Interesting..
That in this era of government bailouts.. of tossing cash to corporations in unheard of chunks.. It is now turning to the private sector to inject funds into the Royal Mail..
According to Gordon.. selling off 30% of the business to the competition.. is the only way to in any way safeguard the Posties pension fund..
One finds it curious, the manner in which our Exchequer prioritise their distribution of public funds..
The likes of the further £19billion pumped into the Royal Bank of Scotland while it flounders, trying to unload toxic investments..
The murmuring around the bar reflects a growing sense of bewilderment.. All these unimaginable sums being poured willy-nilly.. and still someones nephew..brother..perhaps themselves.. are not seeing an expansion of the distribution of this money, and are about to lose their house..
And to make the picture just that tad brighter..Steve Bundred who heads the Audit Commission which regulates spending by the NHS and local councils.. has warned that even after the worst of this has passed.. we will be looking at a vastly trimmed program of public works..
Even the slowest among us is starting to realise that higher taxes will be a necessity sooner, if not later.. And that disposable income will shrink dramatically..
This is going to be an interesting scenario to watch unfold.. this re-alignment of the public mindset..
And with all of Gordon's rhetoric.. he's speaking to a group of Party faithful in Bristol.. with all his assurances of studies on the go to offer viable changes to the banking system so they once again work for the people.. he is well aware the vast majority of Britons.. even those with what were a matter of months ago comfortable incomes.. are today living hand-to-mouth.. with household budgets tighter than they have been since the 2dWW..
It's going to take more than talk to unravel this knot we've been tied in..

And Barack appears to be holding close to his promise that US troops will leave Iraq..soon..almost of all them anyway..
But one must ask.. is he committing the same mistake George Senior did in the 90's.. when he turned away from deposing Saddam, before the threat of imminent terrorist attacks was even the stuff of dreams..?
It's going to take some time and effort, even after the major fighting has come to an end, to put an effective homegrown infrastructure, and it may well be that Barack's leaving one job unfinished, while rushing into a conflict he, and all the other Western forces, will eventually lose. It may well be that the Taliban will regain power in that benighted country.. but this type of warfare..regardless of the lessons learned in VietNam.. is stacked well in favour of the home team..

Germany's offered Latvia a bit of change.. to help stimulate the latter's faltering economy.. And with Germany itself on the economic razor's edge.. it would seem to be the first signs of the devaluation of the Euro..
Y'know.. when Gordon was Chancellor under Tony.. he sold off a vast amount of British bullion.. to 'diversify' the country's portfolio.. It happened that gold was close to it's lowest point for years at the time of the sale..
And one of the items Gordon bought in this 'divestment'.. was a large block of Euro's..
While dumping them on the market now would certainly precipitate a crash.. one can only hope Alastair is shedding, bit by bit.. that EU currency..
One can only hope..

It will be interesting what the Bank of England has in store for us with it's next interest rate..
Could it be that we are heading towards a 0% mark..?

More, later..