22/02/2011 by Dandy.

One again David Cameron re-launches his idea of the Big Society but he didn’t call it a re-launch, he was probably annoyed that people didn’t get it the first time. I have a suggestion for him why not relaunch it a third time with a new title “Big Sobriety”, and new content and then people might just listen.

With over a million hospital admissions every year that are attibuted to excessive drinking, and the total cost to the NHS expected to rise to £3.7 billion. Hospital admissions for alcohol misuse stood at half a million in 2002 and have doubled, now costing the NHS £2.7 billion  every year.

If Cameron really wants to save money somewhere . . .

Posted in Finance | 3 Comments »

22/01/2011 by JohnB.

Facebook, the world’s most popular social networking site, has just been valued at about $50bn. We hear often of the advantages of this website but what of the drawbacks:

• Advertising is targeted totally to you, how do the advertisers know about you and your likes/dislikes?
• Some people spend hours a day, searching for friends and updating their profile, it is addictive.
• Depending upon your privacy settings (most people don’t know how to change them) your entire profile is there to be read by anyone with a generic Facebook account.
• Potential employers and abusers look at Facebook to see what you are doing or have been up to. They can even check out your friends and family.
• How far are we detaching ourselves from real contact, in the real world some “Facebookers” would not have have any friends. Some claim to have a thousand friends plus, these types have definitely built up a psychological problem.
• Cyber bullying is rife at the moment and it is also so easy for someone to go off the deep end and insult a whole family group in one go. Or to threaten to kill.

Facebook should keep their money safe because I feel that maybe in the future someone will try to take them to court for allowing threatening and abusive behaviour and for giving “facetime” to those that have lost the plot.

Posted in Finance | 3 Comments »

10/01/2011 by JohnBuck.

The Supermarkets are doing amazingly well in the current economic climate. Or are they doing amazingly? Not in my view, they sell food and food is what everybody wants and needs. Every year they take more trade away from smaller shops and have claims that they have increased their turnover by 1% etc. There are now too many town high streets with vacant shops, that is apart from the odd Tesco Express.

Supermarkets sell everything and with the likes of Amazon and online shopping in the end there won’t be any shops at all. Let’s just sit back and let the big boys make all the profits they want and say that it was all their hard work!

Posted in Finance | 3 Comments »

31/12/2010 by TonyM.

If you loose your job no!

You must use up most of your savings, in fact you can have only £6,000, in order to claim benefits. So there is yet another drawback to being unemployed.

You can have no or very little savings, while people with jobs have just been awarded a compensation limit who lose money if their bank or building society goes bust, has just increased from £50,000 to £85,000.

Compensation will be paid by the FSA and they said that the new limit would cover the “vast majority” of savers in the UK.

Those with money get and retain money while those without get poorer. I hate this unfair world, I’m just waiting for Armageddon when things might even themselves out!

Posted in Finance | 5 Comments »

12/12/2010 by Dandy.

The bosses of 5 of the biggest 6 energy companies have told the governments Energy Committee that energy bills are likely to rise in years to come. The “inevitable direction of wholesale prices” mean that domestic bills are going to get more expensive over the next ten years. Details from watchdog Consumer Focus show that people with the same supplier but living in different parts of the UK have bills that vary by up to £59 per annum.

The head of energy at Consumer Focus has said: “With 4 of the big 6 suppliers having now announced price rises averaging 6 per cent, the focus on [regulator] Ofgem’s review of whether energy prices are justified will be even sharper.”

Ofgem recently announced that it would conduct a review into the domestic energy market after figures showed a sharp rise in suppliers’ profit margins. It seems now that they make about £90 per typical customer.

About time Ofgem, so it is now even more important to Switch and Save.

Posted in Finance | 2 Comments »