I, at the time of setting-up the Gosportinfo Blog I created another 'Money Whinge' for me to put all the things that annoy me, to do with finance and News reports. I know they try to make the items, interesting, entertaining and easy to understand, but feel that some important information is lost. I have put my feelings in these, though as the items were prepared December 2006 to April 2007 they maybe a little out of date, but I will update the items where I can, after that I will close the 'Money Whinge' blog and continue with my 'rants' on the 'Gosportinfo' blog.
Endowment Mortgages
I know a lot has been said about endowment shortfalls, but I would like to add my personal experience, when applying for a mortgage in 1984.
I went to what was then the Abbey National Building Society and they did try to get me to take out an Endowment Mortgage, but I thought it was not suitable to me. I was 25 and single, I also felt that as the tax relief was going down there would be less of a benefit paying interest only. They tried the,' but you could expect £10,000 (on a £15,000 mortgage), I did not think £10,000 would be worth very much after 25 years, as it is houses like mine are about 5 times the price I paid for mine 21 years ago.
I also said I wanted to be sure that the house would be paid off after the 25 years at the latest, the mortgage adviser did not seem to understand that it could be a problem, she also said that if I had wanted a 75% or higher mortgage, there would be no option with them. At that time people tended to take a mortgage with the Building Society that they saved with, the Building Societies even used to say you had a better chance of getting if you saved with them, so little shopping around. I did take a repayment mortgage with which I was able to pay off in 11 years, by paying extra after the 5 years, when a penalty would have been charged.
So how can they say any were not miss-sold when most would have just gone and taken what the Abbey National said they could have, without knowing what questions to ask. Ian
Pirate Items on the News
I will say first, that I do not approve of 'Pirating' items, even to the extent that people get annoyed with me over not accepting things.
The thing that annoys me it the figures given on the News etc. for the amount lost as if people would be able to buy the same number of items if only available at the full price. For example there was a News items about computer games in markets, at a time when the were £40 plus, in the market the pirate version was £5 and people were buying say 3 at a time. They seems to have calculated a loss to the business in that case of £120, but if they had that much money would they buy only 3 of the £5 ones?
Another annoyance, was the CD Wow thing where they charged an additional amount for CDs obtained outside the EEC. The business and band maybe from the UK, but they are happy to do the recording abroad, printing of the discs and covers in Southern Europe, producing the discs in Asia. They sell in these places at a lower rate (even the USA) but they do not like it if we buy from the best value place. They say as there is a cost of research and development, but why should the UK be the only place that pays for this. Even if it is a British band, if someone from overseas enjoys the music they should also pay their share of R & D.
I know some US states tried to charge Banks which had branches in the State, the worldwide profits to the States taxes. Perhaps the UK should charge UK companies to worldwide profits based on the price they would have charged for their goods in the UK. Perhaps they would do more of the production in the UK or reduce UK prices, OK it would not work. Ian
Recycling and Bin Charges
If there was a charge it may encourage more to put the glass in the bin, I go past the Whites Place bin and at least 3 times this year at least one section of the bin is full, so there are boxes and bags of bottles, piled around the bin. How many more bins or times a year would Gosport need to empty the bins. Of course this also answers the criticism of Gosport made by local papers and politicians, as I could see if we were as bad as they say there would be a risk of someone breaking the bottles around the car park, would the Council be responsible for any damage? I feel I could point this out as only a month or so ago I e-mailed the Council about the full bin, even then it was a couple of weeks before it was emptied.
The Gosport recycling does seem to cause some confusion. I understand in some areas letters are put through the door. The people who receive them see them as threats. I do some gardening including some bungalows in the Elson/ Hardway area, an elderly lady received one of these letters, as she was sorting out the recycling items and putting the different types in different carrier bags, she thought that she was helping, but the Council were not happy as the plastic bags were in the bin. She said that,'they will have to sort it themselves'. Which is I suppose what the Council want. The authorities talk about recycling of the past, but do not seem to want to look at how it was done then. Even I remember the recycling of 'tin foil' - aluminium foil, I think most of the 'Guide Dogs for the Blind' were paid for by it. I also feel it is odd that household batteries are not recycled, as I understand they contain metals, some of which I understand, have a value others are toxic, so should they be buried or burnt? Ian
Charity or Pressure Group
I understand a charity called Alcohol Concern is saying (according to the BBC) the age when alcohol should not be given to children under any circumstances should be increased to 15, from 5 now.
I understand the Grip Water given when I was young had 4% alcohol and shandy under 2% was sold with the soft drinks in my local Co-Op. I may have this wrong as it is memories from many years ago.
I understand that some give a small drink to children or with water at special occasions so as not to make a big deal out of drinking. I am sure this works with some and not others, but this is probably the case with whatever you do. I understand that the Minister said it would be very difficult to police, though you wonder about some of these groups, do they want every second of every person watched, perhaps we do not have enough CCTV cameras, which in some cases are fine, but footage should only be used where a crime has been committed. They also want the price to go up, well that will give the Government more money to waste, or perhaps they think the extra should go to groups such as theirs.
In the past I made home-made wine and a bit of beer, but with the reduction in prices and my other interests this has stopped and I feel more did make wine and beer at home in the past, so is it just the measurable amount of alcohol (that bought) that has gone up but overall gone down. Not all home-made came from kits and who know what kits were made and how many failed. So are their statistic correct. After all at school I was told the oil in the North Sea would run out in the 1990's and in 1985 by the year 2000 there would be 2,000,000 who were HIV+ and 1,000,000 dead, the insurance companies excuse for increasing male life insurance premiums by about 50%.
Anyway, what I wonder is, has this charity over stepped the mark and become a pressure group not entitled to tax exempt status? I understand there are organisations that are classed as pressure groups as they lobby for a change in the law. I hear charities doing the same thing but they keep their charitable status and so are subsidised by the British Tax Payer.
When a charity as with any organisation anything said is only being said by a proportion of that group, usually the stronger character types from the organising committee. Ian.
