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Preparedness for when

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  • sniffles
    sniffles Posts: 198 Forumite
    I am also concerned about the removal of the discussions option on google. Difficult to research things and get to the bottom of rumours now.
  • Karmacat
    Karmacat Posts: 39,460 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Interesting about the texts! I'd seen posts about that text earlier on, and not quite taken it on board for some reason. When I clicked on your link, I didn't expect it to be about that ... I grew up in the Stone Age, excuse me!

    What I *do* remember from the Stone Age are the demonstrations in Grosvenor Square, when Thatcher gave the US permission to use British airfields for their F111s to take off to bomb Libya. I happened to be at a very small charity I volunteered for when the news broke, and me and the 2 staff members went down there. The senior one said, you've got your handbag on you, your cards, your address book, don't get arrested. When you come out on Saturday, just bring your house keys and some cash, nothing that can identify you or your friends. And this was the very early 1980s! In a way, it makes it surprising that the government texting demonstrators hasn't happened before now... well, maybe it has, I don't know.




    ETA - Sniffles, I don't know what that means, sorry?
    2023: the year I get to buy a car
  • sniffles
    sniffles Posts: 198 Forumite
    [QUOTE=




    ETA - Sniffles, I don't know what that means, sorry?[/QUOTE]
    If you wanted to research anything then rather than read the corporate point of view, I always used the discussions option often within the hour of the breaking news. I was able then to figure out the mood of the man on the street and come to my own conclusions.

    Google have removed this option this week, and there are many complaints about it.
  • Frugalsod
    Frugalsod Posts: 2,966 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary Combo Breaker
    GreyQueen wrote: »
    :( I hope the CPS drop this. They're making themselves a laughing-stock.

    That bloke who runs Iceland has always struck me as a throughly decent sort, too. I'm an Iceland customer and I don't care who knows it.

    It's a pretty poor excuse for a society when the CPS goes grovelling around in obscure parts of a seldom-used Act from 190 years ago to do nothing more than bully poor people.

    But hey, what did I expect? So much easier than trying to get wealthy and powerful criminals to face justice. I wonder if they feel a sense of pride in their work as they defend the public interest from these heinous freeganeering types? I shall sleep safe in my bed tonight, folks.
    What is wrong about being an Iceland customer? Also Iceland have expressed that they do not want this case to go ahead.

    The CPS are a joke, and for the reasons you mentioned.
    It's really easy to default to cynicism these days, since you are almost always certain to be right.
  • kezlou
    kezlou Posts: 3,283 Forumite
    I hold my hand and, shopping bag up, I and my partner both shop at iceland.
    They cheesecakes are lush

    We used to get a delivery once a month, the puff pastry is very reasonable as are, they pies, chicken fillets and packs of sea food are good to.
    I have,to say we eat frozen on the same day we buy it.
  • jk0
    jk0 Posts: 3,479 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I just saw this on Zerohedge:

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-01-29/ira-confiscation-its-happening

    The guy makes the point that American pensioners are being encouraged to invest their pensions with the government to top up the government coffers.

    It just struck me that this is virtually the same as this UK item announced this week:

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/pensions/article-2546381/Boost-pension-25-week-Top-lifeline-women-self-employed.html
  • GreyQueen
    GreyQueen Posts: 13,008 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    edited 30 January 2014 at 9:53AM
    :) Morning all.

    Frugalsod, my experience IRL is that some people get a bit sneery about us Iceland shoppers. I happen to find them a pleasant place to shop with many items keenly-priced and excellent quality. Afer all, why the hell would I give £1.49 for a Burgen loaf when Iceland sell them for £1?

    Interesting about the texts. A very unsubtle Big Brother is Watching You type of message. Tin hatters have long been a bit anti these new phones, which betray your position even when switched off, and the heavy hand of state intervention will just make the tin-hat crowd look credible. Phones will be left at home and some people might have second thoughts about owning this type of device all together.

    Myself, I own the cheapest, most basic dumb phone and good luck to tracking my whereabouts via one of those.

    TPTB typically betray their hands by over-reacting and coming down too strongly and then excaberating the very protests they wish to suppress. Only the details change with the times.

    Back in the 1980s on anti poll-tax demos, we went out with only a little cash and the phone number of a friendly solictor in biro on the back of our hands. Never got arrested by the policing was pretty heavy-handed at times and my flatmate got a broken leg on one demo because of a crushing incident. Bit of a beggar, we shared a first floor flat with several others...............

    jk0, I suspect that the USA and probably our government as well, would like to have the maximum control over our cash, present and future. Just in case they need to dip their hands in the cookie jar to bail out their banker buddies. I wouldn't trust them any further than I could spit a rat.

    Just done the sums; for every £900 you invest you get an extra £1 per week on your pension. So, to get an extra £25 per week, you have to pay in £22,500. Investment £22,500, annual return £1,300. Hmmmm, not really floating my boat, especially as inflation between what you invest and what you get back will reduce the spending power dramatically.
    Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.
    John Ruskin
    Veni, vidi, eradici
    (I came, I saw, I kondo'd)
  • mardatha
    mardatha Posts: 15,612 Forumite
    I know I'm mad and weird lol but - I feel like the world has speeded up. Like things are moving far faster than they used to, and wonder if we're the lemmings dropping fast through mid air who are asking their mummy lemming "are we at the cliff yet mum?" :D
  • I'm a fat lemming, I'd probably bounce!!!
  • GreyQueen
    GreyQueen Posts: 13,008 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    :) Playing again with the calculator (I know, you can go blind doing that), you'd have to enjoy 17.3 years of pension top-up at £1,300 p.a. to make back your £22,500 investment in Super Grabby Gubby Pension Bonds.

    My pension age is present 67. I am expecting that to rise before I get there but let's assume it doesn't 67+17 = 84. And that's the break-even point, not getting ahead until 84+ years old.

    Heck, I might not live to be 84. And if I don't, and I have no spouse (which is present status and future anticipation btw) presumably my SGGPB money is retained by HM Grabbyment?

    Hmm, but let's say that I did have £900 to spare for this. And £900 gets you only £1/ week back or £52 p.a. Bit of a joke as that's a month's salary, but we're playing with calculators here. For that, I could buy one ounce of pure gold, VAT and inheritance tax free. And I could tuck that up somewhere safe and sell it if I needed to, for at least as much as I paid for it (based on what gold has been doing price wise) and possibly for a helluva lot more.

    And if I didn't need to sell it, it could be inherited by via my will free and clear.

    Soooo, with my hypothetical £22,500 I could 25+ ounces of pure gold, which would have zero counter-party risk of grubbyment default and which would be hidden from their grasping mitts for decades - it makes the risk of being burgled seem relatively slight, doesn't it?

    :D It's a darned good job for grubbyments that they've ensured most people are so badly educated that this might fly. Me, I have both O level and GCSE maths and a big button calculator of my very own. And they can stick their SGGPB where the monkey sticks his nuts.
    Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.
    John Ruskin
    Veni, vidi, eradici
    (I came, I saw, I kondo'd)
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