The new Brownie mantra "first financial crisis of the global age"

Does he really expect anyone to buy that ? Well I guess given how badly Labour have failed in education perhaps he does.

The man is either insane or a pathological liar - or maybe both.

PS The "No clear map" comment contradicts what he's said before about doing the right thing this time, and also shows he has no idea of what will work but will sell us all into debt slavery anyway.

Governments are going to make it worse

Protectionism is already back, just until this week is was by stealth. ( The US Congress is just about to kick of a trade war with its mindless set of conditions on the US fiscal socialism package ).

Quietly and in ways designed not to trigger the EU's competition laws states have been preventing creative destruction taking place. In the Netherlands the state pays some of certain businesses wages, in the UK there's some odd credit scheme to keep the car manufacturing supply chain functioning. You can be sure that all the other countries with car plants in competition with ours are doing similar deals.

As a result tax payers will fund idle capacity, instead of the worse firms going under and being replaced by firms we want.

The story of the 1970's was of the undead corporations, in this country the nationalised industries. Those who were to big and important to fail, even if they didn't sell anything you wanted to buy. ( False patriotism was used then also with "Buy British" campaigns. )

All these corporations continued to destroy wealth and value up till the point when government could hold the line no longer and the market based reforms of the 80's became necessary.

Lets be clear those reforms saved the UK.

But they were far more painful than they needed to have been. Not because of the heartlessness of Margret Thatcher, but because of the short sightedness and selfishness of those who had governed before.

We risk making the same mistake, but not allowing creative destruction in our financial and manufacturing economy.

The attempts to buck the market made by the government risk instead stopping its function and condemning us to years of stagnation to come.

This is why Ronald Regan was right about government help and Obama is wrong.

Government should of course help people, but what I fear is a form of jobs trade war with each government wanting to keep everything the way it was, funded by budget deficit and debt, and none of them allowing the economy to adjust as it so clearly needs to.

In short, just like the 1970's, government is going to make it worse.

National snake oil plan (aka broadband )

So the narrative continues .....

Labour are trying to sound all "white heat of technology" like with a commitment to more broadband. A load of guff from Brown about Britain and communications industries ( yes it might have started off here , but its now all done over sears in the US and China. GEC Marconi were the last last here, and now they have gone). Replaced by, in the minds of Labour ministers, creative industries where the people Guardinista's meet at parties work.

Just like Labour's plan to provide online porn to less well of kids by getting the tax payer to fund their own kids and disadvantaged kids laptops, this is just guff.

Perhaps they are thinking of all those trenches that will have to be dug for fiber optic cable employing young jobless people ? I have news for them - in the road my mother lives on in Essex the road has been dug up for months. Why ? Because they can't get the employees - the young people they get take lots of time to get trained, but then find it too hard to be outside all day doing physical work - even though they are lucky to get that.

Who will dig the holes then, clearly the Poles and newly arriving soon Romanians and Bulgarians.

What was announced was more reviews, and more guff.

But then doing something was never the intention. Changing the headlines from Economic doom and gloom and trying to pretend there is something that government can do was.

Typical New Labour - reaching for the bottle of snake oil narrative again...

My proposal for new taxes !

Now I thought that would get your attention.

Well lets face it we are all - after the bidding war with debt for votes is over - going to have to pay more tax.

Proposal 1: A national mortgage( or debt) tax : The Debt raised should be visibly paid back and calculated for each tax payer. A proportion of income tax should be re-badged as debt repayment tax and at the end of each year all taxpayers should receive a statement of how much they paid of the national debt and how much they paid on interest for it.

After all if its going to take 20 years to pay back then we'd better not forget the mistakes that put us here. This will ensure we never do.

Proposal 2: A general debt tax: Its now clear that debt held by people, banks, and companies involve wider risks to society, which society ultimately underwrites. Therefore there shoudl be a tax on debt (not savings). This would have the advantage of providing HM Govt an income stream which effectively allows taxation of the foreign money that has been dumped then removed from our banking sector. The timing of the tax would have to be after the trough of the coming recession, but its time that the wider damages debt does are recognised in the tax system. ( The same is true of many other economic activities and trade ).

I know how unpopular the idea of raising taxes now is with the right ( who correctly see great scope to cut state waste and reduce its role ) and the left ( who just see more debt as the answer ), but like it or not more tax must be raised.

Why not learn the lessons of the current crisis ?

Grandparents threatened by fascist social services in Edinburgh as well as taking their chidlren away !

This story almost beggars belief. Apparently Grandparents have been told:

"If you couldn't support the children [back the gay adoption], if you were having contact and couldn't support the children, and showing negative feelings, it wouldn't be in their best interests for contact to take place."

The fascists !

The Grandparents are deemed "too old" when one of them is younger than my wife ( perhaps we should be expect the knock on the door to take away our chidlren sometime ).

Its always possible that there is far more to this case than the press reports, but what has been said is very worrying.

My advice to the Grandparents is fight, and fight hard. Get help - don't allow social services to bully you - next the will say as you don't see the children much all contact must be dropped.

Just what do the pro-DEC appeal people think Hamas is doing blowing people up at boarder crossings ?

There has been a spectacular amount of whining about various "British" Charities not being given free air time to help fund their activities ( which include the distribution of aid - or handing it over to the Hamas militants anyway - but also include their salaries, headquarters and careers during the debt crisis and recession ) and help Hamas in its campaign to isolate Israel using the suffering of its own population which it deliberately brought about.

No such fuss is made currently about Zimbabwe or Darfur or Congo* ( though in fairness I can think of DEC appeals for the last two ) - but then the fake outrage of the hard left doesn't have anything to gain there does it, and there's just no votes is saving those lives for the main parties to chase.

Lets face it - if the health and well being of the Palestinian people was Hamas' priority this sort of thing just wouldn't be going on. They could have stopped launching rockets when it became clear what Israel was going to do - but their pride and self importance came first.

