Empire or Coalition?

 Let’s have a real debate. No holds barred

If Sir John Major’s comments on continuing Coalition government into the next parliament, have ignited debate, well that’s OK. But any kind of long term agreement with a party like the Lib-Dems, so dedicated to imposing European ideals on the UK. Would spell DISASTER  and well Labour, we’ve seen what that brings!

  Too many of these no-hope parties’ crackpot ideas have been leeching into the mainstream, on the back of the present agrangements, that it leads me to believe the lefties are out in force. Maybe the ones Sir John referred to in that infamous speech from the garden of No.10 which sealed his fate and that of Perfidious Albion or so it seems.

  There was no sound reason why he should have been defeated in ’97, when we stood on the threshold of a GOLDEN AGE. It was change for the sake of change, to sate the half-baked notions of a generation unacquainted with the worst excesses of Fabian Socialist Dictat. So inevitably the pendulum swept to the left and what a friggin’ mess it created, as the dolts who should never have been allowed access to piggy bank, got their grubby little mits in the national till and we all end up living on chuckey.

   In case you’re unfamiliar with the term chuckey it means live now pay later and the International Shylocks are rubbing their mits together with glee. All the incoming Coalition had to do was satisfy them there’d be no defaulting and it’s all systems go. Here we are six months on and it’s as if Helicopter Ben Bernanke had taken over the UK Treasury as well. The scattergun effect is in full swing, but you only benefit if you fall into the category of the ‘Chosen Few’.  If  you’re an MP or an MEP no worries eh! You’re on the gravy train again, it’s been backed off from the buffers and is ready to rumble.

   Absolutely nothing is being done about the Euro debacle as more and more of our precious taxpayer funded resources are used to bale out the lame ducks. States which in reality; should just be put out of their misery. We’re guilty of encouraging perceptions beyond their grasp. For none of them have an economy which is fit for purpose when it comes to standing alone.

  All these so-called independent states are nothing more than idealist spongers. They’ll never be able to cut the mustard without massive subsidies to match their giddy idealism. They will be a drain on the collective common purse of a putative European Federal Superstate forever and a day.

   If the world is to prosper a Big Brother State ruled by unelected, unaccountable Beurocrats, is not the answer. We should abandon the idea of being a subsidising Federal Superstate and let them founder, till they wake up to realism and stop trying to leap piggy-back style onto the back of an Impossible Dream. Quite obviously from present evidence it does not work on any kind of sustainable basis. It just drains away the lifeblood of sustainability on a tidal wave of HUBRIS.

   We should turn instead to the only people who can provide the real impetus for sustainability by organising Empire in the style of Perfidious Albion’s Empire building techniques.  Techniques which can now be seen to be a real world example of how it should be done, for it built the Greatest Empire the world has ever known, a century ahead of its time.

You know it makes sense!  Watch this space, I’ll be back.

 Tom.

Eye watering debts that linger on from the last Xmas Credit Binge

Far be it from me to say I told you so

Yep! It’s not just booze we’re bingeing on, it’s quite clear to anyone with an ounce of cokum that mostly things always get worse before they get better and economic activity has cycles, as bust follows booooom! So the fact that a General Election came along together with what now appears to be a risible attempt to fool all the people all the time. Which to some extent ameliorated the worst effects of the credit disaster, is probably the most significant factor of the last eighteen months of staggering from forecasts of eternal doom to a degree of sanity once more.

  Though why Dave & Co., continue to act like a bunch of scaredy cats every time anyone dares to challenge their way of deceiving the masses is quite distressing. It’s probably on account of this don’t scare the natives with talk of real world statistics mentality, amongst our present Masters of the Universe. Never before in the fiscal history of this United Kingdom has money been poured into the economy in such alarming proportion. Not real money I might add, funny money the stuff you can shuffle about playing Monopoly. Coloured pieces of paper embellished with fancy figures, run off on a printing press.

  In addition, it’s not clear yet how long it might take for this huge bounty to work its way through the system. But this it has to do so, before we can get back to reality. Mainly it was done in the first place to try and lull the generation who got us into this mess, with their bid for Nirvana (on the strength of their 2.00in x 3.25in pieces of plastic) into a sense of false security and persuade them to vote for more of the same.

