Malcolm Robinson

That would seem quite a well thought out and cognitive argument knocking the ball firmly across the net.............................

Monsta, Are you old enough to actually go into such establishments?

Monsta, You should be ashamed of yourself, that is very disrespectful.......... to short planks!

Google maps have the library at the wrong place!

http://www.newspostleader.co.uk/latest/Plans-are-submitted-for-Tesco.6134410.jp

As an antithesis to Kate's speech there has been a report by the IMF done by Daniel Kanda entitled, 'Asset Booms and Structural Fiscal Positions.' Bit heavy, maybe, but it focuses on the Irish economy and their housing bubble which in a lot of ways replicates our own. Quote: 'Asset booms and sectoral changes can distort traditional estimates of structural fiscal revenue, and could lead to serious fiscal policy errors. This paper extends the estimation of structural revenues to take account of asset prices and sectoral changes, and applies this to the case of Ireland, where a property bust has revealed a large hole in the public finances. It is shown that excluding these factors led to a substantial bias in the estimation of structural revenues and the structural balance prior to the crisis was much larger than earlier estimated.' What this means and what the paper goes on to say is that Ireland took the revenue generated by the likes of the housing bubble to increase its public sector provision thinking income, VAT, stamp duty, capital gains tax etc, would continue. Without that 'extra' tax income they were left with a burgeoning public sector which was unable to be supported by an economy entering recession. (BTW this is exactly where I think France and some of its continental partners have it wrong, their take is that the private sector is only there to support the public sector, dumb or what, quite obviously the wrong way around unless they really are a communist state!) Anyway we can easily draw comparisons with the UK and Ireland in this respect; however Ireland has already begun the much needed austerity measures to get its finances back into some semblance of order. Bit like Greece needs to do now if the people allow it! What is clear is that UKPLC will have to at some point, and the sooner the better, revalue not only its assets, and get the froth out of them, but also examine the public sector and trim that cloth to suit. With the biggest employer in our county the public sector worrying times ahead. While there is much in this single IMF report to congratulate there is also a contradictory view of the organisation as a whole. The Polish finance minister quoted in the FT said of the IMF, 'Spain is complaining that the same institution which was urging them to increase their budget deficit last year is now telling them what a dreadful mistake it was this year. We were on the end of that same advice but we took a contrarian view… Well done Poland and can you have a word with Gordo........

No one can speak well, unless he thoroughly understands his subject. Cicero

I agree with most of that GGG but the electorate don't actually vote for a prime minister. We vote for a 'local' representative and if they are in the winning party then a select few vote for a leader. I do think traditional party politics has had its day or is very close to having it. Maybe it is time to vote for a leader and let them form their own executive out of whoever else is elected? The reliance on the party vote really just dumbs down the electorate as there is now so much common ground between them these days. I would like to see each candidate hold a public meeting in the community centre and debate the issues we feel concerned about, both local and national. If they are truly representatives of the people when was the last time one asked how we would like them to vote on any subject? We have been subjected to a quasi feudal democratic structure for way too long. Last election Labour got in with about 22% of the possible vote and went on to say it held a popular mandate????? Over 25 million people voted and they got 9 million odd so they didn't even get a majority of the votes cast. Seems a crazy system when we consider the ethos behind the word, democracy. So we have a government who didn't get as many people voting for it than those who regularly watch Coronation Street! It is unbelievable! As for their Lordships.........a few times it has been good that they were there, a bit like the European courts, but by and large a democracy cannot flourish with an unelected executive only there by grace and favour!

As long as it sells socks and knickers..............???????? Whenever someone writes into the NPL or gets on a soap box about the lack of shopping facilities in Bedders they ALWAYS say they can't even buy a pair of socks or knickers......I am beginning to wonder why the townsfolk have such a high turnover of their smalls.

That's the way it works Mr D. Thing is for you to be able to 'have your say' then Monsta has to be able to have his too, however objectionable anyone finds it. (Within the rules of the board anyway, and also irrespective of his standing.)

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20100311/tuk-mps-and-peer-deny-expenses-fraud-6323e80.html

I think we might see some of the small discounted parties actually getting a seat or three in the forthcoming election. I think the main parties haven't quite realised how angry the electorate are with them and because of the smoozhing that has gone on with the economy in the run up, the financial consequences might well be ignored in favour of belting someone on the nose!

A sensible line doglover, hear, hear.

