Chapel of rest

It was announced today, that the by-election to find a replacement for the late Gwyneth Dunwoody will be held next month.

However, it is usual convention to at least wait for the body to be buried before serving a writ before parliament.



The Labour party appears to have decided to hold the Crewe and Nantwich poll earlier than expected to maximise its chances of holding the seat.

Very shabby and disrespectful
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I Predict A Riot

The worst prison riot to hit our penal system began on 1 April 1990 and lasted for 25 days. As the Reverend Noel Proctor delivered his sermon in the chapel of Strangeways prison, one of his Congregation snatched the microphone from him and set into motion the events which caused more than £60m worth of damage.

The prisoner said, "This gentleman has spoken about the blessings of the heart. He has spoken about how Jesus can take away the hardness from your heart. I would like to touch on how prison brutalises you."

Minutes later Strangeways was in the hands of the prisoners, angry at their treatment by the authorities.

Today Gordon Brown is to withhold a promised prison wage increase of £1.50 a week.

The current minimum is £4.50 per week, not even the price of 20 cigarettes.
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Do you 'dig' it?

EUreferendum
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You really have to read This

The 10% tax concept is abandoned

GORDON BROWN performed an abrupt policy U-turn yesterday, promising a cash handout to the low-paid to see off the Labour rebellion over tax plans.



The sub-Prime Minister, who had previously played down the scale and seriousness of the backbench revolt, promised to compensate low-earning households by fiddling with tax credits and the winter fuel allowance to pensioners

BUT........

Downing Street flagging

THE flag of St George will fly over 10 Downing Street today to honour England's patron saint. But should it be a white flag?

Facing defeat next week, in the House of Commons, over the abolition of the 10p tax rate. The Prime Minister raised the white flag this morning and surrendered to the rebel Labour MP's

Brown and Darling had lengthy meetings over night in the Downing Street bunker and this morning In an agreed letter to Treasury Select Committee, Mr Darling promised to look specifically at the case of particular groups, pensioners and low-paid workers. Crucially he gave the rebels what they wanted - any change would be backdated to the start of this financial year.



Do you remember the broken Labour party manifesto promise to hold a referendum on the EU treaty. Well, don't hold you breath folks, because once the local elections are out of the way, they will look at it and guess what?

There will be another broken promise

Huff & Puff

This afternoon Alistair Darling explained to parliament the Bank of England's plan to swap doggy mortgage debts for government bonds to free up struggling interbank lending.



Liberal Democrat economic affairs spokesperson Vince Cable said the chancellor reminded him of Little Red Riding Hood, a character who tried to be "kind and helpful" but "ended up being eaten by a wolf".

But boys and girls, we all know the story of little red riding hood, the wolf huffed and puffed and the house of commons fell about in laughter.
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Where's the Bell's this Sunday

The government is looking for ways to promote lending after a surge in borrowing costs caused banks to pull back. Alistair Darling said today on the BBC Andrew Marr show

"The Bank of England will be making an announcement tomorrow in which what it will do is effectively lend banks money to unfreeze the situation we've got at the moment"



Alistair Darling also defied Labour's 10p tax rebels by ruling out immediate concessions for low earners. Darling insisted it was not possible to "unravel" the financial package announced last year, despite the widespread discontent of Labour MP's.

The chancelor denied the Government was in the middle of a "car crash", and said he believed it would win any vote on the issue - despite some 70 MPs publicly expressing concern over abolishing the 10p rate.

Pass the whiskey, not Scotch but Irish me thinks
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Snake Oil Salesman

A defiant Gordon Brown flew home today after his trip to the USA determined to face down a gathering storm of protest over his abolition of the 10p tax rate.

The Prime Minister is privately furious at what he regards as misrepresentation of the effects of the tax change and the activities of 70 + malcontent Labour MP's.



Today Gordon Brown defended his decision to abolish the 10p rate by suggesting the government would at some time in the future compensate low-paid workers who've lost out

Oh yes, before a snake oil salesman comes to town, most townspeople polled say they'd never buy anything from him -- it's hogwash, its a scam. But then he comes, "clip clop, clip clop"
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Market Forces

Think about it

Robert Mugabe, made a blistering attack today on Britain the former colonial power, saying

"Today they [the British] are like thieves fronting their lackeys among us, which they pay to confuse our people," he said, speaking in the local language, Shona, "We are being bought like livestock."



Mugabe said he had taught the British what democracy is.

"We, and not the British, established democracy on the basis of one man, one vote. We are the ones who brought democracy in this country. We removed the subjugation."

More European Union anyone?
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another nice mess

Angela Smith, MP for Sheffield Hillsborough, is said to have told colleagues she is resigning as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Treasury Minister Yvette Cooper because of her concerns over the abolition of the 10p tax rate, the BBC radio 4 pm programme reported tonight.



More than 70 Labour MPs are calling for action on the abolition of the 10p rate of income tax, over fears they will loose their seats at the next election. The move was announced in last year's budget, when Brown was still Chancellor, but it has only just come into force and he will now probably blame Darling.
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"curtain" Call

Ministers and government departments are supposed to observe a period of silence - or "purdah" - in the weeks before an election.

The system is designed to prevent the party in power from having an unfair advantage during an election campaign.

