Political Rover

Squeal public sector parasites, Squuuuuuuuuuuuuueal

2010-10-20T14:40:00.000+01:00

After 10Yrs of spunking billions of £ down the shitter to reward the Labour governments friends in the public sector, we now have the day of reckoning.

In my mind it doesn't go far enough. The government will take spending back to 2006 levels. We should be aiming for 1997 levels and reversing the huge increase in non-productive parasitical public sector which sucks the life out of private enterprise.

Now for tax cuts - the only way to increase economic growth in a global economy is to cut personal and corporation tax rates. The top 1% of taxpayers pay over 20% of the total UK tax take. These people are mobile. In my FTSE company, all high paying global roles can be based wherever the individual wishes. You fancy minimal tax in Singapore - go for it. Want to live with 15% tax rate in Prague, go for it.

The government shouldn't bite the hand that feeds it. Cut tax = economic growth - a dense GCSE student could tell you that.

Talking to Russia: Medvedev, Putin and waking up the Russian bear

2010-10-14T12:13:00.000+01:00

Recent moves by Britain and the US to normalise relations with Russia are an interesting developing in the strategy for dealing with Moscow. The very public execution of Litvinenko in London, the Georgian conflict of 2008, support for Iranian nuclear ambitions and the continuing manoeuvres surrounding NATO's eastward expansion all provide the back-drop to the poor state of diplomatic relations.

It is right and proper that the UK expressed serious anger over the execution of a dissident in the middle of London - that was pretty outrageous. Similarly the Georgian conflict was little more than old Soviet style Russian power-politics. These issues, combined with the anti-democracy legislation and return to autocratic ways led to the deep-freeze in relations during '08-'10.

Thankfully, Realpolitik has settled back in place. Western Europe needs Russia. We need Russian natural gas & oil. As the Russians showed in their dispute with the Ukraine, they can simply turn off the tap if they want to play hardball. For a net energy importer such as the UK relations with Russia are critical - this is made manifestly worse by the retarded focus on renewable energy which doesn't work (wind power anyone) instead of building the unpalatable but necessary new nuclear power infrastructure. We need to hug the Russian bear close however unpleasant the smell.

Europeans and Americans generally don't get the Russian mentality. After doing business there over the last couple of years I have been surprised and intrigued by the Russian way of doing things. They are totally paranoid - about the state, about competitors, and of course about the seemingly expansionist & encircling ambitions of NATO up to their borders. Quite rightly Russians fear the Putin mafia who confiscate businesses & arrest economic and political opponents at will - democracy & the rule of law are at best a mirage in Moscow.

All this is tempered by a fantastic and very 'British' sense of humour - there is no business dinner I look forward to as much one with Muscovites holding court with their well aimed sarcasm, wit and stories, all fuelled by industrial quantities of vodka.

We need the natural resources of Russia. We also need their influence in controlling Iran and other rogue states. They have no truck with Islamist fundamentalists and are a key ally for supply routes to the Af-Pak conflict. Russia needs technology and finance from the West. More than this they need re-assurance that NATO is not encircling them with approaches to the Ukraine & other ex-Soviet states. The idea that we could attach conditions on democracy & human rights to any diplomatic deals is naive at best.

We must hug the Russians close - a healthy dose of Realpolitik must win out. Putin may be little more than a return to autocracy but the Russian empire is part of the solution to many of the key global problems we face.

Lord Browne puts students in the brown stuff

2010-10-12T10:33:00.006+01:00

Lord Browne of BP safety costs slashing fame (Gulf of Mexico anyone), has published his report into University funding. He recommends the removal of the cap on fees which will lead to the cost of most courses sailing past £5k and up beyond £10k.

I find this issue quite difficult. As a teenager my parents didn't have a dime and therefore I had my tuition fees paid for - my year was the first to experience them in 1998 despite Blair's manifesto pledge to the contrary. Herein lies the problem.

Students from the bottom of the socio-economic pile (like yooful me) will get everything paid for - quite rightly too as a good education is the only way to encourage social mobility. Wealthy families will be annoyed at having to pay more, but will in the end be able to afford the fees & little Hugo and Tamsin will still be able to attend a prestigious and now expensive University.

