The End is Nigh.

      A simple matter of UK National Debt, spiraling out of control. I suppose it's all a matter of numbers, at least according to the Bank of England, who warn of people piling up far too much debt and posing a high risk to the rest of the country. A seemingly recent shift in high credit card, car loan and unreliable mortgage lending debt all brought about due to the low borrowing interest rates. And said to be pushing Britain towards another financial meltdown.
      The warning comes about after years of low interest rates falling to as little as 0.25 per cent and showing a marked increase in borrowing, coupled with years of little or no increase in average wages.
      Chief areas of concern are the recent splurge of PCP deals, upon new cars, where the vehicle is basically purchased upon a lease deal, which will in theory lead to the customer buying the car outright over a given timescale, but with increasing debt levels may well bring about a greater number of repossessions, which in turn could mean a glut and lower prices in the second-hand car market.
      Mortgage Deals, which were largely blamed for the last financial crisis, haven't seen any particular increase in recent times, although limits are being pushed to longer terms of loans, smaller repayments and remortgages, all adding a greater pressure to the borrower and the length of time needed to fulfill the payments.
      Of course the reliable alternative to money, the credit card, chip and pin, tap and go, etc. Largely encouraged by Banks and their affiliates for various commercial reasons, have almost been at the forefront of the recent financial debt explosion. A simple, quick and easy payment method, which, if used correctly is the ideal payment method. Except it can be very tempting to spend the money you haven't got, not bother to keep a track of your receipts and assume you will make good on your payments at the end of each month. Only people recently defaulting upon their credit card payments, have seen a sudden and worrying increase, a trend which can only spiral should this go unchecked.
      In the short term, there are plans to reduce the amounts of available credit and also a potential rise in interest rates, for which households must be prepared, the last actual rise being as long ago as July 2007.    
     

Pride of the Fleet

      I suppose my family has always had a certain interest in the exploits of the Royal Navy and paticularly aircraft carriers, ever since my uncle survived a kamikaze attack whilst serving upon HMS Indefatigable in 1944 with the British Pacific Fleet.
    This the Royal Navy's newest warship HMS Queen Elizabeth and with her sister ship HMS Prince of Wales, at 932 feet and 65,000 tons are the Royal Navy's largest ships ever. And will fill a gap in the navy's maritime operations, supposedly for the next 50 years.
      The ship is well supported with modern aircraft and helicopters, all manner of attack and defence firepower and a large contingent of troops, not forgetting all the latest radar and surveillance technology, in short a floating fortress. 
      And yet in some circles there is a certain disquiet, not just down to the scale of the costs, which always seem to run out of control upon such projects, but the thinking at the time of their planning was supposedly with the intention of turning Britain into a "modern sea power." The original cost being planned at £4 billion now already passed £6 billion and two years late upon delivery. Another problem arising from the purchase of the Lockheed American F-35 jets which are seven years late in production and with costs hitting the US at over £150 billion above the planned price. It's now been agreed Fleet Air Arm will cut their intended allocation of aircraft to just twelve per carrier.
       The original plan was also to build eight Type-45 Destroyers to act as escorts, four per carrier, although their production was finally cut back to six with some being more or less permanently at anchor, not forgetting their recent well reported problems with operations in warmer waters. It is now thought by many, if and when the carriers put to sea, almost the whole of the Royal Navy's fighting ships will be required to act as escorts.