August 2, 2012 · 7:59 pm

Why Bradley Wiggins is so important

I have admired Bradley Wiggins CBE (that’s Commander of the British Empire, he got upgraded from Officer you see) for about 8 years. Truly. He’s more ‘Come on’ than ‘Yeehaw’ if you will. My admiration morphed a little bit more towards full on adulation in Beijing in 2008 when he over celebrated post Gold medal and got in a bit of a scrape with the Chinese authorities. I voted for him for BBC Sports Personality of the year that year, sadly he came nowhere. I think it will be a different story this December though. Here was a sportsmen who stuck to his game and in so doing eschewed precisely everything that the cult of celebrity seems to demand. And that is why I think he is so important to all of us.

Born in Belgium and with an Australian father, he moved to Britain when he was 2.  That is sort of irrelevant but I thought I would add it in. I have never had the pleasure of meeting Wiggo, but I hear that he is the life and soul of any party, self-deprecating and just plain funny. He loves fashion (Fred Perry over Lacoste ) always wears his hair in a Mod style and loves music, like many of us Brits, citing Pete Townshend and Paul Weller as musical icons. I can see Wiggo also is a complex character(aren’t we all darling) playing out maybe 3 of the 4 Jimmys in Quadrophenia. He is certainly a tough guy (Roger Daltrey), a romantic (John Entwistle) and at times a bloody lunatic (Keith Moon). Maybe he also sees himself as a beggar and a hypocrite (Pete Townshend), but we certainly don’t see him that way.  You could see him singing away to himself ‘Cut My Hair’ or ‘Going Underground’ whilst riding like a nutter on his bike.

I suppose I like his down to earth approach. His quote about the Olympics ‘it’s great it comes around every 4 years and it’s a nice thing to do’ sums up his attitude. Upon winning the Tour de France, and in so doing, being the only British rider ever to do so, and the first person ever to win the Tour and an Olympic Gold Medal in the same year his interview with the French media is legendary. He has learned to speak French, but when asked ‘how he felt after winning’, he slipped back into English and simply answered, ‘I cannot express my emotions at winning The Tour in French, sorry.’

And so to the Olympics 2012. Wiggo and his team mates bravely rode their hearts out in the Road Race to try and get Mark Cavendish a Gold Medal. Sadly, that wasn’t to be. 3 days later, Wiggo won the Time Trial and took his 4th Olympic Gold Medal. The crowds were out in force for both races, given there were no need for tickets, over 300,000 lining the roads of London and Surrey for both races. The atmosphere was highly charged and it has to be one of the best ever events held in the UK, alongside the Opening Ceremony of course.  In the hours and days following Bradley’s win, the media predictably wanted a piece of Wiggo. My mouth went dry when I read that ‘public relations guru’ Max Clifford (I must look up that four letter word ‘guru’ later) felt that Wiggo would be worth £30M in the next couple of years. Fortunately, Mr Wiggins has said that he will simply go back to Wigan, where he now lives, and get back to his family and the next chapter of his life, which hopefully will involve more cycling. He hates the ‘cult of celebrity’ and all it stands for, something that will chime with many of us I suspect.

He has been one of many Olympians for years now who have demonstrated the right way of taking part and winning or losing. Dedication, grit, humility and grounded, all of our Olympians have defined what sports people should be about. Let’s hope that the children and young people of the UK look to them as role models, rather than the overpaid and arrogant sportspeople who occupy our screens week in week out in non-Olympic years. Let’s also realise that all of us have a mad moment now and again, after all none of us are perfect are we?

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June 8, 2012 · 1:05 pm

#oneaday65 Breaking with tradition

At this time of year, or every two years to be precise, for the last 30 years I have readied myself for a major football tournament and if England are playing, I would be travelling to support them. This time I have decided to stay at home. Well actually I have decamped to north Majorca with some mates to watch a few of the games and try and drum up some personal enthusiasm for the European Championships 2012.

I wondered if it was my age? It’s not as I have already decided to go to Brazil in 2014 for the next World Cup. Is it the location? I must admit I have never been to Ukraine, which is normally a reason to travel, but no the location is neither here or there. To remember why I decided to give this tournament a miss and watch from afar, all I have to do is take myself back to Port Elizabeth and then Bloemfontein two years ago. One game saw the ‘Golden Generation’ totally misfire and manage a 0-0 with Tunisia and the other saw us get a wholesale beating at the hands of Germany who played us off the park. The FA’s reaction to 2010 was palpable and only when Fabio Capello decided that he too didn’t fancy a summer holiday in Eastern Europe with players who believe they are better than they really are, did he leave the job of manager.

