threegee

Hi willy j! I think we are seeing a revolution in our country, but the political classes haven't woken up to this yet. They've lost control of the media and they are about to lose control of quite a few other things too! The modern working classes, the people who produce the wealth, are about to consign the chattering classes to history. We've had quite enough of Old Etonians and Champaign Socialists telling us what to do and how we should think. Instead of rolling back their influence over our lives they've plotted to add yet another undemocratic layer of it - the EU! Nowhere is the waste and futility of big government more evident than it is in Brussels. As per usual this was sold to ordinary people on a lie. We were told it was a Common Market that would increase wealth, and the LD's still peddle this lie. When he thought no one much was listening Ted Heath even admitted to the dishonesty. The modern strategy to bury this lie is to pretend that the thinking masses don't actually care much about the EU - it's very low priority, we must see to other more important things first. Well, it's behind all of our problems people, and the lie needs sorting once and for all! Cameron lied about his "cast iron guarantee" of a referendum, and his current strategy (ably aided and abetted by Labour and the LD's) is to promise one at a future date. A date when he suspects that he won't need to deliver. His chums in the other parties will help him along on the cynically calculated 2017 date. If, by chance, he is in a position to deliver, he'll try to repeat the Harold Wilson trick of pretending that we now have a much better deal, so all is OK again. It will be a deal that civil servants have pre-negotiated so's he can return from the Reich in triumph, waving his worthless bit of paper! Brussels will moan about the UK getting special treatment, but the eurocrats will be secretly laughing all the way to the European Central Bank! Like everyone else I was duped by the political classes into believing in "the European project" and foolishly voted for it. It's up to our generation to flag up to our children and their children, the fact that they are being exploited. They must not repeat our mistakes! Only by voting against the political classes can the latest rounds of political musical chairs at our expense be stopped! But we mustn't stop with Brussels - that Westminster gentleman's club needs a very thorough sorting too! A vote for Labour, LD or Tory is to be duped once again. And... if you foolishly think that they are not all in it together then ask yourself what a Labourite ex-minister is doing chairing an all-party committee formed to try to discredit UKIP! If UKIP is simply taking votes from the Shire Tories then why is Labour helping them to combat this?!

Nope, Manuel stops at the white cliffs of Dover! A torrent of ex-pats returning from Spain who thought the EU meant easy jobs in the sun. Record unemployment there, especially youth unemployment. Only fools put other nations before their own! Things... can only get tougher... can only get tougher! You know the tune - or d-ream on with the LDs?

Ah - they are all at it! At what, you ask? At bleating on about squeezed resources. There's Millipede bleating on about the squeezed middle, our friends up North West in your article, and a member of my family who can't make a choice between embellishments that aren't actually needed! There's even an article in the Telegraph bleating on about people on £120K p/a not being able to afford to dine out! We'll... message to you Mr Morpeth CoT Treasurer; Mr Potential Economy-Wrecker II; Ms Judith Woods of The Telegraph, and lastly my family member: Life is about making the right choices! Not the things it would be nice to have, but the things that ensure a better future. A choice between enjoying it now, or ensuring that come a rainy day you - and the people around you - have, what will by then, be regarded as the essentials. The globalisation - much beloved by Gordo - means that things can only get tougher as there's more competition for available resources. Things rating high on my current non-essentials list are: eating out, Sky TV subscriptions, and fancy gates! 'I make £120,000 but I can't recall the last time we went out for dinner' P.S. If there are any local people still of the opinion that New Labour is for the workers, then think on that squeezed middle sound-bite. They may well be for the workers, but their idea of work isn't remotely yours! It's distinctly non-manual work, and the North East no longer features in their plans - always assuming, since Blair, it ever did! If you really want to join in (21st century) class war then vote UKIP, they are for manual workers, and our country!

My memory may be out by yards, but it's sure not over five miles out! And... I probably only walked/rode/drove past their sign less than 10,000 times, so how am I supposed to remember foot high letters?! http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Smails-6 Interestingly, it's not just me that was confused by the appended "s" - seems like the family itself was!

I guess you mean: https://www.google.com/maps/@55.128386,-1.588501,3a,75y,43.6h,91.81t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1ssDWwl61C2xJJM_1GmrOQpw!2e0 The name Smail or Smails rings a bell here, or have I got the wrong shop? Excellent quality building but the stonework is a bit neglected where the water has been splashing off the pavement. Hope it has been re-pointed since 2009 to prevent further damage.

Those who the gods wish to destroy... Sensitive material - in a mutual?!