Those in the middle will be hit hardest. The family which struggles along on a middling income - neither comfortably wealthy nor uncomfortably poor. It is these teenagers who will be put off by the size of the student debt they are going to incur. £30k for a 3 year course plus living costs could easily see a student starting their working life with a £50k debt. Mine was £12k without tuition fees.

Yes the debt will be at a cheap interest rate vs market rate - but these are scary numbers. Many graduates earn considerably more over their lifetime than non-graduates. This means that they already contribute more to the tax take thereby paying back their fees & more.

It is probably correct that students should pay more for their education. But putting £50k of debt round the neck of a 21 year old is not right. How about abolishing the Stalin-esque target of 50% of all students in University - target government funding & focus instead on a smaller cohort being educated to a higher level.

It is unjustifiable to spread the limited funds available across multiple Universities offering courses in the equivalent of under-water basket weaving to students with a D at A-Level.

Lets give this a go again

2010-10-12T10:25:00.003+01:00

Lets give this blogging thing a go again. Been 2 years since my last post. Just a few things have happened in that time - Coalition government, first black president of the USA, another England world cup disaster, and Mrs Rover gave birth to little Ms Rover.
Plenty to talk about, unless I can't be arsed again and flounce off.

Boris should scrap 2012

2008-10-07T17:08:00.004+01:00

Instead of saying that the 2012 London Olympics will be on budget and 'cosier' than Beijing, Boris should just scrap the entire debacle.

£9bn for a 2 week jamboree with plenty of politicians and dignitaries with their noses in the trough.

Not even Boris has the cojones to cancel it or scale it back. It is a nonsense spending £9bn when we are in a financial mess.

Sports no-one cares about and no-one will care about in the future except for when some obscure obsessive wins a gold at under-water basket weaving.

Build schools and hospitals, or try buying our troops weapons and equipment that works - typical self-serving MPs & Lords, an Olympics for their egos, not for London.

FTSE down 7.85%

2008-10-06T17:12:00.003+01:00

Worst single day since 1987 stock market crash.

The MPC has to cut rates at the next meeting. But given the disconnect between libor and the base rate, it might not be enough.

Hang onto your hats and your hard cash - we still haven't reached the bottom.

The Mandy returns

2008-10-03T14:28:00.005+01:00

Like Lazarus, Peter Mandelson has risen from the dead.... for the third time!! Has there ever been an example of someone returning to the Cabinet after resigning not once, but twice for corruption!

I can't quite work out whether it is a bad political move or a really bad political move. The Left hate him as the Goebbels to Blair & founder of New Labour. Everyone else hates him because he was at the forefront of the spin & deceit culture heralded & honed by New Labour.

At least he can bring his Brazilian boyfriend over to London safe in the knowledge that now Sir Ian Blair has resigned, a young (rent) boy from Brazil can ride the tube without having his brains blown out.

With Campbell, Mandelson, Whelan and Draper all back on board, Brown is going back to the old spin meisters.

He is wasting his time as he is proper fooked and no amount of spin is going to help him.

Back to the 70s.... don't say i didn't warn you

2008-10-01T14:06:00.002+01:00

The Times front page makes grim reading

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article4860551.ece

4 day week at Ford, manufacturing output through the floor, warnings about power blackouts this winter, coal back in fashion (albeit 'clean' coal to salve the enviro-loons), Russia flexing its muscles, a ridicuously inexperienced Carter-esque President about to take power in the US..... back to the 70s indeed.

Oh well, at least we aren't bust like in 1976 going cap in hand to the IMF (well not quite yet), and that nice Mr Gay Gordo assure us he has paid the national debt down - honest guv..........

