DaveR

"Perhaps, as some posters suggest, we should move to somewhere cheaper. Honestly,I'm not sure where that is or where we could move such that our rent doesn't swallow the vast majority or our income. Way beyond London and out of reach of the work I now do." Obviously I don't know your particular circumstances, but almost anywhere with an SE postcode is now cheaper than SE22, and you don't have to go far (Forest Hill, Sydenham) to see that. Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of sympathy with people who have put down roots in a particular area and then find that they can't afford to stay. But it is worth busting two myths that still get a lot of currency here: (i) SE22 is an ordinary place that is or should be cheap to live in (ii) everywhere is London is as or more expensive than SE22 Also, IMHO, blaming landlords and/or the government is pointless and wrong. If the returns on residential rentals are good then people will invest, and if it's not small landlords it will be big corporate landlords. And everybody says 'build more houses' but they mean 'build more houses somewhere else' - governments know this.

"I do feel sorry for anyone needing rented accommodation here" Who 'needs' rented accommodation specifically in SE22? Especially when the going rate for a 2 bed place in SE23 appears to be about ?1100/month?

In a similar vein: http://www.animalsontheunderground.com/the-animals.html

http://www.buzzfeed.com/expresident/london-underground-maps-you-never-knew-you-needed

"Isn't test match special Green Onions by Booker T & the MG's?" It is Booker T but it's called Soul Limbo

"Mutual sniping for years but the anti leveson (govt have no business telling us what to do!!!) mail quickly replaced by Pro government (newspapers shouldn't judge what government deems important!) mail" I'm no fan of the Mail, but you can hardly say that it's somehow inconsistent to suggest that newspapers know better about maintaining a free press and governments know better about maintaining national security.

"trefford21's update now shows the proper extent of the East Dulwich blackhole. This has been discussed on the EDF in previous years. Southwark does nothing about this." Neither of these are true. As trefford says, the map doesn't include either Goose Green or St Johns and St Clements because the data is not available. And Southwark have responded to increased pressure on primary school places in ED by having bulge classes.

As noted by the OP, to make the map complete for ED it needs data for Goose Green, St John's and St Clements and Dulwich Hamlet. Not on Southwark website or the schools's websites unfortunately.

Not sure if this should be in another section Anybody have recent experience of implants, locally or otherwise, and any recommendations? The basic choices seems to be UK or Eastern Europe, and whether to specify a particular manufacturer of implant.

Great map, but Goose Green School seems to be missing?

"If you google Downhills Primary School there are several items explaining what happened there. History now, as it was given by Mr Gove to Harris Federation to run. It all depends whether or not you think that state schools should be run by an elected local authority, or by a private organisation." How does this support your suggestion of a hidden agenda concerning Heber school?

Sue I'm assuming that you have a long lease, and there is also a long lease for the flat above. The terms of the respective leases set out your responsibilities and also that of the freeholder. In a normal case a leaseholder will have an absolute responsibility to prevent water leaking from their premises into that of another leaseholder and will be liable for any damage caused. They can't avoid responsibility/liability by saying that they cannot find the leak. It's also fairly normal for the freeholder to have a responsiblity to ensure that each leaseholder complies with the terms of their leases insofar as it affects other leaseholders. Obviously I don't know in your case who in fact are the leaseholders and freeholder - it may or may not be the council - but you need to get pushy with them. As has already been observed, there's not mch point in getting a repair done if the leak hasn't been fixed.

"I am sure there is a hidden agenda circling Heber School - the situation sounds so similar to that at Downhills Primary School in North London" Perhaps you'd like to explain further, maybe with some evidence?

For me the key point is a simple one - if your immediate reaction on hearing this news is 'it must be wrong' then basic psychology suggests you are then going to devote your efforts to establishing why it is wrong, rather than looking for evidence on both sides. It sounds like the school are taking a more measured approach, which is good news.

"When will peopke reakise that Ofsted reports are not worth the paoer they're printed on? Ofsted are the most self important, pointless organisation in the UK. FACT!" I have to disagree. Ofsted reports are by no means the last word on how well a school is performing, nor even necessarily the most important, but to simply dismiss either the organisation as a whole or any individual report makes no sense, particularly when the report appears to be consistent with the data prepared separately. Any kind of snapshot assessment, whether by data or inspection, is a very blunt tool in looking at a complex organisation engaged in ongoing work, but generally the very good and the very bad are easily identified, as are definite trends. As many have said, Heber is clearly not a failing school, and many parents are happy and positive about it, but that is not inconsistent with a genuine 'could do better' finding, particularly under the new criteria. It's slightly disheartening to see so many people floating vague conspiracy theories or coming up with their own supposed flaws in the data (it is produced by professionals - do you really know better?). Itr is possible that the process was flawed, but to assume that it must be because you think you know better is just a form of denial.

