Personally for crafty types of work I would get a scroll saw (from £35 in SF), cant be beaten for intricate scroll work, name plates or kids toys such as jigsaws and animals.
For the top of arched doors and the like I would use a jigsaw to rough out then make a guide and use a router  for a top quality finish.

But as I'm only a novice with wood I may be talking out my arse! metal is my real love.

Heeellllooooo Big_All !!

With your budget get the Axminster I would say, m8, but I have no experience of that machine. I have the Clarke you mention and it bogs down at 80mm cutting depth unless you go sssssssllllooooooowwwwww so don't know what the 350w Axminster would be like..

The bed on the Clarke is rough n ready aluminium but can easily be sorted with a bit of TLC, the cutout/insert round the blade lets small offcuts drop into the main body of the machine resulting in a snapped blade most often (again easily sorted) and keeping the bed flat and stable needs a little bit of attention but no big deal...

As mentioned by Dewy re: the blade guides on the Ferm I can happily say the one's on the Clarke are fine (once set up correctly LOL)... Also, and this may put a perspective on the whole thing, I only paid £80 for mine...

A decent blade costs bout £11 from my local supplier (Carlisle Glass - yes Sir, we can get any size you require, Sir, takes about 3 days, Sir) and transforms the saw quite drastically - well worth the extra £6 over the Clarke replacement which I keep as a spare.

A tip I was told but haven't tried yet is to round off the back edge ie non-cutting edge of the blade with a file/oilstone/whatever whilst running the saw - this lessens the chance of snagging the blade when cutting curves apparently.. anyone done this mod?

Hope this helps, but I don't think I'd have got the Clarke if it was gonna cost me £112 :p

Mike.

I wish I still had access to a Bridgeport.
I could make it sing.
I can think of a number of jigs & accessories I would like that I could make accurately on it.
Better still I would love to get hold of one with imperial screws before they ruined them with 5 & 2½ mil lead screws.
best 'router' I ever used.

heeelllooo doc
ive got a vat free voucher till the 10 th julyand the
book is two years old so assuming it hasnt gone up its
[or gone down in price]its£95

and how do you round of the back
if you lightly hold and move emiry round the back
whilst its rotating its going to ware away the
roller at the back as it gets carried round
on the blade

no i think its called death wish 5 :

when it comes to msn mike i cant even
manage a onesome  
good job other things work solo

If you know anyone who works in a machine shop with a decent sized bandsaw it will most probably have a blade welder on the machine itself.  Its got to be worth a few pints to get them to knock you a few up on their lunch break if you supply the reel of blade.
Worth a thought.

I see.  With the quality of my soldering/brazing it would only go round once then jam up.

Surely youre a shift worker like me, up at this hour.

Tis true,
Very boring at times though especiall as my shift mate has gone Tom Dick.
Spent the whole night researching going self employed.
Now have about 200 pages from the inland revenue to trawl through!