The ‘Old Lady’ splashes out on a new wardrobe……..
In The Sunday Times today (22nd February 2009) we read of Mr. Brown’s intention to rubber stamp – “as part of a blitz of initiatives designed to save the banking system” measures including “Permission for the Bank of England to begin £100 billion of “quantitative easing” — in effect printing money — to encourage banks to resume lending.”
This is a marvelous idea, as long as all the new money printed is so radically different in design that it stands out a mile when it hits our wallets.
So, go on Gordon, print the stuff, print at least £100 billion of it, but print every note of it in vivid scarlet with a lovely funereal black border, decorated with illustrations of the Monopoly flat-iron, the scottie dog, the top hat, the old boot and (in a nod to current feeling towards politicians, banks and bankers) perhaps a nice roll of piano-wire.
That way, we’d all know which notes to stash into our mattresses and which red and black notes to use for our loan repayments; which notes to keep for our children’s future and which red and black notes to put by for them to pay their crippling tax bills; the bankers would also know which green, brown, purple or orange notes to issue themselves in loans or bonuses, wouldn’t they?
After all, it is “part of a blitz of initiatives designed to save the banking system”, isn’t it?
February 22, 2009 at 19:05I just despair when people like Jade take the spotlight. I admit I haven’t
researched her very well but from what I can tell her career has been;
appearing on a Big Brother (which is what I imagine purgatory might be like),
a couple of fitness DVD’s and releasing a scent…When did fools become celebrity? Do you know the guys name who synthesized
the cancer drug Jade is taking? Did he get a front page? In fact it was a team
of scientists but the point stands; why do we idolise idiots and condemn those
among us who should be celebrated to relative obscurity? I’m sure I am only
repeating what many much more intelligent people have said before me but I
want to know why!Isn’t it entirely possible that the nationwide, some might say worldwide,
hatred towards Jade Goody contributed to the severity of her current
condition. If positive thinking helps us get better surely the opposite is
true.Poor, stupid Jade. Who ever said ignorance is bliss?
February 22, 2009 at 18:45I agree with practically everything you wrote on your Jade Goody blog Mara
but you could perhaps try and regard the media circus as invaluable Social
Action media. The huge amount of publicity about cancer, its diagnosis, its
prognosis and its denouement could not be bought for love nor money. Jade
Goody may be all things you describe her as but perhaps her raison d’
February 22, 2009 at 18:48
- February 22, 2009 at 18:36
Correction $50 billion US.
- February 22, 2009 at 18:29
The fact that a body like NICE has to make decisions based on cost is an
affront to medicine. The fact that the pharmaceutical company spent X amount
of pounds developing the drug is neither here nor there. They should be
distributed to as many people as possible.Why have we not wiped AIDS from the earth when we already have the means to
do so? Antiretroviral drugs cannot cure AIDS but they can reduce the chances
of the virus being passed on, even in the event of unprotected sex, to almost
zero. In short if everyone on the planet currently infected with AIDS – 33
million – were given the drugs in 50 years, when they have all died for
whatever reason, the virus would be all but gone. However, current estimates
based on the cost of these drugs put the overall price tag somewhere in the
region of
February 22, 2009 at 18:45
February 22, 2009 at
17:46It is gobsmackingly jaw-droppingly obscenely awful, isn’t it! (Both event
and the Council in which said event took place!)
February 22, 2009 at 18:00
February 22, 2009 at 17:13
February 22, 2009 at 17:12
February 22, 2009 at 17:02Sorry – I’m being abducted for a few hours – see you when I get back.
- February 22, 2009 at
16:57 Yes, and it’s very sad that she’s losing her life, Janes: but I’d like to
know where the Prime Minister, the Ministry of so-called Justice and the media
were when NICE stood by its decision to refuse certain cancer drugs on the
basis of their expense and then advise that people be denied NHS treatment if
they paid for the drugs themselves. And although its across the Pond, I’d like
to know where the Administration was when two terminally-ill cancer sufferers
in Oregon were refused treatment but told that the state would pay for their
assisted suicides. Every day throughout the world thousands of people are
diagnosed with cancer and fight it with dignity, strength and serenity: they
don’t turn their lives into a three-ring circus. Nor is the taxpayer obliged
to fork out for a police presence at their wedding!- February 22, 2009 at 16:34
And her life Anna.
