BRITAIN SURVIVES EURO CRASH

The Euro crash looming on the horizon and not so far in the distant future makes everyone wonder what the impact will be for ordinary people. As it is people already living on the limit and the UK government promises more cuts to social benefits.

Although having all the sympathy for people in Europe but at times like this the concern must also be about the effect on Britain which did not join the single currency.

Sir Melvyn King of the Bank of England stated clearly that Britain would come through when the euro collapse.  At the same time he pointed out that it won’t be easy but financial disasters had been dealt with before.

Sir Melvyn admitted that prepared contingency plans are already established, just in case.  He also reprimanded those who prophesied that the collapse of the euro would also destroy the UK economy.   With the collapse of the euro and Sir Melvyn King stepping down next year it bound to have quite an impact on the economy. Sir Melvyn is of the opinion that the euro countries have not done enough to avoid the collapse.

He said that new measures taken by the European Central Bank to counteract the crisis were not a long term solution but hopefully buy enough time to find another answer to solve the problems.

Tory MP Douglas Carswell stated that Sir Melwyn finally caught up with the situation. With all due respect to Mr Carswell that might have been the impression but Sir Melvyn must have been quietly working away to establish plans to counteract the impact.

It is thought the break-up of the euro will be even this year and Greece would be the first to change back to their currency. It is even thought that a post-euro world could prove positive and start a growth in the economy.

Well let’s hope this positive statement will come true. It is high time that the depressing economy is turned around, starts to improve and ordinary people can start living again..

BANK OF ENGLAND IS REGULATING BANKS -- UPDATE 12 June, 2017

UPDATE; 12 June, 2017 -- So far there is no sign of it but it should be done to stop the bankers getting huge profits and fraud.

UPDATE: 10 March 2014 -- It looks doubtful re-regulation will happen under Mark Carney the new head of the Bank of England.  He seems to be very much on the side of the Tories. Although he should not be involving himself in politics and stay neutral.

It is regretful Mr King did not see it through before he retired. It needs to be done to stop the banks paying out 200 per cent bonuses. The major profit, according to newspapers' reports, comes from cancelling major loans and then re-issue them which is again a fiddle and costs the economy billions of pounds. For the Government to trumpet about to bring down the deficit is the biggest, sickest joke of them all.


UPDATE:  10 October 2013 -  Mr King had plans to return to regulate the banks again which stop a lot of fiddles and sky-high bonuses. However, Mr King has retired and the question is will the new head of the Bank of England honour Mr King's intention?

It seems that at long last some powerful officials are waking up to the mismanagement of banks for the last five years. It took them far too long and the damage it caused is far too costly. Ever since the de-regulation made by Margaret Thatcher; the banking system was going down and into a shamble. Before, the banks of England had the highest respect and were the envy of the world.

The non-stop scandals of sky high salaries, bonuses and dividends while the bank was showing a loss were incredible. Now as a final straw came the revelation of the Libor scandal.  Of course, the Barclays bank is not the only one and it is known that most of the major banks were involved. The question of why the Bank of England and the Financial Service Authority never seen it straight away will most properly never be answered.  The FSA did not take any notice of rumours about rigging. Wheatley review into Libor rigging should consider classifying manipulation as market abuse and making it a criminal offence.

A well known columnists stated months ago that these boys should not only be forced out and most properly with a billions of pound golden hand shake which certainly wouldn’t give the right message but they should be in prison and no golden hand shake. What they done is criminal.

Yet, when the Bank of England Governor Sir Mervyn King forced Mr Diamond out of Barclays bank he was heavily criticised by a powerful committee of MPs.  Mr King demanded to take on more powers and is again criticised by the Commons Treasury Committee stating it would be a return to the days where an “all-powerful” Governor could sack top bankers. Something has to be done and urgently and if a Governor goes power mad it is still better then the mess under which the bank operates today.  The mismanagement had certainly had a great bearing on Britain’s economic crises and banks and City are hoodwinking the public.

The Treasury Select Committee, chairman Andrew Tyrie stated: “Urgent improvements, both to the way the banks are run and the way they are regulated is needed if public and marketing confidence is to  be restored.”

