Let him eat cake!

Here's a picture of a greedy bugger!

90 year old takes to the road on a mobility scooter!

Shocked drivers spotted 90 year old Stanley Murphy trundling along at 3mph while cars and lorries sped past at up to 70mph on the six-lane A27 at Shoreham, West Sussex. A bit like Road Runner on Valium! Police said "he was obviously confused and it is unlikely we would take any further action". This remark got be thinking. There are so many confused people today. Plenty of them running the country.

Sir Fred Goodwin is morally confused and won't be taking any further action.
Lord Mandelson is LDV confused and won't be taking any further action.
Lord Myners is actuarily confused and won't be taking any further action (because he can't!).
Gordon Brown is cerebrally confused and won't be taking any further action with regard to an admission of Credit Crunching.
David Miliband is also severely confused regarding extraordinary renditions or as someone put is so well, tourism for terrorists. He is desperately trying to take no further action.

I could go on. The list is full of characters who are confused, driving up the wrong road, whilst we all see the impending obstacles and crashes. Surely there should be some way to get those causing the problem to be changed with those who know how to cure the problem. Or is that a fantasy? Am I confused? Of course, the only sane people are the government ministers who see no problem in pouring money into companies without asking questions. So let's carry on with it all!

Robert Peston said it was all mindboggling. It is. But surely we can't have people with boggled minds running the country. If you had Gordon Brown and Stanley Murphy in a bag and you pulled Mr. Murphy out to be Prime Minister, would we see any difference? I think we might. He's a retired builder. What we've currently got is a retired banker squabbling with a soon-to-be retired government minister. Both are actively demolishing the good name of this country.

So I'd put the builder before the demolition gang any day!

Caroline Flint in pompous remarks remark!

Caroline Flint is another New Labour goddess given to rather hypocritical remarks. She says some Labour MPs and trade unionists could give the BNP an "unintentional boost" in the Euro elections in June. She fears "feeding a climate of intolerance". That's rich coming from a woman who got her first husband flung out of the country as an undesirable alien. The poor man was deported and put on a plane back to Tunisia. He felt a climate of intolerance. She better start by getting her act together by supporting British industry rather than making pious statements about others.

She says, "EU membership, including free movement of workers, has been good for British families and companies and we must vocally support it." Up to a point, I suppose!

Bobby Jindal - Pre-existing for the Presidency?

Bobby Jindal is another "name" jettisoned into the public arena for the Andy Warhol fame game. Bobby is from a Punjabi Indian family. As the United States enters the second decade of the 21st Century, it is moving fast towards an ethnically diverse nation where anyone can get along and be American. When I was a child all Americans were white it seemed. Only the president had a German name, the rest were just American versions of the British. Then there was a real debate about having a Catholic president. Which seemed odd, since nobody questioned having a series of protestants. Then there was the question of having a Southerner as president, although it seemed it was more about peanuts than politics. A woman? Could Hillary Clinton be the first woman president? They all went ape on the TV news. But before they could finish that debate, along came Obama to be the first African-American president. A real African-American, or more properly, a Kenyan-American.

Not to be outdone, the Republican party has put forward Bobby Jindal. They could have put up anyone to respond to Obama's trillion zillion cashpot ideas. Bobby got the job. In his talk he mentioned his parents coming from a distant land, India. His mother was already pregnant, what Bobby calls a "pre-existing condition" from the insurance industry's inhouse dictionary. It just enables him to be in his own pre-existing condition for a potential presidential run. Sooner or later this native-born American rule will have to end. If his mother had gone into labour early he could be an Indian-born American and be in the Arnold Schwarzenegger position.

American politics is a bit like a Simon Cowell talent show. "GOP's Got Talent - premiering this Fall on NBC!". Bobby was up next and seems to be a star in the making. He could be the first Catholic Southern Indian Republican president! Watch this space as they say.

"A light touch - that's all that's needed!"

Gordon Brown is sounding a bit like a man caught with his trousers down in a brothel. "Prostitutes? Surely not, officer. They're such fine women! I've been severely misled as to the nature of this establishment". Likewise, he's blinking in the sunlight, trying to suggest to the nation that he knew nothing about Sir Fred Goodwin's pot of gold.

We now have the ridiculous situation of the prime minister trying to make Fred the Shred cave in under some Calvinistic brow beating. Maybe he should summon up the ghost of John Knox to pay a visit at Chateau Fred. Somehow I can't see the ex-banker shifting much cash from his coffers to the Treasury's.

If Brown pushes it we'll have the mother and father of all court battles. "It's a light touch, your honour", says the hapless QC for the Government. "We could have this over by lunchtime. Just a light touch....." And they drift off into pantomime land, with the dame, the ugly sisters and a baddy. "It's Fred the Shred!" "Where?" "Behind you!".

What we need is a heavy touch. Gordon Brown needs to feel the hand of the electorate on his scheming shoulders. No rough stuff, you understand, just a firm hand to guide him to the back door of No.10. The days of his New Labour Light Touch Brigade are over. We can't wait until next year. Go now!

Sir Fred shreds the Government's fiscal plans

Sir Fred Goodwin takes the biscuit! Or is it the shortbread? He's got plenty of bread that's for sure. The arrogant man, who still doesn't quite get it, that he screwed up his bank and almost single-handedly put this country at risk of joining the Zimbabwe league, is going to keep his pension pot at this excessive amount. He's the only man in the country who thinks it's all ok.

The government is up to their necks in slippery spin and slapdash administration. Asking the likes of Sir Fred to do the decent thing is like asking a lion to get his claws off a wildebeest's back! The man is showing himself up and we all know what we think.

This is the text of his letter to Lord Myners. I think it conveys the mind of a man who is in denial. As much as this government is.

We need a new broom and it better not be a witch's one!

Wendy Richard dies

She was certainly a fighter. Dale Winton said it well. "She was a real fighter and actually a very kind and funny lady in her own right." She was. I've known of Wendy Richard all my life I suppose. She was the "voice" to Mike Sarne's biker. "Will I what? I will not!" Great lyric. She was Miss Brahms and what a part. Portraying a young woman who was very capable of withstanding the advances of men, but giving subtle hints that perserverance may win the day! And of course Pauline in Eastenders. I've never watched Eastenders but I've seen enough to know what people meant. She knew how to show ordinary women in a production without overdoing it.

She will be missed by the British public, I'm sure.

Barney Rubble ran RBS!

You couldn't make it up. The Royal Bank of Scotland saga rolls on. Sir Fred Goodwin, when he was chief executive, seemed to think he was given a bag stuffed with poker chips. He took the nickname of Fred the Shred, but he was more like the blundering Fred Flintstone. Whilst he was up to his schemes, the board was dutifully hanging around like Barney Rubble. "Yeah, good idea, Fred. Think it will work, Fred. Wait till I tell Betty, Fred." So the crazy plans were bulldozed through like a caper from the Flintstones. Where was Wilma when we needed her? "FRE...ED! Oh, Fred!"

