´óÏó´«Ã½

And a happy New Year to you, Mr Fraser.
What worries me is that even though we know No 11 will be telling us it's even worse, no-one has started to look at what it may mean, let alone ask questions like where should the NHS be delivered, at home, at the site of an accident or only in the doctor's surgery or the hospital.
It's to Labour's advantage to keep us in the dark over what it may involve as then they can portray all and any idea to reduce expenditure as some Tory plot against the ordinary man or woman whilst knowing that they themselves will have to do the same if re-elected. That is, IMO, dishonest and a contempt of the voter and so reason for my vote going elsewhere in March or May or whenever.

Handclapping seems to have overlooked the fact that it's an SNP government making policy and decisions in Scotland. The Labour party simply forms part of the official opposition.
That said, the overall outlook for the whole of the island is that the slight growth in September in non-oil categories (which is where most of the jobs are) will continue on-track. Growth is already restored in our island's jobs markets - but less so in the vital Northern portions either side of our border.
Ending QE will have mixed impacts: interest rates on Bonds will rise taking annutiies upwards too. But immigration will probably continue to be negative in Scotland and in Northern England, which will ensure home price rises will lag those further south.
The critical issue would be any temptation to introduce Panic Budget measures to follow the election, with severe consequences for the continuing economic recovery.

Leftie seems to have overlooked the fact that the economy in Scotland is reserved to Westminster and that it's Labour that rule there. If Labour won't tell what they intend doing, how can the voter decide or the Scot's Government plan, make policy or do anything useful to get out of the pit Labour has dug for all of us.

2 Leftie If you've wakened up now you might find it was all a dream. The recession isn't over , is a long way from being over, and as long as the Labour party is in Westminster, it will not be over. Like all the times in the twentieth century when we had a Labour government, the country has been dragged to the edge of banktrupcy and the much maligned Tories will be left to repair the damage done and to take the flak for the measures the incompetence of this Labour governments forces them to take to get Britain solvent.

The financial crisis is showing that political will is needed to get countries, if not out of recession, at least on the way to recovery. So far success within the disunited European Union is mixed; and the EU found at Copenhagen recently that cohesive power politics [especially between the USA and China] can win the day.

Hopes were high in 1998 for the Good Friday agreement. The innovation of the British-Irish Council would encourage a common stance between two countries and devolved areas on important EU matters. What happened?

Many people have been concerned with the unemployment numbers recently. A decrease in unemployment rate is waiting they are looking for, as an indicator that recovery is taking place. The beginnings of that indicator are beginning to happen – in that fewer people are filing for unemployment assistance. The number of jobless claiming unemployment fell by over 200,000 between March and December of 2009. This doesn't necessitate that many fewer people will need payday loans [Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator] in 2010, but that the rate of jobs being lost is reducing, and the number of employed is increasing.