How Lord Patel forecast the industrial slump 2 years ago based on new car registrations

Click on image to enlarge ....
We posted this modest little note Friday, March 30, 2007 UK : Number of vehicles up , new ones down

Which we tagged (very presciently) "Straws in the wind"

The total number of motor vehicles licensed at the end of 2006 was 1.4 % up on the end of 2005 at 33.4 million.

The number of vehicles registered for the first time during 2006 was 3.6 % down on 2005 (cars of all types -4.2%)

With the exception of taxis there were decreases in first time registrations for all body types. Full DVLA annual statistics

Today we discover that

Just 61,404 cars were manufactured last month, 58.7 % down on January 2008. Construction of commercial vehicles slumped by an even larger 59.9 %.

Almost all the cars made over the month - 83.5 % - were allocated for export as UK demand tails off, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.

We are continually told that "no-one could have foreseen" the credit crisis ... it was staring them in the face and any motor trader would have told you so.

Here is another forecast - the UK will lose 50% at leat of it's car manufacturing capacity in the next 6 months... and it will never return.

UPDATE : 9.30 GMT : Geordie lady calls up and reminds us that old horny baldy, Adam "Shagger"Applegarth was exchanging body fluids with that lovely lady from Buy to Let and simultaneously divesting not only of all his clothes (ugh) but also of all his Northern Rock shares in 2006 and Jan 2007 at the very top f the market .... so he plainly new something .. so we aren't so clever.

Wonder what the £300K per Annum Ex (very) Non Executive Chairman of NR Eton / Cambridge educated Lord Matt Ridley Esq., (He was Chairman of the curious political "think" tank , Ditchley Foundation - now followed by John Major ex MP . List of Governors makes interesting reading - inc. Ms Shami CHAKRABARTI, CBE. Director of Liberty these days) who is as silent as the grave these days;
1. Was doing with his shares at the time
2. Thinks of Shagger' business / private life
3. Is looking for a job

Man robbed by Banks - Police warn of dangerous suspects wearing Bowler hats and knighthoods

This man may be escaping - if you see him tell the Police immediately. He has been robbed by several banks of many Billions of Pounds ... Northern Rock, Bradford and Bingley, Lloyds Bank, Halifax bankof Scotland , Royal Bank of Scotland.

This man is believed to be Scottish - and have Scottish "friends" ...

He is not armed but if you are a tax papyer he is very, very dangerous .... Don't let him get away.

Is Lord Stevenson of Coddenham due to retire ? Expire ? Will Applegarth be asked to give MP's a lesson in offloading NR shares at market top ?

At his modest grilling and ritualistic half strangled apology for an apology on Wednesday by the doozies on HOC Treasury Committee the evidently flailing , and failing Lord Stevenson of Coddenham, 64 ("very close" friend of Lord Mandlebum although mybe body fluids remain unexchanged)ws asked about HBOS's response to accusations that it wasn't taking risk seriously, Lord Stevenson replied:

'Carefully arranged risk management systems, developed over the years with our regulator, did not spot scenarios coming up that have come up.'

(Now exposed by the sacked and legally gagged Risk Manager s having been resented, resisted and even ignored by Directors)

Well perhaps we could ask them to have a friendly fireside chat with Adam "Shagger" Applegarth (I cheat on my wife so fuck the shareholders who stupidly put their trust in ME)

Old Adam knew a thing or two in late 2006 .. and acted accordingly ... for his personal benefit

Adam Applegarth sold shares in Northern Rock in 2006 - he sold 111,426 shares for £1.06m. In January 2007. He sold his remaining 135,963 shares for £1.62m at near their peak price of £11.98 EACH . By August they were worthless. His 2007 payments from NR as an employee were £1.3m : half as a basic salary and half in bonuses.

At the time the Bank was expanding domestic residential mortgages, buy to let , and increased the interim dividend by 33%. (Which was never paid as they were insolvent)

Applegrth was also shagging his mistress from the Buy to Let department of NR (she also had £1 Mn of residential domestic mortgages to juggle with and drw a handsome rent on flash Newcastle Quayside properties)

An Apology to Lord Stevenson (Daily Mail ) Article 24th October 2007

"Captain of industry reveals how he suffers from clinical depression but carries on working 24th October 2007 This is how the story about how the man at head of HBOS, with no bnking qualifications exposed his problems ....(getting his defence in early ?...unfit to plead yer 'onnor)

One of Britain's captains of industry has spoken for the first time of his 'hellish' battle with clinical depression....

He continued to work throughout the illness, succeeding at his job but deriving no pleasure from it...

He has been free of depression for five years (Ed. since 2003 - see today's news re Gordon Brown at HOC - FSA warned HBOS in 2002 it was taking too many risks - remember Howard Davies resigned after 1 yer at FSA Dec 2002 see footnote)) and controls further attacks through a combination of anti-depressants and cognitive behavioural therapy.

Let us sincerely pray for the return to perfect health of Lord Stevenson of Coddenham and that he has no need to unexpectedly resign / retire / suicide / be murdered / run over / have an accident with a shotgun / fall off cliff / go for lonely country walk

Ditto His Ex CEO Sir James Crosby

See also Sunday, August 10, 2008 - Northern Wreck's criminal CEO's pay to let you run your fingers through my hair old baldy shag bag's £1 Mn property empire and lucky young son's luck

FOOTNOTE BBC report on Sir Howard Davies resignation 12/12/02 the late lamented Consumers Association (and heavy smoker) Ms Shiela McKechnie told BBC News Online that someone be appointed that would protect the consumer first and foremost.

"The FSA needs someone from the outside to clean up the financial services industry, consumers are leaving in droves and confidence is at a low ebb."

"It's an earthquake," said Redmayne Bentley Stockbrokers director Richard Grossman. "Davies has been a voice of reason and proportionality in circumstances that haven't always been easy," said James Perry, a partner at law firm Ashurst Morris.

Sheila McKechnie, told BBC News Online in the immediate aftermath of the announcement.

"It is not a good time to change the person at the top. Sir Howard had the right attitude I see his resignation as a failure of the FSA not the individual."

Years of fraudulent Accounts by Barclays, overvaluing assets, over stating profits and jolly fine divvies - shares crash - again.

WSJ reports that Barclays said it didn't know of any reason for the fall in its shares shortly before close of business Friday. Ho.Ho.Ho.

Reasons market denizens give include ;

1. The 3 month Financial Services Authorityban on short-selling financial stocks ended.

2. The UK Government will announce new aid / bailout / throwing away taxpayers money measures next week from which Barclays will not benefit unlikr previous recipients of Gordon's helicopter cash - Royal Bank of Scotland, HBOS (now including Lloyds) including "softer" terms on preference shares taken up.

3. If (as is wildly rumoured) the UK Government setup a "bad bank " to buy up bad assets (as the original but discarded after 13 days US TARP scam ..er...plan... bright idea) Barclays will not be able to particpate.

Readers might not be up to speed on the way Barclays prepare their financial statements - they might usefully look at Page 167 of Barclays Annual report 2007 which details how asset impairment is handled.

8. Impairment of financial assets

The Group assesses at each balance sheet date whether there is objective evidence that loans and receivables or available for sale financial investments are impaired. These are impaired and impairment losses are incurred if, and only if, there is objective evidence of impairment as a result of one or more loss events that occurred after the initial recognition of the asset and prior to the balance sheet date (‘a loss event’) and that loss event or events has had an impact on the estimated future cash flows of the financial asset or the portfolio that can be reliably estimated. The criteria that the Group uses to determine that there is objective evidence of an impairment loss include: (inter alia)

e) the disappearance of an active market for that financial asset because of financial difficulties; or

f) observable data indicating that there is a measurable decrease in the estimated future cash flows from a portfolio of financial assets since the initial recognition of those assets, although the decrease cannot yet be identified with the individual financial assets in the portfolio, including:

The amount of impairment loss is measured as the difference between the asset’s carrying amount and the present value of estimated future cash flows discounted at the asset’s original effective interest rate. The amount of the loss is recognised using an allowance account and recognised in the income statement (ie as a loss) .

