alistair darling, the chancellor, has spoken out about "the credit crunch" and economic downturns, etc. saying that the UK economy really is in bad shape, and its going to get more painful for people. as the heading asks, why now?
does he know something we dont? does he know that gordon brown is unlikely to be in charge come october? is this statement simply positioning himself ready for a future leadership election? ie, hes being honest, hes not spinning, hes quietly aiming for the top job. or hes looking at the longer term, he as most labour mp's do, suspect that a win for labour, at the next general election would be a big surprise, and knowing the state of the economy, the party winning the next election will only be in control for one term, which will mean a return to a labour government at the next election after that?
is this the "new" labour party approach? its widely regarded that gordon brown is "out of touch" talking up the economy constantly and saying at every turn that official figures show its not as bad as people think. perhaps this is the new style of government labour are going to use in the next 12-18 months? being more honest with the public is good, ending years of spin and not telling us the full story - but this makes a mockery of all the cabinet ministers and the prime minister himself, for what they have been telling us for the last few years!
suspicious... the government have known about the state of the economy for some months at least. you cant possibly hit a recession (which i believe we are already in) without seeing it coming, unless of course its a natural disaster that strikes us.
why are they only telling us about the problems coming now?
they could have told us much earlier... is this because all the outside economic indicators or monitors are making it impossible to deny, or are they trying to limit the damage of the story of when we fall into recession? look at recent announcements: first it was a minor downturn and world problem that was hitting us. then it was said it would not be as bad as the 90s slump we were then told unemployment was low and jobs were holding up the economy, making us stronger than other countries facing the problems next we are told its not as bad as the 70s now darling has revealed that we havent faced problems as bad as this since the end of the second world war.
steadily worsening party lines coming from labour.
alistair darling has had all the summer break to come out with this statement, the timing of it comes before the party conferences, even swearing in his interview.
something is not right, all will become clear in the coming weeks no doubt.
Denz on 08.30.08 @ 08:50 AM CST [link]
Thursday, August 28th
Housing market - by the Nationwide
latest report out about the 10% fall in UK house prices, from the Nationwide building society. Their chief financial bigwig, was out in force in the media,giving interviews and her "opinion" about the state of the market and the whole buying selling mortgage process.
we heard: * people are finding it difficult * people need to be prudent with their money (really? wow!) * bank of england might be able to drop interest rates soon * the market is stabilising to realistic * how the nationwide are a responsable lender * how they are competitive within the market
what we didnt hear: * how much the mortgage providers have lost through bad business investment (ie sub prime) * how much the banks have managed to claw back from the ordinary man in the street (as regards increases in charges, increased interest, increased fees for services, etc) * how the nationwide (and others) have stopped linking their mortgage rates to the bank of england interest rates (charging higher interest rates than the bank's official rate) or how much more money they have made from this * how they have offered in the past 100% mortgages but these have vanished
complete cock and bull spin from the nationwide... disgraceful!
Denz on 08.28.08 @ 01:44 PM CST [link]
Over 30s - what about us?
i ask for the over 30's, but this post is more aimed at 25-40 year olds.
we are a group of people, that are the most unfairly treated in the UK! some statement to make i know, but look at the facts....
