Ten out of Ten to our clever British Government on the Northern Rock acquisition. I wish i had their power for a while. Let us think about this for a moment.

First of all the Government turn a blind eye to the trouble Northern Rock are in. Keep quiet and it will go away.

Secondly, they sit back and watch all the investors lose the money they invested in the company, as the Share price of Northern Rock tumbles from a One time high of £12 down to around Ninety pence.

The Third trick they pulled out of the bag was to let us all think that a private investor would save the day. So far i have not heard any good reason as to why this did not happen.

This is the really clever move by our Government. They have taken over the running of the Bank. They are using the Tax payers money to keep it running. And within a few years when they have used our money to make the Bank profitable. They will sell it off making a huge profit.

The Government of the day will then state that they are using the profit to improve Schools and the Education system, the National Health system etc.

I have got a better idea. Why don’t the Government give the money back to the Tax payers who they have ripped off. Give us a Tax cut. At the stroke of the Chancellors pen, the British people might feel a bit better about the way we have been conned.

I took my dog Barney with me to the local shops ( South Shields, UK ) last weekend, firstly to take Barney for his walk and Secondly to buy some Alcohol for the following day because we were having some friends visiting us.

I have never had any trouble with the Teenagers who usually hang around the shops because i know most of them . But this night was different.

It was about 9 pm and the kids had obviously already been drinking. I said Hi to the ones that i knew. And i got some sort of a mumble back which i could not understand. So i tied Barney up outside the shop and went inside to make my purchase.

When i came out the gang of about Eight lads, male and female had untied Barney and were running around with him. One of the girls then turned to me and said ” you can have your mut back, if you give us some booze “. I told them their was no chance that was going to happen, and unless i got my Barney back unhurt i would call the Police.

The reply i got was ” call them, they can’t do anything, and we know all the Cops anyway. We are always talking to them, and if you touch one of us, you will be the one getting arrested ”. I have since checked this out and would have been me in trouble with the Police. I would have been arrested for Assault.

Anyway, the night was saved when One of the kids Fathers came around the corner. As luck would have it, i knew him and told him what was going on. To the fathers credit he gave his Son a slap and told him to get home. The rest of them just walked off quietly.

The lad who had hold of Barney gave him back to me and said he only did it to stay with the gang. I did report it to the Police and all they said was, they knew about them and would keep an eye on them. That really filled me with confidence. ( NOT )

John Stepek said today in his article,  “Excuse me. I’m a taxpayer. The only reason this fly-by-night company is still limping along is because the government has decided – without my permission – to use my money to prop the company up. And I’m certainly not happy about having to shell out more money to own the thing. So as far as I’m concerned, taxpayers – the involuntary guarantors of a company which would have collapsed long ago had it been in any other industry - are the only ones who matter.

As a small investor in Northern Rock Who has put most of his savings into these shares, i would just like to point out to John Stepek ( who has probably got more money than he knows what to do with ), that i am also a Tax Payer.

If he put a little thought into his article he would have realised that people like myself have probably lost all their savings AND i am paying tax to keep Northern Rock afloat.

There were Two bids put up to take over Northern Rock, and as far as i am concerned One of them should have been given a chance to pull the company around. This could have saved the Tax payers a lot of money as well as giving the share holders a small glimmer of hope.

As far as John Stepek goes, well he is entitled to his opinion, but i would love to meet the guy face to face.

The UK Government has let the British people down again with the decision to Nationalise Northern Rock. I say this because a lot of people, especially those living in the North of England, have put a lot of money into the bank and left it there to help the bank out.

Thousands of people also purchased Shares in Northern Rock hoping to help the bank stay afloat. Now they stand to lose a lot of money because the Labour Government have decided to Nationalise Northern Rock.

Share dealing has been suspended as of Sunday 17th February. This prevents any one who owns shares in Northern Rock from selling them in order to get any of their money back.

Chancellor Alistair Darling, said ” an independent auditor would see how much shareholders should get, but the bank would be valued as if it had not received any government support.  While the government has criticised the bank’s business model, it has blamed a credit crisis that started with risky mortgage lending in the United States and has spread throughout the world for sparking Northern Rock’s woes. ”

The British Government should take a long hard look at themselves and find out how they let Northern Rock get in to this mess in the first place.

But don’t count on getting anything like what they were worth before the decision was taken by Labour to sell share holders out. If i was Alistair Darling i would change my surname. I am sure that the British people will be calling him something more appropriate.

