Friday 25 October 2013

RANDOM THOUGHTS

Obviously not in need of a Red Cross food parcel, Tubby Osborne...
Mr Osborne, that (economic) giant of a chancellor, has welcomed the 0.8% growth over three months as an indication that Britain is now on the road to prosperity.

Oh how lovely it must be to live in a bubble like George does.

Looked at from the point of view of "ordinary" people who are not bankers, lords, royals or members of the house of commons, the reality is somewhat different. 

Wages are falling, prices are rising at an alarming rate, food banks are opening at the rate of two a week to feed the starving and the Red Cross is distributing food in the UK as it does after earthquakes and monsoon floods in countries like Bangladesh. We had no need of a natural disaster. Osborne on his own is worth two floods and a hurricane.

Before he treats himself to a bottle or two of the best vintage champagne at our expense to celebrate, Osborne should keep in mind that this is the slowest recovery from  recession ever recorded in the UK, and many economists doubt if it can be sustained in to 2014.

Another downside of it is that it may be necessary to raise interest rates up to a year sooner than had previously been anticipated by the new genius of a governor of the Bank of Britain, or England as it is largely known.

This may mean that along with the poor and dispossessed on the streets as a result of the coalition's disastrous policies on social security, those who can no longer afford to pay their mortgages may be struggling for a place under railway bridges.
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Promises, promises
Congratulations to Cara Hilton on her win in Dunfermline. Clearly this is a disappointing result for the SNP, but hardly surprising given that it was a solid Labour seat and the MSP who eventually resigned, screaming, was a serial wife beater and is now in prison. It is unfortunate that to win Ms Hilton had to claim that Labour had abolished bridge tolls and frozen the council tax, but hey, everyone exaggerates a little sometimes.

Hilton has made some interesting promises. She says that she will be a fresh voice for Dunfermline, and, given that she doesn't have the same voice as the wife beater, I guess you could say that was a fairly safe promise. 

She will also oppose the SNP's alleged 'obsession for independence', with presumably her own obsession for dependence. 

Interestingly she, all on her own, is going to reduce the cost of living. Of course she now has a very generous salary as an MSP, but hardly enough to subsidise all of Dunfermline's population by say, paying the increase in their gas and electricity bills, or taking care of half of their weekly shop?

She can demand improved bus services all she likes, but she will find that Maggie Thatcher deregulated the buses everywhere in the UK (except London) and it's pretty difficult to get these private companies to do anything much that doesn't make them a big fat profit. But good luck to her with that, because in all the years of Labour government north and south of the border, all that ever happened to buses was that they got worse and worse and worse... 

And finally she's is going to stand up for Dunfermline town centre, whatever that means. 

It will be interesting to watch her progress and see how Scotland changes now that she is in parliament. If the cost of living in Dunfermline drops by a sustained amount then possibly I'll go live there.
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And finally, I've heard that, with the cooperation of management, unions, the workforce and both governments, the Grangemouth plant is to stay open.

Both the First minister and Mr Carmichael have welcomed the decision. The devil will be in the detail.

22 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. OK Smarty pants...

      I've corrected it... thanks.
      :)

      Ten trillion... I guess if you owe that much you are the master. Unless China buys up all the debt and own the UK.

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  2. tris

    The snp lost ! lost lost lost get over it .

    thats 14 by elections in a row at the last count
    still they are doing well they say lol.

    Grangemouth saved by the Labour supporting union leader
    and not by the unimportant snp First minister.
    Unfortunately for the employees the good days are yesterday
    the days ahead are not going to be so sweet.
    Still half a job is better than none.

    Been there done that worn the t shirt

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    Replies
    1. The snp lost ! lost lost lost get over it

      What did they lose Niko when the canditate that took a normaly safe Labour seat promoting SNP policies!

      As to the rest of your fairytale nonsense I thought you had a brain that worked.