if you are between 25 and 40:
- we have faced the biggest taxes in british history - our retirement age will be higher than any other time in history, 68 (extra 3 years of work) for men, 68 (extra 8 years of work for women) - millions of us have paid into pension pots from our own pockets, only to find they have been raided for funds by this government and are worth next to nothing - our qualifications at school, which were normal for most of us, are irrelevant and no longer recognised if they fall below a CSE grade 1 (despite them being totally exam based and harder than the GCSE) - we are the generation who has seen our careers weve had from school destroyed as manufacturing jobs have crumbled - inequality in wages, we started our working lives on a quarter of the pay of well established workers, and worked our way up, with wages increasing with experience, then watched as the saturday morning kid was employed on a similar pay rate to us, yet had no experience at all! - walk around tesco or asda, for example, how many time served tradesmen and women are now only deemed fit to scan goods at a till or stack shelves! or doing jobs like serving food or cleaning etc. careers and experience wasted, deemed to be irrelevant as we are not "young" anymore, yet we receive less benefits from the state than the "young" and penalised for being careful with our money under a means tested system. - we have to miss out on family life and our children's upbringing as we are forced into more unsociable hours working just to keep our heads above water - we are the generation that have to give up weekends and bank holidays, stuck in crap jobs with little prospects and many of us now dont even get two days off together during the working week - most of us have lost any chance of job satisfaction and enjoying our work - we have our workloads increased as companies cut staff for profits to pay shareholders, and get no wage rises for the extra responsibilty or workload - we have to deal with huge increases in crime, in the respect of we grew up, a stabbing, shooting or drugs, was rare, now its a common place - we are the most marketed generation in history, deceived into contracts and agreements, as so called regulation (that we were told will protect us) fails miserably whilst our taxes pay it! - we struggle on as "young" people are paid for turning up for education, whereas we were brought up with it being a priviledge - despite having 30 years or so to go until retirement, our prospects for higher wages or better jobs are bleak, as service jobs are the only ones available - we dont get winter payment handouts - we get chastised and hit by huge taxes for saving our money and working hard and trying to have nice homes and holidays and things that weve worked for - we struggle to retrain in education as places are taken by "the under 19s" - we are faced with postcode lotterys for healthcare, medication, treatments, dentists, schooling for our kids, amenities, even post offices and libraries. - our lives are dictated by layer upon layer of call centre spotty urks, who quote from drop down menus, dictating that the "system" knows best and they cant do anything because "of the system" but inevitably we end up paying more as we are ripped off by the system - we wait in for home visits or call backs that never feckin come, and when you tell them theyve ignored you and youve waited in all day, they just dismiss it as nothing to worry about and irrelevant,most dont even say "sorry" - everything involves "an administration charge" because the law allows them to charge it, yet when we want to charge one back for our administration, the law says they dont have to pay it - we are the most spied upon generation in history! even something as basic as our local councils, sell on our information for profit and we dont get a single penny of it - we have to provide endless proof of who we are just to get access to our own accounts and information - we are "security" checked permanently, yet when we want security verification from companies and government departments, they dont have to provide it or we have to "write in and wait 28 days"
the list is endless...
but the qualities and skills our generation have, are deemed worthless, until they can help "the young"
* we are the ones turned to to get the young out of debt * we can fill in forms as our handwriting is upto scratch * we fight the "system" and argue to protect the rights of everyone * we fight for pensions * we provide the money to give the young benefit handouts
noone in power talks to us... no one shapes policy around our needs... none of our efforts are recognised or given extra funding. this isnt an attack on young people, but im sick of hearing about "weve spoken to young people..." "young people deserve a chance.." etc.
WHAT ABOUT THE 25-40 YEAR OLD GENERATION? we are propping up the country whilst being trodden on and ignored and im sick to the back teeth of it!
AIM: simple, instead of wasting 3 years doing teaching assistant qualifications, when schools cannot afford to take you on and prefer to use free time of students who are on degree courses to do the work, my aim is for a degree that will enable me to teach in primary schools.
after discussing this with several teachers, its universally agreed that i should enrol at open university (OU) or a local one if there is one for a childhood and youth studies degree.
i find the course at the OU and ring them up... heres how it went:
lady asks me the same things 3 times (crazy idea, if you ask a question - at least listen to the answer?) then gives me the number for TDA, and tells me to contact them for a degree course the TDA advisor says i should sign upto a course "thats best for me" (crackin advice that is!) then tells me to ring the OU back and register on a course. the OU then tell me that the course i want isnt the one i say i want to enrol on... apparently i need maths english or science now or wont be able to get a job teaching within a school once qualified.
i asked... why offer the childhood and youth studies degree when i may as well forget the whole degree and just do one in maths science or english? the OU dont know why they do their own childhood and youth studies degree! (you couldnt make this up!) they admit that maths english or science degree would be better, but say i can start doing the childhood and youth studies degree anyway as it may help (i kid you not!)
