I read in today Irish Times that "Thousands of property owners could face fines or other penalties as a result of a Revenue clampdown on abuse of stamp duty relief".

The investigation, based upon a pilot project in the Dublin Area, is targeting individuals availing of owner occupier stamp duty relief who rent out their properties within 5 years of purchase.The pilot scheme will involve a random sample of 1,000 transactions from 2003 where purchasers availed of full "owner-occupier" relief. The investigation is in response to concerns that individuals may have claimed stamp duty relief but subsquently rent out the property within the 5 year period. By doing so the stamp duty, plus interest and penalties is repayable to the Revenue under "claw-back", a requirement of law.

Now tax evasion costs us all money, and is illegal, however I cannot feel that this is an attempt by revenue to punish those who have struggled to buy a house/apartment in the first place is now going to have to cough up more hard earned cash. I doubt very much that when a "first time" buyer who finally has saved enough money to actually buy a property would be aware of such laws, relating to "claw-back" and I doubt that solicitors would sit them down and say "well congradulations the house is yours, here are your keys, and d'ont leave and rent out your house for the next 5 years, or you'll end up paying "claw back". I can't but consider someone who is transferred due to work to another part of the country and decides to rent out the house for that period that they are working away, are they going to be taxed?.It should also be noted that should you sell the property to an unrelated third party within the 5 years, the "claw back" does not apply, presumably due to the fact that they'll get the stamp duty from the new buyer anyway. Its a well known fact that selling houses is an expensive "hobby" with Auctioneers, Solicitors and Revenue all getting their cut of your money.

Or consider the couple who after a few years have earned enough money to buy another house and decide to "hang on" to the first property as part of planning for their future and perhaps the future of their children.

The Irish Government took in some €3.7bn in stamp duty in 2006, I'dont know what the split between individuals and developers was,the official website of the Department of Finance is "presently under construction",but be assured that a considerable amount by paid by "joe public" who it appears will be asked to cough up again, should they have a liability.

Revenue went on to say that "The individuals involved have been contacted and requested to furnish specific information". Again many people simply do not hang on to all pieces of documentation when buying a home, so its off to the solicitor to dig out what is needed, some solicitors may not charge and some may. I have a feeling that tax advisers are going to be busy on this one.

In Brian Cowens Budget speech in Dec 06, he said "In the current market situation, any stamp duty cuts would more likely than not be incorporated into the sale price and so end up in the pocket of the seller." It would appear that its the Government that will get the money in its pocket, and just as the SSIA's  begin to mature.

A further ironic aspect to this is the fact that the Government has been telling us that you should be providing for your retirement by making pension contributions. To that end they provide you will generous tax deductions at the marginal rate, should you be paying tax at that rate, as property has historically being a very good element of any investment portfolio many people have held houses which they would expect to increase in value over the long term and thereby provide them with additional income in retirement, and thereby reducing their dependency on the state.

As always it would appear that if you show any willingness to provide for your family's future, the taxman cometh, and the taxman taketh away.

When the Big Idea was on Sky One I was'nt a fan. However if life teaches you one thing is always expect the unexpected. During the programme there were many featured "inventions" that were trying to win the first prize of £100,000. Needless to say some of the ideas were naff and some of the ideas were very naff. One "invention" was the Splash Proof Keyboard, which I must admit, I thought very naff, but true to form I found a market for it.

My daughter is ill at the moment with a "tummy bug" accompanied with all the usual explostions that accompany this ailment. As she is out of school and bored she was spending time online playing games on www.CBBC.co.uk. I was elsewhere doing something when the cry came "Daddy I'm being sick, again", and being a good girl she was'nt lying. When I arrived at the study door, there it was the keyboard immersed in "sick".I have attempted to clean it but it just does'nt look or smell the same, luckily I had a spare.

The lesson for all of us here is that if you see an invention that you feel is a little naff and uncommercial, bear in mind that sometime in the future you may be confronted with a situation when you recall a product/service that you wished you had now.

I wonder if that lad went into production with his idea, I might buy a few for spares if I can find him.

It has been reported that Donald Trumps flag pole is too big for Florida. Apparently Donald's pole is some 42 feet bigger (lucky bast@#d) than what the people of Palm Beach would like to see. To this end Mr Trump, "the property mogul" is being fined $1250 per day, for everyday that he leaves his pole erected,and he is countersuing to the sum of $25 million. Donald does'nt do things by half.

