Naim New Prices... 2014

If you are in the UK then have you inspected the Council Tax and the Water Rate for the coming financial year? Yearly accounts issued in March. Naim's increase is modest in comparison.

ATB from George

How much are the rates and council tax?

intrested as from Ireland and water rates are here next year

Water Rate up from £180 PA to £200, and Council Tax up from £780 to £900, but I do not call this poor value, for all that ...

Hope that helps. They are low, but mine is a very modest [if fortunately not shared] residence.

ATB from George

What do you get for £900!!!!!

we have in the last year or so got property tax, it varies mines €350 I think, ( but we get nothing for this) water charges 2015, some say €300 like in other parts of Europe.

It rains here every second day for god sake.

All this money going to the Germans, pay back time...............for good.

Police, bins, street lights, street sweeping, Fire Service, provision of Public Library and Swimming Pool, Schools for my non-existent offspring, care for the homeless and challenged, and care for the elderly. one day I'll be elderly ...

ATB from George

8% in France. Admittedly, sterling's stronger this year.

What does your income tax go on?

Defense, Education, State Pension, NHS, and the other big things like Motorways and Railways, as well as paying MPs and Civil Servants, and their Pensions ...

Dear Alba,

I have visited Scotland many times and found the Scots I met to be charming, but the continuous political moaning from Alex Salmond and his cohort make me wish that the Scots will vote for independence. They will not be welcomed by Europe or Scandinavia [I am half Norwegian], and as far as England is concerned they become nothing more significant than Rockall if they do vote out!

ATB from George

What is disappointing about wanting to rid the Union of pro-French treasonists!

I believe that England, Wales, and Northern Ireland should also vote on whether Scotland remains in the Union.

In that case Scotland would quite likely be out even if she did vote for it herself!

ATB from George

You can get sick of moaning minies ...

ATB from George

Well this discussion seems to have drifted a long way from the original topic but given it's current direction I would add that I think the debate about independence for Scotland is mostly about Salmond's ego and very little about what is good for the people of Scotland.

I'm quietly confident that the good sense of the Scots entitled to vote will see through these naked political ambitions and reject independence.  For what it is worth, if we in the rest of the UK did have a vote on the matter I'd vote to keep Scotland as part of the UK.  We are on the whole a united people who have been through many challenges together and are stronger for it.  It's a well understood irony that when the name of a country begins with the phrase "People's Socialist etc ...it is anything but. However I rather believe (others may think rather quaintly) that the "United" in United Kingdom genuinely means what it says.  

MDS

Dear MDS,

Scotland has a distinctive history and culture, and I am quite sure that it has as much capacity to thrive as an independent State as many of the smaller European Countries within the EU, such as Benelux and Holland let alone The Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Whether Scotland would be allowed straight into the EU is another issue entirely.

I think the Scottish have a perfectly reasonable wish and right to vote on their own status within or outside the United Kingdom. They have voted for the SNP, and leader Alex Salmond is following up his promise for a referendum on the issue. That is fair.

As for the rest of the UK voting on keeping or ejecting Scotland, that is of course a fairly unlikely scenario as it is a fairly daft idea, though sometimes the Scottish are exasperating enough for some people in the rest of UK to want to simply hasten the divorce.

I think the Union is a fairly artificial idea that may well have had its day. The Scottish voters may well be the ones to initiate the demise, if that is their will on the matter. I don't believe the result either way would be anything but welcomed by most, as stability will result from a firm decision.

ATB from George

George - I would agree with much of what you say here.  I don't doubt that an independent Scotland could survive and even thrive; I agree it might find entry to the EU problematic; and I respect the right of the Scots for self-determination.  That said, I believe that Scotland and its people would do (even) better to stay as part of the United Kingdom and I hope they do. I am an Englishman through and through and respect the cultural differences and history of the Scots, Welsh and N Irish but I believe that we all benefit by staying together.  But then perhaps I'm a mis-guided optimist in such matters.     

Dear MDS,

My father's family is from the Borders between England and Wales. There are anceststor buried for hundreds of years in Longtown Church near Abergavenny.

My mother's family is equally well recorded in Norway. Having two different cultural inputs into my upbringing has born within me a respect for difference more than unlikely or out of date unities. For example Norway was subjugated by Denmark and Sweden for about four centuries before Norway regained its modern independence before the First World War. They were able to have a Norwegian King as the Danish Royal Familly was well and truly intertwined with the ancient Norwegian Kings, though the proposed King was wise enough to ensure that he was elected by plebiscite before ascending the Throne.

In this way, I rather hope to see Scotland makes her own way on balance. Yes she will be a small player in World affairs, but she has, like Norway, a proud history that differentiates her from England and Wales [within the one Island] just as surely as Norway is differentiated from Sweden within their conjoined land mass.

Of course the challenge will be posed not only [but most significantly] for the Scottish themselves, but also by the rest of the UK population.

I do not think that this challenge should be enough to avoid it.

That is just my view, and the position that I take this view-point from.

ATB from George

And a very reasonable and well-argued view, George.  It seems we both have Scotland's best interests at heart.  

MDS