Marmora Man

KK If one in 50 cars are untaxed that would represent about 700,000 untaxed cars @ ?150 / car = ~ ?100m in unpaid tax - therefore requiring gov't to increase taxes on others who are paying (or if all were paying taxes could be reduced by that sum). Untaxed cars, as PR has pointed out, are often also uninsured - increasing insurance rates for others in a similar fashion. On the occasions that police set up a "pull over" scheme selecting untaxed vehicles by comparing reg no with DVLC data they find that a significant % of the owners of the untaxed cars are uninsured and involved in other illegal activities, or have outstanding warrants for arrest - ranging from drugs & weapons, illegal immigrants, violence and so on. It can therefore be argued that drawing attention to such vehicles is the work of a concerned citizen and, if the police or others take action, that the local society will benefit.

Some one is building their own house - patio doors from here, shelves, from there. It all mounts up - pretty soon they'll be pinching roof tiles and windows.

Support involvement of the Camberwell & Peckham candidates - Peckham Rye includes many EDF residents (including Marmora Road) and they should be represented here. I am sure the Conservative, Green, Lib DEm and SWP candididates would play.

I would add that we had this problem - where the property concerned where the freeholder was the council with two flats, one owner occupied and the other a council tenant. It took two years to get any attention from the council, they did very little. In the end the tenant and a friend did some tidying up - but it wasn't maintained thereafter and we're back to square one. The council may be a little more forthcoming if they don't have to bear any cost?

I hear that it is possible to buy Marmite XO a stronger and longer matured version of the standard stuff. Trouble is, as a life long "Marmariti" I cannot locate any near ED. Can anyone help with: a. Location of a dealer b. A review of flavour and effectiveness

bil Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Mamora Man: I like your thinking. OS map and > compass; the tried and tested way. I was going to > try google earth because using aerial view on > multi and google maps hasn't been very successful. > Did you build your roof terrace or was it already > in place? does anyone else on your road have one? Roof terrace inherited with house. Almost everyone with access to roof in even numbered houses on Marmora Road have su h views and most have a roof garden / terrace.

bil Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Mamora Man: I like your thinking. OS map and > compass; the tried and tested way. I was going to > try google earth because using aerial view on > multi and google maps hasn't been very successful. > Did you build your roof terrace or was it already > in place? does anyone else on your road have one? Roof terrace inherited with house. Almost everyone with access to roof in even numbered houses on Marmora Road have su h views and most have a roof garden / terrace.

Marmora Man Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I have a great view from my roof terrace. I made a > cut and paste map of London by chopping up OS maps > and centrering it on my house. With map and > compass I can identify most landmarks. We can see the Wembley Arch to the NW and Canary Wharf & almost the Millennium Dome to the East - with everything in between - St Pauls, BT TOwer, Millennium Wheel, Big Ben tower, WEstminster Tower and so on. It was one of the reasons I bought the house and one of the places I always take friends and visitors. Sitting up there of a summer's evening with cold wine and a small barbeque is just great.

I have a great view from my roof terrace. I made a cut and paste map of London by chopping up OS maps and centrering it on my house. With map and compass I can identify most landmarks.

KidKruger Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Pizzeria Castello is still available - it's down > Bermondsey now and still does OK grub. Hey great - where in Bermondsey. I miss their garlic bread - it could knock over an elephant at a 100 paces.

Just a suggestion: 1. Out for drinks Lordship Lane (Green & Blue champagne as suggested perhaps) on Friday. 2. Queue early for tickets to see London Assurance at the National Theatre that night (?10 a ticket but queues start at about 7.00am). It's a light, foolish, funny and very well acted restoration comedy on foibles of men and marriage. 3. Dinner afterwards at the Archduke 4. Get up early, again, on Sunday for breakfast, shopping and flowers at Columbia Street Market. Aim to be there before 9.00am for best flowers and street scenes 5. Rest

My original post was meant to be a light hearted swipe at the cost of being a guest at a wedding. Seems to have sparked off a very different debate. For what it's worth I believe in marriage, like being married, I see it as a good model for bringing up children and find that most of my friends feel the same. Even the three divorces in my close circle of friends of almost 40 year's standing have resulted in two re-marriages and one permanent partnership. On the whole I therefore believe marriage is a force for the good, should be supported and applauded as such. Bad marriages are clearly a bad thing for everyone involved but today's divorce laws make separating simple - even if divvying up the assets can be a problem.

BelowtheBelt Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Sort yourselves out ... we have no business > claiming it regardless. Geographically speaking > it is more than just a bit of a liberty for us to > be claiming it, isn't it ?!! We're not "claiming" the Falklands Islands - Britain established the first permanent settlement on the unoccupied territory and subsequently claimed the islands as part of the British Empire in a fashion that was entirely usual and normal in the 19th century. The descendants of those original settlers have repeatedly reaffirmed their desire to remain a British dependancy. It's not a colony, the islands weren't "stolen" from an indigenous population. Geographical proximity would make a poor basis for sovereignty. Once a state lays claim to it's geographical neighbour it then has a new geographical neighbour. And so on and so on ad infinitum.