So what's up with this exploding bombs at the border crossing stuff as your trying to negotiate a ceasefire to rearm to get 'aid' across those border crossings.

Go on amaze me ...

* Note that this has not stopped the public donating. Perhaps - just perhaps many other people silently (because the activists will jump down your throat if you say anything) agree - see comparative data for DEC appeals ( Gaza money is only to date, but it has received blanket coverage in the media as a new item of its own and transmission on C4 and ITV ).

As I've said before I'm all for donations to help the people who are suffering and have made such a donation myself - its just some of the charities and the way the appeal is structured is taking part in and rewarding the conflict.

Proposing the arbitrary misuse of power - Labour yet again

So Labour have decided to go for "Dead beat Dads", by yet again re-announcing they are considering taking away driving licenses and passports from Dads who don't pay their child support. ( Shouldn't this be parents ? And if Dad's are so genetically responsible - how come they can't successfully sue for being fooled into bringing up someone else's child ? But I digress as there's a bigger issue at stake here. )

This is how freedom is taken away - with a good excuse. Its to stop Terrorists/Paedophiles/Rapists or as Harriet Harman seems to think of them Men.

You will then see a minister on TV ( and occasionally - shock horror 0- in Parliament ) stating that the powers will only be used for the purpose intended. [ I am amazed how often I hear that argument from Labour politicians - its of course totally false, but until recently the MSM were so tied into "The Project" that they never questioned it.] I leave it as an exercise to the reader to think of at least three examples of this not being the case with anti-terrorism legislation.

So what Labour are spinning they are proposing ( and we have to remember they do just mislead people for headlines quite often - see marching yobs to cash points for details ) is to bypass the courts and the law and have a government agency handing out arbitrary punishment for a reason it thinks is good.

It also assume that these things are "gifts" from the government to be handed out to well behaved citizens.

As we know once the precedent is established it will be embraced and extended by Labour.

Where else could government use these arbitrary powers to withdraw its new grace and favour privileges ? You can be sure they Will think of something soon. At that point a system of justice that has lasted about 800 years will have been castrated ( again you have to suspect its a Harman fantasy).

I'd like to see parents pay for their children, rather than the tax payer. But I want to live in a country where freedom is guaranteed by due process of the law and courts, not subverted by the government.

Government is using gimmicks to overcome its own inability to administer debt collection. It is also either just not able to think issues through in any depth or perhaps deliberately trying to subvert the rule of law.

Also see UK Bubble on this here, she says "This is classic New Labour; it is both authoritarian and congenitially incapable of understanding the deeper problem." That's about right.

James Burdett agrees and also make a point about using the tax system for this sort of debt collection.

The cost of Brown's encouragement to Lloyds share holders

During the share holder vote of the HBOS Lloyds merger I advised my wife to vote no, which she duly did, but clearly it wasn't a choice made by many other share holders.

Now she knows why as the merger went through anyway and she just received the following letter, which I attach for those of you who have the good fortune not to be Lloyds shareholders to read ( you need to click on it to read it - but I reproduce the key part below )..

Dear Victim Shareholder,

I am pleased to let you know that the acquisition of HBOS plc has now been completed and as you will be aware Lloyds TSB Group plc has now changed its name to Lloyds Banking Group plc. The combination will drive significant synergy benefits; the Lloyds Banking Group Board believe it will deliver total annual pre-tax cost savings greater than £1.5 billion by the end of 2011.

As shareholders will be aware, no dividend may be paid on the Lloyds Banking Group shares while any of the HM Treasury Preference Shares are outstanding, unless otherwise agreed by HM Treasury. However, the Lloyds Banking Group Board recognises the importance of dividends to shareholders and its clear intention is to achieve the repurchase of the HM Treasury Preference Shares during 2009 so as to enable us to resume the payment of dividends.

See what Charles Moore writes in the Telegraph:

No one is more conflicted in the crisis than the Prime Minister himself. You can feel him longing to attack bankers – both because everyone hates them at present and because of how Labour politics works. But he knows that the now-excoriated Sir Fred was once his close associate. Mr Brown boasted last autumn that it was his quiet word with his friend Sir Victor Blank, that persuaded Sir Victor’s company, Lloyds, to hurry up and take over HBOS – a move which seems to have turned both banks into the living dead.

Still at least the senior manager in Lloyds and the Prime Minister are being paid even if their shareholders are not. Thanks Gordon.

The bonfire of Gaza-DEC vanities

There's an interesting little spat going on right now. The BBC has refused to provide air time for the disaster emergency committee (DEC) to do its usual appeal after a high profile humanitarian disaster for the people in Gaza.

There clearly has been a lot of suffering and need is Gaza since the Israeli attempt to stop Hamas firing missiles at its people, and Hamas' human shield policy causing so much destruction.

But then perhaps the BBC knows a little more. They know all the aid will be controlled by Hamas ( already aid lorries are being hijacked by Hamas ). Hamas supporters will get first call, and building materials are as likely to be used for military purposes as anything else.

Equally Hamas have been behaving like the Fascists many claim them to be. People suspected of being sympathetic to Israel or being Fatah supporters are being tortured, having eyes gouged out, kneecapped and summarily executed as a matter of course.

The towns of Gaza may be in the state that some of Europe was after WWII, except in their case the fascist's are still in power.

So its no longer a clear cut issue. In addition some of the aidlack;" >aid agencies have shown themselves to be a long way from impartial.

These major appeals are also major feeding times for the professionalised charities with their career charity workers and high over heads. Remember their over kill for the tsunami and for Burma ? In the current climate some who work for these charities may lose their jobs if the money doesn't start rolling soon.

