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General Ramblings
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24 January 2008 |
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Talk about immigrants replacing British strikers- sorry- workers in all the low paid jobs. All the Big Issue sellers I see in Grimsby, London and Halifax are all foreigners.
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Monetary Policy
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23 January 2008 |
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23 January 2008
Mervyn King Esq
Governor
Bank of England
Threadneedle Street
London EC2R 8AH
Dear Mervyn
The Bank should reduce interest rates by one half of one percent this month. That should be as part of a progressive programme of rate reduction to bring British rates to American levels, or preferably below, over the first months of 2008. That programme should be announced now to give a certainty to markets which the Bank`s usual policy of fidgeting rates up and down can`t. |
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General Ramblings
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21 January 2008 |
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Government says we can’t have the promised referendum on the constitution because it’ not a new constitution but a treaty even if they’re both the same. A downright lie? No, a Euro-truth.
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General Ramblings
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14 January 2008 |
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Hang in there Peter. Hain, that is. You’re an honest guy and a good Minister and a bit of disorganisation is no excuse for throwing you to the wolves.
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General Ramblings
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11 January 2008 |
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Clegg dancing messily by dropping his housing spokesman Paul Holmes, who’s done a good job and knows about it, to bring in Lembit Opik former spokesman on interplanetary travel.
We love Lembit almost as much as the Cheeky Girls but he’s thrown in at the deep end with the Standing Committee on the Housing and Regeneration Bill (Slowing Down) already started.
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General Ramblings
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07 January 2008 |
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Happy New Year to all. It won`t be, but one can always hope. Hope will be in overdrive this year. Performance in low gear. |
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House Magazine Diary
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07 January 2008 |
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Misery, gloom, doom, despair and the worst Christmas I remember. Lousy weather. Miserable mood. Low morale. Wife gets Christmas cards from David Cameron and Alex Salmond. I don`t even get one from Tommy McAvoy. Every poll shows us heading for disaster. All economists predict recession, repossessions, rising unemployment, falling house prices, a more miserable mess than even Norman Lamont managed and only Tony Blair`s speech fees keeping the balance of payments from total disaster. I began Christmas feeling things can`t get worse. They do. |
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General Ramblings
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04 January 2008 |
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Memo to Jacqui You`re forgetting a basic law of politics. DON`T FIGHT THE FUZZ. |
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General Ramblings
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13 December 2007 |
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North East Lincs. taxes church attendance. Attending last Sunday's Christmas carol service at the Salvation Army Citadel on Duncombe St, your's truly was amazed to get an £80 parking fine for parking on the Duncombe St car park without a pay and display. On Sunday! At 6.15pm! |
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News Flash
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13 December 2007 |
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Helen Clark Prime Minister of New Zealand since 1999 will be speaking to MPs, New Zealand Labour Party members and interested New Zealanders at the end of her forthcoming visit to the UK. |
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General Ramblings
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07 December 2007 |
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The Bank has failed the test. A quarter point reduction in the face of rising recession is spitting in the wind.
Instead of getting in control of the situation they`ll be dragged behind it quarter point by quarter point, always too little too late, like bailing out the Titanic with a bucket. You`re running a failing economy, Merv, not an academic seminar.
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General Ramblings
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03 December 2007 |
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The only website Gordon relies on.
David Miliband, the Foreign Office and our Khartoum Embassy have been as useless as usual in defending our Teddy Bear naming teacher. They`re far too politically correct to send a Teddy called Mohammed to every child in Darfur. At the very least, they could have demanded consistency from Sudan`s crazed courts. Why not chop off the hands of every child who voted to call the wretched bear Mohammed?
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General Ramblings
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27 November 2007 |
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Sunday. Watched Blair`s Apologia Pro Disaster Suaon BBC. Soft questioning by David Aaronovitch (son of Sam) but Blair came across as absolutely right in his terms, however wrong in the long view. The real problem is why weren`t the Cabinet, the Party and Parliament able to restrain him? Why did no one warn of the mess we’d make? Why is power so centralised that one man was able to create such a disaster and feel virtuous and right to do so?
For Sale: Two CDs sent me anonymously in a TNT jiffy bag. Sounds like Radiohead to me. Offers?
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General Ramblings
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19 November 2007 |
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I used to be invited to the Spectator Awards every year while I was still alive. Not this year. But I didn`t miss the small attendance, Mathew D’Ancona’s unfunny speech, John Reid`s boring speech (though he didn’t head-butt anyone) or the singularly undistinguished (and mainly Tory) set of dull winners. |
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General Ramblings
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14 November 2007 |
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Government failed both last weeks’ tests. The Governor wants to make us all miserable and deflate the economy and the housing market. Gordon’s programme is doubtful for housing. Nowt for the people. A hard time lies ahead.
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General Ramblings
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06 November 2007 |
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Big Tests this week. Government’s First SAATs.
For Gordon Is he Blair heavy? Or Labour? Indications so far are that triangulation lives on, as does sitting on the middle ground, pinching Tory policies. |
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Monetary Policy
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06 November 2007 |
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Dear Mervyn
We recommend that the Monetary Policy Committee should reduce its base rate by l% this month. Our last recommendation was for a reduction of one half per cent. This month the reduction needs to be greater because it`s clear that the Bank does not realise either the seriousness of the credit squeeze being imposed on the country or its consequences. Indeed after the Bank’s mistakes in August over liquidity and the Northern Rock there appeared to be a touch of sulky defiance about last month`s refusal to budge or to follow the wiser stance taken by the Fed and the Eurobank. |
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General Ramblings
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22 October 2007 |
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We lost the rugby. But at least Sarkozy was forced to watch a totally Commonwealth contest. |
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General Ramblings
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15 October 2007 |
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Gordon’s honeymoon has been the shortest since Mrs T. The commentariat has tired of us so they`re taking it out on Gordon. |
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General Ramblings
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15 October 2007 |
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Roller coaster ain`t in it. Two weeks ago Gordon Brown was Master of the Universe. Today a deflating lilo, seven points behind, drifting helplessly on a Tory tide. Not only has the election I wanted vanished, but we`re going to lose the next. Mein Gord. |
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