 35 posts on here talking about them. While we are on the subject that "Webuyanycar.com" ad is terrible

Interesting that his colleagues immediately restrained him - goes to show not all coppers are bad eggs, just like not all students are trouble makers.

To keep comparisons on a like for like basis, you should compare plymouth and st helens to say southampton; and devon and merseyside to hampshire or dorset then see what the differences are.

Take firm grip of tooth with pliers. Push in hard, Twist, Pull. Simples. You don't need to go to uni to do that. Have a nice day!!!

I am on dangerous ground here as i am not really upto speed on the services day care centres provide, however, the issue seems to be that of more personal choice available to oaps with the introduction of personal budgets. That in turn removes the guarentee of a certain of income to the day care centre which gives them income uncertainty. Now it strikes me that the day care centres that offer a better range of activities will do better under this scheme than a day care centre that say only offers bingo twice a week. SO effectively the day care centres have to up their offering as oaps will migrate to other centres (where possible). A bit like what the "pathway to Opportunities" organisation is doing in the article. This seems a fine concept in theory, however, as always we are not in a perfect world so there will envitably be closures, and if that is the case then I hope that something is done to ensure that the affected people aren't abandoned and provided with an alternative.

So in about 10,000 years we will have a Liberal government. After all it will probably take them that long to recover from this fees issue.

China may hold itself out to be socialist, but the ruling elite run the country for the benefit of, well, the ruling elite. According to some of the arguments made on the other thread that makes them more like the tories. Go figure.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6B910720101210 Try this

Stayed up the road from Agios Nicholos at Elounda. Went to ag nic for a day - does get busy with the cruise ships coming in but nice enough. Personally i was glad to go back to elounda - lovely little fishing town lots of great restaurants, although can be a little pricey. The russians have been driving up the prices. I does take a along time to get anywhere from that end of the island as well. Knossos is probably as far as you will want to go unless you are up for spending many hours in a car

What are the police supposed to do? They got lambasted after the last student demo for not doing enough. They have got the worst job in the world imo; damned if you do, damnedif you don't.

The article made interesting reading Can you really not repay early? - I f that is the case then that is plain stupid.

Is this the dune "go for broke" thread? HMV? There is only one record retailer on the high street for a reason - there is no long term future for them with online retailers and supermarkets muscling in.

I was swimming off that same jetty two months ago, gulp.

Because your mates wouldn't at all be biased would they!

Ok, why go to university? For some professions its a necessity - doctors engineers vets etc. Others for academia or research. Beyond that, you can rise in any profession through graft. Providing some one is bright and determined there is nothing to stop them acheiving what they waant. I didn't go to uni but through a lot of graft I qualified as an accountant and have done well. Has not having a degree hurt me?, well it closed a few job doors in my earlier career, but in the long term it certainly hasn't held me back. True i missed out on the life experience, and sometimes I regret that, but not for too long. It frustrates me when politians say that more and more people need a university education, why? As my dear gran used to say, the cream always rises to the top. If you work hard and you are bright / savvy / creative and driven you will invariably do well.

To mock disadvantaged groups in society is bad enough,to single a young lad on national tv is just cruel and a just proves how much of a spiteful tw4t he really is.

It doesn't matter if it is drunk students, subversive elements or anachists, the headline tomorrow will be that the student protest are incapable of being peaceful. therefore the next time they try to organise one, there will be even more riot police and it will escalate from there. The minute a demonstration turns violent, it loses public support. Even the nUS leadership recognised that after the last episode. I trust these students were not skipping lectures that Ihave subsidised on their behalf.

If what you assert is true, then i suspect these perceptions were already there and all the extra course fees have done is added additional weight to the arguement.

no more than the current system, employers will just have to change one number in their payroll software

[quote=holepuncture;909219A £21k salary in todays money, at least in the south east, will get chewed up by all the overheads such as rent and council tax as you have mentioned, a 30-40k debt on top of that would be seriously depressing... a mortgage... forget it! If you have that kind of debt on your shoulders, you aint got no chance! A few of my friends are experiencing this with 15-20k debts round there necks, from debt accrued before the tuition fees came in! a mate who works in a building society reckons you need a £40k deposit if you want to buy a house for £150-200k. its not painting a bright picture. I was a year before the hike to £3k a year tuition, so lucky! I think the only way forward for young aspiring people are to go through commercial degrees, a BA in Tesco retail management, Bsc in Llyods Fincance etc... a commercial appentice as such, where you earn less, to contribute towards your education and training, but you dont finish with a lifetime of debt!(60x us)... At £21k pa a gradutate will pay nothing. At £22k pa a grad will repay £90pa At £30k pa a grad will repay £810pa At £50k pa a grad will repay £2610 pa At £150k pa a grad will repay £11,610 pa And if you haven't managed to repay it in 30 years its written off On the face of it, it doesn't sound too bad. You won't repay a huge sum until you reach a decent salary. BTW I believe that under the new proposals, the monthly repayments actually fall for low earning grads. The current salary threshhold is £15k pa.

This seems to be the answer to every propsed cut. Health care, police, uni fees - a couple points here and there and we will be paying 80% tax again. Don't forget that in april NI is going up. How many more income tax hikes can the country stand before it starts to become counterproductive. Whilst the fees seems high, I would be infavour of central subsidies for certain courses such as engineering to encourage more students into those areas. This can then be flexed annually to meet demand in certain sectors - need more doctors, then the fees are halved, when enough doctors are in the system, take away the subsidy.

It is interesting to watch the Libs wrestle with their conscience on this one. Should they stay faithful to their manifesto (which didn't get them elected) or should they honour their commitments to the coalition which has enabled them to share power and, it has to be said, influence policy more to their liking that would otherwise be given a tory majority. I also noticed that the labour party refused to "pair" with the climate minister Chris Hulne, who is now forced to fly back from mexico early to vote. I thought that this was a little bit childish and has cost the country unneccessary expense.

Interesting that as soon as he threatens a bank the finance industry close ranks. paypal, visa and mastercard have all withdrawn service and a swiss bank has suspend his funds.