A bunch of Bankers

Last time the UK's economy went in the wrong direction was in the 1990's. I was lucky enough to be living in a more prosperous part of the world at the time but I was reliably informed that it was grim.

It was as bad as the 1970's but a bit more colourful and without Punk Rock to look forward to. Only Blair. And look what happened then. To coin a famous singer "its all a bit of history repeating"

In those days interest rates were in excess of 15%, great for savers but a little unlucky for those with debts. Homes were repossessed as if it was going out of fashion.

We no longer remember what an interest rate is as they have been so low for so long everyone has forgotten about them. Apart from savers who have taken up on line gambling as a better source of income.

Now the Bank of England is talking about introducing negative interest rates. The concept of which the proles will never understand and will encourage those that do have money to invest off shore where the rates are a little more preferable.

Its a funny game, we have made over 300billion pounds of new money and that has made no difference.

Time for Plan B.

Sleaze, corruption & morality

Something is going wrong.

The Catholic church are being investigated once again for alleged abuse claims. The LIberal Democrats are being investigated for alleged sexual harassment claims.

Any one who is anyone in the 1970's is being watched with a wary eye.

The banks have been bashed. The press has been bashed. The police have been bashed and the Politicians have been bashed.

Football is rife with corruption.

Our heroes are falling and the meat supply chain is full of horses.

Everyone is finger pointing and all those skeletons are being released from their respective closets.

This is what happens when the economy is failing and we no longer have our AAA rating.

It is the long Monday morning after the weekend of credit based hedonism.

On a brighter note Hat tip to Daniel for his splendid win at the Oscars. Not sure about that Adele woman but you can't have everything.

The Blade Runner

So someone is in court awaiting their bale for something they did but may not have done intentionally.

Shooting someone a number of times until they are dead is murder what ever way you look at it. Whether they are your super model girlfriend or a burglar that is taking a bath in your bathroom.

Pre-meditation is the key and you can be assured that the lawyers will be racking up large fees to discuss such an issue with the Judge and Jury looking on in bemusement and at a time where the Judicial system is under scrutiny in the UK, or rather the Jurors are, who in the Pryce "speeding tickets" trial were asking such mind numbingly stupid questions like "why are we here" and "who is the man in the hat".

If i were the Blade chappy I would be on the phone to OJ Simpsons lawyer who was pretty good at this sort of stuff.

Meanwhile the UK is asleep waiting for more snow and wondering how long they will be eating horses for and when the price of petrol will ever go down.

Sponsored London

It wont be long before everything in London is sponsored. The Dome is, The London Eye is, The Tate Modern's exhibitions and all the Football stadiums are and of course The Cable car is too.

Boris is missing a chance here, perhaps along with his Bikes he could arrange for sponsorship of the Tube, or a Tube line to begin with; The Central line could be simply the HSBC line and the Circle line could be the 02 line.

He may struggle with sponsorship for the Northern Line though.

Crossrail will be sponsored by Germany as most of their equipment is building it.

The cable care unlike the Eye is a pathetic waste of money and is utterly pointless other than getting from the Dome to somewhere where you really don't want to be when its dark.

I walked through the old Wharfs today, places where Sherlock Homes would hide amongst the criminal fraternity and it's Opium Dens, exotic names like St Katherine's, Butlers, Customhouse, Fresh and Canary.

Now they are over run with hamster size show flats for the rich, wealthy and those of questionable taste.

At least the South Bank is still retaining its charm. But one day the Festival Hall needs to be knocked down as it is the Ugly duckling of the London Skyline.

When London was White?

..now there's a headline that grabs attention (and probably a large section of Daily Mail readers too)

The last census shows that over 600,000 White Londoners have left London.

This may be true but doesn't account for the White Others that have moved in, bought expensive and vastly inflated property and speak Russian.

A helpful graphic was used on the BBC website to illustrate this although with any statistics this can lead to massive misinterpretation and assumption. Which inevitably leads to knee jerk reacting such as the likes our Tabloid Media love to stir up.

Most of the populace here wont fully understand what this graphic means and what the census really is telling us.

Or, perhaps London is now overrun by immigrants (legal and otherwise)and we have all left.

And lets face it, I remember when London was predominantly White and what a scarey place it was then. At least now we have the best selection of restaurants in the world.

I am out with Baxter this evening to discuss such issues over some vintage malt and I shall be eagerly awaiting the results of the Pryce 'Points for Prizes' trial too. That and that Blade chappy.

When Britain was Great

For a small island we don't half make a lot of noise.

We once had the biggest Empire on the planet (even though it was mostly propped up on abuse, slavery and drug trafficking), we invented practically everything from Electricity to the Internet, had the best Financial sector and along the way have created some of the best music, art, films and plays.

