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.