"Gordon H" wrote in message
...
In message , Mark
writes

I think Paddy Ashdown was the best LD party leader of recent times.

And probably the best Defence spokesman.

Maybe - but (unlike CK) PA is now an established "elder statesman" which I
find makes it much harder to recall accurately just what he / they were like
in former days.


--
Martin

On Mon, 25 Jan 2010 10:17:45 -0000, "Andy Pandy"
wrote:


"Mark" wrote in message
.. .
And incompetent regulation - like this lot hiring that loony from
HBOS
as deputy chair of the FSA after he had previously sacked his head
of
risk regulation at HBOS for, erm, continually highlighting the risks
they were taking.

I don't recall this. Do you have a link to the story?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7883409.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7883434.stm


Most of the pain is going to be felt (is being felt?) by the
working
population, like my kids,

Yup.

but only one still lives in Britain, the other two are in
California and
Cairns.

Very sensible of them :-)

The worry for me is that I am 76, still active and reasonably
fit,
but
what will be there for me when I need the NHS, or personal care?

It'll be there, but if you've been daft enough to save they'll
take
all your
money to pay for it (unless you live in Scotland).

I fall into the "Enough pension and savings to exclude me from any
means tested benefits, but no yacht".
I'm still working on the acronym for that...

The horror stories of care homes make me think about strapping a
few
fireworks round me and trying to take a few *ankers with me.
;-)

It's not that bad yet - but there really will be problems if the
government
don't have the balls to take tough decisions soon.
Andy

Yes, whatever it's colour. I'd love everyone to vote LD and
send
them into a panic.

Normally I'd welcome a hung parliament but this time it could be a
disaster as the markets want to see a strong government.

The markets aren't everything.

They are when the government needs to borrow £170 billion per year! If
they can't get that credit cheaply because the markets don't trust
them to sort out the current mess then we'll enter a downward spiral
of increasing cost of debt increasing the borrowing requirement...

It would be better for the government not to borrow such ridiculous
amounts of money.

It might make the big organisations
write off the debt they are trying to hide at present.

Erm, why? And how would that help?

To not prolong the recession.
--
(\__/) M.
(='.'=) Due to the amount of spam posted via googlegroups and
(")_(") their inaction to the problem. I am blocking most articles
posted from there. If you wish your postings to be seen by
everyone you will need use a different method of posting.
[Reply-to address valid until it is spammed.]

In message , Martin
writes

"Gordon H" wrote in message
...
In message , Mark
writes

I think Paddy Ashdown was the best LD party leader of recent times.

And probably the best Defence spokesman.

Maybe - but (unlike CK) PA is now an established "elder statesman"
which I find makes it much harder to recall accurately just what he /
they were like in former days.

Well they used to call him Paddy Pants-Down..
--
Gordon H
Remove "invalid" to reply

"Mark" wrote in message
...
Normally I'd welcome a hung parliament but this time it could be a
disaster as the markets want to see a strong government.

The markets aren't everything.

They are when the government needs to borrow £170 billion per year!
If
they can't get that credit cheaply because the markets don't trust
them to sort out the current mess then we'll enter a downward spiral
of increasing cost of debt increasing the borrowing requirement...

It would be better for the government not to borrow such ridiculous
amounts of money.

Well, quite, which is why they need a serious plan to identify
spending cuts or additional taxes, something this government are too
cowardly to do (until after the election).

It might make the big organisations
write off the debt they are trying to hide at present.

Erm, why? And how would that help?

To not prolong the recession.

So how would writing off debt help? It would worsen the companies
balance sheet and make getting credit harder etc.

--
Andy

"Gordon H" wrote in message
...
In message , Martin
writes

"Gordon H" wrote in message
...
In message , Mark
writes

I think Paddy Ashdown was the best LD party leader of recent times.

And probably the best Defence spokesman.

Maybe - but (unlike CK) PA is now an established "elder statesman" which I
find makes it much harder to recall accurately just what he / they were
like in former days.

Well they used to call him Paddy Pants-Down..

Indeed. But I assume such behaviour is common-place and, indeed, almost
inevitable amongst our more senior politicians, given that a pre-requisite
for climbing that particularly greasy pole is to be strongly alpha male.


--
Martin

On Tue, 26 Jan 2010 09:09:05 -0000, "Andy Pandy"
wrote:


"Mark" wrote in message
.. .
Normally I'd welcome a hung parliament but this time it could be a
disaster as the markets want to see a strong government.

The markets aren't everything.

They are when the government needs to borrow £170 billion per year!
If
they can't get that credit cheaply because the markets don't trust
them to sort out the current mess then we'll enter a downward spiral
of increasing cost of debt increasing the borrowing requirement...

