Most people in the civilised world see the late Her Schicklgrubber as an evil creature and the prime mover of the bunch of evil creatures that made up Nazi Germany.

At least most SENSIBLE people do, which probably explains why the detestation of the creature is not so widespread amongst the mainstream BNP fraternity and their ilk, but that’s beside the point.

However, travel towards the East and the picture changes. In many places Hitler and all his works are now and increasingly actually venerated.

We had some people around a few weeks ago, friends from way back, who had just come back from working in Pakistan, and the picture that they painted was horrifying.

In Pakistan many ordinary people claim Hitler was a great leader both socially and militarily, and that since Pakistani’s are of the Aryan race as were (according to Adolph) the Germans, there is a natural and genetic bond between the two nations.

Or at least the pure German’s were supposedly Aryans. The tall blond haired blue eyed pale skinned Germans. Funny that, I can’t ever recall seeing a The tall blond haired blue eyed pale skinned Pakistani.

In fact the whole Nazi Aryan thing is a load of crap, and once you encounter the “Thule-Gesellschaft” nonsense and the “Reichshammerbund” and the like it all shows itself up for what it was. A load of “alt Schuster” (old cobblers)

But the fact remains that increasingly in the Middle East the Third Reich is admired and perceived as the West’s great lost opportunity when “The Jew” destroyed a fine thing.

A thing that would have included the welcoming with great joy their lost cousins from a common Aryan ancestry.

A time when Hitler took on the might of the (now often) hated British. and the (always) hated Americans, but were defeated by International Zionism sabotaging the German war machine. Probably best not to mention Spanish ‘flu.

But the Nazis would have welcomed their “lost cousins” with great joy?

Possibly at the prospect of having a suddenly increased source of slave labour.

But of course that’s not how it’s been presented to these new fans of Nazism. No, Nazism was rabidly anti-Semitic, and so MUST be pro-Islamic. My enemies enemy is my friend and all that guff.

But for whatever reason right now Nazi worshiping is on the rise big time in Pakistan and the Middle East. Hitler’s Mein Kampf is on sale all over the place in just about any language you want.

Worryingly now in Germany many of the former Gastarbeiter from Turkey, and especially amongst the second and third generation, are increasingly becoming very Hitler-centric, a thing that I’ve encountered for myself.

The holocaust? Never happened.

The First World War? Lost because of the Jews.

The Second World war? Lost because of the Zionists in America.

Hitler? Very nice man  – at least, in Pakistan.

Thankfully not so in Germany, or amongst sensible people in the rest of Europe —- excluding certain Balkan states of course.

As for Hitler’s seminal work (and THAT can be taken many ways) if you’ve got a PC and you want to read it in Arabic you don’t even need to buy the stupid thing.

You can download it. http://www.fulldownloadshare.com/finder/Adolf+Hitler+-+Mein+Kampf+Arabic.html

Funny old world, billions being spent and countless lives lost and blighted by a waste of time in Afghanistan defending the indefensible, and now the resurgence of what amounts in so many ways to the twentieth century version of what first blighted the world thirteen hundred years ago and still does.

When you think about it the translating the word “kampf” into English isn’t that far removed from one translation of “Jihad”.

So much the same, so obvious the outcome. Death and injury and hurt..

Rog

Ireland is world famous for its linen. No, really, Irish Linen is still regarded as the best in the world.

But it’s said that one should not wash dirty linen in public. Well Ratzinger certainly tried in order to remove a very nasty stain, the shame was that he tried to limit the laundry to Irish linen.

I’m no fan of divine theism of any form, I even consider Richard Dawkins a bit too much of a Creationist by my standards, but then — to each their own.

So putting that to one side the continuing story about institutionalised child abuse in the Roman Catholic church just gets worse and worse as more and more slimes out from under the covers.

Quite apart from who knew what and how long they knew it for, another thing that Benny comes out as being not the innocent he claims to be, there is what was done when the church body faced with a kiddy – fiddling priest in their midst.

