Where are you all?

[andsome]

Very sorry to hear that, but are you surprised?

No not really as when the closure of our factory was announced last March, apart from having to pay lower wages in Poland, business taxes are much less over there and buying raw materials is also cheaper.

As a consequence the UK economy is no longer as competitive as it was due to Labour's policy of tax and spend and our factory is not the only business leaving the UK as it is just one name among many.

The one puzzling thing is that UK unemployment has now fallen: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7191245.stm (if you can believe the 'official' figures)

So I don't know what to believe to be honest

Unemployment may have fallen, but this is almost entirely due to more LOW PAID jobs being created in service industries etc.

[catgate]

..............you can survive on a handful of rice and a boiled table leg for a week.

I find that table legs are better casseroled

You have had a very spoiled upbringing.

[catgate]

Unemployment may have fallen, but this is almost entirely due to more LOW PAID jobs being created in service industries etc.

Service industries? There is no service.............even in the service industries.

[andsome]

Unemployment may have fallen, but this is almost entirely due to more LOW PAID jobs being created in service industries etc.

Service industries? There is no service.............even in the service industries.

You are more than likely right. :lol:

[catgate]

This says a lot...even though it may be slightly biased.

http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2008/01/1...id-uk-giveaway/

[CurlyWhirly]

Unemployment may have fallen, but this is almost entirely due to more LOW PAID jobs being created in service industries etc.

Yes that could explain it.

I also feel that with all the immigration, this adds to the problem as well.

[AlanHo]

..............you can survive on a handful of rice and a boiled table leg for a week.

I find that table legs are better casseroled

You have had a very spoiled upbringing.

My mother used to use the left-over broth to make chippendale soup or mahogany gravy. Times were tough during the war and it was her attempt at giving us kids a stable diet. She used the excess wood peelings and chippings in the chicken mash - you could always tell our eggs - they were grainy.

[andsome]

This says a lot...even though it may be slightly biased.

http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2008/01/1...id-uk-giveaway/

There is NOTHING biased by telling the truth. This is why I am completely against being in this gravy train club. The Swiss don't seem to be harmed by not being members. We would be much better off being out of it altogether. It annoys me every time I see a project with a large notice saying that it is funded by the EU. I remember reading that for every pound spent here by the EU, the UK taxpayer forks out £1.67. Not much of a bargain. This government has got us deeper than ever into this unwanted and costly club. So much too for their LIES about promising a referendum. (I expect to be accused again by one forum member of having another rabid rant, nothing hurts like the truth does it?)

[CurlyWhirly]

There is NOTHING biased by telling the truth. This is why I am completely against being in this gravy train club. The Swiss don't seem to be harmed by not being members. We would be much better off being out of it altogether. It annoys me every time I see a project with a large notice saying that it is funded by the EU. I remember reading that for every pound spent here by the EU, the UK taxpayer forks out £1.67. Not much of a bargain. This government has got us deeper than ever into this unwanted and costly club. So much too for their LIES about promising a referendum.

I'll have to stop agreeing with you :D

... but I can't as that's exactly how I feel about the EU!

[Watchful]

Unemployment may have fallen, but this is almost entirely due to more LOW PAID jobs being created in service industries etc.

Service industries? There is no service.............even in the service industries.

That's quite correct. And, all the low-paid jobs that immigrants do, are not low but highly paid, compared with what they receive back home. It's all relevant to your environment and I don't blame anyone refusing menial, albeit necessary work, for the pittance that is offered. Living expenses in places such as London are very high so earnings for the indigenous population, should reflect that.

Furthermore, I'm not hiding in the bushes, except to dodge the slings and arrows being thrown here :D

[catgate]

Living expenses in places such as London are very high so earnings for the indigenous population, should reflect that.

You raise a very interesting point here. Why should that be?

I suspect it is because of tourism. The costs of eating, drinking, clothing, are at a tourist rip off level and so the locals have to suffer.

I can not think that the costs of providing these things is any dearer than in say Walsall or Scunthorpe.

[andsome]

Living expenses in places such as London are very high so earnings for the indigenous population, should reflect that.

You raise a very interesting point here. Why should that be?

I suspect it is because of tourism. The costs of eating, drinking, clothing, are at a tourist rip off level and so the locals have to suffer.

I can not think that the costs of providing these things is any dearer than in say Walsall or Scunthorpe.

I agree. If all companies would get together and refuse to be blackmailed by this argument, then so called London weighting would not be necessary. :D

[Watchful]

Living expenses in places such as London are very high so earnings for the indigenous population, should reflect that.

You raise a very interesting point here. Why should that be?

I suspect it is because of tourism. The costs of eating, drinking, clothing, are at a tourist rip off level and so the locals have to suffer.

I can not think that the costs of providing these things is any dearer than in say Walsall or Scunthorpe.

I fear it is so in all tourist spots. Even fish and chips in a seaside resort is twice the price of those from your corner shop.

What the answer is I don't know but I do know that they see the tourists coming

Could it be greed on the part of the proprietors?

[catgate]

Living expenses in places such as London are very high so earnings for the indigenous population, should reflect that.

You raise a very interesting point here. Why should that be?

