Can we refrain from personal attacks concerning the individual lifestyles of other posters ? I know you think you are being funny but this has no place on a debating thread. I personally do not care whether the person I am debating with has 6 mansions and a private yacht on the one hand, or only a begging bowl on the other - their opinions are no more or less valid either way.
It would be helpful if there was some consistency between how posters behave and their views on how others should behave. It is like being lectured on the evils of private education by Harriet Harman and Diane Abbott.
Cologne, although you brought up the subject of control of second homes as investment, maybe these lead to useful long term lettings. On the other hand holiday homes tend to stay empty for long periods which take them out of the available local housing stock. I do not strong views either way but I can understand there could be a moral issue here with so much homelessness.
This is just sick and you are again returning to your cheap jibes. 1) You may not know that we have had to spend most of our time in the UK these past years since my retirement due to parental health and my mother has been living in our uk home the past two. She died sadly a month ago and we are now revisiting our plans which include my wife retiring and us changing our living arrangements. 2) Our house in Limousin is in an area where probably 75% of homes are empty all year round as there i no work, no infrastructure, little investment etc.Due to the foreign holiday home investment in the area the economy is boosted. But you know all that don't you. Our house was on the market for 18 months before we bought it 15 years ago 3) http://england.shelter.org.uk/our_work/how_we_spend_your_donation/pay_policy Shelter chief Exec salary. Mind you s/he probably pays more tax than many like yourself 4) You widely miss my point about self-interest... I just wondered why you were going on about self-build as it is a miniscule part of the housing issue we were discussing,,, and then I realised you were talking about it as you had an interest in it yourself. I have no issue with that and enjoy grand designs etc... Unless your interest is in buying to sell in which case it makes little difference to the affordable housing argument.. .which is what i was saying. 5) Given my own background in development in south asia over the past years I might ask you what YOU have done to help those who are homeless??? 6) I see little to endear myself to someone who makes nasty personal remarks on such a thread as this......................
I think you owe me an apology actually... ...and for once stop dancing around issues.....unless of course this is the real you????
No offence meant. My 90 year old father in law fell a couple of weeks ago the visiting doctor diagnosed just bruising. Yesterday the pain was so acute we called an ambulance at midday. They turned up at 5.30pm when I got back from the Vic. The x-ray last night found a smashed hip. He was in A & E until this morning on a trolley. They are operating now but with his bone cancer the chance of survival is only 50%. I am now cooking for his wife and daughter, my wife, hoping we do not receive a phone call from the hospital. There are more important things than politics.
My ex nurse daughter complained to Watford general about her grandfather spending all night on a trolley in A&E. She spoke to the Orthopaedic ward head nurse who said she had a bed free but they were not contacted by A&E. No wonder Watford General is currently under special measures.
'Snap!' on the FD front. You fell for their spiel. They are very different, but it is expedient for some to simplify a complex issue for Joe Public so they get voted in via spurious linking of two different ideas. They only care about the getting voted in bit - they don't care 'we' don't understand.
Pleas kindly explain the difference between somebody up to their neck in payday loans and Greece? To me they both have in common - no due diligence from lender a lack of options limited control of their finances totally at the mercy of the lenders lack of cash for other spend possible bankruptcy / default the only answer In 1976 due to the Labour government's mismanagement of finances Britain had to beg for a handout from the IMF. They imposed onerous conditions including deep cuts in public expenditure.
Jim Callaghan became PM. in the midst of skyrocketing prices due to the Yom Kippur war - the cost of crude oil had doubled from 1973/74. This was followed by the IMF crisis of 1976 - against this background Callaghan secured a loan under much more favourable conditions than others could have done - which ensured currency stability where a freefall of sterling could have ensued. This was against the background of a minority government. Unfortunately the Labour Party have never really defended the record of the Callaghan government - he was, actually, one of Britain's best Prime Ministers. The difference between a household and a nation is that a household cannot spend their way out of a crisis in the way a country can. Living within your means is a good concept when related to a family - but living without investment for the future is not a good idea for a nation, because once spending power has gone there is no way back. Through the enforced privatizations in Greece their road to possible recovery was also impaired. The best way of securing economic growth is not to tighten the belt (as with a family), but to increase domestic spending power.
I agree about Callaghan a good prime minister and a decent man. I totally disagree that the UK's debt mountain will be reduced by more borrowing. This may be applicable in the short term i.e. to ride the Brexit rollercoaster but not for the long term. The 40 billion we pay a year in interest in dreadful when you think about it. Greece was admitted to the EU and foolishly lent money to satisfy the EU political project. Their debt cannot be repaid despite horrendous austerity. As I said before the consequences of personal, corporate and national debt are remarkably similar. Thankfully the only one I have not had personal responsibility for is the big one. I read a good article the other day about Germany's massive trade surplus being more of a danger to financial markets than Brexit. I'm sure Trump has his eyes on tackling this problem.
Thanks. My father in law has supported the hornets for 85 years, a former very long term season ticket holder. He survived the night, we all feel a bit guilty about him suffering with a broken hip for two weeks, we all thought it was his bone cancer causing the pain. If anyone is ill just hope you are not near Watford. I'm not knocking the staff it is just not one of the better hospitals. I felt much safer living in France.
It would be interesting to know whether the Jersey Government wants to reverse laws that they had to implement because of EU interference, even though Jersey has never been part of the EU. If they were to do so, the first would probably be the return to the permit system for foreign workers, where they were only allowed here for 9 months and had to return home for the rest of the year. The big problem was that when the EU interfered over 20 years ago, it was basically a Portuguese community (who were happy with the regulations as it was warmer back home in those 3 months), but with the number of different nationalities here now it would be unworkable.
Brexit Britain will get free trade deal with European Union 'for sure', says bloc's commissioner Are the German car manufacturers getting squeaky bums already?
Yes, but after there has been an agreement on the departure terms. The German manufacturers are fully behind their government in agreeing that any deal will be worse than what already exists. Straight forward as the UK becomes a 3rd world party.
With the mess that France, Spain, Italy and Greece are in surely there is a favourite amongst those poorly performing nations?
Of course nobody likes either losing customers, or paying more for access to them, but, German car manufacturers are not the EU. Also Britain, as a receiver of German exports ranks highly, but not so highly that it is worth giving them conditions which could lead to other countries wanting the same. Exports to Britain total about € 105 Billion per year - to France they are € 138 billion, to the Netherlands €98 Billion - they export more to Austria and Switzerland combined than to Britain (or to the USA. for that matter). In terms of imports their most important trading partner is the Netherlands.
Before making any presumptions about what Germany will do it may be wise to wait until after the German elections in September - which could change the whole game. It will be smoother for Britain (and the EU) if Angela Merkel is re elected - but that is more in doubt than it was a year ago. If Martin Schulz is elected then he is apparently furious with Tusk that the MEPs appear to have been sidelined from the Brexit negotiations and has threatened that after 2 years MEPs could simply reject any deal made - this would lead to (in his words) ''The hardest Brexit possible'' which is neither in the interests of Britain or the EU. I also cannot believe that MEPs are being sidelined in this way - and that the EU. negotiations will be done behind closed doors, in the same way as those over TTIP.
The possibility of a lack of a deal is fairly high in my opinion, unless they can agree at the eleventh hour. There is no way the government can be seen to be paying anything like the ransom being demanded.
