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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted -  28/04/2011  :  07:37
Political comment is a high risk activity on the site these days so I thought I'd try again to give those who are interested in politics a safe haven!


Stanley Challenger Graham




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stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk
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Tardis
Regular Member


453 Posts
Posted - 26/08/2011 : 10:52
Stanley, we have seen the biggest fiscal stimulus in written history. The one that put us in the huge debt we are in now.

Where is all that money?

It certainly didn't go into the wider economy.

It probably stopped in the zombie banks, who have been using it to shore up their capital bases and trying to earn more money by inflating commodity prices through speculation.

The money is there already, the problem is how do you get it out of the grasping hands of a dying institution.

The other issue, as per PM last night, is the LIBOR rate where it is apparent that US banks are currently fearful of lending to the Euro zone because of the parlous state of the economies and the possibility of default.

Banks don't tend to lend when it is raining, and will only proffer the money to buy the brolley on a sunny day. It is counter intuitive in all respects.


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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 27/08/2011 : 05:32
Michael, read my posts on what I think should have been done with the bank bail out money. Waste of time repeating myself and very boring.

Grant Shapps has announced his alternative strategy to provide more 'affordable homes'. He wants council planning departments to give more permissions for moorings on canals for houseboats and release urban land for temporary buildings. Have I got it right? Is he really advocating shanty towns? If someone can't afford a commercial rent they are hardly likely to have enough to buy and maintain a boat or a decent mobile home and I don't think mortgages are readily available for them. I think Heather could tell us how much it costs. I'll lay a small bet that it isn't cheap!

So what's the reason for the announcement? Why make it now? Is there nothing else to make policy about or announce to the electors?  My mind goes back to the shanty towns that sprang up under the Hoover government in the US when rampant capitalism dragged them into depression. The shant towns that sprang up were called 'Hoovervilles'. Are we about to repeat history and have 'Cameronvilles'? Is this report evidence of enlightened and progressive governance? Back into the safe refuge of the Shed I think.....


Stanley Challenger Graham




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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 28/08/2011 : 05:41
I see the Liberals are proposing a Land Tax. Commentators note that they are a red rag to a bull for the Tories. They've perhaps read the history of Lloyd George in 1910 when he proposed the same thing but in that case it was as a threat to get his 1910 budget through the House of Lords. This eventually led to the Parliament Act that bans the Lords from fighting financial Bills. No general land tax was imposed. The Tories won't let it happen now.


Stanley Challenger Graham




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Tizer
VIP Member


5150 Posts
Posted - 28/08/2011 : 11:59
Tardis mentioning banks `trying to earn more money by inflating commodity prices through speculation' reminded me of something I read the other day. It described the extent to which `carbon' has become a commodity through so-called carbon trading and how the investment banks have all gone into it in a big way. Carbon trading got off to a bad start but is beginning to make more money for these institutions, regardless of the frauds that have gone on in the background. The financial institutions have always made a fortune buying and selling our money, food, material resources and energy - now they are doing the same with our waste carbon!

Carbon trading is morally bankrupt in my view and I believe this all the more now I hear that it is allowing India to build many large coal-fired power stations that are claimed to be `low-carbon' but are not anywhere near as low-carbon as they should be. The fact that they are at all deserving of the term low carbon is because Indian law now requires them to be within specific limits, yet they are eligible for carbon credit trading. A European company can offset its poor carbon efficiency by providing funds towards building these `low-carbon' Indian power stations - yet the power stations have to be built under Indian law regardless of where funds come from. It's all one big mess!

Edited by - Tizer on 28/08/2011 12:03:05


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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 29/08/2011 : 06:10
Tiz, you are right, it was a scandal from the beginning because many firms who were already energy efficient found that they had surplus carbon credits that could be sold for unearned gain. Now, as you say, they are being traded as financial instruments. This trading has no effect on energy saving, just profit for fat cat casino bankers.

