Loz

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Blah Blah Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > If that article is true Loz, that's pretty shocking! But how do we tackle greed? How do we > change the mentality of those millionaires? We don't seem to be able to close tax loopholes/ > havens etc. I would argue that any marginal tax rate higher at than 50% or higher (and, with NI, this is 52%) is too much. And such a steep jump of 10% merely made it more obvious. The boiled frog analogy is relevant here. Had the marginal rate been ramped up more slowly then the story might have been different. If someone earns more that sort of money, then you are being asked to pay more than ?100k a year more tax - and you can get yourself a very good tax accountant for much less than the extra tax bill. The Laffer curve is a controversial theory, but this sort of example does show that higher tax rates do not always lead to increased revenue. People react in they way they can. If the government raised all income tax rates by 10% tomorrow there would be riots in the streets. Those with more money merely find other ways to 'rebel'. But I agree that closing loopholes is key. Brown (as chancellor) doubled the handbook of tax legislation - i.e. made the tax system much more complex. Complexity means loopholes, so simplifying the tax system would be a good start. But most of the loopholes at corporate level come from the international accounting conventions, and they will take a lot to change. Perhaps, in the internet and multinational age, we have to look at a different way of taxing corporations. The current system does seem to be broken.

Jeremy Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > miga Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > Gordon Brown, 50p top rate of tax > > Surely a knee jerk reaction to the financial crisis rather than an integral "New Labour" policy... I wouldn't even credit him with that. After 13 years of Labour, it was introduced one month (!!!!) before an election that Brown pretty much knew he was going to lose. It was nothing but a big bear trap set for the Tories... which Osborne blundered straight into. Interestingly, the main result of the 50% rate seems to be to reduce the number of people declaring earnings over ?1m by an amazing two thirds down to 6000. The Laffer curve in action?

phobic3000 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > On a side note I googled cooking with p... And it > tried to guess the next word as poo!! That's because there is a (reasonably) famous book called "Cooking with Poo". (It's her nickname.)

Worst excuse ever. But great headline. Georgia man wounds mother-in-law after bullet ricochets off armadillo

Use "Cute PDF". It's free. Install it and then use it like a printer (same as the Adobe one). Instead of printing, it creates a PDF for you.

15 years old... at the end of term disco with the girls' school next door. I was very short sighted and hated my glasses. So, I eyed up a fine looking girl about 10 metres away, slipped the specs into the top pocket and walked confidently/blindly through the crowd in her general direction. Well, approximately. In the dim light I got to something blurrily female looking and asked her to dance. She hesitantly agreed. After about two minutes of dancing she got closer and whispered in my ear... "you do know I'm one of the teachers, don't you". I had well and truly missed my target. I made my excuses and left.

Oh well, cheer yourself up by reading the Green's manifesto. There's a set of policies dreamt up by a group of people in full knowledge that they will be nowhere near any form of power come May. It almost makes the Labour "free owls" policy look relatively sane and practical.

aquarius moon Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Loz Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > --- > > > Or read the manual for their washing machine. > > > > > That's a 'man' thing Loz. I've yet to meet one who > reads instructions for anything. They never think > they need them when they really do! ;-) It's also a 'my wife' thing as well... Are you actually claiming to have read the whole manual for your washing machine, AM?

Herne Hill Guest Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I'd wager that 90% of people who read this do not even read the label for something as commonly used as slug pellets. I'd wager that 90% of people who read this do not even read the label on their toothpaste, either. Or read the manual for their washing machine. Or read their house insurance policy. People are like that.

tfwsoll Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Loz Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > Who is going to > > pay ?1.50 for last nights news when you can get > > up-to-the minute stuff online for free? > > What you get on line are soundbites - which is fine if you just want headlines but you getter > more in depth analysis in the dead tree editions, which is probably why people buy them? That's not true - the Indy and Guardian have all their printed stories in entirety on-line (usually many hours before they are printed), bolstered by rolling updates. The Guardian often has more in-depth analysis online than they do in their print editions. The Times and Telegraph do much the same, but behind a paywall.