Hence sending aidlack;" >aid to Gaza has a highly political and self interested element to it. And on this basis the BBC are right to block it. Though they might like to do something about some of their reporting. When they finally got into Gaza some of their bone headed reporters where going round asking people if they still supported Hamas ! I saw one man, his eyes pleading with the camera at being asked such a question - which is really just an invitation for suicide - bravely saying he had no opinion.

But all this has been manner manna from heaven for wee Dougie Alexander who can try to put Labour on side with its Muslim floating voters by demanding action etc ( which also confirms the political nature of this appeal ). Its hypocrisy from the government who really gave the green light for Israel's actions.

I suspect the BBC will cave to pressure, political pressure, which will just confirm they were right in the first place.

But what of the victims of Hamas' human shield policy in Gaza ?

My advice is to chose your charity carefully. I sent money during the fighting to one that works with the diminishing band of Christians in Gaza ( estimated to be about 3000 ) who are persecuted at the best of times.

There will be other good charities, just do your home work and avoid those like the UN who are compromised - and do give something. Because the one significant truth of all of this is that a lot of people are suffering.

Further The BBC reporting on itself here and the news that ITV and Channel 4 intend to go ahead with the DEC broadcast.

Further background:

The BBC explain their case here.
Janet Daley argues for no censorship on our news and broadcasts here.
Everywhere else people are laying into the BBC and this decision.

Except apparently Andrew Roberts of the Times who argues that the charities themselves are biased. He makes a good case that is very much worth reading.

Did Evan Davis blow his interview with Brown ? (or did Brown blow his chance ?)

The Mole has been quick to report criticism on Evan Davis interview this morning with Gordon Brown on radio 4's today program, here.

Personally I don't think Evan Davis will be too pleased with this interview. His biggest mistake was trying to jolly Brown along by saying he agreed with him and allowing Brown to summarise the interview by saying we have agreed in this discussion ( not even an interview ).

Also Evan Davis seemed to think that Brown should not be blamed for the debt bubble ( because we now know that what its is ) because he, Evan Davis, didn't spot it either. [ Notice the presumption that Gordon Brown didn't know about the debt bubble - I doubt that's true, and if it is the Treasury should be sacking most of its staff ]. There are plenty of people who warned, including on this blog. As Guido reported some economists even kept pestering the Treasury, but where fogged off.

But the political impact, in my opinion, isn't advantageous to Labour. The public are getting fed a series of horror stories about the Banks bottomless debts and their taking ownership of them, the developing Sterling crisis, the new pensions crisis, the recession and jobs and housing crisis.

Brown's yet another repeat of his Tractor Stats announcements that we've been getting for the last 6 months just confirms to the public that he is either a charlatan or not up to the job. I would expect support for the Conservatives to have gone up the longer people listened to the interview.

Some discussion on the interview is also available at Conservative home here, where Tim Montgomery describes Brown's performance as self evident nonsense - and that is the problem for Labour dwindling band of narrative believing apologists .

Personally I think Evan Davis just had a bad day. He did challenge Brown on his attempt to use the "Do Nothing" spin against the conservatives - pointing out the Tory policies that Brown was implementing, and also trying to skewer him at the end by comparing the state of the Economy Brown inherited with that he'll be leaving the next government. ( There are some colourful rum ours about what Brown said on taking office in 97 on discovering how great the UK economy at the time was . )

But Brown had a worse morning as he was handed enough rope to show just how empty and out of touch his handling of the crisis is.

Update: See also Burning our money where Wat Tyler was actually listening tot he details of what von Brun was saying.

Further: Somebody (possibly not a Labour supporter - but the post is tolerated ) on Labour Home thinks Gordon may not be playing with a full deck, see here. Welcome to the programme Labour homies - many of us have thought Brown's bonkers for some time ! Now what are you going to do about it ? Its also intresting how they have picked up on how negatively people react to Brown's complete failure to engage in the interview.

The Labour government sly attack on free speech and freedom of conscience

A while ago there was a lot of debate over Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill, which initially would have made it a criminal offence to be involved in the "incitement to hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation".

The problem was that both traditional Christianity and Islam oppose homosexual practice on moral grounds and based on their reading of their scriptures.

A compromise was found in adding the following free speech clause:

In this Part, for the avoidance of doubt, the discussion or criticism of sexual conduct or practices or the urging of persons to refrain from or modify such conduct or practices shall not be taken of itself to be threatening or intended to stir up hatred.

But now, on the second reading and with short notice ( to prevent proper debate and consideration of the issues ) the lobby groups have persuaded the government to reintroduce on second reading a clause into the Coroners and Justice Bill (clause 52) which reads:

58 Hatred against persons on grounds of sexual orientation
In Part 3A of the Public Order Act 1986 (c. 64) (hatred against persons on
grounds of sexual orientation etc), omit section 29JA (protection for
discussion or criticism of sexual conduct etc).

This bring back all the problems that had originally been settled. It is designed to oppress and outlaw sections of traditional Christian and Muslim belief.

The anti-Christian Gay fascist lobby is making a mistake here, since Labour won't be in power much longer and this is going to get repealed even if the sly and underhand nature of its anti-democratic application is successful.

And for Labour they will be seeing the first prosecutions of Christians ( lets be honest they dare not prosecute Muslims ) about the time of the general election. This will play badly in marginals.

PS This is one of those Ratchet issues, where those who propose the change hope to achieve more than the removal of hatred, but to create an enforced uniform state morality that will through the attrition of court cases replace traditional values and make those who have them fearful of the state.

The boiling frog

Perhaps its being distracted by the coronation of the Obamessiah, but I'm surprised there isn't a more wide spread panic under way.

Perhaps its the boiling frog syndrome.

If you dropped your average middle class person into a world where the government nationalised half of the banks, and took out loans that make Mr Churchill's borrowing to save the world from Adolf Hilter and his homicidal chums look prudent - most people would start screaming and running around the room in panic and wouldn't calm down enough to talk until they had necked at least a double whisky.

