Comments on Guy Fawkes' blog of parliamentary plots, rumours and conspiracy: Daily Food Allowances :School Children, Armed Forc...

Anon. 1.17 today...indeed you are right, and we ha...

2007-12-14T16:31:00.000Z

Anon. 1.17 today...

indeed you are right, and we have the SDR to take into account as well - This was all bad news, esp the ghurkas, but it was during a period of comparative military inactivity - with a very cumbersome post-cold war army.

what we have now is far worse - we have a govt that has deployed and deployed and squeezed until the the pips have shot out. what money that has been spent has been spent with about as much efficiency as a govt IT project - (anything to do with piss poor Sodexho, BOWMAN, SLAM, DII, DHE, assorted PPP's, whole fleet management etc etc etc, never mind butter in the ration packs. they really have fucked the military far beyond anything thats gone before.
The regimental system has been assinated, and regiments like the light infantry, green jackets black watch, royal scots (oldest infantry battalion in the world)etc etc etc all of whom survived everything inc world war one, two and SDR are simply GONE.nu-lab have purposefully weakened what they see as a integral 'part of the establishment' - Tories please take note - this is one area that you have to have a backbone one. the silence is deafening.

Who removed the tubes of Butter from the ration pa...

2007-12-14T13:17:00.000Z

Who removed the tubes of Butter from the ration pack back in the 1980's?
Who privatised forces housing in 1996 that is now so inadequate?
Who closed the ammunition factories that make us now reliant on Colt ammunition and Czech ammunition that have so little propellant that the blow-back will not cock the 0.5 Brownings?
Who scrapped the Gurkha battalions that means we now have a manpower shortage?

Answers on a postcard to Conservative Central Office.

Leftwing, Rightwing - you can stuff the lot.

1 egg1 hash brown1 sausage1 rasher of baconbeans a...

2007-12-14T12:45:00.000Z

1 egg
1 hash brown
1 sausage
1 rasher of bacon
beans and toms
1 cup of tea
2 slices of bread

I'm hungover, that sounds like heaven.

I had to pay £1.10 for a 'core' breakfast whilst o...

2007-12-14T11:34:00.000Z

I had to pay £1.10 for a 'core' breakfast whilst on duty at a navy base this week.

1 egg
1 hash brown
1 sausage
1 rasher of bacon
beans and toms
1 cup of tea
2 slices of bread

yum! (not)

It's not just the Met mutts. MOD Police dogs and ...

2007-12-14T10:45:00.000Z

It's not just the Met mutts. MOD Police dogs and military search dogs also get a higher rate than the humans.

@edm-fan: One might take a more top-level approach...

2007-12-14T10:20:00.000Z

@edm-fan: One might take a more top-level approach. The money supply has trebled since Labour came to power. This money has not been created by us citizens working three times as hard as we did when john Major was in power. No - it is actually created by the magic of "fractional reserve lending" and the invention of the CDO. Put simply the high street banks simply create digital "money" and pass it off as the real thing in the form of loans, expecting to get real money plus interest in return. It only requires the necessary paperwork to be filled out and a few digits stuck in a computer. So we now have three times as much "money" in the system as when we started.

So are we wealthier? In digital "money" terms we are. We have "growth" measured in digital money terms. But obviously this is a question of "virtual reality". In real terms we can't possibly be wealthier. In fact UK PLC is almost certainly poorer.

Now, if the levels of made-up digital money had stayed within some sort of reasonable level the UK economy wouldn't be hit too badly. But it hasn't and the danger is that eventually reality will kick in and all that made up money will need to be replaced with real wealth. Only it can't be, because the real wealth to back it up never existed. So imagine what would happen if confidence was lost in the economy and the digital money. The digital money might be considered valueless, reducing the net wealth of the UK to a third of its current value overnight. That is the point which we are at now.

You may consider this quite bizarre, but this is pretty much how the Great Depression started.

Hence why mercenaries are called 'Dogs of War'? Th...

2007-12-14T10:12:00.000Z

Hence why mercenaries are called 'Dogs of War'? They get enough food so they don't have to gnaw on enemy bones?

anonymous 9.03"truly free scoff......"So God has s...

2007-12-14T10:08:00.000Z

anonymous 9.03

"truly free scoff......"

So God has stopped sending down manna from heaven and now provides meat'n'two veg or chicken korma, he?