Little things such as moving the pedophile priests to pastures new and to altar boys virginal, but worst of all, a thing utterly indefensible and worthy of the very worst Mafia ‘family’ anywhere, was making the abused swear never to disclose what had been done to them.

And that under pain of ex-communication if they ever did. The most dreadful thing that a Roman Catholic person can be threatened with, and threatened they were if they broke the Vatican version of ‘Omertà’.

Jeez, the Mob only took your life if you broke the code of silence, the Vatican threatened to take your eternity.

I got to thinking about this. If a private organisation acted in such a way sooner or later some guy would have the balls and the decency to blow the story.

Not wait for some poor victim eventually to find someone willing to believe the incredible truth.

Then all hell would break out. Everyone involved from the pedophiles through the management team who implemented the perversion of justice right up to the CEO would be arrested and when found guilty start doing some serious jail time with serious issues from other criminals once banged up.

And so they should.

The question then arises where are the calls for Ratzinger the ‘Capo di tutti capi’ and his ‘soldiers’ (might as well use the Mafia terminology, it’s very appropriate) to be brought before at least the European Court of Human Rights? Because sure as eggs is eggs the kids have had their human rights abused, quite apart from their bodies and minds.

Still, it’s all unraveling now so better late than never I guess. Actually thinking about it, no it isn’t. better had it been pinched in the bud and not covered up by The Management.

Now, why IS Hitler so increasingly popular in Pakistan? That’ll have to wait till next time……

Rog

Quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations.

Wonderful things if you’re in government — as a means of passing the buck.

The acronym which can be translated into “a sort of free to do its own thing and not be directly tied to the government or any government minister body” that allows governments to delegate power, responsibility, and self determination from themselves to non elected bodies. Often staffed using the ‘fellow traveler’ principles.

And there’s bloody shed loads of the things. Over twelve hundred, the majority of which New Labour created.

And the vast majority burning up billions of pounds of tax payers money, outside of public scrutiny or control, often of very little real use, (and often none at all) self serving, self fulfilling, and a nice little earner for those involved.

Let’s take a quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation at quasi-random. The East of England Development Agency (EEDA).

I say quasi-random because it’s an outfit that I’ve had dealings with in the past. In reality as much use as an ashtray on bicycle they claim ‘accountability’ because they are reviewed by — you might have guessed, two other QANGO’s.

The EEDA is an expensive utter waste of tax payers money. It creates more obstacles than it ever tries to deal with, and could and should be replaced by having Chambers of Commerce and local councils deal with regional business and social matters, and the remainder put under civil service resourcing with DIRECT reporting via the civil service chain to an elected minister who would be responsible for what was being done.

And that paragraph can and should be applied to all QANGO’s with the exception of the hundreds that serve no useful purpose whatsoever, they should be shut down forthwith.

OK, I understand that the lack of knowledge, experience, and simple intellectual capacity in government ministers, especially Labour ministers all too often selected for purely political reasons, means that the talent simply isn’t there to do the job in the useless SOB’s in spite of them being elected to do it.

I also understand that the Civil Service has been so dumbed down under Blair in order to replace knowledgeable and experienced and capable permanent secretaries and senior managers with ‘yes’ men that the talent that was there to do what these unelected undemocratic bodies that do the real governing of Britain now do has been largely lost.

But that doesn’t mean that what has been put in its place is right, is democratic, is doing what needs to be done, or is answerable to politicians.

Nor that they’re not a horrible waste and drain on taxes, or that they’re executing a series of programs unwanted by or in the best interest of the majority of British people.

No matter which political party is elected to govern the UK in the general election the abolition of QANGO’s really should be a priority matter. Not only because of the horrendous waste, nor because of the close to one MILLION people employed in mostly useless make-work, but to restore direct responsibility to elected politicians.

There’s more than money involved, there’s more than just responsibility, there’s the matter of policy making and policy execution that is now taking place by unelected people, often selected because of their ideologies, prejudices and personal objectives — and that simply ain’t right.

