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.

David Cameron did not have to go begging to Berlin!!

Dear Readers, I thought the recent trip by British premier David Cameron was degrading. I do not see any point in begging the Germans for anything. If Angela Merkel wants to see the Euro collapse, then it is up to her. I can understand the German electorate not wanting to underwrite the crazy economics in countries such as Italy and Greece, where the local populations can retire a lot earlier than in Germany. However, expecting Greece, Italy and Spain to reform at breakneck speed is pointless.

For instance, Mariano Rajoy has won the general election in Spain for the centrist-right Partido Popular. He does not strike me as a Spanish Maggie Thatcher in the making prepared to reform the labour market (taking on the unions, ending collective bargaining etc), reducing the 17 regional governments to just two (the Catalans and Basques) or reforming the university sector, where lots of Spanish students spend years learning rubbish subjects.

However, I would be loath to give Sr Rajoy advice on these areas since the United Kingdom has exactly the same problems (politically motivated public sector unions),
the expensive Welsh and Scots and a non-performing university system. However, some British universities are the best in the world while Spanish business schools featured very strongly in a recent Economist survey. Spain has a great tourism sector
winning back business with the collapse of places like Tunisia and Egypt. What the country needs is time to get back on his feet after the mismanagement of Zapatero.

As for Italy, its banks did not buy many Greek government bonds, its citizens are wealthier than Germans and the country has some great companies and top managerial talent. However, Italy will never really pay off its debt mountain. One common problem for Italy and Spain is the level of corruption, especially siphoning off cash to fund political parties.

http://www.expatica.com/es/news/spanish-rss-news/spanish-corruption-probe-finds-millions-in-swiss-accounts---report_31311.html

I am sorry about the dilatory nature of posts!!

Dear Reader, I am sorry about the dilatory nature of posts. I used to like moaning a bit about former UK premier Gordon Brown but I could not get the same enthusiasm in complaining about David Cameron et al. However, I am getting a little irritated about
the incompetence of the Tory/Liberal administration. The main example of ths was the lack of protection for citizens during the summer riots. Given the amount of money we pay in tax and the amount of intrusion we face from the authorities, the UK population deserve a better deal.

So hopefully I will be back on the blog trail!!

Today, the press has been reporting George Osborne's negative comments about the French economy. I thought the British chancellor would have enough on his plate with
problems such as youth unemployment rather than worry about our neighbours. France has higher productivity per employee than us and some amazing world-class companies such as L'Oreal. The French also make pots of money from the design of the European Union (EU), which enable the country to survive its bonkers employment legislation, which restricts the hours people worked. This explains why you can be in France and not get a meal after 9pm.

Are there really opportunities in Tottenham?

I was a bit surprised when British Prime Minister David Cameron said there were opportunities in Tottenham on television last night. Whenever I go there, I am surprised how little the place has changed over the years. Let's hope Spurs will be able to build its new stadium at White Hart Lane, which might give the area a bit of pep.

It looks like Michael Gove is sinking without trace.

It looks like the UK Coalition Government's schools minister Michael Gove is sinking without trace. His "free schools" policy seems to be hitting the buffers while each major decision has to be followed by a U-turn. I have to accept that it is not easy stepping up from a job of newspaper columnist to running a major government department and certainly not easy dealing with the educational establishment in England. Apparently, Mr Gove is a good friend of Prime Minister David Cameron, but perhaps that will not save him from the axe.

I don't think the Department of Education expected to clamp down on the possible teaching of creationism by potential free schools and it is difficult to argue against the assertion from "Labour at the Chalkface" that Gove is incompetent.

Dave looks a bit weak about the Big Society

British prime minister David Cameron did not look too convincing about his promotion of the "Big Society" yesterday. Anyway that is my view. In most areas the local council is the main player because it holds the purse strings and thereby has the resources to carry out projects.
Although councils can be much maligned in many locations they do have the expertise to help run schools and look after the elderly. Perhaps these activities can be outsourced to private providers to save money but look at the problems of the private care home operator Southern Cross loaded up with debt by private equity
purchasers.

In addition, it is a sad state of affairs that most English people do not want to volunteer for anything. Most don't want to know their neighbours and perhaps we have a duplication of charities (too many of them). Existing volunteers are perhaps dismayed by the lack of a new generation of people coming through.

Also, the British government has no shown no sign of working with civil institutions such as trade unions, churches, mosques, temples etc, which already do their best in helping people participate in society.

It looks like Dave and Gideon are feeling the heat.

