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Sorry about the thread title, but it's time again!

Turns out, Iceland is following the rest of the Western World into the Financial Crapper. And suddenly, several Brits are now terribly, terribly worried about their savings they have with Icelandic Banks. Seems these savings that they squirrelled away in high interest, offshore, taxfree accounts is now at risk, and the British Government won't guarantee them (not being British Accounts) and neither will the Icelandic Government, since the savers are not tax paying Icelandic Citizens.

So, once again, we have a select handful of grasping little who tried to make a fast, tax free buck, and got their fingers burnt. To coin a phrase I've been using quite a lot recently, particularly in reference to this sort of thing Them. right in the ear!

Oh, and even better, in the UK, we have a ridiculous Tax called Council Tax, where every home owner pays a set amount of money depending on the value of their house (whether rented or owned!) to fund their local council. Nominally, this is meant to pay for local amenities, like Bin collections. Services which, despite constant rises in the Tax, the councils always find reasons to cut back (fortnightly bin collections etc). And where have some councils (including my own, Tunbridge Wells Borough Council) been stashing this? Thats right! Icelandic Banks! Which means with the 3(?) Icelandic Banks about to keel over, the Councils are going to raise the Tax again to make it up.

Just how much are they willing to take?

I had £105,000 in Icesave and Kaupthing Edge, proceeds from selling my flat in July. The accounts are subject to income tax the same as any other UK based account.

Luckily I took my money out on Monday.

I don't see how taxing citizens more centrally is an effective remedy for the losses in council taxes which had been deposited in Icelandic banks.

I also don't get why Kent county council had a spare £50 million to put on deposit. Surely it means they were overcharging on council tax.

If it's anything like Ireland, county councils are the root of all corruption.
I'm with you on this one though MDG, bleep those dirty tax evading bleepers right in the bleeping earhole.

Yup.

Bit of an Urban Myth has it that one local Council (can't say which as I don't know 100%) had someone sacked because he was being paid more than Blair!

But your spot on Killkrazy. As I understand it, Councils aren't allowed to turn a profit, and all monies raised have to be spent (and with the end of the tax year in April, this is why Jan, Feb and March see lots of unecessary Roadworks being carried out and cycle lanes popping up randomly)

We have a similar tax here in Australia but we call them rates. And thanks to massive house price rises over the last few years everyone is whining about having to pay more on rates.

As to the Icelandic banks, we were watching the news tonight and trying to work out why all the UK councils had put their money in Iceland. Your post has cleared that question up.

Also Australia is ranked number 4 in the world for bank stability (Canada 1), Iceland somewhere around 36!!! out of 134.

We have 4 of the 12 AA rated banks in the world and one of them is buying up a competitor for 2 billion dollars (of course its sailing along nicely expecting a 7-8 billion dollar profit even with all the financial turmoil)

I have no savings to worry about, only debts to knock down, and pay out a small fortnightly budget.

Daft thing is, the Council Tax (which replaced rates I think) is linked to the value of your property in the early 90's.

And that is it. Regardless of occupancy. Ergo, I could have a 4 Bedroomed House, with 4 Couples in it, and we would pay the same as an older, widowed person in the same property who live on their own. Hardly just, is it?

The only problem MDG, is that council tax did not replace rates.

It replaced Poll Tax (where each person paid and your house had all to do with it) - rates was what we had before that.

I am surely not the only person here old enough to remember that there were riots in the streets because of how deeply unjust and unfair Poll Tax was deemed to be (on the principle that a rich couple in a big house didn't have to pay as much as four people sharing a council house).

I don't agree with the Liberals on a lot of things, but they're right on this one. Getting rid of the whole system and just upping you income tax is the only way forward...

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:Daft thing is, the Council Tax (which replaced rates I think) is linked to the value of your property in the early 90's.

And that is it. Regardless of occupancy. Ergo, I could have a 4 Bedroomed House, with 4 Couples in it, and we would pay the same as an older, widowed person in the same property who live on their own. Hardly just, is it?

Firstly are you pakistani or polish? cos i bet the 4 couples in the 4 bedroom house would be >

and the widowed person would get the single persons discount which is 25%..

Council tax is better than rates cos you don't get nailed for your grown up children/

Pffft. Children should be chucked out aged 17. Toughens you up, it does.

Chimera_Calvin wrote:The only problem MDG, is that council tax did not replace rates.

It replaced Poll Tax (where each person paid and your house had all to do with it) - rates was what we had before that.

I am surely not the only person here old enough to remember that there were riots in the streets because of how deeply unjust and unfair Poll Tax was deemed to be (on the principle that a rich couple in a big house didn't have to pay as much as four people sharing a council house).

I don't agree with the Liberals on a lot of things, but they're right on this one. Getting rid of the whole system and just upping you income tax is the only way forward...

I dimly remember the Poll Tax Riots. I was born in Edinburgh, so I was certainly aware of them (I'm 28 btw, so a little too young to have known what all the fuss was about).

But you are spot on. Scrap this local tax nonsense and just up income tax. No evasion there, and the councils can get a per capita share of the pot.

Chimera_Calvin wrote:I am surely not the only person here old enough to remember that there were riots in the streets because of how deeply unjust and unfair Poll Tax was deemed to be (on the principle that a rich couple in a big house didn't have to pay as much as four people sharing a council house).
..

I was there, got 3 broken ribs, arm broken in 2 places and a a %^&* of cuts scrapes etc etc.

I don't know how many of you have ever been on the receiving end of a mounted police charge.... don't ! Ever. Scariest moment of my life, you kind of generally forget how big horses are until they run at you.

All in all it was a cracking day out.

Remember, you voted these guys in who made these laws. Fight the oppression at the ballot box. Vote Libertarian!er wait -vote er something? never mind...