In conclusion here’s a lovely quote that sums up so much that is so foul about QANGO’s. It’s from an article in The Independent Newspaper in which John Walsh wrote :-

“Was it right, I hear Ms Squire enquire, for the Learning and Skills Council to wave cheques totaling £400,000 of public funds to sign up Konnie Huq and Richard Bacon, former Blue Peter hosts, and Jill Halfpenny from Strictly Come Dancing, to represent them?

I don’t see why not. After all, Ms Halfpenny had to employ considerable amounts of imaginative learning and skills when she left EastEnders to learn to pose in tight basques and scanty black pants for the lads’ magazines.

And Mr Bacon, after he was fired from children’s TV for snorting cocaine, clearly must have utilised a great deal of skill in getting another job with the Corporation and keeping it. “

Know what? You can’t give the boy wrong when he’s right.

Rog

There’s a huge brouhaha starting up around cuts to government borrowing. In essence cuts are seen as being potentially damaging to ‘economic recovery’. Well guess what. Damage to the British economy is precisely what is needed.

An economy that is not self sustaining is not a good thing, especially as the fundamentals behind the economy are all to pot.

Now GB is not the only country to be in this deplorable condition, the US is another and actually the root cause of most of the whole sorry mess ever since the US broke the link between the US$ and Gold in the early 70’s precisely because the US economy had gone rancid, but that’s history.

So cuts in government — and also private spending are actually essential as is a severe decline in Britain’s GDP. Growth in GDP is precisely what is NOT required in a get-well, or even a survive-relatively-unscathed, plan.

It’s bad news, a bit like your doctor telling you that even though there’s a great new Deli just opened you’ve got to loose weight, and for you the Atkins diet is out.

So what cuts should be introduced? One very good place to start is with Government spending.

The amount spent by the DHSS to start with is horrendous and worse, the linking of the Health Service with Social Security results in it being very difficult to see what is being spent on health care and what is being given away as government hand out’s.

A breakup of the DHSS into a Department of Health and a separate Department of Social Security would be a damm good start to everything.

Then there’s the QANGO’s (Quasi Autonomous Non Governmental Organisations to you) and a wonderful means of passing the buck by governments they are, especially when the government has no talent in its ranks.

New Labour have expanded the number of QANGO’s quite amazingly and now there’s over 1200 of the horrible things eating up tax payers money, managed by non-elected people making decisions that in most cases should involve political responsibility yet do not, and each one hell bent on promoting their first objective — justifying their continued existence.

But more on QANGO’s next time, right now let’s look at cuts that should be made and let’s start with pensions.

Not the state age related pension, though that’s one that I firmly believe should be abandoned and replaced with means tested support based on individual needs and resources, but instead public service pensions.

Similarly free travel for qualifying groups. Why? It’s a perq that can no longer be afforded. End it, or at the very least means test it.

Pensions? In my opinion there should be an absolute pension cap on all public service pensions from senior judge to filing clerk of twenty thousand pounds a year.

Politicians? Twenty grand tops. Military men? Twenty grand tops, and in all cases an end to terminal bonuses especially for politicians.

The reasons are twofold. Firstly the public service pensions liability is a black hole that unless addressed will eat up billions of tax payers money or worse result in billions of more debt needing to be taken on by the country. The second is that the nation simply can’t afford to pay more.

Then there’s the UK pension Protection Fund. A Government fund that pays out when occupational pensions go bust. It sounds and is nice, your employer goes bust, the pension scheme he set up goes bust, and the Government (aka tax payers and further government debt) pays you your pension.

Well guess what. It’s unaffordable. It should be closed down right away. Let those in need be assessed, and their needs made up by means tested social security payments, thgose not in need get whatever is left in any private pension funds when they go bust.

Look, life’s tough. It will have to happen, what has been was nice, but now is unaffordable.

The list of necessary cuts is almost never ending from maternity allowance to funeral grant ALL should be at the very least severely curtailed if not abandoned.

Cuts? How about people paying for more.

To start with there really should be a payment made for NHS treatment. It could be a thing like prescription charges where there are a number of cases where there is no charge, and it could include charges for other NHS delivered provisions such as accommodation costs when in hospital.

Like I wrote, what was, is no longer affordable.