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    2. Yep Niko. So they did. You've probably won. The cause of independence is probably holed beneath the waterline by Paris Hilton's stunning intellect.

      I'm just waiting for everything to get better. You think it will happen next week or will we have to wait for Ms Hilton's influence to filter through.

      Is that the Labour supporting union leader that the ex-Labour MP talked about: "But what’s the proposition as it stands? Come and enjoy a non-relationship with a militant union acting with its workers’ interests at the bottom of its priorities?
      Ineos is a very tough, world-scale company and exists to make as much money as it can – what did people think was going to happen once the company’s offer was rejected following the stupidest of strikes for the most idiotic of reasons?

      Workers at Ineos need proper union representation – right now, they’re getting the fumbling, dumbed-down, politicised opposite.

      None of us knows, although we can suspect that the company have fiddled the figures so that the pay no tax. But many companies do that, specially when they can shift the profits to other parts of the world with different tax systems. It's unlikely that the company was making the loss that some of the newspapers say it was. On the other hand as someone whose default position is to start off disbelieving management and supporting the workers, I can't help thinking that Eric Joyce is right. The workers there really should have someone who has a little bit more between his ears. They've ended up backing down on almost everything.

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    3. Don't be silly CH. Taz is the brain in that household.

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    4. Got this from Murray McCallum over on Wings over Scotland:-

      "Murray McCallum says:
      26 October, 2013 at 1:21 pm
      Marian
      If you listen about 48 seconds in McCluskey credits First Minister and Scottish government and that their position of keeping the plant open was consistent with the union’s.
      bbc.co.uk/.../...
      McCluskey’s hopes for survival of the plant only referred to Scotland. The UK government is only mentioned at the end of the interview and only in the context of possibly finding a new owner.

      This was not shown in later broadcasts (as far as I am aware). I saw this live."

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    5. Ooops! Try this link http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-24647843

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    6. Thanks M... Of course they wouldn't be showing anything that showed the Scottish government in a good light... They were probably told to get rid of it.

      Niko I hope you're listening to this. These are your own people the trades unions giving credit to the Scottish government.

      Listen up.

      Thanks M... Excellent piece.

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    7. The Dunfermline victory can’t disguise Scottish Labour’s difficulties

      To some extent, Labour’s problem is presentational. It hasn’t yet persuaded Scots that it is an authentically Scottish party, run from Scotland, in Scotland’s interests. Nor can it offer a clearly defined policy platform. Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont has established a commission to review the party’s approach to universal benefits. While they wait for the commission’s report, however, her colleagues are tying themselves in knots trying to carve out coherent positions on concessionary travel, free prescriptions and university funding.

      The Labour Scottish branch is finished Niko and only independence will invigorate it.

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    8. How long does it take to ask a socialist party what it thinks about social security when companies are plundering tax from the government..

      They have commission after commission ... a bit like the Sloberal Dimocrats

      Clearly what they really want to do is get rid of all these benefits things and let the poor die, but their problem with that is that no one would be left to vote for them...

      Hard one.

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  3. "Ten trillion... I guess if you owe that much you are the master. Unless China buys up all the debt and own the UK."

    Ten effen trillion?
    how many fucking books did you take out cynical Highlander?

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    Replies
    1. That's even more than the commons and lords manage to thieve from us in expenses... Maybe what Tubby Airmiles managed to scrounge though.

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    2. All of the banks off-balance ones and red is the in colour.

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  4. Tris,

    Looking at the last sentence in your article I'm wondering what Niko will be doing in "the detail"?

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    Replies
    1. Ha ha... Goodone, John. I'm always wondering what Niko will be doing... ?

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  5. I presume that wire attached to Osborne;s ear is the brain dran.

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    Replies
    1. I thought it was maybe a life support think, and considered the joy of giving it a hard pull.

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    2. In any case, if it was a brain drain in his case it would be up his arse.

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    3. Looking at that picture again it could be connecting one with the other, colluding.

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    4. Aye right enough...

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