I haven’t posted anything from a few days because I’m sticking to my resolve to do that, if I have nothing worth saying, rather than gabbling for its own sake, which is a heinous crime.
Getting a grip on the lawyers
I have been absolutely staggered recently by the amount of money the government spends on legal wrangling in the courts. Not only do they go to court to appeal, when that’s turned down it appears they go again. It does no one any good except the barristers. They are talking about tightening the belts of the civil service, which at the upper level would seem to be pretty fair, but at the bottom would be excruciating for those affected. In effect lawyers are as much part of the civil service today as they ever were, because a lot of their work is associated with claims related to government policy. To me, it is logical therefore, like dentists employed by the government in the the National Health, that there should be a scale of charges for legal teams that is reasonable but not excessive.
Voting with our cash
We are told that competition is a good tool to aid the economy. On more than one occasion I have suggested that the government should have a National Bank operating in competition with the current ones, and divorced from the Bank of England. The purpose of which would be to allow us to shift our money from banks that are dependent on the stock exchange profits to keep those senior members in a style to which I would love to become accustomed. First of all the government doesn’t need to make a profit, as long as it pays its way adequately, and as it would be lending at sensible rates of interest, carefully, circumspectly, and with the interests of not only the bank customers, but those in industry, who need the money which they’ are now not getting to expand, and then thus help the economy. I strongly suspect that the rates of interest on loans would drop, providing that the system is run properly and tightly, which would then mean that people like myself who are saving for that awful day when I get booked into a home, will get a better rate of interest. If that happens, there will be two results, firstly, old Gaffer’s like me will shift our cash to the new bank, and as this is in competition, then suddenly, but not surprisingly, the banks who have not been giving loans will see the error of their ways