A Kingdom United?

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With more than one disaster competing for the top new headline position within the last few weeks, it does indeed feel as anything is possible at the moment.  Sitting from my safe haven of the North East currently, eyes glued to the unfolding dramas and pinching myself occasionally to ensure reality has not bolted out the door.  This country could quite easily be on the cusp of a civil war, revolution, be plunged into the sad reality of martial law(perhaps shipped in).  Whatever does eventuate, you can be guaranteed of two things.  Politicians who began the who fiasco, will be parading around  ensuring the required amount camera time and pithy sound bites are dished out, and it will damage our economy even further meaning more doom and gloom headlines for the foreseeable future.  Its grim up north some say, but at the moment at least we don't have to content with violious vagabonds tearing up our city centres.

The most beguiling of all recent stories is the eruption of wanton looting, burning and an array of different criminal acts being carried out by large gangs of young louts across the country. This feels like the culmination of blunder after blunder everyone currently in positions that have been gifted to the   The media come time and time again to the conclusion that Blackberry Instant Messager has had a large part to play, as have many internet social and communicative tools.  Bit of a shame for Blackberry really, getting caught in the crossfire between an large amounts of media companies attempting not to implode and venting their frustration at the recently departed bedfellows also known as current and previous members of the government, and a large percentage of disenfranchised, muppets with a thirst for Carling Special Brew, chucking things, especially if they can be ignited then thrown, and the odd 32 inch tv or 500.… Continues …

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  The most interesting story I have read recently was about the English Defense League attempting to forge links with minority groups in England such as the Sikh, Jewish and gay communities.  The move is likely to be to fuel hatred of the Muslim community, and in fact the EDL were formed in response to Islamic terrorist activities last year. It has also been stated that they have made firm ties with  The Tea Party.  The EDL have been opening divisions specifically to exploit religious tensions for there own gain.  There  has been report of a "Jewish Division", which I think is a very dangerous move, and wonder if the gentleman in question will be allowed to wear the customary Doc Marten's his chosen fascists deem uniform.  Truly scary.  The EDL are setting these up under the banner of assisting other in response to encroaching Sharia Law.  The EDL Facebook page states "After all, leftists have portrayed themselves for decades as the only ones really interested in promoting a progressive and inclusive agenda: homosexual rights, women's equality, minority rights, reproductive rights, immigration, world peace, among others."  Amazing they would even try this type of stunt, but propaganda is propaganda after all.  EDL have denied being a racist group and have stated that they will not tolerate violence.  Meanwhile, founder of the group, Stephen Lennon denied assaulting a police officer during clashes with Islamic protesters in west London. I hope he is found guilty in the forthcoming trial.

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It would seem that the focus of the press at the moment is all about the changes to Government spending and how it is changing the services that available to the British Punter.  Doom and gloom stories are about all of the time and it would be  a ostrich-like news fanatic of me not to point some of this stuff out. 

Education changes have been making the headlines, mainly due to ongoing "riots" during student protests over fees.  Not like Riots back in my day mind, they were proper riots with proper pipe bombs, coshs and  Riot Squad everywhere.  A Gentleman was charged this week with "violent disorder" for throwing a fire extinguisher through a window such was his rage.… Continues …

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• The Top Brass in English Defence, General Sir David Richards (Former NATO commander) has announced what we all had a fair idea about for quite a while.  Afghanistan can not be defeated, but merely controlled.  We didn't really need this gentleman to tell us this, since we have watched Afghanistan beat the tails off the Soviets, only that time they were funded by America.

• In keeping with The Governments new fondness for anything that starts with "Big Business", they have decided to bring in McDonalds and PepsiCo, Kellogg's, Unilever, Mars and Diageo to the "heart of writing government policy on obesity, alcohol and diet-related disease." I am pretty certain they are fattening us up for something.

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• Abu Hamza has been successful in his appeal against The British Government stripping him of his citizenship.  Hamza countered the attempt with the view that because he has already been stripped of his Egyptian passport, he would become stateless.  This is utter mockery of any justice system that feels is fair.  Hamza would have had a nice cosy prison cell provided by the USA if The European Court of Human Rights had not interfered.  Yemen had also invited Hamza over for a bit of hard labour, which was also denied.  So he will remain in England for the rest days, and guess who will pay for it? David Cameron said he was "disappointed" and for the first time ever, I can guess what he really wanted to say.

• Prince Andrew has recently told the Ministry of Defence that they are rubbish and should get off their fat backsides and order some Range Rovers. British made, of course.  This would be the second time recently that Government, Royals and Business have crossed swords, but the last interference was by Prince Charles so nobody was listening anyway.  Prince Andrew on the other hand appeared on my radar screen for the first time in months, and was looking rather well fed, the cheeky so and so. Prince Andrew is not available for comment, as he is currently searching for his missing chin.

