Alans rant

Britain is the second largest net contributor to the EU budget. Over £250 for every household in the UK goes to the money pit that is the EU. The greatest sink of the budget is the Common Agricultural Policy. Between them Germany and France get 36% of the CAP pot; Britain gets 9%.

If Britain were to pull out of the EU there would be an enormous black hole in the budget.

They need Britain in the EU as a primary financial contributor. Perhaps they should think twice before they throw their weight around.

The situation regarding the Euro have not changes one jot since the beginning of last week. The summit that was billed to solve the Euro Crisis has done absolutely nothing. All you need to do is keep and eye on the markets. Sarkozy and Merkel have solved nothing except upset the British – never a wise thing to do!!

Last night I had a dream. I dreamt that Frederick the Great of Prussia, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Adolf Hitler, King Louis XIV and The Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte were all standing around a table on which stood a pile of Euro bank notes. They all looked at each other and, in unison, said, “Why didn’t we think of that?”

No doubt Mr Sarkozy will return to Paris, waving a piece of paper saying, “Economic peace in our time!”

The tragedy is that this latest summit has solved nothing. The economic dos and don’ts are little different from the Maastricht treaty. And what happened then? The first nation to break the rules was Germany! From then on they weren’t worth the paper they were written on.

This “new” treaty will not come into force for another ten years. It will take that long before the collective debt of the euro zone is under control. I just hope that the other countries in the euro zone will see the light before they are totally under the thumb of the German rotvila and its French poodle.

Well done David Cameron! We have stood alone before and we can do it again. When we originally joined the European Economic Community back in the 70’s it was a free trade area, not a Germano Franco Empire.

I give the Euro five years. In the course of the next two weeks the financial markets will twig this is mere window dressing and the euro bond market will come under heavy pressure again. Sarkozy and Merkel face elections in the next 12 months. Both the Germans and the French are proud peoples. The Germans will kick against paying for the foolishness of others and the French will buck against German domination.

As the Chinese say, we live in interesting times! Provided Britain is true to itself, we will come through this with our independence, reputation and integrity in tact.

The United Nations is calling for a detailed enquiry in to the death of Gaddafi. I don’t recall the UN falling over themselves demanding enquiries in to the deaths of the tens of thousands this unlamented mass murderer killed. Why go through the farce of a trial when a simple bullet will solve the problem. Let’s face it, there can hardly be any doubt as to his guilt.

How come the boy Milliband has all these airy-fairy ideas all of a sudden when he and his little friends had none of these when they were in power. To cut university fees and finance it by taxes on companies means that all these graduates will have no jobs to go to.

At the labour conference today the boy Miliband has urged the government to go for broke! I thought Gordon Brown did that!!!

The Euro was never going to work. It is impossible to have one currency with many separate economies. At the moment the politicians in both Europe and the US are more concerned for their own parochial matters (imminent elections with regards to Germany and France, and the mad right in the US) than the welfare of the overall economy. They seem to be willing to sacrifice the common good in favour of their own selfish political ambitions.

There is a danger that if action to solve the sovereign debt problem is not taken (and it’s not rocket science) we will find ourselves in a 1931 situation. The world will not forgive those politicians for fiddling while the global economy Rome burns.

A best we all have a long, hard journey back to prosperity, probably beyond a five year period. At worst we face a global economic collapse with all the hardships and social unrest that suggests. The inaction of the 1930’s ended up with a world war.

The filth that are rioting and looting in parts for London need to be treated as attempting to over-throw the state. Troops should be deployed together with armed police to shoot a dozen or so caught looting. They

are cowards and it would soon stop. Turn off the mobile phone network in the area and take down the local internet system so they can’t communicate.

Once more the lemmings are running the economic show of the world. Somebody is making a hell of a lot of money from speculation on the currencies. The markets are based on fear. They are like children

throwing a tantrum in a supermarket; they make a lot of noise, create a scene over very little. The markets react on mere rumours not on facts. The governments of the world need to get together and outlaw

The Euro zone needs to be scrapped. One currency covering umpteen economies was never going to work.

As for the rating agencies, these are the people who triple A-ed the junk bonds that started all this off. They have no right, indeed, no credibility to make any judgement on the time of day, let alone a country's

Once again the insidious disease that is Sky TV has claimed another victim. Once again the fan has been ignored in favour of Sky money. So far Sky has ruined football, cricket and now Formula 1.

If I was a sponsor buying space on a car I would be furious as the number of people seeing my brand will be substantially reduced.

Anyone working with a Murdoch organisation will be tainted with the same brush. Do they really want such a relationship? Do the teams want that?

This is a serious mistake which the sport will regret. Bernie Ecclestone wants his cake and eat it. Greed is a short term solution. The sport will slowly decline over the next ten years.

I have followed motor racing since the days of Moss and Hawthorne. I am very disappointed with F1 and feel betrayed by the greed.

If you wheeled influence by fear then, when the tables are turned, you must expect the knives to plunge into the back! For decades Murdoch has jetted around the world like some

head of state expecting senior politicians to kowtow to him. No more. This pirate should disappear from public life and, if wrong doing is found to have happened in the US, the

man should go to jail. The man has yet to apologise! As the great Lord Denning said, "Be you ever so mighty, the law is above!"

A union leader has said that the proposed strike by public service workers at the end of this month would be the largest strike since the General Strike of 1926. He is obviously not a student of history or he would

The decision by Germany to close all their nuclear power stations because of the tsunamis that hit the Japanese plants is like saying because the Titanic sank, no more ships should be built!

I thought the Germans had more sense. What are they going to do – cover the land with damn great propellers or use their vast reserves of coal?

FIFA – This gang of crooks should be thrown out and a new organisation built from scratch!

