badgerx16

Just because you keep on saying it, doesn't make it any more true.

Yep It's a great way to get an audience of up to 200 million around the world.

Lawrie

I know he's lying - his lips are moving

On a van advertising "24 hour drain unblocking" - T111URD

galore

Correct.

Every time England win a gold medal, my son will be playing the anthem, Jerusalem, especially recorded by Grimethorpe Colliery Band. :)

well

Here's another one, which club plays at Highbury ?

( poor old ) granddad

People eater

"We will preserve child benefit, winter fuel payments and free TV licences. They are valued by millions." - George Osborne, Conservative Party Conference, October 2009. "There are some things we have specifically ruled out. Take the issue of child benefit. Of course any party would have to look at it but my judgment is that it is a good benefit, it goes straight to the mother, it is very simple." - David Cameron, Sky News, May 3, 2010. "There are some benefits and I think child benefit is one of them, where actually I think it's quite important that everybody, rich or poor, wherever they live, feels they have got a stake in it." - Nick Clegg, The Politics Show, March 7 2010. "We are not cutting child benefit. (There is) absolutely no threat to child benefit." - George Osborne, Radio 5 Live, March 11, 2010. :blush::blush:

chalk

True, but there will always be somebody looking to get their 15 minutes in the spotlight. Politicians and common sense - mutually exclusive.

Come up here and have a look ! My son was made redundant earlier this year and has tried applying for everything he can find, whether his experience & qualifications are relevant or not - plenty of "nearly but not quite"'s, and I know for a fact he couldn't survive if he was left with just his benefits.

The problem is that what jobs there are are not where the unemployed are. And before anybody gets on the 'well move then' hobby-horse, relocating to another part of the country for a minimum wage or even zero hours contract just isn't feasible for many people.

You do come across as such a @@@@. From the ONS "The number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance (the claimant count) increased by 2,300 between July and August 2010 to reach 1.47 million. This is the first monthly increase since January 2010. Between July and August, the number of male claimants fell by 2,600 to reach 1.04 million, but the number of female claimants increased by 4,900 to reach 426,300. The number of vacancies for the three months to August 2010 was 467,000, down 14,000 over the quarter. The sector showing the largest quarterly fall was education where the number of vacancies fell by 11,000 to reach 39,000." As our American cousins would say "Do the math".

hope

So what happens to new graduates coming out of Uni with no job prospects ?

Don't we get our money back when we sell the publicly owned bank shares back into the open market ?

If GO is correct in his estimation of £1Bn saving, by my rough and ready calculation that means about 1 million children, ( approx 1 in every 12 ) live in a household where there is at least one higher rate tax payer. Not too sure this is correct, ( just a gut feeling you understand ).

If this suggestion on Child Benefit is the standard that the brokeback coalition are working to, I would expect them to oppose it all the way. It's just a headline grabbing piece of BS; not properly thought through, no plan for how to implement it, and no idea as to what the real saving might be. The only real way to tackle 'universal' benefits is to means test them. Why stop at Child Benefit ? Why does somebody on £100K pa pay the same for their prescriptions as me ? Why does everybody currently reaching retirement age qualify for a free bus pass, regardless of whether they use public transport or not ? I just think GO is having to toss something, however small, out to the media and the Tory faithful at the conference, when we all know that the main event comes with the announcements from the CSR in 3 weeks time.

According to the boy George on R4 this morning, they are going to manage this by putting an extra box on the form used for annual tax returns, effectively asking the question "Does anybody in your household get paid the Child Benefit ?". If you are a higher rate payer and answer yes, the value of the benefit will be added to your tax liability. Q1) Who will answer 'yes' ? Q2) How will it work for PAYE ? Q3) Is this merely a quick and dirty sap for the blue-rinse brigade ? Definitely a 'back of a fag packet' job.

Gamgee