Penguin68

The concern must be when large concerns can use their global reach to move 'taxable' earnings out of reach of comparatively high ticket tax regimes - thus effectively reducing their world-wide operational costs (where you take tax as a cost) - this allows them (if they wish) to reduce their prices against those who have to operate under local tax regimes. I am not saying that such price predation is taking place with Cafe Nero - but the potential is there is you have the option to distort your cost base. I have been quite interested, if it is true that Starbucks has been declaring a loss for tax purposes in the UK for most of its operations here why it has not been charged with trading insolvently - as clearly it must technically have been - it would be interesting to see how the UK company would counter a winding-up petition.

I am not sure 'it's on comparison web-sites', but the NFU is also well spoken of as an insurance supplier.

I don't commute by bus, but do often take the bus to get into town in the early evening; about one in five journeys is disrupted, most frequently by buses which change their destination during the journey (i.e. stop before the originally advertised stop). On one journey to Picadilly that actually happened twice, with one bus only travelling 2 stops before stopping for good (it hadn't broken down, the driver received fresh orders). So I do understand why some travellers, who actually want to get somewhere for a particular time, prefer to use more certain methods - car, taxi, train. When buses work they are great (albeit quite slow to get anywhere) - when they don't and you're dumped out - or they never even arrive at all - you are waiting in the cold and wet and may well chose not to make the bus mistake again.

Just for confirmation - the process is as follows:- An individual may be arrested - (this does not mean that they have been charged for any offence. An 'arrest' ensures that all interrogation is conducted under the rules of PACE and allows any subsequent statement to be used in evidence). An Individual may be charged An individual may be brought to trial An individual may be found guilty - and only at this stage is that individual 'the guy who raped the girl'

The problem with using finger prints to validate cards is that all the criminal needs is your finger. A bit more of an effort than just gabbing the card but, hey, where needs must...

Last power cut we had my wife brilliantly suggested to the children that we enjoy having a Victorian evening - one was studying that period. ... and really enjoyed being sent up the chimney to clean it.

There are a number of good and reliable window cleaners who do service ED - they will ask for money after the job has been done. Search on 'Window Cleaners' in the businesses and trades section. Many recommendations there.

GPs are contracted to the NHS (if they are 'NHS' GPs) but are independent and private contractors - they either themselves own (or themselves rent) their premises, employ their staff (although Health Visitors and District Nurses if based in a GP practice are PCT employed - unlike practice nurses, who are employed by the GP) and are entirely free (within the constraints of the law and their contract with the NHS) to act as they wish. Numbers of GP practice owners employ doctors/ locums to work for them nowadays, and do not pay them the sorts of sums (?150,000+) which you read about when you hear of 'GP' incomes. ?40,000- ?60,000 is more normal pay for younger ?salaried? GPs. The days of a group of (legal) partners working together in a practice are now beginning to pass. When GPs retire they may sell-on their practice (or their partnership share) to other doctors. GPs are regulated by their own trades-union (the BMA) and, although they may have their contracts withdrawn by a PCT (I suppose, I have never heard of it happening) normally they are removed from practicing by their trades-union, generally for medical incompetence or inappropriate behaviour. They are not ?struck-off? for being poor or inefficient businessmen (although they might be for out-and-out fraud). As far as GP services are concerned, the NHS has very much arms-length involvement here (via the PCTs) - GPs' freedom of action is far larger than doctors directly employed by the Health Service in hospitals.

'Have a lot more GPs' - if you are going to undertake a full loading study then you need to look (a) at FTE (full time equivalent) GPs - there are many part-timers retained by some practices and (b) you need to understand the mix of patients - elderly patients, families with young children, are far greater consumers of GP services than adults 20-45 for instance. I am not sure whether (outwith an FoI enquiring) you are going to be able to get these figures.

Young dogs (e.g. puppies) have (1) very sharp teeth and (2) a huge propensity to chase things and bite them - this is a natural part of their growing up but can be tedious -a runner in a park could be very tempting... It's really a 'play' behaviour - but I have received (and seen others receiving) quite serious nips as part of this. Ideally puppies should be kept on leads (even very long leads) if in public whilst this still forms part of their learning behaviour.