We had the phoney war of Harry Redknapp, ‘will he, won’t he’ be the next England manager. In the end it was the venerable Sir Trevor who decided his old West Ham compadre was not the right sort and Roy Hodgson got the job. I didn’t expect a revolution at the FA, in many ways their hands are tied, but I wanted more youth in the team, players who are hungry. To some extent, we have some youth. The likes of Hart, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Young and Jones give cause for hope. For me ‘young’ Theo Walcott does nothing. We lost Frank Lampard and Gareth Barry to injury, which will be a blessing in my view and when Gary Cahill got his jaw broken last week, we shipped in Martin Kelly, who I have not seen much of, I must admit. So we have got some youth in for sure.

Sadly though, John Terry is still there, despite all of his largesse and hubris from four years back. No matter what you think of him, he brings controversy wherever he goes. It appears that no manager has been able to stand up to him, he always gets his own way. Even in Munich, when suspended for The Champions League final, he decided to change into a full kit, including shinpads, and get his hands on the cup. The gentleman that is Frank Lampard, stood aside and let his captain lead the celebrations. Whether John Terry is a racist or not is neither here or there in my book. The bottom line is he is divisive. He is a bully and there is no place for him in our national team. After holding his own personal press conference at the last World Cup, clearly undermining the manager and those in charge. I thought he would be shown the door, permanently.

Whilst we are on the subject of racism, let’s hope the supporters inside the stadiums of Poland and Ukraine don’t let their nations and UEFA down and start all their neo Nazi stuff. Surely these people know their history? At the last World Cup most of the participating teams took time out to visit Robben Island, the place where many including Nelson Mandela were imprisoned by a cruel, Apartheid, racist regime. Most, however, did not include the England team. They decided to play golf instead and at that point I thought stuff it, I will not support them again until attitudes change.

I was very encouraged to see that the England team have today visited Auschwitz. If ever there was a symbol of the evil of racism and totalitarian regimes, that is it. You never know, someone at the FA may have learned that our England players need to play their part and show that they have some humility and are prepared to do the right thing. You never know, I may even break my boycott and head East if they progress to the second stages!

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April 30, 2012 · 11:13 pm

#oneaday 64 – Do they FA know FA?

Back in February I thought I called it. I really did. When Harry Redknapp walked free, I thought he would be the next England football manager. Don Fabio Capello did not fancy taking a beleagured England football team to the European Championships being held in Ukraine and Poland this summer and resigned and I thought Harry would be a shoe in. Dead cert. Banker. Ok, not a banker.

And I still thought he would be a odds on favourite on Saturday night when discussing the exact same issue with one of my Spurs mates. Then late last night (Sunday 29th April) the news broke on Twitter (as usual), that the FA were talking to Roy Hodgson and West Bromwich Albion had given their blessing. It turned out that Mr Hodgson’s contract with WBA runs out at the end of June and he is thus a free agent and therefore to a cash strapped Football Association, an affordable man.

I have to say I am very disappointed with this decision. I have never been that impressed with M Hodgson, but then as a West Ham supporter, I loved Redknapp, although many of my lot don’t. But the FA have decided to take the affordable option and the safe one. Harry is simply just too toxic for the FA. He has led a debateable career with many accusations of ‘bungs’ and they probably fear that some members of the press, may just want to dig up some more dirt on him.

Given Mr Hodgson has been all but confirmed by the FA and appears to be the only candidate interviewed, which is another mystifying decision, I will change my view, and give the man the support he deserves. He always seems to be a nice chap, polite and professional and seemingly well liked by his players at everywhere bar Liverpoool. He is also respected by the press and pundits alike. And that can be an advantage.

The FA have a very mixed record in this department, so we really should not be surprised. The job only went full time in 1946 with Walter Winterbottom who lasted until 1962. Then the great Sir Alf Ramsey who won the World Cup, but was not everyone’s cup of tea was the man with the best record. I can remember all the managers including Sir Alf. Sad but true.