So the rub is , that if Barclays have been lying about the value of their very many assets and refused to take impairments so maintaining the fiction (which they have done for years) that they have made profits - they are, by by refusing to "come clean" , put themeselves in the position that they cannot use the taxpayers money to scrub their balance sheets of all the shit they have been hiding and overvaluing.... for years.

So they persist in reporting after close of trading today that "its 2008 profit before tax, (reports due Feb 17th) after reflecting all costs, impairment and market valuations, would be "well ahead of the GBP5.3 billion consensus estimate of sell-side analysts."

CEO of Barclays (£2.8Mn a year) since 2004 is John Silvester Varley (born 1 April 1956), in 1981 he married Carolyn Thorn Pease, daughter of Sir Richard Thorn Pease, and in so doing married into the fascinating Quaker Pease family, whose bank became part of Barclays in 1902.

Curiously ( Catholic, Downside, Oriel College Oxford (History)) by then trained and working as a solicitor (like his father) , joined the Merchant Banking section of Barclays the following year,1982, with it appears no knowledge, history or experience of banking in any form. He is apparently, unlike any other major bankers and excellent table tennis player.

It is of interest to note that Varley's sister in law Nichola Pease is chief executive of JO Hambro Capital Management and was a nonexecutive executive director of what was Northern Rock plc. Her husband is Crispin Odey who founded Odey Asset Management, which made £55 Mn Y/E April 2008 and paid him£23 Mn salary....their especial skills ? Shorting UK bank shares. They were at it again later this year shorting Bradford & Bingley involving the taxpayer in a direct £ 4 Bn write off and the introduction of the FSA ban on shorting financial shares.

What goes around, comes around.

Are Barclays too BIG to fail ?

No.

Expect some remarkable and "unexpected" events as the share shifters get dug in. Again.

Get ready to shortly own a chunk of Barclays along with your other banking assets like RBOS and HBOS.

Sir John Gieve - a man of most extraordinary incompetence , blended with dishonesty and ignorance

SIR JOHN GIEVE : Well first of all we did, we did see something coming. We did spot the global imbalances, we worried about them.

We did spot some crazy borrowing going on, asset prices looking unsustainable and we said actually for a couple of years before the crash that a correction was coming.

PESTON : But you didn't, you didn't stop some of this crazy lending.

JG : We, but we didn't think it was going to be anything like as, as, as (sic) severe as it's turned out to be.

BBC Panorama The Year Britains's Bubble Burst text broadcast Monday 23rd December 2008 i Player

That's Sir John Gieve - ex Permanent Secretary at the Home Office during tenure of Jack Straw (until 2001), David Blunkett (2001-2004), and Charles Clarke (from 2004).

“Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, reported to Parliament today that the Home Office had not maintained proper financial books and records for the financial year ending 31 March 2005. Sir John Bourn therefore concluded that, because the Home Office failed to deliver its accounts for audit by the statutory timetable, and because of the fundamental nature of the problems encountered, he could not reach an opinion on the truth and fairness of the Home Office’s accounts.”

UK National Audit Office report, Home Office: 2004-05 Resource Account 31st Jan 2006

This was Sir John Gieve who presided at a meeting in his office with David Blunkett - represented by Mrs Gieve, and his wife a solicitor when he was found to be mis-using Government funds and had misused the system for obtaining a visa for his mistresses maidservant.

This was examined by the House of Commons Select Committee on Public Administration 12th January 2005 Hansard

Q908 Mr Liddell-Grainger: We are talking about vested interests and interests in all this. Can I ask about your wife's involvement as a firm of solicitors with David Blunkett's case? Do you think that you, as permanent secretary, should have put your interests forward? You had to set up the inquiry, it was very much your baby (for want of a better word) and do you think you should have said to your wife's firm of solicitors that you thought it was getting too complicated and maybe have moved it on as well? Do you think you, personally, could have handled that slightly better?

Sir John Gieve: The inquiry was absolutely not into David's access dispute and there has been no suggestion that the Home Office should play any role in that or pay for it in any way. I think it is entirely up to David who he chooses as his solicitor. I do not think there is a conflict of interest in that respect.

Sir John was also involved in an exchange of letters when John de Menezes was murdered with Sir Ian Blair. Full details Monday, November 19, 2007 Blair / Blair how the IPCC were illegally kept out of investigation of the murder of De Menezes and also Thursday, August 02, 2007 22/7 Sir Ian Blair told lies from the start to the IPCC

Sir Ian Blair ex Commander of the met sent a letter to Gieve (which was curiously dated 21st July) , and is obviously properly dated 22nd July... it states ..." In the meeting we had with the Prime Minister yesterday " ...presumably in the aftermath of the 21/7 "bombings".42 minutes after the murder of de Menezes, both the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police (Blair)and the Prime Minister (Blair)were able to (quite illegally) keep the IPCC off the case.

Baklir said he wouldn;t et the IPCC become invloved . Sir John wrote back with the delightfully ambiguous reply ;

We agreed that we could not sensibly discuss the form of investigation while the counter terrorist operation is still underway. As I explained , I do not believe Section 17 can be suspended as you suggest.

Which allowed evidence to be lost and destroyed , altered, stories to be agreed on, officers to collude in writing up their notes ... it is also evident that he tried to stop their involvement altogether if what Lana Vandenberghe who worked for the IPCC says of letters she saw at the Commission about how the facts of the Jean Charles de Menezes were being misrepresented to the public were true - as she explained to Fergus Keane on BBC 4's Taking a Stand today is true.

Having fucked up big, big style at the Home Office, without any knowledge of banking, economics (although a scion of the family behind the tailors Gieves and Hawkes) and a frightful record of accounting at the Home Office he was moved sideways to the Bank of England.

Those unlike Lord Patel ,who has been following his disastrous career first heard of his role when Nortehrn Rock hit the rocks. It then emerged Sir John had been on holiday for two weeks in mid-August when the Bank was told of the problems at Northern Rock. ..and that's where he stayed. Un flappable ...er.. unaccountable. see Monday, September 24, 2007 Northern Rock Redux - Wisdom in hindsight, paralysed by inaction at the Treasury, and indecision at the Bank

Well he tells us ...." We, but we didn't think it was going to be anything like as, as, as severe as it's turned out to be. "

He is scheduled to leave the Bank sometime next year .. next week wouldn't be soon enough.

PS : It's also time the wanker Lord Mogg at OfGEM was given the opportunity to spend more time spending his various and very substantial pensions.

PPS : Another failure for Sir John Gieve at the Home Office NOMIS - see Saturday, August 23, 2008 LIDS / NOMIS / OASys - The Home Office systems that are on the edge of collapse - are PA the dog to kick or should it be Sir John Gieve ? Again ?

Peter Mandelson inserts his sticky fingers into the Woolworths pick'n'mix take over / bankruptcy / insolvency

Lucky old Ardeshir Naghshineh who escaped from Iran in 1979 when the iron democrat Shah Pahlevi was rudely overthrown, with but £2,000 of jewwllery and his lovely wife Clare, the daughter of military historian, Correlli Barnett.

