IN or OUT?

I have a bit of a dilemma! I have looked around the Internet for answers but find none. Perhaps you can help?

Now then, there is a possibility that eventually Scotland will actually vote to leave the United Kingdom but there is also the possibility, however remote, that England and perhaps the rest of the UK, will vote to leave the EC. Then what!

It is difficult to see that we would end up with the current open border between England and Scotland as one of the major reasons that the English want to leave the EC is to stop immigration. But if EC residents are free to enter an independent Scotland that remains part of the EC, what would stop the EC citizens from wandering into England?

Further more, the moment the UK left the EC customs and trade tariffs would be completely different, another reason for leaving, and that would facilitate the potential trafficking of contraband between the two countries if the border remained open.

Of course to fund policing the 'new' border both nations would need to impose charges and duties on people and goods crossing the border and I imagine that the English Government would want Scottish hauliers to pay to use the English roads and railways as free movement would cease the instant we were no longer part of the EC.

There is no information about any of this which can hardly be called nitty gritty. It seems to me that these are fundamental issues that no one has thought through and made public.

PS If Scotland does leave the UK it will still be part of our, the British Towns and Villages, website because it will still be part of the British Isles like Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man - Just thought I would answer that question before it arises!

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

The New Year, 2014, finds us with our economy on the verge of growth - perhaps! - but what will that bring?

The cost of credit

According to the Bank of England the unemployment figures are improving faster than predicted, which is great for those without a job BUT it is one of the major triggers for the bank to raise interest rates.

That will be fun, most folks are struggling to pay their existing mortgage or rent - that's if they can find an affordable house to buy or rent in the first place - and struggling even more to service their credit cards and loans and I suspect that the recent Christmas and New Year celebrations have been largely funded with the credit card. So mortgage and credit card payments are going to rise!

The value of property

2014 will likely be the year that the government will be forced to do something to stimulate a major program of house building. If there is economic growth and an increase in individual income without an increase in the availability of housing housing costs, either mortgage or rent, will spiral out of control.

The UK government states that failure to deal with the current housing situation will have serious social and economic implications

With approaching elections this is not something that can be allowed to get worse than it already is and there's the rub because if a significant improvement is made to the housing problem then the currently over-inflated house prices will fall as a result. Let's make the point here to have any effect the amount of housing needed is similar to that needed after the Second World War not one or two more here and there BUT if significant number of houses are built and made available the currently over-inflated property prices will collapse sending many current mortgage payers into serious negative equity for a long time.

Permanent Negative Equity

Anyone who has bought a property during this period of over inflated prices should start to get used to the idea that at some point in the not to distant future that they are going to be propelled into negative equity probably permanently.

Facing the music

I wonder when our politicians are going to get around to telling them?

FUEL POVERTY FOR ALL JUST ROUND THE CORNER.

What are we going to do when the fuel runs out?

Goodstein, author of the book "Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil" stated "The oil will run out, the only question is exactly when," but continues, "Civilization as we know it will come to an end sometime this century, when the fuel runs out". So we probably have a lot less than 90 years.

When do we panic then?

According to Stanford University geophysicist Amos Nur. "The point of panic has already taken place. There is a huge conflict that might already be emerging"

So what exactly are we going to do?

The UK government is contemplating the building a wind farms, that's really going to help. To power 25 million homes you'll need 7,000 working turbines, that's one for every half a mile of coastline and we're not talking about powering our industry and transport. The Vice President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Dr Sue Ion, said that wind power could only provide about 20% of the country's electricity to preserve grid stability.

"Laudable though the targets are, we urge government to think about the practicalities of deploying these technologies; the engineering effort to build 7,000 large offshore turbines by 2020 would be enormous, unprecedented and is probably underestimated," she said.

To achieve the governments target it has to build 14 turbines a week for the next ten years and they're still just talking about it.

No one has explained what they are going to do when there's no wind!

OK, so we'll go nuclear.

