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Showing content with the highest reputation on 17/04/10 in all areas

  1. Hello all Bedlington Forum Members; I don't post at all these days, but often visit the site to keep connected to Bedlington since returning to Canada last year. I just wanted to let you all know that one of your well-respected members, Joe Rooney is not at all well these past few months. He hails from Bedlington, as many of you will know, but has moved to Canada many years ago and more recently made his home in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. His wife, Linda, contacted me to let me know of his condition in hospital. Joe, being an ex-Bedlingtonian, came to see my husband, Allan and me in Canada and they spent time together reminising about dear old Bedlington. When Allan and I moved back to England when Allan got sick and wanted to be with his family and return to his dear Bedlington, the two kept up their communications again via this Forum. And as you may know, it was Joe who posted the lovely tribute to Allan when he passed away Sept. 12, 2009. As Allan's wife, I wanted to keep you all posted on our dear friend Joe, whom I know many of you respect and enjoy his postings. P.S. You will remember my husband Allan more as Sw@lnalla... Please keep Joe in your thoughts and although he may not be able to be active on the Forum, he will take some comfort in knowing his friends from Bedlington wish him well. Thank you all. (Maria aka Sissinghurst)
    3 points
  2. Well we have had the first of the political 'events' with more sound bites and spin applied than is really necessary. We do have the manifestos now to look though so let's look at the economics behind them and leave the hype to the leaders! There is the very real problem of UK fiscal debt which Vince Cable has described as the elephant in the room. With each of the main parties having about a £30B hole in their manifesto budgeting it would seem none are willing to be honest and willing to explain their spending pledges. At best they seem to be willing to discuss about £10b worth of savings but that isn't telling the whole tale by any means and will inevitably lead to a change in policy AFTER the election WHOEVER gets in. If we extrapolate the figures further we can clearly see the need for about £37B of real cuts to achieve even the present government's deficit targets by 2013/14. It would therefore seem that we are not being told the whole truth about public finances and will lead to a further loss of confidence, an already fragile confidence, in our elected leaders. Even the much lauded Vince Cable is complicit as he wrote the Lib Dem figures! One further small comment I would have is why are all the main parties committed to raising the foreign aid budget by £4B a year until 2013, surly it is now a case of charity begins at home? If we look over the last 13 years of a Labour Government, and remember this is just a fiscal overview, we can see they have raised the tax take by around £31B per annum but also raised public spending by a greater amount, even before the recent crisis, which now leaves us with a figure of 48% of GDP being devoted to public spending. Had this been applied judiciously we might have had other options now other than to 'pension off' a large part of that workforce, which by the very act adds to the economic burden the country must carry. In other words they have put money into public sector backroom jobs and salary increases instead of modernisations and front line services which now produces an economic imbalance. Adding to this tale of woe is the fact that the Institute of Fiscal studies has estimated that in its view there has been falls in efficiency of £42.5 billion over the period of Labour's tenure. Labours record of actually keeping its manifesto pledges is somewhat lacking in credibility shall we say and it's recent promise not to raise the higher rate of income tax then actually doing so would seem par for the course! The Conservatives have given rather patchy information about how they will 'eliminate the bulk of the deficit over the term of the next parliament'. They have said they will apply an 80%/20% formula with 80% being cuts and 20% increased taxes to reduce the structural deficit and give the same result as Labour about 1 year earlier. Anyone old enough to have gone through the last Conservative government might be interested to know that Ken used a 50%/50% formula. As with other promises by the other parties we have to ask how can taxes be cut when revenue into the treasury is needed, i.e., the promised scrapped of the NI rise. The Lib Dems would seem to have said they will be the highest raising tax party as a way of demonstrating their transparency. All well and good but looking closer we see the same flaws and holes in their proposals as the other two parties have! Some of their proposals look at first glance to be worthy of consideration as with the £10 grand starter rate for income tax. However looking to see how that will be paid for and applied would seem to be driving us into the realms of wishful thinking with phrases like, less tax avoidance and evasion? In conclusion it would seem we are being cajoled into thinking we are in a better fiscal position than we really are and cuts in services and tax rises will be modest. I hope no one is thinking that and we all realise very tough times lie ahead whichever party gets in. What is happening now is actually a disservice to our democracy not empowering it!
    2 points
  3. I watched it, and am still chuckling at the idea that David Cameron has met a black man
    1 point
  4. All I am happy to report that after two years on the market I finally sold my flat and moved into my new house on the 1st of April (didn't want to jinx it by posting this earlier). I sold through Mike Rogerson and bought through Rook Matthews. Still little niggles here and there, but I plan on never moving again. Fingers crossed for all of you out there stuck in places you can not sell.
    1 point
  5. Looked far too contrived with all three offering platitudes which doubtless they will break as soon as the election is over. And I don't think Alistair had to be so OTT! Nick did pull something off, I think he looked and sounded smarmier than even Dave achieved! If these guys are the pinnacle of the political elite in our country, God help us, I wouldn't let any of them run a raffle. When any of them says, 'The British People' you know what you are about to hear is a condescending lie! I lost count of the number of times 'brave' was used when describing our troops, which just cheapened the content after the first one. Do we really need to be told that I would have thought that was a given. Take the prompts away, take the scripts away and let 'normal' people question them about stuff they know nothing about, like how much is a loaf of bread, how much does a pair of school shoes cost, how much is the bus fare for a 3 mile trip?
    1 point
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