ok take a look around the world and tell me this......is there a country on this planet that is fair? Power corrupts!   AM you're probably not old enough to remember but this country has been here once before under Thatcher in the 80's where all this "only in it for me" attitude started in the first place. And in the 70's we had the "ugandan asians" issue plus trade union problems...when TV was off air at 10pm every night to save power!!!...something else we brought on ourselves! And im not saying it was all great before that either because it wasnt.......Great Britain (as in the UK) as never been THAT "GREAT"a place to live....take a look back through history!                                                                                                                                                                             

Unless you're really Connor Mc Cloud, how do you know what it was like to live in Great Britain and it's empire before your own 45 years ?                                                                                                                                                                             

Ah Mr Smarty(that's as in the sweeties then??!)...... masters degree in social & political history plus hours of talking to grandparents born in 19th century!! so maybe a slightly better idea than many. plus i remember very distinctly the 70's & 80's which is what i highlighted...personal experience!   oh course maybe im actually Conor McLeods sister!                                                                                                                                                                             

Ahhh but there can be only 1 !!! (said in a dodgy scottish/spanish accent) Well I remember the 70's & 80's in a slightly different light than most Guardian readers and I'd much prefer it to the state the country is now in, both financially and morally. In the 80's there were true unemployed people who lost their jobs as British manufacturing couldn't compete due to union demands for unrealistic wages and conditions. The mines were closed because it was more economic to import from South America than it was to squeeze the last few hundred thousand tonnes out of nearly expended deep mines (even the private sector operators can't make it pay). What we have now is a culture of spongers and 1.6 million families who have never worked or even paid into the welfare state. The 80's wasn't as bad as now for take take take without giving anything back into the system. Interested in your comment about propoerty booms. You are aware the construction industry is the largest employer in the UK economy and so the health of the construction industry is a key indcator for the health of the overall economy. Right now the industry is in the s**te, so what does that say about how the last government managed and left the country and the economy for future generations.

Democracy is about representing the people and their views ......... so that goes straight out of the window, when you have political parties on all sides telling the MP's how to vote, not how the constituents, the people want.

As for the 70's and 80's I worked down the pits and went through the strike in 84 thank you, and I thought then that all parties, including the unions, only want want what's good for themselves as individuals

Admittedly a few go into politics with good intentions, but it doesn't take long for them to be ground down into the mass of the party and just become one of "them"

Interesting though, an Irish woman with a degree ....... WOW that's a bit radical isn't it???? Do you have the vote too???

And bearing in mind the background of issues that Northern Ireland has caused, hardly an un biased view, hence the sarky comment about GREAT Britain I guess                                                                                                                                                                              

Incorrect actually ...the largest employer is actually government! It employs around 20% of the UK workforce (and in NI where i live thats nearer about 30%) But Smarty you want to see why you cant build an economy of property speculation and construction.......take a look at ROI!!!! Construction isnt a sustainable industry....what do you do when you have housed everyone and there isnt a shred of countryside left because its full of unlettable industrial units...in ROI...300,000 empty homes in a country with a population of less than 5 million!the the bust is a long way from over! The economy problem goes way back to the deregulation of financial services which granted Blair could have tightened up but which a tory government started. The great capitalist experiment!!! and we were the fkn lab rats!                                                                                                                                                                             

read my profile shadowfax and you'll find out im not actually irish but a slightly gobby mancunian ex pat! (no pun intended! lol)                                                                                                                                                                             

Blair could've KG, but as he shifted the Labour party to Conservative lite (New Labour.) he was never going to was he?

Was it a capitalist experiment?
Mmmm, maybe it was, but you'd have to have been pretty blind to not see what was happening IMO.
Unfortunately MOST of the population welcomed it with open arms really.

errr sorry to shoot down yet another one of your arguments Kwakgirl, but the construction industry doesn't just build new buildings.it refurbishes and redevelops old and existing ones too. As for comparing the UK industry with the ROI, there is no comparison. The ROI property market is the exception not the rule. So as a NI resident can you tell us are Gerry and Martin and the rest of SF still as keen to see a United Ireland or would they rather still be financially supported by Great Britain.

