Ö÷²¥´óÐã

'Quantitative Easing' otherwise known as 'Quantitative Looting'

'With the Ö÷²¥´óÐã announcing that it is planning to cut 2,000 jobs and radically change programming in order to cut 20% from its budget over the next five years, Stephen Smith will report on the wider cultural impact of a shrinking Auntie.

One might wonder as to the width of impact, culturally, to whom? But the report will, one is sure, be of a professional standard and objective scope that can be expected of the Ö÷²¥´óÐã when in the realms of self-interest.

'a report from Mark Easton on mixed race Britain including some exclusive new stats which show that the numbers of people in Britain who are mixed-race is actually much higher than previously thought."

The missus and I might have some blame to bear here. After an unfortunate early episode with a census, where they decided she could be either Asian or Chinese, but not both, we have rather tended to be less than helpful with the box-tickers who like such things.

'Stephen Smith will report on the wider cultural impact of a shrinking Auntie'.

Some of us may be more interested in, and affected by, the cultural impact of the expanding sub-culture in your last item.

Having read the article I find the figures on Key Stage 2 results and the correlation with lone-parent households speak volumes. Contrary to the 'much-visited' parent's comment quoted, culture clash is the main problem, particularly with the absent father and low-female respect ethnics. Good (only?) at sport also says it all.

The QE programme amounts to approximately £1250 for every man, woman and child in the UK. It compares with a current projected government budget deficit of £122 billion, total government spending of £711 billion, and a GDP of approximately £1400 billion.



29



This will not necessarily increase the money in circulation (about £1500 billion in the UK) It is effectively a subsidy to banks' balance sheets, in the hope that they will pass more on, via the multiplier process of loan/deposit creation, to the real economy. There is little evidence that this happened last time. It is believed that banks used most of the money to rebuild their own balance sheets and finance speculative trading (gambling). From the Guardian: "the Bank noted today the dampening impact on the economy of the squeeze on real incomes, but in part that has been due to the impact of previous rounds of QE, which has fuelled speculation in asset prices and thus pushed up the cost of energy and food. Nothing in today's announcement suggested the monetary boost would be better targeted this time. A pity."

In other words, the government is helping its friends in the City, whilst continuing to squeeze public services and the real economy.

"researchers found City donations in the 12 months to July accounted for 51.4% of the £12.2m of funds received by (Conservative) Central Office. Hedge funds, financiers and private equity firms contributed £3.3m – 27% – while 50 City donors paid more than £50,000. All donors contributing this amount or more become members of the Leader's Group and qualify for a face-to-face meeting with the prime minister."

'Stay hungry, stay foolish.' - Steve Jobs

#2JunkkMale re your:
'unfortunate early episode with a census, where they decided she could be either Asian or Chinese, but not both'

An earlier posted link revealed the growing practice of polygamy in UK and the apparent 'turn-a-blind-eye' reaction, for fear of upsetting the ethnic group concerned. Don't know how the census deals with those who can have one of each type (a sort of BOGOF sindrome?).

Corporate donations to political parties also happen via sponsorship of events at party conferences - the conference halls must seem like political red-light districts! ;-D

This has been true of all major parties in recent years.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

#8 bros re your link:

'...Osborne probably knows full well it will be of no benefit to the " hard working " majority of the UK population'

I include myself amongst those, and have always been against gambling (one man's gain is another's loss, etc) but since the Chancellor himself sees it as a leap in the dark, I have decided to join in the ponzi scheme, with good results so far. It has a greater measure of one's own input than the Lotto. Also George says that he HOPES that this does lead to an easing of credit, so why not INSTRUCT our part-owned bank to do just that, ie loans for businesses and mortgages only, rather than more hoarding and speculative investment?

4 & 7

Quite right - this Quantitative Sleazing is money shuffling to fiddle the GDP figures as otherwise UK is heading for 2 quarters negative growth which would mean the Coalition govt would come under major attack for mis-management of the economy & force a political crisis & general election - even by the end of this year.

Bit unfair on the Coalition really who are wrestling a jumbo elephant of debt left by the Labour Party.

Having thought about it, this early bout of QE should fiddle the GDP figures well enough as slipping into negative growth now - but this is, IMO the one of the main real reason for this earlier than expected surprise QE activity (the other reasons include incompetence & laziness).

