Re: the state of the nhs after 10 years of the one eyed nose picker....

In message <fgvni9$5q1$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Dr A. N. Walker <anw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes
You left out a line, changed the layout and punctuation, and
took words from different sentences. Anyone can create gibberish
that way. But it's *your* gibberish, not mine.
No, I copied it exactly as it was posted. Care to supply your
supposedly non-gibberish version complete with url? RH

It was in message "<fftbbi$da1$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>".
"You really" was on a different line [and a different sentence] from "for them", which in turn was not followed by ",. With". That's all the help you're getting -- why spoil the amusement that the rest of us are having at your expense?


Toddler level denial noted. RH

No they don't. There is VAT on confectionary. No-one told them
to look for sweet-like qualities in cornflakes or herbal teas.
Sigh. The natural consequence of having VAT on sweets means they have to
search for all items that might qualify. . RH

So how are you claiming that Garibaldi biscuits and Bourbons
do not qualify but chocolate digestives do? Why are dried apricots sweets if placed in the home baking section of the store but not if they are in the snacks? You are spouting nonsense out of ignorance. No-one [normal] thinks that cornflakes and herbal teas are sweets; I don't, you don't, HMRC don't. HMRC say, effectively, that there is no rhyme or reason to the qualifying items, what makes you think you are cleverer than they are at interpreting the rules?

Because those of the type of problems which arise when implementing this type of legislation. As a bounded mind you will be unable to understand this,. RH

But in any case, I don't know why you keep trying to tell *me*
what you think the rules are. Tell HMRC instead.

No certainly, because the vast majority of the food any adult buys from
a shop will have no VAT. RH
Not so. If you happen to be the sort of adult who buys lots of
sweets, biscuits, ice cream, crisps, roast chicken, cornflakes and so on,
and rather little fruit and veg [except dried apricots], then you will
pay quite a lot of VAT. That must apply to many of us, esp those whose
home eating is parties rather than family meals
What a vast bulk you must have. RH

Significantly less than yours.

Well I am positively sylph like these days. RH

I didn't claim to be one of the
many. *My* [rather large] expenditure on standard-rated food comes almost all from eating out, either in the canteen or a pub, during the working week [plus the occasional take-away or restaurant meal].

[...] You can also add the
VAT on almost all drinks [not just alcoholic] other than tea/coffee, even
from the supermarket.
Then you are paying for the service element. Sigh. RH

Really? What service element is there in buying a bottle of
barley water [or cordial or lemonade] from the supermarket?


Sigh. That is because it is not categorised as food. RH
Ye Gods! RH

You can peddle this line as much as you like, it just isn't correct. Nor were your other claims about cooking or maintenance. It just *is* an arbitrary line drawn through hundreds and hundreds of products, *some* of which fall into groups [catered food, hot food, sweets, luxury items, ..., but not fresh fruit/veg (except when catered), bread, raw meat, ...], but many of which don't.

Someone working for twenty years in academia and then moving to
another type of job in their early forties would find their academic
related pension pretty small when they drew it because inflation would
have whittled it away. RH
Inflation wouldn't, because the pension is not based on the
actual final salary but on best-three-real-terms-years;
I presume you mean adjusted for inflation. In that case they are based
on our fantasy inflation figures which means a severe reduction in
value over twenty years. . RH

Possibly so, but since academic salaries in general have followed
that same inflation figure, they are no worse off than they would have been if they had stayed in post.

Hilarious piece of bounded mind " reasoning". The value of the salary declines because the rate of inflation is higher than the rate officially posted. RH

but of course
they would click only for 20/80ths instead of 40/80ths
Which adds weight to my point. RH

Well, it seems reasonable to me that those who spend only half
their working life as academics get only part of their pension by that route. They no doubt get the rest -- probably the majority, as academic salaries and pensions are very low by professional standards -- from their other employment. No-one is a university lecturer for the money. It's just not as badly paid as you were claiming.

Sigh. That is not the point at issue which is the average pension earned. RH


Many give up to go into business, teach abroad, go into the city and so
on. RH

Those who do will surely almost all do so for promotion and
higher salaries. It would be utterly daft to move from an ill-paid but quite pleasant and reasonably secure job to a worse-paid and unpleasant/insecure job; a few of my colleagues may be slightly un-worldly, but they are not actually daft.

IOW, your contention that almost all retiring academics have
final salaries below #40Kpa was just plain, utter rubbish.


No, I did not say almost all, I said a large number. RH

It was utter rubbish for the majority who stay in academe, it's utter rubbish for the majority of those who move out; it might apply to the tiny, tiny minority who give it all up to become missionaries or some such, but that's all.

--
Andy Walker, School of MathSci., Univ. of Nott'm, UK.
anw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

--
Robert Henderson
Blair Scandal website: http://www.geocities.com/ blairscandal/
Personal website: http://www.anywhere.demon.co.uk
.

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