People may try to use the argument that they have been ‘paying in for years’ as a justification for continued ‘freebies’. Wrong. They have been paying each year for THAT year. End of. The game’s changed.

Prisoner charges. Why should those attending University be required to pay yet prisoners not be billed for their food and accommodation and dealt with in a similar manner to the way that Student debt is managed? Could be — should be.

And of course workfare. It is a sin that has not been brought in long ago.

Taxes? Let’s look at that area shortly. To start with VAT on everything and with a top rate of 33% for luxury goods and services..

And that is just the start. These things will have to be done. The question then is what will be the consequences.

We live in increasingly interesting times, even those insulated from what will be the worst of the changes will have to face up to a new reality. One that is affordable.

Rog

Yes, we do have both!

That delight of Tony Blair, Moammar Gadhafi, leader of a nation that not only redefines democracy, but also human rights (no, really, check out the Cairo Convention on Human Rights) has called for a “jihad” against Switzerland, which he called an “infidel state” that was “destroying mosques”.

Destroying mosques?

The darned things are springing up everywhere. There’s hardly an Alp these days without at least one skulking away in its shadow, and as for destroying them, I fail to see why objecting to the ‘in your face’ minaret’s (soon to be followed no doubt by the horrible caterwauling ‘azhan’ by some promoter of a pre-medieval thing utterly out of place especially in Switzerland) could be classed as destroying mosques.

But Blair’s mate didn’t leave it at that.

“Any Muslim in any part of the world who works with Switzerland is an apostate, is against Mohammad, God and the Koran,”

“The masses of Muslims must go to all airports in the Islamic world and prevent any Swiss plane landing, to all harbors and prevent any Swiss ships docking, inspect all shops and markets to stop any Swiss goods being sold,”

And why. No, why REALLY.

It’s about loss of face.

One of Moammar’s kids beat seven bells out of two of their servants while they were staying at a Swiss hotel. The police were called by the hotel management, statements were taken, and Moammar’s lad and his misses were banged up’

Long time THAT lasted for those who can and do use diplomatic immunity as a get out of jail of anything card, so out they came.

In short order the victims then wished to withdraw all charges after money had changed hands and in many places that would have been it.

Not here.

The Swiss don’t work that way. If there’s been an assault the law takes its course and the guilty pay.

So Moammar’s brat and his better half (any half would be a better half in his case) did a runner.

Thing is it’s not as if it was a first offence.

In 2005, the lad was busted in Paris for allegedly assaulting his ‘compagnon de nuit’ in a hotel, and in addition several times the police nabbed him for speeding at the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, hardly a place to speed at the best of times.

So not content with the shame of having his kid exposed acting as a thug in a civilised country Moammar then had two Swiss nationals arrested in Libya on trumped up (and patently so) charges, demanding compensation for the ‘insult’ of having his thug son busted. He even wanted the police who were just doing their job prosecuted for — just doing their job. Dealing with an uncivilized thug.

What’s more he then soon after formally demanded in the UN that Switzerland should be dismantled and split between the ‘Erics’, the Austrians, and the Italians.

Blair’s friend.

Rog

Sutcliffe (AKA The Yorkshire Ripper) is seeking to have a limit placed on his life sentence for murdering at least 13 women so that he can get back into society. And of course at the Tax Payers expense and supported by Blair’s Human Rights legislation.

There’s even a school of thought that Sutcliffe’s conviction for murder may be wrong, and that he should have been detained on the basis that he was mentally ill at the time of his conviction so reducing the charges to manslaughter at most if at all.

Sutcliffe, an HGV driver, targeted prostitutes in his campaign against a thing he found offensive and subsequently claimed he was on a mission from God. But in my opinion probably only when he saw such a claim as a ticket to ‘soft time’ in Broadmoor ‘hospital’ for the criminally insane rather than in jail where he was subject to summery justice from decent honest criminals.

When I read the news item it reminded me of the fairly recent case of another serial killer from Ipswich who had a downer on ‘Brass’. Another HGV driver though at the time of his (known) killing spree employed as a fork lift truck driver. Investigations into other killings he may have been involved in continue —.

