London:More cuts needed to balance United Kingdom budget:experts

<a class="image" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:George_osborne_hi.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="George osborne hi.jpg" height="330" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/George_osborne_hi.jpg/220px-George_osborne_hi.jpg" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/George_osborne_hi.jpg/330px-George_osborne_hi.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/George_osborne_hi.jpg/440px-George_osborne_hi.jpg 2x" width="220" /></a>LONDON, June 28 - Despite spending cuts of 11.5 billion pounds (17.4 billion U.S. dollars) announced by British Chancellor George Osborne for 2015-16, a leading think-tank believes it will not be enough to balance government budgets in the medium term.<br /><br /><br />The Institute for Fiscal Studies's (IFS) deputy director Carl Emmerson told press on Friday that further consolidation would be needed to get borrowing back down to a sustainable level.<br /><br />"If those forecasts prove correct further spending cuts or tax rises to the tune of 25 billion pounds by 2017-18 would be required," he added.<br /><br />The latest round of cuts to balance the budget were not envisaged by Chancellor Osborne when he unveiled his first budget in 2010.<br /><br />However, lacklustre growth has meant his plans have been blown off course.<br /><br />IFS director Paul Johnson added that radical changes to the level and composition of public spending would continue.<br /><br />"An announcement that 144,000 public sector jobs would go in one year as part of a program that could see one million jobs lost by 2017-18 would have created a storm normally. But not now.<br /><br />We seem almost to have got used to this level of austerity," he said.<br /><br />Recent cuts have hit local government, justice and environment while protect health, pensions and schools. Emmerson said this was not a break from the norm of previous governments.<br /><br />He added, "The ring-fencing for schools and health looks important but a real-terms freeze for the NHS is still pretty challenging."<br /><br />However, the experts warned the ring fences would have to be looked at to continue cutting overall spending.<br /><br />Chancellor Osborne's unveiling of spending cuts had been followed by an announcement by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander of capital investment plans for 100 billion pounds worth of investment in infrastructure up to 2021.<br /><br />Most of these capital investments take place after 2015-16.<br /><br />"The spending round and the announcements after the spending round did not increase capital spending compared to what we already knew about or indeed compared to what we are currently spending on investment," said Emmerson.<br /><br />However, the spending plans came against a recent history of cuts in capital spending, and thus marked a change in course.<br /><br />Overall, the experts said future polices will continue to stay the course.<br /><br /> "It (the budget) is not a step up in investment spending, it is maintaining investment at the same level but it does still mean investing in new railways and road and so on," Emmerson said.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO7_9GkEqMwpFTrWQCCLntULyMHa6OPDfYz_G0mRT6vjGqx5GVn3ysuNFw-dJv7tZ8kbQvt3XEeYZoVL1lYLvyXLyWMujqJi2f84SBI-2ZjVKP75fMRCwChwAkwbyUb5ZGXO56PneD1Kg/s620/George-Osborne.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO7_9GkEqMwpFTrWQCCLntULyMHa6OPDfYz_G0mRT6vjGqx5GVn3ysuNFw-dJv7tZ8kbQvt3XEeYZoVL1lYLvyXLyWMujqJi2f84SBI-2ZjVKP75fMRCwChwAkwbyUb5ZGXO56PneD1Kg/s620/George-Osborne.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div>

London:More cuts needed to balance United Kingdom budget:experts

LONDON, June 28 - Despite spending cuts of 11.5 billion pounds (17.4 billion U.S. dollars) announced by British Chancellor George Osborne fo...

Auction house finds violin bandleader played as the Titanic sank

Auctioneers Henry Aldridge & Son say an instrument unearthed in 2006 has undergone rigorous testing that proves it to be the violin played by the bandmaster of the Titanic as the ocean liner sank.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY5QwDcGe8SUMNqrzSpIbCog0f8s2yd6PWwIWfxBG29xIkTQF8pOyt2IY33AvM-unnciiUJW741YoSIiDTN23RFTCN1Q-0SDze4M8S4o_mRpjTg09a-wH2GJDhHayPdAqs66i24Gl_KEFi/s1600/violinitanic.jpg" width="640" /></div><br />LONDON — The violin played by the bandmaster of the Titanic as the ocean liner sank has been unearthed, a British auction house said Friday.<br />Survivors of the Titanic have said they remember the band, led by Wallace Hartley, playing on deck even as passengers boarded lifeboats after the ship hit an iceberg.<br />Hartley's violin was believed lost in the 1912 disaster, but auctioneers Henry Aldridge & Son say an instrument unearthed in 2006 has undergone rigorous testing and was proved to be Hartley's.<br />"It's been a long haul," said auctioneer Andrew Aldridge, explaining the find had initially seemed "too good to be true."<br />The auction house spent the past seven years and thousands of pounds determining the water-stained violin's origins, consulting numerous experts that included government forensic scientists and Oxford University.<br />The auction house said the rosewood instrument has two long cracks on its body but is "incredibly well-preserved" despite its age and exposure to the sea. It estimated the violin is worth six figures.<br />Hartley was one of the 1,517 people who perished when the Titanic struck an iceberg 350 miles south of Newfoundland on April 15, 1912.<br />Some reports at the time suggested Hartley's corpse was found fully dressed with his instrument strapped to his body, though there was also speculation the violin floated off and was lost at sea.<br />Henry Aldridge & Son said it researched the violin's story with a Hartley biographer as the instrument underwent forensic testing, uncovering documents that showed Hartley was found with a large leather valise strapped to him and the violin inside.<br />The violin apparently was returned to Hartley's grieving fiancée, the auction house said, and later ended up in the hands of the Salvation Army before being given to a violin teacher and ultimately Henry Aldridge & Son.<br />Testing by the U.K. Forensic Science Service showed corrosion deposits were considered "compatible with immersion in seawater," while a silver expert studied a plate on the violin's neck to determine if it fit the time profile.<br />Henry Aldridge & Son said the violin will go on public display at the end of the month at Belfast City Hall, less than a mile from where Titanic was built.

Auction house finds violin bandleader played as the Titanic sank

Auctioneers Henry Aldridge & Son say an instrument unearthed in 2006 has undergone rigorous testing that proves it to be the violin play...