WhatAboutTheFinish

I doff my cap to Michelsen and his attempts to bring some rational to this thread.

Seems like Papandreou is on his way to resign so does this leave Greece on the road to snap elections (which would surely end up being asking the Greek people to support or not support the agreement made last week)?

Looks like the opposition have dropped all calls for an election instead favouring some sort of coalition so the EU mandate can be enforced without any regard to the will of the Greek people. It really wouldn't surprise me if the whole situation in Greece descended into a full scale civil war!

Watch American cable/satellite TV for any length of time and you'll encounter no shortage of ads for gizmos of dubious utility.

this tribute to the clips demonstrating a need for a given gizmo is full of win.

The Awesome Auger

FixIt Pro

The Jupiter Jack

The Grater Plater

The Smart Mop

Particularly enjoyed Smart Mop's little feature/benefit analysis. Spill Coke on floor, mop up, wring straight back into glass...Enjoy!

This seems topical (and perhaps justified?).

I don't think you get any payments towards a mortgage do you?

Yes

I heard that if you loose your job and you rent privately your rent gets paid for.

However if you have a mortgage then it does not get paid for...?

How is this.

That's not strictly true, it depends what kind of mortgage you have. The cost of any interest portion of your payment is paid, just not repayment on the capital. I think the reasoning behind this is pretty clear, it's not the responsibility of the government to add to net worth or wealth of an individual because they lost their job. Similarly if I had a standing order of 500 quid a month into a savings account, the government wouldn't pick up the bill if I lost my job.

Just for the record my opinion on this subject is without a political bias. I don't object to any of them receiving the money. Not Thatcher, not Major and not Blair. I think they deserve every penny and far from the politicians being out of touch it seems some people on this thread who are out of touch with what things cost.

Whether you like them or not, Blair and Thatcher are probably well inside the top 10 most iconic British figures of the 20th century. Again, to put things in context I once attended a corporate do where Shakin' Stevens was paid £40k for an hour set and remember Reg from Corrie being paid £80k to open a supermarket.

Thatcher has claimed the most. Nearly half a million for a woman who is so ill she canot make public appearances . How can that be anything but disgraceful. . I call that pretty disgraceful

I'm not sure if you think it's pretty disgraceful?

Ultimately we have no idea (and the story makes no effort to tell us) how many functions or how many duties have been performed and what the expenses have been claimed for. In fact the original article is more telling in what it doesn't say that what it does. Have you considered Lady Thatcher's health problems may actually increase her expenses? If some of the the expenses were paid, for example, to a nurse accompanying her on a trip, would you be criticising the nurse for charging a fee for providing health care?

"Former Prime Minister paid legitimate expenses to perform duties" is not a newsworthy story in my opinion. "Lady Thatcher claims half a million pounds in order to ride a white unicorn naked whilst receiving a pole dance from a Scottish dwarf" That's a story.

It seems that some people cannot stop claiming public money

Margaret Thatcher claims £535,000 for ex-PM duties

Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has claimed £535,000 of taxpayers' money over the last five years, government records have shown.

Baroness Thatcher, 86, who makes rare public appearances and suffers poor health, was paid from the public duties cost allowance available to ex-PMs.

Others to benefit have been her successor John Major, paid £490,000 in the last five years, and Tony Blair.

In 2008-9, Mr Blair claimed £169,076 - more than his Downing Street salary.

Since leaving office, Mr Blair, who ran the country for a decade from 1997, has claimed just under £273,000.

The system was set up by John Major in 1991, after one year in office, to reward former prime ministers for work including answering letters and attending public events.

In the past five years, the three former number 10 incumbents have cost the taxpayer in total more than £1.7m in public duty allowances.

The figures were revealed by Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude following a written Parliamentary question from Tory MP Philip Hollobone.

Mr Maude said: "The public duties cost allowance is kept under review."

In 2005, doctors advised Lady Thatcher, who served three consecutive terms in office, that she should not make public speeches in the wake of some minor strokes.

But she still attends some public functions, including an address by the Pope during his state visit to the UK last year.

In September, she attended a party to mark former Defence Secretary Liam Fox's 50th birthday at his London apartment.

Pretty disgraceful really

Can't help but feel that this is one is a complete non-story. Of course a much fairer system would be that once you become Prime Minister you should perform public duties for the rest of your life at your own cost with no form of recompense for time or expenses?

Ultimately they have combined the total paid, for attending official duties, to 3 people (who between them had spent nearly 30 years running the country) over a five year period and have scraped together a dramatic sounding 1.7 million. To put it in perspective, less than Gary Lineker's annual BBC salary!

Not all poor people vote and if they did vote for their interestd, they WOULD NOT VOTE TORRY.

So just to clarify, do you believe that people should vote for a party they want to represent their own interests?

Even Graham Poll has called Dowd out for being awful! DM being linked!

Thinking about it... are there ANY major bands apart from The Beatles, who split, swore they would never re-form - and actually kept to their word?

Can't think of any offhand.

The Housemartins.

