Liverpool - January will make or break our season.

Going up to Anfield again in 10 days time to see us play Wigan, the third time this season I'll have watched a league game at home (Villa and Birmingham being the other two).

You can tell we're doing badly as the tickets are generally all going to public sale. Whats more this will be the second game in a row I'm sitting in the Kop. Fans are obviously unhappy and you cannot blame them. Mind you at the minute they cannot decide who they are more unhappy with, the owners, the players or the manager.

Rafa has his faults don't get me wrong (the poor man-management of Alonso and Hyypia leading to them both leaving for example) but everyone knows he the is hamstrung by the clubs lack of money compared not just to the other 'top 4' clubs, but also spurs, villa and of course man city.

As I write this I am very pessimistic. We will be shopping in the New Year bargain basements this year looking for free transfers or gambling on players whilst each of the clubs above now have the resources to buy anyone they want. And quite frankly who would want to play for us, with the clubs financial position so uncertain.

January will make or break our season. We need to get and keep our players fit, recruit both wisely and cheaply and have a good europa cup run. However thursday night kickoffs will stretch our squad even more and we could be out the FA Cup before we play in Europe again if we are not too careful. A lot rests on Torres's groin and Acquillani's ankle.

I cannot help but think that Rafa will leave at the end of the season for Real Madrid, whether we finish in fourth spot or not. That is my nightmare and its coming ever more real every day.

Here we go again

Going to try and start blogging again...here goes.

Hopefully will be able to post two or three things a week...thats the aim anyway.

A lot has changed since I last posted. Stay tuned to hear all about it.

Only Smarties have the answer

I saw this and thought immediately of that famous advert.

There is a serious point to be made here however and much has been made in recent days over the apparent lack of Conservative policy esp in foreign affairs and economic matters.

The fact is that whilst there is no excuse for a lack of foreign policy, the public are looking to the Government for economic solutions at the moment. It is also worth pointing out that the Conservatives have had many of their suggestions taken up by the Government.

Public attention will only turn on the Conservatives at the Party Conference in October. That is when there is the most targeted media attention on parties, even when there are local and European elections in the same year. I suspect there wont be a no notes speech this year - far from it!

I am drafting something as we speak on this and hope to post it this evening.

Secretary of State avoids banana skin

What a pity David Milliband cannot sign this

IVR - another good week at work.

No its not a way to make babies for infertile couples or an STD.

Its Individual Voter registration and is something the Government had until this week agreed with in principle yet not introduced. That has changed as you can see here and here.

Its a major plank of my campaign at work so this week was a good one. Now we just have to convince the Government about ID at the ballot box and donation caps.

Could the real Liverpool fans please stand up - damning the Boo Boys

Anfield is not a happy place at the minute. This is not a review of the 2 succesive games I watched - that will come later after the Man U game, which I suspect will be a draw or narrow defeat, where I will review where our title challenge has gone wrong.

This is a post explaining why my two (probably only) visits to Anfield this season, left me feeling sad and critical of the so called home support. This post here will give you some context and will this (I was so annoyed that I rang Five Live Radio).

Against Man City when Lucas' name was read out over the pa, instead of cheering 40,000 fans went ooh and erm. I know he has not been consistent this season but I just thought of the poor young lad sitting in the dressing room ahead if a game we had to win to remain five points behind. As it turned out he played ok but got often got muscled out of it esp in the aeriel challenges.

So we move onto the home game. We were two nil up with ten minutes to go so Benitez takes off I think Ngog to give him a standing ovation from the crowd after his scoring home debut and brings on lucas for a confidence boasting 10 mins. And the crowd boos. The lad has not kicked a ball and we are booing him. That is not on. Fans do get frustrated and are entitled to boo if the performance at the end of the game is not deemed good enough or someone is not giving 100% - but not during a game, esp when he has not kicked a ball. Contrast how we treated one of our own with the reception we gave Cisse when he came on as a sub. Polite applause from all the ground, inc some standing up.

Ok he is no Alonso or Gerrard but he is playing and learning with three of the best midfielders in the league / world. Add to that he is young, captain of teh Brazilian under 21's and you can see why the Manager has faith in him. I hope he shoves the boo's down peoples throughts and plays a vital role in our remaining games.

Overall it runied a good night, a good win and another trip to what I regard as the home of football. In Rafa we trust

Stay tuned

Been a bit light on the bloggnig recently but expect posts soon on (in no particular order)

Liverpool's title chances and the 'home' support of some fans which made me feel embarrassed to be in the ground (on what will probably be my only two games at Anfield this season).

