The British Government Unloaded (One Hopes)

If this was America (it’s the UK) people would be getting seriously upset about the way the governments yes men are behaving.

Brown’s nightmare scenario ahead of election……. The Independent
Gordon Brown was last night facing the prospect of going into this year’s general election with Britain’s economy back in recession.

The spectre of such a “double dip” downturn was being discussed as a realistic possibility after official figures showed that Britain’s economy was barely in positive territory in the fourth quarter of last year.

The Office for National Statistics said growth came in at a torpid 0.1 per cent – officially signalling the end of the worst recession since the Second World War but well below the City’s expected figure of 0.4 per cent.
Ministers are nervous that the initial figures for the first quarter of this year could show the economy slipping back into negative growth due to the withdrawal of the Government’s fiscal stimulus programme and the need for household debt to be repaid. They will be published on 23 April, just two weeks before the expected election date of 6 May.

Jack Straw ignored legal warnings over Iraq, inquiry told…..
Tony Blair and Jack Straw brushed aside repeated warnings from Government lawyers that they would not have a ‘leg to stand on’ if Britain invaded Iraq.
Devastating evidence at the Iraq inquiry yesterday revealed that every senior legal adviser at the Foreign Office believed the conflict was in breach of international law.
Astonishingly, Downing Street asked lawyers to assess what the consequences would be if Britain toppled Saddam Hussein without legal authority. When they received the lawyers’ memo, No.10 demanded: ‘Why has this been put in writing?’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1246312/Chilcot-inquiry-Iraq-war-The-damning-verdict-Whitehall-lawyers-invading-Iraq-ministers-refused-accept.html#ixzz0dnufUBNF

Brown stays for third day of Northern Ireland talks……… Times Online
Gordon Brown will miss Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons today after deciding to remain in Northern Ireland, where he spent the night in negotiations to avert a collapse of its power-sharing institutions.

Mr Brown has been at Hillsborough Castle, Co Down, since Monday afternoon after Sinn Fein signaled it was on the brink of pulling out of sharing power with the Democratic Unionists.

Overnight a mood of optimism which appeared to pervade an evening round-table plenary session chaired by Mr Brown and his Irish counterpart Brian Cowen Prime seems to have waned.

The talks broke up before dawn and are expected to resume around eleven o’clock, giving participants an opportunity to rest.

RELATED LINKS
Clinton may step in to break Ireland impasse

Why was Britain the last major economy to come out of recession?…..
Britain was the last major economy in the world to come out of recession because it was more reliant on the banking sector and house price rises than other countries.
It also has a smaller manufacturing base than others in the G7 group of leading nations, while the Government put less money into its recovery scheme than the US did.
Experts also warn that some of Britain’s problems, such as its expected £178billion budget deficit and high levels of household debt, will remain even as the economy comes out of recession and could trigger another downturn. Daily Mail

Bill Gross UK recession: The British economy sits ‘on a bed of nitroglycerine …..
Gordon Brown’s election strategy was dealt a further blow today after the boss of the world’s biggest bond house warned investors to avoid the UK economy.
Bill Gross, who runs the world’s biggest mutual fund warned the British economy was lying on ‘a bed of nitroglycerine’.
Britain limped out of recession yesterday with an anaemic return to growth that raised fears of a second downturn.
Economists said the fragile recovery suggested a real risk of a ‘double dip’, in which the economy plunges back into the red.
Output rose by 0.1 per cent in the final three months of last year, technically ending the recession, but bringing a warning that the economy was lying on ‘a bed of nitroglycerine’.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1246389/Bill-Gross-UK-recession-The-British-economy-sits-bed-nitroglycerine-investors-warned.html#ixzz0dnuzSU3R

Does this selection look like a government in control or a bunch of arrogant ditherers fixated with their own imagined importance. I still remember Mr Blair giving the elderly an annual pension rise of 85p. It seems he charges £150,000 per speech these days. And hes coming back for the election!!!

And Finally from BBC News

Experts stunned by swan ‘divorce’

Experts have told of their surprise after witnessing a rare “divorce” between a pair of swans at a Gloucestershire wildfowl sanctuary.
The Bewick’s swans have returned to winter at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust centre at Slimbridge – but both have brought new partners.
It is only the second time in more than 40 years that a “separation” has been recorded at the centre.
Staff have described the new couplings as “bizarre”.
It is not unheard of for the birds, which usually mate for life, to find a new mate but it tends to be because one of the pair has died, they said.
During the past four decades 4,000 pairs of Bewick’s swans have been studied at Slimbridge, with only one previous couple moving on to find new partners.

A Fun Fact...


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