vivweb01

Looks like we may have another strong candidate for this year's Lammy of the Year award …. Sadly, this one is a bit more serious in its implications than our current front runner for the title - our (now ex-)FS’s recent fishing misdemeanour ….and it's far less entertaining, to boot. Rayner seems to have led a very complex life as far as her own personal housing is concerned. The latest high-profile issue, which has now led to her political undoing (for now at least) was whether she was entitled to designate her newly acquired flat in Hove as her main residence in her dealings with HMRC, having told the local council there that it wasn’t. And this appears to be just the tip of the iceberg.... Devoted followers of our (now ex-)deputy PM's antics will recall a previous row, again about housing, which surfaced in April 2024. At the time, she actually went as far as promising to resign if action were taken against her over the matter. The police investigation into her a...

Please excuse the rather hard-hitting question in the title of this blog, but needs must - this is potentially pretty serious, particularly if you're one of our many hard-up pensioners….. The Labour leadership is getting desperate now, and as we all know, desperation often leads to serious mistakes…this certainly would be a monumental one. OK, what's all the fuss about ? There are a number of evil rumours abound in the media (and not just the socials) that Reeves is now actively considering means-testing the State Pension in November as part of her 'Black Hole filling' project.  The Inter-generational Foundation think tank is reported to have gone as far as recommending it to government as a way of  "..distributing resources more fairly between the generations..". Starmer has already been challenged on why he has allowed the tax threshold freezes to bring some pensioners, who have the state pension as their sole income, into the basic rate tax net at ...

  Editors note: I first encountered this disturbing issue in May of last year, having fallen victim to it myself as an eBay seller at the time.  I've just  been caught again by the same 'querk' in eBay's returns system whereby a buyer's request on grounds of 'Not as Specified' or 'Item Defective' gives them automatic 'carte blanche' for a refund with the seller paying the return postage.  The only recourse you have as a seller is to accept the return and report the buyer for a fraudulent claim. And even then, eBay refuse to tell you what, if anything, they've done after the event. Needless to say you don't get any of your money back, and are left with an item that may have been deliberately modified or even damaged by the buyer. What's even more worrying is that there appears to be no mechanism for witholding or reducing a refund if the item is sent back in this state such that its resale value is compromised . Please note also t...