Sunday 21 November 2010

HOW NOT TO RUN A COUNTRY, BY THE UK GOVERNMENT


I opened the Telegraph to discover that there are ministers, including the Welsh Secretary, a Cabinet Minister, who have pledged to vote against the high-speed railway, the route of which is due to run through some of England’s finest countryside. (Scotland isn’t getting a high speed railway; we have to manage with diesel trains, so no need for any Scottish Tory MP (Mr Muddle) to worry about our countryside.

Cameron has said that the route between London and Birmingham hasn’t been finalized yet, but it is known that, because they expect to have trains that will travel about twice or three times the speed that the UK is used to, the lines will have to be quite straight, and the gradients quite low. (I’ve been on TGVs in France that went up through the mountains and round corners, but that is France and this will be in England.)

The great laugh is that the work is not due to begin until 2017, by which time the rest of the continent will doubtless be travelling at 350 mph, and this government will be in opposition, so their resignations won’t matter diddly! The price tag at present is some £17 billion , so you can just imagine what it will be by the time they get around to doing it... I’ll take offers over 40 billion, and 5 years late.

One of the great problems is that they intend to run up to 18 trains an hour on the line (that should be a laugh), through the back gardens of rich people who live in that area, and that is causing some Tories consternation. Strangely the Speaker has also said that he will campaign against it. I wouldn’t have thought Sally Bercow would be in the least interested in rich people’s woes. (As an aside, did anyone see the stupid woman on “Have I got News for You?” What a fool they made of her.)

Anyway, I turn to the Observer and I discover that there’s a split in the Cabinet over the fact that that silly little man Gove, who has yet to get a single thing right since he was appointed, has slashed £160+ million from schools sports spending in England, just as England is about to hold the Olympics, and one of the conditions on which that was won was that there would be a sporting legacy for the population. And in the same week that Cameron is flying out to Zurich to put his weight (!) behind England’s bid to get the World Cup in 2018. The word that comes to mind here is “Duh”.

The Observer says: “Gove's decision to end all ring-fenced funding for sport – which would threaten most after-school clubs and severely reduce the number of trained PE teachers and sports coaches – has also caused dismay among MPs, leading athletes and the teaching establishment. Many sports co-ordinators have already been told they will not have a job after the end of the financial year in March.

Well, that makes sense. Sport is their priority, but they’re getting rid of most of their sports co-ordinators.

Clegg seems to feel that the liberals haven’t been consulted over this, particularly as it seems the Tories are intending carry on with Labour's policy and sell off school sports facilities. Lunitics and Asylum are the words tend to come to mind here.

Thank heavens have our own government and are spared a fair percentage of the incompetence of this bunch of amateurs.


Pics: Top, (1) Cheryl Gillan, the Welsh Secretary with a constituency in England; (2) What trains in other countries look like; (3) The high speed rail link route, even with binoculars you won't be able to see Scotland, still we have horses and carts, what more should we expect?
Bottom: (1) The towering intellect that is Michael Gove (pause for laughter); (2) A sight that will soon be as rare as spinsters cycling to church on Sunday mornings, or the sound of cork on willow (oh sorry, got carried away and misty eyed about John Major there), yes, lads having a kick around after school. (They'll probably still do it, but it will be other lads that they will kick around instead of a ball!)
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20 comments:

  1. To add insult to injury of course Cheryl Gillan is not even a Welsh MP, she is MP for Chesham and Amersham. Her Welsh claim is that she was born in Cardiff although she left Wales age 11.

    I suppose there will be no point in all those kids taking on huge debts to get degrees in Sports Science (whatever that is) now if there are going to be no jobs as PE teachers. I guess they could all retrain in spelling and grammar in order to help Mr Gove implement his other great idea of the week and mark people down for spelling and grammar in their exams.

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  2. Did watch andy Marr skewer Gove
    (him of the squeaky voice how the hell do you get to sound like that its as if he has got some large knobbly object stuck up his arse causing him to squeak in delicious pain)

    who asked him if headmasters should be left to educate as they see fit why was he telling them
    what to include in their school curriculum.
    why not give them the money and let them decide??

