POLITICS CORNER

[Tardis]

Eric Joyce head butts a tory in the bar whilst apparently drunk and disorderly. Took several folk to pin him to the floor until security arrived. It is alleged that he has previous.

GP's inflate numbers on their rolls so that they get paid more money,

Classic Telegraph sting may also point fingers at some doctors allowing abortion on demand simply because of the sex of the unborn child

[Stanley]

Eric Joyce charged with three counts of common assault. He should be ashamed of himself, all that privilege and what does he do? Behaves as though he was in the Spinner's Arms on a Saturday night. He's been suspended by the party and the case comes to court on the 17th of March. By election in Falkirk? SNP will be the gainers if there is.

[Tardis]

Pendle budget was passed last night with a coalition of Tories and Lib Dems.

No increase in Council Tax.

I am sure the other bits will be lead out by the various people.

The one thing that sticks, is the £20k for the Rainhall Centre for 'business' use. I hesitate to suggest that this was one of the concessions that may have eased the wheels of Cllr Whipp's entourage for the vote

[Stanley]

It would appear that the awful truth about the Greek bail-out is dawning on the participants. Relations between Greece and Germany in particular are deteriorating and there is an undercurrent of opinion that Greece should leave the Euro. This train wreck is by no means over and the UK is not going to be able to avoid the consequences. This is probably the reason why there has been such a deafening silence from our political masters. They are beginning to realise the scale of the disaster that is looming.

[Tardis]

I like the suggestion from some of the German ministers that Greece should be given incentives to leave the Euro

[Stanley]

I am convinced that the 'Greek Crisis' and the measures taken to avoid it are actually nothing to do with 'saving Greece'. It is blindingly obvious that Greece can't service the debt it already has never mind paying back the bail-out loans so the question becomes 'why bother'. The only answer possible is that this is an exercise to buy time to protect the European banks and hence the shaky structure of the Euro itself. The sums don't add up. The time scale is too short to avoid the fall-out and my opinion is that what we are looking at is an unsupportable system hanging on to the cliff edge by its finger nails. No comfort here for the UK and that's why our leaders are doing nothing to rock the boat. Look at Mervyn King's recent statements, He is giving a coded message that this is exactly what is happening. Meanwhile, the UK economy is paralysed because the way this pans out is not predictable. Tin hats on Lads! We thought 2008 was bad, this train wreck will dwarf it. The survivors? The bankers of course!

[Stanley]

My opinions above reinforced by the news that the ECB has made another €500billion available as low interest rate loans (1%) to European banks. This is on top of €498billion in December. This dwarfs the money being injected into Greece and points to where the EU sees the biggest potential problems. This approaches the scale of the UK bank bail out in 2008. What would the reaction be here if the Bank of England did the same.
There is a meeting today of an obscure but important financial arbiter (Securities and Derivatives Exchange?) which will decide whether Greece has 'technically defaulted'. If they judge that it has the credit default insurance kicks in and nobody is sure what this means. The amounts involved are not that great compared to the above but it begs the question how the markets will regard this in terms of confidence in the Euro banks. At the very least, this is a significant straw in the wind as regards the stability of the Euro itself. Tin hats and train wrecks.

[Stanley]

Good opinion piece by a BBC reporter in Germany on World Service this morning. He was examining the deteriorating relationship between Greece and Germany and giving examples of the opinions being expressed in Germany. What struck me was that the Germans appear to be unable to understand why the Greeks regard German supervision of their budget and financial affairs as an echo of WW2 and the occupation. I would have thought that would have been obvious!