Net Debt £545bn
Northern Rock £87bn (save the geordie jobs for our friends in the north)
B&B £40bn (not even Santander would touch it)
Public Sector Pensions £1,000bn (poor old hard done to work shy public sector)
Future PFI payments £110bn - (even Enron would cringe at this off-balance sheet trick)

Grand Total £1,782bn

or £67,327 per household in the UK oooops. And the US Congress got shitty about a mere $700bn of bail-out ($5,000 per household)!

the next scapegoat

2008-10-01T13:47:00.002+01:00

After railing at greedy bankers and traders the politicians are now after fair-value accounting. May sound dull, but this is one way for banks to manipulate their results & deceive investors.

Sarkozy, the EU, and even David Cameron have started criticising fair value rules saying that they have made the current credit crisis worse.

Errr, no. The fair value rules ensure that businesses, in particular banks, value their positions at the prevailing market rates. This allows investors to see the true p&l on a position.

Without fv rule, the banks know their real prices, competitors can work out the real prices, but investors are left in the dark.

This is just a diversion tactic to try and shift some blame for the current fiasco.

Keith Vaz & Geoff Hoon are corrupt idiots

2008-07-02T15:08:00.003+01:00

The lying Leicester MP Keith Vaz has once again been caught out in his less than ethical dealings. This time the idiot that is Geoff Hoon has dropped them both right in the shit.

Keith Vaz miraculously changed his view on the 42 day detention without trial vote & supported the government. Along with the equally venal DUP, Vaz was among the handful of MPs who swung the vote in the government's favour.

Geoff Hoon then writes him a note saying that Vaz would be 'appropriately rewarded' for his actions. Which is more shocking - that Vaz would sell his vote for 40 pieces of silver, or that Hoon would be such a complete idiot as to write the deal down in black and white?!?

Amazing. There really aren't enough lamp posts to string up this lot. Lets erode civil liberties further, and in return Vaz gets a knighthood and the DUP get a pot of cash.

Well screw the DUP - Ulster is nothing but a medieval drain on mainland Britain anyway. And Vaz ain't got no chance of his knighthood now that the stink is out.

It would be even funnier if Hoon has deliberately leaked the letter to stitch Vaz up & deny him his spoils.

Inflation to top 4%, Strikes Galore - back to the 70s

2008-06-17T12:19:00.002+01:00

Mervyn King the Governor of the Bank of England has told the Chancellor that inflation could well top 4% by the end of the year. This as he wrote to the Chancellor, Oh my Darling, to explain how he was to combat the rise in inflation to 3.3%.

Welcome to the start of Stagflation! Hold on to your hats we are going back to the 70s.

Inflation on the up, the economy stagnating, the unions flexing their muscles on pay disputes. Sounds like a newsreel from 1974!

The next year or so is not going to be pretty - anyone want a bet on $200 oil and 3m unemployed?

David Bentley - the ego has landed

2008-06-16T13:51:00.004+01:00

As expected David Bentley has asked for a transfer, believing he should be plying his trade at a top 4 club. Little old Blackburn Rovers are no longer big enough for his talent and ego.

Bentley is a fine player. But I fail to see which of the top 4 English sides would want him. Also, if he was that good why can't he permanently dislodge a rapidly ageing, unfit David Beckham who plays the equivalent of 2nd division football in the USA from England's right wing?

Bentley is a classic case of self-delusion and self-aggrandisement. A decent footballer who cannot keep his mouth shut. Thinks he is a far better player than he really is - think positional discipline, pace, consistency for starters - never mind his disruptive ego which Arsene Wenger spotted straight away.

Rovers saved him from obscurity when he was languishing as a loan signing at Norwich. We have taken him to the edge of the England side. He plays every week, is well paid and gets picked for England. But that isn't enough.

Wenger won't have him back at Arsenal, he doesn't have enough pace for ManU, Chelski can afford much better - so that leaves Liverpool at best. Most likely he will end up at Villa or Man City, or on the bench at Anfield.

But he'll get a fatter pay check and a boost to his already over-inflated ego

Irish vote down Lisbon Treaty - what happens next?

2008-06-16T13:42:00.005+01:00

As the dust settles on the Irish 'No' vote in last week's referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon it is becoming increasingly clear that the EU will try and force the issue in the coming months.

