Alice Miles offers support for David Miliband.

In today's Times the columnist Alice Miles writes an excellent article in support of
David Miliband and his adoption of a second child from the United States. Miles
points to the chaotic adoption system in the United Kingdom. I would think
most bloggers would offer their best wishes to Mr Miliband and his family, they
cannot see how the US adoption can square with the minister's supposed support
of the laws in this country. British legislation does not allow the adoption process
used by his American wife.
Obviously, 99 pct of people here would do what the Milibands have done but they
are not government ministers. I would be more encouraged if David Miliband tried
to get the legislation changed here but he seems more interested in snubbing
Saudi officials.

Public Good v Private Good - David Miliband.

It is a public good that we have a fully operating British Foreign Office Minister.
The public pays for this. So when the Saudis roll up to town David Miliband
should be there to greet them. If not, why not and I agree with blogger Zim Flyer
on this. Mr Miliband gets a pretty hostile reception from the
bloggers for his paternity leave.

Miliband is adopting an American child through a process not open to British
subjects. His absence through paternity leave must seem a joke to his Saudi
counterparts. At least, Her Majesty The Queen is really rolling the red carpet to her Saudi guests,
who bought our military aircraft and kept a whole industry
going. It is not usually possible to withdraw an insult. When the previous Saudi
king died, former Prime Minister Tony Blair made damn sure he was at the funeral.

Say goodbye to 10 pct income tax!!

In the United Kingdom there is going to be more fiddling about with a
starting rate of 10 pct income tax.
Rather than an easy system, which everybody can understand, the Labour regime is
changing changes it already made. So say goodbye to the initial 10 per cent
income tax rate. Did it work? Who cares? It is just another piece of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's micro-management.

Victor Chu = famous Liverpool supporter!!

To show what a globalised world we live in, Hong Kong financier Victor Chu supports
Liverpool FC, whose supporters are sworn enemies of Manchester United. I suppose
I betray my southern roots by not minding too much about the Scousers. John Barnes
was one of the best players I have ever seen both at Watford and at Liverpool.

As Frankie Howerd would say, I digress. Mr Victor Chu is one of the backers of
a possible bid by Richard Branson's Virgin group for part of the Geordie bank
Northern Rock. One problem about any bid is that the Rock seems to need an
awful lot of funding from the Bank of England. At least Mr Branson thinks there is something worth saving at Northern Rock. Without any bid interest it looks like the Bank of England will have entered
the mortgage business.
I am surprised that Mr Adam Applegarth is still at the helm of the venerable
Northern Rock, since the funding requirements are so large thereby quantifying
the size of mess it is in.
Mr Chu, of First Eastern Investment Group, obtained a law degree from University
College London (UCL), and might stand a chance of understanding the famous
Geordie accent.
It is a shame that there has been no interest for Northern Rock from conventional
bankers Lloyds TSB notwithstanding. If Citigroup or Banco Santander made an offer,
they would be welcomed with open arms.
I am no longer a Northern Rock shareholder.

Red Lines or Red Herrings - Gisela Stuart.

I can never understand all of this European politics stuff but Labour MP
Gisela Stuart thinks that the famous red lines are just red herrings.
With the Lisbon summit preparing to ratify a treaty (rather than a constitution),
most of the Eurocrats are quite happy.


Well, the biggest red line to be frank, is the UK's absence from the Eurozone.
Something we share with Denmark and Sweden. I think Gordon Brown would like
to take us into the Euro mumbling some guff about securing economic
prosperity etc for future generations etc. We just have to wait and
see.

I think the Eurocrats would quite like to welcome Switzerland and Norway into
the Eurozone as well, although they would have to join the EU first. Spain would
love to get hold of Norwegian fishing stocks.

Matthew Parris does not like Gordon Brown (part 2)

Dear Reader, I have said before that Matthew Parris, a former Tory MP and
a current columnist on the Times, really does not like British Prime Minister
Gordon Brown.

In his Saturday column, Parris again compares Brown to the Wizard of Oz. The
journalist says "the chief economic wizard who has succeeded him (Tony Blair)
appears a shrivelled figure as the curtains are pulled back".
Then, later "After the effective disintergration of command at the very top of the Government......"

I suppose this is quite incendiary stuff. Although we all mock John Major, he did
win a general election on his own merits. It seems that Major had more bottle than
Brown, who would have surely won a poll in November, even it was with a reduced
majority.
I am not the only blogger in the UK quoting these Parris articles.
A "mea culpa" for my international readers for going on about Gordon Brown,
who is apparently British, but wants to sell us down the river with the forthcoming
European Summit.

