Loz

You what? 80K a year in income will get you a ?280K mortgage plus your ?30K gives you ?310K to spend. Had a quick look on Rightmove and there are 150 properties within your price band in SE22 alone. And that includes some three bed ones. Go further out of London and you will find even more in your price bracket.

Jeremy - It still does not add up, even if you take mortgage costs out as you still need to make a return, else you may as well just stick the cash in the bank and get 3%/4% interest. If I can't afford the mortgage, I definitely can't afford the rent. Besides, is it really the case that BTL investors are driving the market up and/or snapping up every home on the market? What percentage of buyers are BTL?

Sorry Brendon, I don't see this. The maths don't add up. A landlord would want to see a return of at least 7% on their investment. A standard buyer ('young family; in your rather loaded language) does not. So a landlord must charge a rent of mortgage + costs (repairs, insurance + other required checks and works) + cover any unrented months + 7%. Or take a punt on rising prices giving a similar paper profit (which does attract CGT). The buyer ('young family') need to cover their mortgage. Where is this superior bargaining position? If I can't outbid a buy-to-let buyer on a house, then I can't afford their rent either.

The use of an England flag I *really* hate is people who traipse off to cricket test matches in far-flung countries and hang flags with "WHFC" or "Chelsea Forever" or "Swindon Town" or some such printed across the middle line. IT'S BLOODY CRICKET PEOPLE! I don't give a monkey's what football team you care to watch. Phew. I feel better now.

Careful for what you wish for, Jean. There could be worse things than the football club there. It's actually, as far as I know, the five-a-side at astroturf area that causes the issue. Since Sainsburys started enforcing their parking, DHFC gating theirs and the posts going up stopping you from going down the lane to the area itself, plus the yellow lines (of which were absolutely needed) all the parking has been squeezed into Abbotswood Road. Taking the lane posts down seems the obvious answer, but I have no idea who is responsible for those. Do they really park in your off-street parking bay? That is a bit cheeky.

I thought the Post Office was the only ones allowed to do that?

Having a look at the Warrington site... this picture made me laugh. Now this is a crap cycle lane. http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pete.meg/wcc/facility-of-the-month/porteouverte.jpg

DJKQ, What do you mean by soft plastics?

I know what you mean Quids. Which is why I'm really pleased with the coalition's plans for bringing back freedoms to the UK. How about 'registered with the DVLA' like every other vehicle?

Personally, I can't see why cycles should not have a registration plate/sticker/whatever that the police can use to trace the owner. Why shouldn't it be this way? Every other vehicle on the road has to have one.

I actually quite like Diane Abbott. Yes, she does have one weakness in her ideology in sending her kids to a posh school, but apart from that she's pretty sound. Not sure she'd make a great leader, though. She can be a bit too frank and forthright in her views - diplomacy doesn't seem to be her strong point. She just doesn't seem to be a 'party' person - maybe that's why I like her. I think she'd be a great local MP if she ever wants to up sticks from Hackney and head south of the river. Just can't see her leading Labour.

I downloaded 'Portal' last night off Steam. It's old, but it's good and it's free until the 24th (apparently Portal 2 is on its way). Big download, so maybe not for those with limited broadband. PC or Mac.

I see you more like this, LM...

Sean, I agree that Blair wasn't, himself, necessary. But Kinnock then Smith then Blair all threw off the shackles of the hard left. It was that evolution that made Labour electable. Had the unions re-assumed power in the Party following Smith's death and installed a leader that swung the party back left, 1997 might well have played out much differently.

immaterial, John McDonnell is exactly the sort of left-wing extremist that will lead the Labour Party into the political wilderness. If they go down that route, prepare yourself for many, many years of life with a Tory government. Like it or not, Kinnock, Smith and Blair made Labour electable. And it took them 15 years of battling with the hard left to achieve it. Sorry, but the days of union power capturing the public mood is long gone. Look at the current BA dispute: Willie Walsh is out to destroy the union and public sentiment is - as far as I can see - firmly with BA on this one. (And if Unite don't win on Thursday, Walsh will do exactly that.) On the railways, Bob Crow has exhausted the public's patience with his shenanigans. 'Progressive Left' and 'Hard Left Union Power' are not the same thing. Last time the hard left made Labour unelectable for the best part of a generation. Next time, with the LibDems approaching electoral credibility for the first time in decades, it could actually destroy the party.

dc Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Loz Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > > > Mad Hattie is not throwing her hat in the ring > > Can you please stop using this epithet? It's > pathetic and unpleasant - quite apart from the > unacceptable use of 'mad' as a throwaway > pejorative term. No, I won't stop. I like it. "Mad Hattie", as you successfully point out, is an apt usage for a politician who is, IMO, pathetic and unpleasant. You must really hate Alice in Wonderland. PS I hope your concern at the use of such pejorative terms lasts longer than your concern for 'underpaid' Polish leaflet deliverers.

That's possibly correct, David, but tax credits were an incredibly labyrinthine way of doing things. At least the ?10K tax band is simple and you don't have to keep reapplying for it. The admin costs for tax credits must have been huge. I never did quite understand why they called them 'tax credits', either. Seems a complete misnomer.

I think that this is the ideal time for Labour to cast off dead wood and start afresh. Luckily for Labour, Mad Hattie is not throwing her hat in the ring but dangerously, Ed Balls is. Neither are electable. I do agree with you that Cruddas would be the most traditional 'Labour' leader. But, in this soundbite age, would he really grab the attention of the electorate? He has never really come over as a leader - more of an ideas man. Tony Blair, for all his faults, did realise one thing: 'old' labour were pretty much next to unelectable. And I still think that is the case today. Should Labour move to the left, they risk the losing the necessary moderate vote. And Labour need to heed the hard lesson the LibDems learnt this time around - having policies and ideas are all well and good, but if you are not in power, they are just words on paper. Something in the policy sometimes has to give. Labour needs every vote they can in the centre-left area. And, sadly, they don't need to pander too much to the traditional working class vote. It has nowhere much to go except the wasted vote area of the SWP and the BNP. Look at the unions - Labour did little for them in 13 years, but they still keep giving them cash. That part of the electorate is a banker for them. Labour have to hope that the coalition ends in tears and recriminations. If it is anything like a half-decent success then Labour risks the Tories holding onto power at the next election and the LibDems gaining enough credibility to hold and even expand their vote. Of course, if it does go wrong, Labour will walk into power. So there's not much Labour can do except not to scare the horses. So, I fear that looking in the box marked 'talent', a Miliband may be the only way forward for Labour at the moment. There's not much else in there. It's either 'past it' like Jack Straw or 'not there yet' like Douglas Alexander. Just pray it's the one marked 'Ed'.

That part of Melbourne Grove doesn't need speed humps or traffic calming. Ever since the council moved all the parked cars onto the road it has become one big pinch point. Anything above 5 MPH is pretty much impossible. Glad I don't own any of those cars.

Just walked past this. It looks ready to open and it's called Siecle Colours. The website isn't terribly informative at the moment, but there is an article here that describes them as 'paint, bikes and clogs'. I can vouch for the paint and the clogs bit. A whole wall of clogs.

So the message from David Sole is, "don't give up on us, baby". :))

First UK branch of the Bulldog Coffee Shop.

I've just discovered a Dutch colleague in our company called Cock Overbeek.

He he. How many Lib Dem and Tory voters from the last council election do you really think marched into the voting booth thinking, "Damn these Lib Dems and Tories. 6th worst recycling rate in the country! How dare they? I'll teach 'em..."

Actually, there was a national swing towards Labour at local council level. Weird (considering the national swing away), but true.