No such thing as "truly free scoff" my son - you mean the scoff wot I and all the other poor benighted souls who have the misfortune to be under the rule of the scotch snotgobbler and his band of hypocritical snouts-in-the trough bruvvers and sisters, have to pay for.

I repeat because no-one seems to have noticed and ...

2007-12-14T09:03:00.000Z

I repeat because no-one seems to have noticed and it makes the point of the thread even worse and more poignant, squaddies do not get free food and have to pay for their food, and accommodation BTW, while not on active service or execise.

Only criminals and those on low incomes get truly free scoff.

Watching Smith was like the bunny in the middle of...

2007-12-14T08:19:00.000Z

Watching Smith was like the bunny in the middle of the road as a lorry is about to run over it. Irresolute, incomprehensible and tired out.

If all these 'illegals' have managed to get jobs in 'secuity', how many of them have jobs near ports or airports. This is a clown who wants us to accept a tax on our identies, we pay for the priviledge of having an ID card; yet she and the other rabble can't even work out how to maintain a reasonably secure border.

Government of the talentless, by the talentless and for the talnetless.

The BBC is treasonous. Any chance of Dave threaten...

2007-12-14T02:16:00.000Z

The BBC is treasonous. Any chance of Dave threatening the cowardly fuckers with extinction? I thought not, it'll be up to Dennis and Stanislav, whom God preserve.

pauld 9.59Look again. Jacqui Smith was awful on to...

2007-12-14T00:10:00.000Z

pauld 9.59

Look again. Jacqui Smith was awful on tonight's Ch4 News, even mild mannered Jon Snow wiped the floor with her. At the end she just froze and looked as if she was just about to have a panic attack. Snow seemed to realise something was wrong and quickly ended the interview

I wonder if she's cracking up. Apparently she's getting regular migraines.

Lizzie HRHSurely Ma'am HRH D of E is pure Hun rath...

2007-12-13T23:38:00.000Z

Lizzie HRH

Surely Ma'am HRH D of E is pure Hun rather than Greek.

@ stanislav, a young polish plumberOne is wishing ...

2007-12-13T22:30:00.000Z

@ stanislav, a young polish plumber

One is wishing One had married a Pole instead of a Greek sailor-boy shagger with a large nose. Kindly accept an MBE and pop round to Buck Palace and give my thermostat a good looking to!

P.S. edm-fan, that is most interesting & informati...

2007-12-13T22:29:00.000Z

P.S. edm-fan, that is most interesting & informative. I nipped over to HPC and read that thread, and recommend others to do the same.

Stan, the late and unlamented Nigel Dempster, goss...

2007-12-13T22:24:00.001Z

Stan, the late and unlamented Nigel Dempster, gossipist at the Daily Mail, was overheard at a party speaking ill of Her Britannic Majesty; and was thereupon challenged by a person who shall be nameless to a duel: pistols, sirrah, or foils, it is all the same to me! Aforesaid Dempster (Poltroon of the Third Class, with Ken Livingstone Bar) instantly backed down, it was all a joke, he cried, just the drink talking, oh-ho-ho; at which his challenger summoned his most effective sneer and with curled lip moved away.

There is nowt so vile as a denizen of the Daily Mail, unless it is a denizen of the Guardian (the loathsome Aaronovitch springs to mind).

This is indeed a sad day for Britain.

Stanislavthank you so much for that,at least not e...

2007-12-13T22:24:00.000Z

Stanislav

thank you so much for that,
at least not everyone has gone mad.

If you go to Redditch this weekend and find the ca...

2007-12-13T22:19:00.000Z

If you go to Redditch this weekend and find the car boot sale, Jacqui'll be there, on the Delicious SnotBuns stall, just down from the burglars and across from the shoplifters. She will be developing her post politics career. She has a habit of scoffing all the SnotBuns herself so best get there early if you want some for the kids.

Poor Jacqui Smith made a fool of herself again on ...

2007-12-13T21:59:00.000Z

Poor Jacqui Smith made a fool of herself again on Channel 4 news. (Fool Britannia)

Went to Ch4 news replay and couldn't see her. Only an interview with a fat woman from the Police Federation. Any more clues?

Stanislaw get pull over in van from Old Bill. Is d...