  Patently it failed to do the trick, but in its wake it left a huge legacy of deceit and double dealing, the like of which was never before perpetrated on an entire generation. The most appalling thing is that the people who inspired this almighty confidence trick have been allowed to walk away scot-free and amass huge fortunes with even more trickery and legerdemain.

  They are the bunco artistes of this lost generation who will have to go on paying for years in much the same way as over two million are still paying off the debts of last year’s Xmas bingeing, twelve months on. It also beggars belief that it can take so long for the lessons to sink in and you begin to wonder just what it takes to make it sink in.

  It’s this sense of false security that is the most troubling. When! Oh when! Will we get a bit of commonsense and reality injected into the equation without the squealing chorus from the plonkers who caused all this mayhem trying to shift the balance of probabilities by their usual tactic of screaming equality and diversity at every opportunity. I was appalled to see the way Dave was jumping up and down and it made me wonder what really goes on his head.

  One minute Dave is claiming to be a Eurosceptic and the next minute he’s chucking our money about like a confetti-sprinkling Eurocrat in overdrive. Is he losing his marbles? Has the power gone to his head? For to all intent and purpose, it’s looking like a visit to Brussels has been enough to make him go native and that’s the last thing we need in present circumstances. It’s time to call the referendum we’re all lusting for Dave, before the men in dark suits come calling.

Watch this space, I’ll be back!

Tom

The Royal Wedding

If Prince William & Katherine’s first is a girl?

She could be his heir, regardless of gender, under a change to the laws of succession being considered by the Government: Reported Gordon Rayner, the Telegraph’s Chief Reporter 19 Nov 2010.

  The Cabinet Office said discussions had been held with Commonwealth countries that would be affected by changes in the laws of succession. Lorely Burt, a Liberal Democrat MP, has tabled a Commons motion calling on the Government to “end these outdated, sexist and anti-Catholic aspects of the constitution”. Typical Lib-Dem window dressing eh?

  Crikey me! The ink for the marriage certificate has not yet been manufactured and the chattering classes start banging on about such irrelevancies. Probably just to fill up their quota of parliamentary privilege or a spare acre of rainforest. So maybe it’s time to inject a bit of Tom Stack logic into the hysteria. Cool things down so to speak.

  All this hysteria about succession and we don’t even know if  blanks are being fired yet, so it’s wait and see time. It’s certainly not open season for under-employed hacks or MPs to don the speculation cap. Leave it BE or the boredom threshold might peak before you know it.

  The only bit of logic I can add personally to all this conjecture, is the age old Peter Smith Maxim. Pete was a man I met in the early days at the LHR Hatton Cross Engineering Base circa 1960 when a similar argument raged on a local level. A close associate’s wife had given birth to e new baby daughter and the discussion turned to what it takes to produce a boy or a girl.

  The female shape, we were reliably informed requires one more chromosome than the male form. So a man therefore could only proclaim himself a man if he produced a daughter. For a few brief moments that appeared to be the winning argument and the colleague concerned was grinning beatifically. He was a proud man, who in the full knowledge of his peers, had beyond any shadow of doubt, proved his manhood. Until that is Pete stepped up to the rostrum to deliver this killing aside:

  “Any fool,” he interrupted, “can knock a hole in a kettle, but it takes a craftsman to put the spout on.”

  So leave it orf you speculators, who want to push the equality agenda, there ain’t no such thing. Everybody ain’t made equal and you cannot legislate for this. As indeed you cannot legislate against attitudes of mind. For under the surface a volcanic eruption is forming and one day Matthew a bit of subduction happens and it blows.

  So for the time being progenitor rules OK! It’s stood the test of time and it didn’t stand in the way of our present arrangement. If ain’t broke, why try to fix it for the sake of a tiny minority who can’t come to terms with their underlying feelings of inferiority and learn to live with it.

Watch this space, I’ll be back!

Tom.

When is a Gaffe, not a Gaffe?