It would be better for the government not to borrow such ridiculous
amounts of money.

Well, quite, which is why they need a serious plan to identify
spending cuts or additional taxes, something this government are too
cowardly to do (until after the election).

It might make the big organisations
write off the debt they are trying to hide at present.

Erm, why? And how would that help?

To not prolong the recession.

So how would writing off debt help? It would worsen the companies
balance sheet and make getting credit harder etc.

In the short term it might not help them. However the debt is there
and it's not good hiding it IMHO. I can't see how they can move on
until it is written off.

Get the pain over with now is my opinion.
--
(\__/) M.
(='.'=) Due to the amount of spam posted via googlegroups and
(")_(") their inaction to the problem. I am blocking most articles
posted from there. If you wish your postings to be seen by
everyone you will need use a different method of posting.
[Reply-to address valid until it is spammed.]

"Martin" wrote in message
...

"Gordon H" wrote in message
...
In message , Martin
writes

"Gordon H" wrote in message
...
In message , Mark
writes

I think Paddy Ashdown was the best LD party leader of recent times.

And probably the best Defence spokesman.

Maybe - but (unlike CK) PA is now an established "elder statesman" which
I
find makes it much harder to recall accurately just what he / they were
like in former days.

Well they used to call him Paddy Pants-Down..

Indeed. But I assume such behaviour is common-place and, indeed, almost
inevitable amongst our more senior politicians, given that a pre-requisite
for climbing that particularly greasy pole is to be strongly alpha male.

How did Heath manage it then?

tim

"tim...." wrote in message
...

"Martin" wrote in message
...

"Gordon H" wrote in message
...
In message , Martin
writes

"Gordon H" wrote in message
...
In message , Mark
writes

I think Paddy Ashdown was the best LD party leader of recent times.

And probably the best Defence spokesman.

Maybe - but (unlike CK) PA is now an established "elder statesman" which
I
find makes it much harder to recall accurately just what he / they were
like in former days.

Well they used to call him Paddy Pants-Down..

Indeed. But I assume such behaviour is common-place and, indeed, almost
inevitable amongst our more senior politicians, given that a
pre-requisite
for climbing that particularly greasy pole is to be strongly alpha male.

How did Heath manage it then?

tim

There are plenty of film-clips showing that he waved his baton more than
adequately.

--
Martin

In message , Martin
writes

"Gordon H" wrote

From our own Correspondent, Moneybox,

[...]

But can't stand Moneybox

On reflection, I guess M.Box has one redeeming feature - it ensures
this sub-thread is definitely still on-topic :-)

And very topical! If you listened to Moneybox today (30th) you heard
a very nervous HMRC representative telling the presenter that it is the
responsibility of the recipient of incorrect tax codes to call the IR
and inform them. 8-(

It appears that there has been an enormous cock-up when two databases
were merged, and her comments implied that many thousands[1] of
incorrect codes had probably been sent out...

[1] (Plus or minus a few noughts).
--
Gordon H
Remove "invalid" to reply

"Gordon H" wrote in message
...
In message , Martin
writes

"Gordon H" wrote

From our own Correspondent, Moneybox,

[...]

But can't stand Moneybox

On reflection, I guess M.Box has one redeeming feature - it ensures this
sub-thread is definitely still on-topic :-)

And very topical! If you listened to Moneybox today (30th) you heard a
very nervous HMRC representative telling the presenter that it is the
responsibility of the recipient of incorrect tax codes to call the IR and
inform them. 8-(

It appears that there has been an enormous cock-up when two databases were
merged, and her comments implied that many thousands[1] of incorrect codes
had probably been sent out...

[1] (Plus or minus a few noughts).
--
Gordon H
Remove "invalid" to reply

Hmmm... except that this has already featured in the news - and esp on R4 -
for several days.

That said, it's my area. I started challenging HMRC, on behalf of clients,
about potty D0 codes the previous week. To say nothing of two different
coding notices arriving with the same (2 week old) issue date. Any s/ware
which allows that is utterly pointless - since employers have to implement
the *latest* coding notice - which, of course, is impossible in this case.

To be fair to MB, though, the presenter did ask the HMRC buffoon about HMRC
paying "penalties".

Alas, she didn't ask it very well - the response related to missing
deadlines,

Clearly, the MB bod wasn't aware that now, as well as fines for lateness,
there's an oppressive regime of penalties for tax-payers who make a mistake
on their returns.

Still - the good news is that the treasury will collect loads of lovely tax
from the bonuses received by the senior HMRC bods who oversaw this, and
other IT cock-ups during the last year.

Which will enable them to pay yet more bonuses next year. Er....??? :-(((

--
Martin