Earthling

No, the way I want to come across is that whatever changes we make, nothing will ever be foolproof, it'll just cost US more money, because changes always cost US more money. My biggest fear is that, that 'More Money' will go to private companies and no tangible improvement in security or verification of voucher spend or claimants will result. My biggest disappointment is that no one mentioned my Secret Agent Maya Meerkat. Fanboy heaven, that is. Second only to my 'Pulp Fiction' wallet. I think the tax-dodging/evasion/avoidance issue is inextricably bound up in any government expenditure issue. It's entirely relevant in this thread, unless the thread REALLY is about 'He's got a bigger TV than I have etc'. Working Families Tax Credits as was, I think they've been binned, correct me if I'm wrong. I'm as certain as can be that somewhere in Amazon, Starbucks, Vodafone and the rest of them, there were employees claiming and being paid Working Families Tax Credits. Public money going to subsidise low-wages so multi-nationals can keep down their costs, maximise their profits, while paying no more tax on billions of profits (proportionately) than you and I pay on our salaries. You cannot separate the two. Benefits are paid from taxes, so collect those taxes from everyone, not just from under-paid Joe Public. If you're going to change the benefits system, you have to change the tax system too.

And what about the shops and shopkeepers willing to turn a blind eye to photo id's? Oh, right you'll strike them off the 'List'. Good Luck, with that, the Inspectors (there'd have to be Inspectors, there always has to be) will probably be over-worked, understaffed and unable to visit any shop more than once every three years. Sound familiar? An anecdote, which I hate, but it's relevant. I had to go to the local Royal Mail sorting office to collect a delivery before Xmas (it was my Secret Agent Maya Meerkat, if anyone's interested or even if no one's interested). I had to take identification, passport, utility bill, blah blah. I handed in the card they left through my door, showed my (closed) passport, didn't even hand it over and the guy behind the counter said, 'OK' and gave me my parcel. That was Royal Mail, where, historically, I believe, any interference with items or theft of, or deliberate mis-delivery was, strictly speaking, almost a treasonable offence. Things have probably changed since I were a lad and used Royal Mail every day, but it's still some kind of offence. If they didn't work at Royal Mail, why do you think photo id's will work in Asda or Tesco's or anywhere else, especially small shops, under pressure to turn some kind of profit? My underlying point in this is that a voucher system will cost us millions more, because changes like this always cost us more and ultimately, it'll be just as open to abuse as the current system. Plus ca change, plus ca le meme chose. Or, as Al Stewart, said in 1974-ish, 'Oh, the more it changes, the more it stays the same'.

Trying hard to keep out of this one, but not much happening at work so far, so....... Doesn't anyone think that creating a voucher system will just create another 'Black Market' opportunity for the unscrupulous and opportunistic? Or is it just me being unscrupulous and opportunistic? Although I suppose we could take DNA samples from the voucher recipients and bio-metric the vouchers in some way. Shouldn't add more than a billion or two to the voucher system budget and of course, that billion or two (of our money) would go to private companies and some of it would probably wend it's way via several brown envelopes and the odd off-shore bank account to someone (or ones) not a million miles from Westminster. And, of course, the benefit recipients DNA could go on the National Database for ever more, 'just in case'. Win/win/win all round. For the unscrupulous, the opportunistic and the government. Oops, sorry.........same thing really, aren't they.

I don't consider it to have been insulting. I stand by what I said, that most of the reactions and posts have been of the 'How does he/she get a 50/60/70 inch TV, the full Sky Package and trainers on benefits while I work hard and can't have any of those things'. Petty jealousies. I've dealt with mine.............

@Garacesh A lot of people are going to feel insulted by a lot of things, and not just on this Forum, before we grow into a society capable of living together in the 21st Century. Deal with it. None of us have seen anything yet, compared to the changes that will be upon us in the coming years.

I didn't say it was acceptable, I said that which you quoted, 'I don't care etc'. Please, if you're going to enter into a debate, put words into anyone else's mouth, but not mine.

