Huguenot

jennse23, you must be crazy. Setting up fake IDs to your personal financial advantage is a confidence trick. It's simply a confidence trick. Whether you like it or not, or whether you're willing to admit it or not, that makes you a con artist. I'm fully prepared to accept that everyday people can sometimes make mistakes, and commit major crimes without even realising what they've done. However you only get redemption if you're able to look yourself in the mirror and accept that what you've done is outrageous. If you can't do that, it's because you feel that what you've done is acceptable. That would make you a hardened crim, which I'm sure you're not. Having used these IDs to 'befriend' ED citizens you intend to spam them with junk, and you've also put yourself in a position where you can steal their personal data. You've done this so you can make money out of them. I need do nothing to 'discredit' you. You've done all of these things. All I've done is exposed them. Saying 'close this thread' is like a burglar who says that the solution to crime is to close down the police.

He hates you coz you is not from the hood. Bang bang. Over.

No you didn't jennse23 You said you 'found other Facebook participants'. Autumn Ridlon and Theodore Salzman are fake IDs which you/your mates set up to parasite on well meaning victims. As for not knowing what MLM is, are you promoting ORCA for free? So far as I can tell you paid, 6,950 pounds for the franchise? So where are you making it back sweetie? I think the only success you're likely to attract is an appearance on Watchdog alongside timeshare sharks.

Still going on, based on the irrational assumption that transparency is either a prerequisite for good governance, or in the national interest. Someone's gotta do the dirty jobs ;-) Follow the bullshit here...

You may be right Karrie, but I don't think it's the homeless that are running gang culture at all. I don't think the kids in gangs are lacking shelter, food or clothing. I think that's, for want of a better word, bullshit. I don't think the squitty little idiots stopping me a few years back on East Dulwich Road to steal my watch were doing it in some Robin Hood food for the poor act of altruism. In fact, quite the opposite. I think they were greedy, arrogant and over-indulged. I think they were spoilt and thick. They didn't avoid going to school because there weren't places for them or they were eating cardboard. They didn't go to school because it was too much like hard work when they could gang up and steal whatever they wanted. They probably had rubbish parents, not poor ones. The government can't replace the parents, and giving them more money isn't going to make them less rubbish. It may well be that duck house buyers are on a different planet, but it's also pointlessly inaccurate to suggest that 'general society' is made up of the starving poor with fingernails bleeding on their outstretched hands. General society is more like the ED massive - well meaning slightly left-of centre family types who work hard, pay off the mortgage, tend the garden, have well-behaved if mischievous kids, and save up enough every few months for the odd treat. These are the guys that government represent. Their core voter base. The majority. The ones who don't shout loudly at all, but just get on the best they can. Genuinely, Karrie, I think your viewpoint is clouded. Government legislates, councils oversee. Both of these have set up institutions that help the impoverished to the benefit of all society. These institutions cover everything from the welfare state, healthcare to council housing. It's to these you must focus your lobbying. They're absolutely great, amazing, really WOW, if not perfect. In creating them, the government and the councils have achieved something absolutely incredible, worthy of an ovation. However, none of these institutions are there as angelic philanthropists. They're there paid for by you and your neighbours, and they have limited budgets accordingly. When you talk about trashing the system because its not serving you, then just like any greedy ingrate you're proposing killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. Whilst I accept that there are some people outside the system, I believe there's a far larger majority that should stop asking what everyone else (not government) can do for them, and instead ask what they can do for everyone else.

So is Autumn Ridlon, our friendly Democratic Christian, a real person with only 12 unrelated ORCA friends? I notice that Theodore Salzman is also a friendly Democratic Christian and a bizarre friend of ORCA Dulwich? They actually both have the same biography phrase..."I would love to be friends with lots of people. So I would love to be in your friends list. " So was it just a way of raising your position in search results through link farming? Google will flay you alive if they find you've been cheating the system. Or were you hoping to set up a chain of fake personas who, by taking advantage of people's goodwill, could constantly spam their 'new friends' home pages with facile comments about what a good deaal they got on ORCA this week with a link to the offer? I appreciate spamming Facebook is a laborious business, but there's a reason for that. Spamming destroys online communities. Besides, it looks more like multi-level marketing to me. I don't see how it can benefit the community. It may mean people from ED prefer to spend more in ED than West Dulwich, but it also means people from West Dulwich will prefer to shop at home also. It doesn't create any more wealth, it just skims off the top for the franchise pyramid. With those little cheats you've been caught out with above, it seems Jenn that you have less of a socialist ambition, and more of a flair for manipulation and deception?

LM, I was only indulging a pun with the 'nanny' state. I wasn't disagreeing with the thrust of the argument, just pointing out that it was easier said than done. You're right about Singapore having a greater gap between rich and poor.. ...and yet you'll find social harmony, and housing estates with the same architecture as those in Camberwell and E&C that are a picture of cleanliness and social cohesion. Interestingly Singapore teeters at the very top of education rankings, despite the massive inequality. So perhaps indeed harmony has nothing to do with wealth and everything to do with education?