Good regulation is needed and has to be build on clear-cut rules and transparency. Whether this will ever come about is hopeful but doubtful. There are too many greedy fingers in banks, city and government who all shared the spoil and they won’t let go that easily if at all.

It is still a secret club where with a number of nudges and winks over a cigar and brandy makes their power rule and the profit fall in their pocket. It had been whispered that banks withdraw credits from companies and set-it-up again and this would show as new business which means bonuses for the bankers. Whether it is true remains to be seen which will never be but it is plausible.

All these double-dealings contribute to high income for a few but brings the economy down which evidence showed over the last few years but didn’t seem to bother the ones responsible.

AGAIN BANK BONUSES PAID OUT

The root of the problem lies with Margaret Thatcher having de-regulated the banks. Ever since there has been nothing but financial chaos.  The public has been up in arms about these undeserved, massive bonuses and David Cameron had been promising time and time again to put a stop to it but nothing ever happened.

This time the bonuses were even paid out at the Bank of England. The staff receives a £25million over five years.  This had been in spite of not foreseeing the credit crunch and the Chancellor George Osborne manage a double-dip recession and will have another on in September.

The statement released by the Bank showed executives having received up to £30,000 a year performance related pay added to their salaries.  This is utterly undeservedly since they did not take measures to forestall the credit crunch and the recession.  Yet they get a performance-related pay. In the commercial world they would have got a dismissal and that would have the right bonus.

Furthermore, the figures showed that in just last year their bonus increased by 4 per cent to £4.9million but the country’s economy is in a recession. 

Sir Mervyn King and his team couldn’t even see the financial crisis and had to revise the economy forecast 12 times over the past year.  For all that failure they receive a performance- related pay. Has there ever been such a financial mismanagement in any government?

But wait a minute because here is the famous wipe the slate clean. A spokeswoman said: “Staff on a two year pay freeze which began in 2011. Bonus payment is based on individual performance. The pot has been frozen at six per cent of the total salary bill for the last three years.”

An utter non-sense in every word. If they didn’t see the financial crisis coming and didn’t forestall it why did they get a bonus at all? Furthermore they get paid a salary for the work they do and they just do the work they are there for. So, why a bonus? They don’t do any extra work and by the looks of the result they didn’t even do that.

Yet, David Cameron the great knight in shining armour would not dare to stop it. It is still sticking together and you scratch my back and I scratch yours. It always was going on but nowadays it has gone out of control and the country is going down rapidly.

NHS TRUST BROKE -- Update: 14 June, 2015

UPDATE: 14 June, 2015 --  
At the General Election campaign David Cameron promised to put in £8billions. 

The newly elected Prime Minister and his Tory Party have not shown any sign or effort to keep his promise even so the NHS is on the verge of collapse. 

Only the very dedicated nurses and doctors keep it going. They admit that they work extra unpaid hours. Would the Prime Minister or his MPs do this? No they claim extra expenses and big sums. 

Since the investment of £8billion is of great urgency it would be expected to be his priority. Instead, the first thing was to put an anti-strike law, fracking and without the people consent, snooping laws through as fast as posible and itching to sign the TTIP which includes the NHS and would bring £800trillion alone never mind if the people can not afford private insurance.

That is the real face of the David Cameron and his Tories who conned the people into voting for him spreading smears and lies about the Labour Party which would have brought back the NHS to its former glory.

The conditions of the cash strapped NHS is getting very suspicious. There is always billions available when a bank is in trouble. Billions available for the Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya’s wars. Billions available for the IMF to bail out Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain and Portugal. There are never any squabbles about not any money available, recession and austerity but comes to the NHS the doors close instantly.

There is now a new report about the critical conditions of the cash-strapped health service and had to be put into administration.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley stated that South London Healthcare NHS Trust was losing a £1million a week and was taken into the Department of Health. This Trust includes Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup, Kent, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich and Princess Royal University Hospital in Bromley.

