Gordon Brown's Experience

I know that Gordon Brown keeps telling us how he has the experience of getting us out of the financial mess he created. He may be right.

But let us remind ourselves a little of just how much he has mismanaged the country's finances in the last 13 years.

1. Removed £5bn tax incentives from pensions and at one stroke ruined our country's previously much admired pension system within a very short time scale


2. Sold our GOLD reserves when prices were at rock bottom - STUBBORNLY going against the advice of the Treasury Dept. A financial loss to us of £7bn. "The loss to the Exchequer is now twice as high as the Conservatives’ decisions over the Exchange Rate Mechanism on black Wednesday".


3. Frequently tells us the immigration enriches our economy with workers spending their earnings on the local economy. When in fact most of them claim maximum benefits (e.g. child benefit) which they then send home to the family to enrich their homelands economy.

Reading this you may think that it doesn't directly affect you - but it does and it will. You'll have less money in your pocket after the election which ever party gets in.

But remember you have Gordon Brown to thank for the mess we are in. He has sold off and squandered our country's assets. Rather than saving some of the £5bn from the pension tax raid, or the £xbn acquired from the sale of gold reserves - not to mention £22.5bn raised in 2000 when he sold off the airwave licences to the mobile phone companies and although he promised PRUDENCE and an end to BOOM and BUST - he failed to save any of this ill gotten gains for a rainy day. Well it's been raining for a while now and it will only get worse.

Remember who you have to thank for this.

Budget Day

Dear Darling Alistair
I'm so sorry you had such a horrible budget on which to make a speech. There isn't much you can say when the UK has gone BUST. Up to it's collective ears in Debt. In spite of the previous Chancellor boasting many times that he'd abolished the cycle of Boom and BUST. Gordon looked so happy at the end of your speech. Even the skin around his eyes crinkled when he grinned. I assume he looked happy that he was no longer in that post when the BUST hit the fan. Relieved in fact that he wasn't the one who had to deliver the figures himself.

But you looked so sad. You almost looked on the verge of tears. I think you should have squeezed in a few words to say that we are now BUST as the previous incumbent of your post failed to save for these rainy days. He enjoyed the BOOM but frittered it away. As he did with with the nation's gold reserves.

Yours
A Floating Voter

Financial Crisis

The Bolt from the Blue must have been just a short flash of lightening. Gordon Brown appears to be revelling in the economic crisis. The boy David doesn't appear to be saying very much at all.

Surely the opposition should be flaying the Govt about their mismanagement, ftheir lack of forward planning, failing to save for a rainy day etc. etc. And reminding everyone of Gordon's bargain basement sale of the nation's Gold.

I keep trying to do 'my bit' for the economy. I've taken savings out to go on a shopping spree but haven't seen anything to really tempt me. Not even at 50 % discount. I'd buy a gold necklace but have you seen the price of gold lately?

Speaking for Myself

'Speaking for Myself' is the title of Cherie Blair's book which apparently has been rushed out earlier than the planned autumn release date. Perhaps she is worried that by the October no-one will have £18.99 spare cash left to waste on a work of fiction/faction. Speaking for Myself I find the idea of reading 'Speaking for Myself' by Cherie Blair to be a complete waste of time. It sounds as if she is trying to get us to like her and see everything from Tony's point of view. But all it appears to do is highlight how greedy, vulgar and self deceiving the woman is. Cherie must think we are all less than intelligent. Why should we believe any of this? After all she has admitted she is not incapable of telling 'pork pies'. Her husband is also a stranger to the truth. She only confessed to fibbing when 'found out'.

Speaking for Myself I'm also amazed that she was so embarrassed by being found to have a 'contraceptive' device in her luggage that she decided to leave it at home. Why not carry it in her handbag? Being such a devout Catholic female maybe this was the contraceptive device she chose for Tony to use.

At least this latest outing of the B Liars serves to remind us of just how grateful we should be that bungling Gordon 'Prudence' Brown did manage to remove Teflon Tony and the 'Cat Trainer' from office.

Update: 16th May - and who would like to guess just who this eager beaver of a reader and reviewer on the Amazon website is?? Me thinks it is probably a publisher/editor desperate to get the sales up - or maybe even a 'pen' name of Cherry Booth/Blair QC.

I agree with the Judge who thought she should resign as part- time Judge. Imagine standing in court and having this loose mouthed loose morals female pronouncing Judgement on your behaviour! HUH!

Iain Dale's Diary: More Money to Our Friends in the North?

Well - and what was I trying to say just now??

Iain Dale's Diary: More Money to Our Friends in the North?

