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[Shipmate60]

And if you own a Forest, no inheritance tax to pay.

Bob

[funtimefrankie]

And if you own a Forest, no inheritance tax to pay.

Bob

That will be why the ConDems are selling them off to their cronies

[snowwolflair]

Would you trust a poor man to invest your pension?  If he cannot make money for himself, what he going to do for you.

If a banker is making money because he is making me money, I think I can live with that, but if he looses it he should go to prison.

[regiment]

hold yer horses is not this government going to sort the banks out same as immigration and benefit cheats and a lot more

[tonyH]

I reckon that Snowwolflair has hit the nail where it should be hit. I don't care what the boss man pays himself if he and the company are successful BUT when they lose, the CEO should lose and not be paid a bloody big packet to leave!

AND to follow up Dekan, did you hear our esteemed leader DC talking about Egypt the other day when he commented that it wasn't right for a country to be run by a small elite group to the detriment of the majority.

Sound familiar?

[The long Build]

hold yer horses is not this government going to sort the banks out same as immigration and benefit cheats and a lot more

I split my sides there , the Government sort out anything would be a blinking Miracle, More Likely we would will land a man on the moon   

[Bryan Young]

I must admit that I've been wondering when this subject would raise its head.
Dear "Polaris"....I sincerely hope that the spelling, tone and syntax in your letters to the Daily Telegraph, Barclays ad-nauseum are somewhat better than the rant you placed here. If not, then they'd go straight into the reject bin.
Of course the scale of the "bonus" payments is obscene....but with investment banking being a global enterprise what really do you think any one National government can do about it? Ziltch. The one reasonable idea that has come up is to split the "investment" arm of the banks away from the sort of banking that you and I encounter within our day to day transactions. That way the "gambling" side of things would rise or fall with minimum impact on us poor unwashed masses.
And just what do the recipients of this largesse actually do with all that loot?
If they buy "stuff" (yachts, aeroplanes and so on) then of course they'll benefit....but so will the economy and the folk who make all these "toys".
Envy is insiduous (and so is greed), but alas, that's the way the world is today. Sorry to rain on your parade, but get real. BY.

[Netleyned]

Dear Yarpie,

ACTION makes things happen. If one is afraid of action then all is lost.

If one is afraid of FACT, all is lost. To defend against fact it is indefeasible. Been against the so called indefensible, acted against same, and done it an won! I will only fight if in the right and on a winning wicket!!!!!!!!!

Regards, Bernard

No win no fee comes to mind

Ned

[Dekan]

AND to follow up Dekan, did you hear our esteemed leader DC talking about Egypt the other day when he commented that it wasn't right for a country to be run by a small elite group to the detriment of the majority.

Sound familiar?

Anybody who thinks that DC and his cronies have any agenda to make this country a fairer place..they are sadly deluded...They won't do anything about tax or benefit fraud... too much bad publicity to be had..the truth is too little money would be recovered..... by bankers standards..

[essex2visuvesi]

Anybody who thinks that DC and his cronies have any agenda to make this country a fairer place..they are sadly deluded...They won't do anything about tax or benefit fraud... too much bad publicity to be had..the truth is too little money would be recovered..... by bankers standards..

Also if they arrested all the people involved in tax fraud then who would be left in governement and the banks?

[Lord Bungle]

Also if they arrested all the people involved in tax fraud then who would be left in governement and the banks?

did someone just mention Lord Ashcroft? 

[polaris]

Dear All,

Sorry for delay in replying. Just returned home after a day away.

All who have replied are of course right. As with anything that is 'wrong', at the end of the day, it is we - us all - who are the only ones who can make a difference by venting our feelings to the appropriate parties.

In the same vein (& as Bob said in as many words), so many are much of a muchness. Look at the man who wrecked RBS... and had a very nice multi-£100k pension after he was quietly 'booted out'!!!

Oh well, such is life!

Regards, Bernard

[Dekan]

did someone just mention Lord Ashcroft?  

Another member of DC's Big Society or BS for short....

You know who's going to pay for the recession....the working and middle class..  
It will barely inconvenience the rich, most of whom probably don't even "live" in the UK and have armies of "tax professionals" to ensure that they pay as little of possible to UK PLC.

Don't start me on the Olympics.... the chance of joe public getting a ticket to any of the major finals is so remote to make winning the lottery seem easy..and who's paying for it all.. the same people who will pick up the tab for the recession....

[Netleyned]

Big Society 
Volunteers
Cut Backs no Cash for Volunteers
Since when have volunteers been paid??

Ned

[dodgy geezer]

Cut Backs no Cash for Volunteers
Since when have volunteers been paid??

In many cases. 'volunteers' translates as 'government hangers-on who have a nice cushy little number as a 'Paid Advisor on inner city deprivation in the Western Highlands'...

[Bryan Young]

Come on, come on people! To go from Bankers bonuses to denigrating Poppy Sellers or staffers in charity shops in one fell swoop is, if you think about it for even a couple of seconds, beneath your supposed dignity. Grow up and stop ranting about stuff you can never, ever do anything about.....and learn to play the system. BY.

[polaris]

Dear Bryan,

In quick defence of the others, I am certain they didn't mean Poppy Sellers or charity shop helpers. What they were referring to was more those who collect Qango memberships and similar - not a bad thing to collect at apx. £6k + expenses for one day a week here and there!