After him we stumbled along – Joe Mercer came from Man City and lasted a year, Don Revie from Leeds who lasted a miserable 3 years.We didn’t even qualify for the World Cups in ’74 and ’78! Brian Clough, the people’s choice was ignored. Then came Ron Greenwood (who had been a success at West Ham) and he lasted 5 years with a relatively successful World Cup in 1982, we never lost a game, but went out on goal difference!  Brian Clough was ignored again. Then came Bobby Robson who got us to the  quarter final in Mexico ’86 ( the Hand of God one ) and the World Cup semi final in 1990 in Italy who wasn’t too bad. The FA then sent us all into the wilderness years by appointing Graham Taylor who was shockingly bad. Terry Venables did a couple of years culminating in Euro ’96 and another semi final penalty loss to Germany, and he was followed by Glenn Hoddle who started well, took us to a World Cup quarter final in France where we lost on penalties to Argentina this time. As England started to find some form, Glenn found God and lost the plot. Howard Wilkinson filled in for a while, whilst we all yawned and winced when we could be bothered, and then we got lumbered with Kevin Keegan who was always going to be disastrous. Peter Taylor took temporary control, made Beckham captain and prepared the way for Sven Goran Eriksson who started well and got us to 3 quarter finals at 3 championships – losing to Brazil, Portugal and Germany on penalties before handng over to his assistant Steve McClaren, he of the umbrella. Another disaster. When he got sacked Stuart Pearce stepped in whilst the FA found a replacement in Fabio Capello. And now we have Roy Hodgson.

As England managers go, this one is neither remarkable or inspiring. But I for one will wish him well and hope he can inspire some respect into our underperforming so called world class ‘superstars’. Let’s just hope he does not pick John Terry as captain though, that really would be the end.

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April 11, 2012 · 9:49 am

#oneaday 63; Tax. Stab 1

Tax. Blimey. There’s a 3 letter word to get everyone’s hackles up. 3 letter words can be like that. Tax is a word that never seems to be associated with anything good, or at least I can’t remember it being so. Poll Tax, value added tax, council tax, road tax, even purchase tax back in the old days made grown men and women weep. Indeed it feels like it still does!

And tax is now right slap bang in the centre of our politics. It could well be the key defining subject for the next general Election in 3 years time the way that the tax bandwagon is rolling right now. Mind you, some would say that tax is always the most important issue at ANY general election.

The person who has the most say over tax in the UK is the Chancellor of the Exchequer, currentlyMr George Osborne. Even he is now talking all about tax. How rich people are avoiding tax, legitimately and otherwise, and how this is fundamentally wrong and needs immediate attention and reform.

Even the Mayor of London election campaign has become a race based on whether Boris or Ken has avoided more tax than each other. Some of the media have fallen over themselves to accuse Ken Livingstone of channeling his fees into a company to avoid paying personal tax, an accusation that is fundamentally so naive it must be political. I am no Livingstone supporter, but I do like to see fair play.

Form what I can understand, Mr Livingstone has set up a trading company and that company issues invoices for the goods and most probably services Mr Livingstone supplies – like public speaking, writing, media appearances and so on. That company pays Mr Livingstone a salary on which he pays tax at the national rate. Every year, the company will declare its profits (or losses) and pay corporation tax to the UK Government via the Treasury. The rate of corporation tax (currently has just moved down to 24% from 26%)  is different than the rate of personal tax (currently 20% for earnings up to £35,000 and then 40% on the additional earnings between £35,001 and £150,000 and 50% for the earnings over £150,000). Right or wrong, these tax rates start off easy, but soon get complex. So Mr Livingstone will pay tax on his income, via PAYE (pay as you earn) and NI (National Insurance – which is an additional tax of about (12% of your income) which actually ends up being higher than corporation tax, which his company will also pay provided it makes a profit, which one would hope would be the case.

Anyway, this whole tax issue is definitely going somewhere. The politicians know that grassroots feeling towards ‘tax avoidance’, ‘tax management’ and ‘tax evasion’ (that’s the illegal one) is starting to boil over and organisations like 38 Degrees and UK Uncut have been on this issue for over a year now. The Treasury believes that the whole tax system needs a major overhaul, with the goal being ‘simplification’ and there is a mood at the margins to make the UK a tax haven for businesses and individuals, which is something that would encourage inward investment from foreign based companies, principally American, and would only mimic what happens in Ireland, Luxembourg, Switzerland and the Netherlands all of whom have a more company and therefore individually friendly tax regime.

Charities are up in arms because the Chancellor is talking about capping the amount donors can make to charities and write it off against their tax. The media and some MPs are calling for personal tax returns of MPs to be made public. UK Uncut have called for the tax affairs of large corporations such as Vodaphone to be investigated and potential Mayors of London are accusing each other of tax evasion. This whole issue is set to run and run and it will be interested to see where it ends up. As a PAYE person, I don’t have a lot of choice about how much tax I pay. I do like the fact that a charity can claim back some of the tax I have paid on anything I have earned via GiftAid. That really is a nice tax rebate scheme and it does do some good!