Whether this is by ignoring Ireland & carrying on with the Treaty or other means, I see no potential for the EU to reign itself in. More likely Ireland will be offered the chance to 'reflect' and then either asked to vote again (the 'correct' way) or will be presented with a tweaked treaty - i.e. much the same but the spin will be different.

You couldn't make it up. Marxists used to bang on about 'false consciousness' preventing revolution. Now the EU is saying a similar thing to Ireland - the Irish are misguided, have false consciousness & should now be led by other means to the Euro-Nirvana federal state.

The elites won't put the EU to a referendum unless they are forced to as they know the outcome in most countries would be No to a federal super-state.

Does Cameron have the cojones to open this box of worms if/when he is PM after the next election - maybe, watch this space and cross your fingers if you are a democrat & exponent of the nation-state.

Obama...... don't count your chickens

2008-06-04T11:28:00.002+01:00

Truly historic news from the US - the first black man to ever stand as a major candidate in the Presidential election. Potentially the first ever black US President. It is only a few decades ago that the civil rights movement tore much of US society to shreds in the '60s, early '70s and now Obama is running for President.

There seems to be a consensus developing in the UK media, and in excitable elements of the US media, that Obama is bound to win. He is change. He is a new dawn. I was in the US a month ago and even sane, cynical New Yorkers were gushing over Obama.

I'm not so sure. I have a feeling that John McCain is going to prove far more formidable than many give him credit. He appeals to the Right, but not the mentalist Right. He is a strong man, decorated war hero who also disagreed with many of Dubya's decisions on post-war Iraq & domestic issues.

Like most Brits, I am an outsider to US politics who picks up his news & views from the media & regular business trips to the East Coast. But, Obama strikes me as shallow & inexperienced. He has dubious friends. His wife plays racial politics, never mind his pastor.

I think he will be found out. The Republicans are going to destroy not only his politics but his personality in the ferocious election propaganda that will ensue.

Finally - Obama has been compared to JFK - that saint-like figure in modern US mythology. Well JFK first committed serious troops & resources to Vietnam (that ended well). He dithered over the Cuba/Russian relationship in the early stages resulting in the missile crisis taking the world nearer to nuclear holocaust than ever before or since. And he said he was a donught in Berlin.

The omens for Obama are not good. The omens for the world whoever wins are equally poor. McCain would confront Iran. Obama will be a disaster like the real JFK & won't be the break with the past as in the wet dreams of European liberals.

Hughes out Big Sam in - arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh

2008-06-03T13:33:00.004+01:00

Save us from Big Sam!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We should have seen this coming. Mark Hughes did nothing to squash the rumours when Newcastle came sniffing around him after sacking Allardyce. Similarly he has made some interesting comments about wanting to get to the top - i.e. a bigger club than little old Blackburn.

I don't really understand why he would go to Man City. They are no better than the Rovers. They may have £50m to spend, but they also have a deluded owner who has sacked Sven after a relatively good first season.

Every Rovers fan is hoping we don't get Big Sam. We are a decent footballing side right now, hard but fair & with a good slug of flair thrown in. We don't need the long ball, set piece per-centage football that Allardyce brings - we are better than that.

My vote would be for a Mike Newell, Alan Shearer partnership. Two Ewood legends who would have the big-name draw a club like Blackburn needs to attract talent. They would both be hungry for success at their first big clubs - come on the Board take a punt on Big Al!

Oil prices & delusional Brown

2008-05-28T09:28:00.003+01:00

I had to laugh at Gay Gordo's assertion that the high cost of petrol was all due to rising global prices and therefore he can't do anything.

The one-eyed psycologically flawed jock stated "The cause of rising prices is clear: growing demand and too little supply". This is probably true, although George Soros' assertion that speculation is driving prices is very interesting & we do appear to be approaching something like a bubble.

It doesn't really matter whether it is supply, demand or speculation. Gay Gordo is living in fantasy land if he thinks he can buck the market & force opec or anyone else to change track. It is just a PR stunt - look at me I'm doing something - honest.

