JackanorySFC

Soze's mate (a mutual friend) has just been found unanimously not guilty by a jury of 12 peers. An apology for acusing the defendent of being guilty when he should be presumed innocent should be forthcoming from yourself.

So if you're underpaid but can't find a better job: First of all, are you underpaid? Do some research, phone competitors, tell your boss your worth more? If the companies making money ask what you have to do to get a pay rise, do it and more. Exceed expectations then ask again. I'd take to tas why can't you get another job, how hard have you tried? Have you called all relevant recruitment consultants, offered to use your holiday time to work for a competitor for free for a week as a good mate of mine, a spiral wielder did - (this got him a 30% pay rise at a competitor and better working conditions). in a job you love but being underpaid - Great, surely you don't do that job for the money? If money is such a key motivator I'd consider leaving the idillic job and chasing the money. You'll probably hate it and want your old job back before long though. No problemt with those that work in a job they love for low pay, good on them. However when they moan their pay is too low again, ask the boss, improve performance etc etc but ultimately remember why you do the job in the forst place and stop moaning! You get some really nice people on this site - Can you please clarify what I have posted that is not "nice"? Just to reaffirm my point, low pay and high job enjoyment - good on ya, moan about low pay and do nothing about it - your own fault, quit the moaning or get another job.

Again, good on them. Sorry but I really don't see what I've said in my post than conflicts anywhere with what you've posted? Those content with a job that provides a good work life balance that may not pay as well as other jobs good luck to them. However I have a problem with those that moan about their pay without ever doing anything about it, or moan they are better than their boss, again, without ever doing anything about it.

Absolute rubbish. If you wantto work you can get a job. If you want to earn more money tell your boss you want a pay rise, when he says no ask what do you need to do to get one, do it, get pay rise, get promoted by grafting, doing extra hours and training the skills you have and learning new ones, create contacts using basic social skills, save some money, start your own business, empoy people as hungry as you were, build business make loads of money for your family to enjoy the nicer things in life. Easy, anyone that moans about low pay, poor prospects are lazy scum in my opinion. Rather than looking for excuses have a look in the mirror and ask what you could do to make your and your families life better, if that means moving to a different area/ country whatever - do it or stop moaning.

This! KS, a mutual friend of ours has just had his Visa application fro Oz turned down, right pain in the a*** as he leaves for 6 months travelling at the end of Nov. Considering either staying on NZ longer or getting in on a banana boat from SE Asia now! Apparantly he was too honest, should have just kept it quiet and he would have been allowed in.

Sorry, I know we have to be partisan here as Theo "deserted" us etc etc, but to compare the OXO kid with Theo is as ridiculas as those that compare Barnard with Lampard! Let's put things into perspective, Theo was wanted by Real Madrid, Barca, Chelsea, Man U and Arsenal, his Dad chose Arsenal due to Wengers assurances he wouldn't be rushed. He was, by a distance, the biggest prospect in Europe for his age group (he broke Rooney's records for youngest cap/ goalscorer at England U16, U17, U19 and U21. I remember going to see him play for our all conquering Youth Team at Upton Park in the 1/4 finals when he was 15. The lad was a mile ahead of everyone else on the pitch and there were scouts from all over the world watching him. Who also forgets the buzz every time he got the ball in the 1st season we were relegated. In my mind he was the only bright point of going to games at the time, the lad was clearly something special and I was proud we made him what he was. Since then he's left and scored a hat-trick in Englan'd best performance of the last 9 years, run rings around the Barcelona side that are the best in Europe, scored in cup finals and has matured into a key player in the Premier League's best footballing team. For that we should eb proud of the part our youth set up played, if Oxo can achieve 1/2 of that I will be proud but come on - a little perspective eh?

