Where all in this togeather

[john walker]

On a slightly lighter note, when G.G. was campaigning for re-election to his east London constituency a few years ago. It was reported in one of the more right wing national tabloids, that he was touring the area on an open top campaign bus when somebody threw a piece of fruit at him. This scored a direct hit, there was a photograph of him looking very angry with a caption reading 'This is a case of the fan hitting the S**T'

[robpage]

The pie I always remember John , is the ones that used to get served in the " Westoe " at South Shields , they got to the pub direct from the Baker's shop somewheer just off the Westoe Road near the Civic Offices , they were about 6 inches round and beef and onion , with a layer of scalding hot fat floating on the meat , They used to remove the skin off your lips and palate on a daily basis , and required at least three pints of McKewans to cool your mouth down afterwards . They used to be at least twenty percent FAT , which may have been a forerunner of the modern VAT

I don't have a problem with any elected MP , as long as they are elected by the right and proper means , and don't steal from us , I do have a problem with them earning from lecture tours , and flying the world for meetings with vast entourage all at our expense . If you preach austerity then you should practice it . and if you want to be an MP it is a Full Time job , not a part time hobby so I expect 40 hours a week 46 weeks of the year from them . I also dont understand why secreterial services for their parlimentary job cannot be state funded rather than claimed for , why overnight accomadation is not paid at the rate of the Holiday inn , single room rate , per night that it is needed .


George Galloway is one of the less greedy ones , but it costs £130,000 a year to run his office , so what do we pay for the rest of the members . I think they could practice some savings there , I thought the allocated offices in the Houses of parliment were free , so I think the £130,000 is quite high for one man's support team .

[Tony Wilding]

Its still one gigantic fiddle, no way will they lose there perks, just find other ways of claiming them, they are just plain dishonest, its gone on too long for them to change. they earn vast amounts of money from other means,

[Jim Brady]

Imagine what we could do with £250m,couple of new schools hospitals etc,no money for such things.But then we have the Overseas Aid Budget this helps out the worlds poorest people.Poorest people!!! but then again if you are Lord Ashcroft the Tories biggest donor by far you may have a pet project of yours in mind that you want funding.He has paid the Tories some £10m and recently had one of Daves £250.000 lunches,result the goverment has decided to fund an airport costing £250Million on the remote island colony of St.Helena.Maybe Lord Ashcroft would like to fly his private jet there with William Haig and a few more of them that have had a go in it,he remembers being there in 1948 and falling into a pond it would be nice to fly back there in ones own jet and have a look at the place.What is this Government thinking of cutting back of every thing then funding something like this,I just dont believe it.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[robpage]

WE gave 1.4 billion to India who has a Space Programme and a Nuclear Bomb , so do they really need our cash . I'll agree with the St Helena project though , I believe that the RMS St Helena will go out of service in 2015 , so those citizens of the British Overseas territory will be cut off from medical aid , emergency supplies etc . If the St Helena was replaced the service has to be at the best monthly , so I think the airstrip there is overdue , It is still an 800 mile stretch to Ascention a military base or 1200 miles to Angola or Namibia . AND !!! it is s good staging post in case of an Argentinian agressive action in the Falklands .

I cannot bellieve in the aid to the poor and starving which ends up in a Swiss Bank in the name of an African Goverment's own officials , we supported 7000 workers in Zimbabwe last year , I wonder how much of that aid is in Mugabwe's bank account , I know the BBC apologised to Bob Geldolf for accusing Band Aid of being fooled by African Rebels , but I dont trust the Somalis in general .


Current commitments for this year are

India	£295m	Pakistan*	140m
Ethiopia*	£214m	Afghanistan	£133m
Bangladesh*	£149m	Nigeria*	£114m
Sudan	£146m	Congo (Dem Rep)*	£109m
Tanzania	£144m	Ghana	£90m

I would stop a lot of those on several grounds , but the St Helenans , I would let them have their Airport

[happy daze john in oz]

But how do they determin if a pie is hot or cold. Our health regualtions say food must be kept at 60 degrees to keep it free from bugs. Once it goes below that it must be dumped!
Now I need some info, I have heard that in UK even the unemployed have to continue paying NH contributions or their future pennsion will be cut. Is thsi the case?

[robpage]

To get your "Old Age " pension you need thirty years of contributions on your records , it used to be forty years , but changed on 2009 . If you are unemployed you need to sign on to become exempt from the contribution , or rather to have the time in counted . A slight unfairness when it comes to Political Coorrectness , is mothers can get an exemption for the years that they were bringing up the children , I do not believe that this applies to husbands . When I retired in 2008 at 58 I rang the local dole office who said I needed to sign on , but because I had a private pension of over £35 a week I would not get Jobseekers allowance or any other benefit , as it is all a means tested benefit . I asked then if I would get an expense for the fortnightly 16 mile drive and the parking fee to "sign on " . All I can say is that the advisor ob the phone was quite rude and unhelpful . I was not able to get a sensible answer , all I got was "you people need to sign on HERE !!!! " . I rang the central National insurance office in Gateshead and not only got the advice I needed but it was dished out in a pleasant and helpful manner . They advised that the change in requirements from 2009 meant that only thirty years NI contribution was needed , but currently I already had forty years in , having been continually in employment from the age of 16 . I know they have a tough job dealing with teh public but the guy at Cosham , Portsmouth Jobcentre was ignorant and uneccesarily rude .

[Keith Tindell]

I had a similar situation, when i retired at 52 the following year they sent me a bill for the missing contributions, i went in to the office with my cheque book, a very helpful women said dont pay them, from 60-65 you will have them credited to you free, that will give you enough for a full pension. And thats what i did, regards Keith

[Jim Brady]

I appreciate your sentiment Rob but when you see a school here in a desperate need of repair but we are told there is no money in the kitty to spend on it,it is annoying to say the least when you see an airstrip costing £250M built on some island thousands of miles away,as does the overseas aid to those other countries that you have listed.Yes you say the people of St.Helena need our help but it is my view that our children here need a school fit for purpose and they should be given priority.I think I'm more annoyed to think that Lord Ashcroft could've persuaded this government to fund the airstrip because of his donations and connections.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[john walker]

I received a letter a couple of years ago from the National Insurance people, stating that I was also short on my contributions. It gave me the option to pay (A bit less than a £1000) or not pay, It pointed out that if I did not pay it could affect my pension on retirement. On making further enquiries I also discovered that by the time I retire at 65 I will have paid enough contributions. that is a legal form of embezzlement.
The other way the government is squeezing money out of us on N.I. contributions is by the % route where as it was a fixed amount for everybody per week it is now (I think) 11% of my monthly salary. £282 per month is an awful lot more than the £5 per week or whatever we used to pay.
There is one other thing about this N.I. contribution that bugs me If I had spent most of my life on the dole or in prison the government would have covered my contributions and on reaching 65 I would receive a full pension. The few years that I have missed were because I was working on Foreign Flag vessels or in shoreside employment in Foreign countries that is not covered and would mean a lesser pension.