????

oooh get Frank Lampard

Nice in the Clockhouse when the sun's out too. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I'm there....

100

..and that actor stabbed to death in Sidcup eh Tone

Try reading the Recruitment Section of The Guardian (*spits) if you want to find 100s of highly paid (and pensioned) non-jobs Huge...and if you want to really weep look back at the volume of these over last 10 years....tax payers of the future will be funding these non-jobbers retirements for years to come. Final salary pensions in the Private Sector are now nearly extinct and currently ?100,000 grand of private pension pot will buy me an annual pension of ?6,000 at 65....the wealth generating parts of the workforce can't carry on funding Public Sector pensions and that is a fact.

And that is most of us, certainly me and my family but we've (UK PLC) been living beyond our means for too long and that means we need bigger cuts - Public Spending and the huge pension liabilities of the public sector are not sustainable. Nor, is the public sector very efficiently managed or run.....the service delivery has a lot to be dessired too. Hugenot your emotive "Are we to scrap pensions?" is the kind of emotive response that the Public Sector gives as soon as anyone dares to qusetion its cost and effectiveness....anyay, now we need to do these things or investors won't invest in our debt unless we can demonstrate we are dealing with our huge debts, as you say this is happening but it will take morethan the eduction of inflation it will take cuts....

That's a proper pub

Someone on here (Lush?) said there's a barber round SE22 where they give you a beer - that's a proper barber

Can I scrap the scram and have a couple of Guniness instead?

elf & safety...that's the Service Economy at it's best....now, where should we start on the knife we are going to have to take to the Public Sector eh Hugenot? Any job title with "Safety" or "Diversity" in it wouldn't be a bad start

Well, a useless apprenteship doesn't leave you with a significant debt and we have (until the recent shite) been pretty short of many 'trade skills'...and believe me we could do with those trad skills now. Still,the mines will be opened again soon..

THIS is the only thing worth watching on TV at the moment...knocks shit out of the X-Factor and all the other 'talent' shows *sighs*.ok and The Wire Sean

Yup - the irony of this 'no-one can fail' idiocy is 1000s of indebted twenty somethings with devalued degrees and awful propsects...

Keef I think there's been a decline in the number of the poorest kids (bottom decile) going to Univesity for some time now...

Huguenot Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Fair comments, Quids, but no need to make it > personal old thing. > > If London was a country in isolation, then you'd > be paying no income tax at all (I average around > 7%), it's one of the benefits of city states - all > that corporation tax (18%). > > I didn't come here for tax issues, so much as for > a progressive socially minded environment that had > a good industrial infrastructure and market > opportunity. > > Strictly speaking I'm a Blairite socialist, I > don't believe in redistribution of wealth, I > believe in equality of opportunity and > meritocratic rewards. > > I'm not saying that public sector isn't bloated, > I'm just observing that you don't suddenly turn it > over in one budget. Marmora Man's ideas are > desirable and workable in principle (although I > can't guarantee that private companies don't have > similar levels of administration). > > I don't know how easy it is in practice. Both > teachers and healthcare workers have seen above > inflation rises in recent years, but both are > threatening to strike unless that continues. The > latest NUT conference are balloting to strike > unless they get what amounts to a 15% rise on > average. > > A budget that fixes expenditure may well be > perceived to be either reducing pay in real terms, > or shutting hospitals or schools. You may get a > strike which damages the economy more than the > benefits accrued (don't forget public sector is > 45% of GDP). > I continue to argue in the main that governments > have very little control over the 'big budget' > elements, which is why we get so excited over > nominal issues like quangos and MP's expenses. Apologies for the personal thing - It reads worse than I meant it to sound :-$

Emotive crap Hugenot- YOU said 25% and then made your ridiculous suggestions - there are massive inefficiencies in the publc sector but the bottom line is unless we cut some of these no-one will buy up our debt and we will go bust! There is no choice but an increase in tax and a significant cut in the public sector. Our finances and this governemnt are a shamblers still your nice low tax rate in Singapore must be tough to take for a 'socialist' such as yourself, why don't you send your excess back rather than lecture us on what we need to do with our economy over here.

Pheeeeeeweee,thanks everyone (you know who you are), glad I gave the Curry Night a swerve for that..in the shower for me now x x x

Shit , unless you're in a teenage "posse/gang", which, TLS accepted, most EDForumites are not, then you an your property were far more in jeopardy in South East London in the early-mid 1980s than nowadays.. *tsks about wimpy younger generations scaredof everything*

Still wrong methinks - "ies" is a plural 'noun', me being a groupy is singular. The slang term is grammatically wrong. go and tell Mr asset....

The pounds already tanking...I can see our credit rating getting downgraded and it's back to the IMF for a Labour Chancellor again...we need a massive cut in Public Sector spending wether we like it or not.......

Swinging is so 70s...Peckham Rye Car Park doggers is where it's at

the money wasn't there it wasn't real it was digital and based on companies and especially FS companies inflated balance sheets based on 'assets' that have largely been proved toxic. Basivcally 'we' the world, and us in the UK especially, have to get used to the fact that our wallets are about 30% lighter than we thought.

If I was AD I'd resign and go to a job that suits my experience and ability..say a traffic warden.

*whispers* ...Chelsea