Mr Trump has protested that its his constitutional right to have any size pole, and he is only exercising this freedom of speech, which I believe is Article 1 of the American Constitution.

We all know that the people of Florida, or Fla.,are like when it comes to seeing what they want to see, and what they actually see. I refer you to the Presidential election when George Bush stole the election from Al Gore due to the "shag's" on the voting forms being complete or otherwise.Couple this with the fact that so many people in Dade County were removed from the register due to the fact that they were either "black or hispanic" or were not going to vote for George Bush, the brother of Fla's Governor Jeb Bush.

To me it would appear that the "powerful" in Florida like small thing's and are a little uncomfortable when someone arrives with something bigger. I am surprised that Mickey Mouse with his oversized ears and Goofy are even allowed to perform in Disneyland, Orlando.

If there is one thing that really annoys the shite in me its people,who are clearly able bodied, parking in Disabled parking slots. Its disgusting, over the last number of weeks the amount of people that I have observed abusing such facilities just infuriates me. Its not that the sign is small, indeed some of the slots have a sign on the floor of the parking bay and another on a pole directly ahead of the driver.

Why can't local authorites do something about this,  I witnessed two seperate incidents that will highlight the basic lack of manners of people. Again not all do this, but there is a significant number who simply have no respect for others, a mini-bus containing people with special needs went to park in the disabled parking bay only to find it occupied by a three "lads" having their lunch, the driver went to the window and ask the driver of the car to move, I overheard this and he was calm and polite, the three "lads" got out of the car a verbally abused him, telling him to " f*&k off and park the spa##ics somewhere else" saying "it was their taxes paying for the care of them people", "them people, not the most intelligent human in the world. I was stunned and went to the driver and told him to complain to the police, he replied "I'm used to it".

The other day there was a car again with an able bodied driver in it, I knew the person to see, reversing into the bay being directed by another person and this at 1.30pm in the afternoon. And to finish off, the local council has two more disabled parking bays which it uses to "house" two huge bins, so even if they were,nt occupied, they would be useless anyway as wheelchairs simply would'nt be able to squeeze through.

I dunno, have we become that crass and intolerent of those that need help?. I seem to remember a guy by the name of Adolf Hitler, tried to correct "them people" by exterminating them. It looks as if we have'nt learnt a lot over the passed 60 years.

Tesco, the WalMart of grocery shopping in the UK and Ireland, has announced that its going to build homes for its staff to combat the dearth of affordable houses in many of the major cities, in which it operates. In Britian its to build 250 flats alongside its Streatham store in London, which it will allocate 100 will be in the "affordable category" and 13 will be allocated to staff. Tesco has also lodged a planning application to Dublin City Council to build a similar scheme in Sandymount, Dublin 4. Its unclear at the moment if any of these units will be allocated to staff.

All this looks very nice from the outside, especially if you are one of those who finds getting onto the property ladder almost impossible. But really what would such a move mean?. Yes, on the plus side people will have a place which they could call home, but would living over your place of work be a healthy style of working?. I have a image of a young couple both working in Tesco's being lucky to be allocated one of these flats, working, buying,and borrowing, from Tesco. I suppose they could be named the "Tescoites" and live in a similar way those who lived in Stalins "gualag's". Consider what kind of "work life balance" would be afforded to the "Tescoites", there you are lying in bed at 3am and a message comes over the "Tesco" intercom, "we are low on bread, get up a fill the shelves", this would be really annoying if at 3am you were indulging in other activites in bed.

What happens if you leave your employment, do you also leave your flat?. Will there be some clause in your purchase contract that due to the fact that the flat was sold to you below market price,if you will leave you must sell it back to Tesco at a price below the "market value"?.

I suppose the days of Grocers selling groceries are lost for-ever but the march into "Property Development" just seems a step to far.It would be far better for Tesco to ensure that the shelves in its stores are full when one goes and does their shopping.

Perhaps George Orwell was'nt to far from the mark after all.....

The debate surrounding the racist remarks allegedly passed by members of the "Big Brother House" against Shilpa Shetty, the very beautiful Shilpa I feel it has to be said, will no doubt be covered by thousands of blogs around the globe.

What really annoys me about this affair, is the speed at which the British Prime Minister Tony Blair,and "The Virtual British Prime Minister" ,as described by the BBC, Gordon Brown have commented on the affair. The affair has reached the floor of the Houses of Parliment during Prime Minister's questions yesterday,when Tony Blair answered a question posed by one of his backbenchers Mr Keith Vaz MP. Gordon Brown, presently on a tour of India, was also quick to respond, which I suppose is understandable as people in India are'nt overly impressed with the goings on, and he is walking around the place,smiling and pressing the flesh.

