AlfredTheLittle

And you don't need to leave the office! I used to be in the police during Tony Blair times, everything was all about detection statistics and it was all complete bullshit just to make the government look good - endless administrative clearups, whole teams sat in the office checking whether anything could be recorded and 'solved', getting burglars and robbers out of prison, taking them for lunch, and asking them to admit all their old crimes to be 'taken into consideration' - hey presto, another 20 robberies solved.(often made up ones). Then they got into recording how reassured the public felt, sent us out knocking on doors doing surveys....... Blair was the start of the current problems as he used to make a new law as the solution to anything, hence we've ended up with the thought police who don't have a clue which crimes they're meant to be policing, and public who don't really have a clue whether they're committing a crime or not anytime they dare to express their thoughts or argue with their spouse.

Like the way she's designed the woman one to spread their legs, just needs some nice lingerie

Down to bad government. They should be legislating to stop the use of chemicals which decimate the countryside, and to protect animal welfare, but doing anything would be too much like work for the politicians. There's no reason why the UK couldn't be 100% organic and free range, becoming a centre of high quality high value food. Imagine if you could be sure any UK produce you bought at the supermarket to feed your children would actually be good for them. Healthy children and healthy adults. Or just keep feeding everyone crap and putting them on disability benefits.

Reading the article is clear that, like many 'creative' people, they're simply dim and therefore can't handle money. How can you have a £100k tax bill and not have the money to pay it? To have a £100k tax bill she must have earned £300k and frittered it all away. Interesting though to see that it was rent that killed them. They were paying more on rent for a 3 bed house than to send their 2 children to an expensive private school. That's also been my experience around London - if you have to pay rent, you don't really stand much chance of creating any form of long term life.

Great thank you! I'll get listening, be nice to have something other than whatevers on the radio! I think one of the things that has stopped me using podcasts is that my phone is too quiet in the car, but I've discovered you can download volume boosting apps!

Has anyone got any recommendations, including how you listen to them? I've somehow not managed to get into podcasts yet, still stuck with 5 live, which can get pretty tiresome being bbc.....

He's told it by his mum, and it's not particularly helpful to have it backed up officially. It's hardly going to do his self-esteem much good to grow up being told not only by his mum but also 'officially' by his school that he lacks empathy.

Exactly, they'd have to write the same about everyone in his year......

Son is 10 years old. 'Diagnosed' with mild autism (i.e. aspergers) - basically for mum to get benefits. I'm divorced, his mum is a mad cow of the worst type. Anyway, son's school has commissioned a report from an outreach worker. The report says nothing major, and the school say there are no problems, the report was requested by son's mum. In the report, the outreach worker wrote "(son) lacks empathy for others". This is something his mum keeps claiming, not something that's true or something that's ever been assessed. So I asked for it to be removed and they've replaced it with "son's mum, the school, and the outreach worker believe that son can lack empathy for others" From a common sense point of view this is clearly nonsense, but does anyone know or have any suggestions what I can do about it? I'm thinking possibly Data Protection Act - ie information needs to be true and accurate as far as I know? Can they just write what they like about a child?

Surely these silly games is the sort of politics we want to get away from? Can't we just have a party which tells the truth and accepts people will either vote for it or not. Some reasonable policies - investing outside London seems decent idea- but nothing groundbreaking. They're not going to change the world with an online sales tax. So much politicians could do on house prices, benefits, the environment, immigration. Are they going to do any of it?

To be fair the porn market is very crowded, anyone who can make decent money in it without fucking themselves up will have done a good job and probably deserves the money

All public transport (trains and buses) should be free for everyone. It would save enormous amounts of car travel, create a great sense of community, probably would cost very little as they're already heavily subsidised, and might even make a profit - the government could sell advertising and concessions, eg coffee shops etc, the Ryanair pricing model.

Don't forget student loans as well. An extra 9% tax on most middle class workers, which with NI makes up a 41% tax rate on basic rate earnings.

Look up and go to your local families need father's meeting, you'll hear JFKs story told again and again, by perfectly decent men from all backgrounds. Try to let it sink in before you make any hasty decisions. You never really believe it until it happens to you. Certainly I got similar advice before it happened to me, but I thought my case would be different, or that people were exaggerating...... Best thing you can do by miles is stay with your partner if at all possible ( while building up secret assets)

Another recommendation for this one. I've been cutting my own hair (singular) for about 30 years, these are the best clippers I've had