Malcolm Robinson

The 3rd largest Spanish savings bank Banco Base says it has asked for €1.45 billion in state funds to meet 'new local capital requirements'. If anyone believes that will be the last of it remember Ireland asked for about the same to begin with and ended up at around €45B and increasing daily! The EU bust is coming and could be apparent as early as this summer. Portugal is issuing 1 year bonds at eye watering yields and will have to roll them over at whatever they can get as interest rates next year. Greece and Ireland are bust, Portugal and Belgium hanging on by their teeth and Spain and Italy bankrupt in all but name. The Eurocrats have come up with yet another rescue vehicle, can't even remember the acronym of this one, but a lot of Euro zone members are starting to refuse to pay up their shares so the ECB has made it a 4 year rolling requirement. Markel has been shafted in one of the German local elections and that's before their constitutional court has ruled on the legality of Germany, in essence, bailing out the Euro zone. Expect to be spending quite differently valued northern and southern Euros on holiday next year!

Merlin, Pleased somebody else is looking at this stuff and seeing a problem! Not sure I agree with your prognosis that Labour lost its way since the 70's and maybe you should look at our esteemed MP's personal situation when he suggested his People's Party idea. But that's history now and we need something constructive to move forward with. Leaving aside national governance for a minute if we look at what has happened locally for that last umpteen years, and try to see why Bedlington has fared so badly, I think it's down to Party Politics. People are elected, supposedly to represent us, but only if they wear the right coloured tie! Once they are 'in power' 99% of the time they don't even have free will in the way policy is worked through and instead a select group dictate the way that party's membership has to vote. That's a bad way to run anything and means decisions are based on political expediency instead of merit. Now there are plenty of political animals on this board can anyone of them please explain to me what the party structure has to do with getting a pot hole filled in on the road outside our houses or getting Mrs Jones's gutters fixed? Until someone can, I fail to see the relevance of the party structure certainly up to County Council level. Just because an idea comes from one side doesn't make it correct in the same way that an idea coming from a different side doesn't make it wrong. Relying on a party structure in this way only means that many times perfectly viable ideas and practices are ignored in favour of ones based on political dogma. To illustrate that with a local example, making Ashington the commercial heart of Wansbeck was a mistake, Bedlington could have fulfilled that role and had many more natural assets to exploit and build on. That politically biased decision taken at the formation of WDC side-lined Bedlington into also ran status and meant for all the investment and time put into it, Ashington could never fulfil that role sustainably. I will concede there could be a role for political parties in national governance, however even then we see political leaders who have no relevance to the vast bulk of the population. Again I have a question, if our MPs are only in Westminster to represent our views when was the last time any of them asked what we thought on any given subject? Without a regular conduit how on earth can any of them stand up and say they represent their electorates.

Some budget salient points I ripped off another site I use: Income Tax The starting point is that everyone in the UK is entitled to a "Personal Allowance”, which represents the amount you are allowed to earn before you start paying tax. The current Government has committed to increasing this to £10,000 during the current parliament, taking hundreds of thousands of people out of the tax system altogether which is clearly good news. However, to pay for this, many more hard working families will find that they are being pushed into the higher rate tax band. The changes that have been made over the last 2 Budgets are as follows: 2010/2011 2011/2012 2011/2012 Personal Allowance £6,475 £7,475 £8,105 Basic Rate Band (20%) £0-£37,400 £0-£35,000 £0-34,370 Higher Rate Band (40%) £37,401-£150,000 £35,001-£150,000 £34,371-£150,000 Additional Rate (50%) Over £150,000 Over £150,000 Over £150,00 You can see from this table that, whilst the Personal Allowance has increased each year, the Basic Rate Band has reduced each year. This means that in 2011/12 as many as 750,000 more people will pay Higher Rate Tax than in 2010/2011. Duty The cut in Fuel Duty by 1% is actually much more generous than you might believe. Fuel Duty was originally set to increase by 1%, plus an inflation adjustment. The cut in real terms therefore is more like 5% (which is good news). However, one of the stings in the tail of Fuel Duty is that you actually pay VAT on Fuel Duty (yes, you pay tax on a tax!). VAT rose to 20% from January, so we have all been necessarily paying more for fuel. The Duty on Alcohol increased as expected, but was increased even further for those who enjoy higher strength beers. A 500ml can of beer with an alcohol content of more than 7.5% will cost an additional 25 pence. Smokers were hit harder, with economy cigarettes costing an extra 50 pence a packet and premium cigarettes 33 pence more. Enterprise Investment Schemes (EIS) The relief given for investments in EIS qualifying companies will increase to 30% from 6th April and there is a relaxation on the types and sizes of companies that can qualify for this relief. This is excellent news for smaller companies who have been struggling to raise funds ever since the banking crisis. It is also great news for investors who can now effectively get up to 93% of their investment in an EIS company effectively underwritten by HMRC (a combination of 30% Income Tax Relief, 28% Capital Gains Tax Deferral Relief and 35% Loss Relief). More details will continue to emerge over the coming weeks about the detail behind the Budget and no doubt more planning options and issues will be uncovered as the law of unintended consequences always applies to tax changes!