The number of dead tree buyers is still in serious decline... http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/apr/10/national-daily-newspapers-lose-more-than-half-a-million-readers-in-past-year

Are you sure they had speed guns? Out and about yesterday, I spotted two separate police groups pulling random cars over and doing some sort of check, but no speed cameras in sight. I think there might be something else afoot.

Guardian is left wing (used to be liberal, though - wish they'd change back). The Indy is liberal, centrist-left. The FT is pretty apolitical. But, as Jeremy said, it comes down to what sells. Even though the Guardian has the left broadsheet market to itself and the Indy the centrist-liberal broadsheet market, both of them combined sell a fraction of either the Times or Telegraph alone. For the tabloids, the unashamedly Labour-supporting Mirror is way behind in sales to the Sun and the Mail. Worth noting that the Sun has supported both Tories and Labour in recent history. But most newspapers are losing circulation anyway. At this rate, most will disappear in hard copy form in about 10 years. Hardly surprising, given the growth in phones & tablets. Who is going to pay ?1.50 for last nights news when you can get up-to-the minute stuff online for free?

malumbu Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I had hoped that there would be an alternative petition to keep Clarkson sacked. There was. https://www.change.org/p/top-gear-the-bbc-bbc-do-not-bring-back-clarkson?recruiter=59305867&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=autopublish&utm_term=mob-xs-share_petition-reason_msg&fb_ref=Default - it got 343 signatures. People power at its best.

I am completely and thoroughly for staying in Europe - indeed, it would be utter madness and economic suicide to leave. The City would be decimated as all the major global corporations up sticks and head to Berlin and the cost to the wider economy would be huge. But, I would like to see a referendum just to shut the anti-EU people up for a decade or so. All of the major parties would be on the same side, so it would be very doubtful that the result would go the wrong way once the full implications of an exit were thrashed out in public. Cameron would have to keep the Tories firmly under the whip, though.

There will be a banned word in your post somewhere. There's not warning message, it just sort of non-posts your efforts. Some of the banned words are obvious, but some are rather surprising, so play around with your message.

Vanilla Iceland Of course the first song would be "Iceland, Iceland Baby (feat. Louisa)"

Guns'n'Waitroses

I have used https://www.ukforex.co.uk/ to send money abroad. Decent rates and costs, but be aware that the 'currency converter' on the front page of the site is NOT the rate on offer!

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Louisa Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > A bit disappointing the DUP and other NI parties not invited. It's ok to invite break away > nationalist parties only representing constituencies in specific regions of the UK, and > the DUP which in the last parliament was the forth largest party by seats, not invited. Especially when you consider that Plaid Cymru is only the fourth largest party in Wales (in terms on %age of vote)!

> Not sure where that will lead - most likely to a rainbow coalition if Cameron fails to get > a majority. SNP will not go into formal coalition. They would support Labour when they feel like it, which would make Miliband's premiership almost impossible and we'll be back at the polls within a year.

Sturgeon and Farage played the game the best. Farage especially knows how to make punchline points very quickly and that was really effective given the totally random format. Sturgeon was also quite concise and got good points over. Clegg had a curious line to tread, having to back the government, yet separate himself from it. And didn't do too bad a job. But not too memorable, either. Miliband really didn't do well with the format. Failed to really land any blows on Cameron - and got rather shown up by Sturgeon in particular. I think the same person who taught Gordon Brown to smile (shudder) taught Ed to look weirdly into the camera. Cameron didn't have a great night, as expected, but landed a great punch on Miliband over zero-hours contracts. But generally seemed to be content with damage limitation. Still thought Plaid Cymru lady looked asleep (and ladida needs his eyesight checked!). Made a few decent points, but sounded the least sure in what she was saying. Green Natalie had a bit of a shocker. All over the shop. She is no Caroline Lucas (who would have been very good in this format).

Blah Blah Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I'm getting really irked on the housing debate. Not one of those politicians has as yet put home > building as a priority over help to buy, rent to buy and all the other bonkers schemes they dream > up to keep the market inflated. Well, Farage did....