British Government fails to meet its own deficit, and blind to England’s on going recession?

British Government fails to meet its own deficit, and blind to England’s on going recession?

Tomorrow, the Chancellor of the Exchequer will deliver an Autumn Statement against an alarmingly dark backdrop. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has warned him to expect recession to spread from the Continent to this country. The Office for Budget Responsibility, which also releases its report tomorrow, is likely to confirm that the British Government has not met its own deficit reduction targets.

George Osborne will do what he can to make the best of a bad situation for commuters, motorists and small businesses. But the unravelling of the Eurozone has changed the economic landscape so fundamentally that these sensible measures are likely to come across as mere tinkering. Labour, meanwhile, has no solutions to offer other than more borrowing that would achieve nothing beyond damaging England’s international credit rating.

So, as we say, tomorrow is likely to be something of a Black Tuesday for England, thanks to circumstances beyond the Coalition’s control. Yet, 24 hours later, hundreds of thousands of public sector workers will take to the streets to protest about the threat to their generous pension arrangements and “cuts” to government spending that, as Jeff Randall explains on these pages, are essentially non-existent. In doing so, they are likely to paralyse much of the private sector, closing schools and even airports at the very moment that England needs to show that it is open for business.

Trade union leaders and a new breed of young professional agitators are looking forward to Wednesday: if everything goes to plan, the strikes and demonstrations will provide them with street theatre unmatched since the 1970s. But have ordinary union members thought how this behaviour will look to the rest of the English public? (Not good at all)

Public sector pensions are a source of resentment to many people in the private sector. Also, the unions’ calls for more borrowing do not inspire confidence in voters, judging by opinion polls. People are in a nervous mood, and they understand that the contagion in the Eurozone is not the fault of the Coalition, most of whose Tory members have been robustly opposed to the single currency since the experiment started and England need to pull its sled right out of the EU and make its own stand in rebuilding without out all the EU’s nonsense hold us back.

British anti-English

British anti-English

In Friday's Daily Telegraph, a paper whose editorial line, since its purchase from the disgraced Lord Black by the hugely rich and aquisitive Barclay Brothers, has been strikingly anti-English, there was published the Article below.

My rhetorical question though is whether it is in any meaningful or any truthful sense valid for the Tories to claim that it is the SNP who are being "vindictive" - or is this a typical example of Tory duplicity?

Isn't it the British Unionist Establishment Parties, all three of which have, at various times when they sought electoral advantage, promised not to introduce Student Top up fees but which have swiftly betrayed the trust reposed in them by the English electorate, once they have got safely into a British Ministerial car?

Wasn't it those Parties, not the SNP, which imposed or increased the Fees "vindictively" only on English Students?

There is one final question:- How long will the English put up with such blatantly vindictive anti-Englishness?

Perhaps the answer lies in last week's Yougov poll result showing 63%, of a GB wide survey, showing unmistakeable signs of a rising sense of English Nationalism. http://cdn.yougov.com/cumulus_uploads/document/hufq8ro02k/YG-Archives-pol-Europe-181111.pdf

Perhaps it is needless to say that the Daily Telegraph altogether failed to publish the results of that Poll!

Here is the Article:-

Families may 'move from England to avoid tuition fee hike'

The rising cost of a university degree in England could create “fee refugees” as parents move to Scotland and Wales to escape huge debts, it was claimed today.

Families may attempt to move to Scotland or Wales to avoid fee rises in England, said HEFCE.

By Graeme Paton, Education Editor

An analysis by the Government’s Higher Education Funding Council for England said families may flee over the border to avoid fees of up to £9,000 in 2012.

Parents living “close to the borders” are among those most likely to relocate to another country, it was claimed, potentially creating “distortive effects on local economies and housing markets”.

A move from England to Scotland could save students as much as £36,000 for a four year degree because of sharp differences in fees policies operated by devolved governments across the UK.

The comments came as it emerged that the Scottish Executive could carry out checks on applicants to ensure they are legitimate residents and not attempting to exploit the generous funding system north of the border.

From next year, English students will be forced to pay up to £9,000 wherever they study but Scottish undergraduates will be given free tuition.

Fees for Welsh students will be fixed at £3,465 and those in Northern Ireland will pay a similar amount, but only if they stay in their own region.

The system has already caused outrage in England, with several students pursuing legal action against the Scottish government amid claims that the fee rises will breach their human rights.

