KHOODEELAAR! updating on the evidence of the emergence of the overdue recognition that London CROSSRAIL is an unsustainable scam [192]

This page was last edited at 0155 GMT London Friday 17 October 2008:


KHOODEELAAR! TOLD YOU SO! The wasteful, crassly conceived, Big Business scam Crossrail is not economically supportable... It should ne scrapped, thus saving £Billions of public money.... Money should be spent on IMPROVING the EXISTING Transport infrastructure and the quality of transport SERVICE in London for the London public...


[To be continued]



"
Construction output could be slashed as result of bank bail out
17 October 2008
By Sarah Richardson
Economists warn that public spending may be slashed over next three years

The rate of decline in construction output over the next three years could double if the government reins in public spending after its £50bn bail out of Britain’s banks.

The warning, from the Construction Products Association (CPA), came after the government spent £37bn on shares in the Royal Bank of Scotland, HBOS and Lloyds TSB.

The move should improve the short-term fortunes of the industry by unlocking capital. But economists have warned that the cost of the deal will put the government under pressure to cut investment levels announced in last autumn’s Comprehensive Spending Review – and leave the industry with workload that decreases faster than expected over the next three years.

The CPA calculates that if the government cut back its spending to 2007 levels during 2009 and 2010, output would fall 12% between now and 2011. At present the association is predicting a 6.7% decline, which is based on the assumption that investment in education, healthcare and infrastructure will offset falling demand in the private housing and commercial sectors. It is now urging the government to keep to its spending commitments despite the financial upheavals.


Jonathan Hook, head of construction and engineering at Pricewaterhouse Coopers, said: “The bail out is a double-edged sword. There are an awful lot of positives in terms of what it does for the market, and existing PFI schemes will be easier to fund. The downside is that there must be question marks over the public sector spending programme. More likely than scrapped, programmes could be delayed.”

Despite committing itself to capital spending of more than £70bn by March 2011 in the Comprehensive Spending Review, the government can, in theory, change its plans by arguing that the economic situation has changed.

Experts said this week that such a move would be unlikely to come in November’s pre-Budget report, but that it may be on the cards by next spring.

Michael Ankers, chief executive of the CPA, said: “I think it will take some time to work out if the situation has stabilised, and then the government will have to decide on a strategy – whether they have no option but to cut, or whether they think the recession is so bad they need to spend to keep the economy going.”

Richard Whittington, UK head of building and construction at KPMG, said that whether or not Labour remained in government beyond the next election he expected cuts. He said: “The tax take will be down, and bigger projects across all sectors could be at risk.”




Transport
Transport infrastructure, despite a planned investment of almost £10bn until 2011, is likely to be the first casualty should public spending be cut, as many infrastructure projects are relatively costly without being obvious vote-winners. Road spending would probably be first on the block, and economists have also expressed doubt over the £16bn Crossrail scheme, as it’s often easier to take a big slice of spending out in one go.


Education
Education is a safer bet than transport owing to its popularity with the electorate, but the government may still look to slow down spending on schemes such as the £45bn Building Schools for the Future programme (without visibly scrapping any schools). A spend programme of £2.3bn on universities could be mothballed without a public outcry, and the fact that the £7bn primary schools programme does not start until next spring makes it possible that this could be slowed.


The NHS
This sector is likely to escape cuts, according to the experts. With an ageing population inclined to become irate at any decline in the quality of care, and a proportionately smaller amount of public spend to play with, the NHS is likely to escape largely unscathed. The £1bn express Lift programme, announced earlier this month, should go forward, and the sector will be boosted by the trend away from large PFI projects, which would have sucked up capital.


Housing
With private housing starts at record lows, and the government maintaining that it wants to build 3 million homes by 2020, it is unlikely to cut back new-build social housing. The target of 45,000 social homes by the end of the spending review period is unlikely to be reached, but that will not be because of less money in the pot. If the government does cut back, it’s more likely to be on its decent homes initiative, as repair and maintenance isn't so visible to voters.

“The bail out is a double-edged sword... Most likely programmes could be delayed”
Jonathan Hook, PwC
WHERE THE AXE COULD FALL
-
Back in October 2007, when many economists were still cheerfully predicting that the Northern Rock nightmare would be a blip rather than a recession, the government announced more than £70bn of capital spending between 2007 to 2011 in its Comprehensive Spending Review. But how safe is that investment now?