Having seen his 10% stake in Woolworth's become almost worthless and losing him him £5 Mn he will be delighted that "a Minister" from the Ministry of Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) - the department so skilfully run by Lord Mandelson of Foy ("We are intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich." , called John Varley (Downside , Oriel, and solicitor and devout Catholic) , chief executive at Barclays on his ever present Blackberry , as well as the Bank of Ireland's Burdale divison and GMAC, to ask why the banks were pushing the 99-year old pic 'n' mix retailer and purveyor of cheap Chinese made tat for the masses into administration.

Phew !!

Ardeshir Naghshineh, no slouch when £5 Mn. of his ( well probably HBOS actually after a major re-financing of his company Targetflow in 2002) wrote to the retailer’s entire board this afternoon to ask them for one final meeting to discuss a deal.

Meanwhile the BBC is negotiating to buy upWoolies 40 % stake in 2Entertain, the DVD business, for a fugure not unadjacent to £100 Mn. The pension fund is entitled to the first £50 Mn. of any 2 Entertain disposal under an agreement struck between the trustees and the Woolworths board last January which would almost meet the pension fund deficit of 58.2 million pounds as at August 2nd.

At stake of course are the jobs of 30,000 voters and the pensions of 20,000 pensioners which are threatened by a massive shortfall on their pension fund.

Mr Naghshineh (says the Times) declined to comment, but it is understood the Iranian tycoon has found financial backers who could give the company an immediate cash injection.

They also report that Mr Naghshineh is seriously considering the futile gesture of legal action against the board if the company goes into administration. The board meanwhile are anxious to avoid breaking the law by trading whilst insolvent. They are desperately trying to juggle their cash position by not paying suppliers so they can meet the payroll on Friday.

It is interesting at this point to consider a letter John Varley wrote to staff when the bank decided to reject the Queen's shillin' ad take the ones on offer from the Middle East (text Daily Telegraph) which includes the following....

The conversations we had around the Board table over that period were very clear: even in ordinary times, it is important for a business to have the right to determine independently what its strategy should be. And that point is even truer of extraordinary times like these. You don’t want your risk management compromised. You don’t want your strategic options constrained.

It was very clear from the conversations that I had with the UK Government over that weekend that it would, as a shareholder, influence our dividend policy; it would influence our lending policy; and it would become involved in the formulation of strategy. Of course the role of the Board is to protect the interest of shareholders and to create the circumstances in which, over time, we can maximise value on their behalf. And that was what was in the mind of the Board as we came to our decisions: we felt that our ability to do what our shareholders would expect of us would be compromised if Barclays was nationalised.

Perhaps nobody has told Peter that the Government (well not yet anyway) don't own Barclays.

Whilst Barclays have produced a seruies of fraudulent Balance sheets , and declared fat dividends on the basis of non-existent profits we have little sympathy for Mr Varley et al.

Our advice to Mr Varley and his counterparts at BOI and GMAC is to tell the slimy reptile Mandelson to fuck off and take his probing fingers and place them where they might receive a more receptive welcome.

UPDATE : 5.30 GMT - At 6pm Woolworths Board will officially announce they are calling in their advisors, deloittes as administrators this will not inlcude 2 Entertain.

UPDATE & APOLOGY : We regret if we gave the impression that only the unelected Lord Mandelson had been poking his person into the business of Barclays / Woolworths. It now appears from a contact within the IT department of Woolworths that another unelected person -the deeply loathsome and unelectable overweight busybody, shrieking Duchess Shrita Vadera had been active on the e-mail front in sticking her ample form into proceedings.

Copies of the alleged electronic messages are said to be forthcoming ... keep your eyes skinned.

Meanwhile our advice remains the same as that proffered to Varley in the case of Mandelsons limp wristed entreaties - tell them to fuck off. Not the first time of course that she has stuck her nose in ... see Thursday, November 08, 2007 - Northern Rock - full figures revealed - Ugandan babe exposed as busy body and unwanted by Darling

Hank's unresolved dilemma and the power of prayer

Apologies for the break in transmission since Friday . It has been rather busy round here this weekend since Hank called up having read - Hanks Dilemma - How to get a Goodeal for both Uncle Sam and the cousins on Wall Street .

Still he has US$700 very, very, very, big ones to splurge with, and want's to get on the inside track about what Gordon and Alastair are up to. We have to tell him that Gordon is on the other line hanging on for some goodideas(sic).

Anyway the bottom line this side of the turbid fishpond is that the UK Government now own ..

Northern Rock ... at least £27 Billion in the hole so far
Bradford and Bingley .... Ditto £4 Bn for those nice Spanish gents and £45 Bn (and counting) for te "assets"
Royal Bank of Scotland .... Ditto £20 Bn for a 60 % chunk - the result- shares drop even further in the market. Down 7%
HBOS / Lloyds ...Ditto £17 Bn for 41% odd chunk - the result- shares drop even further in the market. HBOS down 27% Lloyds down 18%

Plus all interbank loans guaranteed

Like rats in a corner, the tax payers money has been pissed away supporting banks who for years have been producing under the noses of the triumvirate of regulators fraudulent balance sheets, declaring non-existent profits and leaking capital away in unsupported dividend payments.

The whole principle of unregulated markets is to let them fail.

Now we have endless needs for even greater taxation, more unemployment, dearer food costs, dearer energy costs.

Remarkably the Government have just ensured the latter by handing their 33% of British Energy to EDF (AKA Mr Sarkozy's French Government).

So we explained the follow of Gordon's plan to Hank and he said..."Well Lord Patel what do we do now ?"

Lord Patel asked Hank if he was a religious man.

Hank said he was, maybe he choked a bit on that.

Well said Lord Patel ..."the best thing to do now is to pray"

Richard Pym ex A&L skips to B&B and increases salary/ benefits x 2.5

Bradford & Bingley plc have kindly told us that Richard Pym is now the CEO with immediate effect - apparently stooping down to pick up a guaranteed £2.25m for the next 10 months' work. . We last wrote of him in October when he was the popsie put forward by J C Flowers as CEO of Northern Wreck before they saw the books and pulled out sharpish. see Friday, October 26, 2007 Northern Rock - BOE Borrowings now exceed £25 Bn. and rising - Is there an alternative to calling in the administrators ?

He was of course CEO of Alliance and Leicester plc before his dramatic departure in February 2007 "Alliance & Leicester chief in surprise exit as profits rise" Independent when the share price was £11.49 and is today struggling along at 350p having hit 220 at one stage in June before Bank Santander announced their takeover.

Pym will be remembered for his high handed method of dealing with the Mail on Sunday's questioning the A & L's "redemption administration charge " - the fee charged if borrowers left A & L for another lender. A&L first introduced a single administration fee of £195 from 5 January 2004 called the Early Closure Administration Charge and this fee was increased in August 2004 to £295. This was the highest of any lender (at the time Northern Wreck were close behind charging £250) and even x3 of some lenders - the FSA considered a maximum charge could be £200.

At least one person who objected to paying was refunded in full having threatened to go to the small claims court. Go here for instructions to obtain repayment if you have been charged such a fee.

Mail on Sunday wrote to Mr Pym after Mortgages director Stephen Leonard refused to talk about the charge and asked why it was so high.

Mr Pym evaded answering the question: 'You have focused on one fee, but a mortgage comprises a range of fees. We believe that the key issue for customers is overall value.'

As a token concession however to his most loyal customers, Mr Pym, who took less than 30 minutes to earn £295 in his £1 Mn. annual salary, agreed to borrowers with mortgages of less than £10,000 could pay £195 instead.

Now taking his £300,000 annual pension from A & L , 59 next month MrPym is also from today taking a basic salary of £750,000 from B & B (and no doubt a car, etc., etc.,) but is guaranteed the same again as a cash bonus by next June and the same in free shares. He also gets £1.5m worth of share options based on today's price.