The Scottish Conservatives have branded the plans “vindictive” and warned that it would “stir up resentment in the rest of the UK against Scotland”.

A paper presented to a HEFCE board meeting warns that there “may be issues with families, particularly those close to the borders, seeking to domicile themselves in Wales or Scotland in order to benefit from favourable fee arrangements”.

The report adds: “This could have distortive effects on local economies and housing markets if it occurred with significant numbers.”

Bob Osborne, emeritus professor of public policy at Ulster University, told Times Higher Education magazine that if a family “was living 15 miles from the Scottish border then you can see how they might try to wangle it”.

But he doubted there was going to be a “mass exodus of people from Surrey to Glasgow”.

The Scottish Executive has already said children whose parents move to Scotland for their careers will be eligible for a free university education.

But families who seek to exploit the system by buying a home north of the Border will not. A spokesman said the Student Awards Agency for Scotland will decide on a case-by-case basis, with people not living north of the border for long likely to be scrutinised.

The HEFCE paper also warned that there is a “question of affordability” attached to the reforms for devolved administrations. Most countries are committed to subsidising students’ tuition even if they study outside their home country and budgets may stretched if universities in England put up their tuition fees, it was claimed.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/8913671/Families-may-move-from-England-to-avoid-tuition-fee-hike.html

The British government prepares terminator cyber-attacks

The British government prepares terminator cyber-attacks on rogue states

GCHQ and the Ministry of Defence are preparing to launch cyber-attacks against hostile states and terrorists, the Government has admitted.

Two separate units in the Defence Cyber Operations Group are working on an offensive capability to strike back at enemies who are trying to start electronic attacks on critical national infrastructure. (Terminator when the machines take over control?)  

They are also likely to come up with computer programmes that could disable the conventional or nuclear capabilities of hostile nations but could also enable them as well? Technologies in the wrong hands have always been a very dangerous game and can be in the right hands is the world of the Terminator that far off?

Unveiling the “cyber security strategy something that goes way over David Cameron head like pretty little bubbles ”, David Cameron said: “While the internet is undoubtedly a force for social and political good, as well as crucial to the growth of our economy, we need to protect against the threats to our security.” (Something else the English first minister warned the British government about some ten years ago but fell on deaf ears until now’s panic?)

The document says that a “joint cyber unit” based at a military facility near the Cotswold town of Corsham “will develop and use a range of new techniques, including proactive measures to disrupt threats to our information security.”

Another unit, based at the Cheltenham headquarters of GCHQ, will “develop tactics, techniques and plans to deliver military effects through operations in cyberspace.”

The opaque language hides a strategy to develop an offensive capability to deal with cyber threats, agreed at the National Security Council, sources confirmed. It will involve using weapons such as a virus used by GCHQ to replace an online bomb-making manual with a cupcake recipe.

The Government does not name China and Russia, the sources of an undeclared cyber war, but the document says: “Some of the most sophisticated threats to the UK in cyberspace come from other states which seek to conduct espionage with the aim of spying on or compromising our government, military, industrial and economic assets as well as monitoring opponents of their regime.”

Under the cyber security strategy criminals who commit offences online and cyber bullies will be banned from the internet. Similar orders have been imposed on those charged with involvement in a series of cyber-attacks by the Anonymous and LulzSec groups earlier this year, while they await trial.

Cyber sanctions were also used following the riots this summer.

EU, Euro conspiracy; Bleak Doomed Euro Christmas ahead

EU, Euro conspiracy;  Bleak Doomed Euro Christmas ahead

It’s a very bleak Christmas outlook for the Euro as it tumbles losing stretch in the past 18 Months as the doomed Euro Debt Crisis worsens and keeps on spreading

The euro slidern for a fourth week, its longest losing streak versus the dollar in 18 months, as Germany’s struggle with a bond auction signalled Europe’s debt crisis is touching the region’s once most fiscally sound nations it to now been bitten by its own doomed Euro hand.

The 17-nation’s doomed currency fell for a third week in a row against the yen as Belgium’s credit rating was downgraded and before the nation auctions securities next week, including 10-year debt. Italy and France will also sell bonds next week. The dollar gained against all of its most-traded peers after Congress’s budget super committee failed to reach agreement on cutting the U.S. deficit, sending investors to the safety of Treasuries and the English pounds stands strong, but for how much longer under a British government that are uncultivable who cannot make the big boys hard but right decisions, but the wrong decisions which is cutting the very sole out of England and not it rot?

