Clegg Hires Brian Eno as "Youth Issues Adviser"
Brian Eno is a 60 year old ex-rock musician.
UPDATE : Clegg doesn't believe in God. No word from God as yet on the future prospects for the LibDems, but you don't expect miracles.
Brian Eno is a 60 year old ex-rock musician.
128 comments:
At least when Gordon was asked about pop music, he managed to come up with the Arctic Monkeys. Clegg simply hasn't a fucking clue.
The man is a wonk. There is nothing there. At all.
LOL Youth adviser my arse!
Brian Eno was a slapheaded old fart thirty years ago.
I guess it won't be long before the poor old Lib Dems realise they've elected another dud.
Clegg is a tenth rate Cameron so why vote for a very pale imitation when you can have the real thing.
So Clegg is being a two-faced Liberal then, stealing Camerons identity and merging it with Brown's GOAT meme. It will produce a tasteless, electorally unappealing repositary for the clueless morons who can't get their arses off the fence.
'Norman' Clegg will prove to be the latest in a long line of Liberal whiners.
Reason is that Brian was the inventor of Eno's Fruit Salts, the legal high choice of the yoof of today. A little known fact outside Tuscany.
You're wrong. This is almost the only 'celeb' appointment made by any of the parties in recent months that's not wholly awful. It's still a bit lame. But at least 1. Eno has Lib Dem alliances dating back a bit and 2. he's not a convicted con man.
He's 59 actually...but surely in no way represents what the liberal youth want from government. It's become unusual not to see a Boris poster in a student house and even most hippies I know are seriously considering voting Tory. Madness.
Brian Eno is a bit too naive for this job. Sooner or later he'll say something honest, and Clegg will have to sack him to save his own skin. He's already told the World at One that he doesn't expect the LibDems to win the next election, which goes to prove that 60-year-olds aren't as daft as some people think.
Perhaps Dave can trup Clegg by appointing Bryan Ferry as his Yoof Adviser.
Good choice. Brian Eno is a very clever and talented man. He's an artist and a highly original thinker.
He has his head a bit far up his arse sometimes, but which of us are innocent of that from time to time.
Never figured Eno as a political type, but at least he's not in bed with NuLabour like most of the arts farts.
Good on him!
Eno has done some great stuff over the years: Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy (1974), Here Come the Warm Jets (1974) and Another Green World (1975) and the 801 stuff are all excellent; and he has been one of the most innovative producers to have graced the recording-studio. His ambient stuff is all right if you like that sort of thing.
But I am not entirely surely how the award-winning producer of Achtung Baby is qualified to be a 'youth issues advisor'?
What next? Emerson, Lake and Palmer to be 'foreign affairs advisors? Noddy Holder to provide consultations on prison reform?
Word verification: brownpuke
Hmm..very funny, although I would argue that asking a Youth what the approach to 'Youth Issues' should be is like asking a fox to guard the hen-house.
They should shut the fuck up and do as they are fucking well told...
Youth is a matter of perception.
The ungrateful children that constitute a Police force have an issue with the Home Office. Maybe Brian Eno is the right man.
word verification: avcsdrs
SMB 5:20 said "It's become unusual not to see a Boris poster in a student house".
Boris, the new Che Guevara.
I may need a bit of time to get my head round that one.
Bringing the author of "Here Come the Warm Jets" into the fold of the Toilet Party has to be one of the best jokes of the year.
@ KOBA
Ungrateful Children similar to these perhaps.
1994 - Pc Lewis Fulton. Knifed while responding to a 999 call in Glasgow
1997 - Pc Nina Mackay. Stabbed to death in Stratford, east London
1999 - Pc Raja Ahmed. Killed by car thief in Manchester
2001 - Pc Alison Armitage. Run over by a car thief in Oldham, Greater Manchester
2001 - Pc Malcolm Walker. Rammed off his police motorbike in Birmingham
2003 - Pc Stephen Oake. Died of stab wounds during an anti-terror raid in Manchester
2003 - Pc Ian Broadhurst. Shot after stopping a motorist in Leeds on Boxing Day
2005 - Pc Sharon Beshenivsky. Shot dead as she arrives at a robbery scene in Bradford
2007 - Unnamed male Pc. Shot dead in Shrewsbury while attending a domestic incident
Taxes said...