That's awful lot of zeros, and no benefit whatsoever to the North East. We only have vague promises that sometime somewhere we might see a few crumbs from the table. Now you'd have thought that the Labour Party would have opposed this vast public spend, or at least insisted on some balancing project to benefit their loyal supporters in the North East. But, they trotted into the lobbies last night like sheep to support Cameron. Why? Because they know that their support in Birmingham is a lot more tenuous than it is here! The North East is sucker bait for New Labour - that middle-class elitist party still trading on its working-class origins by pretending to be working class! If Labour had held out for the North East they could very easily have swung a major infrastructure project bringing much needed jobs. There were easily enough green-suburb Tories opposed to the mega-spend (ones who's constituents didn't want it in their back yards). Labour didn't because they have cynically calculated that they can get all the mindless support they need from working-class people in the North East, without doing anything at all for the area! UKIP is the only major party opposed to HS2, because it believes that the spend is unjustified, and that there are far better things to do with such a vast sum of public money than shave minutes off the travelling time of wealthy business people who'd work on the train anyway. http://www.ukip.org/aylesbury_s_tory_mp_bottles_hs2_vote This is what Ed Balls thinks about HS2: Whoops a "blank cheque" from Labour then! But, it's fine to wave it through as it buys some extra votes in the Midlands where Labour will really fight the next election. Mindless voting is the sure route to self-impoverishment!

All the fake psychics and conspiracy theorists are crawling out of the woodwork now, but that doesn't mean there isn't one! Knowing a tiny bit about Carlyle and Freescale there's certainly mileage in this particular one. You could go on to speculate that if you wanted to bury this one for good you'd arrange the searching to go on in the Southern Atlantic, and send a few misleading sonar signals to reinforce the belief that the aircraft must be there somewhere. That might seem crazy to most mortals, but anyone who has any inkling of the vast resources that Carlyle commands wouldn't have any difficulty believing that. How this company has accumulated so much wealth in so short a period beggars belief. That they have all the "connections" can not be in doubt. It surprised me that the Aussies were able to zero in on such a relatively small area so quickly on such tenuous data. This having happened, and the signature being so unique, then why all the subsequent confusion? Normally the sonar can take you there quickly and with reasonable precision.

LOL I'm going to have to look up insouciant! It's kick Nick time it seems: Now that sounds personal! I do think he should stop trotting out the three million jobs at risk garbage though. His source was back in 2000, and the academic he plucked the figure from says his figures are being misused - they don't mean that at all! So why keep repeating this when it's not actually true? It's rather like his claim that only 7% of our laws are made in Brussels - which he picked from a HoC document which specifically pointed out that it didn't include "orders in council" - how the mass of Euro diktats are promulgated. The true figure is well over 50%. Nick seems to have a way with the truth that doesn't involve reading past the first few convenient words into the inconvenient ones. An interesting book that serious LD's will need to read if they think any of their ideas will stand up to scrutiny. The guy seems to think the EU may be redeemable, but I'm not convinced. Certainly if Cameron goes to re-negotiate it will be a pre-arranged fix, and he will try to pull the same con trick as was pulled the last time by Labour. That a real (non-politicos', non-federalist) Common Market can be formed I've no doubt, there is plenty of will among the more democratic parts of Europe if the UK were to set the lead. And, it would rapidly see off the EU in terms of GDP growth - but that's not at all what the political classes want!

I tried to ignore it, honestly I did! But every time I went to iPlayer it was there staring back at me, and only three minutes! Curiosity overtook me and I watched - I am a politicoholic - there I've said it! Was it instructive? Well... yes, but not in the way intended. I've learned that however much all reason points the other way, it's still possible for a small group of individuals to ignore the overwhelming negatives and cling to a core of outdated, and positively self-damaging, ideas. Fresh from his drubbing at the hands of common sense and the real facts, personified by Nigel Farage, Nick was back reminding everyone that his is ONLY party that fully supports the EU - "we're the party of IN" he chirps, without giving any solid reasons why, or addressing any of dozens of reasons why not. Sure, they'd strung out an almost subliminal 3D graphic down a shopping street saying "3 MILLION JOBS"; a sort of paper mache religious icon, so true believers have a real-world instantiation, lest they start to disbelieve the immaculate conception. But here was a near-exclusive appeal to the heart and not to reason. That word fairness is creeping back into the LDs claims too. Yes, the UK electorate have short memories, but not THAT short Nick! This was the month that Danny Alexander was seen claiming that the recovery was as much his success as George Osborne's and positioning himself as the new party leader. The LDs sure need one, and quickly! But it's not going to happen until the inevitable drubbing at the polls. I strongly suspect that a new incarnation of the LD's will take a far more pragmatic approach to the EU. Danny won't want to remind us about his being "the party of IN", and will quite likely secretly wish that it was the party of OUT!

It should be called "non-intentional debt": - lender has no intention of charging reasonable interest, and borrower has no intention of keeping to the repayment schedule - or even repaying!

It's the debt that is personal not the data! "Anonymised" data they calls it. My theory on the Alnwick and Coldstream lot is that it's a result of all the fuel they charge to their credit cards in the desperate effort to get their 4x4s to the Metro Centre. A massive opportunity for Bedlington to promote its charging point I think; those country gents will be swapping their gas guzzlers out for electrics in scores! Anyone up for a green-wellie cleaning biz?

Dunno. Haven't had time to research the three main parties, and couldn't find out who the Lib Dems bank with either!

