Gringo

Not that the zaNU labour party have been active against the free market a lot have they, PFI etc.

Only if your VAT expenditure is higher than your VAT income in which case you are not in business for much longer (or are committing carousel fraud)/

I haven't voted on this poll yet, as I'm a little confused. Not over what my potential candidate should appear to be - as apart from Drat's point, their individual representation is irrelevant as once they are in the house they vote with the party whip. So whatever they say on the doorstep disappears once they gain parliamentary ascent. The seat in which I am registered to vote is strong labour, but most danger would come from the lib dems. My vote would have to be one for which creates the strongest possibility for changing the current political dogma. Something that changes what we vote for. I would therefore place wrap my voting slip around a small incendiary device and burn out the ballot box. One party, one state, two colours. Same policies, different hues. Blue or Red your vote is as good as dead. It's time the people sought change. BIAD.

Does each candidate not stand for what his party have told him to stand for, ie the manifesto? So are such decisions not based at a national level, and the individual candidates have little relevance.

People who like the beatles can only have been brainwashed into it - more so than any child going to church is brainwashed into religion. I can't explain how it happens, but it must be so for so many people to actually think they like that stuff. Utter madness or some form of mass hysteria for the long term. It's not as bad as liking abba, but not far off.

Following a comment by bicks on the party relaunch thread and due to the lack of polls on this site thought it might be worth getting a measure of peoples views. We were discussing this yesteday over lunch yesterday - outlining the possible scenarios, so here are some of them. Q: Is brown irreperably damaged and if so, how long can he last. Option 1: Gone before end August. Would require a cabinet revolt or a large group of MPs resigning the whip and triggering a vote of no confidence as there is no formal route to oust him before the party conference. Such moves could be triggered by losing the upcoming crewe by-election which would make those MPs in marginals rather squeamish about their chances against such a large swing. Option 2: October revolution 20% of MPs sign a vote of no confidence in GB at the party conference in september triggering a leadership challange and defeat in October. Option 3: Winter of discontent If the economy isn't turning round and the polls are still against them could the suits force brown into his successor a full year and two budgets to make his own mark Option 4: May day massacre Another disastrous set of local elections forcing him over the edge. Option 5: Last chance saloon. At the 2009 party conference the party would have to unite behind their leader or drop the pilot and bring in a fresh face with none of the mess on his hands. Option 6: The country decides Brown avoids the knives and leads his party into the next general election but the tories gain control (possibly propped up by cleggs army of absenters) Option 7: Never The supreme leader will lead the party to a glorious victory in May 2010 and go on and on and on

As per JG - it's hearts, but constructed to appear to be a slur on grant following his accusations against curbishley earlier this week.

House prices 'could fall by 30%'

A smaller part, but important part of the market is the distressed sellers arena. The idea being that someone who is is desperate to sell due to mortgage arrears or other motives (moving abroad, selling a diceased family members property etc) would sell at 15-20% below market value because they were desperate or had waited too long for the market or because the property needed attention (often old people die leaving a house that hasn't been redecorated for 20+ years). So the buyer purchases for 80% of the market using a bridging loan, remortgages with a buy-to-let mortgage at 85% the next day, and ends up with 2% (after fees) to do the smarten the place up a bit or to pocket. The largest two vendors in this market have been mortgage express and birmingham midshires. Mortgage express announced on Thursday that they won't allow any remortgages on properties that the owner has owned for less than six months. Bhm Mids are due to announce a similar policy change. This in effect takes out a support mechanism for reposessions. Now that this game is over, the banks will be forced to repossess instead of passing the risk onto a BTL landlord. In other downturns, banks have struggle to get 65-70% of market values when dumping them through auctions, so this is going to add further downward pressure on house prices. To those who are young enough and capable of doing up houses, now is the time to start scouting round auctions for the repo's, but it with a residential mortgage, do it up over 6 months, re-mtg as a BTL, rent it out and buy another. Over a 3 year period, you've got your pension plan in place. There are still opportunities available in the property market for those looking to make money, but they are for workers not speculators.

Here comes Mervyn to the rescue The swap will be for a period of one year and may be renewed for a total of three years. It will only apply to mortgage debts on banks' books at the end of 2007 and the swaps cannot be used to finance new lending.

Thought hopkins won it - . Calzaghe didn't land with anything - glad calzaghe got the decision

after this, and other actions by the club, a couple of fans of other clubs that i know, have recently said to me that we are a great club, a proper club, with fantastic owners, and one even said that he wished he was a villa fan!General - just to add my thanks - thank you and the board for helping put the soul back into the heart of the club. It's small stuff that outsiders rarely pick up on, but walking up to VP should be something that fills your heart with pride and anticipation. Another step on the way. Cheers.

Hopkins on points

Paper Lace - Billy Don't Be A Hero

Housing gloom 'worst in 30 years' or seeing as we've only got records going back 30 years, we could say it's the worst ever!!!! But never fear, with every post, Gringo provides a silver lining So as long as you're cash rich, there's nothing to worry about.

