Panorama on thursday

Call me sceptical, but why is the emotive subject of failures in the NHS midwifery service being shown on Thursday night (just before the polls close) and not on Monday instead. I cannot help but think that the BBC will do anything to soften any bad news for NU Labour

"Scoop of the Century"

On Sky news the PM was asked whether he would indeed be stepping down next week - His answer was that he was not going to give them the "Scoop of the Century". Does he really think that his resignation (which lets face it is hardly mind blowingly new news) would be that Scoop - the man is completely deluded!!!!!

Loss of faith?

Bearing in mind the mess at the NHS (super comuter useless, MTAS dister, increase in superbugs, sheets not being cleaned inbetween patiets to save money) the Home Office ( leaks, prisoners on the run, prisoners being compensated for human rights abuses, the state of the immigration service) DEFRA (farmers still not being paid whilst useless civil servants get bonuses) the FCO (margaret beckett in charge - what else can you say!) is it any surprise that people are being turned off from politics when none of these problems are considered urgent or serious enough for any of the people in charge to carry the can and resign! Even the PM himself is apparently going to stand down in order to deflect even worse news (how much worse can it get?) perhaps I had better not speak to soon things probably can only descend further with Mr Broon and his scottish mafia in charge!!!

Cash for honours

So if the Met's file to the CPS is only 216 pages long I would hope in a well run, efficient bureaucracy, that charges should be made by the end of the week - after all how long can it possibly take for a document that so short to be digested and acted upon!

Quote of the day yesterday

Kate Hoey in yesterday's debate on the Naval debacle said,

"I genuinely want to ask him, because it is the sort of question that the public will be asking, if a Secretary of State has made mistakes and admits that he has done something wrong, what sort of mistake does it take for him then to decide that he should offer his resignation?"

Exactly. In this government it appears no one has to be honourable enough to resign - and if for some obscure reason they do so then they are usually given another job in government within a few months! This government will no doubt urge us and the media to "move on" so that they can "get on with the job" and no doubt move on to bigger and better cock ups!

NHS super computer - or not!

There is quite alot in the press today about the NHS computer system which is the subject of a report out today. The telegraph has an interesting piece by Richard Bacon who serves on the PAC http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/04/17/do1702.xml. I bet that the 12billion wasted on this will not get anything like the publicity on the BBC or other news networks that the Olympic Budget got. At least at the end of 2012 we will finally have some top class sporting venues in the this country - not to mention the high speed rail link to stratford and the regeneration of the east end. I would much rather money was "wasted"on that project than on this computer system that will never work and was never wanted by the people that are expected to use it.

Gordon ignores experts advice again

No surprises that Gordon has ignored Bank of England advice and sold our gold from under us for a song - I can't help thinking that anything is up for grabs at a discount as far as he is concerned. Why however has the BBC chosen to ignore this story? I cannot find any mention of it in the BBC news website and I have not heard it mentioned on News 24 either, it is all over the papers and on Sky News and ITV news website - if he has to answer questions on parliament about it the BBC should be on the case. Yet again they are ignoring a story that is damaging to Broon and the Government.

Sale and Jason Robinson

It has been a very quiet week for blogging (easter holidays, kids at home and good weather hurrah!) The debacle over the cash for stories goes on. The decisions made by Des Browne were a disgrace and as he obviously is not respected by those who work for him - he should go. This government has been all to good at getting the press to "move on" following bad news - these decisions have damaged the reputation of the country and our brilliant armed forces and someone in this government should be made to be carry the can.

I had the pleasure to be at Egdeley Park last night, a great game, brilliant atmoshere and from a Sharks point of view a fairytale ending to Jason Robinson's club career. After such a troubled season it was great to finish the season on a high. After the game the there was a presentation and lap of honour by Billy Wizz. The only sad thing was that as the only Englishman to win and to score a try in a world cup final (not to mention the sucess that he has had in both codes of Rugby) you would have thought the there would have been a larger media presence for his final club bow. Jason has made himself available to be selected for England for the world cup in september, lets hope he still has a few more tries in him wearing a white shirt.