Have you seen this table of tax rises since 2001:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/tax_receipts/table1-2.pdf
Interesting reading. I'm awful at maths but isn't the headline stat that we all pay £130bn more tax (around £2k a year each) more tax than we did in 2001.
That's probably where all the money for Northern Rock's come from.
4:04 PM, December 19, 2007
Assuming population 2001.2 = 59.114 m
Assuming population 2007.8 60.8m
therefore
2001.2 £5443 taxes per person
2007.8 £7407.89 taxes per person
36.0% increase
RPI Nov 2001--- 173.6
RPI Nov 2007---209.7
Inflation 20.79%
Is it possible that Clegg just wanted a copy of the Beano to get back in touch with the youth of today and someone heard "B. Eno"?
It's as good as any other theory.
Maybe he's just a moron.
Brian Eno,s music is absolutely brilliant. But judging by the standards of cleanliness of the rest of his fans I have witnessed.
His politics must stink as well.
However at sixty Brian's experience of life, and life in retirement would have been more usefully channeled, into something to do with either drug rehabilitation or Pensions provision.
Anonymous at 5.55...
How many lorry drivers have been killed at work since 1994? Or farm workers? Or builders? Although the death of a police officer is regrettable, why do they assume they are morally superior to everyone else, and that their remuneration is therefore beyond logical analysis?
cameron/clegg ... clegg/cameron...
is tony hart making these out of his spare clay from morph.
huhne/osbourne/cameron/clegg/laws/tory anonymous frontbencher...
all interchangeable shite.
Old Codger, nice to see tobacco duties still sailing over the £8bn mark. And that doesn't include the baccy pouring through the back door in ever increasing quantities.
So their fucking stupid smoking ban in pubs worked, then.
There is nothing worse than the sight of a babyfaced 40 year old making a bloody fool of himself trying to sound with-it and in tune with youth but getting his facts wrong on air. Unless, of course, it is a gruesome psychologically flawed Scottish 56 year old doing the same, even more ineptly.
I hear Gordon Brown is asking Gary Glitter to be his Youth Issues Adviser.
In other news Lord George Robertson is said to be looking for a job back in government.
This is all very well but to change the subject...
His Holiness is disturbe by the thought that Ma Mel's 'Spectator' blog may be censored. Her Loopiness launched off on one of her bug eye loon impersonations, ranting on about Israel as per usual. His Holiness felt constrained to post that she had quite forgotten to mention the ethnic cleansing of the inigenous population as a foundation of the state.
Imagine His Holiness's surprise when his posting did not make it to the comments section of the old dear's blog!!! Naturally, His Holiness isn't used to this sort of disrespect.
So he posted it again. Amazingly, it didn't make it for a second time!
The kindest explanation must be that the kind people at the Speccy do not wish to upset the mad old bat with anything that might challenge her craze view of the world. There must be meication for this sort of thing...
And they've got at my 'd' key too...
Considering that Eno will soon be attaining his second childhood, surely this is a prescient move. He'll be able to provide fresh, up-to-the-minute advice based on firsthand experience.
Showing your ageism here, Guido, and it ain't pretty.
Excuse my ignorance, but surely Eno was an Australasian (oddly-coloured) puppet that performed with that nice Mr Hull, and was over-fond of Mr Parkinson's lunch-box.
Laff, I almost fell off the roof!
Michael Jackson might be a good choice to help Blinky with education of primary school-kids.
Off to pub. Night Night All.
Not long ago I met a Lib Dem activist who spent far too long ranting on about the wonders of "prog rock" - what is it that these buggers have about has beens? Is it a secret Lib Dem fetish?
We should be told.
I expect Sainsbury's to deliver groceries, not banking. I expect Barclays to deliver banking, not groceries.
Is it so terribly unreasonable to expect politicians to do politics, and musicians to do (what almost passes in Eno's case as) music?
This is surely a new variant of the Damien Hirst gag, "my kid could do better".
In this case my sixty-something Uncle Albert is not especially busy in the New Year....
He doesn't believe in God!