But because its happened in stages we've grown used to it. Plus until very recently our losses have been on paper. Those depressing statements from pension funds have made us sigh, but not scream in pain. The more expensive foreign holiday has made us think carefully, and if my trip out on Thurs night is anything to go by many people are not eating out right now. But people are coping and being philosophical.

However, none of that means there isn't a fast developing crisis that's going to become financially lethal very shortly as it heats up.

Our media, especially on the left ( eg the BBC ) have let us down here.

PS If you want an excuse for a a stiff drink before bed time read Ambrose Evans-Pritchard then Richard North. But don't blame me if you can't sleep at night afterwards.

AM For hair of the dog Watt Tyler has his say here.

Just how much is the taxpayer underwriting a foreign bank ? ( And foreign customers ! )

One of the main contributors to the downfall of RBS has been its takeover of Dutch bank ABN/Amro. Indeed the biggest headline goes to the couple of billions ABN lost to a Russian oligarch's firm.

Why isn't ABN/Amro being close down or sold off - or the Dutch tax payer joining us in Gordon Brown's slough of debt ?

Things have gone way beyond the benefit of the doubt.

Update see Alex at the The Financial Crimes for more on how much RBS owes overseas and how Brown has destroyed our economy. ( See you have to consider that all this may be deliberate. )

The victims of RBS

I have two relatives, getting on in their years, both of whom have holdings of shares in RBS - one of them a rather large holding.

One of them had taken comfort in the charity they intended to leave the money to as a legacy.

Both of them were given the shares in inheritance, and can't bring themselves to sell because of the memory of the people who help them before.

And anyway they used to be worth a lot and banks are such respectable businesses, surely its just a matter of holding on to them.

Over Christmas I tried to explain to both that share prices can go to zero, and I would just sell now.

But these people trusted RBS and its board. One even bought more shares when the company asked for support with its rights issue.

Now instead of a legacy and maybe some small inheritance to pass down the family there will be massive debt and taxes for their grand children to pay because the likes of RBS over paid for ABN/Amro and let a Russian oligarch make of with billions of pounds.

Today its apparent that some in RBS are still drawing salaries in the £700k/yr range.

People are no where near angry enough about this.

PS Don't think I'm letting Brown of the hook here. He's got a tremendous amount to answer for in the way RBS has been 'saved'. But just for now lets ask why there isn't more action, restructuring and general humility from RBS for how it has betrayed its share holders.

{ I suspect it may be a ploy from Labour to use the board of one or two banks as scape goats later on in this crisis. }

See also The DT is talking about the plight of small RBS shareholders here.

Perhaps future North Sea Oil revenues should under write the government loans to RBS and HBOS ?

This should concentrate Scottish Labour minds. Since RBS and HBOS are Scottish banks, how about underwriting them with future revenues from Scottish Oil ?

I stand back and await the howls of protest .....

How bad is it ?

Peter Oborne lays out the down side of our current situation brutally in today's Daily Mail. The markets have just almost halved the share value of RBS again. Lloyd's TSB seem to have tried a millstone round the necks of their shareholders with the purchase of HBOS ( a lot more should be known about Gordon Brown's influence in this take over ).

Civil unrest may be only a few months away, see David Cox here. I've mentioned many times before that we should look to Argentina to see what happens when a government goes bankrupt. The executive summary version is this - the middle classes are reduced to poverty.

It seems the government have no idea of how bad things are. They are becoming at best city traders at worse desperate gamblers - and they have no encouraging form as either !

What is sure is that they continue to put their political careers ahead of the country.

1. Has anyone seen signs of cost cutting at RBS or HBOS ? Both are now ( or shortly to be when Llyods gets its next bail out ) state controlled. Surely costs should drop now ! ( But of course that would mean redundancies in Scotland - where the Brown/Darling duo are based ).
2. Has anyone seen signs of government cutting back on its expenditure. ( The only signs I've seen are Geof Hoon inviting us all to drive of the hard shoulder of motorways rather than build more and the delay in the White Elephant Aircraft Carrier programme. )

Its time for some responsibility, realism and please oh please competence.

I don't think we will get these from Brown. He is either out of control or deliberately driving us over the cliff for his own ideological reasons.

Love this new Labourist site !

That ever helpful to any blogger of whatever hue Iain Dale has spotted a new satire site which is extracting the Michael from the terribly serrious Labourlist no link - no google ranking ).

Go and have a look here it great stuff..... Let get their google ranking higher than Dolly's effort, make that link now !

Social mobility - its Friday afternnon

Sorry just don't have the energy for anything else. Have a good weekend.

The observations of Jeff Randall

Still haven't done anything productive today - so let me point you at an insightful article by Jeff Randall. I think there are some key observations in it.

I for one am sick to death of the automatic propaganda that comes, mostly from Labour politicians, as answers to interview questions. I'm also fed up with the BBC interviewers on R4 who accept it ( but again only from the Labour party ). R5L does a much better job .....

So if half the civil service deserve the sack - where are the efficiency savings Gordon ?

Lord Digby Jones is reported by the BBC with the following extract:

Ex-trade minister Lord Digby Jones says he was "amazed" to discover how many civil servants "deserved the sack".

This is Civil Serf's point, until she was silenced.

Lord Digby Jones suggests that better results could come from half the amount of staff!

Now given the high salaries and gold plated pensions that many of us are going to die in poverty paying for, this is just point blank not acceptable.

In my personal experience of the state sector what I've found is good people, but a lack of responsibility or urgency or ownership of problems.

I have worked on a contract for a government quango - which was frustrating as they just didn't understand what was involved in a fixed price piece of work. And it got worse when I spoke to the then DTI. ( Such problems almost never occurred when dealing with other private sector organisations. )

This just goes to back up what Iain Dale and others have been saying about the lack of business experience in ministers. The problem is that they accept this bad performance.