    Gove squeaked a bit the knobbly thing went further up his arse he squeaked a bit higher
    but did not answer and then changed the subject...

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  3. Yes Munguin... it's the "we never taught you any spelling and grammar, but we're going to mark you down on it anyway" ploy. Oh well it will stop everyone getting 25 A* O levels, even when they can't write their own names.

    It occurred to me that as half the teachers can't spell or construct a sentence properly they aren't going to have much chance of teaching the kids. Sadly, the last time i was in a school I heard one of the teachers tell a crowd of boys "youz will just have to wait".

    I suppose everyone will just have to go to Eton from now on. David Cameron may be thick but his grammar is impeccable!

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  4. That must have been er, fun, Niko.

    He's the kind of bloke that gets to be a minister after 12 years of government, when all the talent has left or been disgraced for pinching (money or ladies' bottoms, whichever).

    Answer the question...? LOL Niko... he probably didn't understand it.

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  5. I really find it amazing that out of the eight Welsh Tory MPs and three Welsh Lib Dem MPs, the coalition government can’t find a single one to occupy the Welsh Secretary’s job. Talent must be very thin on the ground in the coalition if they have to get in a Buckinghamshire MP who was only educated at primary level in Wales into that office. A total insult to Wales in as much as the Welsh themselves elected 8 Tories but they have had an English MP foisted on them!

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  6. There's pretty much no question that the Welsh Conservatives and Liberals must be, in Davnik's opinion even less capable of running what is a very small department of state.

    Oh well, there you go. It's all part of the respect agenda.

    Luckily we had Michael Moore ... ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ....choke.......

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  7. I cannot understand the fascination with high speed rail! Saving 5 mins on London to Birmingham route and 18 trains an hour that's 1 every 3mins 20 secs have they never of stopping distances at high speed in case of an emegency stop. Nothing adds up even on the emmisions front.

    Facts sheet 5(b) - Carbon emissions: high-speed rail and air compared

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  8. CH

    you dont give me the secret to those hyperlinks

    and i'm gonna make you an offer you cant refuse
    yous end up with large knobbly thing up your arse

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  9. I was a bit worried about that frequency too. I mean it will be pretty awful for people living along the line. (Although I image that's 9 each way.) House prices are going to plummet like a stone.

    I doubt the rails will last for more than a couple of weeks at a time, so most of the time the lines will be up for repair or renewal.

    I don't think I'd trust a British train going at that speed.

    But you do have to ask yourself how many people are going to want to travel between London and Birmingham.

    Anyway, it probably won't happen.

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  10. Niko. He gave it to you. You don't pay much attention do you.

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  11. And why are you obsessed with knobly things?

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  12. Fair enough Niko... I was just asking...

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  13. He's gone off the rails tris lying on the sleepers waiting for GB's book on saving the world financial crisis in 13 yearly steps.

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  14. CH

    Profile Not Available

    you can run but you cant hide(for long)

    there! gonna find you face down on some waste ground with a postal voting form stuck up your arse(Unionist style)
    unless of course you spill your guts over the links

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  15. Tris


    Lest we forget

    Farewell Maggie: The day the lady finally was for turning

    Twenty years ago tomorrow, Margaret Thatcher quit as Prime Minister. Iain Dale recalls the Iron Lady's highly charged tearful last cabinet meeting

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/farewell-maggie-the-day-the-lady-finally-was-for-turning-2139736.html

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  16. "Profile Not Available" aye the counter couldn't keep up and overheated.

    Hows smurf doing since he has lost the backing of Pacific Quay, on the defensive I suppose.

    The link was in your garden but I see you got an odd jobber in to tidy it up a bit, minimum wage is £7.15 an hour bye the way.

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  17. If only Cynical...

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  18. Thanks for the link Niko...

    Usual load of Torycentric sentimental guff you'd expect from him.

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  19. CH... I suspect that Niko uses black market immigrant labour, and he is infact a gang master known to the rest of the world only as Ching Chang Chung. He pays the hourly rate of 45p minus accommodation charge... and food

    But he's not so much a triad as a trial

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