If the Tories had been in power things would probably be worse

[ratewhore]

Give it to me - I'll look after it. You can trust me, honest!

You're a PM aren't you? I wouldn't trust you with tying your own shoelaces...

[SallyAnne]

securitisation

Word of the day toilet paper for Xmas?

[blacjac]

It is tough SAS, doing some engineering stuff in Canada for power companies. Anyone here know how to change a light bulb?

Hang on, I'll just get 49 of my contractor buddies on a conference call to find out....



Now where can I find some buddies....

[Solidec]

if the PFI scandal of offbalance sheets debt ever comes to light with real figures, there will be open jaws everywhere.

NL have effectively taken over £100 billion of public debt off the balance sheet by abusing PFI.

[PM-Junkie]

You're a PM aren't you? I wouldn't trust you with tying your own shoelaces...

I wear slip-ons....less resource intensive and more effective use of my time.

15-all, your serve

[DimPrawn]

if the PFI scandal of offbalance sheets debt ever comes to light with real figures, there will be open jaws everywhere.

NL have effectively taken over £100 billion of public debt off the balance sheet by abusing PFI.

That off-balance-sheet PFI debt has to be paid at some time. Scandalous.

Our children are going to be living like Ethiopians. But without the nice weather.

[expat]

It is tough SAS, doing some engineering stuff in Canada for power companies. Anyone here know how to change a light bulb?

Arm-twist retailers into a "voluntary" agreement not to sell the same type of bulb any more.

[ace00]

Regarding the parlous state of Britain's finances (2008):

Trade balance, annual: -$178bill
Budget balance as % of GDP: -5.3% (only "beaten" by Ireland, Egypt & Pakistan - 1 of which has already gone to the IMF)

[DimPrawn]

Regarding the parlous state of Britain's finances (2008):

Trade balance, annual: -$178bill
Budget balance as % of GDP: -5.3% (only "beaten" by Ireland, Egypt & Pakistan - 1 of which has already gone to the IMF)

Those are government figures. The true level of debt is waaaay higher than that.

[tim123]

If, as is commonly believed, this recession/depression has been caused by

(1) the securitisation of sub-prime mortgages by financial firms combined with
(2) an overly lax monetary policy i.e. too low interest rates

then logically as the Tories traditionally support more deregulation and lower interest rates, we would have been no better under them and arguably worse.

I now await the hard of thinking, reflex, cretinous Tories on this forum, but I would ask them to address the logic of this post rather than behave like chimps prodded in a laboratory.

You are possibly right, but we have no way of knowing.

I prefer to shoot the guilty person, not speculate about other possibilities

tim