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The end of UK middle class benefits in the UK?
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by Professor | October 22, 2009 at 08:39 am
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News 22 10 2009: Call to end middle class benefits.
Opinion: What “politically” defines the word “recession” given a Labour Government that has had signatory control over the Public’s Cheque-book in awarding itself fat Bonuses while “sitting back” in observance of others gaining high salaries and fat bonuses?. Was it not to be expected that the exploitation of taxpayers had to reach a climax whereby they could not afford ever increasing prices and wasteful spending to infinitum while proportionally being in support of their needs?. In July 2008 the Civil Service itself came under fire for Bonus payments while 2009 became about MP’s expenses as to second homes etc.
Below are listed two Timelines (A) and (B) – the former providing an insight into higher prices through profiteering in addition to “falling Standards”. The question that many Ordinary people may now be asking is “why must they now suffer cut-backs” against a backdrop of higher borrowing so necessary to cover events not of their making as to a Nation charged to a Government to whom they be paymasters to!.
(A) TIMELINE ON VALUE ADDED TAX (VAT) - UK
00 00 1940 Purchase Tax introduced but excluded on services, food and goods subject to other excise duties.
00 00 1967 VAT Harmony - EEC Council of Ministers decided to harmonise its member states' systems of indirect taxation, and legislated to require members to adopt a VAT system.
00 00 1973 Value Added Tax (VAT) introduced. A condition of UK entry into the EEC (European Economic Community).
00 03 1993 BUDGET - Mr Lamont introduced VAT on domestic heating and fuel at 8 per cent for 1994; and 17.5 per cent for 1995. A move was widely unpopular (opposition)!.
00 03 1994 BUDGET - Kenneth Clarke - restated the Government's commitment to the plans. A number of Conservative MPs rebelled against the legislation needed to enact the measure in December that year. Mr Clarke responded to the funding shortfall by cancelling some of the benefit reforms and raising tobacco duty by 6p per 20 cigarettes.
00 00 2001 BUDGET - Gordon Brown – announced a VAT cut to 5 per cent!.
00 00 2008 BUDGET - Alistair Darling – announced that following a review of VAT rules and administration, and as part of its rolling programme of tax simplification, the Government would consult on simplifying the operation of the partial exemption regime and capital goods scheme, and explore the need for business to seek permission from HMRC before taxing otherwise VAT-exempt supplies of land and property.
(B) OLD NEWS:
2001 SPEND - EIGHT Twin-rotor Chinook Mk3 delivered.
14 11 2005 GLOBAL WARMING [ Kyoto Protocol ] - Mr Blair at No 10 delivered TONNES of COAL by GREENPEACE. In a speech this month Blair said: "The blunt truth about the politics of climate change is that no country will want to sacrifice its economy in order to meet this challenge."
04 01 2007: REVENUE -Npower price hikes of some 17.2% for gas and some 12.7% for electricity. gas prices will vary regionally - The change will mean gas price rises vary from some 15% to almost some 24% up to some 27% for some customers in the East Midlands
?? 09 2007 SPEND - Northern Rock - for the first time since 1860 there was a run on a British bank. Although the Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority have jurisdiction in such cases Darling authorised the Bank of England to lend Northern Rock up to some £20 billion. Mr Darling was then criticized for so much public money being tied up in a private company!
13 11 2007 EU ACCOUNTS - AUDITORS FOR THE EU HAVE REFUSED TO SIGN OFF THE BLOC'S FINANCIAL ACCOUNTS - FOR THE 13TH YEAR IN A ROW.
07 12 2007: REVENUE Supermarkets Asda and Sainsbury's have been fined over their roles in a dairy price-fixing scandal thought to have cost consumers around £270,000,000.
20 03 2007 LOSS – some 10,000 passports go to fraudsters. Thousands of people have obtained passports under false pretences, the Home Office has admitted.
21 11 2007: LOSS - Computer discs missing holding sensitive personal data on some 25 million people and some 7.25 million families along with the identities of hundreds of people in witness protection programmes. On the 20 11 2007 Chancellor Darling blamed mistakes by junior officials at HMRC
03 12 2007: BANK DETAILS 'SOLD ON INTERNET'. The Times newspaper said it had found more than 100 websites offering to sell UK bank details, including account numbers, PINs and security codes, and had been able to download banking information for 32 individuals, including a High Court Judge, for free.