... oh, and a lot of high ranking Council Execs. and similar within the NHS, who in most's opinion are seriously overpaid - whilst the staff are being laid off (our local hospital has finished about six general workers). The Royal Shrewsbury is being pushed to move one Dept. to Telford, and there is a a lot of shouting in that part of the world.

Anyway, to Banks. Seemingly I am going to be getting a letter.

Regards, Bernard

[Netleyned]

Bryan
Please don't class me as a ranter
I was just saying that Mr Cameron's Big Society
aint going to work with all the cuts
Playing the system is the last thing most of us
40's  and 50's kids think of

Ned

[Dekan]

Bryan
Please don't class me as a ranter
I was just saying that Mr Cameron's Big Society
aint going to work with all the cuts
Playing the system is the last thing most of us
40's  and 50's kids think of

Ned

Nobody IMO is ranting... this is like minded people exercising their right to free speech.

Most of the people I know are hard working and just want to be treated fairly by society, real volunteers alway command respect...

It's the people who make an often well paid career out other people suffering, that give the volunteer a bad rep..

[Lord Bungle]

I have done many years volunteer work, with the RBL, youth work, and various other groups, I have never been paid a penny except for stuff I have had to buy for the jobs I have done, (and this was only bought when I couldn't get it free from other sources).
But it does stick in my craw when I see services getting cut and government advisor's saying we are going to replace these with volunteers. Maybe to save money the country should get volunteers to run it, I have never met an MP how has said its a JOB if you ask them its them wanting to HELP people, OK they can start to help people by taking a pay cut like they are expecting the rest of the country to do. (IMO saying you can't have a pay rise due to cut backs while putting up the prices they charge me to work (silly things like food and fuel) is me taking a pay cut).
Then saying not to much as their sponsors in the Banks give themselves big bonuses is a joke.
maybe we should look to the middle east for some ideas on how to get a real democracy running, where you don't have 3 main parties reading from the same book.

[Bryan Young]

Many years ago (1970s?) I read about one poor soul in Iran who'd been unwillingly co-opted into the government as the Minister for Transport...he proved incompetent, as he'd said he was, before being appointed. But he was executed for his incompetence.
Perhaps we don't need to go quite that far, but a few high profile sackings may concentrate some minds.......BY.

[Netleyned]

Trouble is,Bryan,
High profile sackings are inevitably accompanied by mega payoffs.
Service pension rises last year were 0%
Every thing you need to survive has increased in price effectively a pay cut
What the councils are saying is that they don't have the money to pay the
supervisors for the volunteers.
Should not the supervisors be volunteers also?

Ned

[dodgy geezer]

But it does stick in my craw when I see services getting cut and government advisor's saying we are going to replace these with volunteers. Maybe to save money the country should get volunteers to run it, I have never met an MP how has said its a JOB if you ask them its them wanting to HELP people, OK they can start to help people by taking a pay cut like they are expecting the rest of the country to do.

MPs being paid is a comparatively modern invention. They always used to be 'volunteers'. I for one would like to go back to the original idea of having MPs work for free, with a strong oversight to ensure that they do not take bribes, etc. That was how it was run when we had an Empire...

The problem is to ensure that people do things for the right motives. If you have unpaid volunteers running an orphanage you can be fairly sure that they are in it to help orphans. They will always be short of resources, so you might think that a caring government would do well to take taxpayers money and provide the orphanage with a regular income.

But now there is money to be made in running the orphanage, so you soon get the original caring volunteers edged out by grasping businessmen who are in it for a profit. We have seen this happen everywhere - many big 'charities' are now multi-national combines who run to business agendas and lobby the EU for a $1bn annual fund. And then they arrange expensive orphan conferences in the Bahamas....  

The RNLI is conspicuous by its refusal to get involved in this process, and has a high reputation as a result. I suspect that's why the current government is trying to cut back on 'government-funded volunteers', and why the sector is squealing...  

[Bryan Young]

Well, there's a little throwback!
What the old "Dodgy Geezer" seems to be advocating is that if an MP is unpaid for his/her/its services (apart from expenses of course), then only those with mega-bucks in their back pockets would be able to become an MP. So back to the days of the "Rotten Boroughs".
OK, I'll accept that the annointed plebs have proven themselves just as corrupt as their wealthier counterparts, but surely simple lack of wealth (be it Land, Cash  or Influence) shouldn't be a barrier to becoming an MP. So, to my mind, "unpaid" MPs is a non starter.
For a start, why do people wish to become an MP? (NOT a Military Policeman). Ego is my answer to that. They may all spout platitudes about wanting to help "their fellow man"...but in reality, all they wish to do is to exercise control over them.
My previous post about the poor sod who got executed has another reasoning behind it......never trust a person who puts himself/herself up for an election into a Public position. BY.

[polaris]

Dear Bryan & Dodgy,

Whilst I know what you both mean, and indeed you are both right, personally I would like to see Politics taken out of the equation, and have MP's doing what they are supposed to be doing: and that means running their Constituency, looking after their Constituents, and running the Country properly - without the hindrance of Party Politics. Let the people vote for those who do the best for their Consituency, if the MP doesn't, then out he or she goes. It wouldn't take long to get the Banks sorted out! - no Politics you see!

Regards, Bernard