BBC FIND REPLACEMENT FOR CHIGLEY.

The third and final political debate by the three main party leaders turned out to be more feisty than the previous encounters. Cameron stood his ground with more authority; Clegg denied most of the things he had talked about previously, particularly amnesty for illegal immigrants; Brown, however, for most of the ninety minutes, rather like an old record that is stuck, kept repeating 'tax credits'. He did however present himself in a better light regarding our banking system. Whereas the Tories and Lib/Dems seek taxes from these institutions, the PM did point out that it wouldn't take much to scare them away to other financial centres around the world. Interestingly enough this was a point made by UKIP's Nigel Farage in the subsequent 'News at Ten'. Remember that the banks have our money, not their own; if taxed, this would be another stealth tax. In actual fact, some banks don't have much money available, RBS/HBOS/Northern Rock have a kind of mortgage, a promise of backing from our future taxes.

Additional problems could also arise should the Government dictate to whom banks loan money. I'm sure that we are aware that politicians love getting their grubby hands on our money, mostly to fritter it away on vote buying scams. Much of the financial crisis, which is going to hang around for many years to come, came about through Clinton's resolve to give mortgages to Americans whether they could afford it or not. We took the bait and followed suit; this went unchecked by the FSA, probably on the instructions of Brown. House prices rocketed on the back of cheap money, the stamp duty giving the exchequer billions, which the then Chancellor, Incapability Brown, referred to as productivity.

A final word on banking; if, as suggested, they should be broken up into smaller units, just watch them be picked off by foreign banks.

Perhaps we should recall that major benefactors to the venue, Birmingham University, were the Chamberlain family of political and engineering fame.


A MORE GROWN-UP PERFORMANCE.