2007-12-13T21:52:00.000Z

Stanislaw get pull over in van from Old Bill. Is drive down road listen to last night of English proms cd and wave arms around to conduct invisible orchestra in God Save fucking Queen. Fuck me, is blue lights flash and get pull over like had home sec Big Jacqui Snotbun up in cab. Anyway Old Bill see is Stanislav, friendly and cheap plumber off Internet, accept fifty quid bribe for coppers Christmas fund, and send on way on urgent plumbing mission. And next song is Rule Britannia, Britons never never never shall be slave. Up until today and Lisbon Concordat. Is very sad day for Anglophile. Rule Britannia, Britannia rule wave, Briton never never never shall be slave. Stand-up alone to Nazi bastard when French army and everybody else (apart from good Poles) bend over and say, yes please Hermann, stick Luger up my arse please, ooh, yes please, surrender ? Not half.

Over here is eat spam and powder egg and melt down frying pan to make hand grenade and spitfire, fight on beach and kick arse off landing ground, go in bed and get blow-up in fucking blitz from Luftwaffe, go down on knees to fucking Nazi US Congress for few rusty old destroyers, fight on alone and hungry and in France frogs all collaborateur and say, oh yes Mr Himmler, I know where is fucking jew bastard and help SS men round up and beat and send off to death camp, vive la Belle France, eh, mes amis. And in Holland is same, Oh yes Mr SS is some nasty jew children hide over here, come and find and send away from la Belle France. And oh yes Mr speer use these slave labourers and not make waves, is only filthy slavs and fucking jew and thieving gippo, not real human. In Italy oily spaghetti chompers is run away from own shadow and hide in Momma skirts, surrender first time someone shout Boo!. And fucking Pope Nazi Twelfth join in Jew round-up, too, Dominus Vobiscum. Well they-ah kill-ah the-ah Christ, eh, say-ah so inna Holy Bible. Now we are all unite in One Great Brotherhood belong to Global Banking Corporation. Independence of great British nation go down shithole. In my country is Molotov cocktail time for government of thieving treacherous cunts like this, spit on heroes, spit on history, shit in face of decent citizen.

And on top of that read in Trannygraph that BBC researchers (ie rent boys and scrubbers on make) is ring around like fuck to find republican to speak ill of Good Queen Brenda on night of her unfortunate death. Even diehard republican like David Hare, famous communist playwright, say go off and fuck yourselves, this is shit, even by dismal pisspoor BBC standard. Stanislav is right bolshy bastard and republican as fuck but this BBC is work of fucking Devil.

Not Brenda’s fault is born Queen, very idea of slag off on night of death is fucking repellent to anyone with hole in arse. BBC should go in Tower of fucking London and DG Nancy Thompson hang up by neck off lamp post and feed poxed-up body to dogs. Fuck me, give country to Eurocunts like Prodi and Mandelstein and Blair and rehearse post mortem slander of old lady. All on same day. With what rapture must they congratulate themselves tonight. A whole neo-Nazi continent delivered and not a shot fired.

That link from Calliope and Woman on a Raft was ve...

2007-12-13T21:43:00.000Z

That link from Calliope and Woman on a Raft was very interesting.

Why do we need a "School Food Trust" with £15 million of funding from the Department for Education and Skills plus 15 - that's FIFTEEN - well-expensed fat cats to sit around telling us how boil a fucking carrot?

They did a better job of it 500 years ago.

Oh, and by the way. This is not "funding from the Department of Education and skills". It's another raid on my near-empty pockets.

Here's a damn good explanation of the dire problem...

2007-12-13T21:33:00.000Z

Here's a damn good explanation of the dire problems facing the UK economy and why the much-trumpeted central bank cash injection won't work:

I thought it might be worth telling you guys what this concerted central bank action is all about, as very few people (especially financial journalists!) seem to understand it.

Firstly, the plan marks an important change in attitude by the central banks – especially by the BoE. They are no longer pompously lecturing everybody about moral hazard while allowing the financial system to collapse (and, additionally in the case of the BoE, pompously lecturing everybody about moral hazard 24 hours before bailing out the worst run bank in the UK), but have realised the seriousness of the situation and have realised that things need to be done about it. However, the plan only helps in a small way and is no fix for the problem, nor are the central banks claiming that it is.

So what, exactly, are they doing? Essentially, as the text of the Fed statement says, they are helping banks finance themselves over the turn of year. There was a great risk that some banks would not be able to find even overnight funding at the turn (i.e. suffer the same fate as NR) and the fact that the central banks will lend to them against a wide range of collateral should prevent this happening. Additionally, the currency swap agreements allow banks to borrow in other currencies from their domestic central bank. This means that a European bank without a US branch can borrow USD directly from the ECB, who then borrows the USD from the Fed and lends them EUR in return (i.e. as collateral).

