As it’s Bank Holiday Monday today, here’s just a quick thought.
The government is urging graduates to consider a spell working abroad, whether in internships or volunteering, to avoid the worst of the recession.
Are the government going to let everybody know exactly where abroad this recession free Utopia is, so that we can all move there?
Showing posts with label recession. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recession. Show all posts
Monday, 25 May 2009
Thursday, 7 May 2009
Paper (No Make That Electronic) Tiger
Rupert Murdoch’s company, News Corporation, is planning to charge a fee for access to their newspaper websites.
This means that you will have to pay to read the dailies such as the Times and the Sun and Sunday newspapers, the News of the World and the Sunday Times online.
This is prompted by soaring online subscription revenues at the Wall Street Journal and the fact that News Corp’s quarterly operating profits crashed by 47% to a meagre $755,000,000.
Ah bless, you can’t even get a decent meal for that nowadays, can you?
Has he contemplated the fact that there is a recession, and one of the first things to go is forking out for a newspaper every day?
Does Mr Murdoch and his team think that electronic newspapers share brand loyalty with the printed version?
Wake up Rupert, mate. This is the 21st century. If you start charging, readers will simply click on to the Daily Telegraph or the Daily Star and then, bang goes the advertising revenue from your websites!
Don’t forget, nearly every television company in the world have sites with news pages, some, even, with videos of the stories, and they don't charge to view them.
Remember what the Duke of Wellington said, “Publish and be damned”!
This means that you will have to pay to read the dailies such as the Times and the Sun and Sunday newspapers, the News of the World and the Sunday Times online.
This is prompted by soaring online subscription revenues at the Wall Street Journal and the fact that News Corp’s quarterly operating profits crashed by 47% to a meagre $755,000,000.
Ah bless, you can’t even get a decent meal for that nowadays, can you?
Has he contemplated the fact that there is a recession, and one of the first things to go is forking out for a newspaper every day?
Does Mr Murdoch and his team think that electronic newspapers share brand loyalty with the printed version?
Wake up Rupert, mate. This is the 21st century. If you start charging, readers will simply click on to the Daily Telegraph or the Daily Star and then, bang goes the advertising revenue from your websites!
Don’t forget, nearly every television company in the world have sites with news pages, some, even, with videos of the stories, and they don't charge to view them.
Remember what the Duke of Wellington said, “Publish and be damned”!
Thursday, 23 April 2009
Labour Party, I Think It’s Time To Budget!
Happy St George’s Day everyone. Well the lily livered, spineless Chancellor let us down big time.
This Budget was supposed to have led us out of recession, instead of that he tried to retain the few Labour voters left in the country.
He lied about the speed of economic recovery, he predicted that the economy would shrink by 3.5% this year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says it will shrink by 4.1%. He said that the economy will grow by 1.25% next year, the IMF says it will shrink a further 0.4%. This leads to an all time record borrowing of, wait for it, £175 billion.
To salve the Labour faithful, he hammered the higher earner, gave the pensioners a few coppers more and increased child credit. In a populist move, he only increased alcohol and tobacco by the usual pennies.
The most ludicrous thing to come out of this budget is the grand opening of ‘Honest Al’s Car Sales’ where Al will give you £2000 for your old banger, (no sir, he didn’t mean your wife), against a new car.
Hang on a minute, I’ll give Al a call.
Me: “Hello, is that Al’s”
Al: “Yes sir, how may I help you?”
Me: “I hear that you will give me £2000 trade in against my old car, if I buy a new one.”
Al: “ Mmm, well that’s not strictly true sir. I will give you £1000 towards it and the poor motor company, you know, the one that’s sinking faster than the ‘Titanic’, the one that’s already slashed it’s prices to the bone, will give you the other £1000. You can pay the balance with your redundancy pay and Job Seekers Allowance. We are also doing a special offer, 2p ON a litre of fuel.”
Me: "I'll get back to you on that one, NOT!"
Gordon, I think it’s time you traded Alistair in!
This Budget was supposed to have led us out of recession, instead of that he tried to retain the few Labour voters left in the country.