Fuck me I can't wait to find out whether or not he likes toblerones
bring it on clegg, bring it on
so you are going to make it a matter of national politics that you do not take responsibility for anything .
yoof goes wrong its brian enos fault , so will we have a groovey new yellow pheonix .
i picture more of munchs scream .
i think mr eno will be a bit disappointed with lid dem politics after all you cruelly ditch campbell , why should this 60 yr old feel he will be safe .
your desire to remove reponsibility will be sussed as a trick , just like gordos wonk ideology
He should have got Amy Wino. At least she would have something in common with our drug infested, piss headed arse faced 'youths'.
Anyway Clegg looks like a Nazi stormtrooper to me. Mark these words folks!!!!
Eno is a walking encyclopaedia of right-on Lib platitudes with 0 analysis behind them - absolutely right for the job.
I'm more concerned at his apparent blind faith in the editorial wisdom of the BeeBeeCee.
former MEP, former journalist
no trial necessary
MSM wankaletes said...
He doesn't believe in God!
WHO DOESN'T BELIEVE IN GOD????
I'll have the bugger burned at the stake!
OH shit - I can't any more. Some simpering ninnies abolished burning at the stake. I really don't know why....
Never did anybody any harm
papal benedictions
So long as they pay for him themselves and don't pick the pockets of the public for their fucking useless MPs, spads, wonks, research institutes and spaced-out has-beens, they can continue to look ridiculous with my approval.
At least he earned his pile honestly, which is more than you can say for most of those shitheads.
Holy father, please run the cunt over in your pope mobile or have the Inquisition put red hot pokers up his arse.
(There's a fiver in it for you)
msm wankaletes....
bless you, my child
consider it done!
just leave the fiver in the poor box like a good chap...
and on no account give it to my biatch or catamite - they'll just spend it on a rock of white
If he can't convince his wife that God isn't real then what hope does he have of convincing people to vote Lib Dem?
I can see the next Clegg revelation now: "well, I am a Liberal Democrat, but I'm raising my children to vote Conservative..."
Never mind, little Nicky. I still believe in you, for now. Just don't try my patience, that's all.
piss be upon him
Of all the bilge spouted by millionaire rock stars, Eno's is a class apart. It's as if it's fuelled by guilt at his vast U2-related earnings, a frail effort to regain his lost artistic credibility. But studenty agit-prop out of the mouth of a 60 year-old multi millionaire looks ridiculous. Just like the Lib-dems.
I freely admit to being just to the right of Genghis Khan. I am however baffled. I have just had the misfortune of watching that tool on Newsnight regarding the poor detainee who hasnt seen his likkle baby. What could happen to somebody to make him turn out like this? Why do they feel the need to defend people who are at best misguided at worst complete loons? Its time to bring in a tiered legal system. Let the victim choose the penalty. That way they can pinch "Mr everyones lovely" jallopy and he can give them a cheery wave, they nick mine I shoot the fuckers. After I have shot a few whos car are they going to target then. I am ashamed to say we have a friend who is a lefty, there I have said it, and we discussed my baseball bat stationed next to the bed. "But Rufus" she said, with her head slightly tilted, "what if they are on drugs?" Beggars belief
Matthew Parris in Thursday's times:
As the year nears its close with a new Prime Minister test-driven, run-in and, from the look of him, near done-in, your diarist wrestles with a professional problem. I think Gordon Brown is mad.
But the trouble is, I said Tony Blair was mad, too. I said it for nearly ten years. Readers will surely begin to worry that it is I who am mad — or, worse, that I'm just a former Tory MP who thinks all Labour leaders are insane.
But with Mr Brown it shouts at you, doesn't it? The constant, mindless, repetition of comfort-blanket verbal formulae. The anger, the obstinacy — a man by turns bullying yet paralysed by indecision.
And those awful stories: fits of yelling at people, refusing to look at people, unpardonable rudeness to staff, fidgeting, nail-biting, afraid of letting go of anything, terrified of committing yet clinging with blind rigidity to commitments he does make. Then there's the (surely) telltale mistrust of all but a small circle of devotees...
I could go on. But I promise not to. Look, in return for easing up on this in 2008, can I just say one thing now about this madness stuff? With Tony Blair it was a metaphor. With Gordon Brown it's a diagnosis.
