OneGuyFromBarlick

In fairness , apparently the BoE governor elect was introduced as having a UK wife with children having dual citizenship. I can see the precedent being used by immigration lawers all over England for overcoming the restrictions on Bangladeshi chefs for the takeaways ( apparently in England we dont train enough chefs in indian cookery - something that is being done apparently in Ealing , West London now ) [ Example only ]

I got 17 , and the other 7 were 50:50 guesses off the top of my head and I wasnt far off, but some questions seem to have no relevance to being a UK citizen and some seem badly worded.

Carney's advantage seems to be that he has run a central bank , steering economic policy , and has experience of regulation financial bodies. But Canada is a different place to UK.

You're right David, he worked for Goldman Sachs.
Number Ten must be a busy place this week. Ossie's financial statement coming up, I forecast he will lean heavily on every 'favourable' statistic and ignore the others. Cameron has the Leveson Report to consider. Add to that the 'normal' business and midnight oil will be burned.

Whyperion wrote:Carney's advantage seems to be that he has run a central bank , steering economic policy , and has experience of regulation financial bodies. But Canada is a different place to UK.

Indeed!

Canada had much stricter controls in actual legislation which meant that they didn't have the huge property bubble

Much easier to control the system when everything is joined up rather than aimed at a political expedient.

He did manage the Canadian liquidity and kept everything going

As far as I know Mr Carney has dual residency as both his wife and children are British

What strikes me as odd about the Leveson discussion is that the Lib Dems were pressing for regulation yesterday (some rowing back today from Calamity Clegg), but I really have to wonder how Liberal and Democratic people come to the conclusion that more regulation gives us a free press, when there is already sufficient Law on statute to prosecute the offences that were uncovered by Leveson.

Smoke & mirrors

Too much going on in UK politics to make sensible comment. However I note that at last the government has recognised the danger of pay-day loans at interest rates of up to 4000%. They should also look at the tactics employed by these people to enmesh customers in unsupportable repayments by rolling over loans.

See this LINK for the executive conclusions of the Leveson Report. I've skimmed it and it looks competent, sensible and achievable. Not surprising considering the calibre of Leveson. I think he's a good man. I think Cameron has misjudged the politics here in effectively spiking the main conclusion about regulation on the grounds he is worried about 'crossing the Rubicon'. He has set himself and a minority of his party against the rest of the country. Talk about loss of freedom of the press is nonsense. The bald facts of the report prove that they have been running out of control (freedom?) and need to be reined in. I predict he's in for a rough ride on this one, in politics you can't resist the overwhelming view of the public and expect to get away with it. Even the option of kicking it into the long grass isn't an option. He set the inquiry going for his own purposes and will have to live with the result. Some talk about asking Leveson to reconsider his conclusions. If they do I suspect they'll get a very dusty answer.
Labour win the three by-elections, no surprise there but.... look at how they parachuted an outside candidate into Rotherham against the wishes of the local party, They wanted a local stalwart. Look also at how the other parties performed. UKIP wiped the floor with the Tories and the LibDems had possibly their worst result in living history. There is a clear message here about the mood of the electorate and attitudes towards the EU. Lynton Crosby might have a bigger job on his hands than anyone thought. After all, his last campaign for the Tory Party failed......

I think the Leveson statement made by the Cameroon was certainly far more credible than the other two's political rhetoric

We saw what Alistair campbell did to emasculate the BBC because he had the power to do so

The legal implications go far beyond the politics and I would rather live in a country where I can refuse to buy certain 'newspapers' than single sources being the only ones available

It is also noticeable that even the Mirror came out and backed the Cameroon, against Weird Ed, whilst the Grauniad doesn't appear to be tacking a very consistent line at all

In the run-up to Ossie's Autumn Financial Statement we get snippets preparing us for the worst. The BofE agrees with what I have been saying for months, that we are engaged in economic war and should approach on that basis. We are given clues about more benefit cuts and taking money from the rich. The message is 'it was far worse than we thought'. Surprise surprise! The depressing thing is that there are no signs of innovative thinking in economic policy even though the latest figures on the progress of easing bank lending by throwing money at them shows that of the £4.5billion chucked in the black hole only haf a billion has emerged from the other side. The banks are a black hole and throwing money into them is almost a complete waste of time.
I picked up a snatch of a trail for Andrew Neill's programme in which he said "As the recession recedes...." Really? Talk about cloud cuckoo land......

