Gordon Brown sinks to a new low - spending cuts.

Sometimes the world of politics can be truly amazing. Only in the world of spin can men and women (supposedly of trust) tell the most incredible lies and honestly believe they will get away with it. Today the Independent reports that..... wait for it......Gordon Brown is to announce a list of Labour spending cuts when parliament resumes.

Obviously he thinks that the thick British public will have forgotten his ridiculous claims that he would increase spending - while the Tories are a bunch of nasty cutters. For more than two months he vehemently denied that he would cut spending. It was incredible to see the Prime Minister tell such blatant porkies at PMQs and during TV interviews. The press didn't fall for it and even Labour supporting papers accused Brown of being dishonest. 0% rise anyone?

Now Brown intends to steal a march on Cameron by announcing his cuts first - cuts he swore live on TV (on several occasions) that he would never make. He knows no shame and has a serious disregard for the intelligence of British voters - either that, or the man is a complete idiot. Who gives him advice? Does he take advice? How can his fellow MPs stand by and watch him make such a laughing stock of their party? The man is an arse. How long will it take before the many clips of him saying that he will not cut spending are flashed up on our TV screens? Not long I suspect.

Labour MPs - get ready for more embarrassment.

UPDATE: I've had a bit of time to mull this over. This strategy could have worked if Labour had rid themselves of Calamity Brown before the break and then the new party leader could have announced the cuts when parliament resumed - fresh start and all that. If Brown announces these cuts then the party will just look (even more) dishonest.

Mark France - Sacked for exercising his democratic rights.

Mark France has been sacked for campaigning to get rid of Julie Kirkbride. Mark did what he believed to be right and thought he had the right to do just that. It turns out that because he works in a job centre he has less rights than the rest of us.

The Department for Work and Pensions said Mark had broken its Civil Service Code by "speaking about politics on live national television, campaigning for signatures, making statements to the media, standing as an independent candidate in local elections without permission, and making comments on a politics website."

What a load of old crap! Mark France works in a bloody Job Centre as an admin officer - he does not work in the inner sanctums of government and what he has done in no way compromises his ability to do his job, nor does it damage the department he works for. This looks personal.

Mark said:

"I certainly didn't think that by speaking my mind in a democracy that it would lead me to lose my job. "Everybody should be free to express their opinion. I think it's an issue of human rights."

Too bloody right Mark.

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Gordon Brown is burying a report on MOD waste.

The single most important duty of any government is to protect the nation. To do that you must provide sufficient funds and expertise to allow our armed forces to do their job. Gordon Brown has failed miserably to do so.

From the FT:

Gordon Brown was on Wednesday accused of suppressing a “damning” review of defence procurement policy that concluded billions of pounds were being wasted.

The report by Bernard Gray, a former adviser to the Ministry of Defence, was due to be published last month but was delayed after ministers announced that work would begin on a strategic defence review.

Mr Gray was to investigate how to bear down on spiralling procurement costs and improve how the department provides kit for the frontline.

His report finds that the MoD has just two-thirds of the funds it needs to meet existing commitments to buy equipment. The shortfall pushes up costs by forcing project delays. Up to £2.5bn a year is being wasted as a result, according to details of the report seen by Channel 4 News.

The decision last year to postpone work on new aircraft carriers by two years could cost taxpayers up to £1bn as the consortium building the ships keeps staff working longer, leaked documents have shown.

Full story HERE.

Commons pay rise - this has got to stop.

From the BBC:

The House of Commons has awarded significant pay rises to its senior officials, including some of those who oversaw the MPs' expenses scandal.

Annual accounts just released show that the Clerk to the House, Malcolm Jack, received a rise of about 11%, meaning he now earns more than Gordon Brown.

Andrew Walker, who ran the Fees Office which administered expenses, received a rise of about 8%.

His salary rose from a band of £115,000 - £120,000 to £125,000 - £130,000.

Where did I put my flaming torch and effing pitchfork?

Top Gear - Aston Martin Vantage - beautiful ending.

I've just watched this week's top gear. It was, as usual, very entertaining, but there was a real treat at the end. Clarkson took the new Aston Martin Vantage out for a spin and in the process produced a great little film. I was left feeling just like Jeremy - sad. To me that car is the pinnacle of car design and things will never be the same again. There are faster cars, there are possibly more beautiful cars, there are cars that are more technically advanced, but the Aston is a work of art, power and technology combined - it's perfect.

The music is "An Ending (Ascent)"From the album 'Apollo-atmospheres and soundtracks' by Brian and Roger Eno and Daniel Lanois. (1983)

Blog fun - Escape the phone booth.

Have you ever played an escape game? The idea is to search around for clues which will enable you to escape from what ever situation the game puts you in.

This one is quite tricky and it may take you some time to escape, enjoy:

Click on the picture to follow a link to the game:

Useless FSA has to go to banks for loans?

You could not make this up. The Financial Services Authority has had to go to the banks to borrow money. The FSA has been absolutely useless since it was set up, being unable to control the banks, now it has failed to control it's own finances. To be fair the FSA did spot what was going wrong with the banking industry - it wrote many reports into bad practice and outright fraud - however it lacked the teeth to do anything about it and the government just ignored their reports.

From the Independent:

The Financial Services Authority has gone into debt for the first time and has been told by directors to review its cash flow. The regulator has drawn on a £100m credit agreement with Lloyds Banking Group and has concluded a further borrowing facility of £100m with HSBC.

The FSA spent £347m in the past year, but raised only £324m from fees and other revenues. Although the first facility was agreed with Lloyds before the credit crunch, it remained unused until this year. However, the regulator has already had to sign a further agreement to finance its expected deficit for the current year.

Full story HERE.

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Jaguar XF - Want one.

I've got a X-type at the moment, the XF would be a great replacement.