Malcolm Robinson
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Everything posted by Malcolm Robinson
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Looks like our AAA is coming under pressure now............
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Hitachi........?
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Fact: Governments do not create jobs, and can not run enterprises. This has been proven time and time again in every part of the world - capitalist, communist, and every system in between. Governments can only create the conditions in which enterprise can thrive, or be stifled. And, creating the conditions is a s-l-o-w, and at times uncertain, process. True, in just the same way you cannot blame the likes of a council for not opening shops on the high street. They can however be blamed for not having a commercially friendly infrastructure in place to attract new business start ups and/or retain the businesses they have……. Also the politicos do have the power to give direction and I think that is what is lacking at present. I would take issue with the bit… Margaret Thatcher closed nothing, ordered nothing closed; long building economic pressures forced those more gradual closures! It would seem she USED those economic pressures to justify closing great swathes of what were nationalised industries, as well as others, for principally ideological reasons. I am not claiming they were efficient or profitable as stand-alone units but she effectively decimated the manufacturing base of this country to produce one built on the service sector and one imbalance doesn't rectify another.
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Bet it was a 7/16'' John!
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Well that couldn't be you skivving in the underpass Adam!
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That's the one foxy........ classic example of of bunker architecture!
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Never heard of that bediesathome......... accumulater battery......was that an early leisure battery?
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I mean the one which stood where Carlton House is now and exploded due to a gas leak. What a place Bedlington is for gas leaks................
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Couple of variance orders in for Tesco so I would assume work is immanent. Lasses on the tills say it is anyway!
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Don't ask anyone to meet at a boozer John..........everyone runs a mile terrified they will have to stand a round!
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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?
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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!
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Great pictures foxy...................... Foxy.... guardian and chief archivist of the pictorial heritage of Bedlington!
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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"¦"¦..
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More at News Corp.......... http://uk.news.yahoo.com/defence-staff-held-illegal-payments-probe-105409810.html
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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……………
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More 'strange' dealings.............. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2099062/Fury-families-tsar-gets-8-6m-ONE-YEAR-bulk-comes-taxpayer.html
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Keeping up the pressure............... http://www.fairfueluk.com/nationalfairfuelday.html
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How about this one micky. Its my mates car and can be seen odd times (insurance allowing!) popping around the Town.
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I had to do the same with rabbit..........
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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.