the OU then say that to complete childhood and youth studies degree, it will take a minimum 6 years, at which point ill be told to do a degree in maths english or science.. then another year of teacher training. if (and this is a big if) im not dead or manage to do all that, then i may find im too old (almost 50) to be employed as a teacher... they may even change the criteria for entry level teaching so i might have to go on other courses and retrain (on top of my new retraining)
i looked at going full time to uni to pass in around 3 years,minimum fees are over 3 grand a year and id have to ring them... this i did, the lady is offon sick leave (busiest time of the year?), and the advisor covering her hasnt answered his phone in 5 attempts to contact them.
seriously, from knowing what course was best and a call to enrol, to now not having a clue which route to take and being thoroughly fecked off with the whole process of people trying to justify their own jobs and over complicating matters and giving differing advice, im beginning to realise why so many of our kids struggle in todays world... when these half wits are advising them.
to put the icing on the cake, my c.s.e examinations that i took and passed at school, im told are now a complete waste of time and are not even equivilent to a basic gcse pass! (tho they were totally exam based and harder than gcse's are today) my o level, is just about the standard equivilent to a gcse pass today.... yeh right like an average gcse student could pass an o level!
it seems that in my years growing up and working, the government have moved the goal posts to drag people back into education..... just forget the years of hard work i put in,those qualifications are worthless now. utter nonsense it is.. the whole damned set up!
first gordon brown (who couldnt even be arsed to turn up and support the team from day one) tells the media that "all gold medalists will receive honours" - when its not upto him at all, its the decision of an independant panel, all he can do is nominate people.
next we have his sanctamonious bungling mush, shaking hands and visiting the team GB camp
next we have the great home-coming, where our sporting heroes return to a spontaneous rapturous welcome from the public... only the labour party have decided that they will meet gordon brown (again) in the VIP lounge instead of being paraded as winners to the public who support them
the public are refused access to the medalists at the airport, as its a "health and safety issue" but dont worry people of the UK you "only have to wait until october for a victory parade!" its august ffs - the labour party even want to stage manage celebrations! (and why do they want october 19th as the celebration date? remind me when the labour party conference is again?)
despite the public being refused access at the airport, they do find room for 200 media people to be there to see gordon brown shaking hands as they go into the airport!
which labour party action has helped team GB to its acheivements? - could it be gordon brown's own part in selling off more school playing fields in the history of the UK? - what about gordon brown's decision to cut funding for sport via the national lottery from £100 million to £50 million? - perhaps its labour's failure to tackle the teaching unions when they stopped extra curricular teaching many of which were sports? - or could the essential point have been the introduction in non competitive sports within the school system?
regardless of one or more of the above points being relevant, it shows clearly (if some what basic) that team GB have won medals despite the actions of a labour government, not because of!
Denz on 08.25.08 @ 04:22 PM CST [link]
Sunday, August 24th
who's responsible?
the visit london group, (which receives funding from the department of culture, media and sport) as well as "commercial activity" decided in their infinate wisdom to display to the watching world, a short 3 minute video supposedly promoting tourism for london at the closing ceremony of the beijing olympics.
among the images displayed in the 3 minute video, they displayed a picture of myra hindley (yes the myra hindley) the child murderer!
it simply defies belief, that the government say it "was regrettable" and that the video including the image in question, "is not for public use and has been shown many times in the past to promote the UK!"
not for public use? so you show it to the world at an olympic handover and closing ceremony watched by billions throughout the world?
"regrettable?" its down right offensive! and to think that our taxpayer money is being given to this bunch of unelected lunatics who think in this way!
who decided this would be a good idea? they should visit the relatives of those children who suffered at the hands of this beast and her associate and be forced to apologise in person. what a bunch of insensitive and stupid pricks!
