Radomu

My general waste bin (UK) is full and my housemate/flatmate forgot to take it out before yesterday Monday morning so we have to wait two weeks before the council sends a truck to collect them. What should we do? I'm worried that the things inside the bin will start to rot, while we would have to put our newer trash somewhere else as it won't fit inside. Can we call the council to pick it up?

I opened my window and I hear this loud buzzing sound of a flying helicopter. When is it going to stop?

I'm known to be very oblivious about crime in general, coming from a very safe country like Japan originally. Back home I can go to a restaurant or a cafe with a laptop, and leave it there while I go to the bathroom. I understand that the same does not apply here, and I try to be as careful as possible, but nonetheless I have my habits. I have never had anything stolen from me, ever. So yes, it was quite difficult to deal with it, and it bothered me a lot.

I thought I'd share an unpleasant anecdote that happened to me yesterday, primarily as a warning. I heard from my girlfriend that Forge press (the student-run newspaper at the University of Sheffield) once published an article about a scam where someone would come with a map and ask for directions, and leave you noticing that the phone/wallet that you left on the table disappeared while they distracted you. Yesterday, I almost got my phone stolen in the KFC on West Street. I was having lunch there with my girlfriend and a man in his early 20s approached me with a leaflet of what looked like a museum, asking me 'which way is this' in a mumbly way (done on purpose to distract and confuse me). My girlfriend immediately noticed what was going on and glared back and forth between him and my phone on the table that he was concealing. After a couple of seconds, he noticed that he was exposed, and left the KFC. I was completely confused by what happened, but because my girlfriend was aware of this scam from the article, she explained to me the situation. It took me some time to emotionally come to terms with what just happened. Has anyone experienced anything similar? It sounds like something that would happen to tourists in Paris or Rome.

Thank the lords that the blue and yellow routs are now running to University. Although I'm afraid this is about to end once again in June.

That is patently untrue. The economy maintained its growth until the collapse of 2008. They screwed up in other ways, namely by continuing the deregulation of the financial industry that was aggressively pursued under Thatcher and Major. Believing that Labour and Conservative represents two opposite polls in fiscal and monetary policy is completely wrong. They are more or less the same party, just with very nuanced differences such as their approach to the welfare state.

You don't seem to understand how credit works. Interest rates on bonds increases as it becomes more risky for creditors to lend their money to the government. 'There is always interet to pay back' is something that Captain Obvious would say. The question is, how much is the interests?

The fear that the debt will burden future generations is a real concern IF the economy continues to stagnate while the government fails to pay it back in the long term. That can be mitigated by policies to stimulate recovery, but cutting the deficit during the recession wouldn't help anything. In fact, it will INCREASE the debt, notable in how Greece's debt has increased by 25% since its credit crisis began.

From borrowing it. That's why stimulus packages are often referred to as 'deficit spending'. But again, the point of my post is that there is nothing inherently wrong with borrowing money unless it's completely unsustainable to the degree that interest rates are skyrocketing and no one wants to lend the money. This condition does not apply to Britain. ---------- Post added 04-05-2015 at 16:11 ---------- There is, however, an important point to be made about the financial system, that Britain had one of the largest financial collapses in the world in 2008 due to it being higly unregulated. Instead of having real economic activity, the UK has pursued a course of financial volatility since the 'Big Bang' of deregulation in the 80s. New Labour has continued that path. So the sudden upsurge in deficits after 2008 was obviously due to the financial economy being inherently unsustainable without the taxpayer compensating for many of the losses. The deficit, nor even the debt, is no where near being the problem of the economy. The problem of the economy is of the structure of British finance and the nation's reliance to it, not of government incomes, expenditures, and borrowing.

Acquiring debt is the nature of a modern economic system. There's no evidence that the supposed 'massive' debt will negatively effect Britain to the degree that it's advertised it would, especially considering that the credit rating of UK government bonds are the highest possible: AAA. The huge amount acquired in deficits was due to the recession resulting from the temporary decline in tax revenue, increasing expenditures on benefits, and the rescue packages of the financial industry. The first thing to do there is to stimulate the economy so it would recover, then regulate the financial industry from being so volatile. When the economy is growing, the value of the debts acquired will gradually go down with inflation while the government will have a greater capacity to pay it back as it has more tax revenue and less expenditures. When the economy is fully recovered, that's the point where the government should cut spending. Instead, Britain, and economies across the world, did the opposite of what one ought to do by cutting spending while the recession. It's the only time where you are not supposed to do that, especially because people depend on benefits the most and you're undermining economic recovery by shrinking the public sector alongside an already shrinking private sector. This proves that the Coalition government is pursuing an ideological course to reduce the welfare state, and not that they are genuinely concerned about the debt. Under neoliberalism, it has become normal practice today for governments to use the 'deficit' caused by a recession to justify cutting essential services and welfare benefits during a time when people depend on them the most.

Pretty fascinating video, backed up by footnotes to research.

Britain isn't in that much debt, and if anything the deficit is certainly not the problem. It can be problematic in the long term, but there's absolutely no reason why the government should do austerity in the middle of a recession.

True, but taxing food at any level seems odd to me. Almost as lunatic as taxing pads and tampons. ---------- Post added 02-05-2015 at 10:01 ---------- No, there should be different levels of duties on products, no question about that. Luxury goods like yachts should be subject to higher VAT than essentials, and I think food, warm or cold, should not be taxed. A flat rate tax is a terrible idea, and something that took down the Thatcher government because it was so unpopular. It's so radical that even the most right wing of the Tories would not propose it. It seems like something that floats around the libertarian minds in the Adam Smith institute, and stays there.

:confused:I sometimes see some businesses advertising or displaying that they serve 'warm food' or 'hot food'. When Clegg passed the free school meals, he put extra emphasis on the fact that they will get 'hot meal', as if the 'hot' part made it special. I also recently learned that cold food is not subject to the VAT, but warm food is. (please correct me if I'm wrong here) Am I the only one who thinks it's odd that we divide warm and cold meals as if they are of different tiers, and the fact that we as a nation of incredible wealth treat warm meals as if they are something of greater value?

I agree that they knew what they had coming for. South East Asia is notoriously strict for drug smugglers. But I'm still against the death penalty.