Despite DC talking about doomsters not talking the economy down - but secretly the Coalition think or know it is going down & are trying to save their political necks - just as Brown & Darling used massive QE figures to boost GDP for the last general election.

What else does this tell us - none of our politicians/parties can tackle the vested interests or has any real solution to our economic problems.

Hence their mumbo-jumbo friend at the BOE tries to get them out of trouble on the GDP stat by transferring a huge amount of money to unknown banks at the press of his enter key on his PC.

I just wonder how QE works for those banks the nation already owns?

Not a problem when none of these banking monsters has to produce any meaningful or transparent corporate accounts - & certainly not anything that the public can see.

If we didn't already know what No 10 & No 11 Downing St think of Britain's real economic position - IMO, we certainly do now

I've asked Mr Easton to please stop using the term mixed race on his web site as it is archaic & racist & upsetting for some of us/those of us who have mixed race children.

for a small 75 billion you too can save a bank from market forces and moral hazard. Give generously.

IN THE INTEREST OF BALANCE - FACED WITH STEVE JOBS HYSTERIA


OF BEDS

As the Oyster yields a pearl
man invents.
Neither realises their fecundity
is rooted in irritation:
of one - the body
of the other - the mind.
Man kills the oyster
for its pearl.
And kills his own World
for that eureka moment of invention

For the avoidance of doubt: I too am an inventor - a chastened one.

MIXED PHYSIOLOGY CHILDREN (#11)

We are all one race.

Having evolved in isolated groups, apart for long enough to look so very different, HENCE WITH NO LIKELIHOOD OF TOLERANCE OF THOSE DIFFERENCES, are we equipped, at a deep animal level, to cope - especially when society is stressed?

Does anyone dare do the relevant study - AND REPORT IT HONESTLY? Are we going to find out anyway?

Nuff sed

I am self-employed person who, through over-work and caring for my ill Mother, became ill with accute stress around 2005.

Since that day I have not worked as I came to terms with the loss of my Mother and accute panic disorder, breathing problems and numerous 999 trips to the A&E for suspected heart attacks.

I have lived since 2005 off my savings as, having savings, I do not get a single penny in any benefit. I am lucky that I had savings but I worked damn hard, too hard perhaps, for those savings in the decade before.

I missed out on the housing boom and now find house prices propped up at still ludicrous asking prices by ultra low interest rates. I now find that I get no interest at all on my savings so I feel that I am being punished for saving, punished for not over-indebting myself with a massive mortgage and punished because the BOE thinks that the greedy and feckless should be bailed out by the prudent.

In short, hundreds of thousands of immigrants coming to the UK gets a house and benefits that I do not get - they are better off than me and virtually every saver. Just as all those who were greedy by taking out massive mortgages on houses they truly could not afford, often with so-called liar loans, are better off than the likes of myself and all the prudent savers.

To listen to Mervyn King on the TV today basically sticking two fingers up to savers is the final straw for myself. I now hope that the entire global and UK economy goes into melt-down - selfish I know, but there you go.

Perhaps the time is long over-due for me to become selfish. Perhaps the time is now for the 20 million savers in this country to get angry and protest rather than just being vocal?

If there were mass protests in the streets now against Mervyn King, the BOE and the banksters I will be, even if I am not well enough to be there myself, at least cheering the People on.

My country has abandoned me and millions of the prudent so why should we now just sit back and carry on being abused financially.

Let's hope that the protests, anger and people taking to the streets en masse that we have seen in Greece begin to happen here in the UK.

I am not a violent man - far from it - and consider myself law-abiding but there is a limit to how far that people like myself can be pushed - Cameron and Clegg should now realise that millions of decent, hard-working Britons have reached a limit.

Today Mervyn King went too far.

It is a sorry day for the Ö÷²¥´óÐã and free speech in the UK when there is more free speech on Russia Today and Al Jazeera.

Is even suggesting that British people might now have had enough and may start protesting against the BOE QE2 considered a line of thought that must not be allowed on the Ö÷²¥´óÐã?

What is going on in this country?

A german customer has today suggested to me that the QE 2 should be given to each person above 16 who pays taxes, who must then go and spend/invest their share, providing at the end of the tax year a receipted schedule of expenditure; one way to stimulate consumption, but would it really be growth?

At any rate, something is being done and I see no reason why HMG cannot insist on a receipted schedule of actions from the institutions benefitting from QE 2; they cannot be allowed to simply rebuild their balance sheets with the money.

