General Discussion
If you are not on 'Checkatrade' or recommended by someone they trust then most people won't pick up the phone.
@Cassandra - for the vast majority of contestants i think it is fair to say it probably is non-political. One has to feel some sympathy for the Russian twins getting booed everytime they got points. What a difference a year makes from when those cute jolly grannies sang about their bread making last year promoting Russia as a friendly country.
I see the point of view, a bit like the Crimean referendum only having, 'Yes' and 'very yes' on the ballot paper. However, I think a lack of 'agrees' sort of speaks for itself anyway in our context. 'Disagree' is likely to create a reluctance to air some points in case of an embarrasing vote down. And there is the option for detailed vociferous disagreement, for which no one has been locked ...
ICE recently hosted a lecture (08/05/14) entitled 'Failures of Seawalls - what do we learn from Dawlish?' I will try to listen to it online and summarize. In the meantime you may be able to register yourself to hear it. The lecture is available to view online. Attendees had the opportunity to put questions to the panel. The questions (copy printed below) were not covered during the ...
Thing is, it was a poke in the eye to a certain person who preaches morality with the barrels of AK47s. Dang, should have put a fiver on it! Not that unusual, there was 'Dana International' (Israel, 1998) who also won.
How about offering the driver / guide free refreshments somewhere and simply talk to them. They will be familiar with feedback plus their thoughts could be captured as well. @Mcjrpc - now you mention it, i know of one town centre in surrey with a hilly high street where there has recently been introduced a free to ride electric buggy (bit like a large golf buggy). it is sponsored by ...
Good link Lynne. Ref. financial incentives to increase occupancy - how about an incentive by modest inheritence tax relief if you can demonstrate high occupancy in a privately owned house that you live in. Gets around the old kernel of retired people saying that higher council tax bands are unfair because they may be property rich but cash poor? The payback for the gov't getting less in ...
@Lynne - yes 'bedroom tax' does ring a bell - may well be a 'tory waterloo' at some point. The type of under occupancy I had in mind is where one or two retired people (I can thing of many examples I personally know) who live in 3, 4, 5 bedroom houses. Obviously their private perogative entitles them to live in a 10bedroom house, own multiple properties etc if they so anti-socially please. ...
@leatash - because we have an island mentality - everyone wants their own moat? greed - no one wants to 'miss out' every time they hear prices are 'on the up'? It's true what you say about landlords wanting good tenants - they always used to virtually beg me to stay on!! In Germany they have an expression called 'Ordnung' where everything is orderly and proper, a bit like your arrangements. ...
I can see the motivations and pressures specific to this country to want to have your own castle and nest egg instead of flushing money away on rent. It does however also play into a number of other social issues such as families being less likely to care for their elderly (for example) due to ring fencing of living into nuclear pods, and under occupancy of houses fuelling the shortage.
