Friday 28 November 2008

Gordon Brown's Downfall - The prequel

Been working on this a while, but it all came together this week especially the ending. Hope you enjoy - no cursing this time.


For those that missed the first Gordon Brown's Downfall video it is here. Cursing alert.

The countdown is on

Thursday 27 November 2008

Nationwide November data out today

Nationwide have released their November data report today here.

The data shows a drop of 0.4% for the month with an annual change of -13.9%. House prices are now down from their peak in October 2007 of £186,044 by over £27,600 or -14.9%.

Good news for first time buyers looking to enter the market as house prices become more affordable. Not so good news for those who overstretched themselves and jumped on the property bandwagon in the last few years.

Dreadful news for all those property speculators who bought second and third properties. Tough. Serves them right for taking property off the market and forcing up prices for first time buyers. With almost 90% of buy to let mortgages being withdrawn from the market place and the government consulting on new landlord rules, now is not the time to be a property speculator.

Now that Gordon Brown's time is almost up, maybe the authorities will never again mistake a boom for stability.

Gordon Brown names the date for the end of the recession

Gordon Brown has decreed that the UK economy will start to grow again in the 3rd Quarter 2009. This will prove to be another fudged figure, but for a laugh here is a countdown to keep track of how long it is until the Brown recession ends.

Watch Darling the puppet chancellor make the announcement here




Here is the Widget you need


If you want the code click on the option button and click on the HTML button and then copy. Good luck!

DARLING HAS SECRET PLAN TO KEEP BUGGERING ABOUT

One of the best Daily Mash offerings here

CHANCELLOR Alistair has a secret plan to keep buggering about with the British economy until he finds something that works, it was revealed last night.

The proposed logo for British Unicorns Ltd A confidential Treasury memo, published on a government website, proposes a series of tax rises and tax cuts introduced for two weeks at a time over the next five years.

The memo suggests a 75% 'supertax' for pantomime stars between December 5th and January 31st, suspending VAT on forks, cutting corporation tax for companies run by men named Ian and increasing child benefit for families who roam the land singing songs and performing magic tricks.

It adds: "Failing that we can just whack up VAT, murder the aristocracy and steal their houses."

The memo also reveals Mr Darling's secret plan to breed unicorns and sell them to Chinese millionaires.

The chancellor would invest public money in up to a dozen unicorn farms across the country churning out thousands of magical horses which would then be vacuum packed and shipped to the Far East.

Mr Darling believes that at £250,000 a unicorn the government could have paid back its £120bn of borrowing by the time Star Trek becomes reality.

The Conservatives last night dismissed the plan as the latest 'government con', insisting there was probably no such thing as unicorns and that it would simply be a load of donkeys with a bread stick glued to their foreheads.

Friday 21 November 2008

Labour justify more borrowing

Firstly I wonder if I should now drop the New Labour and go back to just Labour as they seem to be going back that way now with their economic judgement.

Anyway - listening to various government ministers over the last few days I wonder on the wisdom of some of their Tory attacks.

It seems every time they are asked about the extra borrowing that is going to be undertaken to fund their tax bribes, the government ministers refer to Tory plans within a few words of their reply.

The gist seems to be that the Tories are going to do nothing and that will condemn millions to be unemployed. This gives the suggestion that the Labour plans will stop a rise in unemployment.

At the moment I can only see increasing unemployment all around, so I wonder how we are to judge the government plans.

Thursday 20 November 2008

So is Gordon doing a good job?

OK - if you read this blog you will know that I am not the biggest GB fan. In fact I think history will judge him as one of the most destructive political figures ever.

However, from a neutral position I think he is handling this crisis well. Let me explain. The sub prime crisis did indeed start in America and the resulting credit crunch is being felt around the world.

Gordon Brown has expertly turned this to his advantage. The Yanks have blamed the crisis on Wall Street and now Gordon is blaming our banks and the Americans for our problems. It is correct that some of our problems are the fault of the Americans but by no means all.

Is it the American's fault that we have the largest amount of personal debt in the world? Now Gordon is able to blame all our woes on this single US caused problem.

Gordon is so slippery that he is now able to switch positions and say that the Tories prudence is a disaster and his unfunded tax cuts are brilliant.

Wednesday 12 November 2008

PMQs 12th November 2008

First Clip

Gordon Brown has his worst day at PMQs when he accuses Cameron on playing politics with the death of Baby P. The exchange hots up around 3.30 minutes into the clip.