I am an enthusiastic gardener, but not very good at it. So i was very pleased with myself when i purchased a website called ( www.easylandscape.info ). I have read every ebook on this site and have solved many problems that i had around my garden. One of the problems i solved with the help of this site was where to locate a pond, how deep to make it and what design to use. I also discovered the best materials to make my pond strong, this was very important because i want the pond to last for at least Ten years. This particular ebook also went in to what pumps and filters to use depending on the size of the pond. I own the site,  Easy Landscape and  after reading the draft for this particular ebook i had no hesitation in buying the site. I think this is a great site for any budding gardener, whether you are just starting out in the gardening world, or already an expert, i think this particular site has it all. We have tried to make it as informative as we can.  

“Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the world’s 77 million Anglicans, gets a chance to respond on Monday to a barrage of criticism after saying the introduction in Britain of some aspects of Islamic law is unavoidable.”  If this ever happens then i am afraid this will mark the end for Britain. It won’t be long before they will be telling us what laws they want British Citizens to follow. At the end end of the day, England belongs to the British people. If people don’t like our laws in this country then go back to your own. If our laws are so bad then why do they want to live here ? I don’t believe for one moment that the Islamic communities living in our country would want thier laws introduced here.

The council for South Shields, England have decide to put up signs on various Lamp Posts telling Dog owners that if they don’t clean up after their pets they will face getting a fine. ” That’s fair enough “ i thought. But today i had to go and pay my Council Tax. Their offices are about 2 miles away so i decided to take my Dog ‘ Barney ‘ with me. We were about half way there when Barney decided that he had to go to the Toilet. I waited for him to finish and cleaned up after him. Then i realised that i had this bag of Dogs mess in my hand with a visit to the Council office and a Two mile walk home still to go. I got a look of disgust when i placed the bag on the counter whilst i was paying my bill. I looked at the assistant and said ” what would you like me to do with it.” He ignored me and took my money, but i bet he washed his hands as soon as i had gone. What i am trying to say is, ” great idea from the council, now give us somewhere to put it after we have cleaned up. Luckily i didn’t have any Food shopping to do on the way home. If Dog owners are going to be fined for not cleaning up, then use the damn money to pay for some bins to throw the mess in when we do. And what about the Cats that are free to go and do there mess where ever they like, including my Garden and Driveway. Lets make Cat owners walk around after their Cats and clean up after them. At least dogs don’t bury it, so you know where it is. I put my bag of Dog mess in my bin and washed my hands.

Being a Stepfather is not an easy task believe me. Not only do you try and teach them right from wrong, you also have to try and keep everyone else happy ” such as the wife “. This is even more difficult if the kids father is still involved. He just loves to stick his nose, making the odd snide remark. I quite often get the wife saying ” don’t shout at my kids ” when in fact it’s because they are getting on her nerves and has asked me to sort them out in the first place. So basically i am not allowed to discipline the kids unless she says so. The only punishment i can give them is to stop the Pocket money that i give them. But i know for a fact that mummy gives them some money when she thinks i am not looking. So as far as i can see, i have not got a lot of say as to how they grow up. Shut up and Pay up springs to mind.

Todays headlines read ‘ Woman in court over Football row death ‘. What the hell is this country coming to ? A bloke with a family has lost his life because of an argument over his sons Football. What has happened to the days when woman were seen but very rarely heard. These days they are going around thier local estate killing people over something stupid like a Football, i don’t have any answers as to why this is happening. You can call me ” old fashioned ” but woman should be at home looking after the children, the house, and the husband. I am not saying that they are not entitled to a life, sure go out and enjoj yourself. Just leave the knifes at home. Where i live in the North East, a good night out means getting drunk and see if you can pull a lad. If that fails, why not pick a fight to round the night off. When i was a bit younger it was the lads who tried to pick up a lass.

This one really annoys me. Council Tax, i am not going in to giving names or addresses out. But this is a typical, true to life story. A friend of mine had to sell his house because he could not keep up with the Mortgage payments. The family wanted to continue to live in the house, so it was sold to one of these Sell and rent back companies. This all went fine until the Council found out. The family had made somewhere in the region of £20,000 profit. They were getting Council Tax relief or bebefits at the time of the house sale. They did not inform the council because the money was all spoken for and only stayed in the account for One month whilst all the debts were payed. The council have now decided that the family who are no better off, apart from being out of debt, have got to pay them £400 in Council Tax because they did not tell them about the profit they made. And i know they used the profit to pay off debts. “ Well done Local Tax Office “