Lets be clear the public is being cheated out of its taxes because the current ( and maybe previous governments ) lack the experience to know that the service the civil services provides is sub standard and ineffective.

We are entitled to ask where the efficiency savings are that Gordon Brown claimed he was going to make - to try to defuse Conservative proposals.

Its a scandal. Remember the protests when the Conservatives suggested there should be a reduction in civil servants in 2004 ?

See also previous post "How good is the civil service ?"
And the report in the Telegraph on the same subject, which has more of Lord Jones' views.

Brown is right on the third runway at Heathrow

If you've read any of my other posts you'll know how much it pains me to say this, but Gordon Brown is right about the proposed third runway for Heathrow, and current Conservative party policy is wrong.

Heathrow is more than an airport. It is the beating heart of much of the West of London, the western home counties, the City, and many high tech industries and consultancies from the M4 Corridor round to Redhill.

Let be clear these are high skilled, good paying, and internationally mobile jobs.

Killing Heathrow, which not doing something about its capacity will be, is the equivalent of killing the Golden goose that lays the eggs.

Heathrow is also fast becoming an embarrassment due to its lack of capacity.

You can't just move the air traffic East of London - which is shown by the fact that Stansted hasn't challenged Heathrow at all. For this reason the "In the Thames" solution isn't any help.

Also whilst high speed rail may be of value in itself, it just won't provide the necessary capacity. ( If you think the planning battle about the third runway looks tough - wait till you try to build new high speed rail lines through the rest of our major cities ). The only flights it will replace are those to Manchester. The other locations will just build more demand for Heathrow. ( At even if a high speed line was built at fantastic cost to the English tax payer - it still wouldn't compete with a flight from Edinburgh/Glasgow for a transfer to long hall.

Does anyone listen on education ?

If you read the "To Miss with Love" blog you might conclude no one who runs education from the political level does.

This post here shows the an inner city teacher's view of the latest headline grabbing half backed initiative from Labours education / children's / social mobility / soviet oppression dept. Snuffysnuffleupagus makes the vallid point that the £10k for good teachers bonus is half funded from the school budget ( which for those challenged by socialism means less teachers ), and of course that it will be expected of all teachers. ( She also takes David Willetts to task - which I can't really object to either. )

This initiative will fail - and fail big - and fail expensively, but worse of all fail the kids it was meant to help. But by then Ed Balls and Mr Milburn will have had their headlines.

That's how Labour works - cynical, manipulative and ultimately at best ineffective, at worse disastrous.

Education, education, education ?

They're so embarrassed by the result that they had to rename the department responsible and hide its function from its title.

See also Post "More of your money being wasted to buy Brown votes - this time the £10k teacher scam"

"The green shoots of recovery" in Woking - not

Zavvi in Woking - the staff have just been let go and the shutters drawn down today.
Woolworths now just a memory.

Whittards in Woking is closing - despite the venture capital buy out. I tried to order my last ground coffee, but they couldn't fill a 250g bag, and then couldn't fill a 125g bag. That's it for good coffee at home.A card shop that closed and then had a temporary Calendar shop.

All these gaps have appeared in the last two weeks in the prime area of the main shopping centre. And finally Marks and Spencer the local press reports that the branch of Marks & Spencer is to close. The staff say they are in the consultation phase - the modern waiting room for redundancy.

No sign of "green shots" yet !

PS I leave out Adams as their store appears to still be trading.

Its not public service if you join the Labour party Mervyn

I can see a case for, in times of national emergency, someone joining the government to provide their service in selfless public service.

However, if you then join the Labour party, as Mervyn Davies has done, then you have aligned yourself with the failure and damage that Labour have done to our whole country. The destruction of an effective education system from secondary school onwards, the bloating of the civil service just to gain more pay role votes, the wasting of over a trillion pounds of money on unreformed public services. The wars, the spin, the lies, the deceit, the bullying, the oath breaking, the infighting and the treason of signing the Lisbon treaty.

Labour has nothing to do with public service. Its just self service.

As I told you - Remember the left hate your children

Just under a year ago I finished a post with the warning "Remember the left hate your children" - see here.

Well if your were in any doubt before the proof is now in with Harriet Harman's Social Warfare bill to attack and destroy the middle classes ( as if that wasn't being done effectively enough by Labour economic policy ! ).

The anti-merit government policy has already reduced the effectiveness of the civil service ( as people who have to deal with it report to me ) and now requires certain firms employ token employees to win contract. This is going to get far worse if Labour hold onto power.

In reality this is probably the pre-election dog whistle, along with Hazel Blears trying to pretend she understands peoples concern about immigration ( as opposed to labelling it racism) before a general election. The only people Labour care about are themselves.

More of your money being wasted to buy Brown votes - this time the £10k teacher scam

We all know the proposed £10k bonus for "excellent" teachers at under performing schools will work out.

Why ?

Because we've seen it before. Blair tried this with some sort of Bonus for good performance for teachers. By the time the Unions and LEA's had finished with it it was issued to almost everybody.

The prospects on the infighting and bickering that choosing who the excellent teachers are will destroy this initiative to buy working class support with tax payers money.

But that okay for Gordon, because being a New Labour Narrative Socialist he's not bothered about real outcomes - just extravagant boasts he can make with other peoples money to save his career.

PS Gordon how does this fit with your call for restraint on public sector pay ?

Further: Celia Walden tells Brown "Gordon can keep his 'golden carrot'" over at the DT today. Her reasons are worth considering also.

R4 gives Liam Byrne an easy ride - as always

Just listened to the fawning interview on R4's today programme. Liam Byrne was allowed to get away with not answering any questions - but just issuing the normal NuLabour spiel.