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•  Paul "Dunston Monkey" Gascoigne has recently been in the news again, this time for his lawyer threatening to quit over his trail, due to not having enough time to prepare.  And prepare he must as it seems that all the evidence is pointing to the Former Number 8 International  wonder breaking the law for being 4 times the legal limit and driving without insurance.  Gazza is denying the charges but has a long line of recorded mental health problems that include bulimia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder, and alcoholism. A fallen idol if there ever was one.

• Robert Mancini cut a bit of a baffled figure after Man City were hammered by Lech Poznan, he must have managed to remember some of the "Top Ten Teeeps" from the Arsene Wenger book of how to look the other way and drone on about five fifths in the after match circus of press interviews because he managed to bluster "At the moment everything is against us. We played a good game and we had a lot of chances to win. This is football". This was the third defeat in a row for Man City, yet the still sit only 3 points behind 2nd placed Arsenal and 3rd placed Manchester United.  Thumbs will have to be pulled though, if Man City wish to justify a lot of money spent recently.

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1. Harriet Harman receives the MrShaw  award for quickest turnaround this week.  Earlier in the week Mrs Harman decided to open her mouth and accuse Danny Alexander of being a ginger rodent.  Great stuff, had me giggling for a wee while.  Harriet went onto to say ""There's something deeply unnatural that's happened in Scotland.".  I'm popping up to Hadrian's Wall this weekend to see if the Ghost of Robert Burns, William Wallace and Gregor Fisher (the man, not the ghost) are leading a group of disgruntled Scots to Parliament to the tune of "Scots Wha Hae".  In the interim, the Ginger rodent in person has stated via his Twitter account something he feels is funny and cute, but has come across as a bit of a twit.… Continues …

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Tony Blair would be a wise man to check around the house (all 7 of them) to see if any "valuables" were missing, including copies of his memoirs, several watches and possibly other gifts presented due to his exploits as Super Politician Man/Two Faced Greedy Little Robber Toad and quite possibly pictures of his own signature!

It would seem that Cherie Blair, not content with attempting to rustle up £250,000 on the back of a charity speaking tour of Australia, been accused of having showers with a former topless model at Number 10, creating shame for Tony and Al by showing sympathy for Palestinian Suicide Bombings, using an Con Man (not Tony for a change) to negotiate a discount on a purchase of two flats, enacting a Richard Madeley in style when she walked out of a Sydney Supermarket with £2000 worth of shopping, singing "When I'm 64" shortly after receiving the news Dr David Kelly had committed suicide, attempting to dodge tax on precious jewels and many many more chewed faced blunders has recently turned her Ebay account into a electronic version of Carbooty.… Continues …

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1. This story, published here by The Telegraph is about claims that Jane Austen, one of Englands most famous novelists was heavily edited and was by and large written by two people.  Good Stuff. The News article, not Jane Austen.  Give me Terry Pratchett any day of the week.

2. The details of Dr David Kelly's death have been made public, despite previous statements that this would not be released for 70 years, in an attempt not to distress the family with Headlines regarding the subject.  The findings seemed to have pleased no one and caused a lot of finger pointing and debate over whether the findings report might, just might, been tampered with long before it was started, or just a load of piffle that somebody made up in a in the pub, while eating pork scratching's and drinking a Bitter.

3.The Government, bless them have decided that if they build on a green belt, then there is nothing we can do about that.  Incredulous.

4. The Nuclear Submarine, which some silly so and so parked on some rocks off the Scottish coast is getting a tickety boo check, whilst the Commander in charge may getting his discharge( You may need to setup an account with The Financial Times to access this article)… Continues …

With a rather weary cast upon all that was political in the UK, it was sport that seemed to cheer me up the most. 

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Sir Alex and Wayne Rooney have had a bit of a spat, and Wayne is all ready to ship off to Spain, where he no doubt will get a "decent egg banjo" whenever he needs one.  I think Wayne's card is heavily marked at Manchester United now, and Ferguson will have him shipped off quicker than you can say "Juicy Jeni Thompson".

On a different note a FIFA official has stated that the latest scandal with regards to the possible bribery allegations will not harm Englands bid for the World Cup, which probably means he got his share then.  Little wonder that Lord Coe has put such a huge price on tickets to The Olympics, paying back "The Man".  Sepp Blatter went on to state the affair has had a "very negative impact" on world football's governing body, which was a surprise to me as I always thought that it was Sepp Blatter's head that imposed a very negative impact on the opinion of the average football fan.… Continues …