RBS? Rubble's Banking Scams could be a new title. Be about as accurate. It's the Barney Rubbles of this world that don't see it coming. Fred managed to get out of the mess relatively unscathed. He had the indignation of sitting in front of MPs to say SORRY!, but that hardly got his adrenalin moving. The thought that his £650,000 per annum pension pot could be tampered with, well that will raise the temperature. How on earth could Brown and Darling let that one go though? Another light touch?

Gordon Brown's fingers are all over the mess, Alistair Darling is hopelessly trying to make it all sound good, but it is us, the taxpayers, who will be paying Fred the Shred and his merry much of losers.

Is the USA doomed to poverty and pauperism?

The Republican party, all except three, in the Congress are trashing Obama's stimulus package. Not because they have looked in the mirror to say sorry for exciting George Bush into reckless miopia when the credit crunchers took hold, but because they are fearful of the vast debt piling up. I think it is all a bit late. Where was Bush, that adopted Texan cowboy when Stanford was building his ponzi scheme? And Madoff? And the Lehman Brothers fat cats?

No, the GOP hasn't got a leg to stand on. But Obama is raiding the funny money chest. He's on some yellow brick road at the moment. Mind boggling sums are going into propping up ailing businesses, banks without balances, and government agencies. The Republicans are right on one crucial point. "The way to lead is not to raise taxes and put more money and power in hands of Washington politicians. The massive economic stimulus bill will increase our taxes down the line, and saddle future generations with debt." That was the "official line" from Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, speaking on behalf of the GOP.

It is all a crying shame that Ron Paul didn't get to be president. But at least he's being listened to now. Fox News! Who'd have thought it.

What we need is confidence back into the system. Those that are calling for small retail banks separate from the investment banks should hold sway. We cannot go on dumping money into bottomless pits. Until the toxic debt level is actually agreed and put into a special fund, it will remain exactly that - A TOXIC DEBT. We are being slowly poisoned and the cure is to fence off these offending loans and feed the economy with good money not imaginery stuff from the cookie jar!

The following posts contain strong language!

Paraphrasing the BBC, I'm just warning you as they say. Strong language isn't just for BBC programmes, bloggers and pub crawlers. The odd bishop has been known to speak in colourful tones, sometimes as a mirror to the mitre!

As I said earlier, Lord Ahmed is on his way to jail. I think the technical term is "he's being processed". These two fine bloggers have their say -Bristol Dave and Obnoxio the Clown. They may think that but I couldn't possibly comment!

UPDATE! I've just seen that Lord Amed's solicitor, Steve Smith, came out of the court and said he thought his client had been used as a "scapegoat" by those attempting to drive home the message about not using a mobile phone while at the wheel. Is this man fit to be involved in the legal process?

Get a grip Mr. Smith. The law is quite clear. This is not about scapegoats but about wrongdoing. People of your ilk are the ones that are causing this country so much turmoil.

Lord Ahmed banged up in jail!

Another driver who thinks he is above the law is jailed. This time it is Lord Ahmed, who will be doing six weeks out of a 12 week stint. After all, nobody but the most depraved does the full stretch. Ahmed won't have time to figure out where everything is before he is let out again.

The driver of the car he hit was killed. 12 weeks for that? I wonder if Lord Ahmed voted for a ban on hand-held mobile phone use whilst driving when it went through the House of Lords. It's an utter disgrace.

Only this morning whilst walking my children to school a driver on his mobile phone casually turned into his driveway right in front of us. He didn't appear to have noticed. If he'd hit us, would it have been careless, dangerous or what?

Some people are just too arrogant and selfish for their own good. Perhaps as Lord Ahmed sits in his cell tonight, chewing over the rights and wrongs of life with his cellmate, he can reflect on it all. And a good run round the excercise yard will stimulate the brain cells!

Turkish Airlines plane crashes at Amsterdam airport

A Turkish Airlines plane carrying at least 135 people crashed in a field today while coming in to land at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, killing at least one person and injuring 20, airline officials said. These accidents seem to come in bunches and then everything is changed. I just wonder if we are putting too much pressure on the aviation network.

More here.

David Cameron's son dies

It has been announced that David Cameron's severely disabled son has died suddenly. Ivan Cameron was only six but had lived his entire life with cerebral palsy and other difficulties. The Camerons are a remarkable family in that they never appear downhearted, although today will be extremely sad and precious for them.

Living out tragedy in public life is never easy. I am pleased that the media are respecting their wishes for privacy at this time. It is said that David Cameron's life changed when Ivan was born. Instead of moping and being disconsolate, the Cameron family has been one of laughter and pleasure it seems. He took on board the fact that the staff of the NHS have been a tower of strength. He has shaped his political opinions differently ever since, we are told.

We are all put on this world for a purpose, although some fail to recognise it. David and Samantha Cameron have had six years to appreciate Ivan's presence in the world, and according to family friends he had a huge impact on his father and mother. As David Cameron may one day be prime minister, Ivan Cameron's life may have influenced far more than we know and will continue to do so.

He died on Ash Wednesday. A significant day for appreciating suffering.

Bombay bonanza!

The Oscars have been celebrated and the Brits have done very well. It takes the mind off the depressing aspects of the recession. However, two things were a little off putting. The first was that the winners' list was leaked and Kate Winslett was spending the weekend trying not to sound like a person who had been told Santa Claus had hung up his boots. The second was that the Bombay urchins who were deemed to be the real thing and therefore necessary to the success of Slumdog Millionaire have been returned to the slums without the generous payoff they were offered. Apparently the producers say it is all hogwash and nobody has been left without the financial settlements they agreed to.

I think it is a pity that the press publish all kinds of tittle tattle without appreciating the results of their actions. Kate Winslett won an Oscar. That's great news, but I'd prefer to hear it from the personality tearing the envelope open rather than a front page scoop designed to spoil. Equally, the biggest publicity night Bombay has had since the bombings and the gilt is sliced off the gingerbread in a cunning way.

Spoilsports is a term that comes to mind.

Guantanamo detainee arrives in UK

Binyam Mohamed, a detainee from the Guantanamo camp and a British resident of Ethiopian background is back on British soil. His tale of woe desperately needs examining, because what was done to him was done in our name. He says -

"It is still difficult for me to believe that I was abducted, hauled from one country to the next, and tortured in medieval ways - all orchestrated by the United States government."

George Bush and Dick Cheney receiving truthful reports or adulterated stories? We need to know, because if the truth does not come out, anyone can be lifted from the streets and carted off to a hellhole.

He goes on to say -

"For myself, the very worst moment came when I realised in Morocco that the people who were torturing me were receiving questions and materials from British intelligence.

I had met with British intelligence in Pakistan. I had been open with them. Yet the very people who I had hoped would come to my rescue, I later realised, had allied themselves with my abusers.

