Ed Balls Returns

Billothewisp is feeling slightly ill.

 It has nothing to do with the 5 pints of Old Rosie (The cider of Champions) he recently embibed.

But is has everything to do with the Machiavellian return of the odious Ed Balls.

After knifing his brother in the back Ed Milliband at least tried to do the decent thing and clear out the rotten core of Browns economic disaster. But now  the economically illiterate shadow chancellor Alan Johnson has chucked his hand in and our Ed is under pressure. Foolishly he has decided to re-rehabilitate  Ed Balls. The wreckers apprentice has returned.

The ugly ambition of Ed balls is already shining through, his little piggy eyes glint and shine. But then he is after all, the next leader in waiting.

If I were Ed Milliband I would watch my back. Sooner or later, it could end up just like his brothers.

Something Fishy with Foreign Aid

Billothewisp is perplexed. George Osborne has brought a heavy axe down on the grotesque cancer of public spending excess. But there is one exception. Foreign aid is to grow by 37%. Notice dear readers not so much a squeak about this out of Labour, SNP, Plaid, or any of the others. The silence is deafening.

Furthermore, reporting of the many billions increase in foreign aid has been almost non existent (with the odd notable exception see here.) Do not expect any expose from the BBC any time soon.

There is something not quite right here.

This simply does not fit.

Realistically, any government of any colour would rationally cut the foreign aid cloth to fit the economics of the day. But that is not what's happening.

A 37% increase, especially by a government in a challenging economic situation is simply bizarre.

Especially when it is an open secret that 80% of African foreign aid ends up in the Swiss bank accounts of the gangster rulers. While India and Pakistan use it to pay indirectly for their nuclear weapons programmes.

There has to be a reason, probably a dark reason why this is happening.

Is it some form of Dangeld? (see here) Or what?

I cannot figure it out. But to suggest it is the magnanimous gesture from our Great and Good for no reason other than righteousness is trite.

There is something seriously wrong about this.

We are not being told the truth.

The Budget: Vicious but Fair

Osbourne should be applauded for his emergency budget. If nothing had been done we would have gone down the Greek road to ruin.

But Why Oh Why is foreign aid ring fenced? Eight billion a year goes out the door on foreign aid. Much of this goes into the pockets of ruling elites that don't give a damn about their poor.

If pensioners and others in this country are expected to go without, I am sure the foreign aid budget could at least be trimmed.

Most other countries in Europe put their own people first. Why don't we?

Cameron warns of financial calamity

Although Billothewisp predicted the current dire financial straights the country finds itself in, he hates to to say "In told you so". Especially over such a financial calamity. (See Billothewisp's Crystal Ball July)

But it looks like we really are in the doo-dah up to our necks thanks to Gordon "The Abyss" Brown and his cohort Darling buds of May. But even now Darling makes fatuous statements about how everything was just wine and roses. See Times Here (see Times here)

In truth, Billowthewisp would have gladly, gleefully, gratefully got this wrong as he did with many other of his predictions.

But he didn't.

Our sad ruined little England may well recover.

But, this is going to be a painful 5 years. Maybe more.

It is up to our new "Dear Leader" David Cameron and collegues to pick up the pieces.

At least in Gordon Brown he has a good example:

On NOT how to run the economy.

Liam Bryne tries Leesons Cure

When Nick Leeson ruined Barings bank he at least had the decency to place a A4 sheet of paper on his keyboard giving his apologies. That was just before he did a runner.

On that sheet of paper were two words.

“I'm Sorry”

In total he lost about $850 million.

Nick Leeson went to jail and Barings went bust.

It looks like history may be repeating itself, although on a far grander scale. Nick Leeson's losses were, all-in-all, a mere smidgen of the amount of wealth vaporised by Gordon Brown and associates.

Liam Byrne of the outgoing Labour administration also left a note, just before making an exit. It was addressed to his successor at the Treasury.

The note read:

"I'm afraid to tell you there's no money left."

I suppose at least that shows a level of honesty. (See Timesonline article here)

A level of honesty similar to Nick Leeson's anyway. But I don't expect anyone will be going to prison.

As for the main architects of this calamity, namely Messrs Brown and Darling, barely a squeak. The only statement being a piece of flannel coming from Darling. He stated that Osborne's warnings about the Labour debt mountain were simply propaganda.

Actually I'm surprised Darling didn't blame it all on the last Conservative administration.

The one thing Osborne must not do is to try and hide the magnitude of the problem. OK the pound may take a hammering, we may lose out AAA credit rating but the facts of this catastrophe must be made public.

Electorates rely on information to make their decisions. That is why Brown postponed the last spending review. The present government has started well and must continue to treat voters with honesty and clarity.

Osbourne will be doing nobody any favours by papering over the fissures left by the Brown and Darling.

I hope we hear the unbridled truth. However bad it may be.