But contrast this with the lenght of time that it took Tony Blair to comment on the execution of Saddam Hussein, and the leaking of video of the same execution. Indeed contrast the speed of his response on this matter to any of the more contentious issues that have arisen over the last 4 or 5 years. Any of these matters, either from the Saudi Arms inquiry or the search for "Weapons of Mass Destruction" in Iraq and you end up asking yourself , where is the focus of these politicans?

D'ont get me wrong I totally against all sorts of racism and the demeaning of anybody, politicans and everyone should speak out and condemn such remarks, but should such matters get precedent over more serious political matters?

Its a pity that other Government agencies everywhere would respond with such speed, it would make life a little less stressful.Are you listening HMRC?

When I was a child, and that was'nt yesterday, when my parents asked me if I had any notes from the teacher, it usually meant that if I had I was in trouble. As my own children now are attending school I have kept this time honoured tradition up. I must admit though what I was expecting from such notes was something along the lines of  my little boy had kicked another little boy in the "hows you fathers" during break and the teacher together with the other boys parents would like a "little chat".

No those days seem to be gone forever, the notes that my children come home with, and both of them are in the same school for now,are essentially free advertising for the numerous "after school activities that are available" from the many commerical companies providing these services. They range from painting clubs, science clubs to dancing clubs, and the cost of these can range from €60 to €120 depending on the club.Add to this the book fair where you child will buy a book for a minimum of €10.

I am really annoyed by this ,not only are the companies getting a nice distribution channel but they are exploiting the children. I cannot comment if the school is gaining anything from this,as I d'ont know, but irrespective of that look at the pressure that this puts parents under. Your child asks if they can go ,if you say no all hell will break loose,with them accusing you of being a "Mean Daddy". And what about those parents that simply cannot afford these extra's, it simply add stress to already stressful life.

It also must be a distraction for the teachers having to remember to hand out this material during the day, thereby having to disrupt the teaching process, which can only mean that its our children will suffer from "bity" teaching.They are employed to teach not to be a part of a commercial concern, allow them to do their job.

Surely this has to stop, and I for one think its deplorable. If it the case that the school has to do this for financial reasons then shame on you Department of Education

During this appalling 2 months of continious rain and wind, getting your children out and about is a hit and miss situation. You essentially avail of any opportunity to get then out to get some air. Over the last two mornings the weather has been reasonable and I decided to walk them to school as it would be good for them.

During the walks I was shocked and really annoyed by the amount of dog shite that is lying in wait for every unsuspecting parent, child and parent pushing buggies and prams.I do not see dogs roaming freely around where I live during the day time and I d'ont see many dogs roaming freely at night time either. I have noticed people walking their dogs which makes me arrive at the conclusion that the dog owners are not picking up the shite after "fluffy" lets one go,(about the size of a carrot).

Just to clarify not all dog owners are this irresponsible but evidence would suggest that there are a few out there that are happy turning away whilst the business is being done.I thought this was an offence,is it?. If it is how would it be enforced?. I suppose the only way that this would stop is for the dog owners to act responsibly and pick up the shite.

I can see it now you confront someone and say "that will cost you €100" to that they'll probably reply "You can have it for nothing"

Reading Richard Currans excellent column "The Inquisitor" in yesterdays Sunday Business Post (www.sbpost.ie) got me really annoyed for two different reasons.

Firstly, I promised myself that I would investigate the credibilty of the 34% increase in early December after reading in the Financial Times (www.FT.com) that at one stage during trading on the commodity markets the wholesale price for Natural was actually trading in minus for a few milliseconds such was the lack of demand. I'm sure that there was a man somewhere in Russia with a big pipe behing him full of gas with no where for it to go, which can be a cause a concern.But I simply forgot.

Secondly was that fact that here was a semi-state company making easy profits from its 34% increase while the Government and so called independent watchdogs sit quietly afraid of rocking the collective boat.

Richard Curran gives a brilliant analysis on why was Bord Gais were granted a 34%increase on October 1 2006 and will be forced to give back 10% reduction on Feburary 1 2007. The increase will give Bord Gais 123 days at the higher price reaping some €55 million in additional revenue. All this is going on while the British Wholesale price for gas is 40% less than last March and International gas prices have fallen 30% since November, all due to the very mild weather both here and across Europe. He goes onto say that even with the 10% being passed on Bord Gais will have a healthy and wealthy 21% increase in a market where prices are coming down. Sure Bord Gais will argue that they entered in ACQ's(Actual Contracted Quantities) with suppliers, but it is also Industry practice to put in place Hedges in order to minimise risk.

