?

I was watching the news UK the other day and the topic was travelers (Gypsy's, pikeys and other names used). No insult intended. Who were occupying a sports field in the south of England.

I was initially listening to the report when my eyes were drawn to the content of the film that was used to accompany the report, I could not help but notice that there were a number of brand new touring caravans, a year old Land Rover Vogue and a couple of other very nice looking camper van type vehicles, now I am no expert but I am pretty sure that none of these would be available for less than at least £40,000. I think the Vogue is nearer £50k. How on earth can they afford this, I know I cannot.

My wife works on the checkout of a well known store in the UK, now owned by Walmart.

She had been on shift for some time and suddenly felt really low or weak or something similar, she decided she needed a sugar rush and called one of the runners (someone who goes between the checkouts to fetch and carry or whatever) and asked her to pass her a bag of chocolate eggs (the mini type) she instructed the runner to go to the customer services desk and tell them that she had taken them and why. She is not allowed to carry any money on her when on the shop floor, so as soon as she had finished she went to customer services and paid the appropriate amount to cover the cost of the mini chocolate eggs.

A day later, her floor manager told her that if she ever did it again, she would be prosecuted for theft?

I am thinking that theft is the taking of something with the intention of permanently depriving someone or an organisation of that thing, and certainly not having any intention of paying for the item or items.

Was the manager ok in saying this, and as a bit of an aside, as theft by employees in superstores always ends in dismissal, was this verging on constructive dismissal?

Your opinions gratefully awaited>

As a bit of extra info, my wife suffers very heavy periods which leave her feeling weak sometimes, she is on pretty heavy medication during the monthly cycle and her manager knows of this.

I have had £6.52 taken from my account under the heading Payment Guard twice a month for the past 3 months. It is a small amount of money and I have been away so didn't notice the amount. Just putting this out there for anyone to check. I called Barclays card services and they had NO INFORMATION other than an 0800 Phone number which I called and which is a dead line.

If you have a reputable payment to Payment Guard then all well and good but if you see small amounts going from your account under this or any other name then I would advise you to check it out and get it stopped. Hope this helps at least someone

My youngest son is in his final year of a Law degree. He is currently on a 1st but worst case will get a high 2.1. His tutor is encouraging him to carry on with a masters aimed specifically at a qualification in the corporate governance area. The end game would be to get a role as a Company secretary, I don't want to seem to dumb when he talks to me about it so I am hoping that someone knows just what a company secretary does. Clearly it is not the sort of PA that we all understand, this is a very senior position in F100 company's and so I was hoping to get a heads up as to what the role really entails. Thanks

My boiler isn't particularly old, but every now and then we seem to go through a period where there is a sudden onset of loud humming in the radiators, this is accompanied with massive vibration, we can usually stop it by twisting the knobs on the loudest radiators but sometimes it stops for a few seconds or minutes and then starts again. and not always in the same radiator, it seems to travel around the house, its not a big house but it is a real pain in the bum trying to sort it out, do you know what it is, or what I can do to resolve the problem, all advice welcomed.,

Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Saudi, they are all at it. They are sick of being ruled with an iron fist, kept poor whilst the political or in some cases royal elite live lavish life styles. So what have they done, they have started peaceful protests.

Not all of these protests have remained peaceful and many have died, especially those trying to depose Colonel G in Libya, but they have started a process which (so long as they keep going), will result in them getting rid of their leader.

In the UK, we twitter, text, email, blog and YA our moans and groans, we ask questions, answer questions, rant and rage. We basically do what the British have done for tens if not hundreds of years, go down the pub, moan and groan, point out what is wrong and how we can do it better. Then we leave the pub, or turn of our computer, and go about carrying on with the life that we have been bemoaning all day/night, and do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

Do you think that the British propensity for this behaviour is not only understood by the Politicians, but is in fact relied upon. Lets face it we voted in the Tories in 79 and then we eventually hated them so voted in Labour, then we hated them and voted in......... well got, a Coalition.

Chances are that at the end of this parliament we will see labour returned and the next one the tories ad Infinity.