Early morning commute in Moscow....... Russian take on a bike lane! http://www.angelfire.com/ak2/intelligencerreport/high_speed.html

Has no one ever heard of hieroglyphics? http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20110325/tuk-omg-heart-symbol-goes-in-the-diction-dba1618.html

What, couldn't do that foxy, I love her to bits! I take delight in looking after her, preparing delicious meals and making sure the house is nice and tidy for her. Wor Lass on the other hand………………

GGG, In the spirit of this topic title and your sub title…….'look mum no stealth taxes' I think there is one section which does require further consideration. ''In the last Budget, I announced that from next month welfare payments and public service pensions would be up-rated in line with the Consumer Prices Index. I said at the time we should also consider up-rating the tax system in the same way. So from April 2012, the default indexation assumption for direct taxes will move to CPI.'' So these benefits will be upped in consideration of inflation as measured by CPI. ''As announced by my predecessor, tobacco duty rates will increase by 2 per cent above inflation…..Rates of vehicle excise duty will increase by inflation only'' These tax rises will be indexed to inflation as measured by RPI. The difference is 1.1% at the moment with tax rises 'outperforming' any tax reductions or welfare payments! Playing both sides against the middle is something we have become used to with all Chancellors and it is somewhat disingenuous to hear Gideon claim he is any different.

Portugal looks to be on the skids.........PM forced to resign due to austerity measures. Might signal another cap in hand to the ECB/IMF.

Problem with that Brian is I think Wor Lass would probably prefer to see the back of me rather than the cat! I was never a 'cat person' but I have invested quite a bit into this one. I 'took' her when a 60 odd year old bloke was spinning her around by her tail and showing his grandson how far he could throw her when she was a kitten. Peasant, altercation called for! I have seen her run for her life three times being chased by foxes and I have had to climb trees and house roofs to get her down. It took about 5 years to get her to trust us and she is still wary when we have visitors, especially male visitors. Thing is if I put bread out for the birds our dog finds it and eats it and if I put up those suet balls it's like putting down a smorgasbord for the cat. I have found the best way is to make a bread tree, where I push pieces of bread into nooks and crannies and shoots on the trees and bushes we have. Course the sparrow hawk quite likes that idea. Bit of a tough life being a small bird around here!

I agree about Darling I don't think he was ever given the freedom he wanted or even should have had! Seems a half decent budget certainly aimed at attracting business start-ups, let's hope there is somebody somewhere pushing our region to get enterprise status! Nice to see a few little risks being taken which might produce dividends. It is certainly refocusing the economy.

Keith, The Jocks would probably eat them, including them as principle ingredients in their Haggis!!!!!! (Having said that we would be much better off if Scotland started at the Tyne….but that's for a different thread!) I suffered at Keilder as well, camping there on a fishing trip as a teenager! I have blackbirds, blue tits and collared doves building nests in my back garden now……problem is we have a cat like Merc's....

Probably a dawning realisation of the laws of cause and effect which has ultimately led to China being the dominant economic force in the world today……….. Having said that I wouldn't mind a war on midges, even learning the lessons of agent blue and orange. I once went to Inverewe Gardens, next day I looked like I had the Bubonic plague!

foxy, Given your dotage would that be the Yardbirds?

In 1958 China declared war on sparrows......... http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/michael-mccarthy-the-sparrow-that-survived-maos-purge-2068993.html

We might have to go to Newcastle instead of Ashington to pick up our parcels soon.............. http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20110322/tuk-royal-mail-unveils-plans-to-axe-3-40-45dbed5.html