At the risk of going off thread (sic) can someone explain to me how the UK (until recently) had a triple AAA credit rating? I'm pretty damn sure if I owed the same percentage in comparison my credit rating would be "piss off mate you're 'avin a laugh" No doubt it comes down to liquid assets but as the tories sold them all off years ago I'm somewhat bemused.
I think you'll find Mr Brown sold our assets at the bottom of the market (cheap) if you mean liquid as in oil, see the Times this week below. If you read the whole thread you'll find some historical graphs of what we have owed in the past. Your ability to borrow or your credit rating depends on future confidence in income so that you can afford the repayments. Martin Waller Published at 12:01AM, February 25 2013 [h=1]Tax changes prompt rush to join oil and gas boom[/h]Thousands of jobs are being created nationwide from the latest North Sea boom, Oil & Gas UK says. Investments announced in the past six months or so have resulted in about 7,000 new jobs being created, but more are expected across the supply chain. Total employment relating to oil and gas production is about 440,000 jobs. Research from a headhunter specialising in the sector suggested that between 40,000 and 50,000 permanent places could be created this year. Oil & Gas UK says that the work planned ranges from projects worth less than £50 million through to some worth more than £1 billion. In total, £11.4 billion was invested on the UK Continental Shelf last year. That figure will grow to at least £13 billion this year, the organisation believes. Malcolm Webb, the chief executive of Oil & Gas UK, said that the forecasts came after two disappointing years brought about by tax uncertainty: “The recent introduction of targeted tax allowances ... coupled with the Government’s ground-breaking commitment to provide certainty on decommissioning tax relief, has prompted global companies and independent businesses alike to take another look at the UK as an investment destination.” Oil & Gas UK believes that in time the projects approved in 2011 and 2012 alone will generate £100 billion for the economy and raise an extra £25 billion in taxes for the Exchequer.
Thanks for clearing that up Roy - simply I can read graphs and look at statistics etc - What was that old adage? All of a sudden the North Sea has oil and gas stocks again? How very odd - hmm - someone somewhere telling porkys me thinks - hurrah we're all saved!! How recently was it that we had 'dwindling' supplies? BBC news reporting on importing foreign gas ... D or an S the result's the same ... I really must go and lie down, all this excitement is no good for my constitution.
I understood a credit rating is not solely down to what you owe,but how much you can afford to repay.Hence some firms/people/countries seem to be able to borrow loads of dosh even though they're already up to their neck in debt.As long as they can make the payments...*shrug*.........
Don't forget that tax regimes have a different impact of the gross and net salary of individuals, versus the "fully burdened" cost of employment to the company they work for. If a company pays someone a gross salary of "x", the person will receive less than "x" in their bank account due to deductions for PAYE, NI, Pensions etc. The company will also incur costs higher than "x" due to additional contribution to NI, Pensions etc. Many previous posters have referred to the fact that the Govt. need to balance the books. Whether each regime is deemed as "fair" or not is most likely determined by each individual's personal circumstances. It is difficult to be "fair" to each of 60 million+ individual citizens without creating an excessively expensive system. As in most aspects of life and business, I think it is about getting the right balance.
About ten years ago, the economic philosophy was that most of the UK population was about four months from the gutter.............It is now more like four to eight weeks.... AL
As to where the decline stops, your guess is as good as mine......With all the idiots p*ssing about at the top, inventing this, producing that; they are mounting a serious effort to disguise where we are heading.......Niggle Farridge can see it, but even his lot, I doubt, will be able to solve anything.
TBH Al, this was exactly why I started this thread, just wanted to see if it was only me that was thinking it ...... Glad i'm not
He who pays the Piper and all that ........ The Conservatives privatised previously nationalised industries and injected a dose of realism into the workplace. Gordon Brown expanded the client state and sold off our gold at the bottom of the market. Today there is little to separate the policies of the main parties beyond the rhetoric.
Blimey John, don't you bite easy ... just for the record my sensibilities are of a central stance, but for shits and giggles I do like to play the advocate role!! There's nothing more guaranteed to stir up a debate than playing one off the other - they've been doing it since time immemorial, I got sick of it years ago and opted for something more balanced - it's a pity the third choice is also a lame duck!! In the end it comes down to the douche versus the turd. I could never vote for a turd, and would only vote for a douche if that were the only other choice. Guess I just plumbed for the colostomy bag!! It's all a bag o'shioite .....
'injected a dose of realism'..ffs, thats one way to put it....miners getting stampeded by horses as the red braced yuppies on their 50kg mobiles sell the horses to findus....now all the profits from the once nationalised industries end up abroad...nationlisation wasnt perfect by any means and need revision but fkn hell, even bluer then blue tory Macmillan said the mad old bitch was 'selling the family silver'...and whilst Brown was selling off the gold he was at least the first protagonist to oppose joining the euro... Dont ATT own the majority stake in BT for one example? Look at the state of the power industry, or public transport...appalling...and of course everyone everywhere seems intent on ripping off the customer..all these private companies mis-selling gas and electricity and fekk knows what else... I had to laugh when i read the comment about higher taxation deterring entrepreneurs from investing over here..what a load of boswelox...the overwhelming majority of entrepreneurs are british..its the bog companies that are all foreign...where does that doh end up?? over seas mostly.. At least our car industry is doing well...we have Nissan, Toyota, Jaguar..oh hang on a minute...
........and just to add another line to confuse the issue further.....where does everyone think all the horses (including foals) that are bred for racing but aren't going to serve the purpose end up? .......same place as all the male calves that get born, just so the cows keep giving milk..........they don't provide milk without calving.......I bet half the population don't even know that. AL
Back then it was crap for some people ,just like now it's only crap for some people.Doesn't seem to matter which side of the House they sit/who's in charge,they always go too far.Labour let the Unions have too much in the Sixties and everyone else got the arse who then voted in the Tories.Then the Tories hammered the Unions/sold off the Utilities and generally let the City run riot.Everyone else gets the arse and along comes Labour again...Personally,I'd like a bunch of moderate,fair minded people in there,who genuinely thought of the good of the population. And who understood the basic fact of life: That if one person gets more,another will get less.Always was,always will be...