06 12 2007 LOSS - BANKING INFORMATION. HMRC admits seven security breaches. The incidents had taken place since Revenue and Customs were merged into a single organisation in April 2005. The losses included a disc of banking information which was mislaid by HMRC's information technology partner in 2006.
06 12 2007 LOSS – BANK ACCOUNT DETAILS of every child benefit claimant in the country including names, addresses, birth dates, national insurance numbers Chancellor Alistair Darling reveals. £20,000 reward!
07 12 2007 TAKE - BANKS could have an insurance-type "no-claims" bonus for people who successfully protect their own identity from fraudsters - a Think-tank suggests
07 12 2007: price-fixing - Supermarkets Asda and Sainsbury's have been fined over their roles in a dairy price-fixing scandal thought to have cost consumers around £270,000,000. SEE 12 11 2008 - Sainsbury profit rose 13 percent to some £272,000,000 in just 28 weeks.
09 12 2007COMPUTER DISC SECURITY WARNING IN 2004: News of the World reveals that in March 2004 such worries were highlighted in a letter circulated by Treasury risk manager. Because no one took any action we now face a situation where millions of bank account details and information about all our children has been lost.
12 12 2007 LOSS - DRIVER DETAILS. A total of 7,685 vehicle-keepers' addresses, names and car particulars were lost at a Parcelforce sorting centre in Coventry after the Driver and Vehicle Agency in Coleraine posted two uncoded discs to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing offices in Swansea, Wales.
19 12 2007 WARNING OVER CREDIT CRUNCH. Bank of England Governor Mervyn King has warned that UK Banks face a "painful adjustment" in coming months as losses from the summer credit crunch mount.
19 12 2007 LOSS - Pensions data by HMRC. HM Revenue and Customs has become embroiled in another data scandal after it emerged that it lost personal details of 6,000 private pension holders.
25 12 2007 ASTRAY - ACCOUNT STATEMENTS sent to wrong customers. The Post Office has been forced to apologise to thousands of pensioners after more than 100 card account statements were sent to the wrong customers. The incident came to light in a memo from a civil servant at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) advising colleagues about the situation.
27 12 2007 FOUND - COMPUTER DISC FOUND AT A DUMP. A police chief has apologised after confidential staff data was found in a dump. The personal information included names, addresses, telephone numbers, ranks and qualifications such as firearms or drug-testing skills of Devon and Cornwall Police employees.
17 01 2008: Brown in first visit to China as PM. He said in an interview with News At Ten this week: "I can see in the next two years a 50% increase in our trade with China”;”I can see thousands of British jobs, perhaps tens of thousands of British jobs, over a period of time developing from this new relationship.".
18 02 2008 SPEND - Move to nationalise Northern Rock- Chancellor Alistair Darling is due to put forward emergency legislation in Parliament to Nationalise Northern Rock- the bank's estimated £55 billion liabilities will be placed in the public's lap.
21 02 2008: PROFITS - British Gas profits rockets to around £576,000,000 last year from £95,000,000 in 2006, according to Citigroup analysts.
21 02 2008 CUTS - Defence cuts - threatening UK security. Chief of Defence Material, General Sir Kevin O'Donoghue, told the Commons Defence Committee last month that the last time he could remember spending constraints on the forces being so tight was in the late 1970s when the Government was struggling under restrictions imposed by the International Monetary Fund.
25 02 2008: FINE – some £41,600,000 meters fine for National Grid
01 03 2008 FOUND - COMPUTER DISC on eBay laptop. A highly confidential Home Office disc has been found on a laptop computer sold on eBay.
01 03 2008 BANK CARD CLONING at a PETROL STATION. Police investigating a bank card cloning scam at a petrol station found a small, drilled hole in the ceiling above a chip-and-pin machine.
03 03 2008 PROFITS - HSBC profits soar 10% to some £12.2bn
13 03 2008 PROFITS - Morrisons profits rise by 66%
14 03 2008 WARNING - Alistair Darling has warned he would have to make an £8 billion cut in spending if Labour are returned at the next General Election.