I am not asking for vengeance; only that the truth should be made known, so that nobody in the future should have to endure what I have endured."

David Miliband needs to come clean and not hide behind weasel words. His worst nightmare will be somebody exposing his knowledge at a time when he is least prepared for it.

Obama in Guantanamo rear gear shift!

When Barack Obama became president he said he would tackle the issue of Guantanomo Bay. This Cuban-based concentration camp has been just a playground for the sadistic and the purveyors of petty punishments. Humiliation is top of the list. Decent lads are taken into the US Army, trained up to be "fighters", given top level BS about patriotism and let loose to sort out the best ways to tackle the enemy. What they haven't been told is that most of the inmates were scooped off the Afghan plains, sold for a grand to the US Army by slippery sorts, then extraordinarily rendered to end up in this hellhole.

George Bush and Dick Cheney have buggered off. Leaving their corrupted ideals behind them. Obama was giving us the impression he'd clean up this act. Apparently not. Nobody is going to be held to account for the barbarity committed in our names. Obama and the Canadian PM shirked the issue when they met. Our own Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, is in denial. I would have thought of all people, a Jew, he would have wanted to get to the truth of such barbarity. But apparently not.

Inmates have been mentally abused, hung upside down with electricity placed on their genitals in "rendered" rendevouz around the world. By the time they got to Guantanamo Bay, they were like electrified squirrels. The list of disgusting torture goes on. I'd expect that as par for the course from a tyrant like Saddam Hussein. Robert Mugabe has had his eyes and ears diverted whilst the screaming took place. But our own Western democratic leaders? Are they capable of turning a deaf ear? Sounds like they are. And whilst this torture is carrying on, Osama Bin Laden is still at large. Says a lot for the War on Terror!

The truth is trickling out. Those foot soldiers in Guantanamo Bay are speaking out. They are ashamed of what they were asked to do, what they were goaded into doing by fanatical superiors. George Bush talked a lot of crap when he was in office, but I took him for a decent guy deep down. Barack Obama is a decent guy, but it's the shaven-headed military macho types that are poisoning the well. We have Jekyll and Hyde politicians these days. I do hope Obama sees his Mr.Hide and gives him his marching orders.

Second Home Secretary a chiselling cheat!

Jacqui "Jackboot" Smith has some answers to give. Richard Littlejohn knocks the chiselling cheat into shape. She's currently spinning that she's done nothing wrong. He puts it so well.

"Jachboot Jacqui will be investigated over her living expenses after all. What a pity it has taken a complaint from members of the public to shame the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner into action. Previously, he said the 'Second Home' Secretary had done nothing wrong in claiming that her sister's spare room was her main residence.

Only after two neighbours objected that she spent no more than two or three nights a week at her sister's South London house did the Commissioner, John Lyon, agree to act. None of this would have been necessary if, while she was in London, Jackboots used the £3million grace-and-favour Belgravia house available to the Home Secretary. It wouldn't cost her a penny. But then she wouldn't have been able to claim £116,000 in expenses from the taxpayer. "

In her mind she must have thought "Um, it's either £116,000 or it's nothing! I'll go for the spare room and shove it down as a main residence."

Can I suggest that the voters of Redditch give this woman a wide berth come the next election?

Frank Field on Margaret Thatcher

This article in the Daily Mail says a lot about political foes and political friends. There is an old adage in the Westminster Village. Your opponents are in front of you, your enemies are behind you. Frank Field was an opponent of Margaret Thatcher but he was certainly no enemy!

Media spinners not so Independent!

When the Independent newspaper was born, it trumpeted the fact that it was independent and would tell the truth. Telling fibs is no good whether they are for malicious reasons or for supposedly good ones. And I'm not talking about little white lies.

The BNP has caught the Independent out. The newspaper, by publishing a picture of some depraved knucklehead from the Nationalist Alliance (a Hitler fan club of sorts!), have taken spin and deception on board. Now I use this blog to campaign against spin and deception. What a stupid man Nigel Morris, deputy political editor of the Independent, must be if he thought he could get away with this unnoticed. Of course the BNP is eagle-eyed for such stuff. They complained to the Press Complaints Commission. Whereupon Morris just cropped the offending picture! It is obvious he was trying to insinuate that the man in the picture was a BNP member.

It's this type of schoolboy scripting that does the debate no good whatsoever. Singled-handedly he's just given them more political ammunition to use on the doorsteps. If he is the Deputy Political Editor, let him engage in some well-thought out political opinion. Good heavens, there's enough to put to the BNP for some proper answers. But, please, let's not have childish capers like this!

Labour flunkies warn Brown over BNP Euro chances

With the BNP winning a safe Labour seat on Sevenoaks Council, the Labour hierachy is getting all in a tizzy. I can't think why. They've never really bothered with the people they say they support. They are more concerned with feathering their own nests. The BNP has taken a coach and horses through Labour's arrogant assumption that people on sink estates will vote for them. Well they won't, not any more.

It's all a crying shame. People at the bottom of the social heap being excited and manipulated by a minor party that couldn't run a whelk stall. The New Labour ponces have some history to be answering for. A senior Labour source told The Independent, “We have got to get our act together – and very quickly. No one is focusing on the European elections; no one knows who is in charge.” Well, nothing new in that department.

Labour needs to address the core problems affecting people who are attracted to the BNP. Housing, jobs, schools and hospitals. These four are the ones that affect these voters most. These are the issues the BNP are exploiting. Gordon Brown needs to get his jacket off and get down to the level where the BNP can be taken on. It's no use taking a lofty attitude and saying he won't debate with them. That over sensitive nonsense should stop right now.

The truth is we will probably get two or three BNP Euro MEPs come June. What then? Will Nick Griffin MEP be banned from Question Time and other BBC outlets? The more the poncy brigade carry on, the deeper the BNP gets entrenched.

Who do I blame for this win? New Labour and their total disregard for the poor of society.

New Labour asylum has restless inmates!

There was a saying that "the inmates have taken over the asylum" meaning that the leadership was of poor quality, so much so that even a person with diminished mental faculties could be perceived as doing better. New Labour has been a party of intellectual spivs cosying up to anyone with a low threshold for financial and moral integrity. Hence the insatiable desire to be seen with money launderers, bogus banking bosses and the more seedy side of life. William Booth once remarked that the Devil shouldn't have all the best tunes, so he took the tambourines and trumpets out into the streets for good rousing Christian singing. I'm the first to acknowledge that the Devil has the best ways to an easy life. He's very good at manipulation, very good at deception and top of his game at temptation.

Do I judge them all for wanting easy credit to flow, for everyone to have jam today? No, but I do want them at least to admit that all these dodgy dealings over the last two years have been based on a bubble of hot air. Instead of coming clean, the New Labour cabinet is beginning to show signs of a pub brawl in the making. Harriet Harman has been simpering in the corner, plotting on the one hand, issuing easy denials on the other. Added to this mix is the Hell's Angel and biker supremo, Hazel Blears. Now she knows how to rev up a machine, and the New Labour machine has been running on a chemical concoction unknown to mankind, so she is trying to make sure no proper petrol gets near it. I see all the signs of an imploding punch-up on its way.