What Richard Curran did'nt approach was how the utility companies will attempt to "pass on" this 10% decrease to your bill.

Heres how they will do it,

Consider a household where the gas bill covers the period Jan to Feb 07. This is a period of 59 days and the bill will be issued in the first week of Mar 07. So how will the gas company know when you consumed the gas? the simple answer is that they do'nt, so what they'll do is to apportion what you used over this period over your average usage over, usually, the previous 3 months, which by the way will contain Christmas and the extra usage that normally comes with this time of the year. So should you be the luckly one to spend 3 weeks in Janurary away in the sun and return to a severe cold snap in Feburary it w'ont matter that a majority of your usage will be in Feburary, when it should be cheaper, will be charged at the inflated price for 31days out of the 59.

This is how they have done it in the past and its how they will do it this time. But for heavens sake they only check your meter 3 times a year anyway, using estimates for the other bills, this would work fine in times of stable prices but alas I feel those days are gone.

So not only do they get a nice big cake they will ensure that they have cream and a cherry on top as well.Even if this works out at an average of say €5 per household this is a nice additional €2.7m of free money, that you and I will pay.

Nice Cherry...

As a parent I organise and allow my children to attend birthday parties, which by the way appear to be weekly. I was astonished to read in yesterdays Observer(www.observer.co.uk) that some birthday parties in the UK are costing from £20,000 to £250,000.

The article quotes Caroline Hurley, director of Quintessentially Events who organised these events, "We also installed a giant gobstopper pond as well as circus games,a miniature bumper-car track and a carousel". Add to this a Willy Wonka and his troupe of oompa-loompas, the cost came to £20,000 for children and parents, who by the way were sipping champagne and eating canapes.

Ms Hurley goes onto say that spending £50,000 on childrens birthdays is not uncommon, and mentions that one parent actually spent £250,000 on one birthday so that a well known singer sings happy birthday to a 13-year-old girl.

Now, what people do with their money is up to them, but should ones child get invited to such a "event" what would you bring as a present?. I have a feeling that the Darth Vader Light Saber (£20) might look a little cheap laid next to the miniature Ferrari.

It also mentions that parents who do not agree with this or find the budget a stretch are still being sucked in putting on more lavish parties in a game of one-upmanship.There has been an upsurge in companies who specialise in exotic creatures doing 8 to 10 parties a weekend, providing amoung other things pythons for the children to play with. Now I am no snake expert but should one of these not get fed prior to being dispatched the consequences could prove messy.

One woman who had enough decided to go to France in order to avoid holding a birthday party for her child.Scary indeed.

All of a sudden the few bob that I have been putting away for my childrens education and future now looks inadequate.

The BBC is showing some of these findings over the next six weeks in a programme entitled The Madness of Modern Parenting starting to-morrow. Christ watching this will really cheer me up.

Oh Dear....

During my reading of yesterdays Sunday Newspapers(www.sbpost.ie) I came accross an interesting story regarding the introduction of a baggage handling charge by Aer Lingus. This charge will be either be €4 per bag if the happy traveller books his/her bag at the time of booking his/her flight, otherwise they will have to pay €8 per bag if they decide to book in their luggage when they arrive at the airport.That should make planning what to bring on holidays more fun.

Is it me or has Aer Lingus began to morph into Ryanair?

Further to the new charges Aer Lingus have guaranteed a minimum payment to check in staff of €1000 in the first year. Additionally for every €8 that you and I hand over per bag the happy check-in clerk will receive a 80c (or 10%) commission per bag. So when this happens to you, be gracious and happy in the knowledge that when the check-in clerk smiles and speaks to you pleasantly d'ont forget you are paying for that smile.

Ryanairs hostile take over bid for Aer Lingus was greeted by unions, workers, management and indeed the Government with as much enthusiasm as getting your teeth extracted without anaesthetic, citing the lack of competition in the market place as the main reason for opposing the takeover.It now needs to be asked what competition do we have now? at least with Ryanair you know there is a fair chance of the journey being terrible.

And what of the unions and the socialist/marxist philosophies? it seems to me that this is the style of marxism that Stalin enjoyed ie we are all equal but some are more equal than others.It would appear to me that the unions, and not the management of AerLingus, are running AerLingus, no wonder they opposed the takeover.

