LadyDeliah

El Pibe Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > > *although i've seen your smart power suit look for > work (it looks good btw) Lol, that's just the work uniform expected by clients although I often wear jeans when I'm not in the mood for a suit. I get my suits from second hand shops (along with almost all of my other clothes), so none are 'in fashion'. My good friend was a fashion worshiper and worked in fashion, but I never understood why. It seemed like a pretend job to me because I don't get why it's important to people, but clearly it is.

I'm not fashionable anyway in clothes or lifestyle, but I think I am unusual. I don't generally give a toss what other people want to wear or how they want to live (if it doesn't negatively impact on other people's lives). Most people seem to follow fashions though and the hipster fashion is all the same thing really. There will be someonething else to come along and moan about soon. It's not your fashion so you hate it. Kind of stupid really.

El Pibe Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > At 14 is to be encouraged, at 24 its to be > tolerated, in your 30s...seriously, grow up. > It's the older ones that really annoy. Why? Is there a rule book somewhere that says you have to start wearing beige at a certain age?

On the tax issue, the poor (which might or not include the alleged travellers) pay loads more tax on the goods they buy as a proportion of their income than the wealthy.

Grim. I hope he gets a long sentence.

I agree. What is inherently dodgy about someone knocking on a door and riding away before you answer the door, then explaining that it was the wrong house? If that's not an inherently dodgy scenario, which I think is the case, what made the OP think it was? It was night? Ok maybe, but most burglaries happen during the day and night time ones are more likely to be creepers where they don't wake the occupiers, so unlikely to knock first. He was young? He was black? No? What else was there?

Way to kill a good barney penguin!

I hate to say, I actually agree with you Louisa. One of the problems I've seen with the drone view of life, is that they are often scared of their own shadows, so anyone or anything that is a bit noisy, smelly, entertaining or unusual to them is something to fear and not welcome in their drone-land. They bleat and wail until the authorities come to their aid and cleanse the neighbourhood of these terrifying individuals/pubs/shops etc. Then they can continue living in their clean & sterile bubble, convincing themselves of their righteous place as masters of all they survey.

Louisa Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > MrBen you always speak so much sense. I'm all for > a croque Monsieur and chilled glass of Pinot > Grigio. And to eat it in such a pleasant > environment as the village makes it all the more > enjoyable especially on a sunny day. But oh well, > I guess if you've lived in leafy home county > safety all your life and you make the big move to > the 'culturally redundant' about to be gentrified > inner london suburbs, a pop-up Armenian khorovat > pit fired restaurant in the back streets of > Peckham is kind of edgy. Don't forget, these > people find the village dull cos it's the sort of > place they've grown up in. > > Louisa. I grew up in Birkenhead, armpit of the North, but I still find it dull. I think ED isn't overly exciting either though, so maybe my high octane younger years just spoiled it for me, or maybe anywhere with an overwhelming majority of white middle class drones is a bit zzzzzz.

We had pickled beetroot in our Scouse, until he started complaining :-)

Or maybe they just don't agree with you?

Does someone from Birkenhead count? Actually whatisname McGann is a real Scouser and he lives round here.

Louisa for sweetness :-)

My grumbling stomach and low blood sugar take priority over your disdain for the temporary stink of my food. The guy taking pics wouldn't want to annoy me when I was hungry either, might have a hulk moment.

As an aside, the Brits are the biggest group of EU migrants moving into other EU states, so the numbers leaving the UK, even if we just count Europe, are huge.

???? Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > the old SJ 'wot me guv' tactic...sigh. > > Anyway, do you think there's been a rapid increase > in population in the last 20 years which is > accelerating? Do you think immigration has > contributed to this? Do you think part of the > housing crisis is because of this unanticipated > increase in population (from migration/immigration > and birth /morbitity rate changes) Or...don't > mention the war? We would have to look at the numbers of Brits and others leaving the UK to work this one out, but the govt don't collect that data. We would also need to look at whether the birth and death rates are going up or down and whether more people are living in smaller spaces if we want to look at overall effect on housing. Plus we need to take into account how many houses are left empty because they are investments, not homes and if this has increased or not. In addition, I'd be interested in looking at how many families have changed their structures, e.g. Old person living in big house alone cos adult kids have all buggered off to that London and are living in their own individual housing units, or mum & dad break up so another housing unit is required to house the absent parent. Connecting increasing immigration with housing stress is far too simplistic and probably incorrect.

ED - NAGAIUTB Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > EDLove Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > LadyDeliah Wrote: > > > -------------------------------------------------- > > > ----- > > > No, unlikely as I've got a big dog and I > doubt > > it. > > > > > > What if they stole your dog? :p > > http://www.jonrb.com/emoticons/yeah.gif I've got scary daughters, so I'm still covered!

No, unlikely as I've got a big dog and I doubt it.

lane lover Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Why do you need to know? > > I find the obsession with police and crime a > little weird. Vicarious thrills for those whose lives are otherwise dull?

I can't believe no one thought of this before. It would solve most of the dog v dog-phobe arguments instantly.

Jeremy Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Oh and LD - this indicates that the discount > repayment is a percentage of the resale price. But > maybe there are exceptions to this. Just read further down the page. I might have to check that out. So I might need to transfer it to my daughter or get a mortgage for the whole ?350,000, foregoing the discount. Looks like I'll have to work on it a bit more, see if I can get my dad to sort the mortgage out instead.

No, Jeremy, it's a fixed discount off their offer, not a percentage.

I get to buy the house at the July 2012 value, which is when I made the application to buy it. The value then was ?350,000, so I can buy it for ?250,000. Today's value is roughly ?500,000 because of the market increase, but the offer of July 2012 from the council still stands (it's taken nearly 2 years for the process to near completion). I'd pay back the ?100,000 discount when I sell it plus the bridging loan fees, which are really high and other fees, leaving me with an estimated ?125,000 profit to buy my land.

After I pay everything back, I'd probably be left with about ?125,000 which is enough to buy a decent plot in Spain or France. I intend to rent privately in London to carry on earning a living and be near my kids, until I am in a position to re-locate more permanently. A friend of mine has set up a housing association and he rents huge houses from landlords and rents rooms out individually so the rent to each person stays reasonable. I'm hoping to do something similar and might organise it through his housing association. I've always had a lot of people round me, so I'm happy to live in a large shared house, while I travel backwards & forwards to my little eco-farm. That's the plan anyway.

Yes I'd have to pay the full discount back. It's taken the council nearly 2 years to organise themselves, so I will only be taking advantage of the rise in market value, not the fact I have been a council tenant since 1985. I don't earn enough to get a mortgage, so I'm using a bridging loan to buy it and will attempt to sell it within days to keep the interest on the loan down. The alternative is to stay put and watch my secure tenancy undermined whislt remaining in the same crappy financial position.