10 years ago

I apologise if I have a bit of a rant here but...10 years ago I moved with my husband to Phoenix Arizona. Arizona is the most beautiful state in the USA but it was a huge change for me as I came from a very small village 13 miles from a relatively small but fairly distinguished market town in west suffolk. What I found in Phx was eye opening - we moved into a large "master planned community" every house had electric garage doors (because security was the name of the game) and because of that we had only 3 conversations with our neighbours in the 3 3/4 years we lived there. It was a complete desert as far as community relations goes. When we came back we lived in Bath and to a certain extent the same happened - we lived in a commuter village and no one had the time for anyone. After 6 months we moved to Lancashire and things changed dramatically everyone here is outgoing and friendly and I am "Blessed" (as Zack Johnson kept saying last night on his masters victory) to live where I do now. It has the values of the village that I grew up in still, but the village I grew up in has now been taken over by communters and "trendy "people who want to live in a converted barn. The moral of this story is that this government has to protect the rural way of life because without it this country is going to die. It has to make sure that there are homes for locals in villages and it has to start protecting farms, farmers and rural people as they are the only ones left who seem to represent the "community" that those of all parties aspire to. It is time for the rural communities to show the way and for the government to respect and cherish that.

Confirmation of Virgin Pilot story

The telegraph has a piece here about my previous post http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/08/npilot08.xml
I hope that the sun will print a full apology to the poor guy concerned and Virgin Atlantic (somehow I doubt it though!)

The Scumbag journos at the Sun

I have been away for a few days (kids on holiday etc) but one headline that grabbed my attention was that in the Sun on monday about the airline pilot who was arrested at LHR at taken off in handcuffs for being drunk. Accordring to Pprune (the professional pilots network) this story has turned out to be rubbish. The pilot was not drunk and not handcuffed. The fact that the Sun managed to put this all over the front page probably has more to do with a Murdoch owned company trying to damage Virgin's reputation and obviously has no basis in fact. I hope the Pilot concerned will make a formal complaint on his own behalf and Virgin should seriously consider action as well

US congress backing - NOT

According to Matt Drudge Nancy Pellosi has not allowed congress to put forward a motion backing the UK in the current situation with Iran. She is however going to visit Syria. What should the UK make of this - a slap in the face I should think. Shame on you congress I hope you enjoy your easter break!

God help us and the 15 servicemen

So Margaret Beckett should have been demoted after the debacle at Defra re the single farm payment (about time someone said that) I live in a rural area and know of many farmers for whom the single farm payment caused real hardship,anguish, frustration and a great deal of fury. Luckily Margaret was put to one side along with her assistant (husband Leo) so they could not do any harm anywhere important.....DOH! is it any surprise that the Iranians are ignoring our pleas to let the 15 servicemen go. Blair only has himself to blame for putting a complete inept into the FO.

Blair to resign

So according to the Times yesterday Blair threatened to resign if questioned under caution (I have do doubt this is true as Blair has already shown the lengths he will go to to cling onto power- so for that matter have all his cronies (when was the last time a public employee who was arrested was not placed on suspension pending the outcome of the investigation? - oh yes Ms Turner!) Anyway - assuming that the Times piece was fully researched (and I haven't heard anyone from No 10 banging on about leaks etc this time and no injuctions have been sought) then WHY is it that none of the TV news reports have mentioned this fact - it would appear that Tony IS a suspect and not just a witness - surely this is significantly more important news than a memo/email which took up all the headlines 2 weeks ago.

Party Animals

Can't believe that the series has finished - I loved it, great storyline, great acting...but what did Scott send to Ashika at the end? I hope the Beeb commission another series and this time give it some publicity I am sure it could turn into a main stream hit and you never know some of the country's yoof might even enjoy it and take a little bit more interest in what goes on in westminster

Budget day

Cameron had a brilliant speech from what I saw. Humerous but still right on the money with criticisms of Brown himself and the Budget in general. Cameron has put the best performance I have seen since he began his leadership..Methinks that Brown will be really worried about PMQs (assuming the Labour party are stupid enpugh to annoint him) after this.

