Going rate for boxing day repair.

[Dave Plowman]

You actually believe that con, do you? Let me tell you a story...

My 80 something widowed mother lived on her own in her own little house that she'd lived in for some 50 years when the Poll Tax came in. Under the old rates scheme she got a 100% rebate since she had little other income than her state pension. So in fact ended up paying considerably *more* in hard cash than before.

Of course a *rich* elderly person in a *large* house paid less, but then they were the standard Tory voter so this was only to be expected...

[John Stumbles]

As the man in the plumbing magazine[1] said the other day: "Dentists are manual workers. If plumbers had clean hands, charged more and took skiing holidays maybe they'd have more repect from the public" :-)

[1] Roger Risby in that plumbing mag you get free at trade counters. Quiet a good read actually. Or have I just become _very_ sad? :-/

-- John Stumbles

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-+ Pessimists are never disappointed

[John Woodhall]

West Mids

I saw it in a news bulletin on TV not from my local amb service.

[PoP]

I don't know what Lions in that part of the world are doing, me being in the Thames Valley area.

Nice to hear that it had made the media like that. We must try and promote that down here I think.

PoP

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[PoP]

I despised the poll tax as well, but for different reasons.

We made the decision that when the children came along we wanted Mum to be at home as they were growing up. So we were a single income family. The poll tax did not take account of that situation, it presumed we must be nasty people for having only one income stream.

And what really annoyed me about the poll tax was that if my wife had decided to tell them where to stuff their poll tax - I would get arrested, not her. Nowhere else in British law can you be held personally responsible for someone elses debt.

I lean towards the Tories more than Labour, but I am not a true blue supporter because I feel they got some things very wrong. They went way too far with clobbering the unions for example.

PoP

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[PoP]

We should vote on that? ;)

PoP

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[Ed Sirett]

IANAL however AIUI there are many type of contract (tenancy, partnership for instances) where the phrase 'joint and several' comes up. This is where you are responsible for the debts of your partner/flat-mate/spouse etc. ...and similarly they are responsible for your debts. I may have missed the point but collecting the Rates/Poll Tax/Council Tax comes into this common category doesn't it?

[Mary Fisher]

Well, it's all been resolved now by Our Glorious Leader and we're back to how things were before.

Mary

[John Stumbles]

I abstain ;->

-- John Stumbles

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-+ No Rules, OK

[DAVID HAMM]

I have an interest here, which I wont bore you with :-) Can you define what they mean by 'head of household' or was the wording something along the lines of 'person responsible' or 'responsible person' as is used when applying the 'council tax'?

TIA

Dave

[DAVID HAMM]

Can you expand on that for me please Ed?

Dave

See an earlier post of mine today, on the same point.

[PoP]

Really? I'm sure the fire brigade union would not agree. And I haven't seen any reports of beer and sandwiches at number 10 involving the unions either.

PoP

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[Mary Fisher]

Sorry, you couldn't see the tongue in my cheek ...

:-^

... or are you emphasising my point?

;-)

[Mary Fisher]

You're not sad, in any of its interpretations (although I still can't understand the modern one).

Mary

[Andrew]

In article , John Stumbles writes

No, I read too, mainly to see what is new on the market, but I think recto-colonal surgeons are probably closer to plumbers than Dentists, in more ways than one.

[PoP]

That would suggest mental thought processes. Must be another explanation.... ;)

PoP

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[Steve Firth]

AFAIR the threatening letter used the term "head of household" and that as far as I could tell translated to "man". At that time my wife earned about 2x what I earned, so it couldn't have been based on economic contribution to the family budget.

[Mary Fisher]

That says more about your attitude than anything else.

Mary

[Steve Firth]

Au contraire, your comment speaks volumes about your perceptions and preconceptions. If "head of household" did not mean "man" then why was I (the man) pursued for payment and not the person I regard as head of household?

You snipped the part where I pointed out which of us was the breadwinner

- was that because it made your knee-jerk stupidity less obvious?

[Mary Fisher]

I wasn't pursuing you so it's silly to ask me.

No, it's because I was replying to one particular point. Read your own comment again - 'AFAIR ... as far as I could tell translated to "man"'.

You translated "HoH" as "man", that says a lot about your attitude.

Over and out.

Mary