Sunday, November 30, 2008

Britain's police (continued)

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Brown admits to "conspiracy"?

Guido Fawkes blog has this which should be circulated as widely as possible.

Corrupted Politicians and Politicised Policing

At least The Sunday Times Leading Article today is on the nation's shame. Read here, a quote:

The hypocrisy of a government that took the dark arts of spin to new levels apparently knows no bounds. Last Sunday’s newspapers and the airwaves were full of well-informed, deliberate leaks about the contents of Alistair Darling’s pre-budget report. The only surprise when he stood to deliver the report on Monday was that there were no surprises. For new Labour, there are leaks and leaks; those that are politically advantageous and those that are politically embarrassing.

Gordon Brown knows this better than most. Many have commented on how he and his aides used Whitehall leaks to embarrass the Tories in the run-up to the 1997 general election. What is less well known is that the tactic continued in government, particular at the heights of new Labour’s internal battles, though this time the leaks were used to undermine Mr Blair and his allies.

There is another issue here: the fact that counterterrorist officers were used in the raids on Mr Green’s homes and offices. Not only was this extraordinarily heavy-handed but it also played straight into civil-liberties concerns about whether the police will abuse any extra powers parliament gives them to cope with the terrorist threat. On this occasion Britain’s liberties were indeed threatened. The hounding of Mr Green shames the government and the police.

An interesting selection of comments to the report on the implications of the scandal in The Independent on Sunday, here.

"Frankly not good enough"

Cameron, Leader of the opposition, this morning in the News of the World ( as quoted in the Sunday Telegraph, here, ) wrote on the Prime Minister's reaction to the arrest of an MP and Privy Councillor as follows: "FRANKLY NOT GOOD ENOUGH" Where is the outrage, where is the positive response? As Britain's democracy disappears, the performance of the Conservative Leader is quite clearly: "Frankly Not Good Enough" NOT BY MILES!

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Saturday, November 29, 2008

Latest Brown/Hitler Video

Thanks again to Crown Blogspot for this latest but increasingly terrifying while still hilarious video:

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Friday, November 28, 2008

Arrest of Opposition MP

Could the Prorogue of Parliament be significant in the legalities and timing of this outrage? Hansard: 26 Nov 2008 : Column 858......... A Commission was also read for proroguing the present Parliament, and the Lord President said:

    “My Lords and Members of the House of Commons: by virtue of Her Majesty’s Commission, which has now been read, we do in Her Majesty’s name, and in obedience to Her Majesty’s commands, prorogue this Parliament to Wednesday the Third day of December to be then here holden, and this Parliament is accordingly prorogued to Wednesday, the Third day of December.”

End of the Third Session (opened on 6 November 2007 ) of the Fifty-Fourth Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in the Fifty-Seventh Year of the Reign of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second.

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Britain's debt - HOW will it be sold?

The following is the conclusion of an article by James Saft of Reuters published in today's IHT linked here, just exactly as this blog has been WARNING, over and over again:

My best guess is that even with a fat premium, the world will have more than it can handle of pound-denominated British government risk in the coming years.

On the other side of the equation, you have to wonder which buy-to-rent investor or potential home buyer is out there who a) is a good risk, b) possesses a 20 percent down payment and c) is willing to buy an asset that is losing 2 percent of its value a month.

So, it's looking as if the fall in British house prices will be further than expected.

If you look at the U.S. experience where a higher percentage of loans was securitized and thus tended not to end up on bank balance sheets, that is bad news for the banks.

Bank liabilities in the United States are about 20 percent of the size of the economy. In Britain, the figure is 285 percent.

Ask yourself then what might happen to Britain.

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Treasures from the threads - Number twenty-six.

A Comment Thread on the Conservative Home blog discussing the arrest by nine supposed anti-terrorist police officers brought this apt response:

Brown's gestapo ( Davidroberts) 28/11/2008, 8:44 The government is shamed by the release into public knowledge of information it wanted to keep from the public. Their reaction, to set their polizei on the "leaker" and the shadow minister who was given the information which so upset Brown.

In an unprecedented move the shadow minister was arrested, his offices searched and he was released on bail nine hours later.

Boris Johnson was told what was happening, Cameron was told, the Speaker was told and various other people but apparently Brown and the Home Sec knew not what was happening when asked.

They are LYING.

It is beyond comprehension that the Met should undertake such a major action against a shadow minister of the opposition without getting clearance from the highest possible levels.

But they knew nothing. Oh, yes?

This is the government that knows nothing about anything which might have a bad effect on it or its Prime minister or ministers. Remember Blair on Iraq, Blair and Dr Kelly, the scientist who committed "suicide" (we were told), remember donations for peerages and the rest?

This government stinks!

Right now there are major terrorist events taking place in Mumbai and guess who is now in charge of government spin and may have decided yesterday was the right day to act?

None other than the archbishop of scum. Alistair Campbell.

And who is working alongside him but the twice sacked friend of Blair and Brown, Mandelson.

Let there be no doubt about it, if this government remains in power much longer the tame Met will develop an overt geheimstaatspolizei section.

It is time for them to go. They will only be missed when the country breathes a communal sigh of relief.

If you click the link above you will also be able to also find a link to a video of Lord Geoffrey Howe, agreeing with this blog, that Britain is heading for a DEPRESSION.

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Brown and Mugabe

Thanks to the Guido Fawkes blog for this striking image, view comment from here. It is worth recalling that modern Zimbabwe is itself a creation of Britain's Labour Party midwifed by Harold Wilson when he had charge of destroying all that was once decent and worthwhile in Britain as a Labour Prime Minister.

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EU Crisis may not end next year!

An EU Commissioner is reported in the Wall Street Journal this morning as follows:

Also Thursday, European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Joaquin Almunia said growth forecasts for next year will have to be cut because the financial crisis appears likely to last longer than expected.

"The crisis may not end next year," Mr. Almunia said. Earlier this month, the commission forecast that the euro-zone economy will grow 0.1% in 2009, having previously forecast it would grow by 1.6%.

Strange that Britain, judged by the OECD to be worst placed in the credit crunch, is positioned by A****** Darling and his deranged boss Gordon Brown to emerge in July next year, see Brown's recession counter in this blog's sidebar.

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David Cameron "frankly rather worried" as Government adopts Fascism

Incredible! No not just the Police and Government's actions in arresting the Shadow Immigration Minister and the methods adopted but also the totally lame reaction of this lamentably weak so-called "Leader" of the opposition. Complete outrage should have been the only possible initial response to this...

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Thursday, November 27, 2008

British Car Moguls beggar Mandelson for Cash

The Guardian fittingly reports on the final disgrace for a once proud industry, read here. A quote: Car sales in the UK have fallen by more than 20% in each of the last two months while export sales have also been hit. The industry is seeking a series of measures to help boost sales by bolstering consumer confidence and making finance for car purchases more easily available. A bit like like wondering where the first time home-buyers have disappeared.... you know those ill-educated youngsters who are presumed to be stupid enough to step in halfway down a collapsing housing market!!