Global Warming

I sat and watched the Channel four documentary on global warming last night that I had skyplussed 10 days ago. OH My GOD! Even if half of what they said is true we are all well and truly being led up the garden path by a bunch of ex CND tree huggers and no one , no matter how expert they are in their field, seem to be able to stop this misinformation being put out. It comes to something when the founder of greenpeace thinks that the whole increase in man made carbon link to global warming is Bolleaux. I hope that some politican other than Lord Lawson of Blaby puts his head above the parapet and speaks out and soon or else we are all going to be taxed to death for absolutley no reason whatsoever!

Back from Hols

Back from a brilliant weeks skiing in france, now I only have 15000 loads of washing to do!

Hols

Off on Holiday at the crack of dawn tomorrow for a weeks skiing. Fingers crossed that Yates of the Yard waits for me to get back! Did anyone see Nick Robinson on This week last night - he hinted that his source for the gagged document was inside number 10 - no surprises there then!

Excellent article in this mornings telegraph, about Blair and his "gang". Well worth a read (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/03/08/do0802.xml)
There is only one good thing about the fully elected house of lords vote - at least Tony Blair won't get a seat! Otherwise all that is going to happen is that we (the Taxpayer) will have a whole load more professional politicans, who have never done anything more than SpAd, researcher, or party jobs, to support. I really cannot see how this is going to be the answer all cross benchers will be gone and nobody will act independantly to stop badly drafted legislation. It really is a terrible decision in my view

Illegals

Texting Illegal immigrants and asking them to got home! Now I know the government has really lost the plot!

EDMs and Awards gone mad

I would like to congratulate Dizzy for finding another waste of taxpayers money in the EDM being put down on giving Bob Paisley a postumous award (http://dizzythinks.blogspot.com/) As talented as Bob Paisley was or may have been I'm not sure that he could donate to the labour party from beyong the grave (although Levy might like to try as all living donors seem to have disappeared) I am sure that all the constituents of the Labour MP who asked the PM to support this EDM in PMQs today are really pleased that she thinks that this is the most important question that needs to be answered on their behalf.

Dodgy Dossier

So the dodgy dossier returns (see the story on http://www.blairwatch.co.uk) This is exactly what the FOI act was for in my opinion, to stop the government cover ups. I always thought that although Gilligan's story was a bit sloppy in it's reporting , Campbell would never have gone after the story like a terrier after a rabbit unless he was desperate to discount it because was the truth. I hope that the draft dossier is published as soon as possible and I hope that for once the BBC will show some backbone and give it full coverage.

Parenting

I cannot be bothered to listen to his Tonyness at his monthly briefing this morning. Having listened to the Today interview last week which was full of complete b*****ks I cannot be bothered to waste my time again today. Congratulations to Despatches last night at least they asked Patty H some uncomfortable questions on where all our money has gone in the NHS. I cannot remember the BBC showing anything which even questions the governments policy/view on anything in years.

No doubt Tone will be asked about the whole family thing today. Cameron is right that 2 parents are better at bringing kids up than one - however I know of plenty of brilliant single parents who do their best and whose kids are a credit to them. What the politicans should be concentrating on is the young girls who seem to thing that single parenthood is a career choice. I have an aquaintance whose 16 year old got pregnant last year. She had been in a relationship with the baby's father for all of 3 weeks before she got pregnant but she decided she wanted to keep the baby without consultation with him. It was a career choice for her and more attractive than going to college or getting a job (she is not stupid and had a place at college already). A year down the line she has her own house, a latest state of the art £500 brand new pram (paid for by a grant) and her and the boyfriend are no longer together. The girl in question has suggested (if not bragged) that she can sit on her bum, looking after her child and still has more money coming in than her ex boyfriend who has 2 jobs- one full time and another one in the evenings. The fact that some of our teenagers think that it is ok to have a child/children and for the rest of us to pick up the bill has got to be addressed.

