VAT cut - its not to help the average person!

I think that the proposed cut in the VAT rate from 17.5% to 15% is a pointless exercise. Its not been clearly thought out and won't really help those at the lower end of the income scale anyway.

Will the high street really pass the VAT cut on????

Most high street retailers pick price points i.e. they pick prices that appeal to the public, at a price they think the public will be ready to pay i.e £9.99, £10, £15 etc etc - they don't think..... I'll sell this for £x plus VAT!

Do you really think that most retailers will sell a £9.99 product for £9.77 or a £25 product for £24.47 after the rate has been cut?

The answer is NO - most will stick to the price points that have already been identified as attractive to consumers.

If a retailer has identified that it can sell its product for £10 then they will keep the price at £10 and pocket the difference (23p). That might not seem like a lot for the average perosn - but actually it amounts to billions in the pockets of the businesses.

Retailers are more than capable of changing the total cost (inc VAT) as necessary i.e £5 off in order to have attractive price points.

Before you say that I'm being cynical - I thik that retailers have already shown that they are ready to exploit loopholes to keep as much money in their pockets as possible

http://images.vnunet.com/v6_static/oracle/pdf/fd/nov_vat_fdbrief.pdf

No I think the savvy retailer will simply pocket the difference in order to bump up its own profits!

The only way to truly test this is for someone to keep a track of all prices pre and post the cut - but no one is really goingto do this now are they!

Will it make a difference??????

The actuall impact in the retail price of a product will be just over 2%. When a retailer has a sale they would normally slash a minimum of 10%-25% of goods to get people through the doors. Just imagine how busy the January sales would be if the offer was 2% off everything???? Not very I would guess!

In these depressing times are you going to celebrate being to save 20p off a box of chocolates or £10 of a £500 plasma tv!!!

Why

Ultimately, I think it a sound bite - "look what we've done to help the public".

I guess you're going to ask what would I do - to be honest I don't know - but this is too little, poorly targeted and pointless!

What makes it worse to my mind is that none of the mainstream media (tv, newspapers) seemed to have picked up on this pointkess exercise!

My new hobby…. (fighting back against the morons)…

Have you ever been annoyed by stupid e-mails and forwards saying rubbish like….

• forward this to a million people in a few days some random fool will send you some money…
• this kid is dying and xyz plc will give them money for a cure if you forward this e-mail…
• reply to this mail and you will get free cash…
• oh my god have you seen what these evil people are doing… forward to everyone you know to stop…
• beware of this ridiculous scam were people will steal you’re body parts…
• forward this to a million people in the next five seconds or your sad and miserable life will become even worse!!!!
• have you seen this impossible thing… it proves aliens exist….
• etc etc etc

Well I get tons of them for people who I would otherwise say are quite intelligent (although when I get these forwarded mails I sincerely doubt it!!!). To add to the ridiculous nature some of these are things that I have seen in circulation years ago…… and I’m sure you guys have to!

Well plenty of these mails are clearly fakes, spoofs etc… and as I said people who are normally quite sane end up sending me this rubbish…

Well I don’t want it and I’ve been trying to ignore it…. and no I don’t forward it on….

Don’t you imbeciles realise that these are fake just from the context (who in their right mind is going to give money away)! We live in the world of the internet (and you must be on it to read your e-mail), So pick your search engine of choice (Google, Yahoo, MSN etc etc) and look up the damn subject. And guess what you’ll find…. its all a crock of $h1t. (Their are good sites like snopes, urban myths and hoax slayer which research this crap and tell you exactly how stupid it is).

Well I woke up one day and thought enough is enough… its time to fight back against all you idiots out there…

Ideally I would like to remove the senders of these e-mails from the human gene pool with carefully placed baseball bat to the brain… but while the bleeding heart liberals are in charge its down to the next weapon in the arsenal…….

