My eye! Sweet Jesus, Ouch!

[DeltaZero]

Life lessons that everyone should learn from. 

[Hedganian]

Or at least find out who the person is/why they're at the party before flirting...

[hitmanNo2]

How do you not know if someone is your cousin?  I can maybe understand maybe not recognizing if they live far away and you haven't seen them for 10 years since you were a child or something.  However with Facebook e.t.c that too seems unlikely.  Straight up unaware of though?  How does that work?  Family member recently allowed back into the family after being banished, secret children?

[Hedganian]

Anything past first cousins are okay to hit on anyway, isn't it?

 

Or are second cousins still not okay?

[shmook]

If you're from Norfolk, flirting with any family member is OK.

[scorch]

I assumed all my lot were in the function room. I stepped out as I needed another drink and a few minutes away from the kids that were running about. She arrived late as I was in the bar area and got chatting to her.

 

I hadn't seen her in about 16 years so we're both completely different looking now.

[Got Wood?]

Sorry to get political but just seen this thing about Labours land tax. Would make my equivalent of council tax go up x4.

 

Whilst I'm all for making the rich pay more and the poorest pay less, there's no justice for those in the middle, who put the work in and scrimped and saved to buy a house that wasn't a tiny flat.

[shmook]

Whilst I'm all for making the rich pay more and the poorest pay less,

have a read of this

 

Very simplified, but food for thought.

[Got Wood?]

True. Read that one before.

 

What all those men gloss over is that regardless of who pays how much, they were happy to pay it before, and suddenly aren't happy to pay it even though it's less.

 

At the end of the day neither system is going to be perfect, but I'll be damned if I'm paying x4 my council tax! Corrr!

[Hedganian]

I'm no fan of the Tories, especially after their disastrous changes to disability benefits and related things, but I wouldn't give Corbyn the steam off my urine (really, p**s is filtered?) Much less my vote. I wouldn't trust him to run a bath. The man is as anti British as it's possible to be while still being an MP in a mainstream party. He's a disgrace.

 

I just hope that they'll finally get rid of him after they lose this time, the Tories can push a decent Brexit through and then we can oust them later and sort ourselves out.

[hitmanNo2]

Agreed.  I don't see how anyone with a functioning brain would want that POS running the country.

[Tw1tch]

Almost forgot for a moment how housing is, £175 for them to check if I'm even the right sort of client for them...

[amateurstuntman]

You might find you've just been flirting with a cousin you didn't know.

 

 

If you're from Norfolk, flirting with any family member is OK.

 

 

Doesn't matter where you're from.

 

Cousins are OK.

 

Sexy, sexy cousins.

[shmook]

Poidh

[Xaccers]

have a read of this

 

Very simplified, but food for thought.

 

To add some figures to the share of income tax paid in the UK, the top 1% pay about 1/3 of all income tax received, while the top 10% pay half of it. It would take 9 million of the lowest income tax payers (that's excluding all those who earn below the income tax threshold) to pay the same amount as the top 1%

 

Watching how to live mortgage free again.

 

Feel like giving up on ever having my own home.

 

*fruitcage* ridiculous.

 

Top tips, buy a house! Build another house on the driveway! Sell both houses!

 

Retire! Sell your house! Buy a boat!

 

Buy a car park! Hope you get planning permission, build a house!

 

Get given some land by your folks, build a house from an old static caravan!

 

 

Anyone in / around York got some land I can have? I promise to only have a triple garage...

 

I hope you're saving a deposit in a help to buy ISA https://www.helptobuy.gov.uk/help-to-buy-isa/how-does-it-work/

 

Then how about a help to buy equity loan? https://www.helptobuy.gov.uk/equity-loan/equity-loans/

 

My wife and I used the equity loan which meant the difference between a 95% mortgage on a 1950's 3 bedroom house which needed work, and a new 4 bedroom house with a 75% mortgage.

Overpaying for 2 years by £140 a month, and with the house value increasing, when our 3 year mortgage deal was up we were able to re-mortgage and "pay off" the equity loan and be locked in to a low interest rate for 10 years.