My thoughts exactly. I'm staying out of this one as much as possible. It's degraded again into petty jealousies, finger pointing and anecdotal evidence, into which this debate will always fall, until, we, as a society evolve a way of living in the Technological Age/Revolution/Era, call it what you will. A way of living and thinking that starts with understanding that never, ever again will there be enough work for everyone to have a full-time job, that some people will never, ever work in their whole lifetime and ends with dealing with the consequences of those simple, unavoidable facts. I don't care that so-and-so down the road hasn't worked a day in his life but has a bigger TV than me, faster broadband or more-Designer label shoes than I have, even though I've worked all my life. That is their choice, this is mine. I care more about the non-collection of tax from rich businessmen, multi-nationals and the tax loopholes and ridiculous Company Law system that allow these people and corporations to operate in this manner. Loopholes which the government we, as a society, elected but which they don't seem able or willing, to close. If my taxes weren't funding the welfare system, they'd be funding something else. Don't be fooled for one moment, any of you, that cutting the Benefit Bill, catching a few cheats, will reduce your taxes or lead to a better lifestyle for yourself and your loved ones......it won't. It's just an easy way to Divide and Rule. Which the majority of you have fallen for.

I had to change to BT after Virgin when I moved last August. It sucks, to be perfectly blunt. No traffic management? What do they call a maximum of three connections on their Usenet servers and a speed limit of 100k per connection.....that might be a total of 100k over three connections. I can't remember, I only used it once. When I signed-up, they promised me 56meg download and even when I phoned them one time to complain that I wasn't getting that, their helpful operator greeted me with my name and told me '...and you're getting 56Meg download broadband'. In actuality, I get about 36Meg. I'm currently phoning them every month with that month's average speed over four different speed testers and demanding to be released from my contract as they're not supplying what they promised. I might as well talk to the wall. My daughter was on Sky and eventually changed to VM after months of new routers, excuses, technical bulls**t that they knew she couldn't contradict and no internet four days out of seven. All in all, I'm convinced that if you can't get Virginmedia, then all you can get is highly-variable ADSL from a bunch of highly-variable providers. If the government was serious about providing high-speed BB across the country, they'd throw money at Virginmedia to do it.

Wise. Or Immortal. Both, preferably. But if I have to choose, Wise

I think I'd go with some classical remixes like the DJ Tiesto dance mix of Adagio for Strings, or, not to be so pretentious, the Platoon OST. Along with some instrumental 'World' music. Lyrics is a tricky one. Some people will construe some meaning into anything. Basically, I'd plug my MP3 Player into it. Which would be cool until this or this but this would probably be ok. Don't know who'd 'skip to next track' when 'Teenage Dirtbag' came on, or 'Bilingual' but it would be fun watching everyone scramble for the button.

Sounds like it was 1996-1998 vintage OpenGL ,or whatever it was called at the time. I vaguely remember something like that.

Voodoo2 was my first, too. Never had any problems with it, Half-Life, Outlaws, Quake 2, all of them suddenly came to life when I installed it. I had a Savage 4, I believe it was, but the Voodoo made everything look solid, suddenly.

Just got hold of the 'family spare' PS3. Yes, after six years, it's finally my turn. Been gagging to play Red Dead Redemption ever since I watched my son doing some when he first bought it. Having a whale of a time on it, haven't watched any TV since New Year's apart from football, of course. In fact, it's rekindled my interest in gaming. I loaded ArmA and Dayz mod but my PC is just plain too old (Core 2 Duo, 4Gig) or needs too much of a rebuild. Screen lag, mainly, I could fork out for a new GFX card, but somehow ArmA just don't do it for me like Land Warrior/Black Hawk Down did back in the day.

This......a hundred thousand times this. As soon as I'm asked to confirm my identity , I say 'But you called me. If you don't know who you're calling, what's the point of talking to you,' and hang up, straight away. Few, if any, now I come to think about it, ever call back.