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February 7, 2012 · 12:13 am

#oneaday 62: Please release me, let me go

I got a text today from one of my mates who was asking what day I was actually  leaving for the Ukraine to watch England contest the European Championships in June. My answer was simple, this time I am not bothering. England FC have become toxic, much like most football and certainly anything  to do with the Premier League. Yes the quality is there, but the loyalty and committment from many of the players just follows the money.

Two things have happened though that give me some hope and neither would I normally applaud or agree with the outcomes.

First, it looks like John Terry’s time as an England captain is finally over, for a second time. He may even have played his last competitive tournament game for England. I admire John Terry on some levels, there is no doubt that he is a true legend at Chelsea giving any team he plays for 100% of everything he has, and Chelsea rarely lose when he plays. But the FA have decided to sack him as skipper and have shown some leadership, even if it is a tad misguided. Terry is innocent until proven guilty, but the authorities should have brought the trial forward and got it out of the way before May. It is clear that some if not all of the other England players have had enough of their captain. His last outburst in South Africa was damaging beyond repair and he is guilty of hubris on occasion.

In sacking Terry, the FA have now pricked Mr Capello into action and he is not a happy bunny. Fabio has appeared on Italian TV and said that he is effectively unhappy with the decision and with the fact that he was not consulted. David Davies a journalist who used to be an executive director at the FA, has stated that some of his contacts are convinced Capello will quit. Personally I agree with him. Mr Capello has only got 5 months of his contract to run and forefit if he resigns. It will appeal to his Italian sense of ‘justice’ to resign. He knows he can only lose in the summer, he is working for money and no longer cares about what his employers think. If he walks away, in his mind he walks with his dignity intact, it was his decision. I believe Capello has lost the dressing room anyway, so this move would be the only chance of a win he would have this year.

Meanwhile the king in waiting is Poplar’s very own crown prince, Harry Redknapp who is currently on trial for tax evasion. Harry was by all accounts, banged to rights, but given the lead accusor and witness for the prosecution is a News of the World journalist, Harry may just find that his luck is in and he walks free. I hope he is innocent and proved so.  If he is, he will carrying on walking north all the way to Wembley and take control of the England team as soon as the season is over, although the FA will cut a deal with Spurs to borrow him for the friendlies planned between now and June. He will make Scott Parker his captain and try and forge an English birth certifcate  for Luca Modric and Gareth Bale. Harry has plenty of friends who can fix these things.

If Harry falls foul of the law and is detained at Her Majesty’s pleasure, then the FA may turn to the hardest number 3 on the planet. Mr Stuart ‘Psycho’ Pearce who has been managing the U21s for some time. That would be confusing to many, but the players would love the motivation of messrs Redknapp and/or Pearce and there may just be a modicum more effort shown this summer. Failing that Alan Pardew would do a fine job.

If Capello stays, and worse still Terry is picked for the squad, expect England to repeat their performance in the Euro ’88 tournament P3 W0 D0 L3. Wayne Rooney may not get a game!

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February 4, 2012 · 10:52 am

#oneaday 61: There is always a first time….

Today is a special day. Today, West Ham play Millwall and it is special to me because it is the first time I have not bothered to watch the Hammers play their traditional dockland rivals  at Upton Park in my lifetime. I forego the opportunity to visit the New Den, which like New Labour has faded somewhat in recent years, again for the first time when West Ham have played there (which includes visiting The Den) . In years gone by, it would have been a dot on the card for both games, and essential day out and one which would fill me with excitement and trepidation. Not anymore.

I have been pretty quiet about West Ham’s fortunes for sometime. I have seen them twice in the flesh this season , both one nil games. At home to Ipswich we lost 0-1 in a dreadful game and away to Brighton we won 0-1 on a cold dark night at the brand new Brighton stadium. We are currently top and playing a brand of football which will ‘get us out of the division ‘ according to Mr Allardyce who manages the club’s players nowadays. It’s a great division to play in as everyone can beat everyone else on any given match day. Literally anyone can get promoted to the promised land of the Premier League.

But my disinterest in all things West Ham has been building for a few years. Not least last season, when our new owners Messrs Sullivan and Gold ably assisted by Karren Brady appointed Avram Grant and the rest was history. Their bungled attempt to replace the hapless Israeli after three months with Martin O’Neill failed. This was exacerbated by Ms Brady’s briefing of the press that West Ham had got O’Neill over a fateful weekend in January. Martin O’Neill probably thought to himself ‘I really don’t fancy working with this lot’ and politely declined the opportunity. Look at him go now at Sunderland.