Either he didn't understand any of the questions - especially the one about ZanuLabour abolishing the careers service - in which case he no doubt blames Thatcher for messing up his education, or he was treating the audience like a bunch of idiots just ranting on about the Conservatiaves. ( By the way Liam lots of the guys who went to school with you will have gone into the post Big Bang city - made meritocratic by the Conservatives - and made a killing. The guy who live next door to me in Essex was head of foreign currency trading at a key bank and he didn't even get his maths 'O' level.)

Why are Radio 4's Today interviewing skills so low ? Why do they let NuLabour automotrons just droll out the spin and misreopresentation of their opponents whilst nver answering the question ?

If anyone from the BBC reads this - try comparing to the intevriew on R5L about half an hour earluier - its shows you can do it. On this interview the straight hypocrisy of New Labour ministers sending their children to fee paying Oxbridge coaching sessions, getting them plush intern jobs and buying private tutors for them and empoying them in their offices was put straight to the slippery Mr Byrne.

For my money R4's Today programme has far to many left wing sympathisers working for it. And now we also see why the political capability of R5L is to be terminated with its move to Manchester.

Its Monday - so it must be govt wasting £500 million on a half baked scheme to buy it votes day

As I have just argued the current Labour Government is obsessed by "the narrative" and finds reality annoying and just plain disloyal.

Hence we have the as bad as useless scheme to spend £500 million on a combination of itself ( training job centre staff etc ) and some sort of bribe on getting the long term unemployed into work.

Firstly who knows if this is a another reannoucement ? On past form much of it probably is.

Next £2.5 k per employee taken on is a drop in the ocean for most employers, especially compared to the cost of employing someone they don't want or worse need to get rid of. Lets assume very conservatively that with support costs an employee, of the type of jobs we are talking about, will cost about £25k/yr - all support costs added in - thus the cost of an empoyment mistake and the opportunity cost of not having a good employee dwarf the governments bribe. My guess is that this bribe has been set at a level to allow the biggest number of people who Gordon has "done something to" to grab the headlines.

Also they are playing a zero sum game - trying to change the way the unemployed rotate, rather than doing something like cutting Coporation tax that might help business grow ( or suffer less ). On this subject the ignoring of the Conservatives idea on delaying VAT repayment from business is just spiteful not invented hereism by Labour.

And there are further objections from Labour MP Frank Field who correctly points out that non-EU immigration is crushing the incentives for people to up their skills. Of course the same thing applies for EU immigrants with most empoyers preferring work hard Poles to our unskilled alternative.

All in all the only thing we know is that we all will owe £500 million more to Saudi and Chinese investors in govt debt soon, the figure we can't be sure of ( as David McNulty shows Govt propoably don't know themselves ), but we do know it will have to be repaid with interest by all of us under a Conservative govt.

Update: I note that Gordon Brown kicked of his summit for jobs in the science museum - yep its the white heat of technology ploy from Labour again.

Further: Guido has reproduced the press release from Tony McNulty (Nov 08) condemning a very similar plan by the Conservatives. As you'll see from the above I agree with McNulty on his criticism of both plans.

His press release is here: ( Guido is just a hero for coming up with this ).

Press release
Tuesday 11 November 2008
For immediate use

Tories making headlines on the hoof - McNulty

Tony McNulty MP, Labour's Employment Minister, responding to the Tory announcement on unemployment said: "This is desperate stuff from the Tories, who continue to scrabble around trying to find a coherent economic policy.

"There is no way they can get 350,000 new jobs out of these proposals. There are too many restrictions being applied, the incentive is too small and many of these 'new' jobs will simply displace other people seeking work.

"In addition, the Conservatives just cannot pay for this tax cut - it is misleading of Cameron to say he can pay for getting the short-term unemployed back into work by using figures of savings you would make from the long-term unemployed.

"Osborne's judgment is wrong yet again. They are making headlines on the hoof and they will be found out. "They need to make their sums add up - particularly at such a difficult time for the global economy."

ENDS
Editor's notes:
1. Their figures on how many jobs would be created are complete fantasy. The Tory plan assumes that an employer would create a new job for someone unemployed for more than a year for just £2500. The Tories have failed to take account of the displacement of workers who would have gotten jobs anyway. Currently 60% of people come off job seekers allowance within three months - this number would drop dramatically under Conservative proposals as employers would be incentivised to overlook people who have been out of work for 13 weeks or less. -

Fantasy narratives - failing economy

The video of a clip with Tony NcNulty ( Employment minister apparently ) below was highlighted else where at the time, but I've just re-watched it and I think it tells us something important about the current Labour regime.

If you've never seen it before watch it then I'll carry on my point below:



Firstly I have to say I have had the same experience as Tony McNulty's having here with a boss who was a cross between Jeremy Paxman and Alan Sugar. It a mistake you only ever make once, and if your still in employment afterwards you make damn sure your on top of your facts there after.

Tony McNulty is normally a much more assured media performer. But Paxo's right - as employment minister he should have known those details. It rather leaves two possible interpretations:
1) He's not doing his job and should resign.
2) He was not closely involved in the preparation of the announcement and is having to clear up the mess. ( If I were a minister who had been so sidelined I would raise hell and demand assurances that such a thing would never happen again and if I didn't get them resign. )

But now combine this botched announcement with the spin on the graduate internships the government has announced. It proudly used the names of Barclay's and Microsoft - and yet a day latter we discover that neither company will do anything different from what it has done in the past ( ie no new places - just allowing the government to put a cover sheet on their own actions and try to sell it as a new initiative ).

This is the government of the media grid. Establishing the narrative, but neglecting the facts on the ground. Spin before and over truth. Perhaps we should all castigate ourselves that this still shocks us after almost eleven years of Labour.

But worse is to come. The McNulty interview and especially the attention to Rolls Royce with Brown's expensive campaigning on the taxpayers expense visits. We are about to get a reheated version of "the white heat of technology" ploy that Wilson tried to pull on the electorate.

