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.

Rubbish, they were both at logger heads and still are despite the denials.

Maude cant wait to get IDS out of that department.

Secretly until Grayling was promoted he was saying it was Grayling who was running the show.

Shortie, yep of course you are right, its not meant to be reading material for academics just the average Joe on the street. cheers.

or for blokes like me who can't sleep :-)

GF.

The Great Tory Lie!

The Great Debt Lie and the Myth of the Structural Deficit


A fair interpretation of the present tory governments economic policies.

Yep Fred you have to give credit to the Tories for convincing the gullible public that it was ALL Labours fault etc etc, they dont mention it was a world wide phenomenon and that it was the Tories themselves who set up the seed with the BIG BANG that led to the whole wide World Recession, even one of their own admits this below...........

In the UK, Big Bang became one of the cornerstones of the Thatcher government's reform programme. Prior to these reforms, the once-dominant financial institutions of the City of London were failing to compete with foreign banking. While London was still a global centre of finance, it had been surpassed by New York, and was in danger of falling still further behind.
Thatcher's government claimed that the two problems behind the decline of London banking were overregulation and the dominance of elitist old boy networks and that the solution lay in the free market doctrines of unfettered competition and meritocracy.

The effects of Big Bang were dramatic, with London's place as a financial capital decisively strengthened, to the point where it is arguably the world's most important financial centre. The boom resulted in the relocation of institutions into new developments in the nearby Isle of Dogs area, particularly that of Canary Wharf.

Although the "Big Bang" eased stock market transactions there is a debate in the UK about how far it affected the 2007–2012 global financial crisis. In 2010, Nigel Lawson, Thatcher's Chancellor at the time, appeared on the Analysis program to discuss banking reform, explaining that the 2007–2012 global financial crisis was an unintended consequence of the "Big Bang". He said that UK investment banks, previously very cautious with what was their own money, had merged with high street banks putting depositors' savings at risk and ...according to the program leading US banks to follow suit

REPEAT........

there is a debate in the UK about how far it affected the 2007–2012 global financial crisis. In 2010, Nigel Lawson, Thatcher's Chancellor at the time, appeared on the Analysis program to discuss banking reform, explaining that the 2007–2012 global financial crisis was an unintended consequence of the "Big Bang". He said that UK investment banks, previously very cautious with what was their own money, had merged with high street banks putting depositors' savings at risk and ...according to the program leading US banks to follow suit..............ends

A significant point here made by the programme and Lawson........

and ...according to the program leading US banks to follow suit

Hence the reason for Lagarde's pressing for banking changes and the need for a united EU.

------==-----

Christine Lagarde is quoting both Winston Churchill and President John F. Kennedy as she urges business leaders and politicians to inject more integrity into capitalism, in her speech in London right now (highlights start here)

The IMF chief has stern words for the financial sector, saying that banks have pushed back against efforts to reform them to avoid a repeat of the 2008 crisis:




-----------------

Thankfully, the crisis has prompted a major course correction—with the understanding that the true role of the financial sector is to serve, not to rule, the economy. Its real job is to benefit people, especially by financing investment and thus helping with the creation of jobs and growth.

As Winston Churchill once remarked, “I would rather see finance less proud and industry more content”.

The good news is that the international community has made progress on the reform agenda. This is especially true for banking regulation under the auspices of the Basel Committee, where we are moving forward with stronger capital and liquidity requirements. This should make the system safer, sounder, and more service oriented.

The bad news is that progress is still too slow, and the finish line is still too far off. Some of this arises from the sheer complexity of the task at hand. Yet, we must acknowledge that it also stems from fierce industry pushback, and from the fatigue that is bound to set in at this point in a long race.

The problem of banks who are "too big to fail" has not gone away, Lagarde warns. More must be done to reduce the potential for contagion.

She says the world economy needs an agreement on cross-border resolution of megabanks—providing a framework to unwind them in an orderly way in case of failure:


----------------

From http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/may/27/markets-unruffled-by-eu-elections-as-lloyds-announces-tsb-float-business-live?view=desktop#block-53844b91e4b0ca621b5b2879

Fred remind me which Bank was it in the US that went Tits Up and the World followed.

Note Hays doesnt comment he stays well away when he knows hes beaten.

Right off out fishing.

Lovely evening setting in here.

You may mean this one:

"Bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers"

I am off to the kitchen for a glass of red.

Didn't have a drop of alcohol in France for 3 weeks.

I am not sure what I was punishing myself for?

perhaps the gentlest of tasters for the luxury gulag?

anyway, young sticky, while you go fishing for hays and tin cans, i'll enjoy the first of this season's wild salmon with some freshly picked asparagus :-)

A good fish, a bloody awful oversold tasteless vegetable.

The only thing which makes it any better than an overpriced stalk of grass, is the amount of dressing it can hold.

That applies to the large variety which is be flogged by the bucketful.

I must admit the thought of Hays on a hook and being dragged through the water does have some attraction.

shows what crap you eat!
these came from our local farm this morning and needed nothing but cooking for a few minutes in lightly salted water and then eating with nothing else to be added

asparagus, wouldnt want to be in your tail wind.

Manuel.

You seem to have appalling taste.

No wonder the catering trade gave you up.

Your customers must have been grateful.

It seems to me you valuation is base on price and taste is based on the price not value of the ingredients.

========

Seem you are a chancer at heart!

===========

Back to my tomato soup from hand picked tomatoes and fennel.

GF.

If you haven't already tried them and you are in France try a form of artichoke which they call in the markets "topinambours".

Small cone shaped artichokes, purple and white skinned under an inch in length and then you don't have to peel them.

Steam or small amount of water and boilt and strained, then pepper, salt and knobs of butter and glass of WHITE wine to drink with them.

Beautiful, but you will fart for days!!!!!!

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I never realised the pleasure of fresh spring vegetables served as a course with a suitable dressing, until I had a French mistress.

Ah, now we know why French mistresses fart a lot.