A View From Middle England - Conservative with a slight libertarian touch - For Christian charity and traditional belief - Free Enterprise NOT Covert Corporatism

Bishop Mark Lawrence gets accused and abused

Katherine Jefferts Schori likens godly bishop to dictator and mass murderer

Chris Huhne finally faces up to his demons

Former cabinet minister faces jail as he admits guilt of perjury crime

HS2 is high speed to the shops in Sheffield

High speed trains to London but no further! HS2 hits buffers before Europe.

David Cameron sits on EU wall

All things to all EU people - doing the hokey cokey until 2018!

Rotherham by-election gives main parties a kick

Respect for the three main parties decreases as UKIP and others rise

Underemployment now felt by 3 million at least

More workers would like more hours but can't get them

Wife to occupy central role at central bank

New bank governor's wife Diana will speak her mind and blow George's

Bank of England to get Canadian bank chief

George Osborne takes a maple leaf out of Canada's central bank books

UKIP offers a political HS2 for disaffected Tories

UKIP's Nigel Farage reacts to David Cameron's quips

Rotherham Council in Stasi Style Crackdown

Social Services remove children accusing couple of being "UKIP racists"!

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Labour democracy?

Is there democracy in the Labour Party? The answer seems to be in bits of it. A nice little contest going on for Deputy Leader, with half a dozen keen contenders. However, no Leadership contest. Gordon Brown gets to be crowned without a proper election. So we will never know how many in the party think he's the best thing since haggis, or think he is a control freak who should be nowhere near the Cabinet Room as chief adviser to the Monarch.

For a party that's been led by a man who is still travelling the world lecturing others about democracy, it would have been nice if his successor had a mandate from his party. But who am I to complain? I'd never consider voting Labour. Once they were Red Flag sympathisers, now they are global money chasers. British Socialism has always seemed a bit odd to the outsider, whether that outsider is foreign or not.

Gordon Brown becomes Prime Minister without a ballot paper passing his fingers. Well, he wanted the job so badly, let's hope he doesn't screw up by being too secretive, as opposed to being too cagey, which was Blair's problem. Brown's got two years to make a start, then it's election time. That's the time when the 80% of us who did not go out and vote for this New Labour lot at the last election can judge whether the Brown coronation was worth it or whether the jewel in the crown is a fake!

Friday, May 11, 2007

An Endorsement!

Tony Blair endorses Gordon Brown for Labour Leader and therefore PM. He seemed about 75% happy to do so. I thought of all the times John Major was asked to endorse a colleague, only for that person to collapse in a heap, if not on their sword. But it was the Spitting Image memory of Margaret Thatcher out for dinner with her Cabinet colleagues that got me thinking of Blair's conundrum. The unctious waiter asks Margaret Thatcher, whilst taking her order, "And what about the vegetables?" "Oh! They'll have the same as me!".

Tony Blair didn't exactly have vegetables to contend with, rather a pack of ill-disciplined dogs. Some of the nippy variety, others rather brutish, given to pushing one over, especially with the fists!

Tony Blair is out to lunch! Yes, I know, but this is one where the menu has been cut down to size. "Can I have the John Reid Surprise?" "John Reid's off, sir!" "Oh! I'll have the Charles Clarke Curry, then." "That's off too, sir!" "Ugh, well the Alan Milburn Pie!" "That's off!" "What! Let's see, the Alan Johnson Souffle, then" "Off too, sir" "Oh this is ridiculous - ah, the David Miliband Mighty Meal, that's the one!" "It's not ready yet, sir. Sorry about that!" "Well what is ready and not off this menu?" "Well, you can have the Gordon Brown Haggis Delight, very tasty, and getting to become our most popular dish. I can recommend that one!" "I'm sure you can. Oh, well, if that's all you've got, I better have that! By the way, what's the name of this place?" "The Granita, sir" "Ah, help me, it's a nightmare! Where's my legacy gone.........................."

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

"On policy, we win"

Tony Blair is moving into the Twilight Zone. After 10 years of subterfuge, spinning, and the sexing-up of dossiers and documents, we are gradually moving to the end game. David Cameron thinks Blair is leading a "government of the living dead" and Blair retorts not to get "cocky". It seems they have a lot in common, although I would suggest that Cameron is not a natural truth-bender. Blair's achievements (Northern Ireland is the main one!) pale into the shadows of his failures (Iraq, NHS, Crime, Schools, etc) where vast sums of money have been placed on some kind of fantastical merry-go-round, where shining new hospitals sit side by side with bankrupt medical facilities.

Blair says it is "on policy, we win". I say to that, bring it on. We all know where his policies have got us. We are living on borrowed time. The two time-bombs in the Downing Street garden are house inflation and pension misery. I saw Sir Alan Budd, a former Monetary Policy Committee member, on BBC's Working Lunch and he said that the MPC had not realised house inflation would be so great. So you don't need much in the way of financial insight to advise the Chancellor, then?

It amazes me how much the people at the top get away with arrant nonsense. I think Gordon Brown should step aside for Alan Sugar. Sugar should bring the members of the Cabinet together and give them a grilling. "What was you all thinking about? As far as I can see you're all a complete mess. Unless something really radical happens, you're ALL FIRED!"

Monday, May 07, 2007

Gordon Brown to get a makeover!

Apparently Gordon Brown is taking coaching in how to be voter friendly. Rather in the same way that Margaret Thatcher was de-shrilled, he is being de-gloomed! The smile is being forced, the mouth-breathing being curtailed, and the twickle in the eye being recharged by constant reference to Blair's personal mishaps!

What's In A Name?

Tony Blair has often been seen by Scots as not being quite Scottish enough. On the other hand, the English see him as being some kind of Scot, being educated at Fettes. However, he's not quite a Blair either! His father was born Leo Parsons to a travelling circus family (do we remember the other Prime Minister with a trapeeze artist father?). So if there had been no name change we would have had TONY PARSONS as Prime Minister. Sounds a bit more Labour-like in my opinion. We could have had constant confusion with Tony Parsons the author. So Leo probably did us a favour by being adopted into the Blair family as he was. And seeing as Charles is a familial name we could have had CHARLIE PARSONS as Prime Minister.

Many actors change their names for effect. Three prominent politicians have been raised with names their father or grandfather didn't have. John Major's family was originally called BALL and Bill Clinton's father was a William BLYTHE. So we missed out on Bill Blythe, Johnny Ball, and Tony Parsons! How sad!

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Winds of Change Blowing through Wales?

If you're fed up with politicians and don't think you have a choice, then view this gem! Only for voters in Cardiff North but worth a view by the WHOLE WORLD!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ec_OdD_w3LA