And not just the UK, In the US a truck driver name of Mendenhall, was arrested in Nashville at the same interstate truck stop where 25-year-old Sara Hulbert had been found fatally shot and then admitted to murdering an additional five people.

Closer to home HGV driver Volker Eckert was arrested in Cologne 2006 after an alleged six-year killing spree across the continent. This time the number of victims is at least five — and counting.

And those are just some of many where job and ‘oddness’ go hand in hand.

Remember Jeremy Clarkson with his infamous quip about HGV driving ‘You’ve got to change gear, change gear, change gear, check mirror… murder a prostitute. Change gear, change gear. That’s a lot of effort in a day.’ ?

Maybe he inadvertently identified a worrying connectivity between HGV driving and mental instability, because even a casual tranche of the ‘net comes up with what looks like a cluster of statistics linking HGV driving with odd behaviour to say the least.

Could it be the hours of constant vibration from the road and engine being conducted through the seat to the brain thus causing brain damage? Could it be the sense of superiority that so many seem to develop maybe from driving a large vehicle amongst much smaller ones? That is possible even though in reality driving an HGV requires little more than being semi skilled rather than skilled or professional in the real meaning of the word. Or that stress and fatigue play a role?

Whatever,

Whether some people seem to think that because they are semi skilled sufficiently to drive a wagon, the size of the thing relative to other road users makes up for their deficiencies in other dimensions, and behave accordingly in the same way a ‘yob’ thinks his Pit Bull makes him a man.

Or the possibility that hours ‘in the saddle’ does cause brain damage as a result of RSI conducted through the spine, there does seem to be a correlation between HGV driving and abnormal behaviour and human relationships.

From bullying on and off the road to becoming pure unadulterated psychopaths there does seem to be more than a coincidental association between the job and the people who do it. Not an absolute one to one correspondence perhaps, but certainly indications of a correlation.

Some research has been conducted including that by the University of Queensland in Australia which shows a correlation between HGV driving and mental health (should that be ill health) but the findings are inconclusive as to the precise cause of such ill health and the form it takes, just that there is a correlation.

Sutcliffe? If he IS ‘cured’ then send him back to ‘proper’ prison and throw away the key say I.

Rog

As I’ve said in the past I do avoid commenting on Israel because it is such an emotional issue involving so many fixed ideas and raw bigotry from all quarters but in spite of that sometimes, just sometimes ——-

There’s a concentrated push taking place in Afghanistan. In my opinion it shouldn’t be taking place for a shed load of reasons but let’s leave that as it is.

What I DO note is that the action that is taking place has one unavoidable similarity with what took place in Operation Cast Lead against Hamas terrorists who had spent years attacking Israel.

Not that the Taliban had been lobbing bombs at the UK let alone America, that would have at least provided some justification, but in the nature of the fighting that is taking place and the tactics being employed.

Take the recent incident where a house was struck by a rocket and several kids were killed.

At first it was ‘spun’ by interested parties that it was a rogue missile, but now it emerges the house was deliberately targeted as it was being used as a firing point by the Taliban and the presence of civilians in the building was unknown.

One really does have to ask why this incident is being reported as an “accident” whereas when the same thing was taking place in Gaza it was being reported as a “war crime”.

And this is not one solitary incident. Use of civilians, some willingly, some under duress as human shields is commonplace in Afghanistan as it was in Gaza and yet —- when a soldier is facing a guy with an AK47 and a woman and child as a shield what is he expected to do? Stand there and be shot?

And when a Taliban becomes a civilian by discretely dropping his weapon as is happening, and as repeatedly happened in Gaza.

And when even after warning the Taliban that an attack was imminent they kept their shields who’s the guilty party? It depends if it’s being done in Gaza or Afghanistan apparently.

Funny how perception changes how a thing looks.

Rog

The British Government sank to a new low with the 2008 finance act which included retrospective anti tax-avoidance legislation

Not anti tax evasion legislation, that would have proved too difficult to enforce, but anti tax avoidance. That thing whereby perfectly legitimate means exist to minimise tax liability.