This is amusing: Top five personal loan hotspots by postcode BA1 9: Outskirts of BathEC1V 2: Shoreditch area of LondonNE66 4: Alnwick area of NorthumberlandPE7 0: Outskirts of PeterboroughTD12 4: Coldstream in the Scottish BordersNot Bedlington then! Full article: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-27054416

http://www.price-drop.tv/ http://www.bid.tv/

The rats are deserting the ship now: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-27137762 A classic we'll be taking our overdraft elsewhere! Probably just as well the Labour Party is in debt, as would you trust your funds to a bank totally controlled by trade unions?

Umm... the obvious question: How do you pronounce "Mrorrc"?

When I moved away I missed: looking out of the window thinking I really must cut the grass when it is dry enough!

Leave a space before the bracket (actually that type is called parenthesis) and it won't happen.

The link you provide is a solicitor offering genuine mitigation strategies, not a service to evade commercial rates. They repeatedly stress that the circumstances should be genuine (i.e. not manufactured to avoid). They also warn about illegal services: "Beware of scam tenancies offered on the web..". But you are entirely missing the point here, because as fourgee says you are looking at things one-sidedly. And, I most certainly don't think you, or indeed anyone else, is stupid! I do however think that you are misrepresenting the reality. Other people reading this may take away a slanted view of landlords, and just why properties are standing empty. There are plenty of people who will buy into such myths, because it suits their agenda, and deflects the blame from their own anti-business mindset. I don't think that this is what you intend, and I don't think you yourself are in any way anti-business. I get to see things from both sides, and, together with a lifetimes experience in retailing, often get provided with a peek into the commercial market in the North East from more than one of the well known names. Believe me the situation is little to do with greedy and stupid landlords asking unrealistic rents, and a lot more to do with a general lack of enterprise. There are failures on both sides; failures in local government; failures in national policy; and a lamentably low level of small enterprise, brought about by a century of carefully taught state dependency. It's not that there aren't just as many enterprising people here as elsewhere in the UK, it's just that the vast majority of them have - very understandably - given up on the North East. Just when there are a few glimmers of redemption (not the least from the Labour Party, the very architects of state dependency) there's a grave danger that we'll talk ourself back into our hole! That's why I'm challenging your view of unreasonable landlords. Back on subject I'd say that business rates are just a small part of running a business, and even the rents are (or should be) dwarfed by employment costs. Did your associate produce a fully-worked business plan? If so (s)he'd have benefited by providing a copy to the prospective landlord(s). If nothing else (s)he might have got some useful feedback. Of course such a plan would have had to factor in the proprietors income expectations too. In real-world situations businesses never go to plan, but that doesn't mean that plans are a waste of time or unnecessary. They provide a much-needed benchmark. Some landlords - approached with the right mindset - can see, or be made to see, themselves as partners in the business, as they are effectively providing a very necessary part of the capital. They have an interest in the success of the business, and in bad times can often make necessary concessions if kept in-the-loop. What I detect here are hard-nosed take-it-or-leave-it attitudes, and I believe that one such response invites another. There's never finality in business, and being snubbed (or believing you've been) is no reason not to try again and again at later dates with modified propositions. And, it's often better to ask what the other parties aims and expectations are than ask the price. Going into a negotiation with a target price in mind is pointless unless you know exactly what you are going to receive for the money.

The current winner is fairly predictable, but there's still time to influence the result. Don't cheat by peeking before you vote! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10772109/The-top-50-BBC-Two-shows-of-all-time.html

I'm sure they actually meant to write vantage point, but you really can't expect a firm of highly paid architects to use propa English - like! http://www.thefreedictionary.com/vantage+point Massing and orientation is hoo them lot speak like. I mean if they said they thowt it was aboot the reet size an' pontin the reet way ordinary folks might not think they wa woorth the muney. And... to answer your AM I BEING TOO SCEPTICAL HERE question: Yes, you probably are. We have to grab at what is possible. It's a bit more new life in the old place. And, it's life that has to actually pass through/live in the town centre, and not jump into their cars and head directly for the A1 to get to/from work - plus do all their shopping at the Metro Centre. On the inconvenience: if you read the planning document you will find so many restrictions on what the builder has to/can't do it's a wonder any developer would even bother! You can't have it both ways: call the place "a ghost town" then object to any activity!

Ironic that the Co-op is foundering on the very thing it was set up to circumvent - self interest! Just like the Police Federation, the people at the helm won't accept change because it will impact on their own cushy existence. I didn't catch that Lord Myners has just joined the ever-increasing list of walk outs, but you don't really need to waste time seeking out his stated reasons. http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/apr/17/co-op-group-loses-billions-failings-in-management The Co-op can't survive in its present form, and no one seems interested in reconstituting it as a viable business. Flog off the bits, and when the dust has settled re-brand them - all that can be salvaged is some shaky jobs here and there! All the aspirations of the public-spirited Bedlingtonians in those sepia photos have now completely turned to dust.

..takes revenge on all motor cars! http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-27058362 Sometimes we all feel like that!