[DarkLite]

Sorry to get political but just seen this thing about Labours land tax. Would make my equivalent of council tax go up x4.

 

Whilst I'm all for making the rich pay more and the poorest pay less, there's no justice for those in the middle, who put the work in and scrimped and saved to buy a house that wasn't a tiny flat.

 

If you look at the Labour manifesto, they're only saying that they'll initiate a review of the council tax system and one of the options they are going to look at is a land value tax.

 

Here's the relevant page:

 

There is no plan set in stone to shift over to it immediately, but of course the pro-Tory media have launched into "LABOUR WANT TO STEAL YOUR MONEY" whilst ignoring the fact that the Tories are privatising the NHS and using taxpayer funds to do so. Here's the 'Naylor Report' that Theresa May was talking about:

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-property-and-estates-naylor-review/

 

Read it. Specifically Page 5, point 11.

 

It reads:

 

 

Which, translated into plain english, means: The Government is not only selling off of NHS property assets, but offering a ‘2 for 1’ deal where the purchase price is matched with an equal amount of taxpayers’ money from the Treasury. An NHS Trust could be sold far cheaper than the going rate, knowing the loss would be covered by the taxpayer.

 

Oh, and check out Page 23:

 

 

So if your local NHS trust doesn't want to sell it's grounds and facilities to private companies, the Government will simply cut off their funding to force them to sell up.

 

I'm no fan of the Tories, especially after their disastrous changes to disability benefits and related things, but I wouldn't give Corbyn the steam off my urine (really, p**s is filtered?) Much less my vote. I wouldn't trust him to run a bath. The man is as anti British as it's possible to be while still being an MP in a mainstream party. He's a disgrace.

 

I just hope that they'll finally get rid of him after they lose this time, the Tories can push a decent Brexit through and then we can oust them later and sort ourselves out.

 

If you're hoping for a decent Brexit, here's the thing:

 

1) We already had a brilliant 'deal' in the EU, being the only country in the single market who was able to not only keep our own currency with no plan to adopt the Euro. This gave us a unique status as a kind of currency 'buffer zone' for anyone outside the EU who wanted to trade financial services etc with the EU

 

2) We are not going to get any concessions on any of the inane points that the Brexiteers want, because the rules are the rules and if you want to be a club member you need to abide by the rules. We are not special, and if we leave the EU, we are the ones who will suffer.

 

3) The Tories are still going to demand the impossible, knowing full well they'll not get any deal. They'll then walk away, blame everything on the EU, then turn around and make the UK into a corporate tax haven like Hong Kong or Singapore, which is great if you're a multi-billionaire but utterly *suitcase* if you're a normal human being. Worker's rights will be stripped away, civil rights will be stripped away, the NHS will be sold off and when the normal humans get upset the Tories will turn around and say "Hey, you voted for this."

 

Why do you think TM keeps hammering the 'No deal is better than a bad deal' button? Repeat a lie often enough and people accept it as truth.

 

And before I get the inevitable 'lol socialist *fruitcage* off' retort:

 

1) I am a Lib Dem

2) I am on the Center-Right on fiscal and economic policy but left on social policy

3) I lived for 25 years in Hong Kong and trust me, that is not the economic model you want to be in.

[scorch]

Why do you think TM keeps hammering the 'No deal is better than a bad deal' button? Repeat a lie often enough and people accept it as truth.

 

 

Wasn't that Hitler's thing?

[DarkLite]

Wasn't that Hitler's thing?

 

Yes.

[Xaccers]

If you look at the Labour manifesto, they're only saying that they'll initiate a review of the council tax system and one of the options they are going to look at is a land value tax.

 

Here's the relevant page:

 

There is no plan set in stone to shift over to it immediately, but of course the pro-Tory media have launched into "LABOUR WANT TO STEAL YOUR MONEY" whilst ignoring the fact that the Tories are privatising the NHS and using taxpayer funds to do so. Here's the 'Naylor Report' that Theresa May was talking about:

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-property-and-estates-naylor-review/

 

Read it. Specifically Page 5, point 11.