They only got Eno because Janet Street-Porter turned them down...
I like this. Thank fuck a politician admits to not believing in god...
He's a liberal though, so he has no problem with people believing in god.
Refreshing fucking liberalism.
Gordon Brown is to announce a commission to look into the problems for young people and in line with his government of all the talents will include people from the world of music and the media. He will therefore announce on Friday that the commission will consist of Pete Townshend, Chris Langham, and Gary Glitter, and it will be led by George Robertson.
Now you don't get a much bigger tent than that do you!
richard dawkins for cultural affairs advisor perhaps!.
perhaps he will form the liberal SS.
brussels lover , athiest.
i cant wait for his view on the troubled ecnomic situation.
given that one his backing mps oversees a constituancey council that has manged to run up a 10.5 million deficit from a neutral balance when they took over , i hope he doesnt roll out the model
nationally.
first appointment brian eno , i would have thought sorting his cabinet out would be first priority .
lets see who gets the me me me pick to see whats happening , will huhne be in charge of toilets and janitoral cabinet .
looks entertaining for a month or so .
Fair play to Clegg for dissing god. Read that Mitt Romney (presidential snowball in hell) wears lucky mormom pants to bring him strength. Give me strength. Pat Condell youtube is good on religion.
really really sane
"GORDON Brown was embarrassed by his own troops last night as the Scottish Parliament demanded a referendum on the EU Treaty."
haha in the soar away sun today.
Hattie Harperson has just been on "Today", talking about prostitution, and whether it should be made illegal.
She is a Misandrist, so naturally her prejudice is to ban payment for sex. But she hasn't had the say-so from the Snot-Gobbler. So she said "I think this" and "I think that". Lots of sanctimony, NO firm proposals
Can someone take her into a quiet room, sit her down, and explain that meaningless platitudes are for backbenchers and Labour councillors. She is a decision maker now. Does she think payment for sex should be made illegal - yes or no?
I'd make a great yoof advisor. Here is a bit of advice for them now, STAY OUT OF MY WAY YOU FUCKING UNEDUCATED, HOODED ARSE WIPE KNOW IT ALL MORONS!!!!!!
Anon @ 7:01 said:
"Considering that Eno will soon be attaining his second childhood, surely this is a prescient move. He'll be able to provide fresh, up-to-the-minute advice based on firsthand experience."
So why did they get rid of Ming then?
Now they have demoted the only decent Liberal, Vince "twinkle toes" Cable, Clegg should go the whole hog for the popular vote. I suggest Shakin Stevens as shadow home sec, Alvin Stardust as shadow work and pensions and the guy out of Boney M for overseas development, as well as the previously nominated Noddy Holder for prisons.
Anon 5.55 p.m.,
Window cleaners, dustmen, deep-sea fishermen, roofers and people in many other occupations are far more likely than policemen to be killed at work.
Guido, have you read this by Fraser Nelson on Brown's lying about Tory donations:
http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/411206/brown-at-it-again-on-party-funding.thtml
I hope the full url comes out
Aye, but less likely to be in the Lodge and less likely to have secret files on people like his Grace Lord Robertson of Dunblane, God bless his ugly lisping face.
Who ate all the shitty, fat-filled saveloys and filthy donor kebabs?
You fat cockney bastards:
Boris Johnson:
"Londoners have worse problems with obesity than anywhere else in Britain, and 4,000 die every year from obesity-related conditions"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/12/20/do2001.xml
"She is a decision maker now. Does she think payment for sex should be made illegal - yes or no?" (anon)
Have you asked her? What were her charges?
"Does she think payment for sex should be made illegal - yes or no?"
I think payment for sex should only be made illegal if I can get it on the NHS.
The real story is that Brown and Cameron believe in a supernatural fairy dictator and Clegg doesn't.
Think I'll probably vote for the sane one.
I remember Ultravox describing meeting Brian Eno. He was considered to be the godfather of electronic music so they had high expectations of meeting the master at work. When they got to his studio they saw his keyboard had bits of masking tape stuck above various switches and buttons with phrases like "makes a twiddly sound" "makes a sound a bit like snow falling". They were somewhat underwhelmed.