"

KHOODEELAAR! updating on the evidence of the Times being used by Big Business Crossrail hole scam peddlers to rob the UK public of £Billions [191]

This page was last edited at

2355 GMT Thursday 16 October 2008

KHOODEELAAR! Organiser Muhammad Haque has posted the following first response to the Times online item promoted by Martin Waller acting as the City of London and Big Business interests key propagandist for Crossrail. “London public do not need Crossrail. Nor does the current - and the foreseeable - economy. What the public need and want and can sustain, is an overall improvement to the quality of transport that EXISTS now. That is the MAJOR infrastructure project. Not wasting £Billions on Crossrail. “

KHOODEELAAR! updating on the evidence of the Times being used by Big Business Crossrail hole scam peddlers to rob the UK public of £Billions [190]

This page was last edited at
2340 Hrs GMT London Thursday 16 October 2008:

KHOODEELAAR! TOLD YOU SO! That Martin Waller on the Times is a pro[propagandist for City of London interests and Big Big Business.... Notwithstanding the fact that BOTH [the City of London AND Big Business ] have brought the world’s finances to the current ‘unprecedented pass’, Martin Waller, like all the fanatic peddlers of the Crossrail London scam., is dropping [that is INSERTING] pro-CROSSRAIL references in his ‘column’ under any excuse and with no regard for any rationality, evidence or justification......... It will be recalled that Martin Waller has carried TWO brazen plugs for two of the City of London’s most brazen peddlers of Crossrail in the past few months... Neither plug has been allowed to carry any comment from any reader.....It is clear that the Times is operating a propaganda slot for Big Business and the City of London and that Martin Waller is the man who is engaged to carry out the brazen propaganda.......For the second day in a row, the London Times is publishing a plug for Crossrail... This latest one is the more significant one. Because it contains references to Boris Johnson and a ‘new’ minister for Crossrail giving full backing behind the scam. It also claims knowledge about a legal move and cites a number of legal letters that have been issued [in the past 48 hours] to 97 addresses in the Tottenham Court Road area containing intention to compulsorily purchase the properties... Most significantly, it says all this with a question. ‘Could Crossrail get delayed in central London?’

[To be continued]

KHOODEELAAR! No to Big Business. Scrap Crossrail that is a ploy for enriching the Big Business, the looters behind the crisis [189]

This page was last edited at 1010 GMT London Thursday 16 October 2008


KHOODEELAAR! Organiser Muhammad Haque diagnosed and dissected the flawed London Crossrail scam, in a piece published as comment on the Times online on 23 september 2007. . . . . It was valid then. It is even more valid now Thursday 16 October 2008: 'Tunnel Vision' . And underneath in a subheading it says, "Crossrail will slash journey times and bump up property prices on both sides of the capital" Then you quote a whole range of property companies stating in gleeful terms how the prices of properties in currently deprived [!] areas will shoot up! They specifically also mention the Whitechapel area in the East End of London. Poverty and deprivation there are between the UK's highest. There is no irony in the Crossrail hypers' glee that the deprived and the low-income people will SUFFER as a direct result of the ADDITIONAL income disparity and the ADDITIONAL social exclusion and inequality that Crossrail will cause. What a way to waste £Billions of public money boosting the coffers of those who cause inequality in society. The East End people WILL be made poorer still by the imposition of the Crossrail Trojan horse for speculators and big business . Muhammad Haque . Khoodeelaar! No to Crossrail hole Bill 0125 Hrs GMT London Sun. Muhammad Haque, London, UK

KHOODEELAAR! No to Big Business scam. First review of the ignorant utterances about economics and finance by David Milibandit on the BBC ..[187]

This page was last edited at 0840 Hrs GMT London Thursday 16 October 2008:

KHOODEELAAR! No to Big Business scam. First review of the ignorant utterances about economics and finance by David Milibandit on the BBC this morning......

David Milibandit staged a miniature ‘comeback’ this morning! On the Media circuits. Was it ‘perhaps’ to do with Guardian Polly, again? This morning's Guardian [Thursday 16 October 2008] carries a piece that contains the word ‘unravel’ about Gordon Brown ‘bailout’. The headline [early editions] reads, “Brown bailout under threat as banks seek better deal.” And surprise surprise, someone at the BBC [The Milibandit unit! at the Broadcasting House] got it into the list for the day’s the ‘news agenda’ as the right excuse. They ‘thought’ : That is it! A most appropriate, plausible even, peg on which to justify a plug for Milibandit.....But he was full of waffle and hype....So much so that he mixed up the two concepts: ‘economy’ and ‘economics’. O r rather he misused the word ‘economy’ when referring to ‘international’. What he should have said was ‘economies’. Or ‘economics’ in that statement. What he came across as saying was that he did not understand the reality of international economics. He parroted parts of what the USA politicos were saying during the previous few months of their so-called election talks.... Especially what McCain had been saying in his belligerent misutterances about the world ..,Milibandit repeated the lying statement, in his own 'words’, that excuses [and perpetuates] the multinational, Military Industrial Complex-ed capitalist looters and bankers... And he showed the same untruthfulness about the wealth and poverty in the world. And about who causes the poverty. And from whom....The utterances of David Milibandit were not the results of original thinking on his part..... And they did not deserve to be given the spot by the BBC......
[To be continued]