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Crosby Mortgage Market Report

It is of course totally consistent with the high level of farce that now attaches to anything Cabinet Ministers of this woeful Government attempt BUT the appointment of the head of the failed HBOS, Sir James Crosby, (does a Sir before the name nowadays almost always indicate someone of questionable motives?,) to report on cures for the mortgage market by A****** Darling must rank amongst the more dubious of recent otherwise hilarious events. The Southern print media seems to have largely ignored or brushed aside this matter, more sense comes from Yorkshire, home to the original and once respected Halifax Building Society, by Hugo Radice, linked here. The article concludes as follows: Overall, the Crosby Report is a report written by and for the mortgage lenders. It offers some relief for aspiring homeowners and for housebuilders, but primarily it is designed to restore the status quo ante – that is, a housing market far too reliant on volatile money markets as a major source of funds, on unsustainable increases in house prices and on excessive levels of household debt. While there is much in the report's detailed analysis about possible safeguards against a future collapse in this model of housing finance, Crosby has failed to consider any real long-term alternative. Well Surprise - Surprise!!!

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The Brown/Darling stimulus fed CONTRACTION

The debt figures unveiled in Parliament this week are so horrendous (see posting immediately below), the only sensible reaction among the soon to be taxation throttled British taxpaying citizen is either to scarper or stay hidden beneath the bedclothes. The end result of the nonsensical package will therefore almost certainly be to make matters worse. Mr Peter Lilly MP gave some logical argument to such a proposition in his speech in yesterday's emergency debate which, for the record, I quote below from Hansard: We need to consider in what circumstances a budgetary stimulus or fiscal expansion has a positive effect, and in what circumstances it has a negative effect—the Government clearly fear the latter if they do more. Helpfully, the European Central Bank and the European Commission have studied the research done on all the fiscal—or so-called Keynesian—measures undertaken by different Governments in the past few decades. They come to some striking conclusions. They say that when Governments deliberately increased their borrowing to stimulate the economy, the effect of such expansionary measures was, at best, small. On half the occasions, the effect was the reverse of the Government’s aim. My right hon. and learned Friend pointed out that we know from British experience that that is often the case. In 1976, we had what the Keynesians would call a contraction. Under the influence of the IMF, we cut spending and raised taxation. The effect was immediate. As Lord Donoughue said on Monday last week—and he was a member of Callaghan’s Cabinet—the economy started recovering the next year, much more rapidly than expected. In 1981, 364 economists said, at what subsequently turned out to be the nadir of the downturn, that the measures that Lord Howe introduced in his Budget would accentuate the downturn because he raised taxes, cut spending and reduced borrowing. In fact, that marked the beginning of a sustained period of rapid growth.

The documents produced by the European Central Bank also show that the opposite has happened. Governments introduced what they thought would be expansionary measures, but they had a contractionary effect—they are called contractionary budget expansions. That is our worry—that the Government have done too much and it will have a contractionary effect. The studies show that such measures are most likely to have the opposite to the Keynesian effect when the Government start with a high level of borrowing—precisely the position we are in. Other countries that have managed their finances prudently and have low borrowing are in a position to take expansionary measures, and I hope that they do so and create markets for us to grow through export-led growth, but we are not in a position to do that on any scale.

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Britains true debt figure.

This blog frequently queries the real amount of Britain's indebtedness. The following was a contribution quoting some more realistic numbers from Bill Cash in the Emergency Debate on the Budget Report in the House of Commons yesterday according to Hansard, linked here: Mr. Cash: The hon. Gentleman talks about new investment, but that money has to be found. As my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Rushcliffe (Mr. Clarke) has pointed out, there is a vast amount of as yet undisclosed borrowing. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that the contingent liabilities to which I referred in my earlier exchanges with the Chancellor represent a horrendous picture? Not only are we running at £1 trillion, as disclosed by the net public sector borrowing, but when we add in the Maastricht arrangements that my right hon. and learned Friend mentioned, we get up to £1,258 billion. We then have to add public sector pensions, Network Rail, the whole issue of the banking arrangements, including those for Bradford & Bingley, and nuclear decommissioning, so we end up with a figure that is about twice the amount that has been disclosed. In other words, we will not find the investment, because the money simply is not there. We are talking about £2.5 trillion.

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Gordon Brown's Recession Counter

The Crown Blog has prepared a Countdown Meter to the end of Gordon Brown's recession which according to the Government will occur during the Third Calendar Quarter of 2009. I have included it on this blog's sidebar.

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Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Brown and Darling's panic does for Woolies and MFI

What retailer can now be safe on Britain's High Streets and Shopping Malls given the pathetic VAT cut and horrendous borrowing figures outlined by the Labour Government this Monday. Who can now be spared the carnage? What name would you now back to weather this storm? Read today's bankruptcy update from here and here.

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Czech Constitutional Court decision Political - Klaus!

The unofficial translation (link) on the comments on the Constitutional Court's verdict on the Lisbon Treaty by President Klaus is as follows:

1) The decision of the Constitutional Court is - as we could see and hear - extensive, and therefore it must only be studied. It is, however, evident that it was written long ago before yesterday´s (Tuesday´s - ed.) proceedings.

2) Yet, it is evident from the speech by judge rapporteur (Vojen) Guettler that the Constitutional Court moved the deliberations on the consistence of the Lisbon Treaty with the Constitution of the Czech Republic - to my great surprise - from the legal to the political level. To interpret "integration and globalisation" in a lay and entirely subjective (and on top of it conceptually wrong) way and to speak about "integrating European civilisation" or about "Euro conform interpretation" of various legal norms is in the context of the task that the Constitutional Court had almost unbelievable. This opens the path to a serious political debate in the following period.

3) I must say with regret that the Constitutional Court has not duly reacted to my legal arguments in the justification of its decision. I expect a group of deputies or senators to again come up with these arguments. But I mainly expect that it will submit further arguments, not only mine ones and not only the senators´ original ones.

4) It was very positive that the Constitutional Court´s proceedings were public and that a public discussion on the theme was actually started in this form in this country. I call on the government to start a serious discussion with the public on the theme before it starts to be discussed in the two houses of parliament.

5) In any case the moment of a huge responsibility of those who will be playing the decisive role in the further stages of the process of ratification has come. They must shoulder the brunt of decision-making with regard for the past as well the future and cope with it.