We had some of the best industries from Steel and Coal to Cars and for a time everyone wanted to be us.

We have our problems; class, wealth, racism, abuse, neglect and poverty but we wear it with stoicism and a stiff upper lip.

London is now a separate principality of the UK, property is now owned by Russia, China and The Middle East and has become a stomping ground for those who have arrived here illegally or not.

We now have obesity on a scale that dwarfs most countries drug problems and we have become docile, apathetic and a little bit lost.

The European States of Germany ignore us and see us as a mild irritant. The USA see us as a place to come on Holiday or to base Nuclear Weapons.

Our media is now worthless and regulated, our best talents have gone overseas, even reigniting the old Sovereignty Claims with Las Malvina's meets with boredom and indifference

We have had our day and are now more concerned with how many Apps our phones have or what our Celebrities are wearing.

It was never like this in my day.

At war with Africa

The USA has now declared the whole of North Africa a hot bed of Jihadist Al Qaeda Fundamentalist Islamic Extremists. A little bit harsh I think.

When the USA was criticised for being Western Imperialist Warmongers people around the White House got a little hot around the collar and looked at the finger pointers and then started a war with them.

So, after arming all these "extremists" over countless decades by supporting dictators like Hussein, Gaddafi, The Taliban, and the odd looking one that is in charge (sic) in Syria they are again surprised that the children they spawned are fighting back.

The USA doesn't learn well from History, one only has to look at their interventions in Indochina, Central&South America, Afghanistan, Iran/Q and Indonesia and all the trouble that caused.

China and Russia on the other hand just watch with amusement and buy up all our resources and football teams.

Honest Dave is in India with a delegation of capitalists and arms dealers. It still scares me to think of India as a Nuclear Power. How did that happen??

And Kim Jong Odd has gone back to bed with a sore head wondering why USA wont pick a fight with him.

I have a cold today, too much time wandering around the city at the weekend.

10p tax and horses

So, Ed, "Don't call Me David" Millipede has re-announced the 10p tax rate and the Mansion Tax.

This appeals to the poor voters and not the wealthy ones. And lets face it a tax on property over £2 Million is only going to be paid by a few CEO's, Russians and Middle Eastern Shiekh's.

It is robbing Peter to pay Paul. Still, its a shrewd vote winner but the next election is a long way off and its doubtful that anyone will care by then.

Mervin King (remember him?) announced that the green shoots of recovery can be seen. He who didn't see the biggest crash since the 1930's coming? Why should we believe him?

On the day when national heroes are shooting models and horse meat is everywhere, I have but one course of action.

To meet Baxter in Fulham.

The NRA, Gun Control and Horses..

I have been watching a series of reports on Channel 4 news about guns in America.

(I am losing faith with the BBC's reporting acumen and well, I'm never going to watch Sky, and Jon Snow is such an entertaining character.)

So it goes that since the last massacre of children in the US the purchase of assault rifles has rocketed and school children instead of having slumber parties now have "shooting days at the range". There is something inherently disturbing watching an 8 year old girl shoot a pistol with her mom onlooking saying "we need to be prepared".

The NRA have entered the arena by saying more people need to be armed including teachers and poor old Obama looks bewildered and saddened as his PR company issue a photo of him with a hunting rifle.

Lets face it USA doesn't understand why their guns should be taken away. Its in the constitution. Well so was Slavery and we got rid of that.

And if we are facing facts its a lot harder to kill someone if you don't have a gun. And a lot more disturbing.

But the press is more concerned about the whole meat industry being plagued by horses to even start a reasonable debate about gun control.

And the NRA are just too big and too mad.

If I had a time machine I would go back and change the 2nd amendment to "we are obliged to treat the world and its contents as one"

But that's just me.

Nukes are not cool....

Kim Jong Odd has finally entered the world stage by not offering peace and reconciliation but by testing a nuclear bomb.

Not a good career move.

The Americans are now likening North Korea to Iran (How they have come to this assumption is anyone's guess) and have added them to their list of mad dictators that they potentially have the excuse for entering into war with.

Testing a nuclear bomb is akin to testing a firework. Once its tested and proven to work, there is nothing to say that the next one will. A bit like testing one beefburger for beef and not another.

Nuclear bombs scare the bejesus out of me. I have witnessed them being tested and I dont like them. They are an abomination.

I think Kim Jong Odd should concentrate on having a decent hair cut, getting laid and teaching his troops to march properly and not by annoying the rest of the world

And i am sure China will have a view on this...

Working is tough

So working for the big guy is tough.

The Pope has thrown in the towel because he is old and its hard work.