Gordon Brown's Dignity and Respect for the Aged

Dear Gordon Brown,
What has happened in this country where dignity and respect for our older citizens is so appallingly lacking? Why does this old gentleman have to sell his home to get the money to pay for treatment to save his sight? Why should he have to go blind in one eye before the local PHT/NHS will try and save the sight in his second eye? Why is it the National Health Service is no longer national and it all depends on post code lottery whether you are lucky to get the best available treatment or not. I am beginning to think we should all up sticks and move to Scotland.

How short sighted of the local health service. Becoming monocular leads to trips, falls and other minor accidents like scalds. If you don't believe me [for those other than GB] then try wearing an eye patch over one eye for a month and log how many accidents you have. From trying to fill a mug with boiling water to negoitating steps - all become fraught with difficulty. The younger you are the more time you will have to adapt and the more likely the brain will be able to cope with the adjustment. But youth is not on the side of people with age related loss of vision.

Perhaps the health service doesn't care - if this gentleman needs help to live at home through loss of independence with failing sight then obviously that will be from a different budget - a local government social services budget - a council tax funded budget. Maybe all of us over 50's should rise up together and withhold our council taxes. We could always start up a U3A goup in the prisons where we may feel safer, warmer and better fed with excellent access to the Health Service.

Again yet another example of our non - Caring Government and Prime Minister.

Incredible and Unbelievable

It is incredible and unbelievable that a man serving a prison sentence for a violent rape is able to escape from hopital [for a second time] while he was undergoing treatment. Yet an elderly upright citizen of 76 years is led away in handcuffs to serve a prison sentence for non payment of Council Tax. I think this just about sums up the priorities of our government.

Apologies

I apologise for not posting an entry for a few days. I've had a bit of a s**t week. Nothing major just minor but time consuming irritaions that have disrupted my days this week. And the week isn't over yet. Even though I no longer work for a living - well go out to work - or paid work (I always seem to be working at some chore or other) the week for me still seems to be Monday to Friday. I still love Friday evenings which always feel full of promise with the weekend ahead. I'm just relieved I no longer have that horrible Monday morning feeling anymore. Retirement does have its good points.

Now since Blogger started to misbehave a few days ago; everything else seems to be following suit. The oven ended up producing a few inedible burnt offerings. I know - I agree, I may not have been concentrating - but it's not all my fault. The cooker clock seems to stop/go without warning and it no longs trills at me when the time is up. I've also had post go missing and been chasing around trying to sort out various minor chores made worse due to expected mail not arriving as promised. I was beginning to disbelieve the sender. Then I arrived home one morning to a polite missive from the local NHS to ask exactly why I had failed to attend for an appointment. I have never ever had an appointment marked down as Did Not Attend. I rang to apologise and explain. They were not surprised. It's happened to many. In fact the staff sat around twiddling their thumbs for many an hour over the last fortnight. Why the NHS continued to post out letters with appointment times in the middle of a week long mail strike, I do not know. Surely it would have been far better use of staff time to ring round and advise everyone of the appointments date and time. But no - that is probably too much like using basic common sense.

If you are expecting a letter and it doesn't arrive you can take action. But when you don't even know it should be arriving then you are 'up the swanny'.

I had been expecting to hear from the Northern Rock Bank. I had Fixed Term Bond reaching maturity. I was keenly anxious to liberate it as soon as possible. I contacted them to ask when I could expect to hear from them. Once again I was impressed with the response. Because of the postal strike and backlog of letters in Royal Mail's system they had extended the deadline for instructions to reach them on maturity. impressed or not I took my money out as soon as possible and am relieved to have done so. But I still feel like a rat deserting a sinking ship. I'm now trying to play safe by forgoing the high interest rates and splitting my savings into a smaller piles and depositing in building societies or National Savings. I'll wait for the troubles to shake down and see which banks are safe. I'd feel far happier with a gold bar under my bed though. Has anyone told Gordon Brown what the price of gold is lately? Just compare this to the price at which he sold off our gold reserves.

Dear Gordon

Dear Gordon Brown,

I understand, from the gossip that is flying around everywhere, that this weekend you are giving serious thought to whether or not you should call a 'snap' election. I thought you might like to take into consideration the views of Mrs Almost A Pensioner, of East Devon.

I like the fact that you appear a straightforward kind of man. Plain speaking; boringly so. You don't keep flashing your dentistry at us all the time. You don't have charisma. You appear to be a man of conviction. These are good points. These are what make you so popular in comparison to the bumbling naive boy David.

The polls look good. More people would "trust you in a crisis" than they would Dave Cameron. This sounds like the YouGov question I had which asked who I would like to cover my back if I was fighting for my life in a trench. I ticked the box for you Gordon. But as I'm unlikely to be in a trench fighting for my life in the near future - then be assured that this answer doesn't mean I would vote for you come polling day.