The demonstration in London this weekend organised by the Unions is entitled a Campaign of the Alternative. Unfortunately these poor delusional, ignorant innocents do not have an “Alternative.” They seem to thing that if they stick their heads in the sand all will be well. They seem to be incapable in grasping the fact that this country is in one hell of a mess. We have had ten years of prosperity all bought on credit and supplied by the party that is cynically supporting this march.

Ed Milliband seems to think that, somehow, his party has no responsibility of the mess; that defeat in the last election has in some way shriven Labour from all guilt. The burning fact remains that every Labour government since the War has always run out of money and it has fallen to the Conservatives to sort out the financial mess.

If you wish to follow these deluded people, led by neo-communist leaders of the Unions, this country will end up like Iceland (that’s the country, not the shop!). If they think unemployment in high now, failure to implement the cuts would bring about a catastrophic economic collapse and unemployment would go through the roof.

The Unions are in this for political advantage, not for the welfare of their members or the country. These small-minded little men are ruled by a narrow dogma fifty years out-of-date and of proven futility.

Just put a half a dozen Crews missiles in to Gaddafi's compound and blow the madman to pieces! You shot mad dogs!

When Gaddafi and his thugs massacre the rebels in Benghazi, the blood may be on the hands of Gaddafi but the shame will be on those of the West and the United Nations.

The prevarication over Libya is on the verge of becoming ridicules. The United Nations is, as usual, proving to be a waste of space. The Security Council is a toothless old woman. It very nearly messed up on Kosovo, it messed up in Ruanda and it is now doing the same in Libya. It’s not surprising that Russia and China would not vote for action against a fellow dictatorship.

It is time for NATO and the EU to act on their own. To hide behind the statement that there is a need for a UN resolution to make it legal is facile. It’s not a case of legality; it’s a case of RIGHT!!

The trouble with banks these days is that they have become remote from the society in which they work. Most lending decisions are not made by the local manager but by a set of pre-determined criteria dictated by the centre (the computer says no!). When I was a manager I lent to the individual – that no longer happens. I gained my Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers exams which is the professional qualification. You could not become a manager without this qualification. Now it is rare to find a manager with this.

There was a joke going around at the height of the Credit Crunch. Of the CEOs of RBS, Lloyds Bank and the FSA and Terry Wogan, which one is the odd one out? The answer was Terry Wogan who was the only one with a banking qualification!!!!

The banks should be broken up. This would make them more answerable to the society they serve (emphasis on serve!), less arrogant and more knowledgeable of their customers. Get rid of all those so called highly skilled, talented people who very nearly brought down the world economy!

Finally, remove Angela Knight from the British Bankers Association. She comes across as arrogant and does the banking industry no favours. I doubt she has her ACIB!!!

We are now entering the season of banker and financial institution bonuses. Here is an interesting thought. We are told that the bonuses are necessary or the skill and talent will walk out the door. Compare the share price of the main banks between today and 10/12 years ago. You will find there is very little difference! So the question arises who gains by the employment of these highly skilled people? The answer is simple – they do! The bonuses come from the balance sheets of the individual banks which means that the money is taken from the shareholders.

These investment bankers gamble with your and my money to make big profits (or losses) and then divide up the gain between themselves.

Shareholders need to confront the bank boards to control bonuses. It’s no good expecting a government to dictate to the bankers – it is not their place. It is the place of the shareholders.

As a shareholder in a bank and a retired banker who worked in the industry from 1966 to 2000, it pains me to see my industry sink from being a pillar of society to a load of charlatans.

At this time of year the Christian world celebrates the birth of its founder, an obscure son of a carpenter who became a Jewish fundamentalist and whose followers formed a new religious sect within the Jewish world.

All religion is the creation of man; a means of explaining what he does not understand and can not explain. Religion helps him place himself in the universe and provides the comfort and security of knowing there is a greater power overseeing his welfare and will eventually take care of him after the inevitable event of his death. I use the concept of “man” to include all of humanity.

It is unlikely that the historical Jesus was born in Bethlehem. There is no evidence that the Roman Emperor Tiberius called for a census in Palestine or anywhere else at that time. The Nativity story was a product of one gospel writer’s imagination to fit in with the Old Testament prophecies.

If it had not been for two men the small sect would have remained in the confines of Palestine. Saul of Tarsus, or Paul as he became known, virtually high jacked what was intended by its founder to be a reforming influence within Judaism and spread it across the Mediterranean world of the 1^st century. He fell out with the family and friends of Jesus, the people with whom he lived, and moulded the anecdotes of Jesus’ life to his own purpose. The death of Jesus was a straightforward Roman execution of a political trouble maker. In the gospels, written by associates of Paul, there is no blame placed on Rome but on that of the Jewish establishment. Paul was, after all, a Roman citizen!

The second man to grab the religion by the scruff of the neck is the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great. This very astute soldier and politician could see the inevitable decline of the Empire and needed a means of uniting it beyond the personal character of the emperor. The best way of doing that is the creation of, or the adoption of, an idea. To be successful the idea had to be under the control of the emperor and so the Council of Nicaea was call in 325. The presiding hand was not the Bishop of Rome or any other leader of the religion, but that of Constantine. It was he who “chaired” the council and nothing was established without his approval. It is interesting to note that Constantine did not convert to Christianity until 337 on his deathbed. It is questionable that this event was voluntary as he was unconscious for much of the time!

It was Nicaea that establishes the principle dogma of the Church; the divinity of Christ, the Holy Trinity; the hierarchical structure of the Church. Jesus was not regarded as part of the god-head, and therefore, not divine until three hundred years after his death. This would fit in nicely with the customs of the Roman Empire where emperors regularly created themselves as living gods.

Constantine’s idea of establishing a universal religion to help unify the empire in some ways succeeded and in some ways back fired. Within a hundred years the western empire collapsed in to chaos – but the Christian religion survived! This shows the strength of an idea over a political institution. The structure established at Nicaea proved enduring and provided the only means of holding civilisation, as it was at the time, in any semblance of order. It took a Frankish warlord in the form of Charlemagne the Great to repeat Constantine’s political genius and unite the political with the religious.

