Good afternoon, its Peter here. Its all doom and gloom isnt it in terms of money at the moment. The papers and TV are full of news stories about it all and whenever you speak to anyone, theyve always got a tale of how the credit crunch is affecting them or whos to blame for these financial problems. Well, I wont dwell too much on the news that the UK house prices registered a 1.3% fall in September, according to one building society and that means that the annual fall now stands at 12.4%. That leaves the average home in the UK costing £172,108.
I think its very easy for all of us to get swamped by all these facts and figures when it comes to this financial crisis, especially because I have to admit to not understanding much of what the global picture means for people like you and me. But this story caught my eye! I just thought it was a rather unusual problem thats cropped up as a result of the ballooning debts across the globe. Apparently, in New York, theres a digital counter clock that marks the national debt level for the US. The board was first erected in 1989 to highlight the $2.7 trillion debt level in that year and its been ticking over monitoring the level ever since. Its come across a problem though. The US governments debts are so huge now that the National Debt Clock as run out of digits! When it passed the $10 trillion point last month, it ran out of room to display the full total of debt. I dont know about you, but I just cant comprehend that amount of money. When people start talking about tr! illions, its just too much to understand. Does anyone else have that problem? And then when they start saying that that figure is a debt, then I just cant understand how countries can carry on functioning with that amount of debt. Its just baffling. Anyway, the clock owners say that two more zeros will be added, which will allow the clock to record quadrillion dollars of debt!! Beatles And The Bard Yesterday, I mentioned to you about a Beatles tribute act, which have put the words of William Shakespeare to the iconic tunes of the Fab Four. Lois Smalley got in touch on this one to ask, I dont know if you remember it Peter, but this put me in mind of a record by Peter Sellers many years ago, when he recited the words to the Beatles song A Hard Day`s Night a la Richard The Third, and it was brilliantly funny! Can you remember that? Im not sure I can, but of course Peter Sellers comedy was always brilliant! GPs When I write the Levy Letter, I always try and think of what you will be talking about at the dinner table or around the workplace and I thought this one would generate some thoughts from you! Ive been reading about the latest report examining the contract from the government, which says that family doctors in England are working less, but being paid more. What do you reckon to that one? Pay for GP partners has shot up by 58% to about £114,000 a year and this happened over the same period of time when GPs started working fewer hours from 36.3 hours a week compared with 43.1 in the 1990s. This report though has said that patients should be finding it easier to book appointments with their family doctor within 48 hours, but that this may mean that some patients cant book in advance anymore. And more services are being offered at your local GPs like minor surgery. Anyway, what do you reckon to this report that GPs are working less, but getting paid more? As always, comment on! this or anything else on the usual address of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thats it from me. I hope you can join me tonight for Look North at the usual time of half past six. Peter And for the latest news and more where you live, go to: http://bbc.co.uk/humber and http://bbc.co.uk/lincolnshire ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the BBC Look North newsletter, go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/looknorthhull/newsletter/newsletter_index.shtml, enter your email address in the unsubscribe box. Your email address will be held by the BBC and kept confidential, and will only be used in relation to this newsletter. You will be given the option to unsubscribe from this newsletter each time you receive it. Please visit the BBC's Privacy & Cookies Policy (www.bbc.co.uk/privacy) for more information.
