Malcolm Robinson

Now your just trying to get me into trouble!!!!!

''Paid on the nail''………..for my tuppence worth……. Probably more down to the many Bedlingtonians who made nails and were paid by product. When Bedlington was the centre of nail production in the world of course, not that long ago! As for The Nail, I did read there might have been a Saxon cross on the top of it, which would fit nicely with St Cuthbert etc. but trying to find out when it was put up is another thing! Fascinated with the Boris Karloff story Keith any more to tell?

There is a pane out in a Morpeth bus shelter, bottom of Stobhill Bank, lets see how long it takes to replace because the same shelters here just left at best with gaping holes in.

Funny what you come up with while doing a bit of research on one subject………

It would seem our elected governors are being amplify assisted by certain sections of their civil service......... Whats 100 odd million anyway?? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11901639

One for the kids........... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCvWgVPAh1k

Some women take their husbands philandering far too personally………..

Working people frequently ask retired people what they do to make their days interesting. Well, for example, the other day, Mary my wife and I went into town and visited a shop. We were only in there for about 5 minutes. When we came out, there was a cop writing out a parking ticket. We went up to him and I said, 'Come on, man, how about giving a senior citizen a break?' He ignored us and continued writing the ticket. I called him a dumb ass. He glared at me and started writing another ticket for having worn-out tires. So Mary called him a !*!@# head. He finished the second ticket and put it on the windshield with the first. Then he started writing a third ticket. This went on for about 20 minutes. The more we abused him, the more tickets he wrote. Just then our bus arrived, and we got on it and went home. We try to have a little fun each day now that we're retired. It's important at our age.

Been working on electrical generation myself..........

2 feet of snow forecast for tonight!

Another one bites the dust.......... I hope there are lots more to come.......... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/8180460/David-Chaytor-An-error-belied-by-a-trail-of-false-expenses-invoices-by-the-Labour-MP.html

Well done........

With Phil Woolas losing his High Court attempt to overturn his ban on being an elected MP and half his colleagues coming out supporting a further appeal are MPs above the law of the land? They might act and think so but these High Court judges look to have burst that particular bubble. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11904630 There would seem a lot more similar business for the courts to rule on considering recent exposes of MPs and their expenses!

Well John looks like you have made some big improvements down at the old Gas Shop! Speaking of which there might be the opportunity of a bit of serendipitous advertising/PR……..Gas Shop.... given what you intend doing there?

Should have expected it after this touch of death...........

Well done foxy, keep em coming.......

Pesky Russians.........

Spoke too soon, small snowploughs just been through my estate!!! Although it might have taken the top off the dammed speed hump right outside my house! Couldn't agree more with your second point Claire.

Sizsells, I am not trying to promote excuses for NCC only pointing out what I think are relevant financial constraints. At the end of the day NCC decides where it spends its revenue and there are plenty of regular NCC 'lurkers' reading these boards who can and should be answering the questions! I really do think we are going to have to make difficult decisions in the near future as to what gets funded out of local taxes. As for councillor Armstrong, his ward is at Cramlington so he should be well aware of the problems hereabouts! As a point of interest he is also the 'portfolio' holder who will be responsible for things like the introduction of parking charges here, when they come, so he is really popular anyway! Keith, Is it just me but doesn't all these dammed speed humps mean snow ploughs couldn't operate on the estate roads anyway?

Plus they do pay their staff more than comparable care homes, so they are not trying to do this on the cheap!

Worth keeping an eye on Belgium……….their bonds are skyrocketing today! More likely to come from outfield I think GGG. Spain selling 30% share in El Gordo, her huge national lottery, things must be bad!

We now see different EU mechanisms and entities being created almost daily as the EU and ECB try to put up some sort of illusion of normality. It wasn't that long ago most EU banks passed the new stringent bank stress tests, what a croc that has been proved to be! Looking at the Irish bailout it is so full of holes it can't hold water! The interest on the money supplied by the EFSM/EFSF (see above!) is about 7.5% so better then Irish bond yields but pretty expensive for the Irish economy which it purportedly is trying to help! The real amount of external aid is about 2/3rds of what is being talked about in the press and probably isn't enough as one smallish Irish bank needs about 10% of it. Next we see a raid on future pension provision to make up the balance, maybe future pensioners might like to ask why their banking sector isn't being taxed to the same degree as they caused this by miscalculations of values and rates going forward, i.e. their job! Lastly the ECB has stated it is withdrawing its support packages Jan 2011 so not too far off. Will the Irish, Greek, Portuguese, Spanish and Italian difficulties be sorted within the next few weeks? The Greek 3 year loans are now to be extended up to possible 11 years, in other words that's a haircut! Originally attracting a 5% interest rate that has now been changed to 5.8%? If she was going to have problems paying the 5% rate what is the point of increasing it? The debt this country has now makes her insolvent in any meaningful way! The bond markets are the real barometers for this stuff and whilst Irish and Greek bonds have been getting more and more expensive for their respective countries, as anyone would expect, so too are Spanish and Italian bonds! Early this year Spain said the restructuring she had done, especially with the small banking sector, cajas, meant it had stabilised the situation and could proceed with a degree of optimism. With her bonds now attracting over 5% rates she is getting dangerously close to default territory! Her economy cannot sustain rates much higher and even this figure will dent her competitiveness in international trade. Adding the internal banking and property problems she has as well as a 20% unemployment rate exacerbates an already dangerous situation! Being unable or unwilling to categorise her banking liabilities will mean international investors will shy away from Spanish investment right at a time she needs them! The only possible answer using current methodology and thinking is to allow a much longer period for debt repayments and allow some countries to take haircuts on their bond yields. Course other countries will inevitably cry foul if they cannot get the same options! I still think if the Euro is to survive we will see Club Med Europe and an industrialised northern Europe using Euros but with far different foreign valuations.

Keith, I look at this a bit differently, I think this sort of weather is our normal winter and we should be prepared for it. It's the unusually mild winters we have had over the last 20-25 years which probably has meant councils could shave winter budgets and get away with it. At the end of the day it's at best a bet these days as to how much money is allocated. Thing is I wouldn't like to be the person responsible for placing that forward bet and getting it wrong! Maybe it is just all my fault, I just happen to choose to live in the wrong places at the wrong times. Never mind you are at the centre of the known universe now!

Now that's a dog's life........

Can't quite believe I am going to do this but…….. I think we have to realise the constraints NCC are operating under. They have been shedding jobs and cutting service provision in an attempt to balance their budgets, which by and large up to now they have had foisted onto them by central Gov. Of course they have to prioritise and with regard to their legal requirements as well. In a county with such a large footprint no real surprise some areas feel as if they have been almost ignored as other areas take priority. In this case I would say remote and isolated communities should take precedence because at the end of the day people living in the larger conurbations can at least walk to the shops and expect necessary continuation of essential supplies. There are a lot of smaller communities up and down our county who don't have that possibility and will be cut off. Phew, getting back to normal service……… How many middle and top managers in NCC have been out with snow shovels? How many of our elected representatives have been out clearing snow in an attempt to stop our OAPs falling and breaking fragile bones? They are all getting paid to work for our county authority and aren't we all in this together?