Oh and Redy, when the horses charge, get out of the way next time.

I'm 32 and the thing i remember most about the poll tax was the graffiti on the bridges on the M8.
The tory bastids decided to trial run the poll tax up here in Scotland.

So if any of you young uns are thinking about voting Tory ask someone older what a tory goverment is like.

@reds8n -

I have seen a horse charge, but thankfully I had a 9 foot lance in my hand and a full suit of plate armour on! (Don't you just love re-enactment ) Even so, you're still cacking it.

I've experienced horses coming at me and I've experienced 70 tonnes of Challenger II MBT coming at me. Trust me, the horses are scarier.

For a moment there you had me worried about the equipment we're providing the army with these days you know.

... I had a plywood banner and a pastie. All in all I think you had the better deal.

... was a tasty pastie though.

They may take our Lives, But they will NEVER TAKE OUR PASTIES!

This is not Madness...THIS. IS. PASTIES!

OK, in the US pasties are something strippers wear. This is putting very disconcerting images in my head.

Thanks a lot guys, now I'm nauseous.

Is there no end to the Butchery of our fair language?

First, Scones are called biscuits then, a sauce is called gravy and now, a tasty pasty is lowered to being part of whoredom!

Like I said. We pinched words off the French as reparations for starting on us (even when we started it. One of the great things about winning).

You only beat us in one war (and seeing as the USA didn't actually exist until after, we beat ourselves. THATS how hard we are) so you can only have a single word to change the meaning of, not the entire language. Rules of engagement don't you know.

Actually I'd be quite pro stripers wearing pastry products.

You crazy septics and your linguistic mishaps, it's bad enough what you did with fanny without turning a staple of british cuisine into clothing. We drink gallons, you wear them on your head. What's next ? Jumpers made of yorkshire pudding ?

Let me get this straight. A fornight is two weeks, right? And by bin collection I'm guessing that's when they come around and pick up your trash. If all this is right, that means they only come around to pick up your trash every two weeks. In KC, trash is picked up once a week. If they tried to change it to every two weeks, there would be riots here, and let me tell you, with the amount of guns I hear going off late nearly every friday and saturday night, I'm sure a cavalry charge wouldn't get within twenty yards of our lines. That's why it's so great to be an American. (Except here in KC, where once a week some idiot runs his car/truck/van/semi into a house or small business.)

One week they come and pick up your non recyc rubbish, week after that they pick up the recyc trash. But not glass, you have to sort that out yourself. It's not like it's heavy or awkward to move after all.

Extra collections at Xmas/similar.

Yorkshire Pudding Jumper...now, if pockets could be made for your Beef, Gravy, Veg and Spuds, you could be on to something...

And Warpcrafter has the hand of our arcane utterings...it is indeed once every two weeks the scaff truck comes round to hoik away our detrius.

Nominally, it's meant to promote 'recycling' (we have 3 bins. 1 normal, 1 for cardboard, and 1 for plastics I think) and although this does work, everyone knows it's just the council looking to save money. Less on amenties = more for them...

warpcrafter wrote:Let me get this straight. A fornight is two weeks, right? And by bin collection I'm guessing that's when they come around and pick up your trash. If all this is right, that means they only come around to pick up your trash every two weeks. In KC, trash is picked up once a week. If they tried to change it to every two weeks, there would be riots here, and let me tell you, with the amount of guns I hear going off late nearly every friday and saturday night, I'm sure a cavalry charge wouldn't get within twenty yards of our lines. That's why it's so great to be an American. (Except here in KC, where once a week some idiot runs his car/truck/van/semi into a house or small business.)

Yes, at the Texas house its every three days.
An old fashioned cavalry charge here what get two reactions: 1) oahh look at all the horse, is it rodeo time already-yee hah break out the boots, the barbeque, and the chili contest!; 2) Whats with the horses? Don't they know a proper cavalry charge by the US now involves tanks and helicopters: after all the 7th Cav is a helicopter unit now.
I'd say more but I don't understand half of what you English just said (for the record, many of us have family that, er had more than one war with the English...)

http://www.hatsofmeat.com/

They have [Cornish] pasties in Michigan. I read it in a Bill Bryson book.

Where I live now (Ealing) the rubbish has to be sorted into the following categories.

Metal
Glass
Paper
Cardboard
Plastic
Uncompostable food waste
Dog poo (I don't know if cat poo goes in the same box.)
Miscellaneous

Electrical items, batteries, paint, rubble, oil, and large items like whole bicycles and so on have to be taken to the dump separately.

Before I moved town, there used to be a once a fortnight bin lorry that came round for peoples larger waste, to be taken to the Dump. Things like Bicycles and that which Killkrazy mentioned.

Absolutely no idea if they still do that, but that was useful. Parked up at the entrance of the estate in a defunct Bus Stop, so the worst you had to do was lug the stuff down there.

But without a Car, you cannot get to our tip!

We call that heavy trash pickup here. In Houston its once a week (pre Ike anyway). In Austin it was call and they would pickup.

weemonster wrote:

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:Daft thing is, the Council Tax (which replaced rates I think) is linked to the value of your property in the early 90's.

And that is it. Regardless of occupancy. Ergo, I could have a 4 Bedroomed House, with 4 Couples in it, and we would pay the same as an older, widowed person in the same property who live on their own. Hardly just, is it?

Firstly are you pakistani or polish? cos i bet the 4 couples in the 4 bedroom house would be >

and the widowed person would get the single persons discount which is 25%..

Council tax is better than rates cos you don't get nailed for your grown up children/

HA! Immigrants are poor! Lulz. :S

OR just practical.

Christ, most of my friends are desperate enough to move out, but cannot afford to do so due to the prices round here. Yet mention house share, and they look at you like you just spat acid into their Grannies face!