So back to the question, will we the aggrieved British suckers ever get the balls to actually do something about it, or is it back to the pub to set the world right for another hour or so before getting back on the treadmill?

Watching the big question this morning, the topic of tolerance came up, chiefly the discussion pretty much pointed out that to be tolerant is to put up with something that you do not really like, but for whatever reason you do not interfere with..

As you might expect one of the biggest issues that we are apparently supposed to tolerate is the growing threat and actions of the Islamic fundamentalists or extremists (whatever) that have decided to make the UK an islamic state.

One of he speakers is a Muslim who was one of those that burned poppy's and has made it clear that we in the UK are un godlike and perverted etc etc and need to be brought into line under the almighty allah.

When asked if for instance Football would be allowed to carry on in the UK, he clearly stated that no it would not, there being half naked men involved etc.

When asked what they would do with the stadiums, he was very clear that these would make ideal venues for public punishment, by this I assume he means stoning all the girls who attend school to death, and hanging anyone who wishes to be a christian, something they are doing to a teacher in Afghanistan at this very moment.

So do you who are considering conversion to this despotic unjust and extreme religion think that you are now making the right decision, I am fairly sure that you are not.

A woman got involved with a married man in her village in a Taliban controlled part of Afghanistan. They eloped but were persuaded to return with a promise of no action being taken. Actually as soon as they returned they were tried under sharia law and the punishment determined by Allah was meated out. She was sat in a pit with the full muslim outfit (only in a bright colour and not black) and stoned by the crowd. She wasn't dead when they finished so she was finally put out of her misery by another Taliban bloke with an AK47.

The man was then marched out, squatted down and stoned to death.

I wonder if all the actual and potential converts in the UK will think twice before getting any more involved than they are with this barbaric religion?

The Lord who has now been convicted of expenses fraud, or as I like to call it, bare faced theft, made out that insofar as he was concerned, the expenses were simply a perk, something that you could do so you did.

I assume he has voted on laws concerning benefit fraud where many folks see that there is an easy way to get money by simply filling in a few forms.

I equally assume that he has seen fit to pass these laws which punish those that steal from the benefit system.

Yet he seems not to see any kind of connection between those on the street who con money that they are not entitled to, and himself, a rich man who could easily get by without any such crime>

Is it just me that sees how sad this really is, and what a picture it paints of those that are supposed to guide and lead us?

Successive Governments have lead the UK down a path of destruction, inept fiscal policy, impotent legal system, yet a law passed every 5 minutes.

Immigration out of control. Illegal wars, mass expenses fraud with just a handful of prosecutions.

The cost of living far outstripping any increase in wages, yet the top 10 percent of earners getting on average 55% wage increases in the face of everything else.

I am British, I have fought for my country and I am forced to watch a bunch of lilly livered pin striped suit wearing hooray henry's destroy it, none of whom have ever got their hand dirty, none of whom are capable of comprehending the damage that so much as a 5p rise in the cost of a loaf of bread can have.

If these people are the right ones to lead us, then why do successive Governments get it so wrong, and why are half the so called elite always diametrically opposed to the other half.

I am sick of it. What is the best way to organise a mass demonstration, a civil shut down of everything.

And how the hell do we get those that moan about the current system to do something about it apart from just bend over and take it up the bum.

The failed asylum seeker who ran over and left a 12 year old girl to die has been allowed to remain in the UK for ever, as to remove him would infringe his human rights and those of his 2 children?

He came here illegally and applied for asylum.

He failed.

Somehow during this time he got a driving license.

He broke some law or other and was banned.

He drove his car whilst banned and therefor without insurance etc ignoring the law.

He hit a 12 year old girl, he did nothing to help her, he ran away and she died.

He was sentenced and did about 4 Months?

Since then he has fatherd 2 children.

Yesterday it was determined that to remove him to the Kurdish part of Iraq from whence he came would infringe his and his childrens human rights.

How?

He cannot be considered a good influence on his children. His actions speak volumes for his concern about kids, the law, or for that matter anything else.

He cannot have worked legally during his time waiting to be given a decision.

He wont have to worry about working now.

How did he stay so long after what he had done?

