 | Forum Reply | The state pension will rise by 4.7% next year. at 19:08 17 Sep 2025
I am in a similar situation to yourself whereby I get a Company pension on top of the SP. I pay tax on most of my company pension and this gets more and more each year due to the personal allowance remaining at £12,570. For instance I received a moderate amount on my Company pension of £147 this year. But due to the increase in State pension my tax increased by £250. I went on to YouTube and a single guy was showing how he could claim benefits depending on what he put on the claim form. For instance he put a figure of £1000 for his rent and his benefits total would have been £900. A person I am close to is on benefits, they are single and have a council property which is paid before they receive both Universal credit and PIPS. I estimate their total value including things they don't have to pay for like medication to be in the region of between £25-£30,000 a year. Whilst I have no axe to grind with those on benefits who are entitled to them during a lifetime of work from my late teens until I was 71 I was lucky if I earned much above £20,000. |
 | Forum Reply | The state pension will rise by 4.7% next year. at 17:56 17 Sep 2025
I note that nobody ever seems to bash politicians about their near £100,000 a year wages and subsidised food and drink in the house of parliament. Those in the House of Lords get £360 per day tax free. Prime Ministers are entitled once out of office to a £115,000 allowance. So even in the case of Liz Truss who managed to get kicked out after two months would be entitled to that amount as would Cameron, May, Johnson and Truss. The current government is wasting huge sums of money on mad scheme projects. The Tories wasted billions on Track and Trace, PPE and the Furlough scheme where companies like Bookmakers closed shops, furloughed staff and then made more on online gambling than if they had the shops opened and the online facilities. Gordon Brown trashed Companies final salary pension schemes by taxing share dividends. Governments for years have had Births and Deaths data and census to provide them with estimates for the amount of retirees they would have in future years. They would have been aware of the Baby Boomer years after the second world war. But did zilch about either making provisions or changing the system. |
 | Forum Reply | Amorim for the sack? at 16:50 15 Sep 2025
The problem is expectation. The need for a club that sits at the top of the earnings league to uphold past success and a manager in Sir Alex that like Sir Bobby didn't start particularly well but grew into the job. Today's managers are expected to have instant success even if the club they join isn't the biggest and cannot afford the huge wages and massive transfer fees of their bigger rivals. Often the players that clubs like Utd sign find the pressure too much to perform to the level that they achieved from the clubs they came from. Some need more time than appears to be available to them and they are moved on. We saw this with a couple of City players in the form of Phillips and now Grealish. Multi million pound players. Fortunately from a City point of view they had enough quality to more than make up. |
 | Forum Reply | What’s this on BBC1 at 10:41 14 Sep 2025
Whilst it is totally wrong for people to attack the police physically I was watching one of the stations showing the massive crowds. Many were laughing and joking with the police and each other and the protest considering over 100,000 was relatively peaceful. On the Kuenssberg show this morning one of the panel was basically saying 100,000 racists causing trouble. Words like that can only stir and inflame situations. Say it as it is that yes there were far right elements at work. But mainly it was peaceful. Whenever you have marches, protests etc you will always have elements within that are not there for the main purpose. So you get violence, theft and properties trashed. If you compare our protests against those in France there was no comparison in the damage done and whilst that doesn't justify violence it does show the difference. |
 | Forum Reply | Some good news on climate change at 15:18 10 Sep 2025
Wages and prices are a vicious cycle. The more prices go up the more wages people need. The higher the wages go the more the prices go up. Every year whether you work, are on benefits or an O.A.P. we all want an increase in our "Wages" come April as we know everything will go up. But are we better off ? 99 times out of 100 the answer is NO and in many cases we are worse off. But then you take China. High productivity, low wages. Continually pushing the boundaries of innovation and if they can't invent it, they pinch the technology from someone else. Those that run Britain are far too easily prepared to sell off things that could make the country rich again. Government policies mean that energy has the highest prices in the world, around four times that of the US. Is it any wonder that we cannot produce things needed not only for ourselves but also to sell to others. How can we be sure climate changes haven't happened thousands of years ago and that the earth will eventually cool down for another ice age. There were people who believed the earth was flat and that proved totally wrong. |
 | Forum Reply | Oh Mandy! at 15:01 10 Sep 2025
Kier's crazy gang are doing really well aren't they ? A hosing minister resigns due to not paying the correct stamp duty, a homeless minister who's on a charge for making people homeless, a corruption minister who's on corruption charges and a UK minister who is pals with Epstein and was put into the job by Starmer whilst Epstein was himself under investigation and went to Epstein's home when he was in prison. Isn't it time that whatever government is in power that they started to look after the very people that put them in power instead of having their own agenda and that individuals instead of being more interested in what they can get out of it themselves either whilst in power or when they finish put the country first. We can blame whoever we want for the current situation. We can deny that Farage is the right man to lead us in future but my question would be "If not Farage" then who. Because we have had the Tories, we now have Labour and neither have come up with answers or improved the lot for working class people and we stumble from one crisis to another. It is probably due to one of two things A) That those in government aren't good enough to do their jobs or B) That they have no interest in what the public want or need. |
 | Forum Reply | Just went past a community centre… at 10:15 8 Sep 2025
Perhaps if we had a government that worked for us rather than the Unions and wasn't torn between satisfying the left and the right there would be no need for people to take to the streets and use the Union Jack and flag of St. George as some sort of protest against our country being ruined. I have no time for far right, far left or whatever. They are destroying peaceful protests. But whatever goes on sadly you will always have people that use the situation to their advantage. There should be no questions asked if a person wishes to raise the flag. But because of reasons I have just pointed out it will now be seen in some quarters as racist. Which in turn gives those with an agenda to destroy our culture even more excuses. |
