English Opinion

It has taken me until now to calm down enough to write about the vital 2009 Budget that was announced today. In effect, it is the fiscal policy that will dictate the British economy actions and events until at least November this year and possible May next year should Alasdair Darling, the Chancellor decline to revise the budget beforehand. I cannot help thinking that we are all in a quagmire that is none of our own doing and the incompetant, UNELECTED Prime Minister in his previous role as Chancellor has effectively dragged us into the worst economic period in British history since World War II.

Britain’s domestic borrowing this year will amount to £175 BILLION. Who can even envision how much money that is? Bearing in mind our 60 million population and relatively modest GDP in terms of that of other countries and you will see just how far this reaches. We will be paying for it for years to come and so will our children. The unborn will undoubtedly suffer because of a deluded idiot that has somehow managed to cheat his way into power (at least, if you believe the allegations about smear campaigns coming from emails sent by his closest former advisor, Damien McBride). 

I really begrudge watching the Budget and seeing Gordon Brown’s smarmy face smiling as if he actually thinks he is doing us a favour by announcing measures that will get us deeper into debt as a nation and ultimately lie firmly at his door in terms of blame. Although public spending has not been cut as yet, Brown has used it as a tool to beat the Conservatives with. Public spending cust have been announced, most notably from the NHS, but will not come in until AFTER the next general election, meaning that the Torys will have to take the flack for it when they get in. He is also applying a 50% tax to those earning over £150,000. I really object to this. I earn nowhere near that much (trust me I wish I did) but why should people that have worked bloody hard to get to where they are have their salaries cut in half when the government and banks are to blame for the mess we are in? I know the argument - they can afford it etc etc but that is not the point. Would you like it if some politician knocked on your door, demanded half your salary, blamed you for a national debt that he caused and then got on the phone to his buddy in Whitehall who happened to be fiddling his expenses for him at that very moment? No! A bit melordramatic maybe but  I am so angry right now a rant seemed the only way to go!

Oh, and before some Labourite starts to comment on how wrong and pro-upper class I am I would just like to say that this is MY opinion, I am not a Conservative supporter and actually voted Labour when I was 18 (for my sins), I am allowed to object to a government that is ruining my country, I am from a working class background and I DID NOT ELECT Gordon Brown as my leader! I wouldn’t put him in charge of a goldfish let alone a country. Brown kissed butt and stabbed people in the back to get where he is and no member of the electorate has ever elected him… hopefully nobody ever will.

Rant over!

I absolutely adore Italy. The country is beautiful, the people are incredibly friendly, the food is gorgeous and I married my husband there almost two years ago now. We often talk about moving to Sorrento or the surrounding area because it is a fantastic country but we are both well aware of the natural lay of the land, so to speak. Hell, we could see Mount Vesuvius, the volcano that buried Pompeii, from our hotel room. Italy is located on two of the most volatile tectonic plates on the Earth’s crust… as nature proved again a few days ago.

The earthquake that reduced L’Aquila, a 13th Century city, to rubble measured 5.5 on the Richter Scale. The death toll currently stands at over 270 with a further 1,000 being injured and 28,000 being homeless as a result. They are currently being forced to sleep in tents with nothing but basic amenities because they have nowhere else to go. My heart goes out to them, especially those that have lost their entire families. People are still being pulled out of the rubble, with one rescued alive today, but the huge aftershocks are not helping matters at all… and neither is their PM.

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi demonstrated today just how out of touch he is with the people of L’Aquila. His comments are absolutely astounding:

They have medicaments. They have hot food. They have shelter for the night. Of course, their current lodgings are a bit temporary. But they should see it like a weekend of camping.

Does Berlusconi have any idea what his people are going through, what it feels like to have lost everything you have ever worked for in just a few moments? Does he know what it feels like to sleep four in a bed in a makeshift tent when the temperatures dip below freezing? Does he know what it’s like to see your whole family wiped out? No, the priviledged leader has no idea. He only opens his mouth to change feet anyway but this time he has seriously insulted his own people in as callous a way possible. I hate to say it but he actually makes Gordon Brown look good.

My thoughts are with the people of L’Aquila and I hope they can rebuild their city and their lives in the coming months and years.

Hey all - I’m back! I’ve been away dealing with my Depression for a month or so and feel an awful lot better than I did when I posted last. More about that another day though. Today I want to post about an amazing lady that died overnight. Jade Goody finally lost her battle with cervical cancer.