The new jobs will be in green technology, computers etc and from the way he speaks its clear he view it as governments role to bring this about. Or at least it will be the narrative to be used to full the government media matrix's for the next few months.

The reality will of course be very different.

The government doesn't know what its doing. They are making it up as they go along, and anyway what they are really thinking about is how to coble together a narrative that can hold together long enough to get themselves re-elected. As the interview above makes all too terribly clear.

Further: As if to make my point for me - see this quote attributed to an article by Peter Mandelson over on the Daily Dolly:

"Voters know that it is right to plan and invest for the upturn: ensuring that future jobs and growth come from new innovations in areas such as environmental technology, high-tech manufacturing and the creative industries. I am glad that, at least when it comes to the latter, the Labour party itself is now moving to the forefront of new media and online campaigning."

You see the combination of the "White heat of technology" ploy combined with their real interests - not will it work - but can it be used to win an election.

We know government is bad at picking winners (see 1970's), and also that recessions perform an important role in realigning capital to more productive areas. Government interference guarantees the economy will learn little and come out weakened.

Global irony

H/T To the American political cartoonist Chris Muir and his Day by Day comic.

A local measels outbreak - do as I say not as I do

There's a lot in the news about measles and the need to get your kids vaccinated right now.

MMR has been one of those debates many of us have tried to follow, but as always with partial information combined with the now instinctive distrust of government. I wrote about this a year of two ago as I have a strong personal interest, and I pointed out that one of the key things I look for is how those in authority, medical and political, treat their own children.

Now the local paper reports an outbreak of measles locally (Cherrywood Nursery), but wait for it, its at the nursery attached to the local hospital - ie filled with kids of people who work in the NHS. The story just gets more significant as you discover that children taken to the A&E dept were refused treatment as the Doctor's there were pregnant and hadn't had measles ( or the jab ) themselves.

What does that mean ? It means the medical health care professionals haven't been immunising their own kids or themselves.

This is why people have doubt - politicians ( see Leo Blair ) and medical staff aren't practising what they preach. Why not ?

[ For the record both my children have had the MMR vaccination. The eldest never had the boaster as he has also been shown to be autistic and for what are emotional reasons I couldn't do anything that might make the situation worse - even if I believe that to be very unlikely, but my younger child had both injections . In the end its a tough decision, one which the medical profession and politicians could try a little more humility in lecturing us all on, especially given their own private records.

Also for the record Measles is a nasty disease with potentially disastrous consequences. If I had another child it would be getting the MMR also.]

Eaten by termites

I am struck by the number of exhortations from politicians - mainly Labour and specifically Gordon Brown - about "seeing us through this downturn" and getting the economy back again. ( I paraphrase - but you'll get the idea ).

The image is one of a blip, or trough which will will climb out of to where we were before.

We won't.

Why ? Because the structure of our economy has been eaten out by debt. Private individuals and companies own frightening amounts of money, and now the government ( never wanting ot be left out ) is fighting to outstrip them.

We are in a house that has suddenly started to crumble, but where it hasn't yet been appreciated that the whole structure has been compromised by termites. Debt is now unbearable by individuals and companies, and soon the government too.

We have allowed our economy to become to unproductive, whilst paying ourselves more than we earn in terms of goods and services. We, well Gordon Brown specifically, have blown over a trillions pounds on unreformed public services. Service of the government has become the growth industry.

Somebody needs to address the structure of our economy as well as the panic measures to correct the trjetory of the current crisis. Returning to as we were is not an option.

Answering this question used to be what the Conservative party was all about.

Help me out here- am I missing something ?

Apparently the Germans had a bit of trouble raising money on the markets in the last few days.

Most of us when we read this will be thinking not of underfunded gentlemen in Bavaria with Lederhosen, but crickey if no one will lend the German's money - who's going to lend Crash Gordon and his merry band the massive sums of cash he keeps claim to "do something" with ? ( Especially denominated in Stirling ).

What if the HM Treasury can't raise the money ?

( Hold that question for a while, as I move to an aspect of monetary policy )

The government certainly seems to be thinking of printing a lot of money - we are told to avoid deflation - after its finished destroying savers by reducing interest rates to negative real terms rates. In even has a smart name that means its okay and really very clever - quantitative easing or something like it.

Could the two things be linked ?

What of Darling knows he won't be able to raise the money on the markets. What he needs to do is make sure his spending is in Sterling and go a print a few warehouses full of notes.

Inflation will take care of the debt crisis by destroying savings held in Stirling (mostly Tory voters anyway ). We've had stealth taxation, now we have stealth confiscation of peoples assets.

You have to start wondering if this isn't the plan. In effect the government will remove the value of peoples savings etc and spend them on trying to get re-elected.

Or am I missing something here ?

Gordon is a moron

Clearly this has to be shared (H/T to UK Bubble where I found this).

Brown is off campaigning for himself

So the man who stretches credulity to breaking point when he says the date of the next general election is the last thing on his mind is of for a 3 day tour of England ( where he governs 100%) and Wales ( somewhat less ), but not Scotland or Northern Ireland.

During the worse security crisis of the last few years ( potential war in the Middle East and the European Energy crisis as Russian flexes its mussels ) the PM is off trying to save his own skin. ( Not that you get this question on the Left wing BBC ).

Just think about it taking 3 days out from his job to go what is really campaigning !

Gordon Brown is self interest personified. He has destroyed our economy by allowing the debt to build up, he's destroyed the future with debt and pension destruction, he's helped destroy the Union with the pro-Scottish anti-English devolution settlement and he's even destroying the future of the Labour party by his clinging to the reigns of power that he bullied the servile Labour party into handing to him.

Update: The Telegraph asks if Labour should be paying for the £600,000 cost of this campaigning given the near impossibility of anything actually useful for government happening.

PS I see Dolly's using his - um - GMTV contact to get Gordon involved in some exercise routine which he's threatening his Cabinet ministers with also.

