Malcolm Robinson

Anyone want to discuss the AV vote? Does everyone know what they are asked to vote on and understand it?

Political I know but a small insight into EU working practices, ''vote for our accounts to be signed off and we will allow you even more pay and expenses! ''

You are driving along minding your own business................ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YogEwKmb8qg

This is very important for people who are having computer lessons! Jesus and Satan were having an on-going argument about who was better on the computer. They had been going at it for days, and frankly God was tired of hearing all the bickering. Finally fed up, God said, "THAT'S IT! I have had enough. I am going to set up a test that will run for two hours, and from those results, I will judge who does the better job." So Satan and Jesus sat down at the keyboards and typed away. They moused. They faxed. They e-mailed. They e-mailed with attachments. They downloaded. They did spreadsheets! They wrote reports. They created labels and cards. They created charts and graphs. They did some genealogy reports They did every job known to man. Jesus worked with heavenly efficiency and Satan was faster than hell. Then, ten minutes before their time was up, lightning suddenly flashed across the sky, thunder rolled, rain poured, and, of course, the power went off.. Satan stared at his blank screen and screamed every curse word known in the underworld. Jesus just sighed. Finally the electricity came back on, and each of them restarted their computers. Satan started searching frantically, screaming: "It's gone! It's all GONE! "I lost everything when the power went out!" Meanwhile, Jesus quietly started printing out all of his files from the past two hours of work.. Satan observed this and became irate. "Wait!" he screamed. "That's not fair! He cheated! How come he has all his work and I don't have any?" God just shrugged and said, JESUS SAVES!!!!!

Aye me too.........makes you wonder what makes some people tick?

And here we go.......... http://www.ecb.int/press/pr/date/2011/html/pr110407.en.html

If anyone reading this stuff thinks the UK is insulated from the likes of Portugal holding its hands up saying it is broke and asking the ECB/IMF for help the following makes sobering reading! The European Commission mechanism for this called the European Financial Stability Mechanism and we are liable for 13.5% of it. Our share of the IMF is 4.53% and we are liable therefore for that percentage of any lending it may make. So we are not a Euro state yet we are accountable for some of its liabilities! There will undoubtedly be a knock on effect with regard to Spain as there are many and varied interests between these two neighbouring countries and if ECB does raise its interest rates the domestic mortgage markets will take an immediate hit!

Caretaker Premier Socrates tells his people they have had to call in International Rescue........Thunderbirds are go!

The animals in this vid are not the ones chained and caged!!!!!!

The price of a first class stamp has risen from 41 pence to 46 pence or just over 12% and the price of a second class stamp has risen from 32 pence to 36 pence for a rise of 12.5%. A first-class, large letter stamp has risen from 66 pence to 75 pence which is 13.5% and a second class one from 51 pence to 58 pence for a rise of 13.7%. The explanation: Royal Mail have said they have seen sharp declines in mail volume, so revenues are falling. Is it just me……… what planet are these people on?

Gordon Bennett John, the arrangement is better than the lyrics! Definite undertones of Ultravox. Sometimes you only need a half decent vid and no lyrics.........take it away Buckaroo.....

Silver Bullet Band......... Extra Golden.

Yep any Irish person relying on an old age pension must be delighted! Socialisation of losses and privatisation of profits................. Wonder what the Irish mortgage holders will think after next weeks ECB interest rate decision. Odds on it will go up and probably drag ours with it at some point.

Portugal might have come up with a solution to some of its deficit problems, there are moves afoot today to sell the footballer Christiano Ronaldo to Spain. Wonder how much they will give for Rooney?

Northumberland Residents Festival. 2011_Residents_Fest_poster_Mar11 (1).pdf

£24 billion...........a mere bagatelle! http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20110331/tbs-irish-banks-need-new-24-bn-euro-bail-5268574.html

The Coventry Rock Building Society........... http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20110331/tuk-building-society-plans-northern-rock-45dbed5.html

Another ones bites the dust........... http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20110331/tuk-liar-ex-mp-jailed-for-expense-fiddli-45dbed5.html

A man walks into a Welsh pub and orders a white wine spritzer. The bar goes silent as everyone stares at him..."Where are you from? You sound English", "I'm from across the Severn ," replies the man nervously. "What do you do, just across the Severn ?", "I'm a taxidermist." "What on earth is one of those?", "I mount animals." "Its alright boys," shouts the barman, "he's one of us."

I've just had a letter back from Screwfix. They said they regretted to inform me that they're not actually a dating agency.

Merlin, The old moral conundrum, one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. It all depends where you are standing when you make the call. As for the morphing of political parties, the thing is there are a clear set of 'issues' to be resolved and the difference is supposed to be in the choice of ways and means used to tackle them. The 'issues' don't change they are fixed and there are essentially only a very limited set of tools which can be used in their resolution, given all the constraints hardly surprising the major parties are now reduced to arguing over semantics! In reality it makes the political party structure all the more irrelevant.

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