I posted some time ago when it was announced that her cancer was terminal, wishing Jade Goody and her boys all the best. However, she lost her long and hard battle for life at 3.14am this morning… on Mothers Dayl. If ever there was a cruel irony to her battle with cervical cancer this was it. She wanted to spend her last Mothers Day wih her boys but never got the chances to do so. She was just 27.

No matter what you think about Jade Goody or the way in which she has conducted her battle with cervical cancer in the public eye, you have to hope that her legacy wil live on. Although she was a reality TV star, it will be her untimely death at the age of 27 that saves more lives than any other event in recent history. Her public battle with cervical cancer has finally encouraged the thousands of women that had never had one before to go and get a smear. This will be Jade’s legacy and will undoubtedly and ironically save countless lives… despite the fact that Jade herself lost her life in the process.

Rest In Peace Jade x

The Labour government has yet again demonstrated just how much faith it has in our educational system… the very educational system that it was supposed to improve and make into the cornerstone of society. Now FE (Further Education) and HE (Higher Education) institutions have been told that they have to deter extremism. Short of actually coming out and accusing Britain’s universities of fostering an extremist minority, the government could not have made a more obvious attempt to control the minds of tomorrow!

Gordon Brown and his Labour cronies have decided to put into force a set of guidelines that will essentially regulate what students can discuss within the lecture and seminar halls. In other words, they are effectively developing “Big Brother” and using the education system tospy on ordinary citizens in yet another blatant abuse of the system.

The BBC said that “The guidelines will address how staff and students can create space for free and open debate and break down segregation between different student communities.” In fact, it will only heighten segregation if it is to put barriers in the way of education and single out certain lines of conversation as subversive and extremist.

I am all for stamping out terrorism. I abhor it and cannot understand why people feel the need to needlessly murder so many innocents in the name of a god that surely would not approve of so much bloodshed. Before getting into the Qu’ran interpretation debate though, I cannot see how restricting what students are talking about will help to stamp out extremism. Surely it will drive potential terrorists further underground because they will not be distingushing themselves from law abiding citizens in the classroom. Those hell bent on becoming suicide bombers will become terrorists no matter what but only by learning from past events and present occurrences can we move beyond them and learn from them. Restricting discussion is only restricting the civil liberties of people that will never break the law in such a way. If we haven’t broken the law then why are we going to be the ones that get punished yet again?

I was shocked and saddened to hear the news that a plane has crashed into a house in Buffalo, New York in the early hours of this morning. I think many of us are trained to hear the worst after 9/11 when we hear that a plane has a crashed in a residential area but this looks like it is just a terrible accident. Continental flight 3407 flying from Newark to Buffalo Niagara plummeted into a single house after making a series of severe pitches and rolls. Apparently the crew had noticed a build up of ice on the wings. Although that report in unconfirmed as yet, there was apparently nothing to suggest mechanic failure occurred on Continental flight 3407.

Luckily enough, a woman and child were able to escape from the house in Buffalo that the plane hit but another person was not so lucky. There were also 49 people killed aboard Continental flight 3407, 4 of which were crew. I want to extend my condolances to the families of those killed because it was undoubtedly a real tragedy.

The second airplane that came down did so today at London City Airport. The British Airways flight from Amsterdam lost its front wheels as it touched down and made an incredibly hard landing that could have been so much worse than it actually was. None of the passengers or crew were badly injured or killed so we should all be incredibly thankful about that. The pilot apparently reacted admirably and deserves a lot of credit for landing the plane without extensive damage occurring.

It seems that the weather is not only affecting our ability to get to work and stay on the road but also now to stay in the air and indeed on the runway. Here’s hoping that no more such incidents occur in the near future!

Sir James Crosby, the man hand picked by Gordon Brown to act as one of the chief regulators of the City, has today resigned from his post at the Financial Services Authority after his previous judgement has seriously been brought into question. When he was the head of HBOS, Crosby was warned by his Head of Risk, Paul Moore, that the bank was taking unacceptable risks and growing too fast. Moore was effectively a whistleblower when he advised Crosby and his cronies that their policies would ultimately lead to the downfall of the bank and indeed it has. Moore alleges that he warned Crosby repeatedly and that, when they did not like what he had to say, they simply got rid of him. In fact, Moore was just trying to safeguard our best interests whilst Crosby was trying to safeguard his.

One question remains though - if Moore saw the crash coming then why did nobody else?

