“The Lords Reform Bill is dead.” says Cameraman Senior. “Oh no it isn’t!” says Cleggy Minor … The rowdy delinquents are at it again – no parental controls in place as Clegg minor & Cameraman major battle out their respective class captain campaigns for the next two years. Although Cleggy Minor’s dad (Lord Steel) has tried to calm down his errant offspring by calling him “petulant”*2 Once again these silly little boys are spending all their time, our money, on
Bob Diamond resigns as CEO of Barclays Bank which itself has been, so far, fined an estimated £200 million by the UK’s FSA and USA institutions as a direct result of the senior management team fraudulently fixing the LIBOR interbank lending rate. In three separate penalties, Barclays will pay the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.K.’s Financial Service Authority a total of $454 million. In the CFTC’s settlement, Barclays traders – with the assistance of senior management
Baldrick: “What I want to know Sir, is, before there was a Euro there were lots of different types of money that different people used. And now there’s only one type of money that the foreign people use. And what I want to know is, how did we get from one state of affairs to the other state of affairs” Blackadder: “Do you mean, how did the Euro start?” Baldrick: “Yes Sir” Blackadder: “Well, you see Baldrick, back in the
Seneca (4 – 65 BCE) “Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.” ’nuff said! I know we all love Queen Elizabeth and the wonderful quiet, dignified way she does her job. But we feel for her when some of her progeny and relations, have, in the past acted as adulterous, spoiled, brats, but ah bless, isn’t she doing a wonderful job? Well actually, in one very important
‘Marriage’ is culturally defined as being between a man a woman This is prompted by Arch Bishop Sentamu’s statement (27th January 2010) that ‘Marriage’ is not for same sex couples. Why this is news or controversial makes me sigh – but let’s have a bit of common sense shall we? For me, the religious definition matters not except for the simple fact that ‘Marriage’ is culturally defined as being between a man a woman, usually for the creation of the
This is yet more madness delivered by visionless, asset stripping, incompetents (AKA the Tory party) …first OUR water, then OUR electricity grid, etc. etc. and now, our roads. How can a private company doing the job be cheaper? Let me think, … Ah yes … Cut wages costs & therefore quality? Cut materials costs & therefore quality? Keep public sector pension provision levels? HeHe, err … noooooo … Charge the users? YES – that’s the way to do it !! There are NO OTHER
Margaret Thatcher had a secret meeting with Rupert Murdoch at Chequers weeks before his 1981 purchase of the Times newspapers, newly released files show. What a surprise ?! I can’t believe it! Murdoch actually denied the meeting, on several occasions, I really can’t believe that such a decent businessman could have forgotten the meeting! He wasn’t old then was he? Oh I think get it – he is a devious lying egocentric ba$tard – that must be it. The fact that the
Osborne’s gone NATS, selling our air to Germany Thatcher sold our water supply in 1989 which means that there can be no sensible policy to share out UKs water supply from the areas of plenty (the West & North West) to the areas of need (the South and South East). Those who now own the water do not live here so they just don’t care. The list of idiotic, incomprehensibly incompetent “policies” dreamt up, mainly by the Tories, continues. Now
Here we go again, what is it with our politicians How can they be so consistently stupid? Privatisation may be good for some activities but not for soft public services like education, health etc. How can the profit motive provide a better police or health service at a cheaper cost to the public? The answer is not blowing in the wind – it is simple, ‘it cannot be’. That politicians are congenitally incapable of rationality which is explained in my
Almost daily now, on the BBC, we hear religious leaders droning on about the importance of faith in our lives and the dangers of aggressive secularism. Now ‘we’ are sending Baroness Warsi to the Vatican, accompanied by 7 cabinet ministers, to join forces with the Pope to speak out against so-called ‘aggressive’ secularism which I would simply describe as reason and common sense! I find this government mission frankly deeply misguided and almost unbelievable – and who on earth sanctioned that
Here is the latest in the long tradition of cock-ups by those who are paid to know better than ‘we the people’, you know, Government Ministers …sigh The ‘Feed in Tariff’ green initiative started by the last unspeakable Labour government (don’t get me wrong, this one is dreadful too – I’m not being partisan!) and continued by the coalition (subject to a current legal challenge). What is so infuriating to me is that most people think that the ‘excess’ energy
Name that gnome -> I am so very fed up with the utter nonsense that our political leaders are spouting about the damn EU – day after boring day. Clegg – a disappointment – a disaster of a man – wake up you idiot! Cameraman (no- not a spelling mistake) – out of his depth – a shallow man with no understanding or clue. Osborne – sigh Milliband – a tragic mistake in Labour’s history (as was Brown, as was
