the_watcher

Unless a coin is extremely rare, generally collectors are after mint condition. So the badly worn ones won't be worth anything. If the GIII 1797 coins are cartwheel pennys, they may have a little value.

Sorry - your English is so poor I can't understand your point.

I have been following #ldconf and have been shocked by some of the abusive and downright condescending attitudes displayed by conference delegates. They are a different breed to the old, sandle wearing Liberals!

You make some good points here. Of course waste needs to be cut, I am all for efficiency. However, we are talking about something a bit more serious than the euphemism of kids losing pocket money here. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of people losing their jobs, the majority of which will land up on benefits and stop paying taxes. The welfare reforms will then reduce their benefits and many will innevitably lose their homes. This won't just happen in the public sector but the private sector too, which will not pick up the slack as the Tories keep telling us - but at a time when the economy is still fragile will probably have to shed jobs by the hundreds of thousands too. Unemployment is already increasing while the number of available jobs are falling. Currently it stands at 2.5m unemployed to 0.5m vacancies. This will only get worse. Much worse. Also consider how the cuts are being distributed across councils. The majority of the heaviest cuts will fall on the poorest areas, as these are the councils that have recieved the most govt. funding. There is a point of debate here how that funding has been used and how good the returns have been. Unfortunately, this isn't something that I have the figures immediately to hand. The Govt. may have removed ring fencing of funds to give the appearance of choice to councils - but how, say in the case of Manchester, do you remove £90m from your budget without effecting front line services. This notion of giving councils choice is just a fallacy. So yes, cuts in local govt. funding and grants will save £Xbn over five years. However, the cost to society in lost tax revenue, increased welfare bills, lower consumer spending, lost skills and long term unemployment will negate any savings made. Plus in an already faltering economic recovery, this will no doubt once again dip us back into recession.

I think that's already been covered! I didn't dispute that, just that they were let off of a £6bn tax bill. Which means that they are obviously making huge amounts of profit. I'm not against companies making a profit or that they bring jobs - just that they should pay their taxes like we all have to.

Yes - my mistake. Duly corrected.

Well of course any right thinking person feels nothing but horror and sympathy at such a terrible thing. Does anyone really have to state that? I really hope that our country does all it can to help Japan. You are however seizing on this tradgedy to claim the moral highground and use it to batter anyone who disagrees with you. Shameful! Again, you have utterly failed to understand my point. If you refer back to my previous post I stated that it is important to tackle the national debt. Of course, in times of recession cuts are an innevitability. That is not in question by any post on here that I can think of. It is the manner in which the debt is tackled and cuts deployed that is the issue. That services are maintained and that the most vulnerable in our society are protected. For example, removing DLA is tantamount to house arrest for the disabled. There have been a number of good suggestions on how the debt can be reduced without the need for the scale of cuts that we currently see. The UK currently loses £120bn in unpaid taxes. Vodafone had a £6bn tax bill written off. Banks should contribute towards helping to alleviate the mess that they created. Even Mervyn King agrees with that! You should also read up on the Robin Hood Tax. Also, you have to question that the manner in which the Tories are tackling the cuts will not help the economy to recover. Such deep cuts during a time of economic instabilty have been proven in the past to deepen recessions. It was a Tory/Liberal coalition in the 1930's that took this course of action and caused one of the worst depressions in British history. People are rightfully angry that they are bearing the brunt of the banking industry's incompetence. Also that the Tories are seizing this opportunity to drive through ideologically motivated cuts under the cover of austerity. For example, it has not actually been proven that the proposed Health Reform Bill will actually save any money at all. The main motivation here is that the Bill is being driven by Andrew Lansley who has proven links to private medical companies and lobbying groups. The Tories may say that the cuts are for long term benefit - but the question is for who? You will now also see that the LibDems have voted at their conference to amend the Health Bill to remove the lowest bidder service provision element. It will be interesting to see if Clegg heeds this and how that is recieved by Cameron and Lansley et al. Finally, in a democracy there is a right to protest. You may not like that but that doesn't make peaceful protestors immoral or deluded. Oh yes - and before you say it, I am NOT a communist, I DO work and I DO pay my taxes.

That's a very low blow. Claiming that because someone voices opposition to this government's policies, doesn't care about what has happened in Japan is very low indeed. You should be ashamed of yourself for that.

Here we go again... The national debt was increased to the tune of approx £750bn in order to bail out the banks during a global banking collapse that started in the American sub-prime market caused by bad lending (ie, lending money to high risks). Had they not done this, the banking system would have collapsed and we would be in a much bigger mess. Yes, Labour did increase spending. I'm not saying they got it all right but money went into improving the NHS, regeneration projects, etc, etc. The debt currently runs at about 50% of GDP. Not great but by far, not the worst in Europe and lower than the US. After WW2, the national debt ran at 250% of GDP and we created the NHS in 1948. Any right thinking person realises that the debt needs to be reduced but don't fall for the Tory nonsense that we are in a crisis and need to virtually abandon the public sector. These are ideologically driven cuts designed to open the gates to private profit.

There were protests outside the Tory Conf. Just not reported on the news.

Thankfully, the right to protest is still free. There is an assumption here that all demonstrators only attend to cause trouble. Many demonstrators have all ready coughed up to pay the bill as taxpayers.

OK, agreed. I'll chip in a tenner if I can egg Clegg. I understand that ten quid doesn't buy you much trouble these days.

According to Radio Sheffeild this morning, Woodhead is open but Snake Pass is still shut.

Hmmm... this smells of a spot of self promotion!

Exactly the same thing happened to my daughter at Kingstone School in Barnsley. Asda (recommended by the school) had run out of trousers in her size during the summer, so she wore perfectly sensible black trousers bought from another store. However, they were the wrong style and she spent the whole day sat on her own on the first day of term in a new school. I couldn't even tell you what the difference was between her trousers and the supposed school regulation trousers. Absolute idiocy! I understand that schools need to make rules and stick to them, but how much time and effort is wasted by schools in doggedly persuing such autocratic nonesense? Plus the distress it can cause to kids feeling vulnerable on their first day in new surroundings. If schools insist that parents supply uniforms, some kind of sensible tolerance should be allowed.