Section 4.3 Page 111 onwards... So a rental market does exist - probably around 3.5%

Apparently Article 2 of Law No. 3 in 2004 allowed more than one property to be owned in certain circumstances - including property investment. However, I'm not sure how that works with rent, as according to the socialist revolution the exploitation of a tenant by a property owner for rent is viewed as exploitation of the 'need' of another and hence counter-revolutionary. The bulding of new homes was essentially off the back of substantial government petroleum reserves, with a small taxation on government workers. I can't identify the criteria for housing allocation - it's clear that housing has stratified into apartments, arab houses and villas. There seems to be a degree of housing reflecting government status. Nor are people obliged to take government housing, they can still buy privately if they wish. Either way, it's not inordinately effective, since Libya numbers on average 6.5 people for each existing housing unit...

They're all good points. The challenge is that MPs don't spend government money, they spend other people's. If other people don't want to pay more tax, then there are no additional services. It doesn't matter how much serving an MP is inclined to do. It's this challenge that underpins government spending initiatives. An MP must juggle the expenditure around the wants and needs of the whole electorate, not just the 'most needy'. I think the idea that all the government money is being 'wasted' is not true: I think you'll find that most cash is very tightly earmarked, and that in fact there's very little flexibility at all. If you don't agree, why don't you take a much closer interest? Here's a great exercise in environmental stability. You play the Prime Minister and try to balance the books. Remember that if you try and reduce manufacturing or consumption by much you'll end up with strikes, riots and a recession ;-) It's very very difficult!

How often does Trump need to do this before he qualifies as a spammer? BTW Trump, it may be worth choosing the relevant section before embarking on these rants. It's not an ED specific issue ;-)

Lol! I think trying to help parents with the upbringing of young children would be the definition of the nanny state? The one thing that stood out with Jamie Oliver's school dinners campaign was how many parents were actively and aggressively opposed to it. It strikes me that there's likely to be a heavy crossover between parents who aren't bringing up their children successfully, and those who would respond violently to any suggestion by the state that they needed help in doing so.

Aha... I'm a member of two ED related groups - the Dulwich Mum Appreciation Society, and East Dulwich is the Coolest Place in London. I notice that Jennifer has recently posted on the DM site about: "all the exclusive offers I will be bringing you over the coming months". So it seems that Jennifer's bought an ORCA franchise and is using FB to promote it. Well done on having the initiative, but shockingly bad show if you fabricated the Autumn Ridlon identity in order to start spamming members of FB groups. No-one likes SPAM, and no-one likes fake IDs

Just had a bizarre friend request on Facebook from a young lady called 'Autumn Ridlon'. Since she referred to herself as both Christian and a Democrat, I assumed she was probably from the US. Not being one to agree to befriending strangers in the digital sense, I had a look at her profile and didn't recognise her chums. She only has 12. However, she had a personal website listed which, when I clicked on it, diverted to the ORCA Local East Dulwich fan page, and from there to ORCA Local East Dulwich itself. Oddly though, the OLED fan page wasn't owned by Autumn Ridlon at all, but by Jennifer Ferguson - this time listed as a London resident. Jennifer is listed as a graduate of 'Charterhouse' Secondary School, rather than the Charter School which might give a local link. The real Charterhouse doesn't refer to itself as a Secondary School, because it's not. The actual OLED site itself was a sales promotion site, for a local loyalty card offering deals at various East Dulwich places including the carpet shop, the LL vets and the garden centre. What's this all about? How and why did these guys get in touch with me? None of my own friends were on either lady's list, so she couldn't have found me that way. Since I'm not based in ED anymore she couldn't have diverted me to an ED site by checking my IP address. However, on the forum I don't use my real name so she couldn't have associated me with ED that way.

If she did, she couldn't have meant et cetera. &c. would work through. The ampersand is actually derived from running the letters 'et' together (meaning and). So in essence it's just as technically correct as running the letters 'ae' together, which most people wouldn't raise an eyebrow at. It's still not a word though, it's an abbreviation. I'm not a fan of abbreviations in prose, as it makes my brain hiccup, and I lose a lot of the enjoyment from reading. Probably not rage though.

It reminds me of a drink in the EDT about four years ago when my mate's date put her bag under the table. It busied up about 7.30 so we thought we'd go for a curry, and the bag and phone had gone from under the table. We rang the phone, and were greeted with some piss-ant 15 year olds crowing that they'd got the phone and we hadn't. They'd kicked the bag away from under the table and we hadn't noticed, they were well chuffed. However, they disagreed on how well to taunt us, and actually had a fight whilst we were listening on who was the best thief. The only forums they post on are the happy slapping ones.