I have no money but take my body if you must says David Cameraman … In Berlin today Merkel will still ask for a 5% increase in the Euro budget and in the same breath tell Cameraman that she can’t afford to bail out the weaker members of the Eurozone – “Well my Dear …” (I can hear him saying), “you can’t have it both ways!” He should also remind Chancellor Merkel where all the money came from to rebuild
Yes, I agree with you dear reader, the title of this piece is as unattractive and offensive as is this disgraceful woman’s opinion of Britain. She is cynically shameless and has obviously been corrupted by the power, position, privilege and title of which she might have once been worthy – but no more. Can you believe this crap? It appears that she is to be allowed to repay the £100,000 she has fraudulently claimed (still unpaid after 18 months!) from her future
Last night’s Questiontime on BBC1 gave us that question – I have to say thanks to the gentleman who asked it 😉 Juilian Fellowes somewhat missed the point at first, but did recover later on, do watch him getting it wrong hehe! I have to proclaim that I am an atheist, a latter-day convert from the gentle Methodism of my family, but the treatment of Giles Fraser, by the ‘religulous’ committee that ‘run’ St Pauls Theme Park, has shown up today’s Anglican
Update January 2025: I originally posted this in 2011 which was about ministerial corruption in government. This ‘news’ was the story that started me writing this blog. I have been researching and writing about party politics and the dangers of faith schools and religion ever since. This is my post from 2011:- Sir Gosh O’DontAskMeDifficultQuestionsPleaseImAbout ToRetire Meanwhile, and in an alternate reality (the one you and I live in) somebody wrote “Today, a soon to retire, civil servant wrote an
The casual hypocrisy of George Osborne:- 09/01/2009 – “QE is the last resort of desperate governments when all other policies have failed” – George Osborne in opposition The U turn 06/10/2011 – “QE is an appropriate tool” – George Osborne (reported on politics home) Yes it is par for the course for politicians to lie and spout bollocks – this is a jolly good example. Here is some sanity from my favourite BBC economics commentator, Stephanie Flanders, who blogged “Some say that QE is all
Even now, when it is obvious to everyone but politicians, journalists and most economists, that “bailouts” don’t work – cannot work – never in a million years would work, do we have emergency meetings between, France, Germany and Greece “to sort out the ‘crisis’”, again. These meetings, being held today, won’t work either because of the refusal to face reality. The reality is that Greece is totally bust, Portugal, Italy and Spain are almost bust and therefore the Euro is doomed because the
I find David Starkey an interesting man in many ways and admire his perspective on today’s events. I love hearing his “but of course, we have seen all this before …” routine. I am not with him on his love affair with the monarchy. In almost all other respects he is largely in agreement with me. <ahem>. He sounds far too posh which makes him an easy target, but the man is right! White is the new Black Starkey was
The AAA rating, by Mr Micawber’s definition (and that of reality and your grandmother) is earned when your income just exceeds your expenditure and that future prospects are stable. Neither of these simple criteria apply to any country in Europe, including Germany, and certainly not to the USA or to Great Britain. So why all the excitement when the USA which has not met these criteria for years (as indeed, we have not) loses the AAA rating? Politicians have been lying their
This is the first of a new series of posts pointing out the obvious hypocrisy of politicians that most people don’t have time to spot – I do, so here is a classic example. The following article appeared in the Guardian on 21st December 2010. A humbled and diminished Vince Cable was tonight allowed to cling on to his cabinet post as business secretary, but was stripped of all responsibility for media policy after it emerged he had told undercover reporters that he had
All “bail outs” of failed economies in the Eurozone are prohibited by EU law, but … Did you know that when Italy and Greece joined the Euro, they failed several of the main criteria set up for countries joining the Euro? You may have heard that we (residents of Great Britain – the UK …) are in a bit of financial bother and that for every £4 we spend we have to borrow £1, at around 3.0% from China. This is
The main theme of my book is that “party” politics corrupts the decision making process in government thus ensuring that unforgivable errors are made in managing Britain’s resources. The last few days have made me glad to be grumpy – my cup runneth over with material for a grump-fest not seen since Blair made the BBC apologise for telling the truth about his mad, bad, god inspired decision to invade Iraq. “Politics” (original meaning = ‘of the people’) has come to mean (‘of the