In reality the only way Brown can impact fuel prices is by lowering fuel tax which is 20% higher than in 2000. This would of course in itself be a welcome move.

However, first the 10p tax debacle and now U-turns on fuel tax. You can hear the trade unions and the loony Left licking their lips. A wounded, floundering, flip-flopping government who will bend to pressure. Anyone for a new Winter of Discontent????

New Labour really is dead.

Crewe goes blue - amazing result

2008-05-23T09:30:00.003+01:00

Last night's Tory victory in Crewe and Nantwich was amazing - 26yrs since the last Tory by-election victory & with a 17% swing!!

That would leave a Conservative majority after the next election of over 300!!! Everyone seems very quick to write off Labour & say that Gay Gordo is a dead duck. Maybe. I truly hope so.

But - Thatcher got slaughtered in by-elections & then stormed to victory in '83 after the Falklands ('"events dear boy, events"). Major routinely got battered in by-elections but scrapped a win in '92.

The best thing that can happen is that Brown hangs on to the Labour leadership & stays PM. He then goes down to an almighty defeat at the next general election. The Labour movement will then lurch to the left under some barmy Michael Foot/IDS style disaster & stay out of government for at least a decade.

Hopefully cue Cameron reeking creative destruction on the bloated debt laden state & public sector.

If I were Cameron I'd be courting the New Labourite MPs. They have very little in common with the Labour Left. Splitting the Labour party & having MPs cross the floor would be the best way to ensure the Conservatives dominate 21st Century politics as the party did for the 20th.

We just need a big issue to get them to walk after the next GE - think the Liberal Unionists of the 1880s.

John Terry crying like a baby

2008-05-22T13:46:00.003+01:00

Ha ha ha - please stop it, my sides are splitting. Big bad John Terry whimpering like a big baby after losing the Champions League final last night. I can't usually stand ManUre but was rooting for them last night.

We had Chelsea - big strong bullies who grind out results by boring everyone to death & then pinching a winner vs ManUre, who exemplify the best of the modern game - fluid football, great pace & creativity, uber-modern lack of a centre forward in their inter-changeable system.

ManU do lack a Keane, Ince or Robson figure - i.e. someone to scare the shit out of the oppo when the going gets tough - just like in last night's second half. But in Rooney, Tevez & Ronaldo they have the holy trinity of an attack.

Well done the Mancs - but you are still not a patch on The Mighty Blackburn Rovers!

No need for Dad anymore

2008-05-21T16:47:00.004+01:00

What an utter bunch of pc leftie bollocks - MPs have voted down an amendment that aimed to ensure the continued consideration in IVF treatment of the need for a father and a mother.

Now we are left with the suitably vague focus on 'supportive parenting' - i.e. a bunch of lesbos and man-hating singletons having IVF without the need for a father figure.

It seems that there is a complete lack of joined up government (again!). The lack of father-figures is cited by many researchers and supported by anecdotal evidence as key to the cause of feral youths & crime in some of the UK's most deprived areas.

The home affairs select committee reported in 2007 that in the absence of a positive male role models many young black men chose to emulate negative and violent lifestyles - the report was supported by the CRE.

But this is a problem for all sections of society. While I disagree with the now popular but excessive notion that Britain has a 'broken society' I'm pretty certain that society is at least very dysfunctional.

Weakening family bonds & removing the hugely positive impact of male role models can only serve to weaken society further & give further credence to the 'broken society' argument

Tugay Kerimoglu - is a legend

2008-05-20T13:44:00.003+01:00

The Turkish delight that is Tugay has agreed a new deal to stay at the Rovers for his 8th year. A true legend - one of the greatest playmakers ever to be seen in the Premier League.

Robbie Savage might be a prick but he was spot on when he said Tugay was the best player he had ever appeared alongside - praise indeed from a product of the Man United youth team at the time of the golden generation of Scholes, Butt, Beckham & the Nevilles.

94 caps for Turkey, appearances at the World Cup and Euros, 6 Turkish league titles & 4 cups with Galatasaray. Legend. It mystifies me why none of the 'bigger' clubs took him when he left Turkey.