Denz on 08.24.08 @ 10:49 PM CST [link]
Wednesday, August 20th
woooohoooooo back at last... from the loverly Lithuania and all the countries in between. ill post the info there on the holiday blog
shattered out today, all of us... 3200 miles is a long trek but worth it, but more over on the link above.
washing clothes, whilst knackered is not good.. then theres the shopping.. the cleaning... back to the grindstone... ill write more tomoz once i get some kip.
Denz on 08.20.08 @ 10:47 PM CST [link]
Saturday, August 9th
nowt spesh - move along
about 4 years ago, the sprog turned 15 and in all but spirit flew the parental nest. no longer was mum and dad sought out for advice, any questions, were questioning us rather than things. as time went on his friends and blokes in pubs, perceived as "legend" or "cool" became the standard barers for what was right and wrong. opinion, like every other teenager, was the leading factor in how he behaved. the ability to drink a pint non stop took on a higher value than holding a door open for a lady or keeping an open mind. i explained on one such occasion when his opinion wasnt anywhere near to what it should have been - towards someone else - that all was not as it seemed.
dont judge a book by its cover - was one cliche i remember using. cliche it maybe, but a very apt one!
anyone can be funny and witty after a couple of pints in the local, but ask yourself why they are in the pub on a tuesday night drinking with strangers? no family? had a family and didnt give it enough attention? perhaps they still lived with a parent? they maybe brilliant for a couple of quickies, but why hadnt they found anyone to settle down with? could it be that they were shallow and didnt really have anything about them?
the penny didnt so much drop, as bounce off his head and out the door.
id arrived at a junction in life, my job was taking up more and more time, for a wage that shrunk with every bill that came in, home life was virtually non existant, and the odd night out on the razz was not even a part replacement, and as fast as i earned money, the "suits" behind a call centre voice, took it away. something had to change.
so i did! number one prioritybecame my home life.. sort it out or change it, that was that, so i gave two weeks notice at work that i wasnt happy and said if change didnt come about, id be off. no one batted an eyelid there, two weeks later, things were the same, i walked. the job i walked into was great for 6 months until the hours were changed, leaving me sat at a desk on call at 10pm.... there had to be more to life than this? i left and trained in plumbing, not for big bucks, but to claw back more time for me. home life went much better, as id explained what i thought was wrong, must have struck a chord, as the little woman and i stopped the rows and started spending time together like we used to. after 15 years of taking sprog everywhere with us and working alternate shifts, we found he was moving on and we didnt really know each other.
anyways, married life came, but something was still missing.
then whilst having a laugh one night it dawned on us both, hoovergerl comes from a large family, i come from a large ish family... in all that time our house had been filled with laughter and tears of kids. wether the cousins of brothers or our own sprog... for the first time wed ever known, the house (which was now big enough) was empty.
enter our two fats... tilly and furball!
this is where i leave you for a while. they are not pets, they are free to do as they please, they just let us live alongside them. they dont need to talk, just one look at them and you know if they want to play or want feeding or dont want to be around you. thats the beauty of them, they dont cause any fuss they dont want anything from you unless its food.
what a shame people cant be like this....
Denz on 08.09.08 @ 12:10 AM CST [link]
Friday, August 8th
is "business" waking up?
Im no fan of ryan air, but the company's actions today are a step in the right direction and shows they have started a fight back (in part) which penny pinchers fully supports!
big business is showing signs of waking up at long last!
the evil practice of marketing is being unravelled before our very eyes... and not before time. Ryan air today cancelled thousands of flights (in its busiest period) bought and paid for on price comparison websites that are breaking agreed terms and conditions by forcing the customer to buy through their websites instead of referring the customer directly to ryan airs own website.
they are not talking about when a website advertises a company website and you click a link that takes you to their website. This is often a good thing for both the advertiser and the company itself. it can generate new business and cut costs for the company, which gives a token reward to the advertiser for sending a customer to the company. if done in an open and honest way... its good for the customer (voucher offers and discounts off what they want to buy) its good for the advertiser (a token payment for referring anyone who buys something) and the company itself generating new and repeat business.