As I prepared to go to bed last night, I felt a little hunger pang and decided to make myself a snack before attempting to get some sleep in my daughters "Princess" bed ( the weather is'nt great at the moment so I am consigned to the front of the house,whilst she takes my place in my bed at the back of the house).

I went to the kitchen and looked around for something that would'nt be to heavy but would satisfy my hunger.After a few minutes of searching I spotted the trusted "Jacobs Cream Crackers" and knowing that there would be "Calvita Cheese" in the fridge, to me the perfect snack. I made 4 but like "Pringles" once you start you c'ant stop and decide to have another 4. Once I finished and swept up the crumbs I headed off to bed,hunger gone.

Well I saw every half hour up to and including 3.30am. I have heard that eating cheese late at night would disturb your sleep, but thought that this was an old wives tale, apparently its not.

I wonder if Jacobs and Calvita would put a warning on the wrapping similar to those warnings that are on cigerettes stating that "eating this product post 10pm will or could lead to Insomnia".Its similar to the movie "Gremlins" where feeding the little cuddly creatures would have terrible effects

I have just spent the afternoon carrying out a bit of research for a few things that I hope to be involved in, in the near future. One part of this research was studying Googles annual/quarterly financial figures, if you feel compelled www.finance.google.com is simply superb for this. Not only were they easily brought into excel but they were easily understood and easy to follow. Add to this the way they have written the Company's history in clear and simple english is refreshing to the say the least. Its a pity that other plc's d'ont follow this path.

Compare this with reading a simple piece of 1997 legislation on prompt payments and you have to ask yourself, who actually writes this stuff. It took me a considerable time to firstly read it and then extract the pieces that will be relevant to me. The legislation was 20 pages long which I managed to compress to one A4 page of key points.

No wonder small and medium business are struggling, if they dont have the resource to clearly explain what is concerned in either legislation or regulations, they need to employ outside resources at a price. Perhaps little simple summaries would be a start along this road.

Just a note to all of you out there reading the excellent content that all of the bloggers on this site have given you over the last six months.

WE NOW NEED SOMETHING FROM YOU AND ITS FREE TO GIVE IT

If you like what you see why not nominate one or all of us for the "Irish Blog Awards". Go to www.awards.ie/nominations and nominate in the various categories that are available.I believe that I have recieved one nomination already in the Best Newcomer category, but I will allow you make up your own mind. Dont forget "Mark" and "Blondie" as well. Unfortunately "Tore Hund" and "Shoes" are'nt eligible but the more nominations we recieve the more people will read and the more reallyannoyings##t we can cleanse from our daily lives

So vote today its free. Closing date is the end of Jan 2007

Thanks

Blacksheep

Before I begin this I need to point out that I nor any other member of my family is affilliated to any Irish Political Party.

Pat Rabbitte the leader of the Labour Party in Ireland has declared today that the Irish economy is doomed. This is spite of the fact that we have record employment and the government recorded a €5billion surplus in 2006, (which I assume will be used to ferry rural drinkers to pubs).

Apparently according to "The Rabbit" the States balance of payments deficit is at present €13billion and will rise to €21billion by the time "this self-satisfied coalition leaves office".

First point to "The Rabbit" is that the reason why we import more goods and services is because producing such goods in Ireland is to expensive, and we as consumers would like to buy things at a reasonable price.If I am not mistaken "The Rabbit " is a strong supporter of the minimum wage of €8.25 in Ireland. So could I suggest that if he would like this deficit to reduce that he proposes to reduce the mininmum wage so that cost of production and therefore selling prices would also reduce.

Secondly could I suggest that "The Rabbit" explore a bit of "self-satisfaction" for himself as this may clear his head.

"The Rabbit" went on to criticise former Taoisigh Jack Lynch and Charles Haughey, what ever you think of these two men and their politics is a matter for you, but to criticise two men who are dead and unable to reply is pretty low even for a rabbit. I should also point out to "The Rabbit" that Ireland is a very different place in 2007 than it was in the 1970's and 1980's.

Perhaps "The Rabbit" was caught in the headlights of a passing minibus on its way to the pub when he penned his address. Can I suggest to "The Rabbit" that the Irish electorate are an intelligent bunch and we will not be fooled into half truths and gossip when we are asked to vote in the coming election. He would be better off sitting down in his hutch and developing reasonable policies that people may vote for.

