VAT, Value Added Tax, is a tax added to almost everything you buy: in the UK it's 17.5%, I think the highest in the EU is about 19%, the EU want everywhere's tax to be about 17.5% (I can't remember the exact value) as at the moment each country has a different rate.
If you but something from the EU, within the EU (i.e. a German buying a Greek thingy) then you don't pay any import taxes because you paid the VAT (I think, IANAL).
In the UK, you don't pay VAT on:
* Ordinary food (luxury food, like chocolate, biscuits (cookies), microwave-meals and so on is taxed though)
* Books
* Children's clothes and shoes
VAT page from HMCE (Her Majesty's Customs and Excise) for more info.
Its called "Cruise Control". Its great for the DC area. I regularly put it on driving home. I can then hop in the backseat, make a martini, take a short snooze.
Take any of these situations:
* Thief trying to steal cash/goods from a shop
* Criminal attempting to escape from scene-of-crime
* Vandals erm... vandalising
* Cameras monitoring speeds
In each of these situations, CCTV can and does help the police and the courts - it's excellent evidence. Missing people have been traced by snapshots from CCTV, thieves have been prosecuted, etc. Of couse, being the UK justice system they're all given a slap on the wrist and told not to do it again or they'll go to prison, which is full, and then get out of prison on appeal, and go and murder someone, and
Matt
It can lower the accident rate where the cameras are, but not on all the roads.
I find this the most stupid thing in the UK - the speed cameras are painted flourescant yellow, there's a huge sigh saying "Speed Cameras, 40mph" or whatever, and often the road is painted too. Why?!?! I thought the idea was to dissuade speeding motorists from getting a ticket by making them slow down *everywhere* to reduce accidents *everywhere* - not to merely make people think "Oh, there's a speed camera sign, I'll slow down" and 2 minutes later "it's OK to speed up now ".
What's the fine for speeding in the US? A cousin in Michigan got $400 IIRC, though I don't know what speed he was doing. *That's* a deterrent. Having been on holiday in the US and driven over 10,000 miles there, I noticed that the speed limit is closely observed, especially on the freeways. When the speed limit is 70, almost everyone goes at 72-73 or so. Round small towns people stick to the 35 or so limit. In the UK on the motorways, you'll have some old woman doing 60, someone who missed a speed camera sign and got ticketed doing 71, and the rest doing around 80. If I was do travel to London on the M1 (motorway) at 80mph (10 over the limit) I'd probably be overtaken what... 20, 30 times? At least.
The police aren't doing their job properly, there needs to be a good deterrent, and most importantly they (in cars) should stop people doing 80 in a 70 limit, not just the madmen doing 100.
The other thing I don't get about UK roads is those damn humps in them ('traffic calming' designed to irritate the drivers by making a bump in the road).
I think it's this bloody (just to prove I'm english;-) government interfering with every detail of our lives *again*. First change I get, I'm emmigrating.
Matt
http://www.dft.gov.uk/ = Department for Transport, UK
I've met American people who've been amazed at the distances you can drive in England without seeing green countryside. In the US when you leave a city you can drive for 100 miles and not see another settlement. This is impossible in the UK.
Because then you pay only for what you use.
Would you like to pay a fixed rate for your electricity, gas, water and so on? No. So why pay a fixed amount for local phone calls?
If it's for your grandma, go with Metronet - they do pay-per-MB with a cost cap at GBP28, but if all you want is to surf the net you'll pay 12 or so a month. It's great, I can't fault them:-) 512 down, 256 up.
This _should_ mean that the UK is insanely chep for this kind of infrastructure, at least in England. Major cities are very close compared to in the US. There probably aren't many pipes longer than 30/40 miles in middle-south England, and even Scotland has nowhere near the USAian distances.
It doesn't seem to make any difference though. True, there are few places without mobile phone reception, but there's still plenty of villages without DSL - see ADSL guide for some stats.
The prices are high too, BT own most of the pipes and ISPs pay loads (50 at least) to activate a connection to BT. The bigger one's have a "free" activation fee, but you'll pay GBP26-29 a month for 512-256, smaller local ISPs will pass on the activation fee and charge between 17 and 27 or so.