Isn't that, like, 10 mins profit? ;-)

All great points nashoi, but pragmatically you're making a pitch for PR. The downside of PR is the dislocation between a constituency and government. To be honest, I haven't got a clue on that one. I've though really hard about it, and I prefer STV as it biases to the centre ground in local representation, but beyond that I'm not sure. If the constituency MP is already so separate from the constituency, then who cares? But I'm not sure that the real truth is absentee MPs, I think that maybe they work pretty hard (within limitations) to defend minority rights AND look after their constituency. I'm not sure this would happen under PR.

The staged removal of tax relief on the interest payments of residential property purchases.

Buy-to-let tax breaks are a disease which disproportionately rewards those who believe in the exploitation of those who cannot fend for themselves. Like any tyrants, bullies or wifebeaters, they lay the blame for this exploitation at the feet of their victims - they're too weak, or they shouldn't be indulged, or they're not trying hard enough, or they should enjoy it because it's only a joke. This is the essence and the core voter base of 'I'm alright Jack' conservatism. Tories are not in a position to offend them. So what they do is fabricate solutions that have absolutely no impact on the problem at hand. In this case they blame it on immigrants. In your case MitchK you're willing to believe this because the truth, that BTL landlords tacitly support the exploitation and disenfranchisement of young families, is just to painful to admit. You couldn't look at yourself in the mirror of a morning. Comments like 'they can just go somewhere else' are a reflection of this, because BTL landlords, like wifebeaters actually hate their victims for their weakness.

I guess churlish means resembling a churl. However, one rarely hears someone describe as as a churl. It means 'peasant'. Apparently churlish means vulgar, boorish, surly and intractable. In this case I think I was being spiteful rather than churlish. However, it's somewhat disappointing that someone could ascribe a whole sackful of negative prejudices that whitewash violence against foreginers and be regarded as 'not the boor' in this conversation. It's entirely possible that MitchK was being ironic in his post, but a quick search on his posts suggests he has form on allocating society's ills to 'immigrants'. Here's one he did earlier: "Well you could ban foreign ownership of properties if you want. That would probably wipe off 30% on London prices at a stroke. If you have an uncontrolled immigration policy, and Labour did, then there will be excess demand for property. You lefties didn't want to discuss or control immigration, you don't want to build on green sites because of the damage to the environment and then complain that property prices go up. " So apparently not hating foreigners is a left wing disease? I imagine MitchL rarely leaves the sceptered isle, and when he does he considers his hosts to be less than human. I don't think MitchK gives much of a monkeys about the housing issue, so long as he can use it as yet another vehicle for stoking unfounded prejudice.

That post was quite fun until you pointlessly brought up immigration. Then I realised you weren't being fun, and wondered if your family actually likes you. ;-) It really is only from a retarded 'big me' perspective that one could possibly view the disenfranchisement of a generation as a party political issue. Do people really want a generation to have no access to property just so they can crow about petty political jibes? What a waste of space.

DaveR, much as I love and respect you, you're totally out of order to suggest that no-one had any constructive ideas to deal with this. I do. Exclude mortgage interest as an allowable tax expense on residential property. Homes aren't business. Fingery clickery. Over. I'd recommend staging it to avoid a house price meltdown, and I'd probably laugh as you were forced to sell your vehicle for the exploitation of others. I'm lucky to be reasonably wealthy, and was put under considerable pressure to enter BTL in 2002. I didn't because it was morally reprehensible.

"by not being represented appropriately by MPs, this possibly means that there is no point being a law abiding citizen and no point in saving or no point paying taxes, nor any point being part of a community". This sounds like some sort of argument for the overthrow of a local Mafia Don. Being a law abiding citizen has nothing to do with you giving an MP ten percent of your orange grove proceeds each year. You're a law abiding citizen because it makes sense to have a society that competes in a non-violent, transparent and accountable way. It's a contract with your neighbours, not with your MP! Your taxes pay for community services that include healthcare, education, welfare, national infrastructure, defence etc. These are all set up with a majority interest in mind and delivered by civil servants. These are also contracts with your neighbours, not with your MP! In order to change these policies you need to petition a majority of your neighbours to elect someone that supports the policies you prefer. What you do with your savings is entirely up to you. There would be no need to consult your neighbours unless you wanted to use them to set up something that might impose upon them, like a chemical factory or an ugly twelve storey extension to your house.

Sorry Karrie, but Marmora Man is right. MPs are essentially there to help frame legislation as a representative of the majority population of their constituency. It is only if your particular case is an illustration of a legislative folly that they may be willing (not obliged) to take an interest. They'll be heavily incentivised if its a popular cause and attracts local votes. Similarly local councillors are really only there to oversee the appropriate disbursement of funds allocated to local councils. Once again if your case helps illustrate a larger point, if it's an example of a larger problem, or if it enthuses or empowers the local community then it may attract interest. Local councillors are not paid, they do a day job. Welfare and support services that have some kind of constitutional obligation to help you include social services like the Pensions, Disability and Carers Service, the Child Support Agency, healthcare, education, police and the judiciary. Neither MPs nor local councillors can formally dictate the activities of these services beyond policy or legislation. They can't tell them to help you, nor how to do it.