Building one new nuclear power station takes decades and one will not be enough and anyway from where are we going to get the Uranium to make it work. Uranium is not exactly going to be readily available or cheap once the oil starts to run out. Oh! by the way, Russia is the largest exporter of Uranium followed possibly by Australia and the USA. To top it all there's only about enough for the next 100 years anyway, it's not exactly a common element.

So what are we really going to do?

Nothing, as usual, Goodstein says "Governments do not have the political will to prepare for the end of oil."

When has our government planned for the future? We are World leaders in wind turbine technology but are we seriously using it? No! As a result of the credit crunch President Obama has announced a huge investment in alternative energy sources in the US so we won't be the world leaders for much longer. But don't I remember we were once World leaders in nuclear energy too!

It's amazing how the Bank of England can find £75,000,000,000 for just one of their efforts to pump up the economy, but why don't they spend it on something actually useful?

Desperate need to be competitive

The British Government is sitting with it finger up its bum wasting time by rearranging irrelevant legislation and not dealing with the train wreck that we call the economy.

It does not require a degree in Keynesian economics to understand what is wrong and what needs to be done. It is simple, we are uncompetitive in the global marketplace!

Why, is easy to understaand too! The ridiculous cost of housing, it is the only economic factor we can control as everything else we require is transacted globally. The bills for food, fuel and all the other commodities are largely the same for everyone but the cost of housing in the UK is astronomical and way above the rest of the world. So the only way to make us competitive is to reduce the cost of housing.

Why then don't the politicians listen to the IMF and all the other international advisors and stimulate the economy by instigating a vast home building programme? That is easy to understand too, they, those in power, are largely the landlords and if they do what they should the value of their property portfolios will fall and so will the income they get from rents and mortgages. But that is exactly waht should happen.

Once again it is pure greed and vested interest ia a minority stuffing up the rest of the county. One day, I hope, the majority will stand up and kick them where it really hurts.

Still on the brink!

With the Spanish Banks tottering on the edge of oblivion it appears that we are still on the brink of financial meltdown but have you noticed how all the pundits state if the banks go down it will be chaos and disaster for all of us BUT none of them say exactly what would happen:

Would the world stop going round? - No!
Would we not be able to breath? - No!
Would it stop us from procreating? - No!

What would it do then? - Probably not much other than cause a bit of mayhem for a day or so before our governments came up with a resolution because they would have too but of course that would mean all the financial institutions would be out of business. In effect the money lenders would have been thrown out of the temple!

What are we waiting for then? - Chuck 'em out!

New Year's Dis-honour!

Hey, maybe someone important has read my earlier blog on this subject, as there is a very good chance that an honour is going to be rescinded.

Just goes to prove that my statement that NO ONE should get an honour that is related in any way to the job they do was a valid point. It is about time the rules are permanently changed before the whole credibility of the honours system is confined to the rubbish bin - that's if it's not there already in the minds of many.

Are we still being ripped off?

You bet your life we are!

The World Bank has dropped its forecast for growth for the year to come from 3.4% to 2.5% and the United Nations and many of the financial papers are predicting, or raising the likelihood, of another world-wide recession. The market analysts predict a significant drop in the price of oil and other commodities, including foodstuffs, during the course of 2012 but whilst this may be good news for the individual consumer it will do nothing towards improving the growth figures, the only thing that can get us all out of the mess we are in.

So why are we still being ripped off? Simple!, because someones still making pots of money and if its not agriculture, commodities or industry it must still be the financial institutions!

But how do I know? Also simple, Rolls Royce are reporting sales figures up 40% and Bentley are up 30%, so someones got lots of money to spend on stuff that one does not really need, who else could it be?

New Version of Windows!

Blimey, the paint is hardly dry on the last one. I am thinking of going back to a typewriter, they last for over 50 years, don't use electricity and don't need a new version every ten minutes.

Come on Microsoft how about supporting the software that you have already released and issue an upgrade not continuous new versions. Who is going to buy a new version, all the businesses are skint and the public are turning to iPads and Mobiles?


We upgrade our computers last year it will be a little while - YEARS - before we do it again!