I thought the most interesting part of the JW quotes was this: "We have to remember what we are. We are English. We tackle hard, are tough on the pitch and are hard to beat. "We have great characters. You think of Spain and you think technical but you think of England and you think they are brave and they tackle hard. We have to remember that." Are we doomed to have a national team that conform to this stereotype? I suspect we probably are, and that most established national teams, and individual players, have a strong sense of their own national footballing character that is hard to resist, even when as a player it's not your character.

"So if my baby turns 2 in January 2014 I'll be looking to register him between September 2016 and January 2017? When is he supposed to be starting at reception?" The start date is the September before your child's 5th birthday, so: Turning 2 in Jan 2014 = turn 5 in Jan 2017 Turn 5 in Jan 2017 = start school in Sept 2016 The application period is from Sep - Jan the year before, so for Sep 2016 start, from Sep 2015 - Jan 2016

If SE15 is Peckham, where is Nunhead?

Prices at Centerparcs have definitely gone up, and school holidays are usually twice the price of other times. I remember going a couple of times and paying ?700 - 800 for a four bed unit for a long weekend outside holidays. Split between two families that compares pretty well to lots of family friendly hotels etc., and they are fantastic places for kids. Edited to add: there's probably no early booking discount for achool holiday times either - if you check for this October half term i.e. in four weeks time it's c.?1900 for a week, down to ?950 the following week. ?950 is still a fair amount but for 7 nights for a family of four is not OTT.

"deems it appropriate to make light of a situation, commenting that "undoubtedly criminals can cross the road." " I didn't read it as making light of the situation - rather, he was pointing out that the homes affected were not in his ward, but that he had asked police teams on both sides of the ward boundary to act, because criminals obviously don't respect those boundaries i.e. can cross the road. I agree with d_c - I can't see how J Barber can fairly be criticised for reporting to the police and relevant agencies.

Team supported: Ipswich Where from: Ipswich Reason: My Dad and his dad were football mad Geordies transplanted to Ipswich who decided to support the local club. They took me to my first game aged 6, season 74-75, the early days of the Robson glory years, then to almost every home league game, plus cup ties, European games and a various away games until about ten years later when a Saturday job and a girlfriend intervened, but by then the die was cast.

I guess I'm not really the worrying kind. The graphic maps median house prices and median incomes, but if you look at the data for mean house prices and mean household incomes, which is probably more realistic, the trend is up but much less dramatically. And it just doesn't make sense to ignore interest rates because they are fundamental for most buyers. If you are expecting dramatic rate rises any time soon that would be worrying, but I'm not. That's not to say that all is well with UK housing policy but I don't think disaster is around the corner.

Yeah, that was meant to come across tongue in cheek, rather than bitter and twisted. I guess the serious point is that there are people being priced out of East Dulwich, and some of those people are professional types in their thirties and forties who probably thought that they were comparatively high earners, but it turns out that they're not. As a result the neighbourhood is probably going to become less diverse and interesting and that's a shame. But the fact that some people are moving out is not a sign that something's wrong with the economy/the housing market/the world, or that any kind of tipping point has been reached.

It's not litigation related, funnily enough. The really big money is all linked to transactional work e.g. mergers & acquisitions and big corporate finance deals. And you'd be surprised just how many people are employed by the big law firms, accounting firms, consulting firms, plus all the similar types working in-house for big corporates, and others in broadly 'City' jobs i.e. banks and assorted finance houses, dealers, brokers etc. I don't think I've ever come across anyone in one of these jobs with a double first from Cambridge (they still join MI6 apparently), but there are loads with 2.1s from Leeds. If you are genuinely interested in how much commercial lawyers earn, click the link below. In London and the Home Counties ?70k appears to be the minimum at 5 years PQE i.e. about 29 years old. Makes you sick, doesn't it. http://uk.hudson.com/Portals/UK/documents/SalarySurveys/legal-salary-survey-2012.pdf

It is interesting, but to be an accurate representation of affordability it would have to factor in interest rates. Looking back through this thread it is also interesting that many people talk about 'professionals' being priced out of ED/London/wherever. One thing that hasn't been discussed (but is highly relevant) is the massive pay gap that has opened up between, very broadly, jobs in or connected to banking and finance, and many other 'professional' jobs. The figure of ?90k household income has been bandied about; I'm afraid to say that that's what some US law firms pay newly qualified solicitors these days. That's an extreme example, but generally the pay of bankers, commercial lawyers and accountants has massively outstripped that of many other professional/graduate careers.