Reiver

It seems that some ideas are just too good to let go. Cyprus Mail - Yesterday

I don't post very often, mostly because I left the UK 3 years ago and moved to Cyprus for work. I feel compelled to comment on this one though. Unlike the blogger in the first article I never worked for Moody's but can recognise bull when I am surrounded by it. Cyprus currently has a communist president who will be voted out of power in February next year after one term. During his presidency Cyprus have been hit with sereval blows to the local economy. He was in charge when they managed to blow up the islands major power station. He also voted for the 75% hair cut on Greek Bonds and was then suprised to be told that he had ensured that the banks in Cyrpus would require a bail out. He blamed the Finance Minister for failing to keep him informed. It then emerged that for the three months leading up to the vote he was refusing to meet with his Finance Minister as he did not want to be told what was happening. The public Servents here enjoy all of the same perks as their Greek counterparts i.e 35Hr weeks, garanteed "Cost of Living Allowance (COLA)" payrises, 13th and in some cases 14th salaries, jobs for life etc. Last year he agreed a loan for 2.5B$ which was designed to keep Cyprus afloat during the remaining 18 months of his presidency so that when the Sh1t hit the fan he and his party would be in opposition and none of the cuts would be their fault. They blew through the 2.5B$ in less than 9 months!! They then approached both the Russians and the EU for a bailout. They know that if the accept the bailout from the EU then it will have the same type of conditions attached as the Greek/Irish & Portugese. The hope was to get one from the Russians with easier terms, unfortunately they have now announced that any further loans will only be as part of en EU/IMF bailout so will have the same conditions attached. What is happening now is basically brinkmanship and delay in the hope that the President can avoid accepting any terms for the bailout until after the elections in Febraury. Every policy that he attempts to introduce is first agreed with his "Social Partners", these are the major unions especially the civil service unions and the banking unions. They get to have their say even before a policy is introduce to Parliment and If they say no then it does not happen. When the recieved the terms & conditions from the Troika the immeadiate response from the "Social Partners" was NO. The head of AKEL actually threatened that Cyprus would leave the EU if they did not get the money with no strings attached. Cyprus is another classic case of Socialism being great until you run out of other peoples money. As of the British Bases here, there are two, the Eastern Soveriegn Base Area which is centred on Dhekelia, and the Western Sovereign Base Area which is Centred on Episkopi but which also contains the air base at Akroteri. I don't see why 40,000 Russians here should be a problem when there are at least two or three times that number of British Expats and they haven't managed to take over!! So in summary, another left wing government, which has spent all the money but does not want to accept any of the blame, is claiming they are different and therefore the EU/IMF should just hand over the money.

Why do people continue this myth that the Yanks bailed us out after WWII. The Marshall Plan was for the reconstruction of Europe. The UK got precisely FA from the plan. Everything that the UK got from the US during the whole of WWII and the reconstruction afterwards was bought and paid for. The total loan was for about $4.43BN(1945) and the final payment was only made on 31st December 2006. We have also paid off a similar loan to Canada for $1.2BN(1945) at the same time.

But the BBC said rents would rise and they wouldn't lie to us would they?

I think he will find that the government are about to have a "Stamp Duty Holiday" wheather they want one or not. If no one is buying houses then guess what, the govenrment do not get any stamp duty. Some how I don't think that was quite what he meant.

BP aren't selling it for 80p a litre, they are not even charging 60p a litre. When Unleaded is at £1.10 a litre BP are selling it to you at 40p a litre. The rest is TAX and every time they or Shell announce new profits the left wing of our Media are up in arms about how much money they are making whilst not pointing out how much extra money Dipshit Darling is racking in. With the state of the treasury books and the size of the growing deficit they is no way that GB or Darling will agree to a cut on duty on fuel so they need the Media to force BP/Shell et.al. to take the cut from their share. I hope that BP and Shell respond by threatening to move offshore

I tried starting this as a new topic on Friday but it just disappeared off into the nowhere so I'll attach it to the end of this as it seems apt. I found this on Wilsons upcoming Auction Listing. http://www.wilsonsauctions.com/property_details_scotland_new.asp?id=1267 It was last sold on 5th Feb 2008 for £70,500 and is up for auction on 29th April with a guide price of £48,000+ So in 80 days it has dropped by £22,000 I make that £275 a day. And then there is this: http://www.wilsonsauctions.com/property_details_scotland_new.asp?id=58722 Last sold on 8/11/07 for £272,000 now on with a guide price of £125,000. Thats 173 days and £147,000 or £200 a day. I thought that to get through money at that rate you either needed a drug habit, a mistress or a racing team. Edit: Links still don't work but you can cut & paste.

We are looking for a Mechanical Engineer & an Engineering Manager. Musselburgh is the R&D Facility for the Pipeline Group Weatherford P&SS Good Luck with your search.

No. One of the little bits of the O&G industry that is not in Aberdeen

Geed, tried to send you a PM but the system will not let me. What kind of engineering role are you looking for? We are based in Musselburgh and are recruiting.

Having read this thread from the beginning for some reason I get the feeling that the Banks came out of the meeting with Mervyn thinking that they had gotten what they wanted. Only to find that they hadn't read the small print and in fact he doesn't trust them any more than they trust each other.

I don't know if this is what he meant but it puts the US in the position of having a recoverable oil supply just as everyone else is running out. 3 to 4.3 Billion Barrels of Technically Recoverable Oil Assessed in North Dakota and Montana’s Bakken Formation "North Dakota and Montana have an estimated 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil in an area known as the Bakken Formation. A U.S. Geological Survey assessment, released April 10, shows a 25-fold increase in the amount of oil that can be recovered compared to the agency's 1995 estimate of 151 million barrels of oil."

This is my first post but I am willing to learn. I caught the end of an interview on R4 on last Monday and they were talking about the 35K guarantee for depositors with a UK bank. Now the bit that got me was when the person being interviewed pointed out that the 35K only applies to a banking licence and not necessarily to the bank in question. The example he gave was using HSBC and First Direct, who are owned by HSBC. If you have 35K in HSBC and 35K in First Direct and HSBC went to the wall then they would take First Direct with them. As First Direct are a subsidiary or HSBC and operate under the same Banking Licence then you would only be entitled to 35K of compensation. I have two questions: 1. Is this correct? 2. How do I find out which banks are subsidiaries of which in order to avoid having too much deposited with one banking licence?