Why don’t we all listen to In Business on R4 tonight – which questions whether we have reached the limits of growth, then reconvene in the morning?

but we all have to take our share of the blame.

No we don’t – I’ve not had any debt, other than my mortgage (which I’m overpaying) since I was a student.

Have to say though that round here (Dorset) there do now seem to be a lot more houses on the market since the demise of the ill thought out HIP.

I like to get my predictions from this guy:

Richard Heinberg on “the end of growth”

Tonight’s In Business on R4 will be discussing whether permanent economic growth is possible.

Yes, there was supposed to be an image there but it didn’t appear – like this

Note the bulging calf muscle!

These cars are the equivalent of the 1980’s gold medallion – except when driven by a WAG of course, when they are probably just the only thing big enough to carry a full set of Louis Vuitton luggage, a filipino maid, a personal trainer and the dog’s hairdresser – a ludicrous example of conspicuous consumption and utterly tasteless. They are hideous, especially in black, especially with tinted windows and especially with the stupid little grill behind the wheel arch done in chrome.

To paraphrase Ben Folds, these cars are driven only by people who “give no f*ck”

you’ll only be offered one for your first offense

Not so.

Can’t remember if I actually still had points on my license when I went on one, but it definitely wasn’t my first offense.

The guy running the course said it was only offered to older people who were only very slightly over the limit. They didn’t bother trying to educate boy racers or people who were clearly speeding as a conscious decision.

The course did make an impact on me and I have definitely changed my driving habits, although being first on the scene to a serious RTC and having to open the car door on an unconscious, fitting, bleeding youth has possibly had a sobering effect too. And maybe getting older and being a father has made me think more about my driving too.

I did get sat next to an utterly unrepentant, knows-better-than-everyone-else type though.

We were shown a film of family and friends talking about an accident that happened locally. Four youths had been in something like a Citroen C1 doing around 100 mph on a dual carriage-way at 3 a.m. when the car flipped and went into Poole harbour. Can’t remember if any of them survived, but I think not.

Anyway, Mr know-it-all next to me said “that’s all bull$hit, I know one of the family and it was a mechanical problem, the gear box locked up”

I tried to point out to him that maybe if the heavily laden car had been traveling a little slower, then maybe the gear box “locking up” wouldn’t have had such tragic consequences, but he wouldn’t have it.

Unfortunately, as with many things in life, people seem to make up their minds with very little reference to the evidence and will twist anything they are told to fit/confirm their own theories.

We seem to live in an age where people place a higher value on opinion than knowledge.

I am astounded at the number of people here who use their own clippers.

I bought mine 23 years ago for about £20 (so total saving to date is around 6 x £5 x 23 -£20 = £670 (Wow!))

But I thought I was in an extremely small minority.

Can’t say I’d noticed an overly representative number of baldies in the MTB population, so the Singletrack forum must have it’s own special demographic.

Maybe Wahl should take out an ad on the site.

Can’t go wrong. Let us know how you get on.

Most importantly, relatively midge free.

Very handy for the Strathpuffer.

Overnight sleeper train to/from London.

Nice villages just up the coast from there.

We’re thinking of going up there for a year once we’ve got our current house into lettable condition, just to see if we like it enough to move up permanently.

I didn’t bring up the subject of economics.

I just started questioning you when you started to try and reduce the complexity of the NHS to a simple economic problem.

It’s not my fault you always bang out the same old argument.

Oh come off it. You’re saying that economists only present the facts and that if the facts are misunderstood or misrepresented then that isn’t anything to do with economists!?

Economists don’t design how things happen!!!?????

Ever heard of Keynes???????

Mmmmm… Delicious Bluefin Soya.

Bring on the next decade…

That’s why I don’t need to read an economics primer.

To you the solution to the extinction of Bluefin Tuna is to eat soya – perfect economist’s answer.

by which point only the economically most efficient uses for the resource will be able to pay for it as the market function will have found alternative resources for lower efficiency uses.

