Not so enthusiastic about the Coalition

When the Coalition government was formed after last year's general election, I decided that I would be an enthusiastic supporter. New Labour had been a total disaster in my mind. Tony Blair, master of the grease and spin method of politics, had vulgarised government. If anyone disagreed it was a "well, yeah, OK" type of putdown one got. The Coalition would be a change for the better. I was signed up so to speak.

Many conservatives, both with and without a big C, were apprehensive. So were many LibDems. The good thing is it is still sticking together in a brave attempt to stabilise the finances of the country. However, I am getting queasy thoughts. One is Nick Clegg's obsession with voting. Everything has to be voted for, rather like in the USA where it was said even the town's dogcatcher has to have a view on non-dogcatching topics. The House of Lords is being attacked by his oddly thought out democracy ideas.

But that aside, it is the economy. I doubt if there are enough private sector jobs going to mop up those being told to quit government service. Today unemployment is up and the number of those in work is down. Incomes are being squeezed. Funnily enough, if that Cayman Island banker who has just wikileaked a whole load of stuff about high profile tax dodgers is correct, then all this in-it-together mantra may need rewriting. Apparently the Swiss Banks have enough illicit cash in their accounts to balance the books and give George Osborne a bit on top to do good things with.

So my enthusiasm is waning (not evaporating!) because I want the all-in-it-together business to mean just that. So I'm now an optimistic supporter of the Coalition. That's one down from enthusiastic.

Not so bad, really - Osborne cuts back prudently!

From the BBC website -

Chancellor George Osborne has announced the government's four-year Spending Review to Parliament, revealing some of the deepest cuts in public spending in decades.

The key announcements:

• About 490,000 public sector jobs likely to be lost
• Average 19% four-year cut in departmental budgets
• Structural deficit to be eliminated by 2015
• £7bn in additional welfare budget cuts
• Police funding cut by 4% a year
• Retirement age to rise from 65 to 66 by 2020
• NHS budget protected; £2bn extra for social care
• Schools budget to rise every year until 2015
• £30bn capital spending on transport
• Permanent bank levy

Not so bad. From a selfish point of view I've still got a bus pass, or will do when I get it. However, I'm still not sure what nearly 500,000 redundant state workers ae going to do apart from visit the Job Centres. Some will get jobs in the private sector, but then some private sector jobs will go. For a while it will be lots of people trying to get on very small merry-go-rounds. But it would have been a hell of a lot worse with Tarnished Labour!

George Osborne's cutting plans today

Today is the day. George Osborne is about to tell us what's in store for us by way of hardships and hefty cuts. I'm getting all doubtful about what is best. All I know is that we've been playing with monopoly money for too long. Something has to give. The only problem is who gives more and who gives less. Being all in it together implies the tax avoiders are going to cough up as much as the soon-to-be redundant state workers.

I wouldn't mind if we all had an equal shot at trying to reduce the deficit but just as in wartime, when some were active backsliders, we must be on our guard for those who think this debt crisis is nothing to do with them. We'll see in just over an hour!

List of axed quangos published

Quangos indeed! They sound rather odd and for most of them they were behavingly rather oddly too for most of their existence. They could be creatures that deserve a documentary to themselves. Rather like dingos, with commentary by Sir David Attenborough. We'd learn all about their habits and their peculiar social interaction. All from a standpoint that 192 of them were in the same evolutionary void as the dinosuars and the dodo.

I always thought that quangos were sort of sinecures plus. You didn't have to worry about too much and you needn't get too het up and bothered about much. Now they face the axe. 192 of them. My only concern is where the jobless quango workers will go. Some will be redeployed, but many will not.

Perhaps the government could tell us how many useful, properly funded jobs this country can afford both public and private. I bet the answer is way below the number that is needed to keep all and sundry happy.

Your country needs you, says David Cameron

David Cameron today has given a rousing speech in Birmingham about the future and how we all tackle this debt problem.

The "beating, radical heart" of the government was shifting power away from the centre to ordinary people, allowing them more choice over services, greater transparency about state spending and greater ability to get involved in running and shaping local services in their communities, he said.