Following this news, David Cameron rightly accused Gordon Brown of being just as reckless with the taxpayer’s money as Crosby had been himself. After all, Brown was relying on Crosby for financial advice and expected him to regulate the bankers and their extortionate bonuses. He was trusting a man that sacked an advisor that dared to question the bankers’ greed and advise against it! If this does not point to corruption in the UK government and finance system then I don’t know what does! Unsurprisingly, Brown refused to comment and avoided Cameron’s questions

In other news, the head of the Bank Of England, Mervyn King, commented on the state of the UK’s financial state today and basically said that we’re heading into deep recession. The recession, according to Mr King, is far worse than the Bank of England initially anticipated to the point at which interest rate cuts will not be enough to drag us out of it. Batton down the hatches people because we’re going to be in for a rough few years!

I’ve said before that I’m a huge fan of football (the “soccer” kind mainly) and am a lifelong fan of Aston Villa. I’ve seen some amazing days in the Premier League but I have to say that my jaw has been on the floor twice today. I found out this morning that Tony Adams, manager of Portsmouth, was sacked last night and just 30 minutes ago I found out that Luiz Felipe Scolari, manager of Chelsea, was sacked this afternoon! I’m shockd by both decisions to tell you the truth, but for different reasons.

Tony Adams had only been in charge of Portsmouth for 22 games over 15 weeks following the desertion of Harry Redknapp to Spurs. Having played Portsmouth since (Villa, not me!) and watched them on TV numerous times, I thought they were playing well. Although the points have hardly been forthcoming with Pompey only winning 2 out of the 15 league games they played under Tony Adams, I thought that the players were more to blame than Adams himself. The tactics were solid in theory but the players often made silly mistakes that cost their team points. And of course then there were some of Harry’s men that just didn’t want to play for Adams. We’re told that wasn’t the case but you can see it in their body language. All told, although Portsmouth are only a point off the relegation zone as the Premier League stands at the moment, I feel really sorry for Tony Adams. I like him and wish him luck. After all, if a club won’t back you with money to bring in players and will sack you because they don’t think they’ll be able to sell the club with you on board then they aren’t worth the stress and hassle. Good luck Tony!

And now on to Scolari!

Chelsea drew with Hull at the weekend and went 4th in the league as Villa (woo hoo!) overtook them after winning at Blackburn. The supporters have been going mad over Scolari for some time now and booed the team off at the weekend. Chelsea started off the season well but have slipped in recent weeks, drawing and losing key games without actually looking like a credible threat in front of goal. There have been rumours of player rifts, most notably with Didier Drogba, and no end of crazy interviews that have suggested he lost the plot. However, I have to say I was shocked because I, like many other supporters, thought he’d go at the end of the season rather than right about now. As it stands though Luiz Felipe Scolari is now without a job and Chelsea are looking for a manager! There are two names on the shortlist as it stands - Guus Hiddink is one of them and the other one made me laugh out loud - Avram Grant!!! If Grant goes back to Chelsea after being sacked last season then he needs his head read! Sorry Chelsea fans, nothing against you but I can’t believe he’d want to return after the way he was treated last year! Jose Mourinho has ruled himself out of the post though so no welcome return.

On another note, why couldn’t Scolari resign after Chelsea played Villa in 2 weeks time?!!!

It is a fact that weather systems the world over keep us all on our toes but the extreme weather conditions many of us seem to be facing at the moment could not be more different. In fact, the ends of the Earth are quite literally poles apart in terms of the weather. It is snowing again in the Midlands of the UK, which is highly unusual for us given the level of snow we’ve had in the past week or so. However, in Australia they are having the most extreme heat they have had in quite some time. Unfortunately that heat has caused numerous bush fires to occur, which has in turn led to unprecedented numbers of deaths throughout the country.

The bush fires in Southern Australia have been caused by consistantly high temperatures that have topped 40C. Many are raging out of control, thus leaving hundreds of homes razed to the ground and thousands more homes without power. The death toll currently stands at 93 across Victoria and New South Wales, but that only includes the confirmed deaths. There are thought to be scores more bodies that have yet to be found. Of course, nobody will know that actual figure until the fires have been brought under control but my heart goes out to the families that re waiting on news of their loved ones. With communications being incredibly difficult and power outages being present throughout the area, it must be absolutely heartbreaking not knowing whether brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, children, grandparents, uncles, aunts and close friends are safe or not.

