Johnny Bognor

It is easy to take a tax in isolation and make it sound unfair, but you need to look at the wider picture. To use your example, the 'poor' person probably bought their car 2nd hand and didn't pay VAT. Say the wealthy person paid £100k for their car, this would include £14,800 worth of VAT. Across a 3 year period, this would equate to £100 per week so looking at the total cost of motoring per £50 pound spent on fuel, the wealthy person is paying more than £135 per week for every £50 spent on fuel.

Hello....they weren't in power. Clown was and he failed big time. As for Vince Cable, he was Chief Economist at Shell so has masses of credibility. He is the most qualified politician when it comes to all things economic. The next person in line is Ken Clarke, who has proven he can do the job (being the best Chancellor in our lifetime). As for Brown, he should even be allowed to be in charge of his own personal bank account.

Don't try to blame the mess on Darling, he was dropped in the proverbial by our previous "no more boom and bust" chancellor. Clown is to blame for our position (being the weakest of the western world) as it was on his watch that he over borrowed, mis-spent, under regulated and didn't prepare for the inevitable. He obviously did believe his own rhetorik...."no more boom and bust" Respect to Cable who saw it coming, but most with half a brain cell did, whilst the man who was responsible for our economy ****ed it up royally. FWIW, I think the tories should dump Osbourne and bring back Clarke as he has been the most successful chancellor of the last 5 decades. Now, can someone tell me, whatever happended to the Labour investment we were promised only 3 months ago becuase it sounded so much better than the nasty wasty wasty tory cuts?

Whilst others who subscribe to the rational school of thought realise that there has been de-industrialisation on a massive scale. In fact, UK manufacturing fell from 31% of GDP to 25% of GDP between 1970 and 1979 (before Thatcher was elected). During her term it fell from 25% to 23% and then after it fell from 23% to 19% between 1989 to 2000. In fact, manufacturing fell LESS as a proportion of GDP during her premiership than at any other time since 1970. We can also consider that this trend has even affected Germany (Europe's industrial powerhouse) where manufacturing has fallen from 36% of GDP to 24% of GDP since the early 1970's. Even in France (where the state owns significant parts of the manufacturing base) manufacturing has fallen by more than 13% of its share of GDP. Having said this, it is far easier to blame Thatcher for all industrial decline - even though it goes back to before she was born and has continued since she left (over 19 years ago) and conveniently ignore that every major Western economy has had declines in their industries. But one shouldn't let facts get in the way of pantomime politics. Altogether now...... Booooooooooo Hisssssssss She's behind you

Well the gap between rich and poor is the largest for 40 years, which includes all of Maggie's 'reign'.....and this is after 12 years of a labour government. Labour have failed the poor.....period. WAKE UP BUNGLE We are already in a ruinous mess....in fact the biggest ruinous mess we have been in since the second world war.

Where.... Prime Minister Gordon Brown is an anagram of..... Mr "I'm into spending" Borrower

Unlike Labour, because they would never allow that to happen.... http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/gap-between-rich-and-poor-widest-in-40-years-457609.html To be fair, he has got a point http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8297768.stm?ls

Does this still apply? Each contributor will be entered into the draw on a one-pound, one-entry basis, i.e. for every £1 contributed towards the fund, that contributor gets one draw entry, up to a maximum of 50 entries. Therefore, the more you contribute, the more chance you have of winning one of the prizes. I see Mr Nineteen Canteen was on the original list so would it be wrong of me to opt him out of the draw for 1 copy of Taking Le Tiss. I think he has already got a copy and he wasn't overly fussed on it.

OK, I am a North Itchener and I understand the increased costs of keeping the corner open due to the proximity of the away fans. However, I don't see lower stewarding/policing since blocks 2 and 3 were closed, so is this not just a red herring? There are certainly no savings on the concourse as the same bars/food outlets are open. If the costs of policing the corner have been cut and there is not a business case for opening blocks 2-3, then as a North Itchener, I would be prepared to pay more for my ticket. Mods, can we have a poll for those to state that they would be prepared to collectively pay more (hence covering the increased policing costs although I don't see lower stewarding/policing since blocks 2 and 3 were closed)? Surely if enough North Itcheners were prepared to pay a bit more (I don't know, maybe £5 each per game) for their seats, then there would be no business case to keep it closed. Is this a viable proposition to put to the club?