What the feck is going on?

Do you agree with the decision and if so why?

Is it me?

I accept that our political parties are never likely to give us a referendum on anything, this is largely because they would lose in almost every one unless it was some ridiculous notion which wouldn't need public backing anyway.

But in the very unlikely event that a government in the UK did allow referendums, what would you want a public vote on?

What I mean by this is do you think that the Government thinks we can afford certain rises for instance in say revenue because they believe that the average person actually nets £25K.

This may be mathematically correct using a basic average calculation i,e, the amount earned divided by the amount earning, but we all know that if the average wage in your village was say £14K per year and then a £250K a week knuckle dragger like Mr Rooney moved into the town then the average wage would go through the roof.

Nobody would actually be better off but it would look like that on paper, do you think that statistics like this form the basis of fiscal policy?

It is pretty clear that the country is not entirely happy with the way that we are being and for at least 40 years have been run.

The Government and opposing parties are more of a club now, it's like we have a Lib/Lab/Con party that simply changes the leadership amongst themselves and allows much smaller parties into the palace to show us minions that everything is democratic.

Election after election we bring in one or more recently 2 of the 3 party club to run things (I use the term run things very loosely). By and large the over educated, silver spooned yahoo henry's have a jolly time for a few years milking the bejesus out of the system and draining every last drop of will the population can give in order to ensure that come the next election they or their chums will remain in place and so it goes on.

We are all in it together but I would happily be in their part of the together rather than mine.

All the parties do things that we simply cannot get our heads around, but so conditioned is the British electorate that we just bumble along and eventually allow the status quo to continue.

Yes we moan and b**ch about it down the pub or at work, but truth is we the people allow it to continue, we are the only thing that can stop this from carrying on but we just get involved in disperate and often desperate measures every now and then and we do not even scratch the surface when it comes to a credible move for change.

Check my profile, my email address is in the bit about me and I welcome anyone who is interested in making a real change. Nothing dramatic, I just want to build the network and who knows where it could lead. You cannot discuss real issues on this as the content is likely to be blocked, and quite rightly so in some cases, so why not drop me a line and let's see what can happen.

I have an adult female cat (rescue) we have had her for quite a while and insofar as I my vet is concerned she is about 8 or 9 years old.

She was spayed some time in her past and before she became a rescue cat.

The problem seems to be that for the past 2 days the fur on her belly and the underside of her back legs seems to be damp. She still goes out of the cat flap to do her business and we have never had this with her before.

At first I though that she had become wet from the garden but the dampness is still there several hours after she has come in and laid on her bed.

I checked again this morning after a whole night in and again the dampness, it's not sodden wet but damp enough to mat her fur a bit.

Any clues as to what this might be pointing out, if it is from her bladder (I assume it is) then could this be a warning of something serious?

Any advice would be welcomed, thank you

Now that we are all in it together, my bank has refused me a £1000 overdraft so I can service a contract that I have been offered which will bring in at least £3000 per month net profit, I have all the paperwork and documents to demonstrate how much the company was spending on their last provider and potential orders for the work but cannot take it on without some extra funds to cover the cost of labour and a bit of cash flow should things get tight between invoice and payment, the company is a major avionics player so they aren't going bust any time soon, anyway back to the point seeing as 18 of the cabinet are multi millionaires born with a fortune and not made of their own effort, can I be in it together with you and tap you for the funds in the same way as you are taxing me my children and even my grandson for about £42k each to keep us running and of course to pay the massive bonuses that our oh so competent bankers clearly deserve.

As Mr C probably wont answer, would one of you guys answer for him. Thanks

I am 51 years old, the first election that I was old enough to take part in was in 1979 when I was 20. I was in the forces and it was the year that Maggie T got in.

When she did what she did to the miners there was a reasonable amount of unrest, likewise the attacks she made on the unions caused considerable issues and of course the introduction of Poll tax.

However, insofar as I can remember since then we have been royally screwed over dozens of things and we just seem to let them pass us by.

We all seem to resolve the issues over a few pints, but that never seems to translate to anything else once we wend our way home.