Tax advice: Potential changes to the Annual Investment Allowance (AIA)

Roger Sherwood and Co, a firm of accountants, have highlighted to its customers changes that HMRC are proposing regarding how to write off purchases of plant and equipment for tax purposes.

As ever, here is another example of Gordon Brown hitting (small) businesses. Unless you look at the small print, the change would seem to encourage some firms to spend more on plant and equipment in order to achieve the tax savings - thereby potentially impacting their cashflow!

"Watch this space" is the advice of Roger Sherwood and Co, whilst the proposals go through a consultation period and may appear in next year's Budget.

Is Gordon Brown in the mucky stuff?

In this morning's Times, there is a brilliant cartoon of UK Prime Minister, Mr Gordon Brown. It is basically showing him putting on some brown trousers. The first stage of the cartoon bubble has "A Brown Vision", "For a Brown Future" and "In Brown Trousers".

Matthew Parris seems to be spot on about his criticisms of Gordon.

Education, Education, Education!

There have been considerable comment that British educational standards have been
falling despite the rise in record results for school exams. There has been the
argument that educational standards were deliberately compromised so as to allow
an increase in the number of university students. This was considered vital in
a knowledge economy.
Is education important? I remember reading a study about the longevity of New York
men and it appeared that ones with a college education lived longer, since they
were more likely to give alcohol and drugs a miss. So at a basic level education
is important.
In the years since 1997 the think-tank Civitas notes that the number of British
A-level passes have changed from 87 pct to 97 pct. The percentage of A grades
have changed from 16 pct to 24 pct. Research in this area has been carried out
by Dr Robert Coe of Durham University.

Are exams too difficult or too easy these days? Are the children doing too few or too many exams?

My views on Tory leader David Cameron!

As an antidote to my wittering on about British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, I thought it was high time to be balanced so I would share
my views with the UK electorate about Mr Brown's opponent, the Tory leader David Cameron. Unfortunately, this will not be an accomplished or accurate view of Mr Cameron, since I have never met him. In addition, my view is built up through the filters of the British media.
A characteristic shared by Mr Brown and by Mr Cameron is that quite a few
people do not like them. It seems several Conservative constituencies are
hoping that Mr Cameron will fall flat on his face at this week's party conference
in Blackpool. It appears that the Tory leader has not spent enough time with the
constituencies or with his MPs in a "hearts and minds" project.
Cameron does not have seemed to engender any loyalty from Lady Margaret Thatcher and Norman Tebbit and to disastrous effect. Tebbit has been especially withering about
the public relations background of Mr Cameron and has described Mr Brown as
the heir to Lady Thatcher.
Obviously, if David Cameron invited me for a drink I would be delighted to
accept. I would tell him that less time in Rwanda and more time chatting to
his MPs would be helpful.

Matthew Parris really does not like Gordon Brown!

Former Tory MP Matthew Parris did not like the Labour Conference speech of British
Prime Minister Gordon Brown. For instance, Parris noted the promise to build a
network of state youth centres and to impose fines on parents of disruptive
children. The former MP wondered if the fines were going to pay for the
youth clubs.
In his article in the Times on Saturday (29/9/07) Parris says the Prime Minister
"is emotionally the opposite of what he pretends" and then later comments
"Pull back the curtains guarding this latter-day Wizard of Oz and you will find
a crafty but unimaginative 20th century Labour Politician: a bully with a big
ego, a yellow streak and nothing to say"
In the same edition of the Times, Janice Turner takes the opposite tack and is
fulsome in her praise of Gordon Brown. Turner says that the Tories will "get
nowhere trying to challenge Gordon Brown's authenticity."
She praises his recent pledge to review 24 hour drinking legislation and to sidline
supercasinos.
What is my view? I suppose it is interesting that a lot of people, who know
or worked with Mr Brown don't like him. He was described as Stalinist by one
civil servant. I like Mr Brown's love of football but it was telling that
the prime minister's office rejected taking part in the debate proposed
by Michel Platini of UEFA about the growing influence of big money in the
game. I suppose Mr Brown is too scared to take on Mr Rupert Murdoch and Sky Sports but you have to wonder when a Thai fugitive can buy Manchester City. Apparently,
coming up on one weekend there will be just one Premier League game at 3pm on Saturday.