And gaffe or not it turned out to be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Though after thirteen years of Laissez Faire economics, a lot of people who swallowed the bait hook, line and sinker can’t bear to hear a bit of factual evidence and a few home truths. But what really niggles, is these Fabian Socialist misfits lining up behind Dave to slag-off his Lordship, for nothing more than an insight into the approaching tsunami.

  Yep! Recession’s over so they say, though what his Lordship was getting at was the fact that we never really had one, for it hasn’t started yet. Just watch out, as inflation lets rip and the only way to stop it is to jack up the interest rate. The MPC is beginning to lean that way, if the minutes of their latest meeting are anything to go by.

  But with the new Labour zealots still in denial, do we really need a parade of these has-beens with nothing better to do, than to keep on ramping up the impression, that they really did know a better way? Jeff Randall exposed the fraud they were trying to perpetrate, in respect of cuts, when he published figures showing  gov’t spending was still on the increase, year on year. Though it’s now being managed without the profligacy, in a way the Market Makers are happy with.

   Heaven knows they need the gov’t to borrow more than anyone, for that’s what they thrive on, if only for the return on the investment funds, which pay their private pensions  The pension actuaries need it as much as we do, to keep on dishing up the ante post bets. Without a ready supply of gilt edged securities, we’d all be in big trouble. So effectively, all they need to know is that the gov’t ( in the words of General Mike Jackson) is ‘good to go,’ when it comes round to payday.

   So there you have it folks, no gaffe, just the plain honest truth. Dave’s raging on about nothing and dumping one of the few men with the nous to rumble what is going on. He should have stood up, took it on the chin and backed his Lordship for telling it like it is. Something this blog has always attempted to do, though I’m about up to the teeth with all these petty, scaremongering opportunists out to embarrass anyone they can get their grubby little mits on, just for the sake of  pseudo-political nit-pickin’.

  But why, oh why did  Dave have to make himself look so silly and he’ll look even sillier when his Lordship’s pigeons start coming home to roost, sooner than a lot of people think.

So that’s awight then! Now where’s the biscuits?

Watch this space, I’ll be back!

Tom.

‘Raise VAT on alcohol, but not in pubs,’ says nutty Doc.

 We’ve had nutty Professors for years. Now it appears we’ve got nutty Docs

Tax on alcohol sold in supermarkets should be increased, while it should be reduced on drinks sold in pubs to help save lives and help struggling publicans, a leading liver doctor has said, as reported by the Telegraph’s Rebecca Smith today. Where on earth does this quack go on weekend evenings? Standing outside Sainsburys, Tesco, Morrisons, Waitrose and ASDA, waiting for the binge drinkers stagger out into the car park?

 
  Methinks the majority of these miscreants are in the City Centre No-Go Hotspots, out-boozing each other to prove a point or just plain irresponsible when it comes to a night on the town. So if I like a quiet drink at home of an evening watching telly, I’m some kind of raving alcoholic freak, who needs to be taxed out of existence. Wasn’t it enough? That the last government set out turn genuine law-abiding subjects of Her Majesty, into reckless criminals they could tax and fine to the hilt. If they transgressed, in seemingly innocuous, petty, minded infringements of their dictat.

   Haven’t we had enough of this kind of twisted mentality, to last a few zillion life times. These batty idealists want locking up for a bit, till they come to their senses or maybe it will suit them to be institutionalised with a host of like minded zealots. Those who seemingly can’t see any further than the end of their nose and whose judgement is clouded by the thought of fame seeking statements, which should rain down eternal damnation on their heads. Rather than provide provocative headlines, for reporters who should know better.

Watch this space, I’ll be back!

 Tom

The horrible truth begins to dawn?

All manner of wild headlines are filling the Ether of late!

The horrible truth is one such, wrote Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in the Telegraph, as the cash-strapped movers and shakers of the Eurodream, were seen to be scurrying hither and thither, doing shabby little deals to save the Euro and bale out every Tom Dick and Harry. It must surely have come home to them, that they’re like the little Dutch boy with his finger in the Dam.