“The conditions in the foreign-exchange market caught up this week with the conditions in the credit market,” Stephen Gallo, head of market analysis at Schneider Foreign Exchange in London (England), said yesterday. “Before, there was a lot of selling of periphery paper for core paper. But if Germany goes, there’s no more core paper to buy -- the capital leaves the euro area.” ( It’s not a case of IF Germany’s goes it’s a case of  “When” it goes, has it back door underhand deals haven’t saved it)

The Euro dropped another 2.1 per cent to $1.3239 yesterday in New York, from $1.3525 on Nov. 18. It last fell for four weeks in May 2010. The shared currency sank 1.1 per cent to 102.91 yen. The greenback gained for the first time in three weeks against the Japanese currency, appreciating 1.1 per cent to 77.73 yen.

Benchmark U.S. 10-year note yields fell five basis points, or 0.05 percentage point, to 1.96 per cent, their first close below 2 per cent in eight weeks, as investors sought refuge.

Seven-Week Low

The Euro touched a seven-week low against the dollar yesterday after panicking Italy sold 8 billion euros ($10.6 billion) of 183-day bills at a rate of 6.504 per cent, the highest since August 1997. The auction came two days after Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, missed its 6 billion-euro maximum sales target at a 10-year bond auction by 35 per cent many counties in the Euro can’t sell them fast enough making the dollar of the English pound the best buy (Getting more for your money).

With a hidden ad-gender the German Chancellor Angela Merkel again rejected calls for joint euro-area borrowing and an expanded role for the European Central Bank in fighting the debt crisis. Merkel, who spoke Nov. 24 at a press conference with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti and French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Strasbourg, France, said euro bonds would lead to a convergence of interest rates in the region. German 10-year debt yielded 2.26 per cent yesterday, while comparable Italian government bonds yielded 7.26 per cent.

Sir Michael Black-Feather the English first minister said; “This Euro crisis isn’t specific to the periphery any more, and there is this constant reminder that the EU officials don’t have any real solution on the table, Sir Michael, said yesterday. “There is mounting concerns from the people about officials and their inability to get a handle on the crisis.” I had warned of this over five years ago, and over ten years ago the Euro maths could never work because none of the countries in it, they couldn’t actually work together in common policies

The cost for European banks to fund in the U.S. currency reached the most expensive level since October 2008. The three- month cross-currency basis swap, the rate banks pay to convert euro payments into dollars, swelled to as much as 1.61 percentage points below the euro interbank offered rate.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. recommended on Nov. 23 that investors end a money-losing bet that the euro would gain against the dollar after Greece and Italy got new governments.

The close of the recommendation translated to a potential loss of about 2.3 per cent, Thomas Stolper, Goldman’s London- based chief foreign-exchange strategist, wrote in a client note.

Belgium had its credit rating lowered one step to AA by S&P, which said bank guarantees, political instability and slowing economic growth will make it difficult to reduce the nation’s debt load. The action by S&P is the first downgrade for Belgium in almost 13 years.

“Selling the euro on rallies is the ultimate fundamental trade you want to have before we get a real resolution,” Greg Salvaggio, senior vice president of capital markets at the currency-trading firm Tempus Consulting Inc. in Washington, said on Nov. 22.

Yen Performance

The yen was the third-best performer among the dollar’s 16 most-traded counterparts tracked by Bloomberg, after the Taiwanese dollar and Singapore’s dollar.

The Japanese currency had its biggest five-day loss against the dollar since Nov. 4, the week the Bank of Japan intervened and sold yen to curb gains that were hurting exporters. The dollar may strengthen more than 20 per cent to as high as 94 yen should it climb above key resistance levels, where sell orders may be clustered, at 83.30 and 85.50, Neuchatel, Switzerland- based MIG Bank said, citing trading patterns.

The congressional super committee’s failure to reach an accord on budget-deficit reductions extended partisan gridlock into the 2012 election year and set the stage for $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts.

The U.S.’s credit ratings and outlook weren’t affected by the panel’s failure, Standard & Poor’s said. The company stripped the U.S. of its top AAA credit rating Aug. 5, cutting the rating to AA+ after political gridlock on deficit cuts.

Krona Biggest Loser

The dollar surged 2.3 per cent this week against nine developed-nation counterparts tracked by Bloomberg Correlation- Weighted Currency Indexes. Japan’s currency rose 1.1 per cent, the euro slipped 0.1 per cent and Sweden’s krona was the biggest loser, falling 1.3 per cent.