Radim Ochvat

Press department director

Prague, November 26, 2008

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Government's Bank raises mortgage interest rates

As the House of Commons debates their now accomplished destruction of the British economy, the first bank nationalised in the present crisis, Northern Rock, has chosen this afternoon to announce a hike in interest rates for new buyers. While politicians boast of falling rates the reality is the opposite, even from banks owned and controlled by these self-same politicians. Read the report in The Times from here.

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Czech Court clears Lisbon Treaty as Constitutional

Incredibly, given the superb evidence from their President on the great dangers to democracy as reported here yesterday, the fifteen Czech Judges in their Constitutional Court have cleared this anti-democratic treaty as not being in conflict with their constitution. Read here. The power of this incredibly evil empire should never be underestimated nor should the sickening stupidity of mankind!

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Falling UK tax receipts

A critical factor in the ever deepening crisis (true cost of Monday's gamble now 35 billion according to this report in the Guardian) mentioned by A****** Darling in his 'Pre-budget report' as quoted by Hansard: I now want to turn to the forecast for the public finances. Because of the economic situation, tax revenues are falling across the world. As company profits fall, so do the proceeds from corporation tax. Receipts from the financial sector alone are expected to reduce by 35 per cent. this year. Slower growth in wages means less income tax. Fewer people buying houses and falling prices mean less money from stamp duty, where tax take is down 40 per cent. Because of the scale of these global problems, it is inevitable that tax revenues will take some years to come back up. That all means that borrowing will be significantly higher than forecast. Most commentators on the unfolding disaster this report summarises appear to have avoided comment on this factor, as the Finance Sector has come to represent such a large portion of UK tax receipts, is this 35 per cent fall realistic and what are the true implications if it is hopelessly optimistic as for most other estimates made by the present Government? Woolworths closing just ahead of Christmas as seems possible this morning will more than offset any positive feel for shoppers from a 2.5 per cent VAT cut purely designed to manipulate inflation figures!

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Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Vital Extracts from President Klaus's speech to Czech Constitutional Court

"The Lisbon Treaty thus starts a process at the end of which the sovereign will be the European Union that, through directives and another unilateral form, will be setting norms and rules for individual member states as well as the citizens of these states. The constitutions of the states will no longer be the hotbeds of the legal orders of particular member states. On the contrary, these legal orders will in such a situation derive their existence from the constitution of the European Union (whatever its name may be) and they will have to be in harmony with it. "It is particularly alarming that this fundamental restriction of the sovereignty of the Czech Republic and other European Union member states is not clearly and openly formulated in the text of the Lisbon Treaty and that it is not clearly marked as the intention and goal of the arrangement that this treaty is to bring. The restriction of sovereignty is tabled covertly, implicitly, it is encoded in unclearly formulated articles and provisions. The Lisbon Treaty, if it becomes effective, will empower European Union bodies - without the European public´s having any idea of this - to arbitrarily restrict by their decision-making the sovereignty of the member countries. This cannot be accepted. The deepening of European integration must not proceed covertly, behind the backs of the member countries´ citizens, nor may it be imposed on them against their will. This would be at variance not only with Article 9, but also with Article 1 of our constitution. The sole possible conclusion that we can draw is that the Lisbon Treaty is at variance with the principle of sovereignty of the Czech state. "Another, equally important element of the so-called material core of the constitution is definitely the principle of sovereignty of the people. "The people is the source of all state power," says our constitution. This makes the Czech Republic a democratic state. It is a clearly defined, historically authentic people, politically identifiable demos who is the Czech sovereign and who is the bearer of the sovereignty of the Czech state. The whole of our constitutional, legal and political system derives from his power. "That is why we should ask who is the source of the legal and political power in the European Union? It is by no means the people because there exists no "European people," demos. Power in the EU derives from institutions created on the basis of inter-governmental agreements or treaties. This concept of power is, however, at fundamental variance with the concept of state as the Czech constitution defines it. This gives rise to further questions: Would the European Union be just as a democratic institution as the Czech Republic is now after the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty? Does the European Union have a sufficiently structured division of labour and sufficient control and appeals mechanisms? Is its political system based on the free and voluntary establishment and free competition of political parties? Is it possible to replace the existing bodies of the European Union by electing the opposition? There would be a lot of similar fundamental questions. "If the Lisbon Treaty became effective, it would be possible through it to push through "from above," from Europe, even what no national parliament would ever approve. This would deepen the possibility to circumvent national lawmaking bodies which would fundamentally weaken democracy in member states, including the Czech Republic. That is why the Lisbon Treaty is at variance also with the constitutional principle of sovereignty of the Czech people. "I could continue. If the power of the Czech people is fundamentally restricted this way for the benefit of the power of European Union bodies, this will restrict in a chain reaction and to the same extent further fundamental principles of our constitution - the principle of the protection of personal freedom, the principle of the division of public power, the principle of the rule of law and equality before it and the principle of legal certainty. The Czech Republic could continue to ensure them only within the limits that the bodies of the European Union would allow it. "Another fundamental element of the doctrine of the material core of the constitution is that the Czech Republic is - under Article 1 of its constitution - not only a democratic, but also law-abiding state. Its essence rests in that the rules are given and known beforehand. The Lisbon Treaty is at variance with this principle not only by its unclarity, but particularly by the ambiguousness of its competence provisions. These provisions will be interpreted and executed by the bodies of the European Union that are famous for their tendency to interpret the powers of the Union as broadly as possible. Link

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OECD predicts UK Growth of only 0.8% in 2010

Only yesterday the Chancellor, A****** Darling, stood in the Commons and forecast 2010 growth of 1.75 per cent for that year - an estimate every commentator I have heard states is "optimistic".... How much more debt compounded to 2015/16 does that incur. Read a summary of the OECD forecast from here. Separately the Taxpayers Alliance has calculated Ex-Chancellor and now PM Brown's debts will be double those it cost Britain to defeat the Kaiser in The Great War from 1914 to 1918.

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Czech Court defers decision on Lisbon Treaty

The Constitutional Court adjourned yesterday and its decision is now expected today. Czech President Vaclav Klaus stated that he would not sign the Treaty if approved by the Court until the Irish had "reversed" their rejection. One report is here. An unofficial translation of the speech to the court by President Klaus is here. ***Recommended

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Will the UK Default?

A Bloomberg chart showing the respective costs of insuring UK debt versus that of the USA and Germany: For more on this topic and an interesting comment thread I suggest you try this link to Guido Fawkes blog who has now taken up my theme for this morning.

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Who will fund Britain's huge new debts?