Curious thing about Building Societies that turned into banks is that so much of the money involved was funnelled into the Directors pockets and those of their advisors.

Rights issue a disaster

B&B is due to publish first-half earnings on August 29 and also announced today that the bankers have been left with over 72.2 % of its £400 Mn. rights issue and Underwriters Citi and UBS now have until Friday to place the remainder of the cut-price, twice-restructured offering.

Of the 27.8% taken up by shareholders it is assumed the major shareholders (Standard Life, Legal & General, Prudential's M&G and HBOS's Insight) supporting the issue took up their full entitlement leaving only 17% of small shareholders taking up their entitlement.

Why B&B failed
The charts (click to enlarge)show how Buy to Let and Self Certified took over as commission driven sales threw caution to the wind and how they increasingly relied on short term money and (what turned out to be fraudulent ) now you see it now you don't money juggling schemes.

We wait until the 29th August to see the damage for the first 6 months of the current financial year and what made Mr Steve Crawshaw ill.

Marine Wave Energy electricity generation - a painfully slow development - in which the Scots have a lead

The expenditure of more money and effort has resulted in some real marine wave power electricity generating systems being built and trials completed. Some projects now hover on the edge of commercial development. A background article produced by the expensively Government funded Carbon Trust provide a very simple explanation of some of the principles and design features invloved and can be found here.

The Aguçadoura project off the coast of northern Portugal, a 250-350-kilometer (150-220 mile) stretch of coast has been identified as a suitable location for wave-energy exploitation .As a consequence Portugal has established its role as a pioneer in such systems and the Instituto Superior Técnico has been studying the technology since 1977.

We posted about the Scottish designed and manufactured system - Thursday, June 09, 2005
First Commercial Wave farm for Portugal Ocean Power Delivery (OPD) were conrtracted to build the wave farm about five kilometers (3.1 miles) off Portugal's northern coast, near Povoa de Varzim, OPD's Norwegian backer Norsk Hydro said.

Portuguese Enersis SGPS, part of the Semapa Corporation, is one of Portugal’s leading renewable energy companies with 100MW of mini hydro, 500MW of wind farms under operation/construction and a further 500MW under development had initiated the project.

They were to install three wave power generation units with capacity of 2.25 Mw for 8 million euros ($10.12 million), but the project could be expanded significantly.

OPD's Pelamis P-750 wage energy converter is an elongated metal unit that looks like a big semi-submerged sausage, with hinged segments that rock with the sea, up and down and side to side, pumping fluid to hydraulic motors that drive generators.

Based in Edinburgh, Scotland, OPD (www.oceanpd.com) has been developing the Pelamis technology for the past 7 years. They have been supported by the UK DTI (now BERR) and its investors including Norsk Hydro Technology Ventures, Sustainable Asset Management, the Carbon Trust and 3i plc, the prototype for the Portuguese machines was launched in February 2004 and was under initial tests at the European Marine Energy Centre, Orkney, Scotland

The deal with Enersis included a letter of intent for a further 30 Palamis wave machines for a total of 20 megawatts before the end of 2006, subject to satisfactory performance by the initial installation, Hydro said. This says the company is "world’s first, multi-unit, wave farm and also the first commercial order for wave energy converters"

Anyway after some alarums and excursions, Enersis and ODP, now called Pelamis Wave Power (PWP) ,completed initial deployment of a 750-kW PWP wave-power unit, in August 2008, that generated electricity for the Portuguese grid.

The unit initially encountered difficulties with buoyancy, this required a return to habour for repairs - resulting in the designers putting a brave face on it saying "that it has since been disconnected to prove it can be returned to harbor for inspection of the component parts. "Everything is in very good order."

The Aguçadoura project partners are looking to have the three 750-kW machines ready by September 2008. The Portuguese government is supporting the project by a feed-in tariff provided specifically for marine energy of about €0.23/kWh (US36¢/kWh), according to PWP's Web site.

Whilst wwait for some commercial results other companies are eyeing up Portugal including developers Tecdragon, EDP and Eneólica. The Portuguese steel construction giant Martifer has created a joint marine-energy venture with Scottish Briggs, while Generg conducts research and planning for a wave energy plant.

EDP, Portugal's largest power utility, is in the final stages of talks to install wave energy demonstration after looking at 50 different design. Now, final site selection has begun on the Breakwave, a system financed with €2.4 Mn. of European Union funds that exploits oscillating water column technology. This will have 3 turbines and two generators one of 500kW and one 250kW and the total cost is €2.4 Mn.

A more advance technique is More advanced is Tecdragon, which they aim to install in Portugal's São Pedro de Moel pilot zone the first world's 7-MW wave-energy plant. But, Tecdragon Manager Borges da Cunha explains "Until now the start of installation was not possible due to adverse meteorological conditions." Another delay which seems to be a familiar problem with wave energy systems.

The system is based on what they call Wave Dragon technology, which the company describes as a "floating, slack-moored energy converter" that meshes current offshore and hydropower turbine technology.

They claim Wave Dragon, is the only wave energy converter being developed that can be freely scaled up. Extravagant claims of future performance are another feature of wave technology companies. It has been developed with funding support from the European Union, the Welsh Development Agency, the Danish Energy Authority and the Danish Utilities PSO Programme.

So far, a 1:4.5 scale prototype launched in 2003 was the world’s first offshore grid-connected wave energy conversion device. Deployed off the coast of Denmark at Nissum Bredning, this test unit accumulated over 20,000 (there are 8,700 in a year) hours of experience supplying electricity to domestic homes.

Another demonstration unit with a capacity of 7 MW, this unit will be built at Pembroke Dock, Wales. This will eventually be located two to three miles off St Ann’s Head and tested for three to five years only, in order to gain operational experience and knowledge of energy transfer efficiencies. This is supposed to be operating this summer.

The Wave Dragon produces energy in almost exactly the same way as a low-head hydro power station.

The Unit is a slack (ie can move fairly freely) tethered floating barge which faces its outstretched collector arms towards the oncoming waves. These concentrate 300 metres of wave front towards 140 metres of ramp at the front of the structure.

Focussing the waves increases the wave height at the ramp, which in turn acts like a beach and causes the waves to break over its top and into the reservoir behind it. (see pic By this action the water is elevated and given potential energy, runs through the turbines and generates electricity.

The Scottish Nation take a leap

The UK wave power sector took a surprise turn on July 30 when Jim Mather, minister of enterprise and energy for the Scottish regional government, commissioned a 100-kw Wavegen turbine. Wavegen is a wholly owned company of Voith Siemens Hydro Power Generation. Press release. BBC report with video of Islay LIMPET project.

Scotland is said to offer developers some of the world's best wave-power levels and has already seen the demise of one expensive project.

The 100-kW turbine is "a major step forward," the Scottish government said, for the Siadar Wave Energy Project (SWEP) . The SWEP is based upon the Oscillating Water Column (OWC) principle and is being developed by Npower Renewables (who say this is an "exciting" scheme) , RWE Innogy's UK operating company, on the Scottish Isle of Lewis.

This project will receive support (amount is confidential) from the Scottish Government’s WATES (Wave and Tidal Energy Support) scheme.

Npower Renewables submitted planning applications in April for SWEP, which would generate up to 4 MW using 40 Wavegen 100-kW turbines.

If the Scottish government approves the plans, construction could start as early as 2009 . The project could generate up to 50 construction jobs for local people and would take 18 months to complete said Mr Mather.