What this doesn’t do is fix the underlying problem. The inter-bank money market is dry not because (as some - badly-informed - people believe) the banks do not trust each other, but because banks are unable to lend because they have limits on how large their balance sheets can be compared to their capital. The reason the banks are at their limits is that they have had to lend to all the conduits and SIVs they set up: mostly under stand-by credit facilities set up at inception, but in some cases taking the assets of the conduits or the conduits themselves on their own balance sheet. Unfortunately for the banks, lending assets as collateral in repurchase agreements does not remove those assets from their balance sheets - which means that the banks will still not be lending to each other.

An interesting feature of the central bank lending facilities is that the minimum bid accepted for money will be the prevailing OIS rate in the market for that lending period. As I have explained in other threads, an OIS (overnight index swap) is the exchange of a fixed rate for all the compounded overnight rates in the period, so represents the expected compounded central bank rates over the period. In most markets (with the exception of EUR), people believe that the central bank will be cutting rates again soon, so the OIS rate is below the current official base rate. This means that there is the potential for banks to be borrowing money under these facilities at a rate below the central bank base rate. More importantly, however, it demonstrates that banks are not being “penalised” for using the facilities as they were in previous measures set up by central banks.

I think I need to underline how serious this problem is because most people have no idea. I’m not just talking about the man on the street, I include most market professionals in that. Actually, I have been shocked not only by the ignorance of many market professionals, but by the fact they haven’t even been bothered to try to understand what is going on. Very few people I have spoken to who work outside of the money market itself or its derivatives markets (e.g. interest rate swaps) understand the problem, despite it impacting their businesses hard and despite having had 4 months to find out. OK: What is happening is that the heart of the financial system is no longer functioning. Put simply, if banks cannot lend money, the whole economy grinds to a halt. This failure of the money market has not happened since the Great Depression, and while this does not mean we are necessarily heading for a similar downturn (though that outcome has a far higher probability than most people realise), all other financial crises since that one pale in comparison to what is happening now. Certainly in the 20 years I have been working in these markets there has not been anything in any asset class with remotely this kind of scope (both breadth and depth), nor has there been anything with more potential to trigger a deep economic downturn than this.

So, how can it be fixed? Ultimately, these assets need to be taken off the banks balance sheets and free them – either by writing them down to their true value or by selling them and then re-capitalising. However, both of these options require finding out what that “true value” is. In the case of mortgages normally, one would make some kind of estimate based on past default rates, maybe taking into account the point in the business cycle. However, that process is actually the cause the problem itself: In the past, people did their due diligence on borrowers, and recently they haven’t meaning that past statistical default rates are no longer valid. So, in order to find out a true value for these securities we have to wait until a large proportion of those going to default have done so, their houses repossessed and sold in auction. This not applies to the US but to the UK and Europe as well, so could take up to a couple of years.

In the meantime, current estimates of bank losses (around $300bn) are being based on assumptions of recovery rates which may well be way off the mark. The way to think of it is this: Imagine a typical US sub-prime borrower who has been lent money with no questions asked. Imagine the kind of area in which he lives and then imagine how many other sub-prime mortgage holders there are in the area. Next, think of several of these house being auctioned at once. Who are the potential buyers? Only other sub-prime borrowers - but sub-prime borrowers are no longer being lent money, so no buyers. Extend this to the UK, Spain, Australia, Netherlands (whose housing bubbles were/are larger by far than the US), and you get the picture of not only what might happen to real estate prices, but also the resulting extent of potential bank write-downs.

After all of this is done, the banks will need to issue more shares to raise capital (as UBS has done with GIC of Singapore) to start doping business again. However, they will be smaller banks than they once were, meaning that there will be a lot less money being lent for a long time. A lot less money means that we are unlikely to see real estate bubbles like the one we have just seen again for at least a generation.

http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=63557&st=0

Hitch, I didn't know you read the Spectator.

2007-12-13T21:26:00.000Z

Hitch, I didn't know you read the Spectator.

The late, lamented and very sadly missed Chris Lig...

2007-12-13T21:17:00.000Z

The late, lamented and very sadly missed Chris Lightfoot would have enjoyed this post. More graphs please Guido!

I'm not sure that you understand the meaning of th...

2007-12-13T21:00:00.000Z

I'm not sure that you understand the meaning of the word "literally", Guido...