Darling's budget was the expected mishmash of meaningless fiddles except for the finally admitted facts of some of the coming huge indebtedness, of which this blog has been warning for years. The Government of warped spendthrifts must now sell this debt in gilts. What premium will be required for the growing exchange rate risk by non-sterling residents. Are there any sterling residents likely to be able to fund this huge debt mountain forecast to grow, with accumulating interest, year after year after year into the mists of the future? Of course there are not, and if any there be they will be long gone before the higher taxes bite so too will require an exchange rate risk premium! Thatcher in the early nineteen-eighties, when I returned from the USA to try to aid a recovery in private enterprise, was forced to allow the pound to slip to near parity with the dollar and let interest rates rise towards twenty per cent before the fiasco of the previous Labour administration could even begin to be put to rights. The 1.5 per cent cut in VAT is the worst gimmick, obviously designed to push the MPC of the Bank of England into a further interest cut to remain in effect solely for the period of the run-up to the next General Election. The longer term reality is higher taxes, interest rates and never-ending grinding poverty well into the foreseeable future.

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Monday, November 24, 2008

Can a Constitutional Court properly consider EU niceties?

The following statement is reported as coming from the head of the Czech Court ruling on the constitutionality of the Lisbon Treaty: Prague - It is a very difficult task for the Czech Constitutional Court (US) to make a decision on the Lisbon treaty because the verdict may influence the whole politics of the European Union, US deputy chairwoman Eliska Wagnerova told on a Czech Television (CT) discussion programme today. (Report linked here). Even a country with a comparatively recent constitution it seems will be unable to have its provisions neutrally examined in face of the steam roller of the all destroying EU menace. We await tomorrow's verdict with interest.

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Sunday, November 23, 2008

When money becomes widely accepted as Worthless!

End result of the scenario in this posting's headline - Chaos! When is such a point reached - clearly it has arrived in Zimbabwe - but for the UK? I imagine it will be sometime after tomorrow's statement on the budget in our devalued parliament and just before there is a general move to walk away from personal debt. To avoid such an event "TRUST" needs to be restored. See my post below.

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Trust trashed!

"I promise to pay the bearer....?" Meaningless. Money has become worthless! So what now? In early August I set out a detailed route map to restore trust in the world's economy directed towards the USA and George W. Bush. Read the exact post here. Nothing, of course, happened. Any single country could, from today, devise a scheme to relate their currency to a specific value. One would be enough! Others could then be linked. Gordon Brown could do it tomorrow for the pound sterling. Callow George Osborne (a supposed strategist) could propose it! Instead the drift will continue and every currency will be trashed and trust will cease to exist to the certain dire cost of us all! At least the Eurozone members returning to their own currencies will appear to be moving away from fraud and back to a known and trusted means of exchange and trade - their own national currencies. The pound sterling, destroyed by Gordon Brown and a witless opposition, will have no such advantages.

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"Worst is yet to come" - IMF Chief Economist

Gloomy reading for a Sunday morning on the eve of the British Government unveiling a policy which will almost certainly destroy the pound sterling itself and essentially render it worthless. The report on the International Monetary Fund gloom is here.

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Saturday, November 22, 2008

Treasures from the threads - Number twenty-six

Welcome back Mike Williams from Bangkok responding to the Simon Heffer column linked earlier today and here: And it was all so predictable as far back as 2001 when the credit brakes were not just released they were totally removed, and where were all the expert journalists at that time, were they warning the public of the pain to come because of easy credit, no they had there noses so far up Browns butt its unreal and they were all singing from the same hymn sheet, oh what a wonderful fellow he is and how sound the economy is. I said this back in May 2007 when I first started to post here trying to warn people of the financial tsunami heading their way and I am going to say it again now THE UK IS BANKRUPT, I will say it again THE UK IS BANKRUPT. This is how bad it is, if Brown stopped spending now and turned the deficit into a £40 billion a year surplus it would take approx 60 years to repay the debt he has built up and is continuing to grow on your behalf. What is now happening and the carnage that will take place next year is only partly to do with the world problems most of it is the responsibility of Gormless Brown and his feckless irresponsible spending. Next year is when it fully impacts and a lot of people are going to suffer enormously. Unemployment will skyrocket and house prices go into freefall, repossessions will be rife and not just for mortgage arrears either banks will slap charging orders on peoples property if they default on any loan or credit card debts. Retail sales will nosedive and bankruptcies will accelerate dramatically. Tax revenues will seriously decline and welfare payments will go through the roof substantially adding to the ever rising public debt problem. And what does Gordon want to do faced with this scenario? why borrow more money of course, the man is stark right staring mad. Your best course of action right now in the UK is to start a revolution and dispose him before he can do any more damage. Posted by mike williams in Bangkok on November 22, 2008 8:41 AM

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Handing back the keys!

The headline to this post is a phrase I heard used on more than one occasion on my recent short trip back to England. Here is an explanation that includes a statement from the Council of Mortgage Lenders in the UK which states that lenders can only chase bad house loans for six years, a fact of which I also was not previously aware. Seems what I have previously described in my blogging as "walkaways" are likely to become even more numerous! An interesting question not covered in the linked comment is whether or not the lender can claim for missed mortgage repayments and interest between the time of the handing back of the keys and end of the six year period for reclaim. If not then the Lloyd's shareholders who foolishly agreed the HBOS acquisition last week must kiss farewell to their investment. Worrying for annuity holders with Legal and General (such as myself) which insurer supported the HBOS takeover and yesterday approved the dilution of their Barclay's equity value - have they really thought all this through?

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Simon Heffer spells it out

A quote from this morning's column which may be read from here:

On how the tax cut is paid for hangs the answer to the question of how bad things will get. Whatever happens, we are in for two or three years of gruesomeness. If a tax cut is funded by borrowing - and this year's extra debt could now be a destabilising £120 billion - then the pain will not be immediately so bad, but the long-term consequences will be shocking. They will start with the final implosion of our currency. We shall then be mired for decades in debt so deep that our ability to function as a serious economy will be paralysed. Yet, again, we lack an opposition with the credibility to make these points and to cause the appropriate level of public outrage.

At almost every turn the economy is being dealt blows it cannot sustain. Yesterday the Treasury select committee chairman was effectively calling for the nationalisation of banks to be completed; he seems oblivious to the fact that banks aren't lending because they still lack the resources to do so safely, and there has been a collapse in demand for loans because of the loss of confidence. Then, as we reported yesterday, 50,000 people have been recruited to the public sector in the last six months at a time when 300,000 in the private sector have lost their jobs. Do you get it, Mr Brown? When are you going to call an end to this party?

While worldwide economic turmoil rages the danger that the enslaving Lisbon Treaty will be finally ratified daily grows with much bullying of the Irish underway. Only they and the Czechs (plus possibly the Polish President) now stand in the way. An article here is worth a look.

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Friday, November 21, 2008

UK House Repossessions Rise Further

One report is in The Guardian, here, but for pure pathos a report by a youthful reporter on Sky News could not be bettered when he opened his live report this morning with a statement that Gordon Brown had promised NO More Boom and Bust, in such a manner that this young man had clearly been one of the millions thus duped. The reporter then continued to recount the realities whilst back in the studio a similarly incredulous and clearly very dumb and blonde "anchormissy" seemed to share in his obvious disbelief in openly wondering at what was really happening. I hope this clip turns up on YouTube as it is so symptomatic of the dawning reality which must now increasingly occur as all the lies of this disgraceful Government finally coming home to roost!