I love his raw talent, apart from Wilshere at Arsenal, the closest thing we have in this country to a truely technically gifted player that could do a job in the Spanish side. However, he is, without doubt, a momumental c***! I hate him, stands for everything I hate in modern day footballers, greed, arrogance, ungratefulness, disloyalty etc. Have to say though, Man U (dispite what loads of uneducated people that never watch their fans in person) have, without doubt, the most loyal, vocal and dedicated away following in Europe. They always get behind their players and thrive on a siege mentality, so Im genuinely interested to see what reception Rooney gets. No doubt if us were in the Prem and one of our lads tried to mug off the club, manager, fans etc and threatened to sign for cash rich skates (ha ha ha ha ha) if he re-signed for us we'd just re hero worship him. No backbone down here (or to be fair 99% of clubs), I hope the mancs do a bit for true fans of the game and never forgive him.

# He was sleazy (Fletcher etc) at West Ham but the rumours about him down here were just that - rumours (I know that for a fact). Kids stuff really, can't believe so many people bought it, like the stupid Gerrard rumours, some poeple are like gossiping old women, they need some conspiracy to hold onto. Anyway, he done a fantastic job here, personally I wish him well.

Not if your a raging p*** head like me it isn't! City Centre grounds and all the seedyness that comes with it all the way for me. S'pose football's family friendly and all that jazz these days though. Shame.

Bless...

I understand where your coming from but he'd argue he needs it as it's a seriously stressful job doing what he does and, by his own admission, he's missing his son growing up. With this in mind he wants to bail out at 40 (8 years time) so needs every penny he can earn. The bonus is based on how successful his investments have been in the last 12 months, if they didn't work he'd either get less money or his P45. Honestly the jobs a serious stress and if he wasn't getting big money he'd do something simpler with 9-5 hrs near his home. or move abroad where they are crying out for UK bankers with a good track record.

He pays 54% tax. I'm no mathmatition but that is giving back more than he takes out? I'm on middle income and I don't pay that % of my wages. Do you? Of course he creates wealth, from his massive wages he's buying a £50k kitchen from Smallbones of Devizes, through that purchase he's helping the boss of that company get wealthy? What have you got against successful people? How much tax should he pay? Who will pay teachers/ nurses/ armed forces wages if he moves abroad? Right now Mark is my hero - he's paying for 8 of us to fly club class to Vegas in 4 weeks and putting us in Villas at the Bellagio all for his stag do. Another example of him paying the wages of those fantastic, non striking, Virgin cabin crew. I'm chuffed to bits a lad from Harefield with sod all GCSE's etc can get to the top of his profession through shere hard graft - we should celebrate these people rather than wallow in our own anger and jealousy. With your attitude the whole country would be bitter and twisted and living in a gloomy 70's 3 day week moaning. I also have a missus that is a science teacher at an inner City Southampton school. I appreciate the struggles teachers have and think they are worth more, but hey, we can't afford to pay them any more as we're broke and spending more on deficit interest every year than we do on the NHS - do you understand that? Celebrate success, give them medals and hope they don't sod off abroad to give their talents to oother country's whilst they spend their hard earned money on other country's economys.

The missus will be out of a job if Mark and his colleagues move to Switzerland, the reason? Errr, Mark and his company pay the taxes to keep her in her state paid job - is that too difficult to comprehend? Mark should get a medal actually, through his shrewd investments he has made his clients millions of dollars profit, allowing them to spend it in shops, on services, holidays, cars, new houses etc etc All keeping you and I in jobs. Where has anyone said high earners should pay no tax? Seriously point that out? Mark pays 54p in every pound he earns to the tax man. How much do you pay? Look, it's simple. Bankers that are not successful get sacked. Simple (as I said), those that do well and make millions of $ for their companies and clients get paid a decent whack in bonuses - with the 46% they are allowed to keep they spend it on things that keep the hard working people of the service/ manufacturing industries in jobs. Why the jealousy? Tax them more and they will move abroad, if Mark takes his wife and kid abroad my missus and 6 of her colleagues will no longer be able to be payed from his taxes alone. Successful people are integral to this country - we should celebrate them, thank them for their tax contributions and yes, give them a medel if need be - hopefully that will make kids aspire to be successful, pay millions in tax rather than claim benefits for a living.

