The Milibandido a hostage to Fortune

Union Lackey

Besmirched is an adjective which immediately leaps to mind for he would not have been there but for the leftwing union bosses and to see his appointees trying to make a fist of it is so sad.

 

  What is this country of ours coming to when we need to bend over backwards for unelected, unaccountable, faceless Eurocrats who want merely to drag us down to their levels. Though I’ve heard it said in response to my much trumpeted mutterings on this matter that our continental cousins live far more fulfilling and enjoyable lives than we in England do.

  Nevertheless after spending several years of my life working and living abroad in Germany France and Switzerland, the Near East, the Far East and the Gulf. I have extensive experience of the way others live out their lives. Indeed I have over the years been offered many opportunities too re-locate but in the end I just can’t wait to get back to Perfidious Albion.

   I’m left to suppose though that with the governments we have if you can’t take rejection and be humble, all you can do is to come out throwing wild punches in the hope that one might eventually land. There can be no doubt that in view of the world wide situation where banks had to be baled out wholesale and you are in a situation where it is likely to rumble on for a good while yet, options are limited.

  But then in opposition you can do or say anything for it’s highly unlikely you will ever be called on to carry it through. But no matter how horrifying the situation when you get to see the small print in the notes to the accounts. There are always going to be steps to be taken, which you cannot avoid.

  In the main you have to satisfy the people you borrow money from (on the massive scale we are now obliged to carry) can be satisfied their capital will be repaid and their juice is safe. For it depends entirely on the level of perceived risk. While risk it has to be said, is based on the extent to which any guarantees you make are credible and therein lies the dilemma for an aspiring power broker.

  The books need to be balanced at some predetermined date in the not too distant, future if you are to cover the repayment schedules and make available the funds required for the economy to be successful. i.e. Where income matches out goings and in some small way produces a profit to pay down the gross national debt to levels the economy can sustain.

 In a way opposition is like an ageing lothario who spots an attractive piece of hot totty and whose mind begins to make promises beyond the pale of the body politic and therein lies the rub.

Watch this space, I’ll be back!

Tom          

Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison is 'best in 25 years'

Come off it or should I say, pull the other one!

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.

The top 10:

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? He was one of the most influential drummers of the 20th century, when it came to developing the drum kit and he made history in 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, tom-toms were developed 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 cymbals, splash cymbals, pang 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 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 silly 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.

On a personal note:

Back in the 1960s wandering around near Times Square, I stood on  the sidewalk and watched barnstorming performance by Gene Krupa on a raised dais, through the open frontage of a bar, which is as vivid to me today as it was that July evening fifty odd years ago. 

Where would all these modern day drumming fanatics be today, were it not for this giant of a man?

Watch this space, I'll be back! 

Tom. 

A Tell theTelegraph Moderator wanted to know what I thought about his Post:-

 This is what he posted

(Prominent Liberal Democrat councillors have today criticised the scale and pace of government cuts at local council level. In particular, they claim that because councils are facing the bulk of budget cuts in the coming financial year, they have little time "to spread the cost of reorganisation and downsizing". As a result, they claim, front-line services such libraries, youth groups and public toilets will be hit harder than they would if cuts were more spread out.

Do the Lib Dems have a point? Or are they just looking for ways of stalling what is necessary?)

This is my response

I'm surprised Mr Moderator, at you falling for this guff about cuts. There are no cuts I cannot repeat this often enough. The Coalition is spending more than Chancellor Darling planned to do. What is happening is a redistribution of the deficit, to promote growth. We need to make up the difference between income and outgoings.

Labour and the Lib-Dems in my experience always scream cuts at the drop of a hat. The Lib-Dems in particular because they are so used to being in opposition where you can promise the world, because you know you'll never have to deliver on it.

Labour controlled local councils were always going to feel the worst effects of this redistribution, because they jumped on the bandwagon when the new Labour government decided to use Local Councils as a job creation scheme back in '97.

We edged up towards having around seven million pen pushers on the books. A fair proportion of them will have to go for the sake of the prudence Gordon Brown forgot how to spell.

Watch this space, I’ll be Back!

Tom.

Pub landlady takes on Sky Sports and looks like a winner

Don't shoot the messenger 

After being fined over £8000 for showing Premier League games via a Greek Satellite Channel in her Pub she appealed to the European Court of Justice as opposed to the ECHR the other tinpot dictator in Brussels and obtained an Advocate’s opinion that Sky’s block breached EU Law.

 What baffles me is the reach of Sky in using the law to hammer pubs for showing satellite channels in their own property. This surely has to be a Bridge Too Far. Did we really make laws like this that forbid a pub owner from tuning in to a satellite broadcast in their own Pub?

I know there’s such a thing as performing rights and all that, but £700 a month for a Sky Sports has to be on the cusp of extortion, when it used to be seventeen shillings and sixpence in the Normanton End at the Baseball Ground when Brian Clough reigned supreme and Derby County were top of the shop.

None of these obscene weekly amounts to so called superstars, in those days, but now  it’s all got out of hand and needs to be reined in. So maybe this European Court of Justice is not such a bad thing. Let’s hope they stick to their guns and curb the Digger’s power over the game we gave to the world.

Watch this space I'll be back!
Tom.

WikiLeaks – The Lessons

Swedish charges no reason for extradition under British Law says Barrister

If that’s the case why is it even being considered here? Well it’s all about what they really wished you didn’t know, for in essence, accounting for what you thought you said in private can be embarrassing and inconvenient. Especially if it happens to be only partially true, it’s often believable as a true opinion.

  As the President in the movie Clear and Present Danger, said to Dr Ryan: ‘Oh it’ll get out Jack, it always does.’

