Watching the box today, looks like we're all f***d.
Thanks Bliar and Clown.
Third world status here we come.

in 1059182 20110805 091032 "harryagain" wrote:
Watching the box today, looks like we're all f***d.
Thanks Bliar and Clown.
Third world status here we come.

Yep, you're gonna be poor!

Bob Martin wrote:
in 1059182 20110805 091032 "harryagain" wrote:
Watching the box today, looks like we're all f***d.
Thanks Bliar and Clown.
Third world status here we come.

Yep, you're gonna be poor!

No when average income is £3000 a year, only people who earn less than
£2000 will be poor.


£3000 being about the price of an I-pod by then.

In article ,
harryagain wrote:
Watching the box today, looks like we're all f***d.
Thanks Bliar and Clown.
Third world status here we come.

You seem to have a very selective memory. Mine remembers a very long
period of stability and prosperity under the last labour government. Were
you one of those feckless types who wouldn't work?

--
*If vegetable oil comes from vegetables, where does baby oil come from? *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
harryagain wrote:
Watching the box today, looks like we're all f***d.
Thanks Bliar and Clown.
Third world status here we come.

You seem to have a very selective memory. Mine remembers a very long
period of stability and prosperity under the last labour government. Were
you one of those feckless types who wouldn't work?

very selective. I remember a period of eroding assets, stealth taxes at
every turn, a stock market crash followed by a housing bubble and a
global crash.

On 05/08/2011 09:10, harryagain wrote:
Watching the box today, looks like we're all f***d.
Thanks Bliar and Clown.
Third world status here we come.

Add Macaroon, Dregg, Osbum and the Bush clan to the list

On Fri, 05 Aug 2011 10:05:04 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:



You seem to have a very selective memory. Mine remembers a very long
period of stability and prosperity under the last labour government. Were
you one of those feckless types who wouldn't work?


So Margaret Hilda didn't do too bad a job then.

Glad her efforts have finally been recognised.

Derek G.


--

This Looks like Finito Ruperto.

The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
harryagain wrote:
Watching the box today, looks like we're all f***d.
Thanks Bliar and Clown.
Third world status here we come.

You seem to have a very selective memory. Mine remembers a very long
period of stability and prosperity under the last labour government. Were
you one of those feckless types who wouldn't work?

very selective. I remember a period of eroding assets, stealth taxes at
every turn, a stock market crash followed by a housing bubble and a
global crash.

+1

Government (and private) borrowing increasing even in the good years,
the grab from private pensions, Government spending more than income.....

Not that Mr. Brown would admit to it, of course. He was good at hiding
things.

Then "Oh, dear, we've run out of money."

I was working at the same job for the whole period, and I noticed that,
as normal, after years of the Tories, I had money to spare to the extent
I didn't need to know exactly how much I had, and after years of Labour,
I no longer had any to spare, and could tell you to the penny exactly
what was down the back of the sofa. Nothing, because I'd had to raid
there last weekend.

--
Tciao for Now!

John.

In article ,
Huge writes:
On 2011-08-05, harryagain wrote:
Watching the box today, looks like we're all f***d.
Thanks Bliar and Clown.

They didn't help, but politicians of all flavours have been digging the hole
for the last 50 years. It's just a pity that we had to fall into it now.

I'm not an economist, but I suspect there are actually just a few
fundamental things a nation needs to get right. Some of these (such
as education) will take at least 2 generations to filter through
once your realise that's important and focus resources appropriately.
(there's your 50 years). Some others (such as venture capital
availability and encouragement) can be turned around in a few years
with the right incentives for potential investors.

I also wonder if there might not be something cyclical to some
aspects of this. When you get a poorly educated generation which
struggles thoughout life to make ends meet, this can be followed by
a generation which strives to do better than their parents, achieves
a better level of education, and pulls themselves up the socio-
economic ladder. You can reach a point where they are high enough up
to spoil their children, who live off their parents' gains, and fail
to educate themselves sufficiently to become self supporting. That
will probably last at most for one generation, because their own kids
will not see in their parents any relationship between educational
attainment and socio-economic level, and thus see no point in putting
in the effort to educate themselves, and now you're heading back down
the socio-economic ladder, with the prospect of poverty. We seem to
be about here now, but something has disrupted the restart of the
cycle, and we have perhaps 2 generations now which still don't see
the benefit of educating themselves. This is a disaster for the
country for two reasons - a large pool of the population who need
support, and that same large pool of the population who are not
able to contribute to wealth generation of the nation. Maybe the
welfare state is responsible for shielding people too much from their
own stupidity. I am very much in favour of the welfare state, but it
should perhaps be rather more targetted at supporting people who need
it through no fault of their own (like insurance), and less towards
people who need support due to their life choices (including at least
to some degree, how well they decide to get themselves educated and
how employable they made themselves).

