Who’d have thanked it? A dangerously incompetent Prime Minister outfoxing the Sun on…. POLITICS! Lord Mandersdorf deftly brought up the rear (ooh,err, missus).

If you read the comments on any website the sympathy is with Brown and not the person the Sun is using representing. That’s a lost war for the Sun.

Now that the SUN has offended a lot of its readers – shouldn’t it – err – apologise to them?

After all, that’s what it expects in spades of everyone else.

knock on my door at 2.

No thanks.

 

ie about one of Jo Crotty’s interns in Warrington  – they could actually be investigating the current state of play of Warrington South which has become a 3-way marginal. Just a thought.

I would recommend anyone that is politically active to listen to the latest `file on four` (available to the 14/11/089) on high frequency trading. And if anyone had any doubts on the LIBERAL DEMOCRAT policy about seperating the normal retail banking that involves itself with SMES, mortgages and savings etc and the high frequency trading where shares can be traded in milliseconds I’d like to hear the explanations and what their own huge bank balance is.

In the programme it told how there’s a two-tier share trading system between the usual type where you phone up a broker to the ones where institutions trade with each other via computers using algorithms with no people involved. Worse than that these computer systems actually snoop on the first type of traders `to get ahead of them` to make huge profits.

There are also `dark pools` that are off-exchange, if you like, where pension funds trade shares with each other.

In other words companies (peoples jobs) are treated as playthings. Perhaps these people can own up to this and reveal all?

Apparently, these `casino operations` will distort our economy by making banks even more cautious about lending thus creating more unemployment.

And if that worries someone as conservative as Lord Myners it should worry everyone. Pity the message hasn’t sunk in with his boss Gordon Brown who refuted the idea when it was put to him by Nick Clegg. The point is that no regulatory body can properly regulate these operations yet should they go bust they’ll ask to be bailed out.

Is it any surprise that the name of Goldman Sachs reared its ugly head. They have profited greatly from the credit crunch and now are jealously guarding their algorithmic code. Still, perhaps the CEO can explain how that is in keeping with God’s plan for prosperity. It’s certainly not to do with driving down commission  prices for the benefit of ordinary people – just for the super-rich like himself. The last banking crisis seemed to be created by self-delusionists – we don’t want another one.

In my opinion if Gordon Brown doesn’t understand the gravity of what the File on Four programme portrays then he is DANGEROUSLY INCOMPETENT.

If Government means anything it means dealing with things way before the curve (not ten years behind like Gordon Brown). Many people are realising that they can no longer afford the ineffective failings of Labour. They view Labour as old-fashioned, over-powered and over-indulged.

Furthermore, it is imperative that we reform the financial system in the way Vince Cable does so that our broken democracy doesn’t crumble any further. Should wealth inequalities grow wider we will see geographical inequalities grow in an equal amount – that will give assistance to extreme forces to the detriment of the law-abiding majority.

Of course, should that ever happen, the ferrari-driving bankers won’t be anywhere to be found.

If this doesn’t make intelligent people think about Gordon Brown and Labour in a negative light I don’t know what will.

Well done to Cowley Street. From what I can see they knock the two other main parties into a cocked hat. 10/10.

I noted that although we weren’ t given a space on QT last night we still had Nick Herbert attacking us without anyone giving a reply. Fine you might think it happens – there’ll be some balance by a non- Lib Dem person putting the Lib Dem case on something else. NO!

Imagine my lack of surprise when on This Week Diane Abbot espoused Lib Dem policy on Glass-Steigel type acts and divorcing retail banking from casino type affairs. Did Andrew Neil say `Vince Cable of the Lib Dems put the same point are you cosying up to them?` NO! When Tom Conti said `no one seems to know what’s happening on the banks (to which Portillo/Abbot agreed! – I mean what on earth was Tom Conti on there for talking about the banks) no one said `Vince Cable of the Lib Dems seems to understand a thing or two`.

Nah, well it’s all a bit of a cosy two-party stitch-up.

I’ve sent in my complaint about This Week and added the point about balance on QT.

 

 

Chilli Massalla - best little Indian in Stockport!

Great to see my local Indian winning the prize of best Indian restaurant in Stockport Borough. The other restaurant it went up against in the final is in Cheadle.

I am a regular and I’m never disatisfied with either the food or the service. In fact, it’s a near hidden gem in the local area.

The picture shows the staff with the Environment Cabinet member and Stockport PPC, Stuart Bodsworth.

 

 

Like most I get fed up with the Mirror’s incessantly jaundiced view of the Lib Dems. I suppose when you get the polling figures I get in what should be Labour areas you feel you have to kick back. So imagine my surprise when at my local Indian I saw the article by Nick Clegg in the Mirror!

Well done Cowley Street – your efforts don’t go unnoticed. Perhaps the Mirror has seen the writing on the wall and want to push back against the Tories in a wider fashion?

Oh dear – it’s been alleged on OUTeverywhere (LGBT social networking site) that a BBC radio correspondent (and one of the experts in his field), at an industry do, joked and I’ll quote the OUTer: `The joke came as part of an anecdote about David Coleman where he affected a camp voice several times as the “BBC producer” talking to Coleman, and he said in passing “by the way, if you’re ever in a meeting with a BBC producer and you drop your script, make sure you kick it to the side of the room before bending over to pick it up”.

I wonder what our friend Evan Davis has to say about that?

btw the attendee noted that it didn’t raise many laughs and the person who was the host of his table apologised profusely asking whether or not he had been offended (even though it was nothing to do with him).

Just had a contre-temps with a Tory on OUTeverywhere (LGBT social networking site) dismissing my view that the BNP won’t get any MPs in May/June as complacent viz `It’s attitudes like yours that will allow the BNP through the back door`. I hate this little shit anyway as he never declared his Tory views until it was safe to do so and just shrilly panics about the place.

Anyway, what it got me thinking is that there  are two views of democracy – one that we will be pricking the Tory/Labour bubble to get some more seats and another that we are heading for something different – a multi-party democracy.

The BNP are gaining votes in the `forgotten` places with the `white working class` as they don’t like Labour anymore and although in immigration terms  find the Tories attractive realise that their economic policies default to `doffing their caps to the rich`. This leaves a gap for both the BNP and the Lib Dems.

Could it be that 2% is the natural BNP level of support? That the Conservatives at 40% will be a high water mark. That perhaps we will end up like the rest of Europe – with substantial votes for a fascist party; a hard right party (UKIP); a soft left to hard centre party (Lib Dems); a soft right party (Cons) and a hard left party (Respect)?

Could it be that the authoritarian nature of the Tories and Labour on democratic renewal is simply one of holding back this tide after all? The implications of Tories 40%, Labour 25%, BNP 2%, Greens 5%, Respect 3%, LDs 25% is huge – it would require re-thinking EVERYTHING about how our democratic structure operates as well as our voting system.