ITS TIME FOR NAME AND SHAME

Everytime I get one of these useless pieces of mail in my inbox… I look it up… then I reply to the person who sent me the offending piece of crap… but not just them, I include everyone they sent it to, and everyone in the e-mail chain… I explain how stupid the mail is and hope simple it is to spend ten seconds of their useless lives researching this stuff so they don’t waste my lives.

And guess what miraculously I don’t get any of these mails anymore… either people have seen the error of their ways (which I doubt as you’re all morons) or more likely they don’t want a barrage of e-mail abuse from me with all their nearest and dearest cc’d.

I would advise anyone who gets one of these mails to spend five minutes looking it up before blindly forwarding it… and to top it all of do a “reply all” to humiliate the sender into sending these again.

End of my first month in Libya

My first month in Libya is coming to an end - and its been very eventful so far.

I stated my job;

I've moved into my new apartment - which is fairly luxurious (pictures coming soon);

I've met lots of new people - all of whom have been friendly and helpful (both locals and ex-pats);

I've discovered the city of Tripoli (well some parts of it...actually a very small part of it... where I live (near Regatta), where I work (near Qadisiya Square), and the Souk where I was taken for a tour by a colleague.

I've been able to pray at the mosque more often as this is a Muslim country and there are mosques everywhere and its not a problem popping out of work for five/ten minutes to pray at the mosque (in the UK I never had a problem being allowed to pray at work etc - its just in Libya its easier to get to the mosque). Its also easier knowing that everything I cam eat is halal.

I've found a few groups/societies/events to keep me occupied - the hash (no its not what you think its a running event), the Caledonian society, the Royal society and the Archeological society.

And now I'm heading back to London - earlier than expected as my visa got messed up. Next month will be my first Eid in Libya.... so it should be interesting.....

Looks like I owe America an apology.....

It looks like I owe America and Americans an apology! That's 310 million people (actually its the 62,million of the 119 million who voted).

While Obama was my favoured candidate for the US presidency, and the person I thought would was best for the role, I doubted whether Americans would be free of prejudice enough, brave enough and ultimately clever enough to elect him.

I never thought that white Americans would elect a black man, I thought that the politics of fear would take over the hearts of an electorate unable to peer through the fog of lies and misinformation that was being spewn out by the media and certain sections of the campaign.

Well it takes a big man to admit he's wrong and apologise - but I'm a short-arse midgit so I won't!

But I will congratulate Obama for his victory and the American people for entering a brave new era.

I also gained a new respect for McCain (who I don't actually think would have been a bad president - its just the Republican party politics and Sarah palin that made me uneasy).

I already respected McCain for standing up to his own supporters when they were calling Obama a terrorist and evil during one of his speeches. He said that while he did not agree with Obama's politics he wasn't an bad person.

McCain said - "He's a decent, family man, a citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with (him) on fundamental issues and that's what this campaign is all about."

and

"I have to tell you, he is a decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared of as president of the United States."

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/10/11/mccain-booed-calling-obama-decent-person/

But when I read McCain's speech conceding victory - I was actually moved - it was very gracious and powerful. I actually hope there can be room for McCain in some capacity or role.

The text of the speech can be found here: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hmJfimrZW3jBur_BmaFtqj7mfFgQD948JFJG5

Obama's victory seems to have opened up some hope in world that was in turmoil only hours before. Anyway lets hope we wake up tomorrow to a better world

:)

My faith in the milk of human kindness has been restored......

Something very shocking happened to me last week..... something very unexpected.....

I was on a business trip to sunny Aberdeen (to train some colleagues in preparation for my departure to Libya in the not to distant future) ....

.....when (as usual) I managed to lose my wallet (this ranks slightly below me leaving my car/flat keys behind in a Libyan guesthouse).... with all my credit/debit cards, pictures, memory cards and personal items (but no cash as I'm am tight Yorkshireman!!)!!!