I suspect it is because of tourism. The costs of eating, drinking, clothing, are at a tourist rip off level and so the locals have to suffer.

I can not think that the costs of providing these things is any dearer than in say Walsall or Scunthorpe.

I fear it is so in all tourist spots. Even fish and chips in a seaside resort is twice the price of those from your corner shop.

What the answer is I don't know but I do know that they see the tourists coming

Could it be greed on the part of the proprietors?

It has always surprised me how people who live in nice places are hoodwinked into swallowing the idea that "tourism is a good for the area". It is always the local people who suffer and the captains of the tourist industry who make the money. Our Yorkshire dales are the perfect example. As is every bit of the coast of England.

[andsome]

This topic is now a very long way from the original subject, when I asked where El Gordo's supporters had all gone to. :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Watchful]

This topic is now a very long way from the original subject, when I asked where El Gordo's supporters had all gone to. :lol: :lol: :lol:

It's always the way.

The Yorkshire Dales.....lovely........I always had a sneaking suspicion that in such areas the locals were treated differently; i.e. charged at a lower rate.

I remember when visiting Cockermouth, Cumbria, a few years ago, our landlady in Keswick told us just the place to go for a good meal, where all the locals go, and she was right. Fabulous lunch and it was full of OAPs, eating with relish and in good company. It was a large pub on the main street. They worked on the principle, which I've always favoured, of selling more when it's cheaper so they still make a profit. B)

[AlanHo]

This topic is now a very long way from the original subject, when I asked where El Gordo's supporters had all gone to. :lol: :lol: :lol:

I'm still here...... :lol:

[catgate]

......I always had a sneaking suspicion that in such areas the locals were treated differently; i.e. charged at a lower rate.

Not to my knowledge, and I have lived and worked in and around there much of my life. The locals know which places provide good quality, and they also know which places to avoid, but prices are all much the same, like for like.

But it seems to me that the locals in the dales are now all "off comed 'uns", making a living out of ripping off tourists.

[Watchful]

I wasn't singling out the Yorkshire Dales in particular just speaking in general about all the beautiful locations that most of us would like to live in. That's the problem really because house prices have rocketed so high that only affluent outsiders can afford them and locals can't.

That's another story :0

The rot set in in the 70s with the Thatcher era :( That's when all the small businesses went under because all the towns started building the great shopping malls with extortionate rent and rates.

[rong]

I wasn't singling out the Yorkshire Dales in particular just speaking in general about all the beautiful locations that most of us would like to live in. That's the problem really because house prices have rocketed so high that only affluent outsiders can afford them and locals can't.

That's another story :0

The rot set in in the 70s with the Thatcher era :( That's when all the small businesses went under because all the towns started building the great shopping malls with extortionate rent and rates.

You'll be in trouble blaming it on the goddess :0

[AlanHo]

The rot set in in the 70s with the Thatcher era :( That's when all the small businesses went under because all the towns started building the great shopping malls with extortionate rent and rates.

Quite right too. Who on earth wants to shop the old way with loose biscuits in biscuit tins packed into brown paper bags by sweaty hands, slightly rancid butter patted onto greaseproof paper from a big block, meat carved from the carcass in front of you, fresh fish covered with flies that had never been frozen, freshly baked unsliced bread that went stale in 12 hours for lack of chemicals, fresh vegetables with dirt on them, ...I could go on.....

Everything in a supermarket is well processed, multi packed, age preserved and presented - the anonimity of it all and the inclusion of so many free additives and chemicals makes it so much more appealing and value for money. You have never had it so good..... :lol:

[catgate]

We have a fish man who comes round each week in a nice clean van with fresh fish, landed earlier that morning. All his fresh fish is covered with flies that have been frozen,

[AlanHo]

We have a fish man who comes round each week in a nice clean van with fresh fish, landed earlier that morning. All his fresh fish is covered with flies that have been frozen,

Well spotted - ah well....back to grammer skool.

[Watchful]

The rot set in in the 70s with the Thatcher era :( That's when all the small businesses went under because all the towns started building the great shopping malls with extortionate rent and rates.

Quite right too. Who on earth wants to shop the old way with loose biscuits in biscuit tins packed into brown paper bags by sweaty hands, slightly rancid butter patted onto greaseproof paper from a big block, meat carved from the carcass in front of you, fresh fish covered with flies that had never been frozen, freshly baked unsliced bread that went stale in 12 hours for lack of chemicals, fresh vegetables with dirt on them, ...I could go on.....

Everything in a supermarket is well processed, multi packed, age preserved and presented - the anonimity of it all and the inclusion of so many free additives and chemicals makes it so much more appealing and value for money. You have never had it so good..... :lol:

I'm not talking about food shops and I don't recognise the ones you seem to remember I'm talking about other types like the haberdashery shop where my mum working for 30 years selling sewing machines etc. Her boss could not afford the new rents so he had to close down :( Likewise several others I could mention, including newsagents, fishmongers, butchers etc. etc. And, the small engineering firm I worked for and the sheet metal factory and the boiler-makers....need I go on?

By the way who is the goddess mentioned above

[Watchful]

PS. Alan, I've just noticed on stepping down from my soapbox (whatever happened to them?) that you were taking the Michael. Good man :D