Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

Must have been an immaculate delivery!

The best blame game I ever heard was this one.

A mother of a youth being sentenced for his umpteenth burglary said this to a Crown Court Judge when the youths criminal record had been read out.

The only reason my son has a criminal record, is because the police keep locking him up.
I remember that even the Judge could not stop himself laughing.

The troubling thing was, the woman was being serious and couldn't see what was so funny.
Actually I suppose she was right.

Why after being locked up for the umpteenth time was he still offending?

Have to say : isn't "The Shard" a magnificent building ?......looks fabulous.....a few more like that would grace the london skyline.....perhaps one day a fixed link between the UK and Northern Ireland will be on the agenda with a fast rail lin London to Dublin via this link.....also for the future how about the winter olympics being awarded to Edinburgh....with a little help from our Norwegian friends for the ski-jumps and a few other events....most of them could be held in Scotland in january-february.....also....a fixed link from Wales to Southern Eire....and I don't see why not ?.....check out the proposed link from Japan to South Korea and to China !.....think big...longterm.....

Reading here about different opinions of each party. No-one seems to understand. It doesn't matter who is in power, the country is broke.

The current government at least is trying hard to cut down the unsustainable spending, but guess what? No-one sat at home on benefits likes it. Labour stand up and say we are worse off under a conservative government and yet Blair and Brown jointly crippled us over the past ten years.
Instead of reducing Britains debt whilst the going was good, they spent more and more... benefits for everyone, hey, come to Britain, we will give you a house and enough to live on...

Its inbred in the vast majority of the population. Why should i work for 50 hours a week and be worse off than her next door with two kids, who does naff all and yet still has enough for sky TV, decent furniture and can afford a night out or two a week down town?

The point is, no government can win, cos the average joe doesn't understand the state of the economy. Introduce austerity and you'll not last more than a term. Just keep printing guys, that's how we got in this mess in the first place, but we are now well past the point of no return...

Britain is running out of credit cards. Inflation is the only answer. Wait until interest rates start rising, but without wages and the job situation improving to match. Nice to have a £120/150/200k mortgage then... The real problems haven't even begun yet.

You could earn £500 a week as a builder 20 years ago and buy a house for £40k. Earnings haven't changed but that same house is £150k+ now. The difference? Lower interest rates. Nice, providing interest rates stay low, but with printing presses working overtime, whats the end game?

Good post Davai. The "average joe" seems to be quite happy to spend lots of money on a season ticket to watch a very average football team playing mostly very average football! It's about time these overpaid footballers got a reality check. There's far too much money dished out by various banks and companies on sports sponsorship in this country imo - the average tax payer is footing (sorry about the pun) the bill for all this nonsense. BT has just spent a fortune on a deal with Sky - BT customers just watch your phone bills go up!

And I agree with you, Blair & Brown had a long time to get it right and failed - despite that, they very nearly won the last election. If Blair had still been the leader of the Labour party they possibly would have won.

yes , Good post Davai

Populist Policies?

No one allowed into the country unless they have an assured job (whether from Eu or elsewhere)
If someone from EU becomes unemployed and want to stay here, will only receive the same benefit they would get in their own country.
if someone from outside Eu become unemployed, no benefit and either live on savings or go back home.
No one from EU entitled to free healthcare unless their own country offers same service
From outside EU no free healthcare at all, stay at home.
Leave EU or at the very least reduce power from Brussels
If staying in EU, MEP expenses public and accountable
Anyone from EU or elsewhere committing a crime, shipped back to own country to serve sentence.
English is our language, why should we spend money providing Urdu speakers, translating stuff into a foreign language if you can't be bothered to learn ours.
Judges introduced to the real world
All universities allowed to set entrance exams - reduced numbers gaining entry would allow govt to re-introduce free univeristy education.
Any radicals preaching hate, shipped out, no arguments.
Rebecca Brookes forced to have a hair cut

.
edited

Davai,
"Instead of reducing Britains debt whilst the going was good, they spent more and
more... benefits for everyone, hey, come to Britain, we will give you a house and enough to live on..".

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History often is a b.. and bites back.

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If the Thatcher government hadn't sold of the "Nation's Silver" (McMillan), at prices grossly below their probable values to subsidised the "taxation “reforms”, or “reductions", and rewarding the more wealthy in society, then they may have been able to "repair" and upgrade the "infrastructure" and lousy state of NHS, social services, schools etc. which had been degraded during the “tory” controlled government for 15years period up to the 1997 election.

Also, if the revenue from North Sea “Oil” had not been squandered and been utilised to upgrade the above, then the decline in heavy and medium industry (destroyed during the Thatcher period) may have been moderated. (“It’s alright, the pit-head baths is a super-market now” comes to mind.)

