badgerx16

Now this is where it gets interesting - rather than, for instance, selecting blue eyes, what if both of the parents were carriers for Cystic Fibrosis, and by gene splicing chromosome 7 you could ensure the removal of the faulty gene for the CTFR protein, replacing it with a fully functional one ? This would prevent the disease from manifesting itself.

That was a bloody expensive salad.

If they start meddling with the parental DNA then yes, selective breeding becomes an option.

Mitochondrial DNA is only ever inherited from the mother - it comes from the egg cell, ( the mitochondria of the sperm get left outside on fertilisation as they are in the tail ). This, therefore, does not in any way affect the inherited characteristics of the child, it will be a 100% mix of the parents as the mitochondrial DNA cannot be integrated into the cell nucleus. All this is doing is replacing that part of the cell that produces energy.

Well, it's the GK shirt for me then.

I'm worried that the answers to both questions is yes.

I thought from the title that this thread was about a new policy initiative.

Maybe you could ask the people who wrote that Parliamentary paper, or Lord Hutton who produced the original report. ( Not that I could possible accuse the Torygraph of having an agenda ).

http://www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/sn05823.pdf‎ "The LGPS is different in that, like Defined Benefit schemes in the private sector, it is funded. This means that contributions are paid into a fund, which is invested, and from which pension benefits are paid. " "“The LGPS pays out about £5bn each year in benefits and takes in £10bn in income. There is no cash crisis for some time and most schemes are cash positive for the next 14 to 20 years.”"

The taxpayer ( through the good offices of Central or Local Government ) is the employer, so this is hardly a surprise. This is up to the Government, who are already making significant changes to the schemes. Semantic argument - the LGPS is funded by 3 sources; the employer, the employee, and investment income from the funds. I suggest that a similar private sector scheme would be funded in exactly the same way. The lack of 'top-up' funding from the Treasury, in my eyes, means it is 'self funded'.

And what I am saying is that they don't "underwrite" the LGPS. And the irony of today's teachers strike, I get home to find my wife doing lesson plans - but she says she "didn't start until after half past three", so technically the strike day was over.

How exactly do you expect ANYTHING in the public sector to be funded ? Ultimately the money is public money, by definition, and a lot of the 'public' money spent by that sector ends up in the coffers of PRIVATE businesses. So who is funding their pensions, expenses, and bonuses in such instances ?

[h=2]What do we do best in this Country? Moan, whinge, and whine.[/h]

No, in the same way I cannot choose to stop funding foreign military adventures, or supplying overseas aid to countries with their own space programs. If your company became a supplier to the public sector, you would effectively be paid by public money, would you then decide to not take the benefits of that investment ?

Same as mine. The fact that my employer is technically the tax payer makes no difference.

What size would he be if he didn't have a healthy diet ?

Technically we are all paying for somebody else's pensions; when I retire the proceeds from the LGPS will be generated from the investment income, plus the contributions of those working at that time. The same with the state pension, what we pay in today gets paid out to the current batch of pensioners, when we get our entitlement, it will be the earning potential of today's teenagers that funds it ( ).

In which case Gove, as the fifth Horseman, will bury it forever.

She entered the profession as one of the job converts about 10 years ago, and yes, she starts at 8, she complains if I'm 5 minutes late dropping her off as she'll be the last one in.

Why do you think she's on strike today ? Edit : take a look at Gove's proposed reforms, including extending class hours - in theory if you add up all the statutory subject teaching hours for a primary class, there aren't enough hours in the school day to accommodate them.

How many days are children in school - depends on the parents ;-) How many hours do teachers do ? - My wife start at 8 and finishes at 5, then does about 2 hours at home. She also does about 3 hours at home on each term time weekend, plus some days during the hols. As for the 'overtime', not likely if they're Primary teachers.

The definition of self-funding means that there is no additional burden on the state to make a contribution to keep the funds operative, which there isn't with the LGPS. Yes there is an employers contribution whilst somebody is in employment, but there is no 'black hole' gap between the funds in the scheme and the demands placed upon it, which would otherwise require the Treasury to make budgetary commitments - which other public sector schemes do need. Question - do private sector pensions not have employer contributions ?

What would you call it when you have at least 10% taken from your budget for each of 5 successive years ? Mind you, I loved the quote from GO about Pickles the Hutt being the 'model of lean Government'.

Wow, what a surprise - how convenient. ( Do you honestly believe the ONS is 'independent' ? )

...