- February 22, 2009 at
16:32 Afternoon, Anna. Completely agree with your and Gloria’s consensus re Jade
Goody – I’ve just written a rant on my blog re this very subject. Yes, isn’t
thwarted first female President Hilary doing a fantastic job? But, then again,
the US has been complicit in China’s human rights violations for years – this
article makes Very interesting reading: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/20797485/chinas_allseeing_eye/print
February 22, 2009 at 16:24
February 22, 2009 at 16:09Afternoon to you Anna. That Pig in a Poke thread was always worth what I
believe is called a ‘bump’.I think if you look very hard, you can still just see news of Hillary,
Gordon, Sarkozy and another young man shot dead in London punctuating coverage
of Jade Goody’s brand new nuptials.
February 22, 2009 at 16:02
February 22, 2009 at 15:56Take a look at one of Anna’s previous threads Mara – A Pig in a Poke (Feb
11). It’s very interesting.- February 22, 2009 at
15:50 Unfortunately, Gloria, we will never know where they are keeping their
reserves – and I agree, there is no way in which they have not made provisions
for the depression heading inevitably for England’s shores – because they
treat the truth as something to be despised. I’m very inclined to emigrate;
but the neocon wars of the late 80s-mid 00s have buggered up pretty much the
entire planet.
In our no-news bubble of a country, overseas events seem to
have little relevance for our lives, save when someone needs to be blamed (it
was all the subprime crisis, you know. Nonsense: not even that many defaults
could have brought down nations. Unsustainable deficit spending and flooding
markets with consumer goods is moer like it). I feel extremely sorry for
countries like Angola, for example, which had the fastest growing economy on
the planet and, until the bubble started to burst, had almost reached its goal
of universal basic point of access healthcare and education. Now, its building
sites lie silent and the boom, which would have drastically improved quality
of living, tourism and industry is all but spent. Appalling; and of course,
our politicians continue to treat politics like a popularity contest to be won
instead of a vehicle which may make or ruin people’s lives.
February 22, 2009 at 15:17Mara said: “If Only savings and pensions had been guaranteed and the banks
allowed to go to the wall, thus provoking very healthy competition to take
over and reform said financial institutions in a way that would have appealed
to the country- February 22, 2009 at
14:56 An awful left? An awful lot worse, destroying the little that is left, I
meant!!- February 22, 2009 at
14:56 ‘Blitz’ now, as during WWII, means ‘bomb the bloody hell out of it’ – which
is precisely what Brown has done. Unfortunately, there is absolutely no way
out; printing money will only make things an awful left. If Only savings and
pensions had been guaranteed and the banks allowed to go to the wall, thus
provoking very healthy competition to take over and reform said financial
institutions in a way that would have appealed to the country’s best
interests. This system is rather like leaving the gate to the cattle pen open
and charging the farmer for the missing herd. If we start printing money,
there is every likelihood that we will end up in a 1990s Argentine situation.
Stock up on tinned food, medical supplies and water purification tablets….
February 22, 2009 at 14:16Blink and janes – both your suggestions are better than this latest insult
to our intelligence.- February 22, 2009 at 14:00
Now wouldn’t it be better if he just got his security experts to track down
all the missing money. Where is it? We’re told it’s all been lost but surely
someone can find it.
February 22, 2009 at 13:34I think you’re on to something here Gloria – maybe Brown could recruit an
experienced and expert team of designers to run a few ‘examples’ by him, at
great cost to us of course, and then unleash the results on us just as soon as
possible…..Would it not be better if Brown put a few thousand quid into each of our
bank accounts and stopped pissing about with the lousy bankers – then maybe
would COULD go and buy things or pay of any debt or have a holiday away from
this madness….please….help….anyone (except Mandy of course) (he’s unelected
too you know) :0)
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