vivweb01blog

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...

  Editor's note: See recent update 28.6.25 at the end of the main article for the latest news on the new UK.GOV plans for reorganising recycling collections.... ---------------------------- As one of the more incisive questions of our age, "When is Bins ?" definitely deserves some attention…and hopefully a reliable and effective solution for those afflicted by the recent changes (i.e. most of us!). In days of old, life was much simpler when it came to getting our rubbish collected…. The majority of households had just one dustbin. We put it out for the dustmen (as we affectionately referred to them in those balmy 'pre-pc' days) on the same day each week, and with a bit of luck it got emptied sometime on that day.  Life is much more complicated nowadays when it comes to dealing with our domestic waste. The advent of recycling and climate change awareness, which admittedly was overdue  and necessary, given our profligacy with the earth’s non-renewable resource...

  Editor's note: This blog first saw the light of day in late December last year after 5 months of Labour's incumbency (or should it be encumbrance ?). If anything, the prospects of  its leader securing a second term, or even surviving in post to seek one, seem even more remote. A notable mis-step (or should it be ' lammy ') in July  was a frontal attack on seven of his back-bench 'rebels', four of whom actually had the whip removed. Far from trying to bring them and their many 'potential rebel' colleagues onside in an attempt to save his premiership, as any remotely astute leader would do, he 'went for the jugular' in a (probably vain) attempt to frighten them all into submission. Even 'supersurvivor' Diane Abbott was not safe from retribution, having withdrawn her recantation over her comments on 'differential racism' and was re-expelled from the party at Starmer's behest. And "...Oh no, not another 'lammy'........