Anyone on strike tomorrow?

[Paul]

I doubt the Police pay a retail price for cars. May even be on lease.

With the snow we had last year, 4x4's would have been ideal to get about in.

Also,can we stop personally shooting people down for making a point? This is a good thread, with good issues and points nut calling people a **** is just childish.

[tiff_lee]

The way I understood Stevo's point was that money is being wasted elsewhere that could be saved, if only on fitting full tinted windows to the beemer lol

To be fair i'm sure we could all suggest lots of different areas as to where savings could be made it's just unfortunate for those involved that at the moment it is the public sector pensions.

[Allvaux]

Breaking news, police car choice has made the country go bankrupt.

[Violet]

I doubt the Police pay a retail price for cars. May even be on lease.

I was going to say, but only got through halfway writing before losing the will to live typing. I think they are on lease for about three years. The council even got given cars by a main dealer with free servicing etc. They can afford to I suppose.

[wayne451]

God knows what I put that got deleted? I was well pissed last night.

Appologies if I offended anyone but I stand by the comments that remain.

Billy, I assume you are talking about Northern Rock? Farty little bank that hasn't actually been sold yet. I'm talking about RBS, the sodding great big one. The one that is circa 83/84% government owned. The one that is currently valued at £12,811.08 MILLION pounds. It puts farty little Northern Rock into perspective.

Oh, the 'banking crisis' came about due to people without a pot to piss in borrowing money they couldn't (in some cases had no intention) of paying back. You can expand that to countries too and unsustainable pensions, take Greece as a case in question. So yes, the poor put us in this position and as usual they don't foot a proportionate amount of the bill. Whilst the poor cry about everything they forget that the top earners pay more tax so they have access to the damn nurses...

[wayne451]

Infact, having just thrown a few figures about, I have just worked out that the value of RBS increased on Friday by more than the 400m deficit people are crying about for Northern Rock! RBS increased by £640.39m. That REALLY puts the figures into perspective that the big bank increased in value in a single trading day by more than the little banks defecit in purchase price.

[wayne451]

{Wayne mode}
'She should be grateful she has a job'. 'She decided to do nursing'. 'She only did it because she didn't pass her Home Economics GCSE'. 'It's her fault the banks crashed so she should pay for it'.
{Wayne mode}

Have you ever heard that hospital food is crap? You could be onto something here Billy...

[Allvaux]

The 'piddly bank' (Northern Rock) being sold to Virgin for between £440-600M loss.

I'd argue that the crisis came about because banks were lending money to people they knew full well couldn't really afford to make the repayments so they're equally (in actual fact MORE) to blame for what happened. This happened in America you may recall and, if my memory serves me correctly, was down to greedy bastards at the banks eyeing up extra comission(sp?). Thus 'the poor put us in the position' doesn't wash with me.
I'll give you one thing though, in future that might happen as the way people are getting thrown out of work recently there won't be many people in jobs to tax.

Everyone has access to the NHS, rich or poor, and everyone pays accordingly. Trouble is you can lay a lot of the blame regarding pay freezes and pension cuts at the door of the ****ers who caused most of the problems, i.e the bankers.

[wayne451]

Ok, let's call it £600m then? It's still less than the increase in value of RBS on Friday!

Yes but on the flip side those paying vast amounts of tax are less likely to use the NHS as they are far more likely to have private health care.

I would agree that it takes 2 to tango and that they shouldn't have been offering loans to the great unwashed in the first place (hence further regulation for proof of pay/percentile of disposable income towards mortgage payments etc) because people were lying on applications.

However, only the recipient genuinely knows their ability to repay as everyones spending is different and TBH a lot of people are plain thick.

This sums it up nicely and links in well with the mention of Northern Rock; Banks warn home owners to 'cut spending or risk losing your house' | Mail Online

[MSG]

in short the credit card should never have been invented and we would none of us had suffered the consequences of a creadit crunch and hence effecting our pensions.