Dear Reader, it looks like the Old Etonian mafia are feeling the heat. The Royal British Legion has accused the government of breaking the military covenant while increased job losses in the pipeline are not going to help stimulate economic confidence. Some public sector workers (and I say this with a heavy heart) will not find private sector conditions very conducive. Lower holidays, can't go on sickies and no pension plan (although we will have this stuff and nonsense called NEST coming your way soon)are not particularly attractive to some people in the UK public sector (especially amongst Catholic public sector people in Northern Ireland, I suppose it is part of a Gandhi-style disobedience campaign).

I am sure disaffected public sector voters will vote for Labour at the next election but if this is four years away then it would be simply too late for them. New Labour had already initiated cutbacks in the National Health Service (NHS)such as the planned closure of A&E departments like Enfield Chase Farm. (See Note***)

Changing the subject it is a shame NEST was not up and running a few years ago and we would still have some more British companies, which have been since swallowed up by foreigners, to invest in. The roll-call includes Cadburys, Smith & Nephew, Wellstream and British Oxygen (BOC). Here, everything is up for sale. The City is like Wimbledon. We host the tournament but don't win it. Even the Spanish bought up Bristol Water, Luton Aiport, BAA and O2. While our major investment was the massive amount of money wasted on the Vodafone acquisition of the German company Mannesmann Telecom.
Makes you glad to be English!!

Gawd knows why the London Stock Exchange (LSE) wants to merge with Toronto Stock Exchange. I suppose it is to get rid of the threats from the French and Germans.


Note*** Chase Farm was originally a profitable hospital then it was shunted into a joint operation with Barnet General. Now it is threatened with closure because greedy w***ers see a nice little earner selling off the site for houses

Are we going for the double dip recession?

I don't think David Cameron and George Osborne will be happy bunnies with today's
disappointing quarterly GDP's figures. I suppose blaming the bad weather is a pretty lame excuse. With a limited manufacturing sector it would always be a big ask. The 0.5 pct fall in GDP joins the shocking inflation figures with economic commentators saying the Bank of England has lost the plot. The British central bank is certainly behind the curve and can only keep its fingers crossed.

David Cameron and his vanity staff!!

There are claims that British Prime Minister David Cameron used the announcement of the royal wedding to bury the "bad news" that his personal photographer and his wife's stylist would not be going on the government payroll after all. I don't believe these claims at all but the proposed appointments did show an unhealthy interest in media management. Well, at least we have got the new term "vanity staff" in the UK political language.

What is perhaps more worrying is the pressure on the BBC to delay a Panorama programme on the World Cup bidding process because it would annoy FIFA. I think the
BBC's independence should be cherished more than winning the right to host the
World Cup.

David Cameron in Vichy-style surrender? EU budget.

Is Norman Tebbit right in saying that UK prime minister David Cameron is carrying out a French Vichy-style surrender over European Union plans to increase its budget?

Apparently, we have to go along with a 2.9 pct increase compared with a wish of 6 pct. This does not sit well with benefit cuts in Britain. Maybe Mr Cameron is being patient because the Eurozone could collapse soon thwarting the attempts by German and French banks to pass on their losses on government bonds from countries like Greece to European taxpayers.

David Cameron is not the only Euro leader having difficulties. Some 11 member countries are not overly impressed by German chancellor Angela Merkel's idea for
profligate countries to temporarily lose their voting rights.

I think I have said previously we, the UK, have to be in the Euro game to win it. A bit of intelligence might get what we want rather than implacable opposition. I suppose it is difficult to go to these Euro summits, if you are always portrayed as the trouble maker, although Lady Thatcher did not mind and some of our Euro partners
did hide behind her skirts.
If I was Cameron, I would suggest that the EU Commission should relocate out of Brussels and Strasbourg to a cheaper location such as Vilnius or Riga. This would avoid the scandal of Baroness Ashton taking up very expensive office space in Brussels for her Euro diplomatic corp. I am sure you could have a purpose-built Euro village in Latvia for not too much money.

Cameron could also propose that European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, such a talented politician, should go back to Portugal and help sort out the political/economic mess there. Obviously, these things would not happen but it might prove a reality check for the Eurocrats. Barroso wants the full 6 pct rise in the budget. I remember even the hapless John Major easily blocking a Belgian candidate for an Euro post.

I suppose it is too early to comment on Ed Miliband.

