Here we are again in the silly season - the party political conferences. Trying to commit suicide, the Lib Dems didn't need a change in the law for assistance to that end, the media was out there, hanging on their every word and raised eyebrow, ready to plunge the knife in. Like it was open season, the big banks fired off a few shots too. Make no mistake about it, the banking industry does not work for the people, small businesses, or even the government, only for itself and the huge pay cheques, bonuses, and other benefits its upper echelons enjoy. Try to split it up and it'll simply uproot, bankrupting the country as it moves abroad.
With loans to small business and mortgages for home buyers become ever-scarcer, and possibly soon to be found only in a drawer marked "Nostalgia", the Lib Dem Treasury spokesman, Lord Oakeshott, as if in some "Eureka!" moment, was reported as saying, "Britain's big banks are too big too fail and too big to care what Britain's government or people think. Investment bankers should not control our bank lending. It is the lifeblood of small business and homebuyers and it's slowed down to a trickle."
Hmm... I have to ask: where has this bloke been for the past two years? I mean, it's not exactly news, is it? News would be: what plans he has to do about it!
The Labour Party Conference looks to be another suicide pact. I cannot see all those names associated with so much that went wrong with the last administration being its salvation. The Miliband brothers, and Ed Balls - who is after the job of shadow chancellor, do nothing to instil confidence, do they? Masters in spin they may be, and able to grab (manipulate) the headlines, but I think the country expected more than that from Labour this time, and I wonder how the party faithful could have missed seeing this. Still, there is plenty of time for a knight on a white charger to emerge, and a change before the next General Election, I suppose.
Of course, the Conservative Party Conference, held in Birmingham this year, will be the usual well orchestrated event. Not so much a conference as a jolly for the faithful, it has become like the Last Night of the Proms - enjoyable (if you are a follower), but so predictable. No one passes wind here without first obtaining a ticket!
What's that? You want a ticket? Are you mad? You've more chance of finding rocking horse doo-doo!
Finally, the headline telling me the Queen was refused a heating grant had me worried at first. I know times are hard, but I couldn't believe Her Majesty was looking for the pensioners'