Aside from the football judgement, I have a problem with the owners of West Ham on another level. I was lucky enough to have dinner with some friends and Sir Geoff Hurstin October 2010 and we had a long chat about the club which is so dear to both of our hearts. He was simply brilliant and was with us for 5 hours. At the time we spoke about the ownership, leadership and future of the club and he agreed with me that the jury was very much out. But the one thing that did resonate was when he asked me to ask the club where they had put his World Cup medal he had sold to the club in 2001 (when they were owned by a different set of people). Apparently the medal had been on display in the West Ham museum, but rumour had it that the museum had been closed, due to the imminent move to the new stadium once the Olympics had finished.

Remember this was 2010 and the stadium move, if it actually happened, would be a full three years away so I really did not understand the closure. Sir Geoff and I wondered if the medal was safe, after all it was one of only eleven awarded and they way the current England team play, it is unlikely that there will be any new additions anytime soon.

Exactly where were these medals? I wrote to the owners of the club in October 2010 and then followed up in November. I gave them a break for Christmas, but then chased again in January 2011. I never ever got a written reply to my three letters. I am sure the owners were very busy and have bigger fish to fry, but you do wonder where is Sir Geoff’s medal and for that matter are Bobby Moore and Martin Peters’s 1966 World Cup winners medals also bought by the club some years back? They were supposed to be on display in the museum, but there is no mention of that on the official West Ham website. I wonder where they are and why they are not on show?

David Gold is a regular user of  Twitter and is always re-Tweeting complimentary comments from fans, however every time I ask him about the whereabouts of Sir Geoff’s medals, he stays silent. Maybe he just gets too many mentions to deal with?

I hope The Hammers win today, I really do, and for my mates who still go. I bet there will be some real anticipation. I remember  the old days fondly- when football meant something to all of us, friendship, rivalry, pride, joy and tons of disappointment. When money was not the be all and end all. It clearly means a lot to Sir Geoff Hurst and that does give me hope that our great game can be saved.

Interestingly, today sees our old ‘friends’ the Gooners organising a day of ‘protest’ by placing a black bin liner over each and every empty seat in their oil state sponsored stadium. Even Arsenal know the game is up. Loads of seats are just not taken up as the rich season ticket holders simply can’t be bothered to show up for all the games nowadays. Gone are the days when you could simply turn up and buy entrance to the ground on the day. That all went back in 1990 (the same year as the game above), post Hillsborough. Watch this space though. When the seats remain unoccupied more and more at the top level, clubs will have to act and encourage supporters to come back, by hook or by crook or lose the atmosphere that was so special up until recent times. Too much money in the hands of too few will never inspire passion I am afraid.

Good luck to all of you who still love the game, I for one will be praying that the tide turns and we get back to football being a game for the people at prices people can afford. I also look forward to West Ham putting the 1966 World Cup winners medals back on show.  Then I will return to Upton Park full time.

 

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January 22, 2012 · 6:49 pm

#oneaday60: Living in the past?

As usual we (I) am up against a time deadline. Although we have no formal agreed ‘rules’ amingst us Five Hombres, and we said we would each do a blog a week, we have kind of hit a rhythm which has seen us write a blog each day since the 1st of January. So, I am honour bound to write something. At least I think I am. There has been so much going on this week. Cloud gaming, SOPA, PIPA, the launch of Games Britannia and much action over at AppyNation all point to suitable subjects, but sadly they all warrant some proper thought, reflection and time. Something I don’t have right now.

I always seem to be living my life in the future. I am always looking forward to the next ‘event’ and planning the next ‘experience’. As a result I can get a little sidetracked on matters a little closer to home. The ‘here and now’ becomes the ‘what if’?

It was therefore somewhat refreshing to have sat down tonight, switched the iPad and iPhone off and watched a wonderful film called Midnight in Paris. I knew nothing about this film, following my new code of conduct which is not to read any reviews at all nowadays, instead trusting in my own judgement and being completely surprised with what comes up.

It was a real surprise to discover this is Woody Allen’s latest work. Never my favourite film director, I looked forward to the experience given it would not be my first choice all things being equal. But it was a lovely film, rich dialogue, great acting and a wonderful plot. Intriguing and entertaining in equal measure. Beautifully shot, full of beguiling charm with a wonderful pace Midnight in Paris just delivered me pure pleasure on a plate.

I am not going to tell you anything else about it, for risk of breaking my own rules about reviews, suffice to say if you do get a spare hour and a half, then give it a go. It really did make me think about living in the moment, rather than in the past, or indeed in my case, always looking to the future.

