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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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 Posted -
11/01/2009
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06:04
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New Year, new topic. If you want to see the old one do a forum search for same title but 2008.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk
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Tizer
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Posted - 11/06/2009 : 20:31
Did you notice that former HBOS head Andy Hornby is bouncing back with a £1 million a year job at Allianz Boots?
By the way, I haven't commented on the appointment of Alan Sugar to the government's advisers - can't think of anything strong enough to express my feelings!
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 12/06/2009 : 07:45
That should have been Vague promises and that's just what we got. More castles in the air. The MPs go on holiday shortly and in effect Parliament is dead until October. Anything that is done in the interim will be by diktat from the sofa and as such counter-productive. If I was a Labour MP I'd be starting the job search now.
I know what you mean Tiz. We're sliding back 200 years in terms of unelected members of the government. On top of that, Godron never got a clear mandate as PM in a vote. I watch what's happening in total disbelief. It confirms me in my opinion that we need an inglorious revolution.
I see Barclays Bank have sold their profitable Global Investment business to Blackrock for £16billion, half in cash and half in shares. I heard an 'expert' on Today saying that he thinks they are building up a war chest so they can buy under-valued assets at the bottom of the market. Interestingly, the same man said that the investment business wouldn't have depreciated much because that sector is still making money. I eveidently know nothing about the arcane world of banking!
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Tizer
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Posted - 12/06/2009 : 10:42
West Bromwich Building Society in trouble...it forgot it was a BS and went chasing the bankers for a piece of the action. Why aren't the bosses getting in trouble for being foolish with their members' money?
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 12/06/2009 : 11:21
I may have the price of Barclay's investment wrong, I have heard different figures. Peter, yes I saw this as well and noted that they are being allowed to act as a bank in that they are issuing a call for share capital. Another nail in the coffin of straight Building Societies? How about Mutuals?
On a local note, our local Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, Mr Andrew Stephenson, has a letter in the BET this week 'Explaining expenses'. It could be that he has been triggered by a correspondence in the columns of the paper between me and the Tory Agent in which I have been trying to tease out a confession that by the time the GE comes round approximately £250,000 of Lord Ashcroft's money will have been spent on campaigning in the Constituency. I see this as a reversion to the old concept of a 'Pocket Borough' in which the MP was in thrall to his patron and therefore couldn't be truly independent. I thought we had cured this ill in the great Electoral Reform Acts of 1832 and 1867 but under the existing rules there is no requirement for disclosure of direct funding like this and so it looks as though the evil is still alive and well. Efforts are being made in current legislation to correct this practice but there is a lot of opposition, not least from the Labour Party. It would seem that the question of election expenses and donations is still bubbling away below the surface but nobody wants to bite the bullet and reform it.
I have written a reply to his letter asking direct questions. I hope the BET will publish it. If not I shall post it on here. If we keep quiet we deserve all we get.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 13/06/2009 : 06:58
Latest figure I have heard is £8billion for Barclays Global investment.
Hazel Blears appears to be having an attack of possible de-selection blues. Three branches of her CLP have called for her to go. No problem about a replacement because in her area three costituencies have been combined into two and there is a spare sitting Labour MP who hasn't got into any trouble at all. Probably time she grew up, accepted the consequences of her betrayal and started the job search. I have no sympathy whatsoever for her. We need solid representatives not attention seeking lightweights.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 17/06/2009 : 06:18
The only reason I can think of for not having a public enquiry into the Iraq incursion is to save the reputations of politicians still in office. The secret bits are easily dealt with in camera. I fear it is a whitewash in the making.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 18/06/2009 : 16:27
I see that they have done a 'U' turn on the enquiry. They have realised that if it is secret it won't fulfill its primary purpose of reassuring people and answering their legitimate questions. The question is, does the fact they didn't see this from the first mean that they are still functioning in the same way they did when the Iraq decision was made? Diktat from Downing Street?
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 19/06/2009 : 07:55
Quite incredible really when you think about it. Godron v. Former head of civil service, former head of Army and former Attorney General! I wonder who will get their way and what difference it will make to an enquiry that started by saying that no blame would be allocated. You couldn't think of anything more arrogant.
I think we will have to start degree courses in 'redaction'. I've looked at some of the documents online and they mean nothing, incredibly boring. I never thought I would have to say this but well done the Telegraph for blowing the whistle! If we had just had what has been put on line we would never have worked out what was actually going on.
Jack Straw cited underspending as a sign of bad management in the probation services last week. It transpires that 6 months ago he sent out a letter reinforcing the push to underspend to keep costs down. He's on the radio as I writesaying that the letter is a 'red herring'. He's wriggling on the hook as Even Davies grills him. He says that ED 'misundertands' Ah well...
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
handlamp
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Posted - 19/06/2009 : 15:10
Wriggling is a very good description of Straw's performance this morning. As the head law official in the land he doesn't give out much confidence in the legal system. Today's mainly blacked out publication of MPs' claims just enforces what a good job the whistleblower and Telegraph have done in publishing the unedited info- the Government must view us as a load of idiots.
Ted |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 19/06/2009 : 16:19
That's the thing that bugs me Ted. Don't they realise that some of us out here actually have brains? Don't they realise that we see straight through them?
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 23/06/2009 : 09:03
Speaker Bircow eh? What's all that about? I don't like the look of him and he hasn't exactly got a squeaky clean track record. Still, I suppose we'd better wait and see......
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 24/06/2009 : 05:55
I heard a statement on TV last night that "since WW2 people have got used to having final salary pensions". Not all of them kids! I never had a pensionable job in my life so they should think again about that statement. Millions haven't got any sort of pension or security at all even now. I'm always surprised when I see the current opinion that a pension should mean that you carry on spending just as if you were in a job. Perhaps that's the perception that needs changing.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 25/06/2009 : 06:07
The Iraq enquiry is going to be slightly different than Godron's first version and it makes you wonder how Downing Street could have got it so wrong.
Speaker Bercow seems to be doing the right things. At the moment he's trying to inject a bit of order into the bear pit pf PMQs. About time too.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Tizer
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Posted - 26/06/2009 : 20:45
A couple of days ago they were talking to some City finance and business people on the radio and even they were saying that we are going back to square one with the big salary and bonus payments. The only difference this time is that some of them now work for companies owned by us - but we don't seem to get much say about it. Those City folk are pumping like mad to get the air back into that big bubble again.
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 27/06/2009 : 07:14
I heard the same discussion I think and it all reinforces the fact that despite rising unemployment and a worsening outlook, the people in a position to command large payments are just as greedy as they ever were. I also note that the most believable estimate of the UK recovery is that it won't start to happen until at least the end of 2010. This looks plausible to me, As I have said for a while, I don't think we have seen the bottom yet. Many people talking recovery up but the evidence is all pointing against them.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
SPEAKER'S CORNER 2012
