Something for those who depend upon their savings

David Cameron announced a specific approach today that will help those who depend upon their savings. Once upon a time if he put forward a useful idea the then Chancellor would pinch it. For savers sake I hope the current Chancellor will pinch this one.

Woolworth,Wedgewood and Waterford..Happy New Year?

Our local Woolies closed its doors for the last time twelve days ago. Pontefract has another space to fill on the Market Place. Nationally we are hearing of more and more organsiations in financial peril and this morning the parent of Waterford and Wedgewood are looking at options. Whatever else we will face in 2009 we will see some of our best known names slip away, either as a result of financial failure,takeover or mergers. Hopefully we will see things get better before to long.

Well I may be in Christmas mood but...

I know I just unveiled Christmas wishes but then I made the mistake of checking Inspector Gadget's blog to discover that one in five murders are committed by a person who is already bailed for other offences, read his article and follow this link to the Daily Telegraph for more information.

I am told that crime is falling......

A Happy Christmas to you!

In these times of trouble and challenge I would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and I hope that 2009 works as well as it can for you.

For those who know and those who doubt, Santa is on his way, track his progress at this page.

Just what have we got ourselves into?

Well actually, Alastair and Gordo are doing stuff all by themselves, though our MP the Minister can be seen just behind Alastair when he made his prebudget speech there are a variety of video clips here and for those who would like to study the documents here.

For the moment we don't get to have a say but it seems likely that we will see a general election in 2009 before the new tax regimes really start to kick in in 2010. By which point it will be already to late.

Yes I mean you...
And me and every other tax payer and the Chancellor and his boss are going to get you to pay that back in coming years.

George Osborne has an alternate view about Darling's plans here.

An eventful 50 Days

29th September First full day of the Conservative party conference. A really good chance for us to get together and compare notes, catch up with old friends and see many of the parties key people.

But at the same time the economy was tightening up, in Yorkshire we were seeing the HBOS impact at Halifax, and the Bradford and Bingley and closer to home that one of the Castleford's employers Pioneer has announced its own plant closure in 2009.

There is clearly trouble ahead...



Jump forward 50 days. The British economy is facing huge challenges, left unprepared by our Labour Government who missed opportunities over ten years to fix our leaky economy, with its record borrowing and strange approaches to lending that have put many would be home owners into negative equity.

Clearly we are facing global tremors that have wiped away a number of major financial names. Whole countries have effectively faced bankruptcy and Iceland has gone beyond that into unknown territory.

Enter the Chancellor with his pre-budget statement. Well Andrew Allison sums things up nicely here.

And Tony Sharp quotes Derek Simpson, General Secretary of Union UNITE here.

The sad thing is that Alastair Darling seems to be setting things up for a flash election in Spring 2009 and a stream of new taxes in 2010.