He lied about the speed of economic recovery, he predicted that the economy would shrink by 3.5% this year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says it will shrink by 4.1%. He said that the economy will grow by 1.25% next year, the IMF says it will shrink a further 0.4%. This leads to an all time record borrowing of, wait for it, £175 billion.
To salve the Labour faithful, he hammered the higher earner, gave the pensioners a few coppers more and increased child credit. In a populist move, he only increased alcohol and tobacco by the usual pennies.
The most ludicrous thing to come out of this budget is the grand opening of ‘Honest Al’s Car Sales’ where Al will give you £2000 for your old banger, (no sir, he didn’t mean your wife), against a new car.
Hang on a minute, I’ll give Al a call.
Me: “Hello, is that Al’s”
Al: “Yes sir, how may I help you?”
Me: “I hear that you will give me £2000 trade in against my old car, if I buy a new one.”
Al: “ Mmm, well that’s not strictly true sir. I will give you £1000 towards it and the poor motor company, you know, the one that’s sinking faster than the ‘Titanic’, the one that’s already slashed it’s prices to the bone, will give you the other £1000. You can pay the balance with your redundancy pay and Job Seekers Allowance. We are also doing a special offer, 2p ON a litre of fuel.”
Me: "I'll get back to you on that one, NOT!"
Gordon, I think it’s time you traded Alistair in!
Saturday, 4 April 2009
Starvation and the Nation
Some hard-up families are facing the prospect of malnutrition due to the recession and soaring food prices, the charity ‘Save the Children’ has warned.
I beg to differ. This has more to do with other factors than with the recession.
Agriculture.
Successive governments have moved the UK away from being an agricultural nation into being a (failed) industrial nation. Cheap fruit and vegetables are now, and forever will be, a thing of the past.
Consumerism.
The UK is a consumer society that, must have a 42 inch plasma TV hanging on the wall, must have two weeks a year in Orlando, Florida, must have a state of the art mobile phone, must have a brand new leather three piece suite. How are you going to manage to buy food after you have paid for all of these essentials?
TV Cookery Programmes.
If you can’t afford plain food like filet steak with white truffle sauce and potatoes boulangere washed down with a nice bottle of Chateau Neuf du Pape how are you going to stop yourself from falling through your ribs?
TV Gardening Programmes.
You must have well manicured lawns in both your front and back gardens and what’s the use of patio doors without a patio? God forbid that you should ever dig these up and plant cabbages and potatoes. You’d rather starve to death than lower the tone of the neighbourhood!
Lack of Inventiveness.
Ready meals, take-aways and frozen chips have contributed to robbing modern woman of her creativity, but the main culprit is the discontinuation of domestic science classes in schools for the last couple of generations.
My wife can skin and gut a rabbit and fillet fish with the best of ’em. She can turn the cheapest cut of meal and a couple of vegetables into a gourmet meal. Without learning these skills, the nuclear family have no chance.
Both my wife and myself were born and raised during WWII and we came out the other side fit and healthy even though food then was really scarce.
So why doesn’t today’s government try to promote these ideals today by re-issuing posters like ‘Dig on for Victory’ and pamphlets like the old Ministry of Food’s ‘How to Plan Meals for Children’?
They could even rake out some of the old public service films of the time and show them on TV. Perhaps then the end of the world won't be so nigh!
Lead by example, I say.
I beg to differ. This has more to do with other factors than with the recession.
Agriculture.
Successive governments have moved the UK away from being an agricultural nation into being a (failed) industrial nation. Cheap fruit and vegetables are now, and forever will be, a thing of the past.
Consumerism.
The UK is a consumer society that, must have a 42 inch plasma TV hanging on the wall, must have two weeks a year in Orlando, Florida, must have a state of the art mobile phone, must have a brand new leather three piece suite. How are you going to manage to buy food after you have paid for all of these essentials?
TV Cookery Programmes.
If you can’t afford plain food like filet steak with white truffle sauce and potatoes boulangere washed down with a nice bottle of Chateau Neuf du Pape how are you going to stop yourself from falling through your ribs?
TV Gardening Programmes.
You must have well manicured lawns in both your front and back gardens and what’s the use of patio doors without a patio? God forbid that you should ever dig these up and plant cabbages and potatoes. You’d rather starve to death than lower the tone of the neighbourhood!
