Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

Meat is one of the products I very rarely buy from discount stores due to the provenance and taste. Chicken especially as most cuts are from young immature birds, that have no taste. Free range mature birds are often twice the price or more than the battery type, but apart from the moral issues, they have taste.
On a percentage, I would say that 80% of our shopping is from discount stores (NETTO) with the remaining 20% from higher priced stores/shops usually because the discount stores either don't stock the specific products or the quality of their own brands are too poor to make it worthwhile purchasing.

I wish somebody would vote off that Louis Walsh - well past any entertainment value

Full agree, although as he has no connection with Netto or M&S, why you have posted on the M&S/Netto thread I have no idea. Mind you Netto are recruiting at the moment so there could be a connection although with his personality they probably would not employ him to sweep up. I know I wouldn't.
But seriously if the X-Factor weeded out the no hoper's prior to broadcast the programme would be much better. I am obviously aware that the no hoper's are there for the audience that enjoy their pitiful attempts but it does nothing for me.
Still each to their own as they say.

just talking to myself which is this thread , isn,t it?

Yep. Only joking, sorry.

MaddoctorLouis Walsh is only on the show for one reasonthe rest of the panel can wind him up easier than I can wind dil upand thats pretty dammed easy.he wears crocodile shoesand has skin as thick as a rizzla.22carat entertainment.I can see Cheryl poking him in the eye with a pencil.

You have to be able to scream, jumping up and down and cry at anything to get on X factor; whether or not you have any talent doesn't matter. I am sure that greekman can produce better quality food than any factory producing a million pies a week.

Well I am better at baking and cooking than singing. Mind you thats not hard. I love singing but realise I can't sing anywhere near in tune.
At home when I often break out into song,(we don't have any neighbors too close) usually pop tunes of the 60's and 70's my wife often shouts to me asking whats wrong, probably because I sound in pain.
As to these factories turning out zillions of pies etc per week. Funny how many such have brand names like, Aunt Betty's, Toms Farm and similar. No doubt they intend you to conjure up a picture of a little old lady, in a pinny with rolling pin and and a wood fired oven or a Farmhouse producing pies and the like in an authentic farmhouse kitchen, whereas most of these items are almost untouched my human hand.
Still it sells better than packaging with the words, Mass Produced by machine in one of our 50 acre factories.
Would truth such as this put us off. Probably and yet surely no one believes the hype used. Do they.

Yes they do! People even believe Coronation Street is real!

Whoa, next thing you'll be telling me is that there is no Santa Claus!

Yeh Tim, that's a bit low. Our Kim can be quite sensitive at times.

:o(

See, oh dear.

Hank Paulson from a starting point of .We believe in free markets the rhetoric was quickly adjusted.except that the government may need to intervene to prevent the collapse of the financial system.then insurance companiesthen carmakers. Housebuilders.Starbucks.why the fu*k dont he give every single person in USA a million bucks and be done with itits a joke system with an electronic jackanory merry-go-round! Where is all this money coming from?

Probably the wrong thread but....

This sorta kinda stinks a bit, I think. Plus there's a whole pile of political hoo-ha to do with it from Scottish Gordon Brown on the one hand (not forgetting his hoppo Alistair Darling, our dear Chancellor - who, together with the FSCS, have both rescued my Icesave funds (God bless them and may Allah be praised too)

And then there's the Scottish lot of politicians and bankers too, who are also kicking up a sword dance with a very angry flash from under the kilt.

Struth! What am I on about? Ah yes! It's this.

Just in:

George Mathewson and Peter Burt, former chief executives of Royal Bank of Scotland and Bank of Scotland respectively, want to take temporary management control of HBOS and consider alternative options for the bank.

'A properly recapitalised, properly run and independent HBOS appears to be in the interests of the shareholders, its employees, its customers and all stakeholders, avoiding the dangers of an anti-competitive over-mighty leviathan,' Burt and Mathewson said in a press release on Wednesday.

'HBOS shareholders are entitled to know the basis for the board's decision and why the board decided not to seek this route as opposed to simply selling out,' Burt and Mathewson said.