Mixed race/dual heritage/diversity; so what? Provided we love our neighbour as ourselves.

Some folks are very angry and one wonders why; is it purely fear of "the Other"?

#16; what is going on in this country?

Not a great deal, particularly in terms of economic activity; since Thatcher, British industry has been salami sliced into oblivion; Blair and Brown worked on the plan of keeping the unwaged quiet by boosting benefits with tax receipts from financial services, rather than re-shaping industry.

Now that financial services performances are flattened, how do we find jobs for people outside the public sector?

The nation of shopkeepers will bump along the bottom for at least another five years; welcome to Japan.

THE PURE 'GENIUS' OF WESTMINSTER - BUT PLANNED OR NATURALLY PERVERSE? (#16)

There are 650 MPs who - without shame or blush - accept the appellation HONOURABLE'. I have yet to find ONE who reacts to the Liar Flyer in a way that honour, surely, would.

My assessment is that PRE-SELECTION of MPs by party apparatchiks, ensures they are ALL, to a cipher, 'Westminster Creatures', with the attributes that Blogdog will not allow delineated.

A gathering of such Creatures, playing games, does not yield elegant stewardship of this nation, not even passable governance; it is just POLITICS: "The art of self deception, wrapped in the craft of deceiving others - for their own good."

Weep England.

If the Ö÷²¥´óÐã stopped its attempt to imitate all things SKY, from its breathless sporting coverage to the "everything is news" Channel, they could save a fortune.

MEA CULPA (#19)

I keep forgetting: ONE MP phoned me (leaving no trace) and said, unequivocally; "IT'S A LIE." But added: "I can do nothing".

Such brief honour!

THE PRICE OF EMBELLISHMENT AND THE VALUE OF GRAVITAS (#20)

I would comment on Ö÷²¥´óÐã cuts, but I have taken quite a Blogdogging lately.

#4

Excellent bit of digging that Sasha, worthy of a professional journo, except most professional journos are part of the problem as well, so actually, i stand corrected, it is much better than almost all professional journos.


Clearly most people still have no idea...

I was shocked / horrified even to come accross this.

/news/business-15105030

My god, these poor people STILL pumping in all their hard won honest life savings into annuities.. I could not believe people are still doing this in good faith.

The poor buggers have absolutely no idea what is around the corner for them.

The phrase 'white collar crime against humanity' comes to mind again.

Its just awful, absolutely awful.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

yes, they do.

Ö÷²¥´óÐã Does It Again: "In The Absence Of A Credible Plan We Will Have A Global Financial Meltdown In Two To Three Weeks" - IMF Advisor

Instead of giving the BANKS £275 billlion, the institutions who caused the crisis in the first place, why not share this money between every person in the country, is that £40,000 per person, not sure. Consumer confidence will return, consumer spending will increase and debts paid off, which David Cameron at first seemed to suggest we do. Giving it to banks is like sticking it in a drawer, giving it to the people will ensure it is released into the economy.

One press of a button is all that was needed to ensure 'QE2', if that is all thats required to release money then keep pressing into consumers accounts. It's all a farce, if we wanted we could just 'electronically' solve this global recession, but we just play along with this capitalism game, and in so doing ensure the gap between rich and poor in developed countrys remains, and the underdeveloped third world remains.

ecolizzy wrote: "I think my point was the spirit of Wales and Scotland is there sasha, so why not the English, rather than the voting system.
Wales seems very proud of it's language and heritage, and admire them for that.

My question again, why no ENP? Oh I get it that would be racist."

Indeed it would be, and that much abused term has been deviously used to de-nationalise (Balkanize) and thus privatise Britain and Europe. There is no England, just a group of Regional development Agencies. To see this, note how the London major was paraded at the same time as the Prime Minister? What about the leaders of the other RDAs?

Newsnight gathered a room full of women at the Conservative Conference and asked what they thought of Boris J as leader. Are women not a major part of the problem? Look at the long term share price for a major women's clothing company. Consider this a barometer of our profligate though credit crunched times. Who are the dedicated followers of fashion, and who decides this fashion? What is fashionable for Muslims will not be desirable for those who run these companies, and yet where is the population growing/falling? That is the basis for the true "war on terror" I suggest. Who might be terrified that there may be hordes of such women staying at home, and following the wrong fashion of not getting into debt, respecting their men folk, having babies etc?

