Brown's spend, spend, spend during his Chancellor's days has brought us into the current economy we are facing today. His appeal at a Downing Street meeting for the lenders to pass on cuts appeared to fall on deaf ears with HBOS, which owns the Halifax, increasing its rate on some mortgages from 6.09 to 6.59 per cent. Borrowers taking out this type of deal will now pay 46 more a month. On a two-year tracker, the rate will increase from 1.49 points above base rate to 1.99 points, giving a current rate of 6.99 per cent.

Other lenders are expected to follow Halifaxs lead.

If the Government wants the banks to lower mortgage rates to home owners - why not just offer them through Northern Rock? Everyone would rush to the Rock to get the loans forcing banks to match the rates or lose the business? Or maybe the government would then run into bigger credit crunch?

The people that come through this tough economic period will be in spite of Brown's existance, not because of it. The only thing he regrets is that people have finally woken up to the results of his actions. The don't do as I do but, do as I say brigade.At least with the blue mob you know what you are getting. Even in politics there is a thing called timing. What would have been the point of the tories declaring their hand too soon. Camaron will now have to declare the policies now that the spotlight will be more fully trained on his party. We all know that politics is and always will be like a game of chess except, chess is much cleaner.I never read the Sun but I read the Eagle when I was a kid.

I did not see the Brown interview

Being leader of the opposition is an easy job, that Cameron is well up to. I have my doubts that he is prime minister material. But then again, Brown isn't either.
The leader of the opposition merely has to promise free beer. It helps if he has something plausible by way of a plan to deliver it, but the promise should be enough. The prime minister has to deliver the free beer, or explain why its 2 a pint.
Lets be honest here. Boris as mayor is a wonderful illustration.
The guy is an amiable buffoon. I have no doubt he is as sincere as anyone and obviously very intelligent, but mayor? The figurehead of a once proud capital? He is more suited to being president of the clowns guild.
The reason he got elected was not his own abilities, but Kens lack of them, and the electorate getting fed up of waiting for Labour to deliver free beer.
The current state of the UK depresses me. The state of the leadership depresses me. The options available depress me the most.
British politics often uses the saying "turkeys voting for Christmas". I feel like a turkey given the choice between Christmas and banning turkeys.
For an average turkey like me, where is the vegetarian party???

Gordon Brown is running the country or ruining the country.. is there a difference..lol.

Rule Britania, bring back the monarchy all is forgiven!!

I think the jury is out on Boris. Alot depends on the advisers he has around him and weather he can take on board sound advice. As for conservatives I would like to have seen hush puppy man in charge, Kenneth Clarke who was a sound Chancellor of the Exchequer. Camaron would not be my choice but, that is the state of play. You have to play your hand the best you can. Brown has no aces in his hand, he has thrown his away. Agree that Labour's unpopularity was main reason for election results. Well lets hope things can only get better but, I will not hold my breath. Come back Oliver Cromwell all is forgiven. lol

I think there is a general malaise- the feel-good factor caused, arguably, by rising house prices as well as full employment, has begun to dissipate in the face of the credit crunch and massive increases in energy prices. Voters bring up all sorts of other reasons for wanting Labour out - immigration and the demands to build more houses and flats plus increasing transport congestion being high on the list of additional objections to the govt. As someone who was re-elected to a local govt seat last week I came across all these arguments for wanting Labour out.
There is one block of Barratt 2 year old flats where I am where out of 60 flats only 5 occupiers have anglicised names-the rest are mostly eastern European and they are privately owned. The impression people have is that we are concreting over England so support immigration.

Gordon may well live to regret his dithering over going to the country last year.

Therein lies a problem of our own devising, coeliac!!
To defend countless failed policies on immigration we have created a situation where politicians are terrified to mention race issues. The simple fact is we have consistently got it wrong. In private I don't doubt that almost all politicians would admit to same. They cannot do it in public. They would be slaughtered as racist lunatics.
The financial benefits from immigration are not really there. They are as much fairy gold as the GNP calculations. The costs are tremendous. Financially, socially, environmentally.
I suspect it will not improve, as no-one has big enough balls to be a 21st century Enoch Powell, and spell it out to a sleepwalking population.
A Hungarian friend of mine (He is a GP, his wife holds a law doctorate, so they may have added value to UK plc) warns me of the plans of Hungarian gypsies to emigrate en masse to the UK, where they can carry on their lawless lives safe in the knowledge we will welcome them and their ethnic lifestyle will provide some defence from the law!!
I strongly suspect the average Joe wants a politician to say they will try to restrict immigration to degree educated, employable, english speaking immigrants and look again at the family immigration rules. It works in many other parts of the world.
But to do so would be to echo the noises made by the BNP and look at the vitriol they suffer.
The economic problems will pass. By early 2009. Oil and food prices will fall, in line with a strengthening dollar, whenever that comes. House prices will recover and once again grow. Mortgages will become more available and less expensive.
All these things will happen whoever is in government. The one thing the citizens of this country really want addressing is how we move forward with fairness and thought, moderation and compassion, while retaining our identity and our way of life.
The politician who addresses this and shows the way will win hands down. Regardless of economic policy.