 | Forum Reply | Measuring the economy in Toasties at 15:27 6 Sep 2025
I remember as a teenager a mobile chippie came to the village I lived in. It was a AEC bus converted so you stepped onto the back of it where there was a counter and the frying range ran along the inside of the bus on the right hand side. You could get a bag of chips and scraps for 6d or 2.5p. How the heck we have got to where we are can only be down to successive governments allowing all and sundry to plunder our fishing grounds. Also for what you pay now for a bag of chips you could buy a sack of potatoes only a handful of years ago. |
 | Forum Reply | Rayner resigns at 15:16 6 Sep 2025
We all want to be on that train, but for some it never reaches a station. I think we can say with a large degree of certainty that many ministers and MP's have in the past and currently lined their pockets when in power or have come out of power with nice little earners afterwards. I think the question has to be asked whether the right type of people are putting themselves forward to serve us and that their objectives have to be brought into question. I also believe that the aims of government have to be questioned when a large proportion of what they are doing in no way benefits those that put them into power. |
 | Forum Reply | Rayner Leaving Government at 14:00 6 Sep 2025
Rayner isn't the only person with a disabled child. Of course I have sympathy with anyone facing the struggles attached to this. But not everyone is fortunate enough to be able to put a house into trust, Take £162,000 ( a quarter share) out of the trust to put into an £800,000 house and also have a grace and favour property in London. She made an error, a mistake. We cannot say for certain either way whether it was deliberate or not. She won't be the last to make errors in a government. Unfortunately whatever office you hold within any government you have to be whiter than white. The corridors of parliament and the press are full of backstabbers waiting in the wings to put the knife in and twist it. I have my views, but they will remain silent as I cannot claim I am whiter than white, but how many can. |
 | Forum Reply | Very good on Angela Rayner at 13:48 3 Sep 2025
Funny, I always thought the Sun was a working class tabloid newspaper. Where you had a page three for the lads and plenty of scandal from it's sister paper Screws news on a Sunday. No one is saying Rayner did anything that most people wouldn't do, but when your Housing Minister calling Tories Scum and bleating on about Johnson getting some wallpaper it's all about what goes around comes around. |
 | Forum Reply | The Long View: Flags at 12:39 2 Sep 2025
Just ask Yvette Cooper, apparently she has flags and bunting and tablecloths everywhere and Sir Kier, bless him, has a flag behind him when on his podium. Pity their patriotism ends there and those from far off lands, well 22 miles to be precise, are considered more important than our own. And no I'm not a far right racist either. |
 | Forum Reply | Joe Fairs on Blue Monday makes a very good point on the transfer window at 12:30 2 Sep 2025
I think if you take those players that have come in although some we haven't seen yet they appear on paper to ro be a step up from those we have let go. The likes of Delap and Hutchinson were nailed on to leave. Loungo was not mobile enough and Morsy who we will always remember found it above him to reach the necessary level for the Prem. But I think he would have been good for another season in the Championship, more as back up than a regular starter and I fully understand why we didn't give him a two year contract. I also understand that from his point of view he has to secure the best for him and his family. KM just has the problem of these new players bonding and forming a team. Even he never suspected the turnover of players and it may be that to an extent it was taken from his hands. But it is so easy to forget the Marcus Evan years and then those glorious promotion years, peoples memories seem to be that of a goldfish when it comes to that. |
 | Forum Reply | My read on KM and Chappers etc going at 09:21 2 Sep 2025
We all loved the two seasons of promotion, the euphoria surrounding the team and the fans all as one. Realistically a;though perhaps our more high profile players stayed we need to remember that 20 goal Freddie left along with several others. Now in the space of around two months the guts of the team has been ripped out. Delap, Hutchinson, Morsy, Chaplin,Loungo,Wolfenden etc,etc. Many were expected, some less expected. But what we saw last season was poor and that is probably understating the situation where weeks before the season ended we were demoted. Although there were shafts of light. Games which we won or should have won, but we just weren't overall good enough, A reset was needed and boy have we had one. Whether it is successful remains to be seen. I see it as an enormous risk where we could end up next season having to do exactly the same as we are doing now as players on contracts with a buy if promotion is achieved would go back to their clubs and no doubt a few would have to be sold. |
 | Forum Thread | EADT quite pathetic. at 18:36 1 Sep 2025
I find the situation regarding the EADT quite pathetic, Unless you subscribe you can't even get an update on the transfer window . Not in my opinion doing themselves any favours. I don't expect to read the whole newspaper for nothing, but when it comes to our home team they should allow more access than a headline and a few words whilst removing the rest of the article. PATHETIC. |
 | Forum Reply | When an egomaniac is running a business.... at 18:27 1 Sep 2025
Personally I believe the transfer window has been good and it appears that many are judging our season on four games. No we haven't as the old chestnut goes "Hit the ground running" But we have had loads of players either new or not having had that many games or none at all. I do see it as a problem but even KM said that the turnaround had been greater than he anticipated. I don't feel the International break is of great use to us as players will be away and will give only two days for some to integrate. I won't use the dreaded word beginning with G. If in another half dozen games we don't look any better then maybe the doom merchants are correct. Until then I will say we can still have a very good season. |
 | Forum Reply | Am I missing someone? at 17:28 1 Sep 2025
As I said previously I do not see any sense in giving Baggott another contract and then loaning him out again. Nobody knows how good the guy is because he hasn't had a chance. I saw him a couple of seasons ago against Fulham in a cup game. He came on as sub, didn't in anyway look out of place and scored our only goal in a 1-3 defeat. It is really a case of Baggott being sold or being part of the squad. |
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