The 3 Towns Coffee centre

[Merddin Emrys]

Happy Birthday from sunny Penrhyn Bay

[white rabbit]

Happy Birthday Quiggs!

[Pendragon]

Happy Birthday Quiggs, hope you have a good one 

[SDQ]

Happy birthday pater, go easy on the wine!   Z**

[TheMedz]

NatWest are asking for local charity groups to register for the possibility of benefiting from a support donation or volunteers. 3 organisations from each area will benefit from the initiative this year.

They ask that anyone who knows of a local charity or group that really deserves to benefit from £6,000, or some willing volunteers should ask them to register at

natwest.com/communityforce



 by 4th September 2011.


 

[Michael]

Am I allowed to write about economics in the Coffee centre. Either economics or a big con. Coming up soon, a further rise of between 3 and 4 percent (or maybe its 3 and 4 pence, I'm not too sure) apparantly to keep up with inflation. But EVERYONE knows the cost of fuel puts up inflation. So this rise will increase inflation, so there will have to be a further rise----and so and so on.  Anybody care to comment?

[Merddin Emrys]

yes, the tax on fuel is outrageous (around 60%) and we all pay for it one way or another, we need more smokers to generate tax revenue  WWW
 (I've always been a non smoker, but buy lots of petrol!  )

[hollins]

Good morning forum.
A lovely sunrise with mist in the valley.

[suepp]

beautiful view!

The thing with fuel, I've always thought of it as a tax on the poor as whether you earn hundreds of thousands or minimum wage you have to pay it, and higher earners are more likely to be able to claim back travel expenses, or at least not have the same concern about filling up their tanks! I now pay over £50 for a fill up on my Puegeout 106, when a couple of years ago it was £35. That's a big chunk of my wages,I do get some money back if travelling through work but it still needs paying up front and I have to do it more than once per month, even more if I've got  training or meetings elsewhere.

[TheMedz]

Despite crude oil prices falling by something like 15% in the last 6 months the petrol price stayed roughly the same. One of the reason given by the fuel companies was the high distribution costs of getting the stuff round the country. Maybe if they dropped the price of fuel then the distribution costs would go down and they could then drop the cost of fuel and then the distribution costs would go down and they could ................................

[Yorkie]

I now pay over £50 for a fill up on my Puegeout 106, when a couple of years ago it was £35. That's a big chunk of my wages, . . . . . . . .

If one is surviving on a fixed income, as most pensioners are, it hits the pocket even more.  And the pensioners can't go asking for a raise!      Or getting an increased mileage allowance.   

It is a case of digging into the savings and investments - I'm certainly doing a lot of SKI-ing nowadays. (Spending the Kids Inheritance).   ZXZ

[Bri Roberts]

Yorkie, that is much easier to do when the kids are already financially independent.

[Yorkie]

I think mine are because they've stopped borrowing or asking for hand outs!   

[suepp]

not that I would begrudge pensioners anything but at least they have the option to use a bus pass and more leisure time to use it. I've had the same mileage allowance for 10 years and no pay rise for the last three, the only way I can increase my income is to do longer shifts and have fewer days off, which is what I have done every month for the past year at least.

Not that I'm a moaner or anything, I love my job, there's just too much of it at times!

[Yorkie]

I hear what you're saying, but - I did my 44 years of graft plus National Service to earn my pension, so does that now mean that I have to use a bus pass and forego all the privilidges that I have earned in those years?  A bus won't take me to lots of the places I like to go, or in the time I can allow to go there.  Using my bus pass it takes 3 hours to get to Chester and 3 hours back, total of 6 hours.  By car under two hours total.  Cheshire Oaks in a day, impossible!

Some employers are having a difficult time at the moment so have had to slow things down on the remuneration front and as a past employer I know how they feel having to tighten the belt.  One of the main contributing factors has been the dramatic increases in the past which have at last caught up with us.   WWW

As Harold MacMillan said, "You've never had it so good!" - but that was then!  Perhaps if it hadn't been so good then, it would be better now!  ZXZ