I heard a news item yesterday that after years of legal battles the big Traveller's camp in Essex is to be cleared of unauthorised residents starting August 31st. I tried to equate this with Grant Shapp's wheeze to get planners to allow more houseboats on canals and temporary 'affordable dwellings' on unused urban land. There seems to be a mismatch somewhere. 


Stanley Challenger Graham




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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 30/08/2011 : 06:15
Noticeable that as reaction to knee-jerk sentencing by the courts grows and appeals come on line, poltical rhetoric advocating punitive measures slacks off. One factor could be the all-time high in prison population.


Stanley Challenger Graham




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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 31/08/2011 : 05:15
Midnight tonight is the deadline for the Traveller evictions. There was a news item yeasterday on Today on R4 drawing attention to the amount of money spent by the council pursuing the Travellers through the courts. Also a protester's camp has been established. We haven't heard the last of this.


Stanley Challenger Graham




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Tardis
Regular Member


453 Posts
Posted - 31/08/2011 : 10:54
The long awaited diaries of Darling are being serialised.

Maybe it will finally put the nails in those political careers, and keep the lids firmly fixed down.

Initial soundings suggest it may be somewhat indelicate for Mr Balls and his wife.


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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 01/09/2011 : 06:19
I watched the interview last night on TV of the Traveller Lady and the chairman of the council. Game set and match to the TL I think. She even mentioned the ConDem initiative to release more marginal land. Smart cookie.

Angela Knight's broadside on behalf of her employers, the banks, was evidently the opening shot in what looks like a serious political fight over the restructuring of the banks. She even issued the old hollow threat about banks relocating abroad. It looks as though Vince Cable has dug his toes in on this one and this time the option of hacking his phone and discrediting him isn't available. Remember the reaction after he declared war on Sky? (And he was right!)  Problem is that all the signs point to the influence of the financial sector inside Downing Street being too strong. See Private Eye for the numbers of bank employees on secondment to government. Cameron will spout meaningless rhetoric (like he did yesterday when he was doorstepped on a factory visit) but he knows which side his bread is buttered on and will attempt to kick the matter into the long grass. Down to Milliband now, he should come out with all guns blazing but will he do it? Why am I so sceptical..... If the financial sector win this one we can be sure that the financial coup d'etat is a fact. The bankers are Lords of the UK, if not the Universe!

Chambers of Trade have done their sums on growth in the UK economy this year and come up with another downgrade to 1.1%, in effect flat-lining. This while the effects of the cuts are still working their way through the system. Ossie should come out of purdah and face the facts. Will he do it? I doubt it, he is strong on optimistic statements when one index shows a rise but completely silent about the avalanche of unfavourable indices we are beginning to see. They will get worse even if the world economy remains relatively stable. External events Dear Boy! Martha wasn't a long way out with her assessment of the Chinese economy a few weeks ago, latest figures show that internal inflation is damaging their growth figure. They were the engine of what growth there was but  as global consumption drops the illusion of export led growth begins to look delusional. The Chambers of Trade have picked up on this one as well.

I've been banging on for months now about the importance of domestic spending, the effects of the Coalition cuts and how weak a reed export led growth is in an increasingly competitive world. Either I'm completely wrong or in front of the curve. Time will tell. My message is to batten the hatches down, we ain't seen nothing yet! I hope we eventually climb back up the hill but even if we do, it will take at least ten years and probably even longer. Always remember the cause, the horde of 'financial experts' who got it totally wrong, their 'New Economy' was a mirage, the biggest manipulation of the markets since 1926/29 and exactlythe same result. Ask yourself where the money went. They should have read the history....... They got short term gain but in the end caused what could be terminal damage to the world economy.


Stanley Challenger Graham




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Bruff
Regular Member


479 Posts
Posted - 01/09/2011 : 08:13
Darling's book?  Oh no, not more tittle-tattle from yet another political memoire.  Once of a day, these things were worth reading - Dennis Healey's, Margaret Thatcher's, Richard Crossman's diaries to name just three.  But these days, given that serialisation rights are the name of the game well, a fondness for quoting the poems of Emily Dickinson (Healey), forthright expositions on the philosophy that drives you (Thatcher) and the sheer minutiae and grind of a Cabinet role along with the machinations of the Civil Service (Crossman), goes down like a lead balloon with an audience wanting little more than gossip and character assassination.  Already, the press is gleefully gearing up to pour over this aspect of the book.  How wearisome.  It's little more than an upmarket OK magazine.

