English Opinion

It has taken me until now to calm down enough to write about the vital 2009 Budget that was announced today. In effect, it is the fiscal policy that will dictate the British economy actions and events until at least November this year and possible May next year should Alasdair Darling, the Chancellor decline to revise the budget beforehand. I cannot help thinking that we are all in a quagmire that is none of our own doing and the incompetant, UNELECTED Prime Minister in his previous role as Chancellor has effectively dragged us into the worst economic period in British history since World War II.

Britain’s domestic borrowing this year will amount to £175 BILLION. Who can even envision how much money that is? Bearing in mind our 60 million population and relatively modest GDP in terms of that of other countries and you will see just how far this reaches. We will be paying for it for years to come and so will our children. The unborn will undoubtedly suffer because of a deluded idiot that has somehow managed to cheat his way into power (at least, if you believe the allegations about smear campaigns coming from emails sent by his closest former advisor, Damien McBride). 

I really begrudge watching the Budget and seeing Gordon Brown’s smarmy face smiling as if he actually thinks he is doing us a favour by announcing measures that will get us deeper into debt as a nation and ultimately lie firmly at his door in terms of blame. Although public spending has not been cut as yet, Brown has used it as a tool to beat the Conservatives with. Public spending cust have been announced, most notably from the NHS, but will not come in until AFTER the next general election, meaning that the Torys will have to take the flack for it when they get in. He is also applying a 50% tax to those earning over £150,000. I really object to this. I earn nowhere near that much (trust me I wish I did) but why should people that have worked bloody hard to get to where they are have their salaries cut in half when the government and banks are to blame for the mess we are in? I know the argument - they can afford it etc etc but that is not the point. Would you like it if some politician knocked on your door, demanded half your salary, blamed you for a national debt that he caused and then got on the phone to his buddy in Whitehall who happened to be fiddling his expenses for him at that very moment? No! A bit melordramatic maybe but  I am so angry right now a rant seemed the only way to go!

Oh, and before some Labourite starts to comment on how wrong and pro-upper class I am I would just like to say that this is MY opinion, I am not a Conservative supporter and actually voted Labour when I was 18 (for my sins), I am allowed to object to a government that is ruining my country, I am from a working class background and I DID NOT ELECT Gordon Brown as my leader! I wouldn’t put him in charge of a goldfish let alone a country. Brown kissed butt and stabbed people in the back to get where he is and no member of the electorate has ever elected him… hopefully nobody ever will.

Rant over!

Sir James Crosby, the man hand picked by Gordon Brown to act as one of the chief regulators of the City, has today resigned from his post at the Financial Services Authority after his previous judgement has seriously been brought into question. When he was the head of HBOS, Crosby was warned by his Head of Risk, Paul Moore, that the bank was taking unacceptable risks and growing too fast. Moore was effectively a whistleblower when he advised Crosby and his cronies that their policies would ultimately lead to the downfall of the bank and indeed it has. Moore alleges that he warned Crosby repeatedly and that, when they did not like what he had to say, they simply got rid of him. In fact, Moore was just trying to safeguard our best interests whilst Crosby was trying to safeguard his.

One question remains though - if Moore saw the crash coming then why did nobody else?

Following this news, David Cameron rightly accused Gordon Brown of being just as reckless with the taxpayer’s money as Crosby had been himself. After all, Brown was relying on Crosby for financial advice and expected him to regulate the bankers and their extortionate bonuses. He was trusting a man that sacked an advisor that dared to question the bankers’ greed and advise against it! If this does not point to corruption in the UK government and finance system then I don’t know what does! Unsurprisingly, Brown refused to comment and avoided Cameron’s questions

In other news, the head of the Bank Of England, Mervyn King, commented on the state of the UK’s financial state today and basically said that we’re heading into deep recession. The recession, according to Mr King, is far worse than the Bank of England initially anticipated to the point at which interest rate cuts will not be enough to drag us out of it. Batton down the hatches people because we’re going to be in for a rough few years!

Yes, you read the title of this post right! The Royal Bank Of Scotland was today announced to have made a loss of £27 billion in 2008! When you consider that these people actually look after our money for us it is really quite shocking and it beggers belief that they would be allowed to do that job! Their announced losses were £7 billion but RBS lost a further £20 billion thanks to their disastrous takeover of ABN Amro last year. They are record losses and the share prices fell by 67% to 12p each to reflect this, but it is more apparant than ever that these people and their greed played a major part in welcoming the credit crunch with open arms. Considering that tax payers have bailed them out not once but twice now and the above figures are fact and not fiction, I find it a bit rich that the banks still won’t lend to business in desperate need of a financial boost to ride out the storm.

