It’s all in the Game, Rugby that Is!

By tomtom

 Well sometimes you wonder if it is indeed a Game

But you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise, though this business of the ball swapping intrigues me. For if the future destination of the Rugby World Cup depends on the niceties of ball construction. Then it’s no longer a game, it’s a gamble on outside influences.

 With all the skill in the world at your disposal on the training grounds of Perfidious Albion, this must rank as one of the greatest red herrings of all time. For people not actually doing the kicking to be suspended by authority for trifling disagreements that verge on Black Arts, becomes quite laughable. When you think about the odds of actually making every kick count.

 With a point of contact between ball and toe, which has to vary by millimetres with each and every kick, this kind of precision is laughable, unless some one is using it to try and create a level playing field. In effect there can be no such entity where humans are involved and it’s all a matter of getting someone’s brain and body in a comfort zone where insecurity and indecision are vanquished.

 In the end it all has to come down to a developed skill level. The ability for repeat performance within all known parameters, again and again and the ability to take account of all the factors involved. Then to plant a kick in the right place everytime. All in the face of infinitely varying wind speed and direction, muscle control, timing, ball construction, balance, physical fitness and angle of dangle. Without even daring to accept the prospect that Kismet is involved.

 All of these skill factors and other influences therefore, must be considered in a final jigsaw type analysis, by a pint pot-sized brain, functioning at warp speed. These are serious matters of consequence, which need to be factored in, chiming in harmony and worked out in totality. As it cometh down to those last few vital strides where toe meets ball.

Watch this space I’ll be back!

Tom.

Nick Clegg to block moves to abolish the 50p tax rate

By tomtom

While Dannyboy, at the Treasury plays Hardball?

Can this pair of nearly men really mean what they say or is it just to placate the unwashed masses at the forthcoming Lib-Dem Conference, as their Chief Secretary to the Treasury, proclaims:- The idea of getting rid of the 50p tax rate was in “cloud cuckoo land”.

 Well they should know all about Cloud Cuckoo Land, because that’s where they’ve been for most of the last hundred years, till Dave tossed them a lifeline. A taste of power, which had it been used wisely, might have encouraged electors to take a bit more notice of their outpourings. But on the evidence so far, they seem to be intent on self-immolation, as indeed does Dave, in leaning ever closer to Europe.

 There really is no mileage in this cosying up to Europe for Dave, especially after he was so voluble, in telling the world he would call a referendum. Then he rotated one hundred and eighty degrees and tried to persuade us he could not call one, as it would be illegal.

 What absolute piffle, when there can be no doubt that the entire country is totally cheesed-off with the ‘cheese eating surrender monkeys’ in Brussels and Strasbourg? However as Red Ed consistently points out too, whenever he’s quizzed on Europe. We’ve already had an in or out referendum, back in the 1970s.

 Yes Ed but in those days it was nothing more invasive than a Common Market, a trading bloc. It was a similar outfit to the European Free Trade Area (EFTA), an organisation which still exists to this day. There had been no moves back then, leading us to think there was a hidden agenda, to create a Federal Superstate to challenge the primacy of the US Dollar as the world’s reserve currency.

 What an entire load of codswallop it has turned out to be from politicians with little political nous and even less in the way of appeal to either Mondeo Man or Joe Sixpack. The entire world is swilling around in financial cesspit of immeasurable consequence.

 The only thing, which can Save our Souls (SOS), is a return to the gold/silver standard the only measure able to control the money supply of the world, without the interference of politicians, economists or financial regulations. Then we can all make some progress with a bit of ‘Getting-0n’

 There is however a slight snag with this simple approach and that’s the sheer quantity of US$ IoUs issued since Richard Nixon ended the US$/Gold link back on Aug 15^th 1971. He was forced in to this, to block France and Switzerland, as they made overtures about knocking on the door of the US Federal Reserve to exchange their hoards of  US$ bills for Gold.