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January 21, 2012 · 3:20 pm

#oneaday59: It’s that time of year again……

January sees most of us count the cost of our Christmas excesses and work out how we are going to make ends meet once we have paid off all of our bills from the seasonal loveliness called Christmas.

But for some, January is bonus time. Yep, the banks will be rewarding their top performers who have so skillfully steered their companies through the worst financial times for 50 years, and as they say ‘quite right too’. The politicians are fearful, again, that if bonuses are too high, us non bankers may moan and be disobedient. They did the same last year after all. Just so we are all aware of the rules and etiquette, today Mr Bob Diamond, CEO of Barclays warned the politcal leaders of Britain, for now a United Kingdom, not to try and influence their decisions. Sound familar? We will know soon enough what obscene levels of ‘compensation’ will be paid to these people, but what action will we actually take? A year ago I wrote this. We now how the #Occupy movement and our local version in the City of London is still there, making a point of sorts.

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So all the tough talk about ‘us all being in this together ‘ (sic) (for those non residents of the UK, this was the phrase introduced by David Cameron, now Prime Minister of the UK at the Conservative party conference in October 2009 and has been the rallying call in these tough times) has proved to be a little wide of the mark. As purchase tax, or value added tax (VAT) as it was rebranded some years back rose 14% to 20% on the 4th of January, and thousands of public and private jobs are slashed,  as deep and rapid cuts to the welfare state and the education system,  the majority of folk in the UK are now getting used to a time of austerity. And you know what, we have no choice. The economy of the UK has taken a major battering, why, well in truth there are so many factors it would be a long essay and stuff that I simply don’t understand. But basically we spent more than we earned and we have to do our financial porridge for some years.

One factor that does stand out amongst all the others however, is the fact that some of our banks became insolvent in 2008. Instead of ‘the bank calling the debt in’ as normally happens when businesses and institutions fail, this time the banks carried the debts and could not meet their commitments. There was no one bank to call all the other banks in so to speak. They really were ‘all in it together’. The decision was taken, we are told, in the national interest, by Prime Minster Gordon Brown to bail the banks out. Amazingly no one actually seems to know to what extent. Namely we don’t know the final number. Some sources quote upwards of £1 Trillion. in the case of RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) we are told that the citizens of the UK now own 83% of the shares. In return for these share the nation poured £45Billion in cash, insured £280Billion of risky loans and set aside a further £8Billion in case things get really bad. So you’d have thought as majority shareholders in this company, we i.e our Government would have had a say in how that business should be run, in the national interest and all that.

But the Government insisted earlier today (when I wrote this anyway) it would not intervene to stop Royal Bank of Scotland’s chief executive, Stephen Hester, earning up to £9Million for last year’s work. Furthermore it will not seek to cap the bonus pool of more than £1Billion that the bank intends to pay it’s high earners. A spokesman for David Cameron said: “We’ve made a broad statement which is about the need to see some restraint and some responsibility from the banks, but we are not going to set bonus pools for individual banks.”

We know the sketch here. Money talks blah, blah. But for all the recent fighting political talk – see below – of those who govern us, those that our pickled voting system has thrust upon us, right or wrong, is always the same. It is just talk and talk, unlike property is cheap.  Indeed the extra tax rate/levy on bonuses from last year has been wiped out,  replaced by a lesser yielding tax on the banks’ balance sheets.

So if you are young and  live in London, or are trying to buy a house in London, or indeed in the countryside close to London – aka The Stock Broker Belt as it used to be called when VAT was purchase tax, one of the consequences of this indecent and bloated excess is that property prices will rise again, thus putting property even further off the radar of those starting out in their working life, those trying to bring up a family. The very same people, many of them pay as you earn (PAYE) tax payers (you know the ones who pay the correct amount of tax as they do not have access to fancy schemes for tax optimisation) are royally being shafted.

The youth should always be at the centre of any society’s future, yet they find themselves over taxed, if they are lucky enough to have a job, under served and utterly betrayed. And the bank band played on. Pfffff. I am not given to cheap prejudice, but I can tell you now, I have complete and utter contempt for these people.

So there you go and to keep it interesting, I have a meeting with our bank manager planned for next week to discuss our  ‘facility ‘for 2011. The name of that bank? I will give you 3 guesses. You should get it right first time. Wish me luck.

