Oil prices & delusional Brown

I had to laugh at Gay Gordo's assertion that the high cost of petrol was all due to rising global prices and therefore he can't do anything.

The one-eyed psycologically flawed jock stated "The cause of rising prices is clear: growing demand and too little supply". This is probably true, although George Soros' assertion that speculation is driving prices is very interesting & we do appear to be approaching something like a bubble.

It doesn't really matter whether it is supply, demand or speculation. Gay Gordo is living in fantasy land if he thinks he can buck the market & force opec or anyone else to change track. It is just a PR stunt - look at me I'm doing something - honest.

In reality the only way Brown can impact fuel prices is by lowering fuel tax which is 20% higher than in 2000. This would of course in itself be a welcome move.

However, first the 10p tax debacle and now U-turns on fuel tax. You can hear the trade unions and the loony Left licking their lips. A wounded, floundering, flip-flopping government who will bend to pressure. Anyone for a new Winter of Discontent????

New Labour really is dead.

Crewe goes blue - amazing result

Last night's Tory victory in Crewe and Nantwich was amazing - 26yrs since the last Tory by-election victory & with a 17% swing!!

That would leave a Conservative majority after the next election of over 300!!! Everyone seems very quick to write off Labour & say that Gay Gordo is a dead duck. Maybe. I truly hope so.

But - Thatcher got slaughtered in by-elections & then stormed to victory in '83 after the Falklands ('"events dear boy, events"). Major routinely got battered in by-elections but scrapped a win in '92.

The best thing that can happen is that Brown hangs on to the Labour leadership & stays PM. He then goes down to an almighty defeat at the next general election. The Labour movement will then lurch to the left under some barmy Michael Foot/IDS style disaster & stay out of government for at least a decade.

Hopefully cue Cameron reeking creative destruction on the bloated debt laden state & public sector.

If I were Cameron I'd be courting the New Labourite MPs. They have very little in common with the Labour Left. Splitting the Labour party & having MPs cross the floor would be the best way to ensure the Conservatives dominate 21st Century politics as the party did for the 20th.

We just need a big issue to get them to walk after the next GE - think the Liberal Unionists of the 1880s.

John Terry crying like a baby

Ha ha ha - please stop it, my sides are splitting. Big bad John Terry whimpering like a big baby after losing the Champions League final last night. I can't usually stand ManUre but was rooting for them last night.

We had Chelsea - big strong bullies who grind out results by boring everyone to death & then pinching a winner vs ManUre, who exemplify the best of the modern game - fluid football, great pace & creativity, uber-modern lack of a centre forward in their inter-changeable system.

ManU do lack a Keane, Ince or Robson figure - i.e. someone to scare the shit out of the oppo when the going gets tough - just like in last night's second half. But in Rooney, Tevez & Ronaldo they have the holy trinity of an attack.

Well done the Mancs - but you are still not a patch on The Mighty Blackburn Rovers!

No need for Dad anymore

What an utter bunch of pc leftie bollocks - MPs have voted down an amendment that aimed to ensure the continued consideration in IVF treatment of the need for a father and a mother.

Now we are left with the suitably vague focus on 'supportive parenting' - i.e. a bunch of lesbos and man-hating singletons having IVF without the need for a father figure.

It seems that there is a complete lack of joined up government (again!). The lack of father-figures is cited by many researchers and supported by anecdotal evidence as key to the cause of feral youths & crime in some of the UK's most deprived areas.

The home affairs select committee reported in 2007 that in the absence of a positive male role models many young black men chose to emulate negative and violent lifestyles - the report was supported by the CRE.

But this is a problem for all sections of society. While I disagree with the now popular but excessive notion that Britain has a 'broken society' I'm pretty certain that society is at least very dysfunctional.

Weakening family bonds & removing the hugely positive impact of male role models can only serve to weaken society further & give further credence to the 'broken society' argument

Tugay Kerimoglu - is a legend

The Turkish delight that is Tugay has agreed a new deal to stay at the Rovers for his 8th year. A true legend - one of the greatest playmakers ever to be seen in the Premier League.

Robbie Savage might be a prick but he was spot on when he said Tugay was the best player he had ever appeared alongside - praise indeed from a product of the Man United youth team at the time of the golden generation of Scholes, Butt, Beckham & the Nevilles.

94 caps for Turkey, appearances at the World Cup and Euros, 6 Turkish league titles & 4 cups with Galatasaray. Legend. It mystifies me why none of the 'bigger' clubs took him when he left Turkey.

He will be the oldest outfield player in the Premier League at 37 years old - not bad for someone who reputedly gets through a 40 a day fag habit!

Sick note Britain

The Beeb are showing a Panorama programme tonight about sick note Britain. Basically there are over 2.6 million people in the UK claiming Incapacity Benefit at a cost of around £16 bn.

Many of these people could easily work - if opportunities were available. The real issue is that most of these people are concentrated in towns & regions where unemployment and under-employment are endemic.

There are now generations of people in places like Merthyr Tydfil who are on the sick. Doctors, faced with middle aged men with no job prospects, quickly sign them off as sick so they can get better benefits.

There is no culture of work in these de-industrialised areas. Until there are new job opportunities & new industry attracted to these areas, they will continue to be sink towns sucking in dole money and sucking the life out of their populations.

A sad state of affairs - The key issue is no longer the North/South divide, it is the pockets of unbelievable deprivation in places such as South Wales & the North-East. An almost intractable problem.

Taxpayer to take £90bn of risky bank assets

So the government increases the tax on the poorest in society via the 10p debacle. Then allows lots of rich bankers to hive off up to £90bn of risky assets to the Treasury in return for gold plated Bank of England bills.

Well done Gay Gordo and Oh my Darling - a fantastic piece of fuck up.

So we bail out bankers who took ridiculously risky positions, who sold mortgages to a whole load of poor people they should never have touched, wrapped them all up in some asset securitisation, and made big book profits & bonuses.

Then it all goes tits up and we (i.e. the taxpayer) bails them out. Northern Rock was the best example of a fubar high risk business model - Alliance & Leicester and a host of other institutions have similar problems.

You couldn't make it up - and people are surprised when it appears that the banks are wrapping up low rated assets as collateral for the Treasury bills. For the banks its a no-brainer.