  It did and – THEY -  The establishment, didn’t have a clue. They floundered about wailing how it jeopardised national security and risked lives and therein lies a clue. Now we know what they’re really upto. It’s bang up the publicist, take away his liberty, make an example and the message is: – We’re bigger, stronger and can muster all the clout we need to swot you like a fly, across international borders, if necessary.

  You only need to look at the case of the computer hacker they’ve been trying to extradite to the US because he was smart enough to show how easy it was to access the US War Department computers. They want to bang him up forever.

  The truth fellas is, it’s out there and it’s too late to try shutting the stable door. All you can do is tough it out. Though what seems to be happening in the case of  Mr Assange, is to use him to send out a message that if anyone else ever fancies their chances, should they comes across a bit of choice info, which needs disseminating, this is what you’ll get.

  All they can do in reality, is try to convince you it’s just not worth the hassle, likely to rain down on your head. Thankfully there are some amongst us who frankly my dear, do not give a damn. Why? because we know the truth will out, it always does.

Watch this space I’ll be back!

So that’s awight then, now where’s the biscuits?

Tom.

The Real Truth behind the Fabian Conspiracy

Telling it like it is for all and Sundry

The first thing that leaps to mind is the age old aphorism, that collectively they wish to see everyone riding to work on a Co-op bike with black painted rims (further explanation of this Daykinism, in the not too distant future).

  To modern-day youth postwar realism was lost, on the binge-drinking culture that appears to have developed in recent times, (as the brewers and dispensers of alcoholic boozer sought an ever wider clientele) and probably by-passed this generation, as they seek instant gratification. Though had it not been for what went before such a situation as exists today would never have been possible.

  So a few lines from the speech by the Tribune to Judah Ben Hur might be appropriate at this juncture:-

                ‘Where there is greatness, great government or power, even great feeling or compassion, error is also great. We progress and mature by fault, but Rome has said she is ready to join your life to hers in a great future,’ he told him.

  ‘Do not crucify yourself on shadows, such as old resentments or impossible loyalties. A grown man knows the world he lives in for what it is. For the present that world is Rome, I crossed the floor and spoke in friendship,’ he explained.

  ‘But when I go up those stairs I become the hand of Caesar, ready to crush all who challenge his authority. There are too many small men of envy and ambition, who try to disrupt the government of Rome. You have become a victor and a hero to these people if you stay where you are you will find yourself a part of this tragedy. Even for the sake of these past loyalties I cannot protect you from personal disaster. If you stay where you are, you are in great danger. Leave Judea, you have my warning!’

  Now as the dust settles over the political debacle of the past thirteen wasted years and we seek recovery mode and the opportunity to roll back the frontiers of this blatant attempt to dumb down an entire generation of wannabe celebs, the fallout proliferates as the chancers in our midst seek out opportunity to promote their narrow minded goals and denigrate those they lost out to in the eventual choice of a new generation of leaders.

  So in conclusion if we are ever as a nation, going to achieve the greatness which is our legacy from Victorian times, this is no time to allow the jellybellies in our midst to gain ascendancy. They have to put down with the ruthless articulation that the Iron Lady displayed in neutering the ambitions of the Welsh Windbag.

Here endeth the umpteenth lesson from the Tom Stack Academy of Reason and Responsibility.

Watch this space, I’ll be back.

So that’s awight then, now, where’s the biscuits? 

Tom.  

High-speed rail link: opinions are divided

The Wimps are at again.

Some call the planned high-speed rail line an eye-sore while others claim the benefits will completely transform the UK’s transport network, wrote the Telegraph’s Jasmine Malone 11 Dec 2010.

  We spent a generation or thereabouts empowering the WIMPS and this is what you get, petty squabbling over things that need to be done to protect our status as the Premier Trading Nation the World has ever known. What do all these plonkers who quibble at every attempt to project this nation into the 21^st century think is going to provide us with the opportunity to enjoy a rewarding and fulfilling lifestyle in the years ahead, as the rest of the world tries to play catch up.

  Though as long as we continue to support this disastrous experiment in Europe and they persistently attempt  to drag us down to their level, assisted by the myopic quislings in our midst we’re going nowhere fast. There can be no doubt that a high speed rail link to the Capitol which connects seamlessly with the St Pancras Terminal to Continental European destinations is the way forward.

  We gave the world railways and are we now such a pale imitation of our forefathers, that we cannot emancipate ourselves from the unelected, unaccountable Brussels fraudsters across the English Channel. For centuries we’ve haggled with the French and more often that not whupped ’em. The French have never really got over the Battle of Agincourt, to the point where they have sought to gang up with the Germans to try and second guess us.

  It’s been going their way for a few years, till they made the fundamental mistake that will be their downfall, by opting for a common currency without the necessary infrastructure to co-ordinate it. It’s an abject failure, for if you fail to carry the International Shylocks with you and depend on borrowing to balance your books, it will be your downfall and that’s where they’re at, in Brussels and Strasbourg, in Portugal and Spain, Ireland, Italy and Greece. Only facts and figures will convince the Shylocks and they remain unconvinced, baleouts included. For no amount of baleout funding is going to convince these people, that their juice is safe.

  The time has come to stand on our own feet again as we have done for a thousand years, till these people turned up using the excuse of preventing a third world war, as the vehicle for their federalist dreams of a super state. Maybe if the civilisation we have created lasts for a another thousand years there could be a case for some overriding international consensus on governance, but the time is not here and now

  Too many conflicting national interests stand in the way of a Federal Europe, it was never going to be anything more than a bridge too far.

Watch this space, I’ll be back!

Tom.