Back to the UK economy and following on from the balance of payment figures we now have the manufacturing and industrial production figures. Industrial production figure was -1.5% (Jan10/Jan09) and the manufacturing figure +0.2% year on year. Of the 13 sectors in the manufacturing figure 11 fell! The problem I have here is that the manufacturing sector represents such a low make up of UKPLC these days a fractional rise is meaningless. It is about 13-15% of the economy, if I remember correctly, and has almost exactly swapped with the service sector, including financials, which is now just under 30%, or was until all the bubbles started bursting! Why is this stuff important, because we have bankrupted the country trying to stabilise our situation and (like Greece) we now need to build our way back. Worryingly the figures show no such growth for the economy and considering the supposed financial stimulus HMG have made something is badly askew, either that or someone has their sums wrong for whatever (political)reason! Interesting speech made by Kate Barker on Monday evening, she is about to retire from the MPC, in which she made several references to her time in office, the last 9 years. Interesting because she said the MPC realised the asset price bubbles building up in the economy could have a detrimental effect on the well being of the economy as a whole......well why didn't you do something about it Kate? She did say she was less then satisfied with her performance regarding the financial crisis. We can agree on that one then! Also in a thinly veiled reference......... 'It may however also have been the period in which a large error was made in allowing the belief to become established that policymakers had solved the issue of economic instability.' Now who said they had abolished boom and bust? She goes on to say that she doesn't (and by association the MPC as a whole?) see the new asset bubbles building in the economy as yet endangering the economic prospects for UKPLC, however she does mention the debt associated with such peaks. So back to normal then Kate no lessons learnt! It is starting to look like our Central Bank is actually encouraging debt laden asset bubbles and for that read house prices and stock markets.

There is a VERY brief questions and answers session at the beginning of the meeting so come prepared. Which can be extended if the chairman sees fit! The problem here is that the powers of a parish/town council are pretty limited, certainly within the context of what we are talking about , which is essentially social/economic regeneration whose remit is essentially a County Council one. Much better to 'lobby' at the Area meetings where most if not all county councillors and a lot of officers attend. Having said that the town council do have a route to take their community's concerns further up the ladder and lets not forget the Mayor and vice Mayor are county councillors as well! There is another comparable community route and that is through the Partnership meetings, so if the politics puts anyone off you are still able to progress your cause in a non political environment.

The real problem seems to be all these dammed pollsters who anyone would think utter the word of God! Depending on what their latest projections are we see government policy change daily. Telling Gordo that he is the only person the country trust with their financial well being is like asking Fritzel to babysit! One man had it right.........

I remember one illustrious chancellor rising VAT to 15% and saying that will be it for the foreseeable future, no more VAT rises! Not 15 months later he raised it to 17.5% and that was after scrapping ha'pennies so the programme I was using to do accounts had to be rewritten! Spot the 'economical truths' March 24th!

Within months.......... When VAT was temporarily reduced to 15%, the Chancellor added 2% duty to fuel to offset the reduction in tax collected from motorists. Now that VAT has been increased to 17.5% again this hidden tax has not been removed - hence recent rises in your fuel costs. Sign the petition at the link below to have this stealth tax removed! http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/DutyReduction/

Getting back on topic for a mo, the Greek bond issue last week looks to be a success, according to press article, but a bit more detail is coming though now. For instance which country bought 20% of the issue, only surpassed by Greece itself, the UK?????? Germany and France bought about 14% and 7% respectively so the great bastions of the euro only backed the issue to about the same level as us? What's going on? Looking a bit closer it would seem UK hedge funds filled their boots! So Greece got her 5 billion euro 10 year bonds away but at what price ........6.47% yield, no wonder the UK fly boys got into the action, as long as they get repaid of course! The problem is that it translates into a 22.5 million a year repayment over 10 years at a time when Greece should be building its way out of the hole it is in. The outlook still looks bleak for Greece in the short term with large debt repayment due 2011, 2012 and 2014 and with possible declining output and economic growth hard to see how she can make the repayments with resorting to issuing more debt of course, if only she had the QE route to take, not! Sarko of France said he stands ready and waiting to help Greece, but obviously not ready and willing to put his hand into his pocket! Interestingly the German finance minister Herr Schäuble proposed the euro equivalent of the IMF to help members in financial trouble such as Greece is experiencing at the moment. The EMF would enable member states to issue bonds in its name instead of the sovereign states and so should make them easier and cheaper to get off. Shouldn't something like that have been formed at the inception of the euro not its death throes? Like the rest of the 'civilised' world the EU is managing its economies and finances by the well tried and tested business model, crisis management!

Yes lots of questions mobius, the only one above which seemed to be answered is that is will not be a faith school.

If they were going to tackle the impending inflation time bomb, if it isn't already started, they would have raised interest rates last week. The whole thing is starting to look like pre election manipulation on an ever grander scale than normal! We have falls in our exchange rate and the producer price inflation report last week seems to spell out raging inflation to hit very soon. The output price index has been rising for the last 6 months and the input price index has gone from -6.2% to 6.9% over the same period. Interestingly 2 or 3 of the 'shadow' monetary policy committee have called for a rise in interest rates but of course that fell on deaf ears! When these figures and rates falls start to trickle though into the economy proper the current 3% inflation figure will look like a walk in the park! One thing is for sure whoever wins the next election will not be able to keep all the balls up in the air. If they had let the market correct itself a bit more we might have been chugging along the bottom but we would not face the prospect of dropping off a cliff!

Does that come with its own beer goggles?

They are doing updating and remedial works to 5 (I think) bridges and are using this as their depot.

Interesting snippet at the Chilcot inquiry.......GB has just said he was running the UK economy (Chancellor at the time) by having current accounts met by taxation and capital accounts by borrowing. OK but that means at the peak of the economic cycle with historical low levels of unemployment and record tax and VAT receipts there was nothing left in the pot to use for capital investment once general running costs were met? Hardly an inspiring balance sheet!