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.

maggie - pointless to expect a balanced and wider view from sticky i'm afraid ..... thank goodness hilary (and a few others) engage their full faculties

.

Harry dont forget tho, management were as much to blame for the car industry going to the wall.

My father worked as a pattern maker in that industry and the Unions were always going to management for years before problems came to light that they needed re-tooling. They could see the germans the french and even Swedes had new machinery and they pleaded with greedy management to compete to no avail.

Little wonder the Unions then took them on in the end.

Greekman, i see no mention of colection of taxes in your post?...why?.

I can't remember the details exactly gf, but the main car manufacturer in the UK was British Leyland which was a nationlised Co. run by successive governments, but predominately labour (Harold Wilson + Callaghan). I seem to remember pretty much every union jumping on the 'Less hours for more pay' bandwagon which was unsustainable. I'm sure there were some well run production lines (Vauxhall...er...er....hmmmm...) but there weren't very many which involved the Unions (Maybe Brit Aerosp, shipbuilding, food processing....)

while the german car industry assuredly continues to thrive, that in france is in desperate straights and will only be rescued - a temporary fix for sure - if the french gov't chucks loads and loads and loads of money into it - aka illegal subsidies or even protectionism by any other name ...... unless i am much mistaken, the swedes no longer have a car industry; didn't saab go belly up 6/7 years ago?

Cynic,

I think Maggie probably `has more faculties than those you may have been thinking of and she is dead.

=============

Greek,

When inflation kicks in as a result of this government the figures you quote for "benefits" may be insufficient.

Also, raising the lowest level of earnings for personal taxation when inflation and lower wages are taken into consideration will lead to a reduction in "purchasing" power of take home wages.

Perhaps, police pensions, which are currently being paid to retired policemen and women at the moment can be reduced to help out with "We are All in Tt Together"
government's reducing revenue problems.

Shame on you GF. Have lost any respect for you last couple of days, sure you wont lose any sleep over it. Pity you don't just stick to picking stocks cause you are exceptional in that regard. Thatchers death was always going to be celebrated by the red shite, loony left commi parentless ones. No name no pack drill driver you sick bastard. What is worse this thread is now manna from heaven for 'Gobshite Of The Year' (recurring) to post his incessant garbage cheered on by you. Sad doesn't cover it.

GM blocked an approach for Saab Auto by a chinese consortium, so now owned by National Modern Energy Holdings via National Electric Vehicle Sweden.

Harry - having owned Saabs for 25+ years - I doubt I'd buy another even if they were still made.

Unfortunately the build quality is much like the rest now.

Could never get used to having to put it into reverse before the ignition keys came out! I'm a Peugeot man myself....so far.

and mine is german though it masquerades as frightfully british!

GF,

I agree with many points you have made, but one thing which I would hold Thatcher and governments guilty of is the squandering of the cash from the North Sea bonanza and the flogging off of the "National Silver" at cut down prices, to fund tax rebates for her mates.

This was done at allowing the infrastructure, school buildings, universities, hospitals and public services to become dilapidated and to be repaired and replace by subsequent governments.

The selling off of "social housing"while good for those purchasing the properties, probably stimulated the "housing bubble", like the present governments stimulus may do again.

It showed a lack of moral social responsibility to the less enabled in a modern society.

.

It was brown who flogged off the countries gold at rock bottom prices, hence the name the 'brown bottom' for gold.

Cynic, you mean one of those little hairdresser's cars? ;o)

Chris Carson

good post , wonder how many of our loony left friends on here thought Derek Hatton done a good job running Liverpool.

British Study Reveals the Most Popular Hairdresser’s Car in Real Life :-))

The selling off of "social housing"while good for those purchasing the properties, probably stimulated the "housing bubble"
an interesting and quite popular view, but i'm not sure it holds up to scrutiny - and it is certainly pretty silly to judge it with the hindsight of 20/25 years

surely, by allowing people to buy their own homes, it actually increased the housing stock on the market and thus surely would have depressed house prices if anything

hilary is far better than any of us here in telling us why house price inflation, but my simpleton's brain says it's to do with supply and demand, generally increased affluence and the correct view that houses are a very good hedge against general inflation

as we, unlike the dutch, no longer make land (all MT's fault of course!), that has became an ever scarcer commodity with an inevitable increase in price and thus the cost of a house

i don't think anyone could have foreseen the massive demand for new houses, let alone affordable ones ..... however, the current mantra seems to be to wreck more and more of our countryside rather than buying up and refurbishing the huge swathes of derelict property ..... there is also the anomaly that those being offered cheap housing or similar, are quite likely to turn their noses up and demand something smarter, larger and more expensive

harry - none of those :-)