Always good to start the day with a chuckle, priceless

oh whats your email address?

THM – GPX on its way.

i have exactly the same problem, will only sag circa 5-10mm but feel plush enough.

Not sure what you mean by hairy!

THM my normal loop starts at box hill taking in ranmore and holmbury, leith and summer lights. I have meetings all morning but maybe able to head out in the afternoon, will let you know. In the meantime happy to send you a gpx of my loop

THM – careful with this! This could end in tear!

RPRT – and thats what i mean by politics of envy. People are loosing their jobs as a result global economics and the treasury would rather take a £500m hit, and be seen as being hard on the ‘rich’, so as to be seen to be fair rather than abolishing the tax and using the receipts for the greater good.

I find it amazing that my views attract so much ‘selective’ scruitny. Does anyone care to actually respond to the statement ‘politics of envy continue to use the 50% rate in order to satisy the lust to punish the rich. Why should the lower incomes pay higher taxes to make up the shortfall?

or

If the government scraps the 50% rate, they could use the money to lift more lower earners out of tax? Who could argue with that?

whilst we are all getting very serious and emotive about this subject, I got my daily dose of silly humour from reading this

Britain may contain up to 60 million slaves

Sometimes I get the feeling people use words like ‘propaganda’, ‘fairness’, ‘right wing’ and so on, not becuase they know their definition, but because they have heard it through the socialist worker!

So the debate about the 50p tax continues to gather pace, but surely there is only one questions – does it work, in the sense does it actually raise any money? Its not propaganda!

Surely, the logical is that if it does, the general public would support it on the gorunds it raises money and if it dosent, than most should be happy to scrap it.

The report from the IFS yesterday is probably the best evidence we have, the report concludes ‘the introduction of the 50% rate would actually reduce revenue, costing the treausury £500m a year’. The laffer curve suggests that above 40p in the £1, the more tax is raised the less revenue is received.

Surely, based on evidence, available freely to all who wish to argue to point, the questions is whether we can afford to keep it? Yesterday more jobs were lost, and the politics of envy continue to use the 50% rate in order to satisy the lust to punish the rich. Why should the lower incomes pay higher taxes to make up the shortfall?

If the government scraps the 50% rate, they could use the money to lift more lower earners out of tax? Who could argue with that?

But, im sure people will – with increasingly emotive irrationality (bash the bankers, tax the f****rs). They may use the argument that people (really rich) want to pay more tax, but I suspect Mr Buffet would be a little more cautious with his words when asked to pay 15% more than he is paying in the US.

Politics of envy is making a comeback which is bad for us all, look what happened in the 70’s. The policy of “squeezing the rich until the pips squeak” to quote then Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer, Denis Healey.

Celebrate success, it will breed success.

RPRT – the first two paras are fact / opinions – a basis from which an argument / debate is prepared.

My thoughts are just that – balanced growth (2% if you want hard numbers), keeping close tabs on inflation and employment.

However, my last two paras looked to the future, natural resources and inflation linked to increase in costs associated with humna consumption of natural resources. Those are my thoughts.

i give up!

Most economists today agree that 1.5-2% GDP growth per year is the most that our economy can safely maintain without causing negative side effects. Studies have shown that over the past 20 years, annual GDP growth over 2% has caused a 0.3% drop in unemployment for every percentage point over 2%.

However, growth needs to be carefully balanced because over time, the growth in GDP causes inflation, either through oversupply of money or through the effects of low unemployment (goods and services will increase faster than supply, causing prices to rise, or higher commodity prices, raw material costs).

So, its a fine balancing act, I see the next twenty years as being an age of austerity, partly due to the over reliance by man kind on finite resources. We will have to make tough choices, if we continue to consume at our current rate than inflation and low growth will hurt us all, hitting the very poor the hardest (not just in the UK but also the third world)

The age of auterity will be unpopular, governments will fall, there will be riots on the streets, debates about the gap between the rich and the poor will divide everyone, but I am a firm believer that our habbits / expectations / desires need to be rebalanced if we are to survive for the long term and leave a leagcy our kids can be proud of.

rp – sorry! I think we all would love to live in a ‘utopian’ world, but some of the thoughts / ideologies on here are too simplistic and not grounded on realistic principles

Happiness – I was wondering when this would creep into the argument debate! Believe it or not, but given the choice, people will pick a well-paid job with a less happy lifestyle (long hours, stress, uninteresting tasks) over a less well-paid job with a happier lifestyle. That is the main finding from an experiment involving thousands of adults and students conducted by a team of economists.

The researchers asked people to choose between a number of scenarios. Choices included picking either a job paying £49,000 per year which lets you get 7.5 hours of sleep a night or a job that pays £73,000 but which allows just 6 hours sleep. Many gave one answer for what would make them happiest (usually more sleep, less money) and another answer for what option they would choose (more money, less sleep). They would often choose an unhappy option if they thought it would give them greater purpose, social status, control or help their family.

The lesson for the government is simple: ditch all the nonsense about trying to promote happiness, which in fact merely reduces opportunities. At a time when the proportion of young people not in work, education or training is at a record high, we need more jobs and more economic growth, not mumbo-jumbo and compulsory reeducation. We need to boost Gross Domestic Product (GDP), not worry about Gross National Happiness (GNH). The previous government’s obsession with our “work-life” balance was always based on a meaningless artificial dichotomy. It some cases its sole purpose was to justify laziness and a culture of entitlement. It certainly feels very 2007 to speak in those terms these days. If we want to afford to consume more in the years ahead – including more healthcare and other services – we will need to work harder, longer and smarter to pay for it.

