Tomataheeed

The answer is no actually...he works for another local authority. So by your own definition , you should probably come up with a grovelling apology quite quickly.

What you are proposing is the UC programme. Its a big, complex programme, but aims to simplify things exactly as you describe.

We did ours recent through Will aid. They just made a suggestion about an amount to pay to charity. They don't check if you've even donated or not. Ours wasn't mega complex, but it wasn't bog standard....had trusts for kids etc, and they did it and just suggested £125 donation to charity...which we did.

Not a great deal to be honest....apart from debris falling out on the road and pavement....and it seems to take up more than one parking space on a road of mostly terraced houses. Its more the old retied couple who's house he sticks it in front of. Its an eyespre for them, and they probably don't want to make a fuss. Plus its an unfair advantage for him...other plumbers probably have to pay more to dispose of rubbish.

And would you believe it....for the first time in weeks, so skip there today ! I expect it will be back in a day or two. I don't like "grassing him up" so to speak...I'd rather let him know its not allowed....but if he then chooses to ignore the advice he'll know it was me.

He just empties his van into the skip after each job.

Thanks for this....called the number, they aren't allowed to do it. Its called a "waste transfer station" and its not allowed. Now the dilema is whether to tell the neighbour or not....

Hmmm...I was afraid this would be the answer. Looks like we're stuck with a skip permanently then. Anyone know where I can find the rules to find out for certain? It seems fairly inconsiderate in a street of terraced houses with little parking....plus its always outside the house of an elderly couple....they can't be happy with their view !

A plumber in our road has a skip permanently in our road so he can dispose of rubbish generated from jobs he does all over the city. Is he allowed to do this...I thought businesses had to take rubbish to the tip and pay to dispose of it.

No one is arguing about people that create companies by risking their own money....good luck to them. Its employees on crazy compensation packages. I'm not even arguing about £1M a year. I'm talking about people that "earn" £20M + a year...its bananas. Some can earn more than this by the share price going up, and benefiting from share price target bonuses...and then the price goes down, they agree to sell the company, and they then get a massive change of control bonus. Its not their company, yet they benefit from manipulating the price up and down....and get a massive payout when sold. What is wrong with a simple salary like the rest of us.

In theory yes. In practice the major shareholders are city investors in the same elite wealthy "club". Its a bit of a stitch up really.

I don't think many people have a gripe about entrepreneurs. Its the CEO caste that get paid enormous piles of cash, and also control the system that pays them.....with their buddies on the board.

Is it not also a problem for other employees ? The CEO is just an employee afterall.

exceptions? I'd imagine that the vast majority of large companies are run by people that didn't set them up. Microsoft, Apple and a few other tech companies are exceptions. Most companies take much longer to grow that big.

You've got the wrong end of the stick I think. These people are not entrepreneurs that have created companies, created wealth and created jobs. They are part of a closed shop of the "Elite" of Harvard business school graduates that fix their own wages with their buddies on the board. They are all on each otehrs boards. For instance, they build in big "change of control" elements to their pay, so that if they choose to recommend to the share holders to sell off the company to a rival, they get a massive payout. Then they move to another company for an equally large package. Check out the wages of the last few CEOs of EDS/HP as a for instance...

Not a great comparison. For car dealers you are paying for all the physical equipment and premises as well as skills. If it is 10 hours, then perhaps £500 is fair. I think the OP said it took minutes though. In hindsight, perhaps the car dealer was a good comparison...the reputation for rips offs is about the same.

Nothing to complain about? Agreed - they agreed the fee it seems without asking what they get for it. Sensible fee? I doubt it. How much work in hours for £500? I always ask this question. If someone wants to charge me £500 I want to know how many hours work it is. The other way of looking at it, as you rightly mention, is "how much would it have cost to do myself?" you do have to balance these two factors. I'm not convinced a mortgage broker is worth more than £100/hour

I watched last week's episode of Shamless last night.....the game with the sticky note on the head with a name on and you have to guess by asking questions. Check that out ! I'll play the game. Stick to the rules. See what he says. I don't have high expectations.

That's not a constituency subject. The rules are very specific around what I am allowed to talk about.

I have a meeting at his next surgery confirmed. The trouble is, I aksed for it for a specific reason....which, since a recent government U-turn, means I no longer need to berate him about it. So, what constituency issue should I focus on? Obviously I have some ideas, but I'm interested in others ideas. Sensible suggestions only, and not the ususal boring, and easily batted subjects like the state of the roads.

As others have said, get something with meaning. If you're a big fatty, get a pork pie or a kebab...

The only excuse I can think of is that the owners are blind Swedish publicans.

How old is the car...if you bought it new and its just outside the 3 year warranty, you can probably go back to the manufacturer and they may well look favourably on it depending on a few things...age,mileage, service history etc... I used to deal with those sort of cases for a large car company so know how it works.

Anyone else here the interview this morning with Evan Davis, Mark Sewotka and Francis Maude? I don't especially like Sewotka, sounds like an idiot most of the time, but he was right about the defecit projections in the Huton report, and Maude was all over the place...

Thats not a fair assumption. My company made $25Billion in profit last year....yep Billion, not million. And we've not had payrises for ages. We're also having jobs shifted to India to maintain the same profit margin on deals. We're "having" to do it allegedly because the deal with the government we made on this contract gives the gov the same service for a lot less money. Greed?