Second Clip

Gordon can't answer the question of what economic theory was behind his claims of no more boom and bust



Third and final clip

Jon Cruddas, Andrew Neil and Charles Kennedy respond in the Daily Politics studio

Tuesday 11 November 2008

Tory Boy McNulty


The likeness has always been there, but now that McN is a convert to the tax cutting agenda (a long way from his socialist roots) the similarity is all the more striking.

Friday 7 November 2008

Grumpy Tony McNulty on the daily Politics

I think poor old Tony has maybe had too many beers last night to celebrate Labour's dramatic hold of one of their safest seats in the Glenrothes by-election.

Watch his grumpiness here

Labour win Glenrothes by-election

Labour hold their safe seat in the Labour heartland.

Thursday 6 November 2008

BOE cuts by 1.5%

WTF!!

I was under at a 1% guess.

Biggest cut since 1981.

now 3%

get ready for BOE rate cut at midday

Likely is a 0.5% cut. I'm still going for a 1% cut.

Lenders will normally pass this cut to tracker mortgages by the next month.

There is one lender who takes 2 months to pass this on.

Any idea?

Yes you got it - it is Gordon Brown's bank Northern Rock

Time to buy index for October 2008

In October the index stands at 329 unadjusted(U) and 414 adjusted(A)

This gives a guide that house prices are around 32% over valued and that market sentiment pushes that to 41% over valued. DO NOT BUY

That is not to say that house prices will fall by either, but it gives an idea of the direction.

House prices have fallen this month which has reduced the index. Residential rates and buy to let rates have remained level for new borrowers despite rate cuts.

The price to average earnings ratio has also fallen this month and is still indicating house prices are 20% above trend on this indicator.

Many buy to let deals have been withdrawn this month as well as last month and those that remain have seen a lowering of the Loan to Value needed. Credit remains tight.

The unadjusted index is now down from it's peak of 645 in July 2007

PREDICTION

House prices to continue falling with the Halifax index bottoming at £140,000 in Q4 2009.

In my opinion mortgage lending criteria has pretty much returned to normal even though lenders are still lending above average multipliers and mortgage rates have again returned to a longer term normal level.

The end of irresponsible lending means that lenders will never be returning to the days of lending with no deposit or waiving income checks.

House prices are still suspended about 20% above the level of finance that the banks are willing to give out.

Buy to let as one of the key drivers of house prices still does not makes economic sense at current rates. This sector will most likely never return to the heady days of 2007 as the age of irresponsible lending is over.

First time buyers are the main driver of the bottom of the housing market. First time buyers have rightly taken the view that it is best to wait out this drop before entering the market.

Halifax data out for October 2008

Month on month house prices are down 2.2%. The Halifax report house prices down 13.7% annually, but they calculate this using this quarter against the quarter a year ago.

The true yearly drop is 14.6% on a seasonally adjusted basis. August 2007 average house price was £199,612 against £168,176 for October 2008. A drop of £31,436.

The last 12 months has seen the biggest falls ever from the Halifax. The previous biggest 12 month fall was in October 1992 of -8.5%

House prices have fallen 15.8% from the peak in August 2007 14 months ago. It took from May 1989 to July 1995 for house price to fall 13.21% that is 74 months and the bottom of the last housing slump.

This housing crash is now worse than the 89-95 housing crash and we have only just got going.

The last time house prices were at this level was October 2005 at £168,031.

Crown prediction is still house prices to continue falling with the Halifax index bottoming at £140,000 in Q4 2009. A fall of 30% or £59,600 from the peak in August 2007. That would be house prices returning to levels last seen in Q4 2003.

Blears gets her way - Guido is hung at Lewes

Watch the clip here






Other photos


Wednesday 5 November 2008

Factory production falls are as bad as in 1980

Factory production fell by 0.8% in August the seventh month in a row.

The last time factory production fell 7 straight months was in 1980 under Thatcher's recession. Gordon Brown was probably campaigning then against factory closures.

this time he can actually do something about it, but instead decides to put up the rate of tax that small business pay.

Tuesday 4 November 2008

Ask the PM on the economy

Gordon is teasing us again with a request to ask him a question via video clip, we can then vote on which one he should answer and he will then answer whatever question he thinks should have been asked.

go to

http://uk.youtube.com/user/downingst?ob=4

click on the vote tab

favourites so far

stevex1969
guidofawkes

put the user name into the search for video box and click go

watch the clip - if you like it click on the thumbs up