I just don't understand why he (and others like him) who work for a profitable company (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPMorgan_Chase shows they have made huge profits every year recession or not) and are profitable themselves (some people seem to think bankers get rewarded for failiure - apart from high profile cases like severence packages for the Fred Goodwins of this world - this simply isn't the case - you fail to make your company and clients money - you lose your job or get a donut (£0) bonus). HSBC have made huge profits again this year, as has Barclays. These are well run buisnesses that contribute massively to this country's tax revenues. Fair enough with RBS/ Lloyds/ Northern Rock but why punish profitable employees at profitable companies. As for "not suffering" handing over 54% of the money he has earned is a higher % than you or I pay, I'd consider that suffering? If he gets taxed more he won't be able to buy that £50k Smallbones kitchen (you may laugh but if he and others like him can't then excellent skilled craftsman lose their jobs). If he moves abroad (his work have ofered him and his colleagues jobs in Switzerland or Singapore due to the tax rises under labour) his taxes alone will mean the salarys of my missus and 6 of her amazing teacher colleagues will disappear - how the hell is that a good thing?

Not sure how you think they are taking the p***? He gets a massive bonus as through investing his client's money into mining companies and natural resources as well as strong currencies such as Norweigen Crone, and Aussie dollars he has made them millions of dollars profit. If he didn't, never mind a bonus, he'd get sacked. Simple. Only the high st banks such as Northern Rock, Lloyds and RBS got bail outs due to leending money to people like us that asked formore than we could afford, thanks to hugely successful investment banking arms, HSBC and Barclays didn't have to follow the others into bail outs and businesses like JPM make our govenrment huge amounts of money through corporation tax and the wages it pays its massively successful staff. They are well within their rights to move to another, more welcoming country if the government squeeze them too much. If (and it will never happen as he's an unelectible, back stabbing wierdo) Red Ed got into power the wealth creaters and aspirational go getters of this country would leave, leaving a irreplaceable black whole in the country's coffers. We should be thanking successful bankers for their huge contribution towards the upkeep of this country through higher levels of tax and large disposible income. Good on 'em, wish I went into that business, I certainly don't begrudge another man earning big money any more than I'm incredibly proud of my missus being a teacher. Both are equally important to our society ('er indoors teaching kids and shaping the future of our country, and the succcessful bankers like my pal Mark who through his hard earned massive wages and taxes pay my missuses salary and he building she works in).

Forgot to mention that, moved only a year ago to Bexleyheath (or is it Bexley? - whatever) from Greenwich, house was £800k. That's another £32k off the debt mountain! Furnishing it he let his missus loose in John Lewis and Habitat (paying the wages of their staff who from that pay their taxes and NI as well as the VAT on purchases). Bought a kitchen from Smallbones in Devises (they are the nuts, through that he kept their excellent craftsman in a job through the recession) and paid for local builders to redo his bathrooms (enabling them to keep their local boozers open by having beer tokens). Seriously, what do people think would happen if these people were taxed out of this country?

Just been for lunch at Coq De Argant with my mate Mark the Trader from JPM. Lovely day, amazing location when the sun's shining - can thoroughly recommend it. Anyway - I digress. He's expecting approx £300k for his bonus this year - approx 54% of that goes to the tax man by way of IT an NIC. How much more do you want from him? What is fair? Seriously, he recognises he should (and does) pay his way. I can tell you now from what he said a minute ago, he's happy to keep paying his way and waving things like child benefit and inheritance tax (he was clearly taking the p*** with that as I know for a fact his old dear lives in a council house on Somerton Ave in Harefield). Push him too far like your suggesting and he and his colleagues will simply move to Switzerland, leaving a £162k black hole in this country's tax receipts from his bonus alone. Oh, and he uses his money well, off on his stag do in 5 weeks and he's paying for all our flights to Vegas (Virgin - refused to book with BA after their strike action - this keeps Virgin's hard working trollie dollies in their jobs enabling them to pay tax), paid for my lunch (paying the wages of the superb waiters and excellent chef in there as well as 17.5% VAT on our £200 bill), meanwhile his nanny (who from his high wages he pays enabling her to pay taxes and NI and leave enough to spend it on going out, clothes etc) looks after his kid. He does not "get away with it". The wealthy and the wealth creators are absolutely essential to this country's economy - I think most of them recognise the next 5 years will be tough, and they will do their bit - however, push them too far at your peral, once they are gone there will be no-one left to pay for the services you and others take for granted.