On the banking front, except for a very remote say, the British Government does not control the BoE. It was policy. The BoE is independent, just as the Federal Reserve in the USA is.. Many still do not appear to appreciate when this happened, or the nature of Libertarian democracy and what minimal governance effectively amounts to.Such abrogation (or deregulation) by the state is precisely why Libertarian governments now have so little control of their economies.
It is because they have effectively developed (abrogated) governance to the markets and the Central Banks that some have pointed out that governments do not rule the world, Goldman-Sachs (and other banks) rule the world. Strictly this is not true, as there are still nation states in the world which are not Libertarian democracies, and where the banks are regulated/ruled by their governments - see China which has about 9% growth and is riun by engineers not "muppets". As Paul Mason pointed out in his blog covering the Italian rating downgrade, there is a good reason why traders refer to Libertarian "leaders" as "muppets", but it is a very serious point which sadly has still not sunk into the extremely self-centred limited awareness of most Libertarian electorates, who appear to be deluded that they live in totalitarian states and can call on their Governments to DO something..

To repeat, we do not live in socialist states where Governments have control of the economies..We live non-totalitarian nations where even the use of the term "nation" is moot.

I'm sure others have made these points more clearly, but Britain has been fragmented into Regional Development Agencies (to all intents and purposes), which is how the grand Libertarian USA European Project has been implemented by force and fear given that the EU Constitution failed to establish political and economic union in 2005. Is this not the USA abusing Germany as its tame powerhouse? Is this not the post WWII OECD Marshall Plan in its death throws desperately trying to thwart Russian and Chinese efforts to lure disaffected EU states (especially the PIGS) away from a decadent and generating USA's economic tutelage?

From Peston's blog 'Will there be mass bailout of European banks?'

"162.WOTW_IBAAA
5th October 2011 - 12:01
158.
Reticent_Trader

"The Germans will have no choice with regards to money printing."

I feel that the chances of Germany printing are the same as the US going down the austerity route.

History has a lot to answer for.

1929-1936
Germany - Hyperinflation
US - Depression

2012+
Germany - depression
US - Hyperinflation

The thing you fear most will make you run into the arms of the devil."

#28 Yes many names you are probably right, but calm down dear.

It'll all come out in the wash, when we run out of food and water, it will be survival of the fittest, I occupy my time with wondering which group that will be. I imagine those amongst us who know how to start a fire, and cook on it, make a shelter and can sleep anywhere and protect ourselves from marauding beasts, will be the ones who do.

Luckily I'll be dead.

British prosecutor blocks arrest warrant for Livni on U.K. visit



Opposition leader Tzipi Livni was invited to the U.K. following an amendment to British law that prevents private citizens from seeking arrest warrants against Israeli officials in Great Britain.

This blogger is of mixed race parentage.

My fathers family arrived in Southern England from Barfleur, France in 1066, my mothers family was already here in East Anglia via Denmark.

Yes, the number of mixed race people in this country is much higher than previously thought.

RATIOPHOBIC? (#32)

More semantophobic - myself.

I am unreliably informed that the founder of our Church was also . . .

Nuff sed

WHO PROSECUTES, PURSUIT OF JUSTICE, WHILE THE PROSECUTOR'S BUSY 'CUTING NONE? (old song) #31

I seem to remember that, around the time that IDS marched his men down the hill again, and into the 'DAZZLED BY TONY' lobby - for war in Iraq, ONE MAN, declared the war LEGAL.

Where do these individuals get their powers of ABSOLUTE RIGHT from? It all seems so much like D MOCK CRASS Y to me.

SHOULDN'T WE BE DOING SOMETHING?

'32. At 02:38 7th Oct 2011, JohnConstable -
Yes, the number of mixed race people in this country is much higher than previously thought.'

Was a bit miffed there was no box for Celtic Hugenot Hybrid in the last daft form, so hope I'll not be getting a stern letter of warning (probably 20 years without parole given the implicit lack of skin colour mitigations that they demanded, rather free of irony) for adding one extra to tick and stick where the sun don't shine.

I am gathering that, as with all things Ö÷²¥´óÐã, there's a narrative at play here.

Skipping channels last night, I happened across the tail-end of some show with George Alagiah as far as I could make out advocating a medal bearing his name being issued to all brave British women (struck me as a smidge sexist) who in the 20's to the 50's 'did their bit' for some cause or other.

