ISTR that all postal workers were civil servants and there was a problem with BT and pensions as they inherited thousands when they split from Royal Mail.

were British Rail employees civil servants ?

Never mind, we've always got the BRIC countries to bail out the PIIGS.

I do indeed blame Thatcher. Just as you can blame the death of a tree from diseased roots. Or blame a heart attack at 60 from being low birthweight as has recently been proved.
She decided to throw the baby out with the bathwater. (she destroyed industry to destroy the unions)
I'm ready for the wheelbarrow economy...If only in 12th scale!

I was never a fan of Thatcher, but you can hardly blame her for the real estate bubble (and consequent bust) affecting half the western world!
Funnily enough, I think we'll survive, albeit with lower property prices (a good thing in the long run). We're being encouraged to panic at the moment, so the governments can give the banks even more of our money to play with. Just as the "Irish bailout" was just a propping up of the Irish banks, so any further "Greek bailout" will just benefit banks - the people themselves won't receive any goodies- they'll have cuts and increases in pension ages etc.

must agree - its like saying that Churchill at the front of the Good old British People standing up to Hitler was responsible for the way Europe has evolved. There are more players involved, players who have sat back over the years and let it all drift around them protected by their belief in Europa - Hitlers Plan B for the continent if his methods failed.
I bet he is down there now, looking up laughing

When Thatcher came to power, I left my day job and borrowed truckloads of money to go into business. I bought myself red braces and a GTI to fit in.

I remember a few, plentiful years later, when I approached a high ranking banker to borrow even more money. My financial advisers had prepared a business plan which made my eyes water. The banker didn't even blink and advised me that I wasn't applying for sufficient finance for my ridiculous venture.

He telephoned a friend of his, a highly respected business valuation expert, who massaged my profit and loss accounts to an astonishing level and I got a much bigger loan than I had applied for.

Of course it all ended in tears when John Major raised the interest rate to 15%. I was borrowing at 3.5% over base.

I fled the country and came to Spain. I still remember swimming in the sea at Estepona on my arrival. In the UK my hands had turned green from counting money. The salty Mediterranean washed away the evidence.

Luv it!

Que sorpresa!

Well Euroland not looking good is it. Greece defaulting seems unavoidable. The IMF have advised Spain to get an external audit...what next

as I posted earlier, all this is like driving a supertanker at sea, turning circle of 5miles and 4miles stopping distance.

its no use coming up with a fudge, a sticking plaster or a real workable answer and then reviewing it after a couple of days or a couple of weeks.
These things need time to bed in, to start taking effect and results to be seen happening (or not as the case may be) so months must be allowed.
The only people who will get rich out of all this will be the money traders who are making money out of currency fluctuations - in the same way as George Soros did with the £ on Black Wednesday.

"volatility in the market place" is being blamed for a 19.5% fall in annuity rates for those about to retire. People have had pensions locked in for decades and all of a sudden, after the last 3 years bad news etc, they are now being told there will be a shortfall because of what has been happening over the past couple of weeks.

Its a load of rubbish. There is a Teachers Pension Fund in Canada that has sacked all its "advisors" and turned itself round and is making 20% + profits per annum in "these difficult times",

IMO pension advisors are on the same level as wheel clampers, traffic wardens and estate agents.

well Iceland didnt disappear in a puff of smoke when they refused, by public vote, to meet their commitments.

The difficulty with Greece is that they're in a currency union. Commentators are now saying that they can default and still stay in the Eurozone.

I don't understand that part; surely it's against the rules formulated when the currency union was formed?

I also worry about the 2 Trillion the Eurozone may be prepared to use to prop up their banks, we're not in the zone and if we run into trouble who is going to bail us out?

Oh, I forgot, we can print more money. But doesn't the taxpayer still have to pay?

You may find this video of interest about the robbing shysters ? I found the section about Iceland interesting as I always considered this a very conservative/prudent country and would never put their fishing industry at risk.
This of course is not the first time that the Fed/City/Banks etc have bought the masses to their begging bowl (as you all know) and no matter what happens they will somehow rev the masses up even though our shackles will be a little heavier.
Over time the weight will be forgotten until they decide when the next burden will need to be taken by all, they the chosen ones will of course carry on as if nothing has happened safe in the knowledge that those at the very top are untouchable.

http://www.thoughtware.tv/videos/wat...shed-The-World

Like the men who crashed the world, the video crashed a few times, but what an interesting reminder of what happened to the world on the lead up to September, 2008, when Lehman's came crashing down.

And the Yanks blame the Brits! They blame Prudence 2, Alaistair Darling. I think he's a hero for standing up to those idiots from across the pond and their ridiculous sub-prime mortgages.

The mop up is still going on, Santander is taking over all the RBS and Nat West branches in the UK. The British banking industry is being saved by a Spanish bank.

(I can't find the article, but there is concern over the ownership of Santander, there is a lot of Muslim money behind it).