HBOS said the statement added nothing to a previous letter that was unanimously rejected by its board, and it is pushing ahead with the Lloyds deal. 'They are not providing anything tangible for shareholders or any certainty,' a spokesman for the bank said."

Hmmm? Yes. It is all a bit 'Hush Hush' as to 'Why?' isn't it?

Mind you, for me at the moment, Gordon Brown can do no wrong, nor Alistair Darling either. But it doesn't necessarily stop me talking to myself.

A Nanny state? What makes me think that!

'Residents in a block of flats have been told to get rid of their welcome mats - because they are a trip hazard.

Council bureaucrats said the mats posed a 'health and safety risk' and have ordered them to be removed.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1086434/Council-tenants-banned-having-welcome-mats--health-safety-trip-hazard.html

I hope it was after a few of them actually tripped over them and then fell headlong down the stairs and rolled under a car into the freezing cold river and then out to sea and got eaten by a shark.

One thing that is really beginning to cause me concern , is this withdrawal of credit insurance thingy. It's mentioned in today's Trading thread and the link to the article is

A Labour MP has warned of a "looming disaster" on the high street as insurance firms have abruptly withdrawn vital credit coverage for suppliers to some of Britain's biggest retail chains.
Fears for high street retailers over lack of credit insurance

I'm just about to start shopping for stuff to fill a residential property, bought cheaply at auction recently. I need all the usual kitchen stuff: oven, hob, fridge/freezer, washer/drier. Then there's carpets, curtains - and maybe some sticks of furniture too.

What the withdrawal might mean, is that if you order something online or even out of a store, and the retailer hasn't actually got it in stock, then the manufacturer or wholesaler might decide to refuse to supply your supplier. He could simply fear he might not get paid. Bang! No goods yet matey! Pay up front or you don't get your delivery!

This starts a chain. The chain is long and then it snaps. Then there is a 'Fire Sale'. Then it pluralises. Then there is unwanted stuff everywhere - a glut. And it takes years to shift. And then I might even die before I can get the curtains for the property. And the kitchen has an oven and no hob , because there's that many of them I can't make my mind up which to buy because they're all so cheap and I can't buy it anyhow, because I died too soon. Bummer!

This is serious stuff.

Exec, if you need kitchen units try & open a trade account at Howdens - the stuff there is really good value and well made too. We're just about to redo our kitchen with their units & our man pointed us in their direction.

Now I happen to think that GB is probably the best man for the job at the moment. I think, along with most of the world, that he is more visionary than most in these troubled times.
But I think his sidekick, Mr Darling, would be better off back in a Peter Pan story.
What a great idea he has had. SLASH VAT, by 2.5%.
I did a quick fag packet calculation and have concluded that my fag packet is more accurate than his calculator, which I assume is eastern european 1965 "glorious revolution anniversary" model, as copied by Daewoo. The figures don't work.
The saving on our spending would be huge. A whole 2.5% reduction in our weekly costs, except that everything we spend a fair bit on (mortgages, insurance, kids clothing, basic foodstuffs and even fuel) are either exempt or at a reduced rate anyway.
Total weekly savings in my family are about 1.70. Now given that my gas and electric bills have gone up by approximately Elton Johns flower budget, this hardly makes me better off. When you add in the fact that this is a budget announcement and my fags and booze will go up by the price of a first class round the world air ticket, I feel a little less than flushed by it.
Mr Darling would be better off resigning now and concentrating on growing truly outstanding facial hair. Hes good at that.
Meanwhile, someone with ideas could come up with a stonker. Something like the government guaranteeing all current secured debt, and securing it through the taxation system as recoverable by lower tax allowances for those who default and charges over the property the loan is secured on.
Surely this would encourage the lenders to lend again within government guidelines and free up a population to relax a little and invest and spend again.
The government have been happy for years to guarantee loans for students to study Abba, knowing they will probably never get it back, and to guarantee loans for small businesses, knowing they will never get it back, all for the benefit of society. How about guaranteeing loans they know they will get back, one way or another. Suddenly, mortgage loans (the cause of all this) become gilt edged.
Anyone any better ideas, otherwise Mr Darling might suggest an extra sixpence is placed in all Christmas Puds to boost the economy a bit more.