Many other parts of the world are in the upward part of the cycle.
The vast numbers in India, China, Africa, South America, etc mean
they actually only need a very small percentage to be in the upward
part of the cycle in order to swamp us. It may well be that we have
to cycle back down much nearer third world status (far enough down
that we can no longer afford a welfare state) before the motivation
kicks back in to start the upward cycle.

However, I think fixing the problems with education is the number one
thing we have to tackle, as it's the longest to start reaping rewards.
The other things can be tackled nearer the time we are about to start
churning out a better qualified generation into the workplace.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

In article ,
John Williamson wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
harryagain wrote:
Watching the box today, looks like we're all f***d.
Thanks Bliar and Clown.
Third world status here we come.

You seem to have a very selective memory. Mine remembers a very long
period of stability and prosperity under the last labour government. Were
you one of those feckless types who wouldn't work?

very selective. I remember a period of eroding assets, stealth taxes at
every turn, a stock market crash followed by a housing bubble and a
global crash.

+1

Government (and private) borrowing increasing even in the good years,
the grab from private pensions, Government spending more than income.....

The pension thingie didn't have any effect on my pension - a private one.
But obviously a well run one. I get exactly as contracted.

Not that Mr. Brown would admit to it, of course. He was good at hiding
things.

Then "Oh, dear, we've run out of money."

I was working at the same job for the whole period, and I noticed that,
as normal, after years of the Tories, I had money to spare to the extent
I didn't need to know exactly how much I had, and after years of Labour,
I no longer had any to spare, and could tell you to the penny exactly
what was down the back of the sofa. Nothing, because I'd had to raid
there last weekend.

I was made redundant from a decent job towards the end of the last Tory
government. Then persued a freelance career in the same job. Made more
money than before. And all those I know did well in this period.

I find it quite interesting this world recession is thought by some to be
down to Blair and Brown...

--
*Is it true that cannibals don't eat clowns because they taste funny?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
I find it quite interesting this world recession is thought by some to be
down to Blair and Brown...

Well, they claimed all the credit for the worldwide boom that preceded
it.....

--
Tciao for Now!

John.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
harryagain wrote:
Watching the box today, looks like we're all f***d.
Thanks Bliar and Clown.
Third world status here we come.

You seem to have a very selective memory. Mine remembers a very long
period of stability and prosperity under the last labour government. Were
you one of those feckless types who wouldn't work?

--
I would call it the build up of personal and national debt to completely
unsustainable levels by a bunch of half wits who couldn't see further than
the next election. War criminals too.
Robbed the pensions of thousands.
Sold our gold at rock bottom prices.
Instituted a finacial system doomed to failure.
Spent money like it came for free. Much of it wasted.


F***g socialism. Wondered when an excusnik would appear.

On 05/08/2011 11:03, Huge wrote:
On 2011-08-05, Dave Plowman wrote:

I find it quite interesting this world recession is thought by some to be
down to Blair and Brown...

Obviously, it isn't down to them specifically, but it's essentially the
fault of the politicians. Yes, Keynes said Governments can spend their
way out of recession, but he also said that reserves have to be rebuilt
during the good times and B'liar and that repellent **** who replaced
him signally failed to do that.


Lack of control of the city at a time when the conservative opposition
were calling for less controls on the banks. So the directors and
shareholders made lot of money in the good times and the poor now have
to pay for it.
And the conservatives still encourage the private sector who will
continue to make as much money as they can today regardless of the
consequences to those who are care home occupants or owed money by
bankrupt firms that are then bought back without debt by the original
owners.

"John Williamson" wrote in message
...
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
I find it quite interesting this world recession is thought by some to be
down to Blair and Brown...