In July of this year the Irish Government introduced "Random Breath testing" on Irish Roads in an effort to stop the endless carnage and death that was happening particularly in the early hours of the morning.Since this has been introduced many rural pubs in Ireland have been closing, and I think that the figure is somewhere around 100 in 2006. It is expected that this figure will be higher in 2007. The Irish Vintiners Association has blamed the introduction of the new laws in the demise of the Irish Rural Pub, saying that people are not prepared to drink a few pints and then drive home due the higher probability of getting caught. They also dragged out the "smoking ban" again to support their claim.

From the above it would appear that the Vintiners were happy to serve drink to anyone who wanted it and then once they left there was no responsibility on them. This conjures up in my mind something like "well I did'nt give him/her the gun, but I loaned him a few bullets, what was done with those bullets is nothing to do with me".

Now a Government Minister Eamon O Cuiv has announced that the Department of Transport is considering extending the rural bus service to later at night in order to facilitate bringing rural drinkers to the pub for a few pints and a chat.

He said it could be extended further in the evenings for a "modest sum of money".

I find this unbelieveable, here we are in a society that drink is taken in huge amounts causing injury, death, damage to lives and families and this muppet Government is drawing up plans to bus people around that countryside so that they can go for a few pints and chat and line the pockets of the local friendly publician.

Why can't the pubs adapt to the change in the market, every other business that I have being involved with has to change and adapt in order to continue in business. No not the Vintiners, they are special if they are losing customers its the Government who will introduce measures to bring the customers to it. It should be noted at this point that this is the same Government that basically told BUPA to "feck off " or operate in the market that was there, why can't the Government turn around to the Vintiners and tell them "feck off"?. The reason is that there is a General Election in May of this year and there are a lot of votes to be had in rural Ireland and these votes are very important at present as the election will be close.

Another thing what defines "a modest sum of money"? will we ever get an answer? I doubt it, so you and me, the taxpayer, can look at the money that the Government takes from us and be content in the knowledge that rather than been spent on Health or Roads etc its going to be spent on minibuses up and down the country ferrying locals to the pub. Its only when you right this down to realise how feckin annoying this is.

Of course the government has denied that it is encouraging drinking, but if you are paying or subsidising the transport of people to pubs what are you doing? If the people are drinking lemonade they d'ont need the bus.

If the argument is that this will help people to socialise why d'ont the people organise for one person to drive and rotate this on a weekly basis?

Finally will the bus stop for chips on the way home and if so will the government issue all the merry bus passengers with a voucher for a bag of chips and a carton of mushy peas to round of a perfect evening?

Being a parent is one of those jobs is life that comes without instruction. You muddle your way through it on a daily or sometimes an hourly basis, hoping that you have done the best job for your child or children and hope that you have provided them with the basis of living a happy and fulfilling lives.

I was really annoyed watching the 24 hour news channels today when they were reporting that Ruth Kelly, I think former Education Secetary, had spent £15,000 to put her little boy who has special needs into a private school, so that he may also lead a fulfilling life. It was reported that there were members of the Labour Party in Britian were furious that Ms Kelly took this action.

I appreciate that not everyone has £15,000 and that there are thousands of people in this world who simply struggle with bureaucracy in many forms when they are trying to get help for their children that requires special needs.But for a group of backbenchers of her own party to criticise a mother for doing the right thing for her child to me is disgraceful and small minded. If the Tories decide to make political hay from this then they should be told to hold their heads in shame.

Perhaps the leaders of all political parties could stop the postering and sit around and help those parents that need the help today as opposed to talking sh##e. If we have come to this level of political debate and intrusion into peoples lives then we must ask if democracy is working?

P.S. I am so annoyed with this I felt that I need to say something else.(22.21pm)

Would'nt it be nice if the so called "elected members" of our respective parliaments could actually jettison self actualisation and actually review the needs of their electorate, then there maybe no need for Ruth Kelly or anyone else for that matter, who does'nt have the money,to have to stump up the cash to give their beloved children and loved ones, with special needs a dignified life, not to mention the countless silent carers who spend much of their time fighting the political system.

If there are any politicans reading this I enclose a simply definition to ease your transformation to being worthy of honour.

Dignity "the state or quality of being worthy of honour"

The other reallyannoying thing here is that we have the franchise, its time that we use that franchise to explicity tell those who can change this "do it or feck off". If enough of us put some reallyannoyingshit on their doorstep I bet you they will start treading more carefully and in a small way the change may begin.