Monday, February 28, 2011

Oh I never felt more like singing the blues...

...when Everton win and Waterloo too

and England as well.

Can't complain about that. Top sporting weekend for once. Waterloo out of the relegation and Everton back in the top half.

Plus England beating our Belle Enemmi meant I won £10 off a Welshman (thus shrinking their economy by a quarter of the percent).

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Download From Dictatorship to Democracy by Gene Sharp

Been watching the events in the Arab Spring with admiration and trepidation. The people there are massively brave for standing up and being counted. So horrible that they might well be killed just for asking for self determination.

Saw an article about this book being used as a blueprint for these peaceful revolutions : Download from Dictatorship to Democracy by Gene Sharp

Thoughts and prayers are with them.

"In recent years various dictatorships — of both internal and external
origin — have collapsed or stumbled when confronted by defiant,
mobilized people. Often seen as firmly entrenched and impregnable,
some of these dictatorships proved unable to withstand the concerted
political, economic, and social defiance of the people."

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Don't buy the Sun

Was looking forward to the manchester United - Crawley Town match all day...everyone loves an underdog FA Cup performance after all. Any semblence of anticipation was stymied in a moment when I saw who Crawley's sponsors were.

A fairly impressive marketing coup as far as the rest of the country were concerned but on Merseyside we instantly plunged into turmoil....Do we support United against a non-league club because of THAT logo.

The answer for me is yes. Totally irrational and pavlovian I know but there you have it. The rest of Liverpool felt the same (as far as I can tell). I checked twitter and #dontbuythesun is one of the top trending topics. Well done folks, Scousers should NEVER forget that vile rag twisting the knife out of pure spite.

Am so proud that you still are more likely to see USA Today being read on Merseyside than the country's most popular daily newspaper

Leafleting & canvassing for Labour

Spent the morning and early afternoon leafleting for Allerton & Hunts Cross campaign....home just in time to hear the extra time of the Chelsea v Everton replay....and then the penalties. Utterly fantastic, just didn't think Phil Neville would slot that penalty. Queue absolute joy in our little Evertonian household. Love it so much. A great reward for a long morning on the campaign trail.

Best commentary EVER

Monday, February 14, 2011

Simon Hughes accuses Labour lead councils

Well done to Joe Anderson for standing up against that outrageous smear. Simon Hughes needs to put up or shut up because this is just the lowest of the low.

From the Echo

Mr Hughes said: “There is a huge difference between councils that we run in places like Sheffield which are having a small number of redundancies, places like Portsmouth where they are opening services, not closing them, and places like Manchester and Liverpool which are clearly politicising the cuts to make it sound worse and, bluntly, forcing people out of jobs when they needn’t do so.

“Some Labour councils are making choices that I regard as blatantly unfair.”

Around 1,500 town hall jobs are going to be lost in Liverpool as the council tries to plug a £91m financial black hole. The move means one-in-six of the council’s workforce will be out of work.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Liberal Councillors attack coalition spending cuts

AT LAST!!!

Lib-Dem councillors attack spending cuts

More than 90 prominent Liberal Democrat councillors, including the leaders of 18 local authorities, have criticised the scale and pace of government cuts.

In a letter to the Times, they say cuts will have "an undoubted impact on all front-line council services, including care services to the vulnerable".

They also accuse ministers of "denigrating" councils in the media.

Lib Dem Communities Minister Andrew Stunell urged his party members not to "fall out" over "pointless debate".

The signatories, who include the leaders of Newcastle, Milton Keynes and Hull city councils, say they are facing the bulk of the cuts to their budgets in the coming financial year - giving them little time "to spread the cost of reorganisation and downsizing".

"Rather than assist the country's recovery by making savings to the public in a way that can protect local economies and the front line, the cuts are structured in such a way that they will do the opposite," they write.

This comes the day after Lord Oakeshott stood down after criticising the miserable damp squib that is Project Merlin. At long last Lib Dems are realising that they are getting nothing but ruin out of vile coalition.

The AV vote might well be crucial.

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Coalition cuts taxes for multi-nationals whilst slashing public services

This is just breathtaking...at the same times as devastating public services under the maxim "We are all in this together" they are cutting taxes for multi-national companies.

Sickening and vile. NEVER TRUST A TORY!

At the moment tax law ensures that companies based here, with branches in other countries, don't get taxed twice on the same money. They have to pay only the difference between our rate and that of the other country. If, for example, Dirty Oil plc pays 10% corporation tax on its profits in Oblivia, then shifts the money over here, it should pay a further 18% in the UK, to match our rate of 28%. But under the new proposals, companies will pay nothing at all in this country on money made by their foreign branches.

Foreign means anywhere. If these proposals go ahead, the UK will be only the second country in the world to allow money that has passed through tax havens to remain untaxed when it gets here. The other is Switzerland. The exemption applies solely to "large and medium companies": it is not available for smaller firms. The government says it expects "large financial services companies to make the greatest use of the exemption regime". The main beneficiaries, in other words, will be the banks.

Sunday, February 06, 2011

Chris Ashton try...a warning from history

Obviously we were all ecstatic at England's win over Wales on Friday and Toby Flood was awesome and Chris Ashton flying leap try made us cheers...


...but this sort of thing doesn't bear thinking about :



Never forget Legiuzamon

Everton v Blackpool....bonkers

You might have noticed the as well as a general decline in the number of posts on here the number of posts reporting on Everton & Waterloo has gone down too.

Both having pretty wretched seasons really. Everton just can't get going and Waterloo are struggling desperately to find a stable level.

Yesterday though we had Everton scoring 5 in a ridiculous roller-coaster of a game and Waterloo scoring 5 tries for two good wins.

Felt totally drained after the Everton game, angry at one all (because of the quite ridiculous refereeing decision not to allow advantage as we broke into the box to score), utter deflation at 2-3 and surreal joy as we finally kicked clear of Blackpool who it needs to be said are a proper exhilerating attacking footballing side.

Thank God for King Louis.

Waterloo are finally out of the relegation zone. That is brilliant news but Middlesborough have two games in hand. Interestingly enough despite being 4th from bottom Waterloo have the most bonus points in the league. It shows how close to being a comfortably mid-table team we are at the moment.

Thursday, February 03, 2011

Oh dear, Sally Bercow stitched up by the Evening Standard

That really is naughty of The London Evening Standard. They told Sally Bercow, the partner of the commons Speaker John Bercow, they were doing a big article for valentines do so she naively tell them personal stuff about their relationship and now its popped up as a pretty lurid article with Sally posing wearing a sheet and talking about John being a sex-symbol. Very silly and utterly naive but you can feel sorry for her. More than that poor John is going have a pretty awkward time of it too Id imagine.

Wednesday, February 02, 2011

What is the Lib Dem Party Song?

I know Labour have The Red Flag and The Internationale and I presume the Tories have The Eton Boating Song and Carmen Etonense but what song do the Liberal Democrats have...they sing The Land but how about this for the official Lib Dem Party song :

The Lib-Dem flag is palid yellow
all limp and bland like Marti Pellow
Cleggies dreams come to fruition
for now he's in the coalition

Then raise the yellow standard low,
But don't believe our manifesto
Though Kennedy moans and Cable tuts
We'll back the Tory spending cuts

So Nick and Dave looked very pleased
and then put up tuition fees
The EMA and forests next
and then destroyed the NHS

Then raise our tax and V.A.T.
and sabotage our economy
But Quisling Clegg just doesn't hear
He only cares for his career


More verses welcome