I stopped contributing to this when the good folk on STW pushed facts to one side to continue an argument, but what I have just read from junkyard is just laugh out loud nonsense! I had a poor family, came to England when I was 12 and have since worked bloody hard to get to where I am today. It really frustrates me when people use the argument of having money to make money. Total b@ll@cks, work hard, be honest, have integrity and live within your means.

Right place you miss my point, I am merely supporting my argument for abolishon of the 50p tax because taxing the rich more is to the detriment of the wider economy

The 50p tax’s sole purpose is to hurt a few people and fuel class warfare. Even those on low incomes who will never pay the tax will be worse off because of it. It is also a myth to believe that the “rich” do not pay much or enough tax in today’s Britain.

If you don’t believe me, take a look at the facts. There are 29.9m income tax payers (out of a population of 61.8m) who earn at least £7,475. Roughly 727,000 people have an income of at least £100,000 a year. Of these, 369,000 earn £100-150k; 157,000 earn between £150-200k; 158,000 earn £200-500k, 29,000 between £500k-£1m and 14,000 earn a £1m or more.

This implies that 358,000 people earn £150,000 or more; roughly 308,000 of these pay the 50p rate. Some of these will be non-doms, who pay full UK income tax on UK earnings (but also derive earnings from overseas, which are not taxed). These figures do not include capital gains.

A huge share of the tax take and hence of the money used to fund the NHS, schools and welfare is accounted for by a tiny minority on high incomes. The top one per cent of taxpayers (roughly speaking, those on £150k and above) will pay a record 27.7 per cent of the total income tax take in 2011-12, according to HMRC (they earned 12.6 per cent of total income, down from 13.4 per cent five years ago). This has increased from 26.6 per cent the previous year, 21.3 per cent in 1999-2000, 14 per cent in 1986-87 and 11 per cent in 1981-2. History tells us that cuts to the top rate actually increase the share of tax paid for by the rich; there was no need for Gordon Brown’s raid.

Another astonishing statistic is that the 14,000 people on £1m a year or more will pay £14.2bn in income tax this year. They will contribute almost as much to the exchequer as the total paid by the 13.93m people earning up to £20,000 a year, who will fork out £14.9bn. Those on £1m or more now pay 45.5 per cent of their income in income tax, up from 35.7 per cent in 2008-09 (they also pay national insurance).

rewind back 25 years and the west was supporting ‘rebels’ led by Bin Laden in much the same way as Libya today! :(

confidence fully restored after a ride on my own today – sometimes you just need to go out on your own to rediscover the mojo! anyway, i was more annoyed at the fact that up to the YP i was well on course for completing my loop without putting my foot down!

As for BKB, the dips have definitely changed shape. Lovely day for a ride tho, and surprisingly quiet on the trails as well.

Ha no not very tricky just a touch nervous after a big crash last week

Hey stoner where were you last week? Don’t tell me, you were probably headbutting the wall in dispair as he won the race!

I tried this morning failed badly as there are 56 set of lights on my commute to London

Brundle on twitter – BBC/Sky/F1 2012+. Found out last night, no idea how it will work yet I’m out of contract, will calmly work through options Not impressed

F1 Teams also seeking details from Bernie – I’d be amazed if this was all done behind closed doors without any consultation with teams, sponsors etc.

Gutted, but will never subscribe to the Murdoch empire.

Jeremy there are a lot of people on here who would not be man enough to say that

Yes yes yes – where are the Hamilton bashers now!

Lewis to win it – what a lap yesterday – 1.2 seconds quicker than Button

Away we go – a bit of a chick flick but really enjoyed it.
Up – Superb
Kings Speech – superb!

oops foxy beat me to it!

Hi we have done it DIY style but had garmin maps for the region, plotted some routes, did a bit of exploring and found some great trails. I’m sure bike verbier could be a lot more fun but we enjoy freestyling and exploring – had a great time. Drop me an email if you want some gpx routes.

Blimey why is there so much anger and abuse towards Hamilton and other drivers – people make mistakes, choices which don’t fit in with out view of life but throwing abuse at them is just childish!

He’s a cracking driver just having a bad time – remember vettel last year. Personally I don’t watch racing to listen to drivers, I watch racing and Hamilton is a cracking racer. Let’s hope he continues to race hard and get under the skin of other drivers.

Clee cycles building some ztr alpines onto American classic hubs not cheap at 520 but friends have them and rave about them

my favorite on line store – on one are amazing!

yep try and get a screen shot and post it on here! lets get the scum bag!

i work near cavendish square and that areas is covered by CCTV – any chance you could get some footage to help identify the scum bag!

i gave in and hit the buy button – now on its way!

great fun – busy in places but really interesting route. I thought the signage was excellent. My ride was however compromised when my front shifter refused to drop down from the big chainring, after much trail side shouting etc it eventually decided to drop down!

So, if anyone has a fix for a front XTR m970 shifter which refuses to drop down drop me an email! If not if anyone has one to sell…. drop me an email!