And so it has continued over the centuries, politics and religion supporting each other to their mutual benefit.

One question has repeatedly raised its ugly head in my mind at Christmas. As we see the pomp and ceremony of the Midnight Mass at St Peter’s in Rome, as we witness a similar event at Canterbury, with all the rich vestments and accoutrements, what would Jesus have thought?

I hope you enjoy the company of your family and friends at this time and have a prosperous and safe New Year!

I have just seen a cretin named Michael Chessum on television from the student campaign refusing to condemn, in deed candidly supporting the violence that took place on Thursday. In the newspaper today there are two very real images. One is of a sad and confused little girl, clutching her teddy bear, waving at her father's coffin as it returns from Afghanistan; he was 22 years of age. The other is a thug swinging off on the Union Flag on the Cenotaph. When later interviewed, this moron, who could hardly string two coherent words together, said that everyone just wanted to "trash" things. He is the adopted son of a well known pop star and attends a college at Cambridge University. Which of these two young men have added value to our nation? Which of these two young men deserve our support and admiration - the young man who has given his life for our safety or the moron who desecrates a national monument? Need I say more?

To see the Cenotaph desecrated by these thugs should bring shame to every English citizen. The Cenotaph is the national memorial to all those that died fighting for freedom – freedom for these cretins to protest, not to riot! They should be identified and flogged all the way down the Mall. They want to use violence - let them experience some. The thugs should count themselves as lucky. If this had happened in Spain or France, there would have been deaths.

I am discussed to see riots committed by what we are told are the cream of our younger generation – they are nothing more than FILTH! Every single one of them should be thrown out of university. They do not deserve the educational chance given to them.

Apart from the unforgivable violence committed by these thuggish students, the saddest thing is that they are too thick to understand the details of the policy. A large proportion of these useless members of society will be better off under the new arrangements!

Why should the woman on the Tescos checkout, the man who collects your rubbish each week, the bus driver, myself and my two sons pay these individuals to take Mickey Mouse degrees such as Social Sciences, Media Studies etc.

Their actions are insurrection and should be stamped on with equal force. They should be contained and kept in the open all night, their details taken and removed from education.

The 2018 World Cup Bid - we obviously didn't pay them enough!! The whole of FIFA needs to be investigated. Football, the beautiful game, has been hi-jacked by greed and corruption. It is no longer a sport, what with shadowy agents, obscene payments to players and bungs to the influential in the game, the true fans should desert the premier teams and give their loyalty to the humbler clubs. If crowds fall in the big clubs perhaps the Premiership and FIFA will get the message. We need to claim the game back from these corrupt, greedy fat cats and bring it back to where it belongs - the true fans. They have been exploited for far too long.

Wednesday 24^th November sees the anniversary of the publication of probably the most important book ever printed – The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin.

Yes, I can hear the screams of the creationists on both sides of the Atlantic, waving their bibles in the air and pronouncing my inevitable consignment to the everlasting fires of hell. Well tough!!!

Evolution is not a theory, it is a fact and if a poor, deluded, group of people who are intellectually still steeped in the scientific conceptions of the 17^th century wish to believe that the formulation of every atom in the universe was somehow “created” by an all powerful being, then they have my pity! No doubt they believe the earth is flat – it doesn’t change the fact that it is round.

I have just watched a discussion of the BBC in which a creationist, in all seriousness, stated that the universe was a mere 10,000 year old. And I saw Elvis last week in my local Tescos supermarket!!

This intellectual stand point brought about the burning of books and heretics. The great danger is that if these people gain positions of power and then start to dictate these crackpot pronouncements as fact, we might as well go back to eye of newt and toe of frog.

I should perhaps state my own belief position – I am an evangelical atheist!!

If you are American and feel offended by what follows then I apologise. This is, however, how many friends of America feel as they look at what is happening to our closest ally. If we can’t tell you, who can?

I have been a political observer for almost fifty years. I have studied both the British and the American constitution and political system and have learned that anything can happen in politics.

America is the richest country in the world but it believes that the healthcare, the very survival of a citizen depends on the size of the individual’s wallet. The Tea Party calls that Communism!

The Tea Party blames the present economic situation on Obama. They, like the Labour Party in the UK, seem to forget that it was the Republicans, and the Labour Party, that brought about the disaster of 2008. It was the fact that Bush and his cronies got in to bed with the unacceptable face of capitalism and brought about the biggest crash since the 1930’s.

The Tea Party state that they are living in a tyranny. If they want to see a tyranny just go to North Korea. They oppose gun control – the right, one must assume, to kill your neighbour! The Tea Party liken Obama to Hitler. If he was a Hitler they would all be in concentration camps! The real villain in the whole affair is Murdoch’s Fox News. He and it play on fears and prejudices and the main tools of this fraud is Glen Beck and Sarah Palin.

Now, can American seriously imagine your country being run by Beck and Palin? The Bible belt of America is as fundamental as the extremes of Islam. America was founded on the principle of a separation of Church and State. Sorry, I’m almost drowning in the crocodile tears of Beck.

For the Tea Party, if you don’t believe on every word of the Bible, you’re a Communist; if you don’t believe in creationism, you’re a Communist; if you believe that you care for the less fortunate, you’re a Communist. Very Christian!

Where does the ideology come from? It comes from a man names Dick Armey and his “Freedom Works” in Washington. The big money financing the movement has its own agenda. The corporate donors have jumped on board for their own purposes. The Tea Party even claim Martin Luther King as a symbol!!!

I have always regarded the USA as the land of the free; the stop gap of the free world.

In times of economic trouble extremes come to the fore. Just look at Europe in the 1930’s. The Tea Party claim Abraham Lincoln as “one of them.” Old Abe is spinning in his grave. He fought a war against states rights and racism!