10 03 2008 FAILURE - Data protection. The Government have failed to implement basic data protection policies, despite recent embarrassments caused by information breaches, research has showed.
08 04 2008:FINE - Severn Trent Water faces £35,800,000 fine for deliberately providing false data to industry regulator Ofwat
11 04 2008 REFORMS - Darling calls for financial reforms. Mr Darling will say the institutions, set up in the aftermath of the Second World War, "need to adapt to today's problems".
12 04 2008 POSTPONE - BA postpones long-haul move to T5. bmi reacted with fury UK "was once again a laughing stock".
15 04 2008: PROFITS - Tesco rings up some £2.85bn profits
19 04 2008 SPEND - BANK - PLANNING £50BN BONDS SWAP. The Bank of England is to swap £50 billion of government bonds for high street lenders' mortgages in a bid to ease the credit crunch, it has been reported.
20 04 2008 SPEND - BANK TO INJECT BILLIONS INTO SYSTEM. The Bank of England is set to inject billions of pounds into the financial system in a bid to ease the crisis in the mortgage market, Chancellor Alistair Darling said.
28 04 2008:ALLEGATIONS - Supermarkets to be investigated on allegations of price fixing
14 05 2008WARNING - BANK CHIEF WARNS OF BUDGET SQUEEZE. Bank of England Governor Mervyn King warns over the impact of soaring energy bills, food prices and dearer imports as the Bank's latest forecasts predicted Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation could spike as high as 3.7% this year
16 05 2008 SPEND – NHS -Electronic patient records – 4 year delay. £12.7 BILLION PROGRAMME WILL NOT be introduced to every NHS Trust in England until 2014/15
20 05 2008 SPEND - UK MINISTERS consider a GIANT COMPUTER DATABASE for surveillance!.
20 05 2008: PROFITS - Marks & Spencer's annual profits have topped some £1 billion
23 05 2008 ANGER OVER £81M TRANSPORT SCHEME. An efficiency drive designed to save some £57 million is now likely to cost the Department for Transport (DfT) some £81 million, a Government spending watchdog has said.
24 5 2008 THE UK IS HEADING FOR RECESSION - Bank of England governor Mervyn King also warned that it is "quite possible" that Britain might face a recession. None of this should come as a surprise. The real surprise is that the downturn has been so long in coming. UK consumers are more indebted than they've ever been, with our total debt pile up over £1.4 trillion.
24 05 2008: Blair's bills woe revealed. Now revealed Tony Blair failed to pay his household bills on time with threats of bailiff action
25 05 2008 SPEND – Police: Some £50m scheme for 10,000 hand-held computers.
04 06 2008 SPEND –MPS ANGERED OVER EIGHT CHINOOK HELICOPTERS. NOT IN SERVICE SEVEN YEARS AFTER DELIVERY AND COSTING ALMOST £500 MILLION Throughout that time they were kept in climate-controlled, de-humidified hangars at Boscombe Down, where they are subjected to weekly inspections, with a more detailed examination every two years - a process that has cost some £560,000. Expected in service by 2011-12 at an additional cost of some £215 million.
11 06 2008 SPEND - Cash fears over polyclinics plan. There will be a £1.4 billion "black hole" in the Government's finances as a result of plans for polyclinics, the Tories have claimed.
11 06 2008 EU to act over UK budget deficit. EU to start disciplinary proceedings against the UK for breaching its economic rules. It says Britain's budget deficit, the gap between its spending and its revenues, is growing too large. The Treasury said it did not agree with the commission's assessment and asserted that the UK's public finances were sound.
12 06 2008 LOSS - £300bn wiped off value of homes
Continued in the comments--
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at 08:40 on October 22nd, 2009
15 06 2008 FOUND - SECRET FILES ON A TRAIN. A further batch of secret Government files have been found on a train. The latest confidential files were said to include details of how trade and banking systems could be manipulated to finance illicit weapons of mass destruction in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />Iran.