Footnote what our leaders said when in Government (courtesy of The Independent )

‘It is wholly untenable to have millions of people making sacrifices in their living standards only to see the banks getting away scot-free – the banks should not be under any illusion: this Government cannot stand idly by.’ – NICK CLEGG, Deputy Prime Minister17 NOVEMBER 2010

‘I make no apology for attacking spivs and gamblers who did more harm to the British economy than Bob Crow [the RMT union leader] could achieve in his wildest Trotskyite fantasies, while paying themselves outrageous bonuses underwritten by the taxpayer.’ – VINCE CABLE, 22 SEPTEMBER 2010

‘Every decision the banks make like that [paying large bonuses] makes it more difficult to keep a tax regime that they might favour.’ DAVID CAMERON, Prime Minister 17 DECEMBER 2010

‘We will not allow money to flow unimpeded out of those banks into huge bonuses, if that means money is not flowing out in credit to the small businesses who did nothing to cause this crash and suffered most in it.’ – GEORGE OSBORNE, Chancellor of the Exchequer 4 OCTOBER 2010

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And just in case you need to see the man in action here you go

We now how the #Occupy movement and our local version in the City of London is still there, making a point of sorts. It has all been peaceful and I for one hope it stays that way. But surely we can take more effective action? Like all change our bank accounts to a bank that has some ethics – like the Co-Operative? It is easy, if a little time consuming and think of the effect if there was a mass defection from the banks that are too big to fail…..

Act NOW.

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January 9, 2012 · 3:45 pm

#oneaday 58: Citius, Altius, Fortius…?

So says the Olympic motto – faster, higher, stronger. Indeed this year’s Olympics could and should do a lot of things for Britain. Much has been written about the legacy vs cost of the whole project and the latest figures to be quoted show a hard cost of £9.1Bn to the UK tax payer.; To put some perspective on this, £9.1Bn  is about half the bank bonuses paid in the City of London in 2008 just before the major crash and about twice what was paid out to bankers this time last year.There will be a load of new homes for people (note I don’t say ‘houses’ because many will not actually be that, but stick to the official word) in East London some of which will be ‘affordable’ again official speak. 6 of the 8 sporting venues have been found a use post games, leaving only 2 to go. The project has been delivered on time and by all accounts within budget and to a high standard. This is all good. Tickets are oversubscribed and whilst thousands of UK citizens have not been able to get tickets, this is the first time that any Olympics has been sold out so far in advance. I guess that is a tribute to the UK public’s appetite for sport and the big occasion. The organisers even sold 20,000 tickets to the Synchronised Swimming when capacity was half that. Who’d have thought?

Indeed I will make no bones about it, I am a big supporter of the Olympic Games. Even though it has become a fully professional games and we will see a second Wimbledon tennis tournament this year with most of the same players taking part, it is still a great sporting occasion and one that Britain has a very decent track record (no pun intended) over the years. It is probably best that it is virtually all professional now and that aspect is out in the open. For years the USSR and DDR plus other Eastern Bloc nations would show up and win loads of medals through a mixture of ‘focus’ namely they were state sponsored full time athletes, gymnasts, weightlifters and so on, or through blatant cheating by using performance enhancing drugs. Over age ‘college’ kids from the USA would sweep up the other medals and everyone would shrug their shoulders and accept it. Great Britain would produce the occasional super performers like Daley Thompson, Steve Ovett, Sebastian Coe as well as fantastically talented and unassuming amateurs like Mary Peters and David Hemery.

Anyway I digress! For me the Olympics are fab. This year, and every four years there will be an army of volunteers who will give their time to help run the games and welcome all the visitors from overseas. But I have read reports that the volunteer army have been given strict instructions by the IOC (International Olympic Committee) on how they can and can’t use social media through the games and this has to be a really suspect decision.

Before we call for the head of Lord Coe, who has not only proved himself to be a truly world class athlete, but has run the whole enterprise with an amazing sense of professionalism and passion (much like his running ability), we have to look at the Olympic organisers, the IOC. Much like FIFA they report to no one bar themselves and make decisions without fear of consequence. And they are based in the tax haven of Switzerland, just like FIFA.  It is the Olympics themselves that have put this dictate down.

So imagine that you are one of thousands who will give up their time to help most likely nowhere near any sporting action, and you are told ‘no Twitter, no Facebook, no communication’ during the games please. Instead of encouraging thousands of volunteers to let their friends know what is happening, good or bad, direct from the coal face and in the process generating millions of Olympic tags, you snap that off at the source and introduce dark ages rules that will only irk those who are giving up their time for the honour of helping out. Seriously the IOC need to reconsider their position and do that rather quickly.

This sort of backward thinking would have been perfectly accepted at the Bejing Games of 2008, after all China does not really like the World Wide Web, preferring the Chinese version.  But as for Britain being complicit in this outrage, well it is astonishing, out of touch and just plain wrong. We have not seen this sort of totalitarian approach to information control since Henry VIII broke with Rome, although Murdoch has had a pretty good go at playing his own special hand in recent years.