London 2012

Another sunday another series of stories about the 2012 overspend in the papers yesterday. It seems to me however that most of the budget seems to have little to do with the actual costs of the 20 odd days of sport for the olympics and para olympics. Shouldn't the regeneration costs come under the remit of Ruth Kelly? it is a community thing. The transport into Stratford was well underway before the inspection visit by the IOC in Feb 2005 so that money was being spent before we knew we had even won the bid. It really is about time the 2012 organisers stopped getting blamed for everything. I really hope that the Olympics are a huge success I just wish that this government had managed to stop trying to micro manage the games - look at the examples of Twickenham and the Enirates stadium - both wonderful stadia built without tax payers money on time and more inportantly on budget. We should be getting the people who have project managed these to run the construction of the olympic facilities. Too mch interference by government does not work Wembley is a prime example of this. We still have five years five months to go before the opening ceremony , if Tony Blair really wants a legacy how about making sure that they are the best games ever!

PS I would still rather that the government spent 9 billion on the olympics, a much better use of our money than the estimated 20 billion A YEAR on a national road pricing scheme

Croke Park this evening

Now don't get me wrong...I am an out and out English Rugby Fan. There is nothing like being at Twickenham and hearing the National Anthem. I love the game and particularly all that it stands for (which is the opposite of everything in English Football).. but I have to say that, despite SF trying to stir up anti English feeling all over again, the Rugby fans at Croke park were magnificent tonight. Their respect for the National Anthem and the English Team was exemplary. It was however a great shame that we were stuffed by what was a superior performance, man for man, from every single Irish player(Oh why didn't they stuff the french in the same way!) Congratulations to the Irish - A fine example of sportsmanship both by their spectators and their Players.

pendolino trains

I use the Virgin West coast service a few times a year, always off peak and I always know in advance when I am going. This means I can always pick up cheap 1st class returns and I think the service is excellent just the same as their excellent airline service. It always runs on time and there are some services that go direct from Preston straight to Euston which takes a mere 2hours 11 mins. I can take that long to get into manchester by car! Having looked at the pictures of the crash this morning I will be more than happy using the Virgin pendolino service in the future, the carriages must be well engineered to have withstood a derailment at that speed and I am sure alot of people have survived that would not have done in older rolling stock.

Favourite blogs

My daily blogs include:

Iain Dale http://www.iaindale.blogspot.com/
Guido Fawkes http://5thnovember.blogspot.com/
Blairwatch http://www.blairwatch.co.uk/
Dizzy http://dizzythinks.blogspot.com
The choosen man http://www.the-chosen-man.blogspot.com/

I also read loads of others and will add them in due course.

This Week

Did anyone watch This Week last night? - a most interesting interview with Lily Allen who was asked about why she thought that some of our youth turn to crime, guns,pregnancy etc. The first reason she gave was because mothers are not at home anymore they are all working and the kids are being brought up in day care - this comment was completely ignored by Andrew et al. It is a real shame that the powers that be don't listen properly to young people they do talk alot of sense. We should be bringing back a married/partners tax allowances which encourages couples to stay together to bring up their children together & not leaving them to their own devices.

Welcome

Hi I am southerner up north.

Welcome to my blog and my life.

I hope that unlike the Blogger in Egypt I will live the blogging experience without going to jail! although getting put in jail is obviously harder than it should be bearing in mind that that Lizzie woman from wife swap avoided jail today (having been previously convicted of benefit fraud and failed to do her sentence for that misdemeanour, and now had a conviction for child cruelty) Perhaps it is time the government and our esteemed (not) leader stopped looking for a legacy and spent more time worrying about how to stop this country going down the pan and how to look after the decent law abiding, tax paying citizens of this country that pay their wages and the benefits of the poeple like Lizzie whatever her name is.