I just bet that in 1933 someone told Hitler to 'get in touch with today's youth', hence Baldur von Schirach and the Hitler Jugend.
Personally I think Clegg should have gone out and hired Keith Richards, we could then be treated to the spectacle of Libdems teaching the yoof of today that sniffing your father's cremated ashes is not a good way to try and get high ...
He couldn't afford Keith Richards. And anyway he's been dead for years.
Dunno about about anyone else but I knew as much as I wanted to know about Mr fucking Eno over thirty years ago. And that was, God knows, precious fucking little.
Is anything else happening here today? I have some old NMEs I can go and read. I don't have to put up with this shit.
"Hattie Harperson has just been on "Today", talking about prostitution, and whether it should be made illegal."
And in later news, Ed Balls will announce that as from January pi will be decreed to be equal to 3.
"Hattie Harperson has just been on "Today", talking about prostitution, and whether it should be made illegal."
Next time I'm in Earls Court perhaps some copper will leap out of the wardrobe and shout "You're nicked, son" whilst brandishing a camera and a tape recorder.
I suppose I will have to resort to speaking in code and just leave my wallet on the side. "Oh no officer, I wasn't paying for sex. I've known young Katerina here for years and I just happened to leave my wallet behind, that's all". It would be typical of Labour to introduce yet another unenforceable law.
The Labour Party seems to have developed a bit of an unhealthy interest in what consenting adults do in the name of adult entertainment. Was there a huge demonstration of prostitutes in London recently claiming they had had enough? Or have the Labour Party just run out of other things to ban?
When we have a delegation of prostitutes on the BBC demanding the trade be stopped for their own protection then I will listen. In the meantime Harriet the Frigid can keep her mindless morality to herself. Perhaps she should focus on banning the drugs trade instead?
Sex on the NHS? I have always believed that sex should be free at the point of delivery, but like the NHS, you soon realise that you pay for it indirectly and the more you pay, the less you seem to get.
The elusive Stanislav tracked down.
http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/images/polishplumber_1.jpg
Also spotted in private eye with 9 buddies plumbing.
What next - an appearance on I'm a celebrity blogger, get me out of here! - ta very much!
Of course it should be available on the NHS. It's therapy for the sexually deprived. Deprivation! You'll like that word Harriet! Should be available on prescription, at your local Lloyds pharamacy. It would work better than Prozac.
Does she think payment for sex should be made illegal - yes or no?
Depends. Why doesn't she want to pay a working gel? If she wants free sex she's got Dromey at homey.
This is just Hats successfully yelling 'Your Flies Are Undone' which has got the audience to look away from her financial affairs. In the new year she'll suddenly start talking about lesbians as that is also a good one for deflecting attention.
Is there an all-found trip to Scandiwegieland to study the problem? Thought so.
For ref: Hats is despised as a self-serving exploiter of women for her own glorification. If she's picking on prostitutes, it is only because she reckons they are in no position to tell her where to stick it. It would be too boring to go through the list of why she is regarded as an abject failure, but one important one was the work which went in to a consultation she did on the family courts and the fact that they imprisoned 200 people in secret last year. Hats used the arguable need for greater secrecy in private family law to prevent proper scrutiny of public family law. That's where you are in a barney with the social services and both doctors and social workers tell outright lies which they mostly get away with.
Family note: her delightful sister Sarah H has spent a lifetime on the other side, trying to protect her clients from Hattie's rampaging state. Chalk 'n' cheese, those girls. Sarah announced recently that she is going to have to stop doing the work as she's half-dead from the strain of it. She already had one bout of cancer and carried on defending through that. Sarah walks the walk.
Wonk note: the article gives a very critical appraisal of Judge Munby which is not deserved. Munby had good technical reasons for reacting strongly at that point.
Love the Labour Party memorabilia ad that graces the top of your page, Guido. Especially the badge bearing the immortal words: 'I *heart* Gordon Brown'. Can you get one with an arse on it? Might be very popular as the months roll by.
For those thick twats who point out that other workers get or are more likely to be killed than police officers may I point out that those others workers can strike if the wankers in government renege on a decision reached at arbitration. The original poster refered to the police as being ungrateful children. How would you, the great british worker, react to such a decision.