The Dutch company Tocardo has confirmed it isplanning to build a tidal energy plant in the Pentland Firth. BBC

The Pentland Firth is a stretch of open water about 20 miles wide between the Caithness coast and the Orkney Islands. It is arguably one of the best concentrated tidal resources on earth. Estimates of the energy potential in this few square kilometres range from 2GW to 8GW.

An objective has been set by public sector agencies and the Scottish Government to harness 1300MW of tidal energy in the Pentland Firth by 2020.

The Highlands and Islands Energy Board (HIE) is working closely with the Pentland Firth Tidal Energy Board to capitalize on the tremendous marine energy opportunities in the area.

The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney, is (they say) a key infrastructure that "provides a ground breaking contribution to advancing the marine energy industry in Scotland."

EMEC was established at a cost of approximately £15 million, funded by HIE, the Scottish Government, Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, the Carbon Trust, Scottish Enterprise and Orkney Islands Council.

The wave and tidal test centres are now well established and the first tidal device was generating electricity for the grid by the end of May 2008.

AWS Ocean Energy based in Alness, Ross-shire established in 2004 , is also using the local seas to develop and test its revolutionary utility-scale Archimedes Wave Swing technology. The company is another developer awarded funding through the Scottish Government's Wave and Tidal Energy Support Scheme, and is aiming to deploy a prototype device at EMEC in 2009.Their award winning Archimedes Waveswing™ is also an "exciting technology" ...clean renewable energy ... global energy needs .. er ... a sustainable basis.

They say they will deploy a 250kW demonstrator in 2009 with commercial roll-out to follow by 2011.

Archimedes Waveswing™ is wave energy converter. They explain that this is a cylinder shaped buoy, moored to the seabed. Passing waves move an air-filled upper casing against a lower fixed cylinder, with up and down movement converted into electricity.

As a wave crest approaches, the water pressure on the top of the cylinder increases and the upper part or 'floater' compresses the gas within the cylinder to balance the pressures.

The reverse happens as the wave trough passes and the cylinder expands. The relative movement between the floater and the lower part or silo is converted to electricity by means of a hydraulic system and motor-generator set.

Their investors include Rab Capital PLC www.rabcap.com .
Isleburn Group www.isleburn-mm.com Isleburn are a medium sized engineering, fabrication and construction group with considerable experience in offshore engineering and will assemble the AWS units.
Tersus Energy PLC www.tersusenergy.com Tersus is a clean energy investment company quoted on Aim in London and is focused upon the renewable energy and energy efficiency sectors.
STV Fund , managed by Kenda Capital B.V., selectively focuses on renewable energy technologies that show significant promise of delivering cost-competitive energy, they possess a solid energy sector expertise, fostered through its technology relationship with the Shell Group. Terry Rhodes is a Non-executive Director and is also Head of Offshore Structures at Shell Exploration and Production UK Ltd.
The Tudor Group , which consists of Tudor Investment Corporation are money jugglers.

Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond announced plans for the world's largest wave farm when he opened EMEC in September 2007. This project is being led by CRE Ltd and will consist of 4r 750kW Pelamis devices off the coast of Orkney. It is hoped that this farm will be operational in summer 2009... which seems highyl unlikely considering the delays and problems Pelamis have experienced in Portugal at Aguçadoura.

Northern Wreck's criminal CEO's pay to let you run your fingers through my hair old baldy shag bag's £1 Mn property empire and lucky young son's luck

Guy Basnett (P7 News of the World ) has a fascinating story about slim party loving, gym rat, gorgeous, brunette Amanda Smithson - readers will remember a post about this lady Sunday, June 22, 2008 Summer Lightning , who featured in the long runing saga of Northern Wreck - also a later one on Sunday, December 23, 2007 Applegarth the crook is adulterer as well - while he took his eye off the ball, somebody had their hands on his .

Imagine. We just thought she was the lucky lady from the rent to let, being shagged senseless by fun loving criminal and CEO Adam Applegarth - now 46 (another company asset going down ?) on his trips to Washington . She ...er...retired late 2007 to spend more time with her money and the well endowed shagger.

Now it appears the little vixen, whose slim beautifully toned ,sun kissed, supple, yet sinewy thighs have (so far) not been caressed by Lord Patel, has been shrewdly setting up and lining her little NEST egg - and we just thought she was on the nest!

1. May 2003 she checks in at the exclusive Wills Building in Newcastles trendy area for mistresses for a naughty £139,950 (we revealed this in this post)

2. September 2005 she splashes out on a mews house in the same super secure compound for a modest £193,000.

3. 3 months later December 2005 she pops open her purse for a spacious £187,000 pad on the trendy dockside Luxury apartments complex at Mariners Wharf - NE1 2BJ .
4. 6 days later Father Christmnas must have been busy because she laid out ... £155,000 for a bijou flatette in Otterburn Viallas in upscale Jesmond.
5. Six months later and again she is snapping up a delightful property in West Jesmond for a £150,500 family home (baby on the way maybe?) .

That is an eyewatering £816,500 ! In one 10 month period she spent £677,000 plus solicitors, etc., quite something for a well paid (ish) buy to let lady on £36K per annum less tax/NI/ Union subscriptions/ sexy underwear ... The News of the World says it's worth over £1 Mn now.

Checks on the Land Registry show that the sultry Smithson own all 5 properties (rumour has it she owns another) and unsurprisingly her mortgages are all with Northern Wreck which was run until September last year by her very well endowed mortgage king Adam Applegarth. It is also intersting that these transactions directly covered the period when the criminal CEO was unloading ALL his Northern Rock shares at the top of the market for £2.7Mn - he had sold on Lord Patel's birthday 25th Jan 2006 52,253 shares @ 957p = £500,061.21 and the next day 111,426 shares @ 957p = £1,066,346.82. So where does a girl who lost her job find the money to pay probably £7,000 a month mortgages, plus any capital costs, solicitors, Stamp Duty...??

She wasn't the only lucky one, Adam's son Gregory snapped up for a mere £329,000 a flat just doors away from her Mariners Wharf love pad she had bought just 10 days before !

Yes ... with the help of a Northern Wreck mortgage..

Nor was he the only lucky one - the Sunderland Cricket club whose shirts bear Northern Wreck sponsored logos from Northern Wreck received of £100,000 and agreed a £50,000 unsecured loan months before the crash. They are part of the Ashbrook Club.***

So who is the captain of the NUSC team that fields shagger and crook Adam Applegarth ? Well it's Greg Applegarth, (like his pic girls ? - more here) his son who has that pad handy for his dad's bit on the side. He is also the Northern Universities Students CCC Elite Newcastle representative (is he still a student ?) - you can e-mail him from here also

The News of the World say having taken his £2.2 Mn pension pot and £750K severance pay .." he is under investigation.."



***Ashbrooke is a mature residential area of tree lined avenues, elegant Victorian terraces and discreet mews set in the heart of the City of Sunderland. In the middle of this attractive area lie Ashbrooke Sports Club and Ashbrooke Social Club. Once known as "The Lords of the North" Ashbrooke's Victorian grounds have recently been revitalised ****under an ambitious scheme aimed at improving our facilities for both existing members and potential new members of the Club.

**** C/O Criminal CEO Applegarth and Northern Wreck's generosity ?sunderland.cricketclub@googlemail.com Phone 0191 5284536 if you want to ask.Dr. Grenville Holland is the Hon Treasurer and President of Cricket he also is the Welfare Officier and ensures the club matches the ECB Child Welfare Requirements (?)
Sunderland Cricket Club home to the baldy old crook Adam Applegarth criminal CEO of Nortehrn Wreck .. evidently used to going in on a sticky wicket..