Could have borrowed money from your mother in law instead. I hate creadit cards

[Allvaux]

I see your point Wayne but had Desperado Cameron not been so quick to offload N.R 'we' could have been up on the deal or at least not lost money on it. £600M is a fair chunk of money towards pensions and a wage rise for those less well off in hospitals, councils etc.

[RodOGW]

Let's get this right - no one has any sympathy for dole scroungers and the basically idle feral scum that drain our economy -- however didn't I read somewhere recently that the money paid out in Social Security payments per year is less than the total figure that some of the rich in this country avoid paying in tax just because they can afford to pay accountants to massage their books to make them look as though they earn a pittance.........
Even on a minor level I know 5 or 6 people who earn 3 or 4 times what I earn and only pay about 10% of the tax I do - that's if they pay any at all.

[DarrenH]

With the snow we had last year, 4x4's would have been ideal to get about in.

our constabulary borrowed two of these 40 year old landrovers from private owners

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Control_2.jpeg

[JustinAudiA4tdi]

Let's get this right - no one has any sympathy for dole scroungers and the basically idle feral scum that drain our economy -- however didn't I read somewhere recently that the money paid out in Social Security payments per year is less than the total figure that some of the rich in this country avoid paying in tax just because they can afford to pay accountants to massage their books to make them look as though they earn a pittance.........
Even on a minor level I know 5 or 6 people who earn 3 or 4 times what I earn and only pay about 10% of the tax I do - that's if they pay any at all.

I understand your point, but maybe this small amount is better than the zero amount that would be paid in if they fcuked off to avoid paying full whack like many do.
So they're still contributing, unlike the scroungers.
Maybe wrong, but not as bad as this lot.

[Paul]

our constabulary borrowed two of these 40 year old landrovers from private owners

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Control_2.jpeg

Good idea that. To be honest you'd think the local car dealerships would want to help

[Violet]

Here's some reading I found on another site if anyone feels like it:

1. "How Deregulation Eviscerated the Banking Sector Safety Net and Spawned the U.S. Financial Crisis" by Shah Gilani: How Deregulation Eviscerated the Banking Sector Safety Net and Spawned the U.S. Financial Crisis - Money Morning

2. "Democracy and Debt: Has the Link been Broken?" by Michael Hudson: Democracy and Debt | Michael Hudson

3. "The Quiet Coup" by Simon Johnson: The Quiet Coup - Magazine - The Atlantic

4. "Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%" by Joseph E. Stiglitz: Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1% | Society | Vanity Fair (single-page) or Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1% | Society | Vanity Fair (multi-page)

5. "An Investment Manager's View on the Top 1%": Who Rules America: An Investment Manager's View on the Top 1%

6. "Oligarchy and Democracy" by Jeffrey A. Winters: Oligarchy and Democracy - Jeffrey A. Winters - The American Interest Magazine

7. "The Paradox of the New Elite" by Alexander Stille: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/op...pagewanted=all

8. "The End" by Michael Lewis: The End Of Wall Streets Boom - News Markets - Portfolio.com

9. "Rex Murphy: America destroying itself from within" by Rex Murphy: Rex Murphy: America destroying itself from within | Full Comment | National Post

10. "The 4 Branches of Government": http://american-rattlesnake.org/wp-c...CN1141_085.jpg via Occupy Wall Street (Part IV) | American-Rattlesnake

11. "Looting: The Economic Underworld of Bankruptcy for Profit" by George A. Akerlof and Paul M. Romer: http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Fil...all_mankiw.pdf (via)

12. "Why aren't the honest bankers demanding prosecutions of their dishonest rivals?" by William K. Black: Benzinga | Stock Market Quotes, Business News, Financial News, Trading Ideas, and Stock Research by Professionals (via)

13. An excerpt from "Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress -- and a Plan to Stop It" by Lawrence Lessig: Lawrence Lessig on How We Lost Our Democracy | Lawrence Lessig | Rolling Stone