the price comparison website (PCW) has long been causing problems. * a company target prospective new customers, with discounts so they can get a good rating by the PCW, often subsidising discounts by charging regular customers more money! * price comparison deals are often lower than goods or services offered to customers already with that company (ref: energy suppliers, loans, car and home insurance, etc.)
once you jump on the bandwagon, you are then more likely to keep on using them for that service: try asking the PCW how much they make for each sign up they pass on - by law.. they have to tell you! you are suckered in to using them again and again - say you fix your gas price for two years, the PCW receive a payment, what happens when the price goes down over that two years? can you opt out and change? you are tied into it, getting out of it results in penalty charges to pay up your contract, then you go back to the PCW and try and find a better deal, again they receive a payment for this, and on it goes. who do you think pays all those £30-£50 referral fees? who pays for all the pounds of discount given to list the company at the top of the PCW searches?
then we have those companies that buy or operate PCWs! the big shots who purchase an existing PCW and dont tell people (or provide no link to which company actually owns it!) the full story. next time you see XXXX comparison website advertising on television, google them and see who owns them! is it a coincidence how a parent company that owns 3 big insurance companies in the UK market place, quietly buy up a price comparison website - reporting one year later that they gave out 700,000 more quotes for that period of time?
and what about those price comparison websites that proclaim "we are independant?" how can they be independant when they float on the stock exchange and make more money than a high street company (one of the more popular ones made more than £47 MILLION pounds profit in 2007!)
marketing scams on a grand scale - offering a token discount for the individual to draw them in and when the person has to come back, they make even more money from them!
dont believe me? ryan air are fighting back against the tide of marketing websites that are slowing their own website down by using the site's search facility, but not passing the customer onto ryan air's website, because they are sitting inbetween the customer and the official website, so the customer has no choice but to pay more for the product!
example: - you want to fly from london to manchester (hypothetical) - you try searching for flights.... you are told that the marketing website "search all airlines including... ryan air" - you are then shown the ryan air flight price for XXX amount. (this is ryan air's price PLUS a percentage for the flight search website) - if ryan air is the best "deal" on the flight search - you then buy the flights all is well?
the consumer groups are screaming "foul" saying ryan air have got it wrong, etc. i disagree! ryan air have got it right! in the example given, the customer would have got the flight a few pounds cheaper if they'd simply gone to ryan air's own website (as they are supposed to be redirected to via a link according to terms and conditions of the flight search website's affiliate link) only the marketing websites are blocking search engine results for the company's own website, and making money off their customers!
do you the customer, want to pay more for a flight/product, because a website owner doesnt want you to find or be directed to a reputable company's own website?
this is exactly what you are doing and the sooner more companies like direct line and ryan air start fighting back against the marketing money websites, the sooner the customer might start getting value for money again!
Denz on 08.08.08 @ 07:17 PM CST [link]
Wednesday, August 6th
busy times....
but kinda fun in a letsgeteverythingreadyinrecordtime kinda way!
coincidence how rangers went out of european footy to Kaunas from lithuania!
not long to the olympics now.... shame i wont be around to see most of it PAH i wish the tv coverage would stop focusing on negative aspects of china, they have a different way of life from the west, deal with it, we in the west dont have the right to impose our way of life as the only way. sooner we learn to embrace and tolerate others ways, the sooner we might stop pointless wars and killings? what better way of beating the terrorist than uniting the people across the world!
personally, i love the chinese, great food and fantastic people, all the chinese nationals ive met in the UK have been fun friendly, hard working, polite, etc many put our own UK nationals to shame with their high standards of personal behaviour and approach towards others. i want to see the culture of china shine at the games, just as the aussies imposed their way on the games, (an excellent games they put on as well) each olympics should display everything the country has to offer, from its history to present day.
good luck china!