In order to achieve the Gold Standard today, on the back of the US$s issued by their Treasury over the last 50 years, Gold would need to priced at around $40,000 US/Troy Ounce. So maybe when the escalating price of gold catches up, we can all sit back, applaud the dominance of the Barbarous Relic and live happily ever after, Midas men and women atop our gleaming piles of Sovereigns and Gold Eagles.

Watch this space, I’ll be back!

Tom.

Phone hacking set to rumble-on & other matters off General Interest?

By tomtom

A great big fuss about nothing?

As the post-mortem into phone hacking drags on and on, about who knew what and when, it becomes more confusing by the minute. Though in recent days, it seems to have taken a turn, we’re now exploring things at the slapstick level of a country fair.

Apart from the staggering compensation settlements, it’s become akin to the level of an Aunt Sally Stall, as it descends into the realms of mud-slinging. Possibly it’s in anticipation that if enough of the brown stuff is chucked about, some of it is bound to stick. But to rake up pics of ‘Gid’ from the beginning of time, sucking up to a black beauty, who legal eagles now reckon has a story to tell, smacks of the ‘couldn’t make it up genre’. That’s desperation unhinged.

Another bone of contention is the completely despotic behaviour of this select committee. Half the time the MPs charged with the task have little idea what to ask and resort to nit-picking of the most obdurate kind. They appeared to be out of their depth, when quizzing ‘Rupe’; he had the measure of them before they opened their collective mouth, to fire off their inane questions.

A complete fog is descending over this entire imbroglio and even Red Ed has gone quiet, as he realised he was just making himself look even more foolish than we’d taken him for, after his glorious victory in the leadership poll. That was a debacle which seems to have legs, for it will run all the way to the next General Election.

What is really puzzling however is the how and why of the Unions bosses, in thinking it will reflect on the chances of re-electing a Labour Government.  They appear to have gone off their collective rocker, trying to make a fist out of strike action over pensions. The horse has bolted bros., and the stable door is firmly shut.
There can be no justifiable reason to try and bring the country to a standstill over this, especially when they have nothing to offer other than to retain the status quo. It’s clearly a no-brainer, something we can easily associate with the present cabal of left wing rabble-rousers.

After a decade of Labour profligacy the country is technically skint, a busted flush and that’s the top and bottom of it, till we dig ourselves out of this hole. This is the biggest and best one ever created by Labour and they are responsible for about half a dozen on them, since they first formed a government back in 1924. Will they ever learn? On the face of things highly unlikely, will the electorate ever learn? That’s highly unlikely too.

Watch this space, I’ll be back!

Tom.

The Laughing Assassins.

By tomtom

All the way to the Bank?

Brown, Balls & Darling, that is, the three not-so-wise men who fiddled and fumbled as the UK economy tanked.  They’re nothing more than terrorists, who should be denied the oxygen of publicity, let alone be encouraged to write books about it, as though it was some kind of classroom melodrama. That we permit, nay even encourage such a carry-on; appears to suggest there is no one in this dis-United Kingdom, capable of taking events like this, seriously.

  So here in the naked light of day all is revealed, at the very heart of what should be the nerve centre of a thrusting vibrant nation, playing on the world stage, with all the panache that built the greatest empire the world has ever known. But what is revealed when we get right down to it, is little more than a juvenile game of yah-boo sucks, more suited to an infant school’s playground.

  Though what it really reveals, is the bankruptcy of the British electorate’s political nous when the two thirds and often even less than half of all eligible voters, bother to turn out for an election. In my own town a Labour councillor was elected on a turnout of fourteen percent, which no doubt qualifies for the nub of a situation where a town or city returns the people responsible for the running of the government both local and national, on strictly doctrinaire principles based on, ‘what’s in it for me’.

  It saddens, even sickens me personally, to think that in the end, all things being equal, the electorate in a particular village, town or city, finish up with exactly what they deserve. An administration incapable of doing what is in the best interests of the public at large, only what is good for themselves.