It has resulted in some situations whereby anyone who had used existing legislation to avoid the punitive taxation imposed by HMG is now subject to a tax demand for taxes that were not due when the existing legislation. and prosecution if they didn’t cough up.

Even though they have paid all then taxes due under the law at the time and have done nothing illegal.

If that’s not theft by HMG then I’m a Dutchman.

In a recent test case a self-employed IT consultant (not me!) brought a test case against the retrospective application of the law claiming that it breached his human rights.

But the inglorious —- whatever —– Mr Justice Kenneth Parker, sitting in London, ruled the backdating of demands was ‘in the relevant circumstances proportionate’ and did not breach human rights.

So what ARE the relevant circumstances that allow theft to be undertaken by a Government? Desperation? Playing to an audience? Diverting attention? Window dressing?

Certainly the sum involved is so trivial in the overall scheme of things, and such draconian and morally WRONG measures as the use of a retrospective law are totally indefensible by any standards.

In the particular case where an appeal was being made by the victim the judge went on to say that the fact that the government had not carried out an assessment ‘of how individual taxpayers might be affected financially’ could not affect the proportionality of the retrospective legislation.

In this test case the at the time LEGAL and LEGITIMATE and moreover entirely MORALLY JUST tax avoidance arrangements had saved the guy who had challenged the ruling around £85 grand in income tax over seven years, a trivial one grand a month.

And why should he not have done so? The law was there to be used, he used it. Nothing more, he did nothing wrong, and yet now he and thousands of others will have their bank accounts burgled by the British government.

Retrospective legislation is a terribly dangerous weapon for a government to introduce. It should be used only in the most extreme cases and usually only where injury to a person has taken place.

It should NEVER be used in issues such as this.

This disgusting action by HMG will result in around 3,000 people being hammered, many will end up loosing their livelihoods, homes and probably families in spite of having done nothing wrong and paid all the taxes due.

And all for a total of around 200 million pounds in what can only be described as a thing beyond a stealth tax, this is a theft tax.

Some people wonder why entrepreneurs and the like have been leaving the UK in droves and are now doing at an ever increasing rate. Talk about killing the goose.

I’m hearing mutterings that even Unilever, one of the VERY few remaining Blue Chip British companies are seriously looking at if, how, and when to ‘up sticks’ and move out of the UK and they are one of many.

Now I see another story has hit the headlines. A man who meets the Treasury requirement about being absent from the UK for the requisite number of days per year is being lumbered with a huge tax bill —- because a court has found that he fails to meet the ‘spirit’ of not having the UK as his home. This in spite of having his home and principle abode in the Seychelles and having done so for decades.

So that’s it then. Play by the rules and still loose out. And people still wonder why in spite of being ‘illegal’ tax evasion is so preferable to tax avoidance.

At least in the case of the former you don’t get taxed for obeying the law.

My God, what has New Labour done?

Rog

Especially when they expect others to pay for them. For a variety of reasons the Greek economy is in one hell of a mess.

Not least is seemingly uncontrolled government largesse to the population in the expectation that the other Eurozone countries would rally round and underwrite the Greek governments generosity in an attempt to buy popularity, and more than a little speculation by Greek banks and other financial institutions who saw an opportunity to ride the wave.

One particularly dodgy activity, even in a buoyant and safe economy is the so called ‘Repo’ Market* that the banks have increasingly been playing in. That’s what’s going to sink ‘em without government intervention, and government intervention won’t be allowed to happen.

The response to this potential catastrophe has been serious concern within the Euro Powerhouse nations, and a growing determination to let the Greek banks fail, and on top of that to insist that the Greek government curtail spending on social services even to the extent of parachuting in people to force the Greek government to make these much needed cuts.

In fact Greece is facing what Britain faced some time ago, but unlike Britain being able to pass on the debt to future generations in order for Blubberer Brown not to be shown up as the incompetent cretin he is, the Greek government are to be brought to book by the European Central Bank.

The people who will suffer are of course the Greek public, but as they have been living ‘high on the hog’ as a result of their lousy government and delusional state as a result of their government refusing to admit the true situation, it seems only fair that those who ate the meal should pay the waiter.