Well, they claimed all the credit for the worldwide boom that preceded
it.....

And don't forget Brown the Clown claimed to have saved the world afterwards.

In article ,
harryagain wrote:
You seem to have a very selective memory. Mine remembers a very long
period of stability and prosperity under the last labour government. Were
you one of those feckless types who wouldn't work?

--
I would call it the build up of personal and national debt to completely
unsustainable levels by a bunch of half wits who couldn't see further than
the next election. War criminals too.
Robbed the pensions of thousands.
Sold our gold at rock bottom prices.
Instituted a finacial system doomed to failure.
Spent money like it came for free. Much of it wasted.


F***g socialism. Wondered when an excusnik would appear.

Seem to remember Thatcher selling off our *real* gold (gas) quite
wantonly. But then as I said people have selective memories...

--
*It's not hard to meet expenses... they're everywhere.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Andrew Gabriel wrote:
I'm not an economist, but I suspect there are actually just a few
fundamental things a nation needs to get right. Some of these (such

The problem is, the people who would suffer from the reconstruction
of the economic system have votes.

JGH

On 05/08/11 10:42, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

The pension thingie didn't have any effect on my pension - a private one.
But obviously a well run one. I get exactly as contracted.

So you were lucky, you got out when the going was good. It's those yet
to retire who are loosing.


--
djc

Government spending more than income.....

Most but not all of them all the time. An IFS paper from 2002 is IMHO
one of the best brief accounts of the history of the
PSBR/deficit/whatever. http://www.ifs.org.uk/bns/bn26.pdf

What happened after 2002 can of course be read on the way back from the
chip shop most evenings - oh no, sorry, despite the eco mantra they've
regulated away that traditional bit of "re-use"
--
Robin
PM may be sent to rbw0{at}hotmail{dot}com

"harryagain" wrote in message
...
Watching the box today, looks like we're all f***d.
Thanks Bliar and Clown.

If you think that this mess has anything at all to do with Blair and Brown,
then you haven't been listening properly

(that not to say that Blair and Brown didn't preside over a different mess)

tim

"Huge" wrote in message
...
On 2011-08-05, harryagain wrote:
Watching the box today, looks like we're all f***d.
Thanks Bliar and Clown.

They didn't help, but politicians of all flavours have been digging the
hole
for the last 50 years. It's just a pity that we had to fall into it now.

IMHO we are going to continue to fall into it until everybody gets the
message that a crash caused by 20 years of over consumption paid for by
excessive borrowing (both government and personal) is only going to be
recovered from by years of austerity whilst borrowing gets back to something
more normal.

Expecting to recover by inflating speeding with even more borrowing is just
going to end up with another, even larger, crash later.

tim

On Fri, 05 Aug 2011 11:29:45 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
harryagain wrote:
You seem to have a very selective memory. Mine remembers a very long
period of stability and prosperity under the last labour government. Were
you one of those feckless types who wouldn't work?

--
I would call it the build up of personal and national debt to completely
unsustainable levels by a bunch of half wits who couldn't see further than
the next election. War criminals too.
Robbed the pensions of thousands.
Sold our gold at rock bottom prices.
Instituted a finacial system doomed to failure.
Spent money like it came for free. Much of it wasted.


F***g socialism. Wondered when an excusnik would appear.
sale of gas
Seem to remember Thatcher selling off our *real* gold (gas) quite
wantonly.

Not exactly sure what you meant by that.

If you allude to the burning of gas as a fuel by industry. That was
forced on us in the end because our competitors in Europe had been
doing it for ages (Decades even) and our abstinence was rendering us
uncompetitive.

But then as I said people have selective memories...

Well yes they do, about Mantlebum, Blears etc in particular.

Derek G.

--

This Looks like Finito Ruperto.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
John Williamson wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
harryagain wrote:
Watching the box today, looks like we're all f***d.
Thanks Bliar and Clown.
Third world status here we come.

You seem to have a very selective memory. Mine remembers a very long
period of stability and prosperity under the last labour government.
Were
you one of those feckless types who wouldn't work?

very selective. I remember a period of eroding assets, stealth taxes at
every turn, a stock market crash followed by a housing bubble and a
global crash.

+1

Government (and private) borrowing increasing even in the good years,
the grab from private pensions, Government spending more than income.....