17 06 2008 REVENUE - Chipped wheelie bin will to go ahead even though one council which tried out the technology scrapped it after it "failed to work". 19 06 2008 SLEEPING ON THE JOB - Deputy governor of the Bank of England to step down. Last year Sir John was savaged by MPs for his role in the collapse of Northern Rock, with the Treasury Select Committee accusing him of sleeping on the job. 01 07 2008:FINED - Severn Trent Water has been fined some £2,000,000 at the Old Bailey for lying about water leaks. 03 07 2008 SPEND - COMMONS VOTE DUE ON BIG MP PAY RISE. MPs are deciding whether to defy Prime Minister Gordon Brown and award themselves an inflation-busting 4.4% pay rise. 03 07 2008 DARLING SAYS OIL PRICE "REAL PROBLEM". THE OIL PRICE IS A REAL PROBLEM AND PRODUCTION NEEDS TO RISE, CHANCELLOR ALISTAIR DARLING SAID ON THURSDAY. 06 07 2008 SPEND - CIVIL SERVICE BONUSES UNDER FIRE. civil servants banked more than some £128 million in bonuses. The Tories have accused the Government of running a "something for nothing" culture. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport average payments of more than some £11,000; Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) both averaging over some £9,000 each; MINISTRY OF DEFENCE (MOST BONUS PAYMENTS) – some £41.3 MILLION; Department for Work and Pensions totalled some £36.6 million including some £3.7 million to workers at the soon-to-be-scrapped Child Support Agency; Colleagues at the Treasury racked up some £21.7 million; formerly DTI; Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform some £4.4 million and Defra at bonuses of some £3.9 million!. 07 07 2008 WASTE - Gordon Brown links food waste to rising prices – he urged Britons to stop wasting food 10 07 2008 REVENUE Car tax changes to leave 9 million worse off under Government plans to raise vehicle duty. 12 07 2008 USbank collapses amid credit woe. California-based IndyMac Bank is the largest government-regulated savings and loan bank to fail and the second largest financial institution to close in US history, regulators said. 16 07 2008 SPEND - City Hall 'squandered millions'. "Tens of millions" of pounds of public money has been wasted by London's local government, according to a report. 16 07 2008 SPEND - Dome site bill could rise by £60m. Delays in developing the Millennium Dome site in south-west London could leave taxpayers up to £60m worse off, according to government figures. 17 07 2008 SPEND - New PACKAGE of Police reforms, including a resurrection of plans to merge police forces - A similar scheme was ditched two years 18 07 2008 PM SEEKS WAY OUT OF BORROWING RULES. Opposition parties have claimed Gordon Brown has "lost control" of the economy after it was reported the Treasury was re-writing his fiscal rules to allow the Government to increase its borrowing. 21 07 2008 BONUSES - Railway - Train boss bonuses 'extraordinary'. An entire catalogue of management failings for all to see however NR's top three directors are to get annual bonuses in excess of some £200,000 each, with chief executive Iain Coucher receiving some £305,000 28 07 2008 'Government blamed for fuel prices'. Prime Minister Gordon Brown was accused of playing politics with petrol prices earlier this month after finally confirming this autumn's planned 2p rise in fuel duty had been scrapped. 29 07 2008 LOSS - BLANK PASSPORTS STOLEN FROM VAN. The Foreign Office admitted a serious breach of security took place after blank passports destined for British embassies were stolen. 29 07 2008 ASTRAY - BENEFIT FORMS. Personal details about nearly 100 benefit claimants have been wrongly sent to a couple in Cornwall. 29 07 2008 SPEND - Council logo - cost around £476,000' – BARNDED a waste of money'. 05 08 2008REVENUE - Tory condemns speed camera 'Cash Cow'. "Ministers need to tell us what they are doing with this £100 million a year taken from motorists 05 08 2008 UKEducation - Provisional Test results due amid marking fear. Head teachers have said the Government's decision to publish the results "beggars belief" following the marking shambles 26 8 2008SPEND - £20bn new Thames barrier- feasibility study within weeks. A £20bn new Thames barrier could be built to prevent potentially disastrous flooding in London, it has emerged. 05 09 2008 PROFITS - Energy firms' dividends rise some £257,000,000. 06 09 2008: PROFITS - Energy costs - netted Treasury some £1bn 06 09 2008 DELAYS -Hundreds facing scan delays. Hundreds of patients face delays to vital scans for cancer and other diseases due to a "severe shortage" of imaging agents, experts have warned. 