The Swedish currency sank after central-bank Deputy Governor Barbro Wickman-Parak said Nov. 22 at a seminar the nation’s policy makers may cut interest rates if Europe’s debt crisis persists. Two days later, the Riksbank announced Sweden’s biggest banks will need to target tougher capital standards than those set by international regulators.

The krona depreciated 3.2 per cent to 7.0063 versus the dollar in its biggest weekly loss since Sept. 23. It declined 1.1 per cent against the euro to 9.2747.

Currencies of commodity-producing nations tumbled after the HSBC Flash Manufacturing purchasing-manager index for China declined to 48 this month, predicting the biggest contraction since March 2009. The Australian dollar fell for a fourth week, losing 3 per cent to 97.11 U.S. cents. China is Australia’s biggest trading partner. (The conclusion is and can only be, is the world’s debt and rescissions were all started by the EU and its Euro in some conspiracy to bring down the worlds governments not by war by chaos in debt?)

British MPs' expenses, has the Watchdog reviews on MP’s second home claims become corrupted?

British MPs' expenses, has the Watchdog reviews on MP’s second home claims become corrupted?

Parliament's expenses body is consulting on proposals to now allow British MP’s to keep claiming mortgage interest on their second homes and claim "lump sum" allowances without receipts? The corrupted looking after the corrupted it would be nice for most of England’s people to own just one home or even afford one?

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority says it is against both ideas and is simply inviting views.

New MP’s cannot claim for mortgage interest but those elected before 2010 can do so until August 2012.

Ipsa is reviewing the scheme set up in the wake of the 2009 expenses scandal.

Many MPs have complained that it is not working properly - and a committee of MP’s has been set up to review the legislation that introduced it.

The main focus of the second annual review by Ipsa relates to staffing, but the mortgage interest and allowance suggestions are among the most controversial.

Second homes

Under the old expenses system British MP’s were able to claim taxpayers' money towards buying their second homes plus anything else that they could get away with?

It was a key issue during the 2009 scandal when most of the British MP’s were accused of renovating properties at England’s taxpayers' expense before selling them on and pocketing large profits.

Scrapping mortgage interest payments and insisting MPs claim to rent properties instead was a key recommendation of a lengthy inquiry into the whole system by the Committee on Standards in Public Life, which said MP’s should not expect "to acquire a valuable asset at public expense".

Under Ipsa's rules, MP’s who already owned taxpayer-subsidised second homes were allowed to continue claiming towards mortgage interest for a transitional period - until August 2012, although when they sell the property they have to surrender a share of any rise in value of the property since last summer.

But some have argued that claiming for mortgage interest is actually cheaper for the taxpayer than claiming rent.(MP’s should be put in London Army barracks when in London, then they wouldn’t have to claim rent or need a second homes?)

The consultation document says a previous Ipsa review concluded that the issue was "important for public confidence".

But the body says: "Ipsa's position on this issue has not changed but it is inviting views in this consultation to ascertain whether public opinion has shifted on this issue."

Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown raised the idea of MPs getting a flat-rate allowance at the height of the expenses scandal - in a widely criticised video on the Downing Street website. But it was criticised at the time as a payment for MP’s to "turn up and do their jobs".

The issue has resurfaced recently at hearings of the MP’s' committee which is reviewing the legislation which set up Ipsa - the Commons members' expenses committee.

At a recent hearing Conservative MP Priti Patel pointed out that the current London weighting allowance was not controversial - while expenses seemed to be "much more expensive and costly to administer".

The consultation says Ipsa still believes expenses and costs should remain "based on the reimbursement of costs incurred" but adds: "There remains a number of MP’s who believe that there should be a return to lump sum allowances which would, amongst other things, allow MP’s to continue to fund their mortgage interest."

Another issue raised during the consultation is whether rules should be relaxed on strict pay structures for MP’s' staff - allowing them to decide how to split pay between staff within an overall budget - and whether those representing poorer areas should be allowed more staff.

Ipsa says that there is a "discernible trend" - supported by both staff members' views and Ipsa's own payroll data - that an MP's workload is linked to constituencies with a lot of social deprivation - which have more time-consuming cases such as those involving immigration, housing and child welfare issues.

Among its proposals are that while most MP’s will be allowed 3.5 full-time equivalent staff - those in particularly deprived communities should be allowed four. Ipsa notes that this could mean the overall expenses bill goes up by up to £2.1m - if it was extended to the most deprived 25% of constituencies.