(try, when coming to a decision, to forget the tickets/fines etc you have had because YOU sped/parked/was pissed at the wheel/burgled your neighbour/snorted your coke/took illegal bungs etc etc etc).
Back on topic.
Mr Eno is the composer of the loveley Microsoft tunette that sounds when you switch your PC on. He's obviously used to moving in juvenile circles.
and making money from crap!
Anon 12:44
If one has an unsatisfactory pay review one should change jobs.
The average worker is not getting inflation-busting pay settlements and a salary indexed pension. He therefore resents having to meet excessive demands by civil servants.
The Police have had a good crack of the whip over the last few years and should thank their lucky stars their pay is not performance related.
Michael White has this depressing little granidau blog, he really is determined to be stupid in support of his political-tribal affiliation; it was the same under Major, just the other way around now, zzzzzzzzzzzzzz, as if he has a fucking clue, he even has a sycophantic moron he talks to in his comments bit, probably him, the sad cunt.
Mr Manc Monkey
I agree
I have hated young people for the last 5 years, most of them deserve to be put to death. The only thing about old age I look forward to is being able to carry a big silver topped walking stick and randomly smite the fuckers over the head, then claim they tried to mug me and appear in the Daily Hate Mail as a have a go hero grandad.
Brian's also famous for having founded the well-known chain of 'Enoteca' establishments throughout Italy - mainly found in the centres of old cities. The watering hole of choice for the, er, mature gentleman who prefers quantity to quality.
Ambient music - whatever happened to that? It was all the rage in 1977. Gosh, such a long time ago.
Youth Issues Adviser my arse. Best advice of all - 'Grow Up!'
@Anon 1.29
Your eloquent and well reasoned argument has convinced me at long last that the police should not feel hard done by when the goverment reneged on a decision reached by an independent arbitrator. Gordon should draft you into the Big Tent so that you can convice the angry cops.What a man!
This will now be the norm for all workers eh. Including the 'average' worker you refer to.
By the way the salary indexed pension is paid for with 11% contribution.How much, if any, does the 'average worker' pay and also doesn't the 'average' worker have the opportunity to obtain these jobs?
Anon 12.44
I don't believe in Clegg
Very interesting on Sarah H Woman on Raft, I just hope that Brian Eno can come up with a synthesiser sound that makes these kind of problems a thing of the past. Fingers crossed.
Durham Police haven't found anything untoward about Abrahams' donation and the granting of planning permission. But perhaps only the blind would not see any linkage...
But then again property developers do seem to be found of NuLab, and bears still shit in woods.
As for Harpic, has she found a society which has successfully banned prostitution?
It really is rich of her to criticise this when she had been soliticiting funds.
FFS - Banning prostitution...
Mmmm - while we're at it let's ban war. Let's ban people being nasty to each other. Let's ban pollution. Whatever we don't like, let's just ban it; that'll make it go away.
God almightly. This lot haven't so much lost the plot as encased the plot in concrete and fired it into the heart of the sun...
Read the PASC report yet, Guido?
I don't like Arsenal. Can we ban them too?
Whose going to lose their job next year the?
Weak data undermine Brown’s stance on economy
By Chris Giles and Delphine Strauss
Financial Times
Published: December 20 2007
A wave of bad economic figures swamped the government on Thursday, the day after the prime minister and the chancellor insisted the UK economy was fundamentally strong and would “weather” global financial storms.
None of the economic data published contained Christmas cheer for the Treasury. The credit squeeze has contributed to the worst public finance deficit ever in the first eight months of the financial year; the first drop in new lending by banks and building societies for two years; almost no growth in money deposited in banks; a record current account deficit; and economic growth in the third quarter generated in the main by consumers spending borrowed money.
The most worrying figure for the government is the sudden and deep deterioration in the public finances, brought about in the main by a shortfall of tax revenues.
Between April and November this year, public sector net borrowing stood at £36.2bn, the worst figure on record. In nominal terms, it was even worse that the £33.9bn deficit recorded over the same period of 1993-94, when the then Conservative government ended up borrowing £51.1bn – nearly £1,000 for every person in the UK – and was forced to raise taxes sharply.