Beck is a demagogue who has made millions from his TV programme. Think what John Adams would say; think what Thomas Jefferson would say. Beck and Palin and their small minded little friends are attempting to re-write history in their own image.

You are free to disagree with the above just as I am free to say it. It's called freedom! All I ask is listen to your friends!

Today we hear the usual babble from various union leaders twittering on about the cuts the government have had to make to reduce the present deficit in the country’s finances. It never ceases to amaze me how

monumentally thick these people can be. They do not seem to understand that you can’t live on tick to the extent of 20% of your spending without the inevitable consequences. Are they incapable of simple

arithmetic? Perhaps they need to take their shoes off to use their toes to make the calculations!

It's strange that all the troubles in the country are the government's fault - unfortunately it was THEIR government whose fault it is!!!!!

It is the first duty of any government to defend its citizens against external threat. Its second duty is to defend its citizens against an internal threat to the people’s freedom. There can be no compromise on this. All else is secondary. The government MUST remember this and failure to do so is a betrayal of the voters that put them into power.

The defence cuts are a mistake that we may very well regret. I voted for this government – I hope I have no reason to repent such a decision.

Regarding William Hague, one must assume that as members of the British Olympic team share rooms, they must be raving lesbians and homosexuals! I worked most of my working life for a commercial bank and went on residential courses where we shared rooms. Does that bring in to question my sexuality? On one course there were three of us so that would be classed as a homosexual fest!

Comments by two of yesterday’s men, John Redwood and Lord Tebbit are out of order and unhelpful. Redwood is the man who, as Secretary of State for Wales, mimed his way through “Land of my fathers” because he didn’t know the words. As for Tebbit, his record shows he has as much connection with the British public as Marie Antoinette with that of France!

Certain elements of the media and internet need to grow up. I find it ridiculous that a rumour can start without any proof and so quickly assume the status of fact. What’s more, a statement by Mr Hague is taken as providing credibility to the unfounded smear.

If I suggested that a public figure had questionable sexual habits, I could be sued. The media seem to see themselves above the law.

Once again the idiots at Unite have decided to hold the British public to ransom. Once again these fools completely disregard the interests of the country and the welfare of the British people. The vote to bring part of the workforce of BAA out on strike is a travesty. Of the 6,000 balloted, 2,263 voted for a strike – ONLY HALF OF THOSE BALLOTED EVEN VOTED!

David Cameron needs to pass a law that states that only when more that 50% of the workers involved vote for a motion can it become effective. Not a majority of a minority!!! This may be news to that bastion of neo-communism, the Unite Union, but it’s call democracy.

Once again they are calling out people, putting their jobs at risk but at no risk to their own well paid, comfortable jobs.

I have a two year pay freeze - something I accept is needed in the present state of affairs left by the thankfully late Gordon Brown. There should be a two year pay freeze for all from cleaners in hospitals to CEOs of banks - and of course, union officials!!

Further to the note below, it is interesting to note that of the 15 directors of BP, five are American; of the 80,000 employees of the company, 23,000 are American; and 35% of BP is owned by American investors.

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is a tragedy but the pronouncements of the President of the United States, Mr Obama, are uncalled for. Even though the rig in question was operated by a US company, all the

blame is being thrown at BP. This is in danger of becoming xenophobic and extending to damaging relations with Britain. There is a growing feeling in the UK that the President, probably for domestic reasons, is

He needs to be very careful. In many parts of the world Britain is the USA’s only friend – and you don’t kick your friends. Obama needs to remember Piper Alpha and Bhupal before he starts throwing his toys out

Britain has been playing this game for a thousand years and we have long memories. The next time Obama wants support, we may have to give it closer consideration and I’m sure I speak for many British.

As we come towards the end of the first week of coalition, it would appear that some of the old, tribal hands on both sides are becoming a little flaky. Charles Kennedy on the Lib Dems and some of the right wing Tories are murmuring over a few sacred cows being sacrificed.

This is no time for tribal, parochial prejudices. This is a time for putting your country’s interest first and not some wishy-washy ideals that may be nice to have in an ideal world but have very little practical application.

We are in the middle of a financial crisis unprecedented since the 1930’s and the sooner that people accept that there will be pain for everyone before we come out, the better we will be able to succeed.

There is no easy solution. If you imagine earning a salary of, say £30,000 a year, and spending £35,000 a year for 10 years – that’s what Britain has been doing!

And so, at long last, we have it – a Conservative government. True we have the Lib Dems along for the ride but, as long they honour the agreement, I have no problem with that.

I came down stairs this morning and said to my wife, “Today is a good day!”

It will be extremely hard. I don’t envy George Osborne the task ahead. Unless you have been directly affected or have an interest in financial affairs, the man or woman in the street has no idea of the mess we are in. It frightens me as an old, retired banker and I’ve seen more recessions than most!

I have only one misgiving – now Gordon Brown has gone, I have no one to kick!!

Good luck to Messrs Cameron, Clegg, Osborne, Hague, Fox, good old Ken Clarke, Gove and Cable, not forgetting Theresa May!

This is party politics of the most sordid kind. Brown’s resignation is merely an attempt to cling on to power through the summer as the initial Prime Minister of a Labour – Lib Dem coalition. We will then get yet another un-elected Prime Minister in October.

Meanwhile Clegg and the Lib Dems continue to prostitute themselves around Westminster like some desperate old whore with Alistair Campbell acting as pimp!

David Cameron should set a deadline to Clegg – agree by 10pm tonight or the deal is off.

I reiterate what I said below. Let Clegg go and slaughter both the Labour party and the Lib Dems later in the year.

This is the deadnail for P.R. thank goodness! The British public can see what P.R. would mean.

David Cameron, rise above this, take the high moral ground and let these disgraceful party hacks cobble their government of yesterday’s men – and finish them when they fall.

The British public are not fools. They will see this immoral, bankrupt administration for what it is and throw them out for a generation.