What is the alternative to fish?

Growth is not incompatible with finite resources, until you actually start to get close to using some of them up. Then it becomes very incompatible indeed.

Ever heard of common bloody sense?

Are you telling me that there is an economist somewhere who doesn’t advocate year on year economic growth?

If the government is employing the finest economic experts, how come we’re fecked?

Because even the best economic experts seem to be only any good at economics.

To paraphrase: If the only tool in your box is an economist, every problem starts to look like an economics problem.

Just to put it into context, even the finest economists are yet to work out that we live on a planet with finite resources.

Sorry, answering before reading properly. Just deleted that post.

…those figures arent normalised for healthcare expenditure. Hospital Bed numbers are.

I can just imagine the meeting…

“We haven’t got any useful statistics so what can we come up with that is easy to measure”

“I know, let’s count the beds”

BTW you’re also forgetting that Germany has a different GDP to us.

So Germany spends 10.5% of its apples compared to us spending 8.7% of our bananas.

But thanks for trying to simplify everything to a single statistic for us – very helpful for those of us who are a bit thick.

the Germans manage to run 140% more beds than we do for that 10% higher National Health Service expense.

Ah yes, that sounds like a useful metric.

Maybe if we looked at the number of beds in hospitals rather than anything to do with actual people we would be able to sort everything out.

Now, where’s that machine that goes “ping!”

conceivably we could spend our nations entire wealth on healthcare and it still wouldn’t be enough.

Come on, think a bit more. What does this actually mean? If you think that no one should be allowed to die or suffer any pain then you are right, it will never be enough.

So if you set that as your goal, then yes, the NHS is and will always be a “failure”

But if you consider that the NHS should be there to treat anyone who needs medical attention for any treatable condition that is having a -ve impact on their physical or mental well being, maybe with some prioritisation of the most serious/urgent cases according to medical need. And also to relieve pain and suffering of those who can’t be treated or are in terminal decline, then actually I think it does a pretty good job.

Just how far the NHS extends its services to prolong life though is a political decision and says nothing about the efficiency of the NHS. If politicians want to prolong the life of the very old and sick to the absolute limits of science then the service will always appear to be “expensive” (to some of those who aren’t old or sick).

I don’t know what a better system would be but I reckon for a cool £100bil I can find out and implement it with change.

Rather arrogant of you to claim to be better qualified to do this that anyone already in the system though? Do you not think that most people in the NHS don’t think about its cost?

On the monopoly point – why do you think that is relevant to the “failure” of the NHS?

As a contrast, do you think that our road network is a failure?

Or that our air traffic control system is a failure?

Or that the police are a failure?

Or that the fireservice is a failure?

Or that the coastguard service is a failure?

etc, etc…

There are many services that just don’t work except as “monopolies” – the NHS is one of them.

Of course you could have a system where all healthcare was paid for directly by those who used it, but if you happened to be disabled, or old, or just unlucky in your health, I suspect that you would then regard that sort of system as a “failure”

Personally I make relatively little use of the NHS, I’m sure that I and my family are net contributors. But you know what, I’m really pleased about that.

I’m still not sure why you think the NHS is a failure. You say:

Failing = 100billion+ per year…

So how much should we spend on health care?

And:

we can’t even keep our hospitals clean.

Really? Are you saying that all hospitals are dirty all of the time? It’s another totally meaningless phrase. Not really one you can build much of an argument on.

Islabikes are good for any kids, not just because they are great bikes, but also as they keep their value.

They’re a bit more expensive than other brands to start with but you’ll get most of your money back when you ebay it later.

BTW – posted a Q here theother day asking about full finger gloves for our 5 and 6 year olds to ride to school in the winter and didn’t get much response. Anyone here got any recommendations?

“White for hands, brown for feet, green for torso, thighs and seat. And in the cupboard beneath the stair… you’ll find the red for pubic hair.”

The NHS as a state monopoly is failing badly.

Love it.

