Bob Crow does irony

From today's CityAM:

COMMUTERS returning to work today have been hit by yet another hike in rail fares, after the average ticket price rose by 5.9 per cent with the new year, sending season tickets rocketing...

The fare increase on Transport for London services levels out at an average of 5.6 per cent, lower than was expected due to an extra £136m secured by mayor Boris Johnson from the government. The Tube, which carried a record 1.1bn passengers last year, will see its fares climb by an average of six per cent...

Transport trade union RMT’s general secretary Bob Crow called the price hikes "daylight robbery on the tracks" with "fat profits for the train companies while the public pay through the nose."

From The Guardian, three months ago:

Tube drivers in the capital will see their pay go over the £50,000-a-year mark under a four-year wage deal negotiated between London Underground and union leaders... Under the deal, staff will get a 5% pay increase this year followed by RPI inflation plus 0.5% in the subsequent three years.

Industry sources said that if RPI inflation stays reasonably high, some tube staff will receive a pay rise approaching 20% by the end of the settlement period... The RMT said the issue of a payment for working during next year's Olympic Games in London was separate to the four-year wage deal.

General secretary Bob Crow said: "We saw major movement from LU and we now take this improved offer back to our local reps. In these days of austerity we have shown … trade unionism is the best defence from attacks on jobs and living standards. I doubt you will find a better offer than this anywhere else in the public sector."

Smoke & Mirrors

From the desk of Scott Wright:

Article

Ok so he's given the "profit after expenses" back to the taxpayer, he said months ago that he would do this so a bit of a non-story really.

BUT the real issues for me are as follows:

A) He has sold it only because mortgage interest is not claimable under expenses changes and renting is, i.e. he has done it so he can continue to have a second home funded by the taxpayer

B) He has engaged in "flipping" as he has claimed SECOND HOME expenses on this property and yet there is no mention of CGT (unless he is being exempted by returning the full 100% profit that is)

C) I could in the space of half an hour easily locate him 20 suitable properties within his constituency (or within reasonable distance) with a cost FAR FAR lower than £280,000 in a "nice area" of Sheffield, he has already gone massively overboard and used taxpayers to live beyond the ordinary means an MPs salary would afford.

D) He bought it from a "friend", did Clegg pay this "friend" the going market rate for the property or was it an over inflated price because the mortgage interest was reclaimable?

"HSBC's mortgage offer bucks trend"

What a brilliant publicity stunt ...

"HSBC, is offering mortgages to homeowners whose fixed rate deals with other lenders are coming to an end. HSBC says it will match existing deals for up to two years and for a fee ...Customers will need to have at least 20% of the equity in their home and the fee paid will depend on how much they want to borrow and over what period of time".

A fee, calculated as a % of how much you borrow and for how long, isn't that what some folks call 'interest'?* I bet the discrepancy between headline rate and AER will be ginormous.

Heck, if HSBC were really keen to do mortgage lending, they wouldn't have closed their subsidiary First Direct to new customers!

* Update, according to thisismoney, the maximum loan available under the scheme will be £250,000 and the maximum fee will be £5,000. Does that sound a bit like 'an-extra-1%-interest-per-annum-disguised-as-a-fee' to anybody else?