I am beginning to come round to the opinion that David Cameron should not compromise with the Lib Dems. The Conservatives have six times the number of seats. If there is no agreement, let Nick Clegg go into the arms of Labour. They will have to make the spending cuts and tax rises. If they do, they will take the blast of unpopularity; if they don’t, the markets will crucify them. The Conservatives can end the cobbled government any time they like.

Within a year they will have to return to the country and David Cameron will end up Prime Minister with a good majority. Remember Sir Robert Peel.

There seems to be a large number of people, who voted Lib Dem, throwing their toys out the pram because the Lib Dems and the Conservatives are taking to each other. To use a fashionable phrase, “Get Real!” If the Lib Dems want Proportional Representation, that’s what will happen after EVERY general election. Be careful what you wish for!! You can’t have it both ways.

For those who are complaining, “I voted Lib Dem to keep the Tories out, not to go in with them!” More fool you. Vote to elect a government, not to keep one out of office.

For all those Labour voters who insist that Gordon Brown has not lost the election, what part of the loss of almost 100 seats and a 2,000,000 fewer votes than the Conservatives don’t they understand.

The idiot Brown returns to Labour HQ treating an unmitigated defeat as some sort of Roman triumph; pretty-boy Clegg’s bubble has been burst; and Toxic Balls peddles his usual vitriolic rubbish.

There are times in life when the best thing to do is nothing. That’s what David Cameron needs to do. Let Brown scurry about, attempting to cling on to power with overtures to the Lib Dems. Even if successful it looks like both parties will not have an overall majority.

A great Victorian Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, and father of the Conservative Party, was in this position in May 1841. He refused to form a government. In the July, after another election, he took office in a time of recession and budget deficit, and proved to be one of the most reforming and successful ministries of the 19^th century.

Voters of Great Britain

This is a day of destiny, probably the most momentous general election in a generation.

The choice is clear. Do you want five more years of the incompetent idiot, Gordon Brown; do you want to place the fate of this great country in the hands of a party led by a pretty boy who is rapidly taking on the mantel of Tony Blair (a sort of Blair II); or do you vote for a party that has hauled this country out of Labour’s mess four time since the Second World War!

So, get out there and vote Conservative. Don’t put me in the position of saying, “I told you so!,” in a year’s time. Mainly because you know I will!

Yesterday, Mrs. Gillian Duffy, a 65 year-old widow and grandmother, left her home in Rochdale to purchase a loaf of bread. A couple of hours later she returned, having, in all innocence, destroyed the political career of Gordon Brown.

If Brown can insult one of his own, life long supporters, how much contempt has he for the rest of us? There is a large question mark over this man’s sense of judgement. The interview had gone relatively well but he saw it as a “disaster.” “That woman” had every right to express her opinion. After all, Gordon Brown wanted to meet the ordinary voter. He has shown a side of his floored character that must preclude his from continuing as Prime Minister of this country.

The definition of the word “Bigot” is:- “a person who has strong, unreasonable beliefs and who thinks that anyone who does not have the same beliefs is wrong”

There was only one bigot involved in that conversation in Rochdale – Gordon Brown!!

The Conservatives have pledged to reduce the proposed increase in the National Insurance by the Labour party. Brown and Mandelson regard this as some sort of sin. They need a simple lesson in economics, simple enough to match their simple brains.

If you have a tax on the employment of people and you increase that tax, then the employers will employ fewer people. That means more people out of work, less income tax being paid, less being spent in the shops so less VAT income, and a lot more social benefits being paid out by the government. It’s a bit like taking £5 billion a year out of people’s pensions and wondering why there are vast holes in pension funds; it’s a bit like selling the country’s gold reserves for $250 an oz. and then seeing the price of gold rise to $1250 an oz.

So what happens? Twenty-three of Britain’s major companies come out and say that this is a tax on jobs and will damage any recovery from our present economic plight. They include M&S, Sainsbury’s, GlaxoSmithKline, Next, Matalan, Virgin Group, Kingfisher, Harvey Nichols, Mothercare, Bestway and so on.

And what is the response of that genius of economic and political thought, Lord “I think I’m Wonderful” Mandelson? He says that all these highly experienced, successful captains of industry have been “deceived” by David Cameron!!! Apart from it being a total insult, this is the man who has had to resign, not once but twice, from government for shady practices.

If the British people vote this load of crooks, charlatans and egotistical cretins back in to power, then they deserve all they get.

Further to our dearly beloved Prime Minister's pack of lies before the Chilcot Inquiry, both General Lord Guthrie and Admiral Lord Boyce used the word disingenuous when describing Brown's testimony. Here is a letter sent to the Daily Telegraph:-

"Sir - I was a little unsure of the precise meaning of disingenuous , but my thesaurus helped me out. Choose from the following: 'crafty, deceitful, designing, dishonest, double-dealing, duplicitous, fallacious, false, fraudulent, hypocritical, insincere, treacherous, tricky, two-faced, underhand, untrustworthy.'"

I am off to Venice for a week but will be returning the day before the British Airways cabin crew go on strike!! This is a strike along the lines of turkeys voting for Christmas. BA is a pension deficit that happens to own an airline; it has made massive losses for several years and these poor, deluded people want to go on strike. BA will be damaged, the cabin crew will forfeit seven day's pay and the customers will be very inconvenienced. When the cabin crew start to loose their jobs who will throw their hands up in surprise? Why, Len McCluskey and his neo-communist team at the Unite Union. Will brother Len be kicked out of his job? No! Will his little friends take a pay cut? No!

Another question - who is one of the largest donors to the Labour Party? Surprise, surprise!! The Unite Union - to the tune of £11m. And the next quiz question? Who is Unite's Political Director? Answer - Charlie Whelan, Gordon Brown's ex-Chief of Staff!!! Oh and in addition, the Labour Government run a scheme to improve union efficiency so how much did Unite receive in taxpayers' money under the scheme? Answer - £400,000!! So, in short, the organisation that is attempting to bring down an icon of British business is also bankrolling the Labour Government!!!!