The new leader of the British Labour party, Ed Miliband, says he is not going to squeeze the country's middle class but who is going to believe him? The current coalition government seems to have a few tax-raising initiatives of its own. There is the possibility that HMRC wants to take central control of payrolls so as to deduct
income tax and national insurance and then send the remaining amount to your bank account. Is this Stalinism or Conservatism? I don't know if Tory voters knew this would be in the pipeline when they voted for David Cameron. Apparently, the HMRC wants to cut down PAYE errors with people who get multiple payments from different jobs and various pension payments. I think HMRC would need a few more staff and a bigger computer to cope.
To be fair Allister Heath puts it far better than me:
http://www.cityam.com/news-and-analysis/allister-heath/don%E2%80%99t-reward-hmrc%E2%80%99s-massive-failure

Sincere condolences for David Cameron, UK prime minister.

The blog sends its sincere condolences for British Prime Minister David Cameron on the passing of his father in France yesterday.

The free milk controversy - back to Thatcher!!

It just proves that there is nothing new under the sun with the proposal (personally squashed
by UK Prime Minister David Cameron) that free milk should be withdrawn from under five year old children at educational establishments. It just shows my age that I can remember this type of controversy dogged the old battle axe Margaret Thatcher herself. I know I should not poke fun at the victor of the Falklands War but her economic policies were pretty responsible for the reduced industrial capability of the UK.

It was sad watching a programme of "Top Gear" when Jeremy Clarkson visited the old empty factory, which manufactured the Jensen sports car in West Bromwich and said that we don't manufacture anything anymore in the UK.

I suppose we don't go in for suporting industrial champions but we did rescue Rolls Royce in the 1970s and that was a pretty good move for both the aero-engine maker and for us as a nation. Currently, it is open season for the world class manufacturers we still have in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Who would have thought a bidding war would have broken out for Chloride!

I miss Gordon Brown!!

I miss the former UK premier Gordon Brown, who is keeping a low profile.
There does not seem to be the same chaos in the internal workings of the government of Great Britain. His successor David Cameron has the herculean task of making a dent in the British public debt mountain. I would have gone for a gradual approach to cutting expenditure given that the UK economy has had the equivalent of a heart attack. Cameron has extolled the "Canadian approach" when there were major education and health cuts. These would be very, very unpopular here and if these areas are ringfenced, then the cuts will be worse for the other departments. I would merge the Foreign Office and International Aid departments, which could produce some cost savings.

Selling austerity will not be an easy task for the Old Etonian club. I thought Brown did well in the last election to play the class card, which ensured that the Labour vote did not completely collapse.

It will be interesting if George Osborne will come up with any surprises in the June 22nd budget. One Daily Telegraph columnist says the Chancellor of Exchequer would not know an economic theory, if it hit him on the head.

Is it really a three horse race!!

I have struggled to get excited about the UK general election campaign because in reality it seems to have been going on for so long. It was a surprise Nick Clegg winning the first televised debate but for me even more of a surprise was Gordon Brown campaigning on the economy, which is a pretty poor one. David Cameron has had to change tactics. But
whoever you vote for, I think it is very important that you do vote. I am saddened by the low electoral turnout. Perhaps we should consider a compulsory voting system like in Australia.

I was surprised that so few of the British expat community vote in percentage terms. But this community seems to want the UK government to act on their behalf when things go wwong such as the bulldozing of illegal appartments in southern Spain.

The volcanic ash cloud from Iceland has at least reduced the UK electoral coverage
and some areas around Heathrow must have enjoyed the quiet skies. My nipper says that Kew Gardens was a real treat!

Is it really a three horse race? It would be interesting if the Liberal Democrats really did top the number of votes nationwide and lost out on the first-past-the-post system.

Sorry about the long delay since the last blog!!

I am sorry about the long delay since the last blog, which was perhaps an unfair diatribe (are'nt diatribes always unfair) against British premier Gordon Brown. Since the last blog Brown has survived the Chilcot waffle and a further decline in sterling. It appears Brown was less than transparent about his role as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the funding of defence expenditure. What was obvious was Brown was not going to take the blame for anything.
However, it looks like there could be a double dip recession in the United Kingdom with the rise in VAT to 17.5 pct and the end of the car scrappage scheme. The economy is still in a very fragile state and Brown is perhaps gambling on a return to growth to make a dent into the public sector deficit. Yet the markets fear that if Brown remains as prime minister, he would put Ed Balls as
chancellor.
The message of "blood, sweat and tears" from Tory shadow chancellor George Osborne has not really set Middle England alight. The Conservatives are obviously not going to attract too many seats in the Labour client regions of Scotland and Wales. They have got to win a battle against Lib Dems and Labour in English seats. The Lord Ashcroft affair makes David Cameron look weak.
Whatever party wins the forthcoming UK general election it will have to deal with a
National Health Service (NHS) sliding towards bankruptcy. The primary care trusts or PCTs are already running out of money and still the NHS is more geared towards its employees than its patients.
In London, there are proposals to cut A&E and maternity
services. In the north of the capital all roads seem to lead to the Royal Free at Hampstead with the plans for consolidation/centralisation of services.
There will have to be some real productivity improvements/changes in the NHS. A hard nosed attitude over missed appointments, staff absenteeism and treating tourists for free would make a difference at the margin. Labour has trumpeted its planned increase in NHS expenditure for the next couple of years but after accounting for the rise in national insurance (NI) payments, PFI charges etc this will leave little extra for the average patient.

