Did he really mean that - minimum wages?

[ahinton]

The 'unreal world' can be a veritable eye-opener, I do agree.

According to Sky Arts 2 there will be a broadcast of a performance of Richard Strauss's Symphony No 64 at 07.00 this Sunday morning.

One might argue that it serves you right for subscribing to Pie in the Sky Arts!...

As a huge Strauss fan

As indeed am I...

I can't wait to hear all the other symphonies in this recently discovered sound world.

Indeed!

Who cares if it is 'unreal'.

All those who, like you and I, would want to listen to them but find to their dismay that they are indeed unreal (and even the only two symphonies that Strauss actually did compose are little better than competent youthful dalliances with symphonic composition)...

[ahinton]

Thanks for the info Barbi.
Labours plans sound like a step in the right direction.

One problem with any efforts, however sincere and well considered, to address the issues of rents and housing and other allied benefits is that, as long as some rental properties in very expensive areas (principally London) cost far more to rent that the maximum permissible housing benefit (which I seem to recall is somewhere in the region of £25,000 p.a.), the solutions will remain either elusive or partial; this means that properties whose rents exceed around £2,000 per month are of no use to those on housing benefit, whether or not they are also in work (as many such claimants are), yete people complain about fany priced properties being inhabited by the overly wealthy when no one could possibly afford to live in them, either as owner-occupiers or tenants, unless they are very wealthy!

There's the additional issue that many people seem to see housing policies in respect of rentals, benefits, RTB and the rest as connected wholly and necessarily with those in respect of the provision of more housing and I'm not sure that this could always work in practice, much as both are of vital importance.

[jean]

...like you and I...

The writer of the song had the excuse that he had to make it rhyme...

[Bryn]

No they aren't at all
They have somewhere to live
I 'desperately want to buy' a pair of Schoeps microphones, I really need your help.

No, no. I am far more needy, buy them for me instead.

As to housing association stock, did not much (possibly most) of it used to be council housing?

[jean]

Yes it did.

I think more than half of local councils handed over their entire stock of council housing to housing associations.

They did this partly because they were having difficulty in maintaining it. Whether not wanting to have to sell it off was another motivation, I don't know.

[ahinton]

Yes it did.

I think more than half of local councils handed over their entire stock of council housing to housing associations.

They did this partly because they were having difficulty in maintaining it. Whether not wanting to have to sell it off was another motivation, I don't know.

I don't suppose that it matters one way of the other in the long run, though. With or without Thatcher's RTB or the new one currently being proposed by the Tories for housing association properties, local authorities and housing associations own the properties that they rent out; with such ownership goes the responsibilities of repair and maintenance, insurance, management and administration and the rest which, when they're strapped for sufficient cash to meet those responsibilities in full in timely manner (either due to lack of sufficient national government handouts or increasing numbers of people on housing benefits and council tax reductions or bad invetments or any combination of these), they will naturally feel obliged to consider selling some of those properties off in order to try to balance their own books.

[MrGongGong]

Don't rightly know!!

Finishing the score

Even I hadn't quite realised that to understand and point out the difference between 'reality' and 'fantasy'

Reality



Fantasy



This is also fantasy

http://news.bfnn.co.uk/man-arrested-for-having-sex-with-the-north-sea/

[P. G. Tipps]

One might argue that it serves you right for subscribing to Pie in the Sky Arts!.....

Oh your own 'paucity of knowledge', ahinton!

The subscription thing seems to have long died a death, at least any time I have watched the channel(s) and I certainly wouldn't pay for much of the 'non-serious' fare that's on offer, that's for sure!

[french frank]

Please note that Politics is a banned subject on this forum . If I decide that this thread should be closed, please don't just start another one on another aspect of the election, the parties, politicians &c &c.

This is a general (i.e. not specific to this thread, this forum, or members of this forum) explanation of 'the right to free speech':

[MrGongGong]

La la la la la

[ahinton]

Oh your own 'paucity of knowledge', ahinton!

The subscription thing seems to have long died a death, at least any time I have watched the channel(s) and I certainly wouldn't pay for much of the 'non-serious' fare that's on offer, that's for sure!

By "subscribing to" I meant "patronising", or even simply "using", not that you're necessarily paying for the dubious privilege...

[ahinton]

Please note that Politics is a banned subject on this forum . If I decide that this thread should be closed, please don't just start another one on another aspect of the election, the parties, politicians &c &c.

This is a general (i.e. not specific to this thread, this forum, or members of this forum) explanation of 'the right to free speech':

...yet you have not only sanctioned but also contributed to a thread about what the UK Prime Minister did or did not mean by his recent public comments about the minimum wage and how, when and whether it will be taxed, which is hardly a topic that can be fruitfully discussed without reference to politics, wouldn't you say?(!)...

[french frank]

...yet you have not only sanctioned but also contributed to a thead about what the UK Prime Minister did or did not mean by his recent public comments about the minimum wage and how, when and whether it will be taxed, which is hardly a topic that can be fruitfully discussed without reference to politics, wouldn't you say?(!)...

I didn't 'sanction' it - I have better things to do than read every single 'thead' on the forum.

The message is: Please, as on many other forums, no politics.

[Dave2002]

ff

Sorry if this has caused a problem.

Is there anywhere we can discuss the forthcoming election rationally?

[french frank]

Is there anywhere we can discuss the forthcoming election rationally?

How about: http://vote-2012.proboards.com/board...al-uk-politics ? I haven't read any of the discussions, so you may have to be more disciplined than here!

(2015 seems already to be up to p 181 )