And are there any serious journalists out there who could possibly think Yvette Cooper could replace Gordon Brown as Prime Minister? This is not CBeebies!

Prawo Jazdy and the Garda are poles apart!

Only in Ireland? Let all good Irish people come to the defence of the Garda and their troublesome Polish motorist, by the name of Prawo Jazdy. He is a man with over 50 identities, created by the Garda's motor squad. Parking fines here, speeding tickets there. Prawo Jazdy is running all over the place.

Trouble was the police had no idea that Prawo Jazdy is just plain Polish for "Driving Licence". Maybe that second referendum should wait awhile?

Pope to become Presbyterian?

I see that the Prime Minister is off to Rome. Not in the same way that Tony Blair became a Roman Catholic. No, this is just a little bit of afternoon tea with His Holiness and a possible chat about the world's affairs. But there is a little gift winging its way into the Vatican as well. It is apparently a book containing sermons given by the Rev John Brown, the PM's Prebyterian ministerial father. This should make for good bedtime reading. We are not told what kind they are - fire and brimstone types or just good protestant rhetoric?

The Pope will accept the gift, but I'm curious to know why Gordon Brown picked this. Would he be pleased, surprised or shocked if the pontiff woke up the next day completely transformed as a presbyterian preacher?

Mandelson starbucks Howard Schultz

Lord Mandelson has gone back to his roots, his New Labour roots, and has gone into a swearing rage over remarks that Howard Schultz, Starbucks chairman said to CNBC's Mario Bartiromo. Can't think he said anything that wasn't true.

Mandelson went ape, or was it more like a rabid rodent, and an apology was extracted from Schutlz. I would have thought it would have been more appropriate for the enobled sleaze merchant to start the apology process. After all, he has a series of wrong doings for which he has never apologised for. And he can't now be so pompously self-righteous about Boris Johnson's colourful language if his own verbal dexterity leaves the average Anglo-Saxon blushing!

Stimulus Act! Signed, sealed, delivered...and UNREAD!

Ron Paul puts it well. It all makes sense what he says, but human nature doesn't always see sense. In fact, collectively human nature is far more prepared to sup with the devil than stay the course of prudence and preparedness. After all, if someone shoves a trillion dollars in your face, would you say "NO!"?

So all the gravy trains have been topped up with cash. I had great hopes for Barack Obama and still do in many ways. But this so-called American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 will go down in history as the millstone that future generations will carry about with them. All new babies will get a card welcoming them to the debt-ridden world. Most people think this is wonderful. After all, they are not paying for it. But there isn't an accountant alive who thinks that two and two makes ten. So how they are going to audit the Federal Government's books without scaring us all witless, I do not know.

Ron Paul says, about the passing of the Bill. "There were five copies available to the House and I think five to the Senate, and that wasn’t available ’til the House opened at noon time. So essentially it was not available to us and who can stay up all night and read a thousand pages? So obviously it was done like business as usual. Things have been going on like this for a long time, but this one was a little bit worse, it was bigger than usual so it was not a very good day for America."

It really makes you wonder what goes on in the minds of an average Congressman. Surely they must realise that this sort of cavalier approach to finance is what got us here in the first place?

Expensive and Expansive Obfuscation!

Which is easier? Pulling teeth or getting straight answers about parliamentary expenses? I see Jacqui Smith is co-operating with the Standards Commissioner, John Lyon. In all these matters, somebody somewhere isn't being straight.

Either she spends time in London or she doesn't. Two sets of neighbours have differing views on this. One says not much time and another seems to concur with Ms Smith.

We need to get the issue of expenses sorted out once and for all. It's a bit rich MP's and Peers legislating for all of us, when they are fixing and fiddling as if the World was ending tomorrow!

Guantanamo Bay - the new inmates?

President Obama wants to close down Guantanamo Bay. Before he gets too quick off the draw with this, how about rounding up the real crooks and swapping them with those already there. I'd guess that most of the current inmates have done very little to damage the World's existence. The credit crunchers and legalised money launderers have. Added to this, we've got a whole tranche of dodgy dealings and investment scams on the go.

The credit crunch has mortgaged our children for a generation. Some countries are going the Zimbabwe route to financial helotry. The latest scoundrel on the block is Sir Alan Stanford, who has allegedly been involved in an $8bn investment fraud. He's dwarfed by the Madoff character. Most of this money isn't money at all. It's Monopoly money. But it's no game. It's all deadly serious and deadly frustrating...that those in charge are moving along like a beached whale.

Alistair Darling has only just woken up to the RBS bonus bonanza, now with a couple of damp squibs in the package. The threat of a spell in Guantanamo Bay's prison cells should stop this nonsense dead in its tracks. All those involved in scams own up now, otherwise it's the Cuban shores for you!

Jacqui Smith the Expenses Thief!

Strong words? Yes, and I'm not alone in thinking she's done a typical New Labour action of thievery. Peter Oborne writes very well in the Daily Mail today. He says -

"My brother has a house in Wiltshire where his family lives, where his social life is based and where his children go to school. However, he works in London so most nights of the week he stays in the capital and sleeps at my house.

It's a very friendly arrangement, and every so often he makes a contribution to our household expenses.
The Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, and her sister, Sara, have a very similar arrangement - only with one crucial difference.

My brother does not claim that my home is his 'main residence' - in the same way that Ms Smith designated her sister's three-bedroom terrace house in South London when she submitted her Commons expenses.

If my brother did so, I would consider the poor chap had gone soft in the head."

Ms Smith may not have done anything against the letter of the law but she has traduced the spirit of it and the morality of taking £116,000 for expenses on a house that isn't yours is highly questionable.

Oborne is right to raise this, because not one single MP stood up to say she had done wrong when she answered Home Office Questions. It's this culture that has to change. Ms Smith is a cheat and she is every bit as bad as a regular thief.

She lectures us on burglaries and petty crime, but she sees no harm or wrongdoing in pocketing £116,000 for using her sister's house as her own "main home". Something not right there!

Obamamania!

When Barack Obama sat in that cafe in Chicago and one of his aides suggested the presidency might be something to aim for, I wonder if he ever thought about where he actually was. The cafe, that is. Because it would appear that now he is president, more people in the world are bothering about what he does privately than what he does publicly. I don't mean in any prurient way, just which hamburger he likes best, that sort of thing.

I write this because I was just sitting looking out of the window mulling over how he might be getting on. Then I got thinking about Bush and his father and that George senior didn't like broccoli even though Barbara tried her best. So what does Obama like or dislike? I shouldn't have been surprised. The whole of the internet is just like me! I found this site which is all about his food habits. There are thousands more like it.