We're paying more in debt interest every year than we do on the NHS - surely if we can wipe a big chunk of this off together in the next 5 years it will be worth it? I'm a higher rate tax payer and I'm happy to forsake the Children's allowence (and no - my missus is not on good money at all) and whatever else is thrown at me. If things seem to get tight then I'll work harder to earn more money. If I can't afford a kid I won't have one, simple surely? Rather than moaning we need to take a look at the disgusting debt this country (and us - the individuals) got itself into over the last decade - pull together, work hard and pay things off giving our kids the benefit of extra money to spend on important things like NHS, Education, Policing etc rather than debt servicing.

No it's not, it's just as factually incorrect as the stupid Lampard version - he doesn't throw punches he throws bottles of Peroni.

"Lee Barnard Barnard, he's short but he's f***ing hard, he'll glass you and leave you scarred, Lee Barnard Barnard" He's a quality player that is superb in this division but the original song is ridiculous due to him barely being fit to clean Lampard's boots never mind being better than him!

The ones on Facebook constantly moaning that "Brandon" is kicking off, or "Tia" has made a mess wind me up do me in - if it was such a stretch they wouldn't be on facebook boring everyone! Basically any bird who's got a bloke that earns enough dough to allow them to stay at home have absolutely no right to moan about anything in my opinion. Get up, make baby bottle and husband a cup of tea, wave husband off to work, make bed, tidy kitchen, hoover dust etc put washing on, take baby out for a walk, meet other yummy mummys at cafe to moan about the hard life they have, get back, get washing out - watch loose women or skt+ for a while, go to Waitrose and get the shopping in, un pack it, iron for an hour, more sky+, cook dinner, husbands gets in - bish bash bosh. Easy life!

Watching EM's keynote speech on the Politics show now. His jokes are flat, he's too hesitant and just seems a bit wierd? Not a touch on his big brother's speach yesterday!

Sorry pal but simply - and this is fact - Cortese went to News International 2 weeks ago to meet Mike Dunn, The Sun's sport editor, after the meeting NC lifted the ban and gave them the heads up about adkins. I've heard a few things about that meeting and it seems our "hard nosed" Chairman is actually not very hard nosed at all and appreciated the Sun are far more influential than he first thought. He admitted he made a big mistake taking on the media (the Sun especially) and has backed down - good on him.

Just got 2 tickets this minute for nowt in the Members enclosure - amazing, fair play fella!

Sounds like we agree on most areas - I probably wouldn't swap with him, like your pal he does crazy hours (as does his missus, hence the au pair - which is a sad state of affairs imo) - however we disagree in I think 50% is more than enough tax to pay (as I've detailed - without this 4 teachers would be out of work from his bonus alone) and any more he'll move abroad (and if enough of his colleagues feel the same so will his company). I'm the son of a teacher so aware and appreciative of the hard and important work they do but also aware and appreciative of the fact they wouldn't get paid to be teachers without the taxes from wealthy aspirational individuals such as Hedge Fund Managers. I just find it a **** take so many people caining "bankers" and make it sound like they have it easy when in fact they work seriously hard earning massive money by being profitable (if they wern't they'd get sacked) and paying tax on a heavy basis.