Budget Day

Dear Darling Alistair
I'm so sorry you had such a horrible budget on which to make a speech. There isn't much you can say when the UK has gone BUST. Up to it's collective ears in Debt. In spite of the previous Chancellor boasting many times that he'd abolished the cycle of Boom and BUST. Gordon looked so happy at the end of your speech. Even the skin around his eyes crinkled when he grinned. I assume he looked happy that he was no longer in that post when the BUST hit the fan. Relieved in fact that he wasn't the one who had to deliver the figures himself.

But you looked so sad. You almost looked on the verge of tears. I think you should have squeezed in a few words to say that we are now BUST as the previous incumbent of your post failed to save for these rainy days. He enjoyed the BOOM but frittered it away. As he did with with the nation's gold reserves.

Yours
A Floating Voter

Financial Crisis

The Bolt from the Blue must have been just a short flash of lightening. Gordon Brown appears to be revelling in the economic crisis. The boy David doesn't appear to be saying very much at all.

Surely the opposition should be flaying the Govt about their mismanagement, ftheir lack of forward planning, failing to save for a rainy day etc. etc. And reminding everyone of Gordon's bargain basement sale of the nation's Gold.

I keep trying to do 'my bit' for the economy. I've taken savings out to go on a shopping spree but haven't seen anything to really tempt me. Not even at 50 % discount. I'd buy a gold necklace but have you seen the price of gold lately?

Fools Gold

I bet Gordon Brown wished he still had our gold reserves to sell on today's markets .. . .
And why are all the local councils complaining about losing money in Icelandic banks? They seem very surprised. Why?

I took my money back several months ago at the first whisper of a downgrade in the stability of the Icelandic banks. I know we are unable to 'trust' any financial institution in todays market but at least I've kept my money in the UK and just hope the Govt will continue to safeguard my precious savings.

http://www.fscs.org.uk/
http://www.fsa.gov.uk/
http://www.moneymadeclear.fsa.gov.uk/

Apologies

I apologise for not posting an entry for a few days. I've had a bit of a s**t week. Nothing major just minor but time consuming irritaions that have disrupted my days this week. And the week isn't over yet. Even though I no longer work for a living - well go out to work - or paid work (I always seem to be working at some chore or other) the week for me still seems to be Monday to Friday. I still love Friday evenings which always feel full of promise with the weekend ahead. I'm just relieved I no longer have that horrible Monday morning feeling anymore. Retirement does have its good points.

Now since Blogger started to misbehave a few days ago; everything else seems to be following suit. The oven ended up producing a few inedible burnt offerings. I know - I agree, I may not have been concentrating - but it's not all my fault. The cooker clock seems to stop/go without warning and it no longs trills at me when the time is up. I've also had post go missing and been chasing around trying to sort out various minor chores made worse due to expected mail not arriving as promised. I was beginning to disbelieve the sender. Then I arrived home one morning to a polite missive from the local NHS to ask exactly why I had failed to attend for an appointment. I have never ever had an appointment marked down as Did Not Attend. I rang to apologise and explain. They were not surprised. It's happened to many. In fact the staff sat around twiddling their thumbs for many an hour over the last fortnight. Why the NHS continued to post out letters with appointment times in the middle of a week long mail strike, I do not know. Surely it would have been far better use of staff time to ring round and advise everyone of the appointments date and time. But no - that is probably too much like using basic common sense.

If you are expecting a letter and it doesn't arrive you can take action. But when you don't even know it should be arriving then you are 'up the swanny'.

I had been expecting to hear from the Northern Rock Bank. I had Fixed Term Bond reaching maturity. I was keenly anxious to liberate it as soon as possible. I contacted them to ask when I could expect to hear from them. Once again I was impressed with the response. Because of the postal strike and backlog of letters in Royal Mail's system they had extended the deadline for instructions to reach them on maturity. impressed or not I took my money out as soon as possible and am relieved to have done so. But I still feel like a rat deserting a sinking ship. I'm now trying to play safe by forgoing the high interest rates and splitting my savings into a smaller piles and depositing in building societies or National Savings. I'll wait for the troubles to shake down and see which banks are safe. I'd feel far happier with a gold bar under my bed though. Has anyone told Gordon Brown what the price of gold is lately? Just compare this to the price at which he sold off our gold reserves.