Credit crunch woes are affecting everyone, but if we’re looking for a silver lining, then it has to be the fact that more people will be holidaying in the UK. This has to be good for hoteliers, owners of self catering accommodation and the like.

Just because you can load up the car and drive to your holiday spot doesn’t mean that your holiday isn’t going to make quite a dent in your budget. You’ll save yourself some Euro-angst but don’t forget that not everything runs smoothly – even in the good old UK.

Travel insurance is invaluable. What if Great Granny (who wasn’t coming with you anyway) should suddenly be taken ill and need care – that could mean cancellation or cutting short your holiday? And you know what children are like – well one minute and covered in spots the next. You’d still have the expense of hotels or holiday accommodation. Accidents can happen wherever you go and it’s good to have the peace of mind that insurance can give.

It’s not expensive – in fact you’re probably covered for personal effects under your household policy. You can forget your medical troubles too, with NHS care readily available.

If you’re thinking of a series of short breaks, things can go awry even if you’re only taking a weekend break. Annual insurance is inexpensive and it’s just one less thing to think about if it’s already in place when that brilliant weather forecast or bargain break crops up.
It’s well worth it.

Gordon Brown is just a sweet old fashioned man after all! He would like to see a new age of sobriety in British banking and is calling for a return of prudency in old-fashioned High Street banks.

He’d like a return to people saving longer before investing in their first home and an end to low or no deposit mortgages.

“We want to see the reinvention of the traditional savings and mortgage bank in Britain,” wrote Mr Brown in the Observer. He envisages a future where bankers will be the servants, rather than the masters of Britain’s current critically-ill economy. More caution in the mortgage market would reduce the chances of problems in the future, he says.

Well, it may come as a revelation to Mr Brown but there are many thousands of hard working (well they would be if they could find any) and now extremely worried ordinary people who came to this conclusion a long time ago.

His comments were in relation to the UK’s new Banking Act, which gives greater powers of intervention to the Bank of England. The act should enable the Bank to act more speedily to help troubled banks and protect investors. By giving hidden support to stricken banks, the aim is to maintain financial stability.

Not everyone agrees. Critics consider that it will create an air of secrecy around the banking world, which could not be in the consumer’s interest.
Back to the pipe, the slippers and the fairy tales. A “Dad’s Army” style bank could save us all.

The Swedish town of Trollhattan is set some 70 miles or so inland from the port of Gothenburg – Sweden’s second largest city. It’s situated on the banks of the Gota Canal and just above Trollhattan Locks and the area around is magnificent. There are the Trollhattan Falls – a spectacular sight when the sluices are opened and the water cascades down the valley, by-passed by an equally impressive flight of locks, blasted into the rock of the hillside, rise up in staircase style with pine forests and pastel-painted houses accompanying the journey up from the locks into a bright and picturesque town.

In the summer, pleasure boaters moor there for a while, to restock and enjoy the area before continuing on towards the crossing of Lake Vanern and eventually across Sweden and “out the other side” – Baltic bound. In the winter the traffic is solely commercial and as the canal can be frozen for months, a passage is kept open by the ice-breakers, making a terrific din as massive sheets of ice are forced to either side to allow the boats a passage through.

As you leave the town, there’s a massive road bridge and then on one side of the canal there’s a Volvo plant. On the other the Saab factory seems like its own small town and occupies a vast area.

There’s a black cloud hanging over the winter blue skies in the Saab area at present – and no doubt in Trollhattan in general, following an emergency meeting by the Saab board. Trollhattan loves Saab and are the Swedish people are very faithful to their brand. Saab’s been a way of life and they’ve been there since 1940.

General Motors have owned Saab for some years now and they have to cut 47,000 jobs worldwide to shore up its home base and to assure Congress that US federal aid will save American jobs rather than leaking overseas. As a result, the company have made the threat of walking away from Saab unless the Swedish government help out.

Maud Olofsson is the Swedish enterprise minister and she made the statement “The Swedish state is not prepared to own car factories. “We are very disappointed in General Motors. But we are not prepared to risk taxpayers’ money; this is not a game of Monopoly,”
GM has long struggled to make money from its Swedish venture, but the losses have become a torrent in recent months. This begs the question “Has there been a level playing field or have Saab become a pawn in the game?”
For the people of Trollhattan it is beyond belief that their own government is not prepared to back their beloved brand. The future of which is very much in the balance.