Lord Duckhunter

The tax payer will always have to contribute to Public sector pensions, I cant see how any normal person could disagree with that. However, surely it's a legitimate question as to whether they should continue to fund a defined benefit scheme or move to a money purchase one which will save them a lot of money. It is also incorrect to call them "self funded" .

Do these companies you quote offer their employees a defined benefit scheme? Perhaps they closed them to keep their costs down and make the business more profitable. This is turn has meant they can keep the cost of your shopping lower. And , to go back to Bazza's earlier point. If you don't like your money going towards the Sainsburys pension, don't shop there. How does Bazza do the same to public sector pensions? If they put the price of a loaf up 50% to help fund pensions, you could walk away. If Bazza's taxes go up to fund a defined benefit pension in the public sector, what can he do?

Of course it makes a difference. My employer decided that they couldn't afford to continue to fund a defined benefit pension, so pulled the plug on it. There are a lot of people that believe the country (your employer) cant afford to continue to fund a defined benefit pension, but woe betide the Government that tries to pull the plug on them. I get the need to honour the pensions people signed up to (despite the fact that a huge number of private employers, including mine, didn't honour their commitment) but they should be closed to new entrants. Still at least I learnt something today. "Self funded" in public sector speak means funded by the employee and the tax payer.

But who funds it. You said it was self funded. My lad has a private pension, he pays in . I have a work one, i pay in and my company pay in. My wife has a NHS one, she pays in and the taxpayer pays in. I would be really interested in who pays into the local government self funded ones.

Or the people (IE the unions) that keep banging on that they are "self funded" could take them over. Who would you want in charge of your "self funded" pension, a wicked uncaring Tory party hell bent on stealing it, or a union whose sole purpose is to protect its members? I've no doubt that governments of both colours would.love to hand over the liabilities of these "self funded" pensions to the unions , in fact id wager that they would pay the unions millions to do so. Everyones a winner, the unions protect their members final salary pensions, the members keep their final salary pensions and the tax payer doesn't think they are funding them anymore, so can't be misled by the wicked Tory press.

Who knighted Fred Goodwin, who devised the tripartite banking regulations, who sold our gold at rock bottom prices, who taxed millionaires at 40% whilst putting up ordinary workers ni, who decimated peoples pensions with a tax grab, who expanded off balance pfi agreements that ourchildren and grandchildren will be paying back, who left us completely and utterly unprepared for the bust? Your Mr Wren-Lewis may be called a professor in economics, but then George burley is called a football manager. The notion that the labour party ran the economy fantastically but the bankers ruinned it alone is laughable. This bankers were courted, knighted and praised by the labour government, labour were part of the problem, not victims of it.

But Labour left us badly exposed to the downturn by spending too much money during the boom years. This in turn meant that there is no money to expand the deficit during the bust years. Of course Gordon Brown had abolished boom and bust and Labour had managed to create a goldilocks economy that ushered in a "golden age for the city of London".

Bazza, If I turned up at my local tonight and announced I had bought a lorry on HP and was going to set my self up in the removal business despite never having done it in my life. Some people would say to my face, "what, you ****" and the polite ones would wait until I visited the John before taking the **** behind my back. Obviously, there would be exceptions, but as a general rule the reaction to an ordinary Joe taking a chance and trying to better himself is more positive than in the UK in my experience. It is often said, although I don't know if it still stands, that Americans are against soak the rich tax rates, because they all think they or their children could be rich one day

If you didn't need a passport to visit the EU and had never needed one , how many Brits would have one? Add in the fact that the USA is so vast and diverse that you can have most types of holiday staying within the country. If you live in Boston, you can have a beach holiday in FLA, if you live in Texas you can ski in Colorado, want a city break, New York maybe. If you want a British Salou experience as a teenager, then you can do Daytona or other spring break places. So ask yourself this, if Disneyworld/land etc theme parks were in the UK, if you didn't need a passport to travel to France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, ect how many Brits would have a passport? What is this "worldly" you talk of. Does staying in an all inclusive "Holiday Village" in Turkey make you "worldly", or is it just transporting British culture and Butlins mentality to a hot country? If you narrow it down to Brits who take in the culture and sights and sounds of foreign countries outside of the EU, I bet the % is pretty much the same as Americans who travel. A lot of Brits (including me) go abroad to relax and get some sun in whilst staying in a different state/country, we need to leave the Country to do so, Americans don't.