Why I love Michael Wills MP

RIP Ivan Cameron - will there be a silver lining to this tragedy? (I have deliberately waited before writing this)

MP's expenses - a 21st century


They are all in my draft folder and just need checking and formatting. Stay tuned

Who's been sleeping in my bed?

So now we know - Tony Blair is Goldilocks and Gordon Brown is Big Bear

Cannot wait until tomorrow

Tomorrow I am going up to Anfield to for the first time this season to watch the game V Man City. I cannot wait.

Having heard Man U scrape past Blackburn on Five Live I will tomorrow be cheering my team on to, hopefully, a good result against a homesick Man City side. I am a little worried about Bellamy, as he'll be well up for the game, but I am pretty sure a quick kick up the backside from Cara will shut him up.

We will miss Gerrard and Alonso however I suspect Lucas and Masch will play with Benny Onion Kuyt and Riera behind Torres (heaven help us if anything happens to him). I also have a sneaking suspicion that Insua will play as he is not in our European squad so Aurelio will come in then.

Man City have also just played on Thursday away in Europe and I think Shaun Wright-Philips is suspended so I think we win. My prediction is a nervy two nil win.

Are Labour clutching at straws in the wind and why the Conservatives should take note.

Maybe my thoughts are not as random as irrelevant as I thought? This story seems to confirm my earlier post below about the name recognition of the so called 'major runners and riders'.

This article in the Independent is also worth reading. I have long held the view that Jack Straw would be a competent Prime Minister, purely because he is the most senior member of the Government / Labour Party left. I once expressed this view in an interview I had with a well known polling company and was amused when the eye balls nearly fell out of the Directors head, as his eyebrows shot to the skies.

However, he would be no more than a stop gap, like Michael Howard was for the Conservatives in 2003, as I suspect he knows only too well. Would he make that much of a difference? Probably not to be honest - Labour have made their bed and now they all need to lie in it as peacefully as possible until atfer the election.

David Cameron and the Conservatives should not be laughing too much however. There are real lessons to be learned for David Cameron. If Tony Blair ran a proper system of Cabinet Government with discussion as opposed to dictates, viable alternatives to Gordon Brown would have emerged as Prime Minister when he stood down. Thatcher and Major did it, in contrasting ways granted, but they allowed differing figures such as Howard, Portillio, Clarke, Heseltine, and Hague to emerge.

David Cameron must consider this as he prepares to take over as PM: if he fell under a bus who would take over from him? Hague, Davis, Osbourne, Gove? Is that who he wants? If not he needs to cultivate them in cabinet in order to protect his parties position and keep Labour in opposistion for over a decade.

Labour Leadership Shenanigans

All anyone seems to be talking about at the minute in the Westminster village is the future Labour Party leadership election. These three stories are examples of what I mean here, here and here.

I find this amusing on many levels as

1. I remember all to well the mid 1990's under John Major


2. No one outside SW1 has heard of any of the so called contenders, despite them all being Cabinet members. I bet if YouGov or someone did a poll name recognition would struggle to get in double digits.

Following the Political Parties and Elections Bill as I do, and remembering Peter Hain's misdemeanors I also cannot help but mischievously thinking...when do candidates election expenses start?

Where has my money gone - can you help?

In March 2007 my mother sadly passed away and passed on her estate jointly to my brother and myself.

In October last year, my wife and I opened up a new joint savings account (thankfully at a fixed rate) to take advantage of the increase in the FSA protection scheme whereby couples get twice the amount of their savings covered compared to singletons. This was at the time of the banking crisis so you can understand our keenness to ensure our nest egg was safe.

Move on five months and following yet more stories of falling share prices etc, on Monday I moved a not inconsiderable sum from this account to my current account to ensure that all our savings were covered by the scheme.

This was done online and takes 3 working days. Rather worryingly however, when ringing to check if the transaction had gone through, I was told by a member of the call centre team of my bank that the money is not covered whilst it is in transit between the two banks.

I am going to check this but can any bankers reading this tell me if this is correct? What happens if during one of those days a bank goes bust? Where does my money go for that 3 days?

Also why in this day and age does it still take 3 days to transfer money between banks. I understand it will be because of compliance and money laundering issues but I thought I rememberedd reading somewhere that measures were being brought in to speed things up.

Answers on a postcard.

Sir Allen Stanford

This story is incredible however with everything that has accompanied the Stanford circus I cannot say I am surprised by anything now.

