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Malcolm Robinson

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Everything posted by Malcolm Robinson

  1. Malcolm Robinson
    Couple of variance orders in for Tesco so I would assume work is immanent. Lasses on the tills say it is anyway!
  2. Malcolm Robinson
    Don't ask anyone to meet at a boozer John..........everyone runs a mile terrified they will have to stand a round!
  3. Malcolm Robinson
    Foxy, Don't you have one of the old Top Club (Ex Serv) that ended up in the middle of the roundabout at the Top End and which the Green Goddesses attended?
  4. Malcolm Robinson
    Not sure it fell down, more like was pulled down due to sub standard concrete use in the construction........... Had some cracking nights in there though!
  5. Malcolm Robinson
    Great pictures foxy...................... Foxy.... guardian and chief archivist of the pictorial heritage of Bedlington!
  6. Malcolm Robinson
    I wonder if John Deacon had the plight of Bedlington Front Street in mind when he penned the Queen hit "˜'Another One Bites The Dust''. Seems our retail outlets are failing faster than an EU solution to the Greek debt fiasco! The whole thing is like watching a car crash in slow motion. The impending 5½ % hike in business rates due in April is really going to help the situation! Nowadays anyone could take the Front Street with a water pistol on any given day but especially a Saturday afternoon, traditionally a busy time for shopping. So what's gone wrong and can we recover the situation. The first part of that is easy to answer, ever increasing rents, rates, energy charges, water charges etc. in other words an exponential increase in costs at the same time as a squeeze on family finances and that aligned with not being able to compete with the great consumer cathedrals which have been designed at huge costs to extract the very last coins out of our pockets. The surge in internet shopping cannot be ignored now either as this opens up a world of choice to cash strapped consumers. The second part of that question requires the processing power of "˜K', currently the most powerful computer in existence, to come anywhere near a solution. Of course the primary question to answer is do we want a solution? I think we should because what we are seeing is an erosion in a national culture and the evaporation of the very raison d'etre for our Market Towns in the first place. Even at a very basic level being able to interact socially with our contemporaries has to be a worthwhile endeavour and probably the only way we can build lasting friendships etc. or has that now been truly relegated to the vastness of cyber space? It will be interesting to see how the 12 "˜Portas Pilots' develop but given the absolute need for everyone involved to become a committed partner in the undertaking I am just not too sure if it will be possible to roll out across the country up to and including Bedlington. Looks very much like a game we all used to play as toddlers"¦"¦..
  7. Malcolm Robinson
    More at News Corp.......... http://uk.news.yahoo.com/defence-staff-held-illegal-payments-probe-105409810.html
  8. Malcolm Robinson
    Things are warming up over the Channel. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2099562/Freeze-Its-police-v-firefighters-streets-Brussels-striking-crews-hose-PMs-office-protest-pension-reforms-turn-cops-ice.html And an excerpt of a letter from Greek Police to leading members of the Troika, "….Since you are continuing this destructive policy, we warn you that you cannot make us fight against our brothers. We refuse to stand against our parents, our brothers, our children or any citizen who protests and demands a change of policy….We warn you that as legal representatives of Greek policemen, we will issue arrest warrants for a series of legal violations … such as blackmail, covertly abolishing or eroding democracy and national sovereignty…..” One Greek political party has refused to sign up to the Germanic led new austerity targets, the price of getting anymore money out of the ECB, and more than two sitting MP's have resigned. The far Right and Left are picking up popular support as each condemns the sanctions imposed on Greece. Let's hope the ''legal representatives of Greek policemen'' find a compliant judge and get some arrest warrants issued……… now that would be a leap forward in democracy (something invented by the Greeks anyway), holding politicians up to the law of the land! Might even catch on over here……………
  9. Malcolm Robinson
    More 'strange' dealings.............. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2099062/Fury-families-tsar-gets-8-6m-ONE-YEAR-bulk-comes-taxpayer.html
  10. Malcolm Robinson
    Keeping up the pressure............... http://www.fairfueluk.com/nationalfairfuelday.html
  11. Malcolm Robinson
    How about this one micky. Its my mates car and can be seen odd times (insurance allowing!) popping around the Town.
  12. Malcolm Robinson
    I had to do the same with rabbit..........
  13. Malcolm Robinson
    That would depend foxy on what we are being told at any given point in time and whether we believe it or not!
  14. Malcolm Robinson
    Merc, I think you could well have identified what is going through the Tesco commercial development managers minds with regard to their possible ‘’extra’ investment in Bedlington! I too think the only possible future we have as a market town is with specialist retailers operating in niche markets to provide a physical presence aligned with savvy internet showrooms. If only we had done the Manor Walks type development 20, 30 or even 40 years ago, things would still have been so different, especially if we had done it as a co-operative or even a mutual to control overheads.