Anyway all I had to get me back to London was my passport and e-ticket.... I got to Aberdeen airport and jumped on my plane to Heathrow.... not knowing how I was going to make the journey home without cash....

All was not lost I thought to myself as I landed at Heathrow, for I have my trusty mobilephone to hand.... with a few swift calls I could enlist the help of one my multitudes of friends........

except..... my battery was dead.... so what did I do.... I found a wall socket, and plugged my phone in.... many of you may think this is no big deal... except I was terrified...imagine the situation... there I was a Muslim, with no identification.... loitering around the brand new Terminal 5, sticking wires and cables all over the place...... I was praying that no one would notice - cos if I got caught it would be straight to Guantanamo Bay for me no questions asked!!!!!!

(ps for the avoidance of doubt that is a joke I don't think I would have been carted off anywhere - I think that at worst I would have received a stern telling of for stealing some electricity!!!)

Anyway - with my phone charged I made a call....and my SOS was answered by Sajid. Now you have to remember its Ramadan, and he was about to break his fast with his family, it was late in the evening and he had work the next day - but still Saj came to the airport to pick me up and offered to drive me home (which was 20+ miles away (about 1 hour each way)). That was the first event that restored my faith in humanity.....

The second event - which really shocked me was a call from the AA asking me to call Grampian police....

I was worried......

When I called the Grampian (Aberdeen) police I was very very surpised... my wallet had been found and handed in to the police....

This is the first time in my life this had happened - I have lost my wallet (and various other personal items) many many times and this was the first time it has ever been returned - and the first time someone has tried to trace me.... Anyway the police are now posting the wallet to me as we speak and I'm waiting to receive it.

But like I said, I was very surprised that my wallet was found and is being returned to me. I am very grateful to the kind person in Aberdeen and the Grampian Police for returning my wallet and restoring my faith in humanity.

The great tomb robbery

A while back I went to go see the i Tutankhamun exhibition at the O2 arena in London with a friend. This is my view on it.

The show was quite impressive but by the time it had finished I was greatly dissappointed!!!!!!!!!!! While the exhibition itself was impressive - there was one major flaw in the exhibition of "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" was the fact that.................................

The main man, the dude, the Pharoah, King Tut wasn't there himself, in person!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now it may have been my fault for not reading up on it before I went... but for a show titled "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" I was expecting him to be there in person! Not even the casing for him was present. The nearest we came to the was a couple of inches tall statue that may have held some of his vital organs and drawing on he floor representing the size of the sarcophagus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To add insult to injury - the some of the treasures mentioned were from other pharoahs tombs WHO MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE BEEN RELATED TO HIM.

So in summary the main man wasn't there and a lot of the stuff that was there may have nothing to do with him at all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Apart from these glaringly obvious issues the show was okay - there were some decent artefacts on display, with an interesting history element and the audio tour was well done (oh yeah - from the pics and that staues Queen Nefertiti looked like quite a hottie).

Generally, I would recommend it IF YOU ARE INTERESTED, but be aware the dude is not in the building (or even the country).

Here is a link to the show:

http://www.kingtut.org/home

and one to the O2 arena

http://www.theo2.co.uk/

(on a side note I must admit that the O2 arena is quite an impressive venue).

Only in Britain....

On the way into work I heard this on the radio.....

A best selling book called "Crap Towns" had a sequel released... "Crap Towns 2"..........

BECAUSE.........

SO MANY PEOPLE WROTE IN COMPLAING ADOUT THEIR TOWN OR CITY NOT BEING INCLUDED!!!!!

Anger in reflection

Again this title sounds deep but trust me it isn't.....

In one of my previous posts (the search for me), I said I was surprised that when I put my name into Google, an entry referring to me came as high as 5th.......

However.......

After a weekend reflecting..... I have become angry, nay enraged..... How can someone with my stature, my brilliance, my wit, my charm be relegated to a lowly fifth.