 

It reads:

 

 

Which, translated into plain english, means: The Government is not only selling off of NHS property assets, but offering a ‘2 for 1’ deal where the purchase price is matched with an equal amount of taxpayers’ money from the Treasury. An NHS Trust could be sold far cheaper than the going rate, knowing the loss would be covered by the taxpayer.

 

Oh, and check out Page 23:

 

 

So if your local NHS trust doesn't want to sell it's grounds and facilities to private companies, the Government will simply cut off their funding to force them to sell up.

 

 

If you're hoping for a decent Brexit, here's the thing:

 

1) We already had a brilliant 'deal' in the EU, being the only country in the single market who was able to not only keep our own currency with no plan to adopt the Euro. This gave us a unique status as a kind of currency 'buffer zone' for anyone outside the EU who wanted to trade financial services etc with the EU

 

2) We are not going to get any concessions on any of the inane points that the Brexiteers want, because the rules are the rules and if you want to be a club member you need to abide by the rules. We are not special, and if we leave the EU, we are the ones who will suffer.

 

3) The Tories are still going to demand the impossible, knowing full well they'll not get any deal. They'll then walk away, blame everything on the EU, then turn around and make the UK into a corporate tax haven like Hong Kong or Singapore, which is great if you're a multi-billionaire but utterly *suitcase* if you're a normal human being. Worker's rights will be stripped away, civil rights will be stripped away, the NHS will be sold off and when the normal humans get upset the Tories will turn around and say "Hey, you voted for this."

 

Why do you think TM keeps hammering the 'No deal is better than a bad deal' button? Repeat a lie often enough and people accept it as truth.

 

And before I get the inevitable 'lol socialist *fruitcage* off' retort:

 

1) I am a Lib Dem

2) I am on the Center-Right on fiscal and economic policy but left on social policy

3) I lived for 25 years in Hong Kong and trust me, that is not the economic model you want to be in.

 

So a review when Labour hold it means "Ah, we might do that, we might not" but a review (Naylor independent review) when the Tories do it means "Yes we're going to do everything suggested and a whole bunch of stuff not suggested but our opponents think we're going to do it so we must be doing it"? Riiiight.

 

In reality:

The report examines how the NHS can make the best use of its estate to support NHS England’s Five Year Forward View.

It highlights the opportunities available to support sustainability and transformation plans (STPs) and optimise the use of NHS land and buildings.

The government is already acting on some of the recommendations by:

• creating a new NHS property body
• making a £325 million capital investment over the next 3 years to develop local STPs - as announced in this year’s Budget
• developing an incentive scheme to guarantee that proceeds of sales are available for reinvestment

The government will consider a further multi-year capital programme in the autumn.

The government welcomes the review and will consider the recommendations carefully and respond in due course.

 

The report highlighted where funds could be released to invest back into the NHS to cover maintenance and upgrades without needing more funding from the taxpayer, and without resorting to Labour's love child of PFI.

If there is a surplus building or land on a NHS site, then it makes sense to use it to help fund the NHS.

I love how you've claimed "So if your local NHS trust doesn't want to sell it's grounds and facilities to private companies, the Government will simply cut off their funding to force them to sell up." which makes it sound like the hospitals will run out of money, which as I'm sure you actually know isn't the case at all. It's about capital funding. If a NHS Trust has the means to raise it's own funds for maintenance and new buildings, shouldn't it raise those funds rather than just expect the tax payer to cough up more money? Of course it should.

The NHS owns hundreds of empty properties, as shown by a FOI request by Estates Gazette several years ago, with a rates bill of £4million. That's £4million it wouldn't have had to pay if those properties/land was sold off. One FOI request I found shows a property has been empty for 10 years, costing the trust a fortune in rates and security patrols to protect it from squatters.

Are you honestly saying holding on to these properties and paying for them makes good financial sense? Oh no, you were trying to say it was the Tories privatising the NHS, which it isn't, and they aren't interested in doing. For 42 of the 69 years the NHS has existed, the Tories have been in power, yet the NHS is no closer to being privatised by them. In fact it was Labour who embraced PFI with such vigour giving us 100 privately owned hospital buildings, and a bill of £60billion.  