  But 1947 to 2010 - did it really take 60 odd years to light a fire under these Europlonkers? For surely we’ve finished up with more questions than answers! Did they really think Perfidious Albion hadn’t cottoned on to what they were upto? We’ve had the measure of these Europlonkers for longer than they’d care to admit. Maybe the Mother of all Credit Crunches has hastened their denouement, for it seems they really cannot see the wood for trees.

  Surely we in Blighty, have the talent and wit to outflank these nutters, as they wend their merry little way to broke. After all Deutschland tried to Uber Alles it over us, twice in a lifetime, before they realised it really was a lost cause. Did they think that what the desperadoes failed to do with bombs and bullets, could be achieved with this fiscal stuff?

  Without a booming world economy the Gerries are sunk, they’re as much in the doldrums as anyone, because they have to rely on exports to pay their way. From first hand experience I soon realised they were about the best managers and organisers I’d ever seen in action. Mainly I reckoned because everything was worked out in advance and it all had to be so precise. This probably accounts for the quality of their products. Everything is precise and over-engineered, probably to the same extent they aim for in the USA. For I’ve seen them in action at first hand too and there are many similarities.

  The big drawback with the Yanks is the way they break everything down to the lowest common denominator. Call it job security, if you like, but they really need to do it that way, to feed their thundering hordes or should it be herds. Though back in the sixties and early seventies there was still a whiff  of mob activity in the air and it was  loose in the unions, which could account for the lowest common denominator stuff. When it came to negotiating on behalf of the workers, it was a bun fight to see who would represent them. Free Tee Shirts and a variety of handouts were on offer outside the gate at every shift change. A form of bribery it transpired, for big bucks are at stake here, if you can be the one in the chair.

  Surely the EU cannot survive the aftershocks from this storm force tornado, for it’s these aftershocks which produce the tsunami and the one that’s on the way, looks like it will sink all boats. Get out the hassocks/prayer mats, polish up the Latin chants and keep on plugging till it’s over. For over it will be, for the unwashed masses and the unelected, unaccountable Eurocrats who reckoned it was sensible to pack all their troubles in their old kitbags and decamp for Strasbourg every now and then, as they assumed balanced books were an anathema to everbody.

  It’s over and all that’s left is to decide who will pick up the pieces? They never managed to figure out, that so long as the ‘City’ of London remains the Clearing Bank for the World, the rest of the World can be our Workshop. So there!

Watch this space, I’ll be back!

Tom.

Cutbacks to blame for Student Rioting?

Pull the other one!

Did police cutbacks allow extremists to hijack student demonstrations?

The head of the police squad tackling domestic extremism was forced to quit days before anarchist students smashed their way into the Tory Party headquarters,  wrote the Telegraph’s Investigations Editor Jason Lewis 14 Nov 2010, as critics called for an investigation into the cuts amid fears that they may have contributed to the Metropolitan Police’s handling of Wednesday’s demonstrations.

  It was little more than organised mayhem and for what? Are the universities that spawned this outrage going to stand back and try to say: ‘Mea Non Culpa’  There has to be something amiss inside our universities if students think this is a good way to carry-on, maybe they’ve got too much spare time on their hands and it’s a case of  ‘idle hands make mischief’.

  Bring back the cane? It never did me any harm and I had it dished up a few times at grammar school during my formative years. It seems to me the root of a lot of our social problems today, stem from indiscipline in the home and the school.

  In other respects, for reporters to try making political capital out of re-organisation and promotion within the Police Force seems to be slightly disingenuous to me. Everybody has to accommodate these cuts one way or another and we really are all in this together, whether we like the idea or not.

  So let’s get the nasty medicine out of the way soonest and not go off half-cocked at anything which looks like an easy target.  It’s time for a bit of commonsense, after new Labour and the boy Gordie’s attempts to project the idea that they knew better. If they did they would never have got us into this mess, in the first place. But it happens everytime they get elected. Will we ever learn?

Watch this space, I’ll be back!

Tom.

As another G20 Gabfest of World Financial Gurus and Leaders draws to a close.

The same old chestnuts get raked out of the fire once more and don’t you get sick of it?

