Poleminous is BACK!!

Poleminous is back, after quite a long time away,
Many stories to be retold, over time he will say,
London 2012 was the most recent adventure,
Blissful time, with sport not the euro at the centre.

Team GB gave a magnificent and inspiring display,
The prima diving of Euro2012 blown clean away,
Preceded by Sir Wiggo's historic Victoire in Le Tour,
The courage and purity of sport always to the fore.

Alas now the Premier League is again upon us,
An overpaid and underwhelming moneyed rush,
English soccer long since corrupted by cash,
Many billions spent, home grown talent, not a flash.

Poleminous hopes images of the Opening Ceremony,
Preserves the purity of sport a bit longer in the memory,
Fair play and honour were the champions in array,
Such a change from the usual empty cheaters display.

For 17 happy days celebrity and sham were demoted,
Honesty, integrity, and dedication were plainly floated,
Whether any lessons will last beyond the summer bliss,
That will be the real Gold Medal if we achieve it or miss.

[Click on any image to see gallery of larger versions]

You Read It Here First

It appears that someone at the International Herald Tribune has been reading my recent Blog on the Toyota Chancellor!  This article appeared on the front page of the IHT today:  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/03/business/global/03pound.html?hp .  It seems that Britain is often referred to these days in the same sentence with Iceland and Greece, oh how the mighty have fallen.  As mentioned in my earlier Blog, it wasn't just Binge Drinking that blossomed under New Labour, but also Binge Lending - Thanks a Bunch Brown.

My picture today depicts a very tall tower disappearing high into the sky; on the one hand, this is analogous to Britain's combined public and private sector debt - already in the stratosphere and heading for orbit.  Looked at another way, the building in the picture represents an instrument we might consider using to convey to Bungling Brown our collective displeasure at his stewardship of the economy (the top of the tower is rather sharp).

Actually, there are two towers in this building, one each for Bliar and Brown, perhaps they would like to go into orbit together.

The Toyota Chancellor Now The Humvee PM

The papers are full of claims that Gordon Brown is a bully and that this may make him unsuitable for re-election as Labour Prime Minister later this year.  At the same time, recent opinion polls apparently show the Tory lead diminishing, with growing predictions that there may be a hung parliament, with Labour possibly winning the most seats and therefore able to form the next Government.  Will we ever learn?

It is not Brown’s bullying tendencies, which should be worrying voters, but his mendacity, economic incompetence, and absolute lack of integrity. This hapless individual, as Chancellor, presided over (and encouraged) a ten-year debt/credit boom fuelled by unsustainable asset (mainly housing) inflation – which led inevitably to the financial calamity in 2008.  Even worse, it was Brown who was one of the main architects of the de-regulation of financial markets during the same period that fostered credit default swaps and other byzantine derivatives which all but blew up the world’s financial system and may yet bring it down.

Incredibly, the press, and the Opposition, have singularly failed to nail Brown on his critical policy failures that have led to the financial and economic crisis that has left the UK economy in tatters.  Aside from the illegal and disastrous invasion of Iraq, which we can lay at Bliar’s door (No 10), at Brown’s door (No 11) can be laid the blame for our economic nightmare, from which it will be a decade at least before we awake.  But don’t take my word for it.

According to The Times in March 2009, “Britain's chief financial regulator blamed Gordon Brown….for contributing to the economic crisis, coming close to accusing him of stoking the credit-fuelled housing boom and bust….Hector Sants, chief executive of the Financial Services Authority (FSA), said that the pro-debt view of government ministers was one of the structural failures that led to the crisis. He said that one problem was ‘a prevailing mindset of Government and society promoting the benefits of credit and asset inflation, notably in housing’.”

In June 1999, Brown The Mendacious stated, “The way forward is for governments to consciously pursue monetary and fiscal stability…… Particularly important for a Britain which has been more subject than most economies to the instability of boom-bust cycles and constantly changing policies.”  He went on, “So we put in place a wholly new long term framework of monetary and fiscal policy based on.……sustainable public finances through tough fiscal rules: the golden rule that requires that over the cycle we balance the current budget, and the sustainable investment rule requires that, as we borrow for investment, debt is held to a prudent and stable level.”

In June 2006, Brown The Unbelievable stated, “…..despite all the challenges we face and how much more we know we have to do and continue to do to maintain our competitiveness, more than ever……Britain is well placed to be one of the great global success stories of this century."

And now…where is this global success, where is this prudence and stability, it is in the crapper.  According to the UK Government’s National Statistics Office on 18th February 2010, “Public sector net debt (excluding financial interventions) was £743.1 billion (equivalent to 52.7 per cent of GDP) at the end of December 2009. This compares to £596.9 billion (42.1 per cent of GDP) as at the end of December 2008.”  The picture for private, household debt is even more alarming – according to Bank of England data:

According to the CIA World Factbook:

Of course, Bogus Brown is always very careful never to combine public and private sector debt figures when he is spinning his rosy stories about the UK’s financial position.  As The Spectator pointed out in September 2008, “…..UK household debt is not only the highest in the G7 but the highest any G7 country has ever known. We simply must put the whole debt picture together. Only then will we realise just the full nature of the mess Brown has got us into.”

Also in September 2008, The Times said, “….an expansion based on excessive household credit has gone predictably awry. At the same time as the public finances have been deteriorating, household debt has been rising. The value of Britain's personal debt - £1.35 trillion - is now greater than the value of its gross domestic product. The main reason, of course, is that a house in Britain is not a home: it is an investment. The ratio of household debt to post-tax income is now three times greater than 25 years ago.”

Britain is Bust and Bliar and Brown and New Labour Busted It.  Can Cameron and the New Conservatives do any better?  I do not know the answer to that, but surely returning Brown The Bombast to No 10 is throwing good money after bad, and we have very little money left to throw.  It is now up to the electorate to decide.  I have one other candidate you may want to consider, my Beautiful Boy, Toffee.  I assure you that he is not mendacious in any way, he does not cry on TV, and he never bullies anyone.

 

 

Poems and Pictures from St Paul de Vence

A miscellany of pictures and poems from a beautiful day in St Paul de Vence.  Enjoy them.

EMBRACE THE MOMENT

Embrace the moment,
Life so fleeting then gone,
Reach out, be all you can,
Strive for those moments,
Life captured in an instant,
The red flag on the Reichstag,
That first step on the moon,
The first kiss of new love.
Look for them, find them,
Moments when life is made,
Lived and that last forever.

 

 

RUN FREE

Running free, the wind in my face,
I transport myself to another place,
Where mind floats over body, and
Body floats over me.

The ground melts away,
And my mind unwinds itself,
I hear my breath, and feel my heart,
Pumping me clean of daily cares.

I begin to think in the open,
Without hindrance, without weight,
I am rising up on heeled wings,
I can see horizons now, where I must go.

I gather pace, and lengthen my stride,
Liberated, I can do anything now,
Body and mind melding as one,
Perfect union, the runner’s Holy Grail.

Mile after mile, I feel no pain,
The running, a drug that numbs all,
Euphoria takes me over, surrounds me,
I am invincible, I am running free.

I return to Earth, spent but satisfied,
I slip back into reality, a temporary lapse,
Soon I shall return to that other place,
Where I reign, and all is possible.