I'm the king of the world, this is my planet you... you plebs merely live on it.... I should have been at the top of the list! Infact every entry should have referred to me... no ait every result in every search carried out (regardless of the subject searched for) should refer to me.

I am disgusted with the antics of Google... but in my magnanimous generosity, I will assume this is merely a small oversight on their part, to this end I will allow Google (and every other search engine) a period of 20 nanoseconds to correct their churlish behaviour... after which I will take Google to the Ineternational War Crimes tribunal (cos it is that bad an offence) and sue them for every penny/cent/shilling etc etc that they have!

The search for me..............

Before anyone gets excited and assumes that this post is going to be some deep and meaningful comment regarding some inner soul searching etc etc... I'm sorry to dissappoint you but its not!

While sitting at work bored, I was thinking about how I'd find information out about peope I know on the net... then I wondered what information was out there regarding me and how easy it would be for people to find me...

So i decided to try a mini experiment... I typed my name (Salim Suleman) into Google to see where I would rank....

And to my surprise........

The first entry referring to me was fifth in the list, it was my blogger.com profile!!!!

I also came in at number 39 with a listing on my old schools ex-pupils directory (Roundhay School)!

And the final entry I found was at number 149 - this was actually from a 10km race I ran in 2000. I came 347th (out of 364 in a time of 1hr 1min and 12 seconds). This was actually a good result for me as I had broken my leg a few months earlier.

I might try this search on other search engines and then post the results here.

It would be interesting if you guys did the same and posted you're results here in the comments!

(Oh and for you're information other famous Salim Suleman's include music producers. gangsters and guerilla warfare commanders!!!).

Mondays.........

I hate Mondays...............

nuff said...............

you all know what I mean so I won't drone on incessantly for hours about how crap a day it was

(actually today wasn't that bad as one of my managers is on holiday and the other went for a meeting around lunchtime!!!! And the two people I expected to phone me up and verbally kick the sh*t out of me for the report I had written have been quite pleasant... I'd better not get toooooo excited though as there's still six and a half hours to go (only about aother five minutes in work though....so I'll probably just hide under my desk for a bit!!!!!!!!!!!)

I hate Sundays

"What?" I hear you guys scream. "How can anyone hate Sundays?"

Well I do so live with it... its the day before Monday... What more of an anti-climax do you want... no matter what kinda freaky shit you get up to...there's always the realisation lurking in the back of your skull that you gotta go back to the rat race tommorow.

The reality hits you...that all those e-mails you didn't read on Friday....all those files you stuffed in the drawers on Friday...and all the half written reports you left festering on your desk ...that all of these didn't vapourise into thin air when it hit 5-30... no sir... they sat there, biding there time, growing in power like some cancer... Knowing that Monday is coming...

That's the thought you get on Sunday... that'S the thought that pollutes and taints every moment of ecstasy you get.

To add insult to injury... you can't even stay up late... the last time I checked Sunday was still officially part cf the weekend...but you but you need to get to bed early... cos on Monday you have to be bright eyed and bushy tailed.. Its the one day you can't blame being tired on working your ass of in the office last night...

there you have it yor can't enjoy all of the day and when you do enjoy it, it s half hearted as you've one eye on the shit that's gonna hit the fan tomorrow...

To top it off...

Sunday tv is crap...
Everything is closed...
oh yeah and tomorrow is Monday the worst day of the week....

Enjoy your weekend...

London explosions

I would like to express my sadness at the awful incidents today in London, my thoughts and prayers are with all those who have been injured or who have lost a loved one.

The General Election

The thoughts that have been going across my mind for the last few days is should I vote and who should I vote for?

Conservatives

To be honest I don't like the manifesto and policies of the current Conservative party as they appear to reactionary... they don't appear to come out with anything new or innovative... they merely seem to react to any current crisis and rush out policies to deal with those issues. This has led to them raising quite contentious issues such as race and immigration to fever pitch level.