There are some points to be disputed. One is the promise at the general election that the NHS is safe with us, meaning Conservative Party. Second, there was a report out the other day that over a £1Billion should be paid into the NHS and it is withheld.  Third, to sack doctors and nurses and then hiring Agency staff is financial suicide. Agencies charge twice as much. Surely Mr Lansley is aware of that if not he should be. Another point and this is the main point what happen to the huge sums of money paid to the National Insurance? People paid National Insurance all their lives and they deserve a National Health Service.

A suspicious mind thinks that this is all done on purpose. In order to break the NHS back and to move it along to be privatise. It is so obvious that the government is bent over backward to see it through.

Last year Chancellor George Osborne allowed £70billion to be poured into the banks under the ‘Merlin’ scheme. It didn’t work because the banks were reluctant to lend money and the consumers and companies to take on more debts. Nobody knows where that money went. No account given. Mostly properly it was used to pay these incredible salaries and bonuses.

Now again the Bank of England issued another £80billion to encourage consumers and companies to take a loan and to improve the economy. It is a good idea but if the order books are half empty hardly any company would saddle themselves with further debts. As for the consumers they hardly can pay their present way. So most properly it goes the same way.

These are huge sums all spend wrongly. The Prime Minister David Cameron will not intervene in spite of having one scandal after another. The public is pressuring to make Mr Cameron to stop these bonuses, sky-high wages, wasting money on wars which have nothing to do with Britain and bail-outs for countries in the EU.  Yet, no matter how much the demand is the Prime Minister sits back and does nothing.

All these sums should be spend on Britain and the NHS.

Apparently there are 22 more hospital earmarked for putting into administration. The administrator being sent from Mr Lansley could and would find out all the ins and outs of the hospital which makes it easier to be privatised. After all the Government is determined to privatise the NHS and of course Mr Lansley will do his best.

If privatised if will be like in America that the insurance are sky-high and many people can’t afford it. Mentioning Insurance something just crossed my mind that it would increase the insurance income tremendously and with the Fat Cats having share in every thing and every way they would be getting another load. Is that the root of the government determination to privatise?

UK CHANCELLOR GEORGE OSBORNE -- UPDATED 23 May, 2014

UPDATE: After reading this report from 2012 it is interesting in respect that you can see nothing has changed ever since. 

Even after calls in 2012 for his resignation, which David Cameron did not accept, Chancellor George Osborne has not issued one good budget ever since. 

The country gone to ;pieces with his austerity but still will not change his policy. Even the IMF, Germany and France advised him to stop. Now, he and David Cameron dancing about that they achieved a 0,3 per cent improvement in the economy. 

While they are hopping about but ignore Germany three per cent and the USA seven per cent from countries which did not apply austerity. It proves it all while Mr Osborne still carries on with austerity and in spite of it all borrows billions of pounds more. 

Let’s go back to March, 2012 when Chancellor George Osborne announced his budget. A budget which surely had been prepared for weeks and read by quite a number of the top politicians. 

Eventually when it was read out there was quite an uproar in the House of Commons. Amongst the points which were implemented was the so called Granny tax. An addition which pensioners have to pay if they work on after their retiring age plus National Insurance. 

A number of other cuts of previously installed benefits by the Labour Party to help families with children. Additions such as 3p of fuel tax on petrol already sky high and so on.

Since budget was read there were so many u-turns it must be dizzy by now. This does not give a good picture of a financial expert or his colleges who work with him on it. It never happened before that so many points were cancelled after a budget.  In other words Mr Osborne made a mess.

If any ordinary person in a company would produce such an almost useless document he or she would be sacked. But Mr Osborne still carries on as the great Chancellor. Furthermore, the government had a double-dip recession in the first six months in spite the idea of austerity. Anybody with half the knowledge of politics and economics knows a cut-back slows down the economy. The Conservatives inherited not a great economy because of the credit crunch but not as dismal as they make it out. They could have built on it and improved the economy.

Now we come to the Barclays bank scandal where the libor (Interest rates charged on loans from one bank to another) was rigged by top executives.

At the Questioning Time in the House of Commons Mr Osborne tried to shift the blame onto Labour. This immediately backfired because Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls denied any involvement in rigging the Libor.