I can remember the days when, if a Chancellor let slip any element of his budget statement prior to his speech he was expected to resign. Those days have gone evidently. Over the last few days the main elements of the Autumn statement have been trailed extensively. The 'better' bits first and the more serious ones by implication. The indices are clear, the government's economic policies have failed on all counts. We are no nearer a 'solution' now than we were in 2010. I don't blame the government for this, it begins to look as though the economics have changed, indeed this may be the much heralded 'New Economics' of the Godron era. My beef with them is that even though the evidence suggests that the debt is endemic and the focus should be on the growth figures, they persist in arguing that more cuts are the answer. As for the £5billion to be shifted from the current account to investment in 'shovel-ready' construction projects.... I think the investment is correct but have yet to see any dividend from 'savings' in departments. The only way to get significant savings in the budget is to cut out whole departments or projects. This is what the Swedes did when faced with the same problem. Think Trident, aircraft carriers, subsidies to banks etc. Chipping piddling little bits of money off benefits doesn't cut it but this is what will happen. It would be interesting to see what a thorough cost/benefit analysis of these cuts would reveal. Interesting to see that the aspirations are shifting to investment in public works which will give the benefit of the multiplier effect and the concentration on Growth but in order for these to succeed the programme of cuts has to be addressed as well. One thing is certain, this hasn't worked so far.
Think back to 2008 when the money was thrown at the banks. Think of the billions pumped into the bond market in QE. Think of what that money could have done if just a fraction had been injected into the economy at the base. Dropping money from helicopters wasn't as daft as it seemed!

Yes "Gordon Brown saved the world"

Unfortunately he left us with zombie banks, and the initial expectations of at least 10 years between bust and recovery is becoming ever more likely.

Just unfortunate that Gordon didn't tell us how he was going to pay for it

I missed the WCAC meeting last night as I fell asleep on the sofa

No surprises then from Ossie, everything had been trailed beforehand. The bottom line is that he has produced no new initiatives, it's basically 'steady as she goes' and an acceptance of a low growth economy for the foreseeable future, tinkering round the edges isn't going to alter that. I object to his statement that with increased tax on the large pensions the rich are now contributing as much as the poor. This is not true. It's certainly not the case that they are suffering and don't forget that benefit cuts haven't fully bitten yet and with a promise of more cuts to come after 2015.. The ratings agency Fitch has given him a dusty answer saying that if his forecasts are correct we are in danger of losing the AAA rating by 2016.I see nothing to get excited about and I think his forecast of another six years of austerity is wildly optimistic. There is also the question of external events....
In terms of compassion in society, recognition of the basic facts of the economy and innovation in economic thinking this is a disappointment.

Worth listening to Margaret Hodge grilling the tax avoidance accountant and the hedge fund manager. She said at one point 'Jesus Christ!" and said she was gob-smacked. I agree with her.
The fine print in the Autumn statement gradually sinks in and the enormity of the proposed benefit cuts post 2015 is realised. It's far worse than even I supposed. Tin hats on Lads!
As I write Lord Skidelsky is pointing out that Ossie should have read Keynes. Too right!

Yes it was fun hearing the silence when the accountant said "its not against the Law"

Especially when one of the companies Margaret Hodge is involved in is also trying to avoid tax

Who wouldn't?

Latest economics show that the "recovery" to get back to where we were before the crash is going to take about 7 years. This is more than the 4 after the Great Crash.

So the question has to be: if Brown & Darling had let the banks go to the wall would all this be over by now?

Annoyed at Cameron spouting about gay marriage. What's it got to do with him anyway? This is party politics and nothing to do with the serious business of running the country. Evidently the sound bite is more important.

I'd much rather have Civil Partnership open to all and then it removes all the religious connotations

Can't wait till Berlusconi stands for Italian parliament again. Can you imagine anything worse? The markets don't like it and we can only guess what's happening in Europe.