[Stanley]

The Benefits legislation has gone through Parliament and been passed. It remains to be seen how it pans out. I fear that whatever the arguments for and against, the basic fact is that funding has been cut and this must have repercussions. Will it target the right people?
We see another U-turn forced by objections to benefit claimants being used as cheap labour by firms. Interesting that the changes were forced by the firms themselves, they could see the damage it did to their image even though the politicians couldn't. Knee jerk legislation without proper thought and consultation may get good headlines but is dangerous. The sooner the Coalition realises this the better.
The Health Bill isn't out of the woods yet. Senior Tory politicians are reported as saying it is Cameron's Poll Tax and they are getting very worried about the possible electoral consequences. It doesn't matter if they have got it right or not, what is certain is that it won't have produced benefits by the next election and lays the Tories open to attack on health matters. I have a feeling that they could be right. One thing is certain, there is no general support for the measure.
Interesting side light on David Cameron's relationship with Rebekkah Brooks flagged up at Leveson. He admits he has ridden the police horse that somehow ended up in Brooks' care. What is it? The Chipping Norton Set? Read Harold Nicholson's Diaries for the 'Clevedon Set', Lady Astor's alternative government. Some things never change.

[Whyperion]

Cameron's PP Broadcast - must be an election of some kind coming up , mentioned increase in OAP pension rate by about £5 a week , funny though isnt that the rate of inflation increase so dont look like pensioners better off in real terms , and probably less as impacted by food and fuel price increases disproportionately to population as a whole.

[Stanley]

Any piece of 'good news' is welcome at the moment. Pensions go up but when you look at the real inflation of necessities which is about 10/15% we are marking time. The Coalition is holding its breath and treading water until they get a clear idea of how the EU debacle is going to pan out. One could almost feel sorry for them. Not!

[Whyperion]

I am more worried about the lack of any decent , reliable, consistent and beliveable opposion.

Maybe its time for the commons in Westminster to float off Scotland , N Ireland and Wales as the minority state parties have been holding the English parliament to ransom for far too many years , since the 1970s at least which has meant too many compromises and inneffective UK expenditure in these places.

[EileenDavid]

All the parties worry me but lets not forget it was the last government that got us in this predicament in the first place. In my opinion the public service does need cutting but not at ground level but at their over abundance of clerical staff starting with the chief executives of all councils.

My other half was in the building game which was the first to suffer cuts but they had to just get on with it. No one went on strike for them. I was once a unison member until I was told by my aunt a trades union leader when she saw the proposals being made that as it had been agreed by Unison we had been sold up the river.

Public service salaries increased under the last government by 40% whilst the private sector remained static. Residential care for the elderly as been off loaded by the previous government regardless that statistics prove that the numbers of needed places are growing.

I feel that the present government are on a hiding to nothing as they are dammed if they do and dammed if they don't mopping up the mess created by the last lot. It's time they all forgot party politics and got on with the job they are paid to do and run the country.

Eileen

[catgate]

I am more worried about the lack of any decent , reliable, consistent and beliveable opposion.

Maybe its time for the commons in Westminster to float off Scotland , N Ireland and Wales as the minority state parties have been holding the English parliament to ransom for far too many years , since the 1970s at least which has meant too many compromises and inneffective UK expenditure in these places.

The reason that "regional governments" were first created was so that the splitting up of the UK into pieces which could be "assimilated" by the EU would be possible without to much bloodshed. Look at who was in power when this was first mooted, and then who was in power when this was enacted.

[Bruff]

.....and there was me, with respect to Scotland, thinking it was about a country that had long had it's own church, education and legal system, it's own Parliament for centuries and independence being given a modicum of self-Government. I didn't realise it was a European plot.

Richard Broughton

[catgate]

.....and there was me, with respect to Scotland, thinking it was about a country that had long had it's own church, education and legal system, it's own Parliament for centuries and independence being given a modicum of self-Government. I didn't realise it was a European plot.

Richard Broughton

No, I suppose it is something that might not be so obvious at first glance. But, the policy of divide and rule is much older than we sometimes think.

[Whyperion]

Not quite certain what more the SNP want in the proposed independence referendum , as keeping Queen as head of state (Renumbering to Elizabeth 1 of Scotland ? ) , and keeping the British Pound as unit of currency , and we all know a currency union wont work without a fiscal union of common taxes and interest rates.