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BBC thwarted in plan to dig tentacles ever deeper.

The dedicated enemy of decency, democracy and simple common sense - the entirely taxpayer funded BBC has thankfully been thwarted in its attempt to further control broadcasting in the UK by expanding into a local online video propaganda project. The Independent has the report here.

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Thursday, November 20, 2008

Brent Crude Oil price BELOW $50 per barrel

I have not been blogging the fall of crude oil in line with the growing realisation of the reality of an oncoming DEPRESSION but the latest dip to $48.83 on concerns (according to this report) of the "deep" recession is certainly worthy of note! Of course with Britain's almost criminally incompetent Government any benefits will be diluted due to the recent plunge of the pound, now exacerbated by the UK's tumbling tax revenues, read Bloomberg here. In France, where billions have not been thrown at banks to maintain their Scottishness or Directors' bonuses, President Sarkozy has today announced a 20 billion Euro fund to be directed at fighting the effects of the depression on the most affected industries, read here.

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£106,117 PER MINUTE SCANDAL

The Euroland countries are now officially in recession and can ill aff0rd the Euros 134 Billion budget recently published in Brussels. Even less so can the UK as this report from the Bruges Group just released clearly shows: Latest Bruges Group Publication HOW MUCH DOES THE EU COST BRITAIN? The price of the combined direct and indirect expenses of EU membership in 2008 costs Britain £55.775 billion. Set out in the latest Bruges Group research by UKIP MEP Gerard Batten, the full financial burden to Britain has now been calculated. They show a dramatic increase in the costs of the EU - A price Britain cannot afford. Click here to read the full analysis online The facts: * By 2008 Britain will have made total contributions to the European Community (EC) Budget of £230.4 billion gross or almost £68.2 billion net. * By the end of the current EC budget period Britain will have made estimated total contributions to the EC Budget of £315.4 billion gross and £101.4 billion net. * By 2007 Britain had an accumulated trade deficit with the other EU member states of £383.7 billion. * The Common Agricultural Policy costs Britain at least £16.8 billion per annum. * The Common Fisheries Policy costs Britain at least £3.275 billion per annum. * Over-regulation on business costs Britain at least £28 billion per annum. * In 2008 membership of the European Union costs Britain almost £65.675 billion per annum gross or almost £55.775 billion per annum net. FRAUD: * Due to the EU being riddled with corruption it is likely that the equivalent of Britain's entire net contribution to the EU is going into the pockets of fraudsters. THE EFFECTS OF FREEING BRITAIN FROM THE EU: * A BOOST TO THE ECONOMY. As EU red tape is holding back the UK economy by £28 billion, 2% of UK GDP, it is clear that freeing Britain from EU control will get Britain out of recession and get British people back to work. * COST FREE TAX CUTS. As politicians of the three main parties are struggling to explain how they will deliver the tax cuts that the British economy needs they have failed to realise that this money can be found if we stop paying the EU billions of pounds per year of taxpayers’ money. The 2% boost to economic growth created by leaving the EU and slashing its excessive red tape would also increase tax revenue by £10.73 billion. Combine that with the direct savings to the exchequer and it will allow for a 6p in the pound cut in the basic rate of income tax.

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Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Queen shifts position on Lisbon Treaty

The full account is available on the Brits at their Best web page, linked here.

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Treasures from the threads - Number twenty-five

The following is a comment to an accurate description of the present lamentable state of the Conservative Party as an opposition or alternative Government by Simon Heffer in the Daily Telegraph this morning, linked here: Give it another term under Labour and it won't matter. Many Brits have already left and will swap passports in due course. Britain is dead, a twitching corpse eaten from within by an EU that hated it, as the Scots cheer from the North in the UKM they thought was Scotland, breaking up a Britain that Brown has to keep supporting to stay in office. Better to let it all collapse. Brown is a vanity laden idiot who thinks he's saved the planet. A legend in his own mind. A Mandelson player of the dark piccolo, picking the notes as pied piper to the numpty Left in academo-medialand. He has combined being arsonist with fire chief. Sold our gold reserves, abused the PFI, shovelled debt forward onto future generations with no vote, invented an uber-class of oh-so-clever non-jobbers who bleed the country white, has suckled on banking's teat to pay for the borrowing we can't afford, then blamed them, the banks, free markets, capitalism and the US for his own appalling behaviour, because that always plays well with the idiot Left who prop this Government up. He's bailed the financial system out with our money - but anything other would have exposed him as the criminal that he is and he would have lost all those votes based on fiat and falsehood. And HM Opposition? Where are they? Watching Brown continue to play with the matches while the country turns to ashes around him. Letting him build his plinth based on lies and debt. Where's the anger? Where's the opposition? Ammunition everywhere and they pick up conkers. Pick the f-ing ammo up and pepper that smug Labour front bench for former student Marxists. Never mind EU/UK lemmings, have a deep wallow in the Beeb propaganda and watch your Come Dancing, X factor and footie while the CCTV cameras roll and the databases churn, building the new serfdom for a politico-financial global elite who let you think you live in a democracy. All unreported because the media is in league with it. It's a tragic unreported farce and Brown keeps fiddling and what's left of the country keeps burning. Posted by John Seaton on November 19, 2008 4:22 AM

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Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Economic stupidity strengthens

I have just returned from a few days in England. Incredibly there still seems no general understanding of the treachery of the nation's parliamentarians or understanding of the depths of the social and economic crisis now prevailing. The media in particular seem to be goading the brainless Brown and his Treasury team towards the almost certain national suicide of large unfunded tax cuts, bound to leave the country incapable of affordable international fund raising thereafter with resultant huge scattergun spending cuts the inevitable end result. Illustration copied with thanks from the Anglo Saxon Chronicle blog, linked here.

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Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Robert Kilroy-Silk for "Im a celebrity"

The report is from Reuters linked here. As a founding member (number 3 after Mr and Mrs Kilroy-Silk in fact) of the Veritas Party which was stifled at birth by the UK powers that be, it has recently been hard to avoid saying to Britain as it careers towards the coming depression "We tried to warn you and help the country to avoid the worst!" Perhaps Robert will be able to now make the point and accurately point the finger of blame for a much wider audience!

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Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Ninety years on and a short break!