Today, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has announced an extra 300 police officers to work on preventing radicalisation



Conservative shadow communities and local government secretary Eric Pickles has reported Ms Smith and other Labour ministers to the Cabinet Secretary for breach of Whitehall election rules.
Purdah literally meaning "curtain"

Oh, how I wish the end was near and this was Labours final curtain.
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1 barrel of oil =

1 barrel of oil = 34.972 Imperial gallons or 158.987 litres

1 barrel of oil = $114

Exchange rate $114 = £57

Therefor 1 litre = 35p

Drivers across the UK paid a record average of 107.94p for a litre of unleaded petrol on Monday

Vote Labour, you know TAXing you to the hilt makes sense.
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The Tipping Point

This morning the Prime Minister held breakfast talks with the heads of the banks on the credit crunch. After the meeting, Brown said that 'a range of measures' to get confidence back in the housing market were discussed. He also confirmed that, as planned, the Bank of England was injecting a further £15 billion of Tax payers money into the markets, taking the total injected over recent months to £50 billion.



Shortly before departing on a trip to the US, Brown gave interviews to the BBC and Sky in which he insisted that he was determined to do what was right rather than court short-term popularity

With the Labour party languishing in the opinion polls and new figures showing house prices falling at the fastest rate for 30 years, surly Brown must be reaching the tipping point.
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plumb job, way hey

Today, George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, launch a personal attack on Gordon Brown, over his handling of the nation's finances.

Bells on Sunday

A huge Olympic bell has been cast in central China. The bell is 3.2 meters high and its diameter is 2.008 meters. It weights seven tons. An Olympic rhyme in Chinese characters is printed on it.

We plough the fields and scatter

With the first symptoms of a global food shortage being felt, some experts are sounding the alarm, saying changes need to be made now if the world is to avoid potential disaster.



The United Nations has appealed to its members and international institutions for up to 1.7 billion dollars in urgent aid in a bid to avert a looming global food crisis.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization said additional annual funding of between 1.2 and 1.7 billion dollars was needed to support poor farmers and increase production.

The Gravy Plane

The proposed full-time EU president is to be given a lavish private jet and his own palatial official residence

The new leader will also be able to appoint a "cabinet" of 22 advisers, under expensive new plans being considered in Brussels. Telegraph



EU politicians claim that the Lisbon Treaty will make the EU more transparent and accessible to voters, but this latest example of secretive horse-trading shows that if it ever does come into force it will be business as usual in Brussels

aah Bisto
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Oh Shucks

EU member states must agree on a common stance on whether to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing, said the European Parliament, on 10 April. A resolution condemning "the brutal repression by the Chinese security forces against Tibetan demonstrators" was adopted in plenary session, in Brussels.



"This is not an attack on the Olympic Games but rather a defence of the spirit of the Games themselves," said Graham Watson (UK), leader of the ALDE group.

Since the outbreak of violence in Tibet, the EU has been struggling to find a common position on the Olympics. Meanwhile, several EU leaders have decided to skip the opening ceremony, including German Chancellor Merkel or more recently British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who will attend only the closure of the games. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who will be in charge of the EU Presidency during the Olympics, said he would consult his European partners.
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Beijing Bean

On Saturday April 5, 2008 at the Progressive Governance Conference of international centre-left leaders in Watford,Gordon Brown said;

“The Dalai Lama himself has said that he does not want to see a boycott of the Olympics and that is why I have said, as the host country for the 2012 Olympics that is coming up, that I will attend the opening of the Olympics as I hope many others do,”

ALSO

In response to a question at a news conference at 10 Downing Street last week, for instance, he said, “I think President Sarkozy said himself that he expected Britain because we are going to host the next Olympics, to be present at the Olympic ceremonies, and I will certainly be there.”



And now he Says He Won’t Attend Opening Ceremony of Beijing Olympics
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What is TAX

"A charge imposed by a government on a service, product, or activity in order to raise revenue."

But revenue for what?

Is all governmental TAX moral?

Discuss
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Bells on Sunday

The Olympic bell was heard for the first time at the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin.

Rudolph Hess, the Nazi party second in command proclaimed, with all due solemnity,

"The Olympic Bell is the bell of peace"!

On the side of the bell is the inscription "Ich rufe die Jugend der Welt!" (I call the youth of the world). The Olympic bell on which can be found the Olympic rings with the German eagle superimposed became the omnipresent symbol of the Berlin Games.

The Olympic bell in Berlin rang for the last time in 1945 when it was used as a gunnery target which rendered it useless.

The 1936 Olympics in Berlin were responsible for introducing a number of activities and symbols still found today, the Olympic hymn, the Olympic bell and the torch relay



The modern torch relay was introduced by Carl Diem president of the organising committee of the 1936 summer olympics in Berlin, as part of an effort to turn the games into a glorification of the Third Reich.

The totalitarian regime of China who have already cast a new Olympic bell and with the tacit approval of the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, will be allowed to parade the torch in the streets of London to the glorification of The Labour Party.

The Peoples Flag is Deepest Red
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Tea Shock, Bertie, Ahem

Bertie Ahern will step down as Ireland's prime minister on May 6 to fight corruption allegations that have dogged his final term in office and risk tarnishing his legacy of helping deliver 'the treaty establishing a constitution for europe' (Lisbon treaty)



With little change expected in overall policy direction, the first task facing his likely successor, Finance Minister and fellow Fianna Fail party member Brian Cowen, will be to secure a "yes" vote in a referendum when Irish voters will determine the fate of the European Union's reform treaty.

I know in my heart of hearts he has done everything wrong
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Mr Speaker

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