Remember this from our mate Dave? (Tory Conference – October 2009 – full text here) “It means showing that we’re all in this together, which is why we’ll freeze public sector pay for all but the one million lowest paid public sector workers for one year to help protect jobs. And it means showing that the rich will pay their share which is why for now the 50p tax rate will have to stay and child trust funds for those on
Sub-title: Sell your Chinese ‘Emerging Market’ stocks soon – you heard it here first. 😯 It hasn’t rained much this year. In fact it is looking like being one of the driest years ever and the trend is probably going to continue. The UK water supply should be owned by the UK A significant majority of British people believe that the water supply is so vital that it should be run as a not-for-profit public service. However, the Westminster establishment
There was a discussion on the BBC Radio 4 ‘Today’ program this morning which is probably the most important issue for Britain today and probably the world. (Blimey – pompous or what?) “A conference exploring ways to develop British manufacturing will be held at Cranfield University today. Sir Alan Rudge, chairman of the ERA Foundation which funds and advises technology research, and Justin Urquhart Stewart of Seven Investment Management, debate whether more manufacturing would heal our economy or simply serve
The media is all excited and discussing endlessly how Twitter is ‘challenging the supremacy of conventional law’; so, once again I am lost for words. The issue is not Twitter, or Giggs, or the F1 bloke who likes his prostitutes 3 at a time wearing Nazi helmets; it is that the the English legal system is being misused and corrupted by the rich to protect themselves from exposure from their own crass behaviour. Government is closing down the best bits of our
The inherent pointlessness of party politicians Prime Minister’s Questions (‘PMQs’) this week , Wednesday 12:00 – 12:30, demonstrated perfectly all the points that I have ever made (my book) about the inherent pointlessness of party politicians. “some rapes are not as serious as others” Ed Miliband made a skin crawling exhibition of himself when he accused the Justice Minister of saying that “some rapes are not as serious as others”. What Clarke had actually said, was that the law recognises different
Tory government’s privatisation plans to free ministers from blame for NHS failures The NHS “reforms” proposed by the new Tory government are not reforms, they are simply a politically expedient way to remove future responsibility from central government by putting private companies in charge. The same principle applies to the schools system started by that self-obsessed idiot Blair and continued by ‘gormless’ Gove and ‘Couldn’t care a less’ Cameron. All we hear from Cameron is how necessary the reforms are
Daniel Hannan destroys Gordon Brown and he says it beautifully in the EU parliament. Just watch Brown squirm. …not widely publicised at the time and if you have not seen this – it is a real treat! Most of what he says (and he says it beautifully!) is just as valid now as it was in 2009; enjoy!
Supreme Court of Wisconsin “There is no such source and cause of strife, quarrel, fights, malignant opposition, persecution, and war, and all evil in the state, as religion. Let it once enter into our civil affairs, our government soon would be destroyed. Let it once enter our common schools, they would be destroyed. Those who made our Constitution saw this, and used the most apt and comprehensive language in it to prevent such a catastrophe.” (March 18, 1890) So, we
BBC Sunday Program glossing over Popes as protectors of paedophile priests I listened with sad incredulity this morning to the BBC Radio 4 program “Sunday”. There was a half hearted attempt to expose the current & previous Popes as protectors of paedophile priests. Colm O’Gorman was invited to support the side of the abused thousands. He himself had been abused by a Catholic Priest. However, the two Catholic supporters in the studio attempted to explain away this unforgivable behaviour as
BBC – Have Your Say debate Should there be more religion on tv? Wednesday, 10 February, 2010, 14:38 A question, if I may, to the BBC ..? Your current Charter calls for 110 hours of religious programming – why then are you increasing funding to provide 168 hours this year? Could it be that the top brass are all Catholic or Anglican? Surely not! On a more serious note, I suspect that you are in breach of your own guidlines
Fear believes—courage doubts. Fear falls up the earth and prays--- courage stands erect and thinks. Fear is barbarism---courage is civilization. Fear believes in witchcraft, devils and ghosts. Fear is religion, courage is science.
Republic’s goal is simple: replace the monarchy with an elected head of state and more democratic political system. Instead of a king, we want someone chosen by the people, not running the government but representing the nation independently of our politicians.
A monarchy should not exist in a democratic society. The majority of us believe in democracy, and think democracy makes for a fairer, more prosperous society. Who of us think the British version of democracy is working well?
Too much power in the hands of government, it’s too difficult to hold people to account We see corruption and cronyism everywhere, especially the Lords and in the honours system.