Obama will leave the presidency with more written about him than any person alive, of that I have no doubt. Does he like goldfish? I googled and got this! I reckon you can google any two words, one of which must be Obama and I bet you somebody has something on it.

Kind of scary, isn't it? Here are some -

Obama Cheesecake, Obama Horses, Obama Cats, Obama Sneakers, Obama Bulls!

Prince Harry to be politically corrected!

Not content with Prince Harry giving a fulsome apology for remarks he made three years previously on a videotape, the Army top brass are to get him to attend a "training course" to relieve him of undue thoughts. I cannot for the life of me understand what he will have to endure. Maybe this is some kind of indoctrination?

I can just imagine some obsequious soul from the MOD turning up at the barracks. Harry is escorted off by two MPs to attend the lecture. Afterwards the commanding officer enquires about the "training". He has to make absolutely sure it won't happen again! "How did go?" "Very well, sir. He's completely cured. Thinks everybody talks the same, eats the same, thinks the same and is the same!" "Good. Just what we wanted. He'll be OK for Afghanistan again, then?" "No problems at all, sir".

This is all hogwash. There's no longer the concept of an officer and a gentleman. After all, Harry's apology counts for nothing. I'd dearly like to be a fly on the wall listening to the private conversations of the top brass. I bet they have been uncomplimentary about people. This is all so much hypocrisy. Motes and beams come to mind.

I much prefer the reasoned and sound response of Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty. She was was in the company of a fellow university student once, who described the local corner shop as a "Paki shop". Shami remonstrated with the student, who was apparently genuinely upset that she had caused offence. They are now firm friends. Ms Chakrabati has a lot of common sense and is my kind of libertarian and social animal. (She gave Geoff Hoon a few home truths!).

You don't get long lasting results with a politically correct type of "re-education". You get a civilised society where both parties feel they have been shown respect and understanding. All that the Army is doing is following some PC path to self-righteousness. When it comes to bullying, initiation routines and a generally poor attitude to service housing and equipment, they turn a blind eye often.

They need to get their priorities right. That would be the politically correct thing to do!

Halal in a teacup!

Domino's Pizzas have decided to open up a halal only pizza outlet in Hall Green, Birmingham, because they say Muslims would prefer it. I say so what, is that news? Apparently so, because some have said it discriminates against non-Muslims. They don't want to go in and find these "new" pizzas being promoted.

Now if the people doing the complaining are vegetarians or vegans, then that would be a bit odd, because they don't eat meat anyway. If it is a group of Christians then that would be a bit odd too. For the simple reason that Christians are told by Christ that it matters not what they eat but what comes out of their mouths in the form of spoken words.

I would humbly suggest that Domino's Pizzas does not bother with this any further. The only people complaining are those that are upset by the halal thing in the first place. That is a different issue. I eat halal meat whenever I visit an Indian takeway that is run by Muslims. It's not done me any harm or anyone else that I know.

What does do us harm is saying nasty things about people. Strong debate is one thing, stirring it up is another.

Ping Crosby!

It's definity no laughing matter. Gordon Brown is doing the rounds dishing the dirt on whistleblower Paul Moore's allegations about HBOS. Brown said it was had been investigated by the FSA and found to be without substance. Somehow I don't think that will be the case in further investigations. Interestingly, the FSA today blurted out that they had advised HBOS of the risk element.

Gordon Brown's new spin line is that it was not about risk but that the "whole business model was wrong". He's not really that convincing. This will run a bit longer. I do not think Mr. Moore would say what he said if he had not some substance behind him.

The "Ask No Questions" Prime Minister

Gordon Brown is the Ask No Questions leader of a country fast running out of credulity. He did not -

1. Ask anything meaningful about the dodgy sub-prime loans of the USA that found their way into the world's banking system as repacked bundles of laundered cash, even when that was public knowledge.

2. Ask anything about the amount of toxic loans on the accounts of the bailed out banks before handing them shed loads of taxpayers' money.

3. Ask the Financial Services Authority if everything was being scrutinised properly, even when public anxiety reached fever pitch.

The list goes on, but these are prime examples. It is staggering to think that no adviser tells him anything about what is happening and he fails to ask his advisers about possible problems. It is all about sticking plasters and tea and sympathy. Nick Leeson brought down Barings Bank and we all stood back and wondered. Instead of learning lessons, the financial world carried on as normal (for them) and cranked up the motor on the bubble inflator. So we were going backwards instead of forwards.

Brown is the Ask No Questions leader. All he can say is that nobody saw it coming. Well, that's not true. Many saw it coming, first of these was Ron Paul. Brown once famously burst into Tony Blair's office and ranted about not believing a word Blair said (about resigning as PM). Gordon Brown has become the Prime Minister of whom it can be said - "Nobody believes a word he says".

Double Dutch!

One Dutchman in - Chelsea have announced that Guus Hiddink will take over as temporary coach until the end of the season.

One Dutchman out - Freedom Party MP Geert Wilders has been told he's not welcome in the country.

Crosby, Spills and Banks

After appearing on the naughty step yesterday, the four rogue bankers have come in for a press drubbing of the highest magnitude. Scumbag millionaires, they are called by The Sun. They won't be coming out for a while I'm sure.

During the Treasury Select Committee hearing, it emerged that Sir James Crosby, former chief executive of HBOS and lately a public penpusher at the FSA, had sacked his head of risk management for daring to suggest that the bank was growing too fast, that it was culturally indisposed to being challenged and that its sales culture was “significantly out of balance with their systems and controls”. The new banking giant that is Lloyds Banking Group says HBOS denies it. Mandy Rice Davies comes to mind.

Crosby gone today, resigned in disgrace. He was too hot for Gordon Brown to handle. This will only get worse if those in charge don't come clean and fess up to their wrongdoings. Gordon Brown says the Tories are the do nothing party. Well, he is the never ask questions Prime Minister. A very lame duck indeed.

Synodical censorship?

The General Synod of the Church of England has voted to ban clergy and immediate employees from being members of the British National Party. It was overwhelmingly passed by 322 votes to 13, with 20 abstentions. One member, in my opinion, valiantly stood up to this high-minded righteousness but to no avail. The Church ploughed on into the realms of political debate, thereby giving the BNP ample ammunition to use on the door steps. There's none so...

The Church should have stood by its existing policy of saying that the BNP did not represent a valid expression of the gospel. That it was inappropriate for Christians to agree with or promote such policies. That would have been fine. Instead, they up the ante by going head to head on an issue, free speech and democratic legitimacy, for which they will come off the worse.

The BNP are very good at manipulating the situation, and wow, dear clerics, they already have. I see from their website that they have 56 diggs on the latest posting. Sometimes I wonder at the suitability of the General Synod to grasp reality. I doubt if they will think about yesterday when the BNP do well in the Euro Elections. I fear for this country, because instead of debating and trying to win with a superior argument, we resort to bans and an affectation of lofty disdain.