Ran it by the family yesterday. The missus still rather proud of her Singaporean heritage (if a tad miffed at the government there trying to draft her kids into the army based on the 6 months they were there 15 years ago). The kids reckon they are British, and that's it. This obsession with race, mixed or otherwise, seems restricted to those with a unhealthy interest in irrelevancies, vested financial or career motivations... and their social engineering media complements.

I wish they'd all stop meddling, frankly. Even if it does keep 'em in jobs & 'busy'.

EU
If it still stands at £75b by February that must mean it has been a orderly default. If it expands more ,it will have been a disorderly default.

Roll on 3rd November for more information on the plan.


Changing tac , but on the subject of Keynesian economic interventionism.

QE Induced Inflation -
If diluting the value of every £1 in circulation by creating more £, while at the same time not adding any new wealth from which the £'s value (purchasing power) is ultimately derived from, then it must produce what is known as inflation.

Ok , here is my question.

If QE produces the by-product of inflation , and the statistical instrument called the () , what good does QE actually do in helping create statistically recorded real growth ?

In other words , statistically speaking, doesn't QE create a negative feedback loop ?

The more QE , the more inflation is created , therefore the more the GDP-Deflator subtracts what it sees as not-real-growth (produced by inflation, not new economic activity) from the published GDP statistic ?

So is QE a help or a hindrance to real GDP figures?
If a hindrance to real GDP figures , what are the ratios of positive and negative effects ?

PS.
I am not questioning the liquidity benefits of QE , ie releasing private money that is tied up in bonds, just the assumption that QE helps create statistical real growth (GDP).

Welcome to my :)

I just caught Merv in a porkie, or at least a debatable statement. Interviewed by Stephanie F, he said "we are injecting £75 billion directly into the British Economy."

/news/business-15196078

The money will not go "directly into the British Economy", it will go to the banks. The crucial question is how the banks will then use it. If they lent it all, it would in time multiply by a significant amount, all of which the banks could charge interest upon. But they might well use much of it to finance trading, more profitable in the short term, and bonuses.

I accept that there is little more that the BOE can do, at it only has influence on monetary policy, not fiscal policy. QE was NEVER a fiscal stimulus in the Keynesian sense. A genuine (and effective) fiscal stimulus would have been to use QE money to enhance government's and local councils' capital budgets. It would then find its way back into both the private sector and the banking system, and still be subject to the multiplier. The trouble is that, even this way, banks would misuse a significant portion, and if good times were to return, there would be no cap on the multiplier effect. This could lead to another unsustainable boom. Unfortunately, banking reform has been abandoned by the government.

We are still in a mess now, and have no credible plan for the future.

I am glad that Ö÷²¥´óÐã has finally put the mixed race debate into the public domain. I am a black African man and was married to a white British woman. When we split up we could not agree on child contact and we ended up in court. I highlighted to the court that our children are mixed race and they would benefit from both parents being involved 50/50. The court did not agree stating that their culture and their race were irrelevant. And because I had brought up the argument of race I was considered racist. Now the children spend more time with their mother and she has been given the sole residence. They are not allowed to visit their grandparents in Africa. I think the point to highlight is that, we are all different but all equal. Our children will need to know and understand both their cultural value, language, food, dance and extended family’s They also need to know both their racial back ground in order to understand their mixed heritage which is very important to them. Well done Ö÷²¥´óÐã.

"DOO-DOO DOO-DOO" THEME TUNE FOR THE AGE OF PERVERSITY (#36)

Twilight Zone indeed Steve.

Once upon a time, when England was still England, movers and shakers used to foam at the mouth at any hint of 'PRINTING MONEY' to escape threat. But that was before the nobility of Gold - like the integrity of governance -TARNISHED beyond redress.

Nuff sed

'FRIENDS OF MONEY' (#37) The giant Piggy Bank in the room.

It is SOOO apparent that even a bank 'owned' by government, can face-down any attempt at control by that government.

It is equally apparent that NO ONE is going to tell the ignorant punter WHENCE THAT POWER COMES. Friends of Money have all-powerful 'friends'.

THIS IS THE AGE OF PERVERSITY.

@23 Very sad tales Jericoa. The British rules on personal pensions enable providers to rip-off the customers at all stages. Unfortunately, more and more people are being forced into this very inefficient way to provide for old age, incidentally giving the financial services "industry" yet more power over our lives.