Denz on 08.06.08 @ 10:23 AM CST [link]
Tuesday, August 5th
whats the difference?
china.... moving on people and blocking "unofficial protests" and setting up 2 designated protest sites, where people can protest if they have state permission UK.... using anti terror legislation to block and arrest any protesters if they amount to more than 2 people and dont have official police permission to protest. a protest must be cleared by the police first before it can go ahead and even then it can only be done in designated areas. whats the difference?
UK... a huge media spin exercise on CO2 emmissions being used to justify tax rises for people who bought cars upto 6 years ago, telling us "people are causing climate change with their car useage!" campaigning around the world to reduce carbon emmissions... WORLD... openly allowing companies from the UK to work in areas around the world where trees are being cut down by the thousand, when trees are known as the lungs of the earth converting CO2 into oxygen, yet very little action is taken against these companies and nothing much is said about it...
whats the difference?
Denz on 08.05.08 @ 10:33 AM CST [link]
holidays at last!
finally..... at last... the holiday destination has been decided!
Lithuania! sick of endless websites advertising silly prices for a 1 roomer in spain or balerics etc, sick of extra airport charges, fuel duty, more airport taxes, luggage charges, meal costs or going without, early check in and pay more or queue up with everyone else, you get the picture...
anyways, faced with ever increasing costs, i cast the net far and wide, and checked out some places away from the normal grind of being a "meal ticket muppet" in a tourist trap beach. hoovergerl suggested poland (a place ive always wanted to visit mainly because of the people) so i looked around for beaches, and stumbled upon lithuania and latvia, even estonia.
amazing how quickly you find information about a place.... themore i looked around.. the more i like the sound of it. only problem was, flights and double airport charges etc, flying from some awful place to aremote place then transfers taking 2 hours... nightmare, and cheap flights like ryanair etc, a whopping £12 cheaper than regular flights, for four people! (waste of space)
so we looked at driving.. yes its a long trek - yes its complicated to arrange... but then again - well be able to see other parts of europe, well be able to take our time getting there, well have more money to spend when we get there plus... when we get there well have the car to get around in!
so over the next few weeks, im going to try bloggin about stuff, hints tips, places to visit etc, all about the baltic at last the holiday is booked, even tho ive now got to get the car sorted and face long driving hours... im looking forward to it.
Denz on 08.05.08 @ 12:01 AM CST [link]
Saturday, August 2nd
saturday is tiswas day...
i preferred swapshop but there ya go....
meat and veg shopping this morning, then off to the market to have a dig around, then back home to put some washing in, nowt exciting.
Olympics starts in 6 days tho... i doubt any finals will better the sydney games, which have been my personal fav despite my dislike for the place, but im looking forward to the games, different events staged at different times, this space will include stuff from the games, including something new... pictures (hopefully)
halfway through the games, our footy season kicks off, with hull city and stoke in the top flight. hull have never been there before in their history, so im hoping they do well and dont get a kickin everyweek. sport is on the way back - good times!
as you enjoy your saturday - try and avoid plastic packaging on things you buy - hard to do it maybe, but give it a shot!
Denz on 08.02.08 @ 11:25 AM CST [link]
Friday, August 1st
rip off britain!
car insurance: as it was - you ring them up, they give you a price for "fully comp" you pay the price if yer happy with it, job done, fully covered. today's britain... you ring them up, they give you a price for fully comp, its more than a new customer is quoted, you may have to pay interest which a new customer doesnt, you are discriminated against dependant on your job - a "company director" pays upto £40 less than a "manual worker" the policy maybe full comp, but now it has no legalprotection, thats extra, no courtesy car, thats extra, etc.
if you look up a new quote via their own website, if youre a new visitor to the website, chances are youll receive a lower priced quote than if you have visited their website before (why else do you think they ask you to sign in?) they want to attract new business, so they change the price to attract new visitors and people already with them subsidise this, by way of a higher premium. what do the government body say about these practices? "tough tit! nothing we can do despite blatent discrimination and profiteering" so why does the taxpayer pay them millions each year to run their department? YOU TELL ME!