Instead, during that period we had the rush to the Financial Services, which served well for a short term "buck". (Unfortunately, they provided the environment for some of the problems, which started becoming evident 2005- to the present period. (Blair and Gordon, were walking on water, egged on by a large percentage of the country, including many of those in the tory party, who were often demanding greater financial de-regulation and at the same time working for the “destruction” of the “EC”. , rather than working for “reformation” and improvement in its structure. (They were “in” Europe, not for its possible potential, or its long term benefits, but were attempting to get as much short term gain from it as possible, as they thought advantageous for themselves. Rather than considering what would be for the benefits for the whole of “Europe”, many were considering immediate gratification as their goals. Britain was not the only guilty party, but the UK and some of the other countries are responsible for the present debacle. There were some in politicians in the UK as well as some European leaders calling out for greater “financial and fiscal” regulations. If they latter had been successful then the present problems may have been avoided.

The “wealth fare and social services” and “social services” are necessary “evils”, with all or some of their weaknesses and failings. Many will have to resort to them, even though they may not think so at the moment.

There are abuses, but trying to remedy them without provoking other unforeseen problems is difficult. Sometimes, there is a protective use to blind eye.
I can recall with friends ruminating forty to fifty years ago on “how” to make changes, or stop the “abuse of society” by the “social services” and by the “individuals”, who thought or, felt they depended on them. Often, it seemed that to be successful, that we would have to become the abusers.

Again, defining abuse, or abusers, often depended, on where you are standing at the moment.

A few questions which puzzle me are:

1) Where has all the money which has disappeared from the market gone, and if this is being held as “cash”?
2) If it is, is the “cash” being devalued. (Perhaps, the reason for the squawking against QE and printing money.)
3) In that the government is now suggesting that an increased in “borrowing” is the now the “in thing” and good for the public once again, is the bunch in power at the moment, just another of money lenders?
4) Although, I believe in the market, is there a limit to how long the economy and wealth of a country can dependant on its simple GDP? (Does infinity exist.)

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Time for my glass of wine!

I think you have had a few already. :-))

And Brown sold off the Gold.

The so called "Nation's Silver" was a loss making British rail and BT , the water companys , and british Gas, ect: were not allowed under nationalization rules to compete in the open market place in other area's.

the revenue from North Sea “Oil” was squandered by Labour , just as they squandered a strong low debt economy left by the out going conservative government

For me it would be frightening to see Labour in power today. We could well be another Greece with their out of control spending.

Alds,

Look at the reasons for the said "sell off" of gold and try and understand what trying to resolves current problems with the gold standard in place would be like if the UK had stuck with it.

Check what the subsidies for railways are currently.

Check back and look at the lack of government investments during the Thatcher period.

Who restricted competition in the market.

Both Tory and Labour governments did so for ideological reasons.

Rules can be updated or modified, but were often used for ideological reasons by both major parties.

I am not certain that the industries you quote are a success story for the general public since privatisation, although a lot of public money has past into the hands of a few.

The profits could be going into society as a whole.

Bail outs for public industries is no different to that of some private industries, only less obvious.

Strange how private companies like subsidies in one form or another. But also like holding on to any profits.

A nationalise industry can be run as efficiently as a private industry, if that is the only motivation for its being,

Bleat about banks and other large industries going burst and being bail out by the "state".

I am sure you would be happy to see your family going to some of the antiquated hospitals and schools left by the Thatcher administration. That is where a large amount of money went and another large drain was the stupidity of the Iraq war and the mishandling and involvement in Afghanistan.

As far as Greece is concerned, the present chancellor of this country is utilising the same failing economic policies and strategies as have been introduced in Greece.
These policies are leading to a contraction of the economy and lack of growth.

The UK is becoming a another basket case. The value of "money" (£sterling) is being protected in the short term only.

The market rise over last few days is base mainly on the banks, which are being subsidised by the "state".

If I was a direct money lender, even I could make short term money on a deal the government is giving them.

(Again protecting their own at the expense of the country, based on short term outlook.)

Part of the reason the economy is bad at the moment is due to lack of faith in it by the business community and public in general.

If the supposed cut off "interest" or "loan" rate on bonds is about 7% before it cripples a country, consider the effects the 10 or more %, the "true" rates of borrowing, has on a small business has. (Current rates offered to many small businesses.)

Get a primer on economics, don't believe it all, and then think.

Ps. I am lucky I bought bank stocks. Not sure how long I will hold them.

As far as what I consider to be your rants about immigrant and the unemployed are concerned, they are minor contributors to the UK economic problems and are a diversion to the country's real problems.


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Edited

Dreams,

I think the UK is falling into the same trap as Greece has been "forced".

Merkel is playing a harsh long term game, I think aimed at closer political and fiscal integration of a reduced Europe. I think she would settle an integration of a smaller number of countries and would be happy to see the back of UK.

Euro was doomed from day one , same as all other attempts to fix exchange rates begining in modorn times with the Bretton Woods agreement in the 1940's.

Sooner it rolls over and dies the better for everyone imo.

Regarding the sell off of national industries, I believe there were two main reasons for this, one to make them (more) competitive and secondly to remove the huge liability called pensions from the public purse.
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Was there no other way to make them competitive!

Perhaps, by paying the Executives higher incomes?

Pensions, umm. Questionable.

I'm sure there were other solutions but nationalised industries were notoriously uncompetitive as well as being reluctant and slow to change.
Pension liabilities, were they not removed from the public purse?
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