David Cameron wants more people to marrry because evidence seems to suggest it provides a more stable basis for bringing up children and supporting wider society. Having just attended the wedding of an old friend's daughter I have another idea. Spending by wedding guests could kick the economy - over the course of three days (the wedding was in Scotland) I must have pumped hundreds of pounds into getting UK out of recession. New shoes for Mrs MM. Wedding present. Travel to and from Scotland. Hotel on motorway half way to Scotlland. Two nights in a local hotel. One local dinner. Some local shopping for "bits & pieces". Multiply my experience by the 150 guests and that's a sizeable sum. Multiply that by the number of weddings every week and it becomes bigger still. And this wasn't some fancy dancy wedding - humanist service held in the Bride's garden, home catering, celigh band and dancing in the evening in a marquee loaned from the Scouts. The bigger bashes must generate proportionately even more spending!

The "vote for policiees" website ignores one major element about the way we vote. Consciously or unconsciously votes factor in the likelihood of the politician's being elected to power. So you may think a Green or UKIP policy is absolutely brilliant but will discount it in favour of an OK Tory or Labour policy that might, just, become enacted. That's not to ignore the value of smaller parties in developing good ideas for the bigger parties to steal, modify and publish as their own agenda.

Like Peckham Rose I can see it from home and like what I see. A major downside tho' was the loss of Pizzeria Castello that was a regular haunt of mine, along with the original Firkin pub "Fox & Firkin(?)" in the mid 80s when I was slowly renovating my first flat in Kennington.

The T for trust is an historical quirk and nothing whatsoever to do with tasking the organisation with being trustworthy, or giving any assurance that it will be trustworthy. Came about when the Conservative Government were looking for a way to name hospitals that had beeb taken out of the immediate bureaucracy of NHS management to become theoretically self managing. In the event the experiment failed because of lack of vision, a failure to acknowledge that changing name and organisational structure does not, fundamentally, change culture and the new Hospital Trusts became just as bureaucratic, hierarchical and inefficient. To really achieve effective use of NHS money the various parts of it need to become far more independent of the Department of Health, the various Strategic Health Authorities and politics. Only today it was announced that a long considered inaffordable hospital - the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital - a single specialty hospital which runs counter to prevailing orthodoxy in terms of patient care, that happens to be in a marginal Labour constituency will after all be built. I doubt it will be built but no one will realise that until well after the forthcoming election.

M7post, you have a tendency to post a problem, let people comment and then critique the comment but put forward no practical solution or ideas of your own. A strange tactic. I can see the logic of lower population growth, and thus lower population in total, reducing the demands on the planet. However, incentives and reduced taxes would only work in the more advanced societies - where the problem of excessive population growth doesn't, generally, exist. I suggested that the first step might be to stabilize the world?s population ? but even this is a nigh on impossible task. Legislation won?t do it. Self interest, the natural desire to propagate and even, one could argue, human rights all mitigate against it. In general terms it is the advanced, Western, societies that have fallen below the replacement level of births leading to the imbalance between generations. There is a correlation between low(er) birth rates and improved education and economic growth, particularly education of women and of women moving into the paid workplace. Thus to move towards your desired outcome an option and action would be to promote higher levels of education and economic growth in countries where high birth rates prevail. PS: Mute - to deaden or subdue sound. Moot - a case for discussion.

I think the school looks good when seen across Peckham Rye park from Colyton Road - it sits well on its site and is not intrusive.

UK already has the imbalance between generations as the baby boomers move into their 60's and any further reduction of the younger, productive, tax generating generation would further exacerbate the problem. On pure logic, Dr Spockian, M7post's idea has merit but loses out to the practicalities pointed out by Hugenot.

On a more positive note - First Direct offer a policy that if the first named driver is an experienced driver, then the second driver (just passed test) can build up a no claims bonus. We're investigating this as we have an 18 year old about to take his test and keen to use our second car (my wife's) which is a ten year old Peugot 206. Additional premium about ?1,000. We estimate that in two years time he'll be: a. More experienced and almost 21 b. Will have a 2 year no claim bonus c. Will have taken his Pass Plus test All of which should reduce the cost of his insurance. He has also started to save for a car, opening a "car account" with money from his 18th birthday - tho' the longed for Ferrari is quite a way off yet

If any of you go to see "Private LIves" you'll see Matthew Macfadyen playing Eliott Chase but looking just like David Cameron

mockney piers Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- A guinea in it for you if you're quick. Inflation dammit - should be a penny.

Huguenot Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- It's sad isn't it, that because we reject a national ID scheme we have to rely on commercial organisations like banks to protect law and order... What is the connection between a national ID card and Law and Order? How will requiring the majority to submit to having their entire personal details and details of most of their transactions held on one national, probably flawed, database help maintain said law and order? Villians and bad'uns will learn to live "under the radar" or forge false ID cards - Say No2ID

SeanMacGabhann Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- A very good point Marmora Man - but I'm not sure about the examples. I suspect they all had majority backing, but the majority was denied access to the levers of power True - but somehow they persuaded the powers to overturn that denial of access - which I would say is a successful minority becoming a majority. I'm not so sure what m7post is FOR - I have a fair idea of what he is against but I'm not seeing much in the way of "persuasion, good arguments, marketing, strong feeling" Agree