These figures were announced just before Prime Idiot Gordon Brown announced that we were to bail out the banks AGAIN so they could be insured against bad debt. We are to pay for their stupidity and greed yet again to get business moving again as a result of this “state insurance”. The idea is to get them lending again by providing insurance against bad debts so we would be paying for loans and credit lines for companies that fail in the coming years. Again, the banks get away with not paying a penny for their mistakes.

I understand the need for credit to get industry and businesses going again but the success of this venture all depends on Gordon Brown’s ability to encourage banks to start lending again and there is nothing to say that they have to at all. By law, they can do just as they please… and undoubtedly have in the past! Furthermore, this is fast becoming a time bomb. Brown is writing cheques that he is never going to have to cash. We are. We are going to be heavily taxed for years to come so my generation (I’m 27) and my children’s generation are going to have to pay for the mistakes of today in the years to come. That is not fair at all. Although something has to be done, Brown cannot keep announcing these initiatives, which incidentally keep failing to have the desired or indeed any effect, and adding more debt to our future tax bill without consequences.

And there has to be consequences in the next election or God help us all!

Apparently the UK is heading for a “Depression” type recession within the next year or so, according to leading economists. They have announced that they expect the credit crunch to increase the unemployment figures to around 3.4 million by the end of 2009 alone as more and more businesses go under. This would be the largest ceconomic contraction in the UK for 1946 and it certainlymakes incredibly gloomy reading.

I think every single negative word has been used to describe the credit crunch in recent months - depressing, alarming, scary and indeed terrifying. Well, no doubt there will be a few more choice words as well from homeowners because housing prices are also set tofall by a predicted 22% within 12 months. I’ve been a little sceptical when reading various reports that have been released in recent months predicting just how bad the economy will get because the predictions have always been a little off but I am starting to notice a pattern. The predictions are off in a rather appalling way because they are predicting figures that are better on paper than actually occurs in reality. As a result, we may find that homes actualy reduce by far more.

Although another report released today has predicted a massive boom when we get out of this credit crunch mess, that is a dim and distant possibility right now. In fact, there is absolutely no point releasing information like that because it does not help those that have lost their jobs or face repossession of their homes. Neither does it help the businesses that cannot get credit. The only people it helps are those Labour phonies in government that have blatantly lost touch with us all and have no clue what we’re going through. Focus on getting us out of this mess then tell us how good life will be in 2017!

I have to say that I’m sick of seeing Gordon Brown’s face on the news every single lunchtime and evening at the moment. Every day he seems to be giving the green light to new initiatives that will ultimately lead nowhere. Every day he makes promises that any fool can see he can’t keep. Every day there is another news story about redundancies and absolutely nothing is being done to halt the credit crunch at all. Well, it’s time to put up or shut up because the credit crunch got a whole lot worse when economists asserted today that not only is the economy at its worst level since the 1970s but also that it is heading towards meltdown not seen since the end of World War II. Then there was a major excuse. Now all we have are sorry excuses for politicians and bankers that got us into this mess in the first place.

In the last couple of weeks there have been numerous companies announcing redudancies - JCB, Nissan, Marks & Spencer, Barclays, Wincanton, Wedgewood, Land Of Leather, Woolworths, Adams, MFI… the list goes on. All are massive companies, but small businesses are faring just as badly. All this points to the next set of unemployment figures that are published exceeding the 2 million mark and there is still no end in sight. The banks still will not lend despite the bail out being paid for by the people that need to borrow money. The High Street is still suffering via falling sales. The national economy is now expected to fall by 2.4% rather than the previously predicted 2.2%… and still there is no national recovery plan. The future is bleak and cold and incredibly scary, and yet that idiot of a Prime Minister continues to make promises and initiatives that are useless to us.

None of the politicians in charge of this country know what it feels like to go to bed early to save electricity. They have no clue what it feels like to toast bread that is stale to try and save on the food budget. They are not huddled in their living rooms wrapped in blankets rather than putting on the heating. They have no idea what it’s like to trawl free samples websites to find stuff that they can use instead of spending money. They don’t have to do any of the above and so simply patronise us when they say they know how we’re feeling because they don’t. If I sound angry it’s because I am angry… and I’m fed up of seeing hard working people ground down by life, losing their homes and struggling to feed their children when this is none of their fault. The credit crunch is down to the fat cats that took one too many risks.

