Whitey Grandad

Sorry, I must have missed you. I'm in the Kingsland and all I could see were blank staring faces.

Sorry to hear that DSM, my condolences to you. I'm not a member at the moment, mainly because I don't have a property in France, but I go there a lot for my business and I am trying to find some way to wrangle membership. I have a share in a business in Paris so if there is anything we can do to help with the odd translation or legal point, please ask.

He certainly wasn't at his best today. There were some unorthodox decisions and he turned his back on one or two incidents. I'm not sure what happened to Guly. The players didn't seem to protest and the crowd behind the goal were cool about it.

No, the allowance for time lost is 'at the discretion of the referee'.

Over here! You're right about pensions too. Brown stole £5bn a year from private pensions.

I don't think he had much choice in the matter.

Set up a sting to catch the bastards, then smash their knuckles to pulp with a hammer. They won't do it again.

That was my first reaction at the time of the crisis. Reduce interest rates to near zero and print a load of new money. Then the government debt erodes faster than we have to pay it. Brown's big spending spree was based on the belief that growth would continue unchecked for the next 10 years or so. Silly boy.

Another point worth considering.... Of the 500,000 public sector jobs that will go, half were taken on since the start of the recession.

We borrow money by selling Gilts on the international markets. If we don't pay back the interest then we shall have defaulted on these loans and we shall never be able to borrow anything again. Basically, we would be f****d.

Hit rocks off Skye apparently: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Trafalgar_(S107) Allegedly tracing paper (or something) was left covering that part of the charts.

Considering the feelings on Blair, Brown and Thatcher, by my reckoning, it makes John Major the best PM of the last 30 years. I have always said as much. He did a difficult, perhaps impossible, job with great dignity.

Cut his balls off, I say.

An interesting take on the money raised from Income Tax from different wealth levels. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8417205.stm

It's also worth pointing out that if we didn't take these cost-cutting steps then the interest we pay on our national borrowing could rise even further, even if we didn't borrow any more.

The short answer is very little. Our total debt is over £900bn rising to £1100bn next year. When RBS shares reach something around £0.56 each then we shall have made a profit. They are just below that level at the moment. We have also made a big packet out of the emergency loans. http://www.debtbombshell.com/ If that keeps you awake at night: http://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/uk_national_debt_chart.html These charts are expressed as percentage of GDP which has fallen by over 6% in the last few years.

Absolutely. It was a case of 'one government too many'. If only Labour had replaced Blair with Brown sooner..

Even with all these 'cuts', public spending is set to rise. Annual interest payments alone will rise from £42bn this year to £63bn in four years time. The increase is about what we spend on education or defence.

There is no appetite for this amongst the national governments.

You needn't have bothered. You can get it back after you reach 60.

Bankers have never caused a recession in the same way that they have never caused growth. Recessions occur from time to time. They always have and the always will. The longer the gap since the last then the deeper the downturn.

There were a number of causes of which irresponsible lending was only one part.

And how many jobs would be saved (or created) if the banks were to charge less instead of giving these bonuses to their staff?

They were only 'average' because the trend line is drawn through them.

Thatcher aranged that we get it as a rebate which goes into the national coffers. I think this is worth around £4bn a year. The important question is 'what do we get for our money?'