For me the forums are not that useful in that they seem detached from the main purpose of this site as I think it is (I may be wrong of course). I would prefer to see the forums linked to topics that discussed fund managers, funds, etf's, IT's and other news stories. The comments section of articles is good but where do we discuss a particular theme or fund such as an emerging market or uk equity income offering.

Other forums that I use would include the Motley Fool, iii and moneysavingexpert although probably iii comes closest for me.

HTH,
Mickey

Thanks for the feedback - we'll look into having a dedicated investment area of the forum.

Mickey: we're actually in the process of revamping our fund and manager factsheets. Would it be useful to have an area on them where you can discuss those specific funds?

Jeremy: I often read your exasperated comments with a smile on my face! Glad you keep coming back - the forums would be a duller place otherwise. In terms of the quality of debate I genuinely think our readers are far more intelligent and witty than those of most websites, but we'll investigate ways we can moderate the forums more effectively.

Keep the feedback coming,

Rich

There is a tendency to draw major conclusions from limited evidence. We do not need reminding that investment is often little more than star-gazing. We on the rim of the circle know little of what's going on or talked about in the bars and cafes of the City It many not be insider trading, but who doubts that the grapevine.is selective?

What we ordinary mortals see can be astonishingly misleading. Take these figures which perhaps induced banks and individuals to put their money into Ireland. They are from three different tables of national GDP per head at Purchasing Power Parity for 2009 in international $

IMF
Ireland 9th 38,685
UK 19th 34,388

World Bank
Ireland 6th 41,278
UK 14th 36,496

CIA
Ireland 10th 42,200
UK 24th 35,200

In each list Ireland is listed above the UK. Did that persuade investors that Ireland was a safer bet than the UK?
Or did the City grapevine tell a different story?
Ireland is now considered to be on the verge of national bankruptcy.

John Coles

Politics is actually quite relevant to investing. Government actions such as setting taxes and tariffs, administering justice, choosing the balance between state and private spending and regulating markets all have large effects on investors. Being in or out of the Eurozone and the EU itself, immigration policy, education policy, budget policy - note the recurrent word policy - all impact upon our economic destiny.

Usually those who call for "keeping politics out of it" are actually small and large "C" conservatives who truly believe that their own ideas are so self-evidently correct that anyone and everyone with different ideas is being perverse. Others may beg to differ and call for evidence based reasoning.

Petty, partisan politics, ill-tempered and uninformed debate and eretic arguments are generally undesirable.

Thanks for the feedback. What would you think of the idea of keeping political articles in a separate section, clearly marked, so that John could avoid it easily but Jeremy would still be able to read and comment on them?