The pension thingie didn't have any effect on my pension - a private one.
But obviously a well run one. I get exactly as contracted.

Not that Mr. Brown would admit to it, of course. He was good at hiding
things.

Then "Oh, dear, we've run out of money."

I was working at the same job for the whole period, and I noticed that,
as normal, after years of the Tories, I had money to spare to the extent
I didn't need to know exactly how much I had, and after years of Labour,
I no longer had any to spare, and could tell you to the penny exactly
what was down the back of the sofa. Nothing, because I'd had to raid
there last weekend.

I was made redundant from a decent job towards the end of the last Tory
government. Then persued a freelance career in the same job. Made more
money than before. And all those I know did well in this period.

I find it quite interesting this world recession is thought by some to be
down to Blair and Brown...

Of course it isn't, but our inability to recover from it most certainly is.

tim

If you think that this mess has anything at all to do with Blair and
Brown, then you haven't been listening properly

If you think it doesn't then I can recommend a bit of DIY research: just
buy a few drinks for ex-Treasury officials who worked with Brown and the
2 Eds.

--
Robin
PM may be sent to rbw0{at}hotmail{dot}com

On 5 Aug 2011 10:03:31 GMT, Huge wrote:

On 2011-08-05, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

I find it quite interesting this world recession is thought by some to be
down to Blair and Brown...

Obviously, it isn't down to them specifically, but it's essentially the
fault of the politicians. Yes, Keynes said Governments can spend their
way out of recession, but he also said that reserves have to be rebuilt
during the good times and B'liar and that repellent **** who replaced
him signally failed to do that.

A slime mould would have been more capable of winning mastermind.

Derek G.


--

This Looks like Finito Ruperto.

In article ,
djc wrote:
The pension thingie didn't have any effect on my pension - a private
one. But obviously a well run one. I get exactly as contracted.

So you were lucky, you got out when the going was good. It's those yet
to retire who are loosing.

At one time my firm was putting 18% of my gross into the pot, and
deducting 9% from that as my contribution.

I'd not call that lucky, merely prudent.

--
*I see you've set aside this special time to humiliate yourself in public

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article ,
Derek G. wrote:
Seem to remember Thatcher selling off our *real* gold (gas) quite
wantonly.

Not exactly sure what you meant by that.

If you allude to the burning of gas as a fuel by industry. That was
forced on us in the end because our competitors in Europe had been
doing it for ages (Decades even) and our abstinence was rendering us
uncompetitive.

And they were sitting on a near inexhaustible supply of coal too?

Think all politicians must be in the AA. One day at a time...

--
*When I'm not in my right mind, my left mind gets pretty crowded *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
harryagain wrote:
Watching the box today, looks like we're all f***d.
Thanks Bliar and Clown.
Third world status here we come.

You seem to have a very selective memory. Mine remembers a very long
period of stability and prosperity under the last labour government. Were
you one of those feckless types who wouldn't work?

However subsequent events have shown that it was based on excessive debt and
other tricks.
This is unlike the period immediately before where there was real controlled
growth without the debt build up.

You may or may not have noticed that all the eurozone countries in trouble
have socialist governments of one sort or another.
Its not surprising really, its now know communism doesn't work and socialism
has similar principles.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...


The pension thingie didn't have any effect on my pension - a private one.
But obviously a well run one. I get exactly as contracted.

It had an effect, it removed funds from your pension pot. You would either
have got more or it would have cost less if TB hadn't raided the funds.


Not that Mr. Brown would admit to it, of course. He was good at hiding
things.

Then "Oh, dear, we've run out of money."

I was working at the same job for the whole period, and I noticed that,
as normal, after years of the Tories, I had money to spare to the extent
I didn't need to know exactly how much I had, and after years of Labour,
I no longer had any to spare, and could tell you to the penny exactly
what was down the back of the sofa. Nothing, because I'd had to raid
there last weekend.

I was made redundant from a decent job towards the end of the last Tory
government. Then persued a freelance career in the same job. Made more
money than before. And all those I know did well in this period.

You went freelance doing the same.. so it was nothing to do with the
government you were made redundant, just poor management.


I find it quite interesting this world recession is thought by some to be
down to Blair and Brown...

They certainly helped.
Just as they helped the banking crisis.
They will also have helped the upcoming energy crisis.

