Halifax poison continues to spread

As predicted by this blog last Thursday, here, the marriage of Lloyds and HBOS is likely to be sealed by a kiss of death for Lloyds TSB. The signs on the market are that the pair might not yet make it to the marital bed, the following is from this morning's Independent, here:

Last week's agreed takeover by Lloyds TSB failed to support HBOS, which was trading 17 per cent below the effective offer price of 218p last night. Traders said the ban on shorting could have taken liquidity out of the market and reported jitters that the deal with Lloyds could face problems if the financial turbulence persists.

Mike Trippitt, banking analyst at Oriel Securities, said: "I personally think the Lloyds deal will go through, but the share price is telling us that something is wrong. There are clearly risks remaining in HBOS's balance sheet and that is what the price is saying."

Reports are that Britain's demented premier is leaving Manchester for the USA today, we must hope there will be a regime change in his absence! An interview on Radio 4 this morning once again proved that his BBC underlings are incapable of exposing this charlatan. Adam Boulton of Sky News made a braver attempt, link here (when available) watch now with the Sky News Red Button. The BBC Listen Again feature highlights the problem, link here. Listen to the section on the financial crisis starting at six minutes and fifty seconds into the broadcast particularly a minute later at seven fifty one seconds when the interviewer gives a list of quotes from the IMF in 2003 to the EU Commissioner in 2004 to Mervyn King the following year and Bill White of the Bank of International Settlements all putting the evasive Brown clearly at fault and therefore to blame for Britain's plight. The delusional demented scumbag of a Prime Minister's response " This is completely nonsense", at eight minutes and thirty two seconds into the interview. Why did the interviewer allow him to get away with such a statement to such a clearly carefully prepared question? Why do his fellow scumbags in the Cabinet continue to serve under such an object of untruthfulness.... and why do the British people continue to put up with this mess of a man as their leader?????? More terrible decisions are certain to be on their way. Poor Britain!