The energy companies are absolutely stealing from us in the name of investment but in reality for profit,

The Governments of all flavours are hiking up our taxes be they openly or by stealth, and they use fab statistics like the average wage (Currently just over £25k net) which is a fecking farce for the vast majority of the population.

We are lied to over most issues and not given a vote on the most important matters even if we have been promised it.

We have governments that consistently fail to deal with the issues that affect us and the bottom line is that they are so contemptuous of us that they just do what they see fit and never own up to anything, even the scandal of expenses where only 3 people have been charged seems to have been forgotten about, this despite the fact that one of the accused having protested his innocence for well over a year and also having tried to invoke parliamentary privilege to dodge the bullet has now pleaded guilty. What morals does that man have and has he been kicked out of his respective party.

I hate violence and I am not keen on any form of anarchy but for gods sake why are we as a nation putting up with the current way of politics.

Really, why?

I think it showed some evidence of fiddles and corruption, for a while I thought that it was about British Politicians, I don't think it will help or hinder our world cup bid though.

Just thought I would ask as I would like to thank Barclays Bank. I have started a new business and got a fantastic contract almost immediately. The job is simple, take their staff to and from Heathrow/Gatwick/Stanstead or anywhere else. I do the work and they pay me after 30 days from invoice.

Minor problem when they ordered so much work that I knew I could not do all the jobs myself. So I would have to sub some of it out.

I showed my business manager at the bank the level of work ordered and asked for an overdraft of £1000 so I could pay all the people I used within 14 days (that is the best deal I could get from them). The bank turned me down flat.

I struggled for as long as I could but the work kept pouring in and I was spending all my available cash on paying other people to do the work that I could not. The company I had a contract with could not move their payment schedule.

I had been getting paid by them every 30 days from invoice with no mistakes so went back to the bank. Again I was turned down.

I could not continue and have had to give the contract away and just do the odd bit for myself.

So Thanks Barclays Bank Plc, thanks a lot. Good that we are all in this together.

Firstly let me say that I am not necessarily advocating this, but I do believe that in our modern world there may be a case for bringing it back.

This is of course a very emotive subject so before answering, perhaps you would need to think about it from a perspective of what you would call justice if you were the victim or perhaps your child.

For me the only punishment for someone who sexually abuses a child is death. Paedophilia is not unlike being heterosexual or homosexual, it is what you are. You cannot cure a homosexual because they are not ill, they are simply what they are.

Homosexuals however do not have a compulsion to sodomise children, any more than Heterosexuals do, paedophiles on the other hand can only get their gratification with children, in some of the more terrible cases, with babies.

If you accept that they cannot be cured, then surely the only realistic way to prevent them from re offending is to execute them.

Pre meditated murder, it seems to me that if you chose to kill then you forfeit your right to life, simples.

Now I can already hear the likes of Liberty screaming abuse at me for daring to put these notions forward, but frankly I do not give a tinkers cuss. We have become far too forgiving in almost every aspect of our justice system. Hard core criminals escape custodial sentences because the prisons are full or because they promise faithfully for the umpteenth time that they have learned their lessons.

Oh and there is always the suggestion that sending a youngster to prison will be like sending them to a school of crime, sorry but in most cases, when youngsters face prison it is on the back of dozens of offences. It would be more like sending someone with an MBA on an A level course.

Bottom line is that nobody that has been executed has ever re offended. Of course we need to think about mistakes, they have been made in the past and if a new system were introduced it would have to be surrounded by procedures to avoid such things.

Modern detection systems and the technology that goes with them make it very unlikely that a mistake would be made in a murder case or for that matter one of child sexual abuse. There could never be a death sentence without a 100% certainty in the evidence, anything less could lead to a conviction but not to execution.

If you are a parent and my suggestion repels you, consider this, what justice would you meat out if someone were to sodomise your child.

Fortunately this will happen to very few, but it will happen and some of the people doing it have done it before, been to prison and are back out on the street. Some are in prison waiting for release when as sure as eggs is eggs another child will suffer.

By the way castration does not stop the offences as the urge is in the brain.

No abuse please, I just want to gauge the general feeling about this very difficult issue.