He will be the oldest outfield player in the Premier League at 37 years old - not bad for someone who reputedly gets through a 40 a day fag habit!

Sick note Britain

2008-05-19T11:17:00.004+01:00

The Beeb are showing a Panorama programme tonight about sick note Britain. Basically there are over 2.6 million people in the UK claiming Incapacity Benefit at a cost of around £16 bn.

Many of these people could easily work - if opportunities were available. The real issue is that most of these people are concentrated in towns & regions where unemployment and under-employment are endemic.

There are now generations of people in places like Merthyr Tydfil who are on the sick. Doctors, faced with middle aged men with no job prospects, quickly sign them off as sick so they can get better benefits.

There is no culture of work in these de-industrialised areas. Until there are new job opportunities & new industry attracted to these areas, they will continue to be sink towns sucking in dole money and sucking the life out of their populations.

A sad state of affairs - The key issue is no longer the North/South divide, it is the pockets of unbelievable deprivation in places such as South Wales & the North-East. An almost intractable problem.

Taxpayer to take £90bn of risky bank assets

2008-05-16T11:29:00.004+01:00

So the government increases the tax on the poorest in society via the 10p debacle. Then allows lots of rich bankers to hive off up to £90bn of risky assets to the Treasury in return for gold plated Bank of England bills.

Well done Gay Gordo and Oh my Darling - a fantastic piece of fuck up.

So we bail out bankers who took ridiculously risky positions, who sold mortgages to a whole load of poor people they should never have touched, wrapped them all up in some asset securitisation, and made big book profits & bonuses.

Then it all goes tits up and we (i.e. the taxpayer) bails them out. Northern Rock was the best example of a fubar high risk business model - Alliance & Leicester and a host of other institutions have similar problems.

You couldn't make it up - and people are surprised when it appears that the banks are wrapping up low rated assets as collateral for the Treasury bills. For the banks its a no-brainer.

The other Blair gets it wrong..... again

2008-05-16T10:04:00.006+01:00

London police chief Sir Ian Blair reckons that murder rates in the capital are not out of control.

Try telling that to the 70 young people killed in the city in the last 18mths.

At least the police have now started proper stop & search activities looking for weapons. But the do-gooder brigade have started their chorus of disapproval - London Assembly Green Party member Jenny Jones said stop-and-search "disproportionately targets young people from ethnic minority communities."

No shit sherlock. If you want to stop financial & corporate fraud, arrest & investigate middle class white men in pinstripe suits. If you want to stop knife & gun crime stop & search young feral yoofs who will be disproportionately non-white & poor.

I found a pic of Jenny Jones - looks just like you would expect - Silly enviro-loon lesbo.

The Rovers for Europe

2008-05-09T16:51:00.002+01:00

Final day of the season tomorrow. Blackburn need to go and beat Birmingham, then cross our fingers in the hope that we make the Intertoto Cup. If we make it and come 6th in the league it has to be seen as a fantastic result.

With the exception of David Moyes at Everton, Mark Hughes is easily the best manager outside the top 4. When you include financial clout, he is the best & the Rovers punch above their weight - consistently.

Come on Bentley & Santa Cruz! Hopefully we can win, get into Europe & keep hold of our best players. If we do sell Bentley we should be looking for £15-£20m. If Benetiz can ask for £15m for Crouch, Bents is worth far more.

And good luck Fulham - your owner Al Fayed is a conspiracy theory believing nutter, but Roy Hodgson is a good manager, so I hope you stay up.

Yougov polls Tories 26% ahead!!!!!!!!!!

2008-05-09T16:32:00.004+01:00

Is it premature to start chilling the bubbly after the latest yougov poll putting the Conservatives 26% ahead? This on top of Boris' victory & the local council gains.

I might think Cameron is a horrendous toff & PR man but anything is better than Brown and the Labour party. Hopefully Cameron will really roll back the state in favour of small government.

Bring on the general election - and Boris for Foreign Secretary in 4 yrs time! Hurrah!