MrXxx

The problem for High Street/virtual shops is their lack of flexibility on prices and/or their managers lack of decision making power to actually manage. OK, they have their "We will match any High Street competition on prices" mantra but a) matching is no good, I may as well not shop around and just buy at the competition, and b) their real competitor now is not the High Street but the Internet, so they need to accept the fact of lower margins and price match them... ...all they are at the moment is a a shop window for InT suppliers; as humans we are visual animals that like to touch/feel before we buy, and impulse buys....you can't run a profitable business on these two factors nowadays.

Morally the right thing to do, yes, financially, no....unfortunately you need money to feed your family and nobody gives a toss anymore about morals

LGA claims "it is making it harder for LA to give discounts to families"...if you cant afford a family why should I be expected to pay for it?!...I mean, I don't even enjoy the five minutes (i my case...probably 15 for most of you) to make it! :-)

I thought North of Watford you had a Schegen agreement, and it was only the Southerners that had to show their passports?...must admit, I do enjoy my trips to a developing country (county?) but the English phrasebook isn't much use!

This is what annoys me about that country, liberalism has gone too far!...I am not racist or prejudice but why should we have Islamic or Judaic legal exceptions in a country where the legal system is based on Christian principles?...This is not tolerated in those countries where the legal system is based on these religious foundations (quite rightly so), as an atheist I do not expect the law to be flexible for my lack of beliefs, and if I am not happy living in such a society/community I accept that I am free (and obliged) to move to one that suits me! All this politically correct/liberal attitude is doing is helping to `fuel` (and justify?) the rise of far right parties/extremism.

Good idea, maybe you could also included the proportions for those in the FTSE100 so we can get a measure of index ETFs against buying solo shares within the index? :-)

The answer?...gaming it...I walked up to a group of `locusts` hassling Mr Yellow Sticker Man with a few reduced items in the top of my basket and said " I can't believe how much they reduced that steak by, the packaging must cost more than that...must be because they have so much of it!" ...suddenly they swarmed off and Mr YSM said "We've not reduced any meat yet?!", "no" I said, " but you will be before they return won't you?!"...we both laughed and I went home with some reductions :-)

The last quote appears to reflect my feelings towards the UK...perhaps I am not the only one?

Interested in your FTSE100/pension statement, why is that?, as its nearing its bottom and so has more scope to climb?

I am always very suspicious when somebody `comes to my door` offering money as normally it's the complete opposite! :-)

So is this ETF not just performing the same as a handful of miners and a bit of solid (gold) would do?

The point I was making is that you were talking about PAST performance of certain ETF`s and considering them based on this as a FUTURE investment.

Problem is you are looking through the rear view mirror but the road ahead is through the windscreen.

Two winners, two losers and a break even...probability wise a Chimpanzee could do as well and I would only have to pay him a few bananas! :-)

I had a uni cfo recently explain to me why their accounts looked good but they were cash flow poor, seems that they have to put the current market value of the new residences they are building on to their balance sheet (in the profit column of course) but if they hadn't things didn't look so financially stable...couldn't help thinking how like a leveraged BTL this was!