'Herefordshire campaigners vow to stop twin track bid being derailed'

[whole diary]

[Btline]

Perhaps Brown did make mistakes, but his actions since the recession started have to be admired. If we were in a Tory government, with a do nothing approach, we would be in even greater a mess. And who's to say that a Tory gov wouldn't have made the same mistakes as Brown.

The Tories have been getting away with murder. Recently, Osbourne's proposed budget had holes in it to the sum of billions, but it only featured in one day's news. And that's the man who'll be chancellor?

[Chris from Nailsea]

Hmm.  Are you criticising George Osborne's proposed budget for having holes in it - or the press for not picking holes in it? 

[JayMac]

Perhaps Brown did make mistakes, but his actions since the recession started have to be admired. If we were in a Tory government, with a do nothing approach, we would be in even greater a mess. And who's to say that a Tory gov wouldn't have made the same mistakes as Brown.

The Tories have been getting away with murder. Recently, Osbourne's proposed budget had holes in it to the sum of billions, but it only featured in one day's news. And that's the man who'll be chancellor?

It's a little bit presumptious to draw conclusions from current Tory party utterences and project them forward into a time when they are in government. They are not in power, do not have access to the 'books' or the inner workings of the current government. They are, in some senses, shooting from the hip and whilst their figures may not add up at the moment, you can be sure that once in power, they'll do their damnedest to sort out the fiscal mess left behind. At the very least they need to bring PPP/PFI spending back into UK^▸ (United Kingdom) Plc. Brown hiding PPP/PFI 'off balance sheet' is one of his conjuring tricks that needs to be exposed.

I seem to remember, prior to 1997, the Labour Party saying the would renationalise the railways......

[Btline]

Hmm.  Are you criticising George Osborne's proposed budget for having holes in it - or the press for not picking holes in it? 

I suppose, both.

[Chris from Nailsea]

So you would shoot the man who saved Northern Rock, who prevented any UK^▸ (United Kingdom) people loosing any savings.

Hmm. Here's an interesting story:

Flight taxes hiked to bail out banks: It's nothing to do with environment, says Darling

Flight taxes are being raised to help bail out the banks, Alistair Darling admitted yesterday.
 
In an extraordinary intervention, the Chancellor said the higher air passenger duty being introduced tomorrow was needed to plug gaps in the national finances. He made no attempt to justify the move  -  which will add ^340 to the ticket for a family of four flying long haul - on environmental grounds, the official reason for the tax.
 
Airlines warned yesterday that the tax would cost thousands of jobs and do nothing to combat global warming.

Addressing journalists in Newcastle, home of the failed bank Northern Rock, Mr Darling said: 'I am quite blunt about it, we need to raise money to pay for some of the things we have done. If unemployment goes up there is a cost obviously to the family, there is cost in increased benefits, Northern Rock has cost a lot of money. What we are doing is putting a pound on to your average ticket, which about three quarters of people travel on. And you consider the cost of an air ticket, I don't think a pound is that unreasonable. In the North East, we have spent billions on a bank for very good reasons. We could have stood back and said "There you are, tough luck". We didn't because that was the wrong approach.'

[John R]

And who's to say that a Tory gov wouldn't have made the same mistakes as Brown.

Well they managed the previous 18 years in office whilst retaining the governance of banking with the Bank of England (as indeed it had been for the previous century and more). So I think it's a reasonable assumption that they wouldn't have changed that particular aspect of financial governance, with the disastrous consequences that ensued.  

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

High Street banks to be broken up

Chancellor Alistair Darling has confirmed that Lloyds, RBS and Northern Rock will be broken up and parts sold to new entrants to the banking sector.

He said there could be three new High Street banks in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) over the next three to four years as a result. But the chancellor said he would only sell parts of the banks when "the time is right", to ensure taxpayers get their money back.

There is speculation that buyers might include Tesco and Virgin. In order to boost competition, the banks' assets will only be sold to new entrants to the UK banking market and not to existing financial institutions.

As part of the stipulations of EU^» (European Union - about) state aid rules, the UK was always facing the prospect of having to sell off at least parts of those banks which it bailed out last year. Now it looks as if that sell off process is to begin in earnest.

Though the Chancellor says he has not yet decided which brands are to be hived off, RBS, Northern Rock and Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) will now be broken up in some form. This means that individual brands within those banks, such as Cheltenham & Gloucester and the TSB (LBG), as well as Williams and Glyn (RBS), could be sold off.

The unanswered question now is whether the Treasury jumped or was about to be pushed by Brussels.

The new banks will be standard retail operations concentrating on deposits and mortgages.

Mr Darling said this was the best way to ensure "proper competition and choice". He said having just "half a dozen big providers was not acceptable". The new entrants would "have a clean sheet to come in and do things differently", he added.

The chancellor also said the government would be splitting up Northern Rock into two parts by the end of the year, with a view to selling off one part within the next three to four years. The government had already said it wants to sell off the part of Northern Rock that holds savers' money, carries out new lending and holds some existing mortgages. He also said the government was keen to divest some of its holdings in RBS and Lloyds.

The government currently holds a 70% stake in RBS and a 43% stake in Lloyds after last October's bail-outs.

BBC business correspondent Joe Lynam says the latest move represents "a gilt-edged opportunity for non-UK retail banks, especially from the US, to get a firm foothold in the highly profitable British banking market for as low a price as could be imagined a few years ago".

The Conservatives said the break up of the state-owned banks had already been "well trailed". A spokesman added: "We have called for more competition in banking, and for government stakes to be used to strategic effect to that end."

The Lib Dems Treasury spokesman Vince Cable welcomed more competition in the banking sector but said there should be no urgency to the sales. "We need to be careful that when these split-ups occur, the prime cuts are not offered to private investors and the scraps left to taxpayers," he said.

There were also concerns expressed about the timing of the sell-off.

Treasury select committee chairman John McFall MP^▸ (Member of Parliament) said the assets should not be sold off for less than their market value. "It is important to ensure that we get taxpayer return for this bail-out. I'm relaxed about the timescale. I do not want to sell off [bank assets] at a cheap price, I don't want a fire sale," he told the BBC.

Peter McNamara, former head of personal banking at Lloyds TSB and managing director of the Alliance and Leicester, said that restructuring the banks in the current climate could in fact prove counter productive. "Half the banks in the UK are suddenly going to be reorganised when you could argue their day job is to support industry and consumers during the recession. Without that support, we are more likely to have a steeper rise in unemployment," he said.

The government needs permission to break-up the banks from European competition commissioner Neelie Kroes. Last week, the EU approved the plans for Northern Rock to be split in two.

[devon_metro]

Sounds similar to the flogging of our gold stocks...

[stebbo]

And, although we're now well off track, let's all just remember that, as a nation (and internationally) we've spent too much money on too much credit, relied too much on such ephemeral things as "financial services" and "retail" instead of remembering good old manufacturing. Not that banking etc doesn't have a role to play, but let's get back to some basics. Anyway enough before I get really cross

PS I've spent most of my working life in manufacturing industry, just in case you wondered. And I blame politicians of all parties for where we've ended up.