Despite the continued lies that the Tories want to privatise the NHS, when it's clear they do not, so far the only party which has actually privatised a NHS hospital is Labour under Andy Burnham.

 

As for Brexit, it is in both the UK and EU's best interest to not hinder each other's economies.

There is very little point remaining in a club where you have no voice; where you use a veto and it is ignored on several occasions means your veto becomes meaningless.

The commission is unelected, and unaccountable to the people of the EU. In fact the oath they take states that they must put the interest of the EU as an entity above the needs of the people.

Despite the law in the UK being that foreign criminals committing serious offences are automatically deported, however because we release convicts on parole the ECJ prevents us deporting EU criminals, out of the EU this will no longer be a hindrance.

The EU applies prohibitive tariffs on food imports in order to protect EU farmers by excluding 3rd world markets (many items are at 75% and some are as high as 600%). They also bulk buy surplus production (hence the wine lake and butter mountain), then flood 3rd world markets with it at lower than local prices which is totally immoral. One of the first things noticed in Britain when we joined the EC was that food prices shot up as these cheaper markets were excluded. Outside the EU these markets will be available again reducing food costs.

The German motor industry is likely to be hit hard if the EU insists on it's 10% car tariff. At the moment they're working on an 8% profit margin, so they can't absorb that price increase, and with 1 in 5 cars made in Germany destined for the UK, that's going to be a huge drop in sales resulting in German job losses (I worked for Daimler when they had to shut down production to survive the drop in sales from the UK's credit crunch).

Meanwhile Vauxhall, Honda and Nissan built in the UK for the UK market will be cheaper than EU imports, and non-EU imported cars such as Kia will benefit from the tariff no longer being applied to them, again making German imports much less attractive.

Currently the UK exports about 57% of it's goods and services outside the EU, so once free from the insular EU (which has shown it is woefully inadequate in negotiating international trade deals), the UK will be able to enter into agreements with the countries it trades the most with. As an EU member it can't do that.

Most people in the UK are employed by small and medium enterprises, who would welcome a reduction in corporation tax.

[hitmanNo2]

"Ah, we might do that, we might not"

 

Politics in a nutshell.

[Mike_West]

I forgot to mention yesterday, I managed to schedule a visit to the surgeon... Next *fruitcage* Thursday.

I think I'll just intrude tomorrow morning instead, as the bloody thing hurts and the doctor doing the USG had no idea whether it was a hematoma, abscess or something in between.

[Habakure]

One thing I did not get, if you sell the land to a private company what stops said private company upping the rent or even forcing you out? Once you own the land that's it, it's yours. You can kick people off it as and when you seem fit.

 

To be honest though, if you best defence is to say things like 'hard', 'strong' and 'stable, and you're not advertising viagra, then you just sound desperate. But hey, it worked for Trump.

[Hedganian]

If it's land they're not using, how can they be 'forced out' of using it?

 

Why hang on to buildings or other real estate which is unused but still costs money?

 

 

Look at it this way. You own a house and it needs repairs. You also own some land nearby which you don't use but have to keep paying taxes on. If you sell the unused land, you can use the money to repair your house (which you *do* use!) at the same time as saving yourself the tax money on the land you weren't using. Win/win, right?

[Habakure]

I said how could they not force you off the land, I should have said this:-

 

You sell the land. They own the land you work on. They want more money. You can't afford it. They kick you off, or would there be a ruling so the landlord couldn't kick you off. The you in question here is a NHS hospital.

 

Edit:- I typed this before you added the third paragraph. I understand the empty land sell off point. But that's not what I am on about. I am talking about a hospital that is used and wants to know what help they would get if indeed a landlord tried to up the rent or wanted them off the land.

[Hedganian]

No it's not, because the report is talking about selling *unused* buildings/land. *NOT* hospitals.

 

No one is 'working on it' - that's what *unused* means!