  Mistakenly, I now believe that for several years, I reckoned this was due to the fact that we were failing to pay the going rate, which the best available talent required to make a career in politics at a local level. So I felt justified in this line of reasoning, as the rewards for a local councillor were enhanced to a point which seemed to indicate, this idea had been recognised and was being addressed.

  Sadly however, it appears to have morphed into a kind of pin money thing, which in tandem with a day job or pensionable age, can sustain a sought after life style, on the nod and a wink basis. Something that is readily seen as Freedom of Information revelations, confirm the attendance records and participation levels for all to see.

Often it appears to the point where a game of Musical Chairs accompanies a forthcoming local election. If some elected member fears their particular Gravy Train  is about to hit the Buffers.  Will we ever evolve a system where the best of British rules O.K? Or are we condemned forever, to political Masters of the Universe, who are there because they have sworn allegiance to a useless political agenda or have spotted a direct route, to Easy Street.

  Elected members it might be said, who are merely there to rubber stamp the machinations of the particular brand of civil servant chosen quite often for doctrinaire political expediency. Who populate the various departments of government both local and national, with personal hidden agendas?

  In the end the truth will out, it always does. Though sometimes it gets overlooked, when it’s right under the end of yer nose?

Watch this space I’ll be back!

Tom.

What’s the matter with Vince?

By tomtom

Is it just a definitive case, of one foot in the grave?

The government’s strategy to boost local enterprise in England got off to a poor start Vince Cable admitted, adding that: ‘It was ‘Maoist and chaotic.’

 Can it recover to help businesses grow? Of course it can Vince, all it needs is someone like you to get out there and sell it, instead of moaning all the time about how it could be if we were all Lib Dems.  We’re not Vince and your performance in office has been a disaster for Lib-Dems. It’s looking like you’ve lost more votes than you’re ever likely to recoup at the next General Election.

  But the big problem for the country Vince, is the fact that disaffected socialists can’t bear to vote Tory.  Whilst their only safe haven  the Lib-Dems is looking distraught with blunder after blunder, as you stick to Lib-Dem doctrinaire stuff,which  fell out of fashion back in the 1920s.  Lib-Dems will never amount to anything substantial in the way of your former Lib-Dem leader’s famous conference aside:  ‘Go back to your constituencies and prepare for government.’  Well maybe they did, but it turned out to be total error of judgement and judgement is exactly what Lib-Dems lack.

  If they had any cokum they’d have stood back from Co-alition with the Tories, for all it did was give Dave ‘n’ Gideon time to bolster the case for the ‘Establishment ‘s eternal right to have the Tories govern in their name. That’s four more years of self inflicted misery, for all the disaffected Lib-Dems, to nurture their hatred of Nick.

 Of course the fact that the real medicine bottle, has not yet had its seal broken, as the palliative measures of low interest rates and the printing of money are given time to work through. However on today’s evidence, it’s doubtful this will come good in time to stem the bogey of rising inflation, that other ‘Bull in the China Shop.’

  It would be nice to think we could grow our way out of this massive deficit without any cuts, but the re-distribution of the deficit, Dave and Gid’s favourite mantra, seems to be a dead duck. It relies on demand and for the immediate future most of the demand side has been met in terms of consumer spending, except on absolute essentials.

  This apart the government could do well to clamp down on the companies who are ramping up prices in an opportunistic way, as they sense a chance to beat the odds by claiming they have no option, when in reality they are just hyping up the ante to raise prices far more than is necessary.

  While in addition to this the bankers look to be intent on carrying on their trade, as if nothing was awry with their business plan. That they can carry out paying huge bonuses when the price of everyday essentials heads for the stratosphere is obscene. Surely they too have to live in the real world of today, which they did so much to nuture before the penny dropped!

Watch this space, I’ll be back!

Tom