The Archbishop of York said, referring to the fact that he was a member of the Baganda tribe, "As a Christian, I joined another tribe, it is the tribe of Jesus Christ, and in that tribe all are welcome." Well, I can say that at my church, we have people from quite a few tribes, some not a stone's throw from his. We all get along very well and I would like to think we could without worrying about the BNP. If we need to we can speak our minds. However, censorship and bans will only make our efforts that much harder. I doubt if many of those voting for this ban have come into contact with BNP supporters and members.

The way to deal with such opponents is rather like Lord Boothby did on meeting Hitler. The Fuehrer raised his arm and declared, "Heil Hitler!". Whereupon Boothby responded in similar fashion with "Heil Boothby!".

Wiping the smiles from their faces!

Four former bank executives are at this moment being grilled by the Treasury Select Committe. All have said sorry. As I left it, Lord Stevenson was sounding cheerful about future bonus structures. I got the impression they know it went wrong, that they felt it could go wrong, but, like a Las Vegas gambler, they wanted to have one more roll of the dice. Now they can't.

Andy Hornby sounded contrite. I'm not sure about the others. We may all have got wound up in the greedy credit spree and wanted bigger and better houses, bigger cars, and so on. But most of us didn't or couldn't bundle up loans to resell them like some frightful pyramid scheme.

A chap on BBC News suggested that, if this was the USA, these guys could be facing criminal charges for fraud. The trouble with fraud is proving it. Incompetence and a clouded brain are good defences in a court of law. That's why today is such a bind for them. Say they knew about everything and the book could be thrown at them. Come across as if they knew diddley-squat and they will for ever be seen as fools and Clarkson-type idiots!

Suffer little children to suffer?

I was watching Watchdog on TV last night. There was a very distressing story about the abysmal way a family has been treated by Greenwich Council. This family has four children and live currently in a two-bedroom flat. Now I know people will say, and one person actually emailed in to say it, that they shouldn't have had the children in the first place. I always think that's a very petty and nasty retort, because it includes the children in the vitriole. There is always going to be nastiness around, it's just there. Some would say it was the Devil's work.

Little children only grow up to be nasty adults if encouraged. They can also grow up to be embittered. This family was just seeking to be rehoused. Greenwich Council offered them a house. This house would test the temperament of anyone. Pigs would turn their snouts up at it, and rats would spend little time there. Possibly the odd pigeon might be tempted, by going through the holes in the wall, to set up an avian latrine in the dwelling. It was this desirable residence that a smooth-tongued apparatchik from Greenwich Council thought was OK.

Jim Wintour was the face of Greenwich Council last night. He was just like most apparatchiks. Rather annoyed at being put to the test and prepared to deflect blame where he could, in this case back onto the family. The truth is that people like Mr. Wintour are paid handsomely to help and assist the homeless or the needy. He came across rather like a modern-day version of that Bethlehem inn-keeper!

Here is the Watchdog link. What saddens me is that, even with their explanation of the events, Greenwich council sound as though they don't really care and want to put the "system" first.

The Anglican Catholic "thing" and the Woman Bishop "thing"!

I love the way some Anglicans talk about each other. The BBC is monitoring the women bishop "thing". I say that because a certain Mr.Jim Cheeseman, a member of the General Synod who opposes the plans for women bishops, says, "I think a lot of people who are in the Anglican Catholic "thing" have thought about Rome and decided they are Anglicans." That is about right. I have thought about it, but it doesn't mean I want all the other "things".

It will take a bit more thought to work it all out satisfactorily, but one "thing" I don't want is for a female prelate to come banging on the door upsetting us all. There are some very nice people on both sides of the belief divide. What we need is some kind of well-built bridge rather than a hotheaded bunch of eccliastical navvies digging deeper for a parting of the ways.

Banking on patriotism?

Bankers are flocking to the aid of the country! They have a renewed sense of patriotism. They........ I'm dreaming. None of this is true. In fact, they are turning patriotism on its head. Lloyds Bank chief Eric Daniels, who is masterminding his way through piles of cash donated by the Treasury to bail him out of hoplessness defies political reason. He is determined to plough ahead with plans to offer generous payouts to top staff. He has defied advisers who have warned that this will inflame public revulsion over 'rewards for failure'.

What will it take for this insensitive money changer to see sense. People are losing their jobs, are fearful of what is to come for them financially and this snout trougher is carrying on as normal. welll, normal for him. John Sargent was on the Andrew Marr show this morning and, with incredulity in his mind, asked when would the penny drop for these guys. When indeed?

Lord Mandelson is gradually stepping up the pressure on them, but I doubt they will do anything unless forced to. Eric Daniels is a poor sort of patriotic banker. It may get to the stage with riots in the streets. Perhaps he could do the decent thing before he finds his head enmeshed in railings outside his corporate offices?

If his case is that his staff will flee the country if the money boxes don't appear, give them some sort of incentive package that rewards their effort in returning the country to a sound financial footing.

If not, he can sing for his supper!

Solihull Council contributes £1M plus to recession!

It is estimated by the Federation of Small Business that Britain loses £1 billion a day in lost productivity due to the inability to cope with the snow. Last week Solihull Council, or at least the chief executive, shut schools down three days out of five. At a conservative estimate, this weak-willed decision has contributed at least £1 million from Solihull alone. You'd think these well-paid chief executives would be there to think instead of panic. Because panic is all that there is to show for it.

Tuesday was a complete waste of time. Money down the drain as very little snow fell. Thursday was a blanket closure and Friday was a joke day. That was when we all turned up only to be told the staff had snow phobia and were trying to maintain the assinine line put out by the chief executive. Now here's a man who used to teach special needs children. There have to be some special needs that he urgently requires, along with all the other local government chief executives who are taking the shilling but delivering very little.

First, they need forward planning. Find all those teachers living in cottages at the end of farm tracks without cars and check whether they can actually be bothered to attempt getting in. Second, ask the independent schools how they do it. Third, get the playgrounds cleared of snow. Fourth, stop wingeing about health and safety and begin to take responsibility for once.

I'm not against having fun in the snow. If we want to take a day off when it snows, let the country have snow days. However, I don't see that happening any more than I can see these cretinous council officials actually sitting down to unravel their own warped logic. After all, the chief executive and his minions got in so why not the school community?

We have got to a stage where, as the country's finances sink down the toilet, we are led by pusillanimous people with "agendas". Geoff Hoon is the Transport Secretary. He's about as helpful as a snowflake in Hell. As a trite retort to those who claimed he was ineffectual, he suggested people go out and buy snow chains for their cars. Now these might be a great help in Canada, but they would crack up our roads in no time. What then? More cost in rectifying the damage!

On the Andrew Marr show this morning, the weather forecaster was standing in the snow in Devon. "All the roads have been closed!" he said. Whereupon a van went by with no problem. Unaware of this, he prattled on about the "problems" to come. The BBC, the council chiefs and Buff Hoon himself, are all forecasting problems. Don't these people realise that common sense and a sense of proportion are required? I'm waiting to see if the odd snowflake comes our way tonight! I cannot take seriously and I have virtually no respect for this nonsense. We must get them to see sense or ask that the desist from their moronic ways.