Just heard Hazel Blears on the Radio trying to justify the tax payers spending on this meeting in Liverpool. She said politicians should get out more - quite. But that means its politics not government. And in that case the Labour party should be paying !

What the BBC won't tell you about the School deaths in Gaza

Melanie Phillips makes some very strong accusations in here coffee house blog here.

In short she says that Hamas fired from within the school compound and that it was the triggering of Hamas explosives that caused the causalities in the school.

Also the UN knew about the use of their facilities for firing weapons. ( I heard a fairly unconvincing dance of words last night by a UN official who kept saying on Newsnight that he had no evidence that something like this had happened - which is not the same as saying it didn't - and Jeremy Paxman let him get away with this deliberate ambiguity ).

Now I don't expect the BBC to buy this version of events, but I do expect some scepticism about the UN/Hamas line and also that the claims of each side are stated equally.

Petition - Gordon Brown to resign for financial incompetence.

Daily Referendum: Petition - Gordon Brown to resign for financial incompetence.

Steve Green's The Daily referendum is pointing out that a petition to get rid of Brown has somehow made its way through the No 10 site vetting procedure ( whoever did that may want to duck from the flying mobile phone heading their way soon ).


PS In case you need convincing here's Iain Dale on the $7billion lost through Gordon sale of Gold ( really to raise cash and to deny the ECB the gold if Blair lead us into the Euro ).

Another view on Gaza

From the receiving end of Hamas's campaign to murder :



And a slightly longer video fro Sderot.



This is a view that gets too little airtime, though I do note the BBC has at least mentioned these subjects and that some interviewers ( notably R5L ) challenge Hamas spokespeople and supporters on the morality of this. ( The answer is always the same to go on about calling random murder resistance and to cite other issues ).

Personally I'm not sure I would have taken the approach the Israelis have just now - but its to be remembered that they have tried a large range of other options first. Every concession is seen as weakness rather than a desire for an accommodation. Hamas has tried to kill Israeli citizens randomly and used its own as a human shield combined with its sick death cult of martyrdom.

The curse of Brown strikes Wedgwood

I was very sorry to hear about Waterford-Wedgwood going into administration this morning.

In my professional capacity I've spent a number of days at their site and its in a wonderful location and when you walk around it you think you're in one of those play school through the round window experiences.

Automation, necessary with competition from the far east, had reduced the work force a bit, but still highly skilled jobs existed in the design facility and production line. The sort of skills that will just be lost, unless people can move to another china manufacturer.

Wedgwood has survived the 70's and 80's and even held its on against globalisation. Its also a business that should be benefiting from the pounds dive in value, just the sort of export lead manufacturing business that was supposed to be saving us after Gordon Brown's failure to regulate the baking industry put us in this mess. It has gone under due to the inability to find credit facilities. And that too is very worrying.

Wedgwood are a famous brand (even my spell checker recognises it) and perhaps that will help them to find a buyer, I certainly wish all the employees well for their future. They are a famous and dear part of our heritage.

The cost of Gordon Brown's vanity - about £250k per job !!!

Brown has announced that he intends to tax us by an extra £10 billion. ( Borrowed from abroad mostly and paid back with interest over the decade to come ).

With this he thinks he will "create" 100,000 jobs.

The cost is therefore 10,000,000,000 / 100,000 = £100k per job.

Now government will get some of that money back in tax, and some will replace benefits that would otherwise have needed to be paid out.

But against this will be the fact that 90% of new jobs created go to immigrants from Eastern Europe. Since were talking plumbers etc here for the construction projects its seem reasonable to assume this will continue ( and cannot- despite the false promise of "British jobs for British workers"- be enforced by the government ).

So lets assume the govt get 50% back in tax, but only employs 20% UK citizens ( both assumptions generous to the government ). And also lets fall for the up to 100k new jobs spin line ( as is pointed out by Fraser Nelson - that includes zero ).

We get a cost to the Uk tax payer per UK citizen job of:

10,000,000,000 * 0.5 /( 100,000 * 0.2 ) = 250,000 per job.

That's right folks - Gordon's talking about £250,000 per "job created for UK Citizens".

OK these are rough figures and he'll be wasting some money on Govt IT projects and pie in the sky green schemes also, but you get the rough picture.

This is even worse return on tax payer money than his attempt to save Labour marginals by propping up Rover for a few more months in 2005.

And remember to pay for all this he's borrowing money in your name !

For 2009

I'm just about half way through reading Nassim Taleb's book "The Black Swan" at to show I have been paying some sort of attention I'm not going to make vast predictions for 2009.

However here's my resolution:

I intend to pay far more attention the the Ratchet effect in our society where by society is changed small step by small step, without its consent, towards the artificial construct of the so called progressives and the socialists.

I'll be labelling such posts with the label The Ratchet.

Higher taxes - but only for the English

Labour's plans to punish England for giving it less votes than the Conservatives at the 2005 general election are now well advanced. the following measures have been "leaked" or trailed over Christmas:

• Student fees may rise by up to £20k/year - but only for the English of course. Also Labour supporters will no doubt get grants to help fight social mobility. So an English middle class family will pay for - the Scots/Welsh and Irish to educate their kids. EU citizens for their education ( when we know the govt can't manage to claim the loans back ).
• The punish people in Tory areas council tax revaluation plan. Those people who don't get their windows broken regularly or walk through broken glass on their pavement regularly will have to pay more council tax.
• You get extra tax for old age only in England. Now this is being spun as compulsory "saving" and "insurance". But the Scots get this for free, paid in part by the English. You can bet that the government won't be able to avoid getting its sticky paws on the "insurance" money - anyone remember National Insurance ? And of course only the middle class will be taxed - creating the reverse of Frank Filed objection about targeted benefits (which discourage saving )- with unavoidable targeted taxation.