 
I want to be put right in the heart of Government and 'feel' what it's like to be present during momentous events, the thought processes, the trade-offs, the arguments.  The political persuasion of the writer doesn't matter in these circumstances, because this is the real stuff of high office, politics and public life.

 
Richard Broughton



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Tardis
Regular Member


453 Posts
Posted - 01/09/2011 : 10:40
Yes, today's expositions have Darling having another pop at Brown and Balls, but also the fact that he was over ruled about wanting to sack the BoE governor.

In other news, it would appear that a civil servant "leaker" from the education department was moved, and has now become a "bag carrier and spinner" for Andy Burnham. Apparently he was a very good mate of Mr Balls spinner.


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Tardis
Regular Member


453 Posts
Posted - 01/09/2011 : 10:47
Stanley, whilst 1.1% may not be good it is certainly not flat lining.

Considering the constricted financial situation, it is a wonder that there is any growth at all. The fact that many banks are again tottering on the edge would suggest that there is more to come unless the Eurozone can actually get a handle on the debt situation and actually stop stalling from the action that needs to be taken. Greece is bust, there is no way it can pay back. Ireland is too. Spain and Portugal stand a chance if they can weather the current storm. Italy could well fall too. On top of which many banks have still not written down their inflated assets because to do so would make them technically insolvent.

As I have said before, maybe the "consumption" figures are the wrong measures of economic prosperity

Hardly any point in giving UK workers the minimum wage when all they can buy are products that can be made and shipped here, but still ensure that those workers who constructed the products do not enjoy the same basic levels of reward.


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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 02/09/2011 : 06:20
Michael you are right and I apologise. 1.1% isn't flat lining, it's a downward trend. All banks are 'technically insolvent'. That's why the banknotes no longer promise to pay the bearer on demand in specie. This is why a 'run on the bank' is always fatal.

Richard, I agree about political memoirs and the comparison with some of the great diaries like Harold Nicholson. I'm not interested in back-biting and score settling. Best source of 'inside stories' are the good political biographies. Reading Joe Gormley's 'Battered Cherub' gives a totally different outlook on the coal strikes, I was surprised to learn that one of his supporters was Willy Whitelaw but he was overuled in Cabinet. Little gems like that are the real insights.I heard Balls being asked about Darling's 'revelations' and thought he sounded very comfortable about them if a little shifty, he was no angel of reason and light.

 I see the US Federal Finance Agency is instituting a court case against the mortgage providers for selling dodgy mortgages. It would be nice to see a similar action here, even if they were in some cases suing their own banks. At least it would det a marker fpr the industry. Only problem is of course is that the other great bastion of free enterprise, the lawyers. will make a fortune!

 Wondering when Danny Alexander will be pushed forward on the bank restructuring row. He seems to be useful to Cameron as a human shield.


Stanley Challenger Graham




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tripps
Senior Member


1404 Posts
Posted - 02/09/2011 : 09:02
Speaking of banknotes - I have been looking at 19thC editions of the Times thanks to Lancashire Libraries bulk ticket. This ad is from a front page...

Notes lost, between London Bridge, and Beckenham- Two Bank of England notes. Nos 41675-6. Payment stopped. Anyone bringing them to RHP care of Mr G Street, No 30 Cornhill shall RECEIVE A REWARD OF TWO POUNDS.


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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 02/09/2011 : 09:16


Those were the days when notes were more bills of exchange rather than modern banknotes. Here's a specimen Craven Bank note from about 1890. No number entered because it was never issued. Value today would be approximately £2000.  I found two in a secondhand book I bought years ago. As to how they got there, what a story that would make! I doubt if they should ever have left the bank.


Stanley Challenger Graham




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