So 'information' - results of a possible survey (how many? how chosen? when? not disclosed) or perhaps just received opinions and a statement about liberal policy on policing - a bit of information, then (about liberal policy) - but nothing about the police response, if any, costs, how it would work etc. etc. I don't mind the liberals wanting to tell me things - but I'm not an elector for the ward which is telling me, so a bit of a waste of effort, really.

Oxford has got some mixed usage pavements - a line is painted down the middle of the pavement (about 5 ft wide in total, so about 2.5 ft width for each group) one side is for pedestrians, the other for cyclists. It is incredibly dangerous. Many pedestrians (the old, children) find it difficult to stick to their narrow lane - my late mother lived in fear that her tottering and arthritic steps would take her into the line of a cyclist she couldn't see (if coming up behind her) or hear - she stopped walking in public after a little time (she had to use the pavements to reach a bus stop), which meant she became housebound. Cycle lanes in roads are one thing (clearly these aren't fully safe for cyclists, but more so) - mixed economy pavements - or places where just pedestrians and cyclists mingle can be very scary, particularly for the frail and vulnerable (cyclists themselves tend not to be disabled or partially sighted).

Political boasting is (junk), as is political advertising from parties I don't support, UKIP or the BNP for example. Apart from the contact details of councillors who don't represent me there was precious little 'information' in the leaflet.

Likewise

I had a car (parked outside my house) with a pavement facing wing mirror snapped off last year - the 'best' version I could come up with was that a group had been talking around the car, someone had perched/ sat on the wing mirror and their weight had broken it - however when you get rows of them mindless vandalism does seem most likely. And that 'best' version was an attempt to give an 'accidental' spin to what was otherwise an unpleasant attack on my property.

I have a problem with a collapsed drain under the back garden It is worthwhile checking with Thames Water - although if it is a soak-away (a drain to take e.g. rainwater from gutters or even from the kitchen sink) away from the house, but not them connecting with the public sewer (foul water) system it may not the utility's responsibility. Actually, I think a kitchen sink should link to the sewer system, but sometimes rain water from gutters doesn't. It may also be that Thames Water takes responsibility only from the public sewer to the house (which would normally be a route which ran through the front but not the back garden). However some houses have linked drains where they link at the back of the house - so a number of houses link together and exit into the public sewer through a single link serving more than one house. It's worth checking anyway.

I believe the stimulus for all this is a change in the law; previously you (or your ground landlords) were responsible for your foul and rain water drains and sewer pipes on your own property - with Thames Water (etc.) only picking up responsibility on the boundary - hence all the insurance offers to cover issues with on-property drains and sewers. That responsibility has now passed to the Water Companies; I assume that Thames is undertaking surveys locally to understand the extent of that responsibility - which will probably be used as evidence in making the case to increase their water rates to pay for work they may have to do in the future. They will also, I assume, be planning to put right anything they immediately find problematical.

I had two copies of a political weekly that didn't arrive (in adjacent weeks) - although the replacement ones sent out after I complained did. I discussed this with the weekly itself, who said they would institute a 'watch' on the despatch process as regards my copy - since then everything has arrived on time as before - so this may not be a postie problem.

I have generally found the counter staff at Sylvester Road to be very helpful and nice, they know that sometimes the posties (particularly reliefs) don't do exactly what they are meant to, and they have always been prepared to look for a package which I have expected but which hasn't arrived. Mind you, I have been going there for more than 20 years, so they do know me - when working full-time I was never there to sign for anything or accept bulky deliveries, so always picking stuff up.

Offering lifts to total strangers and especially a minor Bang goes decades of hitchhiking - obviously this is a potential concern but the asumption that all adults prey on all children which is inherent in this thread is both offensive to most adults and statistically wrong. There are many reasons to 'befriend' younger people without it being creepy - it's quite common amongst men and women who have become separated from their own families, through perhaps divorce or even worse death, to want young people in their lives for perfectly 'safe' (if sometimes quite sad) reasons. Nowadays they shy away from this because of the public perception - but I certainly remember when I was a child in the '50s that some adults were friendly (in an entirely unthreatening and acceptable way) with teenagers - many scoutmasters etc. did that because they thought they were adding to general well being, not because they were kiddy-fiddlers. Of course care is required, but an automatic assumption that any adult showing anything other than disdain (and probably fear) towards a child or adolescent is a criminal (or potentially so) is very sad.