I still can't get out of my mind that for such a 'clever' Chancellor you sold off this country's Gold reserves at it's lowest price for years. Have you seen the price of gold this week? It doesn't appear to me to have been at all prudent. In fact it appears to me rather as short-termism. Much has been quoted of your clever management of the economy. But do you think we have all forgotten all the Nation's goods you sold off to finance the public spending? We also remember all the 3G mobile phone airwaves made available and sold for billions - regardless of whether or not mobile phone signals are a health hazard or not. Then there is the fact that you robbed so many thousands of people of their pension savings by lifting £5billion every year for the Treasury. From inheriting a wealthy pension savings culture to ruin within less than 2 years - that is some kind of record, I suppose.

Now you are making everyone turn to digital TV. This despite the fact that LCD and Plasma TV's would add to the global warming effect you all appear to be so worried about. But really what makes you so keen on his new technology is the profit you can gain from selling off the redundant analogue airwaves.

We also don't forget that your 'word is your bond', but only until the next election has been secured. For example giving pensioners an extra £200 assistance towards council tax then removing it in the next budget following election. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the recent grand announcement for help reduce council tax bills for our armed forces serving abroad isn't rescinded once the forthcoming election is over. It looks very much as if you are buying votes from the armed forces this time rather than the pensioners. Probably because you know you have squandered the trust of pensioners.

I also think that just as you no longer think we should be allowed to have the promised referendum on the New European Treaty I also wouldn't be at all surprised if suddenly you announce that your famous 5 economic tests now show that it is right for Britain to join the Euro. It may be that only England are taken into the the Euro. The Scots and the Welsh seem to be developing as entirely different nations now - they just want to continue to be funded by the English.

It may be, by now Gordon, that you are beginning to think that, although I am thankful that Tony Blair has disappeared from our sight - for which I do heartily thank you - you may be getting an inkling that there is no way I would trust you and therefore will not be voting for you. You're right. I wont. Regardless of how truthfully I answer any YouGov Poll question.

If I was fighting for my life I would want a mugger like you protecting my back. But rather than a man of conviction I just think you are another con man. You wont get my vote.

Goodbye.

Tony Blair Man of Steel

Have you noticed how practically everyone, from newspaper journalists to tv and radio; each and everyone one of us is counting down the days to our release from a much loathed and despised Prime Minister. Don't you just love the fact that we won't have to have him preaching and prissing on to us.
Does everyone or anyone admire his Bravery in the face of adversity? He's constantly telling us that the war against terrorism is important and 'we must not allow them to change the way we live'. Don't you just love that phrase? No - the way WE live hasn't changed. But have you noticed that Tony no longer walks to the the House - he is driven just a few hundred yards in a bullet and bomb proof car. He is even getting terrorist resistant car[s] for when he retires. He obviously doesn't trust his God that much. I doubt we'll be seeing him on the tube or bus in the future or at Lord's cricket ground. He's always full of fine words but it is very much a case of don't do as I do, but do as I say.
Margaret Thatcher was bombed in Brighton and John Major had a rocket fired on him in Downing Street but there was no sign of them changing the way 'we live'. I reckon they were much braver than Blair is with his quivering lower lip and manly 'butch' stance.
I just hope that Gordon Brown doesn't lose his main virtue of [apparent ] 'honesty'. With Gordon there is an impression of a belief in his belief [s]. Whether you agree or not with him it is to be admired. Rather like Margaret Thatcher, with her many unpopular decisions. There is much to be said for integrity. I hope Gordon will retain his. Time will tell . But we do need something to change for us, the electorate, to regain trust in the people who represent us in Parliament.
I'm not sure that Tony ever had any integrity. I've only ever seen Tony as a celeb with a big desire to be a great, much admired star on a huge stage. Margaret Thatcher the Iron Lady or Tony Blair Man of Base Metal - I know which I'd prefer. Lets hope Gordon Brown turns out to be made of sterling silver or better still, a diamond of the first water.

GoldFingers or Butterfingers Gordon Brown

This entry from my earlier blog site on Yahoo 360 on 4th March : -

"While I'm on the subject of Gordon Brown - How on earth can anyone say he has managed the economy 'well' ? Besides ruining a very good pension and savings culture in the UK; he also sold our gold reserves: at a point when gold prices were at the lowest - and he announced in advance when he would be selling - thus letting the price drift ever lower while his minions hauled it out of the vault in deepest Wales - or wherever the Royal Mint is/was. Where was the gold stashed anyway? Fort Knox maybe? "

I read in the Sunday Times yesterday [15th April ] that it was Gordon Brown's decision to sell OUR GOLD. A decision taken despite expert advice to the contrary. I'm not surprised - it made no sense to me at all at the time and I'm just surprised that people seem to forget about all his duff decisions.