Just pop postcode SR2 7HH into Google Earth or for her Mariners wharf love nest / property investment use NE1 2BJ

Summer Lightning

It is nearing the end of June . It is Midsummer . Lord Emsworth, if he were still with us ,would be admiring his pigs and dreading the forthcoming Garden Party... A lot has happened since this time last year , especially in the financial world ... Let's just recall.

Adam Applegarth , CEO Northern Rock (who had bailed out of his shareholding (32.7Mn) in Northern Rock completely in January 2007)

Introduced the Interim results to June 30th 2007 ...Page 4

"...We are pleased to have achieved approval for use of our Basle II rating systems. This means that the benefits of Basle II enable us to increase our 2007 interim dividend by 30%. Going forward our dividend payout rate increases to 50% of underlying EPS from around 40%. Future capital planning, including the reduction of capital hungry assets, will allow us to return capital to shareholders through a share buyback programme.

The medium term outlook for the Company is very positive”

Later on Page 14 under the heading ...Capital Management and Basle II

"On 29 June 2007, we received notification of approval by the FSA of our Basle II waiver application. Our regulatory capital requirements, comprising both Pillar I and Pillar II, are therefore calculated under Basle II with effect from that date."

and on Page 15 he was happy to explain the rise in the Dividend (which alas was not to be for the shareholders)

"The introduction of Basle II, which requires less capital to support new lending, also enables a review of the Company’s dividend policy. It is proposed that for 2007 and beyond, dividends will be maintained at a payout ratio of around 50%. The interim dividend therefore increases by 30.3% to 14.2p (2006 - 10.9p) payable on 26 October 2007 to shareholders on the register on 28 September 2007." (eventually this was not paid - with Darling acting not only a as a lender of the last resort but also as a Shadow Director influencing the other Directors)

This was the time the Company Treasurer , Mr Keith Currie became "ill" - he had sold £1.1m worth of NR shares in 2007 and bought £2,992 . His job was described on the company website as ......"responsible for the management of the Company's Group Treasury function including liquidity, wholesale funding, derivative portfolios and the management of the Company's securitisation funding and covered bond programmes."

Deputy to Adam was David Baker, who had sold made £1.9m wrth of NR shares in 2007 and invested £50,032.

Meanwhile we learn from our ex colonies of the the Indictment this week of Mr Cioffi and Mr Tannin of Bear Stearns that almost simultaneously ..

54 ...... On June 26, 2007, investors were told that they could no longer redeem their investments in the High Grade Fund, regardless of whether or not they had already submitted redemption requests.

55. Eventually, investors were told that the Funds had both lost 100% of their respective values, resulting in a total investor loss of approximately $1.4 billion.

We also learn that a notepad computer of Mr Cioffi and a notebook used by Mr Tannin , quite naturally in all the excitement cannot .. er ... be found.

Meanwhile in England Northern Rock ... how to turn £14 Billion into £19.3 Billion between April and "over the summer" .Treasury prestidigitation and legendary legerdermain we discover that the loan balance owing from Northern Rock to the tax payer is £19.3 Billion.

Perhaps Adam is still ferrying Amanda Smithson (who is presumably by now ex Buy to Let) off to the Presidential Suite in the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington to shag his brains out. Perhaps he is playing cricket.

Let's not forget Adam walked away with a pension pot of £2.2 Mn plus 6 months salary. His total package in 2006 was £1.4million, including basic pay of £690,000 and a bonus of £660,000. Plus of course his well timed share sale.

Let us hope when the Serious Fraud Squad come calling on him and his fellow Directors they haven't mislaid any notes , or computers.

A very effective object lesson in how the criminal justice systems operate on both sides of the Atlantic.

Northern Rock ... how to turn £14 Billion into £19.3 Billion between April and "over the summer" .Treasury prestidigitation and legendary legerdermain

Summer is here and with it the rain and the Treasury Summer Supplementary Estimates today ..

"At the Budget the Treasury announced that the Bank of England loan facilities to Northern Rock would be replaced with direct Treasury funding during 2008-09 in line with restrictions on central bank financing of government undertakings set out in the Treaty Establishing the European Community. The Main Supply Estimates published in April included a sum of £14 billion, the amount of the outstanding loan facilities projected at the end of the 2008-09 financial year.

Since then, the date of transfer has been agreed by the parties involved and the Treasury will transfer the loan facilities over the summer, at which point the outstanding balance is projected to be £19.3 billion. This Supplementary Estimate updates the provision made in the Main Estimate and will enable the transfer of the Northern Rock loan from the Bank of England to the Treasury at the agreed time. "

Monbiot's Calculus at work ...think of a number ... make it bigger.

Talking of Barclays and their Black, Black Hole ...1st May CEO Paul Idzik announced he was leaving Barclays. " seeking new challenges" ....Nothing heard of him since. CEO of one of the biggest banks in the world wants "new challenges" - flying to the moon / Mars maybe ?

So he had spats with John Varley and Bob Diamond .. he was CEO for fucks sake.

Pic GG at the Gee Gees - Gemma Garrett MP elect for Haltemprice and Howden, is struggling to keep her slim beautiful, lissom, (dare we say nubile?) figure as she is off to a family celebration in Belfast to celebrate big sister Lisa's baptism..."Mum is going to lay on a very big spread for all the friends and family" says Gemma trying to dodge the summer rain.

GG says,"Lord Patel had better have some super speeches ready for me" see website

Labour Party - Rats abandoning sip

On Sunday, April 13, 2008 Lord Patel in the post Will Nu Labour get Balls at last ? Brown to go in shock psycho - drama - queen forecast that David Pitt-Watson who Gordon had personally selected as Labour Party Secretary would not be joining the ranks.

Today the shock horror news from the Brown Bumker is that the boy David 51, chairman of Hermes Equity Ownership Services (who were big shareholders in Northern Rock) will not be bringing "a breadth of experience and will be a great asset to the party in terms of political judgment and organisational management" as NEC chairman Dianne Hayter said to the BBC .

Talk of his concerns about his personal financial liabilities if he took the post , abortive discussions about converting the party into a limited company to avoid such problems and rescheduling the payment of large, controversial loans to the Party, made in the happy expectation of receiving an honour have absolutely nothing to do with his decision.

A Suicide Watch has been placd on Captain Queeg at the Brown Bumker.

Bank Robbers don't needs masks and guns

As the few remaining Chinooks available for training RAF crew have been reduced to royal taxis it is worth briefly considering how strapped the MOD has been for cash ...

Throwing money at helicopters

In 1995 the UK MOD ordered 8 Chinook HC3 helicopters from Boeing, especially equipped for Special Services (SAS / SBS) SAS and Special Boat Service, with satellite communications technology, extra fuel tanks and in-flight refuelling probes for long flights at a cost of £260 (£32.5Mn each).

As a cost saving measure the MInistry decided not to have them equipped with a fully digital display.

Since they were delivered in 2001 they ahve sat in a warehouse in St. Asaph, North wales. "Because" as Edward Leigh Chairman of the Public Accouts Committee explained , "of a massively botched job, they cannot be flown when there is a cloud in the sky. The MoD might as well have bought eight turkeys.''

Viz … Select Committee on Public Accounts Minutes of Evidence 25 OCTOBER 2004 -

Q133 Chairman: Thank you very much. But the fact remains, Air Vice Marshal, that for safety reasons you cannot fly this helicopter when it is cloudy; is that correct?
Air Vice Marshal Luker: That is also correct.

Des Browne the part time Minister of Defence announced last year (2007) that the MOD had at last found (or squeezed from the Treasury AKA Gordon Brown) £60-70 Mn to retrofit the machines which might see action in late 2009. In fact he is so delighted to have found the money he has announced it three times.