Petrol is 135p a litre in the Hebrides Scotland..the most expensive petrol in UK.

http://news.scotsman.com/uk/Far-and-away-the-dearest.4047946.jp

aye mitzy

i used to work for some time in very north of scotland about a decade ago. when he petrol strike happened and it was about 80p a litre or thereabouts in england, that was the price up north a few years earlier.

as ever, until it hits london or south of england where the ragheads etc live, then the media and press dont take any notice.

the ironic thing is that oil and gas comes from scotland and mainly aberdeen.......10 billion every year goes from aberdeen to london basically.
the oil industry hasnt helped aberdeen....in fact its turned what was once a floral nice city into a violent drinking den.......its only certain individuals that propser and many are foreign again.

i'm beginning to think that capitalism doesnt work......should we try communism?

Fred:

Mind I doubt that tory party voters could understand more than that.

Why is it that you feel free to cast an insult like that at so many people -- including me -- quite so freely? How do you presume to judge our collective intellects so easily with such a sweeping generalisation?

remember that 40% of people in uk voted for a warmonger....his name was bliar......he is yet to be tried at the hague for war crimes.

MM, once again you miss that I am being ironic. I do believe that some Tories could be quite intelligent if properly trained. That is what I thought the public schools or penal colonies are for. The only trouble is they are still failing with so many.

8-), 8-), 8-)

I will try and give your remarks a little more time, after I return home after my wife has taken me out on my new lead for a walk.

Mind we were just watching a report on Burma and my wife has asked me "why don't they bomb God?". Mind she did add their God.

We have problems to sort out!

8-)

Just heard that James Whale has been sacked from Talksport all because he urged listeners to vote for Boris Johnson in the London elections.. incredible.

this country is a diluted form of soviet russia.....people r so suppressed these days. until uk folk go abroad and then come back some time later, they wont be able to see how soft they r.

come on, lets bomb china or something! lol

So a senior police officer has publically stated that the huge increase in investment in street camera surveillance has not made any impact on the massive increase in crime, but it sure has made a difference to the bank balances of those selling the equipment!

Another success for New Labour.

Very true Halifax, I did very well with VSK a few years back, it's always worth looking where the Government will throw money too, and look for companies that can profit (EDD)

And this Government has cetainly thrown plenty of money around.

i know in aberdeen on main street that metre a CCTV camera can watch you....thats more than a mile long!!

if we had uk in stle of stalin esque strlye it might be better as we would not only be raghead free but also totally white british......with no teerorists.....and people wanting to work again.
and no banks wanting bailed out either.

bring back joseph stalin.

and you'd probably be thrown in prison or shot for daring to speak freely--we should all be civilised enough to live together in peace in a free democracy. I hope the Tories restore some of our freedoms and rejects the iron fist of the EU!

Freedom means nothing without definition.
The only definition that means anything, must include the freedom to take the consequences.
I submit there is no way that will ever be applied in a modern society, as we all have expectations that the state will protect us and provide for us in times of crisis or poverty, and that this is a natural consequence of collective responsibility and an inescapable aspect of any form of government.
The only political system that truly encompases freedom is anarchy and it is interesting to note that the definition of anarchy, according to the OED, changed in the 19th century from being a perfect state without need of government to its modern definition.
The question therefore is what level of freedom we want. We want to be able to speak freely, for instance, but is this acceptable if your speech includes a call to kill non believers? Of course not. Therefore freedom of speech is not applied.
Now we arrive at the conclusion that freedoms are allowed, when they are in line with the policy of the community. As the communitys executive arm is the state our freedom is as much as is prescribed by the state, and no more.
Therefore, even with the most liberal of governments we arrive at a Stalinist proposition that the government dictates what we all do, say or think.
The only real difference is that every few years we can always replace our current Stalin with his shadow, and end up with Marx or Lenin instead, to now dictate their list of what freedoms we have, and those which we don't.