The firefighters and services that are currently fighting the Australian bush fires are doing an amazing job and are literally fighting the fires every step of the way. Unfortunately nature is preventing them from bringing the fires under control at the moment but I really hope they can prevail soon because this loss of life and loss of the natural environment to the flames is a major catastrophe that ultimately leads to tragedy. My thoughts are certainly with the people in Southern Australia at this time. 

Sharon Shoesmith’s gone and done it again! The former Head of Children’s Services in Haringey when Baby P was brutally murdered by his mother and step-father and now public hate figure seems to have opened her mouth again just to change feet. She was interviewed for BBC Radio 4 and will appear on the Weekend Woman’s Hour today in full. Excerpts of the interview have appeared on the BBC website in advance and I’m going to be incredibly interested to listen to the interview on the strength of it. Although I’m reserving judgement until I have actually heard the interview, Ms Shoesmith may well have gotten herself into more hot water with the public for quotes like the following:

“Of course I’ve been distressed about this, of course I have, and had many sleepless nights over it,” she said.

“But if there’s a young person killed through knife crime this weekend, and I hope there isn’t, do we expect the borough commander of that London borough to resign? We don’t, we don’t.”

Sharon Shoesmith did lose her job over the Baby P case but she seems to be forgetting that her job role was to oversee and ensure the care of children, to remove them from abusive homes and to ensure that they can grow up safe and secure. Unfortunately for Baby P, she did not do that and no amount of justifications like those above can vindicate her or any of the people that failed to spot more then 50 existing injuries that Baby P was carrying at the time he died. She should have had sleepless nights because if she did not then that would mean she didn’t care, but she isn’t going to gain any fans by coming out with the above. The borough Commander of London oversees millions and ensures that the city is as safe as it can possibly be. Sharon Shoesmith oversaw nowhere near that many children and should have been committed to doing what was best for them. Her chart waving, statistics spouting attitude belied that at the time.

I will be listening this afternoon because I actually want to hear what she has to say but instead of giving a full scale interview and digging a deeper hole for herself, she may just want to consider a simple apology. After all, her interviews drew attention to her at the time and it was the way she appeared in those interviews that sparked the witch hunt she apparently refers to in the interview. The thing is, if she had done her job properly then an independent report should have vindicated her. It didn’t.

There’s just one thing that’s bugging me though - when did it become all about her for Sharon Shoesmith instead of all about Baby P?

Jeremy Clarkson is a bit like Marmite - you either love him or hate him. I fall into the former category because I think the bloke is absolutely awesome! He is incredibly insightful, funny and has a habit of saying what a high proportion of society is thinking… which cannot be said for most TV personalities today. Most of them are being censored and threatened with the sack should they say or do anything that could be considered even mildly offensive! Take Christine Bleakley, presenter of The One Show, as an example. She used a Soda Stream machine live on air earlier this week and it made a sound that was reminiscent of someone farting (for want of a better term). You could tell that the machine had made the sound but Bleakley got complaints from the Mary Whitehouse brigade, all of whom now see it as their moral duty to take all entertainment off our TVs! Pathetic!

At least Jeremy Clarkson has the balls to stand up to the system… even if he is forced to apologise afterwards!

Clarkson, host of the ever popular Top Gear, landed himself in hot water this week and was forced to apologise for calling Gordon Brown a “one-eyed Scottish idiot.” The jibe about his lack of sight in one eye was definitely in poor taste and he was right to apologise for that… but I’m glad Clarkson halted his apology right there. His choice of wording was incredibly poor and he shouldn’t have said it but everyone has a right to say what they think in this country so the sentiment behind the rant was warranted. He did not apologise for airing his views and nor should he. Clarkson is a proud Brit and, all offensive material aside, he cares about this country, as we all should do considering the Labour Party is on a one man crusade to ruin it!

Clarkson went on to say: “He keeps telling us everything’s fine and he’s saved the world and we know he’s lying, but he’s smooth at telling us.” People need to point out Gordon Brown’s lies for all to see because they are becoming so plentiful these days that it’s hard to see the wood for the trees. Many brand Clarkson as bitter, but he has every right to be… as do the rest of us. This government has effectively thrown away all our freedoms. Big Brother is always watching via a range of systems so we cannot say and do as we please anymore without everything being recorded. Our ancestors worked hard for freedom from feudalism and yet we’re being controlled just as much now but in different ways. We live in a nanny state in which upper class men that have never experienced true hardship seem to think they know what is best and make us tow the line.

And so I say again, long live Jeremy Clarkson! Come on everyone - find the backbone of Britain and say no to the nanny state!