Throwing money out of helicopters

Now today the Bank of England has been rummaging in the drawers and found £50 Bn. (at least) because ... " banks have on their balance sheets an ‘overhang’ of these assets, which they cannot sell or pledge as security to raise funds. " ... these assets which they cannot sell or
pledge are mysteriously also " high quality mortgage-backed and other securities" (elsewhere
in the statement described as " illiquid assets ") which the BOE are going to swap for UK Treasury Bills.

The fundamental pinciple of preparing financial accounts in the UK is that they present a "true and fair view " (The US GAAP standard is "present fairly"). If the mortgage backed securities held by these banks cannot be traded or cannot be accepted as a pledge they have no value.

The Bank of England in accepting them as security (even with a "haircut" , the bankers quaint description of a discount) is accepting what no-one else will. They are doing it on behalf of the issuers of the bonds which they are swapping them for - the UK Treasury.

1.The banks have shown they can produce fraudulent balance sheets (Northern Rock - on which the Directors colluded to offer dividends in a criminal conspiracy. Ther is every reason to believe that other balance sheets have not similarly included such dishonest valuations of MBS and SIV's derived from them - which have boosted profits, dividends and bonuses. The Big "5" UK banks declared proffits of £37 Billion last year.

2. It has just been shown that in calculating LIBOR, the figures have been manipulated, altered, adjusted, fudged , deliberately to conceal the unwillingness of lenders / borrowers to undertake normal business - because, simply they cannot trust each other as they know the mutual and agreed frauds they have all jointly and severally committed.

3. The parties to these common frauds are still in place , the taxpayer through the BOE / Treasury are now willing to find £50Bn now and as far as can be ascertained unlimited funds in the future - which is at least of 3 years duration. ("Usage of the scheme will depend on market conditions. Discussions with banks suggest that use of the scheme is initially likely to be around £50bn. )

That the Treasury, which could not find £60 Mn for absolutely essential work on Chinooks for over 5 years could find £57 Bn (at the lasta ccounting ) for Northern Rock alone and now £50Bn is a fraud of immense proportions.

Literally worthless bits of paper are being offered by the same crooks that got us into this hole and accepted by the fools and incompetents in the Treasury / BOE and FSI who sat and watched it happen.

Finally today the 2 appealing Royal funsters have been meeting the victims of the ill judged, badly trained and badly supplied forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. They will shortly be sponsoring a fun charity event to raise money for a swimming pool to aid their recovery - many as a result forecast here Friday, January 27, 2006 Reid sends ill equipped troops to certain deaths in S Afghanistan

Regardless of the futilityor the illegality of any actions UK trooops may be involved in, we have, as a society a moral responsibility to equip and train our troops in the best way possible.

Instead we have been saving candle ends, de-pauperating the poorest with ill designed and heartless tax demands. Why ? So we can throw our money at the bankers.

21.04.08 BOE News Release Special Liquidity Scheme
21.04.08 BOE Special Liquidity Scheme: Information (22k) PDF
21.04.08 BOE Special Liquidity Scheme: Market Notice (31k) PDF

RBOS's CEO Fred Goodwin , 49 (£8Mn plus a year) issues his accounts for 2007 on Wednesday - Churchill and Direct Line are on the block £4-6Bn write offs are due to be disclosed, and a £10 Bn cash call on shareholders is expected, plus a savage cut in the divvy. The wunderkind's days are over.

Barclays is next ... do you want to lend them any money ?

PS to put £50Bn into perspective - Exxon Mobil last year posted the largest annual profit by a U.S. company -- $40.6 billion. = £20.3 Bn.

Putin to marry world class Uzbek gymnast Alina Kabaeva

Lord Patel posted this fascinating story Thursday, September 27, 2007 Alina Kabaeva - World Class Uzbek / Russian artistic gymnast with a fascinating life story - Amazing pictures !

Now Vladimir (56) has pensioned off Mrs Putin (June 16th in St petersburg) and he will soon marry the graceful and beautiful gymnast (aged 25)whom we explained was not only friendly with Mr Alisher Usmanov, part owner of a struggling North London football team but also with President Mr Putin.

Not many people were interested at the time.

We also had a nice photograph of her Friday, September 28, 2007 Northern Rock plc given £7.75 Bn. of tax payers dosh by thrifty, prudent Scots, Brown + Darling - technically a loan but actually thrown away

"Pic is of the beautiful, delightfully athletic, and artistic gymnast Alina Kabaeva who can do remarkable things with balls and ribbons accompanied by music and the Russian President, Mr Putin, with whom I would be delighted to discuss the complex world of global finance especially in relation to the beautiful country of Uzbekistan.

Alina retired as a gymnast in February and joined the United Russia party at the suggesion of Putin. Svetlana Khorkina, 28, Olympic champion and Olympic speed skating champion Svetlana Zhurova, 35, both became members at the same time - they were called "Putin's Babes" a la Blair's Babes . Here is her official Duma website page

Ex President Vladimir will solemnize the union at Tsarskoe Selo, th magnificent Summer Palace of the late Russian Tsars.

Many thanks to Mr Vagit Alekperov who does not infrequently slip the odd interesting nugget of pure gold our way.

Enjoy


UPDATE : Wednesday The Daily Telegraph catches up with the news

UPDATE Thursday : Now the Daily Mail catches up

Will Nu Labour get Balls at last ? Brown to go in shock psycho - drama - queen

Department of Special Collections and University Archives
McFarlin Library. University of Tulsa
Has the manuscript of a poem by Malcolm Lowry - Tashtego believed Red

Stubbs the quirky, fatalistic second mate on the Pequod had a harpoonist, Tashtego a "native" Gay Head Indian from Martha’s Vineyard. One of the last of his tribe which is about to disappear. The role of the noble savage is one he shares with Queeqeg , a prince from a South Sea island . Fuelled by rum he is more practical and less intellectual than Queequeg.

It is a popular belief that Tashtego's Polynesian friend was the origin of the name for Captain Queeg in Herman Wouk's "Caine Mutiny" made memorable by Humphrey Bogart in Stanley Kramers 1954 film of the book.

Lieutenant Commander Philip Francis Queeg, takes over the command of the Destroyer / minesweeper "Caine" a run down World War One ship.

Abandoning his girl May, he starts immediately losing respect of his officers by browbeating officer to sell him their liquor ration , smuggles liquor on board and swiftly and certainly loses the crews respect in a series of calamities.

On the first voyage the ship runs aground and Queeg blames the helmsman, they lose a gunnery target by over riding the cable, due to Queeg's inattention whilst disciplining a sailor for leaving his shirt tail out.

These failings culminate in the loss of a portion of strawberries the recovery of which becomes an epic enquiry which seals the dislike of the crew faced with his cowardice in action, when he leaves a dye marker to cover his premature retirement from action resulting in his being called "Old Yellowstain".

Lieutenant Stephen Maryk makes an amateur self diagnosis of him as a paranoid and maintains a diary of his increasingly eccentric behaviour to justify his analysis. This includes Queeg's obsessive habit of rolling steel ball bearings in his hand, both within and outside his pocket.

In a momentous typhoon Maryk seizes command and the story continues to dissect Queeg's actions in the form of a court martial not for mutiny but a lesser charge of Conduct to the Prejudice of Good Order and Discipline (the sort of charge that might apply to say a Chief Constable shagging WPC's on his staff).

Brown as Queeg

Gordon Brown has always appeared as a solitary and remote, isolated and driven character - widely believed to be a supressed homosexual - marriage has not stilled the rumours. Since assuming power - an assumption like a monarch and not the result of a populist party wide vote, his isolation has become more evident.

His curious physical tics have become morbidly amplified - Guido pokes relentless fun and obtains some schoolboy merriment at an episode when he picked his nose and ate the result in the House of Commons to be captured on the in house cameras and widely circulated as a vicious prank.