Holidays: as it was - you went into a shop or rang up an agent, you got the price XXX per person, you liked the price you booked it. included as standard was transfers, luggage on the plane, inflight meal, you paid your XXX amount of pounds for your holiday. today's britain... you get a price quoted on a website or via an agent or with a shop, for XXX amount. if only it was that simple... next they add on fuel supplements, airport tax, then they ask you if you want transfers to and from the airport (well of course i do im not going to walk!) theres an extra fee for this... do you want to take luggage on the plane? (no i was thinking of living in my underpants for 14 days!) thats an extra fee.... do you want a meal on the plane? (well i cant take a bag of sandwiches on the plane can i, dont want to be seen as a terrorist, and i dont want to be starved into fainting both there and back) thats an extra fee then..... do you want to sit next to each other on the plane? (errrrr yes, dont want to sit next to john candy's feet for 5 hours do i!) theres an extra charge for that.... do you want us to mail out your tickets in a first class envelope or fax the paperwork through to the airport desk for you to collect? either not bothered.. okay then, that'll be £60! the price in the shop window suddenly doesnt look anything like the actual price its going to cost you! its the same if you book via a website... a holiday for two on 3 of the holiday websites today, costing £109 each if you can fly tomorrow, bargain i thought....
by the time all the taxes and essentials are added on, the price for 2 people (to use up flights and accomodation that they couldnt sell) is "only £785" (not bad for a holiday priced at £109 per person)
so what does the government body (funded with millions of pounds of taxpayers money) have to say about what is a clear case of complete lying and misleading the customer? nothing at all, they can charge what they want for what they want! why do they exist then if they are doing nothing? YOU TELL ME!
and if there are XX amount of people online searching that location... the price increases until interest drops off!
lets look at something more basic: shopping! as it was - i call on an elderly gent, off we go to the bakers... "bread £1" he buys 1 i buy 1... off to the butchers... "fresh lamb chops" i buy 4 £2, he buys 4 for £2... todays britain: goto bakers... i pay £1.50 elderly chap pays £1 we both buy the same bread the same quantity, but as its wednesday, pensioners get a discount. (more like the price of my loaf increases so they can give him discount!) samewith the lamb chops... i pay £3 he pays £2 as hes a pensioner...
how about some crisps?
walk into a supermarket, theres an offer on woohoooo! "multi pack crisps (10 packs) only 99p" brilliant.... but whats the small print? "limited to only 3 packs per customer!" can they do this..... no! are trading standards going to do anything about it? only if they get more than 20 complaints about it... in other words.. no!
so i buy one pack.. get them home and open them.... on the back of the packet... "not for resale part of a multi pack" who says? the sale is complete between me and the supermarket, so who says i cant do what i want with them?
this is rip off britain, i didnt vote for it, i wasnt told it would be like this (in fact we were all told the opposite) so why should we all put up with it?
Denz on 08.01.08 @ 09:03 PM CST [link]
If I ruled the world..... energy
a household can put back energy to the national grid, using a three pin plug!
i wonder why those who control the industry dont act?
so i would change the law and restore government payments to support the installation of solar panels on all homes. i would introduce a law that makes it compulsary for all state owned housing built to include solar roof panels that should any excess energy be generated, could be put back into the system and the tenant receive a payment.
i would also make it law that those struggling below a certain threshold (ie, those deemed to be in fuel poverty) would be the first to have solar panels fitted to their homes so they can actively try and save money and also be paid for the energy they provide to the national grid that they dont use. i would set a timescale for this to be completed of around 2 years.
the next wave would see another income threshold set up, so the same thing could be applied. this would be ongoing.
alongside this work, would be nationalised short term industry, with unused units in run down areas of the country, to provide work for unemployed people to put together solar panels and small wind turbines etc. anything to benefitthe industry of reuseable energy production. sites unused for 6 months can be compulsary purchased from business that are sitting on vast areas of land unused to stop competitionin their area.
we need a huge drive and commitment to finding manufacturing jobs and ways of turning the energy crisis around, so we return to the days of being self sufficient.
Denz on 08.01.08 @ 01:49 PM CST [link]