Wasn't it nice to see Gordon Brown in his photo-call trip to Afghanistan in his attempt to take away the focus on his lies to the Chilcot Inquiry? And he produces £100m, like a rabbit out of a hat, to pay for armoured vehicles - vehicles that should have been on call years ago and will, incidentally, take many months to be operational! He went, he says, to thank our service men and women for their dedication and bravery. Sadly, that thanks does not extend to providing decent kit!!

It is yet another case of using our troops for political reasons. This is the man who went on national TV and wept in a cynical attempt to show the voters his "human" side. Interesting timing!!!

Here endth the latest party political broadcast in aid of Gordon Brown's ego. I feel physically sick!!! The Enquiry has let the country down. It didn't ask the right questions and it didn't push for the right answers. The testimony of almost every military witness to the Inquiry is in complete contrast to Brown's.

P.S. Today (06/03/2010) two former Chiefs of the Defence Staff, General Lord Guthrie and Admiral Lord Boyce, say that Gordon Brown has misled the Inquiry. In other words, he lied!!

Gordon Brown is unveiling the Labour Party's slogan for the coming election - " A fair future for all!"

In 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and, the latest, 2010 figures have shown that each year has seen a RECORD gap between rich and poor. The report issue by a government appointed commission states that the gap is at its widest in the 40 years since records began.

Remembering that dear Gordon, that advocate of the working man, the Prime Minister who can cry on TV, the man who say he feels our pain and understands the plight of the poor, has presided over the last 13 years of this wonderful record of achievement.

It is such a relief to hear that Gordon's maxim of " fair future for all" will see us through the next couple of years of crisis. Unfortunately Brown's intention is to close the gap by making every one poor!!!!

Gordon Brown stated today that the Conservatives would tax the "Middle Classes" if they got in to power. So what has changed? He has been doing just that for the last 12 years. By definition, if dear Gordon is not going to tax the Middle Classes, can we assume that he would tax the Working Classes instead? He can't tax the rich - there've all left the country!!!

There is a wide strip of yellow stretching across the government benches in the House of Commons. Once again the cabinet ministers have failed to rid this country of that waste of space, Gordon Brown. Their cowardice means that Britain must endure the continuing ineffectiveness of a dead administration. The recent "plot" put forward the idea of a secret ballot. There should be a secret ballot - it's called a GENERAL ELECTION!! The fact that Gordon Brown is still in office when the whole country, with the possible exception of his wife, would like to see him dispatched to the cesspool of politics, is a tragedy for the country. The man is a useless, incompetent, stupid, nonentity whose single ambition is to cling on to office. It is amazing that a human being can continue then he is so universally loathed.

So Britain will “get a slap in the mouth,” according to the Iranian Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki. This goes to show the mentality of the thugs in charge, however shakily, of Iran. Have you noticed that when a rubbish regime has trouble with the support of its own people, they frantically search for an external “enemy” to blame. It’s an old trick that everyone recognizes and it no longer works.

With the dawning of 2010, we live in exciting times. The certainty of a General Election by the beginning of June will hopefully see the back of the present disastrous Brown government and the consigning of Gordon Brown to the dustbin of political history. Should the British people have a bout of collective insanity and return the incompetence idiot to power, then God help us all!!

Iran continues on the gradual road to chaos with nine killed in the last 24 hours in anti-government demonstrations. The consolation is that Ahmadinejad and his religious backers in the form of the ultra fundamentalist, Ali Khamenei, are fighting a battle they cannot win. The people will have their way and this gang of religious thugs will be thrown out and brought to book. They have a tiger by the tail and it is the fear of letting go that will drag them ever closer to destruction. The rigging of elections is always the first sign of this fear. No dictator lasts forever – they all eventually fall and their departure is usually violent and bloody. When will they learn? Iran has the Supreme Leader, the President and the Council of Guardians (most of which is appointed by the Supreme Leader). These are all above the Parliament which is “elected” by the people. These power-hungry clerics will learn that there is only one supreme leader in any country and that is the will of the population – not some old, bearded, religious fanatic who thinks he has a monopoly on right and by right.

There are two further specters at the feast of 2010. Russia, with Tsar Putin in charge, has a pragmatic policy towards the rest of the world. The West needs to realise that anything done by the present regime must be viewed with suspicion and an agenda is usually tucked away in the shadows. The Russian government is not stupid, just devoured of any moral principles!

As for China, this is a strange phenomenon. We have a communist regime with a capitalist economy. Without a communist economy, the government looses its reason for existence and becomes just another dictatorship back up by military might, similar to any South American banana republic. With economic freedom comes the call for political freedom. It will take a while. Capitalism inevitably brings about a division of wealth – some gain, more do not. The country is ruled by a small group of old men whose mindset it still on the Great March with Mao. The great thing about reform is that you can’t say, “I want to stop now!” Once started, reform has a mind of its own. Over the next few years the Chinese oligarchy will learn that lesson to their cost.

That’s enough for the moment from the thoughts of Chairman Alan!! The great thing about politics is that everyone’s an expert!

This last week has seen the Pre-budget Statement from the Government. Much has been made of the "tax on Bankers," which is easily avoidable, ineffectual and a mere drop in the ocean. The fanfare is purely a means of covering up the increase in the rate of National Insurance which is, effectively, a tax on jobs.

Once again the Government has ignored the need to reduce the monumental deficit. Indeed, they have increased it by further cosmetic giveaways. It has since transpired that the Treasury wanted to reduce spending but this was overruled directly by Gordon Brown. Why? To protect his job. People are being thrown out of work all over the country but that's fine as long as Gordon can rig the figures to ensure his own future. His greatest fear is that the British people will learn the truth and see through the lies this peddler of deceit has been telling us.