In public speech - of which we necessarily see more - and under stress, his odd open mouthed mouth breathing, his rapid claw like hand dragging down documents - scrawled over with huge type in blunt black Magic Markers have become increasingly evident.

The consequences of his famed indecision or as the Cameronian low lifers prefer, "dithering" are now framing his office... the call for an Autumn election, the Northern Rock extended debacle, troop levels in Iraq, signing the Lisbon treaty, appearance/ non appearance at the Beijing Olympics ceremonies.

The bizarre personal appearance - a combination of his own negligence and no doubt the despair of unheard helpers - trousers tucked in his sock, his persistently ragged necktie, inexpertly applied and hideously coloured face make - up and persistent facial tics and tricks all re-inforce a troubled person - not made any more likeable by has pallid face and the unfortunate asymmetry of his glass eye.

There are also the consistent stories of staff falling out, leaving - Spencer Livermore at his side for a decade departing for Saatchi & Saatchi (Some reports said Brown made Livermore cry with one of his tirades) .. or not starting such as David Pitt-Watson he personally selected as Labour Party Secretary.

Now we have the bizarre story in the Sunday Mail as the juvenile Ed. Balls (Maryk) is lobbying to mutiny and take command as the financial typhoon finally hits, and the Local election looms with premonitions of disaster as the Labour vote slumps in the polls, Bae corruption, Beijing, the kalaidoscope is shaking......

Balls, even if he is a simpleton is ambitious , he is not without allies, the Guradian says yesterday that Gordon is "clinically depressed" . Although he has his enemies - the craven war criminal Jack Straw apparently offered to biff Balls at a cabinet meeting last week.

Others lurk, and sensing danger to their own over arching personal agendas - Zionist Foreign Secretary the Boy David Miliband and Zionist backed Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell are scuttling about ... preparing their legions... and the funds to catapult them into the lead.

...and Queeg is in his cabin , fiddling with his balls.

UPDATE : Famous for 15 megapixels has some filthy film that is relevant if the sight of a grown man fiddling with his balls is not too much for you.

Rosemary Radcliffe - Northern Wreck Director who approved issue of fraudulent Interim accounts and 33% divvy rise - reckless or criminal ?

Rosemary Radcliffe, who was a non-executive director at Northern Rock, (until the load shedding exercise on Friday 16th November 2007) was also a former chief economist at PwC ( she was at PwC 1982-2001)

Rosemary joined the Northern Rock Board on Jan 1st 2005 and in that year was paid for her Non Exec duties £37,000 for that year. She must have been mightily pleased when ths was increased by 50% to ££54,000 starting 2007.

No doubt she would also be aware that when the Interim accounts were prepared and published and approved by the Directors, on July 26th that 73 % of the loans covering the NR balance sheet was due in 3 months.

Nor should we forget that the FSA announced on 03/09/2001, that Rosemary Radcliffe, former Chief Economist at PricewaterhouseCoopers, was appointed to be the independent Complaints Commissioner for the Financial Services Authority (FSA) an appointment made by the then Minister, glamorous, intelligent ,fun loving Ruth Kelly. Rosemary left the post on 3rd September 2004 to be replaced by Sir Anthony Holland, Chairman of the Northern Ireland Parades Commission (?) and a former Principal Ombudsman for the Personal Investment Authority.

At the time the shortly to retire FSA Chairman Callum McCarthy said: "I would like to express the thanks and appreciation of the FSA Board to Rosemary Radcliffe for her work to establish the Complaints Commissioner position as one of undoubted independence and integrity."

In the light of all this it is fascinating to see from the Year End Accounts and report that in the year she attended ;

Risk Committee meeting : Once (out of 3 held)
Main Board Meeting : 11 times out of 21 held.

Evidently a lady who took the consideration of risk and the oversight of the company as a matter of great importance which reflected her (very generous) pay rise.

Mortgage market in the UK remains sound

The Major British Banking Groups (MBBG) account for some two-thirds of all mortgage lending outstanding and around 70% of gross lending. Additionally, they provide over half of all consumer credit outstanding and, within that, some 70% of all card credit. They include twelve of the fifteen largest mortgage lenders in the UK: Abbey, Alliance & Leicester, Barclays and Woolwich, Bradford & Bingley, HBOS (through Halifax and Bank of Scotland), HSBC Bank, LloydsTSB (through Cheltenham & Gloucester), Northern Rock, Royal Bank of Scotland and National Westminster.

1. Today they announced that January's gross mortgage lending was £16.6 Bn. and dropped 9% to £14.9 Bn in February 2008 (Feb 2007 = £ 14.0 Bn.)

2. 167,000 mortgages were approved (for all purposes) in February with an average loan approved for house purchase of £150,400, some 14% higher than a year earlier. It took 9 years for mortages to double from £50K to £100K and 4 years to rise to £150K. The total figure included new loans of 47,365 a 35% fall from the 72,339 home loans February 2007. When the crooks at Northern Wreck were lending to anyone who walked through the door and took 20% of the UK market)

3. Nett mortgage lending (gross lending minus repayments and redemptions) rose by £5.2bn, (Januarys increased by £5.4bn). The annual growth in net mortgage lending continued at around 14%.

4. Credit card borrowing was unchanged (Actually declined by £4 Mn.) in the month, while other loans and overdrafts fell by £0.2bn. New borrowing on credit cards totalled £6,224mn in February; 7% lower than February 2006. (This compard with increase in mortgage lending shows how borrowers prioritise their credit needs - housing is No 1 - belt tightening not wage increases driving growth)

5. Compared to February 2006, House purchase approvals declined by 5% in number and 8% in value in February year on year.Remortgaging approvals were up 6% by number and up 22% by value. Approvals for equity withdrawal ( A species of theft from the elderly - the first tranche of mortgages sold off by Northern Wreck to Sacks of Gold) were unchanged by number but 10% higher by value.

Which suggests that the housing market is firm and that some degree of rigour has been attached to loan approvals, which was long overdue. There appears little evidence of any decline in prices or willingness to adopt loans for £150,000. (Average household income (NIS) is approx £27,000) , this average value has increased in 12 months by 14% - well in excess of any rise in national incomes.

Joke of the Week

``I would be surprised if, in a few years time, house prices are markedly above where they are now,'' Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said on March 26 to Commons Treasury Select Committee with members of the Monetary Policy Committee in tow - including the hapless and hopeless Sir John Gieve.

We are stuck with this incompetent twat for 5 more years - even former MPC member DeAnne Julius said the BOE isn't cutting interest rates fast enough said Mervyn King was "behind the curve".

The UK’s deficit on trade in goods and services was £4.1 billion in January. The deficit on trade in goods was £7.5 billion, and the surplus on trade in services was £3.4 billion.

As indigenous energy sources, oil/gas/coal decline, and imports rise this gap will inexorably rise.

King's response is to throw money out of the helicopters at the banks, the pound declines (from 1.36Euros to 1.26 in the last 3 months)from 1.47 Euros to 1.26 in 12 months.

And inflation roars away ... Lordy Lord "Don I gotta Winner" King of the Bank said at the Mansion House 16th June 2007...

"Our central view remains that inflation will fall back this year as the rises in domestic gas and electricity prices last year drop out of the annual comparison, and the recent cuts in prices feed through to household bills."

What a twat.

In a trading statement this morning Northern Foods PLC hid away a little nugget ..."Average prices were 7.5% higher as Northern Foods recovered the hike in raw materials costs from its customers."

Friday 8.30 pm GMT ... £ closed against the € down 0.092 or 0.75% @ € 1.26215 lowest ever.