What state will we all be in by the centenary of the outbreak of the Great War one wonders, a sombre moment today remembering the ninetieth anniversary of the armistice. I will be away for a few days. Over on John Redwood's blog there are signs that the launch of the appalling Tax Policy by David Cameron and George Osborne's performance on The Politics Show has caused this always well-informed Conservative back-bencher to share what look like some of his inner thoughts on the banking crisis. It may be worth while keeping an eye on his blog while I am gone, links here and here. In the US today it seems Circuit City has already gone and General Motors might well follow before midnight. 'Wizard' and 'bonzer' idea of the Tories (NOT) for a tiny NI subsidy for small companies, I wonder if David Cameron standing on the bows of the Titanic with a small hand held hair dryer (had such been invented) might not have saved that mighty vessel? More chance of that than the Tories tax strategy helping the country or anyone else!

Monday, November 10, 2008

Fannie Mae assets down $21billion losses $29 billion

Bloomberg reports on the continuing Fannie Mae mess, linked here. One explanation: Forrest Gump Explains Mortgage Backed Securities Mortgage Backed Securities are like boxes of chocolates. Criminals on Wall Street stole a few chocolates from the boxes and replaced them with turds. Their criminal buddies at Standard & Poor rated these boxes AAA Investment Grade chocolates. These boxes were then sold all over the world to investors. Eventually somebody bites into a turd and discovers the crime. Suddenly nobody trusts American chocolates anymore worldwide. Hank Paulson now wants the American taxpayers to buy up and hold all these boxes of turd-infested chocolates for $700 billion dollars until the market for turds returns to normal. Meanwhile, Hank's buddies, the Wall Street criminals who stole all the good chocolates, are not being investigated, arrested, or indicted. Mama always said: "Sniff the chocolates first, Forrest".

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EU Budget . The 134 billion euros fraud!

The EU Budget was out today read what the sacked one time Chief Accountant for the EU Commission had to say on this truly outrageous fraud in The Times this morning, linked here. An extract from the evil empires own website is as follows:

Image: EU budget 2009: EUR 134.4 billion - Cohesion & Competitiveness for growth and employment, 44,7% - Direct aids and market related expenditure, 31,9% - Rural development, 10,9% - Total administrative expenditure, 5,7% - The EU as a global partner, 5,5% - Citizenship, freedom, security and justice, 1,1% - Compensations Bulgaria and Romania, 0,2%

Cohesion & Competitiveness for growth and employment

Direct aids and market related expenditure

Rural development

Total administrative expenditure

The EU as a global player

Citizenship, freedom, security and justice

Compensations Bulgaria and Romania
One hundred and thirty four billion Euros not available for spending by the member states and not a centime to be properly audited or accounted for as in so many of the years past.

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House crisis reality.

Many of the reports I read on Britain's house price crash seem to be coming from somewhere beyond reality, spun to aid the Government no doubt. This in today's Telegraph on City Centre Flats seems to bring more reality. Note this mind-blowing statement, however, proof if ever more were needed that lalaland still has many occupants: Agents insist that there does remain some demand for city centre accommodation because of continuing rise in rental values. In Manchester with rents are increasing to such an extent that some landlords are insisting on six month contracts – rather than a year – because they know they can increase the price after that period. They know!!!!!! that with purchase prices tumbling rents will continue increasing, do they deserve a cold bath or what? If I were a landlord and I could find a tenant daft enough I would sign one up for as many years ahead as possible - after all it is a slump and not a boom all now see approaching or are all wrong again? - Not yet methinks!

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A different view on Obama

Peter Hitchens puts in print some of the mostly unspoken concerns many of us feel about the new President-elect and his sparse record of achievement, linked here.

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Sunday, November 09, 2008

More Czech doubts over Lisbon

The following is a report from a Sunday political TV broadcast from Prague, to see what passes for Sunday morning TV politics in today's UK read my post underneath this: Prague - Mayor of Prague Pavel Bem, first deputy chairman of the senior ruling Civic Democrats (ODS) who has announced he would run for ODS chairman at the December congress, said today he is against the ratification of he Lisbon treaty.

It is not possible that Czechs should all of a sudden transfer powers to the Brussels level without actually properly understand why they are doing so" Bem said in Prima television's Sunday Match discussion programme.

He said he just as any other ODS members including current ODS chairman and Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek are bound by a previous ODS congress resolution that bans the transfer of state or national powers to the "European Brusselscracy."

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The enemy within!

Have a look at this cosy scene from the BBC's flagship Sunday AM programme hosted by Andrew Marr. These are the eminent?? figures selected to comment (impartially Ha Ha) on the nation's newspapers this Sunday morning (relegated to be the day chosen by the country to honour its national dead so that it will not fall inconveniently on a working day which for this year will be next Tuesday). In the middle Baroness something or other more commonly known as Shirley Williams, the senior surviving main player in the deliberate destruction of the nation's once superb education system. (Zoom in and note she wears two poppies, each with a green leaf, a conscious act which can presumably only have been chosen to shout "MY GRIEF AND STATUS ARE SUPERIOR TO YOURS"). On the right we have senior BBC Foreign Correspondent John Simpson, whose sycophantic, misguided and heavily biased reporting from across the world and down the decades has done so much to foster the nation's inbuilt sense of superiority and disdain that has allowed this country itself to slip so far into decadence and decay. Lastly on the left (suitably) the slimy Scot whose inability (shared with his successor as the BBC senior political commentator Nick Robinson) to ask a pointed question or follow-up an interesting line of inquiry to any office-holding minister has resulted in helping to bring our very system of government into complete contempt. All three hosted by the BBC, which fittingly proved unable to properly organise the apology for the actions of its two most recent lowest common denominator stars whose tasks down the decades has been to trash and destroy all the best elements of our society that once glued the nation as one. On this Remembrance Sunday let us not forget the BBC, these three and their many fellow travelers who have brought the country to its economic knees and who knows what further horrors which are yet to follow.

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Saturday, November 08, 2008

Big Brother

Hat tip to a Guido commentator for this link to a Government website "Public Service" (clearly a joke title!) which reads as follows:

Officials balancing web debates

Tuesday, October 28, 2008 Government officials are being encouraged to access social networking websites in order to ensure any discussions on public services among citizens are balanced by an authoritative view from inside Whitehall. Dean Carroll reports. Press officers at various departments have already attended training programmes run by the Central Office of Information (COI). The success of the scheme means other civil servants will now be educated on how best to reconnect with the public through online forums. Director of transformational strategy at the COI Alex Butler told Public Servant Daily that entering into blog conversations and engaging with third-party websites like NetMums, which has 250,000 subscribers, should be "part and parcel of professional life for staff". "There should be continuing dialogue with the people being served – we are now embarking on a year of awareness raising across the public sector as we want to spread the message," said Butler. Statistics from the COI revealed that 73 per cent of people with online access had visited a blog website. HM Revenue & Customs is now considering devoting the time of some economic government advisers to answering questions on independent financial websites. Meanwhile, the seemingly private social networking website of a serviceman has proved to be one of the biggest boosts to the RAF's recruitment drive. Be very afraid! No on second thoughts - be scared witless!