It’s little more than Press Conferences, Photo Opportunities and the same old Hackneyed Soundbites. 

1. We’re making progress.
2. At least we’re talking to each.
3. The stumbling blocks have been recognised.
4. The root of the problem is trade imbalances.
5. It’s caused by currency flows which are dictated by exchange rates.

What a load of guff!

  The root of the problem is the cost of production 75% of which is wages and the cost of employing people. The world over it equates to a cost per hour of useful production. So if it’s tuppence per hour in China and two bucks per hour in the USA therein lies the problem. So the accountants and treasury advisers in a million and one ports of call around the globe, bear the real responsibility.

  When company A in the West say the USA, Europe or the UK, sees fiscal advantage in moving its call centre or manufacturing base to China, the Sub Asian Continent or the Pacific Rim and a beanie takes a cold hard look at the company balance sheet and sees the credit column exceeds the debit column by a cent or two. The decision to him is simple and his advice is – Doooo Itttt!

 

  How do I know this? I’ve been told face to face by Financial Advisors/Accountants that this is the way of the real world. Then we’re told that the real cause of a fall off in GDP or commercial Activity is the lack of Credit and to get the economy moving we need to borrow, spend and lend, in whatever order.

  Well these so-call financial institutions are already lent to the hilt with money they borrowed to finance their lending. It’s all due to what is known as Fractional Reserve Banking, where a bank exists on the back of retaining immediate access to a very small percentage of its actual deposits. A figure I’ve heard mentioned frequently is 8% that’s 8 pence or cents (take your pick) in every hundred pence or cents of deposits or borrowings. So if it looks like their life savings are off down the Swannee River, they’re soon queuing round the block to pull out.

  So if it’s not working on that basis, where is the money?

  Probably lost forever on the on the bonfire of bad debt and hubris, as everybody involved exhibits the (what me syndrome) in total denial that what they were doing, might just have been the root cause of all this mayhem, as the next big bubble deflates, to bite the dust.

 " It’s the ECONOMY STUPID," as former US President Clinton famously remarked. As long as people seek advantage one over the other, then use the tools of the legal system to wring the linen dry, when things look like going awry, as confidence falters. The end result will always be the same.

  For when you write off debt, you destroy credit and therein lies the dilemma. If the lack of economic activity chokes off the potential to earn, where is the money going to come from to pay off penal interest obligations. It only comes from the margin between lending and borrowing which across the financial systems of the entire world normally amounts to around 3%. So when you see these people charging an APR in the stratosphere, of as much as 25% and more therein lies the root of the problem.

  The cause of all this anguish is the Shylocks of the World, so we need to skin ’em alive before they skin us alive and clip-clop off into the sunset, saddlebags bulging fit to burst, with all their obscene loot. Job done!

Watch this space. I’ll be back!

Tom.

Almost three years on and still there’s no new horizon!

They thought it was all over, but it just won’t go away

As the Credit Crunch lingers a tragedy can easily become a crisis again, especially when a serious player’s attempts to stem the tide, by taking draconian measures, prove lacking. Uncertainty cannot be assuaged in these circumstances, for when it comes down to confidence; no one can fool the markets.

  The interest demanded for assuming government debt is the real crucifier and there’s no way round it. The Fiddler calls the tune and the tune is:- There ain’t no such thing, as pay later on easy terms. That only lasts as long as confidence exists. Once uncertainty takes over you’re into the end game and that’s where it’s heading.

  Riots in the street achieve nothing, they just add to the over-arching burden. For no one ever found product in a riot. That’s just self destruct manifesting itself, when reason has exited stage left and the curtain is on the way down. Civil unrest is no way to produce anything, other than an establishment stand off. For in the end, in any civilised society, law and order has to prevail, anarchy is the road to nowhere.
 
  So as severely damaged Euro States try to bite the bullet, so-called draconian measures hurriedly cobbled together,  prove unlikely to be draconian enough. The Euro-inspired expansion bombed and economies zooming off into the stratosphere like moon rockets on the back of a crazy bubbles, suddenly ran out of fuel. When the impetus inspired by crazy lending fizzled out, as inevitably it must, the pit props put in place proved to be insufficient, so collapso rears its ugly head once more.

