Prudence Stays Silent
Gordon Brown has said nothing so far about the Megrahi affair.
Is he being Prudence?
I think though it is interesting to look at reactions on both sides of the Atlantic. Here we put the emphasis on justice and as I said in a previous post, I don’t think anybody got that. But a lot of the comment in the US seems to ignore the truth and put the emphasis a lot more on vengeance.
Megrahi for Oil?
I said in the previous post, that according to The Times, that Megrahi might be being released to improve relations.
Now in this piece from the BBC, Gaddafi’s son has said that was true.
Of course Gordon Brown has denied it. Let’s hope that Prudence is the biggest casualty.
Petition to Number 10
SAF on the UK-Coeliac list has posted this.
I have composed a new petition to the prime minister to deal with.
This petition requires 500 signatures to be effective so looking for a lot of support.
The petition can be found on http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/allergenlabels
If the EU has its way, then such things as maltodextrin will be considered gluten-free, for labelling purposes. That may be so, but it still doesn’t alter the fact that I react to it.
So please sign the petition. After all the next ingredient foisted on you might be something that you object to!
Goat Finds God
Lord Myners is discussed in this article, titled “Lord Myners attacks bankers’ greed and finds God” in the Sunday Times. The opening paragraph says it all.
Lord Myners, the minister appointed to clean up the City, is so disenchanted by bankers’ greed and self-aggrandisement that he is planning to become a theology student.
He is one of Gordon Brown’s “Government of all the talents” and was Financial Services Secretary. It’s alright for this goat to find god, as he has already amassed a fortune of about £30 million.
I’m no fan of bankers, but by increasing the top rate of tax in the UK, Gordon Brown is actually playing into their and the smart lawyers’ hands. I sold two technology companies in the seventies and eighties, when top tax rates were at eighty percent and the lawyers had a field day and made large amounts of money, so that my hard earned money didn’t go to government schemes of which I do not approve. So we’ll see increased profits for lawyers and bankers again.
A few collective nouns sum up professionals.
- An anarchy of computer programmers
- A wunch of bankers
- A delay of solicitors
- A self-interest of politicians
Feel free to add some more.
Rossminster
Rossminster was a company in the late 1970s and 1980s that were tax consultants. Others thought they were tax avoidance merchants, but as my memory is not that good and it relies on a couple of articles I read thirty years ago in The Sunday Times, I couldn’t possibly comment. But as they got full page articles in The Sunday Times, they were obviously significant or had very good friends.
You have to remember that in those days the top tax rate was eighty percent. Yes! Eighty percent! And therefore there was a massive industry that wasted some of the best brains in the City of London to save people money. Gordon Brown should realise that high tax rates never collect money, as those brains in the City are much better than those at his disposal. And infinitely better than his.
The Sunday Times or some other newspaper christened their methods the “Money-go-Round”, in that if I remember correctly money was moved between accounts and the theory was that if it wasn’t there long enough you couldn’t tax it. I’m probably wrong there, and if anybody knows the real story correct me.
But I know I’m right about lots of accounts and lots of transfers as I was asked to quote for a computer system for the company.
I was introduced to the company by a friend, who was incidentally one of the bank managers to Rossminster. I suspect he saw the potential for revenue for his bank from all those transfers. It would be typical, as he was one of the few bank managers I’ve ever met, who looked upon businesses in a radical way, that was for everyone’s mutual benefit.
In some ways he was a rogue, but a rogue on the side of the angels.
He finally left the bank, as a main board director, to care for his wife who was gravely ill.
One day, I’ll put a book together of the stories he told me. But I’ll wait a few years yet.
Zopa as a Lender
I have been asked by several of my friends how I feel about Zopa, and how do you get started.
I should say that I would never tell anybody to use the site, before they have researched it in full. There are many excellent articles by respected financial journalists on the Internet. Some have told me that they have even invested themselves.
I only invest what I can afford to lose on Zopa. Most of my intial investment actually came from the sale of my late wife’s Porsche Boxster and the site has certainly performed better than that car would have. I used to love my two 911’s but a Boxster is like a fat pig compared to the gazelle of my Lotus Elan.
I started with small amounts of under a £1,000 and made sure I got the workings of the site under control, before I upped my levels to what they are now. You must do this, as you need to do the following.
- Check rates every morning, so that you are tracking the rates in the way you want.
- Check returned money every night, so that you make sure you are offering money for lending and it’s not sitting in your holding account.
- Make sure you understand the rules on how money is lent. For instance, note how lending offers inter-relate and that you can lend from two offers to the same person.
Did I make any mistakes?
Yes!
As I said in an earlier post, I set my limits too high at first and ended up with a bad debt of £200. I now have a maximum limit set at a thousandth of my total money, but that is probably a bit low. Somewhere between £50 and £80 would be a safe limit for most people. But this would be too high if you were only lending a total of say £2,000.
I am trying to get my average lending per lender down to under £50.
I would also make sure that you construct your lending offers, so that you can’t lend from two offers to the same person. I didn’t do this at first and I ended up lending far too much to some individuals. So now, I have one lending offer to A* and A rated borrowers and another for Youth. The two lending offers can’t lend money to the same borrower.
But as with anything to do with money, be careful. I would have used prudent, but Gordon Brown has long since proved that his definition of that word, is not the same as mine.
Cloud-Cuckoo Spending
Every economic commentator says that Gordon Brown needs to cut government spending, but he still persists in saying that capital spending is increasing.
Now, I watch the news just as much as the next person and I get the impression that in an area like education cuts are being made. For instance, here in East Anglia all capital spending in Further Education Colleges appears to have stopped. A friend in a University, says that they have been told to cut costs and sees draconian measures every week.
But Brown says education spending is being increased.
Bollux!
Do We Need New Aircraft Carriers?
I was in India once with my late wife and somebody asked a guide, why India needed to keep such a large army. He replied in one word – Pride.
I have a feeling that we don’t need two massive ships, with their expensive aircraft. In fact, with the exception of the Falklands, have we needed the three smaller ones we’ve got already? Or does Gordon Brown, want to leave a legacy for all times. So perhaps they should be called Gordon Brown and Tony Blair.
If you want to read about the carriers and their costs and politics, go to Robert Peston’s blog.
But then if we cut out the carriers, we can cut out the Joint Strike Fighters and why not add Trident, which is up for renewal anyway. We could then give the troops in Afghanistan equipment better suited to that sort of task. After all I can just see Trident being used on the Taliban!
Brown only wants it for you’ve guessed it – Pride.
The Anonymous Widower 