If it's his first, second or even third offense then maybe the sentence is a bit harsh. But this was his 28th conviction, it's about time he was locked up for a reasonable length of time. Personally, I'd put him in Parkhurst or Wakefield and let him wander around naked in there. It may just make him decide to get another hobby and spare the public the sight of his meat and two veg.

My point was the reaction to his gamble(and it was a gamble) from his friends and neighbours.

I agree completely, I spent 4 years working there in the 80's and found them to be polite and sincere . Some Brits love to take the **** out of this "have a nice day" culture, but I found that Americans really do mean it, when you think about it, what a nice way to say goodbye to someone, yet for some reason it's used as a stick to poke fun at them. The big thing I noticed was the optimism and the can do attitude most had. My neighbour was a Geordie, and despite never having done removals before, bought a van on HP and decided to try and do removals. All the neighbours and guys we knew from the bars were all "great idea man" and said they would recommend him and pass the word on. In this country it would have been "you daft ****, what do you know about it". I know that's a bit of a generalisation, but I really was struck on how positive they were about his venture and how much they wanted him to succeed. Generally, they don't know a lot about Europe, but always seemed keen to ask about England when you first meet. The only thing that used to **** me off was half of them thought I was Australian.

If I was an Arsenal fan and wanted this guy to sign, I'd be pretty ****ed off if he went to Southampton.

Bearing in mind we failed to win any of the 6 "winnable" games against Norwich, Sunderland & West Brom last season, I'd rather the skipper kept his mouth shut.

lol

Anyone on zebra finance who wants to change the dd date its really easy. You have to wait until June payment goes out and can then change subsequent dates by calling them. I called them a minute ago and sorted it, with me they took Junes payment by debit card and changed payments from 23rd to 1st of month, but you can wait until first payment has come out if you want.

They seem pretty loose around lending policies, they say in a their q & a section that they "may run credit checks". Maybe its your address or something trivial. They also say contact them if you want them to reconsider. I was looking up changing the did date and its all there.

They think that right wingers only lean to the right because they're not enlightened enough. It's a typical insulting retort perfected by the BBC. It's amazing how many of the enlightened left accept honours and bow and fawn to the Queen. The great leftie slogans of equality seem to melt away when it comes to the Queen and accepting honours bestowed in her name.

As a leftie I would have thought he would have been anti our corrupt honours system.

They've spent a hell of a lot of money in fees and wages, granted not as much as the Skates, but a hell of a lot for a club of their size. They are Pompey lite.

Wrong answer, you'll get called evil by Labour politicians. The best bet is to donate to the Labour party and they'll give you advise on tax "efficiency"

I remember when there were people hailing Francois Hollande's new attack on the rich and how he was going to raise the tax rate to 75%. How did that work out, popular is he? Milliband, Balls and co seem to have abandoned their love of him and embraced the coalitions policies. Cuts to child benefit, welfare caps and now an attack on universal benefits for pensioners. They also seem to be embracing the Laffer principle with their call for a cut in VAT to increase tax revenues. They wont even commit to raising the top rate of tax back to 50%. The reason is obvious, because their oppostition was just that, opposition, they didn't really believe it. They knew all along that they couldn't justify paying millionaires child benefit, knew that the 50% rate bought no extra money in and was just a trap set by Gordo for the Torys. The problem is they took people like Verbal in with their cynical posturing and he really does believe in the nonsense Utopian fair society lefties like to dream off. Back in the real world, the rich have never contributed more to the Revenue's coffers, too many people receive welfare and Gordon Brown left us ill equipped to deal with the crash and therefore ****ed the finances for a generation.

I feel sorry for the blokes that ****ged her, she's no oil painting.

Saw him back in Oct, sadly he's not going to be with us much longer. There was talk of a book, but don't know how his illness has affected the writing of it. If you get a chance watch oil city confidential, lots of stories and explanations of the way they influenced the punk generation. Underrated band that went to pot when wilko left.