This is just a test to make sure everything is live!!

It will be interesting if we have no mansion tax and a withdrawal of the 50 pct tax rate in the United Kingdom. Will Lib-Dem Vince Cable step down? He has been a pretty poor Business Secretary.

Will Manchester City slip up in the Premiership race?

I can't see Manchester City slipping up in the Premiership race against close neighbours Manchester United after seeing the sky blue side wallop poor old Blackburn Rovers, who did not make much of a contest of it.
http://www.mcfc.co.uk/fixtures

Watford FC got turned over last Saturday by Southampton?

Dear Reader,
Watford FC got turned over last Saturday afternoon at Vicarage Road by Southampton courtesy of a Ricky Lambert hat-trick. A fan of one his former clubs Bristol Rovers says he is brilliant at deadball situations but lacking a bit of pace maybe to make the big time in the Premiership. Lambert's third goal was a penalty, which nearly burst the net. I know the Watford fans around me thought the penatly was won with a dive but I saw the push and immediately called the penalty, which was a doughnut thing to do, since I was supposedly supporting the home team.

As for things financial, I get the impression that the Germans want the Greeks to exit the euro. Being described as a "bottomless pit by German finanz boss Wolfgang Schauble, is not very pleasant for Greece. If the Hellenic Republic did leave the single currency, then it could lead to a collapse of the banking system, real riots on the street and a military coup to restore order.

I know Argentina's financial system fell apart when the dollar-peso peg was broken but the country had/has resources such as gas and cattle to help recovery, which the Greeks simply do not have. Perhaps, if the Greek population pay its taxes that might help in the long term but not when the economy has already contracted so much.

Greece and its islands are a major tourism asset but rather than an internal devaluation within the euro based on pay cuts etc, it would make sense for the reestablishment of the drachma. How to do this without the country fallinig apart will be very difficult.

I don't think Ed Miliband wants to be Prime Minister!

Dear Reader, I get the impression that Labour Party leader Ed Miliband does not really want to be the prime minister of the United Kingdom. I read (and hopefully it is wrong) that his favourite sports were basketball and American football. Someone should have told him that he should support a football team. Tony Blair did that with Newcastle United and I remember the great play of John Major supporting
Chelsea (which was genuine).

The teams I follow are Man Utd, Spurs, Watford, Leyton Orient, Bristol Rovers and Barnet. I am 51 pct a Man Utd fan, which might oscillate to 100 pct on Europa League
night (what is Man U's favourite perfume? Chanel 5!).

I HAVE GOT A FEW POSTS IN THE PIPELINE!!

Dear Reader, I have got a few posts in the pipeline with subjects such as David Cameron, Ed Miliband, David Lammy, the European single currency and Manchester City. I have added a few bits to my recent obituary of Welsh footballer and manager Gary Speed, who recently committed suicide.

David Lammy is the Labour MP for the troubled area of Tottenham and he is recently said how it is there. He is also the opposition spokesman for higher education but I think he should have resigned when he served in the late Labour government as the administration was trying to force through some barmy policies.

The tragic passing of Welsh footballer/manager Gary Speed.

I remember seeing Gary Speed playing at the end of his career for Bolton Wanderers against Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane. I think Spurs won 4-1 but for Bolton's consolation goal, Gary Speed put away a penalty for the Greater Manchester team. When he went up to take the penalty, I think probably everybody in the stadium knew that there was only one way it would end up: the ball nestling in the back of net.

I think I also saw Speed score a great header for Everton against Spurs, which helped the Liverpool-based team stay up in the Premier League that year. Teddy Sheringham was leading the attack that day and I don't think Spurs was trying too hard. My memory often plays tricks and if he did not score, Speed played well. Another memory was how welcoming the Everton fans were to a Spurs family in a cafe before the match.
For me visiting Goodison was like going to a Catholic shrine, very emotional, and the same applies to Anfield when I saw Liverpool FC eke out a 0-0 draw against the Spanish club Deportivo de la Coruna (sorry I am not going to bother with the tilde on the n). Listening to the fans
sing "You will never walk alone" was amazing. And perhaps more amazing was that Liverpool won the European Champions League that year.

Speed was such an amazing professional and this showed by him being successful at a range of clubs. He was also doing well at Wales manager. I had never heard before the story that he became the unofficial chauffeur of former Newcastle United manager Sir Bobby Robson, so as to learn from the master's knee. Newcastle is one of my favourite clubs since I have got
Geordie relations (I am probably half Geordie by genes if that is possible).

"ETERNAL REST GRANT UNTO HIM O LORD AND LET PERPETUAL LIGHT SHINE UPON HIM. MAY HE REST IN PEACE."

The euro could could collapse by the weekend!!

Dear Reader, the European single currency could collapse by the weekend! Or maybe not that soon but maybe by the beginning of 2012. The game is up if the Chinese and Japanese don't want to lend ten year money at very low rates to Germany. In today's Daily Mail an article on the U.S by Max Hastings described German leader Angela Merkel as an adequate city mayor. I think that it is a bit harsh.

While a recent article in the Times by the so-called economics expert Anatole Kaletsky shows him to be a bit deranged. OK it looks like a German takeover of Europe but if national governments want their budgets to be approved first in Berlin (Ireland, Greece etc) then it is up to them. For instance, nobody asked the Irish banks to massively expand their balance sheets and go bust taking the country with it. I read once that a Irish bank took a big group of local property developers to Chicago on a jolly as a way of getting loan business.

Apparently, Ireland wants to review its bail-out package since the country looks stupid trying to pay back its debts with the Greeks getting debt relief (sovereign bond haircut) of at least 50 pct from the commercial banks. If Ireland leaves the euro, I don't think Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Bank would be too impressed!

What can we do in the UK? Cutting personal and business taxes (perhaps slowly) would would help (the Laffer curve). Hope more companies follow the example of European aircraft manufacturer Airbus and Swiss food group Nestle in
announcing new jobs. Sack Chris Huhne and rethink the windpower programme.

To protect social cohesion/integration, if things get really nasty, one idea would be to reintroduce some kind of conscription focusing on green projects, looking after the elderly etc without the military angle. If you are paying benefits to the hoodies, you might as well get them doing something useful.

UK chancellor George Osborne might talk up infrastructure projects but we are where we are. The infrastructure projects are too smaill and they will take too long. Expecting rich sovereign wealth funds to invest in "Boris Island" is just pie in the sky!!

Columnist Peter Oborne opines that the collapse of the euro will completely discredit the European elites. As long as it shuts up that EC idiot Jose Manuel Barroso I would be happy. He has been European Commission president since November 2004, so it is time for a change.