If it wasn't so tragic it would be amusing to see the self-satisfied grins on the faces of Brown and Harriet Harman as the flanked Darling while he delivered the drivel. What have they got to grin about? The country's going to hell in a bucket and they find it amusing?

I pray that the citizens of this country have the good sense to throw Brown and his crew in to oblivion for ever. Brown should never be allowed to run a thrift club, let alone a country.

Well, it’s official – this lame-duck government is now a dead duck. How dare Brown drag Her Maj out in the cold for such a pointless exercise. In 1997 Blair said that he thought it was disgusting that pensioners should have to sell their homes to pay for their care. In 2009 Gordon Brown said that he thought it was disgusting that pensioners should have to sell their homes to pay for their care. So, call me stupid, but has anything changed in twelve years? In 1997 Blair said “Education, Education, Education.” In 2009 Brown is saying that schools should be more responsive to parents. Is there an echo in here??!!

Brown seems to think that by passing a bill, it provides a “firm and binding statuary basis” for the government’s promise to halve its budget deficit within four years. A piece of paper passing through parliament does not make things happen. Lower spending and higher taxes are the only ways to halve the deficit. And this is only to reduce the deficit, not repay it. That according to the government is going to take until 2032!! I am 61 now so that makes me 84 by the time this country has finished paying for this disaster of a government. My two sons will be approach retirement age.

We should have a national holiday, it doesn’t matter when, so that we can build bonfires and burn effigies of Gordon Brown. After all, he’s done far more damage to this country than ever Guy Fawkes could have achieved.

I have a suggestion for the next Stephen King horror novel – it can be called “Five more years of Gordon Brown.”

Well, there goes the final illusion. I had though that Alan Johnson might, just might, be the only member of the government that perhaps had two brain cells to rub together. Sadly not!! He is convinced that he knows more about the classification of drugs than the 24 top national experts in the subject.

Gordon Brown stated at the Labour party Conference that if you are looking for a party that represents of true face of modern Britain today then vote for Labour! Presumably he is referring to the fact that the country is screwed up and broke!

He also said that he could not stand by as people are losing their jobs. I agree. I think he should show empathy with these unfortunate citizens and join them. The sooner the better.

Now we know how much the 270 Lockerbie lives are worth – about £15 billion!

It now appears that the return of the Libyan terrorist, or the mechanism for his return, was a direct consequence of British interests; in other words an oil deal between Libya and BP.

I thought this government could not stoop lower than it already had, but no. Now we see why Brown was so silent over the affair; now we can fathom the over energetic denials from the arch crook, Mandelson.

Gordon Brown has brought untold shame to this country. I would back independence for Scotland just to get rid of this lying, hypocritical, incompetent disaster of a human being. You could teach a monkey to govern better than him!

Words fail me to describe my contempt for this moron and his gang of dishonest, pathetic, cowardly fools. I say, cowardly, because no one in the Labour Party has the courage to throw the cur out of office.

Brown has no moral viewpoint because he is divested of all morals! His only consideration is to cling on to office at any cost. I look forward to next year when I will take great delight in seeing this entity being dragged, screaming and kicking, out of 10, Downing Street. It cannot come too soon!

From the number of emails I receive, I know this website has a considerable US patronage. Let me make it perfectly clear that the vast majority of the British people, including the Scots, feel that Megrahi should never have been released from prison. Most of us listened in disbelief to the statement by Macaskill.

If it turns out that the Brown / Mandelson comedy act brought pressure on the Scottish government to release the terrorist, it merely confirms how urgent it is to remove this gaggle of incompetents (see below).

Once again Gordon Brown shows his complete inability to grasp even the basics of economic principle and control. For the last 12 years the FSA has supposedly monitored and regulated the banking system in the UK. This duty was taken away from the Bank of England when Brown became Chancellor.

The tripartite system of the Treasury, FSA and Bank of England eventually fulfilled the expectations of most of those in the know last year when the FSA threw its hands in the air in complete surprise when the banking system crash in to a brick wall! Most of us realised that the FSA was not fulfilling the function of a regulatory body but was a glorified consumer protection organisation. The FSA knew nothing about banking, even less about economics and its upper levels was staffed by failed bankers or Brown cronies!

A few days ago Darling came out with the grand plan to bring stability and regulation to the banks. What it amounted to was a few ineffectual changes to an already failed system.

When Gordon Brown was challenged as to why he was not putting control of the banking system back under the Bank of England he brought out the old chestnut of BCCI. Granted, the Bank of England should have acted quicker to spot the frauds going on inside BCCI. This is ONE partial error on behalf of the Bank of England in hundreds of years of successful vigilance. Brown’s hotchpotch presided over the near collapse and meltdown of the entire banking system!

Further more, in an interview in today’s Daily Telegraph, Lord Malloch-Brown, a resigning Foreign Office minister, referring to Afghanistan, stated, “We definitely don’t have enough helicopters. When you have these modern insurgent strikes what you need, above all else, is mobility.” A half an hour before Gordon Brown was due to start his monthly press conference, Lord Malloch-Brown withdrew his statement!!! He was obviously “got at” by Brown’s thugs in the Whips Office. Brown must think that the British public came down with the last shower of rain! He doesn’t even have the intelligence to be dishonest with the voters! Brown is quite simply playing politics with the lives of our soldiers.

To paraphrase Henry II in 1170, “Who will rid us of this pestilent government?”

When revolutionary religion becomes mixed with politics you eventually get inefficient government, totalitarianism and, ultimately, counter-revolution. Politics is all about logic, common sense and practicality. Religion has none of these. Religion is based on the overwhelming certainty that the practitioner is right – no matter what! It does not entertain counter argument, it does not consider reason, it cannot conceive the possibility that it might be in error. Place that in a political context and you have complete disaster, both for the people and the country. Add to that an urge to spread the message and you have a global threat!

This is what is happening in Iran. It would be like the Archbishop of Canterbury having veto and sanction over all legislation passing through parliament.