Unlike in Britain and the US where the people who have eaten the meal are passing the waiter’s bill to their kids, grandkids, and even further down the line as a result of the dishonesty of their governments.

But it’s not just Greece. The EU PIGS group (Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain) are all in the same mess created by governments spending what they don’t have and their populations being encouraged to do the same.

The effect has been to see the Euro fall against the standard Basket of Currencies because of this weakness in the PIGS states. (forget the US$, that’s based on vapour-wealth)

Now it might be expected that a fall in the Euro would see a rise in Sterling against it, but actually because it’s the expectation amongst the Money Men is that the UK will soon be joining the Eurozone, and that option provides the safety net for Sterling, (nothing else does) a fall in the Euro is also a fall for Sterling.

The Dollar?

Dead man walking. China will soon see to that.

And there’s no Bretton Woods town in China, nor any Mount Washington Hotel in China, nor any desire to establish either in the near future.

(Google ‘Bretton Woods’ to see how things were sorted out last time a situation of this magnitude was taking place)

* The Repo Market

• The ‘Repo’ Market. It works like this. I own a bond, an IOU issued by a third party. I want money. I ‘sell’ this bond to another person with the promise to buy it back after a short period plus interest.

• With the cash I get I ‘buy’ a bond from someone else for a short time on the basis HE will buy it back from me with interest.

• End of time he buys his bond back with interest, I buy MY bond back paying interest but I’ve charged MORE interest than I’ve paid for mine – unless the economy is on the up and up it will eventually fall like a house of cards. It’s one reason why a growth economy is so vital to banks and bankers.

As for ‘hedge funds’, so popular in the UK in the past, were being dealt with in a way that was let us simply say cavalier. Recent changes in the international law as well as European law will see their ability to provide a significant income to the UK treasury disappear as will many of the loop holes and nefarious activities that London were allowed (encouraged) to engage in. So there’s another source of income that was being used to enable the export market of real exports to be ignored and with it the UK real manufacturing sector under NuLabour and Brown’s dreadful mismanagement.

Just look out for recession Mk.2.

It’s now well on its way and it will make recession Mk.1 look like a hiccup.

Rog

(With apologies to Martin Niemöller)

Not content with creating an environment is which banks and bankers did what any businessman would do – maximise profits and shareholder value – Brown then set about penalising those who had earned, yes EARNED what he presented as excessive commission payments by introducing punitive taxation and so disincentives the very people best placed to speed recovery of the banking sector.

Not only that but it puts the skids under UK based banks who are now in the process up upping sticks and moving to places where the best performing employees are NOT treated as pariahs and so yet another reason to bail out of the UK.

And believe me, they are.

But now the next bit of window dressing insanity. The Treasury is about to start a purge that initially deliberately targets the medical profession in the UK. The intent is to threaten and cajole medical staff who have undeclared and so untaxed earnings.

The proposal is that if a person has earned a few quid ‘cash in hand’ and has not declared it, if they do so by the end of March they’ll simply have to pay it plus a 10% ‘penalty’. After the end of this so called amnesty if they do not ‘come clean’ — and get found out they will be prosecuted.

It strikes me that since the UK is finding it hard enough to get medical professionals to work in the UK in the first place for a whole raft of reasons, to now engage in a pogrom against those who do work in the UK is bordering on lunacy.

In both cases there is a better way.

In the case of the government created banking free-for-all in which the government collaborated in bilking the market a tightening up of regulations would more than have resolved the problems caused by letting foxes run wild in the hen coop.

In the case of some medical professionals trousering cash one very obvious solution would have been to make payments for private medical care tax deductible and so prevented what really is a chicken feed tax leakage in the first place.

But of course because neither solution would have satisfied the government created public demand for blood, nor would they have the same ‘umami’ that presenting a simple solution to a complex problem offers to the vast majority of the general public, who of course fail entirely to see that the solutions offered actually create other problems.

In both the banking and the medical profession huge problems for the country, and far more damaging than which is claimed to being fixed.

Sheesh. What a shower.

Rog