I listened to the report on PMQs on Today and I fear I may be tending towards becoming a conspiracy theorist. It seems to me that the lot of the least well off in the country isn't even registering on the collective Tory mind. They are managing the present economic crisis to effect social engineering that even Margaret Thatcher shied away from. Mind you, I would say that wouldn't I? You can't take these old Lefties seriously..... I keep hearing MPs saying that 'the polls' prove that the overwhelming majority of the electorate want to allow gay marriage in church. Really? I'm sorry but I couldn't care less! It seems to me that it's entirely up to the churches what they do, why should Parliament poke its collective finger in? Am I alone in thinking that this is a diversionary tactic and more to do with Cameron's standing with his party than any pressing social necessity?

The coalition will get excited today by the employment figures. I am still not convinced, they are counter-intuitive and even the 'experts' are puzzled. My suspicion is that the available work and wages are getting spread more thinly so 'employment' goes up but remuneration comes down. Time will tell.....

I just calculated the Wife's anticipated tax for next year , leaving aside the overall effects of the budget/autumn statement which as a whole give just about enough extra to pay for any increase in fuel and food costs , as the amount from employer next year is unknown I worked out the should there be an increase in gross pay the effective tax rate on it was 83% (possibly more as I have left out one figure that I dont know from this year).

Even allowing for top earners above some of the claw-back of benefit rates I cannot find that the effective rate is above 48% on a quick calculation for most high earners , though its a bit more for some higher earners below the 40% income tax band - mostly affected by the 12% rate on National Insurance.

I think this 83% rate is not unique - and possibly under previous administrations was running for others around 90% and was one of the reasons universal benefit was promoted to encourage more people into getting work to pay, - that idea seems to have been dropped. I suppose one should be grateful for allowing retention of 20p in the pound as an extra bit of pay. Similar marginal rates I think apply to persons in receipt of Pension Credit(*) , but I think its unlikely that such persons will be in a position to meaningfully get an increase in their income. In short I am not certain if the employer (and things like additional hours worked may have some impact for some people) , is subsidising the state , or the state is subsidising the employer.

I could be wrong on the rates for very high earners as there was an obscure reduction in the amount of relief of costs against tax (on what? - we don't seem to have been told) proposed that will be revealed in the 2013 budget , it could end up with some people being taxed on income that they don't have as I am reading the theory of the proposals.


(*) Of course it remains unfair on persons past state retirement age whom don't qualify for pension credit that the gateway to some other benefits and aid that are only tested on that one threshold trigger is shut to them.

Not too sure of his motives but I applaud Nick Clegg raising the perennial subject of drug policy. I suspect that he's not too worried about opposing Cameron for internal party political reasons but he is quite right when he criticises Cameron for saying that the present policy is 'working'. I suppose it depends on your definition of working! All the evidence points to the failure of our policies and it's high time that politicians were courageous enough to ignore the knee-jerk reaction of uninformed voices and did something that recognised not only the evidence but the enormous cost to the UK economy of this running sore.
On the aftermath of the Savile case, all the agencies concerned with child protection report an increase in complaints and referrals running at about 30%. It looks as though some sort of log jam has broken and the victims have more confidence that they will be believed. I forecast that this will lead to light being cast on another area, incest. For as long as I can remember this has been taboo but I can well imagine that this will change. I suspect that if it is it will be far larger than anyone suspected.

I note that as the new police commissioners set up their staffs, the hiring of people at c.£65,000 a time is coming in for some scrutiny. It looks suspiciously like Jobs for the Boys!

Growing questions in the Tory Party about Cameron's motives in pursuing the gay marriage question. Apart from anything else the proposed guide lines are a dog's breakfast.

The IMF is finally putting out revised documents that demonstrate Bliar and Brown's economic legacy

How no one missed the massive failure will probably now do the rounds, but it is probably not the stuff that will engender confidence in any central banks or the IMF

The newly revised figures now demonstrate possibly the worst economic catastrophe that the UK has ever suffered in its history, and some people are actually beginning to wonder if the 'recovery' is actually there at all.

The arrest of a police man on the diplomatic protection squad for talking to the papers during the Andrew Mitchell incident which led to his resignation has a whiff of 'pay-back' about it.