"harryagain" wrote in message
...

Spent money like it came for free. Much of it wasted.

It wasn't wasted, just look how much B&B got out of it.
there are always fools that will vote in anyone offering them more cash even
if there is no cash to give them.

On Fri, 05 Aug 2011 10:05:04 +0100 Dave Plowman (News) wrote :
You seem to have a very selective memory. Mine remembers a very long
period of stability and prosperity under the last labour government.
Were you one of those feckless types who wouldn't work?

I nearly went broke in 1992-93 - partly my own fault, admittedly - with
double digit interest rates and my bank wanting to pull my overdraft
and lend me the money on a 29.9% APR personal loan instead. More than a
few small businesses did go under at the time and huge numbers of
people lost their houses.

My financial position improved hugely between 1997 and 2008 (when I
emigrated) - I worked very hard, paid a lot of tax, unlike HMG and lots
of remortgage-and-spend folk didn't let my expenditure rise in
proportion but instead hardened up my personal balance sheet.

--
Tony Bryer, Greentram: 'Software to build on',
Melbourne, Australia www.greentram.com

On Fri, 05 Aug 2011 11:29:45 +0100 Dave Plowman (News) wrote :
Seem to remember Thatcher selling off our *real* gold (gas) quite
wantonly. But then as I said people have selective memories...

If you look at a long term graph, there was a point (1981?) when she
could have sold off the gold and bought it back a year or so later
for half the cost.

As to Gordon Brown selling off gold, Peter Costello, our treasurer
(=chancellor) did just the same thing

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1225985231872

and he was certainly no socialist.

--
Tony Bryer, Greentram: 'Software to build on',
Melbourne, Australia www.greentram.com

On Fri, 05 Aug 2011 10:42:57 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:



The pension thingie didn't have any effect on my pension - a private one.
But obviously a well run one. I get exactly as contracted.


How'd they do that then ? Seeing as how it was an investment?

In general an investment conservative enough to be able to do that
would be un-attractive especially when all the commissions have been
taken into account (up to 50% over the contribution period).

Put another way, as a rule some shonky slime-ball of a salesman would
have come along and promise better.

Not that Mr. Brown would admit to it, of course. He was good at hiding
things.

Then "Oh, dear, we've run out of money."

I was working at the same job for the whole period, and I noticed that,
as normal, after years of the Tories, I had money to spare to the extent
I didn't need to know exactly how much I had, and after years of Labour,
I no longer had any to spare, and could tell you to the penny exactly
what was down the back of the sofa. Nothing, because I'd had to raid
there last weekend.

I was made redundant from a decent job towards the end of the last Tory
government. Then persued a freelance career in the same job. Made more
money than before. And all those I know did well in this period.


Thank Margaret Hilda then. There had "always" been a tradition of
freelancing in the Broadcast industry. Perhaps because programmes
could be cobbled together in rented church halls on gear rented by the
day. Didn't do much for engineers in TV centre thobut.

I find it quite interesting this world recession is thought by some to be
down to Blair and Brown...

"Prudence" mac ****e-Features brought that on himself.

Dere G.


--

This Looks like Finito Ruperto.

In article ,
Huge writes:
On 2011-08-05, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
Huge writes:
On 2011-08-05, harryagain wrote:
Watching the box today, looks like we're all f***d.
Thanks Bliar and Clown.

They didn't help, but politicians of all flavours have been digging the hole
for the last 50 years. It's just a pity that we had to fall into it now.

I'm not an economist, but I suspect there are actually just a few
fundamental things a nation needs to get right.

Just one - a balanced budget.

That is a rule I have always applied to my own life. I can date that back
to pocket money my grandmother gave me which had to go into a savings
account, and this instilled the idea into me of saving up until I could
afford something I wanted, right back from about age 5. The only exception
I have ever allowed myself to this is a mortgage for my home.

However, I think it's quite reasonable for businesses to borrow to grow.
Countries are effectively giant businesses, and I see no reason they can't
also borrow to grow, but of course that isn't what's happening here now,
and country leaders (politicians) are lousey busimess leaders, so I have
severe doubts in their abilities to identify what is worth borrowing to
invest in. There aren't a whole load of examples of countries successfully
borrowing to achieve long term growth, but many more examples of countries
cocking it up trying to.