  The false dawn proves that those thought to be the Jeremiah’s will always be right in the end. For they are the realists, those who were labelled cynics. For in the real world a cynic is merely someone a pessimist calls a realist, as it becomes blindingly obvious that there’s only one real truth and the Fiddler calls the tune.

Watch this space, I’ll be back!

Tom.

Surprised by the Booboys Harry?

You shouldn’t be

My first encounter with the yobs who frequent football was at the hands of Tottingham supporters at Derby County’s old Baseball Ground back in the days of Clough & Taylor. Derby had whacked ‘em and as I stood waiting for the crowd to thin out, Tottingham supporters on their way out, were expressing their anger at losing, by lashing out at anybody in their path.

 I haven’t been to matches much since those days. But I can see that not much has changed when the bitchy remarks which have been visited upon you, attributed to so-called supporters, are taken into account. Inevitably football is a game of winners and losers and these days the cretins expect to win every match. They come in the (what Planet are you from category?) and football is losing its way, amidst the obscene wage and transfer fee arrangements of the modern day game.

 It’s not football as we know it anymore,  it’s like playing with a beachball in plimpsols. For the way this modern ball flies, is ridiculous. One end of the pitch to the other like a rocket. It’s a wonder the goalie doesn’t scored more goals than the strikers.

 A radical rethink is long overdue, maybe the approaching credit storm will restore a bit of long needed sustainability to the game. It’s time reality began to dawn on the clowns who’ve turned our national pastime into a bearpit. With this barmy wage structure, transfer system and a no lose mentality. Inevitably there have to be winners and losers.

Ignore ‘em Harry, take the rough with the smooth, but you shouldn’t be surprised by the Booboys.

Watch this space, I’ll be back!

Tom.

P.S. Tottingham by the way, was the mangled pronunciation of Ossy Ardiles. former player and manager. In the days when real skill was on display.

House prices to rise by 16 per cent in three years

Economists predict, sorry guess

The only matter of consequence in this equation is. When did these so-called economists ever get it right in this guessing game? According to the Centre for Economics and Business Research, property prices are expected to rise by 2.2 per cent next year as unemployment increases. Jobless figures will rise on the back of public sector cuts and household incomes will remain under pressure, they reckon.

 But they expect low interest rates, further quantitative easing from the Bank of England and the ongoing housing shortage to offer some support to the market. House prices are likely to be 16 per cent above their current level by the end of 2014.

 In your dreams baby, more QE or quantitative easing as they prefer to call it. Will if you need examples, only result in an expansion of the wheelbarrow trade, as people go shopping for a loaf of bread with a barrow full of government sponsored IoUs. Shades of the Weimar Republic and more recently in President Mugabe’s ‘Zim’.

 In case you missed it, the President of the World Bank is now openly calling for a debate about returning to the Gold Standard as a way of applying monetary disciplines. The bank’s president since 2007 reckons a successor is needed to the system of floating currencies that has held sway since the Bretton Woods fixed exchange rate regime broke down, in 1971 and a debate should take place to formulate a successor.

 Why did it breakdown you might well ask? Well it happened like this, France and Switzerland were ganging up on the USA to demand gold bullion in exchange for their Yankee dollars. Whether the Federal Reserve actually held sufficient gold reserves to accommodate this act of sabotage, is a moot point. But president at the time Richard Nixon refused to honour the pledge then printed on every US dollar note. This note is ‘exchangeable for gold at the Federal Reserve’.

 It wasn’t and they didn’t, so every country was free to run their currencies in whatever way they chose and a free for all developed. It will continue for as long as respective governments can get away with it. But it has to end somewhere, so it’s either wheelbarrows full of readies for a loaf of bread or shovel swinging.

Watch this space, I’ll be back!

Tom.

P.S. More about shovel swinging the next time around.

Quark Gluon Plasma.

