26 May 2009

Review of the season for each club- in one line

(In the editor that is)

In order of finish from top to bottom:

Manchester United

It's a kind of magic, magic, magic... Quite simply the second best team in England.

Liverpool

Two losses all season is league-winning form. Sadly, they drew 11 times too.

Chelsea

How many Chelsea managers does it take to change a lightbulb? Unknown, but it's at least four.

Arsenal

Only sharpshooters are supposed to hit the same spot four times in a row. Watch out Wenger...

Everton

Blue is the colour and Europe will be our game... A good season for the Toffees.

Aston Villa

Not a bad result all that. Sending down Newcastle also made many happy.

Fulham

Quite simply, Fulham's Crowning Moment of Awesome for this decade. Most improved club.

Tottenham

You only got here because of a Hammer! Now, watch out for us- we'll beat you next season.

West Ham

We were forever blowing bubbles. However, our poor early form burst them. Need strikers.

Man City

You can't buy the trophy. You need something else. It's not Gene Hunt, though.

Wigan

Many thought you would go down, but you got a decent finish. Cracking season, Gromit!

Stoke

Not really much to say about Stoke, except you clearly need a better defence.

Bolton

Not much to say about Bolton either.

Portsmouth

Without a Hammer, you're not much good either.

Blackburn

Clearly, you're not going to win the league again any time soon.

Sunderland

You only really stayed up because of worse sides below you. Must perk your ideas.

Hull

Unless you improve, you might not be staying up after next season.

Newcastle

Your players are so bad, it's unbelievable! The final own goal summed it all up.

Middlesbrough

Well, that wasn't particularly surprising was it? Might go straight back up.

West Bromwich Albion

You're a bit of a yo-yo side aren't you? Good thing you didn't spend too much.

23 May 2009

Predictions for tomorrow

It's the last day of the season, and a big day for four clubs in the north...

My predictions are:

Arsenal v Stoke: Arsenal victory. Not that it really matters.

Aston Villa v Newcastle: Villa victory. Newcastle have had an awful season and their last victory was against Boro, so go figure.

Blackburn v. West Brom: Blackburn victory, to finish off an awful season for the Baggies.

Fulham v. Everton: Draw.

Hull v. Man United: Even with a weakened team, Man U will win this.

Liverpool v. Tottenham: It'll be a small consolation to know that Spurs aren't in Europe either. Liverpool victory.

Man City v. Bolton: Draw.

Sunderland v. Chelsea: Chelsea victory, but only narrowly. Sunderland will stay up.

West Ham v. Middlesbrough: Victory for the Hammers to finish off a fairly good season and send Boro down.

Wigan v. Portsmouth: Draw.

21 May 2009

The BNP did not do the research on other aspects too.

Jams has the details.

I had a BNP leaflet through my door today and that picture was on it.

That's not the only error either. The BNP apparently does not know the difference between an immigrant and an asylum seeker.

An immigrant is someone coming here because they think their life will be better.

An asylum seeker is someone coming here because they know that if they stay, their life will either get worse or end. They want to be protected.

Now, I'm barring comments from this one, because I don't want gratuitous insults and flaming from BNP people.

17 May 2009

Stephen Fry and Twitter

I have just added my first Twitter feed to my Google Reader account.

Well, if it was going to be anyone, it had to be him.

16 May 2009

Congratulations to Manchester United

With a 0-0 draw against Arsenal, Manchester United have gone seven points clear at the top of the table with only two games left for Liverpool. Therefore, they are Premier League Champions for the 18th time.

With three trophies so far this season and a fourth possible in the Champions League, United are one of the greatest sides of all time.

I extend my most sincere congratulations to Sir Alex and his team. There's a reason you get these trophies.

Well done!

Well, this is beyond parody

This article alleges Obama is trying to destroy the US.

Two words: confirmation bias.

BTW, if someone on the left posted that about McCain, Bush or Reagan, I would make the same response.

09 May 2009

Farage and UKIP

I caught a bit of the UKIP Party Political Broadcast a couple of nights back.

The UKIP leader was speaking in a manner that I found rather uncomfortable, stating that Britain should leave the EU because our money was going to the states of the former Soviet bloc, who were only joining for subsidies and new infrastructure.

Mr. Farage, are you at all aware of the history of Communism? Or that these states are pretty poor, had their economies ruined by Soviet rule and are suffering because of the credit crunch? Or the principle of helping your neighbour out?

People need to examine UKIP throughly before voting for them.

Victory Day

Today is the 64th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe.

May I extend my deepest gratitude to all those who served to defend freedom during that war. You will never be forgotten.

On MPs Expenses

Two posts today- I anticipate at any rate.

It's important to get some perspective on this whole scandal over expense claims of MPs. Certain words are being bandied about, like "fraud", that aren't fully justified.

Firstly, Members of Parliament don't get paid that much. The basic salary of your backbencher is about £65,000. Members of the US House of Representatives earn over £100,000 a year. I don't know what Paul Dacre earns, but I guess it's at least £500,000.

Secondly, it costs considerably more than that to function as a member of Parliament. Some of the key expenditures:
  • The rent/mortgage on two residences.
  • Travel costs on a weekly basis to places as far away as Scotland.
  • The salaries of at least two staff members and probably more, as well as expenses for interns.
  • Office hire in your constituency.
  • Food costs.
  • Feeding yourself and your family.
  • Stationery and other office supplies (20,000 leaflets costs a fair chunk of cash)
Thirdly, there has probably been some fraud going on and it should be dealt with. However, most of this stuff isn't fraud, because that would require deception as to the purposes the money was used for. There is no evidence of that in most cases.

Fourthly, MPs do work very hard. Just because Parliament is taking a 12-week recess, it doesn't mean that MPs won't still be working. Even when in session, you can't spend all your time in the Commons Chamber.

Fifthly, there's been far worse cases of corruption, that's for sure. Try Italy.

The system needs complete reform, that's for sure. I propose an increase in basic salaries and an allowance specifically for all office-related stuff. No-one should claim non-essential social stuff on expenses.

Now, let's get this sorted out. We have more important things to deal with.

04 May 2009

30 Years After Thatcher's Election

It's been thirty years since Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister. It will take another thirty, at least, to fix the damage she did to this country.

Mrs. Thatcher's economic policies condemned an entire generation of working class to long-term unemployment. The manufacturing capability of Britain was massively eroded. The credit crunch was caused by the culture of greed she helped create.

Before anyone says the Falklands War, her Government was planning to make cuts to the Navy beforehand. Those cuts were a reason for the Argentine invasion.

For those of you who are unhappy with Labour at present, remember Thatcher. Remember what a lurch to the left does. You can't play politics with people's livelihoods and jobs at stakes. Do what is best for this country and the wider world.

03 May 2009

Swine Flu

It appears, so far, that this swine flu thing is just going to turn out to be a minor strain of the regular sort of flu. Some people are going to have time off work. Some are going to pull sickies. Pigs are going to die in Egypt.

This is not going to be Spanish, or even Hong Kong Flu.

The papers have been doing their usual panic thing (thankfully, no-one's attempted to tie this to immigrants, although house prices have probably been mentioned somewhere) over a virus that has a mortality rate of about 2% or less and has had virtually all of its deaths confined to Mexico.

Which leads me to think that there's something odd going on in Mexico, which needs investigating. Diet, perhaps? It would be interesting to see a case location map, because if they're all grouped in one area that happens to be near a chemical plant, it would be suspicious to say the least. Remember the Bhopal disaster in India in 1984.