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The battle against the Lisbon Treaty

We must not forget in the midst of the economic turmoil that the enslavement under totalitarian rule of some 300 million EU former free individuals will be accomplished by the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. It is encouraging that the next EU rotating President is stalwart in his opposition to this dreadful treaty, a good report of his efforts planned for next week in Ireland is from EU Business, linked here.

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Bullied banks

The following is from a report in The Times on Darling's pressure on the nationalised (therefore bankrupt) banks to pass on the ludicrous interest rate cut of 1.5 per cent: A host of lenders cut mortgages after bank executives were told by Alistair Darling that taxpayers expected them to fall into line with the Bank of England’s one and a half percentage point reduction. But two of the biggest lenders, HSBC and Barclays, are defying the Chancellor’s demands, while others say that they will claw back the cost of implementing any cuts. Barclays and HSBC, both of which rejected money from this so sly government, are thus already shown to be the last independent High Street banks operating in the UK. Just completed as I type was a Radio 4 discussion with Vince Cable, the Lib/dumbs Finance spokesman, on zero interest rates and reduced taxes all carried on as if Government revenues are likely to continue as earlier in spite of all the ridiculous lending and bail-outs and collapsing private businesses and jobs. The one third reduction of interest rates was a belated attempt to solve the housing crisis which should have been undertaken months ago before throwing billions at clearly broke banks. Now that money has disappeared, never again to re-appear, the Government is pointlessly turning to the housing crisis which has developed too far to be salvaged while businesses collapse, jobs and the tax base vanish which should today be their prime concern. Gordon Brown has no spare sails in his locker and the present set have been shredded to bits by the storm force winds. The broken Britain he has created is a still manned hulk adrift in mid-ocean before an oncoming hurricane of enormous proportions. As usual the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, which apparently drives all political debate in Britain has its collective head firmly stuck where the light of reality never appears.

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Strong winds in Brown's sails!

As a former regular transatlantic yachtsman I can savour the analogy in the Leading Article of the Independent this morning, "this week certainly puts some strong wind into the Prime Minister's sails". Strong winds for sailing survivors should prompt the first thought to be "reef" or as some say "shorten sail". No sign of that from demented Brown and his dimwit team of ministers. Pressure on the banks to cut rates blithely ignores the coming hurricanes, read the detail from a Telegraph report from here. With announcements from Port Talbot of closing blast furnaces to threatened bankruptcies of General Motors and Ford in the USA the dark green murk of an approaching Category 5 hurricane should not be ignored. A place of shelter should be sought by all, known to yachtsmen as a 'hurricane hole' . None in power in the UK have spotted the dangers, they have too long been sheltered by the luxuries of the public purse that has now lost its financing, they are rightly doomed.

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Friday, November 07, 2008

Jackboot Smith"s fingerprints stolen

The Gruniad has the report on another rise in costs for the UK ID Card scheme in conjunction with a speech by the Interior Gruppenfeuhrer to the Social Market Forum, read here.... OR ... much more entertainingly see the drinking glass atop the same speech whisked away by NO2ID to remove and circulate the said Smith's fingerprints thus proving once and for all what an expensive nonsense these ID cards really are. Read in full from Guido Fawkes linked here.

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The IMF and Brown's Glenrothes rebound

The Independent this morning reports:

The IMF said 2009 would be the first year since the Second World War in which advanced economies combined saw their output shrink. While emerging economies are still performing comparatively well, the IMF now expects the total world economy to grow by 2.2 per cent in 2009, down from its October prediction of 3 per cent.

Britain, in particular, is heading for trouble, the IMF said, predicting that the UK would suffer a more serious recession than any other developed country in the world during 2009. The IMF now expects the UK economy to shrink by 1.3 per cent over the course of the year, a very substantial downgrade compared with its October forecast of a 0.1 per cent economic decline next year.

The Times meanwhile reports the mind-numbing by-election results in Glenrothes for the party whose mis-governance and policies have placed Britain in the worst economic condition of the developed world as judged by the IMF:

The scale of the win, however, took everyone, including Labour strategists, by surprise. It marks an abrupt end to Alex Salmond’s honeymoon as Scotland’s First Minister and a thumping personal endorsement for Mr Brown.

Holding the seat that Labour won with a 10,664 majority in 2005 meant that Mr Brown’s decision to break with tradition and campaign in the contest — along with his wife, Sarah, who made several visits — paid off. One thing is clear, after three consecutive General Election victories for New Labour, this latest by-election result confirms that the British electorate fully deserves every horror that is about to be delivered.

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Thursday, November 06, 2008

A Panic cut in Interest Rates

The media seems unanimous that the 1.5 per cent cut today is the first such a large cut since 1981. Looking at the Bank of England statistics page, here, I cannot see such an event in 1981. In 1980 there was a cut of 2 per cent on 25th November, from 16 to 14 percent namely a reduction of 12.5 per cent. Again on 11th March 1981 there was another 2 per cent cut to 12 per cent namely a reduction of 14.285 per cent. Today's cut of 1.5 per cent from 4.5 per cent to 3.0 per cent is an historically massive decline of one third or 33.333r per cent and is totally without precedent and clearly an act of pure blind panic! End result a Footsie plunge of 258.32 points at the close. Read my earlier post at the time of the announcement to gauge whether I am surprised at this response! One thing is clear, there are none in any positions of power or influence within the UK who have the first idea as to how to handle the crisis they have delivered. As I have repeatedly blogged (Blears please note) this is a House Price Crisis not a Banking Crisis. For good measure it is now a political crisis as well!

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One and a half per cent cut - Sterling doomed!

An incompetent if not insane MPC of the Bank of England has today thrown sterling to the dogs! A record one and a half per cent cut could mean future rises towards the 20 per cent levels if not hyper inflation to follow. A deep depression seems certain. The Government has now no chance to honour the recent huge spending commitments it has made. Send for the IMF!

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Libertas head receives Czech prize for Ireland's Lisbon rejection

The report is linked here, a quote: Prague - Declan Ganley, head of Irish opponents of the EU reform Lisbon treaty, today accepted the anti red-tape Michal Tosovsky Prize from the Czech eStat.cz civic group that it awarded to the Irish for their rejection of the treaty in a referendum.

Ganley said the Lisbon treaty threatened the European Union because it shows contempt for democratic principles.

He said many people from Brussels and from the Irish government attacked the treaty opponents and sought to limit the Irish citizens' democratic decision.

However, the European project must have the legitimacy based on the will on European citizens, Ganley said at a meeting in the Czech Senate.

