QE bad for Pensioners

Again it shows that this government does not care about pensioners now and to be. We are the SAVERS not the spenders we built this country up and GB/TB bankrupted it.

Cleggy wants a special get-out-of-jail tax, but they'just took 5p off the top rate giving millions to the better off whilst pensioners get by on their savings having to dip in to make ends meet not to mention the paltry interest rates o n top of which they pay 20% tax!

Remember GB when he took away the 10% rate and gave £300 to all better off taxpayers? What they should do is put 1p on income tax - fair on all.

Raise the allowance to £10000 as promised, that way the better off pay their fair share to get the economy back on its feet.

Oh, and while he's at it take tax off interest for all pensioners up to £10000 a year. What has he to lose, they pay 20% on 2% that 40p tax in every £2 of interest, NOW so any gain on 2% interest is nothing lost.

A Level results

When will they understand that if Universities skew their entrance criteria to "favour" candidates from "poorer" areas it doesn't help.

If they get on a course with poorer results it just means that they are less able. It should be a level playing field for all. Entrance purely on merit what ever your background.

By all means give grants/bursaries to the less well off but no more.

Letting the less able onto a course just means that they'll not be able to achieve as much even flunk out so what good was that?

Government - the Grammar schools do it not the Comprehensives we need the BEST education so get to it  - bring back FREE grammar Schools.

Independence for Yorkshire

Yorkshire-based athletes are counted then the historic county's seven golds and total haul of a dozen medals would put it 12th on the global table were it an independent nation - a feat quickly trumpeted in adverts for tea brand Yorkshire Gold.

Up the Tykes!!

Teaching kids programming

Kids today love their gadgets, computers and smartphones but do they understand how they work?

I agree it would be ideal to get children to understand how computers etc. work but it just is not going to happen. I also agree that we've got to embrace the information age and "social media" not fight it but children need to learn the discipline of frittering time away on Facebook and twitter. They do need to learn.

How? I know my 2 year old grand daughter can use an iPAD better than me to play games and watch Postman Pat but is she learning? Yes. Later on using the technology will be intuitive to her so then she can move on to learning. Its technological evolution. The teachers just haven't caught up.

Think, how would you explain Televison or the internet to Isambard Kingdom Brunel? Our most brilliant engineer of all time. He was building things with unheard of technology in his time. Even he couldn't explain how it worked he just DID IT! 

That's what kids will do with new technolgy of the 21st century. Don't fight it, EMBRACE it.

BBC Olympics

Must congratulate all our Team GB athletes,

Special mention must go to the BBC for excellent coverage, Just one point, would have liked access to a replay on the medal winning performances.

Why can’t you make a phone call (or send an SMS) from an iPad?

So why can't you do the above, Why can’t you make a phone call (or send an SMS) from an iPad?

More to the point why couldn’t this all be amalgamated into one phone bill (with bolt on users) just like adding mailboxes, and WHY do we actually need phone numbers? Do your friends call you 01533 654675? No, we all have email addresses, or Facebook names.

Anyone (as old as me) remember when phones had “ABC” “DEF” etc. on the numbers on the dial so you could do you STD dialling via the “Name” of the exchange? So why can’t we go to something similar? You type in “google” and it takes you to www.google.co.uk or “BBC news”, so we know that the internet is clever enough to use “names” when we all know it uses IP Addresses. So why not “Map” your email address (or dare I suggest Facebook name” ) to your Mobile phone via your BT/TalkTalk account.

So then when you want to call someone you just type in their “Name”.

Wow. This could be a true innovation. What do I know though – lets check in 10years time.

I am old enough to remember in the 80's when we still had 405 lines TV there was a very expensive thing called Prestel which gave your TV (very expensive) access to a "teletext" like service via a special phone connection (ISDN then), that was Interactive! Whoooo! At the time I predicted "everybody will one day be able to communicate to the world via their TV and receive TV on demand from the phone line" - was I right?

Peugeot 208 - Jeremy Clarkson

I don't normally like Jeremy Clarkson, despite him coming from near my home town Doncaster.

I know he's opinionated (so am I) and he does it for publicity (I don't like that), but his article in yesterdays Sunday Times rang true to me. He talked about building his HiFi, I did so too.

When I was at Uni in the late '70's I banked my Grant Cheque and thought "what could I buy now I have money?". No thought of how I could live for the next 3 months. £200 seemed like I'd won the lottery. Any way sense prevailed and I managed. I listened to my "mono" Pye, radio cassette recorder and even rigged up an external speaker, which I built myself from an old quality radio speaker and built its case myself from thick plywood, to supplement the sound quality via the "ext" socket. Remember those days you had a choice of Mono or Stereo LPs. Stereo was the Blu-Ray of the day.
Any way as time passed I realised that decent sound was an essential for student life holed up in my hall of residence "cell". So I formed a plan. First some speakers - a Wharfedale kit! I got them and over the summer hols built the cabinets myself from "chipboard" . I connected them to the home "stereo" and vastly improved the sound quality of the "bush" radio-gram.

In the 3rd year I planned to buy an amp and a deck, for my flat  So there it began. My hi-fi system. Pioneer PL514 belt drive deck, Sure M75ED cartridge, Trio amp, (30 watts RMS per channel). I took back my Wharfedale speakers and left the Bush back with the original speakers.

Now I could sit back and listen to my Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Roxy Music and Simon and Garfunkel LPs in glorious stereo HiFi. With little rumble or hiss, or Wow and Flutter. This was all essential in the 70's.

Next I added a tape deck, Sharp. Metal capable of course.
This system has followed us around (through my marraige and various homes) like our "first child". It was years before I added the always wanted, Tuner (Denon). Then in the 90's CD's were dominant and so a CD player had to be added, Technics.  Funny there are only so many "phono" plug sockets built into the Trio amp, but it does the job - enough is OK. 

Then at our 25th wedding anniversary. Disaster. After  great night something was wrong - the sound was gone. Luckily not the amp but the old faithful Wharfedales had blown. So they were replaced with some 100watt Missions. My, how technology has changed. A new life in the old system. Maybe we'll get another 25years?

Oh, and by the way I like the Peugeot 206 best Jeremy.

Helen Skelton

Why do people have to say vile and nasty things about anyone who doesn't deserve it?

Helen Skelton is a loveley girl and what harm has she done to anyone? She has worked tirelessly for charity and doesn't deserve this. Why should she have to say
"Turns out I don't have very thick skin after all so I am closing my twitter account. Enjoy the games. Signing off, skelts x"


These low lifes that have nothing better to do need some suffering themselves and maybe they might appreciate the good things in life that we are thankful for.


There are some truly evil people in this world who deserve what they (should)  get.

Bicycle Helmets

I wholeheartedly and absolutely support Bradley Wiggins in his campaign for compulsory bicycle helmets.


My son had an accident on his bike with a car when he was 14. If he had not been wearing a helmet he would not be here now!