agent69
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Post by agent69 on Dec 17, 2022 17:21:58 GMT
Sadly not the case. Since the number of higher level prizes is increasing significantly, while the odds of winning a prize remain the same, something has to give. In this case it's the number of small prizes. The number of £25 prizes will reduce by 8-900,000. It depends on what you describe as small.
If you look at the number of £25, £50 & £100 prizes (which might reasonably described as small), the cummulative number is virtually unchanged at 4.95m. Either way I'm looking forward to a bumper new years win.
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agent69
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Post by agent69 on Dec 17, 2022 10:42:41 GMT
The way to look at premium bonds is your capital is 100% safe but you are gambering your interest. www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/premium-bonds/Premium Bond prize rate to rise from 2.2% to 3% in JanuaryAlong with some other useful information However while the rate of wins may be 3% the average investor will get less as this is skewed by the large wins so in stats terms it is the average vs the median. take a look at the calculator and put in your investment premiumbondsprizes.com/detailed#10000For £10,000 the median is 2.25% The median will be what the largest number of people get in this case with £10,000 £225 pa but you may just get lucky and get one of those big wins. 3% tax free seems a good rate for taxpayers especially those with 40% and above, also may keep you from going up a band and lose child benefits etc. Another benefit is you don't have to put this on the Self Assessment so one less thing to keep track off. No change to the number of small prizes, but:
there will more than three times as many prizes between £5,000 and £100,000 available.
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agent69
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Post by agent69 on Dec 16, 2022 21:15:56 GMT
Just had confirmation from EDF of the new rates from 1st January:
- Day time rate - up from 42.75p to 49.38p (up 15%)
- night time rate - down from 14.82p to 11.22p (down 24%)
is that economy 7 ? has the Standing charge changed Yes.
No change to standing charge
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agent69
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Post by agent69 on Dec 16, 2022 12:07:26 GMT
Just had confirmation from EDF of the new rates from 1st January:
- Day time rate - up from 42.75p to 49.38p (up 15%)
- night time rate - down from 14.82p to 11.22p (down 24%)
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agent69
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Post by agent69 on Dec 16, 2022 11:52:34 GMT
No matter how bad a day you're having, there's always somebody worse off than you.
In the Australian T20 competition (the big bash) Sydney Thunder were all out for 15. Extras were second highest scorer at 3
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agent69
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Post by agent69 on Dec 16, 2022 10:52:16 GMT
I feel sorry for the fish
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agent69
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Post by agent69 on Dec 15, 2022 13:44:24 GMT
Extract from the email
Whilst these more recently originated, higher interest rate loans (often 7% or more)
Whatever happened to the good old days of 15%?
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agent69
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Post by agent69 on Dec 14, 2022 17:16:52 GMT
Silvio Berlusconi is caught on video promising to bring a 'bus of whores into the locker room' for his Monza football players if they beat top sides AC Milan or Juventus.
Maybe that's where Gareth went wrong?
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agent69
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Post by agent69 on Dec 14, 2022 14:02:36 GMT
i have no problem with nurses getting more
i have every problem with train staff getting more
Brexit and Covid was always going to hurt
Railway unions are about the most bolshie out there. Like most unions they resist change, because change results in greater efficiency, and that results in job losses.
In the 70's I went to study for a degree at a college in Coventry. One year I stayed on the outskirts of the city and every day I got the bus into town past the old British Leyland plant at Canley. Nearly every day somebody was standing at the main gate in some form of dispute:
- one day the grievence was to keep modern technology (robots) out of the plant, because it would lead to job losses.
- several years later BL were looking at a plant to build a new model at. It didn't go to Canley and the union complained bitterly that they couldn't compete on an effiency basis with the other plants because the others all had wonderful new robots.
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agent69
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Post by agent69 on Dec 14, 2022 11:15:42 GMT
One more chuckle before I go and do some work:
It always amuses me how easily people are motivated to moan about things. High interest rates and the impact of 2 days of recent snow are examples. When I was a lad (yeh, I know) a blizzard hit South West England, and this is what followed:
- snowing on 29th and 30th December 1962 resulted in 20 feet snow drifts
- the average temperature in January 63 was -2.1 deg C
- it continued to snow in February
- 6 March was the first morning of the year without frost in Britain
- the snow that fell in our back garden in December finally melted mid March.
People these days just get things far to easy.
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agent69
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Post by agent69 on Dec 14, 2022 10:49:40 GMT
This is more a cause of frustration rather than amusement.
The media are constantly trying to big up the financial crisis with constant vague references to various things being at a record high price. My understanding is that a certain amount of inflation is good for the economy, and if it were applied equally to everything then all products would be at a record high price every day
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agent69
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Post by agent69 on Dec 14, 2022 10:42:38 GMT
T he unfortunate reality is the UK is bankrupt and we have been living beyond our means for quite some time. The reality is the whole western world is going to have to accept a decline in living standards. People are just going to have to learn to live on fewer resources, the only thing striking is going to do is put peoples jobs in jepardy - the money isnt there. Postal strike is madness they are just striking themselves out of a job. Even the NHS if they start demanding large pay rises will ultimately do themselves out of a job, the days of the blank check NHS are probably numbered anyhow. That may be true, but we are not alone. If you look at the countries with the highest debt to GDP ratio the top 10 are:
Venezuela — 350% Japan — 266% Sudan — 259% Greece — 206% Lebanon — 172% Cabo Verde — 157% Italy — 156% Libya — 155% Portugal — 134% Singapore — 131% Bahrain — 128% United States — 128%
UK doesn't make the top 20, and we are well ahead of the likes of Canada, Spain, France and Belgium.
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agent69
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Post by agent69 on Dec 13, 2022 21:36:36 GMT
When I was at school (admittedly some time ago) there were 3 types of average.
- mean - add all the numbers up and divide by the how many there were
- median - if you put all the numbers in a row in assending order the median is the one in the middle
- mode - the most common number in the set
There does appear to be a certain amount of picking and chosing depending on whet result you want.
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agent69
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Post by agent69 on Dec 13, 2022 21:14:24 GMT
When covid first arrived the rail network was all but shut down. Mass redundancies were avoided by the government giving tens of thousands of pounds to rail workers via the furlough scheme.
Their memories are very short.
And whilst they were sat drawing the furlough money nurses were working extremely hard in many cases I sometimes wonder if Mick Lynch will end up being a modern day Arthur Scargill
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agent69
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Post by agent69 on Dec 13, 2022 21:03:43 GMT
The RMT is nothing other than a self serving institution.
When covid first arrived the rail network was all but shut down. Mass redundancies were avoided by the government giving tens of thousands of pounds to rail workers via the furlough scheme.
Their memories are very short.
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