Well, if everyone thought like that then the world would be in trouble; no more royalty, no more CEO's, no more people working on minimum wage, no more politicians (actually, that's probably a good thing)

Some people still see organised religion as a necessary part of a civilized society.

My thoughts on this will remain my thoughts for fear of retribution. One has only to publish a cartoon nowadays and get death threats.

Needless to say this is obscuring the news on the corrupt meat industry, not only is everyone eating horses but the rumours are that this could have been drugged horses. So unfit horse meat has entered the food chain and is attributable to 'organised criminals'. Journalists and politicians really should stop putting spin on everything and see it for what it is. Greed.

I am in an unusual mood today. I was given the attentions of wondrous young filly at the weekend (no pun intended) easily 20 years my junior but has given me a joy to be alive.

And retired.

Hungry for horses?

It will come as no surprise to any one that follows this blog and knows me from elsewhere that I am allergic to meat. I am therefore vegetarian (though i despise the term and its leftist pseudo hippy connotations)

Ever since my days at Eton i have been unable to hold down anything that was once killed.

Lately I have been reading up on the global effects of our massive need for meat. Methane production (leading to global warming), pollution, deforestation, drugs and abuse.

So for those of you that are appalled at eating Horse, why differentiate between one animal and another.

Einstein once said that in the future everyone would be vegetarian. Perhaps we are at the turning point.

Off to the country this afternoon for some golf and brandy at the stately home of a dear friend who I had the pleasure to work along side in the military, but that's another story....

The morning after..

I feel like a triple dip recession today, I was out with Baxter and an old Hedgie friend last night, we drank far too much for people of our constitution but it was vintage and the conversation was flowing like the water falls of the Nile.

We raised a toast to Mr Hune and his wife.

We also raised a toast to RBS for being fined £390m for fixing Libor rates. A mere drop in the ocean to them but at least it shows the proles that the Government is telling off the banks.

We raised a toast to Beardy for selling off Virgin for many billions of pounds to Murdoch 2.

We also raised a toast to Football match fixing.

2013 is already turning into a very turbulent year and we have barely reached spring.

Must be time for a holiday.

Hahahahaahahahhahaaaa...

Adios Mr Hune, perverter of Justice, compulsive speeder and pupil at the Lance Armstrong school of long term lying.

May your prison cell be warm and your cell mate accommodating.

The only down side to all this is that UKIP and Mr Farage may stand for (and win) the Eastleigh by election

I wonder who'll be found out next... answers on a postcard please

Becks, Tax and Posh

Once upon a time David Beckham was a working class hero, a wondrous footballer who could score from the half way line. He became the biggest player at the biggest club in the UK.

He played for England and became the figure of hate after the team were surreptitiously beaten and he was sent off for a childish display of petulance.

He married Posh, part of the brat group The Spice Girls, who couldn't sing but who learnt how to move around like a supermodel.

Not earning enough he moved to Real Madrid, became an under garment model and then a brand in his own right, he now hawks his kids to the same publicity machine that he went through.

He is worth in the region of £130 million pounds, the profit of his brand being close to a million pounds a year.

He is now moving to France and like so many before him is realising that French tax laws are slightly different to everyone elses.1.5% annual wealth tax, that sort of thing.

He has now decided to 'work' for free and donate lots of money to charity to rid himself of such a tax burden.

And when the Becks are bored of France they will move to Notting Hill, where face it, they will be the only people to afford property there.

Its all falling down...

In the heady days of free credit, unregulated banks and a free press, when everyone was helping their mates out and lunches were free, who would have predicted the fall out when the populace realised that all the salacious gossip that they loved to read was obtained by listening into peoples phones via free ware obtainable on the internet.

After Lord Leveson produced his expensive, and frankly quite useless bookends, we now see top Det Ch Insp April Casburn jailed for attempting to sell stories to the press.

This is one in a long line of people awaiting jail for misdemeanors associated with the press / police / MP cosy triangle.

Honest Dave & Blair at one time schmoozed all these people and their lawyers are now working on their denials. Memos and photos are trawled through like an episode of The Killing (except without the noir and fluffy jumpers)

Murdoch shut the News Of The World down in a futile attempt to remove himself from any links with this debacle and heir James struggled with the English Legal System and what culpable deniability actually means.

Now the UK is in its 3rd dip of recession its navel gazing continues and it doesn't like what it sees, from child loving Disc Jockeys to corrupt Police Officers (and not one mention of "pleb-gate" on this blog on advise of my lawyer) and the press running amok and the banks gambling all our money away its easy to get a little down.

Champagne night in Mayfair to look forward to, an event where some BBC journalists will be present and in which I will be discussing much of this with them, plus trying to get a date with Susannah...