Politics

Target Towns: If the budget was designed to win back votes, it fell short in Grimsby and Cleethorpes

Published

2 years ago

March 7, 2024

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Every morning, Mike Burton strides out into the chilly sea at Cleethorpes.

His daily ritual in the murky water at the mouth of the Humber is about doing something positive.

He dunks under while holding his mobile phone above the surface, then he pops up and records his daily message of motivation and positivity.

It’s quickly shared online.

As someone from a troubled upbringing who left school unable to read and write, he knows the value of connecting with people.

Over the past two decades, he has set up a string of special educational needs schools and is now working as a motivational speaker.

As Jeremy Hunt was preparing to deliver the budget, Mike told Sky News: “For me it comes down to one word, hope.

“Hope that things are going to change and that they can get behind something and believe in it.

“I think they need to touch and feel it – and see how it is going to change their life.”

That’s what the chancellor would probably have aimed for but speaking to people in Sky News’ Target Towns of Grimsby and Cleethorpes, it didn’t quite connect like that.

At the West Marsh community centre in Grimsby where they were laying on a free family drop-in session, plenty of parents were trying to work out if another cut in national insurance would really equate to feeling any better off.

Not really was the consensus.

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Community worker at the centre, Alan Burley, told Sky News: “I don’t think the budget has helped anybody dramatically… it’s an election pitch.

“They (the government) have taken so much away I don’t see how they can ever give money back that will really help because anything they give back is swallowed up… just like that.”

If the budget was designed to win back votes in seats like this one on the Lincolnshire coast, then it fell short.

At the Great Escape’s community cafe on the docks in Grimsby, Chelsea told us she is worn down by so many stories of people struggling in her town.

“You can’t win can you?” she said of the chancellor’s budget.

The 20-year-old works at her family’s garage and while she may benefit from the further cut in national insurance she knows it will disappear without much trace.

“It goes down but next month something else will be up again.”

She’s frustrated at the lack of progress here.

“We are not picking up as a country… we are going back,” she said.

The chancellor is not a magician, as the saying goes there is no magic money tree. There never has been.

People know that but after years of drag on their own budgets, they needed a bit more – votes will be hard to win here.

Politics

New Hampshire approves first-of-its-kind $100M Bitcoin-backed municipal bond

Published

3 hours ago

November 19, 2025

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New Hampshire approves first-of-its-kind 0M Bitcoin-backed municipal bond

New Hampshire has approved the issuance of a $100 million municipal bond backed by Bitcoin, in what appears to be the first structure of its kind at the US state level.

Minutes from a Nov. 17 meeting of the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority (BFA), the state’s business financing agency, show the board planned “to consider approving a resolution authorizing up to $100,000,000 bonds for a project to acquire and hold digital currency.”

Minutes from the following day record that directors voted to “approve the preliminary official intent, with no reservation, to issue a taxable conduit revenue bond for WaveRose Depositor, LLC of up to $100,000,000.”

According to a Wednesday Crypto in America report, the bond is backed by Bitcoin (BTC) and would let companies borrow against overcollateralized BTC held by a private custodian. The state or taxpayers do not back the bond; instead, BFA approves and oversees a private deal, while Bitcoin — reportedly held in custody by BitGo — covers investors.

According to the report, asset manager Wave Digital Assets and bond specialist Rosemawr Management designed the bond to utilize Bitcoin as collateral under the same rules that govern municipal and corporate bonds. Wave co-founder Les Borsai said the goal is to “bridge traditional fixed income with digital assets” for institutional investors.

New Hampshire, United States — *The New Hampshire State House in Concord. Source:* *Wikimedia*

“We believe this structure shows how public and private sectors can collaborate to responsibly unlock the value of digital assets and digital asset reserves,” he added.

The borrower is expected to post approximately 160% of the bond’s value in Bitcoin as collateral, and if the price of BTC drops below roughly 130%, a liquidation would ensure that bondholders stay whole. According to BFA Executive Director James Key-Wallace, fees from the transaction will fund the local innovation and entrepreneurship program, the Bitcoin Economic Development Fund.

New Hampshire dives headfirst into crypto

The news follows New Hampshire becoming the first US state to allow its government to invest in cryptocurrencies in May after Governor Kelly Ayotte signed a bill allowing the municipality to “invest in cryptocurrency and precious metals.”

New Hampshire is also working on a bill to deregulate local cryptocurrency mining operations. In late October, a committee voted 4–2 to send the measure for further review in an interim study after it had been deadlocked in the State Senate twice.

The local administration is viewed as particularly welcoming to the cryptocurrency industry. In early February, Brendan Cochrane, an Anti-Money Laundering specialist at YK Law in New York City, argued that it could become an alternative for crypto companies relocating to the Bahamas.

The latest moves build on a longer history of crypto engagement. Back in 2015, New Hampshire was already working on a bill that would have allowed the state government to accept tax and fee payments in Bitcoin.

The bill ultimately failed in 2016, but it shows how early the local administration began to show interest in this asset class. Additionally, as early as 2016, some advocates were already arguing that New Hampshire was among the world’s most Bitcoin-friendly communities.