[Stanley]

Richard, why bother with rational debate when there is a simple conspiracy theory?
Eileen, you have to go back a lot further than 'the last government'.
My favourite for rationalisation is the abolition of Lancs CC. About as much use as a chocolate teapot.
It looks as though 80% of the banks have agreed to the discount on Greek Bonds by a bond swap deal that reduces the liability by 50%, could the €trillion bail out fund from the ECB have anything to do with this? Another sticking plaster on the open wound of the Euro. This is not a solution, just the answer to one local problem, the short term stability of the European banks. The train wreck continues but a little time has been bought. Bear in mind that the ECB money is only a promise, no money has been transferred yet.

[Tardis]

Local politics:

I asked a question last night at the Town meeting about the Precept. I'm struggling to understand how the Barnoldswick Town Council can set one of the highest Precepts in Pendle, and yet have only one asset (the old mortuary on Butts which is partially rented out to PBC).

Over £100k flows through those accounts, and yet there is no legacy and no actual service provided apart from the tent on the square at events, the website etc which to be fair could be done without the Town Council.

At the same time, they appear to have decided not to be involved in taking the public toilets in front of the co-op on from Pendle, as that might actually produce a much better outcome.

Housing Pendle appear to want to divest themselves of the Coates Community Centre, but none of those in that ward have stepped in to say they would consider saving the asset for the town. One of the options on the table is demolition of the building even though there are people willing to run events from there.

The Town Council pays rent to the Rainhall Centre to run meetings (where some of the Councillors are Directors and employees), and yet I understand that they were offered the Civic Hall some time ago at a peppercorn transition rate

Plus, none have ventured to look into the LCC Lengthman Scheme which will pay to ensure that pavements are gritted around places like the Town Centre. It would appear that Earby Town Council may actually get the contract to do this in Barnoldswick.

I got 'apples and pears comparisons' and 'ratepayer paying twice for the same service' excuses from Cllr Whipp without any actual evidence.

But then, the website contract was awarded to a man working in the Rainhall Centre without being put out to tender.

Now I discover that the Energy Assessment surveys have been given to someone working in the Rainhall Centre after being put out to tender, and the offical advice being to split the work between two providers of the best bids to ensure completion of the work within the timeframe (the other one was from the area but did not work in the Rainhall Centre.)

[Tardis]

Eric Joyce spared automatic expulsion from the house by not being sentenced to a custodial term.

Interesting turn of phrase "you can't touch me I'm an MP"

[catgate]

Richard, why bother with rational debate when there is a simple conspiracy theory?
.

Richard, I can see no earthy reason at all why, just because Stanley dislikes rational debate, and apparently instead prefers simple conspiracy theory, you should need to abandon it.

[Stanley]

"Stanley dislikes rational debate" Interesting clue to Catty's comprehension skills. (Or his needling quotient)

[catgate]

"Stanley dislikes rational debate" Interesting clue to Catty's comprehension skills. (Or his needling quotient)

My comprehension may be like my intellect...sadly lacking. In addition I can neither sew nor knit, so my familiarity with needles is also lacking.
However I do have more than just an inkling of the business of weaving, and as a consequence I can often see when something is being spun and woven into a web of some sort.

Edit :- After a thorough search I can find no mention of needling in contection with differential calculus.

[Stanley]

Cameron in US massaging his statesman image. Could withdrawing from Afghanistan be high on the agenda? Very useful to both of them, particularly Obama in an election year. It's a bigger mess that Iraq was. No doubt we will hear more about the 'special relationship'. More show than substance especially after the recent UK defence cuts.

[EileenDavid]

We should never have gone to Afghanistan, its a fight that has gone on for years. I watched a series once called The Far Pavillion's set in Victorian times from what I can remember and the British army received massive casualties then when fighting in Afghanistan. Since that I think I am right that the Russians have also tried to tame it without success. Ask for Irac the Blair/Bush Oily war is another farce thats cost us lives nothing about dictatorship it's the oil they wanted.

I hate party politic's as nothing they do seems right we pay them to look after our country but nothing possitive seems to come out of it as they are too busy sticking their noses in policing the world.

Eileen