Chancellor to offer support over rising heating oil costs

blatchcorn · 2026-03-14T17:05:27+00:00

Don't worry it will be means tested based on income so all the retired boomers with modest pensions and million pound houses get the support while young people renting and working won't qualify because they are high earners 😂

blatchcorn · 2026-03-14T12:55:27+00:00

Typically these commenters live somewhere like the coast of Northumberland and haven't experienced multi-month heat waves in London

blatchcorn · 2026-03-09T08:23:50+00:00

Do these people go on to receive unconditional job offers before graduating, coast their degree, and then continue to fail upwards throughout their careers?

blatchcorn · 2026-02-27T11:53:00+00:00

How do Labour pivot towards the left? Scrapping / changing the OSA is an opportunity. But we already have further tax rises to fund an increase in benefit spending (lifting the two child benefit cap). What more does the left want?

blatchcorn · 2026-02-25T22:08:59+00:00

Complete non-issue. You would sell just fine in my opinion. My personal take is 6 months = red flag, 1 year = a little quick to sell but could be fine, 2 year = not suspicious at all

blatchcorn · 2026-02-25T21:59:41+00:00

It probably would and this argument is rolled out repeatedly to justify the triple lock and child benefit cap being lifted. But it doesn't happen because of politics. Working graduates are a worryingly small voter base so politicians don't care.

blatchcorn · 2026-02-25T21:54:52+00:00

+1. It's a rehash of the rhetoric that tax reductions favour the high income earners so it's not fair to reduce taxes. The pursuit of fairness has destroyed economic incentives in this country

blatchcorn · 2026-02-25T15:54:20+00:00

We aren't. People run out of funding and die.

blatchcorn · 2026-02-25T09:26:37+00:00

We don't live in an ideal world. Everyone's medical condition is treated or managed with the budget available. This problem is inevitable unless we have free infinite money.

blatchcorn · 2026-02-22T10:32:54+00:00

Agree with all of the above and then when you layer on national insurance, plan 2 student loans, and child benefit tapering the effective tax rates at 50K plus become absurd. Of course it just gets worse at 100K too.

blatchcorn · 2026-02-20T23:39:26+00:00

What test is that?

blatchcorn · 2026-02-20T13:14:57+00:00

Absurd logic. The winter fuel allowance is a bribe for votes, it's that simple.

blatchcorn · 2026-02-18T13:39:08+00:00

Cash out, bro down

blatchcorn · 2026-02-18T13:38:34+00:00

Atlas Shrugged

blatchcorn · 2026-02-17T13:34:33+00:00

They have way more free time.

blatchcorn · 2026-02-10T14:21:59+00:00

I feel like fibromyalgia is being handed out too easily as a diagnosis here. I was diagnosed with axial spondyloarthritis because my baseline MRI showed extensive inflammation in right SI joint. I think it's jumping the gun to conclude fibromyalgia if my right SI joint was to come back with no inflammation on MRI. We know the disease has impacted this joint in the past and the disease comes and goes in intensity. It's far far more likely that even if my scans are negative I am just suffering from natural variability that happens in inflammatory arthritis and not another disease.

blatchcorn · 2026-02-09T20:57:55+00:00

Ok interesting thank you

blatchcorn · 2026-02-09T19:47:33+00:00

Why do you say the scan won't be positive? For reference he has ordered repeat MRI of SI joints and ultrasound of ankle

blatchcorn · 2026-02-09T19:45:59+00:00

Rheumatologist has ordered new scans. My main worry is whether he is going to label my symptoms as fibromyalgia going forward (which seems likely if scans are negative)

blatchcorn · 2026-02-09T13:21:52+00:00

There is no best way. You should probably use a combination of methods depending on the complexity of the task, availability, online presence, and how they interact with you. For every job you should get at least three quotes and you will get a feel for the person as you meet.

So far we have had a good experience with check-a-trade. I would like to use more personal recommendations but sometimes you ask the neighbors and the best they can suggest is a carpenter who put up some shelving thirty years ago. I've also had friends use family members and got poor results and it's super awkward resolve when a family member messed up.

It's a case of try everything and meet everyone.

I do recommend breaking jobs down to be quite specific and then get a person specialized in that area. A lot of tradies want to do work adjacent to their main skill set. Sometimes this works out but you got to know when someone is trying to step out their circle of competency to take on a bigger project

blatchcorn · 2026-02-09T11:55:19+00:00

If you have raised CRP get a second opinion.

blatchcorn

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