TRAGEDY OF SHAKESPEAREAN PROPORTION (#38)

Man managed to give himself 'sufficient unto the day' angst, even within small, homogeneous communities, long before the World Pot was 'stirred', by applied blind cleverness.

Wisdom and understanding lagged way behind transport and 'globality'. And the idea that Law can yield Justice, in matters of deep humanity, is a blasphemy.

May you find a solution Zulu 2011 - I can't.

In passing: I was a witness in a Magistrate's Court yesterday. What I 'witnessed' was a travesty, a mockery, a charade.

The Maastricht Treaty states that EU Governments cannot just create money to inflate away their debts.

The BoE has (since 1997) full independence from Government and it creates the money.

So, in theory, the BoE will not create money just because the Government might want it to do so.

Where there is a process, there is often a way around it.

So, if the Government needs a large dollop of wonga, it could issue Gilts via the DMO, which an intermediary would purchase, for example, a bank that the Govenment effectively owns, using QE money that the BoE has supplied to the bank, in exchange for ... the Goverment Gilts.

I just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round ...

So, today is the day!

Will elect-Ed put PC before PCS

i.e. ‘Political Correctness’ before ‘Professional Competent Selection’?

Mr Umuuna must surely be ‘in’ but should someone whom might object to a - (selfishly) false (cage rattling) - interpretation of “window dressing’ be allowed anywhere near a shadow of the top table?

And surely it’s time for Hurry up Her-own-man to be acknowledged as numero uno ‘party pooper’ aka liability and talk a long walk on a short redacted?

Sorry to disappoint all the luvvies, literati and suited socialists out there but it’s nothing to do with ‘blatant’ misogyny! Simply my idea of ....

“Professional Competent Selection’

PCS - BUT STILL WITHIN THE WESTMINSTER LIE (#44)

A skillfully drafted piece JAP.

Moving spare deckchairs to another hold?

37.At 10:26 7th Oct 2011, Sasha Clarkson wrote:
I just caught Merv in a porkie, or at least a debatable statement. Interviewed by Stephanie F, he said "we are injecting £75 billion directly into the British Economy."

>

Well spotted - but its even worse than that

This morning on Sky News GO said he had personally authorised Mr Mumbo Jumbo sending £75 billion in QE monies to ... ? banks.

So much for the independence of the BOE as requiring govt approval for what BOE is supposed to be deciding itself, in the national interest.

So where is the money going & who has selected & authorised which banks the money is going to?

UK govt is not cutting spending - with latest round of QE - UK govt spending is massively increased - so why all the planned cuts?

I was previously in favour of all govt cuts - but if the govt can swill £75 bn around the banks - what's it in for the remaining 99.9% of us?

How much of this QE money has already been electronically transferred to speculators in emerging markets?

Where/what are the expected returns on this to the British taxpayer?

How can BOE spend so much public money & not even guarantee a baic interest rate level of return to British tax payer?

BOE might have well have just 'put the money in a bank'

Here's an interesting (though incomplete) source of information:



It should be borne in mind that most of these indicators are just estimates, other bodies like the CIA come up with slightly different ones.

Heres one set of data extracted from this on Wiki:



It shows the decline and relative decline of the UK since 2008, presumably due to our excessively large financial services sector. It doesn't take into account currency fluctuations. I would factor in an approximately 12% average decline in the £/$ exchange rate since 2008. This is just a guess: the decline is greater since early 2008.

#42 We can just stop. There must be a way. I am glad that the issue is being put into the public domain. And soon the mixed race community will start demanding their human rights which The right to their culture and their Identity.

NOT SURE THERE IS ROOM FOR ANOTHER 'DEMANDING GROUP' (#48)

Personally, my solution is (and has been for a couple of decades) development of wisdom, and philosophy in the young, such as to live with the world AS IT IS. When those young grow up, they might mature to a higher degree than the present low level, and make a better fist of the whole of life.

Sadly Mammon is in charge, and best served by Blair’s institutionalised cohort. Thrice 'educated' to Mammon fodder.

It's a big hole, and Steve Jobs, et al, keep inventing better diggers. . .

#48 This man in this place fits your view exactly

#49 Not another demanding group but a sense of ID. OBONA 1st black president. I am sure he would like his ID as Mixed heritage. This will give us a sense of being British first then anything else after that. Like the American have done. We are getting there but very slowly.
#50 that’s what I am talking about.