People need reasons for their conditions. The fanatics do not have the intelligence to see that their subjection of the people merely builds a greater resentment and eventual hatred. Once this reaches a peak, events can move extremely quickly. Look at Romania in 1989. One minute Ceauşescu was waving to the crowd, the next he was up against a wall being shot!

If you hold an election and you know it has been rigged, the Opposition knows it's rigged, the rest of the world knows it's rigged, then why bring thousands out on to the streets to celebrate a great victory? Who are you trying to kid - if not yourself?

I am a massive fan of Katherine Jenkins. I have all her CDs, DVDs, I’m a member of her online fan club and have even created my own Katherine Jenkins calendar for my study/computer room/spare bedroom!!

Last night I went to “An Evening with Katherine Jenkins” at the RHS gardens at Wisley. It was the very first time I have seen her live, on stage. She was brilliant! I’m in my 60’s and I can’t think of a better example of amazing talent and extraordinary beauty being combined in the form of one individual. To cap it all Katherine is such a down-to-earth, lovely person. Katherine doesn’t disappoint, she excels!!! She was well supported by All Angels.

It was a very special evening and one I will remember for many years to come.

The most unpopular individual in Great Britain continues to cling to power as a drowning man to a piece of driftwood.

As for Miliband, Straw, Johnson etc., are they mice or man? Can they not see that they do no favours to the Labour Party and certainly not the country? The Labour Party without Gordon Brown will probably still be defeated in the next election but will remain a political force; the Labour Party with Gordon Brown will be slaughtered! The whole of the Parliamentary Labour Party will be able to travel to Parliament in one of London Transport’s bendy buses!

What must the people of this country do to get rid of this Prime Minister? As Chancellor he sole £5billion a year from your pension funds, sold our gold reserves for peanuts, threw money at the NHS, education and welfare with little obvious improvement and removed the regulation of the banks from the Bank of England and placed it in the hands of the FSA, an organisation that knew little of banking and less of economics. He even went round a couple of years ago, ringing hands and kissing babies, when large parts of the midlands were flooded, while, as Chancellor, it was him who cut the funding for flood defences!!

He is a coward, a bully and an incompetent. There is a school of thought that says that the best scenario for the Conservative Party would be for Gordon Brown to stay!! Purely from a party political point of view, this could be so, but for the good of the country? I don’t think so.

Let’s see what the country thinks in the local and European elections. No doubt this idiot will ignore the will of the people and struggle on with his band of sycophantic cowards!!!

Every constituency party should sit down with their sitting MP and examine all his or her expenses over the last four years. If, in the opinion of the local party, the MP has made unjustified claims then they should be de-selected. A new candidate would then be selected from LOCAL party members and not from some centrally determined list of approved people chosen by party central office. That way the successful candidate will truly represent the people who voted for them!

All MPs must have a primary residence in the constituency and the state should purchase a number of blocks of flats within easy reach of Parliament, which would be adequately furnished, and allocated to each MP.

No mortgage interest, no furniture purchases, no swimming pools, no moats, no hanging baskets, no plugs etc.

As the cesspool of the House of Commons continues to bubble with corruption – where is Guy Fawkes when we need him!!

Brown’s regime, I will not give it the credit of calling it a government, has hit rock bottom. Not only is it incompetent, it has now proved itself to be corrupt, dishonest and riven with the very worst of propaganda, filth and lies. Gordon Brown, of course, knows nothing. He sits assuming the attitude of the three wise monkeys. It would appear that this pathetic excuse for a Prime Minister has selective ignorance! He employs “Special Advisers,” paid for by the taxpayer, to subvert the democratic system of this country, while denying all knowledge. This smacks of the Nixon White House and we all know what happened there. The captain of a ship is responsible for the actions and conduct of his officers, whether he is on the bridge or asleep in his cabin. Denial of knowledge cannot be a denial of responsibility!

And so to the Budget!! One would be forgiven for thinking, like Bobby Ewing in Dallas, you had banged your head and been unconscious for 40 odd years, waking up in the mid-1960’s. New Labour has cast off its modern clothing and become Old Labour again, retrieving the cloth cap from behind the door – let’s tax the rich they all cry!! It didn’t work in the 60’s and it will not work now. When the new rules on pensions are taken into consideration, who is going to hang around in a country that takes 60% of your income – just for being successful!

Darling has forecast that the British economy will contract by 3.5% in 2009 but will grow by 1.5% in 2010. Within minutes the I.M.F. predicted a contraction of 4.1% in 2009 and a further contraction in 2010. As recently as November last year Darling said the government borrowing up to 2013 would amount to £120 billion, now he says it will grow to £606 billion. If the government can get it that wrong in 6 month, can they be trusted on any other figures? I don’t think so!

It will take a generation to pay off this massive debt. Your grandchildren will still be paying in the 2030’s. The above figures only run true if the government have got their sums right, but, to quote Darling, “It is very difficult to be absolutely certain as to what will happen.” On their present record Brown and Darling couldn’t work their way out of a paper bag!

Darling has bottled it. He knows he should be cutting spending now to start repaying this monumental borrowing. Perhaps he realises that after next spring it will no longer be his problem. Once again the Conservatives will have to drag this country back from disaster. This will be the third time since the Second World War that they have had to put right Labour's ineptitude. When will the voters learn?

The sooner we consign this government, led by an incompetent and populated by a crew of gravy train ministers, to the dustbin of history, the better.

P.S. It has just been announced that the fall in the GDP for the first three months of 2009 is 1.9%. What price 3.5% for the whole years now!!!

P.P.S. Leaks coming from Treasury sources say that Alistair Darling wanted to be far more aggressive regarding cuts on spending but this was vetoed by Gordon Brown. Brown feared this would lead to disaster in the next General Election! So Gordon Brown puts his job BEFORE the welfare of the country. Is there no limit to this man's ego??!

Alan's Rant

Voters of Great Britain

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