But before I completely disagree with you, just for clarity, can you just explain what you mean by
“state monopoly” and “failing”

Chez Fred?

The house is only over the road from me, and if anyone would like Kathryn’s mobile number…. I wouldn’t mention her ears though…

Can you ask her about the handrail?

And if we’re thinking about our favourite episodes, I think mine might be the one where the bloke rebuilt the almost totally ruined tower/castle (up N somewhere) that included the bit where the builders accidentally let a massive internal wall fall down on camera – very Fred Dibnah.

LImecrete is a more environmentally friendly alternative to concrete.

It’s a useful tool for confirming everything you despise about HR people.

Diplomacy

Nice house, but how did she manage to put in those stairs with no handrail and get them past building regs?

Just had a look at the BBC website.

It says that there will be cuts of 25% on average across Whitehall departments.

Then it sets out a whole list of cuts, none of which is above 25%

So either the BBC doesn’t understand what “average” means, or there’s something we’ve not been told yet?

Go on then, one more time: Common People

GlitterGary +1 Make two lots and have a taste off.

Better get on with it though or it’ll not be ready by Christmas. Mine’s been stewing for nearly a month already.

rkk01,

Why do you (and so many other people) have to characterise other people as “ignorant” just because they don’t like something?

Can you not just say that you like it, without having to resort to knocking other people down?

I don’t like football either, so maybe I’m doubly ignorant?

I went once and didn’t enjoy it much EXCEPT, that it was the ballet Rambert doing some modern thing to an entire album (Grinning in Your Face) by Martin Simpson, so at least I was introduced to some amazing music I’d not heard before.

Maybe ballet would be more interesting if they threw in a few more moves like this:Chinese State circus Swan Lake

Right place right time sells by email but he does charge more than OP is looking to pay. Personally i agree that being cheaper would sell more and probably more cash overall – works for cheap music, flights, hotels doesn’t it. I’ve actually bought quite a few images and prints and a mouse mat with me on it.

I usually don’t get involved in discussions on event photography, but as I’ve been mentioned…

Generally I sell 2 sizes of jpeg:

The first is around 2000 pix on the longest side and costs £4.45 – good for a 7″x5″ print or any computer use.

The second is as out of camera and costs £7.45 – around 3500 to 4000 pix on longest side – good for any enlargement you’re liable to want to make.

I sometimes charge a bit more for pics from team events, working on the principle that the images will be passed around.

Because of the sales system I use (which I think is the simplest for the customer to use) I only have the option of those 2 image sizes, though I choose the prices.

The system used to offer an even smaller image, which I used to sell for less money. When the small option was taken away (by the people who’s system I use (and pay into dependent on the number of pictures I upload)) my overall takings didn’t go down. In other words, I have tried the proposed system laid out above, and it doesn’t work to the photographer’s advantage.

Actually I don’t e-mail the images anymore, they are downloadable and kept (after purchase) available to download again by the purchaser in perpetuity.

I realise it seems like a pretty simple business, but like most things, there’s more to it than meets the eye.

Right, I’ll get back to the really important issues I normally like to comment on, like Ton’s food bill.

All that organic/free range stuff is another con; blind tests would prove there is no difference in tastes.

Anyone for free range Troll?

Probably spend around £80 a week for 2 adults and 2 small kids – not counting booze.

Actually I would like to spend more!

We save some money through having an allotment, buying veg from a market stall on Saturdays, herbs and spices from a wholefoods shop, and we don’t eat a lot of meat.

We spend extra on bread from the local bakery @ £2 per loaf, organic milk and lots of olive oil + ingredients like pine nuts, olives etc.

I’d love to buy more fish and locally produyced organic meat, but it would be easy to add an extra £10 per meal to do that, so I don’t.

OTOH we could eat a lot more cheaply. If you cook from scratch and stick to basic veg/grains/pulses I reckon a family of 4 could live reasonably well (healthily) on about £30-40 a week – provided of course that someone has time to shop around and do a lot of cooking.