Lack of Inventiveness.
Ready meals, take-aways and frozen chips have contributed to robbing modern woman of her creativity, but the main culprit is the discontinuation of domestic science classes in schools for the last couple of generations.
My wife can skin and gut a rabbit and fillet fish with the best of ’em. She can turn the cheapest cut of meal and a couple of vegetables into a gourmet meal. Without learning these skills, the nuclear family have no chance.
Both my wife and myself were born and raised during WWII and we came out the other side fit and healthy even though food then was really scarce.
So why doesn’t today’s government try to promote these ideals today by re-issuing posters like ‘Dig on for Victory’ and pamphlets like the old Ministry of Food’s ‘How to Plan Meals for Children’?
They could even rake out some of the old public service films of the time and show them on TV. Perhaps then the end of the world won't be so nigh!
Lead by example, I say.
Thursday, 5 March 2009
Are You Interested? (Part II)
Well it happened, then! Not only did the Bank of England lower the interest rate to 0.5% to discourage savers and to turn us into a nation of spenders, it also announced that it is to create £75billion of new money in an attempt to revive lending and an economy that is on the ropes.
This policy, apparently called quantitative easing, is about pouring money into the whole system rather than just into the banks. Mr Darling has given the Bank of England permission to extend this £75billion to up to £150billion.
Don't get too excited though, the Bank wont be printing a shed load of tenners, rather boringly it will be buying assets like bonds and gilts.
I may own a pair of red braces but I'm no financial guru but even I can see that if this is not policed properly by the Treasury, it could lead to higher inflation or even, heaven forbid, hyperinflation.
Everyone who stayed awake during history lessons at school knows what happened to the German economy in in the 1920's.
Just make sure history doesn't repeat itself, Mr Darling!
This policy, apparently called quantitative easing, is about pouring money into the whole system rather than just into the banks. Mr Darling has given the Bank of England permission to extend this £75billion to up to £150billion.
Don't get too excited though, the Bank wont be printing a shed load of tenners, rather boringly it will be buying assets like bonds and gilts.
I may own a pair of red braces but I'm no financial guru but even I can see that if this is not policed properly by the Treasury, it could lead to higher inflation or even, heaven forbid, hyperinflation.
Everyone who stayed awake during history lessons at school knows what happened to the German economy in in the 1920's.
Just make sure history doesn't repeat itself, Mr Darling!
Are You Interested?
I’m usually known for my tongue in cheek slant on life, but my mind has today been tuned to a modern ponderable. I have just seen that the Bank of England is expected to announce another cut in the interest rate, down to 0.5%, in an attempt to revive the economy.
Just whose economy are they reviving? My bank hasn’t offered me a cheap interest loan since rates started dropping a few months ago, my credit card company hasn’t lowered my interest rate and savers are getting next to no return for their money.
The stock market still falls every day, companies are still going into administration, shops and pubs are still closing, redundancies are on the rise and pensions are being eroded, even a certain retired bank executive has been asked to hand back some of his pension! (I’ve managed to get a bit of satire in, then)
My first thought was that the banks were profiting from these cuts but they appear to be failing as well. If savers get almost no return for their money surely they are not putting it into the bank and if the man in the street is in jeopardy of losing his job, he’s not going to take on a bank loan so the banks can’t be taking in much money either.
So, Mr Darling, just who is profiting?
Just whose economy are they reviving? My bank hasn’t offered me a cheap interest loan since rates started dropping a few months ago, my credit card company hasn’t lowered my interest rate and savers are getting next to no return for their money.
The stock market still falls every day, companies are still going into administration, shops and pubs are still closing, redundancies are on the rise and pensions are being eroded, even a certain retired bank executive has been asked to hand back some of his pension! (I’ve managed to get a bit of satire in, then)
My first thought was that the banks were profiting from these cuts but they appear to be failing as well. If savers get almost no return for their money surely they are not putting it into the bank and if the man in the street is in jeopardy of losing his job, he’s not going to take on a bank loan so the banks can’t be taking in much money either.
So, Mr Darling, just who is profiting?
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