11 09 2008 REVENUE Energy cost 'pushing 10% into debt'. The federation said one of the key issues that exacerbated fuel poverty was the practice of charging people who pay for gas and electricity through pre-payment meters higher tariffs than other customers 11 09 2008 SPEND - PM to unveil energy help package. More than 10 million households are set to be offered help with energy efficiency measures such as loft and cavity wall insulation, new boilers and double glazing. 15 09 2008 Anger as car journey data stored. Already some 10 million journeys a day are being recorded using automatic number plate recognition (ANPR), but this is set to rise to 50 million. It will be collated at a new National ANPR Data Centre in Hendon, north London, for use by police. 16 09 2008 Markets braced for more turmoil. Stock markets on both sides of the Atlantic are braced for more turmoil in the wake of the Lehman Brothers collapse. Bank of England to pump an extra £5 billion into panicked money markets 16 09 2008 LOSS - Details of 18,000 NHS staff missing. The personal details of nearly 18,000 NHS staff in London have gone missing in the post. 22 09 2008 REVENUE -Darling dismisses tax rise claims. In his speech Mr Darling is expected to concede that no national government acting alone can deal with the problems of globalisation. 25 9 2008 SPEND - Home Secretary Jacqui Smith unveiled the new ID card. The scheme will start on November 25, and ministers predict one million cards a year will be issued each year from 2010. 25 9 2008 FAILURE -Computer failure disrupts flights. thousands of air passengers were thrown into chaos when a computer fault at the UK's main air traffic control centre led to serious flight disruptions. air traffic control company NATS to restrict the number of planes entering UK airspace as well as those taking off from major UK airports. 27 9 2008 LOSS - Files on RAF staff stolen from base: Thieves have stolen files containing the personal records of thousands of serving and former RAF staff, the Ministry of Defence said. Earlier this week, a disc containing the names and addresses of almost 11,500 teachers went missing in the post. 3 10 2008 DELAY – retirements. 'Crippling debts' could delay retirements as growing numbers of people are racking up crippling levels of unsecured debt, new research shows. 8 10 2008 MISERY - Rail strike stops 40% of journeys. A strike hit Scotland's rail network causing travel misery for thousands of commuters. 24 10 2008 BONUSES for Sats fiasco officials. Officials at the Government agency which oversaw this year's Sats fiasco have been awarded thousands of pounds in bonuses 28 10 2008 BP oil profit –some £4.4 billion EXPECTED for the July-September period, a 52% above last year's third quarter 02 11 2008 LOSS - Government data stick found at pub. An inquiry is under way after a memory stick with user names and passwords for a government computer system was discovered in a pub car park 03 11 2008EMBARRASSMENT Heathrow T5 - MPs REPORT revealed "serious failings" on the part of British Airways and airport operator BAA and was "a NATIONAL EMBARRASSMENT" 03 11 2008 CRISES - MPs will quiz banking system bosses. The heads of the financial authorities are being grilled by MPs over their handling of the banking crisis. 11 11 2008 SPEND - Tax fraud chief 'paid wife £100k'. The Government's tax fraud department has been criticised for internal failures that allowed a senior officer to hire his wife as a consultant and pay her nearly £100,000 of taxpayers' money 12 11 2008 SPEND - Conservative MEP expelled – EU Parliament tells him to repay some £500,000 in expenses paid to his family for office work. 12 11 2008: PROFITS - Sainsbury profit rose 13 percent to some £272,000,000 in just 28 weeks 17 11 2008 STATE BORROWING - Gordon Brown claims world leaders had signed up to his blueprint for reviving the global economy – a package worth between £15 billion and £30 billion - all funded through extra state borrowing 18 11 2008 INSULT - Crime detection figures 'an insult'. In a leaked document a Home Office's top civil servant admits that serious violent crime had been allowed to rise due to a focus on targets. 