Most worrying for the Treasury is that the shortfall comes in the main from lower tax revenues rather than higher public spending, and so is harder to rectify over the rest of the financial year. To hit its pre-Budget report estimates for borrowing, Alistair Darling, the chancellor, now needs an unprecedented improvement in the public finances over the remaining four months of the financial year.
Central government tax receipts over the first eight months of the financial year were 5.1 per cent higher than in 2006-07 compared with a pre-Budget report forecast of 6 per cent growth. Central government expenditure was 6.75 per cent higher than last year, compared with plans of 6.4 per cent.
The spending figures do not include any of the loans to Northern Rock, the stricken bank, as these loans are backed by assets and currently count as a contingent liability on the government’s books. Spending on consultancy fees to Goldman Sachs and lawyers to solve the Northern Rock problem would count as government spending.
The Treasury still hopes the figures will come good by the year end and is hoping for bumper tax receipts in January, but John Hawksworth of PricewaterhouseCoopers said: “The chancellor is likely to be playing Scrooge for some years to come in order to get this uncomfortably high budget deficit back under control in the medium term”.
The effect of the credit squeeze was evident in the Bank of England’s provisional money supply figures for November, which showed the growth of M4 money – balances in bank accounts, and notes and coins in circulation – was only 0.1 per cent in November, bringing the annual growth rate down from 11.8 per cent in October to 11.1 per cent.
Nor was there any let-up in the stream of bad news from the housing market. The Council for Mortgage Lenders said gross mortgage lending in November was 8 per cent lower than its level both in October and in November 2006 – the first annual decline in monthly lending in more than two years. Michael Coogan, the CML’s director general, said he expected the trend to continue in 2008 but that it was ”primarily a result of lack of available funding rather than lack of consumer demand.”
However, the Building Societies Association also reported an annual decline in monthly lending, from £4.6bn in November 2006 to £4.1bn last month, even though building societies have received record inflows of new deposits from savers abandoning Northern Rock.
”In the last three months building societies have received new deposits of roughly the same value as they received in the entire 12 months of 2006,” said Adrian Coles, director general of the BSA.
Mr Coles also encouraged borrowers who will face higher repayments when they renew fixed rate loans next year to ”use the Christmas period to start thinking about their new mortgage”, to avoid running into difficulties.
But the torrent of bad news did not stop in the housing sector. The Office for National Statistics also said the current account deficit widened from a revised £13.7bn in the second quarter to £20bn in the third quarter, equivalent to 5.7 per cent of GDP, the worst figure on record, with a large deterioration in overseas investment income.
“The UK’s external position now looks pretty much as bad as that in the US, suggesting that the pound needs to fall sharply like the US dollar,” said Jonathan Loynes at Capital Economics.
The ONS left its final estimate of growth in the third quarter unchanged at 0.7 per cent, but revised the annual growth rate up from 3.2 per cent to 3.3 per cent due to changes in 2006 data.
But the detailed figures showed growth was fuelled by a 1.1 per cent rise in household spending, especially on leisure, housing and food. The household savings ratio fell from an upwardly revised 4 per cent in the second quarter to 3.4 per cent.
Stretched consumers are likely to make a much smaller contribution to growth in the next few months as they respond to a more uncertain economic outlook.
Fan of Stanislav. 12.06.
Wow! If that's what Stanislav looks like, I wonder he finds time to blog.
It's more likely he looks like this:
http://shlag.com/
Sorry.
I meant:
http://shlang.com/
Plastic cops in England getting their pay claim backdated. Seems it only real England-based rossers are not getting the full truncheon up the ass!
Stike - ya know ya want too!!!
We can always use miners to direct the traffic.
Overlooked in all this...
Huhne in his Al Gore-style gritted teeth concession speech wished Calamity Clegg "God speed"
Clegg rapidly declares that he doesn't believe in God!
Huhne - who of course has a 2003 criminal conviction for driving - may just have been wishing Clegg will drive very speedily - into an accident so that there is yet another leadership election!
After Morgan Stanley's loss yesterday Bear Stearns posts 4Q loss amid bigger-than-expected mortgage loss.
God said...
I don't believe in Clegg
2:14 PM, December 20, 2007
HE'S ONE OF MINE.