Now that I have seen the ghastly scorched earth policy that is Camberwell Old Cemetary (Langston Rise end), combined with the bare ruined choirs in Barry Road where once the sweet birds sang (and nested) it is clear that someone in Southwark must hate us in ED with a vengeance - turning leafy suburbia into a stark dystopic urban nightmare. It is tempting to think that such a destruction of local amenity could be parlayed into a reduction in Council Tax. Or is this simply revenge for turning down the ED CPZ? Either which way, its a cold, bleak, hard and dreary winter for us on the visual front - at least Barry will green up again - but the wonderful old trees in the Cemetary are gone for ever, with nothing to replace them but bitter memories of a piece of paradise (see other threads). A shame. But remember, we are an electorate, and once in a blue moon in London we are allowed to demonstrate that.

GPs have always been 'private' - in that they are partnerships (or businesses) which are owned privately (e.g. by the doctors) who can sell the partnerships and (very frequently) own the property (surgeries etc.) where the business is undertaken. They contract to the National Health Service to provide GP services to a given locale. GPs neither 'work' directly for the NHS nor are their surgeries in the main owned by the NHS. They do work 'within' the NHS - in that their services are (mainly) free to the user at the point of delivery as part of the NHS 'contract' with the public. Ancilliary medical staff (practice nurses etc.) and clerical staff are employed by the GP partnerships, not directly by the NHS. District nurses (who may work out of GP practices) are, I believe however directly employed by the NHS, as are Health Visitors (but I stand to be corrected over that). Partnerships may also employ locum and salaried doctors - who do not have a financial stake in, nor can benefit from profits from the partnership. Often these non-partner doctors are relatively poorly paid compared with the partnership GPs/ beneficial owners. It always amuses me to hear talk of 'privatisation' in the NHS with reference to GPs - they have never been anything but private contractors supplying the NHS to given contracts. Most (but not all) GPs derive all their incomes from NHS contracts although some also, e.g. run commercial pharamcy services as well. All that is happening is that significantly large commercial businesses are moving in to an area previously supplied by small (commercial) 'cottage' businesses, albeit with the support of a huge government department and apparatus.

It is clear that at the moment we are being visited by a dreadful visual eyesore - these trees look as if they have been blasted by explosives, almost, BUT - such severe pruning will tend to reduce the root ball/ root extension - this will have a broadly beneficial impact in an crowded urban environment over time, with less root damage and water take-up. Doesn't alter the fact that it would have been better to do it at a more appropriate time, and that it looks stark and dreadful. The tree that was massacred at the corner of Dulwich Common and the Village has now come back, a diminished but still living tree, so there is hope for next year.

We do need to distinguish between theory and practice - on about 1 in 6 buses that I take (but I don't bus that often) the bus terminates before the originally flagged destination, most recently, yesterday, an Honour Oak 63 decided, at 11:15pm, to stop in Peckham. I had a freedom pass, but other passengers wishing to go further had to wait for another bus (as I did) and pay again. More frequently I find buses travelling into town don't deliver against their initial promise. And of course trains are frequently a complete lottery. Public transport only works as a replacement for private if it is (a) frequent and (b) reliable (and I suppose © goes to where you want to go). If this breaks down/ doesn't deliver then people will choose transport over which they have more control - of which Boris Bikes are a (sort-of) example.

Being a residential landlord can still offer returns, but you need to be sure your tenants pay up promptly and are credit-worthy, and be aware that you will hit 'unexpected' expences - tenants expect you to keep the tenancy in good order, get things repaired etc. - they won't (often) do the 'little' things about the house that you would as an owner - but expect you to. And if these things are left undone - then the property deteriorates and loses value. This is an issue if you are cash-strapped, as these problems are difficult to plan for (you can claim them against your income, but you still need to pay for them up-front). If you buy a flat from a council or housing association (or any property where you aren't the ground landlord) - make sure you know what your commitment is as an owner to major fabric repairs (roofs etc.). Take as much advice as you can - plan your income and outgoings to ensure that you have cash reserves to meet contingencies - i.e. treat it as a business - not as an investment.