However, a balanced budget alone doesn't keep a country viable. You need
to avoid the case of spiraling shrinkage even if you do keep the budget
balanced.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

Andrew Gabriel wrote:


I also wonder if there might not be something cyclical to some
aspects of this.

No, terminal. Or at least part of a 2000 year cycle.

This is basically the end of something that started about the bronze
age, when we first started making things out of non renewable resources.

J.G.Harston wrote:
Andrew Gabriel wrote:
I'm not an economist, but I suspect there are actually just a few
fundamental things a nation needs to get right. Some of these (such

The problem is, the people who would suffer from the reconstruction
of the economic system have votes.

JGH

The triumph of Nu Laber has been to make them more than 50% of the
population.

Under those circumstances its likely the Labour will get in in 2014 or
whenever, and complete the total ruination of the entire country.

Huge wrote:
On 2011-08-05, J.G.Harston wrote:
Andrew Gabriel wrote:
I'm not an economist, but I suspect there are actually just a few
fundamental things a nation needs to get right. Some of these (such
The problem is, the people who would suffer from the reconstruction
of the economic system have votes.

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only
exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from
the Public Treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for
the candidate promising the most benefits from the Public Treasury with
the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy
always followed by dictatorship.

- Alexander Fraser Tyler,'The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic'.

Hopefully he was wrong about dictatorship.


I suspect not.

Anyway we are a monarchy.

Might end up with King William V and a controlling army, and take your
hat off when he goes past...

And barons running the shires, and mayors running the towns.

Be a lot preferable to Commissar Millibrain

Monarchy has worked a lot longer than democracy.

You can be Robin hood if you want. I bags Sheriff of Nottingham.

Huge wrote:
On 2011-08-05, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
Huge writes:
On 2011-08-05, harryagain wrote:
Watching the box today, looks like we're all f***d.
Thanks Bliar and Clown.
They didn't help, but politicians of all flavours have been digging the hole
for the last 50 years. It's just a pity that we had to fall into it now.
I'm not an economist, but I suspect there are actually just a few
fundamental things a nation needs to get right.

Just one - a balanced budget.

bit more than that sadly.

John Williamson wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
harryagain wrote:
Watching the box today, looks like we're all f***d.
Thanks Bliar and Clown.
Third world status here we come.

You seem to have a very selective memory. Mine remembers a very long
period of stability and prosperity under the last labour government.
Were
you one of those feckless types who wouldn't work?

very selective. I remember a period of eroding assets, stealth taxes
at every turn, a stock market crash followed by a housing bubble and
a global crash.

+1

Government (and private) borrowing increasing even in the good years,
the grab from private pensions, Government spending more than income.....

Not that Mr. Brown would admit to it, of course. He was good at hiding
things.

Then "Oh, dear, we've run out of money."

I was working at the same job for the whole period, and I noticed that,
as normal, after years of the Tories, I had money to spare to the extent
I didn't need to know exactly how much I had, and after years of Labour,
I no longer had any to spare, and could tell you to the penny exactly
what was down the back of the sofa. Nothing, because I'd had to raid
there last weekend.

precisely.

Robin wrote:
Government spending more than income.....

Most but not all of them all the time. An IFS paper from 2002 is IMHO
one of the best brief accounts of the history of the
PSBR/deficit/whatever. http://www.ifs.org.uk/bns/bn26.pdf

What happened after 2002 can of course be read on the way back from the
chip shop most evenings - oh no, sorry, despite the eco mantra they've
regulated away that traditional bit of "re-use"


every sharp peak marks a labour government coming into power..

However, the prudent coming up to retirement [FX: waves] are going to
get royally ****ed. We'll have 25% inflation before you know it and no
way to save enough money to retire on comfortably.

Best idea I've heard lately is to marry a Norwegian and emigrate the
high per capita GDP; lot's of reserves (money and natural resources);
not in EU but in EEA so most of the benefits of free movement etc. And
anywhere can have the odd (sic) mass murderer.

Sadly I've as little chance of that as I have of surviving by selling my
body on the streets: there's just no demand for old, short, fat, balding
blokes who can't even lay bricks properly

--
Robin
PM may be sent to rbw0{at}hotmail{dot}com