Oh Joy! BBC to get a kicking

Dear readers, you may have noticed that Billothewisp is hardly a fan of the that self serving corporate monster that many endearingly refer to as “The Beeb”

“The Beeb”.

Sounds nice doesn't it?

A little homely. Cuddly even.

A bit like referring to a Stalin as Uncle Joe or Kim Jong II as the Dear Leader.

It makes them sound, well, Oh so nice.

The ugly truth is that the BBC acts very much like a state within a state. It has its own tax raising power through the laughably outdated TV licence. It protects its patch with any weapon that comes to hand and it has not been slow on bending politics to its own will if need be (see this piece by Daniel Hannan)

Surely a public service broadcaster should be restricted to the same powers and controls as any other public service. But when have you ever come across say, the judiciary raising their own special tax?

Which other branch of the Civil Service pays £4.6 million to its top nine executives? What public service pays £834000 to its Chief Executive? That is the pay by the way. God knows what are the pension rights/severance pay/terminal bonus/pat-in-lieu etc. etc.

This thing is a monster and like all ugly self serving monoliths it threatens our very democracy.

So Billothewisp was very pleased to see this article which indicates that these self serving fat cats Civil Servants are going to be brought to heel.

I hope it is true.

I expect the BBC will whine bitch and threaten. I expect that there will attempts at intimidation and blackmail to prevent any curtailment of their privileged position.

We should expect various irrelevant revelations “In the National Interest” about who is sleeping with who etc. etc. especially concerning those trying to control the monster.

The BBC establishment must be faced down and the whole thing reformed.

Or we will all continue to be the losers, while paying for the champagne lifestyles of the self serving unaccountable elite that is the BBC.

Meanwhile on Wall Street

Billothewisp would just like to remind readers that while political deals are being made, that the world has been turning.

One thing you may have missed due to the election Roo-Ha-Ha and while Cleggy and Cameron have been sidling up to each other is that on Thursday, at one point, the world economy appeared to go into global meltdown.

The Dow Jones, at one point lost nearly 1000 points (that is a lot. In fact the biggest daily fall since 1987)

But of course, the people who run these markets are all closely related to sheep.

For some reason one decided to turn and then the whole thing went back on up . It ended the day having lost a mere 350 points. That was still the biggest loss since 2008.

As well as some issues regarding electronic trading, there is the fear this is also tied up with the Greek financial debacle. This is now threatening a domino effect on a number of other (mainly) European economies (unfortunately we are one of the dominoes).

Dear Auntie Angela in Germany is wafting lyrical about the future of the EU etc. etc. etc. A faint hint of hysteria and panic is entering her otherwise dulcet tone these days.

If you have any shares you will probably find they have lost nearly 10% of their value in the last week alone.

This is bad. Very very bad. And getting worse.

So, you thought a hung parliament was a problem!

Is This Brown's Gameplan?

So Gordon “The Abyss” Brown plans to go On and On. (see here)

Machiavellian? A touch of the Macbeth's? Maybe a little like a dishonourable Don Quixote?

I glean from the above article that his reasoning is that even if Labour loses the election badly the main losses will be among the anti-Brown camp. This then would actually strengthen his position within the Labour party.

Like all leaders who have outstayed their welcome he will hang on until the bitter end. Even then, he will want to ensure a king-like succession for the chosen pretender, Ed Balls.

But maybe there is more to this.

Maybe he is hoping that a newly elected Conservative government will have to make such massive and unpopular cuts to save the economy that they lose the support of the electorate. Then King Gordon can make a comeback, a little like Harold Wilson did in the early seventies.

And that IS a worry.

The economy is screwed. There is going to be little but economic misery for the next three years. That will be the case even if the economy is under the control of someone who actually tries to run it properly, rather than just get carried along with the tide.

Gordon Brown is an extremely adept schemer and a ruthless assassin of his enemies. That is why he is still there. After a losing election he would actually have fewer enemies within the Labour party than now.

The risk is that Cameron gets elected with a small or no majority, then after a calamitous year in government trying to sort out the mess, he gets turfed out and Gordo gets back in.

Far fetched?

I hope so.

But I suspect that is the turn of events that Brown is banking on.

Recession Ends - Official.

So, The magnificent, divine, economic genius who rules over us so magnificently and wisely has made our non country of England surge its way out of recession, while other countries can only watch in awe and envy.

Er, No.

Unfortunately a small reality check is needed. The cresting amounted to 0.1%. To get to that the Dear Leader has printed £200 billion, discounted VAT and avoided anything that might resemble the tough painful measures that are required to fix our broken economy.

VAT has now gone back up. While I suspect that Gordon “The Abyss” Brown would be more than willing to print another £200 billion, I think that even his dodgy colleagues might baulk at the prospect.

It looks like the economy is on a roller-coaster. The train is at the top of of a brow barely moving. I suspect it is about to move back on down. Lets hope that somebody (anybody) takes charge soon. Otherwise we are going to hit the buffers. At speed.