I recently went for a Sleep to Live mattress. The main benefits are that the springs are more dense on the key contact points thus giving superior support where it is needed. They make the mattress to fit your profile - which is calculated by a computerised bed. I required a harder profile whilst my missus needs it softer. The mattress is made in two halfs and so we are both happy as our respective sides of the mattress suits us best. They are a bit pricey, but over 10 years (the guarantee period) they cost about 30p a night. For me, that is a small price to pay for a perfect night's sleep especially when you spend at least 25%-30% of your life in bed. http://www.sleeptolive.com/home.html

Indeed, businesses don't get their customers forced upon them and when they go missing, they don't get rounded up and forced to be a customer. The concept of public services and customers is a contradiction in terms.

To be fair, if your business was that successful, you wouldn't have time to be a teacher in FE.

I would have thought you would be keeping as far to the left as possible at all times. Could never see you drifting over to the middle. :-)

DJ NC? Can't argue with that.

There is only one thing worse than "enough already" and that is "Can I GET a ...." No you can't GET one you Yank ****! Please don't tell me you use this.

I suppose it makes them professional ******s

Come on BTF, that's just taking the pee.

Did you have to share her dolly?

I totally see where your coming from, but it is easier said than done. If we try to dress H differently from C, C wants to wear what H is wearing and vice versa, so they end up being dressed the same to keep the peace. The biggest differences are in what they eat. C loves peas, carrots sweetcorn and baked beans. H won't come in the kitchen if baked beans are being cooked but loves pizza, whilst C can't stand it. I don't know if this is how they are trying to differentiate themselves, but we will have to watch it as controlling things through food is not a good way to go.

She's back......

Taking my political hat off and being more human, they are very special. Identical Twin births are far more high risk, as there is a chance of twin-to-twin transfusion. We were lucky, that the consultant at Chichester is one of the leading specialists in this area and feel a debt of gratitude to him. My other half had to be scanned every two weeks throughout her pregnancy and they arrived premature - seeing their two tiny bodies in an incubator is heart renching - that time is engrained on my memory as if it was yesterday. I thought I knew what stress was until that time. After their prolonged stay in hospital it was a shock to the system. When finally deciding to have a child ending up with two makes you feel special, but when the honeymoon period is over...the hard work begins. Then of course there is the cost issue - two of everything. To be fair, 4 1/2 years later it is no easier. There is sibling rivalry in all families, but normally younger siblings have to give way to older siblings. Because there is nothing to differentiate them (especially as everyone treats them the same - including me), thats where the tantrums start. They try to differentiate themselves - but they can't do it. I can identify with the two brothers on the programme where they were trying to be indepedent of each other. At times even now, I can't tell them apart and others there are very minor differences. In terms of personality they are very similar, but one tends to be more dominant for a few weeks, then they swap. Apart from the obvious feelings any parent has, it is remarkable and fascinating to watch them interact and grow up together.

I have identical twin daughters (H and C) aged 4 1/2. Both the hardest and most rewarding thing I have ever done. On the programme, I could not get over the chinese girls. The selfishness of the adoptive parents - those girls belong together. I could not possibly imagine my H & C living apart. There is something special about identicals. Non identicals are just brothers and/or sisters born at the same time.

Yes, makes sense. The difference being that the tories paid for Saatchi during their election campaigns, whilst the taxpayers funded Campbell and Co during a political term. A subtle difference, but an important one nonetheless. With Cameron, the tories have now taken it one step further, by cutting out the middle man and putting a spin doctor straight in at No 10. I suppose it helps to cut the budget deficit. Didn't the Socialist Worker give the left an advantage in the 70's and 80's? I even bought a copy myself on the way to the Dell once because I thought it looked well-hard. Binned it on the way home and read my copy of the Ugly Inside instead. The left still have a substantial foothold in the media. A significant part of the Guardian's advertising revenue comes from Public Sector recruitment advertising, so it is in effect a left leaning Government subsidised newspaper. That in itself is as distasteful as the oh-so-evil-murdoch empire.

Hmm, it is the world we live in now, but wasn't it Mandelson and Alistair Campbell that ratcheted up the spin when compared to previous governments (of either persuasion) and almost made it an art form. New Labour changed the rules.... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/1841213.stm http://www.spinwatch.org.uk/blogs-mainmenu-29/nicholas-jones-mainmenu-85/5276-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-spin-doctor Live by the sword, die by the sword (and all that) As for Cameron, he himself was a former Spin Doctor and so he is the re-incarnation of Blair-Campbell-Mandelson all rolled into one.

I'm not sure about this playing down of the impact of the Sun's switched allegiances. It was important to them in the past: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2001/mar/08/pressandpublishing.ukgeneralelection2001 It is ironic that the Guardian claim that the Sun is the most influential paper during elections - well it wouldn't be the Guardian would it. New Labour have been totally obsessed by spin and media presentation, so for them to pretend they don't care is total ********.