Jeremy

DJKillaQueen Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > The hypocrasy of those that bemoan the lower social > housing rents whilst having nothing to say about > the amount of tax payers money spent paying > private investors mortgages astounds me. I don't think anyone is happy about councils paying huge rents to private landlords - except the landlords themselves. Maybe the reason nobody has said anything about it is because... well... there's not much more to say! Everybody knows there is a lack of council housing.

Or... Folk music (which is quieter) = fine Boom boom music (which is louder, bass-heavy, and travels) = nuisance

Carrying a mobile phone around... will somehow decrease your chances of getting mugged??

Regular afternoon munchies : Snickers Special treat : Charbonnel et Walker truffles (large box)

No, it's not the same thing at all! Promising someone council housing for life (regardless of how their circumstances may change) is completely different to receiving council housing for life because their situation hasn't improved.

skidmarks Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Attitudes are different here to Europe?except maybe Paris. I disagree... Italy, Spain, France (not just Paris), Greece... unsignalled pedestrian crossings may as well not exist!!

DJKQ, I think you missed Gina's point. She is not saying that the majority of council tenants will one day be able to afford private housing. She was saying that only a small number of people genuinely need a guaranteed council house for life - presumably due to disability or other factors.

You don't have to "live life to the full" every hour of the day to feel fulfilled though, do you?

Not a lot of people know what I had for lunch.

Fair enough darcy. But if you choose to hang around these parts, bear in mind that Louisa (the original poster) is the biggest wind-up merchant going!

The poker analogy is not so far off. Most guys will expect to pay on the first date (and possibly the second) - after all, they don't want the woman to think they are tight. But by the third date, the guy will probably be expecting the woman to at least go 50/50. High maintenance girls are a big turn-off. It seems strange to me that a woman could expect to be treated as an equal, while making their date/boyfriend fork out for everything.

Looks like an awesome weekend!

Is the nightclub still open in Sydenham? The one by the roundabout... can't remember what it's called...

darcy... talk up your neighbourhood by all means, but why not try to do it in a slightly less condescending manner?

The right-to-buy scheme - in theory - does have benefits, provided the right restrictions are put in place. Labour went some way to addressing this in 2005. The damage was done by the original Thatcher scheme, which made it far too easy for the homes to be resold onto the private market, and effectively prohibited councils from spending the proceeds on building new housing.

Sometimes I wish people would think before they got all hot under the collar. How you can justify giving someone a house for life - regardless of how their circumstances change - is beyond me. It is the very opposite of "fair". Council housing should be means tested, it is a public resource which should be reserved for people who need it. You can argue that we should have more council housing, or that people who work shouldn't *need* council housing... and you'd have an interesting point... but that's not what we're discussing here. It is not comparable to private housing, because private houses are not public assets funded by taxes. And please, if you want to try to position yourselves on the righteous side of the argument, don't undermine it by resorting to insults.

"Sydders"? Seriously?

Sometimes I think you must mix with the wrong people, Brendan! Surely there must be very, very few people out there who wouldn't be in favour of more social mobility? Who says that the class system is "just the way it is"?

Building societies are owned by their members, Steve. So who is greedy... the management? The employees? The customers?

Inside 72 was a good little place... nice mix of music. Just the right amount of dinginess to keep out the wrong 'uns and the Clapham/rugby types.

Is it safe for work?

I actually think that a barricade of their HQ, plus their offices in the City and Canary Wharf would have got them much more attention, particularly in the international media. The petrol station thing is just petty.

I basically agree with David too. Unfortunately activists can sometimes be ill-informed and naive, and for many of them, BP = petrol stations. These small franchises are a tiny, tiny part of the monolithic BP machine, they are not where the blame lies.

Narnia Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > 'I dress for myself' is a statement that I find hard to get my head around. I think it's about feeling confident... some people feel confident and good about themselves if they're well dressed. You're not necessarily trying to impress people.

I have Orange broadband, only because it is free with my mobile. It is usable. I don't remember it going down over the last year or so.