I hope you'll tune in to Andrew Marr tomorrow morning. I will be reviewing the papers with Alexei Sayle.
1. JailHouseLawyer has evidence that Prisoner Ben's blog is being censored by his prison governor.
2. EU Referendum on how the Independent has indulged in climate change deception today.
3. Anna Raccoon on the Prime Minister's health.
4. Tim Worstall on a poor effort by Polly Toynbee.
5. Party Political Animal wants some answers from Royal Mail.
6. Nothing British on Andy McNab and the BNP.
Oh Iain, get him chatting about his habit of reading old restaurant reviews in ancient copies of Time Out...
ReplyDeleteHe likes to see how things which started out with so much hope ended up in disaster..
Then, I dare you, ask whether he thinks this Government is heading for the 'bankruptcy courts'...
By Tim Worstall's reckoning cops as opposed to private security guards, nurses in the NHS as opposed to private hospitals, and comprehensive school teachers as opposed to private dance tutors are all a "cost" on the taxpayer and not therefore to be accounted for in the same way as private employees?
ReplyDeleteLudicrous.
[PS. I looked him up on Wikipedia, where it notes: "Since September 2007, Worstall has been the press officer for the UK Independence Party. He lives in Portugal with his wife."
You really could not make that up. Then again, perhaps someone did.]
Iain: Thanks for the link to Ben's blogging problem.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, if you get a chance to read the Sunday Times on Andrew Marr, there should be a piece about Ben's Prison Blog.
Brown wants GM Europe to build its electric car in the UK. A nice eye catching initiative.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/general-motors/6179635/Brown-in-key-talks-to-save-Vauxhall-jobs.html
Hmmm ...
Ellesmere Port is all set to build the Astra - strikes me it has no capacity to "build 220,000 plug-in hybrids in the UK every year to 2015" And from what I read it the LHD versions which are getting priority.
Swapping the Astra for the £25,000 Ampera sounds just like the sort of duff deal Brown has made his own
So your having breakfast with Marr. Was chat your chat up line?
ReplyDeleteI hope that you'll find room for this story from the Sunday Times: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6832361.ece
ReplyDeleteThe Old Stalinist of Downing Street's apology for the prosecution of Alan Turing (57 years ago) is all very well, but if this story is true, he and the Government have plumbed to an even deeper depth than I had ever thought possible.
I suppose that it's much easier to apologise for others' actions than one's own, but where's Gordon's moral compass when he's selling us out? And why aren't the Tories going out of their way to bring him and his shoddy government down?
Has Sayle ever been funny? He's like Lenny Henry - err..
ReplyDeleteWe created the Taliban!!! Bit of a leap of judgement there methinks.
ReplyDeleteThe lies in the independant and the BBC about global warming and the arctic are breathtaking, this should be given wider coverage.
ReplyDelete"a "cost" on the taxpayer and not therefore to be accounted for in the same way as private employees?"
ReplyDeleteNo Paul, public sector employees are a cost to the taxpayer in exactly the same way as private sector employees are a cost to private companies.
Thus we look at their employers' pension contributions in exactly the same way, as a cost.
"I looked him up on Wikipedia, where it notes: "Since September 2007, Worstall has been the press officer for the UK Independence Party. He lives in Portugal with his wife.""
Wikipedia is sadly out of date: and no, of course you're not supposed to edit your own entry.
During the time that I was indeed one of UKIP's press officers (I agreed to do it in the run up to the euro-elections) I lived in London, as Iain can tell you as he met me in the UKIP offices a number of times.
You also seem to miss the point that UKIP is not against "Europe", it is against the "European Union". Not against a continent but against a particular political structure.
Iain ,
ReplyDeleteHow could you have sat next to that appalling Sayle character with out cringing, he is the very worst ignoramus ever.
The man is a typical example of hideous far leftist stupidity and misinformation , and if it hadn't been for you and Bremner and others on the prog I would have flicked the off switch!
You looked a tad slimmer on the show than in recent weeks, when are we getting the update on the diet progress? It could have been good lighting though, plus sitting next to Sayle probably helped. Hell, I'd look in good shape sat next to him!
ReplyDeleteTim,
ReplyDeleteFirst - So you think no Public worker contributes to GDP?
Second - How big would the UK GDP be without Any Public worker particpation?
Third - Do you think countries where everyone is a public employee (eg. the old GDR) had no GDP?
Thank you for actually dressing smartly. Sayle looked as if he had just been dressed in ill fitting clothes found in some bin!
ReplyDeleteYou also looked very slim next to him!
I was also very suspicious of Marr's extremely nice introduction of your goodself. He is obviously after a job writing for Politics Now!!
Well done.