CB Saint

I would love to be a fly on the wall at the next family gathering when Nick tells his dad and brother that they will only be allowed a cash bonus of £2,500. I reckon relationships may be a little strained.

There could be some benefit from the ash cloud. I read a book recently called superfreakonomics. The authors are economists who turn there attentions to not traditional subject like climate change . They say one of the key planet temperature regulators over time has been volcanos. The Ash clouds can reduce the planet temperature significantly as they block the thermal energy from the sun.

Not a department store, however the one I remember was Keith Paul in Woolston. For a young kid it was the best shop in the world (went I was eight, my world was pretty small)

Brown biggest handicapp (apart from his dour demenour) is that he can hardly say we need a radical shake up of welfare / education etc, because the obvious retort is"well what exactly have you been doing for 13 years. Either you haven't been doing your job at all or the things that you have been done didn't work. " I thought Clegg look like a rabbit caught in the headlights in the opening remarks but improved. Cameron needs to up his game.

Their plans to more than double capital gains tax suck. Why should someone who takes a risk and sets up a business, investing their own money (which has already been taxed), creates jobs, wealth and tax revenues be penalised if they are lucky enough to make a bit of money buy selling their business.

More like they don't want to sit next to TCWTB

I like smokers. If it wasn't for their tax revenune the government would have to put another 2p on basic rate. Light up and enjoy.

Your right, say that after a few pints!

One thing that struck me in the articel is that they spent two grand on christmas presents. Two grand. This is why people take issue with the system. Benefits should be there to help you keep your head above water not to provide a good lifestyle.

Bad news - the coalition would stutter on for a short time and we would be back to the polls before you know it. Any legislation proposed would have to be horsetraded just to ensure it got through.

Power to the People - Sounds like Citizen Smith.

Bl00dy hell - seven kids and 7months gone and only 29.

Don't get me wrong, I don't have an issue with the maternity rules. I was using it as a example that employees actually do have a a lot of rights. If I were to change one aspect I would probably allow the womean to state at the outset that she does not intend to return but keep her SMP. That way her company can get on with recruiting a permanent replacement and woman retain their benefits. I have had instances in the past where a week before the person was due return they wrote in to say they were staying at home. By that time the interim worker had secured another position and we were up the creek. In a small firm that can be big issue.

Either you are trolling or you have not employed people recently in the UK. Employees are very well protected by the law. Yes, not every company follows these laws - in which case the employee has redress through the tribunal system. Yes, there are bad employers who treat their staff poorly. In these cases the staff leave. To use an example, consider the rights of the woman who is pregnant. They can take 12 months leave during which the employer has to keep the job open. They retain their benefit, they have the same access to promotion opportunities. When they return to work they can elect to work any number of days they wish to in a part time capacity and it is near impossible for the company to say no. How you can say the power is with the employer is beyond me.

Generally employment law is agood thing and nothing contained in it is too berserk. My problem comes from the application of that law. The tribunals and courts apply the law by the letter. So if you dismiss an employee, say for thumping their manager, and you get one tiny piece of the process wrong, the tribunal will state that you were right to dismiss the employee but then go onto say it was unfair and award damages. This happens in criminal law too - in fact that speeding fine lawyer has made a living from it. Judges should have the ability to look at the case and if there is a loop hole being exploited, use their judgement and set it aside if it had made no or little difference to the final outcome. So in the above example, the judge should be saying whilst the company did not leave enough time between suspension and the dismissal meeting, the employee deserved to be fired and therefore that is how I find.

That's irritating.

Florida is probably in one of the biggest housing slumps of all time - ours was a blip in comparison. I would be tempted if the exchange rate was a bit better. The pound is cr4p at the moment.

So where doe sthis leave the HMRC in their ability to torpedo the CVA. Even if you knock off Portpin they haven't got 25%. £9m to agents??? WTF

Bill Bryson put this into perspective in his book A short history about nearly everything". He said that is a star was the size of a garden pea, the number of stars in the universe (it may be this galaxy, memory letting me down) would fill the Royal Albert Hall.

I get the fairness of a PR voting system, however the net result would be a coalition governement which would give a disportionately greater influence on policy to one of the smaller parties far in excess of their share of the vote. The up side of the first past the post system is that one party invariably gets an absolute majority so are able to implement their manifesto without having to water it down with concessions to minority parties.

Now that the world has jumped aboard the environmental bandwagon, is there any point to the green party now? Have they actually acheived their purpose by bringing environmetal issues to the mainstream? Plaid Cymru - I would happily give the Welsh their independence.

The chicken chow mein I had from a chinese in Woolston two weeks before it was shut down by food standards. Had the trots for three days. Still can't touch a bean sprout 20 years on.

No, you are a fruit!

Why is it that sometimes you can drink enough booze to fill a bath and wake up fine, and other times have just a few pints and feel like a turd? And why didn't I follow my own advice last night. P.S. keep the noise down