This statement was furthermore backed by the Bank of England’s deputy governor Paul Tuckers.  He claimed several time that Ed Ball or any of the Gordon Brown’s government were never involved. He emphasized that in 2008 he spoke several times with bank bosses because of the credit crunch.  However, he pointed out that neither the government (Labour) nor the Bank of England ever put pressure on Barclays or any other bank to rig the rates.

Surely Mr Osborne or his adviser should have thought such statement, if not true, has a very short life.  Looking at the almost useless budget and now the embarrassing statement being denied by all parties concerned it makes you wonder if Mr Osborne trying to commit political suicide? In view of this entire incompetent not one word is uttered of resigning or being asked by the Prime Minister to resign.

Mr Tucker stated further he was appalled by the revelations including Barclays fixing the Libor rate. He called it a cesspit and went further that it could be just the tip of the iceberg with corruption rampant across the City.

The Labour Party is now demanding a complete change in the City and Banks. 

UK GREAT CHANCELLOR MR OSBORNE REQUEST £140BILLION -- Update 26 Feb., 2015

UPDATE: 26 February, 2015 -- Looking back we can only ask again where did all that money go? People are now starving and rely on 1,000 food banks. loosing their homes every 11 minutes;the refuge centres are being closed down because the councils'budget had been cut so drastically and people living on the street or even caves.

SO WHERE DID THAT MONEY GO?


UPDATE: 25 JANUARY 2013  ---  Where did all that money go? It certainly did not show any improvement in the country or the economy or reduction in the deficit. On the contrary!!!!!

This is a revelation a real revelation. He told the Bank of England to release £140billion.  This is pouring oil into the fire.

Last year he requested £70bilion and there was nothing to heard of afterwards. Now where did that money go? It supposed to be there to either boost small businesses or help starting them up. Just before the end of the year there were rumours that so many small businesses were not given a loan. However, we read every week of massive bonuses being handed out on top huge salaries even when the bank was making losses.

No matter how much the tax payers demanded to stop these bonuses it was never made. The glorious four on the top just kept avoiding the issue. Especially Mr Osborne has made a name for himself for vanishing when it got too close. He now received a nickname “Submarine” because of his constant diving.

Today we read in the papers that he gave the go-ahead of releasing £140billion and all for the same purpose. Now what made him think £140billion will do to the sinking economy what £70billion didn’t do last year?  Furthermore, £140billlion will go the same way as the £70billion went.  So there go the Fat Cats going to get the cream again.

There is still the picture of David Cameron in the opposition when Mr Brown announced he has to borrow at the time of the Credit Crunch and it wasn’t half as much as this Coalition keeps on borrowing. Mr Cameron first of all kept accusing Mr Brown of his failure which wasn’t his doing because the Credit Crunch spread from American across the World. Then he shouted and laughed into the man’s face that he has to borrow. Yes, now the show is on the other foot and a much bigger one, he keeps quiet. To me these are no principles even for a politician who are known for twisting and turning around.

Experts like Graeme Leach who is chief economist at the Institute of Directors, said: “Facing a bombardment from the Eurozone, the Chancellor and Governor are calling up the euro crises  are not eager to borrow.”

The Export has shown a slum in April and so had the construction industry.  Therefore, there is no way anybody increase a loan in those two markets which usual give an indication of economical growth.

Furthermore, due to the great austerity wages have slammed by 7 percent which again has an impact on the economy. It is the biggest drop in wages since the sixties.

Regarding the mortgage section it will also show a drop of demand because many people lost their home by repossessions and due to the low wages will not request a loan.

NOW WE ARE COMING BACK TO THE BIG QUESTION AGAIN.  WHERE WILL THAT MONEY GO?

The Chancellor is lumbering the country constantly with more and more debt which the tax payer will have to bath out for decades. Yet, it is so obvious even to the man in the street that it will not be used for loans to increase production which means increase of job, encourage small businesses, construction industry because there is no demand for houses or starting up new businesses.

After the last £70billion being “poured into the economy” the UK experienced a double-tip recession in the first six months of this year. Since David Cameron was shouting about ‘Transparency’ in his election manifesto can we have some transparency on the £70billion?