  15. Malcolm Robinson
    I had a few more ambitious plans for it Adam, if I could have got hold of a certain pot of money we seem to have been fleeced out of! I still think the residential care home planning holds as they started demolition. That's what we were told! If it is built as on the plans it will not only destroy the building line at that side of the street it will effectively block out direct sun light for the market place.
  16. Malcolm Robinson
    Looks ready for the footsie to have a major correction any time now but maybe the additional £75B the BoE will almost certainly put through as more QE will find its way into share prices, somehow! London property now looks to be holding the whole UK market up and even with £275B sloshing around trying to stimulate the economy you have to be of divine birth to get a mortgage. Time is up for Greece and Portugal looks to be in as bad a place. Spain, Ireland, Italy, Hungary and France to follow. Either that or Frau Merkle will be told to start using DM again! Either way the Euro is finished! The UK has spent more than 30 times the dosh on banks than it has saved through austerity cuts...........mull that one over! In fact the Gov might even end up paying more into a Euro bazooka or SPV or some other stupid acronym than it has saved though imposing homeland cuts. Speaking of the UK we might be about to enter the spotlights, there is downward pressure on sterling against anything other than a Euro. If we get stripped of our AAA rating expect GGG's depression. I don't need to justify anything by moving decimal points around, unlike the ONS, it is clear we have been in real recession for over 2 years now and that's starting off from a completely synthetic place, economically speaking. The Emperor has no clothes on!
  17. Malcolm Robinson
    Or exactly what Bob the Diamond geezer has said at Barclay's. Not sure why the hell we are still throwing money (QE) at this shower?????? And more to come if Posner gets his way.
  18. Malcolm Robinson
    Thought you were having a laugh there for a minute Symptoms. You need to go back to around 1995 for the last time a hotel was mentioned for Bedlington, before that 1962! I will second Keith recommendation, I have heard nothing but good comments.
  19. Malcolm Robinson
    Ripped off an economics site I use....... ''The UK is the windiest country in Europe with off and onshore wind together having the potential to deliver 30% of the UK's electricity supply by 2020. Despite the UK government pushing wind power, the national grid has stated that it would not be able to cope with the surge of power from wind farms and estimates that turbines would have to be switched off on 38 days every year, because it would be too windy. They are currently switched off for 25 days a year, but this is forecasted to increase as more turbines come online. With wind farm operators being paid £2.6mn to keep their turbines idle last year, the UK government's decision to push for a seven-fold increase in wind power generated electricity is somewhat questionable. In addition, there is a strong campaign to stop the spread of wind farms, especially onshore, in the UK. Campaigners sight high costs, inefficiency and also blighted views as reasons for not wanting more wind farms in their own backyards. To compound matters, there is a suggestion that winds sweeping the UK may be on the wane, with 2010 being the "stillest” year of the past decade. The Department of Energy and Climate Change views nuclear power as low-carbon, affordable, dependable and capable of increasing diversity of energy supply. The government has allocated an investment of £40bn in nuclear power, which should deliver 16GW of new capacity. However, concerns persist over high plant construction costs, uncertainty over government subsidies, safety and increased regulatory scrutiny. The end result is that the UK's current policy on renewable energy sources is highly unlikely to meet its commitment at the supranational level.''
  20. Malcolm Robinson
    Nope.................... Although lamb or beef make the best gravy.
  21. Malcolm Robinson
    Adam, Hasn't the one for a nursing home been withdrawn but there is still one for a residential home passed seeing as demolition has started.
  22. Malcolm Robinson
    GGG, this is something I am looking at for the Trust to possibly deliver. It is not as cut and dried as it makes out! Some of the terms and conditions we have to sign up to might make the idea less attractive to a lot of people. At the moment a Credit Union can only lend a fixed amount depending on what a member has paid in and only after they have been a member for a fixed period of time. So first off we would need a lot of members who are willing to pay in a set monthly figure and only after the 3 or 6 month timeframe could they borrow against their payment schedule. It starts off at quite a low multiplier but goes up to 10x's after someone has gone through the incremental stages. Yes the APR is much better and for low'ish amounts and the payday type loans should mean the loan sharks can be put out of business. I will wait and see what changes are being introduced before taking this any further; I already have the Trust board trembling in fear at the thought of it!
  23. Malcolm Robinson
    Why men shouldn't write advice columns!
  24. Malcolm Robinson
    Go get'em merc...........
  25. Malcolm Robinson
    :lol: Chris you can't really miss Keith as a recent picture shows all to clearly........
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