A name to conjure with

Well there you have it folks, Quark Gloun Plasma or Primevel Soup, take your pick.  We had to come from somewhere of that there can be no doubt, but how and where, is a dilemma that has haunted civilisation since man first became a biped and developed a brain the size of a coconut.

 Some no doubt, equipped with little more than the ingredients found inside one. Especially when it comes to claiming, we were all created in seven days by some higher being who presided over the creation of the Universe, as we know it. From the first tentative steps on planet Moon to the flybys and landings on the outer planets of our solar system, which today are commonplace.

 Students of Astrology pretend they can forecast your future prospects on a daily basis, which if you believe the star sign rigmarole, applies simultaneously for each monthly sign to one twelfth of the entire world’s population. Something in reality, which stretches the frontiers of reality a bit too far for commonsense. I often read them after the event to checkout the veracity of the claims and though quite often there are similarities between what occurred and what was predicted it's mostly co-incidence in no more than general terms.

 Now we stand on the verge of one of the greatest ever voyages of discovery for man, as the magical forces unleashed by the Hadron Collider are set to replicate the conditions that scientists think could have occurred at the time of what has become known as Big Bang. The moment when this creation that has been assumed by creationists to have occurred over seven biblical days, happens in milliseconds.

 Whether or not this turns out to be the case, we are left to wonder what the followers of all these so called religious orders will make of it, as they pursue their religious vendettas. Perpetrating their acts of evil in the name of Allah against all and everything, of which they do not approve.

Supposedly they will carry on with the misconceptions that have steered their course for millenia, in absolute denial that they may have been misled. Though what blowing to bits innocent civilians going about their daily business does, to further the aims and ambitions of their religion is not entirely clear.

 However it could be that soon and sooner than a lot of people think, that valid scientific proof by observation of the Hadron Collider experiments, will unlock the secrets of the creation of matter. Then the debate about creation and godly acts of a miraculous virgin birth can be explained on a different level. So all the people on the face of the earth can learn to live together in peaceful and fulfilling harmony, without trying to blow each other to pieces.

 Oh to be one of the ten men in the entire world, who understand the subject of Quantum Physics.

Watch this space, I’ll be back!

Tom.              

To all you Drummerboys out there

Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison is ‘best' in 25 years?

A masked musician who plays gravity defying solos has beaten stars such as Phil Collins and Dave Grohl to be named the greatest drummer of the past 25 years.

Top Ten:

01. Joey Jordison (Slipknot, Rob Zombie)
02. Mike Portnoy (Dream Theatre)
03. Gavin Harrison (Porcupine Tree)
04. Neil Peart (Rush)
05. Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Them Crooked Vultures)
06. Travis Barker (Blink-182, Transplants)
07. Nicko McBrain (Iron Maiden)
08. Vinnie Colaiuta (Frank Zappa, Sting, Jeff Beck)
09. Phil Collins (Genesis)
10. Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Chickenfoot)

Is there no one around today who heard of Gene Krupa? (1909/73). One of the most influential drummers of the 20th century, when it came to developing the drum kit he made history, In the 1920s, as the first kit drummer ever to record using a bass drum pedal. The methodology for which, was published in 1938 and immediately became the standard. He also invented the rim shot on the snare drum.

Gene Krupa by the 1930s was using Slingerland drums and at his urging, they developed tom-toms with tuneable heads. These immediately assumed importance in virtually every drummer’s kit. He developed cymbal techniques too, which were standardised and in collaboration with Zildjian standardized the use of various cymbals, crash symbals, splash cymbals, ride cymbals and the swish.

In a Warner Brothers cartoon, a version of Krupa’s drumming was used in an impromptu jam session. While in 1937 a recording of Louis Prima’s ‘Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing)’ by Benny Goodman and his Orchestra featured Krupa on drums and entered the Grammy Hall of Fame. By the 1970s, Krupa had become the first drummer in the Modern, Hall of Fame.

That’s just a taster of the influence Gene Krupa had on modern day drumming and he had no need of silly gimmicks like tilting stages and lighting affects or weird masks. Gene Krupa was a giant of the drumming world and his influence lingers, as people today try to be outrageous, just for the hell of it. Probably to cover up for a lack of the talent that drove Gene Krupa to the pinnacle.