The worst thing about it is that I can’t see any end to it and neither can economists. It’s going to get a hell of a lot worse before it gets any better. That, aside from death and taxes, is the only thing that is certain in British life at the moment.

I had started this post yesterday before I heard the news about the sudden death of Jett Travolta but decided to postpone it until today. I have a feeling that I’m going to hold the views I express here for some time and the problems outlined are not going to go away any time soon so waiting one day really hasn’t hurt! In fact, it has just given me more time to formulate my damning view of Gordon Brown and the entire Labour government! 

I woke up yesterday morning to see David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative Party, on the news discussing Labour’s measures to combat the credit crunch and have to say that the man spoke more sense than I have heard from a politician in some time. Cameron condemned the VAT cut from 17.5% to 15%, stating that it had not worked. It is plain for all to see now that it hasn’t. The stores in the high streets and retail parks were busy in December but now the Christmas period is over the whole country has come crashing back down to Earth, as every idiot knew it would. Every idiot that is aside from the one that matters - Gordon Brown. In his eyes he was saving the world, something that he actually said and has been ridiculed for, but in our eyes it just proved what everyone else was thinking - that he did not have a clue what was going on with the little people like me.

I went into town today to pay some bills and get a few supplies. I was shocked to see how few cars were in a car park that has always been packed after 8am on Saturdays previously. There was nobody about at all, so much so that market traders were discussing how much longer their stalls will be able to stay open. This is a week after Christmas and already so many are discussing the future with dread… and they all sell cut priced goods! What about the 1,500 that will lose their jobs every single day? What about those that will not be able to afford to go to work because train ticket prices have risen by over 6% between December 31 and January 2? What about those of us that will be living on the breadline in the coming months with little to eat and no heating? 

Furthermore, Gordon Brown is borrowing so much that my generation and that of my children are going to bear the brunt of the costs through huge taxes when the credit crunch is over, thus plunging us all nto trouble for years. What has he spent the amount he’s borrowed on? Not a lot as far as I can see. He’s bailed out the banks, sent an aid package to Pakistan and that’s about it. Brown said he would help pensioners but he’s giving with one hand and taking with another so they are no better off. He pledged that banks would tow the line and start lending again. They haven’t and are now rebelling.

Nationwide Building Society yesterday announced that they would not be passing any more interest rate cuts onto borrowers because they have to balance that with their savers. They stated that their savers would suffer should they cut rates any more. Many have already condemned them… and I am about to follow suit. Contrary to what they have said, savers are not their main business. Borrowers are. Mationwide that pushes sales of mortgages and loans because the interest they earned from borrowers made up their main profit base. Savers are loyal customers and that is why they want to keep them but any stories stating that savers are their main business are rubbish. I don’t blame savers for complaining over rate cuts at all. Why should they suffer as a result of the government and bank recklessness when the majority have worked hard all their lives? However, when Nationwide’s profits are in the millions and higher than they have ever been why should they not give back to both borrowers and savers? As they are a building society (and thus a mutual) instead of a bank, they have no shareholders to answer to. As such, this just goes to prove that they are more concerned about profits than their customers and have no intention of giving back instead of paying their officers and directors ridiculously high wages. They are more a bank than any other building society around. If you don’t believe me, head into a branch and see how many sales they try to push on you! You cannot go into a branch without being harrassed… and the poor sales assistants (sorry, customer representatives) are forced to sell to meet ridiculous sales targets. Yes, they have sales targets. Says it all.

This is only the start though. More banks will rebel and refuse to pass on cuts. The government may have bailed them out but if they fail to nationalise the banks then there is nothing they can do about it. This will again highlight just how far Gordon Brown has failed to save the country from the mess he got us into when he was Chancellor.

What gets me most is that Brown wasn’t even elected and yet refuses to give up his position to a public vote. That isn’t democracy. That is effectively his license to damn us all and then blame the Conservatives when they struggle to get us out of the hole that we’re now in at a later date.

Well thank you very much Gordon Brown. The credit crunch will bite, but you most definitely suck!

It was announced today that the unemployment level in the UK has hit an official 1.86 million, thus prompting economists to predict much worse to come in the New Year. These figures make grim reading for those individuals that have been made redundant in recent months and are currently looking for work. The future is not looking bright at the moment and the credit crunch will undoubtedly deepen following the Christmas rush.