While I do agree that these issues haven't been handled as well as they could by Labour and there are serious problems to be overcome, the way the Tories deals with them (to my mind) looks like an attempt to scaremonger the public into voting for them. The effect of this is that groups such as the BNP (by association to these issues) gain credibility in their campaigns and the general public feel that the country is at breaking point when to me it doesn't appear to be the case (after all ethnic minorites make up less than 8% of the population... even if they tried how much damage can they do?).

The arguments surrounding the benefits that the immigrant population bring to the UK are completely ignored. These issues include:

• Keeping the NHS alive!
• Providing a skilled resource which is not available in the UK
• Combatting the decline in population

There are many moer issues but these are ignored!

As the Labour party has taken up the same political groud that the Tories occupied, the Tories do not appear to offer a distinct alternative anyway (except in certain extreme issues where they appear to be as extreme as the BNP).

Labour

Well to my mind they haven't done much over the last few years except break promises. They managed poorly the Iraq War (which I and many people I know disagree with) and in many areas they are the Tory party in all but name. Many systems under them are in disarray (the NHS/police force/immigration etc). And to be blunt I have no faith or trust in Tony Blair.

The poor handling of the immigration situation by the goverment has led to high profile controversies which has led to the mainly well behaved ethnic minorities being labelled and targeted.

The Labour party, who were once the champions of the poor, don't appear to haven done much during their tenure in office to create "real" jobs and employment and safegurad British Industry.

At times they appear to operate a "Laissez Faire" policy until things hit crisis point (look at the Rover issue/the cricket tour of Zimbabwae). They are the government its theie duty to lead!

Again I can't see much difference from the old Conservatives, but because of the disenfranchisement with the Tories I can't see anything other then a Labour win!

Liberals

Some of their policies I agree with and some I don't (such as legalising Canabis) but to my mind they appear to be the most honest of the three main parties. They also appear to offer real alternatives to the main parties. Regardless of this i don't see them winning much of the vote.

Others

Votnig for any other party... well seeing as the smaller parties in the best cases will be unable to form any significant voting blocks within Parliment a vote for these while displaying people's anger at the other parties will do little to influence the political machine of policy and law. So all in all a wasted vote!

Summary

The Labour party haven't done anything to earn my vote, while the Tories campaigning has been reactionary at best at extremist at worst. They don't appear to offer any alternative and regradless of who is in power between these two, I don't see much change in internal or external policy. The Liberals won't really get into power and a vote for the rest is really wasted.

Conclusion

After carefully considering all of the above I think I'll exercise my democratic right to stay in bed on the 5th od May. To all of you think carefully, look below the headlines and use your vote wisely.

Eastenders and benefit rip-offs

I was watching Eastenders last week and I was quite annoyed at one of the storylines...

Stacey Slater reported the Miller family for making false benefit claims... the Miller family were shown as ending up in real financial difficulty and the storyline was slanted such that the family was portrayed as being helpless and deserving of sympathy and that they had the sympathy of other residents of the square.

Lets look at this... Keith Miller the father of the family was falsly claiming incapacity benefit, not working and sitting at home idle. When this was stopped the family ended up in financial difficulty. Making a false claim is wrong and shouldn't be tolerated. Its a crime. Its some one not wanting to work but wanting to benefit from others efforts.

The BBC should not portray this family as victims as in real life the real victims would be you and I... honest tax payers who slave away everyday to pay for ourselves, our families, our country and those genuinely in need. While I know that this is a fictional storyline, in reality this goes on too much for my liking.

The character of Stacey Slater while evil and while doing things for the wrong reason actually did the right thing.

I would like to add that I don't think there is anything wrong in claiming benefits, after all they are there for a reason to hekp those in need. There are also a lot of people out there whose claims are genuine. My gripe is with those people who make false claims. As well as "stealing" they give those who are genuinely claiming bad press. I also don't like it when they are portrayed as victims to elicit sympathy.

If I knew of anyone making false claims I would report them and I would hope that you would too.