coldel

What atkin said - try out a few and you will soon see the advantages of driving a Zed which doesnt break on a test drive vs one that does. Personally, if a car failed on a test drive you wouldn't see me for dust - if you really want to buy this one, knock at least a grand off to account for the cost of potential repairs. Like Dannyboy, clutch went on mine 2k after buying it, £700 out of my pocket straight away. Given your situation, house buying and all that, I would go for the full history option on the forum over buying blind from a dealer every time.

Go for it...don't worry, just when you need the bits to repair it

Just get one that works I say...like Ekona said, god knows what else is wrong with it if its got lights lit and engine is misfiring and the dealer couldnt be ar$ed to sort it out. You can always buy a decent exhaust and put it on a car with no engine issues

...but you dont need a degree to dunk doughnuts...market research is an average pay private sector job, teaching is probably average if not higher paid public sector job...huhhh, give up, like I said, I am out, definitely.

Without banging my drum having done my own research on the subject and not gleaning it from the media or my own bitter experience, I can categorically state that a graduate going into market research (my current industry and by no means the best paid) gets more than if they started as a teacher - this is FACT. In my last job I was recruiting grads with two years experience and the pay levels were circa £32k-£35k which is not what a teacher will be on after two years fresh out of uni. Likewise, my level, director level with 15 years experience, lets just say the 'upper bracket' teacher salary for someone who has been in the teaching game 15 years with a degree is somewhat left in the dust of what I was earning. Anyways, thats all I am going to say on the subject, I wasn't trying to change anyones mind as some people will never change their mind regardless of what other opinions are put in front of them. All I wanted to bring to this debate was that its not as cut and dried as X times Y and this country is massively relying on people genuinely loving what they do in the public sector to forego a decent private sector salary. Lots of people jump on the bandwagon that the media puts in front of them and also believe that what unions say represent the majority of what public sector people think. I just wanted to redress that bloodymindedness somewhat. And on that, Im out.

Public sector pay is already HIGHER than private sector, and has been for a while. Sorry pal, but this statement is fundamentally wrong. Refer to what I posted earlier - there are more skilled (ie degree level) jobs in public sector which makes the overall average higher than private, but you are not comparing like for like - if you compare like for like, taking a subset of each sector with identical education/experience/skills it is proven conclusively public sector is lower paid than private, this is fact and the main argument that the pensions debate centres around.

TBH, I would prefer salaries were in line and pensions completely cut, although that would probably cost the government more than it does now...

Its not bashing the public sector just because they have better pensions. Is bashing them because they, or at least the unions can't see that if they don't change the schemes, the whole thong will fall like a house of cards. And they hold the country to ransom to retain schemes which are mathematically impossible to sustain. Key point here, a lot of the comments that are anti-public sector are actually reflecting the views of trade unionists, not actual public sector workers. For most strikes, if you look at the numbers, they usually only get a turn out of circa 35% of which about 75% want to strike which in the grand scheme of things isnt a big number.

Unfortunately if everyone followed that mantra, there would be no nurses, no teachers and the like. Whenever I speak to teachers about their profession, they are so enthusiastic, they genuinely feel they make a difference and find it a really rewarding career personally, certainly moreso than in the private sector. What is sad, is that to date there has been a reliance on this behaviour to ensure that these careers are and stay filled vs actually rewarding people financially through a salary equivalent to the private sector. Its true, in the private sector you can move around due to the vast number of employers, you can leave one company and join another in the same industry and get yourself a pay rise or take a sideways step into an entirely different role - but in the public sector, say teaching for instance, the salaries are generally identical from one school to the next across the industry.

I used Halfords plate tape, holds my plate on the bumper although it does look like it is hanging on rather than properly stuck on - I considered these also glad someone has taken the plunge - are they reflective? I saw similar on ebay which claimed to be reflective?

...as I said, I want to move from Private to Public, and the salaries ARE worse in comparison. Its all good and well having an attractive pension, but I will have to live on a lower salary for the next 35 years than I could achieve in Private which will affect my ability to get a higher mortgage, support my baby as he grows and hell, even replace my ageing Zed! I am going to try and make the switch over because I have made that decision to do something better with my life - I don't intend to strike ever as its against my principles. If you look at the numbers of people voting to strike, its always pretty low, the majority of the Public sector dont want to strike (usually about a 30% turnout). As for the comment 'public sector pay on average is higher than private' unfortunately this is somewhat misguided and like a lot of the comments on here just lumping people together to come to a single conclusion. For instance, in the public sector there are a much higher percentage of jobs which are skilled (ie degree required) vs private sector, in fact if you look at those as a subset on average the public sector skilled jobs salaries are behind the private sector skilled jobs salaries. Also, the shifting make up of the jobs are completely different within each sector too, with a lot of the less skilled public jobs becoming privatised thus shifting lower salaried jobs from public to private to create the fact mentioned. The important fact is that public sector, skilled, degree level roles are paid at a lower rate than private sector - this is what I mean by equalising pay based on Skills, Experience and Education - it is not simply a straight uplift applied across the board therefore the average pay of private vs public is irrelevant.

OK so everyone works in the private sector and then there is a substandard education, health etc etc service as no one of any decent standard works public - which in turn no doubt everyone would in a heart beat complain about. I spent a year in the civil service years ago and have seen gross wastage of people and money, in the same way I saw it in private also. But, when you look at careers like teaching, policing, health, actually it is something people want to do as a career which you cant really get in private sector - I am thinking of switching from private to public sector because in all honesty, I find my career in the private sector quite soulless and unfulfilling - the salary drop is going to be enormous and I will NEVER earn in public sector what I have earn't in the private sector. The only way to solve the whole debate is that public sector pay comes into line with private sector pay for peoples experience, education and skill sets and then equalise pensions then there is no argument. Personally, I still struggle with the whole pension thing, on the one hand you have to accept market conditions and its unaffordable but on the other it doesn't bode well for the country that we make careers like teaching are made less attractive, therefore less talented teachers, therefore poorer people coming through the system - the dangers of over reliance on simply talking numbers all the time is that you miss out the more subtle things.

This has been done a number of times...do a search - was a good thread called something like 'songs to lose your licence to'

Am looking at it, and Germany look so good. Better than Spain. Although great the Greeks got another goal!

Will avoid the boring answer... ...I dont have a set artist - have various songs mostly eighties/nineties!

But the decision are made when the ball is out of play...of which it often is. Got to say, that Greek goalkeeper is SHOCKING

Actually, football is anything but non-stop. There are stats kicking around (scuse the pun) that show that for around 35-40 minutes of a 90 minute match the ball is actually dead and not in play.

Why get a jetpack when you got a Zed

Bizarre game so far - Germany should be 8-0 up but you get the feeling Greece will score first! Getting annoyed with all the camera shutter noises in the background though

Have a quick search, this has come up a few times I remember

It could be worse guys...when I was in Japan a colleague developed pneumonia and had to take a week off, which of course came out of his leave entitlement as per the rules. He only had three days leave left so he had to come into the office for two days whilst he had pneumonia...

...is it central? ;-)

The worst Graham mate! Not wanting to spend any more silly money so looking for small cheap mods at the moment!

Yes the issue of pensions is getting daft, wanting to keep to terms (which in fairness was agreed) but are completely unrealistic in this new financial environment. If you look at the voting on all these issues though its usually about 25% of the public workforce voting for strikes etc but the unions are bullies, Rich for example might have some views on striking, or not as the case may be. But the point is, one does need the other.