Scottish Independance

I've got no problem with unhooking the Bank of England (good thing in fact, it stops it being a political football - like Black Wednesday when Lamont raised bank base rate from 10% to 15% in a single day (although it didn't remain, so may always have been sabre rattling) - that rate would be scary in today's mortgages!!).

There should have been some Checks and Balances put in place at the same time.

 

Indeed. Not sure that what the spend achieved was value for money, but maybe it never will be in a government organisation that big ... but increasing the deficit at that time, and by that amount, was bad news. We have to come to terms with the fact that we can't afford what The State costs ... people assume that they should have This and That by right, and it isn't all affordable - but I have no idea how to square-the-circle.

I think Labour should have started spending money far sooner - they were hell bent on being elected by not rocking the economic boat - sticking to Tory economic policies for a term, or was it two even?? Money spent over a longer period might have had less wastage. For example putting in place training for more doctors & nurses at the outset might have prevented us stealing/luring loads from overseas countries which must have put a severe strain on their health systems, and cost us a lot in the short term.

 

I'm a firm believer in economic localism. Far better than the corporations hoarding it in The City.
I also believe that the notion of excessive hoarding of cash and investing via the city is bad. Far more important to have money moving in the general economy and generating sustainable sales and VAT revenue. Such a policy would need a state bank (we damn near owned a couple after 2008) that worked along local lines (your manager makes decisions, not a computer generated points system) and legislation to protect against investments being moved abroad. It would take me hours to type up my thoughts on it.

Not the economic boat but the corporate boat.

The one tory minister that was worth a light was Michael Gove. He had the balls to say that the education system was churning out numpties and needed to start again. He always struck me as an odious little turd frankly, but I genuinely believed that he offered our kids hope.

 

Pity that State Bank (or similar - councils talked of starting their own banks after losing their shirts in Iceland, but presumably Large Corp twisted their arm right up their bank and frog marched them out of the idea ). I would have moved my account from Sharkleys to them in an instant. We moved to Handlesbanken instead, and they are brilliant. Bank manager takes decisions, no call centres, the bank branch staff know the customers and can deal with their queries - basically everything I would want from a bank, and used to get in the old days before the big ones started getting fined for mis-selling and fraud ...

 

That's interesting!

 

If you are in the market to move banks they are worth a call. Proper old fashioned approach to banking. They don't sell insurance, payment protection, any of that rubbish, they just do banking. They are keen as mustard to lend us money, whereas Sharkleys withdrew all our facilities. Clearly our credit rating didn't change overnight, so that was just an issue with Sharkleys liquidity ...

I won't ever deal with Sharkleys again as a matter of principle. How any company that has been fined $billions, several times, is allowed to continue to trade and all the senior staff are not locked up beats me. People need to vote with their feet and drive them, and their likes and business practices, out of business.

 

One party permanently having an unassailable majority is a bad thing, as whatever party they are, they start getting really out of order sometime into their 2rd or 3rd terms and need a period in opposition to make them behave reasonably again.

There's a quote (can't find it ATM) about the most important position in government is being in opposition, and I believe that it's extremely important that all political parties should share this important role (regularly).

 

They all play-to-the-media so much these days, covering their front, back and both sides, that I'm not awfully sure I care @Scrungee. I'd be very happy to have some more statesmanly politicians in power ... long time since I've seen once of those. I had a lot of time for what Tony Benn had to say, after he left the house (actually from before then, but after he stopping being a minister/shadowing a ministry). Shirley Williams. Trying to think of a good Tory; I did approve of Maggie getting on with what she thought was right, I don't suppose that will be popular though. For example I had high hopes that Blair would do amazing things in the run up to him coming to power, based on His Talk, but he failed to Walk his Talk and there there was no follow through - a bit like Obama, brilliant oratory during his first election campaign, but he doesn't seem to have been able to get anything useful done / through Congress. They should have put Clinton in instead IMHO.

Government, during my adult lifetime, is littered with people who have made a complete hash of it, and precious few that have added any real value.

 

That's the second stage of becoming reasonable again, the first is when they're forced into opposition, but they only become truly human again after quitting politics.

 

Michael Portillo? I found his 'Great British Railway Journeys' series very entertaining, much more so than Dan Snow's History of Railways. When he swopped places with a 'single mum' in http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/3195040.stm it was enlightening.

That's exactly what I mean about ex-politicians becoming reasonable again.

An update http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/d...o-still-finds-the-tories-repellent-and-toxic/ Where is he now?

 

Me too! As a person and a voice of reason in the reactionary tory party of today my vote would go to Kenneth Clarke. That's it probably.

It's easy to dream the dream, but far harder to implement the dream once the hard facts are in your hand?

I laughed my ass off that night he lost his seat. His face was a picture!
I now view him in his new career as one of our finest broadcasters.

 

Shouldn't be like that. If you say "I'm going to do X, Y and Z" and get voted in then a) people should not, unreasonably, be allowed to stand in your way and b) you'd better get on and set about getting it done

 

It would be far more honest to say "I'm going to do X, Y and Z if I'm elected and the true circumstances allow it". Let's face it - government data is nothing more than lies, lies, and more damned lies!
Even better would be to say "this is what I believe in", but the truth is the electorate only tends to vote for those who will be best for them, not who would be best for society as a whole.

 

Me too, it's stuff like that which makes it worthwhile staying up watching the results.

 

I wonder what would happen regarding Balmoral?

Val