"We can always use miners to direct the traffic."
There aren't that many left. And those that have retired/been made redundant are far too busy squandering the millions that this government have thrown at them. (like my near neighbour who spent a year working at pit head job and got thousands in compo let alone the white finger scam and the latest one which is the dodgy knee I believ. After that there'll be the ....
John Hawksworth of PricewaterhouseCoopers said: “The chancellor is likely to be playing Scrooge for some years to come in order to get this uncomfortably high budget deficit back under control in the medium term”.
No he won't. He'll still spend our money like a drunk at the roulette wheel. Ken and his buddies will continue to spray it around on causes specially designed to wreck Britain. And between them, they'll find ever more devious ways of taxing us, fining us and restraining us.
They are now officially the enemies of Britain.
Banning prostitution is easily the most stupid possible response to people trafficking, therefore it will happen.
That whelk stall must have been relieved when this lot got into power.
"growth of M4 money was only 0.1 per cent in November, bringing the annual growth rate down from 11.8 per cent in October to 11.1 per cent."
0.1%!!! If we stay at that level for a full year that would gives us an annual M4 of just 1.2!!! Compare that with the current M4 of 12%.
If we can only manage growth of 3% with a 12% growth in money supply a 1.2% growth in money supply would ensure we were in a very serious recession indeed. Thank God I work for the Germans.
Anonymous 12.44 pm said...
"For those thick twats who point out that other workers get or are more likely to be killed than police officers may I point out that those others workers can strike if the wankers in government renege on a decision reached at arbitration."
Strike? Arbitration?
For window cleaners? self-employed fishermen? farmers?
Since when?
.............anyway, Richard D James did it much better with Selective Ambient Works 2, although Music For Airports is a nice Album.
Personally I would of got Gen P Orridge and Throbbing Gristle together to a gig for the Fib Dem's...........
Perhaps 'Convincing People' followed by 'Discipline' for the new party jingle?
http://wc01.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:fcfuxql5ldhe
charlotte corday said...
It's more likely he looks like this:
http://shlag.com/Sorry.
I meant:
http://shlang.com/
A Freudian typo if I ever saw one..
In the confessional box with you young woman!
After MBIA the monoline insurer downgraded by Standard & Poors serious trouble ahead, I have warned of this for weeks.
see Robert Peston's column today.
MBIA tanking today.
MBIA Inc. (MBI)
NYSE
Comprehensive Quote:
12/20/07 12:06 PM EST
Last
20.00
Change
-7.02
% Change
-25.98%
Volume
29,459,967
MBIA Inc. fell the most since 1987 in New York trading after the world's biggest bond insurer disclosed that it guarantees $8.1 billion of collateralized debt obligations that investors say have a greater chance of losses.
``We are shocked management withheld this information for as long as it did,'' Ken Zerbe, an analyst with Morgan Stanley in New York, wrote in a report yesterday. ``MBIA simply did not disclose arguably the riskiest parts of its CDO portfolio to investors.''
MBIA, Ambac Financial Group Inc., and other insurers are being reviewed by credit-rating companies on concern they don't have enough capital to cover potential losses stemming from mounting downgrades of the securities they guarantee. If the bond insurers are cut, it would likely mean that more than $2 trillion of securities they back would lose their AAA ratings.
MBIA fell $7.38, or 27 percent, to $19.63 at 12:25 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
The company posted a document on its Web site late yesterday showing it insured $8.1 billion of so-called CDOs-squared, which repackage other CDOs and securities linked to subprime mortgages. Rising delinquencies on subprime loans contributed to downgrades on 2,007 CDOs last month alone, according to Morgan Stanley.
The disclosure followed Standard & Poor's decision yesterday to lower its outlook to negative for the AAA ratings of the bond insurance units of Armonk, New York-based MBIA and Ambac following a stress test of company capital. A telephone call to Elizabeth James, a MBIA spokeswoman, wasn't returned.
Shattered Confidence
Empty headed fool - thankfully the Lord doesn't believe in the depraved Liberal Democrats either so they are hardly likely to prosper.
"For window cleaners? self-employed fishermen? farmers?"
Hows about naming some PAYE workers and not chancers and subsidy spongers.