lefties 7:compare the tory.com

[HerHonesty]

sorry couldnt think of anything else. gideon in charge of the economy..

BeenBeta comparing the UK to Greece is just silly. Our economies are nothing alike and Greece has been bankrupted by corruption - their money has been nicked by bent greedy rich bastards.

All this is qualified by the fact that i'm not a macroeconomist ...

We're not growing particularly quickly, and there's a reasonable chance of a double-dip. At that at point, the banking system becomes a lot more vulnerable and confidence in the ability to pay off debt will drop. If this happens because of efforts to pay off debt, then confidence in the ability to pay off debt will increase. Clearly, these effects are in the opposite direction and will partially offset each other - I don't know which will be stronger.

Whatever happens though, the politicians are unlikely to do it if the treasury predicts stagflation (high inflation, drops in economic output) as it's very hard to get out of it once it starts. Earnings are increasing by 4% per year - mostly the private sector I guess given the restraint in public sector pay - and economic growth by closer to 1%, so it is a real danger.

Mervyn King did something really quite unusual today in praising the economic policy that's been planned. The issues with Greece and Portugal make it almost inevitable that all parties would have cut by more than planned when the manifestos came out - and that's more than any of them let on in those documents, Labour included.

I don't like the targets that the tories will pick at all but the cuts were/are inevitable. At least the 10k tax threshold means and cuts in inheritance tax mean that it's just that money gets transferred to the rich.

Lenin - US vs China proxy resource wars.

Beachcomber* - "...their money has been nicked by bent greedy rich bastards."

Are you quite sure that has not happened in the UK?

Oops, second para should have read:

We're not growing particularly quickly, and there's a reasonable chance of a double-dip. At that at point, the banking system becomes a lot more vulnerable and confidence in the ability to pay off debt will drop. However, if we're paying off debt quickly, then confidence in the ability to pay off debt will increase. Clearly, these effects are in the opposite direction and will partially offset each other - I don't know which will be stronger.

That didnt seem a million miles away from home to me either, ABD

BB even

DD is sleeping fine. It does sound like a strange old fashioned disease.

It was my fault. I should have known that taking her for a walk on the moors without a shawl or spencer. And no bonnet. She suffered an attack of the vapours when we were returning in the phaeton.

Mr JA - I'd read your original 2nd para about ten times. I'd decided to blame my thickness on the Tories. So thank you for the revised 2nd para .

Why was Mervyn King's pronouncement unusual? Does he usually keep his thoughts to himself?

Am off to read about Gove. All this having to learn about brand new people...

MmeLindt, scarlet fever appears to be on the rise, I keep hear of children catching it !

Mervyn King keeps his thoughts to himself to the point where he officially has no thoughts

hearing

"A Conservative government would set by pupil ability and would, within 100 days of winning an election, identify the "very worst" schools, by which Gove means those that have been placed in special measures by Oftsed for more than a year."

Well I could do that. In less than 100 days. We bloody KNOW what the worst schools are. There are league tables, and an Ofsted website. Idiot.

Lenin - no China and US will not be at war. It will be like the Cold War. Proxy conflicts over resource control.

"The Greeks paid an average of €1,355 ($1,830) in bribes last year for public services such as speeding up the issue of driver's licenses and construction permits, getting admitted to public hospitals or manipulating tax returns, according to a new study by Transparency International, the Berlin-based global corruption watchdog."

"The figures show only a small part of the corruption in Greece because many people did not admit to paying bribes, the study said. "We only measure so-called small-scale corruption, meaning bribes paid by private individuals to civil servants and in the private sector," the head of Transparency International Greece, Konstantin Bakouris, told Die Welt.

He added that TI did not record the corruption going on at the government and corporate level, even though it was widespread"

I think if the corruption in the UK was similar to that of Greece than most people in the UK would have noticed shelling out the equivalent of 1,355 Euros in bribes for driving licences and hospital treatment.

www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,681184,00.html

I suspect that Transparency International would probably have noticed too.

www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2009/nov/17/corruption-index-transparency-international

MMeLindt - you don't hear about phaetons often enough, IMO. I'm reading Jane Austen's letters at the moment - she could be such a bitch. If there was something bitchy to say about phaetons, Jane would have been in there .

Sorry to hear about the scarlet fever MmeLindt - I hope all is well soon.

let's call our next thread "come for a drive in my barouche landau"

Or "a dish of ratafia with you Ma'am?"

Oh dear. Must stop or this will descend into another Georgette Heyer tribute thread. But really, what with BeenBeta's cheerful conspiracy theories predictions about the future of the nation, I think we all need a little light-hearted relief.

So, ratafia anyone?

PS Sorry about teh Scarlet Fever ML.

If it's any consolation, my friend's little boy had it, and he's had lung troubles since birth as he was born premature, but sailed through scarlet fever without any problems.

So I think it's very possible to have it quite mildly, even with other health issues.

Lenin* - I dont want to hijack the thread further but potential flashpoints are already developing in Africa with China taking over key natural resource bases there. Chinese naval ships already patrol off the Horn of Africa. South China Sea conflicts are regular already with US warships dispatched last year. In the Middle East its relationship wih Iran is an issue. Cyberspace is another area of conflict.

C'mon, BeenBeta, you're not even trying. You've missed out Pakistan and you're not looking far enough ahead to conflict over water ... .

And am sorry to hear about SF, too, MmeLindt. Hope it's fine.

... and 2012... (I've already transferred my euros somewhere safe... )