Outrageous and out of touch. Dear IOC, for the sake of your own reputation please reconsider your position on the issue of social networks for this year’s Olympics or suffer the heat that will inevitably rise as citizens reject your nonsense rules. Higher, faster, stronger in everything, thank you.

 

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January 5, 2012 · 10:07 pm

#oneaday57: Irony, Lady?

When I was old enought to vote, I voted for Thatcher, whether you prefaced her name with Mrs, Margaret, Maggie or another less savoury term. It was 1983, I was 20 years old and we had just ‘won’ the Falklands War. Spirits were temporarily high, or at least they were for a naive 20 year old, and the alternatives were Michael Foot’s Labour party or the emerging Social Democratic Party who were allied with the Liberals (The Alliance). Labour was too lame to mention and The Alliance were ‘too new’. But as time went on even those who  voted for her began to have some doubts.

We had experienced the violent inner city riots of 1981,  and then the miners’ strike of 1984 saw even more violence not only between the police and strikers, but between workers and families from the same pit villages and towns. It was a divisive piece of British history and you can’t help thinking that Mrs T loved every minute of it. A decade before, the whole country suffered power cuts caused by striking miners and most of the people had had enough. This was her revenge for that action and her sworn intention to smash the power of the unions. No matter what ideology you follow, if you do, and I don’t happen to follow a left or right wing mantra, when the leader and Government of the country is waging war on some of its people, that can’t be an enlightened thing. Thatcher thought she was Churchill, trouble was the unions were not the equivalent of the Nazi party and Arthur Scargill was not Mr Hitler.

So when it was that I heard about the release of ‘The Iron Lady’ I decided that I needed to see it and managed to view via an advanced screening. A film made about a living ‘legend’ (love her or hate her) is a rare thing. Normally these thing happen after the protagonist’s life on earth. Pre release hype and trailers suggested it was all going to be sabre rattling and gung ho attacks on conscripted Argentine troops. Some right wing commentators exclaimed theie sheer unbridled frenzy at the prospect of this homage to a true Brit. I suspect that when they seee the film,  they will be somewhat disappointed.

Meryl Streep performance as the Iron Lady herself is nothing short of amazing. I can remember the Thatcher manner. That clipped middle class, slightly patronising drawl, those stone cold eyes that would cut through tungsten, the bouffant, the upmarket WI style battledress and an unflinching self-belief. Amazing. And equally amazing was her portrayl of Mrs T as an octogenarian suffering from Alzheimers, sometimes there, often not, but clearly wrestling with a sense of confusion about what she had actually achieved and whether her husband, Dennis, brilliantly played by Jim Broadbent, was there or not. He had actually died some years before and was a ghost masquerading as a fool in a wonderfully Shakespearian way.

Being ‘of the time’ I found the whole film thoroughly entertaining, but I suspect to those that did not live through her ‘reign’, those too young to remember,  will find it pretty dull. Expect outcries from The Daily Mail at least. As many have said it was light on politics and heavy on her personal struggles against men, her children, the Conservative Party, the Common Market (now the EU), any foreign leader bar Ronald Reagan and General Pinochet,  Unions, political foes, members of her own Cabinet, TV pundits, Socialists, Liberals, the world.

In the end she became the very image of the puppet that messrs Luck and Flaw had cast her in Spitting Image. The first woman leader of a Western nation  left us with many legacies, less council houses, more people owning property (ie having mortgages and paying huge interest on their loans) less union power, a Poll Tax that came and went, a decimation of’ non performing’ state owned industries, a free market,  foreign owned utility companies, a share holding middle class, few manufacturing industries,  a de-regulated City of London, Yuppies, Harry Enfield’s Loadsa Money, power dressing, and the biggest division of the people in Britain since the English Civil War.

I told you that I voted for her. I did. I was 20 years old and had been brought up to feel ashamed of Britain in decay. By the time of the next election in 1987, which she won again with a landslide, I had given up bothering. The two party sysytem would never deliver national progression in my view and I certainly did not want her back. I did  not vote again until 1997 and that was for (New) Labour. in 2010 I decided to go for the Lib Dems and look what happened. In the  end though, comedy can always help one ascend the Slough of Despond. Enjoy these 2 clips if you get time

 

 

 

And don’t expect the same barrel of laughs within The Iron Lady. Love her or hate her, Mrs ‘there’s no such thing as society’ Thatcher definitely brought the extremist tendencies out in all of us British people. Not many do that. And thank god we don’t get lary too often, it only leads to tears and misery.

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