sadoldgit

He is there step dad and because of him they went to live in Spain for over 3 years. They could only go because he chose to pay for them to go to a fee paying International School. My ex wife gave up work because he earns over £150k a year (over £100k a year more than my partner and my joint earnings). If I dropped dead tomorrow and he refused to support the children how would she cope? He choose to marry a women with three children by one father and another by another. I think he should take financial responsibility (not all granted). When I married my ex she had a 7 year old daughter and I paid for everything as her father had passed away (thanks to the way my ex wife treated him - he took his own life after she threatened to prevent him from seeing his daughter). Each case should be handled on its own merits. If I lived in the Highland of Scotland my CSA contribution would be the same as if I lived in central London - there is no regional allowance. What the CSA call disposable income is a joke. They tell me that my partner and I have £775 "disposable income" each month. No we don't, we don't have any because it all goes on paying the bills that the CSA ignore.

There are many unfair issues. They don't take into account the income of my ex and her new partner. In fact even though he married her he is not liable to look after the children financially!!! Go figure. If you are not working they can still take some money from your jobseekers allowance. I appreciate the repsonses guys. It is good to know I am not the only one being turned over. I think you are right, they go after the soft targets and leave the "runners" alone.

I used to, then I was out of work for 3 years so stopped, although I still paid for holidays, clothes and stuff out of my savings. She then remarried and took the kids to Spain so I apid for holidays and stuff but not CSA. Now she is back and went straight to them. They know my financial situation and said I could seek an arrangement with her and her partner, but they are not interested and want the cash, even though they know it means I won't be able to take them away and have them so often. I accept I have to restart the payments but it is annoying when she can jerk me around with contact as much as she likes and that I seemingly have to pay £1300 arrears from 6 years back when I was unemployed. No justice in this at all.

He is Alps, that is what makes things worse. What they get from me is loose change to him but will make a huge difference to my partner and I, not least meaning I can't see the girls so often. For example, went down Saturday and took them to Brighton. Apart from the petrol to and from BH it was £10 on the train, £13 for pizza and £34 to see Toy Story 3 - not a lot of change out of £100 and not something I will be able to do very often now. Re the travelling, didn't know that. They did suggest they might make a reduction for travelling expenses to work but that turned out to be over 15 miles both ways in a straight line.

It is all loaded in favour of the mother's Benjii. Until this socity takes the view that fathers are equal we will continue to get stuffed. It is the same with Domestic Violence. There is this theory that it only takes place between men on women. It doesn't. A fair society is one that treats everyone equally. We don't here.

Yep, good idea. There is no means testing and it seems they have carte blanche when it comes to your wages. My exes husband earns over £150k a year as a pilot. They have a 4 bedroomed detached house and a three bedroomed flat from which they receive rent. I am a public servant on low wages, pay freeze for 2 years if I keep my job and I live in my partners house with no assets to my name. They have got us over a barrel and it sucks.

Sounds like a place well avoided then! Anyway, he will sign or he won't, why the handbags? I never thought we would sign a European Player of the Year but it happened. At his age he might see this as a good move. It is down to him and Pardew if he wants to try and sign him. Move on...

I have just received a delightful letter informing me that if I don't pay my ex wife £1300 arrears (this is from 6 years ago when I was unempolyed and knew nothing about until a few weeks ago) they will take 40% of my net income until it is paid off. I get no say in my kids upbringing. They were taken to live in Spain for over 3 years against my consent. They live over 40 miles away. My ex has told me she no longer is prepared to drop them off/pick them up half way so if I want to see them I have a 3 hour round trip. Child Support Agency? What about a bit of support for the fathers? I have taken my kids on holiday for the last 5 years, looked after them when the ex wanted to jet off with her pilot husband all round the world, bought them clothes, taken them out to fun places - and now I can get fleeced for money I allegedly owe from 6 years ago and get dicated too about how the contact with my children goes. And this is all legal. Little wonder people dress up as Spiderman and risk their lives climbing up public buildings!

Oh dear, herein lies the problem. You guys just don't get it do you?

It is not the name it is way he posts. If that changes so will the responses.

Sounds promising.

I used to go to a school in West Wickham, not far from Biggin Hill. Every year the WW2 planes would fly over the playing field and we would all stop and stare. You couldn't mistake the sound of the Spitfire's engine. I still drive my kids past Biggin Hill every now and again and show them the Spit and Hurricane ouside to remind them that we are here by the grace of those old crates and the bravery of the men who flew them.

Wot, no Elle Macpherson or Scarlett Johanssen?

BWP drove me crazy

I wonder if Alpine has anything to do with this?

More importantly, no Ron Davies?

Interesting

£16k a day........and he didn't bother to go to France to check out the under 19s

Yes that would be the same Mike Parry who thought that Wayne Rooney was a world class player and would sweep all before him.

Gerrard isn't one of the best attacking midfielders on the planet, I'd say there are at least 30 who are far better. Just look at someone like Iniesta for Spain he's a different class to Gerrard. I think he is, look what he has achieved for his club. Name another 29.

It is down to the manager to get the best of out his players. Do you think he did?

The answer to all our problems is simple, make Alpine manager

Whether they were doing things right I don't know. I do know that cutting the funding to the police and the Criminal Justice System in general (I work for the CPS) is not going to help the crime figures or serve "justice." We are working on a shoestring as it is. If you read The Guardian the other day you will see that crime, whether it increases or decreases, will not be dealt with effectively under this Government.

I am not saying it is all down to Capello but he has to take his shre of the blame. We give managers like Bulrye flak for not playing players in their best positions. Rooney plays well up front on his own, Gerrard is one of the best attacking midfielders on the plant and he plays him wide left. Upson had a poor season and he plays him instead of a player who had a great season at Spurs (after saying he would pick form players). I also thought that A Cole had a poor Word Cup considering he is supposed to be one of the best left backs in the world. Just look at his positional play and he was no threat going forward at all. You could see the problems in the USA game and Capello is paid to fix that stuff. It got much worse and the display against the Germans was one of the worst performances I have seen from an English team.

If you need to score goals do you bring on Heskey (for that matter if you want to win the World Cup would you take him?). True he wasn't spoiled for choice but he did have choices and he made the wrong ones. It was his job to get this sqaud ready to face the best and they looked out of their depth. Why was that? There were some decent players in that sqaud and they looked second class. They have to take some blame but so does the manager. He is paid a fortune and what did he deliver?