I can't wait for an increase in the download speed though... pity the poor souls on dial-up
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VAT, Value Added Tax, is a tax added to almost everything you buy: in the UK it's 17.5%, I think the highest in the EU is about 19%, the EU want everywhere's tax to be about 17.5% (I can't remember the exact value) as at the moment each country has a different rate. If you but something from the EU, within the EU (i.e. a German buying a Greek thingy) then you don't pay any import taxes because you paid the VAT (I think, IANAL). In the UK, you don't pay VAT on: * Ordinary food (luxury food, like chocolate, biscuits (cookies), microwave-meals and so on is taxed though) * Books * Children's clothes and shoes VAT page from HMCE (Her Majesty's Customs and Excise) for more info.
Take any of these situations: * Thief trying to steal cash/goods from a shop * Criminal attempting to escape from scene-of-crime * Vandals erm... vandalising * Cameras monitoring speeds In each of these situations, CCTV can and does help the police and the courts - it's excellent evidence. Missing people have been traced by snapshots from CCTV, thieves have been prosecuted, etc. Of couse, being the UK justice system they're all given a slap on the wrist and told not to do it again or they'll go to prison, which is full, and then get out of prison on appeal, and go and murder someone, and Matt
It can lower the accident rate where the cameras are, but not on all the roads. I find this the most stupid thing in the UK - the speed cameras are painted flourescant yellow, there's a huge sigh saying "Speed Cameras, 40mph" or whatever, and often the road is painted too. Why?!?! I thought the idea was to dissuade speeding motorists from getting a ticket by making them slow down *everywhere* to reduce accidents *everywhere* - not to merely make people think "Oh, there's a speed camera sign, I'll slow down" and 2 minutes later "it's OK to speed up now ". What's the fine for speeding in the US? A cousin in Michigan got $400 IIRC, though I don't know what speed he was doing. *That's* a deterrent. Having been on holiday in the US and driven over 10,000 miles there, I noticed that the speed limit is closely observed, especially on the freeways. When the speed limit is 70, almost everyone goes at 72-73 or so. Round small towns people stick to the 35 or so limit. In the UK on the motorways, you'll have some old woman doing 60, someone who missed a speed camera sign and got ticketed doing 71, and the rest doing around 80. If I was do travel to London on the M1 (motorway) at 80mph (10 over the limit) I'd probably be overtaken what... 20, 30 times? At least. The police aren't doing their job properly, there needs to be a good deterrent, and most importantly they (in cars) should stop people doing 80 in a 70 limit, not just the madmen doing 100. The other thing I don't get about UK roads is those damn humps in them ('traffic calming' designed to irritate the drivers by making a bump in the road). I think it's this bloody (just to prove I'm english;-) government interfering with every detail of our lives *again*. First change I get, I'm emmigrating. Matt http://www.dft.gov.uk/ = Department for Transport, UK
I've met American people who've been amazed at the distances you can drive in England without seeing green countryside. In the US when you leave a city you can drive for 100 miles and not see another settlement. This is impossible in the UK.
Because then you pay only for what you use. Would you like to pay a fixed rate for your electricity, gas, water and so on? No. So why pay a fixed amount for local phone calls?
If it's for your grandma, go with Metronet - they do pay-per-MB with a cost cap at GBP28, but if all you want is to surf the net you'll pay 12 or so a month. It's great, I can't fault them :-) 512 down, 256 up.
This _should_ mean that the UK is insanely chep for this kind of infrastructure, at least in England. Major cities are very close compared to in the US. There probably aren't many pipes longer than 30/40 miles in middle-south England, and even Scotland has nowhere near the USAian distances. It doesn't seem to make any difference though. True, there are few places without mobile phone reception, but there's still plenty of villages without DSL - see ADSL guide for some stats. The prices are high too, BT own most of the pipes and ISPs pay loads (50 at least) to activate a connection to BT. The bigger one's have a "free" activation fee, but you'll pay GBP26-29 a month for 512-256, smaller local ISPs will pass on the activation fee and charge between 17 and 27 or so. I can't wait for an increase in the download speed though... pity the poor souls on dial-up