I know I was not alone in feeling queasy when a yank landed his helicopter at Lords with a case full of cash! Didnt the ECB check this guy out? This whole episode has tarnished the reputation and credibility of the ECB. Money talked and seemingly fed the ECB a right line.

The only way the ECB can get my trust back is if they change county cricket so we play less cricket eg scrap the 40 over tournament, allow more practice time for pro's and get cricket back on terrestial TV. Fat Chance.

A wonderful new discovery

Strawberry jam and beef sandwiches...where have they been all my life?

Despite my resolution to blog more often I fear I am not going to be able to blog on every Liverpool game as they just come too think and fast for my limited typing skills.

My last post about Wigan seems ages ago. Since then we have beaten Portsmouth (just) but been knocked out the cup by Everton. Not too bothered about that though as its allowed us a breather but Gerrard's injury is a blow.

I am going to the game at home this Sunday against City and hoping to get tickets against Sunderland as well in a couple of weeks. My take is we need be be unbeaten for the rest of the season and drop no more than two points. At the end of the day though (as much as I hate to say it) you have to take your hat off to Man winning all those games in a row not conceding a goal.

As for the criticism of the manager I just say in Rafa we trust. We have more points than we did this time last year and despite criticism and our main striker being injured all season, we have scored more goals than Man U.

Much will depend now on Rafa's substitutions. Players like Babel, Benny Onion and Ngog will be crucial as super subs/impact players.

Bring it on.

Elections

voting fraud testing testing

This post is just to test the google alerts I have set up for work.

MP's - why do I bother defending them?

All my life I have been asked two questions by people when they find out I am interested in politics, and I suspect I am not the only one.

1. Do you want to become Prime Minister?
2. Why when all politicians are a bunch of no good s**ts?

The answer to the first is no (and I dont want to become an MP). The answer to the second is that there are a few bad apples but most politicians are decent people.

This story makes it all the harder to defend MP's. They just dont get it! Yes most MP's find it hard after leaving Parliament to get a new job so deserve a parachute payment. The thing that grates is they get to decide their own pay. And then they go against a recommendation of an independent board.

As our poster says (see last post on this subject) there are some things money cant buy...for everything else there are MP's expenses.

This area represents a real opportunity for David Cameron, if he has the courage to tackle the old guard on both sides head on in the Commons. With the economic situation meaning 'good news stories' will be hard to come by in the first few weeks of a new Conservative Government, measures to tackle the expenses issue will go down well with the public. I A manifesto committment could also win a few votes in key seats as well.

Wigan 1 - Liverpool 1

Wigan v Liverpool
Venue: JJB Stadium Date: Wednesday, 28 January Kick-off: 1945 GMT

So yet another draw - and you get help get the feeling that out title chances are slipping away.
Seven of our last 10 league games have been drawn.

That is not good enough! Whilst we are only two points behind having played a game more, you have to feel Man U will win that to make it 5 (in effect 6 with goal difference).

Its almost as if all our luck at the start of the season is catching up with us. Also whilst what he said was true, since Rafa made his comments about Sir Alex and Manchester United we have not won a match.

We are just not seeing off teams e.g. getting the second goal. If you analyse the games we get a goal and then concede in the last ten minutes after a series of substitutions. This game was no different though I suspect Rafa took Torres off because he was not fully fit and tired. Why he too Gerrard off though no one knows!

The next month will tell us a lot about the team and the manager. I cannot see where Keane fits into the starting xi leaving us reliant as ever on Gerrard and Torres who doesn't seem fit.

Next game at home to Chelsea - who have overtaken us in second.

MP's expenses

Well we won - see here for an article that I wrote for Our Kingdom. This was the right thing to do and only increases my admiration for Cameron.

The full page advert we and Enoughs Enough put in the newspapers was incredibly effective. If you have not seen it see it here .

Overall a good week at work!

Apologies to my avid readers

Ok - so my New Year Resolution is if i'm going to do this blog i had better do it properly.

Apologies for long gap btw posts. Christmas/New Year/No internet access/Chicken Pox amd them forgetting my passwords have meant that I have not posted for a while.

So much has changed since I have last written - reading my last post about the cricket makes me cringe. And dont get me started on England...

Well ok I will get started on cricket, football and my beloved liverpool and not to mention politics eg MP expenses, police entering parliament again and the latest accusations of sleeze, but this time in the Lords and with Labour peers!

So Happy New Year and carry on reading