We cannot allow billions of pounds to drift out of the economy, especially at this time, because some crazed "rationale" is driving their furrowed brows to hold some health and safety dogma up for sanctification!

Social worker rages against foster mother!

This just proves how vile some of the politically correct apparatchiks permeating our councils can be. A foster mother has been struck off by a council after a teenage Muslim girl in her care became a Christian. Apparently the fostering manager was ‘incandescent with rage’ because the baptism of the girl had gone ahead. They want to control every aspect of the lives of people who come into contact with them.

Woe betide you if you get fat, are too old, think a particular way. Oh, and if you are a Christian looking after children, well, you're up there with the perverts and creeps.

It's all very sad.

Obama's other mother in bingo binge!

Barack Obama has such an extended family that sooner or later half the world will claim to be related to him. We will shortly be getting the family tree that comes out every time a new president is elected. We will find out that he is a direct descendant of Julius Caesar, Queen Victoria and Ghengis Khan and Barbara Walters will get excited!

The latest Obama clansperson to be nominated for fame is his stepmother Kezia Obama, who is a regular at the Gala bingo halls in Woking and Slough. She journeyed to the White House where she had fun at the inaugural ball and then it was back to the bingo. She's got a spot of mould in her bathroom, so as she rents from the council, I suggest she goes round to see them and drops a hint as to who she is. Although they've probably sussed that one by now.

Home Secretary in homes row!

Jacqui Smith is a right one to be in charge of those trying to keep law and order when she's running a racket on the side herself! She's been caught out claiming her sister's house as her own main residence and pocketing £116,000 in Commons expenses into the bargain. New Labour, Old Sleaze.

More about it here from the Daily Mail.

Ron Paul latest take on the "stimulus" package

Here is Ron Paul, on 7th February, discussing the spending package, which is euphemistically called the stimulus package. Any hope that it will stimulate change is much needed, but it may just stimulate further problems.

Ron Paul in interstate milk sales bid

Following on from Ernie and the pot-pushing milkman from Burnley, here's another milk story. Ron Paul has introduced a bill "to authorize the interstate traffic of unpasteurized milk and milk products that are packaged for direct human consumption". Currently there is a ban on this, or at least interference from federal authorities.

Much is happening in the individual states and between the states currently. They are reawakening a desire for states rights over federal control. This bill is just one that follows that desire. More here at the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund's website. Personally I would encourage every support for this bill as it promotes free trade and does away with Nanny and her we-know-best Associates!

I'll drink to that.

Is Jo Brand turning PC?

I very much like Jo Brand. I think her humour is very observant and she delivers it well. However, I would think she may be a tad prickly in her private life. I think I got a glimpse of some body language that showed a decided amount of uncomfortableness when I saw her on the One Show sitting next to Carol Thatcher. Adrian Chiles was chivvying them along with his Brummie banter, but when Carol spoke Jo Brand shifted rather uneasily as if someone had broken wind. Carol was completeley oblivious.

My guess is that, when looking at that photo, she said something like "Ooh, look, his hair makes him look like the Robertson's golliwog. You know, the one on the jam pots. Tee hee. How funny!?!". Whereupon, Jo took umbrage and went all grumpy. BBC top brass then emerged like a mixture of Hattie Jacques, Joyce Grenfell and Alastair Sim all in a matronly/schoolmasterly manner.

"What's going on?", "Who said what?" and the whole ticking off process began. Jo Brand has said all manner of rude things and in the main they are funny. She is a funny woman. But I have noticed a more serious approach to life. I would hope she can be both serious and funny without being judgemental and unnecessarily PC about it all.

Because there are far too many people floating around in worthless positions just eager to get their PC adrenalin running. They must be neutered at the first opportunity!

Drug-dealing milkman spared jail

Benny Hill was a milkman once. He sang about Ernie. And Ernie gave a widow woman a bit more than gold tops on his regular round! Milkmen have long helped out their customers - in more ways than one.

Robert Holding is a milkman aged 72, which is a something to report in its own right. He received a suspended prison sentence at Burnley Crown Court yesterday for the supply and possession of cannabis. What? Yes, he's a drug trafficker! Heaven forfend. He must have been confused over the government's classification coding. Anyway, he's been supplying elderly customers, or so he says, with the drug to "ease their aches and pains". So he's now technically a criminal.

The judge said she was giving him the sentence as "an act of mercy" in light of his wife's illness. I suppose if she wasn't in a care home with Alzheimer's, the judge would have jailed him.

If you read this report in the Independent, you get the impression that the authorities took a very heavy hand. There is a large amount of pontification all round - the judge, the police and the CPS. It's a pity they don't take all that puffed up rage to the Ministry of Defence and ask what is being done to stop the real criminals in the Afghan drugs trade. It's no good spending a century in the hills shooting at the Taliban if the poppies flourish in the fields with impunity!

It's all a sense of priorities and proportion.

Get the abbey habit over the weekend

In these secular times it is hard for monks and nuns to keep up the numbers. Many of us may even think that monasteries are a thing of the past. Henry VIII tried his best to keep them at bay, once he had rifled the coffers and nicked the treasures. However, interest is still bubbling away, if only on a simmering heat.

You can have taster weekends to see if you want to enter the contemplative life. Worth Abbey is putting them on. The Monastic Taster Weekend is designed for men who want to explore whether a life of obedience, stability, poverty and chastity could be for them. Meanwhile, both young men and women can come on the Compass Project - a series of nine weekends. Neither has a specific charge to attend, although donations of up to £70 are accepted.

The BBC is reporting this today. However, it is a Roman Catholic initiative. I'd like to flag up the fact that there are also Anglican monks and nuns. They were restored in the Church of England by John Henry Newman and now there are communities all over the world. The oldest is the Society of St. John the Evangelist. The Retreat Association is a registered charity comprising six British Retreat Groups spanning differing Christian traditions, open to believers and non-believers alike.

Sometimes we are led to believe that monks and nuns are just one type - Roman Catholic. The truth is somewhat different. Here's a great sister act with Whoopi Goldberg and the sisters from the Community of the Holy Spirit (Episcopalian, New York).

Porn star for US Senate?

There have been some sexually explosive political representatives before, as with Ilona Staller, better known as the Italian porn star and former MP known as La Cicciolina. Now the state of Louisiana is about to get a chance to vote for, or at least draft, a porn star known as Stormy Daniels. She is going up against Senator David Vitter, who himself got into a spot of bother over having his name on a madam's phone list.

She will have to wait until next year before she could swap seats with Vitter in the US Senate, but perhaps she would be an honest addition to the representation spectrum. After all, many on Capitol Hill have been seen out at night. Remember Wilbur Mills? Having her in the Senate may make them think twice. I doubt she would conduct that kind of business inside the pot and they would be reminded all the time that America is not as squeaky clean as they might have us believe!

