Are we experiencing the green shoots of recovery?

In the United Kingdom are we experiencing the green shoots of recovery? www.searchaccountant.co.uk The housing market seems to be stabilising but there is the danger that the Bank of England will raise interest rates too early. Despite the 0.5 pct base rate mortgage lenders are still demanding high deposits and quite a few commentators consider that the British housing market is still too expensive. The relatively painless adjustment would be a few years of sideway movement combined with a rise in general prices. However, the more painful adjustment would involve increasing repossessions and general
deflation.
You don't get the sense that UK Chancellor Alistair Darling is on the top of his brief. He is not pushing through help for the British housing sector and he seems to be stalling on help for the car industry in Britain.
However, he showed dogged determination in seeing off Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who wanted the job to go to close friend and ally Ed Balls. Darling is going to have to navigate a spending statement in the winter. This will be quite tricky
and he might regret not being pushed out. Normally, when the relationship between a chancellor and a prime minister breaks down, the PM remembers he is the First Lord of the Treasury. Apparently, Darling was saved when the cabinet staged a revolt against the promotion of Balls, so we are living in extraordinary political times.

I think it is a shame that Hazel Blears is not in the cabinet.

I wonder who else thinks it is a shame that feisty northern MP Hazel Blears is not in the Brown cabinet. Politicians spend years climbing up the greasy pole and then in a fit of madness (Youtube if you want to) and it is gone. Blears must have felt more confident of her position when she directly criticised UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Her recent abject apology about her resignation was toe-curlingly bad.
It is a shame because Blears would take to the airwaves fighting her government's cause, especially when there seemed to be a deafening silence coming from No.10.
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We do have Lord Mandelson in the cabinet. A former foe of Brown, the peer has been credited with the prime minister's survival. However, Mandelson faces tough problems trying to help out the British car industry. LDV has been allowed to crash and the fate of Vauxhall looks very uncertain. Mandelson will be hard-pressed to maintain his current high reputation. However, he seems to benefit from unlimited energy and does not shirk the challenge of appearing on the news channels.

It looks like the tax master does not like paying tax.

It seems that UK Chancellor Alistair Darling likes to raise tax but does not particularly like paying tax himself with his constant "flipping". I bet HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) would be itching to investigate his affairs.
The chatter is that Ed Balls is being lined up to become the new chancellor. So Mr Darling is fighting on all fronts.
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Mr Balls did actually pay capital gains tax, which helps his cause, although he is not liked by the Blairites. He is probably finding the Children's brief a vale of tears and would like to be out of it. Even though he is not chancellor, Balls is forever making speeches about the economy.