Back in the early 1960s wandering around near Times Square, I stood on the sidewalk and watched a barnstorming performance by Gene Krupa on a raised dais, through the open frontage of a bar. It’s as vivid today, as it was that July evening fifty odd years ago. Where would all these modern day drumming fanatics be today, but for this giant of a man?

Watch this space I’ll be back!

Tom.

Torres double sinks poor Chelsea

Another one bites the dust.

Maybe Chelsea got to thinking all they needed to do was turn up for another three points in the bag. But if Torres was the difference amongst all these mega-rich so-called superstars, surely it calls into question the tactical nous of these continental managers.

After Fabio’s dismal tactics in South Africa where his selections played like a bunch of plonkers from the Alvaston Rec., Sunday League, to other recent setbacks for Liverpool under Rafael and Chelsea with Carlo’s predecessor whose name eludes me for the moment and who I guess was not so memorable, except for his pay-off potential?

Though if you have the clout Roman can muster, a few million bucks one way or another is not all that much to bother about. It’s probably covered by keeping one of your yachts in harbour for a couple of days and sticking the crew on short time.

Now Ancelotti’s new look Chelsea are made to look ordinary. Has he not heard of man marking? Are there no players these days of the John McGovern ilk, from Clough & Taylor days at Derby? They’d set John McGovern on any such perceived threat from the opposition and he just stopped whoever from playing.

Yep! In situations like this when the opposition has a player of Torres ilk, capable of winning a match with one kick. The obvious tactic is to have him watched like a hawk by someone who can run for ninety minutes. It’s called Man Marking Carlo, try it some time.

Another thing of immediate concern is the failure of these so-called superstars to hit the target by failing to get over the ball, when they shoot for goal, shades of a Jackie Stamps toe-ender, that sailed over the top of the Normanton End Stand, at the old Baseball Ground.

Watch this space, I’ll be back!

Tom.

MEPs a waste of time and space?

November 5th, 2010 5:10

 What are they meant to be for?

Time and time again, I’ve asked myself this question and I’ve known a few of these MEPs personally. Mostly they seem to be full of their own self importance; several have finished up in the slammer, which in some ways says it all.

 The UKIP explanation was that they needed MEPs to access the Euro funding to set up a nationwide chain of offices from which to expand their empire and their influence. But, when it came down to the nitty-gritty it was just a job creation scheme for a chosen few. Nothing more than a cushy little cosy office number, where they could go for a chinwag and few brews of PG, to while away the hours to another EU handout. But of course before you can access any Euro funding you have to be part of a group.

 So all these misfits created their own little cabal to access the Eurofunding, an outfit the UK’s  Supine Snobs belonged to for a while, till it began to rub against the grain, with Dave’s Europhiles in their midst. They were rubbing shoulders with UKIP and in the end they had to duck out. But all these so-called UK opponents of the Euro Dream, appear to all intent and purpose to have gone native now. Oh they stand up and spout off now and again, about the inconsistencies and injustices of the system and the Eurowide international fraudsters with their million Euro subsidy rackets and VAT scams, but in the end only one mantra holds true.

So if you haven’t sussed it out yet, I can spell it out in CAPITAL LETTERS, in a nutshell. Its two words separated by a hyphen SELF-INTEREST. I’ve heard it said that if an MEP doesn’t manage to trouser €1,000,000 over the period of a Euro Parliament that he’s not up to the mark. So you can easily see why they keep going back for more, as dotage looms. It’s like a cast-iron, self-administered, gold-plated, copper-bottomed, individual, pension plan.

In addition, I don’t know if they’ve managed to set up separate pension rights for themselves so far. But you could bet your last Eurocentime that if not, there’ll be a working party somewhere inside that sprawling Empire from Brussels to Strasbourg, figuring out how to pull it off.

 Watch this space I’ll be back! In the meantime if you’re stuck for a good read, checkout the ebooks at http://www.tomstack’sstorefront/ or log on to https://sites.google.com/site/tomstacknovels/home

Tom.