Sarkozy's sarcasm for Brown's budget

According to the BBC French President Nicolas Sarkozy has criticised Gordon Brown's economic stimulus plan. In a debate on French TV, Mr Sarkozy, whose handling of France's economy has prompted protests, said the UK's VAT cut had "absolutely not worked".

"Britain is cutting taxes. That will bring them nothing. Consumption continues to decrease," he said. That is very true, as David Cameron told the hapless PM.

I think Brown is just trying to bribe his way out of this mess. At least Sarkozy has the backbone to take the crisis head on, even if people find it hard going. Brown is just pouring money at the problem and gaining little ground. The voters won't thank him if the mess deepens for the majority with the bailed out businesses creaming off the top.

Talking of ground, I saw Lord Adonis on BBC News. His lordship is "talking" to local authorities about the snow. Five days of talking! Talk is cheap, but action is....

Jeremy Clarkson in one-eyed idiot row!

Jeremy Clarkson has sounded off about the economic mess in Britain. He has described Gordon Brown as "one-eyed Scottish idiot". Carol Thatcher likened Andy Murray, also Scottish, to the Robinson's jam golliwog. It is also alleged she meant a French tennis player. Who knows!

I'm having difficulty over this and so is the BBC. Clarkson earns more money than Thatcher, so I suppose the top brass are juggling egos, political correctness and financial expediency all up in the air like a Crackerjack act that Eamonn Andrews would recognise. The lawyers are grinding their teeth!

By the way, I'm wondering who Clarkson reminds me of in this picture!

UPDATE - Clarkson apologises.

Angry movie star versus calm pilot!

When is it good to be angry, and when is it good to be calm? The Today Programme asked this question. Which one? Um!! Christian Bale having a go at a lighting technician and Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger calmly talking to air traffic control about landing on the Hudson River.

Listen here!

Snow Sanity!

I walked to school today with the children. We were looking at Solihull Council's website until it was time to go. No "closure agenda" on for us. So we walked to school, but as we got nearer there were parents telling us that the schools were just shutting up shop. I walked on to find out the reality of it all.

One of the schools was actually open, technically, but "it was up to parents to decide whether they wanted their children to stay". The general gist of all this is that the chief executive had passed the responsibility for decision making onto the headteachers who were then left to impart to the assembled parents/carers/guardians that the final decision was theirs.

I'm not sure if I'm angry, sad or just bemused. We all walked or got there despite the snow. In fact everyone I spoke to thought there was no problem. However, the assumption is that snow is problematic. I can assure you that it is not so in Solihull today. We have a chief executive who appears to see snow as an automatic reason to close schools regardless. The assumption is that teachers cannot get in. They are the only ones in the workforce with this pre-existing difficulty. But I would have thought that, as a precautionary measure, teachers are asked whether they can get in if there is snow, so alternative arrangements can be made. (Always assuming that the roads are gritted, etc).

It is said that the playgrounds are unsafe for the children (for health and safety reasons) but not a finger has been lifted to clear them of snow. Independent schools carry on as normal, so why should the local education authorities think they are any different? If these chief executives cared about health and safety they would clear the snow from the playgrounds.

Now a sense of proportion would be nice, but I doubt that that is possible. If we have blizzards and everything generally resembles the Arctic, then nobody would or should demure from proaction. But it seems the chief executive works from closures first and then hopes that Mother Nature will bail him out. All the local government chief executives have been mumbling about snow and how this curse has suddenly afflicted them, rather like the Lady of Chalot. But an elementary geography lesson would tell them that wintry conditions like these are not a rarity in Britain. So no forward planning, no contingency arrangements, just a rough idea that things will get better if the sun shines! They are squabbling about salt and gritting supplies. Luckily Solihull has plenty, so the website tells us, but not enough for the schools to stay open apparently.

So what have I learned from all this? I think -

1. That local authorities close first in order to save money and have an easy life.
2. That nobody asks teachers if they would have any problems getting in should there be snow.
3. That independent schools generally take the opposite approach.
4. That playgrounds are deemed unimportant for snow clearance.
5. That there is no forward planning, or any that merits much attention.
6. That buckpassing is generally to be expected.

If we do not change our attitudes to this, then next winter will bring the same nonsense. Children are understanding that this is how it is. "My hands are tied!", is one thing they've heard. All we get is a vague "apology" - "We would like to apologise for the inconvenience this will cause".

Britain cannot cope with drought, with floods or with snow. The reason - because of underfunding and a propensity for washing of hands by those "in charge". They take the shilling but fail on the delivery.

Miliband in fake Commons denial!

David Miliband went to the House of Commons to assert that there was no truth in the United States intelligence services putting pressure on the UK authorities over intelligence sharing. This is in connection with the case of Binyam Mohamed, a 31 year old, originally from Ethiopia, once resident in the UK - and now into his fifth year of detention at Guantanamo Bay.

His lawyers are attempting to get him released but the Americans will go to any lengths to stop public knowledge of torture or cruel treatment being disclosed. Miliband's denial rings hollow. Channel 4 News has received a copy of a letter from John B Bellinger at the Department of State to Daniel Bethlehem, QC, at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. It indeed shows pressure is being put on the British.

If President Obama wants to cleanse the world of this travesty of natural justice that is Guantanomo Bay, he will put an end to this ridiculous game of cover-up and camouflage. Otherwise his whole presidency will be marred by the leaks, innuendo and murmerings that are fed by the continuation of this place as a detention centre. These prisoners should be tried or freed, but not incarcerated without any due process.

It is a stain on us all, perpetuated by men prepared to lie and pervert justice in order to satisfy a crazed notion that this place promotes security. I feel far less secure because it is a cancer festering and feeding off the hearts and minds of those we claim we are helping in the "War on Terror".

Fun time in the snow!

We did have some fun time in the snow this afternoon. I say in the snow, but it was more on a couple of inches of the stuff. Masses of people in Elmdon Park, Solihull toboganning down the hills. Lots of people walking about. Quite easy, actually.

I get back to see that the BBC is talking of "transport chaos warning over snow" and various other apocolyptic warnings about what snow can do. It's this sort of loose talk that befuddles the minds of local government chief executives.

Solihull roads were well-gritted today, but not enough for the teachers, who had all decided to take the day off, encouraged by their superiors. Salt levels are dangerously low, though. Paul Bettison of the Local Government Association told the BBC's Today programme that the UK should look to importing fresh supplies of salt. "That requires government to actually work with us all, and then we can do it as one - rather than, as we've seen, having this scrapping for what limited supplies are available," he said. Scrapping around is third world stuff. Surely they could anticipate that during an English winter the possibility of snow is more than likely.

I am amazed that people on high salaries have a very poor understanding of simple project management. It seems that unless they get a grip we will have all this on a year on year basis. Nothing learned, nothing gained!