10-15 minute walk, probably about 300 metres. Normally 3 tracks on the iPod.

At the risk of sounding uncool and out of the loop........what's Dayz?

When I first got into Operations (1970) I lusted after getting into Programming. Then I transferred from Ops where I worked to Programming and after 9 months, I was begging to go back to Ops. Amending, updating, someone else's COBOL code was so full of disillusionment, I think it was one of the first big disappointments of my life. I preferred Assembler but there were no system programming jobs going. The 9-5 work day instead of three-shift work was good, but the work was stultifyingly dull. I settled for Ops and Tech Support and never looked for another programming job.

I was tasked with evaluating tablets and their domain integration, home folder access, internet access etc, for one of my PMI's last year. I bought an iPad, a Nexus 7 and I wanted a Surface Pro to complete the evaluation. My leaning was towards the Surface or an alternative 8 or 8.1 tablet, for the domain integration, lockdown etc. Before the Surface Pro was released, before I'd even completed a proper classroom evaluation, I was told to order 16 iPads, a Macbook and a cabinet to keep them all in. Obviously, the evaluation was supposed to be 'Oh, Apple make them, we'll have those then.' Silly me.

^^^ What she said......with knobs on. Sick of hearing about iPads. Sick of hearing 'I'll be able to teach better if I had '.

My youngest is called Ffion, Ffion Mae to be exact. Nice to see you're spelling it the correct Welsh way, but our Ffion's teachers always had a problem with the double-F. I think it's a beautiful name, and she's grown into a beautiful young woman, too, but I would say that, wouldn't I? All grown-up now, 22.

Put..........The Bunny..........Back.........In The..............Box.

Completely agree. I live in the 'Green Belt' and it really give me peace of mind to know that, should my children or grandchildren EVER be able to afford to buy a house where they were born and grew up, they'll have nice green fields to look out onto...................NOT. The Green Belt is just another way of saying 'Not In My Back Yard', without being so up front about it. Yes.....green fields, hedgerows and open countryside are very nice, but I happen to believe in people first, and too many people are, or are about to be, homeless. By 'homeless', I mean unable to afford to rent or buy their own home, so end up staying with families.

No, the only problem is NOT building anywhere near the necessary numbers of new houses, not whether they're built upwards, downwards, sideways or corner-to-corner....they're just not being built. Well, that and the fact that too many people buying their homes would, all of a sudden, see about £100,000 ( I would reckon) knocked off the value of their house as supply begins to meet demand. And Yes, it is all Thatcher's fault.......she started it. Other governments could have done more to avoid or at least alleviate the problems, but ultimately, it's all down to her for implementing it with ALL THE WRONG motives. It was a vote-getter, pure and simple, and she got the votes and we all know where that ended. If you believe it was some sort of philanthropic, largesse-spreading, wealth-sharing, owner-occupier-empowering plan, then.......I don't know.

Started back today. No problems at all. Usual procession of dimwits who've forgotten their passwords after two weeks off. Some of the students have forgotten their passwords, too. Sorry to be predictable, but working here is just so predictable.

The housing 'market' and situation, in its present form, in this country is unsustainable.....end of story. Not enough houses being built, private or 'social' ( I hate that term 'social housing'), an ever-growing population, and an increasing reliability on lack of housing to shore up property values. Really, the only thing that will go anywhere near to solving the (ever growing) housing problem is a huge programme of Council housing, just like we had to do in the 50's and 60's. Like it or not, and there'll probably be loads who, from the safety and comfort of having a roof over their heads, don't like the idea, private housing alone isn't going to cut it, #HelpToBuy scheme or not. All these crackpot 'schemes', 'initiatives', or whatever you want to call them are absolutely no substitute for building new houses, which is what we need. When Thatcher began selling off council houses (and who said they were hers to sell, anyway?) and, at the same time, restricting local council's rights to build more stock, that was when the seeds of where we are today were laid.