25 11 2008 GAMBLE - Brown's £20bn gamble to save economy. State borrowing would hit £78bn this year and £118bn next year, while total national debt will top £1 trillion by 2012-13 26 11 2008 REVENUE -Leaders clash over 'VAT bombshell'. But Mr Brown said ministers had rejected the option of raising VAT above 17.5% 26 11 2008 SPEND - MoD condemned - "substantial waste" in the procurement process. Resembles a stage farce or an episode of comedy, Yes Minister. MoD accused of putting cost-savings on equipment projects ahead of ensuring troops fighting on the frontline have the kit they need. 01 12 2008 INJUSTICE: A soldier home from Afghanistan having a night out is charged and convicted of attacking Police Officers. HOWEVER later CCTV footage shown to Liverpool Crown Court clearly showed that TWO Police Officers and a Special had lied in attacking him. HE thus won his appeal and in a statement following said "I went into the Army thinking this country was worth fighting for. I put my life on the line every day in Afghanistan, so to come back and be treated like this for no reason was just so depressing." 02 12 2008 DISGRACE - UK transport system 'dilapidated'. Britain's "dilapidated" transport systems are now costing business £23.2 billion a year, an increase of £5.7 billion since last year 12 12 2008 DELAY - NEW AIRCRAFT CARRIERS DELAYED. THE ROYAL NAVY'S TWO NEW AIRCRAFT CARRIERS ARE LIKELY TO BE DELAYED BY UP TO TWO YEARS FOLLOWING A CASH-SAVING REVIEW OF MOD EQUIPMENT SPENDING, IT WAS ANNOUNCED. 14 12 2008 QUIT - Exams chief quits over Sats fiasco. Dr Boston's resignation suggests the report will be highly critical of the QCA and its role in the fiasco. 15 12 2008 LOSS - LARGEST EVER FRAUD [ alledged ] in ELECTRONIC TRADING: Investors loose $50 Billion and all UNDER THE EYES of the US Securities and Exchange Commission [ SEC ]. 15 12 2008 LOSS -RBS reveals Madoff exposure. RBS said its potential loss could amount to some 400 million pounds, if it assumed that the value of its assets in market-making firm Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities were nil. 16 12 2008 LOSS -Bank 'fraud' may cost billions. Financial giants have revealed potential losses of almost £4 billion. 16 12 2008 SPEND -Thousands hit by pensions blunder. Thousands of retired public sector workers face having their pensions reduced after a massive overpayments blunder. 16 12 2008 SPEND -£100m to help first-time buyers. The Government has pledged an extra £100 million to help first-time buyers get on to the property ladder. 17 12 2008 SPEND - Bailed-out bank pays £1.6bn bonuses. City workers at a firm that benefited from the US bank bail-out are still to share in a multibillion-pound bonus pot, it has been confirmed. 17 12 2008 SPEND -£158m fund to help unemployed. The Government has unveiled details of a £158 million fund to help people made redundant or who fear losing their jobs with the aim of helping them find new work. 18 12 2008 PM facing new Iraq war inquiry call. Gordon Brown is to face calls for a full independent inquiry into the origins and conduct of the Iraq War, as he gives MPs details of his plan to bring British troops home after six years and 178 deaths. Harriet Harman said: "We've had a number of inquiries into Iraq and the Prime Minister has said there will be no further inquiries until our troops are all returning home." 19 12 2008 SPEND -Cash 'wasted' on private contracts. Whitehall is wasting up to some £290 million of taxpayers' money a year by failing to properly monitor "critically important" outsourced services, a watchdog has said!. [ ME: Least not forget about dirty NHS Hospitals that need a return of Matrons to oversee Hygiene Standards after the Gov didn’t see any need for them (cost-savings) ] 21 12 2008 REVENUE Poor could face 27% Government loan. Low income households dependent on emergency state loans could be hit with an interest rate of 26.8% under plans being considered by ministers. 20 12 2008 REVENUE UK sells nuclear weapons site stake. Britain has sold off its stake in the Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment, relinquishing control of nuclear warhead production in the UK, it has been revealed. 05 12 2008 SPEND – some £250m funding to train scientists. A quarter of a billion pounds is to be invested in training scientists and engineers to tackle the problems Britain faces. 12 12 2008 SPEND -Councils spend £430m on publicity. Councils are spending nearly £430 million a year on publicity, according to new figures 22 12 2008 Bank 'did not understand crisis'. The Bank of England did not understand the severity of economic problems before the current financial crisis, its deputy governor says. 27 12 2008 DELAYS - IT PROJECTS 'RUNNING 86 YEARS LATE'. Government computer projects are running a total of 86 years behind schedule and £1.4 billion over budget, it has been reported. 