Jeremy

Spanish Fever - Chixdiggit

Not sure Liam could cope with the complex lyrics and melodies.

Never pay with a card at any petrol station. Most of them are dodgy. Always use cash if you can.

Completely agree with U2 and Razorlight... they seem so bland and pointless.

Ben Weasel - The Queers

You still see routemasters sometimes, in west/central London. Don't remember the specific route(s). I remember having a right old natter with the friendly, salt-of-the-earth conductor last time I travelled from Picadilly to Knightsbridge. Not.

Source? Recruitment was rampant as recently as early 2007, as far as I recall.

Pictures Of Lily - The Who

Sink The Pink - AC/DC

Sounds like Floyd wasn't ever even troubled last night. Let's see if the next opponent can do any better (pacman/cotto?)

Lip Up Fatty - Bad Manners

> I do not think the city is the answer, it has been in decline for many years and this will continue. I don't think 2007-2009 counts as "many years"! I would welcome significant growth in other sectors, hence reducing our dependency on financial services. But I don't see that happening any time soon unfortunately.

???? Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Haye gonna win? He's a bit shorter! If Holyfield can take Valuev to a SD, then in theory Haye should have no problems.

Would love to watch the fight tonight... but no Sky... oh well. While we're on the subject... I was really excited about the Super Six tournament, but it's looking like it's not even going to get shown on UK TV. Froch is a legitimate world champ, he's earned the right to have his fights televised in his home country!!

alphacalifragelistic - I couldn't agree with you more, regarding lack of science education, and lost opportunities in the alternative energy sector. In the 80s we were at the forefront of renewable energy research, but it was all thrown away - e.g. the funding for the wave power programme was revoked by the Thatcher government in a secret meeting. HAL9000 - there is no "self-sacrifice for the greater good"... hence governments, rules, regulations...

Brendan - the government didn't just "give" RBS and Lloyds the cash, they took equity in return for it. Nobody is expecting them to recoup the money through taxation!

Is the problem too complex (or sensitive) to post up on here?

That's the problem... there's no diversity in the economy. We've become far too centred around finance and services, and there's no forward thinking. If the previous governments of the 80s/90s had more vision, we could have been a world leader in renewable energy technology. Our iconic brands all seem to be foreign owned, because we don't have the guts and/or ingenuity to take them forward. Chunks of our essential infrastructure are becoming commodities to be bought up by investment consortiums.

When I said "important"... I meant an important indicator of the state of the economy. You know full well that I believe clean energy is important... in fact I'm appalled at the lack of investment and incentives from the government over the last few years. But the money has to come from somewhere, the government can't let the economy go to pot.

Yeah it is kind of a chicken/egg situation. But it's not just the amounts being lent out, it's also the ability of sub-prime borrowers to pay the loans back. Mortgages were being mis-sold by unscrupulous lenders, with discounted periods to entice borrowers who might not be able to pay the full rate in the future. And banks had no problem buying these mortgages up and re-packaging them. And this, of course, in turn pushed the house prices up further. And here in the UK, even reputable lenders were offering mortgages of over 100%... madness. So yes, we were overly dependent on property prices - but it's just as unhealthy to have a property market in freefall as it is to have one rocketing upwards.

.

I disagree Mockney... confidence in property prices certainly had a part to play, but the deeper problem was confidence in people's credit-worthiness, and the endless queue of investors waiting to buy up CDOs. Mortgage lenders were handing out mortgages to people who should have never had them, because they knew they could just pass the liability on. The lessons to be learned are in credit exposure and cash reserves. And realising that risk can't always be managed mathematically. Equity prices are not the be-all-and-end-all, but surely you remember that equities were in freefall - the FTSE almost halved over a year. This is a dangerous position for the companies, but also investors and pension holders. If you don't think that stopping the rot in the equities market is important... please enlighten us as to what is? Property prices... I'm not so bothered about this in it's own right, but it is one measure of liquidity and consumer confidence.

Tracks Of My Tears - Smokey Robinson & the Miracles

House prices have stabilised, equity markets have rallied... I don't know what you were expecting, if you feel this is "underwhelming"? My personal feeling is that as much as I dislike the level of national debt, we have avoided a catastrophe of the proportions we all expected. Changing the VAT back to 17.5% will have a similar impact to changing it to 15% - i.e. very little. The double-dip is of course a possibility. Whether this will happen - and whether public spending will be the driver - remains to be seen!

I think any restaurant on that site would be delighted to have *any* customers.