How Mrs Thatcher's (Conservative / Tory) sell-off went wrong

The Failure of Bradford & Bingley is the final nail in the coffin of one of Margaret Thatcher's most widely felt financial reforms. Its nationalisation marks the end for de-mutualised building societies, all of which have now been taken over or gone bust.
The Iron Lady introduced demutualisation in an 1986 Act, enabling building societies - owned by their members - to turn themselves into public companies. This allowed the likes of Northern Rock, Halifax , Abbey National (Santander) B&B better access to cheaper money; but they all either failed or were gradually snapped up by competitors with more spending power.
B&B demutualised in 2000 and built its business on risky buy-to-let and self-certified mortgage market - a decision which , with banks now super-cautious about lending money, has proved its downfall.




Taken from: The Metro Newspaper Mon Sept 29, 2008

RE - US GOVT's POSSIBLE $3/4 TRILLION BAILOUT

Not being really clever at maths , but surely if the US Govt buys all tehse bad debts off the banks then the American Govt will then be stuffed by these bad debts and will have basically given the banks 3/4 trillion dollars?

Secret Service Orders Police to Roadblock Obama Supporters

George Bush and his pet goat

WHY MOZILLA FIREFOX IS THE SAFEST BROWSER

Firefox keeps your personal info personal and your online interests away from the bad guys.

READ WHY HERE

RMT to go on strike on South Eastern Railways 22 - 23 Sept 2008

September 17, 2008
Drop the intimidation and negotiate, RMT tells South Eastern on eve of talks

September 17, 2008

SOUTH EASTERN Trains should drop its intimidation tactics against its workforce and negotiate settlements to the disputes that have led to 48-hour strike action being called for next Monday and Tuesday, Britain’s biggest rail union said today.

SEE MORE HERE

THE BIGS PAWS BLOG HAS FINALLY ARRIVED

CLICK HERE TO KEEP UP TO DATE ON BIG PAWS AND THE TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF THE TIGER TRIBE

WARNING : DR KATHY VILLIERS IS VERY BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH

TODAY i WENT TO MY DOCTORS AND HAD THE MISFORTUNE OF HAVING A NEW DOCTOR - SHE IS A WHITE SOUTH AFRICAN CALLED DR KATHY VILLIERS - PRESUMABLY SHE HAD TO LEAVE SOUTH AFRICA BECAUSE SHE WAS SO DISLIKED SHE HAD TO MOVE TO ANOTHER COUNTRY.

NEVER IN MY LIFE HAVE I BEEN SO BADLY TREATED BY ANYONE - SHE MADE ME FEEL SO SMALL AND UNIMPORTANT - SHE DIDNT EVEN HAVE MY MEDICAL NOTES WITH HER - SHE HAD TO ACCUSE ME OF ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN , I PRESUME TO SEE HOW I WOULD REACT AND SHE EVEN LEFT THE DOOR OPEN SO ALL THE OTHER PATIENTS COULD HEAR WHAT WAS BEING SAID.

IM REALLY DISAPPOINTED WITH MY OWN DOCTOR WITH THE WAY HE HAS LET SOME THIS INCOMPETENT WORK FOR HIM AND I WILL MAKE A POINT - IF I EVER GO BACK TO HIS SURGERY OF HAVING HER REMOVED IF NOT STRUCK OFF PERMANENTLY.

Sarah Palin isn't Sure if God Still Wants Us to Kill Iraqis

ADVANCE NOTICE - EXPO 2012

OFFICAL WEBSITE OF THE EXPO - hmmm Rainy London or Sunny Tangier?

Interesting photo from Olympic Lottery Distributor

Bank of England Gives Lenders Estimated $354 Billion

Sept. 3 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. banks probably have tapped the Bank of England for more than 200 billion pounds ($354 billion) less than two months before its emergency funding plan is scheduled to end, according to UBS AG analysts.

The central bank's so-called special liquidity scheme, established in April and set to close in October, allows banks to swap mortgage-backed securities hurt by the credit squeeze for government bonds. Banks may face insolvency unless central bank Governor Mervyn King succeeds with his plan to put in place a new money-market system, UBS said.

``A permanent solution is needed,'' said the London-based analysts led by Alastair Ryan in a research note to clients dated Sept. 1. Otherwise ``U.K. banks will have perhaps 200 billion pounds of exploding funding'' to refinance within the next three years and would be forced to cut back lending and shrink assets. House prices could decline 40 percent without central bank help, Ryan said.

HBOS Plc, Britain's No. 1 mortgage lender, may be the biggest user of the U.K. central bank's bond plan, ahead of Lloyds TSB Group Plc, Barclays Plc and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc., Collins Stewart analysts led by Alex Potter in London wrote in a note to clients. HBOS relied on money markets to fund more than 50 percent of new mortgage lending before credit markets seized.

``We're not commenting on speculation about the usage of the scheme,'' a central bank official who declined to be identified in line with bank practice said in a telephone interview today. ``As has always been the case, there's no cap on the scheme. The size reflects its use.''

The U.K.'s Daily Telegraph newspaper reported the estimate of central bank funds used earlier today.

Republican National Convention protest arrests tally nearly 300

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Police arrests tally nearly 300 following sometimes violent confrontations this week, and more protests were planned for Wednesday and Thursday, the final two days of the Republican National Convention.

Some protest organizers have promised to resume their often confrontational actions near where delegates are meeting in the Xcel Energy Center until the GOP convention ends its four-day run.

Police said Wednesday they had arrested 10 people throughout Tuesday, but they declined to offer specifics about each incident. Total arrests for the week were 294, including 137 felonies.

At least three of the arrests Tuesday came during a march against poverty. The march was tense but neither as widespread nor violent as events a day before, when nearly 300 people were arrested in numerous run-ins in downtown St. Paul.

Police estimated about 2,000 people took part in the poverty march, which lasted about three hours. It ended near the convention arena with police using tear gas and flash-bang grenades to disperse protesters they said were trying to get past security fences, said Tom Walsh, a St. Paul police spokesman.

The arrests Tuesday came a day after violence erupted following a largely peaceful anti-war march by some 10,000 people. Afterward, police blamed a splinter group of about 200 for harassing delegates, smashing windows, puncturing car tires, throwing bottles and starting at least one fire.

The RNC Welcoming Committee, a self-described anarchist group that has worked for months planning convention disruptions, claimed success in e-mails to its members and media. "The spectacle has been crashed!" read one.

That group wasn't officially connected with the organizers of either march.