Herself needs a passport. Now the last time she got one, it cost £18, and of course you expect an increase over time, and so I downloaded the forms yesterday, and looked up the new prices. £72 Cor blimey, they're having a laff. 300% increase in 10 years. If the price had risen in line with inflation they would be about £24, a third of the price. The unit cost of producing a passport in 1991 was £14. This fell to £10 by 1998. In 1999 they introduced a new computer system (commissioned and contracted under the blue wing, though approved by the red wing) to add further efficiencies to the service, thus the cost rose to £15 per passport in 1999, plus the service owed HMRC £26m to cover the overruns in the implememtation costs. By 2005 the unit average unit cost per passport had risen to £35 - which to some degree can be explained by the need to include digital photos to comply with the empire's visa waiver program - but since then it has nearly doubled again to £68 per passport. YearCost of PassportIncrease since 1997Annualised increase1997£18.000%1998£21.0017%17%1999£28.0056%25%2000£28.0056%16%2001£28.0056%12%2002£33.0083%13%2003£42.00133%15%2004£42.00133%13%2005£51.00183%14%2006£66.00267%16%2007£72.00300%15%2008£72.00300%13% (so far) So for those of us who's only objection to the ID card scheme is the cost, you don't need to worry - you're already paying for it - this is the stealth funding of the ID card and it's systems. As the Passport Office has been rebranded the Indentity & Passport Service, they'll be perfectly placed to introduce the new cards in a couple of years time. And with their track record of delivering efficiencies through new systems, it ain't gonna be cheap. And to get a same day passport, the cost is now 114 quid

Happy Mondays - Step On

Well the way I read it is If...... Rentable value = 700 / month building insurance = 600 / year Maintenance = 1800 / year Property tax = n/a as it is born by tenants not landlords then fair mortgage payment is (700 * 1.5) -( (1800 + 400) / 12) = 850 per month knock off 5% for transaction costs (buying, selling, HIPS, remortgaging fees etc etc) => c810 per month

A DNA database is a wonderful thing, and helped convict the killer of Sally Anne Bowman, leading for the police amongst others to say this justified a national DNA database. Of course this argument ignores the fact that the police on the case arrested someone for the murder previously, held them for a couple of days, ransacked his house and then released him. They had the DNA of the killer on file. They didn't bother/didn't want to cross reference this with the suspect in case they could make a case on something else. clicky

Carol Vorderman - mortgage whore - "in too much debt, why not take on even more debt by securing a loan against your only major asset - trust me, I do maths on the telly, so you know it makes sense"

Of course CCTV is there to protect people and act as a deterrent to serious crimes. And access to these resources is tightly controlled to ensure they are not abused. Of course if you describe lying on a skule admission form a serious crime, and if you regard tight control to mean none at all, that's all very true. Council admits spying on family Of course the tin foil hat wearing yoghurt knitters will claim that this backs up their preposterous view that the War On Terror (WOT?) is just being used as an excuse to enact a whole raft of enabling legislation that empowers the state to do as it wishes and subverts democracy (see also Counter-terrorism bill 2007/8 (aka democracy bypass provisioning act) )

BoE lowers base rate, banks raise theirs

Never one to blow one's own trumpet, but.... Hamish McRae: It's back to the world of proper saving and borrowing for homes – and the better for it So as we have a split 60-40 on whether we will have a "fall" in prices, and finally have a concensus on a definition of what constitutes a crash, who reckons we will have a 20% fall (in real terms) over a two year. I vote aye - already the city centre shoebox market is down 10-15% - new build developers are offering 10% (hidden) discounts, soon the headline prices will be affected and then momentum builds - with prices falling and motgage availability increasingly restricted, people will bide their time before entering the markets. would that not make the BofE a political entity? Yup. This is the second test of the banks independence. The first was northern wreck, which they passed in terms of showing independence and laying the blame at the FSA and treasury's doortsteps. If they cut rates now without any public change in their remit, then we can surely say that the remit has been informally changed. Cutting rates is probably the right thing to do in order to boost the economy, and some members of the MPC will undoubtedly be calling for a 50 points cut - but will this save the housing market. Not in the next few months. The banks made £30bn+ available on 3 month terms recently and this has had no effect on the Libor rates, so a cut in the BoE rates will have little impact also. Cutting rates is obviously the wrong thing to do in terms of weakening sterling and increasing Gringo's cost of living. Banks are still whacking themselves, they don't know where their money is invested or where their risks lie. If the estimates of $1.2 trillion being the full cost of the sub prime failure are accurate, and with only $400bn being declared so far, we're only one third of the way into the bank write downs. And until everyone is confident that they have full disclosure from their counterparties, the interbank market is not going to recover.

The answer would have to be neither and both - in that availability is more a reflection of wholesale banking conditions than retail policy, whilst pricing is driven by risk aversion. Some of the specialist lenders that serviced the sub-prime market can't get any funds to lend due to the credit freeze - this isn't a change in risk approach of the primary lender but because in terms of the eventually traded products, ie the CDOs, the market has gone into freefall, meaning these companies can't re-finance existing debt never mind seek new business. Similarly some of the more traditionally FTB friendly suppliers have been hit with financing problems a la norther wreck, and have had to reduce their available products. As one pulls from the market, the rest get swamped and so the knock on effect is that the money available for those products gets taken quicker and those markets dissappear. The risk aversion aspect is that banks don't like repossessing houses, so in a falling market they are reducing their exposure by pricing themselves out of some of the riskier and low-deposit product ranges. HSBC obviously have a load of spare capital (profits from their asian markets) and see this as an opportunity to grab some market share, though one assumes they will only accept the low-risk portion of those re-mortgaging.

It will vary on your credit history and size of deposit / LTV requirements. The fact that HSBC are also offering to pick up fixed rate deals for those whose bank won't give them a new deal shows that some banks are still happy to lend to safe risks. The reduction in mortgages on offer tends to impact those without deposits or with shaky credit records. Also the reduction in the number of companies offering mortgages, and the reduced number of packages on offer will lead to a weakness in competition in the market and therefore an increase in the rates / decrease in the multiples on offer .