30 12 2008: MAJOR DEBIT - A Student in Ayrshire had his Bank Account incorrectly credited then debited by around £100Billion and was passed from pillar to post by the Bank whom then offered £10 in compensation!. 23 01 2009 CHEATED - 1.5m 'cheated out of minimum wage'. More than 1.5 million workers are being "cheated" out of the national minimum wage by dishonest employers, with hairdressers, hotel and bar staff most likely to suffer, according to new research. 27 01 2009 DELAYS - New delay for medical records scheme. Further delays can be expected to the Government's multi-billion-pound scheme to computerise medical records, a group of MPs has said. And it said the termination of a contract with key supplier Fujitsu last May, after months of wrangling over the terms, will be having an impact. 13 03 2009 DELAYS -UK Navy's new Type 45 destroyers 'delayed'. Original budget of £5 billion now £6.5 billion. Principle anti-air missile system (PAAMS) system not ready until 2011. US-designed co-operative engagement capability (CEC) not ready until 2014 04 06 2008 COCK-UP - MPs angered by Chinook issue. Defence chiefs are being accused of a "gold standard cock-up" over the purchase of eight Chinook helicopters. The aircraft have yet to be put into service almost seven years later after they were delivered. Ministry of Defence officials said the delay was down to cockpit computers which still do not work. To cut costs, the MoD ordered a one-off "hybrid" digital-analogue cockpit computer system that did not work properly. Throughout that time they were kept in climate-controlled, de-humidified hangars at Boscombe Down, where they are subjected to weekly inspections, with a more detailed examination every two years - a process that has cost some £560,000. 17 07 2009 DELAYS -UK-helicopter shortage in Afghanistan. A shortage of helicopters is undermining the "protection" of troops in Afghanistan, an influential group of MPs warned. 25 08 2009 DELAYS – COST-CUTTING ON Eight new Chinook helicopters bought in 2001. It has always said the helicopters have not been able to be passed as fit for use (Political Correctness ) however it now transpires that the MoD never negotiated in the original Contract being supplied the Access Codes to the Software rendering them unfit. The Times quoted a defence insider who said: "The MoD found it couldn't design the software for the Mk3s, as Boeing had warned." But once Boeing became aware of what was happening it then refused to play ball. 25 08 2009 SPEND - EU to cost the UK Taxpayers 60% more. In 2004 the cost was around some £53 per household. In 2009/10 the cost was some £4.1bn whereas the new cost will rise to some £6.4bn – some £260 per UK household. A treasury spokesman said that the increase had been fully and openly discussed in Parliament however the issue arrises in todays News after Parliament has begun its near 3 month recess.at 08:47 on October 22nd, 2009
What ever happened to Industrialists and their innovative minds whom cared about providing "difference" as to primary Analogue advancements rather than the exploitation of digital money in gambling by spending today what maybe the winnings of tomorrow.
at 08:54 on October 22nd, 2009
As Bruce used to say "Didn't you do well". lol
Yes their history is very impressive but what do you expect from a bunch of clowns?
at 09:25 on October 22nd, 2009
Indeed in politics are the most incompetent people engaged. The louder the empty heads cry, the better they are heard and put on the bandwagon of the PM. Silly but true.
The definition of recession is a temporary (6-8 month) decline in GDP that can be revived with financial stimuli. The definition of a depression is a downturn in GDP that runs longer and is subsequently structural. Stimuli won't help, which only makes the situation worse. Creative destruction of the overcapacity is the only solution.
at 09:39 on October 22nd, 2009
Stimuli won't help, which only makes the situation worse. Creative destruction of the overcapacity is the only solution.
This is at best an outdated theory, and is certainly not a fact. I respect your right to hold your opinion, but please don't cite it as a fact. It isn't....and to many competent economists is perceived to be erroneous