Not a week goes by in which more job cuts are announced. Many large and small companies alike have filed for bankruptcy in the recent past, but the figures released today have not taken many of them into account. The 1.86 million figure was based on those claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance in October, which means those that have lost their jobs in November and December will not yet have been taken into account. Neither does it include those people that had been made redundant in September and not completed the 6 week period before they could claim. As such, the figures make the economy look more rosy than it should do.

I recently read that there was no credit crunch on the high street, despite unemployment figures sharply rising. Well, I have two words for you… It’s Christmas! Everyone finds money at Christmas because they have children to feed and buy presents for. They have families to buy for. As such, there is most definitely a credit crunch but it will not hit until January. Unfortunately, the spending now will give way to empty stores and scrimping and saving every single penny. Retail companies will collapse as a result of that and more jobs will be lost so don’t let any government statistics or false dawns fool you. It will get worse. The sooner we all begin to prepare for it the better.

It emerged today that British banks and local authorities have lost millions in one of the biggest Wall Street frauds ever to occur. This is yet another major hit for the banks in the wake of the credit crunch and sees more of the British taxpayer’s money go down the drin. No doubt it is our money that will fill the deficit yet again. I apologise in advance if I’m a little cynical but after recent events and reading the full story below you will see why!

Bernard Madoff (ironically pronounced “made off”, as in made off with our cash!) ran a form of pyramid scheme; a fund which was worth over $50 billion. Nobody stopped to question how it worked but instead bought into the promises that the returns would be huge. Banks like RBS and HSBC bought into the Wall Street fraud scheme and invested, as did Spain’s largest bank, Santander. They had $3.2 billion invested with Madoff. Local authorities also invested in the scheme to boost pension funds. It had been going on for years but as recession began to hit the UK, US and Europe, the intial investors began to withdraw their money and that of other investors was used to fulfil the requests, leaving some investors with nothing at all.

Authorities have lost money ia foreign investing before, when the Icelandic bank Icesave went under. However, at least that was legitimate and not based on an illegal investment!

Although you have to ask how Madoff ever managed to run this fraud scheme as long as he did, you have to also ask what on Earth the banks were doing. This only serves to demonstrate that they do not care whoe money they are gambling with and that they are taking unecessary risks. However, it does go some way to explaining how the UK and US alike managed to get in such economic difficulties in the first place and lays the blame for the recession squarely at their doors.

2009 is undoubtedly going to be a difficult year for everyone, but for everyone in the UK it will be the first of many years that we struggle to get through.  As such, we have every right to be angry with the clowns that invest in such a fund and we also have every right never to trust the banks again. Why should we when they have landed us in such a mess? This must never be allowed to happen again and that starts with the sacking of every individual that bought into the promises Madoff made without first checking his scheme out. Why should hard working people get to live on the breadline whilst these people are raking in salaries whilst flushing our money down the toilet? The answer is simple - they shouldn’t.

With December 1st advancing at a rapid pace now, Christmas is looming on the horizon. I can only imagine how difficult it is going to be for some households to cope with the cost of Christmas given that peope are losing their jobs, struggling to ay energy bills and spending a small fortune on food. Turkeys in my local supermarket, for example, are currently at £50 per bird. That is easily double what one would have cost last year, and then there are the presents.

As such, you may want to begin thinking about the possibility of making some extra money in the next couple of weeks. In fact, if you get into the habit of that now then the likelihood is that you will find it easier to continue making extra cash into the new year. It is a fact that many households will need savings in the coming years and building a little extra up via online surveys, selling stuff on eBay and Amazon, recycling phones through websites that will pay for them and other such sites that purchase goods from you.

Always remember the maxim that your junk is someone else’s treasure. People will look to save money by puchasing used goods on eBay, for example. Similarly, if you are offering an old CD on Amazon that is cheaper than the full priced version then you will make extra cash that way. A few minutes of your time every night will earn you a few extra pennies if you complete surveys.

I make an extra £30 to £50 every month from selling stuff and doing surveys. It isn’t a lot but you could buy a few extra presents with that, epecially if you are committed to sorting and selling old stuff and check your emails every day.

There is an article with plenty of survey sites to be found here to get you started. I also have a money blog that can be found here: Finance Central with other hints and tips on it.

Quote Of The Day - David Cameron stated that the UK has the “…debt levels of Italy and the accounting practices of Enron”. Funny, but oh so true!