Just a small part IMO CBR.
Personally I am making use of this at a cost of only 1/30th of the build cost of 2 apartments I have planning permission for.
                                                                                                                                                                             

Sorry Letthegoodtimesrol, but as a graduate in a construction discipline with 15 years post grad experience refurbishment is more than just a small part of the industry. People often get confused between the housebuilding industry and the construction industry, there is some overlap, but the construction industry doesn't rely solely on new builds. In today's economic climate commercial clients are refurbishing and extending existing premises for instance instead of up sizing to new premises. For instance next time you go to a B&Q or Homebase, you will probably see a recent mezzanine floor that's been installed to increase their floor sales area.......anyway what's this got to do with motorway pricing again ?

I think i could safely say that SF would still prefer to be part of a united ireland, its the most fundamental part of their strategy and given that Gerry has resigned his seat and is looking to stand in Louth as a TD i guess that confirms it...and since there is to be an election in ROI early next year and the likelihood is that SF will make signifcant gains maybe we should all be worried!   Hmmmm this is the same ROI model that Georgie Osborne was praising not too long ago and saying how he wanted to apply it to the UK!!! Theres not a huge amount of difference....just even less regulation. I still dont see how you can claim construction is a sustainable industry ...its like trying to claim year on year growth is sustainable!                                                                                                                                                                             

  ...People often get confused between the housebuilding industry and the construction industry   Doesn't 'construct' mean 'to build'? My dictionary must be out of date     Are houses going to be constructed / built on motorways?                                                                                                                                                                                   

So CBR, how much in %age terms is the construction industry involved in refurbishment.
As you say there's some overlap, but the indicator here is the word some. In fact, as you say, they are 2 different aspects and unable to make the required profit from construction are diversifying into refurbishment.

And yes the motorway network, in fact the whole structure of society is linked in an integrated fashion.
A single aspect can't-be plucked in isolation.

What we have now is a culture of spongers   Really? I reckon this is a bit of an urban myth... OK, so there are isolated incidents of folk who never "pay in"... as has always been the case. e.g. 25+ years ago, I knew plenty of girls purposely getting themselves pregnant, just so they could get a council flat... several people pretending to have back injuries so they could live on disability (whilst also doing cash in hand labouring jobs)...   Today? I'm not so sure it's any worse than it's ever been and I'm not so sure that there are all that many of them there foreign folk getting their hands on benefits. Most immigrants I tend to meet work their socks off, doing whatever work they can find. e.g. All my Dad's carers seem to be Polish. Starting their working day at about 6am & finishing about 10pm for around 6 quid an hour. Bloody spongers!   It took me over a year of being out of work before I had no choice but to go & sign on. I have 3 friends who absolutely point blank refuse to sign on - all like me, who have spent at least 25 years in the work force, "paying in" & never been unemployed before.   Rather the opposite - more a culture of reluctance to claim benefits cos nobody wants to be perceived as a sponger!   If I may drag some of my post, kicking & screaming back to topic...?  I hate the idea of hard shoulder running... Isn't the hard shoulder already the most dangerous place to be on the motorways? How does putting traffic onto them help reduce m-way casualties?                                                                                                                                                                             

Using the hard shoulder is only for busy periods and by the overhead cameras and signs. Where they are allowing the hard shoulder to be used they have made large lay-by's to allow broken down vehicles a safe place to shelter and there are loads of monitored camera's looking for break downs so that in the event a vehicle is still on the hard shoulder the signs can be changed quickly to block off the lane to other traffic. Hard shoulder usage is only for heavy traffic times at slow speed so it's no greater risk to come across a break down that on any other road when you would see it well in advance and be travelliing slow enough to move around the vehicle safely.                                                                                                                                                                                

Ahhhh... OK cheers Shazza! Didn't know they'd added laybys & whatnot. That now makes more sense to me!                                                                                                                                                                              

Your previous post is absolutely dead right Wannabe...the difference today is that their are a few people sitting up on their very high horses wanting to generalise while drawing on the most radical examples they can think of to illustrate their point! Is a very long drop from a high horse!                                                                                                                                                                             

KG, No surely not I kinda like my high horse it gives me a good view of all the mortals running around beneath me         Err help..... i'm slipping....   A a a a a a g g g h h h h h   Ouch that hurt