Without unions you would be working in unsafe conditions with no holidays nor sick pay and 60 + hr weeks

No unions in my company…not that I'm anti unions for this sort of stuff just don't think holding your employer to ransom is an appropriate way to behave when after a bit more cash.

To be fair though, if you earn a hundred grand, 1% is a reasonable rise

Is it? I mean surely most of us compare our rises to inflation to see how reasonable they are? Or market rate of course….

The workers usually do, in the form of below-inflation pay rises (so effective pay cuts), or redundancy.

Well if my company chose to pay people less than the market rate then some of us would leave so that wouldn't help them very much.

Market rate is the way for sure.

You are being ripped off then – the workers who generate the profits should share in them

So should we share in the losses too?

How should pay rises be decided? My company pays us based on what the market is paying for similar people so in that case the company's profits are irrelevant. Is that fair? Well I won't be able to leave for more money so I suppose so. I can't really strike though….

This happened to my Dad's AOL address. I guessed that someone had got hold of his password and then accessed his contacts and now using outside of AOL so changing his password doesn't help – is that likely?

Most people won't get much of a rise – we're all in this together….

How to choose between an S-MAX and a Galaxy?

Depends on what you could spend your time doing whilst not working. I was once told about an opportunity in the Far East somewhere but I'd have been pretty much unable to leave the base so not for me whatever the cash involved.

I have a different approach to this – I quite like FB really as a central hub for stuff. If someone want so be my FB friend and they're someone I vaguely know or don't like then I ignore but if I'm not so anti them I'll accept and send them a message – some don't reply so I cancel them. Why would people want to be FB friends and not want to communicate? So yeah it can be a bit odd but then it can be useful and interesting.

Maybe just trying to fix a date in peoples minds to work towards – maybe your sellers want to get things done then for some reason; does seem a bit close given where you are though.

sold a set of wheels for £50, had an email from the buyer saying (very nicely) that he now couldn't afford them

Now that would wind me up! Did you try the 2nd chance thing?

Perhaps they don't want to waste time arguing with ignorant folk who think they are superior and don't get it, never will get it and don't WANT to take the time to understand their point.

Exactly right. There are all sorts of religious people, obviously, and some of them are really quite bright and are not afraid to be challenged but this ain't really the place for that. Even so, in the past some have tried to discuss in a sensible manner but some of the more vocal Dawkins followers on here feel they are so superior and see believers as really just a bit dim who if they could just be logical for a moment would surely see the stupidity of their ways. As it happens the brightest guy I've ever met is a Christian – and I've met a lot of bright people.

On a tangent – eveyone seen the Peckham Terminator?

I got dumped by email once – sent it back with one of those standard 'address not found' responses.

grum – they will have an impact I'm sure but as house sales take months to go through the current stats don't reflect the most recent changes.

CaptJon / TJ

Yep but it's still too early to see the impact in the stats; house prices are starting to fall it seems but that ain't because of the new Gov't.

BTW the dreaded 'double-dip' seems to happening right about now – well done Dave…

Hmmm, I think maybe it's too early for this lot to have had that kind of impact – it was gonna happen whatever.

If I have something of high value and don't want to risk it going for too low I just start the auction at a suitable price – often do this when there's a free auction promo.

not many bargains to be had on there now !

Because people won't honour the selling price on something that sells too cheaply?

I use Ebay quite a bit and have sold things at less than I hoped to get and got things more cheaply than I would have paid. Do the right thing – it's a strength of character thing really.

Versailles is rather more attractive than Buck Palace; if we got rid of the monarchy what would it become? A museum to the royalty maybe so still benefiting from the concept of the Royals.

Sounds like paradise to you is being a pro football player – but are they really happy…?!

Adders69:
Speak for yourself, speaking as a fundamentalist Atheist!

Grimy was referring to comments people make about believers/non-believers rather than the belief they hold and I said most are somewhere in the middle which is indeed correct. Having said that most are also somewhere between the extremes of committed believer and atheist which, despite your comment, I don't think you can disagree with can you? But yet you did.

If there's an afterlife then some go to the nice place and some the not so nice – maybe the not so nice place is full of people being sickeningly nice to each other? And the nice place has all sorts of varied and interesting things to amuse yourself with (or just drugs to get you through it maybe?).

Most of us are happy in the middle somewhere though.

Labour had the economy growing again

It was growing before they took over right?

People in debt = people easier to control….

Until more of them become thieves or start rioting anyway.

Why doesn't it help? Those people use more but they're paying for it – OK I'm making the assumption that water companies charge what it costs with a little profit.

BTW – not all people with pools are rich you know!

Seems people love debt in this country – the cheaper it is to borrow the more they want.

Says it all – WE.

I consider myself part of this nation.

…they had to try to repair the damage of the Tory years…

And now we're trying to repair the damage of the Labour years – isn't it all great?

Just to boil your piss a bit more I think you're actually allowed to fill a swimming pool even during a hose pipe ban.

But you do have to have a meter if you have one – well the water company around here said we do.

Has employment risen and unemployment fallen in the years 1997-2010? yes
Has prosperity risen – Yes
has crime fallen – yes – massively
has the NHS improved – yes massively
Has inflation and interest rates been low – yes.

I wonder how we funded all that either they've been very clever or we have a lot of debt.

Depends if you can afford to make repayments if interest rates rise to a higher level / what level you are comfortable with. Mostly you win by not fixing, occasionally you lose your house….

If your lurcher did catch one what condition would it be in? Might be like eating the left overs of a dog's dinner….

Can you please not come down this way and use our beaches, thanks. We pay to keep them nice, you don't.

Must be worth a few quid to the SW's economy – I'm sure the businesses there are greatful for your generosity.

I think that's the difference between hifi lovers and music lovers

of course ignorance is bliss.

I have Naim gear and not sure it's considered reference but still; I just like the fact music sounds exciting through it. You may not realise how dull many systems sound until you hear something more high-end – but of course ignorance is bliss.

I use Kef reference 104/2 speakers…. ;)

the big thing I'm worried about is where two perpendicular worktops meet and you have to cut a 45 deg angle on each – I can see this going seriously wrong.

Hmmm – I took the easy option and just put them up against each other and joined with coloured kitchen sealant – looked OK I reckon; certainly better than a less than perfect cut.

I fitted out the kitchen in my old house with Ikea units – looked really good with stainless steel doors (steel wrap over wood); at the time they had these big alu tiles that made a great splash-back – so a metal looking kitchen on the cheap. I spent about a grand on everything and added a free standing stainless steel Smeg oven and a steel Baumatic hood. WIsh I'd got a photo as it did look pretty good when done.