The Independent's Johann Hari criticises Cameronics!!

In today's Independent its columnist Johann Hari criticises the economic policies of Tory leader David Cameron, which have been instrumental in the collapse of the Irish economy. He makes an excellent case for continuing stimulus policies and laments the self-strangulation of Labour.
Hari notes that Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman is shocked by the economic policies of Cameron.
I suppose my view is that the UK economy has received quite a bit of medicine in the form of low interest rates, low exchange rate and high level of printed money, so we will have to wait a bit for the patient to recover. I don't share the view that economic growth will make the public debt problem go away but it will help if we make a modest start in reducing the state deficit. There will probably be an increase in VAT, whatever the result of the general election, and future cuts in the health and education budgets using inflation. For instance, there has been an explosion in the number of unqualified assistants in primary schools, which has not really led to an increase in educational standards.
What we do not need is heavy-handed attempts to reduce governmental budgets such as Labour's slashing of expenditure for the universities.
Going back to Hari's article, he notes that China and Germany are carrying bigger stimulus policies than the UK. However, these two countries can probably afford them.
He also calls for a labour-intensive transition to renewable energies.

How did the Tories get into euro quagmire again?

With the Republic of Ireland approving the Lisbon Treaty, how did the Tories get into the euro referendum quagmire again? If we husbanded our oil and fish stocks like the Norwegians, then we might have made a more convincing case for independence, but like it or not we have to be pitching into the European game as there is no other one in town. Conservative eurosceptics can't turn the clock back while europhiles can't ignore the European Union's damaging policies for farming and fishing.
Conservative leader David Cameron just needs a form of words to patch over the divisions. You would have thought the Tories would be more interested in replacing Labour and putting into place their policies over education, defence, the West Lothian question etc, which could be far more reaching than worrying about European Union policies.
It would be a wonder for the EU to have policies on education, which we could use. In Sweden, there is a voucher system, which has attracted the interest of the Tories while the public systems in many European countries are suffering various stresses.

Apparently Labour is closing the gap on the Tories.

Apparently, Labour is closing the gap on the Tories in opinion polls. Perhaps, we will be on for a general election in June 2009. Then, the Gordon Brown administration will retain an element of surprise rather than waiting for 2010. Last time when there were rumours of an early election, the British premier ignored the advice of his younger Cabinet members.
I suppose it will be fought on class lines by Labour on class grounds pointing to the
Old Etonians Cameron and Osborne conveniently ignoring the private/selective education of quite a few of their ministers. It is a shame that Ruth Kelly is departing the political scene. She has had more Labour government portfolios than hot dinners.
www.searchaccountant.co.uk
Labour will be campaigning on future tax increases following their (hopefully)
successful rescue of the economy. They will try and not mention spending cuts but will argue that Tory cuts will be more.
The Conservatives will at least have to mop the Lib Dem seats in the south such as Winchester but with a manifesto that will not frighten the children. Both these tasks will be difficult. One problem is the lack of support from certain sectors of the Tory party for Cameron and Osborne and this contrasts with the Labour Party looking more unified and getting behind Brown. Perhaps, the appointment of Lord Mandelson was a master stroke. Miliband has been sidelined into going to places like Syria and into criticising countries such as Russia and Israel.

Gordon Brown takes it on the chin from David Cameron.

Yesterday, apparently Gordon Brown was taking a right pounding from David Cameron at Question Time. The British prime minister, who is going to have to pay British troops a decent wage, was yesterday just reiterating the same points again and again while ignoring the comments of the Tory leader. Apparently, this approach was used
by Mr Brown, when he was Chancellor but does not really work being Prime Minister.
www.searchaccountant.co.uk
I suppose there will be a British general election eventually and Gordon can fight his campaign over previous manifesto lies about being consulted on the European Union consitution, selling part of our gold reserves for a ridiculous price,
wrecking the occupational health system, expanding inequality
etc.
Obviously, if Gordon rang me at 6am my main aim would be to wrangle an invitation to
No 10!!