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Pounding the pound

The Times editorial this morning calls for a one point interest rate cut. THIS WOULD BE A DISASTER! The nation's disturbed and distressed Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, frequently responds to fully justified accusations that this is his very own BUST by replying that at least interest rates are not at 15 per cent. They are not higher, much higher, than they are today because HE lacks the balls. The slump is due to Brown's policies as Chancellor, a way out requires a combined operation of reduced debt, reduced house prices and a lower exchange rate. The latter thanks to the freedom of the markets has been sufficiently achieved in recent weeks for any further drop at present to be counter-productive. Interest rates must rise, a lowering of interest rates today will require bigger increases in the future. Any drop will NOT result in cheaper mortgages and nor should they as house price falls have nowhere near run their course. Items so far destroyed by this Government:- Great Britain, Parliamentary Democracy, Privacy and (by forcing the Queen to sign the Lisbon Treaty rejected by Ireland) the Monarchy. Today the pound sterling is in danger of being added to that list and most of the MPC must know it!

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Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Czech PM confirms no Lisbon Ratification this year

The report is here.

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Russia to deploy nuclear -capable missiles on Nato border

President-elect Obama was welcomed with just that announcement from President Medvedev, read here. (Curiously this move and the missile threat impacts Lisbon Treaty ratification in the Czech Republic, as I have been linking in recent days). More on this from the FT here. The destination for the short-ranged missiles is the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad which lies between Poland and Lithuania: A typical reaction from within the EU was this from Grahnlaw, here. I have added a comment.

Question for PM Brown

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Happy Bonfire Day

From the Old Holborn Blog, here

President Obama.

It is fitting that all the levers of power in the world's mightiest country will, from the beginning of next year, rest in the hands of the Democratic Party whose misguided philosophy has driven the globe to the brink of total and complete economic collapse. The growing recession, slump or depression will require inspirational leadership, it remains to be seen whether President Obama has either the ideas or the team to allow his actions to match his undoubted oratorical skills and extraordinarily deep pockets. President-elect Obama was perhaps thus very wise in victory to restrict any promises to a new White House puppy for his daughters! He has a huge electoral mandate and a tame Congress, if he falters or fails it will thus not just condemn his Democratic Party to extinction - but possibly the very concept of democracy itself.

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Monday, November 03, 2008

Ticking time-bomb in HBOS figures

"The equivalent figures for impaired mainstream and specialist mortgages were 62% (57% 30 June 2008) and 77% (71% 30 June 2008) respectively." Read the company's own report from here. If property prices now fall to the generally accepted 25 to 33 per cent below peak levels, where will the above figures end? If the recession deepens to the extent now generally forecast - where are the reserves to prevent total collapse? In the UK Treasury?.... I think not, did you not see the three guilty men before the Commons Treasury Committee this afternoon - they would be unable to unblock a conventional WC - never mind the UK mortgage mess!

Our corrupt, stinking and disgusting Members of Parliament

This topic is covered well on the Devil's Kitchen blog, linked here, following the reaction of one such to being sent a copy of George Orwell's 1984 novel to remind them all of the consequences of much of their recent legislation. An EU element has entered this dispute which qualifies my reference from here.

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Czech Republic unable to ratify Lisbon Treaty this year!

The report is in English from Respect, linked here, as follows: " Vice PM Alexandr Vondra said that the CR informed Sarkozy that it cannot guarantee that the Lisbon treaty will be ratified by the end of the year. Even if the CR managed to get it done, Vondra noted, the treaty would not take effect anyway. But it would be good, he added, for the CR to vote on it in at least one of the two chambers before taking over as rotating EU president. It was essential, he said, for Sarkozy to state at Fri.’s meeting with Topolánek in Paris that France has no reason to cast doubt on the CR’s presidency. Leaks about France wanting to take away the presidency were intentional and might have been an effort to take advantage of the CR’s perceived political weakness, he said. He said that Sarkozy is now counting on Topolánek remaining as PM. Vondra declined to comment directly on rumors that Topolánek is offering ČSSD the post of EU commissioner in exchange for tolerance during the EU presidency." Freedom-lovers across the EU must rejoice as the prospects for the Lisbon Treaty get ever gloomier! In the French newspaper Le Monde the Czech Prime-Minister is quoted that is party is more eurorealist than eurosceptic, and that he would not like to see his name carved in marble at the Monastry Saint-jerome in Lisbon erased. The quote is as follows: "Je qualifierais notre position d'euroréaliste, ce qui n'atténue pas notre engagement dans l'UE. Le traité de Lisbonne, je l'ai signé, malgré ses imperfections. Je n'aimerais pas que mon nom qui a été gravé dans le marbre au monastère de Saint-Jérôme, à Lisbonne, soit effacé. Si tous les membres de l'ODS pensaient comme moi, ce serait simple. Malgré tout je suis persuadé que le Parlement le ratifiera." We must assume from this that the two British traitors who signed this Treaty without the promised referendum of the people of Britain, Gordon Brown and David Milleband are presently similarly commemorated.

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Saturday, November 01, 2008

Warnings on the House Price Crash

I was on the telephone this morning and was surprised to be told that no 0ne could have foreseen the house price crash coming other than perhaps, Warren Buffet. My protestations that I had been warning of just such an outcome on my blogs appeared to be met with some doubt. While many of my warnings were made on the old "FT Forums" facility of the Financial Times which now do not easily seem accessible online, I have trawled up a couple of choice quotes from my blog Ironies: "Britain will not survive the continuation of this Government in office for very much longer!" Ironies 10:11 am 13th June, 2003 linked here. By 09:12 pm on 13th August, 2003 , read here, on the appointment of Mervyn King as Governor of the Bank of England and substitution of the CPI for the RPI in the inflation indices, I made the point that if price stabilisation were the objective this was an error as follows: Personally, however, and strictly as a non-economist, if I wanted to use a statistic showing price rises were no longer that severe a problem, which I assume is Brown's intent, then I think I would leave the property element in. This is a particularly fascinating quote as the assumption, highlighted above, I made back in 2003 is now quite clearly totally incorrect. I wished to retain property prices in the inflation index as property was already over-valued and the end result of any inevitable adjustment would be beneficial to the inflation figures. Brown, it is now daily becoming ever clearer, had no such aim! Brown's plan was presumably , the deliberate destruction of the English economy, his recent actions with Scotland's Banks leaving sufficient suspicion that he hopes to save Scotland from the worst effects of his disastrous economic mismanagement as Chancellor and present subsequent Prime Ministerial misrule. While looking through these old postings readers might enjoy my rant on the Zimbabwe 500 note and its euro equivalent posted on 1st August 2003 on the same page as the above quote or from here. I might add further links here later as I have to research other blogs including Teetering Tories, regarding the reported bribery of former Tory Party leader Michael Howard.

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Vaclav Klaus message on Bruges speech anniversary

Embedded Video

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