Gordon Brown and Piers Morgan.

I'm not going to watch it. I would love it if no-one else did either, and it bombed in the ratings.

2.5% more pain coming our way.

 

Yup you've guessed it. VAT is on the rise whoever gets in at the next election. I can't say that I'm surprised.

A rise in VAT is looming whichever party wins the general election, as Labour and the Conservatives draw up plans to balance Britain’s books.

Alistair Darling and George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, are both considering raising VAT to as high as 20 per cent — the European average — from the current rate of 17.5 per cent.

However tax rises are not going to help business grow as this rise will be partially offset by consumers spending less.

What we really need is swingeing cuts in the unproductive public sector. Ie, mass redundancy notices for such posts as "Diversity Outreach coordinators" and the like. We really can't afford that nonsense.

At least someone has the balls to say it.(Even if I won't be voting for his party this time). And no, I'm not voting Labour or Limp Dem.

Ken Clarke, the Shadow Business Secretary, told The Times that any post-election cuts imposed by a Tory government would be worse than the squeeze of the early 1980s. “We are going to have to be much tougher on public spending than Margaret Thatcher ever was,” he said.

Having worked for a couple of years working in a branch of the MOD, I can assure you that there is plenty of fat that can be trimmed with no detriment to our  armed forces.

H/T to the Times for the info.

Sympathy vote for Jonah?

 

We all know that the labour party coffers are empty and that labour cannot sustain a protracted election campaign.

In light of his upcoming cringeworthy interview with Piers Morgan, where he will drag his families problems into the limelight. Could he be playing for the sympathy vote to narrow the gap between him and the Conservatives?

Could he, just could he, be planning for a snap general election?

Enter a new High priest of Climate Change.

 

The Acting Director at the CRU is claiming that us Skeptics are playing Russian Roulette with the Planet. He states the following:

"The evidence is hugely for there being substantial climate change due to man's activities and if you want to argue against that case you have to produce some evidence."

My personal opinion is that it is up to you to produce conclusive evidence that AGW is a fact. you've failed to do so up to now. I do not want to see out my twilight years shivering in the Dark because of a calamitous mistake by scientists and politicians.

Prove it beyond doubt professor. Lets see you put all your money on the AGW spot on the Roulette wheel.

SOURCE

Good health news at last.

 

It would appear that eating chocolate is good for you. Wow.

A study of nearly 50,000 people found that those eating chocolate were 22 per cent less likely to suffer a stroke than those that didn't.

And those who did suffer a stroke but had indulged in chocolate were 46 per cent less likely to die as a result.

Well I never.

Still I'm sure that the fat police will come up with some refutation in due course.

H/T to the Torygraph

A propaganda broadcast on behalf of the nanny state

I'm really fed up with the way they are determined to take all pleasure out of living. The latest shite about to be pedaled.

 

Well another single malt is called for. It might ease the pain of watching that crap.

H/T to Dick Puddlecote

The Met Office. Fail

 

Since we had this latest round of Global warming last month, I've had their website tabbed in my Browser. I also have another site called meteox tabbed. Meteox streams ahead for 3 hours and gives a good picture of the weather patterns coming in.

Last night the Met Office was predicting that there would be a yellow level of snow in Kent by Midday today.

This morning at nine O'clock the warning had changed to orange, predicting significant levels of snow.

At ten O'clock the sun was out. Not a cloud to be seen.

At 12 O'clock, the met Office site had suddenly changed to green.

Now I'd been comparing the Met Office data to Meteox and could see that there was no cloud coming towards Kent all morning.

It would seem that the Met office cannot even predict the forecast 3 hours in advance. Are their pine cones defunct? or do they just look out of the window?

If they can't get it right for 3 hours, how can they predict the next 50 years?

LOTR - The Prequel

Seeing as it only cost £25,000 to make, it's not bad.

 

She didn't have Peter Jackson's £200million budget, eight years of filming time or the spectacular scenery of New Zealand to work with.

But Kate Madison could match his boundless passion - and with it managed to make her own Lord Of The Rings film.

The amateur actress was so inspired by the blockbuster Rings trilogy created by Jackson she wrote, directed and produced a prequel based on material from the original JRR Tolkien books.

 

Blue labour?

Well it had to be done.

H/T to GOT. It sums dave up.

Olympics, Coming for a handout near you.

We all knew it would happen. The Olympic delivery Authority And that's a new speak of the modern age, if ever I heard one.)

It would appear that the cost of the Olympic Games in London is going to cost overrun again.

The Government faces the prospect of having to raid its dwindling Olympic contingency fund yet again, with officials announcing further cost increases yesterday in the delivery of the 2012 Games.

The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) warned that the next 12 months would be the toughest yet as the pace of construction accelerated to meet venue completion deadlines in early 2011.

The authority, which is responsible for the infrastructure at the Games, disclosed that its costs had increased by £21 million in the past quarter.

The Millennium dome all over again. Just at the time that we are broke. Why is it that all we see is open ended contracts by Government departments? The average citizen having the plumber in,  would never be held to ransom like these fuckwits in Governments.

Why don't we just give the contractors a blank cheque at the start?