The Smiths. ABBA?

Why is Rupert a brown bear on the covers of the annuals, but a white (presumably polar) bear in the stories inside?

I used to love Rupert when I was kid and collected the annuals. In 1973 they printed a white faced Rupert on the cover, legend has it a brown faced version also exists that is extremely collectable! VT'ers check your old books

Is it Yugoslavia beating the Soviet Union in the '52 Olympics, a result that Stalin had covered up?

but didn't they say in their manifesto the other time they were going to have a referndum on the euro and do the exact opposite

Yeah, damn them for bringing in the euro, I miss the pound ...oh wait.

They said they'd hold a referendum on the euro when certain key tests had been met that meant it was in our interests to join. They were never met, ergo no referendum, no euro.

The five economic tests were an invention because they knew they would never win a referendum.

What is essential for the success of EMU is genuine convergence among the economies that take part, without any fudging of the rules. However, to exclude British membership of EMU forever would be to destroy any influence we have over a process which will affect us whether we are in or out. We must therefore play a full part in the debate to influence it in Britain's interests.

In any event, there are three pre-conditions which would have to be satisfied before Britain could join during the next Parliament: first, the Cabinet would have to agree; then Parliament; and finally the people would have to say 'Yes' in a referendum.

I can.

- Retirement age increased to 67.

- Privatization of the NHS.

- University fees increasing from 3k to 10k.

- Tax breaks for the richest 0.5%.

- pensions decreases.

- unemployment 2.5 million

- double dip recession

I can totally see why the average working person would vote for them. What Cameron knows about fairness, equality and basic rights you can right on a grain of rice with a marker pen...!

All those who voted for Cameron are finding out just what a Torie goverment is about.

Weird set of things to make your point with!

- Retirement age increased to 67 - Plans to increase retirement age announced by former Labour government.

- Privatization of the NHS - NHS spending doubled under Labour government with no notable improvement in standard of care, is it wrong to try a different approach?

- University fees increasing from 3k to 10k. - University tuition fees introduced by Labour government, did they think they would never go up?

- Tax breaks for the richest 0.5%. - Not sure which piece of legislation you're referring to?

- pensions decreases. - This one is the most laughable point to make after Mr Brown's record on pensions.

- unemployment 2.5 million - Unemployment has been trending upwards since 1992

- double dip recession - Under which government did the economic crisis and first dip of the recession start? Do you remember who stood before parliament and proclaimed 'Gone are the days of boom and bust'?

Jack telling me some boring story about his old land rover on the Aviva advert before I try to watch any/every video clip on the BBC website! ARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!! The laptop is on the point of being thrown out the window. "Well my old land rover got stolen, and then I found it and then I got it back!" Big deal Jack, big deal.

Currently munching through a pack of these

Much prefer these myself...

Neither can beat a pack of these...

I predict that Villa will win today but win in such a manner that all the VT pessimists can still spend the next week moaning about the way we won it.

Which chairman in the Premier League has been consistently getting it right, which club should we model ourselves on? An open question to anyone.

Without Doubt, Manchester United.

The club that went 25 years without winning a sausage, until they appointed a proper manager.

You can talk money until the cows come home and you do need it granted, but its like a monkey with a machine gun. Without an eye for a player its like a chav winning the lottery.

YOU NEED NOUS and then a bit of money to drive that NOUS home.

We have had too many managers for too long without a long term strategy......its just been a type of football to keep them employed for as long as possible.

ITS A **** GRAVY TRAIN.

Ps the football has been poor for the last 10 years

Great, so who is the next Alex Ferguson?

I think it's important to remember that in Ferguson's first six season at Man Utd they achieved finishes of 11th, 2nd, 11th, 13th, 6th and 2nd. Despite a clamour from fans to sack him the board had the fortitude and presence of mind to stick with him and give him the chance to build a winning side.

^ So the whole of Europe should be powered from a region that currently is governed by Libya, Egypt, Sudan and Chad? Mmmmmm can't see any future problems arising from that situation....let's do it!

Tin hats back on.

Great win for Ireland and potentially a great result for the Northern Hemisphere too. One side of the draw seems to be opening up for Ireland, Wales, England and France to battle it out for a final spot.

On the Wales aspect - handled that physical encounter well, even bullied them (they've come off worse with Matfield and their 12... forget the name... going off injured) - but the same old thing - can look at the referee (Hooks kick was clearly over), but we should have won it by 15-20 points given how much we crucified them all over the park.

Gutted in truth - good performance but should have won it and be preparing to take apart the Irish in the quarters, rather than a backs-to-the-wall game against Australia

Mortified after the Wales game and really don't know what to think about their chances anymore. I used to think that if Wales won enough ball upfront they could beat any team in the world. Now they have completely dominated a game against SA for nearly a whole 80 minutes and they still manage to lose!

I just hope they can keep up the concentration levels to dispatch the south sea islanders and then kick on whoever they meet in the QF (I don't think the Aussies beating Ireland is the given everyone is taking it as).