"We are the radicals now, breaking apart the old system with a massive transfer of power from the state to citizens, politicians to people, government to society," he told the conference. Cameron also warned banks that they must "repay the favour" from taxpayers who had bailed them out by restoring lending to British businesses. "There's another way we are getting behind business – by sorting out the banks," he said. "Taxpayers bailed you out. Now it's time for you to repay the favour and start lending to Britain's small businesses again."

I do hope he's got the bottle to deal with these money-changing leviathans. Business needs a government that will be capable of instilling confidence in society. No good having a Big Society if those making it up are all quivering at the knees. Sorting out the banks? Well let's get to grips with what these gamblers are doing whilst sitting at their computers all day, schizophrenically counting bonus bucks as they watch thin air money whizzing past their eyes.

Transparency, honesty and accountability. Maybe this is the chance for the Rev.Stephen Green, formerly of HSBC, to stand up now, as his country needs him, to purge banking of its Las Vegas promiscuity and return it to an honourable estate.

Banking on fractions!

Nice to see all the big banks gleefully turning out big buck profits. The Daily Mail had a headline on Saturday suggesting that Britain was now living with two economies. One for the banks (or financial product shops) and one for the struggling entrepreneurs, the cash-strapped public services et al. All the bank chiefs crowed about performance and how well they had turned things around. Maybe they have succeeded in changing their fortunes and have a modicum of feeling for their customers. However, I still get the impression it is a case of bank chief speak with forked tongue.

We are told that small and medium enterprises are being starved of cash. That the banks are putting undue restrictions on lending. Representatives of the SMEs come on television to tell one and all that the banks must do better. Spokespersons for the banks in turn tell a different story. They claim the SMEs don't want the loans. Who is telling the truth? The economy is too important for silly games to be played.

Royal Bank of Scotland chief, Stephen Hester, is forging ahead nicely. But his bank is 83% owned by the taxpayer. I wonder if there is a board director representing the taxpayers? Does anyone know? Hester is also keen to continue his casino banking. Are we entitled to know exactly what he and his RBS team are up to? When the sub-prime fiasco was revealed to the world, it became known that loans of totally worthless value were being repackaged, mixed with other "financial vehicles", and punted round the market for unsuspecting bonus baggers to do something with. Have any of these people been brought to book?

I think it is high time the 83% shareholding had proper representation. We don't want anything untoward happening on our watch. Perhaps the Taxpayers Alliance could put forward some ideas. At the moment, the British people are awaiting VAT going up to 20%, swingeing cuts in public spending and the possibility of erratic price increases. Things could be bad for years to come. When a bank tax was discussed, Barclays got all steamed up and threatened yet again to leave the country. I think this moral blackmailing is an outrage. If Barclays are so unpatriotic let them go. It's not as if they are bending over backwards to assist in times of trouble.

The Coalition Government needs to rebalance the scales. We do not want two economies. We want one flourishing economy. But letting the banks get away with blue murder will never give us an economy built on rock foundations. They have left us with shifting whispering sands. 45 small businesses are being swept away daily.

The whole banking system needs a complete overhaul. The Northern Rock episode shows how the world of fractional reserve banking is so precarious. Get a desire for large numbers of withdrawals and the banks can't meet their obligations. They must be the only businesses that can operate on a techniquely insolvent basis and get away with it. We've pumped billions into RBS and Lloyds. We've eased the public purse quantatively or basically printed money so that the whole sorry saga continues. Only 3% of money in the system is real cash. The rest is computerised, either real or fictional. So the Government should break up these banks. Have proper retail banks and proper merchant banks. The so-called investment banks will need to be far more transparent than they are now.

It is an absolute scandal that very few have been shown accountable for this mess. Nothing in the current thinking will stop further catastophe. However, if it does happen, we should as taxpayers, all loudly say will will NOT bail out another bank. Better a bust bank than a bust economy. It would have been far cheaper to let Northern Rock go bust, set up a National Compensation Fund, and sell off the remaining assets to those who felt they could have made a go of it.

We must stop this funny money economy and build an enterprising economy making real things, selling real things, and doing real things.