Some people have written in, mainly from the other side of the pond, saying that the economic downturn isn’t too bad. Well, I’m sorry to report that the recession is very real indeed in this part of the world.
Here in the UK, successive governments both Labour and Conservative have:-
1. Squandered the profits from our rapidly depleting North Sea oil & gas
2. Destroyed our mining and manufacturing sectors
3. Promoted financial services as the nation’s main income generator whilst failing to regulate it and prevent fraud and theft on a massive scale by its top executives
4. Entered into or supported two utterly pointless and very costly Middle Eastern wars. In addition to the senseless waste of human life, these foreign adventures have lasted much longer than the idiots who started them ever imagined, have made the world more dangerous rather than safer and the costs of which have pretty much bled our economy dry.
According to a recent OECD report, the UK is likely to remain in recession for much longer than our EU partners. See for yourself:-
To make matters worse, our prime Minister and former Chancellor of the Exchequer (a poncey name for a finance minister) flogged-off half the nation’s gold reserves at a fraction of their real worth. He followed this up by saddling several future generatons with mind-boggling debt just to bail out the big banks – the same banks that he failed to regulate properly while he was Chancellor of the Exchequer.
So [i]make hay while the sun shines[/i] my friends. Hopefully your politicians will resolve the aftermath of the Bush-Blair legacy better than ours have. And at least you guys do have some oil left.
Meantime I’m going to make a few calls and see if there are any tropical islands that could benefit from the services of a jaded web-footed waterfowl.
Honk! Honk!