Abolish International Sport

Now that we are in the middle of the 2010 football World Cup it seems like a good time to revisit an article I wrote last year about the nonsense of having 'international' sports teams. Already we've seen evidence of politicking - Didier Drogba being allowed to play against the rules with his arm in plaster, presumably to keep fans and sponsors happy. Platini and Blatter patronising Africans with talk about 'sounds of Africa' and entire nations - even continents - pretending that these pampered pooches, cheats and cynics somehow represent them. Read on...

Final Election Debate - Cameron blows it

The media analysis seems to be that Cameron had a good innings in last night's final debate. But on my blog I have no problem going against the media grain :)

Cameron has lost most in these debates. Although he did press home some good points last night his real enemy - Clegg - came through pretty much unscathed. And it's Clegg that the Tories need to fear most, for he could destroy them.

Labour deserve to lose. But do the Tories deserve to win?

When your house is on fire you don’t call the arsonist to come and put it out. So there’s no reason to vote for Gordon Brown, who has done so much to shape Labour party policy since 1997.

News Flash: Nick Clegg is actually a politician

He's not a charity worker or a celebrity campaigner like Joanna Lumley. He's a plain old politician, ie he will say and do just about anything to get you to vote for him.

Election debate and lies about Trident

Something caught my attention during the debate last Thursday. It was a big fat lie, uttered by both Cameron and Brown. Nothing new there you might say - what else are politicians supposed to do? But this concerns nuclear weapons, so as lies go it's pretty severe in its implications

2010 Election debate 1 - Review

Just watched the first ever live TV debate between the main party leaders for a British general election. Here is the review.
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Extraordinary opening statement from Cameron, praising Labour for things they had done – without specifying them! He also decided to play the ‘honesty’ card by apologising unilaterally for the expenses scandal, thereby drawing attention to it and automatically associating the scandal with the Tories. I think his strategy backfired. It felt forced.

General Election and personal finance - which party is best?

With the British general election looming I have been researching the 3 main parties' policies on personal finance. During the course of this research I have had a reply from one Victoria Crawford, who works at the office of Mark Hoban, Conservative spokesman for financial services. I also contacted the office of Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrats shadow chancellor, but despite repeated promises received no reply. So for the Lib Dems I have had to rely on the research I have done myself.

I have deliberately avoided comment on areas of macro-economic policy, ie tax and spending policy. To do so would have made the article unwieldy and lacking in focus. There is already an enormous amount of material out there on the taxation policies of the 3 main parties.So I have ommitted income tax, VAT, National Insurance, capital gains tax, inheritance tax etc. I've also left out pensions.

There is not so much commentary on areas of personal finance - such as consumer rights with regards to utilities, credit cards. What policies there are tend to be swallowed up in broader announcements.

On each area of personal finance I have given the parties a score out of 10. Just to make it more fun :)